A/V Evolution

Every few years you have to update your home entertainment equipment. No, that’s not exactly right. You don’t have to. Really, you don’t. But you do, don’t you? Because you’re vigorously urged by a zillion ads to get the latest gizmos, can’t live without ‘em, not cool like your buds who have all the latest crap. And so it goes, buying one thing after another, all of which are technically obsolete long before they actually wear out. First it was LP records – the content of which was often loaded onto reel to reel tapes. I used to configure these long-playing (up to 5 hours) tapes for given occasions: there was one for parties, one for background dinner music, and of course the ever-popular hand-picked never-fail seduction tape ending with Ravel’s Bolero. No, I don’t recall the level of efficacy of the seduction tape.
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From LPs, we went to cassette tapes: new inventory and new equipment required. Next came CDs, another new inventory, more new equipment. Now, CDs are virtually obsolete, replaced by mp3 and ipod and online personalized music from sources like Pandora. And that’s only the audio portion.
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It’s the same thing with videos, movies and TV. Remember VCRs? They’re dead, Jim (Bones, Star Trek; he must have said it a hundred times). It went from VCR to DVD some time back, and then on to DVD Blu-Ray which is nearly obsolete also cuz now there’s online download streaming.
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I have to admit I’m a sucker for new A/V technology. Some of it anyway; just upgraded to a Blu-Ray player with built-in wifi for streaming movies and other stuff - slicker than snot on a doorknob. Never went for the Ipod/mp3 stuff, tunes not being all that important to me anymore. Trish has an Ipod and uses it a lot, tunes in music, tunes out the world – and me, might as well talk to a chair.
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Pix are of last night's sunset.  Not bad, eh?