June 30

You can pull out your Simon and Garfunkel, Johnny Cash, or Jeff Buckley for rip-your-heart-out fists-to-pillow crying when you miss someone so much. I go to an old folk song.


And I dreamed of a rose in a Spanish garden,
And I kissed you and placed it in your hair.
And, if I'm ever on my feet again, I will,
I will run all the way just to meet you there.


--A Rose In A Spanish Garden (or Last Letter Home)

a flag day mix

This isn’t a political, nationalistic playlist by intent. To that I say, "Schmolitics."

One can say it is patriotic or one can say it is about one badass seamstress or one can say it is simply homage to The Simpsons when Mr. Burn's fortune cookie said, “You will find true love on Flag Day.” That is reason enough for me.

Flagging Down Love: A Mixedtape.

Johnny Cash - Ragged Old Flag

Wilco - Ashes of American Flags

Cat Power - American Flag

The Housemartins - Flag Day

The English Beat - I am Your Flag

Poster Children - Flag

Cursive - Flags and Family

The Stills - Lola Stars and Stripes

Broken Social Scene - Capture the Flag

inspiration quote

"[M]aking a tape is like writing a letter — there's a lot of erasing and rethinking and starting again. A good compilation tape, like breaking up, is hard to do. You've got to kick off with a corker, to hold the attention (I started with "Got to Get You Off My Mind," but then realized that she might not get any further than track one, side one if I delivered what she wanted straightaway, so I buried it in the middle of side two), and then you've got to up it a notch, or cool it a notch..."

--Nick Hornby, High Fidelity