BS: What is it with cassettes?

Subject: What is it with cassettes?
From: Ed Pellow
Date: 10 Oct 00 - 03:26 PM

I've just moved flat, and whilst my CD and vinyl record collection are all newly stored pristinely and in alphabetical order; my tapes remain in a total jumble in several cardboard boxes. I've been meaning to sort them out for years, but never do.

Tell me I'm not alone...

Ed

Subject: RE: BS: What is it with cassettes?
From: Jeri
Date: 10 Oct 00 - 03:32 PM

You aren't alone. Mine are in boxes, and appear to be neat, but there are empty cases, loose tapes, and tapes in the wrong cases. On top of that, there are loads of home-made tapes with no labels.

What I really need is somewhere to put them where they're all visible - like the rack I have for CDs...except those are in various piles around the CD player, some out of cases, and...I'm hopeless!

Subject: RE: BS: What is it with cassettes?
From: Bert
Date: 10 Oct 00 - 03:34 PM

Actually I put mine in order regularly, but the odd socks sneak out ofthe laundry basket and mess them up again.

Subject: RE: BS: What is it with cassettes?
From: Ed Pellow
Date: 10 Oct 00 - 03:38 PM

Damn those odd socks!

I'm almost sure that they must survive by eating all my loose plectrums..

Subject: RE: BS: What is it with cassettes?
From: Bert
Date: 10 Oct 00 - 03:40 PM

And have you noticed how they always manage to break the cassette cases?

Subject: RE: BS: What is it with cassettes?
From: Ely
Date: 10 Oct 00 - 03:41 PM

Tapes everywhere. Unlabelled, original boxes missing. I don't even know which ones are still good and which are either stretched or cruddy with age. I don't have the energy to find out.

I made tapes to keep myself from playing my out-of-production records to death, and now the tapes are dying, so I'm after my friend Edwin to put them on CD. In ten years, I'll probably be converting them to another medium, and on it goes . . .

Subject: RE: BS: What is it with cassettes?
From: Lepus Rex
Date: 10 Oct 00 - 04:11 PM

I don't really have tapes anymore. They either were eaten by my tape player, or pissed on by my cat in the early 90s. All I've got left is some empty tape cases, and a few tapes I bought from Smithsonian/Folkways re-releases of old Folkways recordings. And they only survived 'cause I hid them on my bookshelf. Now they sell 'em on CD, of course...

---Lepus Rex

Subject: RE: BS: What is it with cassettes?
From: Ebbie
Date: 10 Oct 00 - 04:39 PM

I need never feel alone again.

Ebbie

Subject: RE: BS: What is it with cassettes?
From: Naemanson
Date: 10 Oct 00 - 05:15 PM

I don't know what you are talking about. Mine are neatly stowed in their cases, in their rack in alphabetic order.

Is anal retentive a hyphenated word or not?

Subject: RE: BS: What is it with cassettes?
From: Ebbie
Date: 10 Oct 00 - 05:49 PM

Naemanson: LOL!

Subject: RE: BS: What is it with cassettes?
From: kendall
Date: 10 Oct 00 - 05:50 PM

Similar problem here...I cant decide which ones I want in my car and in my house. So, there is a hellofamess in both places

Subject: RE: BS: What is it with cassettes?
From: raredance
Date: 10 Oct 00 - 06:04 PM

My problem (excuse) is the lack of a suitable case/shelf/storage container to put them in. I just can't find anything. Otherewise they would all be nicely in alphabetical order, except for the messylaneous radio recordings that have all manner of artist and music. I absolutely hate storage containers that have prefitted slots (at his applies to CDs also). Any time a new one enters the home realm, You've got to pull them all out of their slots all the way to the end to fit the new one in alphabetical order. I have even searched the web a couple times looking for the perfect storage vehical with no success. The result is a collection of odd sized boxes not more than 3 1/2 inches deep that look ugly and the desired tape is always in the box under all the others (unless its' in the pile upstairs, or at work or in the car or in the boat or in my son's room or in my travel bag or....)

rich r

Subject: RE: BS: What is it with cassettes?
From: sophocleese
Date: 10 Oct 00 - 06:11 PM

I'm in the process af attempting to organize my tapes. Its going to be a long uphill battle, but there should be some fun listening on the trip.

