The Mixed Tape

I just made two mixed tapes instead of reading for my Race and Violence class. Why? Because I am a horrible procrastinator. But also, because Mixed tapes are brilliant! They help you to say what you would want to if you could only find the words. To me they say "this is what I would be telling you if we were in a movie and I was playing guitar outside your window". A mixed tape can be the difference between a happy day or a sad day, a friend lost or a romance beginning.

And they are so much fun to make. The gift that just keeps on giving. I have recieved mixed tapes and then forgotten about them only to find months later that they were the best pieces of music I would ever hear. Mixed tapes can be meaningful and they can just be a bunch of really awesome songs. (You should make sure the reciever knows which! otherwise "i love you" songs might just be interpreted the wrong way.) The great thing about mixed tapes is that you can have so many different songs on one incredible cd. The best cds I've recieved have been full of songs I have never heard of and subsequently come to love! Once you think you have an idea of someone's music style, mixed tapes give you reign to run with it, to pick songs like it or by the same band.

To me, making a mixed tape is a long and personal process. I don't just put a bunch of random songs on a cd, I usually have a theme or at least a concept of what I want to cd to say. I recieved a cd once which had a poem hidden in the lyrics of each song. When you wrote down the 4th or 17th or 21st line of the song and then put it together with the rest, it was a message. Yours don't have to be as complicated as this! I would say though, that there are some important things to keep in mind when making your cd.

The TITLE! All good mixed tapes have a wicked awesome title. One that is going to tell the reciever exactly what they are getting. I often choose a lyric or title of one of the songs in the mix.

The FIRST SONG! Very important! The first song sets the tone for the rest of the cd. It is also what will hook the listener in. I'm sure we are all guilty of listening to the first song of an album and thinking "oh this is rubbish I won't bother listening to the rest". Not good. You want to hook them in right from the start.

The TRACKLIST! Order is everything! This is going against everything I believe (aka messiness!) but the order of songs on a mixed tape matters. If you are hiding secret messages in your mix, this is obviously even more important. I would say, always listen to the cd you are making before you burn it, to make sure the tracks fit together nicely. I also often put the same "types" of song together. For example, slower acoustic tracks together and then getting heavier as the cd progresses. Obviously, whatever you think is best, depending on if/what you are trying to say.

The FINAL SONG! Again, got to be a killer. You want the listener to be thinking, "man that was an awesome cd" by the end, not "it was ok in the middle but kinda ended crappy". I sometimes put one of my favourite songs at the end. However, you do run the risk of having it listened to less. Your call!

The COVER ART! Sure sometimes it's fine to give a cd in a plastic case of an old cd you just pulled the cover out of. But why not go all out? DEFINITELY make a tracklist and stick it somewhere inside the cover. There is nothing more annoying than not knowing what you're listening to! But you could make a front cover. Cut and stick pictures from magazines. I even made a whole booklet once. It becomes a real project, but when you're giving a mixed tape instead of a bought present then it shows you have put love, time and energy into it!

Ideas for themes: you probably have a fair idea of what you want your mixed cd to say, why your making it, who it's for, but here a few of my suggestions...

* Classics! I said earlier that mixed tapes often have new music on them, well this is true, but some of the best are filled with "memory songs". Ones that you (and the person recieving the cd) love.

* Love! Duh. There are about 10 million love songs out there. But pick the right ones. What genre? Which artist? LISTEN TO THE LYRICS. Lyrics can be soooo important. Sometimes it's beautiful music, but more often than not, the lyrics that you are hearing actually mean something. Especially, if it's a cd of love!

* New music. Does exactly what it says on the tin.

*Road trip cds! My favourite. Literally put on whatever is going to make the time pass more quickly. And that everyone can sing along to.

I recently made cds about: the future, change, missing someone, girl power, being happy, birthday, autumn...i also just finished one for my friend Christine which just has music I know she will love on it. Even if it doesn't have a specific theme, a mixed tape will let someone know you are thinking about them. The more effort you put in, the more it will show, and the more likely you are to get one back! And that's the point right? Sharing beautiful music. So go. Make. Listen. Love. Be happy!

