I have a friend who goes away with “the guys” every May long weekend. In fact, I know two guys who go away with two seperate groups. Both have been doing it for years – maybe as many as twenty. I’m super envious for many reasons, but mainly because men can be so dedicated to a cause like that and I haven’t found women to be the same. I long for a world where I find a group of women who can and will commit to going away at the same time and to the same place every year for no reason other than the joy of doing it. If you are a part of that group and you need a new member, call me!
As part of the festivities, the first guy I mentioned, as the major organizer of the weekend every year, he devotes an extensive amount of time to creating the soundtrack for the weekend. It’s a 70-80+ track, several hour compilation of songs, movie clips and other pop culture references. All have been created/released between the time of the last weekend away and the upcoming one and the playlist is distributed to all attendees. (As an honourary attendee, I always used to get a set of discs and now I get a link.)
To say the soundtrack was carefully curated is to undermine the amount of work and care he puts into it. Every intro, every outro, every second is perfectly timed. Songs are organized then reorganized and depending on how one song leads into another, they may be reorganized again. Like the olden days of making a mixed tape, it’s a precision science.
I mentioned that I just switched from Apple Music to Spotify and that in lieu of sending Christmas cards, my friend sent her Christmas Spotify playlist to friends and loved ones. I shared the link here and on Facebook and on Twitter and since then I’ve had a number of people comment on it and how they’d make their own improvements. Some didn’t like one song or another, others preferred someone else’s version of a classic. I really liked Bex’s playlist, but it is, after all, hers and though we both agree know that the best version of Last Christmas is the one by Jimmy Eat World, we’re still different people with different tastes.
So I created my own Christmas playlist.
I’m not too hung up on nostalgia in a musical sense and I find many popular mainstays annoying. I like the bones of the classics, but I like them filled out with newer takes – more modern and plugged in. And as much as I love music, I don’t love showy singing so definitely no Bublé nor any of his friends. (Mariah Carey made my list only because of her song’s placement in Love Actually.)
More than ever, it’s so easy for us to throw together a list of songs we love and that whole preamble about the great care my friend puts into his soundtrack? There is no comparison between what he does and what I’ve done – art vs amateur, but there is some pleasure to be had from both.
Listen to my Christmas favourites and if you’ve made your own playlist, send me a link!
