Looking for something tonight I stumbled across my box of old stuff and inspired by Sarca’s recent post, I thought I’d share some of mine/rip off her idea*. I found a tobacco tin full of my old badges, which was a nostalgic thing in itself – I’ve never smoked but my parents did and these old Franklyn’s Mild** tins were our go-to method of small item storage when I was growing up.
The badges are a mixed bunch to be sure, cats feature, as do my (still-cherished) liberal peacenik ideals and then there’s music. None of my AC/DC ones seem to have survived, but we’ve got Beastie Boys, Shonen Knife, Saxon, Sisters of Mercy and Jane’s Addiction; along with an atypical, for me, football one.
Then there’s the tapes, most got heaved into a landfill years ago, Faster Pussycat Wake Me When It’s Over survived, as have for sentimental reasons a bunch of mixes my brother made me/I made him – we used to be very into designing the covers. The one he made me for my Green Day/Foo Fighters one was particularly ace.
It’s funny the things we keep hold of and the things we let go, pretty arbitrary sometimes too.
489 Down (Still)
*plus I’m far too tired to write a proper review tonight and so I can stall you by trotting out some self-indulgent nonsense like this, still seem prolific and you’ll be none the wiser and I can go play some more Fallout: New Vegas. Shhh!
**unsure if this was an endorsement deal by Aretha Franklin, or just a happy coincidence.
Joe, check out the Hellacopters tape I made in this post:
http://mikeladano.com/2012/12/23/part-154-cassettes-part-iv-lebrains-tapes-what-remains/
Maxell…coloured marker pens…all caps…just like yours!
Here’s T-Rev’s, better than mine but still basically the exact same style!
http://mikeladano.com/2012/12/03/part-145-cassettes-part-i-t-revs-tapes/
Wow! I haven’t got a micro-nano of that artistic ability. They are just awesome, they really are.
T-Rev was always great at art. We got him to make all the signs at work!
That’s so excellent. I used to cut loads of pictures out of old Kerrang mags too. All my Marillion ones had their old logo on the spine.
I like to think of gangs of us scattered all over, beavering away taking the same care and love over our tapes.
Oh man me too. I used magazine pics for artwork any time I could. I’d borrow CDs and make photocopies of the covers (shrunk down) and glue them on.
Man, this is awesome. I found a bunch o’ stuff myself a few weeks ago when I was packing. I was a tad ruthless, though – threw the majority of it out. Kept gig tickets and other little bits (some badges) … didn’t have anything to play my ol’ tapes on. In fact, maybe a bit too ruthless.
Always great to see tapes though. Such a great way to spend your time, right? CD mixes just aren’t the same. I liked having a list and how that changed while listening to each track. Magic.
Anyhoo, this is a great post. Made me smile … and think about how much o’ bad idea tossing that stuff was.
Gah! Bad idea indeed! 😉 The AAAA gladly accepts all donations of unwanted tunes, and even offers shipping charge reimbursements to our overseas friends. Ah well. I trust you only ditched the things you knew weren’t worth anyone’s time…. but even then, one’s man’s shite is another’s gold… 😉
Incidentally, there will be more where mine came from. K and I cleaned out our rec room, and boy, did I find relics!
Gotta love relics!
I’ve still got a couple of rubbermaid tubs downstairs, the seals on which I haven’t crack in a long, long time. All full of my old crap. Who knows what I’m gonna find in THERE!
Careful, you dont want an Indiana Jones, Holy Grail moment.
No, I totally want a moment like that. Da da da DAAA da da DAHHHH! Da da da DAAAA da da DA DA DA!!!
YOU’RE WELCOME!
😛
I’m now remember a cassette I made for my lovely wife before we were even dating that went Original Song / Stones cover, Original Song / Stones cover. It was pretty damn awesome.
Man, that would certainly have wooed me successfully.
Me too!
This was great fun. I have lots of my old tapes. When I get to my cassettes, I’ll be coasting on a couple of nostalgia posts myself! 😉
What a terrific organization name – that’s an email list worth joining!
I know, a friend gave me that badge hundreds of years ago. Gerbil Owners Against The Bomb were too militant an organisation for me, some real heavies in that group.
I gather they were a fractured bunch as well, without the cohesion you usually see among the feline fans
Loved this. Now I want to go rummaging through some boxes downstairs and posted something similar.
I must. I will.
Making mixtapes was an art form. I took great pride in mine. My best friend and I used to cover the insert with masking tape and decorate it with some strange artwork. I can remember doing a series with different themes. “Longing”, “Anger”, “Fear”, “Contentment”. I loved making mixes.
I used to have a bunch of Star Wars patches. Ones I’d gotten from the Star Wars Fan Club. They all had “Revenge of the Jedi” on them, too.
Man, I wish I still had those patches.
Ooh i like the idea of themed mixes. Apple clearly stole their playlist ideas from you.
Yeah they did…and look where that got Jobs. Dead, that’s where. You don’t mess with my imaginary mix tape copyright and not pay the price.
I still do themed mixes. They’re just CD Mixes now. It’s not quite the same as tapes. With the tape mixes I had to get the recording level just right, plus you had to time them perfectly. It really is an art form. I think a few of my high school mixes can be seen at the Smithsonian. Pretty sure.
I genuinely did one of those Lol things that kids txt about!
Careful with the Smithsonian, they prefer to do retrospectives – I’ve been on the run since last March when they picked up a load of my teenage diaries and sent a hitman after me. True story.
They’re bastards at the Smithsonian. The nerd mafioso. Change your name and speak with a Canadian accent.
Umm, Go Ice Hockey team from Vancouver! (How’d I do?)
You’re getting there. Watch some Red Green Show and get back to me.
Hm. Needs work.
Brilliant, man! So glad you posted this. This is the kind of thing I love posting, myself.
Interesting though — your tape cover is sooo similar to my style. It’s a Maxell — that’s the brand we carried. I used to write the song titles out exactly the same way — all caps, using different coloured marker pens. As did my buddy T-Rev. Crazy, eh? And I bet back in the day we all thought we were the “only ones”.
Thanks Mike – it made me happy to get them all out on display again.
That is funny that we all used to do the same thing, in similar styles. I used to spend ages getting the writing all right – being careful not to smudge anything, or misspell a title.
On the Pussycat you can see where, with really limited technology, I recreated the intro tape they used on that tour which was the final Norman Bates speech from ‘Psycho’ broken by the P-P-P-Pussycat! as they came on stage. They were just so great then!
But thanks again – Mrs 1537 and I have still got the mix-tapes we both made for each other when we first started stepping out together, they’re definitely worth a post later on this year – maybe on our anniversary.
Awesome idea man. I can’t find a mix CD that I made Jen, but I did find an album I burned for her complete with artwork. That will make it to a post.
I think cassette artwork is really special. Personal, creative, colourful…cassettes rocked.
Kids today with their playlists? Pah!