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Mixed Tapes

There is this line from the movie "High Fidelity" that stayed with me "Now the making of a good compilation tape is a very subtle art. Many do's and don'ts. First of all, you're using someone else's poetry to express how you feel. This is a delicate thing." It is a lost art form that no one in the time of iPod shuffle has any use for.

I have many mixed tapes from the growing up years replete with memories. The most cherished of them being a gift from P. Extreme, juvenilia maybe but there was so much to read in the sequence and selection of music. It let me imagine everything that was unsaid in our four years together and its defining moments.

Being the discreet gentleman that P was there were no vocals, only classical instrumental music. I realized I was in love with him. He had used someone else's poetry with amazing effect.

As a parting gift he asked me for a collection of "music you love most". I agonized days and hours creating my ninety minute desert island mixed tape for him, music that he would always remember me by. Words would have failed me.

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