Thursday, June 10, 2010

Where do playlists go to die?

Q: When does an ego inflate to the point of being conceited?
A: I dunno, but I hope I'm not there yet.

I uncovered a picture from my youth:

If you happened to be my Facebook friend, and were looking at my "mobile uploads" during a specific 6 minute time frame last Saturday, you saw the uncensored version. I've been told I have an unhealthy positive opinion of pictures of myself. As soon as I saw the above picture I executed a classic, "Taking a picture of a picture" to digitally steal the image while keeping the original exactly where I found it.

A plan that didn't consider the intentions of others. In fact, I hope even the censored picture passes. There was another plan of mine that didn't go off very smoothly.

(This is not about the playoff exit of Kick Tan Laundry. Yes, my second effort in kickball ended with another first round playoff exit. But, to tell you the absolute truth, the season was a huge success for one reason: it was my last as captain. I found a willing successor to undertake all the aspects I no longer wanted. I got that team off the ground, and now it's going forward... Still with me at First Base, but thankfully without the coordination hassle. However, I don't intend to stop writing about Kickball... Coming soon, the third season of kickball: Come At Me Bro.)

No, the most recent failed plan involves a mixtape. I love mixtapes and nearly everything about them. A few years ago my friend was making a mixtape for a new Mother - and wanted to dip into my expertise of Mountie Rock to provide a couple suggestions. Instead of giving him a couple suggestions, I made him an entire "Lullaby" mixtape telling him that I wasn't going to miss another chance of crafting a playlist from scratch. That mixtape still remains an often listened to playlist on my iPod.

Here's the playlist - I took a screen shot to allow me to delete it entirely (but still giving me a file to go back to if I ever want to recreate it):

This playlist is titled "30 songs"
It is meant to be a song per year, without repeating artists, for the past 30 years. Exactly how do you know a playlist is bad?
  • Entirely too much time is spent debating the year "Never Gonna Give You Up" by Rick Astley belongs - nearly every "Best of 1988" list has it high, yet the iTunes music store has an album release date of 1987
  • There is no constant theme, a playlist looks as if it was selected by two different people (popular vs. unknown)
  • When the song title "Creep" becomes a label alongside track titles such as "I Think We're Alone Now"
  • It's too long for one Audio CD, which is only a problem if there is no clear "disc break"
  • You just plain don't want to listen to it
Back to the drawing board. I'm happy to report I'll be seeing My Morning Jacket in concert soon. My playlists will be updated to accommodate Jim James and my second favorite thing to come out of Louisville, Kentucky. (You all of course should know my favorite thing to come out of Louisville)