I grew up in a house where the best part of life revolved around the record player, and came of age at a time when the truest form of affection was to make someone an actual, physical mixtape. When I went off to college, I plugged away at my social science double major all day, and DJ-ed and danced with my friends all night. That was a good wee while ago now, but that dynamic continues - I spend my days reading and writing about heavy stuff, and the sheer joy I take from my tunes keeps me afloat.
This is an experiment in sharing that joy - in doing something for the sheer fun of it. I’m always making little playlists in my head, and so the aim here is to actually put them together on Spotify, and send them out into the world. Obviously, I hope others will share my enthusiasm for my favourites, but I’m also hoping you’ll share yours in return.
My cassette tapes are long gone. But you know what? A memo card has nearly exactly the same pocket-sized dimensions. And I have a stack of those with me at all times. So that is the one constraint; the playlists will vary in theme from week to week, but they have to be short enough to fit on one card. Which means only about nine songs or so a pop (or up to eighteen if I do double-sided). I like this constraint because it’s about the number of tracks you’d get on an album. It keeps things focused, and digestible. And at last unifies my great loves of stationary and singalongs.
