Victor's Ultimate Mega Mix '18

Things tend to slow down as one gets older including the time it takes from getting mixes on your birthday (mid May) to actually putting together the yearly best of Mega Mix (early August).

On the plus side though, this isn't even the longest delay in putting out a Mega Mix. Just two years ago it took me until late August to get my post out. The worst of "Meh"-ga Mix came out in early September! So really I'm doing better than the spry young me of two years ago. Not too shabby.

This year's list on 8Tracks will literally be 8 tracks. The musical harvest was a little thin this year. I'm blaming it on Brexit, increased US trade tariffs, and of course those darn millennials. Still, while the quantity has lowered the quality still remains high.

Once again my friends' familiarity with my mix tastes (which I'm sure is influenced in no small part from my years of putting out these critical lists) make it harder and harder to make these cuts. It's something I say pretty much every year, but it is quite true.

I also just wanted to quickly note that I am a little bit surprised that 8Tracks is still around. When I saw all the restrictions and limitations they put on the site last year, it seemed to signal a MoviePass-esque death spiral into bankruptcy and oblivion. I'm glad that it (and I) are still here in 2018.

Let's pump up the jams!

Victor's Ultimate Mega Mix '18 from VictorSellsOut on 8tracks Radio.

Victor's Ultimate Birthday "Meh"-ga Mix '16

Summer's coming to an end, the days are getting shorter, the kids are going back to school. Soon all the leaves will start dying. Then winter will descend upon us, as unrelenting and inevitable as our own mortality.

So why not burn this fucker down with the ass end of birthday mix haul from back in May (remember way back when summer was starting and the world was full of hope and promise).

The dark side of the Mega Mix with 7 songs that I decided where not quite bangers, plus a bonus shit track to fit the minimum (fun fact: possibly my least favorite song to top the Billboard charts).

Happy Labor Day Weekend All!

Victor's Ultimate Birthday "Meh"-ga Mix '16 from VictorSellsOut on 8tracks Radio.

Victor's Ultimate Mega Mix '16

"Better late than never" has always been a prominent philosophy in my life. Sure, your paper's gonna get docked half a grade but hey, what are you gonna do, take the zero?

Just when you thought the yearly Mega Mix was done, just another youthful affectation from my twenties that failed to make it all the way up through my thirties; here it comes hobbling in three months late.

While I am only now getting around to posting it, I did finalize the list about a month ago so I do wonder if it is no longer accurate. There is always the chance that my tastes have totally changed since then. A surprising amount of stuff can happen in a month after all.

While I don't think my fondness for novelty story songs have waned much in the past month, you'll have to treat the below 14 tracks as more of a snapshot from a younger, less world wise, early 32 Victor as opposed to the elder mid early 32 Victor. Though, frankly for those who know me I don't think there will be that many surprises.

Let us journey back to early summer:

Victor's Ultimate Mega Mix '16 from VictorSellsOut on 8tracks Radio.

Victor's Ultimate Birthday "Meh"-ga Mix '15

It's been a week since the 2015 edition of the Mega Mix dropped so as tradition dictates, here come the misses. As I write this post up during the waning hours of a delightful three day weekend, I find the timing to be utterly appropriate. We had our highs, we had our fun but now it's time to experience the other side of the coin.

It's probably a good thing right? For there to be light you need darkness? You can't have the sweet without the sour or something like that? I didn't see it, but I think that's the lesson of "Inside Out"? I mean, the message can't be that you can't let the joy part of your brain run your whole life right?

Half baked pseudo-philosophical questions aside, I do want to point out that it's kind of an honor to be chosen for the "Meh"-ga Mix. They'll be remembered years down the line over another generally pleasant but ultimately unnotable track. At the very least, they are interesting; and for me it's always better to be interesting than just plain fine.

One note about this year's mix. Since I only take two tracks per original mix given to me, plus just one track from the theme mix I got, I found myself with only seven tracks. Since 8tracks requires a minimum of eight tracks (imagine that?), I threw in Ray Stevens' chart topping 1974 hit "The Streak"; one of the my least favorite songs I can remember (which is odd since I usually love ridiculous songs from the 70s).

Roll the ugliness...

Victor's Ultimate Birthday "Meh"-ga Mix '15 from VictorSellsOut on 8tracks Radio.

      

Victor's Ultimate Mega Mix '15

Happy New Year everybody!

Seriously, I can't believe this is first post of the year on this once bustling blog. You know things are bad here when my ancient livejournal until now had more posts on the year (1 to 0). In my defense I've actually been crazy busy this year with getting a proper adult job and all, but I have to admit there's some laziness involved. There's always some laziness involved.

