Wednesday, April 6, 2011
Becoming the starting point guard for the white* B team in eighth grade didn’t just happen for me. Like other great accomplishments, it took a lot of hard work, practice, and some extra motivation. My seventh grade motivation technique of watching MC
Hammer videos in the morning wasn’t cutting it anymore. I need some more immediate pumping up. So, I created what I called, Jeff’s Pump Up Tape. Jeff’s Pump Up Tape was a mix of upbeat and/or inspiring songs I compiled from tapes and the radio. I would put it in my off brand Walkman and listen to it on the bus on the way to places like North Scott and Northwest Junior Highs. The tape produced the desired effect, the adrenaline flowed. For a brief time my adrenal gland rivaled the output of my adolescent pituitary gland.
Here is a playlist from Jeff’s Pump Up Tape:
-M.C. Hammer, Rollin’ On
-Rocky Soundtrack, Eye of the Tiger
-Rocky Soundtrack, Burning Heart
- Footloose Soundtrack, Holding on For a Hero
-Celine Dion, Love Can Move Mountains
-Tom Cochrane, Life is a Highway
-Karate Kid Soundtrack, Moment of Truth
I never claimed it was good. I just said I made it. There were awkwardly long pauses between songs, snippets of the DJ cutting into the end of the song, and volume inconsistencies, staples of any good mix tape. I’m sure you can picture a thirteen year 
old Jeff bobbing his head to Celine Dion, preparing for the challenge ahead.
I’m facing a new challenge ahead with my adventure here and I think it’s time for a new Pump Up Tape. This would be volume three, as I made volume 2 in high school.
Here are my ideas so far:
-Ben Harper, The Fight Outta You
-Mumford and Sons, Roll Away Your Stone
-Raphael Saadiq, 100 Yard Dash
I need more.
Let me know your suggestions.
This time I will be making a playlist, and not a mixtape. Although, I do have a tape player in my car.
*Being on the white B team was not a segregative racial thing. There was a white team and a red team, the school colors. We were fully integrated.
