Right now it's 4:25am and the guy next door (who you'll remember from this post is playing We Die Young by Alice in Chains. I already know the next song he's going to play because he plays the same songs every day, and they're always Alice in Chains songs.

I've gone from [Heh: now he is singing along]...from knowing about zero Alice in Chains to knowing a lot of lyrics and I can now identify songs by their intros thanks to this guy. He pretty much only plays Alice in Chains. And I have no idea why.

Now I could solve this by banging on the wall a couple times, going over there and talking to him, blasting my own music, or writing sort of passive aggressive note, but it's far more interesting to try something different.

I'm going to make him a mixtape.

I'll make a CD that is full of songs that I won't mind hearing over and over, that he will like, and that isn't Alice in Chains. Sure there are more effective ways to deal with this, but there aren't more amusing ways. I asked Mike Foss to give me a hand with song selection and I'm seeing what Pandora internet radio has to offer as well. Once I've got a good selection of songs, I'll find a way to get it to him anonymously.

And the beauty is, I'll know how it turned out by what songs adds to his plays-constantly playlist.

[Side note: six songs after playing "We Die Young," he's playing it again]

edit: It's not that he's playing his music loud as much as he's playing it at all. The walls here are paper thin to the point that I can hear pretty much anything he does over there: turning pages on books, throwing down his keys, sighing.