This post will be kind of long because on Monday we had a thunderstorm that took out the power for a couple hours. When the power came back on a few hours later, we unfortunately still had no phone so I haven’t been able to post for a while.

Monday the log guy came and deposited all of my dad’s firewood on the lawn outside of my window. It was pretty interesting to watch. The truck has this small crane thing with a giant metal claw at the end, which he uses to move the logs around like they ain’t no thing. It was more interesting watching the two men though. One was this skinny stereotypical white trash guy wearing a dirty backwards baseball cap with his mullet sticking out below it, a cheesy 70’s porn mustache, and an unlit cigarette that was stuck to his bottom lip the entire time he worked. After he was done, he threw out the old cigarette, got a new one and lit that one up. Meanwhile his fat partner watched, bored, until they were done and then drove the truck away.

Tuesday was a New CD Day; this time I got Global Underground’s new Danny Howell’s 24:7. It’s a damn good mix, but what was more interesting was the packaging. It was plastic like a normal jewel case, but it was an inch taller and the corners were rounded. It has this weird latch you have to press in to open it, and instead of having part of the jewel case that you can flip up to get at the second CD, the two CDs lay on top of each other on an extra large hub thing. It’s pretty crazy.

Anyway, on Saturday I will be going to Cape May for a week, so you won’t see any of my cheerful posts for a while. I do, however, plan on keeping a journal of my trip, which I will in turn post here for all to read. To give you a little taste of that, may I present to you:

——The Cape May Journal——

Cape May, for those who don’t know, is a small tourist town on the coastline at the southern most tip of New Jersey (the nice part of New Jersey!). Instead of nuclear waste dumps like the rest of Jersey, Cape May is surrounded by lots of unpoluted wildlife preserves. My family has been going there for vacation the last week of July for about 10+ years now. Although the first two years we went we actually spent in Cape May itself, since then we now rent a house in Cape May Point, which is a more residential family oriented area as opposed to the more commercial Cape May, which is filled with hotels, bed and breakfasts, and lots of tourist trap businesses and restaurants. We rented a different house each year until my mom found the one we’ve been going to for about the past three years, which is right on Lighthouse Drive and has a great view from the deck of both the lighthouse and a pond filled with birds that is part of a wildlife preserve across the road from us.

This journal is going to record my thoughts on our latest trip down to Jersey.

Day – 5 (Monday, July 21st)

(The Mix Tape)

Before any road trip, the first thing you need to do is create a mix tape. From my house to the south of Jersey it takes about six hours, so you are definitely going to need some good tunes for the road. I’ve been doing this for years for various different road trips and it never gets any easier to create a mix tape that everyone will love. Not only do I have to deal with the problem of my musical tastes being pretty different from everyone else’s and the normal problems involved in making a good mix tape, but also you have to deal with road noise from outside of the car, because sometimes the rumble of the roadway can really mess with how the sound on your tape turns out. So I’ve decided to write down some road mix tape guidelines to help you from making a dud of a mix tape.

Know your audience. When picking out songs for the mix tape, remember that everyone else in the car has to like your mix tape as much as you, or else after one listen no one is going to want to put it back into the car stereo. Be aware of the tastes of everyone you will be traveling with, and without giving up your own vision for the tape, try to cater to everyone’s favorite styles. How do you do this…?

Variety is the spice of life. It helps a lot if the person making the mix tape appreciates a wide variety of styles of music. If you only like one or two different genres, not only is your mix going to start sounding boring after a while, but you are going to alienate at least part of your listening audience. Try to pick out lots of different sounds for your mix tape, and then tie them together with a common theme. Make sure you don’t have too many quiet songs in a row without a couple fast ones thrown in for good measure. Use as many different bands as you have access to. Make sure the mix keeps moving and your audience keeps guessing what you’ll throw on next.

Be aware of how it will sound. Remember that you aren’t making this mix for someone wearing some headphones, but for a car on the highway. Keep real quiet songs to a minimum. Witness this blunder of mine: In making a Beatles mix tape a few years ago I added in Julia because it is my mom’s favorite song, and hell, pretty much everyone else’s too. The problem is that that song is extremely quiet. So much so that when it came on in the car no one could hear it over the sounds of the highway. If you pump up the volume to hear it, well then you have the problem that as soon as the next song comes on you are going to blow everyone out of their seats. Make sure everything is at the same volume level, unless you are the kind of person who likes to turn the volume up and down every other song.

Subtle doesn’t work. Usually the cooler you think you are being, the lamer your mix tape will sound. Long intros—got to go. Subtle shifts in melody—no one will hear them. Repetitive structures will bore your audience to tears. Keep everyone guessing but more importantly, keep the mix moving. Make sure the songs you select are short unless the melody in them changes often.

When in doubt, throw it out. Take a second to think before you throw on that new weird song you like. Try to think if it is a song that will be universally enjoyed. Try to imagine if it will sound good the tenth time that you’ve heard it on an already boring road trip. The last thing you need is for everyone to start moaning when that song comes on. Don’t try to be clever.

Keep it fun. This is the most important rule. Remember that after a while everyone is going to get really bored and want out of the car. Don’t make the trip any worse for them. Have fun making your mix, and make sure that everyone will HAVE fun listening to your mix, because the music is going to be what makes a lame road trip bearable.

Day – 4 (Tuesday, July 22nd)

Yesterday I made the following mix tape:

Side 1
Fantastic Plastic Machine – L’aventure Fantastique
Groove Armada – Groove is On
Rolling Stones – Miss You
Moloko – Familiar Feeling (Martin Buttrich Mix)
Jakatta – It Will Be
Ian Brown – F.E.A.R.
Junior Senior – Rhythm Bandits
Daft Punk – Digital Love
Beck – Nicotine & Gravy
Radiohead – Paranoid Android
Bent – So Long Without You

Side 2
Weezer – Tired of Sex
The Cardigans – For What it’s Worth
Mint Royale – Princess
Deftones – Be Quiet and Drive (Far Away)
Rage Against the Machine – Sleep Now in the Fire
Felix da Housecat – Madame Hollywood
Layo & Bushwacka! – Sleepy Language
Koop – Modal Mile
The Chemical Brothers – Out of Control
The Polyphonic Spree – Hanging Around
The Beatles – Hey Bulldog

Today I made this one:

Side 1

DJ Shadow – You Can’t Go Home Again
Guster – Amsterdam
Junior Senior – Chicks and Dicks
The Strokes – Is This It
Soul Coughing – Mr. Bitterness
Rolling Stones – Under My Thumb
Groove Armada – Easy
Moby –In My Heart
Bent – Beautiful Otherness
The Free Association – (I Wish I Had A) Wooden Heart
The Cardigans – Live and Learn

Side 2

The Seatbelts – Don’t Bother None
Sex Mob – You Only Live Twice
Propellerheads – Spybreak!
Pearl Jam – In My Tree
Mint Royale – Dancehall Places
Ivy – Blame it on Yourself
Radiohead – Everything in its Right Place
The Beatles – And I Love Her
Gorillaz – 19-2000
The White Stripes – Fell in Love with a Girl
Weezer – Buddy Holly
The Seatbelts – The Singing Sea

Hopefully they’ll go over well with everyone.