Some of the most prolific romancing ever was completed via tape deck. Real Romeos woo extensively by mixtape. The social history—recently saluted in the Broadway play Avenue Q—has evolved as CD burners replace the cumbersome cassette deck, reducing the time-consuming recording task to a fraction depending on hard drive and download speed. The psychology behind choosing the right songs, however, hasn’t changed. It’s only gotten harder as online stores slice record digging into quickly downloadable and digestible ribbons.
For Valentine’s Day, here are some tips for creating the illest mixtape/CD for the lover in your life.

Got some new karaoke CDs in the mail. I have a pretty decent Pioneer setup that runs CD-G’s and DVDs. We don’t mess with the DVD’s—CD-G is the way to go. More selection, better sound and no wack videos.

I go in spurts when supplementing my collection (now 50+ deep, cripes!). I’ll get on an R&B jag, or think I’d really like to try that New Radicals song. Lately I’ve been trying to boost my ‘80s collection and I found a disc that had Joe Jackson (“Look Sharp,” “Steppin’ Out”), The Clash (“Train in Vain,” “London Calling”), Thompson Twins, Oingo Boingo, and, the key acquisition: ABC’s “The Look of Love.” How did it go? Let’s just say my throat is wrecked. One of the funnest parts about singing “The Look of Love” is when it heads into the spoken word part: “My friends they tell me, Marlin (sic) maybe someday you’ll find true love. I saaaay maybe. There must be a solution to the one thing, the one thing…” And it ends with a Tom Jones-like pelvic thrust. “LOOK! OF! LOVE!” Crazy.

How much do you really know about us Hyphen peeps through bloggery? Not much. So let’s get acquainted. A good team building exercise is to say your name and give the story behind what you’re wearing. I’m Todd. This is what I actually threw on and it reveals something (bad) about male journalists’ couture. From the ground up:

I got to see an advance screening of House of Flying Daggers this week. Zhang Yimou—the director of Hero, Ju Dou and tons of other great flicks—directs Zhang Ziyi, Takeshi Kaneshiro and Andy Lau in a gorgeous homage to wuxia cinema.

The Hyphen editorial retreat is this weekend at my house. Aside from family and a few friends, it's the first public showing of our place since we moved in last August. Since summer we've been busy removing wallpaper, ugly wood paneling, acoustic ceiling, repainting the ceiling and walls, installing mirrored closet doors, vinyl windows, baseboards. We also got rid of the original '70s era master bathroom and had a guy come in and install sweet tile, a custom vanity, brand new fixtures and canned lights. We got a lot of help from my folks (who live down the street) as well as some good contractors. We're finally at a place where we can go, phew! Let's have some people over!

Housing seems like a pie in the sky thing in the overpriced Yay but my wife and I did it. We bought in 1999 when the market was just as crazy and her income was the only income we could claim (I was freelancing and we don’t make much). We scraped up enough down payment, found a loan company crazy enough to lend us money, and got into a 3bd/2ba for 312K, bidding over by a good chunk. I remember calling our realtor guy from the gym the day he presented the bid and learning we got the house. I walked into the living room and exclaimed "We're outta here!" and Betty and I jumped around in exhiliration. Then reality hit: Oh shit. Now what? Our $800 rent was going to triple to a $2400 mortgage. Yikes!

Last night I moderated a panel on San Jose Japantown for South Bay First Thursdays, a networking organization that brings together Asian American professionals and townsfolk to discuss different topics on the, you guessed it, the first Thursday of the month. About 27 people came out to hear a conversation about the future of Japantown. We touched on topics of identity, demographic shifts, history, gentrification, arts and culture and nightlife. During the intro, I used the word "sleepy" to describe J-town and the reference was brought up again and again. San Jose's Japantown isn't like Little Tokyo in LA or SF's Japantown. It's a homey place (not sleepy!) with a feeling of community unlike the others. No chain stores except one Blockbuster; J-Town is a Starbucks-free zone and proud of it.

One of the panelists, Roy Hirabayashi, the managing director of San Jose Taiko, has been in J-Town for over 30 years. He made a good point that if redevelopment came in and overhauled the place, basically turning it into an exoticized version of Japantown, it would be a disaster. I can’t picture tour buses parked on Jackson, with out of towners hovering over the locals getting soy blocks from San Jose Tofu. The other J-Towns attract Japanese nationals, another panelist said, SJ's is just a neighborhood with a deep-rooted community, which makes it distinct. Panelist Jeff Ota, from the senior center Fuji Towers, said his father liked Japantown because he could stand on the corner of Fifth and Jackson and see the whole neighborhood.