u/Nonsuch42

So I have a hobby of picking up redundant media like old reel to reel tapes from car boot sales, etc. and have recently started listening to some mail audio tapes I picked up a few weeks ago. I've just started listening to one that includes a lot of chanting interspersed with commentary from an American man, and references are made to it being a 'Sing Sing' and occurring near the 'Upper Ramu River'. A quick Google tells me that these features suggest the tape is of a Sing Sing in Papua New Guinea, and the American speaker mentions that he is affiliated with a local mission and is using their tape recorder. The tape is likely from the 1960s based on the design of the packaging - it's obviously an amateur recording but it's mostly clear and easy to listen to.

I just wanted to see if this type of audio recording would have any anthropological value/be of interest to relevant experts? I'm not asking for money for it but just want to try and understand the potential significance (or lack thereof) of what I have found. I have yet to listen to the other tapes so their contents are unknown, and they may or may not be related.

This was my first trip to Naples. I was nervous going into it (I had heard various stories), so I was pleasantly surprised to find a lively and vibrant city that I totally fell in love with over the course of my stay. While Rome remains the most magnificent city of those I’ve visited in Italy, Naples is probably the most fully lived in - while there are plenty of tourists, it is primarily a city designed for and enjoyed by its inhabitants. It’s not a city for tourists seeking a playground designed for their own comfort, but it’s a great destination for anyone interested in Italian and Neapolitan culture - both ancient and modern.

Itinerary 

• Day 1 (half-day) - Funicular up from Parco Margherita to Vomero, Castel Sant’Elmo, Certosa di San Martino
• Day 2 - Pompeii and Herculaneum 
• Day 3 - Basilica di San Francesco di Paola, Royal Palace of Naples, Via Toledo, Naples Archaeological Museum, Exploring Chiaia Area
• Day 4 - Guided tour of Galleria Borbonica, Castel Nuovo, Naples Harbour, Checking out Metro Station Architecture, guided tour of the Historic Centre

Top tips

• The most important money-saving tip for Naples and the wider region is to BUY THE ARTE CARD 365 LITE PASS. I cannot stress enough what a huge money saver this was. It cost only 26 euros and covered my admission to almost everything besides the Galleria Borbonica (which was totally worth the extra cost - more below). It saved me almost 70 euros in total and made me much more open to trying out places that I would not have otherwise thought to visit, which led to some wonderful discoveries.
• Research the area where you’re going to stay very carefully according to your needs/preferences. I am a quiet and introverted person and for me having a safe and quiet environment to return to every evening was extremely important. I chose a B&B in the Chiaia area and this was a fantastic choice for me - it was extremely upscale, well-connected and quiet relative to the other parts of the city (and even with all that said, my B&B was still reasonably priced). I felt totally safe there and slept well every night. While I enjoyed visiting the historic centre, it was a permanent frenzy of activity (even more so after dark!) and I know I wouldn’t have coped well with staying there.
• You don’t need to bother with paper tickets for the train/metro (I never took the bus so can’t comment on them). They all accept contactless tap and go payment, though a word of warning is that the touchpoints are sometimes frustratingly hard to locate (they’re dark green and normally attached to the walls of the station near the entrance/exit - they are often not at the barriers themselves). The only time I got truly hassled was when a guy tried to buy my ticket to Pompeii for me at Central Station, a problem I could have avoided by tapping in instead.

 

