I can ease your pain. Get you on your feet again.

Interesting. Not as motivated by the 00s playlists as I have been by the previous years' ... they provide energetic, syncopated beats, but the lyrics and production values are so sterile. I must truly be getting old.

At the close of the 20th century, I was listening to a lot of electronic music, to be sure. But it was on the darker side, moody. Not surprising, this in keeping with my general sense of melancholy that came with the approaching Millennium.

In 2001 we experienced the death of our first child, but rather than digging deeper into despair, my interest in music became almost childish. The wife can't stand Daft Punk, I think it's not only hilarious, but moving. She found it sterile, I heard in it warm echoes of my own pre-adolscence.

Finding work as an actor-teacher, with comrades in their twenties (ten years my junior) I felt entirely justified in listening to their dance music. But its ten years on now, and a lot of what I found charming, I am also finding lifeless. Even the yearning, earnest, heart-on-the-sleeve songsmithery of Ben Gibbard or Imogen Heap feel synthetic in their carefully crafted sincerity.

Still ... good beats. And I can run to it.

Distance: 4 miles
Route: Neighborhood loop

Mmmmm ... new sidewalks on Euclid Hts. Blvd ...

Temperature: 43º
Climate: cool & dry. lovely.
Weight: 170 lbs.
Breakfast: grape nuts, milk & honey
Hydration? yes
Stretches? kinda? sort of?

Strapped on the old shin splint brace, made it possible to move. Stopping at lights, it felt as though my leg were broken. Here's the thing: I have been here before. I have hurt like this, in this way, before. And the pain has gone away, I have defeated it through constancy and proper exercises. If I were to "take a break" they would only resume when I resume. I have to keep strengthening my legs.

2003 Playlist
The District Sleeps Tonight - The Postal Service
In Between Days - Ben Folds
Zombie Nation (Dave Clarke Remix) - Kernkraft 400
Comfortably Numb - Scissor Sisters
You Promised Me - In-Grid
Black California - Kaada
Sunrise (Jason Nevins Remix) - Duran Duran
Hey Ya - Outkast
Jerk It Out - Caesars

Cooldown:
Nothing Better - The Postal Service