In any case, the old VSO is back, at least to belatedly celebrate my birthday.

Yes, it is indeed that time again when I shine the spotlight on the standout tracks that I've culled from my yearly birthday mixes. On the whole 31 was a slightly underwhelming haul, quantity-wise, not quality wise. The final tally was three official mixes plus a bonus theme mix. Hey we're all getting older and getting busier right? Plus, I am and most of my friend are now coming into our early 30s, which apparently is the time when we stop listening to new music and become our parents.

Given that depressing bit of news, I think it's more critical than ever that we continue to maintain healthy mix making habits well into our music taste calcifying thirties and beyond. It doesn't even have to be new music in the sense of contemporary music, any kind of exposure to music you haven't heard before is probably good for the soul.  It is only through the regular practice of pondering, seeking, and exploring new music to compile and gift to a friend do we keep that passion for novel music alive. We keep the fire burning as we burn our mixes.

Additionally, what's good for the mixer is just as good for the mixee. The time around my birthday is when I get exposed to most of the new music for the year. Seeing as how busy this year's been going it may well be the only time.

So thank you to all my friends who give me mixes and let me craft mixes with them. You keep me young (although not in any kind of physical sort of way, I'm still falling apart day by day).

Mixes away!

Oh and before you think I'm getting soft. The "misses" will be following shortly.

Victor's Ultimate Birthday "Meh"-ga Mix '14

I know, I know. You've been jamming out non-stop all this week to the blissful tunes of this year's edition of the Mega Mix and the last thing you want is the harsh buzzkill of the Ultimate Birthday "Meh"-ga Mix. Well, listen up joy boy, life is all about the highs and the lows, the sweets and the sours, the season 4 Simpsons and the season 24 Simpsons. It'd be against the laws of nature to just have the hits, one has to recognize the misses.

As much as this year was the most difficult yet in terms of picking the top four songs, it was even harder picking the bottom two. After three previous years of mix making, my friends are getting annoying good at this business. The overall quality improves every year and picking the duds is becoming increasingly a game of inches. At this rate I may have to give some consideration to dropping the category all together (although one or two tracks still usually come along each year to renew my commitment to this mix). Perhaps one day there will be a haul of mixes where the task of culling the worst would be too difficult to attempt, but until then enjoy the blah.

Victor's Ultimate Mega Mix '14

It's been just over a month since that bleak day in May when I turned thirty. I am still waiting on that wisdom and insight stuff that supposedly comes with old age. In the meantime I have an assortment of birthday mixes to keep me entertained.

I know I say it pretty much every year, but this year's haul of five mixes have been the strongest group yet. I don't know, maybe it's because of the milestone year, but I felt that my friends really put in an extra effort here. Great job everyone; though this is setting up the mixes for my 31st birthday to be quite underwhelming (I guess the silver-lining would be a really strong class of "worst of" mix songs). Bonus kudos to everyone for not kicking a sad man when he's down and loading up the mixes with depressing tracks about aging. I know I definitely would have if the roles were reversed (and I most likely will for your milestone birthday mixes; I even keep a running stockpile of those kinds of songs to use on all birthday mixes).

Before I get to the big reveal I just wanted to note a few interesting observations about the mixes this year; actually these sort of coincidences happen every year but I never bother to make a note of them. In the case of tracks repeated across multiple mixes, the simultaneous track of the year award goes to "Move That Dope" by Future featuring Pharrell, Pusha T, and Casino. I really did enjoy this fantastic piece of coke rap and it fell just shy of making the top four in both mixes. Another song appeared twice but under two different versions. The original 1982 version of "Mama Used to Say" by Junior made it to one mix while a 2009 cover by the group Jupiter made it to another. I enjoyed both versions (it really is a sneaky good birthday song) and it was hard cutting both of them from their respective top 4s. Finally, I had two different songs by Chance the Rapper on two different mixes. My quick review on him is, interesting style and lyrics and hip-hop is all the richer for having a unique artist like him, but I find his voice fairly irritating.

Speaking of irritating, remember to keep an eye out for the "worst of" mix in the next few days.

Twenties Victor, 2004-2014

Twenties Victor Lee, 29, of mostly New Jersey and sometimes parts of New York, passed away at midnight May 7th, 2014 on the Hudson Bergen Light Rail en route from Hoboken, after a long battle with aging.

