the mix tape

I received a mix tape last night, and it was a great delight. Mix tapes are outdated and almost obsolete now-- technology has come up with faster and easier ways to share music, as history has a way of doing. mix tapes are now mix cds, or sometimes just an emailed playlist. i've done both countless times, because I'm all about sharing music.... if I love a song, I want everyone to hear it! if you ask me to make you a playlist, you have just made my day.
but there's something to be said for mix tapes. the retro-ness of it. the fact that it takes time to assemble all of the different albums and record every song, one by one, and stay on top if it so you don't overlap songs or leave too much empty air. Then there's the sleeve. My mix tape included a little tracklist, typed up on typewriter, some words translated into Italian (bc he knows I can speak it) and a photo. Again, the time it took to make this is what I love the most. I remember how long it could take... my sister and I used to listen to the radio every night for hours waiting for our favorite songs to come on, so we could tape them. we'd have to have our fingers poised over the Record button at the end of every song, just in case the next one that came on was one we wanted. I got pretty good at recognizing a song from just the first note or two. I can picture us now-- two little girls (I must have been about 11, she about 9) in our shared bedroom in Arizona in 1997. I remember all the songs we waited for-- Blackstreet, Backstreet Boys, Eagle Eye Cherry, Semisonic, Better Than Ezra, Eve6... and a lot more that I never found out the names to.

anyway. I haven't even been able to listen to my tape yet-- because I can't find a cassette player anywhere! Isn't that crazy? well, maybe not-- cassette players went out in the mid-90s, over 15 years ago, as a friend recently pointed out. Little discmans are hard to find as it is, forget finding a walkman. yet still, I am surprised I'm having such a hard time finding one.

this tape has put such a smile on my face that hasn't been there in a long time. it's the dead of winter and bitterly cold. I have a lot on my plate with moving to another country, money and various relationship woes. I am so glad for this, it really cheered me up and I didn't even know I needed it.