Top recommendations

• Pompeii (which I discuss separately in my post here) - needless to say this lived up to its reputation. Walking the streets of Pompeii was an experience I will cherish for the rest of my life. 
• Castel Sant’Elmo - this is a massively impressive structure with a huge scale, and the views of the Bay of Naples from the top are simply peerless. It was a breath-taking way to start my stay in Naples. There’s also an excellent contemporary art museum at the top of the castle which is absolutely worth visiting in its own right - there are some genuinely arresting sculptures and paintings on display, and it was refreshing to take in modern art after focusing so extensively on ancient sculpture, etc. 
• Certosa di San Martino - I went into this on a whim late in the day on account of having access through the Arte Card, and was blown away by the beauty of the archirecture and the scale of the collections. The first site was a small but gorgeously adorned church - genuinely one of the most beautiful I’ve seen in the whole of Italy. The collections of art, mostly religious in nature, were exceptionally high-quality, and I found the display of statues (the Sybils) damaged by WWII bombing very moving. The major cloister is breath-takingly beautiful with some of the coolest skull sculptures I’ve ever seen. 
• Naples Archaeological Museum - this is a must-visit to complement the experience of visiting Pompeii and Herculaneum. The exhibits are incredible and represent the highest watermark of quality in ancient art. The highlights for me were the Farnese collection, the sculptures from the Villa of the Papyri and the frescos from Pompeii - particularly the portraits of individuals. It was also weirdly moving to see the regular domestic items like beds and tables on display, as they viscerally brought to life the day-to-day reality of ancient people’s lives.
• Galleria Borbonica - this was a truly excellent tour through 400 years or so of Neapolitan history, covering the origin of the tunnels during the time of the Bourbon kings right through to WWII and the recent past. The spaces we covered in the tour were really brought to life by the great guide and the presence of objects corresponding to different periods of use (for example, toy prams belonging to children who had stayed there during WWII). We even glimpsed a river running through the tunnels at a lower level, and I was amazed (and jealous) to be told that a rafting experience is available (in Italian only, alas). Emerging back into the city through a shopping centre built into the caves was a surreal but amazing part of the experience.
• CasaCinema Napoli was a really beautiful cinema with gorgeous décor (lots of vintage movie posters and stills) and very kind staff - I ordered a coca-cola and they were generous enough to also bring me some olives, breadsticks and popcorn, which were all free of charge. I unfortunately didn’t have time to watch a movie there (though I would have loved to!), but I will certainly return when I go back to Naples. It was a great place to relax and recover some energy, and there was a wonderful buzz from all the people gathered in groups outside.
• The pastries! Everyone is obsessed with Neapolitan pizza (which is great!) while overlooking the incredible, and often unique, baked goods. I had some of the most amazing cakes and tarts of my life here (an incredible bun filled with pistachio cream from Pasticceria Poppella was my favourite).

Miscellaneous observations

• The reports about the crazy driving in Naples are accurate. Traffic signs are treated as suggestions, and pedestrians’ sole power lies in confidence - to cross a road in some busy areas, you need to take a literal step of faith into the traffic to declare your intent and meet the eyes of the approaching driver in the hope that they will take mercy upon you. The safest option for most tourists will be to wait for others to attempt to cross and shadow them - there is safety in numbers! (I personally witnessed a scooter crashing into a lemonade stand in the historic centre. A verbal altercation inevitably broke out between the driver and the vendor, and it was honestly hilarious.)
• As a tourist DO NOT WEAR HEADPHONES. Situational awareness is extremely important for many reasons (avoiding pickpockets/surviving magically appearing scooters) and you should do nothing to diminish your senses while out and about in the city. 
• Avoid places you are unfamiliar with in the dark, especially quiet streets with no one around. When I needed to go back to my hotel on my last night I navigated to Montesanto station, only to realise Google Maps had led me to the funicular station - the L2 station was a separate building a few minutes’ walk away and was very badly signposted and in a poorly lit/somewhat sketchy area. Thankfully some helpful fellow tourists took me in the right direction, but if not for them I would have struggled to find it. This was the only time in the whole trip that I felt slightly scared/vulnerable.
• As a lone woman I did experience some light cat-calling/creepy men (the creepiest was a random man stopping next to me on his scooter and trying to chat me up in Italian). I coped with this by ignoring them and getting away as quickly as possible. You can’t eliminate the risk of this entirely as a woman, but can diminish it by sticking to areas with more people around (the scooter man happened when I was walking through a quiet alley and he appeared out of nowhere from behind me). I spent much of my time in museums/on guided tours, which I recommend for solo female visitors. All incidents of cat-calling, etc. occurred in the historic centre - this was not an issue for me in Chiaia/Vomero. 
• For safety and practical reasons (after non-stop exploring, I was normally out of energy by 6pm), I mostly avoided going out after dark. I would recommend this to solo travellers, especially women, as the city becomes much more chaotic after nightfall - this is fun but can be a lot to handle, and it was certainly too much for my introverted self to cope with after a busy day of sightseeing.

