For the Men: The Best Valentine's Day Gift Ever

Nothing says "I love you" like a mixtape (yes, I refuse to call it a mix CD or playlist). As someone who loves musicians (who doesn't?), I have received plenty of mixtapes, but not all of them were good. Making the perfect mixtape isn't as easy as just slapping a few songs into itunes and calling it good.  There are rules. 

As explained by Rob in one of my top-five all time favorite movies 'High Fidelity,' here are the rules for making the perfect mixtape:

Rob: To me, making a tape is like writing a letter. There's a lot of erasing and rethinking and starting again. A good compilation tape, like breaking up, is hard to do. You've got to kick off with a corker, to hold the attention (I started with "Got to Get You Off My Mind," but then realized that she might not get any further than track one, side one if I delivered what she wanted straightaway, so I buried it in the middle of side two), and then you've got to up it a notch, or cool it a notch, and you can't have white music and black music together, unless the white music sounds like black music, and you can't have two tracks by the same artist side by side, unless you've done the whole thing in pairs and...oh, there are loads of rules.

To add to Rob's list of rules, here are a few other pointers:

1) Let the music be your voice.  It's great to receive a mixtape of music you like, but it's even better to receive one that has music that reminds your special someone of you.  The lyrics in each song should be representative of what you really think.

2) Your mixtape should be happy, not sad and boring.  You want your loved one to feel....well....loved.

3) Don't use songs that you have used for other girlfriend's mixtapes.  You'll be listening to this too and it's just bad form to use music that reminds you of someone else.

4) Listen to the songs, in order, several times to make sure they're in the right order.  Like size, order does matter.

5) Give it with love (as in a present you actually had to spend money on ).  Hey, women love to hear the words you want to say, but we also want to listen to it while eating chocolate!