Well I’ve joined the 1980s
I have my own actual Japan phone number (not VoIP or other scheme) 07084173501
I’ve got a cassette Walkman
Also, new cassettes coming from Subpop
BRB gonna go make some “friendship cards” with the new digits
Fax me indeed
Oh & send me mixed tapes for Christmas or whatever holiday you want – cassettes
Like even ones you made in the 80s or 90s or you have stuck in a shoebox
Postal Address
Notes:
the phone is a treasure for sure, kind of the peak of form and function industrial design… I’d love to think about the planning meeting that went into making that majestic creation with the glorious color. Everything feels so solid, heavy and functional (it’s not connected of course, but I use it as an “to the wind”) even have the key to the coin return slot
the typewriter is an Olivetti Lettera 34 which is a bit of an odd/rare unit as it contains a ¥ key
Walkman photo to follow but: the Sony “sports” series was never sold in Japan, export only and, as such, has a very vibrant collectors market in Japan completing a circumnavigation of a sort, bought one off a fella who buys from the states, refurbishes and resells so hoping it’s a good runner, i spend so much time on the bus and at doctors offices, want to enjoy music on something other than a phone if you know what I mean
scrapbook cover paper came from a letter press class I took through continuing education at Evergreen in 1996 In the basement of some Evergreen seminar building is all the old letterpress type equipment from the state of Washington so made all kinds of handmade stuff, most of which I mailed out over the years but still had a few of these journals I hand sewed in a bookbinding class
I can’t remember if I pressed this myself or it was there in a scrap pile (I worked at Kinko’s in that same era so have all kinds of all sorts of odds & ends from the “inspiration bin” so to speak)
PS Oddly enough, recently I received a message from a friend in Mexico who I gifted one of these same scrap journals too so this lil tricycle has really taken a world tour
you might also notice a painting by Jean Smith (also singer of Mecca Normal who were one of three Canadian bands who performed at the international underground pop festival in 1991) amongst other scattered treasures in the still life – another painting is by Timothy Wilson-Hooey
Update: Walkman, headphones tucked under my “Holden Caulfield hat” on usual routine to the hospital, Subpop cassettes or was it Milk records cassettes? Probably both as this is two separate visits…
