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I think that mixed tapes are easily one of the most reliable factors in determining if I like a person, especially when it comes to a more romantic/intimate nature. For instance, the boys that I always seemed most drawn to always gave me an incredibly good musical compilation. And if you can get me to walk away from your mixed tape with a new favorite artist–well, no matter what happens between us, you will always hold a place in my little heart.

For instance, Whiskeytown and Ryan Adams were offered to me by a boy that I no longer know, but whenever I listen to that music now, I’m swept away again and I think of that boy and I smile and feel good and miss him. In a good way though, a very sweet remembering.

Same with Air. Oooh man. Air will always give me these warm fuzzies, a comfortable buzzing heat, like after you’ve had a few beers; you’re not drunk, but you’re not sober. I love Air. Sexy sexy sexy and so was the boy who gave them to me, an absolute delicious plate of dublin yumminess.

Other musicians who found their way into my heart and will be inextricably linked with various boys I had the hots for at various points in time: Travis and Tragically Hip and Tom Waits and Hayden and Cowboy Junkies and Matthew Good Band and Fiona Apple and the Pixies and Lambchop and Supreme Beings of Leisure and PJ Harvey and Portishead and Lucinda Williams and Massive Attack and Joe Henry and Lamb and the beat goes on.

I love mixed tapes. I love what they say and what they mean and what they do and just everything about them. A mixed tape is the coolest gift you can give or receive. There’s that song by semisonic and really they say it better than I ever could, so I’ll give you the lyrics and you will love what they say and you will agree and you will not think me dorky for pasting lyrics on my site.

Got your tape and it changed my mind
Heard your voice in between the lines
Come around from another time
Where nobody ever goes

I can hear you sing it to me in my sleep
I can hear you sing it to me in my sleep

Seriously, one of the best lines I’ve heard is “the modern equivalent, singing up to a Capulet, on a balcony in your mind.” And the idea that you might not know if you’re falling in love with the person or the songs the person chose…well that’s just divine. Because to me a mixed tape is like Vincent’s idea of a foot massage: every one has a meaning behind it, no matter how big or small. And it’s so great to think that a person might still be listening to something you made for them even after you no longer know that person. It’s so cool.

I LOVE MIXED TAPES.

We should start a site of mixed tapes, a community, and we’ll make them (only I guess now they’d be mixed CDs) and send them to people and post about it; it’ll be so great, loves will be found and lost based on the tunes. The tunes man.

I remember sitting at my stereo and making tapes for people, rewinding and fast-forwarding and trying to do fade effects and obsessing over the song order and having all my CDs spread out around me, making lists and credits. I was never able to really create an amazing mix tape, but I’ve done my fair share of decent ones.

Some people out there are absolute freaking GENIUS mix tape makers and you know who you are; others just throw a bunch of songs on and leave it at that, with no thought or planning, which is sometimes good and makes for quite an interesting listen. But it’s the planning that’s fun, trying to figure out what the other person will like and giving them an eclectic enough mix that they get a wide, but not too wide, range. And you don’t want to put on songs you know they will hate, but you want to maybe put some music on that they don’t know or aren’t familiar with, songs that offer a challenge. Because you’re giving that person a little piece of you, so you need to make it as true as you can, but you don’t want to make it easy.

It’s easier these days to do a mix. What with iTunes and CD recorders and MP3s and fancy equipment. I have a fondness for the old days of analog tape and handcrafting the covers. My friend Tonya used to make super cool mix tapes; I still have them, all cool and decorated, and it makes me smile everytime I pick them up. I still find pages in my old notebooks of mix tape ideas and possible songs to use for various people.

I’m serious about that mix tape site/community/project. I’m sure one already exists, but not run by me! I should work on that. Oh I also have an idea for a site that is other people’s TiVo’s list. You know, of the shows they have recorded. It would be interesting to me. There isn’t really a purpose for such a site, other than finding out what other people record. But it’s interesting to me. A sort of modern-day social/cultural study. Again, I am sure such a site exists, because all the good ideas have been done. I’d offer up my own TiVo list right now, but I don’t feel like getting up to write it down.

So, to recap I love mixed tapes, lists and my TiVo.