Sony blank tapes – cassette tapes bring back so many memories for me. Ever since I can remember I listened to music on blank as well as the published ones. We either recorded them from another cassette or from the radio and once I was back in India, we used to give them to a recording store like Atlantic Records (just a shop that would get you the songs from an album recorded onto a blank tape for you for a fee) mainly for albums that we couldn’t easily find in the music stores in our hometown.
This was a summer vacation activity. Atlantic records has two stores – one near the Ernakulam North Railway Station and the other very close to my grandmother’s house, which is where my cousins and other relatives gathered to stay every summer vacation (and also Onam and Christmas vacations). Usually every few days my cousins and I would head there and check out what new albums they had and if we found something that we likes, we would buy a blank tape or 2 and ask them to record the songs for us. If no albums caught our fancy, we would get like a greatest hits album or a mix tape where we can select individual songs and get them to record the songs onto one tape for us.
The latter option ofcourse took a lot longer so they would usually ask us to give them a week. But it was so much fun when we finally got the tapes and could then play it on our stereo systems or on our walkmans. Evenings would be spent in one big room with us all relaxing and playing songs and chatting with each other. I so miss those days.
Andrea Berta has reached an agreement with Arsenal to become their new sporting director. Berta became available in January after more than a decade at Atletico Madrid — where he was central to the Spanish team’s progress. The Italian was among multiple options Arsenal considered during a thorough process to replace Edu Gaspar after his resignation in November. It was driven by managing director Richard Garlick and executive vice-chair Tim Lewis, with Josh Kroenke involved throughout on behalf of the ownership and input from manager Mikel Arteta. Berta prioritised Arsenal above a number of other top-level opportunities and those suitors have been told about the 53-year-old’s decision.