"Dear Mr. Gepetto..."

The power of the mix tape (CD, Playlist, etc.) is something I think I'm finally understanding. It's come up a lot in the last week or so.

On Friday, a teacher of mine gave me a cd he made. He titled it "I Wish I Were Straight Edge." Him and I have talked about music a lot in the few years I've known him. Minor Threat and the Descendants have been our primary topics. We launched into talking about the Distillers after hearing a Queens of the Stone Age song, and I asked him to show me some of their stuff, me having not heard much from them.

He just said, "I'll make you a CD."

It started with a (cool) Distillers song, "Drain the Blood," and ended in a song by a guy named Mike Doughty with a song called "No Peace, Los Angeles" (quite good). Between the two were some good tunes- the Black Keys, Jerry Lee Lewis, Led Zeppelin, Stevie Wonder, the Smiths, Radiohead...some top notch stuff.

But most of these songs were sad ones. This guy has been having a rough time lately, which I don't feel I have the right to write about. But listening to this mix, I somehow feel like I understand what he's going through a bit better. I can't imagine how he feels, but I feel like I understand it better, just by listening to the songs he's been listening to lately.

I've been reading a really great book called Love is a Mix Tape, by Rob Sheffield, about Rob and his relationship with his late wife, Renée. Rob paints a beautiful picture of a wonderful marriage, with stories of how despite their intense differences as people, they stayed together, bound by their love of music. Every chapter starts out with a mix tape, full of songs that helped the author recall specific moments in time.

A couple weeks ago, I was working on a mix for my then-girlfriend, right before she called me and broke up with me. I had a sinking feeling that the songs I was putting on there would be ruined, reminding me of that fateful moment. "My Girl" by the Temptations, "First Date" by blink-182, "Beautiful" by the Smashing Pumpkins.

They weren't. They now seem to have an odd new depth I had never felt before.

I woke up today to a playlist I had made the night before that started with Mustard Plug's "You" and ended with the Suburban Legends' "You." A fun little third-wave ska mix. I woke up in a huff, not wanting to get up. A few songs in, I was ready for a good day.

And it was.

I'll be making mixes until the day I die. I'm off to make one now.

Around the bend,
AJKazlouski