Mixtape

Tonight I made a mixtape for a boy. I’ve never done that before. I haven’t made a mixtape in years, and I’ve never made one for a guy I liked. I know it’s supposed to be this very delicate science or art form of selecting just the right songs to express just the right sentiment and arranging them so that they compliment each other. It’s kinda making me crazy. That and the nagging sense of the futility and desperation of sending a mixtape to a boy in Michigan who is at best not interested and at worst totally creeped out by me.

But I do like giving people things. I send odd little presents to boys when I have a crush on them. Like books of cowboy poetry. Once, I sent a guy an enormous length of red ribbon and a strip of black lace for Christmas. He’d told me he wanted to be tied up with red ribbon and blindfolded with black lace. I sent them, but sadly we never got to use them.

I guess I sort of have this persistent belief that you can win people’s affection with charming gifts. Essentially, they can be bribed, or failing that, badgered into falling in love with you. It’s a tactic that has rarely proved useful. And somewhere my red ribbon and cowboy poetry sit, neglected. I wonder if those boys still have them (although, come to think of it, I’m pretty sure the cowboy poetry was lost in a house fire). I wonder if they ever look at them and remember me, a weird, overzealous boy, whose efforts at quirky romance always ended up seeming kinda obsessive and creepy.

Here’s the playlist. What do you think?

Side A: Unnecessary Plastic Objects
Love at the Five and Dime – Nancy Griffith
Mary – Liz Phair
Shame – PJ Harvey
Y Control – the Yeah Yeah Yeahs
The Last Beat of My Heart – Siouxsie and the Banshees
Take on Me – Ah-ha
Wicked Game – H.I.M.
Rattlesnakes – Tori Amos
Napoleon – Ani Difranco
Just What I Needed – The Cars

Side B: Wildflowers
Wildflowers – Tom Petty
Too Far From Texas – Stevie Nicks + 1 Dixie Chick
Angry Johnny – Poe
Passin’ Me By – Pharcyde
Square Pegs – Pain
Season of the Witch – Hole
Signs of the Zodiac – Rasputina
Don't Fear the Reaper – (some random cover)
Superstar – Sonic Youth
Keep on Loving You – the Donnas
One Man Guy – Rufus Wainwright
If There is a Chance – the Cardigans