Twenties Victor was born May 7th, 2004 in New York, NY at Lafayette Hall where he was residing in the waning days of his sophomore year at New York University. He was the only child of Aughts Victor and Teens Victor, who very much loved him and worked tirelessly and selflessly to support him in everything he did. Through them he learned much of the world and all the wonderful knowledge that helped shape him to be the man he was. To them he would be forever grateful and he always hoped to have made them proud.

His life like many lives was a mixed bag of joyful highs, disappointing lows, and a whole bunch of fairly average everyday stuff in between. He only hoped that through it all it would be at least an interesting mixed bag. Among his experiences in his brief decade long journey: he learned to drink (and proudly claimed he never vomited once), he traveled a little (though too little in his estimation), somehow became a barred attorney, and took way too long to get his wisdom teeth out. He never met a sandwich he didn’t like or a bag of jerky he could not finish in one sitting. He savored every brunch, volunteered for every road trip, and agonized over every mix CD.

He gained love and lost love. Managed to lose touch with old friends and made unlikely new ones. He won a small fortune over four game shows and accumulated a slightly larger debt over two colleges. In work he wore many hats including aspiring adman, E list game show celebrity, “Lockhorns” comic paradoist, and terrible lawyer; though he never found any of them all that comfortable for too long. Late in life he developed a curious interest in romantic comedy films and proudly completed his first feature length screenplay in 2013. At his passing he was working on his second one. It was one of his wishes that Thirties Victor would complete it in a timely manner.

Victor never married and had no children…to the best of his knowledge. He is survived and mourned by his friends both real and facebook, and Thirties Victor who will especially miss him but hopes to carry on his legacy and spirit. Wherever Twenties Victor may be in the Great Perhaps, he is most likely wearing a comfortable hoodie, reunited with his favorite cap that he lost on that fishing trip when he was 14, sipping a bloody mary and reveling in the fact he doesn’t have to get up early for work anymore. Services will be held this Saturday evening at numerous bars around the Lower East Side, perhaps maybe a brunch the next day, but that’s up in the air.

Twenties Victor in 2013

Victor's Ultimate Birthday "Meh"-ga Mix '13

You heard the best, now hear the rest! Yes, unfortunately, it is once again time to break out Victor's Ultimate Birthday "Meh"-ga Mix for 2013. I suppose one positive that can be drawn from this year's batch is that it's only 8 as opposed to the usual 10. I thought about upping the quota to three tracks per mix but that would have been needlessly critical.

Every year when I put together the "worst of" I struggle to really make a consistent determination between memorable terribleness and the forgettable mediocrity. Is it better to be a fiasco than just boring? It's a tough distinction; a distinction made even tougher when the mixes don't contain glaring examples of either kind. Sure every once in a while there'll be a track that just does not jibe with me at all and it's an easy call (difficult post-punk is often a strong bet). However, most of the time the cuts are tough. I mean by the inflexible cruel rules of the "Meh"-ga Mix it is impossible to have a perfect mix. Even if I loved every song two tracks have to be sacrificed in the name of parity.

Harsh, but we all know we look forward to it every year.

Victor's Ultimate Birthday Mega Mix '13

Just when you had all but given up hope after it didn't arrive at the start of June, Victor's Ultimate Birthday Mega Mix finally returns for 2013! Various factors came together to cause the extra long release delay this year including a late birthday party, a certain tardy mix contributor (for privacy sake, let's call her "Lisa B."...No that's too obvious..uuh let's say "L. Berlin"), and of course the 17 year return of the cicadas. Additionally this year's edition will be a bit shorter, exactly 1/5th to be exact, since one of my usual contributing friends was unavailable.

So there you have it, longer wait with less content, thanks Obama!

Seriously though, this was another solid batch of tunes. In fact, the selection process was the most difficult for me yet. This either means the quality has gone up across the board or that I've started to become less choosy in my old age. Still, thanks to everyone that participated. Making a good mix is a time intensive task and I am always appreciative when someone takes that time to make one for me. The period after my birthday where I get all these new tracks to listen through as I commute to the office is one of the real highlights of my year (I had to break out the old portable CD player this time since I commute by public transportation now). I hope to see another round of mixes next year from you guys and anyone else who wants to throw their disc in the ring.

Oh and in case you thought I was getting soft and sentimental in my old age, the 2013 edition of the "worst of" mix will become arriving soon enough.