(I also found this Colt 45 comic strip about mixed tapes. It's pretty awesome!)

Ladies Love Thyselves

Hello. Bonjour. Howdy. And what is up, bra???I have had the pleasure of a very busy week and as a result have failed mucho on the blogging sitch. That's the trouble with making your thoughts public, there is a whole bunch of pressure heaped onto you. To make it funny. Get it in on time. Make sure you are talking about what the kids wanna hear. Except that actually I don't care about the kids. Nice talk coming from a future teacher, I know.

Back on topic, I have actually provided a rather seamless link into the topic of the day: BODIES! (from blogging to pressure to bodies...seamless i tell you!) That's right ladies (and gentlemen) the time has come. Now I know that the world is concerned with the US election (go Obama) but I wish to talk about my own personal life changes right now. Changing the world is up there on my list of things to do, don't get me wrong. But in my lowly position as a Briton, there is not much I can do at this point. It is over to you guys!!! What I CAN do is change my own world. Pull a Barack and hold on to hope. Be the change I want to see in the world and other such cheesy nuggets of wisdom (apologies for crapping all over your cretto there Ghandi - my bad!). Cheese aside (my good god blasphemy! bring on the brie) it really is all about YOU. You cannot hope to do any good on the outside if you don't feel good on the inside...but I am getting off point. My somewhat self-indulgent rant gained momentum this week as I got nearer and nearer to getting my new super-amazing, ultra-expensive, miracle drugs! (Tomorrow!!!) I was thinking back, as I oh so love to do, laughing, cringing and crying about my life since I was about 9. This is how long I have been "sick". I put "sick" in inverted commas here because I don't actually think of myself as sick. I am happy and healthy for the most part. I don't have to stop doing things I want to do usually. Getting this new medication though, will, hopefully, mean that I won't have to add usuallies or for the most parts to the end of my sentences.

Anyway, where were we...ah yes memory lane. Lots of things have happened in my life, as I am sure they have in yours, in the past 13 years or so (my god that's a long time). As today's note is sponsered by the letter B, for bodies, this is what I'm going to focus on. Get ready for some shameless talk about my body. The weak of stomach need not read further. Ha. Here goes...I have been on and off medication since I was 9. I was a skinny gangly child as you can imagine (baby giraffes a go go) but then I hit 14 and bumper steriods meant I gained a whooooole bunch of weight. And then I came off them and skinned down. Then on and up and off and skin, up and phat. You get the picture. My weight has fluxuated for a long time now. This, I believe, is one of the reasons I have never really clung onto clothing and make up as a way of expressing my identity. My body has never been the same long enough for me to really do that. (It could also be the whole not knowing what my identity was thing but that is another question for another gay-centric day!) Whatever was going on I, like the other 95% of girls (and guys) going through their teenage years, was immensly conscious of what I looked like. That said, mine is not a sad story and although yeah it was tough, it wasn't such a big of a deal as it could have been. What is the point of this ramble then, I hear you ask? Well, dear reader, I guess it is about loving yourself. In fact the new title of this note is LOVE THYSELF. Body image is such a worry for so many people. Watching my beautiful baby sister grow up, it scares the beejeezus out of me that she is about to find herself in a world no longer concerned with how much fun you are having, but how good you look. It literally breaks my heart. What is wrong with the world??? In recent studies on body image in young girls, it has been shown that they would rather be friends with a person who was attractive and skinny than one that wasn't. The term attractive here means socially acceptable attractiveness. No individuals allowed. What is up with that logic??? Hello?? My friendship with you is not based on what you look like. It is probably based on you smiling at me one day. Or dancing with me in a crazy yet oh so endearing fashion. You are probably thinking, well Lucy maybe that is just because all your friends are attractive. Yes they bloody are! But I bet a lot of them don't think so. It is absolutely crazy to me that the happiness of a persons day can depend on their ability to look as well airbrushed as the women on the front of any random magazine. I don't ever want my sister to think that she can't go anywhere or do something because she doesn't look "right". Hell it's never held me back. Sure I'm self-conscious about things, but the best times in my life have probably been when I have put all those little "flaws" into the back of my mind and said fuck it, I am who I am and if you don't like it, too bad for you. I am an awesome person and if someone wants to judge me on how i look or behave, then I probably don't want to be friends with them anyway.

