Tuesday, May 04, 2010

The Get Back Sessions

One of the many ways I'm not normal even amongst the abnormal: I still make mix tapes (well, CDs, but you get the idea). Sent off four mixes to a few friends early in April. Had another mailed out to a mix CD club I'm in (yeah, I'm that nerdtastic when it comes to music). Liked making that one as a friend and his wife let me use a recording of their baby's heartbeat in utero on the mix. Little Julien should be here by now since they went to the hospital last night. Brief tangent aside, I'm in the midst of two new mixes. One is themed around songs that make me instantly and almost unconsciously smile. Suppose you could call that a happy mix, but in my timey-wimey sidewalk slant. The second is themed on parkour, the art of movement. I like taking one kind of cultural product and building a new structure atop the founding idea(s).
That first mix though...it makes my heart and soul ache with joy. Who knew you could experience almost divine euphoria and still feel heartache? Or maybe that's the reason. The experience of awe leaving you with a desire to constantly bathe in that light. Imagine those first few moments of feeling true love. How your heart strains your ribs and chest. The lightness you feel--emotionally, spiritually, mentally. Clarity of thought, precision of movement. As if Rodin's statues leapt off their pedestals and began explaining the meaning of everything. That's what I'm capturing aurally. Nietzsche always did see music as the ultimate expression of the Dionysian. Sublime joy is what I'm after.