(no subject)

[the_rck]

I’m throwing out a lot of cassette tapes that I haven’t listened to in at least fifteen years. I could try to convert them to mp3 files, but really, if I haven’t cared about not having access in that long, I don’t care enough to do the work of conversion. (Scott asked me to 'do something' with those tapes because he’s trying to clear space in the basement for a work area so that he won’t have to do everything on the kitchen table. The containers holding the tapes are on a shelf on one side of the laundry room. I’m not convinced that getting rid of them opens up much space, but there’s really no point in keeping them.)

I’ve set aside anything where I’m not sure what’s on the tape, anything that I think is Scott’s, anything that is a compilation of my old 45s or of things taped off the radio (mostly so I can see if I can find those songs elsewhere), and anything labeled 'filk.'

When I was in college, 1985-1989, I went to a number of local conventions with friends, and one or two of them would tape the filksings on hand held recorders and then share the tapes around. We had no idea who the musicians were or what the actual names of the songs were. What I’ve got is copied from the originals with mediocre sound quality and is only the songs I liked enough to keep, but I’m not sure if those recordings exist elsewhere. Some of them are labeled as to which convention they come from, but others aren’t. I wasn’t thinking of anything but how to fit as much as possible onto each cassette.

I’m wondering if there might be someone who would be interested in these tapes, even with the utter lack of documentation. I know there are people who make a study of SF fandom history. I just haven’t been to an SF convention since Cordelia was about two. Scott’s work schedule makes it pretty difficult, and for many years, Cordelia’s sports commitments meant we couldn’t be away from town on a Saturday. We considered going to ConFusion, just for the day, this last weekend, but they weren’t doing day passes, so we’d have had to pay $60 each. That was not going to happen.

I have one local person who I’m going to ask who might have an idea about what to do with the tapes. After that, I’ll be in unknown territory.

I think the sets of drawers that I’ve been using to hold the tapes will have to go in the trash, too. They’re designed to hold cassette tapes and probably can’t be adapted for anything else. More importantly, they’re also starting to fall apart. They were things I bought cheap and not remotely good quality. They won’t fit in the bin this week, but next week, we should have space. Well, they’d fit in the recycling bin, but I have no idea if that sort of plastic is even remotely recyclable.

Comments

[hannah]

I'm fairly certain the special collections department at the University of Iowa would either take them, or know someone else who would.

[the_rck]

Thanks for the suggestion!

I have a local person who's interested in digitizing them, so I'm going with her.

[melannen]

Ask Open Doors at AO3 about the filksing tapes; they will probably send you to UoI like Hannah said, but that's one of the things they're there for.

[the_rck]

The local person I'm giving them to is a librarian and has done some SF fandom archiving of music before, so I'm optimistic that she has the right connections to see the stuff archived. She's got the equipment and experience to digitize the tapes and is very enthusiastic about having the opportunity.

I just wish I had better documentation for what's actually on the tapes. That wasn't even on my radar then, however, and the little inserts for cassette tapes really didn't have that much room for writing things down.

[brunettepet.livejournal.com]

Good luck finding the filksing tapes a good home.

[garnigal.livejournal.com]

Even if it doesn't make him a lot of space, it gets you in the habit of getting rid of things that may still be useable, but not useful or needed.

Well done.

[the_rck]

I need to look at the two boxes of glassware that we put away when our daughter was born. She's old enough that breakable stuff isn't an issue any longer, and some of the glasses may still be usable. Some were squarish at the top and inclined to crack as they aged. I doubt that fourteen years in storage has made them less fragile. (They were a wedding present from a friend who made a big deal about them being the same as what was used on ST:NG.)