Magic 102

[jorn@chinet.chi.il.us (Jorn Barger)]

Jeffrey C. Burka writes:
> I'm not attacking your theory, Jorn, but I want to point out that
> you're missing one obvious possibility:  that your inability to experience,
> to *sense* those feelings from a CD is a shortcoming of your own and not
> of the CD media.

What, like an allergy to penicillin?  I'm "CD-deaf"?

> I'm curious about a couple of things.  First off, why do you assume
> that the "imprinting" such as it is is with the actual recording medium
> and not with the music itself?

1) I experience it subjectively as localized in the tape, certainly not 
*referred spatially* to the recording studio.

2) CDs *feel* different, that way.  Less personal.

> Secondly, are you sure you've given CDs a fair shake? [...]

My first CD player was 1987.  My first non-Kate CD was some years later.
;^)

> >I think what's wrong with CDs as a recording medium is that, being
> >digital, they're unable to *absorb any imprint* from you
> 
> What on earth does the fact of digital recording have to do with this?
> You're almost implying that there's something natural, organic about analog
> magnetic pulses recorded on a synthetic plastic film coated with particles
> capable of retaining a specific magnetic field.

Nope, I'm a junk-food vegetarian. ;^)  It's not 'nature', it's physics we
haven't thought thru yet!  My argument is that the very virtues that
make CDs 'perfect' make them cold.

> You seem to try to argue that the recording on the medium is actually
> changed by the vibes you put out while it's playing--you mention the
> idea of "re-etching" and that the recording of the music is changed
> (as opposed to the imprint being with the basic physical object).  How
> is my play-only walkman any more likely to re-record-with-emotional-imprint
> on my tape than my discman?

Well, my subjectline mentioned 'soft vs hard media'.  The play-mechanisms
on vinyl and tape are much more 2-way than on CDs.  Environmental 'noise', 
whether roomnoise or room-electrical-fluctuations, are intimately involved
in the degradation of those 'soft' media.

I had intended to bring "Dreaming"s sig into the fray: [paraphrased]
"in every electron striking your screen-phosphors... i am there"

But there's a million other strange phenomena where human vibes transmit
in ways you wouldn't expect, if you mis-take Asimov-level science for a 
fairly complete map of reality.

Which religion is it that speaks of the "wakan" that objects absorb over 
time, if you treat them with reverence?  Sufis I think call it "baraka".

Feeling emotionally close to someone, or far away, is another aspect of this:
I feel, I think, more of a wall listening to a CD than to a *tape* of that 
CD!

jb