Comments on: MeFiSwap 2008

MeFiSwap 2008

carsonb — Mon, 10 Nov 2008 10:06:39 -0800

Hey, anybody wanna swap Muxtapes? ...Oh.
Well, how about another MeFi CD swap?

It's been a while since we've mailed each other shiny discs of mix, and I'm itching for that wonderful feeling at the mailbox. (Plus, thanks to AskMe my digital music collection is finally all in one place and organized!) So let's swap. Last year 'round this time ND¢ proposed a swap twisted to only include music from 2007 (The Best of 2007). I'd like to go back to a free-for-all this time around. Swappers have been consistently impressive over the years when coming up with their own mix themes, and I figure Best of 2008 is still applicable if you want; it's just not required. Send the music you're listening to, and the music you love. A couple of questions come up every time. Who's organizing? I would be happy to, though I can't promise Dreama-level organization. I'll probably just keep track of everything on paper and email swap sets out. Sets are ideally six people big (everyone sends out 5 discs). International swappers will probably be mailing to the USA. I'm kind of excited about organizing this, having participated over the past 5 or 6 years, but if anyone else has a burning desire to step up and put everything together, that's fine. What do I send? Generally I've received single CD mixes in slimline jewel cases. Liner notes have ranged from nothing at all through single-page hand-written tracklist all the way to elaborately designed liner booklets. They usually come in padded mailers. Can we trade tapes instead of CDs? It's a CD swap. I suppose if five or six people pipe up wanting to trade tapes they could be a separate group, but I'd prefer we stick to burned CDs. What about digital mixes? Why don't we just leave the dirty, expensive hassle of snail mail and send each other archive folders? My main reason for wanting to keep it dirty is sentimental: I love getting mail. Even more, I love getting mail with music CDs inside. One thing that worked really well last year was to have a follow-up thread where everyone who mailed discs posted their tracklists and maybe a link to that downloadable archive of the mix. People who don't want to (or can't) swap via mail can still join in at the end. How come I didn't get mixes from everybody in my group? It happens sometimes, for whatever reason, that not all the mixes make it out. It's sad, it's disappointing, and it's a risk you take by participating. People flake, forget, or simply can't get life out of the way long enough to mail strangers music. So I'm doing a cursory reading back through old swap threads; as usual the people who didn't send out mixes after saying they would in the past won't be in this swap. Is there a deadline? I suggest a couple deadlines. First, swap sets will be determined and mailed out by December 1st. That leaves 3 weeks for interested parties to sign up. Then how about January 20th, Inauguration Day, for a mailing deadline? That give about a month and a half to get 'em together and out into the world. This looks like the longest thing I've written on MeFi, so I'll stop now. Suggestions? Still interested? Who's up for some new music?

By: carsonb

carsonb — Mon, 10 Nov 2008 10:07:09 -0800

Oh yeah, email me if you want to participate.

tediseasy asperand gmail dot com

By: carsonb

carsonb — Mon, 10 Nov 2008 10:08:57 -0800

Heh, email me your mailing address if you want to participate.
If you're willing to help even swap sets out by being in 2 (or more) lemme know about that too, please.

By: Plutor

Plutor — Mon, 10 Nov 2008 10:34:17 -0800

We did a free-for-all just six months ago. Not sure I'm ready for another round of this.

By: carsonb

carsonb — Mon, 10 Nov 2008 11:13:06 -0800

MeFiSwap Winter 2008!

By: Slack-a-gogo

Slack-a-gogo — Mon, 10 Nov 2008 11:20:37 -0800

I'm always up for some good old fashioned mix-in-the-mail action. I try to never pass up an opportunity for a mix disc.

By: thivaia

thivaia — Mon, 10 Nov 2008 11:24:49 -0800

I'm in again.

By: carbide

carbide — Mon, 10 Nov 2008 11:29:05 -0800

If there's a group tolerant of posting to Foreign, I'm in.

By: EmpressCallipygos

EmpressCallipygos — Mon, 10 Nov 2008 11:57:55 -0800

So this is just "I get a mailing address, I mail someone a CD with whatever I want to put on it, someone else gets my mailing address and does the same?"

Cool, I'm in.

By: carsonb

carsonb — Mon, 10 Nov 2008 12:00:08 -0800

"I get a mailing address, I mail someone a CD with whatever I want to put on it, someone else gets my mailing address and does the same?"

Sort of. Traditionally participants are broken down into swapsets of 5 or 6 people. You get 4 or 5 mailing address, make and mail 4 or 5 copies of your mix, and get 4 or 5 different mixes in return.

By: PhatLobley

PhatLobley — Mon, 10 Nov 2008 12:04:42 -0800

I'm ready.

