I have no IPOD. I don't even know how the fucking thing works, truth be told.
I got a cell phone only three years ago.
I got a DVD player one year before that.
I STILL have a Playstation One.
I got a CD player in 1995. (years after my friends had purchased one).
I was still playing my Commodore 64 when everyone had their Atari.
I was still playing my Atari when they all got Nintendos or Segas.
I got a Game Boy around the time when they were slacking off on making games for it.
How Hi-Tech am I?
Never have been much. I like the toys, don't get me wrong, but I never have had the disposable income to throw at every passing fad that will soon be replaced with the next version, with more features, yet about $50 more expensive.
I do not own collector's editions of most of my favorite movies, because I find that all to be bullshit that pleads to rape my wallet.
(I DO own the collector's edition of Night of the Living Dead, but that is all..)
Look how many different IPOD models there are now, and you can see for yourself...I know some friends who have bought 4 different versions in the course of 1 year.
No thanks.
I DO have, however, and much thanks to my husband...actually ALL thanks to my husband, a Laptop.
I have a Scanner/Printer/Copier and a big screen TV, compliments of one of our "Straight Husbands", R. Scott Thompson.
Also, thanks to him, I have a Sirius Satellite Radio in my car, so that I can listen to the Broadway Channel and Howard Stern.
Other than that, and the fact that I somehow managed to somewhat figure out how to run a Blog, mostly out of unemployment boredom, I am a citizen of 1984, tech wise.
Why am I dispensing this useless knowledge to you?
As you have read, I have been working the early shift, and spend most of the day walking the pooches of Arlandria. I dug out, NO-not my IPOD, but a trusty friend from the past to keep me company.
My cassette player walkman from 1996.
You see, I have a library of about 400 cassette tapes, most of which are mix tapes that I made along my journey to...wherever I am now.
A form of entertainment for me through college and beyond was making mix tapes as I cleaned, or lounged about eating bon-bons.
Whatever songs captured my mood or soul, or what I was going through at the time were recorded...along with manually recorded blurbs from movies that I was particularly interested in at the time...
One blurb from the ORIGINAL "When a Stranger Calls" comes to mind in between Hole's "Live Through This" and Nick Cave's "Red Right Hand"...
"You really scared me, if that's what you wanted....is that what you wanted??"
"No"
"What DO you want??"
"Your blood.....all....OVER...me!!!"
Cue next song...
I was a master at the whole mix tape game.
A friend in college used to sing to me..."Tapemaker, Tapemaker, make me a tape..."
I have kept in my car a bag full of random old tapes, which I pop in during my walks...
Each tape is a tell-tale map of my heart from the past.
I have found it to be such a therapy session, listening to these past tributes to my emotional state at a given time. Indeed, I pointedly would MAKE a mix tape at a crux in my life, to document the changing process.
I found mix tapes with the titles...
"Damn Hotel"...which I listened to while performing Damn Yankees at Toby's Dinner Theatre, and driving back to Arlington to rehearse Grand Hotel at Signature...Songs include "Go Big Girl" by Black Dave, "Strokin'" by Clarence Carter, several songs by Gypsy chanteuse, Vera Billa, Many songs from both Damn Yankees AND Grand Hotel.
"Beau and Boo's Summertime Blues"..which I made while watching my friend, Chris Walsh's pug, Beau, on the eve of Beau's departure, which both pugs seemed cognizant and depressed about...Songs include..."Walking in the Sand" by the Shangri-La's, "Triple Trouble" by The Beastie Boys, "You are the Sunshine of My Life" by Stevie Wonder, "Music Box" by Mariah Carey, "The Power of Two" by The Indigo Girls, "One More Chance" by Madonna...
"Tough Guy"...a tape I made not far out of college. This tape consisted of mainly Drop Kick Murphy's, Hole, The Soundtrack of Fight Club, The Ramones, and Oasis. I found this tape a trip into my deeper masculine side...a side that I had LONG neglected in college...(a time in which wearing one of my usual outfits of flannel, ripped jeans and shit-kickers would have pigeon-holed me as a PA Hick).
A tape entitled, "Matt"....this was recorded in the early years of our friendship, when I was OBSESSED with him, and was longing for him to even notice me. It is filled with lovelorn touches like..."Falling Forward" by Julia Fordham, "Mystery", by the Indigo Girls, which I still consider the song that sums up our relationship..
"Leather" by Tori Amos..."Look, I'm standing naked before you, don't you want more than my sex? I can scream as loud as your last one, but I can't claim...Innocence.",
"You're Gonna Make Me Lonesome When You Go", a Bob Dylan song, covered by Shawn Colvin...it breaks my heart. Also, a GORGEOUS song, and I don't know who sings it...it is called, I think, "Following my Compass in the Dark". It sounds like Joni Mitchell, but so do a heap of those 70's songstresses. Also, a haunting rendition of "Wild Horses" by Shawn Colvin.
These are only a few of my finds, but they are like opening history books to the past. Self-Exploration through listening to old mix tapes, one might say.
