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| Alex - 1958 |
Living in my Kistsilano home, I am surrounded by framed photographs of family and of magazine assignments from my past. There are exquisite objects from Mexico that Rosemary and I purchased. I could state that I live surrounded by memories.
But there is more to this, particularly with the digital trends of this century. I have extensive metal filing cabinets full of my photographic output which began in Austin, Texas in my boarding school St. Edward’s High School. I purchased a Pentacon-F SLR.
Those taking photographs with their phones or with digital cameras and relying on technology that is not all that stable, might not have the memories I have when they are as old as I am (82).
My memories are tactile. I wish I could coin that expression as I think it is an important one that came suddenly to me today as I was bed rotting with my Niño and Niña cats.
How many people have in possession (a touchable one) of the first jazz album they ever bought? How many have a decent turntable (a linear tracking Sony) and a sound system that can play the record without and skips and scratches?
I do!
I bought this album, used, at a record store in downtown Austin in 1958. In those days you could take the record into a booth to listen to it before you decided on buying it. I did because it had one song that seemed interesting – Oodles of Noodles.
It seemed that I was afraid that someone would steal my record (it was recorded in 1957) because I can clearly see my name on the back cover and also includes that I was in the Brother Vincent De Paul dorm for freshmen.
There is not available YouTube recording of my fave song for the 1967 album but a 1996 version is pretty close. The link is below.
Oodles of Noodles - Herbie Mann