By: Dr-Baa

Dr-Baa — Mon, 10 Nov 2008 12:19:40 -0800

I'm totally in for this. Sounds like fun!

By: klangklangston

klangklangston — Mon, 10 Nov 2008 12:23:09 -0800

Can I just make, like, five or six copies and give them to you?

Organization is my downfall.

By: god hates math

god hates math — Mon, 10 Nov 2008 12:23:59 -0800

Sure, why the heck not. I'm in.

By: owtytrof

owtytrof — Mon, 10 Nov 2008 12:28:45 -0800

If I can remember to email you my physical address when I have access to my personal email account, I'll gladly participate. This sounds like fun!

By: PercussivePaul

PercussivePaul — Mon, 10 Nov 2008 12:48:32 -0800

In, except I feel like the last one was kind of soon and I haven't discovered enough awesome music since then, so I might end up repeating myself a bit... hopefully not to the same people.

If you don't like CDs, mail a memory stick. Someone did that once, it was pretty hip.

By: ND¢

ND¢ — Mon, 10 Nov 2008 13:05:33 -0800

I think that we can all agree that the Best of 2007 swap that ND¢ ran was awesome and the limits on the music people could choose were in no way oppressive and that guy is great and handsome too.

By: carsonb

carsonb — Mon, 10 Nov 2008 13:09:28 -0800

Yes we can!

By: patricio

patricio — Mon, 10 Nov 2008 14:59:31 -0800

I'm still hanging my head in shame for failing to come through with my mix two years ago, but would like a chance to redeem myself...

By: not_on_display

not_on_display — Mon, 10 Nov 2008 15:11:30 -0800

I am up for it, but I'd have trouble keeping it to "only things that came out in 2008," as I don't keep up with trends or new releases, and I get most of my music from the local library. And my lawn has a warning telling you kids to stay the fuck off! But yeah, I'm in!

By: batmonkey

batmonkey — Mon, 10 Nov 2008 15:21:01 -0800

I'm in & am in a similar boat to not_on_display.

By: grapefruitmoon

grapefruitmoon — Mon, 10 Nov 2008 15:30:11 -0800

Oh man, finally I get to one of these before it's TOO LATE!

By: grapefruitmoon

grapefruitmoon — Mon, 10 Nov 2008 15:30:59 -0800

(And there's no way I can limit myself to "Best of '08" - I live under a rock. It's a nice rock, but the pony express doesn't deliver "new" music all that often.)

By: sciurus

sciurus — Mon, 10 Nov 2008 15:51:16 -0800

I still haven't gotten CDs from [NOT-HERMITOS-IST] and pointystick from the last swap.

By: bjgeiger

bjgeiger — Mon, 10 Nov 2008 15:57:39 -0800

Having never played before, I have a question. What format? mp3 or cd or other?

By: seawallrunner

seawallrunner — Mon, 10 Nov 2008 16:04:59 -0800

I would love to participate again! Count me in carsonb.

By: heeeraldo

heeeraldo — Mon, 10 Nov 2008 16:49:39 -0800

I have an opentape; it lives here.

By: dirtdirt

dirtdirt — Mon, 10 Nov 2008 17:36:09 -0800

I've got my Christopher Cross b-sides warmed up and I am IN!

By: Ambrosia Voyeur

Ambrosia Voyeur — Mon, 10 Nov 2008 18:45:58 -0800

So, when you group us up, group me with people who like ridiculous music, okay? In that case, I'm in.

By: eclectist

eclectist — Mon, 10 Nov 2008 18:54:06 -0800

Sounds like a blast, and I had no idea that such a thing had been done before (I really need to pay attention around here...)

By: The Ardship of Cambry

The Ardship of Cambry — Mon, 10 Nov 2008 19:05:27 -0800

I'm in, and certainly wouldn't mind sending something to poor lonely carbide (or whoever).

By: Kattullus

Kattullus — Mon, 10 Nov 2008 19:24:48 -0800

In! Just finishing the touches to a couple of mixes for friends right as I type this* so I'm mix-project less in the near-future.

* Score! The Ruby Suns segued into Syd Barrett without being jarring! Now the opening flows into the middle.

By: Lush

Lush — Tue, 11 Nov 2008 01:46:33 -0800

Count me in! I'm hungry for some new music, and with Muxtape gone, I only have blip.fm to fill the void.

By: kyleg

kyleg — Tue, 11 Nov 2008 05:24:30 -0800

The Best of 2007 swap that ND¢ ran was awesome and the limits on the music people could choose were in no way oppressive and... hey, I see what you did there! Actually I had tons of fun making that mix, and some of the ones I got back were really cool. I'll probably continue with a best of '08 since I haven't fully repopulated my hard drive from the latest catastrophic failure and have mostly new music on it. But if other people want to send me good songs from other years, I'm all for it.

