2010 A Tape Odyssey!

Another peice for Under The Radar magazine. As you may know, indie rock labels are apt to have special releases of their bands albums on vinyl. Well apparently, 2010 saw a resurgence of cassette tapes of all things! Now you kids may not know what to do with the retro items because they don't fit in your Iphone or whatever but some of us can still play them in our cars and are quite fond of them. Obviously, I was thrilled to get the assignment based on these little plastic gems. After toying with a few sketches, I made the obvious(?) connection between the return of records and tapes and the film 2001 A Space Odyssey. So I made the tape the monolith which in the film, makes a few grand returns when ever humanity needs a little push in the right direction. I also gave the record a "Hal 9000" eye because, lets face it, Hal is great. I would like to thank Wendy for letting me totally nerd out with this one, although I get the feeling I didn't have to twist her arm!


So anyway, I love tapes. In fact, tapes are responsible for one of my most awesome moves ever! I was at a friends house sometime during my high school days hanging out. We didn't say chillin' then. Naturally, I was drawing a picture of Spider-man or something when my pal says "Hey throw this radical tape in the boombox gnarly dude!" Before I can look up from what I was doing, I hear the tell-tale "clacka-clacka" of some punk-rock jams flying through the air. Did I panic? Oh no. My hand shot out like a cobra and I snatched that tape out of mid-air without even looking up! We both were like "Whoa Dude!!!" Like I said, it was one awesome move.