“This is Chuck Klosterman you are making a mix for, not some random person you want to make out with”

I laughed and laughed at this recent piece from What Would Jesus Blog, which walks you through the process of how one would go about making a mix tape for pop culture essayist/music lover Chuck Klosterman, should you ever find yourself needing to do so.

Since I could literally, literally sit for hours and talk about perfect song placement, the tour de force closing track and that achingly perfect little ballad to slide in the middle of any given mix, I loved this “conversation.” I’ve even used some of these little suggestions he has without even knowing that it was divinely approved (like a Back To The Future soundclip for the opening track on a driving mix. Come on! It’s just too perfect).

For example, under the section about choosing Track 4 (“Hit Chuck Klosterman with a not too cheesy novelty song”) –

“Your best bet here would be to foreign language cover of a song that he already knows. For example, ”We’re Not Going To Take It’ is not a smart move, but ‘Nosotros No Lo Tomaremos’ would be genius.”

I just kind of cackled out loud again cutting and pasting that.

Incidentally, it gets even better in the comments when LargeHearted Boy linked to the actual mix tapes that Chuck Klosterman made for him and his readers:

Mix Tape One
(to go with his book Killing Yourself To Live: 85% Of A True Story)

Mix Tape Two
(to go with his book Chuck Klosterman IV: A Decade Of Curious People and Dangerous Ideas)

It’s a soundtrack to your reading-time, and I love it. Every author worth his salt should do this. It would make me read a lot more than I already do, that’s for sure and certain.