By: elmono

elmono — Tue, 11 Nov 2008 08:21:38 -0800

I'm in.

By: hydrophonic

hydrophonic — Tue, 11 Nov 2008 09:49:33 -0800

I'm in!

I think limits are good stimulus for creativity, so I'd encourage you all to pick a theme and stick to it. My theme this time will be science fiction.

By: Dr-Baa

Dr-Baa — Tue, 11 Nov 2008 09:53:52 -0800

My theme is "MUSIC I LISTEN TO."

By: dirtdirt

dirtdirt — Tue, 11 Nov 2008 12:04:39 -0800

My theme will be songs that have both the words "Afternoon" and "Delight" in the title.

And yet are not "Afternoon Delight".

By: quin

quin — Tue, 11 Nov 2008 12:44:13 -0800

I missed the last couple of these, and I've been looking forward to subjecting you poor bastards to the nightmare musical medley of awesome that I listen to when I drive, so I'm in.

I apologize in advance for what it will do to you.

By: jermsplan

jermsplan — Tue, 11 Nov 2008 12:48:37 -0800

I'll do it again. who likes songs from video game soundtracks?

bjgeiger, audio cd format so that it plays in any old cd player has been the format in past swaps, i'd assume the same in this one.

By: immlass

immlass — Tue, 11 Nov 2008 13:04:08 -0800

I'm in, and thanks for organizing!

By: aubilenon

aubilenon — Tue, 11 Nov 2008 13:09:19 -0800

Count me up!

By: mkim

mkim — Tue, 11 Nov 2008 17:00:07 -0800

Yes, please! Count me in.

By: kerning

kerning — Tue, 11 Nov 2008 17:04:54 -0800

I've always wanted to participate in one of these. I'm in.

By: bjgeiger

bjgeiger — Tue, 11 Nov 2008 17:22:18 -0800

Thank you, jermsplan. Count me in please.

By: carsonb

carsonb — Tue, 11 Nov 2008 17:42:47 -0800

Excellent. Everyone so far who has contacted me with their mailing address is counted in. To be clear, those of you who have piped up in this thread but not sent me your mailing address (or heard from me otherwise) are not yet counted in.
In this our age of fear I feel I should mention that I will not use, sell, or give away any personal information submitted to me (including but not limited to name, email address, or mailing address) outside of the intended purpose of giving it to the members of your swapset so they can send you mixes. Please feel free to email or MeMail me with any questions or concerns you may have.

By: elfgirl

elfgirl — Tue, 11 Nov 2008 18:06:18 -0800

In--love inflicting my musical taste on unsuspecting folk.

By: Miss Otis' Egrets

Miss Otis' Egrets — Tue, 11 Nov 2008 18:12:08 -0800

ooh! Me too. That sounds like fun.

By: _dario

_dario — Tue, 11 Nov 2008 18:55:20 -0800

Count me in!

By: Kattullus

Kattullus — Tue, 11 Nov 2008 21:42:25 -0800

Yeah... I can't remember what music I got hepped to this year or sometime before... I probably won't be able to do a "music of 2008" theme unless it's something like "music that's mattered a lot to me this year" in which case about 3/4 would be actual songs that mattered to me this year and a quarter would be songs that I'd claim did so that the mix would flow better.

Yes! Animal Collective sequences beautifully with Caetano Veloso... the mix is ready... provided that no glitches or jars reveal themselves on the last listen-through... shit's gotta cohere!

By: the_very_hungry_caterpillar

the_very_hungry_caterpillar — Wed, 12 Nov 2008 14:00:19 -0800

count me in (1,2,3,4)

By: bonobo

bonobo — Wed, 12 Nov 2008 18:03:43 -0800

Yes!

By: otolith

otolith — Wed, 12 Nov 2008 18:08:25 -0800

Where mix CDs are, there, too, you will also find me. My theme will be "pudding hats."

By: hydrophonic

hydrophonic — Wed, 12 Nov 2008 19:31:28 -0800

carsonb, please put me in otolith's swapset. Thanks.

By: carsonb

carsonb — Wed, 12 Nov 2008 23:36:10 -0800

Alrighty, now that this is off the front page the signups should slow down a bit. If you're down here and wondering if you can still participate, the answer is you betcha! Just email me your mailing address and promise me against your eternal soul you intend to mail out and not flake out on your swapmates.

I'll be sending out swapset assignments on December 1st, so unless you come correct the night before with ~~crazy~~ numerous stipulations to what you can and can't do it shouldn't be a problem to fit you in.

