…so I’m still in a funk over Leonard Nimoy’s passing, which combined with some social issues that transpired over the weekend has me ever-so-bummed-out when I encountered a bewildering technological “issue” that makes modern life even more confusing and makes ME long for a functional TARDIS.
I love the eponymous 1972 Graham Nash /David Crosby album, noted primarily for the Top 40 hit “Immigration Man”. A few years ago I bought MP3 files of a couple of my favorite tracks from the record but decided recently to “buy out” the remaining 8 tracks, something that Amazon is usually quite good about. They gave me a good price, I clicked the button on the screen and started to down-load the rest of the album.
Note the use of the word “started”
After three days of trying on my own and a lengthy phone call with Amazon today I have discovered that “you can’t get to there from here”. Sometime between now and when I bought those first three MP3 files there has been some sort of change -names, files, formats – h*ll maybe they substituted vanilla for coconut in the recipe. There is no way I can download or store these eleven songs as the one album it should be.
The Amazon tech support people have been very pleasant and professional but they tell me it will be about a week before this gets fixed. Through it all I keep thinking about the hoops we’ve all had to jump through versus the logistics involved with playing that first vinyl LP copy:
- Purchased the record and brought it home
- Popped the shrink wrap
- Put the disc on the turntable
- Played it
If you time the process from the minute money changed hands at the University of Alaska bookstore, the walk to my room in the basement of Lathrop Hall through the minute the tone arm on my RCA record player swung over and settled into the groove we’re talking 30 minutes maximum. If I wanted a different song I could just pick the tone arm up and move it (3 seconds) Copies were a little longer: put in a tape cassette, push a button and let the album play in its entirety (45 minutes at most).
An hour and a half vs. three days
David R. Deitrick, Designer 