Indulgence
Going back a few years ago before I met the current BF, I had a spectacularly bad breakup with the Bastard Ex who had put me through a very difficult time, including mind games and what else.

After the break up, I used to sit around in the kitchen with my German and Small flatmates, smoking joints and cigarettes and drinking lots of cheap wine, bemoaning the fact that we'd never find true love. We used to listen to Heart 106.2 and loved it when the heart wrenching power ballards came on.

After a number of these evenings, we decided to come up with the mother of all break up compilations, and each went away with our own lists and a few days later the German comes down with her music on a USB key. I plug it into iTunes, and then copy it into a folder where I've already dragged my selection in. Most of the tracks aren't named, and are called generic Track 01, Track 02 etc so I don't think much of it. Then once its all done I burn her a copy and label it on my iPod as Indulgence.

A few days later as I'm walking into Uni, I stick the playlist on. After a couple of the goodies (Nothing Compares 2U, Against all odds etc) a track comes on with a bit of interference. Thinking it might be a pirate version I turn the volume up, nothing.

I fast forward a few seconds, still nothing, so I fast forward it a bit more and suddenly through the headphones I hear ' SCHNELL, JAH JAH JAH JAH... NEIN NEIN NEIN...' and it was the German having it off with her boyfriend, and the sound of the headboard banging against the wall. To make things worse, it was muffled slightly to when I remembered having been recording this with Small flatmate one evening when we were particularly drunk, and you could hear our stifled giggles and muttering while 'JAH JAH JAH' was going 'NEIN NEIN NEIN' on behind 'OH MEIN GOTT, MEIN GOTT' doors...

Ashen faced, I quickly skipped to the next track, and it was a contribution from the German and it was (wait for it) David Hasselfuckinghoff singing a cover of Always on My Mind.

Later that evening, the German came back and immediately came up to me and said, 'Zat vas not fery indulgent for you, vas it?'

We both bust out laughing and all was forgiven.

Length? About 5 mins 23 secs long including the silence at the beginning.
(Marmoset Bored bored bored of cnuting revision..., Thu 7 Feb 2008, 16:49, 2 replies)

Off Topic
Has anyone ever heard of Brewers Boost?
(Fuckarma was masturbating into your handbag, Thu 7 Feb 2008, 16:45, 2 replies)

I was given a mixtape...
When I was about 15. Amazingly, I was given this tape by a girl. (And, if you knew what my face was like, you'd understand why it's amazing!)

Sadly though, the tape was crap.

Not the quality of the tape, but the songs she'd put on it, it included...

Stan Ridgeway - Camouflage (a worrying tale of dead US Marine who comes back from the dead)

Moonlight Shadow (the Mike Oldfied tune)

To name but two of the random tune of immense depression.

Call me shallow, and despite the fact I didn't fancy her whatsoever, and the fact my mates all took the piss out of me for being the object of her affection - I still met up with her on a number of occasions for some 'snogging'.

We didn't last though - she was a mentalist.

Proper nutter.

Hang on, having read this QOTW properly, my answer doesn't answer the question.

Sorry.

Mullered.
( JeffTheDogFucker Can you dig it?, Thu 7 Feb 2008, 16:41, 1 reply)

I don't and never have sent mix tapes
Instead I send homemade porn...well (calm down at the back there!) the written variety.

Sometimes it's not openly porn, but rather a little more literary (as I am rather pretentious at the best of times).

Here's a short selection of a bit I sent to a variety of male friends for their opinions....



********

I smell the peaches I bought earlier. I take a clean sharp knife and press it into the delicate furred skin; it yields easily and a clear pearl of juice runs down the curved face of the fruit. I can feel the hard knotted centre; I run the blade around this until I have parted all the flesh. I gently pull one half of the warm peach away from the stone, juice running down my hand and onto my wrist; I lick it away and sink my teeth into the fruit, eyes closed.


*******

That's as near as I get to mix tapes.
( chickenlady b3ta's very own Elizabeth Taylor, Thu 7 Feb 2008, 16:37, 13 replies)

...
I have an ipod
(Spokes, Thu 7 Feb 2008, 16:32, Reply)

my ultimate mix tape
would feature:

- the Shipping Forecast
- the Today programme
- In Our Time
- Book at Bedtime
- Book of the Week
- hourly News bulletins
- I'm Sorry I Haven't a Clue

Magic.
( crackhouseceilidhband Fuck off back to Mumsnet, Thu 7 Feb 2008, 16:26, 20 replies)

Well, I’m not usually one for ‘Mix tapes’…

But I’ve just thought about putting one together…I’ve dug out my decks and here’s my list.

