Monday, March 16, 2026
People are sometimes surprised that I have a turntable, although they probably shouldn’t be- I’m a perfect fit for that demographic. I think it’s a bit more peculiar that I still have a tape deck. It’s even a medium fancy one. I cannot remember the last time I used it, but today I popped an old mixtape in it.
Like digging in at a great record store the pleasures associated with making a great mixtape have largely been lost to us. Some of the fun was cerebral: what feelings, or range of feelings do I want the listener to experience? Some of it was technical: segues that are either seamless or shocking; no miscues. Some of it was just showing off the depths of your record collection. (I don’t think we called them ‘vinyl’ much, and unless it’s a single or a 78 a collection of recorded music is an album to me.) A great mixtape is an act of curation. I did a little bit of live DJ’ing in my misspent youth, and there are things that both have in common, but I think there are enough differences to matter.
For one thing, live DJ’ing is much more performative. Making a mixtape for a party is, arguably, more aspirational. You hope the party goes the way you’ve programmed and if it doesn’t you can’t fix it on the fly.
Damn, we had great taste. I’m pretty sure this was made by my brother Greg - know I didn’t own some of the cuts and the lettering looks like it might be his. We bought Maxell Chrome C90s by the six pack and almost exclusively. Occasionally we’d try a different brand- TDK was reliable, and sometimes we’d try the more expensive metal tapes, but this Maxell ChromeI’m listening to sounds great right now
// posted by Bill @ 12:46 PM 
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