Question 234 of 365: What is the new mix?

I used to make music mixes for every occasion of my life. For birthdays, for anniversaries, and for Christmas. There was no occasion too small that it didn’t call for a music cd or at least a playlist. A few years, I even attempted a list of best songs of the year which could be sorted in an Excel spreadsheet. I was ambitious about my mixes because I believed that the held the key to chronicling time and making sense of the world around me.

Now, it seems almost tragic to think that I am no longer making those mixes and my world is spinning out of control because of the lack of coherence and preservation that music provided to me. For the past few years, I have approached music in a more utilitarian way. It is in the background so that I don’t have to listen to other people in my office. It is in the car so that I can think more about what I am engaged in. It is on at home so that my children can dance.

I used to make music so that I could put order to the world, and now I don’t because the order has been dictated to me. My daily life is no longer unpredictable. I don’t wake up thinking about whether or not I will go out that night. We have these things planned weeks and months in advance. I don’t require a series of songs to give me a sense of what my existence is like because at any given moment, my life is a lot like the previous moment. While there is most definitely a progression from one thing to another, the haphazard stylings from many different genres that are put together on a mix would hardly be applicable to what I’m going through.

Which is why I am so keen on the album. The album of familiar or newly unearthed songs that I can listen to over and over again is something that much more fits my current lifestyle. I like to see the progression of a single narrative and know exactly where it goes to and from. The single can get me excited, but it never sustains me like a truly masterful album. I don’t want to put things on shuffle. I want to know what is coming next and to see it coming and feel good about it.

Making a mix feels good when you want to introduce someone to a band or when you feel as though there is something at stake. You are trying to make a statement or figure out who you are. You are trying to decipher the relationship to whom you are giving the mix. This makes sense when all of your life is up in the air. But, as things come together and make decisions that set you on a longer path, the long playing nature of an album sweetly cradles you. You don’t have to worry about the jarring transitions or the awkward filler tracks. You are content with the albums you grew up with and the new standards that you spend months with in your car. It isn’t that you are unwilling to change or to mix things up, it is just that you want the friendship of an album and not the acquaintance of a song. You are ready for commitment to a set of artists, instead of jumping from one genre to the next at a moments notice.

So, the album is the new mix, and it is a shame in the era of iTunes that this form of music is dying or giving up on itself. While the digital media revolution of the past 20 years may eventually get rid of the 10 song CD, it may push us out further into never having to listen to an album for 2-3 good songs. We expect more out of the music we consume. We expect every song to be good. And that is why the albums of today are so comfortable. I won’t tolerate a set of music that is only good enough to be put onto a mix. I won’t let those few moments I have for truly solitary music listening to be soiled by either the schizophrenia of the mix or the unevenness of a bad album.

I want only the good stuff, but I want the good stuff to have a story, an arch. I want it to match who I am right now without having to work all of that out in a playlist creator. I want the artists to be like me and I think that is slowly starting to happen. We are all trying to make our way in life, and it requires an honesty of vision and the relentless pursuit of iteration.

I will be better tomorrow than I am today, and I want music that shows that same level of maturity.

(Any albums you care to share with me on this journey?)

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Question 137 of 365: What is our mass pike?

I loved the smell of show on my pants. The mix of smoke, sweat and other people’s energy. My pants told the tale of a lot of good nights. I had friends that told me to wear the pants the day after the show for good luck, but I was always a little worried that other people would think I was a bum. You see, I went to a lot of shows when I was in high school, mostly punk and indie bands that most people hand’t heard of. I thought I was being cool by attending the underground music scene.

At one such show for the Get Up Kids, I was getting my pants sufficiently stained and odiferous. I invited a friend of mine to come along and she obliged. We got their early enough to stand next to the stage in the packed club, the kind that really should only fit a hundred, but was stuffed with something more like 2 hundred.

It just so happened that as the music started a strong willed boy pushed his way up to the front and started to crowd my friend. With every song, he would push harder to get into her space. He didn’t want to stand where she was standing, he just wanted to push. About halfway through the show I put my leg up on the three foot stage and made a barricade for my friend, using my leg as a fence.

I tried to talk to the boy, talking some sense into him about just enjoying the show, but he would have none of it. He just wanted to push. He wanted to make sure that no one had a good time but him, and he succeeded for the most part.

That is, until the song Mass Pike came on. It was the song that took me by surprise and made the experience worthwhile. When the first chords started on the keyboard, I didn’t even notice that I had to hold back a sea of drunk muscle.

I don’t know exactly what all of this means, but I think that I am holding back the muscle of something much larger than myself at the moment.

I am at the big show, the one that I have been waiting for a really long time. I am excited about being here with someone I love, and I am gearing up to blown away. Up has waltzed a force that has the capability of making sure that I can’t dance or move the ways that I want to. And all I am looking for is the few moments when all of this pressure and undisclosed animosity can melt away in favor of just hearing the music. I want it to flow over me and take us away from the unending push of life.

I understand that pushes like the are what make pants smell the best. I understand that the struggle and the sweat are enough to release just the right bouquet of aroma. I want to be bullied and leaned against, but I also want there to be moments of relaxed extacy. And there will be I just have to know how to look for them.

This is how I knew at the Get Up Kids show, and I’m pretty sure it is how I will know now: I will close my eyes and hear the notes play, just the intro. When those chords come through, the right combination of things that make the back of my head tingle. And I will have a moment of knowing that it won’t last and wanting it to anyway. I work backward from the feeling and tag the moment with every descriptor I can muster so that I can’t possibly forget. And I feel safe in every moment because I know the words and it is my song, our song, being played just for us. That is when I no longer feel the pressure. That is the moment I am waiting for.

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Guest Teaching 12.05.08

Cores 1-4:

1. Discuss-on:
2. Brainstorm ways in which you would like to “reframe” A Christmas Carol:
3. 
4. Well, let’s talk about how we will be reframing A Christmas Carol using animation and microblogging.
5. First, XtraNormal will allow us to completely create the scene, choose the characters and their actions, and even add background music, all without having to record a single video frame or sound file. Let’s take a look.
6. Next, Edmodo will allow us to have some conversation around what we are creating and learning. It will allow us to all think out loud without having our thoughts become too entangled (or having it get deafeningly loud in here). It is the way that we will honor the process of creation and not just the product at the end.
7. The conventions of microblogging are as follows:

• Write down exactly what you are choosing to do with your project (which scene you are using, which characters, etc.)
• Write down why you are making the choices you are making (why put Scrooge on a beach, etc)
• Write down questions that you have about your project (why is Scrooge so angry; does he have to be in our reframed version?)
• Reply as much as you can to others.

As for the requirements for the movie, please use the following guidelines:

• Have no fewer than 5 dialog exchanges.
• Do not copy and paste words from the book/play. Rethink the dialog so that it is appropriate for the scene that you have created.
• Block out the entire scene before you click Action!
• Don’t forget to have tell your microblogger what you are thinking.