Track 1: “GOD” – A deeply religious track featuring chants from the Gregorian Monks
Track 2: “THIS” – An existentialist track that helps people define their place on earth
Track 3: “QUESTION” – A moving ballad about man’s insecurities
Track 4: “OF THE WEEK” – A poptastic but damning incitement into today’s media culture
Track 5: “IS” – A philosophical tune to set your foot-a-tapping and your mind-a-racing
Track 6: “FUCKING” – A raunchy, RNB masterpiece that gets right to the point
Track 7: “BOLLOCKS” – A light-hearted comedy melody with stereotypical overtones
Track 8: “AGAIN” – An inspiring…..oh fuck it, you get the idea…

For the love of sugary fuck! Are you trying to drive us away?? Mix tapes? Fucking-Mix-Fucking-Tapes?

I ask you.

See you next week.
( Pooflake braces for an onslaught..., Thu 7 Feb 2008, 16:23, 29 replies)

MANY CDSSSSSS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Lets Dam well see how many mix cds and cds i've burned in the span of like 2 years!

i burned like 6 cds..... okay maybe 10.....

She had no music really i kinda put them over there for my self to use for the pants things..

But God damn, A night at the opera = good times
(EvilHippie, Thu 7 Feb 2008, 16:22, Reply)

...
One album.

Several songs.

One name: Bernard.




You listenin', flakey boy?
( Enzyme is powered by sunlight, Thu 7 Feb 2008, 16:18, 3 replies)

Oh god.
Rachel. Writing her a letter to go with her mix tape explaining why I'd picked each song and how much it meant to me. Painting her a picture to go with it. Sending it to her in Italy. Getting a passport so I could fly out and see her. Never hearing from her again after she'd received it. Oh god. Every time I travel now I look at the picture in my passport and shudder at what a loser I am.
(Fat Bear is adjusting your breasts on, Thu 7 Feb 2008, 16:18, Reply)

Spectrum Tapes
I used to nick my mums stereo to copy my mates Spectrum games. Because you could do tape to tape. My father would never allow me to do it because I left my tapes out and he thought it would "bugger up the machine". So anyway I would furiously try and get games copied onto tapes before he got home from work.

Sorry for lack of humour, but Im really struggling to find how talking about your old cassette collection can be entertaining.
(Miggyman, Thu 7 Feb 2008, 16:05, Reply)

Don't give me that...
When I was little, I put together a tape of burps. I got very good at the technique of swallowing air, and used to practise saying sentences in a single burp. My first major success was Fred Flintstone: 'YabbaDabbaDoo', but for a long time my big ambition was to say 'Don't give me that, you snotty faced heap of parrot droppings' (copyright Monty Python). After several months I finally achieved it, although there was a short pause before 'heap', and as that was clearly my crowning achievement, the tape was abandoned. I used to listen to it on occasion, but I don't know where it is now.
( flatfrog Staring vacantly into space, Thu 7 Feb 2008, 15:54, 1 reply)

I feel inspired now.
All my mix tapes have been for me. Consequently, I have no trouble at all getting into my own pants, and indeed spent much of my teenage years grinning like a wanking Jap…

In the past, I have spent many an evening making mix tapes – there’s something quite satisfying about the whole thing. Sitting on the floor, selecting which songs to put on, in which order, surrounded by a sea of vinyl and CDs, panicking when it looks as though there isn’t going to be quite enough tape left to fit the last song onto… Takes me back, it does.

In fact, I’m inspired to perhaps make up a compilation CD over the weekend now. Possibly featuring some or all of these…

Bike – Pink Floyd
I Feel You / Rush – Depeche Mode (actually, pretty much anything by the Mode ends up on a compilation somewhere along the line)
Is This the Life? – Cardiacs
Not Now James, We’re Busy / Def Con One / PWEIzation– PWEI
Little Fluffy Clouds - The Orb
California Uber Alles – Dead Kennedys
Temple of Love / Alice / 1969 – The Sisters of Mercy
Trumpton Riots – Half Man Half Biscuit
Open Up / Release the Pressure – Leftfield
Are Friends Electric – Gary Numan
Laura – Fields of the Nephilim
Ziggy Stardust / She’s In Parties – Bauhaus
Longue Route / Skinflowers – Young Gods
Cochise – Audioslave
Pure Pleasure Seeker / Indigo / Forever More – Moloko
How Soon Is Now? – The Smiths
Turn – Therapy?
Ramafied – Lowlife (possibly the floatiest, dreamiest track ever made – it out Cocteaus the Cocteau Twins)
This Garden – Levellers
Ace of Spades – Motorhead
Fade to Grey – Visage
Break on Through – Doors
Venus in Furs – Velvet Underground
Bankrobber – The Clash
When I Grow Up – Michelle Shocked
( Davros' Granddad a voice of calm reason in a world of spastics., Thu 7 Feb 2008, 15:54, 14 replies)

