The call is out! Australians! Chicago-ites! Kiwis! All the rest!
We want YOU to be the next in the chain. We’re playing a game of telephone (or “Chinese Whispers” if you’re European and racist) with a mix tape that started with Magnus. You don’t want the chain to end, do you? DO YOU?! Someone in your home town might get their knees shot out if the chain gets broken!
After the impish Brit makes his mix tape based on mine, and after Nick, the impressionable youth that frequents this site, makes his mix tape based on the Brit’s, we have no one to follow. Angela? Frank? Leonie? John? Candace? Jen-An? Betty? Veronica? The life of this chain rests in your hands!
MagnusFromBerlin | 20-Jun-07 at 4:06 am | Permalink
what is racist about chinese whisper, is this derogatory in any way I’m missing? If so I will call it “german whisper” from now on… or “silent post office” (which is what germans call this)…
karlwinslow | 20-Jun-07 at 7:09 am | Permalink
i’m a little confused as to what you’re asking of people.
alex | 20-Jun-07 at 7:21 am | Permalink
John, just say you will, and we’ll tell you about it later.
MagnusFromBerlin | 20-Jun-07 at 8:39 am | Permalink
(grinning and using my best body-snatcher voice) Yes John, say you will… you’re tired… you need to sleep
crumpet | 20-Jun-07 at 8:45 am | Permalink
i’m also confused.
MagnusFromBerlin | 20-Jun-07 at 9:49 am | Permalink
OK, the abstract basics:
1. person #1 (we call him ‘magnus’ for now) does a mix-tape (just to clarify, not an actual mix-tape, but 6 mp3 tracks with the id-tags removed — this thing here: http://rapidshare.com/files/34969055/z6_alex.zip)
2. person #2 (we call him ‘Alex’ for now) listens to that mix-tape (he will get no information on songnames or artists)
3. person #2 (’Alex’) makes his own mix-tape looses based on mix-tape nr.1 (’magnus’) (you can find Alex’s mix-tape on the end of this post: http://www.baldingangrily.com/2007/06/07/live-blogging-magnuss-super-fantabulous-6-song-megamix)
4. person #3 (let’s call him ‘ed’) listens to mix-tape nr.2 (’Alex’s’) and makes his own based on that mix-tape. (the stage we are at the moment)
5. person #4 (we’ll call him ‘Nick’ shall we) listens to the mix-tape of person #3 (’Ed’) and makes his mix-tape based on that.
somewhere along the line, persons 1 & 2 and anybody who wants to, will review these mix-tapes (without having information on the artists or tracks) and write opinionated, annoying and occasionally even funny things about them.
Now what we are looking for is: person #5, #6 …
so if you’re doing this, you need to:
a) listen to someone else’s mix-tape
b) make your own mix-tape based on that
c) give us the chance to post it
d) for special bonus — review mix-tapes (the ones before & after you, not you own)
further questions?
karlwinslow | 20-Jun-07 at 9:49 am | Permalink
I will.
i am tired though. i had to wake up really early today and take my car into the shop. had more the enough coffee though.
MagnusFromBerlin | 20-Jun-07 at 9:50 am | Permalink
Alex, please free up my explanation… it’s not spam, I promise…
PulpAffliction | 20-Jun-07 at 2:21 pm | Permalink
Oh PSH! I’m not impressionable! It’s just that all my tastes are formed by other people, is that so wrong?
I can’t wait to make my mix!
crumpet | 20-Jun-07 at 7:17 pm | Permalink
So the idea is to make a mix, but not an actual CD?
MagnusFromBerlin | 21-Jun-07 at 3:07 am | Permalink
Yes… and no
The main idea is the subtle change of the overall mix through the cumulative effect of changes along the line. It also has educational value. It shows how easily information can become corrupted by indirect communication. The game has been used in schools to simulate the spread of gossip (and TV-News) and the build up of impressive play-lists. The group Stereolab did something similar back in ‘98: they made a song, got someone to remix it, got someone to remix the remix and so on… it BTW was called ‘Chinese whispers’
We are using only 6 (to 7) tracks because, listing to a full hour of music I would almost consider work. You can burn it on a CD if you want to (wowser and I for example exchanged our mixes on Audio-CDs), but since we need to spread these out (to get them to everyone who wants to do a review or mix) and we’re all living in quite a distance from one another, we’re using blanked (removed id-tags) mp3s and that thing called the internet…
did you know the french are calling this game “téléphone arabe”, now that really is derogatory…
more questions? - btw. I still looking for a name (since i consider both “this unnamed mix-tape thing” & “blind live blogging super fantabulous 6 to 7 songs conversational megamix” not that good), if anybody has a suggestion, bring it…
crumpet | 21-Jun-07 at 3:31 am | Permalink
So if I didn’t want to put songs up on the internet, but still wanted to participate, I could just send some CDs out to a bunch of you?
