Monday, April 10, 2017

The Enduring Message of the Eight-Track Tape.


Can one compare Sakura to Akihabara?

Akihabara is also known as Electric Town.  Since post-WWII days, it has been the place to get electronics.  Decades ago, it was transistor radios.  Today, it is every electronic thing imaginable, from sophisticated iPhones, to miles of speaker wire.

Akihabara seems the opposite of a walking path lined by sakura.  Garish to 10 stories; hawkers on loud speakers competing with loud music. 

Yet, if one of the lessons of sakura is, “life is short,” so, too, is the message from electric town as one thinks of eight-track tapes, floppy disks, VCR’s, video disks, fax machines and Wang computers.


Some constants also appear.  The cherry tree blooms year after year.  People keep inventing both useful stuff and crap, selling each with vigor.

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