The cassette is dead…long live the cassette!
May 9, 2007
I have a big goofy sentimental attachment to cassette tapes. My personal archive has at least a half dozen mixtapes and original recordings that I can’t bear to part with. Our house also has a drawer full of random cassettes that no one ever plays. Evah. Now that we can hook up the ipod to the car stereo why on earth would we pack a briefcase full of tapes?
Even so. As impractical and fragile as they are, I’m having a hard time accepting the inevitable: The cassette tape is dead. –>wince<-- The UK's largest electronics retailer announced this week that they will no longer stock blank tapes. They also predicted that Christmas 2007 will be the last time they sell stereos with a cassette deck.
Full article over at The Telegraph.
On the upside, the freaks n’ geeks are doing supercool things with the tape that’s still lying around. Things like the 2007 Cassette Jockey World Championships at the Bay Area Maker Faire.
The organizers promise:
eviscerated boomboxes, disembodied tape heads, and overclocked Walkmans
Suh-weet!
Bay Area Maker Faire: May 19-20, 2007, San Mateo Fairgrounds.
The Faire also includes: The Crucible • Swap-O-Rama-Rama • SwapThing • Bazaar Bizarre • Cyclecide • Combat Robotsv • Power Tool Drag Racing • Exploratorium • Live Music and Performances • Shipyard • Flaming Lotus Girls • Life-Sized Mousetrap • TechShop • Neverwas Haul • Silicon Death Valley • MAKE Play Day • ArtCar Fest
Update 5.24.07: I’m not generally a fan of so-called installation art. It’s a category that covers a lot of ground, and not all of it quality soil if ya know what I mean. But this? This is so cool I don’t even have a word for it in my vocabulary. [Link via neural. Caught by my "obsolete technology" googlebot.]