Not a mix tape per-se
But I did make a tape when I was about 12 of Eiffel 65 - Blue. The tape consisted of that one song repeated over and over again, on both sides. It was recorded off the radio, as thats all I had to aid my cause, so most of the times I recorded it I got clips of the DJ talking over it.

I still have the tape in my 'memories box', where I keep things dear to me.
(Deiwos, Thu 7 Feb 2008, 15:52, Reply)

THAT'S THE WRONG CD.
This was the year 2000, my birthday was coming up and I wanted it to be spectacular. There was a laser tag arena on the other side of town, and they were offering a lock-in party.

A lock-in party, for those unfamiliar with the concept, is when an entertainment centre rents out its building after business hours to a large group. The owners remove anything breakable, sometimes order a pizza, and then leave. They turn all the machines on 'free' and then lock the doors. The lock-in party ends when the next day's business hours begin.

It was perfect. Not since the Roman days of Saturnalia had there been such a party planned. I even went so far as to burn a CD with the most adrenaline-pumping music I could download. I had the blood rave from Blade, the shootout music from The Matrix, only the fastest, screamingest Iron Maiden songs. Every kid there was going to make the boys from Lord of the Flies look like pacifists.

As an afterthought, I also burned a disk of funny songs to play on the ride over. Polkas and things. Guess which one wound up in the locked control room on a loop all night?
(Random Ferret, Thu 7 Feb 2008, 15:49, Reply)

aha ha ha ah
ha ha.....zoo....cages...ah ha ha..

mixed APES!!!!!!11111!!!

ha hahha ha haa ha
( Monty Boyce, My cheese game is strong, Thu 7 Feb 2008, 15:49, Reply)

Chaos Cows
I get bored really easily one day in my youth I was sat in my room digging through my old tapes.

I found an unopened blank tape and a load of those read along story ones from when I was a nipper.

For the next couple of hours I, sat in my room and would tape a bit of one story onto the blank tape, pause the recording and cue up another part of a totally different story.
The result was utter nonsense but kind of funny.

This progressed into doing the same with songs anything with a pause, for example the intro to Monkey Wrench, would jump into something else normally Twist by Korn (it was the 90's forgive me)

Songs that (sort of) sounded the same would skip back and forward between each other.

I have thought about starting this crap up again but don't know what sort of programme I would need.
(Barry Chuckle has gone out in the thong to feed the pigeons, Thu 7 Feb 2008, 15:48, 2 replies)

challenge
After about 25 years, I have whittled my perfect personal mixtape down to 3 songs.

1. Johnny Appleseed - Joe Strummer & the mescaleros
2. Series of Dreams - Bob Dylan
3. Sun rise light flies - Kasabian.

There is also a hidden connection (The Challenge) between all three. A prize to the first to reply with it.

(BTW, those three songs are the new hymns for my religion/cult that I will start one day).
( I have run out of coke is a little sweaty, Thu 7 Feb 2008, 15:48, 6 replies)

You know how the image challange gets hijacked sometimes.
We need to do the same thing here.

My vote goes for- Have you ever been caught having sex by you or your partners parents?
( The Awful Puppy Bakery is still bored, Thu 7 Feb 2008, 15:43, 9 replies)

Oh very dear...
this could have worked into last weeks QOTW - infact in reality it should consign its self to the depths of my alcohol riddled brain, to be forgotten forever - like maths and my basic command of etiquette.

However, the brain box has been wired to regulalry recall such cringe worthy episodes it technicolour brilliantness... any who, I'll quit waffling.

I was about 11, cute, short with blonde curtains and a fetching undercut.

the object of my desires was a girl we shall name francis - tall, glossy brunette (that sounds like I'm describing a crufts champion) intelligent and rich... she was a good friend, but I wanted more - I'm not sure exactly what my impressionable 11 year old mind wanted exactly, but I really wanted to hold her hand.

So a plan was etched - yes, it would be sure to win her over - a tape.

