Quiltwork and Stories and the Compilation Disc

A few friends and I have this thing going. We choose a theme and then each of us puts a disc together, shuffling songs together that represent that theme for us.

I like what Jen Lemen has to say about these kind of discs...

anyway. when the quiltmaker is just starting out, she cannot tell stories. at least not on purpose. she just collects what she has and pieces it together. it's her practice for when she really knows what she's doing. but there's still a story, a little something to talk about. see that patch right here, she'll say. every baby in this house wore that little shirt. you see that patch and smile. the pieces together, all mismatched, form their own plotlines. it is her life in fabric.
i make cds like this. i pick the songs that strike me according to my mood, and i put them all together. i listen to the beginnings and the endings, trying to stitch a straight line. i pull the seams and try again, the pieces in a different order. i fuss with it, diligent, when my children are sleeping. when i am sad or feel like hiding. then, like the new quiltmaker, i put it away, a guilty pleasure with no pattern, my best attempt at just doing it. for the joy it brings. me.
the funny thing is that given a little distance and time, these mixes always have the best colors and tell the truest stories. they're not always pretty, but they tell it like it is. collect a few over weeks and months and they create their own kind of narrative. an autobiography of sorts. you listen, and you remember the feeling you had. or you don't recall at all. it's a mystery. the way that some feelings sift down into memory and others float away. what would i know about my mother or my sister or my friend from a library like this? what stories would the sounds tell that words can never capture?

My comrades and I share our stories patchworked together. And in sharing the music that matters to us, we have shared our lives.

Here are the songs that made my last compilation.

Spring Training
Thoreau by Ordo
Beautiful Day by Mellowdrone
The National Anthem by Radiohead
What Makes the Monkey Dance by Chuck Prophet
A Little Respect by Erasure
Lou Gehrig's Farewell Speech: July 4, 1939
Walk on the Moon by Asobi Seksu
Out of Control by U2
I've Seen Everything by the Trash Can Sinatras
A Moment A Broken by Patrick Phelan
The Body is a Stairway of Skin by Over the Rhine
Wonderful World by Innocence Mission
When Skies are Grey by Dakota Suite
Floating by Sun Kil Moon
In the Sun by Joseph Arthur
Tommy Lasorda Talking About Dave Kingman: June 4, 1976
Pain Killer by Turin Brakes
San Francisco by Secondhand Jive
Retour A Vega by the Stills
Everyone Knows Everyone by the Helio Sequence
Goodnight Goodnight by Hot Hot Heat
Little House of Savages by the Walkmen
Maybe Tomorrow by Stereophonics