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Met a guy at a coffee shop who called my mixtape "time travel"
I was making a tape for a friend at a cafe in Portland and this older guy sits down, watches me label the J-card, and says "you know that's time travel right there, physical time travel." He then told me he still has a tape his girlfriend made him in 1987 and can't bring himself to throw it out because it sounds like her handwriting. Anyone else have a tape that feels more like a person than just music?
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skyler5161mo agoTop Commenter
Whoa, wait - "sounds like her handwriting"?? That hit me right in the chest. I've got a tape my best friend made for me in high school and I still haven't put it in a player in ten years because I'm scared it'll sound different than I remember. You don't realize until you hold one of those things that every click of the record button, every pause between songs, every little scratch on the plastic is like a fingerprint of that exact moment. It's wild how something so fragile can feel so permanent.
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andrew_kelly1mo ago
Wait, @skyler516, that thing about being scared it'll sound different than you remember - is that why you haven't played it, or are you more worried it'll sound exactly the same and drag you back to a place you're not ready to visit? Because I've got a mix from 2005 that my buddy made the summer before he moved away, and the first time I put it on after ten years, the hiss between tracks hit me harder than any song on there. It's those dead spaces and the way the tape wobbles on a worn-out song that carry the real weight, not just the music itself. So which is it for you - the fear of losing the memory or the fear of finding it?
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