I’ve been back in my hometown for a few days; staying in my old room. While poking around, I found a lot of my old mix CDs that I had made back in high school. I remember when I first got my Apple “Quicksilver”. I was so excited to have a CD burner. A mix for every state of mind, every major event, holiday and new semester.
This particular mix was for an event that was held towards the end of my junior year of high school. A few of my friends had put together a faux elite society, much like a college sorority or fraternity. Unlike a true Greek organization where tradition precedes all actions, nothing was ever taken seriously. There were no meetings and no roster. Come to think of it, I don’t even think it was a legitimately registered extracurricular club. All that aside, somehow we convinced the cafeteria staff to let us use two of their tapped water coolers for a “club event”. We brought the coolers (filled with lemonade and fruit juice) out to the main yard of the campus along with plenty of Solo cups. We then convinced an upperclassman to let us use his guitar amps in order to get our playlist heard all across the school property. Three extension cords later and a little bit of sweet talking to the maintenance staff, we were in business. With the first note of the first song, excitement rose among us and soon more and more students came out of their dorm rooms to join the “Kegger”. A few of the seniors looked on in disgust as we ran around the yard with our lemonade, blowing off the steam that had been building all school year. The anticipation of finally becoming a senior along with each of our own personal frustrations were all manifest in our feral response to the music. Looking back on the situation, I don’t even know how we escaped the reach of formal discipline.
So in honor of the rediscovery of old favorites, I present to you this mix. One of the great things about this playlist is that it represents not just me, but all of my closest friends at the time. We all contributed our tastes and styles to this list. I can still remember the arguments about adding yet another Desaparecidos track. While we may have broken the rules of mix tape composition, it still sounded good…well, to us at least.
Kegger! – circa Spring 2003
1. Possum Kingdom | The Toadies
2. Pattern Against User | At The Drive-In
3. High Seas | The Detachment Kit
4. Mañana | Desaparecidos
5. Paper Thin Walls | Modest Mouse
6. Here Comes Your Man | Pixies
7. Greater Omaha | Desaparecidos
8. My Other Car Is a Spaceship | Commander Venus
9. Today | Smashing Pumpkins
10. …1988 | Ozma
11. Last Dance With Mary-Jane | Tom Petty and The Heartbreakers
12. The Great Decay | Cursive
13. G Turns to D | Sloan
14. All Night Diner | Modest Mouse
15. Myxamatosis | Radiohead
16. One Too Many Blows To the Head | Dismemberment Plan
17. Ego Tripping At the Gates of Hell | Flaming Lips
18. Fuck You Aurora | Alkaline Trio
After several hours of the airport lifestyle, I hope to be in Regina, SK by tomorrow evening. Why am I subjecting myself to international flight connections, customs officers and baggage checking (and rechecking)? Well you see there is a certain equestrian event that I am taking part in called the Canadian Nationals. Along with the Scottsdale Arabian Horse Show and U.S. Nationals, the Canadian show makes up the “Triple Crown” of Arabian horse competitions. I’ll be showing my Half-Arabian “Pink” (her other half is Quarter Horse…don’t get too confused by all the fractions) in both the reining and working cow.
