I never got mix tapes. This whole business of carefully choreographing one's own emotional responses seems somehow apocalyptic to me, as if society expanded in direct proportion to the degree individuals imploded, the latter reaching a critical mass like uranium-235 in the gadget at Almagordo. I knew a kid in high school who loved the soundtrack to 'Platoon' so much that he condensed Barber's adagio to the most moving 6 or so second excerpt and looped it by way of holding his portable cassette play up to his parents stereo, hitting pause, and playing that excerpt again imperfectly over and over again as he continued to record. At the time, I was sure I was witness to the budding of an artist but now I am certain I was at the threshold of the collapse of a civilization. Tommy works at an autoparts store now, and looks exhausted and strangely unhaunted.
But I'd have the Rolling Stone's 'Tumbling Dice' in my hype-mix for sure.