September 27, 2004 - 10:53 AM

I'll Make You a Mix If You Want

I didn't get the call. So no Anne for me. I spent the days flip-flopping between regret and resignation, trying to make myself feel better by coming up with justifications, consolations, and realizations as to why it was good that things worked out the way they did. Like, I probably would've been squealing non-stop if I was on the session (and really, I'm trying to cut back on the girlish glee part of my personality so that it doesn't appear so often) which would have been awkward and off-putting; I probably wouldn't have been able to perform my duties to the best of my abilities since I would have been too nervous while changing my pants several times a day; I also wouldn't have been able to take the gig anyways if, as I wondered, I hadn't taken this job at New TV Show because it turns out that, on Tuesday of last week, I was called by the Theater to see if I was available to do sound for a taping of Raunchy Young Jewish Female Comedian's concert DVD on Thursday and Friday. Without this current job to prevent me from accepting assignments during the week, I would have accepted that offer and been locked into it, thus foiling the fates once again when I got the call on Wednesday to do the Anne session. So, it just wasn't meant to be.

Unless I think about the fact that, when I did get the Anne call here at work, I coulda been quicker on the draw and said maybe to the studio, checked with the Exec P. here, gotten the ok, and then called the studio back to confirm that I was a go. Damn.

I considered calling up the studio this weekend to see if I could just drop by to hear/see what they were working on, but I chickened out. Instead, I watched lots of TV and mucked around with my computers, with a brief respite to hang out with the usuals to throw the baseball around and see Shaun of the Dead.

Mer was actually bored by the movie, Nick's high expectations weren't met (although he thought it was ok), LDBL thought it was good, and I loved it. Not that I've seen a ton of zombie movies, but I liked how Shaun was different in being a romantic comedy nestled within the dressings of a zombie horror movie. It was driven by the personal conflicts and arcs of the characters as opposed to being a detached, social-satire commentary like the Night of the Living Dead/Dawn of the Dead movies. You really do get to feel for the characters and want to see them work out their relationships and by the way, that guy over there wants to eat their brains.

At the Galleria where we saw the movie, I was pleasantly surprised to hear Kirsty MacColl's "Treachery" playing over the P.A. system. Unfortunately, my enthusiasm and delight were not matched by my companions since they didn't know who I was talking about. Tony keeps saying, half-jokingly, that I'm a music snob. Am I? Because I tend to like artists that people more often than not have not heard of? Because I keep trying to drag people to shows when they don't know who is playing? Or because I'm so dismissive of his love of Barry Manilow?

Luckily, I have a peer in obscurish music-loving and stupid entertainment trivia-knowing in Matt. He tends to dig a lot of what I dig, and he even throws some new stuff my way (including helping to hook me on Snow Patrol).

Speaking of sharing music, I was happy to get a random call from Phil last week, the sole purpose of which was to gush about the mix cds I'd given to him when I was in Boston last month. I LOOOOOVE making mix cds for friends and family: figuring out what songs might pique their interests and perk up their ears, shuffling songs around to get the order just right, trying to keep an overall theme or mood on each individual CD. While I do occasionally make cds stuffed with mp3s for people, I do so only on special occasions when I've already shared many mixes with them and I know what they like, and I just want to shove a whole mess of music down their gullets. It's much easier for someone to digest new music when it's about an hour's playing time and there's a coherence and fluidity to the order; crafting a playlist out of 100+ songs and managing to keep the listener's interest is more difficult. So, most of the time, I stick to regular audio CDs which have a 18 to 22 song capacity (depending on the converted size, one can stick more than 130 MP3s on a CD). It's a delightful challenge making sure that, in those 20 or so songs, you get the mix just right for the person.

Some mixes, I know as soon as I burn the CDs that they aren't as good as I could have gotten them. I started off with one idea for the mix, but in the selection process, I allowed myself to get carried away and taken off track. Sometimes, I find myself having to make 2 or 3 CDs instead of just one because I had too many songs on one CD, but I wanted the person to experience them all. And I realize how daunting it is for people to get a mix cd and force themselves to slog through all that unknown music. So, it's always an honest joy when I get positive feedback from someone who received one of my mixes.

Phil's phone call made me smile for the rest of the night. He asked me about Hanneke Cassel, whose song "Pieces of Us/Marc Et Laura" I included on one of the mixes; we tried to figure out if he saw me perform at Berklee with her. He had checked out her website and was already planning to see her in concert in MA during October (THAT's what I love to hear...someone taking a chance to see someone based on my recommendation). Then, he went on to list other artists and songs (Snow Patrol [yes, I'm spreading that love around...Nick currently has my Snow Patrol cd playing in constant rotation in his car, and by constant rotation, I mean that his CD system is retarded because, in random skip, it plays the same exact songs everytime- like track 7 from Snow Patrol, track 3 from No Doubt, track 6 from Jimmy Eat World, tracks 1 through 9 on Wilson Phillips, and that's it], Emm Gryner, Sarah Slean), telling me how awesome each one was.

Ros has also commented positively on a mix I made for her (which reminds me, I have a 2nd CD to send out to her), as did my friend Tasha. Mark left me a message on my phone a few days ago about how he heard Sarah Harmer over the P.A. system while he was out and about (although Mark fell for Sarah Harmer all on his lonesome, I like to think that I had some influence on his liking of wimpy female music). And Soph, bless her big heart, always asks me for more mixes.

Now Listening To : Aimee Mann-Whatever
Random Thought : Matt and Sharon are moving next month. All I have to say is: "Welcome back to the wrong side of hell."

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