Pull my shirt on, walk out the door.

Left ankle felt twisted yesterday, and my right foot is sore. Not the clown shoes, I do not believe. I think it's the crappy "pay-less" shoes I wear, the ones with soft insoles that I bought when I was looking for comfortable dress shoes for those not-so-dressy occasions. I'd rather go barefoot.

Vampire Weekend (2008)
Mansard Roof (165 bpm)
A-Punk (175 bpm)
Cape Cod Kwassa Kwassa
M79
Campus (163 bpm)
Bryn
One (Blake's Got a New Face)
I Stand Corrected (160 bpm)
Walcott (160 bpm)
The Kids Don't Stand a Chance

I told myself to hate this band. Can't do it. Awesome beats per minute. And it ends just as I am reaching my driveway. Well, if I leave out Oxford Comma. I mean ... who cares about Oxford Comma?

Temperature: 65°
Distance: 3.25 miles
Duration: 32 minutes

He always runs while others walk.

This election cannot be over too soon. It is driving me fucking insane. I am trying to take a break from polling, from commentary, from snark ... but it's hard. It's so hard. The 86,400 second/day news cycle is too tempting to avoid. And what do I get? Donald Trump really needs to attract attention to himself. Why am I even reading this bullshit?

Production meeting for the outreach tour today, which was very exciting. I need to take the time available to me now to memorize lines. Sigh. Once more I am participating in the entertainment of others, when what I really want to do is kick back with a large tub of popcorn and watch a movie in a theater ... without children.

Bond Themes
Skyfall - Adele 
James Bond Theme - John Barry Orchestra
Die Another Day - Madonna
Goldfinger - Shirley Bassey
The World Is Not Enough (172 bpm)  - Garbage
Thunderball - Tom Jones
The Living Daylights - a-Ha
Nobody Does It Better - Carly Simon
A View To A Kill - Duran Duran

Ladies and gentlemen ... the late Marvin Hamlisch.

I once said Madonna wrote the worst Bond song ever, but I stand corrected. That would be Chris Cornell.

My knee has not been keeping me awake for several weeks. Now it is only my brain.

Temperature: 75°
Distance: 3.25 miles
Knee bends: 20

I love this tune.

I did not know this would be their last studio album. But as I had ceased practically all interest in Nine Inch Nails following The Downward Spiral, it is quite possible that had EBTG released another disc, I may not have gotten it. They were a band of my twenties, they helped define my twenties, moving from smooth post-mod pop jazz, to the accidental transition to club music with a very popular remix of Missing in 1995.

The dance remix of Missing is actually an improvement on the original, in the exact same way that the dance remix of Somebody That I Used to Know is not.

We met Tracey and Ben (as fans) after the only gig in Cleveland they ever played, during summer of 1996, promoting Walking Wounded. Maybe that should have been the end. But this album, pushing further into outright club music, was also right where I was at that time.  Hilarious. Low swinging torch music when I was still a kid, then bass and beats as I entered my thirties. I find it amusing that the same act composed both the instrumentals Crabwalk and Compression.

I still listen to them, I just don't think I would have been interested in what's next. For so many bands, you don't always want their new album. Maybe it is the feeling of disappointment when the new stuff pales in comparison to the past. Or maybe it is the fear that I do.

Temperamental - Everything But The Girl (1999)
Five Fathoms
Blame (172 bpm)
Hatfield 1980
Temperamental
Compression (175 bpm)

I ran only once last October. In November, I ran four times, mostly around Thanksgiving when I had time, not when I made time. I must improve on that. Running helps my knee, but it has continued to be sore, especially at night. I want that to go away.

Temperature: 62°
Distance: 3.25 miles

In my dreams I'm jealous all the time.

Moby - Play (1999)
Honey
Find My Baby
Porcelain
Why Does My Heart Feel So Bad?
Southside
Rushing (171 bpm)
Body Rock
Natural Blues

Deep. Spirited. Brooding. Millennium. Play.

I have been eating everything. Depressed lately. Getting cold, gaining weight, right knee pain, President slipping in the polls (I went canvassing last weekend and got yelled at by a Romney supporter) and the impending review panel for a major grant proposal ... which was today.

And it went very well. Time to suck it up and run.

Temperature: 57°
Distance: 3.25 miles
Weight: 175.5 lbs.
Knee Bends: 20

Just play.

The droning engine throbs in time with your beating heart.

When such things were not so easily acquired via the internet, one of my prized possessions was Duran Duran's Carnival EP, featuring club mixes of tracks from both their eponymous debut and Rio. I found it, in all paces, in a record store in Rockland, Maine. That was 1983. I was starting my own private disco.

This past summer I had an argument with a teenager about which Duran Duran albums are the best. We were both at a disadvantage, as she was much more interested in their latest albums, of which I am only marginally familiar, and which I have never heard. She insists Red Carpet Massacre and All You Need Is Now are their two best albums. The expert on such matters remains my ex-wife, who says the girl is not wrong.

Duran Duran - Rio (1982)
Rio
My Own Way
Lonely In Your Nightmare
Hungry Like the Wolf
Hold Back the Rain
New Religion
Last Chance on the Stairway
Save A Prayer
The Chauffeur (165 bpm)

My favorite DD album will remain Rio. Maybe I love this album. Maybe I love the person I was when I first heard this album. No, that's not it, I hated the person I was when I first heard this album. I just love this album. In describing it to my teenage DD fandom opposite (and the other people under thirty I was sitting with) listening to Rio all the way through is like attending the greatest party of your life just before midnight, then throughout the early morning.

Rio is arriving. Hungry Like the Wolf is dancing at 1 AM.

New Religion is making out with someone unexpected in the toilet.

Last Chance on a Stairway is, well, what that song is about.

Save a Prayer is the dawn, The Chauffeur cuts either way whether you are driving home alone or you aren't.

Temperature: 68°
Distance: 5 miles
Duration: 42 minutes, exactly.
Knee bends: 20
Weight: 174.5 lbs.

Huhn. Rounding the fourth mile I began to weary, feeling something like hunger in my abdomen. First time running five miles in the clown shoes. The final drive, however, I was flat-out amazing.

Not actually a dude.

I want life in every word.

Initiating the new week with an early morning run. It is October. It is fall. It is below fifty degrees. Not sure where I am headed with this whole "running" thing. The clown shoes won't work well in the rain, certainly not in the ice or snow. Thinking of picking up some Yaktrax if I am to continue into the winter. Even giving thought to Cleveland 2013. It's going to be a big year, regardless. Or should be. I hope it is.

The Postal Service - Give Up (2003)
The District Sleeps Alone Tonight (154 bpm)
Such Great Heights (174 bpm)
Sleeping In
Nothing Better
Recycled Air
Clark Gable
We Will Become Silhouettes (155 bpm)

Cooldown:
Brand New Colony

Wearing an iPod, running a 5K in fall 2004 (I don't wear headphones at races anymore) listening to Brand New Colony, I realized I was faster than other people, that I could enjoy running fast. It was a revelation.

Temperature: 48°
Distance: 3.25 miles
Weight: 176 lbs.
Knee bends: 20

Early voting begins tomorrow.