"It's hip to be rectangular..."

I realize as I write this that it's hip to celebrate things from a long since by gone era (the 80's)...so shut up already, but goddammit! I really miss the complex simplicity of the classic mixtape. I miss being able to so easily (and inexpensively) pass music on to friends. The ability to compile a moment in time forever...or at least until the player goobled it up, and spit out a heap of wrinkled tape. When yer young and you think that you got it all figured out musically. If yer lucky enough to hang on to them, you can get a good chuckle...you can get a bit nostalgic...or you can be downright embarrassed. In my time I have made many a mixtape. For friends, or girlfriends. One of my favorite people to make tapes for was my buddy Glenn. You see, he had transfered to my high school in, I believe, my ninth grade year. We had a couple of classes together. He was a lanky fellow...kinda squirrely...I was a chubby dork with long hair. I'm sure he was probably wearing one of his classic "Helloween" shirts...when we started talking about bands we liked. We hit it off instantly and became the sort of friends that are attached at the hip. My musical taste was constantly evolving...making it the perfect time to document these awkward years in mixtape form. Glenn and I continued our friendship well after school and are still friends today (though we don't get together enough). I think the last tapes I made for him where during his brief stint with army basic training...It was on a road trip last year that he pulled out a dusty old mixtape that I had completely forgotten about. He told me that he still had most of the tapes I had made...we had some good laughs listenening to what I thought was important 15+ years ago. 

Discovering a site called Muxtape.com a while back is what got me to thinking. It was a pretty cool site where you could register (for free) and you got like 12 songs you could upload for who ever happened to stumble across it...it was an interesting idea. I stumbled on it today to find it gone. You can read all the reasons why in a lengthy letter on the site. Then I found this and wondered how it's any more legal?!?! I also saw recently that they are marketing mixtape USB drives. It's a cool idea, but at $16...not so easy to part with. Sure there's always the mix cd, but it somehow seems so cold and impersonal. don't get me wrong...I'm enthralled with all the awesomeness of digital music. It's so much easier to carry an I-pod rather that a bulky walkman and all the music. I don't know. I guess I'm entering my crotchety old man phase. "Get off my lawn!!!!"