When I make mix cds for love interests, it's all DJ Assault all the time.

As long as it's not false advertising.

And never, ever make a mix for someone who just broke up with you, especially not one that contains Chicago's "If You Leave Me Now". And should it also include Bread's "Look What You've Done", well, buddy, you're just too pathetic for words.

This is what's called false advertising.

Or metaphor. Call me old-fashioned.

If you absolutely must make a breakup mix, at least include `no children'

At what age does the constructing of mix tapes for your girl/boyfriend become strange?

6: 14

Romantic mixes? After Too $hort's You Nasty, what's the point?

6: I'm not a music person at all, but for people who are, why would it ever be strange, assuming you were in the kind of relationship where little thoughtful gifts were the kind of thing you did?

6: When you die? Mixtapes from beyond the grave would be strange.

LB, I think we have to distinguish between making a `mixtape' because it makes a good listen, and making a mixtape because you can't find the skirt to say what you want to say directly. The latter is how I was reading it.

I have to disagree with soup biscuit. It's 18.

but Walt was a late bloomer.

I think the last time I created a mix-tape for someone [in a romantic sort of a way] I was, erm, 29.

11: Oh, mixtape as message rather than gift. Yeah, there's probably an age after which speaking in code is deprecated.

Yeah, there's probably an age after which speaking in code is deprecated.

Haven't gotten enough of the "thing with the cup" thread?

I have to disagree with soup biscuit. It's 18.

See, I would have said 19. But I'm a forgiving, charitable, generous motherfucker who's willing to allow that it's normal for freshman to try to replicate high school for a while. If you were peculiarly socially retarded--as I was--I might go as high as 20.

The mixtape is the place to show off some artistic skillz, too, since the cover design is a nice, restricted canvas, e.g., ben w-lfs-n's Barnett Newman meets Ellsworth Kelly CD flaps.

I don't know that I've ever used mixtapes as code. If that's what SCMT's talking about, then the correct answer is "WTF? Get the hell out of here."

If we're just talking about mixtapes as "here's some cool shit to listen to," which is what God intended, then you should still be making them at 70.

19: Dude, not everybody has dick-size myths--myths!, and it's the fight in the dog, gawddammit--doing all the work for us. Some of us felt we had to put something on the table up front.

I just made DS a mixtape, but maybe I shouldnt send it now.

Let it Bleed, Stones
Now that it is Over, Everclear
Burn One Down, Ben Harper
It Aint Over Until it is Over, Kravitz
Loving a Hurricane, John Hiatt
Aint No Free, NRBQ
Why Don't We Do it in the Road, Beatles.

No message there, DS.

Darn, the other thread reminded me that I meant to include

Lovin' Cup on the mixtape.

At what age does the constructing of mix tapes for your girl/boyfriend become strange?

Watching a two year old make a mix tape would be very strange.

You know what is worse?

When someone promises to make you a mixtape, but doesnt.

Right Armsmasher?

Especially when directed towards people with whom one is, or would like to be, having sex, making mixtapes, pressing books upon people with the old "you have to read this," dragging people to see particular movies, seem more and more like unwelcome impositions than thoughtful gifts as I get older.

I only make mixes that I would want to listen to while driving. The crazy blonde once asked me to make her a CD, but I didn't understand that she wanted me to make something that proclaimed my feeeeelings. Oddly, she found 80 minutes of sleazy funk and hiphop to be an inadequate expression of my affection and walked about harrumphing for several days.

18: That's shit's straight-up intimidating! I thought it was nice to pull cover photos that match non-sequitor titles, now I gotta be competing with rough-edged fancy paper and Caldwell's awesome origami-style covers?

20: If you actually put it on the table up front, she'd know if it's a myth or not.

25: Well, Flippanter, I guess you and I will never date. There are other reasons, of course. Every serious relationship I've gotten into has had a strong element of let's-share-cultural-obsessions, usually starting before the mutual romantic interest actually crystallized. And yes, my heart was once won by a mix-tape. It was a damn good mix tape from a talented maker. The relationship didn't work out, but I have the tape still.

Seriously, where would I be, cultural-obsession-wise, without mix-tape/book-share/movie-dragging-to? There would be no Elvis Costello, no free jazz, no Frankfurt School, no Dead Kennedys, no interest in ceramics, probably no travel to China, no Foucault, no Belle and Sebastian, no soda bread, no Bunuel, no Miyazaki movies, no punk shows, no seedy vegetarian cafes, no anarchism...there might not even be any fancy shoes, for heaven's sake.

All my serious relationships--including my more serious friendships--have been about aesthetic education and shared obsession with culture stuff. That's what really drives the attraction, I think, the sense that there's something to be learned.

