Saturday, January 21, 2012

Forget the Alamo: Remember the Mix Tape!!!!


I don't know how many people took the time to make mixtapes back in the hey day of the cassette players, but I know that I was fairly addicted to the practice. The assembling of music in such a way that it conveys how you feel to another human being is special. Well, it is to me anyhow. I've given them as gifts before, because that's exactly how I saw a mixtape that I compiled for someone.....a gift. An expression of my feelings for them in a way that I couldn't create organically.



I remember digging through my dad's records (all of which are now mine....thanks dad) and writing down what songs I wanted to put together. I would write them down, file the records in order and then look at the list again to make sure it was just how I wanted it to be. When making them for myself, I was a bit more forgiving on how rigid I would be with my criteria. There seemed to be one or two songs that found their way on to almost every mix tape I made for myself, that just didn't fit.  If I were taking the time to make a mix for someone I knew, the criteria became much more clear and the rules got a bit more unforgiving. 

I am of the belief that you should use a 60 minute cassette. An hour is a good amount of time to invest in music without thinking it's sucking the usefulness out of your day. The 90 minute cassette was a blessing for my own mixes, but when making one for another person, I tried to stick with 60 minutes. Didn't want to wear out my welcome. Plus, the more songs you add, as I mentioned before, the higher the chances that you put one or two songs on there that you wish you hadn't. That shit can haunt you!

Creating a mixtape was always kind of cathartic for me. If I were having some troubles or needed to feel a certain way, I would fall back on my favorite songs to get my mind right. Or, sometimes, I'd just roll around in my own misery or discontent and make a mix tape that heightened my emotions. I saw, and still do see, a well planned out mixtape (mix CD now....blah) as an extension of who I was. I would take someone else's art and fashion it into something that made me feel a certain way. How many things in life can we do that with now? How many people slow down to actually put together a piece of "pleasure" for themselves or someone else? Sure, it's easy to burn a playlist, but I'm talking about compiling some songs and listening to them as you do so. There was a bit of magic to it. For those of you who do not understand, that's OK.....you just missed out. Or, perhaps you were out partying, working on your future, or getting laid, while I was sitting in front of a stereo system surrounded by tapes, records, pens, and pieces of notebook paper. That kind of paints a sad vision of my mid-teenage years, right?



I could write quite a bit more on this, but I think I'll stop here. I could go into the little rules that people like me made up. It was almost an art. Here's an example; always start out with an attention grabber and then one just a bit better than the first. After that you can slide back down and settle into a stream of good tunes that hold to a theme. Never end a side or a tape with a throw away song. Begin and end with songs that best convey your intentions with the tape. OK, so I didn't quite stop....but as you can see, there is a little bit more to it than what meets the eye of a person who doesn't get the concept. 

If you want to see a truly terrific film about romantic relationships, friendships, unfinished business, and how music connects those things for many people, check out "High Fidelity", starring John Cusak. It's based on a novel by Nick Hornby and has some great scenes involving how music makes us feel and how we can take that music and turn it into a love letter, a break up letter, personal manifesto, or just a thread of songs that can make your time driving in your car more enjoyable.

Here's a great scene of "Rob" creating a mixtape for a female journalist he met. She wants to do an interview and talk about his "Top 5" songs (which is another blog entirely....the "Top 5" thing....it's what we media geeks do) and he knows the best way to do that is to make her a tape. It's a really good movie. I highly recommend it. I'm pretty sure it's the first thing (and best thing IMO) that Jack Black was in. 


Well, there that is. I don't suppose there is much entertainment value for anyone to read. I do feel like the more nostalgic among us may get the itch to visit an old mix tape they have thrown in a box or in their sock drawer. So, if nothing else, perhaps I've sparked something in one of you that will lead you to either re-visit an old tape or maybe make a new one for yourself, a friend, or a loved one! Remember, you are making personal art out of someone else's personal art. Be respectful of the process! 












