Breaking up is hard to do
They came from the heart. In the days before muxtapes, CDs, and MP3s, couples exchanged mixtapes as if they were love letters. Now a new website, Cassette from my Ex, catalogs those often cringe-worthy compilations. Started by Found Magazine creator Jason Bitner, Cassette from my Ex displays, for each tape in its archive, a scanned image of the cardboard cassette sleeve, the story and inspiration behind the mix, and the song register—organized, appropriately into two lists: Side A and Side B.
Nostalgia abounds: “In a former life, I often did intros and voiceovers for my various most-awesome-mixtape-ever tapes,” one enthusiast remembers. “With equipment that looked it was found in a basement in Eastern Europe, I made these super-timely odes to girls who didn’t know they were dating me.”
What better way to convey your true feelings for someone than to juxtapose Dire Straits’s “So far Away” with “Patience” by Guns ’n’ Roses? Perhaps the thought of such sentimentality will inspire you open that dusty box of mementos in the closet in search of your own “cassettes from my ex.” If you find any good ones amongst the yellowed photographs and ticket stubs, submit your story here.