The idea of making a mix tape to communicate one's feelings sounds utterly bizarre. Who listens to lyrics that closely? Every time I've done it it has been entirely based on how the songs sound. Maybe this is influenced by my preference for songs with lyrics that make no sense.

If you actually put it on the table up front, she'd know if it's a myth or not.

You may want to rethink this strategy. I had an acquaintance who did this at a party and got a dinner fork through it for his trouble. Granted that probably had as much to do with the request demand he was making, but still.

28.--In precisely that spirit, I am being dragged treated to Olivier Messian---or somesuch---at Carnegie Hall this evening. Anybody know anything about this guy?

The feeling you communicate by making a mix tape is "I find you interesting enough to do something that, when done seriously, requires some intelligence, self-confidence and skill. And that is more fun than, say, making a packet of really interesting essays about the Frankfurt School." Although I would probably be charmed by that, too.

You people need to hold out for dates who know more about mix tapes.

31: I think he's dead. Bring some flowers.

Oh, mixtape as message rather than gift. Yeah, there's probably an age after which speaking in code is deprecated.

As a prominent advocate of the lame and cheesy, I feel compelled to defend even the mixtape as message thing. I mean, yeah, secretly leaving the mixtape for someone because [giggle] you're just too shy to tell them you think they're neat, probably something that should be gotten over in adolescence. But putting together a mix of songs that make you think about that special someone or that express the mood and the rhythm of your feelings or whatever, certainly not any lamer than buying a mushy Hallmark card with a bunch of trite verse to say just exactly how you feel. There are infinite ways to express yourself, and I see no reason why doing so by arranging a collection of song should be deprecated as somehow lamer than any other.

That said, I've only ever made one mix ever for a guy and didn't even really make it for him but rather made it while thinking about him and then let him borrow it when he heard me listening to it and expressed an interest. I still really like the mix -- and am in fact listening to it now, having been reminded by this thread of its existence.

31: Messiaen. Not the kind of thing you are likely to be super into if you don't know who he is already. I rather love his St. Francis, but it is rather long and, um, not exactly a toe-tapper.

(I once witnessed a date at a Boulez-conducted Moses und Aron. The boy was *not happy.*)

I always just thought of them as communicating "Here are some of my favorite songs which, judging from what I know of you, you might like too."

Much like Frowner, it seems.

Anyway, it's hard to figure out which Archers of Loaf songs are cynical swipes at relationships, and which are cynical swipes at something else, based on the 10% of the lines that make any sense. Better to ignore the whole issue and hope that the recipient is not doing any steganography either.

Archers of Loaf

I know those guys!

30: Ah yes, at such times that the trouser snake boldy pounces forth into an unfamiliar and populous environment, it should always keep a careful eye out for cutlery, its most dreaded of enemies. Those who throw such caution to the wind are begging to confirm Darwinian theories of fitness.

Well, how ghastly could a "Turangalîla-symphonie" be?

I'm sure I'll love it.

The first mix-tape ever made for me was by my 16yo boyfriend when I was 15. It was all hippie shit. For his own improvement, I made him a punk-rock tape in answer. This apparently caused him to engage in much super-decoder-ring talmudic reading of all the lyrics and his feelings were hurt. I just wanted to give him some better music. I won. He was stomping around with a mohawk within months.

31: Messiaen rocks -- or rather, you know, does that thing that isn't rocking that one does if one is a talented French composer.

He's famous, among other things, for making an extensive study of bird songs and incorporating them into his music.

37: Seriously? Thank them for Icky Mettle, it's awesome.

I made one of those "good for driving" mixes last night and wanted to turn it into a zip file and upload it, but can't figure out how to also include the "cover art" that goes along with it, or whether that's even possible.

I was going to upload it to mediafire.com. Make sense?

My girlfriend makes me mixes from time to time (one was delivered as a set of MP3s on a flash drive, back when 64M was a high-end flash drive), and they're neat - definitely in the mode of "here's stuff I think you will like". I would like to reciprocate, but my musical knowledge really isn't up to it, and I sometimes feel embarrassed just listening to my own music in her presence. (Or anyone else's, really, but she's the one that matters)

I made one of those "good for driving" mixes last night and wanted to turn it into a zip file and upload it, but can't figure out how to also include the "cover art" that goes along with it, or whether that's even possible.

You can just include the .jpg along with the .mp3s in the .zip file. I usually go in and encode the image directly into the individual tracks (through iTunes' Get Info screen), but that's my own neurosis.

28: Life can be lonely for the man of independent mind. Though I remain very fond of the girl who introduced me to the works of Cioran.

I usually go in and encode the image directly into the individual tracks (through iTunes' Get Info screen), but that's my own neurosis.

I did that, but I thought it just created a link to the file on my hard drive. You mean the mp3 files now include graphics? Amazing.

