You know what...I'll make you a mixed tape.

I am well aware of the fact that tapes have gone the way of beta, myspace, and Crystal Pepsi but it just doesn't sound the same when you offer to make someone a mixed CD.  So until I can come up with a different name for it, even my mixed CDs are mixed tapes.  I am stubborn but not stupid. I know the difference.  

I love a good mixed tape.  "See, records have helped me to fall in love, no question.  I hear something new, with a chord change that melts my guts, and before I know it I'm looking for someone, and before I know it I've found her." (High Fidelity, Nick Hornby)  Music communicates so much.  For those of us that will more than likely never make an album of our own original music, the mixed tape is the next closest thing.  I am able to choose from a limitless library of music that exists and put just the right song after song to communicate exactly what I want to say...with a soundtrack behind it!  Could it get any better than that?  I would declare that it cannot.  It is not enough to just put the right songs onto a tape (CD..last time).  There is an order and much thought process behind it.  Where do you want to take the listener?  How do you want them to feel when they begin the journey?  What thoughts do you want going through their mind?  How do you want to leave them?  All of these and many more questions are in the process of song choice and order.

I have had some fun in the last couple of weeks.  I mean, stuck in a bed with a credit card and digital music being the way it is, this surgery could be getting more expensive than I thought.  I have been building me many a mixed tape.  Truthfully, at this point they are just playlists on iTunes.  Many of the playlists don't ever see the light of day for whatever reason.  I have high hopes for some of these.  Not only have I used the music I had, but I just got a whole new batch of stuff from many different sources.  At this point, there is the compiling and ordering of tracks.  I have until Wednesday when I give my CPM machine back.  So time is ticking.  Go ahead and check out the artists, albums, and songs I have been listening to on the right side of my blog.  That would give you a little feel for where I am going however not complete at all.  

I do take requests.  Not songs to add, but if you would like a mixed tape I would be happy to oblige.  Shara always gets them.  Sometimes I am not sure if she even wants them, but like a proud parent she is always grateful for the ones I make and tells me I am the smartest boy in class and that this one is the best I have ever made.  Chelsey MacAlpine is next in line.  She asked.  After that, I am pretty free.  I just need to know where you are going to be listening to this CD (car, home, gym, prison...) and why you want it (working out, falling in love, breaking up, pre-op sex change...).  That leads and guides me enough to direct my music choices.  I was about to say, "Man if only I could get paid to do this!"  I guess those people are called DJs.  

Well until I am able to DJ on my off hours, mixed tapes will have to do.