Crunchy Numbers: Birthday Edition

Now that all the mild hullabaloo over my 29th birthday had dissipated, I can now go back to the business of quietly dying slowly of old age. Before I close the book on another public acknowledgement of my birth, I thought I'd throw out some hastily prepared, random numbers regarding all the birthday greetings I received. I didn't feel like messing with PowerPoint to crank out some hideous chart of teal shades this year. Had I the infinite time and actual talent maybe I could have tarted them up into a visually pleasing "The Oatmeal"-esque info-graphic but alas I'm just going to drop them in a simple list (you're lucky to even get bold numbers).

Note: Despite the modest numbers these stats were still pretty haphazardly tallied and organized so I would say they're closer to estimates:

• 31 - Birthday greetings written on my time line. It's one more than last year so it would appear I am stagnating in terms of Facebook friendships.
• 20 - Facebook birthday greetings that ended with one exclamation point. Not much variation this year in terms of punctuation. Are we getting set in our ways as we get older?
• 3 - Facebook birthday greetings that ended with two exclamation points.
• 1 - Facebook birthday greetings that ended with three or more exclamation points. Indicates a distinct lack of manic enthusiasm.
• 5 - Facebook birthday greetings that ended with no punctuation at all.
• 2 - Facebook birthday greetings that ended with a period.
• 2 - Facebook message greetings. Facebook messages always get lost in the communication mix, more personal than a wall post but not quite as personal as a text message or possibly even an email. 
• 3 - Emails with a birthday greeting.
• 5 - Automatic emails from random forums and websites I signed up for years ago that still remember me and send my crappy discounts. You'll never be alone on your birthday if you give a website your date of birth.
• 3 - Text message birthday greetings.
• 5 - In person birthday wishes. These were limited since I never told anyone at work that it was my birthday.
• 2 - Phone call birthday greetings. What a novelty!
• 1 - Alleged "gift" being mailed to me. 
• 1 - Early birthday greeting.
• 3 - Belated birthday greetings.
• 2 - Birthday greetings that were sent from abroad, to the best of my knowledge.
• 6 - Birthday greeting that were variations on me being old.

Alas, no singing telegrams or skywriting, perhaps for the 30th...

Victor's Ultimate Birthday Mega Mix '12

The first of June has comes around again, which can only mean one thing (well aside from International Children's Day): it's the release of the 2012 edition of "Victor's Ultimate Birthday Mega Mix"! Now, my personal rule is that it takes at least three successful years before I dub anything a legitimate "tradition" so I won't go as far as to call this one as such. However with another successful turnout of five mix CDs it would appear that VUBMM Day is well on it's way to becoming a cherished international holiday and essential fixture of summer (of course this is all also based on the assumption that I will keep on living for years to come).

Once again, I would like to formally thank everyone who acknowledged my birthday last month from the emptiest of casual Facebook shout outs to those who hung around with me to my sleepiest/drunkest of moments. Special thanks go out to the mix makers as none of this would have been possible without your contributions. If anyone else would like to be considered next year, all you need is a mix (and perhaps a tolerance for harsh criticism).

Once again, as for my listening process, all the mixes were carefully evaluated on an individual basis via my car stereo over multiple weeks and countless miles of commuting on the New Jersey Turnpike.

Victor's Ultimate Birthday Megamix '12 from VictorSellsOut on 8tracks.

And don't forget, the fun continues tomorrow with the release of the 2012 edition of the "worst of" mix!

Chart It!

For no particularly compelling reason, outside of the simple pleasures of writing up a crude pie chart in PowerPoint, I felt like charting the punctuation of all the recent birthday messages that were posted on my facebook wall. Seeing as how birthday facebook messages in recent years have become this sort of crazy personal social barometer, there are countless ways one could measure and interpret all the data from this random yearly poll of your online "friends". I didn't really look that deeply at things, just counted up the punctuations.

As the ugly colored chart clearly shows, of 30 posted messages, an overwhelming 13 birthday wishes ended with a simple (!). It's not really all that surprising, since it's both stylistically accurate and the usual shorthand for showing enthusiasm. I found the double (!!), tied for the second most with 5, to be interesting. I find there to be a real deliberateness to the double. I imagine a hastily written message with a quick lean on the exclamation point key would often yield three or more exclamation points (there were 4 greetings with a trio of exclamation points, unfortunately none with more), a two pointer seems less random. Tied with the two pointers was the no punctuation greeting, which I find to have a classier, restrained quality. It's likely the popular choice for those who eschew the exclamation point, which I have to agree has become far too ubiquitous in modern writing. Rounding out the list is the period, which two subdued well wishers ended their well wishes with. Also there was one emoticon, which would technically fall into the non-punctuation category but I figured deserved individual recognition. I do recall getting more emoticons in past years, maybe it's due to the recession.

