yearbooks and mix tapes

I didn't save anything from high school. I mean nothing. In fact the year before I came here I had big plans to burn my high school yearbooks. Well, that didn't work out, mainly because I really didn't have anywhere to burn them and I'm pretty respectful of things that are stronger than me - like the ocean and, in this case, fire. But I did make good use of the dumpster in my apartment's parking lot. So if anybody wrote anything cryptic that I was supposed to figure out a decade later - well its too bad. High school was painful and when it was over, well I wanted it OVER! The only real exception to the rule were the two mixed tapes my friend Mike made for me senior year. One was even in the tape player of my car on the night I left for South Africa. If I had known I was staying here, it would have been on the plane with me.

For anyone who doesn't have the slightest idea who Mike is, here are the important facts:
1. He has had a patch of silver hair near his forehead since birth,
2. He is deaf in one ear, and
3. Mike knows music. Seriously - he knows what is good months before anyone else has ever heard of them. He's never held on to one genre or another, but rather spreads himself across the wonderful.

I remember when I saw Mike in Illinois. It was late 1997. He played me the Verve's Bittersweet Symphony. Ok, I'd heard OF the Verve, but never listened to them. He made me listen to the song like 8 times. It was okay. I didn't hear it again for about another 6 or 7 months, when everyone else discovered the song. And only then did I listen to it properly. What an amazing song. I still love it, but really the point is - okay you got it already.

Thing is that, while I like my music - and now that I have an iPod, I treat it better than I treat my kids - and I like to think I've got pretty good taste in music, I'm with the masses. And Mike's one ear is way better than both of mine plus the ears of most of the people I know all wrapped together. Which is why I still had both of Mike's mix tapes long after high school, cause it took me damn near that long to realise how genius they really were.

So last night, I get an email from Mike that directs me to his summer 2006 mix that I can download. Despite the unbelievable internet restriction we have here in South Africa (see previous posts), I knew I had to get it. So I sent Mike an email that said "its winter here" - he replied, "haha, well, perhaps it will be a nice reminder of home. Let me know what you think..." Here's the problem, I won't be able to appreciate it for at least 6 months. I knew it when I downloaded it, I confirmed it when I listened to it for the first time today. Here's what I can say: I know I will love it forever when I understand it from beginning to end, which will take months of solid listening. This will make it summertime here - making the mix so much more appropriate and I'll still be about 3 decades ahead of the music listeners in South Africa. As for a nice reminder of home... do I ever think about anything else?