Mixin' Memories

The Summer mix contest is the first and only office contest of it's type I've ever been involved in. I usually avoid these things like the plague, but I jumped at this one beacuse making mix tapes (and CDs) has been one of my favorite hobbies since 1988. I didn't keep a diary, so my music mixes were my main way of keeping a record of what was going on in my life and what was important to me at any given time. Now the songs didn't literally describe what was happening in my life (I'd have a really missed up life if they did), but I "encoded" each tape or CD with certain mental connections that I would remember each time I played the mix.
When I first heard about this competition, I had just finished a mix of new songs which I was very proud of and planned to enter unchanged. Somewhere along the way I got nervous and padded it with a bunch of songs that weren't as good as the original material. It scored poorly and I've disowned it, I no longer have a copy of or the playlist for my 2005 summer mix.
I consider my Summer 2006 mix to be my masterpiece. It was a Jazz/Soul compilation that worked on many levels. Each song dealt with some aspect of summer, and the sequence of the songs formed a love story. Tom called it "deep," Timmay called it "melancholy." Deep down, for me, it was about finding peace in a difficult situation. I thought maybe that idea would resonate with the other Adelphia employees who were all facing a potentially life-changing job loss.
My Summer 2007 mix was a much more optimistic affair. It predicted a summer road trip that I didn't really end up taking. I believe that had I come up with that mix for the 2006 competition it would have won.
I just finished 2008 a couple days ago. Can't say much except that I had come up with my first concept for this mix in mid-April. After lots of track-shuffling and indecision I decided to trash that concept and go in a completely different direction. This final mix is the result of a 4-day fit of inspiration. I don't even know what deeper meaning, if any, it has. I'll have a lot of fun over the next few weeks trying to figure that out.