Diary || Ghost of Record Store

Walking around the city I saw a peculiar store run down and draped in white. I felt really drawn in by the weird sense of nostalgia this place seemed to radiate. I stepped into a dimly lit room with old records and cassettes lying around in an organised chaos. There was a man in the far corner that I almost didn't notice who explained to me that this was his art. He wanted to show how old mediums are slowly fading away and dying. It was crazy how much this place felt like home.



Ever since I was small, I've always felt like I have one foot on reality and the rest of me exists somewhere distant. I feel very lucky that I happened to stumble upon this place. It made me feel as if time had stopped to allow me to say a proper goodbye to a reality I once lived in. Born in the mid 90s, I've grown up in a rapidly changing time with a sense of nostalgia that I can never fully seem to understand. I didn't have a computer until I was 12 years old, and my childhood was equal parts playing outside and playing inside on my sega and Nintendo 64. Fast forward a short 2 years and I have a smartphone and a Facebook account where I can talk to anyone in the world. Another 2 years later and I have more online friends than I did friends I could physically see. My generation is often thought of as technology obsessed, glued to our phone screens and unable to comprehend the world this store presented.

This isn't true. I am 20 years old and the first half of my life I had no phone, no internet connection, nothing that these bitter baby boomers insist I simply cannot live without. This store gave me a chance to really think about this hatred for change that all adults seem to have, and it gave me a chance to figure out where I stand in all of it.

Technology is evil, fire is scary, Thomas Edison was a witch. 

The world is changing. It's not my generations fault that we have grown up in a time where we had MP3's and PS2's thrown at us for Christmas and then were later scolded because we used them. Yes, the record is dead. It's impractical. I can carry the worlds music on my phone and listen to it wherever I want. I don't understand what these people want from us. Do they want us to reject technology and hinder the worlds progress? Do they want us to ignore each other using their mediums instead?
Quiet, Lorraine, I'm reading the business section. 

We are all responsible for the death of these old mediums, but that does not make us the slaves to technology you claim us to be. We are simply moving forward while you choose to be bitter that the world is embracing a change that you don't like.

I couldn't stop taking photos of this place. There is something deep within me that's terrified of forgetting anything. I think that's due to growing up in a time where technologies were rapidly progressing faster than my child brain could comprehend. I find myself doing crazy, compulsive things to make sure everything is permanent. But this store showed me that nothing is. I'm not sure if I felt unsettled or relived. One thing I do know for sure is that I'm glad I got a chance to say goodbye.

The era of the record ended years ago, but this store helped me make peace with it. I hope some other people were able to experience it, too.