If you're counted in (see my last comment) you're good to go. There will be an email similar to this note tomorrow, then you probably won't hear from me until 12/1. After the swapset assignments go out, you'll have until January 20th to get your mixes in the mail. I've always procrastinated with these swaps, so I can say with confidence this time that the sooner you finish and mail out, the better.

We have a great turnout, and I'm excited to get started. Happy mixing!

By: arcticwoman

arcticwoman — Thu, 13 Nov 2008 11:38:44 -0800

I'm in!

By: cereselle

cereselle — Thu, 13 Nov 2008 12:49:24 -0800

I'm so there. Emailing my address now.

My theme is "Cool songs from uncool bands." There will be Hanson. You have been warned.

By: grapefruitmoon

grapefruitmoon — Thu, 13 Nov 2008 14:22:34 -0800

I've serendipitiously come up with a mix based on songs that have come up in posts on MeFi. There is some filler material, but it's mostly a MeFi themed mix. I'm pretty thrilled with it.

I'll post the tracklist after the swap is over!

By: grapefruitmoon

grapefruitmoon — Thu, 13 Nov 2008 14:22:51 -0800

(It's even a GOOD mix!)

By: klausness

klausness — Thu, 13 Nov 2008 15:50:29 -0800

OK, I'm in, too. This time I'll actually try to send mine on time. Though if I'm late again (which I have an unfortunate tendency to be), I'll probably feel guilty about it and include a copy of a previous mefi mix CD I've made...

By: exceptinsects

exceptinsects — Fri, 14 Nov 2008 13:02:52 -0800

me too me too

By: defenestration

defenestration — Fri, 14 Nov 2008 13:40:10 -0800

Enjoyed the hell out of it last time... Swapset Forte represent.

I'm in.

By: Kattullus

Kattullus — Fri, 14 Nov 2008 21:04:50 -0800

Swapset Forte hellzyeah!

By: Ambrosia Voyeur

Ambrosia Voyeur — Thu, 20 Nov 2008 13:17:09 -0800

NO RICKROLLING

By: not_on_display

not_on_display — Sun, 30 Nov 2008 21:15:55 -0800

NO RICKROLLING
Dammit, that was my whole 26 songs, right there! Now what?!

By: carsonb

carsonb — Sun, 30 Nov 2008 21:33:48 -0800

Alrighty, swapset assignments are out. Whew. I probably made that a lot more convoluted than it needed to be. If I fucked up somewhere (address, preference, etc.), please let me know (discreetly?) and we'll work it out.

Signups are closed.

The mailing deadline is over a month away, January 20th. Don't be that user.

If you're still interested but not signed up yet, there may be one (1) spot open. Email.

By: fizzix

fizzix — Tue, 02 Dec 2008 17:08:48 -0800

I noticed that the swapset that i'm in has 'Wyld Stallyns' named. Are we supposed to follow that theme for our swapset ? do we interpret that however we'd like ?

By: grapefruitmoon

grapefruitmoon — Tue, 02 Dec 2008 17:14:00 -0800

fizzix: I'm in the same set, and I (as previously mentioned) already made my mix... I dunno how wyld or stallyn-y it is, but I hope it at least meets with approval.

By: carsonb

carsonb — Wed, 03 Dec 2008 02:13:59 -0800

No, mix themes are at your discretion. I just picked a bunch of fake band names from books and movies I like for the swapsets. Though if anyone wants to theme their mix on "Kathleen Turner Overdrive" that'd be sweet.

...
SAN DIMAS HIGH SCHOOL FOOTBALL RULES!

By: hydrophonic

hydrophonic — Wed, 03 Dec 2008 04:56:40 -0800

No, mix themes are at your discretion.

Hear that? My cohorts and I in the Heaven 17 swapset just breathed a sigh of relief.

By: carsonb

carsonb — Wed, 03 Dec 2008 08:23:26 -0800

This from the pudding hat fanboi.

By: dirtdirt

dirtdirt — Wed, 03 Dec 2008 12:14:48 -0800

Swanky Modes win the best group name contest.

By: quin

quin — Wed, 03 Dec 2008 14:23:29 -0800

And it's from the movie with the best sobriety test ever:

Close your eyes, Now recite the alphabet backwards skipping the vowels and give the appropriate hand sign for each letter.

(Followed immediately by a clearly inebriated John Cusack and Tim Robbins doing this in sync, perfectly is a great moment in the movie.)

By: dirtdirt

dirtdirt — Wed, 03 Dec 2008 15:53:40 -0800

AND it has Jello Biafra playing an FBI agent who arrests the heroes and, when they say something like , "You can't do this!", Jello says, "Shut up! Remember what we did to Jello Biafra?"