Tuesday, January 17, 2012

What We Do On The Internet, Echoes In Eternity!



I've been thinking about the culture lately. Last night as I was contemplating my own demise, which face it, could come at ANY moment now that I'm in the age zone for heart attacks and strokes, along with my less than human being type diet. What will we each leave behind when we finally kick the bucket? What will be left for people to remember us by? 

In days past, there were usually just some photos and a few artifacts from our lives that someone in our family kept and passed down from generation to generation. The more time that passed, the less people remembered you or even cared that you existed. Unless you were a person who left your mark as a performer, politician/leader, writer or artist, you just eventually became ashes and blew into history with billions before you. 

These days, it's different. Quite a bit different. Everything we do seems to be recorded. The digital age allows us to take THOUSANDS of photos and store them without taking up space. There are CD's and DVD's crammed with photos in almost everyone's computer desk. Not that these will ever get looked at again. Or at least they won't until someone dies. Then we can drag 'em out and put together a video montage. I think that's pretty cool and a nice keepsake. We also have digital video recorders now. Besides the piles of video tapes with lots of shit you'll never watch (or edit...you KNOW that you have promised yourself to edit them. You will not do it.), you can now store the videos on your computer or portable hard drive....and not watch them. 

And then, there is the internet. Most people under the age of 50 have a Facebook page. Some arrogant and egotistically self-important jag offs even have blogs. Don't forget emails. And what about those message board comments? A lot of us do those too. 

Where does this stuff go? We know that we keep some of it. We know others keep some of it. And then, we REALLY know that Google keeps some of it.....all of it. All this information about us and our lives....just out there on the wide wide world of webs. We now have the ability to have almost everything about us live on indefinitely into the future. And I think that's a good thing in some ways. But in other ways, it can be either hilarious or ghastly, depending on how you wanna look at it. 

Let's take a look at a few pictures that you probably should have considered NOT putting on the interwebs. 

Yes, I've used this picture in another blog, but couldn't help going back to it. Not the worst picture, but certainly one that her daughter there won't be showing off to friends when "Momma" bites the big one and is swept off into eternity. Come on already.....let's lose the pooched lip thing. 

Gotta love the "People of Walmart" pictures. There is no way to even begin to think that's cool. None. I'm not convinced that woman is alive. She's fictitious. A photo shopped creation. NOBODY does that. Do they?

Look dear, here is your grandmother passed out on the night of my conception. 

"What we do in Walmart, echoes in eternity!!!"

And these are just pictures. Imagine all the stupid shit people have written as Twitter or Facebook updates. Think about all those e-mails!!

Oh, and these blogs. Ha Ha.....if I die tonight (I'd say even odds) there is no way that my kids won't know that they had a mentally ill, pot head, angry, goofy, self-centered, confused, ridiculous father.

 And this isn't me, but I want to sound off the warning;

IF YOU HAVE ANY TAPES OF  YOU HAVING SEX, EITHER WITH YOURSELF, ANOTHER PERSON, OR OTHER PEOPLE, MAKE A CONTINGENCY PLAN WITH A FRIEND ON THE EVENT OF YOUR DEATH FOR THAT STUFF TO GET DESTROYED! (yeah, that'll happen...wink, wink....I got you covered Chris)

That is a public service announcement right there. That's just me, I like to help out. And if you have any porn saved, just get rid of it. We have online streaming these days. It's like Pee Wee getting busted at a peep show in the 90's.....we had fuckin' VCR's you dummy.

Consider what is left behind for your family and friends to find (and probably either hate you over, want to die themselves over, or make fun of) when you take the dirt nap?

It's enough to make you think, ain't it?

.
There ain't no grave can hold my body down 
There ain't no grave can hold my body down 
When I hear that trumpet sound I'm gonna rise right out of the ground 
Ain't no grave can hold my body down 

"Ain't No Grave"---Johnny Cash