My OnMilwaukee.com co-worker Molly Snyder Edler recently posted a blog about her book club in which she semi-dissected her enjoyment of the scheduled monthly meeting.
What I took from it was that, sure, she appreciated the books she was ingesting, but what she really seemed to credit the club for was the regular social, intellectual interaction she gained with interesting people she might not otherwise get to know.
I too have considered joining or starting a book club several times over the years, but it's never really panned out. (The most successful club I joined met only once and seemed to be less interested in the book we'd chosen, Hunter S. Thompson's "The Rum Diary," than the actual bottle of rum making it rounds throughout the group. But that was years ago ...)
Other friends have suggested simply reading a book at the same time as them, yet I never keep pace because some other project has pulled me in a different direction. I think I've come to terms with the idea that I'm not a book club candidate. And I'm OK with that; I started a mixtape club instead.
It's called True Religion & Bad Company and the concept is similar: We're a club, we meet monthly and we have assignments.
The first installment was in mid-January and our theme was "Best of 2008," be it music that came out last year or music you personally discovered, from an ear, during the last 12 months.
We each brought two copies of our mix; one with our cleverly designed cover art to exchange and one plain one to be uploaded to our club's blog (Sorry, we're not as analog as the name suggests). Each member leaves with one hardcopy, yet has access to all via the blog.
I submitted a 16-track comp that featured new songs by Yelle, Calexico, Jolie Holland, Black Mountain, Murder by Death and Nick Cave with Warren Ellis and newly discovered music from Stars, Vincent Gallo and Attorney.
I walked away with an amazing mix that included "Wait a Minute" by Estelle, "Mykonos" by the Fleet Foxes, "Love Dog" by TV on the Radio, "Home Coming" by Kanye West and "Darklands" by The Jesus & Mary Chain.
February's mixtape theme is Valentine's Day, and although the date is coming up, I still haven't decided how I plan to interpret the assignment. A friend of mine is attempting an all-duet mix.
Any suggestions? Maybe love really is a mixtape?
OnMilwaukee.com staff writer Julie Lawrence grew up in Wauwatosa and has lived her whole life in the Milwaukee area.
As any “word nerd” can attest, you never know when inspiration will strike, so from a very early age Julie has rarely been seen sans pen and little notebook. At the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee it seemed only natural that she major in journalism. When OnMilwaukee.com offered her an avenue to combine her writing and the city she knows and loves in late 2004, she knew it was meant to be. Around the office, she answers to a plethora of nicknames, including “Lar,” (short for “Larry,” which is short for “Lawrence”) as well as the mysteriously-sourced “Bill Murray.”
