Two things happened within a day of each other: our year-old DVD player stopped working, and I noticed that the head ("skin") of one of my bongos was torn. The bongos probably cost $60-70 new, the DVD player cost $80. I did due diligence repairing both. I tried cleaning the lens on the DVD player; had to take it apart to do that. For the bongos, I spent at least an hour on web looking for replacement heads, finally finding WorldMusicSupply.com, where Chet was super-helpful and patient with my insanely persistent daily calls until he finally reached his supplier by phone to find the right replacement.

I'm trashing the DVD player, and have few regrets, and no attachment. On the other hand, I'm getting new heads for the bongos, costing about the original price of the bongos themselves, and I know my heart will leap when the package arrives.

There's some irony that the DVD player represents hundreds of stunning technical acheivements and manufacturing wizardry, while the bongos are accomplished with little more than iron age technology, and I have much more attachment to them. To be fair, the bongos were a gift 10 years ago from my best buddy, but if he'd given me a VCR, I'd chuck it with nearly the same ambivalence. The bongos carry memories of great times and active participation, and represent in their simplicity somehow a much more human craft.