We'll Know When We Get There: Birthday Music #6: Dawn

Name: Dawn

Girls Rock Camp Donation Tally: $35

Relationship: Dawn and I attended Hampshire College together and reconnected recently via Facebook. ("I do enjoy our interweb friendship," said Dawn in her note. Me too, Dawn.)

How Did We Meet: If I recall correctly, Dawn was the TA in the first video production course I took; the great Joan Braderman was the professor.

Something about Dawn: I don't know if it's still the case, but back in the day Hampshire was famous for its annual campus-wide Halloween party. Some of it was myth, but essentially, every year on the night of the party, the campus was shut down to outsiders and students from the other four colleges in the area (Amherst, Smith, Mount Holyoke and UMASS) clamored to get on. One of the supposed reasons for the lockdown was the acknowledgement that a fair amount of drugs were to be taken that evening. So…in my first year, I decided to partake and took acid with a few friends (let's just acknowledge here that I will never be elected President) only to remember when I was in the full throes of it that I have a pretty intense phobia of people dressed up in costume. Not good. So, one of my most intense memories of Dawn was her standing in front of me — dressed in a furry costume, if I recall — chatting away and me being absolutely scared shitless. I don't think I've ever told Dawn that story…

Dawn's Playlist: Dawn sent me a playlist that she herself listens to on a regular basis. (I love that.) "What it may lack in hipness, it makes up for in sentiment." It's a Joni Mitchell to Joan Jett, with a few steps in between.

Delivery: Dawn mailed her CD to Oliver's Twist. It came with a handmade (by Dawn?) card featuring a lightning bolt striking a heart.

Favorite (Nostalgic) Tracks: Tough, because the CD is pretty nostalgic overall. But I'll go with "Crimson and Clover," Joan Jett and the Blackhearts; "Pretty in Pink," Psychedelic Furs and "Across the Universe," Rufus Wainright.