43: just drop a JPEG in the zip.

Holy crap, JM, you're going to hear "Turangalîla-symphonie" tonight? It's over-the-top awesome—huge battery of percussion! ondes Martenot! Indian rhythms! Tristan! I am totally envious.

46: Don't think of it as loneliness--think of it as mystique. Stiff upper lip, tragic-yet-undiscussed history, classy pastimes. You could yet feature in many a memoir.

Alright! That's the kind of enthusiasm I can respond to! (My honey simply said something like "I really think you ought to hear this.")

Linky no worky.

I don't know enough about music to have an opinion on mixtapes beyond that I like getting new music, but that sending a message via mixtape would either be very cool or very junior high.

Meh, mixes. A few years ago a colleague at work gave me a CD in a fancy case. I didn't get a chance to listen to it. Also, I totally failed to recognize it for what it was. Then, ten days later, she presented me with a letter outlining why we should be together, the woman I was due to marry eight weeks from then notwithstanding.

My first thought reading the thread was that I'm really not familiar with the "mixtape as romantic gesture" theme which seems familiar to everyone else.

My second thought is that this may be a specific case of the more general fact that I don't really have a category of romantic gestures that is separate from just "I think you're an interesting person, this is an offering of friendship."

Surely I am not the only person on unfogged that this describes, but it may explain some of my eccentricities.

53: So many unanswered questions! Did you go through with the marriage? Was the letter convincing? Was the music any good?

49: Ondes Martenot? No shit? That is awesome.

All the sexxxy tracks on the various Unfunkked mixes are coded messages to Labs.

53: So many unanswered questions! Did you go through with the marriage? Was the letter convincing? Was the music any good?

Of course I went through with the marriage. Of course the letter was not remotely convincing. I never listened to the stupid CD. And this woman is still my work colleague, but fortunately is no longer fixated on me.

N2Deep is so underappreciated.

54: I never really encountered the mixtape method of wooing either. Perhaps this was self selection by potential beaus, though, as I have never really understood what goes into the craft of mixtapes, beyond picking songs the recipient will like/use to interpret your feelings and not putting things that sound terrible together back-to-back. At its most self-indulgent, mixtape manufacture looks uncomfortably like audio scrapbooking.

41: Isn't Rautevaara all over the birdsong thing, as well?

The first mix-tape ever made for me was by my 16yo boyfriend when I was 15. It was all hippie shit. For his own improvement, I made him a punk-rock tape in answer.

Love is better than adolescent resentment, hippie superior to punk.

He was stomping around with a mohawk within months.

What a sad outcome. I'm sorry.

Peace, Oudemia. Be well.

Oh my. It does look rather exciting/. I'll be interested to hear the ondes Martinot for myself.

There was supposed to be a link there.

Oh hai.

I've listened to the commentaries on every Futurama episode, and they never once mentioned Messiaen. I'm quite surprised.

punk != adolescent resentment
much more
punk == political activism (misguided or no)

very roughly speaking, of course.

20: Some of us felt we had to put something on the table up front.

Yeah, but that's why you try out for the football team or go out for band or drama or buy a fast car or deal drugs or fight with switchblades or learn how to dance really well or read Pablo Neruda or something, right?

21: No message there, DS.

I'll do it in the road with you, Will. Don't worry.

Punk is a magnificent influence. I'm glad it existed, as it permeates nearly all the rock music I listen to. Of course, I find the original stuff from the 70s nigh unlistenable these days unless you count proto-punk like Stooges.

Like many S-K songs - and I consider them perhaps my favorite rock and roll band - I had only a vague idea of the lyrics on this one. Partly because they're hard to understand upon mere listening and partly because for songs that I'll never be able to sing along to, I don't bother with lyrics: they might as well be sung in Norwegian. (This is why Kate Bush songs are so frustrating - I WANT to sing along but there is simply no way. Oh, Heathcliffe.)

I should add that I don't really understand making a mixtape for a specific person.

I have made mixes that were inspired by a specific conversation, or idea but my goal is to make something that will stand on it's own and that I could pass along to friends without having to explain the reasoning.

Beyond that, for any mixtape that I think is worth passing along there is a point where it takes on its own identity regardless of what my intentions were.

Clearly I am either incredibly uptight or incredibly promiscuous when it comes to mixtapes, and the former is much more plausible.

Jewels could spill from my cup
But it's all locked down, and I'm all locked up

I'm surprised that no one has picked up on this. Carrie does the thing with the cup.

50: As the bank robber character says in Heat, "I am alone. I am not lonely."

Carrie does the thing with the cup.

Here's the real loving cup.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3AXiIVuPHCg

73: yeah, but look what happened to him.

