Tagged: mixtape

Your Morning Mixtape – Punk Rock Love Letter

It’s been a long time since I made a legitimately sappy mix CD for someone. You know, the kind that has intentions? YOU KNOW. Sadly, now that I’m married, the time to make mix CDs for boys with the express intention of inviting them over to “watch a movie” are loooooong gone. I have mixed feelings about it. On the one hand, it was fun to have that breathless excitement and hopeful expectation that something awesome was going to happen. Even if it ended up being terrible with a capital T. The anticipation was heady. On the other hand, dating is THE WORST and I was terrible at it. There’s a good chance I have incredibly thick rose-colored glasses about the whole thing.

ANYWAYS.

Ross and I have a wedding to attend this afternoon. Some good friends are saying good-bye to the swinging single life and tying the knot. To each other. I’m so excited for them to try out this whole marriage thing, and I wish them the very best in their new adventure. (blah blah blah wedding blah blah blah) I got them an actual gift and wrapped it up really pretty, but the whole event got me thinking about punk rock love songs, and how much I love them. So, in honor of Tony and Jodi’s wedding, I created the Punk Rock Love Letter mix. It wasn’t easy. There are about as many songs about love as there are sub-genres of punk. I had the hardest time not putting a bunch of ska or emo-y stuff on there. I think what made it is pretty solid, though. Some songs are obvious, some aren’t so much.

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Your Morning Mixtape: Procrastination Station

So, I’ve been incredibly unmotivated lately. Pretty much sloth-like, if we’re being honest with each other. Sometimes, when I’m under immense pressure, I rise to the occaision and do my best super-hero impersonation. Other times, I crawl under the covers and hide, in hopes that everything will pass over without too much fuss. Sadly, this is one of the latter times. I have to be a grown-up and replace my stupid car, which insists on requiring at least $400 worth of work every time I get the oil changed. At the rate that we’ve been funneling money into that thing, it should be running like a brand new car and every single employee of our mechanic should be sending their kids to Ivy League schools. I was really motivated for the first day but now that motivation has devolved into Harry Potter marathons, eating chocolate chips out of the bag, and looking at incredibly expensive cars with the Carmax app on my phone. (It’s so convenient!)

But I digress. I needed motivation. My house is a wreck. I am a wreck. My kid is getting all of the molars at once. So instead of mopping the floors and folding the mountain of laundry sitting on my bed, I made you guys this mixtape of awesome ladies who motivate me to do awesome stuff. There is a little bit of everything on there, mostly. I like to dance around and sing into a hairbrush/mop/breadstick and make up choreography, but that’s just me. OR IS IT? DANCE PARTY???

As usual, you can follow my playlists and make fun of how often I listen to Dashboard Confessional on Spotify.

 

Your Morning Mix Tape: Songs From Old Lovers

Actual mix cds from dudes who liked me at one point.

Actual mix cds from dudes who liked me at one point.

There is not a whole lot I miss about dating. Really, since I am one of the most awkward people alive, dating was an exercise in torture. However, I loved loved LOVED the part of dating where you made each other mix tapes/mix cds. I often wonder what kids these days do now. Do they make youtube playlists? Did sexting replace the mix tape? Ugh. Anyways. I was the lucky recipient of many a mix tape, most of which I still have because I am kind of a hoarganizer. (hoarder with OCD organizing tendencies) My favorites were the ones that came complete with album artwork and track listings. I would listen to them and try to figure out all of the hidden messages imparted in the chosen songs. I also made a few criminally awesome mix tapes for boys, some of which make me cringe with embarrassment when I think of what I put on them. (Sorry, most guys I ever dated…)

I miss the process of putting songs together, listening to them to make sure that everything tracked together and made sense when played together. I miss the effort and love that went into them. In the spirit of that, I made you guys a mix CD of sorts, in this completely impersonal digital age. I went through all the mixes I recieved in the last 12 or so years and picked out some gems for your listening pleasure. I’m not lying when I say that might have been the most fun thing I’ve done all week. It was like listening to time capsules and I could picture every boy and how I felt and where I was at that particular moment of time. It was a musical scrapbook of failed relationships, but in the best possible way. (It’s way less depressing than it sounds. I swear.) I should point out that my husband never made me a mix tape, and I married him anyways. (AHEM, ROSS….) Continue reading