New mixtape up for the end of the week. I’ve been happily busy at work, but unhappily detained from my blog. I’ll have some photo posts, interviews, and a few more mixtapes coming soon.. For now enjoy a new mixtape.
Happy Birthday Dad
March 25th, 2009
So, today March 25th, is my pop’s birthday.
My dad is, as for many good sons, in many ways my template for what I’m expected to be. Hard working; passionate; funny; charismatic; talented; loving; honest; - all things I strive for in my life. I thought doing a post was a good idea, to help celebrate a man, a person, who is the only father I’ll ever have.
My favorite memories of my dad from when I was a kid are listening to him record songs:
tic tac toe tic tac toe mp3 download
He’d record on this Sony double-deck tape player; audio signals routed through a heavy metal and taupe-plastic microphone. We’d sit there together. It’s a Saturday morning in Burlingame CA. His apartment’s hardwood floor is cold, but comforting. It smells the way wood floors do. I’d listen to him play music, half was in Spanish, which at the time I didn’t understand. I’d push my fingernails into the wood because I liked the way it felt. My Dad smelled like cigarettes and Armani cologne.
I always thought he was playing other people’s songs, although as I grew up I found out he was recording his own songs the whole time. To me these songs were the best, songs other people would know. I’ve asked him, but he lost most of the cassettes, victims of another time, another world.
My first love affair with music was anything my Dad showed me (Depeche Mode, New Order, U2, Erasure, Oingo Boingo, Silvio Rodriguez, Pablo Milanes, Led Zeppelin, Cat Stevens, Dan Folgelberg, CCR, etc) - my Dad is the reason is have any semblance of musical taste and snobbery. So, yeah, blame him if you don’t like me.
He was the main reason I picked up the guitar; the reason I sat for hours watching other people play; the reason I joined the Jazz Band in High School; why I listened to rock music; why I wore ripped jeans.
Today my dad and I play music all the time. I usually play drums and he gets on the guitar and we have a really good time. I’ve always described connecting with someone musically as a very intimate thing. I’m glad I’m able to share that with my father.
I found it appropriate to, aside from the typical presents you give your Dad, to write a little blog post celbrating him, as well as putting together a mix of songs that either reminded me of him, songs i know he likes, or songs I know he would like.
The 90s - mixtape/playlist
March 3rd, 2009
I can’t really call this a mixtape. At 40 songs deep, it’s really a 90’s playlist, full of memories deluded by raging hormones and chemicals; good simple times that I somehow made as complicated as I possibly could - adolescence is oh so bitter-sweet.
I’m getting nostalgic, or maybe: just waiting for some new awesome music to be released to make another mixtape. Sooooo - I’m dipping into the archives, charging the memory banks. Of course I can’t fit everything I’d want to in, & as is: this “playlist” is probably over-bloated.
We’re talking about an entire decade, and I’m probably only fixating on what i like/liked when I was 16 (this is a very limited point of view, I hardly liked anything. Sorry if you had the misfortune of knowing me during that period in my life.)
Back on topic: I only had to hunt for a few specific tracks (Sponge & Nada Surf); the rest I miraculously already had in my library. I haven’t head some of these songs in years, which made this all the more fun.
I tried not to pick top-40 bullshit, picking things I thought would be a fun jaunt down memory lane; maybe even introducing a few songs that either someone wasn’t aware had come out during the 90’s, or just hadn’t heard on the radio before.
This is not a serious mixtape. It’s not some pretentious collection, of a bunch of bands that no one has ever heard of - I wasn’t into electronica or rave music or whatever back in the Nineties - sorry to disappoint.
Every single one of these tracks, in one way or another, has some zany high school story attached to it
- & I could write some tumescent meandering POS that explained each, but I won’t bore you.
If there’s a track you enjoy(ed), tell me your story and bore me in the comments with your tale.
Maybe I’ll reply back with my own anecdote 
If you’re too young to remember the 90’s: please shut up and keep to yourself; you make me feel old.
Hopefully 2.66 hours of music might be able to give a whole decade a little justice.
Happy Hump Day! A Mid-Week Mixtape
February 25th, 2009
I started making mixtapes/CD’s for a few reasons, none of which originally had anything to do with blogging:
- I live in the southern nether regions of Miami.
- I work in the heart of downtown Fort Lauderdale (42 mile commute).
- Before this job I worked in Coral Springs (37 mile commute).
- Before that job I was in school at AIFL (35 mile commute).
- Let’s just suppose I spend a lot of time on the road (still with me?).Couple that with the reality that Miami really has some crappy radio ( I grew up in SF, where some semblance of decent rock and hip hop radio stations existed/exist. Does anyone remember KOME when it was alternative? )
Minolta MD to EOS Converter - Vintage Prime Lenses
February 23rd, 2009
My first real camera was an old manual Pentax my parents had from when I was born. I puffy heart prime lenses with huge, wide open apertures. My grandfather gave me his Minolta SRT-202 about two years ago that came with a Rokkor 50mm f/1.4 and a a generic telephoto behemoth. I bought a Rokkor 28mm f/2.8 about six months ago to add to the Minolta collection…
Loading ...