I DO understand that it is also about feeling comfortable with yourself. I just wish that people wouldn't be uncomfortable if they were a few pounds more than lindsay lohan. Fuck, i'm probably two lindsay lohans put together. At least 2 standing on top of each other. I love individuals. I really do. I went out last weekend and it was like clone clone clone clone clone. My god. In protest the individual in me broke out the drunken dance moves and probably made a fool of myself. Fool? Ha. I was having fun. Oh one of my favourite quotes: the amount of happiness in your life is directly correlated with the amount of silliness you allow into it. i know. i've done studies!!! Truth. Silliness and shamelessness. Guarantee you a good night. Warning: tangent approaching....Shamlessness! Not sure if it is really a word, but hey I'm in the business of making them up these days! I have realised that I am shameless. (That being said, would it actually be called shamelessness???) I think maybe it comes from a number of sources. Firstly, my family. Sharades is like the go to game in my family. My mum also promotes the feel the fear and do it anyway attitude. Even if the fear is fear of looking like a spanner. Secondly, I am unbelievably clumsy. I would spend my entire life apologising and hiding my red face if I did not laugh it all off. Thirdly, I have been in hospital. I have had to rely on other people for everything. You learn not to be embarassed when the entire ward including patients and their families are discussing whether you have been able to go to the bathroom or not. Oh yes. Fun city!!

In an attempt to bring the strands of this ramble together; I think that loving yourself and shamelessness often go hand in hand. Because I have been in the most inconvenient, uncomfortable, embarassing situations I am pretty much set up for life. Oh I am not saying that nothing will ever embarass and shame me again, I am not an especially lucky person (or I am very lucky depending on how you look at it), I am just ready for it. And plus I need to love myself. I am special. No one else is like me (in many ways haha). No one else is like you. Thank god ;) Like my homegirl christina says: you are beautiful in every single way. Oh she is so wise. Seriously. I wish I could make every single one of the people out there believe it. I feel like you're probably thinking sure Lucy, it's easy for you to say when you are a skinny mcskin. And a tall one at that. Firstly, being tall is not everything it's cracked up to be. It is one of the things I have come to accept and now embrace about myself. Sure I have days when I subtely crouch my legs to appear shorter, but then who doesn't??? Secondly, I WAS ILL. Is it not the craziest thing in the world to you, that when I came out of hospital after not being able to walk for a month, hardly eating, being ill etc and had lost like 2 stone, that I got compliments about how I looked. They were much appreciated of course, but it is absurd that being IMACIATED (cos that's what it was) is considered attractive. ????????? WHAT??? People please. Has the world gone mad? I'm glad people can still love me when I look like wednesday adams' chubby cousin, but I think it is clear that we all need to reconsider our outlook on attractiveness. Plus there are so many more important things going on in the world. Like toffee apples (yep still on it), pirating, messy bedrooms, upside down visors. You know the people that you wanna be friends with? The people that seem like they don't care. They're not worrying about how they look or if they're doing something wrong. They're just doing it. I just gravitate towards these people. They look like they're having so much fun. Having the confidence to be like these people, to be yourself, is half the battle of this life. Be confident in who you are. And if you're not quite yet. Then fake it. Soon you will even convince yourself. Pheeeew! I feel like I have just written a manifesto, but oh so less articulatly. Hey, it could be a manifesto though. Join me people. Put two fingers (or your middle finger if you are American) up to the world that says we have to be skinny and all look the same. Sign here and get your free badge and stick of gum. Oh and we could have a song. And a handshake. And maybe Kate Winslet could play me in the movie...While I sort that out you go off and love yourself. (not like that...oh hell it's late, why not!) For now, adios, bon chance, goodbye and see ya later. Yours unashamedly,Lucy Finnie xx

NB: I recently found out that there is a secret readership of this blog. You do not have to come forward and shout it loud and proud, it's ok. Just happy to know you're sharing in my insanity. This one is for you (man i'm such a rock star!) x