Subject: RE: BS: What is it with cassettes?
From: Jim the Bart
Date: 10 Oct 00 - 06:23 PM

Now that CD's are ubiquitous, it seems like cassettes are going the way of the eight track tape. I only listen to them in my car. And as soon as my kidlings coerce my wife-mate into getting a CD player for the car . . .Most clubs or coffeehouses around here won't even look at you unless you have your own disk!

Raise a glass to another outmoded technology.

Subject: RE: BS: What is it with cassettes?
From: catspaw49
Date: 10 Oct 00 - 06:25 PM

Here's a solution for you Ed. The tapes we play a lot are in the cars, pretty haphazard, but I can find them. What of all the others???

We solved this problem with just 10 easy steps. 1) We threw all the tapes we really wondered why we had ever purchased into the bottom of our stereo stack cabinet. Man, you can get a lot in there if you have boxed your vinyl stuff up. 2) Remove the glass door since your teenage kids have completely whompjawed the hinges and latch mechanism (you will require at least one teenager for this). 3) Purchase several cats. We already had a boatload of the little bastards, so this was not a problem. 4) Let the whole thing alone for several days. 5) Be sure your cats have free access to the room where the stereo cabinet is located.

At this point you have done the easy part although the remaining steps must be taken in order to complete the organization process. 6) Inspect the cabinet and tapes. If you have waited an appropriate amount of time (time is proportional to the number of cats), you should find the tapes in a total mess and covered liberally in cat piss (waiting too long to inspect is NOT recommended). 7) Break out the rubber gloves (disposable) and a garbage bag along with your favorite disinfectant. 8) Remove the tapes and throw them away while you try to remember how much each one cost. 9) Scrub out the inside of your cabinet. 10) Finish by reinstalling the door with the whompjawed hinges and latch.

What could be easier? "Spaw's 10 Step Plan to Organizing Cassettes." And here's a bonus for you at no charge!!! You know all those videotapes you made of programs you thought you couldn't live without taping (wombat breeding, fertility rites in New Guinea) that you have never watched since and are taking up space in your video storage cabinet? HEY!!! Leave the doors open! My program works on those too!!!

Hope this has been of help.

Spaw

Subject: RE: BS: What is it with cassettes?
From: katlaughing
Date: 10 Oct 00 - 06:28 PM

I had the most perfect receptacle given me by a dear friend. Tapes fit perfectly. It is an old library card catalogue with those little slots for labels, so what few tapes fit (it's only a twelve drawer one) are organised according to genre. Others are in small baskets and those little wooden crates, as well as stacked on top of, to the side of, and in front of the tape player!

I have seen a couple of catalogues which sell new versions of card catalogues, specifically for tapes or CD's. I think one of them was Sundance, another might have been Vermont Country Store, and another may have been Wireless.

kat

Subject: RE: BS: What is it with cassettes?
From: Ed Pellow
Date: 10 Oct 00 - 06:33 PM

thank you Spaw,

the problem is that I can't throw away tapes, even if I've not listened to them for ages. I have a box of stuff that I've not listened to for 10 years, but you never know...

Ed

Subject: RE: BS: What is it with cassettes?
From: Bernard
Date: 10 Oct 00 - 06:34 PM

There is a black hole where all the odd socks, orphan cassettes and bits of cassette cases go.

When I find it, I shall be RICH beyond my wildest dreams!!

Subject: RE: BS: What is it with cassettes?
From: Rich(bodhránai gan ciall)
Date: 10 Oct 00 - 06:39 PM

I've had the same problem off and on since before I started collecting CD's. I too believe it's the socks that are doing it.

Spaw, Your organizational method really belongs in the 100 uses thread. Brilliant.

Rich

Subject: RE: BS: What is it with cassettes?
From: Bernard
Date: 10 Oct 00 - 06:46 PM

On behalf of the socks, I would like to state categorically that socks have been made an unwilling scapegoat in this matter.

Go pick on someone your own size...! (Owch!)

Subject: RE: BS: What is it with cassettes?
From: kendall
Date: 10 Oct 00 - 08:19 PM

hey spaw, I've not heard that expression outside Maine before. A man back home used to say womplejawed to indicate crooked or bent

Subject: RE: BS: What is it with cassettes?
From: John Hardly
Date: 10 Oct 00 - 09:18 PM

My friends got so tired of watching me rummage through my cassettes that one weekend when I was gone to a show they built me an 800 cassette cabinet that now IS one of the walls in my shop. I came home to find it with a huge red bow on it.

