I still own quite a bunch of cassette tapes. And a hi-fi cassette "deck".
There was an interesting article in the New York Times (a paper I often glance through online though I disagree with its politics) about the decline in cassettes. Vinyl sales are apparently growing, but cassette sales are dead. There are however two factors which the article pointed out that support the continuing use of cassette decks. User factors like these always interest me.
One is that people often have compilation tapes that they've made, or more importantly, which a sweetheart made for them. These have sentimental value. The number of compilation cassettes out there is one reason why people like to keep using their decks.
The other, which I hadn't thought of, is the talking book factor. Talking books are (or were until quite recently) almost always sold on cassette. The good thing about cassettes for this is the way they keep their place. You almost never want to "skip a track" on a talking book (which is the one thing cassettes are weakest at), and with a cassette, you can play it in your car or on your walkman, get home, take it out and bung it in the house cassette deck, and it will be in the same place! No CD can do that. Cassettes were perfect for audio books.
The factor they didn't mention, which in my opinion is fatal for cassettes, is the car one. Many old cars still have that cassette slot, so people keep the tapes to play in the car. But nobody sells a car with a cassette player any more. Once the older cars with legacy cassette decks disappear, that'll be it. (Same with DAB radio -- if/when all cars come with DAB radios, it will have won).
Our Southampton performance for Water Aid was this afternoon. We had perfect weather for it. We spent about 40 minutes, with a small crowd, singing a nice assortment of songs. I captured a couple of pictures on my phone after we finished -- I hadn't thought to take a camera!
I cycle to work via Richmond Park now and then. It's lovely. Here are some deer I passed the other day, showing off their new antlers. If you click on it, you may be able to see it slightly bigger.
Marathon training for Dublin has now begun in earnest. There's about 3 months to go.
I started nine days ago, with a long run in Richmond Park. (The powder-throwing incident, for those who've heard about it). Now it's no longer a case of "going out for a bit of a run". Every run has to have an objective. It's a "long run" to increase endurance (physical and mental) and fat-burning pathways, or it's a "tempo run" to boost lactate threshold and the ability to sustain speed, or it's "speedwork" to boost maximum oxygen throughput and get muscles used to moving fast.
It's not "half an hour's brisk run" any more; it's 5 miles at 8:50 pace, or 6 x 800 metres with 90 second walking recoveries.
My main failing is not getting enough sleep.
It was a long day, and a lot of it in Welsh! But we had a good chinese meal to celebrate afterwards.
Just to say, I am really loving the singing for Water Aid. All the songs are excellent. I have to learn them from CD recordings, so I am singing along in the car whenever I go anywhere, and am totally transported (ho ho).
No really, for me, there is nothing like singing as part of a choir. It's an amazing experience. It requires you to listen to yourself, listen to others, and listen to the totality. It totally switches the thinking mind off, like meditation.
You can come and hear us in Southampton on 27th July; or London on 14th September.
Friday night, another gig in Hyde Park - the O2 festival!
Lots of people on: we ended up seeing
Siouxsie (still fabulous, sounds just the same, I must dig out my old John Peel cassettes),
The New York Dolls (who played take another little piece of my heart amongst other things),
Beck (in passing), and, er,
Morrissey (who is good at singing).
Also:
. . . ran into a Mytho acquaintance (Steve Machin) unexpectedly....
. . . saw some absolutely staggering stunt cycling, backward somersaults and the like; I'd rave about it but it doesn't really tell....
. . . and went on a bungee trampoline thing! Not sure if photos of me on this exist, but here are some other people on it. I'd like to do this again....
