Found My Old Mixtapes. I Win the Day

Mixtapes. Big fan. And I'll brag - we made KICK ASS mixtapes back in the day. I always took them very seriously for whomever I was creating. The tape quality, the artwork (if necessary) and of course the songs.

The tapes that were made and given to me are far more priceless than the mixes I made for myself. Looking back at the setlists your friends chose for YOU and the reciprocity of hours of work is fascinating. And humbling. You can tell a lot about a friendship from the mixtape they made you.

I've only found a handful of my old mixtapes but luckily, they're some of my all-time favorites. Most of them were given to me by friends, not the ones I hastily threw together for myself. (A vacation or plane ride always merited a new personal mixtape.)

So what did I find? Way good stuff. Here's a couple:

"The Portishead" tape: My friend Michael made this tape for me in the mid-90s. I hadn't been at The MOOSE very long but we got along smashingly. Michael was a great, music lover who appreciated almost all genres...with a non-annoying encyclopedic knowledge. Once he knew I 'liked' Portishead, he was going to make sure I knew them inside and out, along with every collab they ever did. FIVE STARS.

"Katie's Montana State Mix" tape: My college roommate in South Hedges at Montana State University was oddly enough from the same area in California I had moved from. Fast friends. And friends make tapes for each other. This one is a beautiful train wreck of her favorites...from Ike Turner and Green Day to CSN and Madonna. Excellent memories. FOUR STARS.