Teh Internets Like Muxtape, Only on Cassette
posted by on May 20 at 12:25 PM
I’m fascinated with Cassette From My Ex. It’s a blog where people—a lot of writers and musicians, yes, but then there are some actual human beings, too—describe the mix tapes that were given to them by then-lovers who are now-exes. And then you can actually listen to the tape, split up by side.
The blog just started, so there’s not a lot of selection at the moment. A lot of Diggable Planets and Leonard Cohen and, oddly, Winnie-The-Pooh-related audio content. But this is the kind of voyeuristic thrill that will keep me checking back every single damn day.
I wish I had a mix tape to send in to the blog, but I’ve always been dreadfully disappointed with the mix tapes I received from girlfriends, to the point where I don’t keep them. I seem to only date women with painfully different tastes in music—the aforementioned Tori Amos girlfriend, yes, but also a girlfriend (who is still a very dear friend) who followed Aerosmith, and another one who loved Ani DiFranco and Sweet Honey On the Rock, or whatever they call themselves. I don’t think a relationship has ever introduced a lasting adoration of a new musician into my life.
One thing I’ve learned: Some of the people on this blog, at least, dated people with interesting musical tastes. Of course, the painful sincerity of other selections make me very glad that I don’t date heterosexual men.
I never got a mix tape from a love interest. There is still an empty place in my heart for one.
This is fascinating to me. The song my ex fiance and I had as "our song" was Hoobastank's "The Reason", which in addition to being an absolutely terrible song was probably a sign about things to come. That song, like some sort of perfectly apt harbinger of arguments to come, would play on the radio and I would just think of how unattractive he was as a person.
Over a year after we broke up, I still hear it on the radio and get angry at myself.
On the one hand, I can't imagine keeping a mixed tape or CD he'd given me. On the other hand- I can't imagine throwing it out and not having the opportunity to pick at the scab of our incompatabilty once in awhile.
Terrific concept for a blog. And what about mix tapes from people we wished were our lovers? Such considerations have left a bigger imprint on my musical tastes than I would like to think about.
I did a comix story about this .. I gave a mix tape to a girl I was dating -- it ended, badly -- a week later I got a package in the mail with my tape back, and she'd put the thing in her toaster and melted it into a small fist of plastic .. Can't remember what was on it, probably a lot of REM.
Check out Art of the Mix which has been archiving this kind of thing since 1997...
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