Now, this was not going to be the usual hogwash, oh no - *starts actually cringing... Opening with the 'The Final Countdown' leading into - oh god...

me playing the violin
me singing - I can't and couldn't - songs from Oliver, accompanied by my gay friend on the piano...

a plan was hatched to post this through her door wrapped in a love letter with some daisies...

a plan that we carried out, I still wonder if she has that tape - ready to be pulled out the next time I'm on tv...

oh the stalking - bombareded her with 4 letters... one of which resulted in me getting a slap.

remained friends though - I might hunt her down on tinernet later...

length - about 9 minutes
(feedingtimeatthezoo day 1 of his bikini diet started, Thu 7 Feb 2008, 15:40, Reply)

...
The other day I woke up and thought it was the 31st of January...

I spent the entire day writing 31st Jan on every piece of work i did...

It was only later when i realised that in fact it was the 1st of February...

That's what i get for mixing dates...

edit: i've read the question wrong haven't I?

P.S. This is the kind of quality answer you can expect... I love the QOTW as much as anyone and wish i had the talent that some of the regulars have for storytelling, but WTF can you do with a question like this...

Instead i'm going to relate one of my most embarrassing moments:

As a wee nipper in Primary School i was excited to soon be moving to "bigger school"... Here i would be cool and popular...

As part of the introduction to Secondary School life we would spend one day there to see what it was like, meet a few of the teachers and generally see the kind of people we would be spending the next 4 or 6 years with...

This particular year the school decided to try something new and thought that as it was in the Forest of Dean then a themed day centred around the local history would be a good idea.

Letters were sent out to all of the pupils who would attend informing them of the days events; a tour of the school and a few introductory sessions in the morning, followed by a bit of role playing theatrics in the afternoon. Historical costumes were optional.

I had always been an enthusiastic child and took the possibility of dressing up as a great opportunity to display to one and all my ability to make a costume out of nothing, and so I set to with great relish...

Out of some old clothing I constructed an outfit that Oliver Twist would be proud of...

Ragged trousers, ripped and torn off at the knees, overly large shirt (courtesy of my dad), and a classy knitted tank top that could well have come from the 1900's, all topped off with coal dust from the fire over my skinny legs and face... I was the epitomy of a child miner... I thought I was the mutts nuts...

The intro day rolls around, I'm late for the school bus as I took too long to get ready, so my mum drops me off (never a good start in school).

I saunter into the school hall where the initial meet and greet was to happen, swaggering my way through the crowds oblivious to the sniggering and staring, obviously they were jealous of my astounding costume making abilities...

It started to dawn on me then. I was the only one wearing something different to a school uniform...

In front of 200 other kids my age...

On my own...

My friends couldn't even look at me, let alone acknowledge my pleading and terrified stares, i was a pariah to all who knew me...

The day didn't get any better. At least while i was wandering around on the tours and stuff i could hide in the crowds. It wasn't until lunchtime when news of the so-called "odd kid" had got around school that i found myself stood in the middle of potentially the entire school (around 1200 people at that time i believe) pointing, laughing and taunting, how the hell I didn't get kicked shitless i'll never know...

Suffice to say i made it through the day and when i finally got home burst into tears and swore to my parents that I would never go back to Primary school let alone Secondary school...

..........

Epilogue

To sum up, my parents kicked up a HUGE fuss, the story was in the local paper, I got a written apology from the school, and I learnt that my real friends didn't give a crap about what i looked like, just who i was.

I did go back to school, and even attended that secondary school. It was easier than i thought it would be to see the same people who had ridiculed me again, but apart from the odd cunt here and there, most people were willing to forget anything had happened...

It definately had a profound effect on me, and even now when entering new situations and meeting new people i start to sweat and the nerves take over, but i've learnt to control it and now use the story to break the ice.

Being embarrassed can be one of the worst feelings, you just want the world to swallow you up, but if you stick it out and refuse to give in, then you tend to come out stronger because of it.

I've managed to bore myself just writing this, so if you're still with it, thanks for reading...

I'm off to the pub now, i need a pint after that...
(Nuclear Ninja like a radioactive Chuck Norris..., Thu 7 Feb 2008, 15:39, 2 replies)

Years Ago
We made a few porn tapes, me and an ex. She didn’t believe it was a mix up when my mate got a copy of one. She was right his tape was far better than mine, wonder what happened to those tapes ? Role on next week.
(nee22 NL ExPat, Thu 7 Feb 2008, 15:37, 1 reply)

Meh
can we click ignore to the whole question?