Yesterday I got a mix cd from an ex-but-still-friends who I've suspected has been maintaining illusions about getting back together. Suspicions confirmed. God, now we have to have another "talk". Although the compound lameness of this move (mix plus Valentine's Day passive aggression!) is making me feel less bad about it this time.

69: The Stooges were only "proto-punk"? All kinds of great shit from the Seventies: Johnny Thunders, The Ramones, Richard Hell, The Dead Boys, The Flamin' Groovies, Wayne County...

JM, if you have a little time to prepare, listen to the audio notes here and here. There's also a bunch of it on YouTube (fifth movement here).

62: Actually, the young man in question also stopped being a Republican, grew up, and is now in DC protecting your civil liberties.

You're welcome! Oi!

(Oh, and "Tales of Brave Ulysses" isn't even superior to "Oops! I Did It Again!" Richard Thompson agrees with me on this.)

69: Jesus wept. (For you! For you and your sad lack of music!) Astral Glamour. The early Scritti Politti releases (conveniently called "Early" when released recently). X. The Ex. The Pop Group. The Slits. Raincoats. . The Mekons' Devils Rats and Piggies album, possibly my favoritest album evar.

Hmph.

79: Of course, Jesus would have closed his tags.

Richard Thompson (God) has every reason to hate Eric Clapton (Antichrist). Nonetheless, "Disraeli Gears" is a key album for me biographically, since it was the only thing around to listen to at a key moment in my life.

The Stooges were only "proto-punk"

As I've heard it, yes, but of course the boundaries and number of subgenres people are willing to create vary widely. The ones I find really boring/annoying are a couple of the bands you mention like the New York Dolls, the Ramones, Television, and all rest of the NYC and London punk scene from the late 70s.

I should check out The Dead Boys, since Rocket From The Tomb always sounded interesting (and not just because I like Rockets From The Crypt, I swear!).

79: Frowner, have you read Rip It Up and Start Again?

"Oops (I did it again)" may be a better song to cover, but that doesn't mean that the recorded version is better than "Tales of Brave Ulysses."

Cream songs shouldn't be covered (with the exception of Jimi Hendrix at Winterland covering "Sunshine of your Love").

The post fails to make clear that the song in question is over ten minutes long. This is, by itself, a reason not to include it on most mixtapes.

I never was able to stand the three-chord punks who were proud of not knowing how to play heir instruments.

Country music and blues are three-chord, but the players can play and the singers can sing.

As I get older (starting when I was 45 or so) I've just deducted the youthful angst from everything, and if there's nothing much else I figure it's crap. Because you know that 20 years from now the survivors of the scene du jour are going to be accountants and lawyers in a karaoke bar.

Countdown to "rockist"....

I have not, oudemia, but on mature reflection I think I may need to. That discography linked from the book website is...well, very very useful-looking.

Emerson, although there were lots of punk bands who "didn't know how to play their instruments", there were lots and lots and lots where people did, and were trying new stuff. Or people didn't, but they were trying to incorporate interesting influences. It is a little-known fact except of course in certain hipster circles that an awful lot of those punk folks were listening to and being influenced by free jazz, for example. I was just reading an interview with...with...I don't remember which punk/post-punk woman musician and she was talking about how she had been fascinated by Ornette Coleman and had been trying to understand and work through some of the things she'd gotten from his music. This idea that punks were just these yobbos with guitars...well...hmph.

79: No need to weep for me, as I clarify in 82. Post-punk is sweet-ass stuff. Crappy guitar banging with non-existant or shitty rhythm sections and no keyboards or any decent riffage? Does nothing for me. Even with really high-quality guitar banging, it doesn't do much (why I'm not a big fan of Sonic Youth, for example).

Richard Thompson (God) has every reason to hate Eric Clapton (Antichrist).

But what about Jack Bruce? Jack Bruce is pretty great. (Have you heard his album with Dick Heckstall-Smith and John McLaughlin, Things We Like?)

82: There will be no more slagging of Television, PMP.

90: West, Bruce and Laing had some songs that were written by Bruce instead of by Leslie West. One of them, "Pollution Woman" from the second West, Bruce and Laing album, is an all-time classic.

This is a link to an unadventurous mix I made. I noticed that on most albums, the song I want to listen to repeatedly is the most driving, relentless rock song, so I tried to make a mix containing nothing but those. But it was too exhausting, so I removed a few and added some songs that are basically upbeat or at least energetic without being relentless. So here we have 20 rockish songs that I really like, using all different approaches to produce awesomeness, and at the end one of the most danceable songs I've ever heard. Nothing experimental or adventurous.

