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Feb. 22, 2016
I was going through my old boxes of high school things the other day when I came across an old mixtape. , https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1v2eMiNl1Tz2W6w0n-ha43XrxxsRrzWw_OiK_ola-s6w/edit?usp=sharingRRachel, mMmy high school girlfriend, Rachel, made it for me near the end of our relationship. The tape brought back emotions both fond and bitter., so I wanted to take a moment andHere are my reflections on each song.
Escape (tThe Piñna Colada Song), Rupert Holmes
Rachel started the tape off with this song, because we lived the events narrated here exactly as chronicled by Rupert Holmes.
hird Eye Blind’s “Semi-Charmed Life“, played backwards at ½ speed, Third Eye Blind.
Rachel was always trying to get me to listen to Third Eye Blind’s seminal late 90’s hit backwards and at ½ speed, so that I could hear the backmasked track which clearly says “Hey there it’s me, Stephan Jenkins of Third Eye Blind. Have you ever thought about baking a big cake that says ‘“for Stephan Jenkins of Third Eye Blind‘” and leaving it on your porch during the full or waxing gibbous moon? Just something to consider. Anyway, enjoy the tunes!”
The sscreeching of hundreds of crows
Rachel put this on the mix–tape to remind me of the time I was attacked by hundreds of crows after I loudly praised the humble sparrow, the most hated enemy of the crow.
Richard III, Act 1, Scene 2, William Shakespeare
At this point, Rachel would pause the tape to act out the entirety of Richard III’s, second scene, in which Richard seduces the widow Anne over the body of her father-in-law, King Henry VI. The performance utilized a variety of costumes and voices and received generally positive notices in the trades.
John Zorn, “Happy Birthday,” John Zorn
A recording of experimental saxophonist and composer John Zorn reading me a personalized birthday message.
“Cum on Feel the Noize,” Quiet Riot
Rachel probably included this song because our shared love of noizes was one of the things that brough t us together. To this day, I think of her every time I hear a noize.
“Deutschland, Deutschland Über Alles,” August Heinrich Hoffmann von Fallersleben
Is there a millennial that hasn’t beendone some finger-banginged to this song?
