When was the last time you listened to a cassette tape? I was thinking to myself that cars don’t come with cassette decks anymore. Most stereo systems don’t either. In fact, if I wanted to listen to a tape in the car, I’d have to plug a Walkman into the aux input – retrofitting a modern system utilizing a method for retrofitting for an even more modern system.

Well, as I am an avid collector of music, you better believe that I never parted ways with my old tapes. I’ve still got a couple of cases full of them. Many are commercially pressed recordings, ranging from Deep Purple to Jimi Hendrix (during that horrible phase where the Hendrix estate lost control of his music and they started “remastering” studio outtakes by overdubbing studio musicians).

But of course, I also have a bunch of mixtapes.

I couldn’t let all this great music go to waste! So I went to Craigslist and found myself a boombox for 20 bucks. Has a CD player, tape deck, and even an aux input (so I can make tapes from my MP3s). Heaven.

Here’s a bizarre gem of a tape I created for my middle school band, 2000 Flushes. We used to make tapes so we could learn the tunes. And since we’d never learn all the tunes on a given tape, I’d throw on a bunch of other stuff. I admit the tracklist here is pretty random, but rest assured these are all good songs on some level. Or maybe that’s just my 14 year old self talking.

The phrase “Fuck this, I’m moving to Lebanon” was some kind of inside joke I had in middle school. I really have no good explanation. The sticker on the outside of the tape remained intact.

And just for posterity, here’s the tracklist:

Side A
The Descendents – I’m The One
Stealers Wheel – Stuck in the Middle With You
Smashing Pumpkins – Disarm
Vanilla Ice – Ice Ice Baby
Phish – Waste
Tool – Stinkfist
Spain – Untitled #1
Rage Against the Machine – People of the Sun
Elastica – Connection
The Jayhawks – Blue
The Jayhawks – I’d Run Away
Lenny Kravitz – Are You Gonna Go My Way?

Side B
Ben Folds Five – Julianne
Barenaked Ladies – If I Had $1000000
Blur – Song Number 2
Deee-Lite – Groove is in the Heart
The Offspring – Gone Away
Van Morrison – Wild Night
Jim Croce – Bad Bad Leroy Brown
Toad The Wet Sprocket – Walk on the Ocean (incorrectly labeled)
The Buggles – Video Killed the Radio Star
Soul Coughing – Super Bon Bon
Goldfinger – Here in My Bedroom
Cake – Rock & Roll Lifestyle
Semisonic – F.N.T.
The Refreshments – Banditos (cuts off)

100 years ago this wouldn’t have happened.  People had homes then.

I’ve recently come to realize, again, that I have no home.  When I was 18 I left for college like most of my generation (this is itself a seismic shift), and after I completed it, I moved elsewhere.  I grew up in Minnesota, and I still call it “home,” but in reality I haven’t been home in over 8 years.

I went to school in Boston.  I spent 7 years there, earning my two degrees from MIT, and then promptly set out for the complete opposite side of the country.  I moved to Los Angeles, somewhat on a whim, and managed to settle down (I’ve got a good job and a decent apartment, though I’m still trying to figure out how to live with my sister).  And my friends are no different.  Even friends who went to school in Minnesota left promptly after graduation, moving to major cities like Chicago, New York, and San Francisco.

I should stress that this is not unusual anymore.  The ability to communicate cheaply over long distances (indeed worldwide, and even beyond that) has deteriorated the sense of home, the sense of place.  And I don’t necessarily think that is a bad thing.  But my how life has changed since I was a kid.

I’m about to head “home” for the holidays, and reflecting on a year of decisions I’ve made, both good and bad, and places I’ve been, I can say that while I have no home I am often glad to be a citizen of the world.  The people I’ve met, far and wide, have shaped my life in some amazing ways.  And for that I am eternally grateful.

See you in the new year.

My family went to Las Vegas after Thanksgiving.  Apart from the traffic (7 hours to get from LV to LA) and the usual family bickering, it was a pretty fun trip.  Even got to see LOVE.  Here are some photos (all shot with my trusty Blackberry, so excuse the quality).

tequila lime pomegranate cranberry sauce

• 2 12oz packages cranberries
• 2 cups sugar
• 2 cups water
• 1 cup pomegranate juice
• seeds from 1 whole pomegranate
• shot of tequila
• squirt of lime juice
• optional: large can pears in water/juice (not syrup)

combine water and sugar in large saucepan (i use a nonstick wok), bring to boil, stirring until sugar fully dissolves.  add cranberries and return to boil.  add pomegranate juice, pomegranate seeds, and tequila, (optionally pears) and lower heat to simmer.  simmer until liquid has reduced about 1/4, or to whatever consistency you like.  mix in lime juice to taste, then cool in refrigerator overnight.  sauce will thicken in refrigerator.

give thanks.  makes enough to feed a small army.

I promise I won’t turn this blog into a Virgin America fanclub, but I just had to post this little gem.  As if my favorite airline weren’t awesome enough, they sent me this the other day:

On Nov. 22, Virgin America will launch its beta version of Gogo® in-flight Internet service during YouTube Live. Tune in at 5pm PT to watch the first-ever live, air-to-ground video-stream during the show. Check out youtube.com/virginamerica to see exclusive videos by some of YouTube’s biggest celebrities.
Virgin America will begin rolling out Gogo® internet service in late November, and will be the first U.S. carrier to offer fleet-wide in-flight wi-fi by Spring 2009.

How awesome is that?  The first airline to offer in-flight WiFi, and they’re debuting it by videoconferencing live during the big YouTube event this month.

Swoon.