Analog

Recently I acquired an old SLR and a brand new turntable. Zenit 12aa from my parents’ wardrobe and a cheap and simple Roadstar TTR-8633.

The turntable happenned more by accident. I was walking through a local home store with a friend and spotted it for just 50 euros. I only have three records at the moment, the pictured rare compilation Nothing Short Of Total War, and old Jugoton Ace Of Spades and a Мелодия issued Rachmaninov’s piano Concerto No. 2, which can be found on the street here for 1 euro.

I’ve always been finding new music, but I’m slowing down recently. I’m still checking out new stuff, but when something grabs me, I need to give it some time and my full attention, otherwise it feels like a waste.

One assignment in high school was to write freely about what we’d do alone in the house. Two of us, who were talking about music most of the time, complained that we can’t imagine silly things that teacher thought we would want when the best thing to do is just lay down and listen to the music.

These days it seems that digital music works best as a preview and my walking soundtrack. In room settings, I never had or saw a non-distracting bridge between a hard drive and speakers. I’m still for CDs there. And now big vinyl records feel better than them. There’s something about taking the vinyl out of the card box, putting the needle down, changing sides. Anticipation, sense of time, the pleasure of process. I want that instead of instant availability.

The Zenit camera is pure joy. I’ve uploaded my first roll of film on Flickr. Most of them are overexposed (noob), but still the tone and DoF are beautiful. It’s just silly to have to pay like 500 euros for a DSLR to get decent lens and manual focus capabilities. And I’m not sure about the tone. By now you’re probably assuming that I have metaphysical appreciation for film and mechanical controls. Yes, I’m having fun and megapixels bore the shit out of me.