John Hardly

Subject: RE: BS: What is it with cassettes?
From: Rich(bodhránai gan ciall)
Date: 10 Oct 00 - 09:33 PM

John,
Does your friend have a brother or sister?

Rich

Subject: RE: BS: What is it with cassettes?
From: wysiwyg
Date: 10 Oct 00 - 09:48 PM

Ed,

Send them here!

~S~

Subject: RE: BS: What is it with cassettes?
From: Cap't Bob
Date: 10 Oct 00 - 09:53 PM

I have had the same problem that most of you seem to be having. I did manage to come up with a system should help. Whenever you buy a tape (hard to do these days) or listen to a tape that is not labeled you put a number on the tape and the same number on the case. Then of course you need a great big tape rack (they are available) and number the slots. They still will get lost etc. but when you find either the tape or the box you know right where it goes. This method should work just great. Problem is that I've had the racks now for around three years and haven't gotten around to implementing this unique tape storage system.

I will let you know as soon as I get...ho...hum....time for a nap.

Cap't bob

Subject: RE: BS: What is it with cassettes?
From: catspaw49
Date: 10 Oct 00 - 09:56 PM

Bobbo ol' buddy......You need some cats!

Spaw

Subject: RE: BS: What is it with cassettes?
From: Rich(bodhránai gan ciall)
Date: 10 Oct 00 - 10:41 PM

I posted this on the 100 practical uses thread, but if you start the cat cure with admitting that your tapes are a mess and end with passing on your experience to others with the same problem, you'll have a 12-step program and then you'll really take off!

Rich

Subject: RE: BS: What is it with cassettes?
From: Bill D
Date: 10 Oct 00 - 10:48 PM

my cassettes were just FINE till I oved here and found 3 major folk/celtic/bluegrass/country radio programs and got a programmable recorder!....and I was never anal retentative enough to label them well...I started taping my records and labeling THEM about the same time, but I only got about 75 out of 500 records done, because I kept using the tapes for radio programs...was gonna re-sort and save just the good parts of 3 & 4 hour programs...but...well............so I have the usual piles, and when I play a tape, I ALWAYS find a few things I just CANT lose...so.....*sigh*

Subject: RE: BS: What is it with cassettes?
From: Bev and Jerry
Date: 10 Oct 00 - 10:52 PM

Capt Bob has the right idea - use numbers instead of names. We started this system in 1492 when we got our first cassette and have continued it ever since. Each song on each cassette is indexed in a data base in our computer so we can search on the artist's name (or part of it) or on the song title (or part of it). It's kinda like the DT. In more recent times we have added our CDs to the index and even our vinyl (remember vinyl?).

Talk about your anal retentive. Our excuse: one of us is a recovering engineer!

Bev and Jerry

Subject: RE: BS: What is it with cassettes?
From: catspaw49
Date: 10 Oct 00 - 10:54 PM

Lessee....Mark Bill down too.

I need a good brochure, maybe I could pickup a supply of returnable rental cats, get deal on latex gloves (hmmm, maybe Karen can steal those from work), buy some discounted 55 gallon drums of Simple Green...........Man, this could be lucrative!!! Gotta' work on the shipping..........

Spaw

Subject: RE: BS: What is it with cassettes?
From: Cap't Bob
Date: 10 Oct 00 - 11:37 PM

WARNING: THE CAT METHOD DOES NOT WORK! (don't always believe everything SPAW tells you).....

I heard about the "Cat Method of Cassette Disposal" years and years ago. We now have SIX cats that could care less about my cassette collection. One cat turned out to be a shredder (I think she used to belong to a white house secretary) but is only interested in tearing apart my reams of songs and tunes to learn.

We thought adding dogs to the mix could possibly help. NOT! We currently have five dogs. Two of the dogs are chewers who seem to prefer things encased in plastic such as electronic guitar tuners but, for some unknown reason, seem to shun cassettes. Things do not always turn out the way you... er you get the idea.

