Mix Tapes

Earlier this week, I drove my dog up to my parents' house. I'm going to be gone for about two weeks, and my other half is working quite a bit. It's like our dog gets summer vacation at grandma and grandpa's house. Lucky for him.

Anyway, it's a five hour drive up to my parents' home. I spent the night, and then drove back the next day. This was all in the midst of trying to arranging our house to accommodate another friend moving in. This is all inspiring me to throw some junk out (the definition of "junk" is still debatable). I found a case of mix tapes that I made when I was moving stuff around.

Now, back in my high school days, I loved to make mix tapes. I would combine my music (or sometimes borrowed music) into 90 minutes of my own private radio station. A good adjective for my musical taste is difficult to find. "Eclectic" might be a euphemism. I would put slow and fast, classical, rock, rap, sacred, and showtune music all on the same tape. And, while I love music, I don't have the deepest knowledge and appreciation that others do (J comes to mind, for example). When the world began to convert to CD's, I found that it didn't have the same feel in the process. For one thing, you can't hear the music as you record it onto the tape. You just select songs and try to match them up.

Anyway, when I found these tapes, I thought about what to do with them. I have fewer and fewer machines that will play a cassette. Maybe it's time to get rid of them...but first, we should have one last hurrah. Our car still has a tape player, and radio on the way up north is pretty crappy. So, why shouldn't I use this trip to have a last listen? So, that's what I did. I brought five tapes with me (I have more in the house).

The tapes were found pretty randomly. Mostly, they were ones that I put together in college, with borrowed music from my roommates. I laughed a lot at what I included on there. College was the only time in my life when I felt like I "should" like Christian pop music. Apparently, I borrowed a lot of it from my friends to put on these tapes (never mind that it breaks a commandment in the process...it's CHRISTIAN music, so God must forgive me, right?). I can barely even listen to that stuff anymore. I found myself fast-forwarding through some songs.

In the process, I did find some lost-and-forgotten gems. I remembered how I believe that "Real World" by Matchbox 20 is one of the most cathartic/angry songs I've ever heard. I had to play it twice so I could sing along in the car. I also found some duds. Why did I feel the need to remember "Motownphilly" by Boys II Men?

I also had a mix tape that a friend made for me. He and I were both exchange students in Brussels. We had a few adventures riding the public transportation system around the city, and recording our experiences. His tape was entitled "Back in the States: Life Without Public Transportation". I listened to the tape with a sense of nostalgia. He was a great friend, and the emotion shows through on this collection of music. One gem on this tape was Luciano Pavarotti singing a great arrangement of "Hosanna". Wow. I almost couldn't part with the tape. But I got over it.