WhatDoYouMiss?

Just finished a book on the early 90's Industrial scene in Chicago, and I just turned 37 today, so I'm feeling kinda nostalgic. So I'm wondering, what do you guys miss from your past? My list includes:

1. Independent Record stores - Appletree, Flipside & Record City were all local record shops that closed down. Even the Tower Records chain closed, and the only hold out in the burbs was Record Breakers, but they closed shop out here and moved operations to downtown Chicago. (In all fairness to them it was a bigger place and they're opening a live venue next door, but now they're too damn far away to just pop over there on payday...)

2. Hardware Synthesizers/Electronic gear - I used to drool over the ads in Keyboard magazine and get in geek speak fits with my bandmates over different pieces of gear. At one time I had four different keyboards and a rack full of gear run with a hardware sequencer getting recorded to tape. Now you just need a decent laptop, headphones & a usb controller. Sure it's more convenient now, but I actually miss scrambling under my gear patching cables, plugging stuff together that really shouldn't be connected, making endless sketches of wiring diagrams,and trying to figure out why the drum loop sample on my floppy disc is an octave & a half too high & only coming out the right side.

3. Zines - Sure they're still around a little, but with everyone rushing to the web, they're pretty much gone. (Probably due to item #1 on my list, no one else really sold them.) Sure web publishing is easier, but until they come out with a decent e-book, or until everyone can afford a wi-fi laptop, your stuck reading the same boring homogenous crap on the bus or in the doctor's office, published by only a handfull of companies.

Anyway I'm gonna stop there. And lest anyone think I'm a crotchety old bastard who hates modern technology, I don't. I check my e-mail daily, download drum-n-bass mixes from a German website ( www.dnb-sets.de if your into that sorta thing) and check boards like this one to converse about whatever interesting topics the world can come up with. I just wish that music software & hardware, websites & newsprint zines, iTunes & independent music shops could co-exist peacefully.

Ok anyway...Enough of my rant. What are you guys lamenting the loss of? What is no more that used to give you warm fuzzies? What do you miss?

Tags: history, memory, nostalgia, past

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Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Derek on March 2, 2008 at 12:22pm: Got a discussion kinda like this one:

http://mix.epicfu.com/forum/topic/show?id=699622%3ATopic%3A29365

Take a look.

But, I'll add to YOUR conversation: Zip Disks and TRS-80. Amazing tech for it's time.; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Darius on March 2, 2008 at 8:23pm: i miss the old school cartoons like doug and rocko's modern life. Even the power rangers(the 1st three seasons of course) were cool back then. Nowadays the majority if the cartoons are gay as hell with the exception of a selection of adult swim cartoons.; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Darius on March 2, 2008 at 8:28pm: something else i miss is hip hop that had a purpose. Im only an 80's baby but still everything wasnt about cars and hoes all the time and even if it was it wasnt the overpowering theme of the song. There are some artist that do flow with positive overtones like common, mos def, and lupe. I have to admit however I do have love for lil wayne cause the boy can flow with some crazy ass rymes even though he does talk about alot of those things that i was hating on earlier.; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Jason_md2020 on March 3, 2008 at 12:52pm: I'm with you on that. I've really only started to really get into hip-hop in the past couple of years, and for some reason I'm either drawn to indie labels like Rhymesayers, and Definitive Jux, or I'm looking for late 80's early 90's stuff. (De La Soul, Diggable Planets, Tribe Called Quest...) Anything on the radio seems to be a waste of time.; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Lucy Ingham on March 3, 2008 at 3:59pm: I miss so many things.
Music that felt new, as opposed to an amalgamated mix of past trends.
Reading series of books that you felt would be around for ever (my favorite author, who used to write 2 novels a year has been diagnosed with alzeimers and will probably only write 4 more)
Concerts where everyone around me was older.
The band do me bad things.
Watching Recess on a saturday morning.
And, strangely, downloading songs illegally from napster on a dial up modem.; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Flamekebab on March 3, 2008 at 4:36pm: Which author?; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Lucy Ingham on March 4, 2008 at 3:42pm: Terry Pratchett- I've been reading his stuff nearly every night for 10 years; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Flamekebab on March 4, 2008 at 3:43pm: I thought so, he's one of my favourites too, my two flatmates love him too.; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Jason_md2020 on March 6, 2008 at 1:38pm: Add another one to the list: Gary Gygax (creator of Dungeons & Dragons) died a few days ago. So many lost hours of youth rolling funny shaped dice, and pouring over arcane tomes while eating too much pizza and getting wired on Jolt cola at 2:00 am.

Wow. No wonder I never got dates...; ▶ Reply to This