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I Live In An Apartment

As most of my friends here know, I'm living in Washington DC for about 16 months as I complete my master's degree. Well while I'm here, I'm living in a second floor corner apartment in the Georgetown neighborhood of the city. It's not large, basically two rooms, and it came furnished.

The main room has a small kitchenette in one corner and a living/dining area filling out the rest of the room. There's a futon in place of a couch and I basically use it as my bed. There is a bedroom that came with a bed, but I've stored that with the landlord and use the bedroom as a makeshift exercise area for my taekwondo.

But back in the main room, there is one thing that is quite curious. It's an turntable with an amplifier. The landlord said it is not his and the Lieutenant that I'm subletting from said it was there when he arrived a year and a half ago. So some previous tenant evidently donated it to the apartment furnishings.

Well, I recently went back home for a weekend to pick up some more stuff including winter clothes that I would need for my sixteen months here. While home I mentioned the turntable; it really is quite the novelty item for this digital girl. Upon hearing of my find, my dad ran to the basement and put together a milk crate full of old vinyl albums for me to listen to. I've finally pulled it out and began exploring this new way to listen to music!!

The first album I pulled out was "Hotel California" by, of course, The Eagles. The title track is a classic and I've heard it a million times and love it. But, being an album and not my Spotify feed, the Eagles continued on with songs I had NOT heard. Loved these two:

[media=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Pa5nqYXEnY]

and ...

[media=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=06QOHqzNaLg]

So then I continued going through his crate of music and I came across Eric Clapton "Unplugged". Liked the whole side 1, but came to "Tears from Heaven" and just loved it. I was chatting with my good friend @TexChik and she told me the story of how and why he came to write that song 😢 ... so sad ...

[media=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JxPj3GAYYZ0]

Anyway, I'm just getting settled nicely here in Washington and discovering a new (old) way to enjoy music. That's all for now! ;)

About me: https://similarworlds.com/sarabee1995/info

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room101 · 51-55, M

There has been quite the resurgence of vinyl on this side of the pond. There are two things that new users of the medium say which always make me chuckle a bit.

1. WOW! The music sounds so much better, so much more atmospheric and like "real".
2. Basically what you've said above about discovering new material by a given musician.

And yeah, the backstory of Tears In Heaven is tragic.

sarabee1995 · 26-30, F

@room101 Maybe my ears just can't tell the difference, but the records sound about the same as my phone & ear buds. :)

room101 · 51-55, M

@sarabee1995 When CD's first came out, there was a trend to "digitally enhance" original recordings. Many aficionados complained about this saying that the music sounded too sanitised and lacked atmosphere. I refused to buy a CD that mentioned any kind of digital jiggery-pokery and would return them to the store if I found them to be different to the original recording.

Recording technology has changed a lot since then and "new" music sounds far more polished. However, the examples that you've given are older and were originally recorded for vinyl. Which does sound very different to a download.

Maybe the reason why you can't hear a difference is because of the quality of equipment that you are using. Maybe the hi-fi that you've inherited and your phone (plus ear buds) are equally good...........or equally bad 😜

Anyway, I think that it's great that you now have the opportunity to broaden your musical horizons.

sarabee1995 · 26-30, F

Thanks for all that! :) From the looks of it, the analog system here is much higher quality than my simple ear buds. But also, my dad tells me that my ears just aren't trained to ear the difference. I think what he is saying is what I've always known: I'm a bit tone deaf!

room101 · 51-55, M

@sarabee1995 😂😂😂

sarabee1995 · 26-30, F

@room101 It's true though. I can't carry a tune at all and the finer points of music appreciation are really lost on me. 🤷‍♀️

room101 · 51-55, M

@sarabee1995 As you know, I've been surrounded by musicians for nearly all of my life. But, I can't play a note on any instrument and, I can barely manage to sing Happy Birthday. OK, I'm not that bad but you get the picture.

The point is that, despite my very real musical handicaps, I love music, I love listening to it and, I love being around musicians. And yeah, when they start going into the "finer points of music appreciation" they may as well be talking in Swahili.

BUT, I can tell the difference between a good recording played on a good sound system and a digital download played on a telephone.

Come on kiddo, make full use of the bit of kit that has found its way into your possession and listen. Above all.......ENJOY 🎶💃🕺🤗