TPDRS 20

01 Sleeper, "Inbetweener"
02 Black Tie Revue, "Red Everywhere"
03 Patti Smith, "Stride of the Mind"
04 Arctic Monkeys, "Teddy Picker"
05 Crooked Fingers, "Call to Love"
06 The Fall, "Theme From Sparta F.C. #2"
07 Rocket From the Crypt, "Ball Lightning"
08 Curve, "Lillies Dying"
09 Magazine, "Shot By Both Sides"
10 Les Wampas, "Little Daewoo"
11 The Bevis Frond, "I've Got Eyes in the Back of My Head"
12 World/Inferno Friendship Society, "Just the Best Party"
13 Tripmaster Monkey, "Is That My Bagh?Dad"
14 Silver Jews, "Punks in the Beerlight"
15 Velocity Girl, "Drug Girls"
16 Thomas Jefferson Slave Apartments, "Petty Thief"
17 Guided by Voices, "Finks"
18 Party of Helicopters, "Mt. Forever"
19 The Long Blondes, "Giddy Stratospheres"
20 The Thermals, "A Stare Like Yours"
21 Plastic Little, "Crambodia"

Television is great, and were also one of those punk bands whose members could really play. It's a good thing Television was around! They were able to use the true weapon of punk (ten-minute songs 70% of which are guitar solos) to kill prog.

I have to go now, so if that link doesn't work, or the download doesn't work, or something else doesn't work, it won't work for a while.

As I get older (starting when I was 45 or so) I've just deducted the youthful angst from everything, and if there's nothing much else I figure it's crap.

Exactly. Also, I don't like music where the singers scream and howl at me. Get off my lawn, punk!

I still like the Ramones because they're somehow more joyful than angst-y.

Also, I still like Husker Du, one of my favorite bands growing up -- but they are an odd mix of hippie and punk. At heart, more wistful than pissed off.

I still like the Ramones because they're somehow more joyful than angst-y..

The Ramones essentially played 50s pop at a higher tempo.

I have the same feeling about The Clash. I remember a quote by one of the members of The Clash which was, essentially, "we realized that people would rather dance than fight." which is a good summary of the positive side of punk.

As are the

I like Cream fine, but people were calling Clapton "God" when Thompson deserved the title.

That got me thinking: if Thompson had made the money Clapton did, would he have become as unbearable as Clapton did? Thompson still does new stuff that's good.

88.1: The Scritti Politti chapter was all news to me.

88.2: Yes. A lot of the "Oh! I just picked this up and can't really play" was bullshit along the lines of Andy Warhol pretending to have terrible drafting skills.

96: "Now he's got a hankering for long hair! So Bob, and Jeff, and Greg you'd best beware!"

77.---Very, very cool. I don't want to listen to too much of it, but what I heard from the first link sounds like great fun. The ondes Martinot are flat-out rad.

if Thompson had made the money Clapton did, would he have become as unbearable as Clapton did?

You could just as easily turn that question around:

"If Thompson was as unbearable as Clapton would he have made as much money as Clapton did."

I think there are people who, consciously or not, realize that making tons of money at their vocation will change their relationship with their work and decide to not do that.

Some punks were just yobbos with guitars, though—they weren't all liars. Pointing out that Chris Spedding played on Never Mind the Bollocks and that the album was produced with lots of overdubs and whatnot doesn't mean that the actual Sex Pistols were good musicians.

There was a lot more intercourse between the punk scenes and what had come before than has become critical commonplaces (Chris Cutler is pretty good on this)—there's a joint interview of Robert Fripp and Joe Strummer from 1981 that doesn't really jibe with the popular understanding of punk and progressive rock, eg. But not every punk player was like Tom Verlaine.

re: 99

Yes, at the 'I can't really play' stuff often being bullshit. There were a lot of pretty fine musicians around that scene. The musicianship is much more obvious in the post-punk stuff, though.

Andy Gill! [I worship at the feet thereof]

102: Oh, I agree totally. I was just pointing out that there was a certain amount of posturing. (I met Tom Verlaine when I was 15. And Lenny Kaye. Basically acted like a spazz.)

I, contrariwise, didn't know who Tom Verlaine was until I was at least 21.

There's a Tom Verlaine?

And there's a John Rimbaud, too.

I changed Tom Verlaine's diapers.

I didn't say that all punk musicians bragged about not being able to play. I was especially thinking of The Sex Pistols and some local Portland bands that really couldn't play, but I'm confident that there was a lot of that stuff.

When I changed Tom Verlaine's diapers he was about 35 or 37. Not a pretty sight.

Here is the link to the Carrie Brownstein article:

http://www.npr.org/blogs/monitormix/2008/02/lets_get_it_wrong.html

103: Andy Gill! [I worship at the feet thereof]

So very agreed.

I remember someone's remembrance of seeing them back in the day said that he was "beating his guitar like small child."

