christmas, 1968 — i asked for and received the soundtrack album of Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey, and Carlos’ Switched On Bach, and off i went down the path that led me to the Mothers Of Invention and beyond.
the big surprise that year was a portable General Electric 3″ reel-to-reel tape machine.
after immediately putting it to use as a surveillance device (its coin-shaped mic had a cord long enough for me to surreptitiously reach around corners ), on the afternoon of Sunday, July 20, 1969, i recorded the touchdown of the Apollo II Lunar Module, as broadcast on WCBS-TV.
“The Eagle has landed! The Eagle has landed!” nine-year-old me, overcome with excitement, squeaked into the mic, crouched inches from our Zenith console television.
Grandma Susan, born in Slovakia in 1888, slumped impassively in an armchair to my right. To the end of her days, she refused to believe it happened.
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