don't forget to have people describe their own mixes when they send them in. it'll be a million times easier for you, as the postwoman, to sort and decide. don't force yourself to listen to all of them! (although by all means if you really want to....)
For reference, once I get all the themes, I'm going to send out an email to all those who emailed me with just the themes so that people can choose a few mixes that they would be interested in making, and then based on geographical location/other people's preference/etc, I'm going to send each person the address and name of another person as well as the theme.
I think your last idea is better: have the participants describe their mix, and then people can choose from that. Because I'm not sure I'd be able to provide a lot of mixes, e.g. angry, spanish folklore, indonesian rap...
If anyone thinks they can do a mix around the theme of sapient vessels and the pilots they're with (or maybe would even want a mix based on that) then I'll be in.
Email has been sent! I didn't make a theme request. I would rather be completely suprised by what the mixologist decided to put together. Could be good, could be bad. I prefer to be at the whim of whomever I get my disc from.