I know it seems stupid logistically, but I have a fondness for making actual, physical things, especially when it comes to mixtapes. And I also don’t want to put other people’s music on the interwebs.
MagnusFromBerlin | 21-Jun-07 at 4:25 am | Permalink
If you want to commit yourself to that much work, I’m not holding you back (the only problem I see, is a review does not make much sense if you can’t listen to the songs, since we’re not putting up artist or song infos until the next mix is done)…
just to clarify this once more, you want your mix to be completely offline - mail order only…correct?
crumpet | 21-Jun-07 at 5:35 am | Permalink
yes. because i’m odd.
alex | 21-Jun-07 at 7:04 am | Permalink
Magnus, you’re really obsessed with this name thing, aren’t you?
And Lord have mercy, you people. Do we really need to hold your hand throughout this whole process? Just commit, mess up, and we’ll abuse you verbally. It’s really quite simple.
MagnusFromBerlin | 21-Jun-07 at 10:22 am | Permalink
kind of, yes… I often use words like stuff, thingys, Kladeradatsch, Gekröse & Zeug. I do think the word “Feuerzeug”, the german word for “lighter”, which literally translated simply means “fire stuff” is genius, as is “Schlagzeug” (beat stuff) the german word for “drums”. But mostly I do prefer to use an actually name. Like I prefer to call you Alex and not “that angry balding dude with a silent partner from the Dallas who has a passion for Superman, Oliva Newton John & and Andrew Lloyd Webber from the filmspotting message boards, you know who I mean, brother”…
karlwinslow | 21-Jun-07 at 1:07 pm | Permalink
verbal abuse eh? I’m not sure I could take it
winrit | 21-Jun-07 at 1:35 pm | Permalink
I’ll do it. Just let me know who or what songs I will be making my mix in response to and who I send it to when I’m done. I don’t mind putting it up on the webs, but I doubt my technical ability. I tried downloading the original mix and my stuff-it expander crashed each time I tried to do it. I may need a mentor.
crumpet | 21-Jun-07 at 6:13 pm | Permalink
You know you haven’t been awake long when you read that last sentence as “my stuff… it expander crashed each time I tried to do it.” And you think, what is “expander crashed???”
I’m in. Just send or point me at songs, then tell me where to send my CD.
alex | 21-Jun-07 at 8:48 pm | Permalink
I’ll leave the organization to Sir Magnus. He seems to be doing a great job so far.
MagnusFromBerlin | 22-Jun-07 at 4:01 am | Permalink
hear that? I’m doing a great job, me… So let’s harvest a bit: Mr. Winslow I’ll mark you down as #5 (except if you want to pull out for fear of Alex’s verbal abuses), crumpet #6 (we’ll figure out a way to best do this), your main delivery address however will be Chicago since Angela, you’re #7 (it’s an ordinary zip-file, I haven’t got a clue why your stuffit expander crashes, maybe a apple person knows more)… learn these numbers, I will wake you in the middle of the night and ask for them.
Once I get mail from Camelot, we’re all set to continue with Mr. PulpAffliction, who promised something that will put us all to shame… Good, well done team… and remember there is no “i” in team, but there is an “i” in mix-tape…
crumpet | 22-Jun-07 at 7:58 am | Permalink
There’s also an “I” in pie.
And there’s an “I” in meat pie. Anagram of meat is team… I don’t know what he was talking about.
PulpAffliction | 22-Jun-07 at 2:09 pm | Permalink
Dammit, crumpet beat me to it. That was the first thing I thought of! Shaun of the Dead!
PulpAffliction | 22-Jun-07 at 2:10 pm | Permalink
As far as a name goes… I keep trying to do something based on the Virgin Suicides seeing as this game really reminds me of a particular scene in that book/movie….
winrit | 22-Jun-07 at 6:28 pm | Permalink
I must have been tired too because I went back to download Magnus’mix and it worked this time. Does everyone know how to find Magnus? http://www.stumpfergegenstand.de/
MagnusFromBerlin | 25-Jun-07 at 5:03 am | Permalink
…and if you replace one x with e, “mixtape” is an anagram of “meat pie”…