Posted by
RepublicanEvangelist on Friday, January 02, 2009 8:18:36 PM
So much seems in flux right now. To state economy isn't doing well is to understate the case. California is bankrupt and as a taxpayer of California, I know the taxman cometh soon. None of that I can do anything about so I focus on things that I can control and have some expertise, expertise that I will share with you now. I am talking about the mix tape or more accurately today, the mix cd. This post does not cover the mix tape used as a method of seduction. This is explored in the movie High Fidelity and more recently Elizabethtown (yeah I saw it and really wasn't that bad once you got past the really bad Orlando Bloom American accent). This is about the mix tape, cd sorry, for your own use. It is becoming a lost art form in the age of the 160gb Ipod but the idea is boil down 80 minutes of music with a common theme which is usually a best of a certain artist. I have revised my REM best of three times. Upon listening to the first two versions, I realized there were songs there that I was sick of. For example, Man on the Moon was a big hit but I really never cared for the song, probably because I really never cared for Andy Kaufman. I think Latka was his high water mark and it was all down hill from there. I was a huge REM fan and have about 6 cds that contain must choose material. This presents a challenge given the 80 minute limit. This means you may really like an 8 minute song but do you like 2 x as much as two good 4 minute songs? It also varies by artist. While Yes might yield 3-4 songs per 80 minutes, you could get 50 songs by Guided by Voices. Most REM songs are between 3-5 minutes. For the early REM, I love every song so the question is which ones are essential, the desert island tunes if you will. That would be if your desert island had a cd player and electricity which hardly ever happens. This is more of an exercise that is born of the following proposition: I have a 6 cd changer in the car and get tired of swapping discs in and out. There are other mixes like my walking mix which has songs that are rockin'. Non rockin' songs are left out intentionally. No ballads here. It is difficult to walk with a bic lighter lit. I have a mix for my kids. These are not Barney or the Wheels on the Bus. Surrender by Cheap Trick begins the mix. My kids call it mommy daddy song "mommy's all right, daddy's all right, they just seem a little weird." Cats and the Cradle by Harry Chapin is there to remind me to be a good dad and there are a bunch of songs like Runaway Train and Windfall that I have been singing to my daughter since she was a newborn. This is the most edited of mixes because we introduce new songs like "It's a Beautiful Life" by Fisher. My kids love that song from TLC's Jon and Kate Plus 8. It is a 3 minute song and my kids have me repeat it over and over again until the point that life is no longer beautiful. One final note on this first edition on mixes, if your favorite band has 3 cds or less, don't bother making a mix, just load the cd's. I still have 3 other slots for the Jon and Kate song and the soundtrack from High School Musical 3.