Tuesday, January 22, 2013

Where Analog Went to Die


Wander to the back of this narrow, dark, crowded centro comercial on Carrera 9 and Calle 22 and you'll feel like you've walked backed decades - acoustically speaking, at least. 
There are cassette players which you thot went out with The Kinks, a turntable which might have played The Beatles' Yellow Submarine the year it came out. Stacked against the walls are old reel-to-reel players, with a few eight-track tape players squeezed in there. Nearby, for good measure, sits a typewriter, ready for that person in rebellion against everything digital.
Who might buy these old machines, along with the stacks of LPs, tapes and even vacuum tubes, I can't imagine. But the owners of the little repair shops evidently hold out hope that some Bogotano somewhere is still holding onto a machine with a vacuum tubes which will need those tubes replaced sooner or later. 

And when that happens, this is the place - and perhaps the one and only place left. 


 

The 'Museum of Telecommunication and Electronic Media.'

A mystery machine.
Those LPs offered lots of space for bathing beauties.



But, how does this Olivetti connect to Facebook?





What you're looking for is in there somewhere.



Vaccuum tubes anybody?





The center's entrance.

A neighboring business shows off its neon. 


By Mike Ceaser, of Bogotá Bike Tours

1 comment:

mauricio forero l said...

Awesome, awesome, awesome post, Mike. Bogota does not stop surprising me. I have a Russian friend here in Chicago that would get absolutely crazy in a place like this. Again, awesome post, Mike. Amazing shots.

M. Forero.