(ten-minute songs 70% of which are guitar solos)

Which is exactly why I don't like them. Sorry, apo.

re: 110

Gill really is one of the greatest, ever. Getting more props now with the last three or four years of post-punk revivalism, but, listening to 'Entertainment!' he still sounds like guitar from another planet.

The Gang of Four chapter in Rip It Up and Start Again is also very good.

(I can't remember who wrote the book, but now I think he owes me a drink.)

The proprietor of blissblog, no, and the guy who applied the term "post rock" to Bark Psychosis. Obviously I can't remember his name either. Simon Reynolds.

114: Thank you, Benjamin!

I changed Tom Verlaine's diapers.

is this actually true?

Besides, Entertainment! (which I have and is insanely great), recommended Gang of Four albums?

Which is exactly why I don't like them hate America.

117: the second one, "Solid Gold". Particularly the CD version that has the "Yellow" EP at the end. Besides that, there's not much.

Within a month of my wife's move out, and while we were still going to couples and ostensibly trying to work things out, I started dating C. She listened to the mix CD I gave her on the train from New York to DC and wept. Franklin Bruno's "Clean Needle" got her going:

all i wanna make is one addition
to a list of things you need
tell me how a girl in your condition
has the strength to bleed

all i wanna be is your clean needle
wash me off before you tie
all i wanna be is your clean needle
keep you safe and high

But it was The Replacements' "The Last" that broke her apart, and I have to say, was irresponsible of me to include:

Does it hurt to fall in love so easy
does it hurt to fall in love so fast
does it hurt you to find out
thirty-second hand
is it such a big task
such a big task
are you too proud to ask
remember last one was your last

It's too early to run to momma
it's too late to run like hell
I guess I would tell ya
cause it don't work to ask
that this one be your last
and this one child is killing you
this one's your last chance
to make this last one really the last

Things ended poorly. I saw her at the farmer's market a year since we'd last spoken, and she didn't seem thrilled about it.

It's now ten months into my current relationship, and I have yet to make her a proper mix. Part of it is because we haven't really peacocked for each other as much as we ordinarily would have courted; the other part of it is that it's been hard to hear my music as freshly as I'd need to, having used it too woo others.

119: Oh, pshaw. There's nothing wrong with the Brief History of the Twentieth Century compilation. "We Live As We Dream, Alone" is very very good indeed, and I have it on the authority of a friend with impeccable taste that it's all right to like "I Love A Man In A Uniform". And "Capital (It Fails Us Now)", that's rather decent.

I also ended up liking that rerecorded thing they did, Return The Gift. Very spare and spangy.

120: I'd be interested to know a little more about that story.

I'm not sure you can blame your selections. I have cried once, reading a book that had been given to me on a plane flight coming home from visiting the person who gave it to me, but it wasn't only a reaction to the book.

On the other hand, I'm not sure how different my reaction would have been if the book itself had been emotional about love. It was simpler, in this case, that the book was emotional for completely different reasons (the book was "Swimming to Antarctica" so the main emotion was the repeated risk of injury or death by the author).

123.2 is correct. There was a lot of stuff going on.

The mix was emblematic of the whole relationship -- we connected very strongly, she knew I was a bad catch (or maybe a good catch on too many lines), she didn't protect herself from that and I encouraged her not to. She was a little bit older than me, hadn't ever been in a very long relationship, and was beginning to crave it. So "The Last" was brutal.

Also on the mix was "Waters of March" as done by David Byrne and Marisa Monte, which is just sexy beyond FDA-approved measure.

The part of this clip where Andy Gill swigs his hands in front of his guitar without playing anything is pretty sweet:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qY4gyk9puts

There was an Esquire article in the 80's by someone like Bret Easton Ellis talking about him and his friends in college dancing to "I Love A Man In A Uniform" and how inferior it was to the 60's music that he really loved. He went on for sometime about how he had missed the golden age.

125: The answer is clear: play music for your own dances. Seriously, people, in college you have a group who will actually dance and you probably have access to various mid-sized spaces wherein to dance. It doesn't take incredibly refined DJ-ing skills to play songs people like, provided that you've got a bit of common sense and reasonably steady hands.

College-aged Unfoggers, listen to me! At your various institutions--all of which I envision as Princeton-seize the day! Or more probably the late evening. When you're old and grey and full of sleep, your friends won't want to go dancing any more and you may well be trapped in a town where mid-tempo ambient is viewed as "dance" music. And/or where "dance" really means "wear tight clothes and heels in which you can't actually dance, stand around clutching a drink and get hit on by skeevy men".

Man, I miss dancing in college. I have no rhythm and no dancing skill, but I did enjoy flinging myself energetically around without caring how ridiculous I looked. (One of the beautiful things about MIT was that the high ambient weirdness level made self-consciousness much less of a problem.) These days, I just don't dance -- the opportunities for ridiculous self-flinging aren't really there.