So what songs would I put on my current mix tape?
I would call it "Ass-Ass-Into the Woods"...;)
Movie blurbs would be from...
"The Company of Wolves"
"JFK"
"The Brothers Grimm"
"The Little Foxes"
"Madagascar"
"On Golden Pond"
"Squirm"
...and others...
Here is the song list, as I would make it...
"It Ain't Me, Babe"-by Johhny Cash and June Carter
"Aiutami" from The Light in the Piazza
"Flower" by Liz Phair
"Dreamland" from Nevermore
"The Ballad of Booth" from Assassins
"Crush" by Dave Matthews Band
"Rock Lobster" by the B'52's
"Happy/Sad" by Pizzicato Five
"Your Paradise is Not for Me" by Madonna
"I Guess this is Goodbye Old Pal" from Into the Woods
"Midnight Rider" by The Allman Brothers
"I'm Blue" by Tina Turner, Ike Turner, and The Ikettes
"Sorry" by Madonna
"Confide in Me" by Kylie Minogue
"Bill Bailey(Won't You Please Come Home)" by Patsy Cline
"Daylight" by Alison Krauss
"Exquisite Corpse" from Hedwig and the Angry Inch
"The Blob" by Burt Bacharach
"The Advantages of Floating in the Middle of the Sea" from Pacific Overtures
"These Dreams" by Heart
"HorrorBeach" by the HorrorPops
"Get Rhythm" by Johhny Cash
"Out of the Woods" by Nickel Creek
"Funeral in his Heart" by October Project
"Joe Papp" from Elegies
"The Stuff" from Reefer Madness
"Now, Later, Soon" from A Little Night Music
"Angel Band" by The Stanley Brothers
"I'll Always Love You" by Taylor Dayne
As you can guess...these songs would probably only be able to occupy a 120 minute tape...but those are the tapes I always used.
I COULD make a mixed CD, but I can't listen to that in my cassette player, and let's face it, portable CD players, no matter how much they promise "Anti-Skip", do just that when walking...skip.
Maybe this will be a continued project of introspection for weekends to come...
What would be on YOUR mix tape?
Luv,
SGS
9 comments:
My god - mix tapes, now there's a thing you don't think about anymore. And I'm with you on the Atari...and I hesitate to say it, but I still own my Atari in PA (and it's in working order and gets dragged out to be played every now and then - I had the joy of introducing my parent's neighbor's grandson to Space Invaders). I never really did the mix tape phenomenon...I just listen to the radio a lot growing up and still do when I get the chance. However, the beauty of the iPod is that homeless people rarely bother me on the subway. And you can, in theory, make your own mix tape on said iPod...they're just called playlists now (and you can record...do I hear tax write off?)
But some lovely memories there, Mr. SGS, lovely indeed.
I'm not sure what I'd put on a mix tape, but I'm dying to hear the Nevermore music again. Any word on the soundtrack?
Anthony...I reject the Ipod...for now.
ANON...No word yet. But things look good. Look, I can't really legally say anything right now, but I am positive that "Nevermore" will be available for purchase within the year...
Great news about the Nevermore OCR! I also used to make many mixtapes throughout HS and College. I was always trying to make the perfect segueway from track to track and then I started doing that with CDs and now I do it with playlists in iTunes, like Anthony said. Right now, I've got Tick..Tick...Boom, Nevermore, Ace of Base, Sweeney Todd (OBC), Bonnie Raitt, Madonna, Pet Shop Boys, kd lang, Jamiroquai, Lauren Kennedy and the Brokeback Mtn soundtrack on a playlist.
And, yes, I'll give a call on friday, buddy.
Seriously, that was the best blast from the past posting - totally changed my mood for the day.
THANK YOU.
God, I am so with you on the techhead stuff... and my mix tapes were the bomb-diggity, yo. I used to drive around in my first car blaring them with reckless abandon. Your blog SO took me back to that happy time.....
Rabbit, IF I had a Pod, pet Shop Boys and Brokeback would be the first downloads.
Uncle Freddy
ANON and RABBIT...Now...that statement(on Nevermore OCR) is in no way a statement based in any concrete fact. I can't back it up with documented proof, but I would like to think that it is going to happen within the year. That is all.
You get what I'm saying here.
Trish...I thought a black berry was something that my Father and I used to pick down in Dawson, PA.
Waterflame...glad to tickle your fancy...
Rabbit...ACe of Base? *grin*
My Ipod would be dripping with Mrs. Miller, Florence Foster Jenkins, Cast recordings of: Nevermore, Grey Gardens, Pacific Overtures, Sweeney Todd, Assassins, Into the Woods, Parade, Floyd Collins. Also, I t would have lots of Lauper, Madonna, Gwen, Indigo Grrls, Allman Brothers, Three Dog Night, Alison Krauss, Patsy Cline, and The Stanley Brothers.
What can I say, I have a thing for Swedish pop bands...
What can I say? I have a thing for Southern rock , old ladies, and folkie Lesbeens.
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