7:30 AM Boy am i nostalgic about it? One of the first valuable think i ever bought was a Soviet made tape recorder. Capable of recording to speeds of up to 19 cm/s (that is 4 times the speed of a cassette recorder) and frequencies up to 18 Khz. It was 5000 lei or 2 maybe 3 average monthly salaries.

But the source. There was available music on tapes or you could give them your own tapes to record to the so called "music recording studios". Best from Bucharest. They were using mainly vinyl as source and probably hit lists from whatever magazines smuggled inside Romania, mainly by semi drivers.

I think they issued "volumes" periodically with latest hits.

But you could never be sure of how many times they were recorded from tape recorder to tape recorder and also quite expensive if you wanted to keep up. The local studios were advertising as recording directly from a "master tape" coming "directly from Bucharest" which probably was true because there was no other possibility LOL. And they were not selectable since i only had one tape recorder.

Buy i discovered another way to do it. There was a broadcast on Romania's so called 3rd program, on FM, every day at noon, for one hour.

I don't know how many line of sight relays were between Bucharest and Bacău and how much distortion and noise each added, but to my ear it sounded good enough.

Every day at noon, for one hour, they were playing the Romanian hits, mostly boring imitations by Romanian composers and singers, of which there was only one remarkable, comparable to international singers and that was Carmen Rădulescu (coincidentally she was also from Bacău and i once had a chance to meet her but i declined.

However among those they squeezed in, every day, about 3 international hits. Mostly British and American of course. Not all of them to my likes.

So while i was a student, during the so called exam sessions, i was home in Bacău of course reviewing the hand written courses (in a new condo given to us by the firm where Angela was already working),

At noon i was there next to the radio with the recorder ready. I started it at every song, not knowing what was going to be, and then reeling it back most of the time, at 0 using the counter on the recorder, right after the last successful recording.

Not extraordinarily happy with the quality which was not the same as made from vynil, the quality improved much during the parties after a couple of drinks (pretty much like the quality of pictures i take when i see them several days later) which i highly recommend to all of those not satisfied with their (digital) audio systems.

This is how i gathered several tapes with  many hours of "good music" which i was using at parties. The radio i used was of course mono and so was the playback on the tape recorder itself, though it could record and play stereo with an amplifier and speakers. But that doubled the capacity of a tape, cause i was recording mono on one track only (though there as was some cross talk between the tracks again not distinguishable especially after a few drinks).

Today again out of nostalgia i did some google searches and found my beloved Majak 205, there is one or two even to sell on eBay but then i did some more google searches and what did i found.

The quality of FM radio during the 80s was satisfactory. The reel to reel tape recorders are now making a comeback as the best possible audio quality for audiophiles. So i was not so far away from the best. Only thing is i didn't know it as i did not have the titles or artist names, press reviews and conversations with others about it.

Today i can listen to those songs that most are for sure included in that playlist i bought online for about 12 bucks, made of over 6000 songs, all yearly top 100s between 60s and today, ripped on 128 kbps which is way better today than it was 20 years ago or when mp3 was invented, mostly between 84 and 90, when i was using that recorder.

Until MTV became available from a satellite dish from a neighbor, who was sharing it with the whole building for a small amount paid by each. Then i hooked my tape recorder to the TV and started to record from there.

After 90 i bought a cassette player also of Russian origin and built some big custom speakers and you could find cheap cassettes with fairly good music. I remember Duets by Elton John, the jewel of my collection. Man did i want a CD player but those had prohibitive prices (to me) when they started to appear, before i moved to the US in 1995.

Today those tapes and the recorder are forever gone but i am building a playlist from that stick from memory and for the first time i can identify titles and artists. So when i drive long drives, i play that stick and when i hear one (that i vaguely remember it was on my tapes), i hit the Save to MyMusic choice in the menu. Soon i'm gonna start listening to that one only.

I guess i was right, the "dancing" 80s sound was indeed a new wave made of a bit of everything, blues, jazz, funk, soul, rock, trying to merge into a world of synthesizers which faded away in the 90s, making room to a new sort of psychedelic revival.

The change of music style into 80s was abrupt. Like someone said. Let there be 80s! Here is Bob Seger's 79 release. (Not on my tapes, heard the first time in US after 95, or maybe earlier but don't remember). And Tom Cruise proving he could have been indeed nurse CYDNEY.

It may be still rock and roll to Billy Joel but not to me. A song i heard much later here in the US, released in 80s and though elaborate, like any of his works, it doesn't say much to me


Another one that was new to me, until relatively recently. Never understood those verses though until now. It feels very much like right now but in my case is due to "environemnt". A few more hours and we escape for the weekend.

Glen Frey reinvented in the 80s, not without some merit.

11:10 I wanted to get some more sleep. They started the base upstairs so loud my head was vibrating on the pillow. I wanted the other day to call the office but the corporate added some menus and got lost in those so i will walk there. I know it's not quiet hours, but one should be able to stay in his apartment.

I went and talked to the management, they acknowledged my complaints about noise and poops and said they will try to do something about, but until then today i picked them.

12:20 PM Right now exploring the career of Patricia Kovacs, a Hungarian actress who played as a prostitute in two movies and also has some erotic material downloadable online.

1:40 Viktor Orban started to build his palace @2019 or the next year after i started the series about Romania's budget. I always thought he had in there some studios, but now i think maybe the interior replica of an American apartment built in the 70s, with popcorn ceiling and stuff.

Also, in 2018 i started my blog with matches.