Mix tape:mixed tape :: old fashion:old fashioned :: ice tea: iced tea.

"I like to have a nice old fashion ice tea while I make my mix tapes."

No, no. The tape itself has not been mixed. The tape contains a mix. The mix can also be found on other formats, as we see in the modern age of digital discs.

127: OMG, LB. We need an NYC dance party! Who has a giant apartment? Or we wait til summer and take over my brother's house next to the beach? No! Let's rent the Temple of Dendur! But seriously, I agree entirely. Jumping up and down must be obtained.

In my set, we meant tapes whose content had been mixed together from many albums. We weren't hip enough to talk about "mixes." This was all in the dark days before MTV, you understand. Also, we were huge nerds.

the opportunities for ridiculous self-flinging aren't really there happen in D.C. every December.

130: See, this is yet another reason why I loathe New Yorkers. There'll be no dancing out here in the provinces, let me assure you. And I speak as one who tries and tries and yet ends up dancing around, alone, in her kitchen because her friends do not dance. Admittedly, Frowner dance-parties-for-one have some pretty good music, if I say so myself.

I don't actually see myself reassembling the total indifference to appearances necessary for the sort of erratic leaping about the dance floor I really like anytime soon, I'm awfully staid these days.

where "dance" really means "wear tight clothes and heels in which you can't actually dance, stand around clutching a drink and get hit on by skeevy men"

This is so depressing, because right now the hipster/indie dance scene in Chicago seems to be going through a low point in the "new parties" to "packed new parties with awesome dancing" to "first dudes not interested in dancing showing up" to "parties are now just another club scene" cycle. So hard at the moment to find somewhere good to dance, or DJs who are still underground but known enough in indie circles to get a critical mass dancing.

Hopefully the cycle will go on, and in a year or so this will all be sorted.

133: I was managing dance-parties-for-two for awhile with Rory. But I think she's starting to get too cool for me. Also, I don't know like ANY of the High School Musical dance moves....

It's now ten months into my current relationship, and I have yet to make her a proper mix. Part of it is because we haven't really peacocked for each other as much as we ordinarily would have courted; the other part of it is that it's been hard to hear my music as freshly as I'd need to, having used it too woo others.

Oh, ouch. I understand this. Offering prospectives books or music is so key, but if you begin to repeat yourself, you feel something's probably not quite right here.

136: We used to do a lot more of that, and then the downstairs neighbors commented. Whoops. They're very nice, but they're not really happy about living under thumpy kids, and Newt and Sally are thumpy.

She got one of those Twister dance moves dvds for Christmas and made a comment that my brother's girlfriend was the only one who'd be able to do it with her. "Hey!" I protested. She smiled indulgently, "You try, Mama. But with your knees, you'll probably just end up hurting yourself."

139:

Try it Di!!! Then post it on youtube!

We need an NYC dance party!

We have regular dance parties at my house. My daughter and I tango. Of course, I count it out and shout "Spin!" at the appropriate time.

Dance party in Richmond for anyone who cannot dance well! Ok, so maybe good dancers can come as well.

My sister and I hold dance parties with the nephews. They're still little enough to dip them easily.

Megan cant come if she is going to do a bunch of high kicks. Otherwise, she is welcome.

Those were a dozen years ago and I never was one of those people who showed off outside the studio.

You can't dance if you're self-conscious. Self-flinging is not ridiculous. Worrying about how you look is a recipe for disaster and a failure to dance. It's all about the joy. I have spoken.

136 - I bet you do SO know some HSM moves Di! I managed to acquire some (against my will). Fortunately they have now moved on to Hairspray.

We went to a wedding a few weeks ago. The reception was very traditional, with children dancing whilst the adults drank enough to start dancing. The younger kids were up and down, but my 11 year old danced for ages by herself (as in, completely be herself, only person on dance floor). I guess one day she'll learn to be self-conscious, but I hope it's not any time soon.

Self-flinging is not ridiculous.

I beg to differ. The day I can't fling myself around the dance floor in a manner that's unambiguously ludicrous is a day I'm not enjoying myself dancing.

Dance party in Richmond for anyone who cannot dance well! Ok, so maybe good dancers can come as well.

Yay! I meet the admissions requirement.

147: The day I can't fling myself around the dance floor in a manner that's unambiguously ludicrous is a day I'm not enjoying myself dancing.

LB confused me for a minute there, but now I see.

My dancing frequently has that effect on people. The words "My eyes! My eyes!" and "My brain hurts," are common reactions. Nervous sidling toward the exits, as well.

You can't dance if you're self-conscious.

Parsimon, you can dance if you want to.

My music mix only has one danceable song, but it's a doozy. See 93 for more information.

