a lost art

I was looking for the cassette tape of my father's Barnard memorial service the other day to give to a friend to transfer to some other, more permanent, medium, and in the process came across a plethora of old mix tapes. And I was kind of blown away, sitting there on the floor in my living room, by these dusty piles of tapes (some with cases, some without, some labeled, some not, some with wonderful artwork, some with nearly illegible faded handwriting), and by the people they came from (some still central, some heartbreakingly far away), and by the quirky bits of poetry embedded there:

Blood is Beauty: the Empowerment Mix

I Hope you enjoy this mix of SONGS! (Love, Ben!)

Midnight Mix

Tears can be Beautiful but Anger is a Gift

Thunderstorm Mix

Tape 1 Mix: Pray to the Sunrise

Fall 2002

Music That's Better Than The Crap You Listen To

December 1997

Tanuja the Alien

The "Ode to the Dark One..." Mix (Radiance of the Sun to our Eyes... ; Dark Side of the Moon to our Mind...)

Em Mix

Evolving Robots (Fuzzy Sets/Fuzzy Logic; Indeterminancy of Translation)

Emily's Tape (Tape for Emily - Sad Side; Tape from Julia - Misc. Side)

Tape 2: No Label

It's BOILING in here But You're Only this Big

I Don't Want To Live On The Moon! (A mix for Emily)

She's Gone Insane In A Way But It Suits Her - Winter Mix 1994 (Shiny Happy Side A; Rusted Grouchy Side B)