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Hey! What's That Playing in Your Boombox?

Ahhh...mixed tapes.  I still haven't gotten over my joy of the mixed tape since I last talked about it way back in July.

In today's high-tech world, the mixed tape has been replaced by iPods, iMixes, or condensed down to loading a few songs onto a memory stick.  It takes just moments, and hardly any thought.  Just click, click, save and bam!...you've got your song list.  But I ask you, where is the fun in that?

Gone are the blissful hours, and I mean hours, of making a mixed tape for that special someone or occasion.  No longer do we know the joy of being surrounded by stacks of CD albums, our legs going numb from sitting crossed-legged, as we sift through countless music covers, reading every title as we look for the perfect song.  The clash of plastic against plastic as we tossed the CD's into specified piles was music in and of itself!

My favorite part of the mixed tape process was all in the actual transfer from CD to tape.  I loved that you had to actually listen to evey song as you recorded it onto the 60 minute cassette tape, making sure you pressed the pause button as soon as the song's last note faded.  Timing was everything.  If you paused too soon, the last note would have a faint screech to it.  If you paused too late, you might catch the first strain of the next song.  I liked to have the perfect three seconds between each song.  That was long enough to catch your breath in order to belt out the next tune, but not so long that your mind started to wander away from the musical goodness.

Those were good times.  Now and days, I don't make mixed tapes.  I don't even own a stereo system with a tape deck in it anymore.  I've completely converted to the iTunes system, load the tunes on and just push play.  I no longer carefully plan my play lists, or write out the song titles in my best handwriting, decorating the plastic cassette player for a little extra flair.  I've done away with all of that for ease and speed.  A shame?  Yes, but what's a busy girl to do?

Well, according to our friends over at The BatRanch, it is still possible to recapture some of my mixed tape youth while still using the technology I have grown accustomed to.  How much fun is that?  I thought it only fitting that the music travel back to the 1990's as well.  Enjoy, and send me your own mixed tape.

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