Length? 7 more days of this.....
(Reverend Samson Fapohunda B3tan, B3tan, B3tan, B3tan, Thu 7 Feb 2008, 15:36, Reply)

I once
knew of a mix tape. It was said to be the vessel used by Christ at the Last Supper. St. Joseph of Arimathea cradled that mix tape in his arms as he collected the blood and sweat of Our Lord on the Cross. He mixed it with his tears and wiped it with the wings of angels. He used that mix tape for sustenance in his rocky tomb, and he murmured the chorus to Starship's Nothing's Gonna Stop Us Now as he wove his beatific path to England. He clutched that mix tape in his hands as he reached Glastonbury, and to the strains of Neutral Milk Hotel's In the Aeroplane Over the Sea he placed it atop the mighty tor.

Years passed. Stars wheeled across the sky for centuries. Men sought that mix tape high and low (women had other things to do).

Geoffery of Monmouth recounts how King Arthur, that mighty warrior, devoted the lives of his men to finding that mix tape. It was said that once you heard the seventh track on the A-side (Dusty Springfield's Son of a Preacher Man) that your heart was no longer your own. It was said that the mix tape held the power of eternal angst...

The mix tape remains in its earthy bed, waiting for the pure of heart and the owner of a cassette player to release its beauty to the world once more. I spent 21 years of my all-too-short life searching for that elusive grail, but conceded defeat and bought an iPod instead.

If you have a problem, if no one else can help, and if you can find it, maybe you can use the mix tape.
( crackhouseceilidhband Fuck off back to Mumsnet, Thu 7 Feb 2008, 15:36, 5 replies)

My brother....
...once made a mixtape.

Of one song. Over and over again. 'Marian' by the Sisters of Mercy.

'I just got fed up with rewinding the tape to hear it again'.

Long car journeys were a bit of a strain around that time.
( Monty Boyce, My cheese game is strong, Thu 7 Feb 2008, 15:35, 3 replies)

I put flour, water, eggs, and sugar in a bowl.
It was a mixed cake.
(Half of Stephen Fry's right buttock pissed on your dog on, Thu 7 Feb 2008, 15:35, 2 replies)

I made tapes of CDs in the 80s...
Also of LPs (yes, I remember vinyl very fondly), so that I could have music at work. I spent many hours taping things so I could drown out the other office noises while I was drafting.

The only problem was that my kids had a Fisher-Price Sing-A-Long tape player that they loved to play with, and my wife would give them one of my tapes to put in it. And when they used the microphone on it, the sounds got recorded right over the music.

So here I am at work, listening to Clapton, when suddenly I hear infantile belming roar from the speakers, with my wife in the background gossiping with a friend on the phone. Then Clapton comes back on for a few seconds, then more belming. Furious, I pop out the tape and put in another one- and find that it too has been recorded over.

On arriving home that night I told my wife that I would appreciate it if she didn't give the kids my tapes. I said this in a reasonable but irritated voice, which I thought was appropriate- and she blew up at me, saying "Well, I guess none of the rest of us are allowed to use anything around here!"

So that weekend I gave the kids some of her tapes to play with, and put the rest of mine in my car to take to work.

I like to think that the kids actually improved Billy Joel's music, but she didn't think so.
( The Resident Loon Not a demographic. Do not measure., Thu 7 Feb 2008, 15:34, 5 replies)

Mixtapes with no ulterior motive
Many tapes are made to impress da laydeez. I also made tapes to listen to in the car - this is in the days before any sort of decent radio.

I used to share a house with my mate Hairy Chris, and one night I ambled in through the front door with some ninja grade tapes and four bottles of decent red wine to add to whatever he had in stock. We compiled 'good driving tapes' until the sun came up, drank all the wine, and had a bloody great evening of laughter, confession, and talking bollocks. You can hear the quality control fall off as the evening wears on, until at the end of the night's recordings you get KLF vs ENT's version of 3am Eternal....

If I tried to do that now, it would be forced and fake. Sad, in a way. Besides, now it would be a CD which takes seconds. Not the same. Ah, the good old days.
( Fathter Puddytat Kill Kill dat widdle boid is mine on, Thu 7 Feb 2008, 15:32, 1 reply)

My friend has a rather glorious mix CD
made for when he has already got into a ladies pants, 'lovin' music' if you will.

It has but three songs on it:
some song i can't recall by Barry White
In The Air Tonight - Phil Collins
Kissed By A Rose - Seal

It actually comes down to mathematics, these three form a powerful trinity that represent the closest musical equation to an orgasm you can get.

At least my friend thinks so. Fantastically, and he freely admits to this, he's never made a session last beyond the second chorus of Kissed By A Rose.
(bacontrout got ska, Thu 7 Feb 2008, 15:32, 7 replies)