Down in the park.

Recently Forbes Magazine (of all places) wrote a piece commemorating the 40th anniversary of the movie Times Square, and more importantly the accompanying soundtrack. My wife believes she saw the movie first on Night Flight some time in the mid-80s which checks out. 

I didn't see it until some fifteen or more years ago when the girl was a baby. I got that and Ladies and Gentlemen ... The Fabulous Stains from the late B-Ware Video on Madison for a punk double feature. She came home from work and I was waiting on the front step with my jeans cuffed and my black Chuck's on and my Ramones T-shirt and had two lunchbags that each had a hotdog, a bag of chips and a Coke for dinner. That was a good night.

Distance: 3.1 miles
Duration: 28:45
Pace: 9:16
Route: Forest Hill Loop
Temperature: 45°
Climate: overcast & nice
Mood: all right
Weight: 181 lbs. (+3.0) *shrug*
Plank Challenge: 150 seconds

My brother was in college from 1980-1985 and acted as a kind of repository of hip, the way an older brother is supposed to do. He had the soundtrack and I listened to that a lot, buying my own copy from Schoolkids' Records when I went to college in the late 1980s. It was an education. Read the Forbes article, apparently it was meant to be.

I put together a playlist of the songs from the record, not all of them are available. I miss having Take This Town by XTC.

Times Square (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack)

Rock Hard - Suzi Quatro

Talk of the Town - The Pretenders

Same Old Scene - Roxy Music

Down in the Park - Gary Numan/Tubeway Army

Life During Wartime - Talking Heads

Pretty Boys - Joe Jackson

I Wanna Be Sedated - The Ramones

Babylon's Burning - The Ruts

Walk On the Wild Side - Lou Reed

Are my earbuds on the fritz?

Brisk run. Anxiety in the house. We should be so lucky that the place hasn't blown up yet. And yet, we're chill.

Most of us are chill. Okay, I'm chill.

Distance: 2 miles
Duration: 18:07
Pace: 9:04
Route: Two times around the block.
Temperature: 55°
Climate: cloudy & breezy
Mood: all right ... until
Weight: 178 lbs. (-3.0)
Plank Challenge: 150 seconds

What's That Lyric?

Hollywood - Car Seat Headrest

A lot of emotional anxiety about work and homework. I have returned to having a drink most nights, and feel it in my muscles. This is not necessary. Today is a day for focus, fasting can help. I have not been drinking as much water. We are moving into the winter, for the past two years I have packed on the pounds at this time of year. Let's see if I can do better.

Distance: 2 miles
Duration: 19:01
Pace: 9:29
Route: Two times around the block.
Temperature: 34°
Climate: partly cloudy & cool
Mood: edgy
Weight: 181 lbs. (-1.0)
Plank Challenge: 150 seconds

The most difficult part of planking are my weak, little arms.

Also, yes. It feels better to take a break between runs. But, the BPM kept me moving and I knew it was a short run, so I kept driving on.

My 100th run of the year. Not bad, considering. My all-time low (since 2006) was the year 2011, when I was on a series on antidepressants. I was also writing a lot, and that may have kept me off the road, but mostly I was just not all that interested in running. 

Injury kept me from running a great deal in 2017. But this year wasn't much different -- except for June, when I was crazed, running almost every day. The weather. The mania. The quarantine.

I have no goals, no races, no specific achievement, just the running itself. The running is the goal. To keep running.

Distance: 2 miles
Duration: 18:41
Pace: 9:21
Route: Two times around the block
Temperature: 36°
Climate: light snow
Mood: all right
Weight: 182 lbs. (+2.0)

Plank Challenge: 120 seconds

Brisk run, feels good. Yesterday I was a snack monster. I need to resume drinking a lot of water.

Dear God!

One day off and I feel strong. Bright, crisp run to New Wave classics. Feeling a little down lately, motivation is an illusion. You create it for yourself or you don't. How do I get back what I had only two months ago?

Distance: 3.5 miles

Duration: 32:03
Pace: 9:09
Route: Forest Hill Loop
Temperature: 39°
Climate: bright & cool
Mood: not bad
Weight: 180 lbs. (-1.0)

Plank Challenge: 90 seconds

Teenage Kicks: New Wave 11/14/2020

Take On Me - A-ha

Never Let Me Down Again - Depeche Mode

Rock Lobster - The B-52's

Dear God - XTC

Lovesong - The Cure

Hero Takes a Fall *  - The Bangles

Seven Seas - Echo & The Bunnymen

The Wait - The Pretenders

Gonna use my fingers.

