MY FIRST AND ONLY VISION QUEST MOMENT

Hi, I’m Jason. You don’t know me all that well but I’ll start with my situation.

It’s the Summer of 1990 and I’m on my first and only date with a girl who I met at a high school graduation party. We weren’t old enough to drink yet so I took her to, what else, the movies, to see “Days of Thunder.”

Now, I know what you’re thinking and I can say that I wrote a letter to Simpson and Bruckheimer demanding a refund of my $6.50 but they went on and made all these movies and for some reason never got back to me. Anyhow, lesson learned the hard way.

After the movie, we landed back at her parents’ house where you couldn’t have painted more of a stereotypical picture of what happens on a date in the 1950’s. Parents asleep upstairs, us dowstairs trying not to make a sound and (INTERLUDE: Assuming you can picture it, I will skip the details).

Now this all happened before music became a veritable force in my life. Prior to being a college boy, I knew nothing about music. I bought top 40 albums that I got sick of in a week, and eventually ended up losing or breaking every new cassette tape I ever bought, this included Twisted Sister, Men at Work’s Business as Usual, Michael Jackson’s Thriller, Dexy’s Midnight Runners, Wall of Voodoo’s Call of the West and yes don’t laugh, Quiet Riot’s Metal Health, probably worth some money today. But hey, without these bands, VH1 never makes I Love the 80’s or the World Series of Pop Culture.

Anyhow, as we were, um, “dating,” the radio was playing and I heard a song hit my ears that triggered brain cells I never knew I had. I had heard the song 500 times before but never before in a situation like this one. And even if for the briefest of moments, the song actually affected me.

I listened to the song from beginning to end, every word and took it in as if it was the last time I was ever going to hear it. It’s sad I know, but that song was none other than the theme from VISION QUEST – Madonna’s “Crazy for You.”

Now don’t go hosing me down with cheez whiz just yet.

Just to get it out of the way, the movie Vision Quest is bad and only in a film as contrived and as 1980’s as this one can a dufus like Louden Swain get that lucky that a beautiful struggling ex-New York artist who thinks she can make it in Spokane, just happens to be a border in your father’s house. That would be like if Angelina Jolie moved into my house because she broke up with Brad Pitt, lost all her money and custody of her kids and thinks she can make it as a telemarketer on Long Island just to make ends meet.

But just think about it for a second. How many times have you heard a song one way and then seen it in a different light after an event or occurrence in your life? Yeah, thought so.

And it was from this occurrence in my life that I created my first mix tape. You know, those compilations of music you used to make by recording tape to tape or CD to tape? It took me almost an entire day to do. I had to think of the perfectly appropriate songs, the perfect order, the perfect everything. Does this situation sound familiar to anybody? C’mon, sure it does.

But it got me thinking much more about the music. It was from this event, I started to think of situations where certain songs would be most appropriate. Kind of like the top 10 list thing, or the all time greatest songs, or the all time greatest baseball team at each position.

Nowadays, whenever I’m having people over, I take time to make sure the music is right, and don’t think that folks don’t comment. If I get even a subtle comment, I’ve done right by my guests.

Taking it a step further, I obsessed for a month over my wedding playlist for the DJ. A five hour playlist, so many options, so little time. My wedding was one large mingling session. No set dance time and the music was a great level so you actually heard the buzz of the crowd rather than the music piercing your eardrums. It turned out to be my greatest work. The DJ knew exactly what we wanted in terms of atmosphere, and she came through in fine fashion. It truly was the greatest day of my life, thanks in large part to the aptly placed music.

The end of the story is, this girl I made the tape for isn’t the one I married, but I mailed the tape to her, and she never called me again. Oh jeez, go figure that one. I thought for sure a 90 minute tape of love ballads would surely get her to go out with me again.

OK, now you can break out the cheez whiz. Thank the almighty for Ipods. Now if you make a digital mix for your date/girlfriend, all you have to do is click and drag, and if it doesn’t work out, well then, you didn’t spend too much time on it. I digress however, ‘cause this isn’t a dating advice blog.

It’s all about the music here.

Jason L. Kaplan is a music lover and has spent many hours and days behind closed doors examining music's impact on any given situation. He's also the owner of a greeting card retailer, Jancy Street Photocards (http://www.jancystreet.com) Jason loves getting email. Please send your comments.