Intro to 'The Recital' OR I Am Lost Already Without You

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Calvin Pineda

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As I'm typing these lyrics into Distrokid
I have been playing a series of unmarked cassette tapes
Picked up at various thrift stores throughout the US

Currently I'm on a mixtape someone made
Which heavily features the early Shakira discography
The last tape had a woman's voice
Accompanied on guitar
Singing what I believe were original songs
Including one I found very moving
About the death of Iris Murdoch

And also her cover of
Me and Julio Down By The Schoolyard

I read a thinkpiece a few days ago
By a guy for the New York Times
Saying that the nostalgia for cassette tapes is misplaced
Because the medium is so inherently flawed

Tape breaks
Or melt or warp
Cartridges can also melt
Or break
And the jewel cases shatter
Under the slightest pressure
And they're a pain in the ass to rewind or fastforward
And you have to hope that you don't end up in the
Middle of a song when you hit play
And the players are increasingly warped
Playing and recording at different speeds
And the tapes themselves are inconvenient
An odd size and inferior in transportability
To even the lowly CD
So everyone quit it with the fetishizing
Of inconvenience

But that man has never known the abject
Unadulterated joy
Of picking up a tape with your mother's voice
As she speaks to her brother, now estranged
Played through a deck bought for ten dollars
At the local thrift store
Where the woman behind the counter told you
About how she used to make tapes for her boyfriend
And now they don't talk anymore
But she has the tapes he made her
And she'll never digitize them
Because and I quote
I Want Them To Disintegrate With Me
And Not A Moment Before
Which you think about as you listen
To your mother and your uncle
Talk about the drama at
Rampart High School
Colorado Spring circa 1992
Before everybody disappeared like dust up an ornery vacuum

Something infinite in the finite
Something infinite in the finite

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