I had a mix CD playlist in my iTunes that was going to waste, so I bought a spindle of CD-Rs, and I’ve been liberally burning copies and giving them out to almost complete strangers. It's a mix of stuff I mostly came across in 2005.
So far I’ve given it to all my classmates and my teacher, to the person who invited me to a qi gong practice center, and to the people in my building. And I’m not done yet – I’ve been counting people in the U.S. to whom to send it, depending on postal rates. I even burned a copy for my landlady’s 12 year old son, minus the Black-Eyed Peas track.
I don’t do a lot of “good” in the world. I’m not as giving as I could be, I don’t do volunteer work I could be doing, I don’t do charity that I could do. What I do is make mix CDs.
One classmate already told me she really likes it, which made me fall in love with her even more. Which means nothing, mind you, as I’m probably old enough to be her father (that is, if her mother was my hot (in a librarian kind of way) 11th grade English teacher).
But the way some people's faces light up when they receive a mix CD always surprises me. It's just a CD of music, and they look so happy. How did that happen? Of course I know some people won't like the CD, and no one will like every track on the CD in quite the same way I do. Some people won't follow the instruction that if they don't like it, to pass it on to someone else.
Giving it to my landlady’s 12 year old son made me pause. That kid is pretty interesting and has musical potential and interest and a supportive mom. When I was 12 years old, music had already been changing my life in a big way. I thought, “wow, what if this kid finds something on this CD that he really likes?”
I’m not blowing my own horn, but if someone gave me a mix CD when I was 12 with even a single track that changed my life, I would remember that track and that person to this day, even though I would have no idea what happened to him or her, what a loser he became or when or why he killed himself.
It's a nice small act to give and even when these CDs are collecting dust in the bottom of someone's drawer, it's a little piece of me that I sincerely put on a piece of plastic and put out there. Why not go make a mix CD for someone? Go!
1. New Killer Star (David Bowie)
2. Mushaboom (Feist)
3. Sambita (Kinky)
4. Suspended From Class (Camera Obscura)
5. Katun no Sadame (Ichiko Hashimoto – “Rahxephon” O.S.T.)
6.
7. Do Somethin’ (Britney Spears)
8. Waupu Odabala (Taiwanese/Pacific Islander aboriginal)
9. The Way Back (Whysall Lane)
10. King Without a Crown (live) (Matisyahu)
11. Wake Up (Sahara Hotnights)
12. Leaning Against the Wall (Evil Tordivel Upbeat Remake) (Kings of Convenience)
13. Blue Flow (Heart of Air – “Haibane Renmei” O.S.T.)
14. Cassiopeia (Joanna Newsom)
15. Paths of Victory (Cat Power)
16. You’re In a Bad Way (Saint Etienne)
17. Soul Meets Body (Death Cab for Cutie)
18. Ue o Muite Arukou (Sukiyaki) (Sunday Girls)
19. A Man/Me/Then Jim (Rilo Kiley)
20. Goodnight Moon (Shivaree)
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| 6:38 - 8:37 p.m., Shida main library |
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| 10:03 p.m. - classmates, Hyun Ae and two from Japan. |
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| April 12, 6:12 p.m. - classmates |
