I prefer my iPod to people. Is that wrong? I even have mixes (iMixes?) for different types of weather. Like my “Sunny Day” mix. And my “Rainy Day” mix. And my “Slightly Overcast with a 60 percent Chance of Rain and Shafts of Light Descending Ominously through the Clouds” mix.

This edition of mixtape commemorates New Haven’s recent and sudden transformation into Antarctica. Sure, the lyrics have nothing to do with snow (in fact, the Clientele’s “Reflections after Jane” has two separate references to rain), but the compilation perfectly complements life-between-class. To be honest, unless you’re listening to Jackson Browne or The Mountain Goats or, um, Young Jeezy, why listen to lyrics anyway?

In any good mix though, texture is king: a lightly finger-picked electric guitar that calls to mind falling snowflakes (“Beast for Thee”), a soundscape that a snooty critic might describe as “icy” (“Treefingers,” “Svefn-G-Englar”), or a general aura of hushed grandeur (all).

Then again, there’s “Walking Through the Snow”. Because any good mix occasionally resorts to the literal.

— Garrett Morrison ’06 co-hosts a weekly radio show called “The Hammock” on WYBC AM 1340. If you see him and he’s listening to his iPod, don’t talk to him. He will cut you.