33/365: Record players

Some people are really pedantic about record players, insisting that they have Brazilian teakwood cases and whatnot.

I have a Crosley suitcase player that is 4 years old, and I love it.

Going to the thrift stores to collect old Herb Alpert records for 50 cents and buying brand new limited-run presses of recent albums is a huge thrill. I have opera boxes from old Hendrix book sales--they're all six records thick with the full libretto. I have Carmen, Die Rosencavalier, Aida...

45s are great too, even though you have to constantly be switching them out.

It isn't so much that you get a BETTER sound with record players... but you get a more realistic sound. It's not flat or compressed-sounding, even though it's full of pops and hisses and the sound might be slightly warped. It's a closer sound, without being louder, like you're listening to the original recording.

34/365: Rotary phones

The icon is the face I made when I realized I don't have an icon of a rotary phone.

I collect weird phones, and rotarys are a dream come true.

I have an old black Bell bakelite (how alliterative), a white 80's punchbutton, and one shaped like a tall can of Coke with all the buttons on the bottom.

What I would really like is a French phone:



It's stupid for older people to assume that the younger generations don't know what a rotary phone is or what they do. Each number is at a certain point on the dial, and when you pull the dial back, it rotates forward, producing a certain number of "clicks" on the line. That indicates to the phone company what number you're dialing. How is that hard?

They are wicked fun to play with--sometimes I sit and just flick the wheel around like I'm Audrey Hepburn in Breakfast at Tiffany's with the little silver telephone dialer.