2023 – The Mixtape

My annual handcrafted mix of my favorite songs

The Best Of 2019 – The Mixtape

The Best of 2019 – The Mixtape By: Christian Hagen I already touched on the status of my life as it is in my breakdown of my Best of the 2010s playlist. To summarize: Not great. But there have been flashes of brilliance and joy, and in many of those, the music on this playlist…

The Best of 2018 – The Mixtape

The Best of 2018: The Mixtape By: Christian Hagen 2018 was the worst year of my life. This was even before a series of personal setbacks punctuated every struggle I’d been facing mentally and physically and lay bare just how fragile my life could be. I’m not the first to express this sentiment, but it…

Discovery: My Favorite Finds of 2016

I’m a lifelong devotee of albums. I’ve defended their right to exist through years of critics bemoaning their supposed demise. But in 2016, my listening habits shifted. Thanks to Spotify, Vevo, and Cymbal, I’ve found a new love: Songs. I know, it sounds so basic, but truly, until 2016, I valued songs less if they…

Essential 2016 Election Coverage

[UPDATED 10/20/2016] The 2016 American presidential election may wind up being the defining election of this generation, or perhaps the last defining generation of the eldest generation. After all, this is the first election in which there are as many (possibly more) eligible millenial voters as there are baby boomers. How fitting, then, that the two…