Pressure to party, gonna stay in
Mixtape Maps
When I was a tiny baby human, before podcasting technologies were particularly accessible (just record it on the digicart!), I tried many times to host an excellent radio show at our campus community station. Just outta high school with a friend to share our favourite jams, during university with a gaggle of hip ladies for feminist analysis (Ovaryacting), with a couple others, then with just myself while I worked at the station. I revived a previously hosted premise (up your fem-con) and turned it into a 30min spot with new episodes put together a few times a week. During those years I hoarded and devoured music. When I needed to process something heavy, I did so by developing a playlist. It was the best coping mechanism I had at the time. Catch ’em with a hook, raise the bar, slow it down, keep the vibe (the rules can be debated). Eventually I got downsized (well, I guess we tried to unionize the station, so…), moved on, got a job where pop music was always blaring, then my hard drive corrupted/I lost all my tunes/was low on funds and due to all this, I think I unintentionally quit music. Defeated and without access to the truly vast campus music library and maybe still on dial up (or was that when we had a data cap?) I let go of that vital part of my life. At some point I shared a hipster record collection with a failed poet and then regaled the glory days with a stalled academic, but those were my only two attempts to revive the love for what had sustained me.
Welcome to 10 years later: my spouse has gifted me with a premium streaming membership. I’ve got unfettered access to the past; a flooding back, evoking every emotion from when I used those melodies to survive. And. AND! Gentle/not-so-gentle recommendations for what else I might like, or, suggestions for what may also get you through the devastation that was/is your life. It’s old, it’s new! It’s opens up a door that time travels you on random to places and feelings you had forgotten if the playlist you made just isn’t long enough.
In attempt to control it all, to be intentional while connecting to those new tunes, to revel in the past annnnd perhaps to kick start a surge forward, I’m going to create and link to a monthly playlist for the rest of the year. I’ve already edited them into Jan/Feb based on my heavy listens. Here’s March. It gets the job done.
The Ridge
When I was a kid, off path in Odell, I made sure to spin myself around to obscure my passage. Reached from unfamiliar angles, static landmarks can feel surprisingly fresh and previously unexplored. My favourite spot to chance upon was an oddly mono culture ridge where the wild stopped and you walked among giants.
Flash forward twenty years and there’s a trail from my new house that takes you there in exactly eleven minutes. While the mystery of crossing into a new realm is lost, I’m grateful that the majesty remains.
Fresh Cut Feelings 