My music mix only has one danceable song

All songs are danceable with the right attitude.

153 is true only in a very attenuated way.

Okay, make that "optimally danceable".

Parsimon, you can dance if you want to.

That reminds me of this.

While dining with some friends at an unexpectedly posh place, we discussed holding a teeny-tiny dance party at the bookstore where we volunteer, using the teeny-tiny meeting room. We seem to differ slightly on what is the best kind of dance music--I fear that they are bounce-up-and-down-to-the-Ramones types whereas I'm a bit more on the "wishful thinking about Soul Train" end of the spectrum. But I think we'll arrive at a compromise--we're going to have a musical test-run this week.

Dance Party For One:

"Coup", 23 Skiddoo
"Why Can't I Touch It?", Buzzcocks
"Stand Down Margaret", English Beat
"Cool In The Tube", Surfside Six
Pretty much anything off the Etta James Chess recordings
"I Walk", Don Cherry
"Annie I'm Not Your Daddy", Kid Creole
"Asbestos Lead Asbestos" World Domination Enterprises
"Bob Hope Takes Risks" Rip Rig & Panic
"Tears" and "Who's Gonna Help A Brother Get Further", Elvis Costello/Allen Toussaint
"Asylums In Jerusalem", Scritti Politti
"We Live As We Dream, Alone", Gang of Four

Take that, New York!

Rip Rig & Panic

The name of this band intrigues me.

Oh, Neneh Cherry was a member. That explains that.

Posts listing playlists which do not post the mix are deprecated.

HOw does one post a mix?

I could say that I had assumed that all of your record collections could at least run to a few Rip Rig & Panic tracks, but that would be snobbish.

No, actually it seems like it's almost impossible to find any RR&P except as isolated tracks on compilations. I've got three songs, as isolated tracks on compilations. I sure wish someone would rerelease all that stuff (lurking record-company executives, this means you). It's really good, and Don Cherry plays on some of it. (As you may infer, I have a bit of a Don Cherry fixation.)

I owe a lot of people mixes. I actually will send them soon. sorry!

2.Transformation
a breakup song,
but i like the other songs too, 6-10

Hey read! I've got a question for you.

My colleague claims that Mongolian Buddhists have developed elaborate rationalizations for eating meat because there are few edible plants on the Gobi. Specifically, he said that there is a particular method of slaughtering a sheep that makes it okay to eat, and that this method involves cutting into the chest cavity and killing the animal with a hard squeeze to the heart.

Any truth to that?

not hard squeeze, just simply cutting the aorta and collecting all blood without spilling it, so the meat drains out of blood and the procedure is not dirty
and does not require much water, because i guess water is scarce
of course there are prayers said before or its equivalent ritual, people drop some milk on the face of the sheep and say thanks

165: Interesting. So is it correct to say that you can be an observant vegetarian Buddhist and still eat meat slaughtered in this fashion? Because that seems like an exception that swallows the rule, as they say in the legal business.

if you try to be a vegetarian buddhist you can't just survive in our -30 degrees C for 5 mo winter, this year it was around -40 a full may be two weeks they say
besides, there were not many vegetables around to grow in our climate i guess
when i was young schools used to close when the temperatures were that low
in old times half a yr people ate only dairy food, and in a cold half of a yr meat, so there was a seasonal diet
now with refrigeration meat is available all yr around and you have your basic vegetables, many are imported, so if you want you can be a vegetarian
i tried for three yrs when i was in Japan and ended up with Hb 7.0, stupid, should have taken supplements etc

-a, why i put a definite article before plurals?!
and +_thethe where it's needed or not
the winter is 5 months long but the actual very cold days are 9x9 days, so three months overall
i was wrong

So, I've put together a mix. With a 'happy happy joy joy' sort of vibe [or they function that way for me]. Nothing particular obscure, or out-there. Just happy music.*

Joy in the morning

01. David Holmes - Gritty Shaker
02. Dandy Livingstone - Rudy, A Message To You
03. Don Byron - The Penguin
04. Björk - Triumph Of A Heart
05. Louis Armstrong & The Mills Brothers - Walking Stick
06. Balkan Beat Box - Bulgarian Chicks (
07. Charles Mingus - Moanin'
08. David Crosby - Cowboy Movie
09. Arctic Monkeys - Fluorescent Adolescent
10. Photek - Ni-Ten-Ichi-Ryu (Two Swords Technique)
11. Ella Fitzgerald - Bei Mir Bist Du Schon
12. Captain Beefheart & The Magic Band - Her Eyes Are A Blue Million Miles
13. Dexy's Midnight Runners - The Teams That Meet In Caffs

* I have a sudden fear I may have used one of these tracks before.

Hey, my mix had the Arctic Monkeys as well. As if they werent heard often enough.

indefinite