I?m going to post one more thing on this film/digital skirmish, and then I'm
going away. Not for good, though. I just have another adventure coming up,
beginning this weekend, and I won't be back for a while.
I understand that some people get really excited over new technology and think
it's the cat's meow and that anything that came before is just ignorant,
worthless and backwards. I've even been there myself, when I was younger and
dumber. For instance, I bought one of the first CD players, a Carver, in 1983.
Anybody here have one before then? I didn't think so. Anyway, it's one
thing to appreciate new ideas; it's another to accept them as the end-all and
be-all and dismiss everything else as crap.
I remember quite clearly certain parts (the early ones for sure) of a Halloween
costume party we had in this house in 1977, just a year after it was built. We
invited our friends and all of the "immediate" neighbors, including the new
couple who had just moved in down the street from one of those states, which I
will not name, that seems to be a major exporter of obnoxious assholes. We
hoped they'd be an exception, like some other really nice folks we know who
hail from the same place.
Our hopes were dashed when, true to form, this jerk had not been inside our
home more than five minutes when he noticed that the background music playing
was coming from a 10-in. reel-to-reel, rack-mounted Ampex recorder. That's
when he started loudly berating this "old, obsolete, outdated piece of s**t,"
and, since he was in the electronics distribution business and knew exactly
whereof he spoke, declaring that 8-tracks were the wave of the future, the
state of the art, and that I should just pitch this old, worthless Ampex out in
the trash and get me an 8-track unit. And he simply would not shut up!
I recall walking away from him on two occasions to talk to other guests, but he
persisted, following me, raving on and on about the convenience and superiorty
of 8-tracks. Later that evening, after another dose or two of Scotch, he, in
his poorly executed vampire costume, became only the second person I ever, up
until that time, threw out of my home. He and his fat, ugly wife and their
loud and obnoxious children moved away less than 4 months later. Nobody missed
them or even waved good-bye. In fact, we had a neighborhood going-away party a
week after they left.
My point: About 10 years ago, I gave the 30-something-year-old Ampex new belts
and new heads, and it's still going strong today, sounding better, smoother,
more mellow and musical than any CD I have ever heard.
I sometimes wonder if this moron is still listening to his "state-of-the-art"
8-tracks. I also wonder how long it'll be before the number of obsolete
digital cameras equals the number of old 8-tracks in the local landfill. Just
another couple of things I ponder sometimes, often when focusing on a landscape
with my 1950's Crown Graphic and 1960's 100/2.8 Zeiss Planar.
Walt, Luddite leader of the week
--
"Anything more than 500 yards from
the car just isn't photogenic." --
Edward Weston
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