One of the annoying features of the trimester system that Union runs on is that the alumni reunion weekend (dubbed "ReUnion" by some sad little person in the alumni office, who deserves to be slapped for about nine hours straight) ends up falling in the academic term. I missed it last year (I was out of town at some sort of wedding or something), but I'll be here this week to experience the extra-special parking crunch that comes from adding a few hundred fat-cat alumni to the campus population for a weekend.
Of course, it also serves to remind me of the fact that my own ten-year reunion is coming up in a couple of weeks. Which makes me feel both old, and vaguely nostalgic. Thus, I will inflict upon you a little mix-tape nostalgia.
The title of this one is taken from the room number of the lab I worked in my senior year in college. I don't recall exactly when this got made-- sometime in the late summer of '92, I think-- but it's done service as both a late-night thesis-writing tape, and a late-night driving-across-Pennsylvania tape. The writing on the label has started to fade a bit, but I just about know the song line-up by heart anyway, so that's no big deal...
Side One:
- "Modern Love," David Bowie. This was one of those weird late discoveries-- I had the greatest-hits package I took this off for a couple of years before making this tape, and after listening to it off and on about a hundred times, I suddenly realized that I really liked this song.
- "Solar Sex Panel," Little Village. Little Village was an odd little group featuring John Hiatt and Ry Cooder and... some other people. This is one of those wonderfully daft John Hiatt songs, full of inexplicable phrases that shouldn't work, but do, and entendres that aren't subtle enough to be double.
- "Little Miss Can't Be Wrong," Spin Doctors. I'd like to say that I put this on the tape before these guys became hugely popular, and the song was played on the radio every ten minutes-- and I did, damn it! I'm serious! Honestly!
- "My Morning Song," the Black Crowes. Off their second album, when they were still just stoned enough to do a really good imitation of the mid-70's Rolling Stones.
- "D'yer Mak'er," Led Zeppelin. Probably the most recognizable opening drum riff ever. A Zep-addicted guy across the hall from me freshman year put me off most Zeppelin (I start twitching when I hear "Whole Lotta Love"), but there are a few tracks that I still like. This is one.
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