New-School-old-school

This was tucked away in an issue of ReadyMade magazine. If you've never heard of ReadyMade...well, it's a magazine for hipsters who like to recycle stuff into new stuff. They're part of the whole movement that's rekindling the joys of crafting.

What? You didn't know there WAS such a movement? Look around! Old-school is the new New-School. Macrame pants are in! But instead of yarn, use old ethernet cable!

So, you've got a bunch of Winger CD's lurking sly-like on your shelf, waiting to jump out and wound your pride. Or maybe you have a copy of The Simpsons: Do The Bartman. Or perhaps you too got suckered into thinking that BritPop girlbands were ok.

Leave it to the Japanese to come up with a solution to your problem.

The Gakken Gramophone is a teeny little version of Thomas Edison's original Wax Disc player/recorder. Sound goes into the cup, the cup focuses the soundwaves into the tip of a sharp little needle, which scratches its way around a wax platter. Voila, the music industry was borne.

The Gakken version works with PLASTIC discs. Meaning your store-bought (or AOL mailed) CD's can be re-recorded on.

This opens a WHOLE NEW LEVEL of potential irony.

No, you can't play the new recordings on a CD player...you have to use a turntable, but that's ok. I'm sure you know a wanna-be DJ or two. I mean in this iPod era, my music collection is long-ripped onto a hard-drive. My CD player is just sitting around gathering dust - begging to get stripped down for its lasers. (that's an entirely different project)

And if the gramophone is too destructive for you, and not quite old-school enough for your retro-stylings. They also make a Cup-Phonograph which uses dixie cups in place of old wax-cylinders.

The best part - for all you Lego-lovers out there - you have to BUILD it before you can use it. That's right, it comes un-assembled.

Go on - start a revolution.