You put your iPod on shuffle and just let the music play. Often you'll find yourself skipping tracks or perusing the library to find the song you want to hear. No matter how good a collection of tunes you have, your musical taste buds are always left wanting something different than what you have playing.

As great as some music is, sometimes it just doesn't fit the mood. I'll work out to Rage Against the Machine, but there's no way I want Zack de la Rocha protesting police brutality when I'm cramming for an exam. That's where we come in.

Starting with today's Venues, the Collegian's arts staff will be making the perfect mix for a specific situation or theme. I'm giving you a little preview here and next week the feature will continue with a handful of mixes made by some of our other mix-masters.

However, there are only about 20-something people on the arts staff, and we want diversity with this feature. That's where you come in.

We want your feedback. We want to know if you like the mixes, if you dislike them, or most importantly, what mix you want to see. You think your best friend's boyfriend is a jerk? We'll make a mix for you. Your goldfish just died and you're grieving? We can do that one too. Challenge us. Give us a good category, and we'll make the mix.

The art of the mix has gone to the wayside in an era full of iPod shuffles. There was a time when a mix tape was the perfect introduction to a new friend or that girl in your English class. Just throw your favorite songs of the moment onto the record player, grab a cassette tape and dub away.

Mixes are perfect icebreakers. They always reveal something about the mix-maker. It's an artistic medium; put some heart into coming up with the right feel and the apt dynamics and you can get great results from a mix tape. A perfect mix tape could be your "Mona Lisa." The painting, not the Slick Rick song.

There's an issue with this old standard, though. Blank cassettes are harder to find than the Holy Grail, yet you can walk into any office supply store and find towers of blank CDs. While the sound quality is going to be better, you cut 10 minutes off the runtime of the mix, and you turn two sides into one.

Some might prefer having one side. You don't have to worry about fitting everything into two separate halves of the tape. But I'm old school. I like splitting the mix into moods. For example, the theme for my mix next week is "I'm the King (Or Queen) of the World." I'm calling the first half "Toil" and the second half "Triumph."

Try out the mixes. Tell us if you like them, or tweak them to fit your taste. We want this to be an interactive experience. Send your suggestions to collegian.mixtapes@gmail.com. If you want a certain staff member to make your mix, tell us. We'll do our best to make your "Mona Lisa."