Mixology: Ito is Neato

Mixology is a recurring feature in which I take a look at one of the many mix tapes (or CDs) I made over the years. Some are better than others, but all of them are fun to revisit.

Ito is Neato (9/2/95)

It has been just over a year since the last installment of Mixology, mainly because I had run out of mixes to write about. But yesterday I was going through some old bins of stuff that had been stashed away in the attic eaves and sure enough, I found a few more tapes including this choice selection.

The name of the mix was an obvious reference to the judge in the infamous OJ Simpson murder trial, which was at its peak in September '95. A month later, the jury delivered the not guilty verdict that shocked many who felt Simpson was obviously the killer. The evidence was pretty overwhelming, but so was the terrible way the prosecution handled the case.

At any rate, it was a good time for me, albeit one that wouldn't last. I was about to give my notice at the newspaper for a writing position at the healthcare publishing company for which I still work, and was having a lot of fun in general. In the span of a few months, my girlfriend would dump me, I was having trouble adjusting to the new job and my dad's health would get progressively worse. But in early September, I was loving life.

I still dig every song on this tape, to varying degrees. By '95, the grunge explosion of the early '90s (and Kurt Cobain's subsequent death in '94) had begun to deliver its first wave of copycat acts that started to clog up rock radio: Stone Temple Pilots, Candlebox, Bush, et al really brought the suck. Fortunately, I had started branching out with more interesting artists like Morphine, Bjork, PJ Harvey, Elastica, Pavement and The Jayhawks. The original grunge acts still interested me, but what came after was fairly shitty. Fortunately, mixes like this helped me ignore that stuff.

Side A: Ito
Weird-out - Dandelion
Summer - Buffalo Tom
I'll Stick Around - Foo Fighters
Bed for the Scraping - Fugazi
Execution Style - Mudhoney
More Human Than Human - White Zombie
I'm Above - Mad Season
Ono Soul - Thurston Moore
Waydown - The Catherine Wheel
Act of Love - Neil Young and Pearl Jam
Eternal Life - Jeff Buckley
Serpentine Pad - Pavement

Side B: Neato
Army of Me - Bjork
Long Snake Moan - PJ Harvey
Shimmer - Throwing Muses
Super Baby - Matthew Sweet
Will - Kevin Salem
Din - Chris Whitley
I'd Run Away - The Jayhawks
Free Love - Morphine
Stutter - Elastica
Los Vargos - Green Apple Quick Step
X-Static - Foo Fighters
Trailer Park Girl - Dandelion

Slipping (Into Something)

So here we are in October, a month I've always enjoyed. The temps get a little crisper and cooler, the colors change. The days start getting shorter, which isn't as enjoyable. The Halloween hype starts earlier every year; some folks had already decorated their homes a few weeks ago. I've always been a big fan of Halloween, too, especially when I used to go to Halloween parties. Putting together a good costume is fun. Nowadays, it's all about the girls, but my office hosts a Halloween party for the employees' kids, so I usually slap a costume together for that. Not sure what I'm going to do this year. As with most things, it's decided very last minute.

Fall also means the start of the NHL season, at least for me. The season starts this weekend with four games in Europe: The Lightning and Rangers play two in Prague, while the Senators and Penguins play two in Stockholm. Then the rest of the games start next Thursday. My fantasy hockey draft is tomorrow night. I'm prepared for the Leafs to suck especially hard this year; they've dumped a lot of salary and captain Mats Sundin still hasn't decided if he's coming back, so they're assuming he isn't (seriously, make up your friggin' mind already, pal). There's an argument that they should just tank the season in order to get a high draft pick again, but it's hard for me to root for my team to lose.

The baseball playoffs are poised to end in four sweeps: The Red Sox, Rays, Dodgers and Phillies are all up 2-0 in the best-of-5 series. I tried to stay up and watch the Sox last night, but I was so tired from the week, I only made it to the 7th inning or so. I feel bad for Cubs fans, who felt like this was their big chance to get back to the World Series; the Cubs have stumbled badly so far and Manny Ramirez has just been mashing the ball for LA.

Pass the cider:

• It may be 13 years too late, but OJ Simpson was finally found guilty. Well, it was for armed robbery and kidnapping of some sports memorabilia dealers he thought was ripping him off last year, but at least it's something. Geez, you'd think the guy would be satisfied with getting away with the crime of the century (last century, anyway) and just live a quiet life out of the limelight. Guess he just likes the attention. He'll get plenty of attention where he's going for the rest of his life.
• So, like a lot of people, we watched the Biden-Palin debate Thursday night and it wasn't the unmitigated disaster I expected. She didn't freeze in the headlights or say something too stupid, and he didn't have any gaffes or get in attack dog mode. Of course, she didn't answer a lot of questions, preferring to focus on getting her folksy "hockey mom" vibe going, all the while keeping a grin plastered on her face and peppering her responses with phrases like "doggone it" and "you betcha." Biden tried to portray himself as a man of the people who goes to Home Depot and the local gas station all the time, but I'm not sure if anyone bought it. But he did hammer away at McCain repeatedly, rather than attack Palin, and that was smart. Now the focus turns back to the people who are actually running for president.
• Happy birthday to Fleetwood Mac's Lindsey Buckingham, who turned 59 yesterday. The man's a musical genius, but is seriously underrated in my opinion as both a songwriter and a guitarist.

Our Life is Not a Movie or Maybe

Word up. It's feeling kinda fall out there, with temps getting rather cool overnight. Although it's supposed to creep back up into the 80s later this week. I headed out for a 15-miler Saturday after we had some rain in the a.m. and then got caught in the second part of the storm front; I was fairly soaked by the time I got back. Oh, well.

Yesterday, I worked with the Striders at the Nahant 30K race, directing runners at the turnaround point in Lynn just after mile 16. It was a nice day, both for the runners and for me to stand in one spot for a couple of hours. It's a tough race, with all the hills in Nahant. By the time I saw those runners, a lot of them were looking pretty ragged. At least they didn't have to run in 80-degree temps like I did the two times I ran that race. That was just brutal.

Traversing the InterWeb:

• Man, if you got away with the crime of the (last) century, wouldn't you just go hide away on an island somewhere? Not if your name's OJ.
• Crazy week for the Patriots. Belichick is fined half a million and team $250,000 and the team loses its first-round draft pick, everyone speculates that the team's a fraud, and then the Pats come out last night and totally destroy the whiny San Diego Chargers, who looked like a Pop Warner team. It won't make the whispering and allegations go away, but it gave a definitive answer about how good the Pats are. Obviously, there was wrongdoing to gain a competitive advantage, but you still have to make the plays.
• Beware the escalator if you're wearing Crocs. If you don't know what Crocs are, they're those dayglo rubber clogs that plenty of kids (including mine) wear and even some adults. Apparently, there have been some nasty accidents where they've gotten caught in the teeth of escalators.