My Life in Stereo Sound

Several weeks ago, as my birthday was approaching (now officially over and done with) I was divided in this question of where to celebrate, or gather people -- here or NY. I go up to NY every year around this time and do something, because my twin brother (and yes, it also HIS birthday) is there. The past couple of years I've done something low key here in DC as well.

Because you just can't have too many birthdays.

So, I chatted with some friends/colleagues about the low-key element I was planning for my DC crew. My friend M heard that I figured I'd gather people at one of the divey places on the hill, and got a distinctly M twinkle in her eye. You never know what will come of the M twinkle. The M twinkle makes me a little bit nervous.

"Have a party at H's house!" (H is our other friend and colleague). "Have a big party, we'll throw it for you, I'm sure H wouldn't mind!"

Right -- I mean why would anyone mind having upwards of forty people, in various states of inebriation, tooling around your lovely Cap Hill home? Last New Year's my friend D, who was dealing with a breakup and other, ummm, life adjustments, was pretty far gone by the tail end of the night. He started removing clothes and climbing on cars and up telephone poles. D is a smart guy. D is a very strong guy. That night he was a very strong, not-so-smart, nearly naked guy. Over towards U street that kind of thing can fly. On the hill? Ehh, not so much.

Fortunately (or unfortunately, depending on how you look at it) D is at home in Bermuda right now, so he will not be at the party.

So -- the image of a half-naked D climbing a telephone pole and the women surrounding him afterwards trying to pull splinters out of his palms pops into my head, and I think, no, I can't subject H to this.

"Yeah, no, I can't imagine asking someone to open up their home to a party like that... " I sputter.

"Well, then, I'LL ask". And with that M vanished into a poof of party-planning, cake baking, dip-making, game arranging fairy dust.

She's a tricky one that M.

The rest is history. M and her fellow party fairies in the shire we call the box office have been busy mixing up god-only-knows what.

The idea we had about the evite was to ask that everyone dedicate a song to the event.

In the past few years I have become much more informed about new music than I ever was as a young person. Growing up I listened to a lot of musical theater music, and that was pretty much it, along with some Simon and Garfunkle and Beatles albums passed on from my parents. But through friends and (give credit where credit is due) ex-boyfriends, I got turned onto a number of contemporary artists, and then in turn started listening to the artists that inspired those artists, and so-on, so that I am much more of a music-phile than I was five years ago. I LOVE when people recommend new artists to me. If I allowed myself, I'd have an unhealthy addiction to Itunes.

So the idea of fifty-odd music recommendations, albeit allowing for the birthday theme, is the best gift I could ask for.

And now, I am sitting here in the Panera, downloading songs from Itunes. The idea is that we will burn a grand party mix that all guests, in attendance or there only in spirit, have had a say in. Starting this afternoon, I'll post the mix in installments as I work on it. They break down into very distinct groupings, you'll see. I am sure there is a sociological study in there somewhere examining age and background, but I don't really have time to figure it out.