What’s the best gift you’ve ever been given that cost less than $10?

I haven’t asked anyone that question in ages, but for a long time, it was one of my go-to questions for someone I was getting to know better. In fact, I think I need to resurrect it.

I’m not talking about some craft your kid made or something from your significant other. Those answers are too generic and expected. Rather, I mean an unanticipated gift from someone random in your life.

For years, I always answered the same way. …

I vacillated between the 25 greatest alt 80s love songs or ballads. In the end, ballads won out (duh).

Admittedly, there’s an overlap between love songs and ballads so some of my picks would make the cut on either list. But ballads seemed the more interesting way to go. Like Elle Woods, I’m not afraid of a challenge!

When I write about the alt 80s genre I cast the net wide. New wave, ska, darkwave, college radio, goth, house music, techno, industrial, shoegaze, dreampop, Madchester. …

There are a handful of writers in Mediumland who have encouraged me during my tenure here. It’s flattering when anyone appreciates my writing, but it’s particularly so when someone far more talented than I does.

Kay Bolden has buoyed my writing over the years. Gratefully (and somewhat shockingly), I’ve gotten the impression she’s understood my Bonnie idiosyncracies. I’m a quirky bird so that’s not something I take for granted. Thank you!

This mixtape has been biding its time. …

Perhaps surprisingly, I rarely do mixtapes as volumes or series. They tend to be one-off endeavors. A few summers ago, though, I made a series of 7 or 8 really fun and silly summer mixtapes. Apparently, there’s something about this time of year that lends itself to turning my mixtapes into multi-volumes.

As a music genre, the alt 80s has many off-shoots.

For that reason, I realized that attempting to take on such an ambitious concept simply could not be achieved in a single mixtape. …

Dan Moore posted my first non-self-published story here at PSILY on December 26, 2017.

Unlike almost everyone else on Medium, I never dreamed of being a writer. I switch tenses on a whim. I’m sure I should edit better. I’m prone to incomplete sentences. I use exclamation points with abandon.

In the end, I’m a sharer of stories and failures and absurdities more than a writer. I’m at peace with that.

In fact, no one is more surprised than I that anyone would want to read one word I write! But I am the first to admit that PSILY deserves…

My latest creation meandered into something a lot more fun and interesting than I originally thought it would.

I love all of my mixtapes. If I’m stuck or feeling on the fence, I put them away until I have fresh ideas. In other words, I never publish a mixtape that feels unfinished or that I’m indifferent about.

But sometimes this happens: a mixtape evolves into something even better than I anticipated.

The music is fabulous (duh), but I’m giving y’all a little nod and a wink, too.

Icons, BMT favorite artists, new interpretations, and live performances aplenty. …

I recently shared with someone that I was smoldering.

I’m a middle-aged chick living in the middle of nowhere. With a teen son. I mean, I’ve got a CPA license. In another life, I was a tax geek.

This is not the life of someone with a lot of smolder experience.

Yet, here I am. So, yeah. Light that match. Let me burn. Or at least let me have the chance to burn. (I’m chuckling.)

In the meantime, I’ve got my music to allow me to go through the motions…and the emotions.

As always: big names, lots of live performances…

For better or worse, I share a lot of myself here. But believe it or not, I don’t always overshare. Today’s going to be one of those times.

I will merely say that there is a story behind today’s mixtape. And it makes me smile.

Though I can’t say more, I’ve woven a tale. I hope you’ll come along for the journey through these songs, my friends! Because there’s always music!

I’m going to slow things down soon enough, but I wanted to start off with something thematically spot-on. …