Back in 1997 I got a taped letter from someone I’d never heard of before. He was writing in hopes of convincing me to come and speak to an organization I had once belonged to; he’d joined it three years after I left, and was worried that it wasn’t growing; he thought guest speakers might help.

Mind you, he hadn’t actually discussed any of this with the rest of the group before sending me the tape.

He sent a tape instead of a letter, he said, because he was out of writing paper, but had a big bag of blank cassettes he’d picked up dirt cheap somewhere.

Nothing ever came of the speaking idea, but I wound up exchanging letters with the guy for a few years.

Anyway, today I recorded that original taped letter, which included all three versions of the theme song from “Mystery Science Theater 3000,” as well as some random instrumental track I didn’t recognize, and of course the long, rambling letter, about fifty minutes of it.

I don’t mind having the MST3K music, and the letter itself is intermittently interesting — the long tangent about how surgical prostheses are over-engineered was perversely fascinating — so I’m keeping it, and have added it to my library.

I got that done fairly early, and decided to do more, so I’m just now finishing up with a 90-minute tape of Das Ludicroix. Das Ludicroix was an improvisational band put together by the late Larry Boyd; they played what one reviewer called “Space Rock.” Given that they pretty much never knew what they were playing, it’s surprisingly good stuff.

The tape Larry sent says it’s two albums — “Jammed and Stoning,” which is two 20-minute-plus jams entitled “Indications” I and II, and “Buzz Bomb,” which has four tracks with titles that don’t have anything to do with the music so far as I can see.

Tape quality is excellent, the new Audacity doesn’t seem to crash — everything went very smoothly.