Sub Ubi

I’m just not focused this morning. Don’t know what it is.

Yesterday, I dug my minidisc out. This tool was essential during the early stages of my research—for recording interviews, lectures (mine), and those of classes I was taking at the time. A Sony MZ-R700, lime green. Of course, it was a frustrating tool, as transferring the audio to the PC could only be done in analog real-time, and as a result very few things were transferred from the MD to the Powerbook.

The minidisc has come out a number of times for train trips across England, but carrying it around on a daily basis wasn’t something I did. My iPod Shuffle tends to get more milage now, simply because it has almost zero mass, and doubles as a USB flash drive. However, there’s still a few minidiscs that are important to me that I’ll have to digitize at some point.

I have countless lectures and research discs; these will probably never play a role in my academic work at this point, despite the hours invested in them. I have a few I’ve recorded at holiday time around my home, my grandparents’, and a few other random places. The recordings aren’t of anything in particular—they’re just ambient, picking up conversations and laughter of family and friends. And then, I have two mix discs.

Before leaving the States, I transferred two mix tapes to minidisc. One was made in 1994 for me by Carrie before I headed off on my first Chasers tour. As it turns out, I had a lot of time to listen to that tape—I made a bad navigation choice, and ended up driving through the mountains of Virginia during a really awful blizzard; it was, by far, the worst weather I’ve ever driven in, and am lucky that the two times I lost control of my vehicle I brought it to a stop on the road, not over a cliff. What should have been a 7-hour drive became 15 hours of slow, blind hell as I wound my way up, over, and down the switchbacks that are characteristic of state roads in that part of the country.

The second tape, also made by Carrie, did not get put to the same dramatic use, but kept me company during her year in Wales. Now, I think that it has kept me company from time-to-time while—again—she was in Wales. It was just for three years, this time.

11 years is a long life for a mix tape.