I just found 3 disks from the way back long ago CD swap. WHEE! ripping them in now.

I didn't get home from work 'til a half hour ago so I haven't hoisted yet. But I'm listening to Bayonics on KPFA right now..and OMG...a modren band I like! Kids I dig! I feel a little less like a cranky old lady right now...

Somebody swapped me "Bad Day" by Daniel Powter a couple months ago, and it quickly went into my regular 'favorites' rotation. Surprised as hell as anything to hear it playing on regular pop radio a couple days ago....

My mix has been sent to buffistarawk in convenient zip form and smaller bites. I also sent DX the updated list. Which is to say his mix plus notes for half of mine. I'll be in Boston working on a trial for the next couple weeks. If I have time to finish my notes there I will. If not I'll do it when I get back. See y'all on the flip side, as they said back in the day. Which day? THE day, punk!

Sorry about the job, David. Glad you're handling it well. I used to get fired a lot 'cause I'd let frustrations build up & then tell off the boss. I learned -- by which I mean I learned not to work for jerks. I'd probably still get canned if I worked for someone unreasonable. Here's something you & Spidra may or may not be interested in. Don't know anything about it except where it is & that it looks like good work. Came across it on alumni website. Sorry, I have no beneficial contact. Someone just saw it & passed it on.

Thanks, jb.

My mix is in the process of loading!

Joe, will you have any time to get together when you pass through Boston?

Joe, will you have any time to get together when you pass through Boston?

What Theo said.

Don't know yet, but if I do I'll let you know. I'm not the main paralegal, but I am the designated late shift. This week is set up. Trial starts a week from tomorrow if no settlement so this week will probably be hectic. This is my first one, though, so I don't know. (Not my first prep, first time on site.) Then again, all the others settled at the last minute -- in a couple cases first and last minutes overlapped: "Your honor, we can all go home; we've come to terms." -- so maybe I'll have next weekend. But as I said, I just don't know & will keep you updated.

My mix is all posted, no thanks to a slow internet, so yay!

Here is the track list:

1. The first song you'd put on a mix tape for somebody you were attracted to

"I Got Stung" by Elvis Presley and the Jordanaires. First, because it rocks like crazy, that if you only remembered the Elvis as a bloated, kind of sad guy that you'd never suspect he was this good -- but also because it's kind of a test, to see if the recipient of the mix got me and my headspace. And also, because it's such a great metaphor for infatuation and letting someone know that you're infatuated with them.

2. A song that makes you think of BTVS that was never used on the show

"Bad Girl" by the Zakary Thaks. If I had mad vidding skillz, I'd so make a Faith vid to this proto-punk classic by a band way way ahead of its mid-60s South Texas heyday: headlong, smooth and yet oddly thrashing, barely contained fury that colors not only outside the lines but all over the paper. It reminded me of "Louie, Louie" for a long time until I realized that it =was= that song, just sort of sideways.

3. Cross-genre cover song (such as a soul musician covering a country song)

"More, More, More Pt.1" by Babes in Toyland. Technically, I could claim this as at least a three-fer, since it's a) crossgen b) from a charity album (Spirit of '73, which supported access to legal abortion) and c) features cowbell. (I could probably shoehorn a couple other categories in if I really wanted to be creative. But why be greedy?)

But the song itself, one of the most stereotypical songs of the faults of the disco era -- yes, it was a vanity project for the girlfriend of a pornographer, who couldn't sing more than about five notes on key -- well, it was actually well-produced and fun, and in this cover, I find it reclaims the song for feminism. Plus, Babes in Toyland make fun music and feminism/humanism in general could use more fun, and dancing.

4. Quotes another song, either in the music or words – bonus points if by the same artist

"It Don't Come Easy" by Ringo Starr. You know "least talented Beatle" leaves an awful lot of room for a boatload of talent, and I often think that Starr is underappreciated for how well he sings, full of character and humor. I was originally going to use the original of this song, but through a misclick I downloaded this live performance from a VH1 special, and was charmed all over again.

Categorywise, this quotes from so many previous songs that I've lost count, so I should get some good 'bonus points' (much like No-Prizes) because how many of those songs was Mr. Starkey a part of?

5. Makes you want to get high, drunk, or, if it's your druthers, dizzy & giddy from spinning around in circles

"Little Green Bag", George Baker Selection. You know, I didn't know that this selection was featured on the Reservoir Dogs soundtrack until I went and looked up artwork for this song, which displeases me somewhat, because I discovered this song probably years before Quentin Tarantino did, and I'd like to get some cred for that.

