A N N O U N C I N G: The First EVER Blogorelli Official Contest!

"I had the story, bit by bit, from various people, and, as generally happens in such cases, each time it was a different story." Edith Wharton, Ethan Frome (1911)

That's right, we're having an "official" contest here on Blogorelli! There's even prizes and stuff.

Inspired by the flurry of opinion in the Comment section over Heidi Klum's iTunes Playlist and the fact that, once again, I have no reason to look forward to Valentine's Day (besides the Russell Stover commemorative "Love You Tender" Elvis tin,) I decided to create an opportunity for eveyone to show their mix master skilz. And something to help me be excited for more than proclaiming QuirkyAloneness.

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Life Cycle::Relationship
is what I'm calling the contest, and below are the details:

W H A T
A playlist, consisting of ten songs, that follows the theme "life cycle of a relationship." It can be your relationship with anything; a person, object, pet, occasion, thought, food, whatever. Be creative. Inspire us with your clever postmodernism, or quirky interpretation.

H O W
The songs that make up the mix should be free, public and legal for sharing. Tracks can come from the artist's/labels' web site, or a legitimate mp3 site like Better Propaganda, Insound or Epitonic. Yes, I can hear a collective groan at this "tedious" requirement. But unless I and everyone else can admire your creation aurally, none of us will be able to accurately lavish our adoration onto you. Only MP3 downloads, please, no streams.

W H E R E
Ok, maybe you hate me for the above stipulation...but just in case you're still interested, here are some great places to find new, free music:
- Sterogum's MP3 Podcast
- Salon's Audiofile (see free mp3s listed down the left column; reading the column itslef requires registration)
- The 365 Project: One mp3 a day, catalogued (click on the week to see expanded list and download links)
- Six "Best of" lists for the independent music of last year

W H E N
The deadline is midnight on February 14, 2006. Email your playlist, including the artist name/track title/download link for every song, to blogorelli@gmail.com

W H Y
Name your beautiful/hideous baby...each playlist should have a title.

J U D G I N G / P R I Z E S
I and a few impartials will listen to the mixes, pick the top three, and award the spectacular and completely hypothetical "blue ribbon" on Monday, February 20, 2006. The prize is a $10 iTunes gift card to the winner, and a $5 iTunes gift cards to the second and third finishers.

Also on that Monday, I'll list the the top three here with links included so that everyone can "ooo" and ahh"...yea!

Comments

[dairy queen]

I said "we'll see"... I may still do it after recovering a bit from the sting of the breakup and the root canal I had yesterday. maybe it can be the "life cycle of the relationship" with my evil, evil dentist. or with tooth #15 (which is supposedly now dead but doesn't f-in feel like it!!! ha!).

[matthew]

dq, take it from me...this type of thing can be cathartic in your situation.

I admit, this will be a challenge...my free advice? (worth every penny, btw)...I'm finding it easier to locate the music...download a ton of it...sift...and then see what comes out. The music you pull out you do so for some subconscious reason, make your playlist from those tracks that you enjoy.

You may go into this challenge looking for a "lifecycle of a relationship to x" but the playlist that comes out might give you a totally different, but equally interesting playlist for y or z.

good luck, y'all.

[the polish princess]

you know I don't have the patience for the "how, where and when". sorry. I'm gonna have to pass too!

[dairy queen]

I don't know... I may have to resign from this competition since I've been recently dumped. Could be even more depressing!!! Under normal conditions, this would have been a ton o fun for me. We'll see....

[matthew]

oooohhhh...good challenge, blogorelli...this is going to be fun!