Considering the amount of money I've spent on Cat Food, Dog Food, Vet Bills, Animal Toys, Rug Cleaner, etc. I could probably afford to throw away all of my cassettes and buy cd's.

Spaw is just trying to get rich renting out his covey of worthless felines.

Cap't Bob

Subject: RE: BS: What is it with cassettes?
From: catspaw49
Date: 10 Oct 00 - 11:54 PM

Worthless?? Cap'n, these here cats are guaranteed whizzers!!! Strong stuff too!!! IF you wait too long for instance, your tapes will start to meltdown fer chrissakes.

I would be interested in setting up a rental deal with you on your canines. My gawddam Weimaraner just stares at me with those big lovey/dopey eyes and and licks us to death. I gotta' have access to some of those chewers you got!!

Spaw

Subject: RE: BS: What is it with cassettes?
From: Escamillo
Date: 11 Oct 00 - 12:46 AM

I've donated the whole mess to the Argentina government then years ago. Today I received a note stating that a Commission was formed to analyze the possibility of establishing a proper base of rules to start gathering ideas in order to consider a study of feasibility of a Department dedicated to make proposals for a good use of fossile cassettes. Viva la Patria.

Un abrazo - Andrés

Subject: RE: BS: What is it with cassettes?
From: Art Thieme
Date: 11 Oct 00 - 01:22 AM

I've got 38 boxes (plastic) that I bought at K-Mart over the years. Each box is a foot long and wide enough for a cassette. I have no individual boxes for the cassettes. About 26 cassettes are in each box.

The boxes are marked "A", "B", "C" etc. Each tape has some info on it --printed---and each cassette is numbered and the Box's letter is there too----A1, A2, A3 etc.

In a 3x5 card file I've got a card for each tape on which I taped the J-card "liner notes". I am now up to BOX Double K = KK

When I played my Mississippi River gigs in the 80s and 90s I had a 68 mile drive over and back from the river every other day for 6 months of the year. I'd grab one of the boxes of cassettes before leaving home for the drive to the river from central Illinois.

During the boat season I would go through the entire cassette collection at least twice.

Art Thieme

Subject: RE: BS: What is it with cassettes?
From: Lepus Rex
Date: 11 Oct 00 - 02:36 AM

Spaw, were you selling these cats around Columbia Heights, Minnesota, about 10 years ago?

---Lepus Rex

Subject: RE: BS: What is it with cassettes?
From: catspaw49
Date: 11 Oct 00 - 08:43 AM

Yeah Lepus, but I hadn't figured out this plan yet so I wasn't on my way to wealth and power as I am now!

Spaw

Subject: RE: BS: What is it with cassettes?
From: Gervase
Date: 11 Oct 00 - 08:56 AM

'Spaw, I've definitely got a cousin of your moggies here in London. It's a dedicated and impressive pisser - albeit a pisser with discernment.
Trouble is, it won't do the business with audio or video casettes; this little bugger has a passion for pissing on linen bedsheets!
As for the cassette problem - I solved mine yonks ago by divorcing. It's amazing how custody battles can resolve some things... Now I'm CD and MiniDisc only (with the best of the old cassettes backed up to MiniDisc).

Subject: RE: BS: What is it with cassettes?
From: Kim C
Date: 11 Oct 00 - 04:13 PM

Bernard, when you find that black hole, let me in on it, wouldja? Once upon a time, Someone Else In My House decided there were tapes We (ie, HE) didn't listen to anymore, that should be taken out of the main tape stash and placed in a secondary stash. Some of these tapes belonged to ME and I was not consulted in this matter. Consequently, over the last few years, I've wanted some of those tapes We (ie HE) didn't listen to anymore, and this Someone Else does not remember where We (ie HE) put them. :( He claims to have searched high and low for them, to no avail...

Subject: RE: BS: What is it with cassettes?
From: Bernard
Date: 12 Oct 00 - 06:40 PM

Ah! Velly intelesting, glasshoppah!

Confucious he say 'Woman who boils cabbages and pees in same pot very unhygenic'.

If cassettes had been invented in his day, he wouldn't have been quite the smug old git he is reputed to have been! They would have cut him down to size!

Having said that, I suppose it would have been pointless to invent cassettes without the technology to make use of them...

What a load of twaddle! Hardly seems worth pressing the 'submit' button. P'raps I'll not bother... ooops! Too late!