 

Final takeaways

• I loved how alive and vibrant the city felt. At every turn, I saw people using and enjoying their city - there was a literature festival for children and teens happening at the Palace when I visited, and it was magical to see those splendid rooms being put to practical use. There was a wedding taking place at Castel Nuovo and I saw the bride and groom getting their photos taken in the courtyard. I even passed a group touring Chiaia station for the Open House Napoli festival, which I had no idea existed until I saw the logo on the guide’s t-shirt. While I love Rome, it’s highly tuned towards the needs and comfort of international tourists, and that is not so in Naples (there were some occasions where I needed to use the translation app on my phone to communicate, for example) - this is primarily a city enjoyed by its locals, and I think that’s what gives it such a special energy.
• There are so many wonderful, world-class sites in Naples itself that I think it’s a real shame that it’s frequently overlooked by international tourists, or merely treated as a stopgap on the way to Pompeii. The Archaeological Museum is unmissable for anyone with an interest in the ancient world, and there’s something life-changing about looking out at the Bay of Naples from the parapets of Castel Sant’Elmo. The history and folklore of Naples itself are also fascinating, and I can’t wait to explore more of the underground areas when I come back. 
• Naples is a very beautiful and special city and it is worth the slight extra effort it takes to visit it as an international tourist. While you need to take sensible precautions, there is no reason to be afraid to visit - as long as you’re aware of your surroundings and careful about the areas you go to/stay in, you’ll have a fantastic time!
• Grazie Napoli! I look forward to my return trip.

So I'm having a fabulous time in Rome but just had quite a dramatic experience on a bus and wanted to share some tips/lessons learnt.

It was the end of a really long and exhausting day of sightseeing, and I could barely stand up. Consequently, I felt I had no other choice but to take the bus back to my hotel (I would normally walk). Said bus arrived and it was extremely crowded and chaotic, but I squeezed on and naturally had to stand. A few stops later a sketchy looking older man got on board, and a few more stops later he inexplicably moved right next to me despite there being no need (no one new had got on the bus). This put me on high alert so I noticed immediately when he put his coat over my handbag, and I moved it away so it was fully in my sight. Immediately after that he successfully pickpocketed the woman next to me, taking her wallet - she cried out and all hell broke loose! I shouted "thief!" and the whole bus went into uproar - the woman he'd stolen from started turning out his pockets to check for her things and the Italians on the bus started ferociously reprimanding him. I was still right next to him so two kind older ladies seated next to me pulled me in with them so I would be safe. The thief protested his innocence the entire time and when he got off the bus he banged on the side of the vehicle in anger. I had to get off at the same stop as him but went immediately into a shoe shop adjacent to the bus stop to ensure I could get away from him. The staff were extremely kind and offered to let me sit down. I used the opportunity to double check my bag and confirm all my belongings were present and correct (which they were). Afterwards I had an uneventful five-minute walk back to my hotel.

Overall this experience actually increased my faith in Rome and its inhabitants. There are pickpockets in every major city, but what really impressed me was how the entire bus went into uproar to defend the people being targeted by the pickpocket. It was genuinely quite remarkable and weirdly one of the most vivid and exhilarating moments of my trip (my experience having been greatly improved by the fact I avoided being pickpocketed myself!).

My top tips:

- Put as many barriers between your belongings and opportunistic pickpockets as possible - zips and flaps are helpful deterrents and they make the thief's job harder. My bag had both zips and a flap and my valuables were split into different compartments.

- Avoid travelling on extremely busy buses if at all possible.

- On public transport keep your hand on your valuables at all times and don't allow yourself to be distracted.

- Shout "thief!" the moment you notice a pickpocketing attempt (I wish I had reacted sooner to spare the second woman from being targeted).

- Always try to keep space between you and others when standing on public transport and never let them cover your view of your own belongings.

Just got out from the showing at my local and genuinely thought it was fantastic - just such a wildly fun time and a shock contender for one of my favourite films of the year. I think it balanced tone rather marvellously and dinosaurs haven't been used to such great effect since the original Jurassic Park.

Discuss!

So this is a very niche support query but I have a Sony Walkman NWZ-E585 that is still going strong - the issue is that I have a problem where I'm unable to delete or add files to the Music folder when the device is plugged into my PC. I have tried resetting the device on the back but this makes no difference to being able to transfer music files onto the device. I can access the folder structure of the Music folder just fine, but when I try to move a new MP3 file into the folder I get a progress bar that never progresses (there is plenty of storage space free, so that's not the issue).

This isn't an unbearable problem as the Walkman still works great, but it is deeply annoying as it means I can't add any new music. The problem started after I very foolishly unplugged the device when I was in the middle of transferring a new album onto it. This caused the screen to freeze (fixable by pressing the reset button) and prevented me from being able to transfer new files onto the device (currently not fixable).

I'd be very grateful for any advice/wisdom people have to offer!

Hi I have a great stalls seat available for Stage Kiss at the Hampstead Theatre - performance is 7.30pm on 11 May at the Hampstead Theatre, and it's a great stalls seat in row D. I'm happy to give it away for free to someone who can make use of it - first come first served! Will comment/update once the ticket has been claimed.