Two More for the Mix Annals

The First MiddKid Mix - Battell (Fall 1995): A mishmash of stuff from new friends. An unorganized foray into Other People's Music... This was meant to be part of a series, but (shocking, I know) we got distracted by alcohol and the opposite sex. Made for good driving music with Allen and Glenn!

What Do You Want for Nothing? (1 Feb. 1996):Another poorly organzed raid on the neighbors CDs. Personal favorites on this one include Rubber Biscuit and Bei Mir Bis Du Schone. Perhaps a little heavily peppered with Alanis and swing tracks, but not unpleasant.

More Mixes Avoid the Axe; or How I Spend O's Naps

Here they are:

GrandMaster Sketch - Happy Holidays, You Sexy Thing! (11 Dec. 1998): a playlist created by myself, Liz Fabian and Lizzie Herman for our Christmas Party in the Hadley Link senior year. Definite thematic content here.

Oh, THAT Mix? (May 1996): A mix made by a few gals on my floor to sort of sum up the tomfoolery of freshman year on Battell Second Floor Center. Absolutely no thematic content. Note the "Les Mis" track, and the selection from Disney's "Aladdin."

Yseult's Bouyaka Mix (May 1996): This one is solely the creation of my beloved freshman year roommate. She's a funky, fabulous creature, and this mix says much about her. It also says nothing at all about her. Wrap your head around that!

And thanks to N for directing me to the script that makes the playlists so pretty. I kept wondering how R was doing that...

Another MixTape Rescued from Certain Obscurity!

I completed this one today. What a gem!

Back story: Freshman year of HS, my best friend made me a mix of her favorite "love songs." Said friend was a huge metalhead, so they're all late 80's power ballads. I was transitioning from WAAF to Indie rock and Alternative at the time, so I let this one molder for a few years until its vintage appeal ripened. I played it in my car occasionally for the entertainment of my pal Ari. He's the one who renamed the collection... Then it sunk to the bottom of the tape bag in my old Subaru. ::grins:: In 2000, I made a CD version for a drive to Lake Placid which included some stuff that was a little newer than 1991... but still true to the original sap-tasticality of it all. Now it can truly thrive in the welcoming environment of my iPod.

What Happened on November 2nd, 1996?

I have blogger's block.

There, I said it. I have all these things I want to talk about, and then, as soon as I get started, nothing seems right.

The GMTDP is speeding along - I'm enjoying my new playlists, and practically bathing in nostalgia and memories. In fact, this morning, I found a tape called "The November 2nd Mix" which was made on November 4th, 1996 but I had to have called it Nov. 2nd for a reason... I racked my brain, thinking, "Fall of sophomore year at Midd... " The mix in itself, as you can see, is rawther mopey. So, about whom was I moping in that time frame? Well, then I opened the cassette jacket, and discovered an inscription: For Ed. Oh my....

Well, on Saturday, Nov. 2, 1996, I hooked up with a boy named Ed from Amherst at a party in Pearsons Lounge, and we ended up taking it back to the lounge in Barnes - because my Mom was sleeping in my room (oh, that class?). She was up visiting, but had gone to bed early.... The thing is, I never really talked to that guy again, and it wasn't like I pined after him. The mix is really about the guy I was trying to somehow impress by hooking up with someone else under his nose. Anyone who knows me, knows I'm not good at those kinds of games, and as predicted, it backfired, and I was moping about that. Oh, to be 19 and miserable for no real reason!

Fast forward to this morning - nine and a half years later. Mark woke me up because he'd had a nightmare in which I divorced him, and took the puppy. Initially I laughed it off. You know, clearly, that's not going to happen. I'm confident it's not; the thing that struck me was that we're old enough and serious enough about our lives for that to be the subject of night terrors... Heavy.

In closing, my one lasting friendship from The Hotel Pastry Shop has a blog. She's up in the links column under Richenza's Journal.

The Great MixTape Digitalization Project of 2006 and the Quest for Decent Brunch in MetroWest: or How I Spent My Weekend

In short, the weekend was three days long, three days short, and three days unproductive, unless you count The Great MixTape Digitalization Project of 2006.

Today, as a special treat, MOMP presents it's first Restaurant Review, which ties in closely to Mark's and my Quest for Decent Brunch in MetroWest.

Stone's Public House, Ashland, MA
Sunday, February 19, 2006, 11:40 AM
We would have given it two thumbs up, but our thumbs were busy with the utensils!

Mark and I are all about a few simple brunch tenets (good bloody marys, mimosas in pint glasses, delicious brunch fare, and a good Sunday morning vibe), and when living in Medford, we had too many acceptable options, from fallback brunch at the always pleasing B-Side Lounge to playing at sophistication in Boston's South End at Aquitaine or Tremont 647. Now, we find ourselves faced with suburban offerings, limited largely to Bickford's Grille or John Harvard's Brew House.

Our quest took a turn towards success this past Sunday with the discovery of a brunch menu at Stone's in Ashland, which is about 3.5 miles from our front door, as the GoogleMap flies.

We arrived around quarter of noon (read "quarter of alcohol"), but that allowed us to choose our seats at the bar, far from other patrons and close to the fireplace. Low, rough timbered ceilings and a 175ish year old hearth with roaring fire made the barroom cozy, as did the soft lilt of Irish folkmusic through the speakers and Geraldine, the faintly brogued bartender/hostess. We both headed for the Irish Breakfast, hoping to find some semblance of the real thing. The website cites chef/owner Matt Murphy, and I couldn't help but think of Matt Murphy's Pub in Brookline Village, touted by Irish emigrants all over Boston as "a real Irish Breakfast."

Oh, my brunch!

The mountain of deliciousness that arrived was like nothing I've ever seen! My two eggs scrambled, Mark's sunny-side-up, and two plates heaped high with baked beans, rashers, bacon and ham, black and white puddings, grilled tomato, toasted bread, hash browns... the gluttony that ensued embarrasses me. We will check back in when we've ventured back for the dinner menu!

"You mentioned something about The Great MixTape Digitalization Project of 2006?" you say....

Ah, yes. Well, "The time has come," the Walrus said, "To speak of other things. For example, getting rid of outmoded technologies like audio cassettes, especially when those cassettes are cluttering up the cockpit of your VW." I agreed with the walrus, and so I spent some time this weekend collecting songs from iTunes, Limewire, and many other sources and recreating my favorite old mix tapes as playlists on my iPod. Such a musical treat! Maybe if I'm really bored this week, I'll treat everyone to a Rianesque track listing of some of the best ones...