mix tapes...este MIX CD

in the tradition of latest late night and earliest early morning writing spree: 11:54 pm. 2009.03.26. (happy 26 months gogol!!)

BREAK UP MIX CD FOR VANESSA

This has been a favorite activity of mine long before playlists in digital players existed. This is how you make a playlist before: you get a blank cassette and fill it up with the music of your choice, different cassette for different mood.

And sometimes you give it to a friend who can relate or somebody you want to make a good impression to.

Right now I am helping a friend go through some tumbles so I promised to make a mix CD for her.

It began during our few exchanges through a social networking site of sad sad song lines so (INSERT SOME LIGHT BULB HERE, a 10-watt, tungsten lamp, maybe) I decided to make one: a mix cd of break up songs.

In 2005, keith and I (well, he arranged the song orders after I gave him a bunch of songs form my own roster and that somehow makes him the actual author of the mix cd, and insisted I abide by that code of ethics of proper recognition) made a mix CD for our friend to give to a girl he was courting. Unfortunately, it didn’t turn out to be so exclusive to him or the girl since we, after a while, made a similar record of that mix cd and gave it to alfredo diaz. Alfredo Diaz is a lovable person suffering from alopecia. But he has a long curly goatee, which is not alopecia-c somehow. His goatee amazes our 2-year old boy. It tickles him touching it, I guess. It feels like pubic hair, only that the hair grows on his chin and not on some crotch. Feel it to believe it. Touch it when you see him.

That 2005 mix cd was called BIG GAY HEART, after a lemonhead’s song. Personally I think keith chose the title because our friend was so TORPE, it’s almost gay. In alfredo’s case, the whole phrase fit him really well. He is gay and he has a big heart – I MEAN HIS HEART IS BIG AND GAY, or to put it properly, HE’S JUST A PERSON WITH A BIG HEART AND ALWAYS GAY. Or something like that. It’s a little confusing but let me know if it confuses you in more than one way.

In 2007, we again decided to make one mix cd for alfredo. I didn’t intend to give it on his birthday but there wasn’t much time and we only got to meet on his birthday. It doubled as birthday gift and a ritual offering to him. LIFE IS MELANCHOLY was the title of the mix cd. You see, judging by the title alone it really wouldn’t fit as a birthday gift. Remember, alfredo has a big gay heart. Although if you ask him, he’d always say he is sad. He loves to feel sad for other people to the point of being funny. It’s a mannerism of some sort that he can’t shake off. And that actually makes him the BIG GAY HEART.

We ate some really sweet cake on his birthday, played some songs, were introduced to some bunch of friends, mingled in small groups: there’s the dining table group, the porch group, the living room set group, the near-the-book-case-group, the small near-the-piano-group (which was my group), and the even smaller late-comers group. Then at 10 pm it was time to go home because I had to feed the 1 year old gogol.

Keith and I said we would make it a ritual to annually give alfredo a mix cd until we get tired of making one or until this cd technology disappears into oblivion but because alfredo got caught up in being a zarzuela director, I, being a japayuki mother to gogol, and keith being a major plumber I was only able to make a shortlist of about 10 songs to the next installment, supposed to be a 2008 mix CD, still left un-arranged and un-burned. So unready for reproduction. The set was supposed to be called LIFE IS PRETTY and would contain happier tracks. But the august (and everything after) activities were never repeated, as very usual of alfredo because he’s just plain ABNORMAL and doesn’t want any activity to come in regular intervals, more so this one group turn into some crazed cult-y clique. So it stopped and he never replied to my SMS and never answered my calls more so return them.

I would bump into him from time to time and he would scowl at me. That’s just him.

But I know he continues to adore me.

The third of the series of 3 was supposed to be like LIFE IS SO FUCKING AWESOME that sort of collection but up to now I still haven’t thought of any decent title or made any decent list of the possible songs to be included in the ONE HELL OF A MIX CD he’ll remember for the rest of his alopecia-c life. (Somebody once made a mix cd of me and entitled it JERILEE MASSIVE MUSIC MIX. It’s 12 gig worth of songs if it’s not really massive I don’t know what is).

So on the Lenten holiday I will make Vanessa a mix cd she’ll also remember for the rest of her life. Because that’s the only thing I’m really good at. One thing that I really mastered:

Making people feel good about themselves.

(Which I believe makes me a God then. Now, I should really stop doing this to myself).