I hope this demonstrates that I do pay attention to and appreciate every birthday post (probably more so than you if you're one of those sad people that just rotely send out greetings based on whomever's birthday facebook tells you it is), even the ones by you weirdos I never see.

Victor's Ultimate Birthday Mega Mix '11

I just want to start off with a grand formal final thank you to everyone who acknowledged my birthday last month from those who actually brought me gifts or hung around with me until the wee hours at the bar to those Facebook friends who I have never met nor talked to but still manage to post a birthday greeting on my wall every year like clockwork and everyone in between (don't think I didn't forget you, automatic emails from internet sites I've registered with). If I had to spend a whole day being reminded of the depressing, immutable truth of my mortality I guess there were worse ways to have spent it.

One of the most notable things about this year's birthday was the unexpected motherlode of birthday mix CDs I received. In my largest haul yet, I got five fully loaded CD-Rs comprising of over 120 songs and individual artists (although there were two Ash songs, the only repeat artist throughout). Fortunately I had just recently started a job that involved about a one hour driving commute (personally, I believe driving on a highway is the single most ideal position for listening to music) round trip so it all oddly serendipitous. So after finally making my way through all the CDs, getting around to uploading them, and giving them a week or two of perspective I decided to make a 20 track compilation mix of my own to share with everyone featuring my top 4 selections from the 5 mixes.

Now these are by no means the most definitive of rankings. All of this is basically based on first impressions and maybe further listens down the line my tastes will change. However until then, just in time for summer, it's Victor's Ultimate Birthday Mega Mix '11 (a note on ordering: I tried to stay true to the original track orderings of the mixes; surprisingly there were only a few overlaps):

Now while you're enjoying the sweet tunes good reader ponder a question that I as a long time mix enthusiast have often pondered while listening to and making mixes: who is the mix reflecting? If you're making a mix for someone is it a reflection of yourself, the mix maker, with your tastes, personality, and preferences being represented in the music and arrangement that the listener is interpreting? Or is the individual receiving the mix finding something out about themselves from listening to a mix made specifically for them? Or is the mix you are making a reflection of what you think the mix listener's reflection of you is? This line of thinking can basically go on forever like one of those infinite recursion effects. I think the answer (as with all such questions with unsatisfying answers) lies somewhere in between. It's one of the enduring charms of the mix, both sides are getting perspectives on each other by uniquely interpreting the same list of songs (at least with a well crafted mix that someone actually put the work into, if you're going to dump 20 random songs together without any context or meaning you might as well be a psychopath mimicking human emotions and empathy).

Birthday, or Lonesome No More!

To all those Neo-Luddites out there who decry that our ever evolving and expanding web of mediated communications, while ostensibly appearing to give us a myriad of options to communicate with each other, is actually further alienating us from meaningful human interaction; I must disagree. Sure email has completely extinguished the intimate art of the personal handwritten letter (you can forget about cursive) for this generation and beyond. Texting continues its unrelenting assault on all standards of grammar and spelling. Social networking groups like Facebook have completely diluted the meaning of "friend" to the point of irrelevance. However, to the defense of the modern age, I must point out that there are still some advantages to be gleamed.

Today just happened to be my birthday and while I was too busy with finals to barely acknowledge it, I received a surprising handful of completely unsolicited automated birthday wishes from random Internet sites that I apparently gave my birthday to in the past. They included:

• A birthday greeting and an Internet coupon for a free order of some dessert item called "chocolate dunkers" from the Pizza Hut website I signed up for once to get a discount a few years back.
• A happy birthday message from the TravelPUNK Backpacker College Student Budget Travel Message Board that I signed up for two years ago when I was preparing for my trip to Costa Rica.
• An e-birthday card from the OkCupid dating site that I signed up to take a random personality test back in high school and haven't returned since.
• A happy birthday greeting and a coupon for a free eyeglass case (valued up to $9.95) from the Eyeglass Outlet, a local glasses place I went to update my prescription in February.
• A friendly happy birthday greeting from the Facebook site and all the random salutations from friends of varying degrees.

So yeah, the new technology may be dehumanizing us all but come on that's at least five Internet equivalents of a surprise birthday greeting. Even if you're the most friendless, reclusive individual around, if you've been around the web enough times you'll probably get a message on your birthday like clockwork. In addition, you know where an automated birthday wish stands when you get it (absolutely no sincerity). You can never quite tell with real people if they're just going through the motions or are actually wishing you a legitimate happy birthday. In that situation I'd rather have the unambiguous insincerity of the machine than the ambiguity of the person.

I still don't like texting though.