You know, without the risk of a giant boulder running me down, Nazis wanting what I have, and above all, no snakes.
I hate snakes!
*Hums Indiana Jones Theme in head*
The Woman, the Myth, the Nickname
I’ll preface the title of this with the story of how I was bestowed this awesome nickname. 🙂
“Digital Indiana Jones” refers to a nickname given to me by a co-workers, while discussing our interests. I told her about how I love to work with old videocassettes and transfer the contents, and that I feel like an archaeologist when I’m in my element. She referred to me as “Digital Indiana Jones” because of this.
I don’t own a fedora and I’m not Harrison Ford, but I’m still very flattered to this day.
Anyway…
Art!
Artists dabble in their mediums. Some work as hobbyists, some have whole careers (or second careers) as artists. Some work in watercolors, mixed media, charcoals, Mr. Sketch scented markers, and Crayola.
Seriously, have you smelled Mr. Sketch markers?
My preferred art since my disastrous “Career Ending” (if you call it a “career”) ankle injury #1 has been writing and working in my “archives,” aka my VHS collection. A year ago, I purchased the means to continue my archivist ways – a Hauppauge HD PVR, and my parents’ VCR to replace mine (yes, I wrote an article about it), which was slowly failing after a wonderful twenty years of recording and playback glory.
It lead a wonderful life.
My Method (To My Obvious Madness!)
I started my “archiving” work in 2007 by transferring VHS tapes in my collection to DVDs, continuing onto 2008 when my boyfriend at the time gave me tapes to borrow, and then back into my own collection from 2008 until now (with a hiatus of roughly four years). This past weekend, my boyfriend gifted me with two tapes he found while cleaning his closets. He knew what was on them, but asked me if I could transfer the contents to my computer.
I started my “work” last night, and continued into this morning, sharing some of my findings with my Retroist crew…
The 1980s never cease to amaze me!
One of the things I like to do when I’m archiving from source material that isn’t part of my collection is identify the network and (at a minimum) the year of the recordings. James (my boyfriend) told me he knew Silverhawks, She-Ra, and Thundercats were on the tape (I also spotted a He-Man and the Masters of the Universe episode), and he wanted me to transfer the tape. Oh, and the commercials are intact.
You know something, I really need to be less subtle about my excitement of being handed a videocassette.
What I’ve gotten so far is two hours worth of cartoons, kid-targeted commercials (something I don’t have), and material from 1987 (something I don’t have much of). It’s nice to know that for every beer, personal care, jewelry, and parent/adult-friendly commercial I have, I now have an abundance of toy, cereal, and “30 minute long” commercials to add to the mix.
That, my friends, is a true balance.
More to come as I dig through my latest collection! 🙂
For now…