Welcome to Thursday Things! Fire up the boombox and let’s get to it.
How are these organized? It’s not alphabetical order, I can tell you that. Photo by Jon Tyson on Unsplash
When was the last time you bought a cassette tape? I am reliably informed cassette tapes are making a comeback. Which is exciting, because mine never left.
What that means is for those generations that came of music-buying age between 1980 and 1995 at the bare minimum, the cassette is as sacred a nostalgic touchstone as vinyl is for the generations that came before.
And now it’s back.
Not for everybody. If vinyl (despite all the hype and hope associated with its “revival”) is a niche market, cassettes are barely even a slither. Part of that, of course, is because so few cassettes are actually being released today — although, having said that, some 20,000 new titles were released worldwide last year, including new albums by The Who, Billie Eilish, Madonna and Queen. Independent cassette releases have their own Cassette Store Day rival to Record Store Day, and that too has been ticking over nicely. Over 100 stores nationwide participated in the October 2019 event; over 100 exclusive new releases were made available.
Interesting. I don’t buy much music. I still have $10 left on a $20 iTunes gift card someone gave me ten years ago. But I do have a couple of shoeboxes full of old cassettes from the 80s. (Including the Miami Vice soundtrack I won for placing second in a Don Johnson lookalike contest. Long story.) So I’m glad to know they’re back in fashion. Why is this happening? The link above discusses the lasting, or renewed, appeal of cassettes in depth. And this other article give the three bullet points answer: Three reasons why audio cassette tapes are coming back: price, nostalgia … and hipsters.
No word yet on a revival for 8-track.
Focusing is hard. I imagine it’s even harder for those of you juggling Zoom calls all day. You know how sometimes you have to defragment the hard drive of your computer so it runs better. I need to do that to my brain sometimes. I have too many ideas pushing through too little grey matter, so I’m always looking for ways to improve my focus and rebuild my attention span. Here is a short blog post I found on The focused mind: get your brain to concentrate on what matters:
On average, our minds wander almost 50% of the time. [Speaking for myself, 50% seems low! — DM] Mind wandering is when we think about things that are not going on directly around us, contemplating events that happened in the past, that might happen in the future, or will never happen at all. While intentional mind-wandering can be good for your brain—scientists have found that closing your laptop and daydreaming for a few minutes has a positive impact on cognition—studies show that letting your mind wander too often has a negative impact on overall performance in your daily life.
If only I could focus long enough to read the whole post, I’d have found three “research-backed techniques to strengthen your focus” ! Maybe you’ll have better luck with that.
Here is a good example of things that do NOT help my focus: Photos That Reveal the Hidden Side of Things Yes, it’s a listicle of pictures of interesting things you don’t see every day (such as the inside of the Leaning Tower of Pisa). At least it’s all one one page!
Catwoman! You felonious feline — you’re busted this time! Instagram model who poses as Catwoman jailed for masked robberies
An Australian Instagram model with sticky fingers and a penchant for posing as Catwoman has been jailed after being arrested for the second time this year for a series of crimes including masked robberies and shoplifting, according to a report.
Bad kitty! Source: Instagram; NSW Police
The saucy Aussie will be out of the clink and back on the prowl in October — just in time for a Halloween crime spree.
But Julie Newmar is still the best Catwoman.
This was brilliant idea by Qantas airline: Qantas ‘flight to nowhere’ sells out in 10 minutes
Qantas’s “flight to nowhere” is one of the fastest-selling in the airline’s history, with all tickets snapped up in 10 minutes.
The Australian flag carrier decided to launch a seven-hour scenic route around the country, which will both take off from and land in Sydney, amid ongoing travel restrictions.
Departing and returning on 10 October, the flight won’t stop anywhere, but gives passengers the change to enjoy views over Uluru, the Great Barrier Reef and other landmarks.
Makes me wish I were stranded in Australia so I could book the flight. Alas, I did not have the foresight to be there when the lockdown came. Another Qantas tour flight will circle around Antarctica. I’m less interested in that one. Seems to me that’s how movies about stranded passengers resorting to cannibalism start.
“Is that the Qantas flight, Steve?” “I think so, Dave.” Photo by Bryan Goff on Unsplash
Thank you for reading Thursday Things! See you next Thursday.