But besides that, I really do occasionally spin around in circles to songs, and this is a prime example of what I'd spin to. Not to mention the getting high part, which I guess comes with the subject matter of the lyrics, and the generally trippiness of the rapid playing.

Note that I almost picked it for #6 as well, and as for #26, too. Especially because the band was Dutch, so whence comes the 'George' and the 'Baker', anyway?

6. Features a great bridge

"I'm Henry The VIII I Am" by Herman's Hermits. This isn't the version you might be familiar with, since I got it off a German 60s compilation. I'll assume therefore that it's what was the hit version there -- don't know much else about the provenance, if they had alternate members or what, but to tell you the truth I like this version plenty, especially the playing on the bridge which seems more assured than the familiar. Do miss the little off-key yelp, as though a musician was suddenly (continued...)

( continues...) surprised, in the original, but you can't have everything.

7. A song released the year you turned 21 (you didn't have to know about it then)

"Damaged Goods" by Gang of Four. I went by the years listed in my iTunes library, and unfortunately there's been a lot of slacking in the year listings in the database, I must say. So while I probably have plenty of songs that qualify, damnify can figure out which ones they are.

But really, looking among the small set of them all, I didn't grab a too obvious choice because a number of bands and songs are much better remembered, IMHO. And I just had to force myself to make a choice -- could have gone with ELO, whom I hated with the force of a thousand burning nuns at the time, or a disco song (ditto), or the English Beat whom I loved almost oppositely, but I've put them on my few previous mixes.

So, this one, which is both danceable and forlorn. Bono once said that this band was "a pimple on the arse of pop," which strikes me as the smartest thing he's ever said, possibly.

8. A song dedicated to your nemesis (or who you imagine your nemesis to be)

"Fuck You", The Headstones. I don't have anything like a formal nemesis, though there are a couple people that I'll go so far as to say they did me wrong, like the roommate who sneakily moved out in the middle of a weekend when I was away, to let me come back to find out she hadn't paid her share of the rent for three months as well as having taken money from me for the utilities ditto. Bad supervisors, people who stole things from me, who were unfairly nasty, who did deliberately nasty-verging-on-evil things to friends of mine. This is the song that I'd like to play for them all, I think, in lieu of being able to see them staked out on an anthill or whatever.

(This isn't really the song that I'd pick to introduce you to the Headstones, Hugh Dillon's long time band, but it's one that so well fitted this category, and I'd pretty much have to turn in my Hugh Loves Carrots badge if I didn't work his music into this mix a couple times. Just sing along with the chorus here, and reflect that you'll think every other song they do is much better, K?)

9. A song about committing a crime

"Lotion" by the Greenskeepers. I wibbled about various crimes, serious and not-so-serious, then finally this one came by on my regular rotation, and I was like, OH YEAH! Because, creeeeepy! And reusing dialogue from the book/movie, a great vocal performance, and oh yeah... creepy!

(This would also qualify for #24.)

10. A song from a tribute or charity album

"I Wanna Be With You" by The Sneetches with Shoes. I originally picked up Super Fantastic Mega Smash Hits! because it had a cut by Shadowy Men From a Shadowy Planet (see #11) and the thought of someone updating one of those old K-Tel albums sounded cool -- little did I know that it would have some of my favorite covers of all time.

(For a long time, I thought that The Sneetches were an instrumental band, with the Shoes as guest singers, but then I ran across the Dr. Suess book and dawn broke on Marblehead.)

Anyway, this song as reimagined as a singalong, is so sweet and heartfelt -- Eric Carmen, eat your heart out, seriously. Maybe I should have started my Frankenmix with this one!

11. A song with a year in the title

"You Spin Me Round 86" by Shadowy Men From a Shadowy Planet. One bad thing about coming to bat late in the mix challenge is that two other of the "year" songs I know and like have already been used, and for the longest time I couldn't come up with one -- so I literally had the CD for this in my hand as I was moving stuff when my eye fell on the song title, which I'd forgotten had a year legitimately appended to it, even though it was a 1990 CD.

I still can't tell if they put dance mats or dance wax on the floor before the crowd showed up, but whatever -- I'd dance too!

12. A song about traveling

"The Woo Woo Train" by The Valentines. I started out loving doo wop music early in my life, (continued...)