Junk Miles is a podcast out of Philly in which two guys talk about "comedy, music, movies, running, pets, and other assorted nonsense."

They have also created the Fraud Street Run, an eleven mile run on Saturday, November 28, from Four Seasons Total Landscaping to the Four Seasons Hotel in Philadelphia.

If you need me to explain why those two locations are relevant, you haven't been paying attention.

There's also a "virtual run" which means you can run eleven lonely miles wherever you are. But it's a thing, you know? But it's eleven miles, which is not my normal gig. An I may or may not run the "virtual" Turkey Trot on Thanksgiving Day, which is five lonely miles, but much more do-able.

Guess I picked the right year to stop racing.

Distance: 3.1 miles
Duration: 28:34
Pace: 9:12
Route: Forest Hill Loop
Temperature: 45°
Climate: bright & cool
Mood: anxious

The weather gets cooler. Had a sinus headache yesterday, not deathly but enough to put me down for half the day. God, I hate that.

Pathetic Geek Stories Playlist

I Was Made for Loving You - KISS

Do Ya Think I'm Sexy? - Rod Stewart

Miss You - The Rolling Stones

Ah! Leah! - Donnie Iris

Love Is Like Oxygen - The Sweet

Dreaming - Blondie

Brass In Pocket - The Pretenders

Hot Blooded - Foreigner

Continuing my exploration of embarrassing  sex pop of the late 70s. Today I realized Brass In Pocket is about masturbation.

Oh, yes it is, you boys.

Running wild and looking pretty.

Yesterday I woke earlier than usual, I was going round and round in my head about that period in time when it all became confused, the transition from childhood to adolescence (not yet even puberty) when joy and fun and play were supplanted by fear and doubt and crippling self-consciousness.

Fifth and sixth grade. Transition into middle school. The years were 1978 and 1979, just before 1980, which was actually much the same. I was obsessing over the songs, and there were a lot of songs, that had to do with fucking. This is not an exciting concept when you are ten or eleven years old. It is terrifying.

At the same time, there are boys who live to make you miserable. And girls who unintentionally make you misterable. Anyway, I made a short playlist and those are the tunes in my head this week. 

Distance: 2 miles
Duration: 17:31
Pace: 8:45
Route: Two times around the block.
Temperature: 63°
Climate: bright & beautiful
Mood: all right?
Weight: 181 lbs. (+2.0)

There are cookies.

Brisk, short run. Remembered to plank before we started. Lots of running into the street to make way for dog walkers. Running every day can wear me down. I am feeling it now in my knees. So?

Pathetic Geek Stories Playlist

Just What I Needed - The Cars

Hot Child in the City - Nick Gilder

Good Girls Don't - The Knack

Dream Police - Cheap Trick

Does Your Mother Know - ABBA

Bad Case of Loving You (Doctor Doctor) - Robert Palmer

All of these are in appropriate for an eleven year-old. Even one who searches in the municipal dump with his friends for Playboys.

Just what I needed.

I had a good run Saturday,
but it wasn't as good as hers.

This weekend I repainted our light pole. The last time I painted it was in 1996, it was a khaki gray, like the trim on the rest of the house. We have since painted the trim green, but I painted the post black, just a flat black.

This time I use an oil-based paint, it is now a glossy black. I need to replace hardware, do some gentle bending of metal, replace some glass with plastic. Looks good.

The weather has been very nice. The election results are in, we will have a new president. Strange, we are not elated, because we know there is so much work to do. But there is a certain sense of dread which has ebbed.

These are difficult times. We are in a pandemic. The world is on fire. We need responsible governance. I hope for the best.

Distance: 3.1 miles
Duration: 
Pace: 9:24
Route: Forest Hill Loop
Temperature: 61°
Climate: bright & cool
Mood: muh better, thanks.
Weight: 179 lbs. (-1.0)

We've been watching The Queen's Gambit, watching this young woman consume so much alcohol reminds me of my own consumption. We were drinkning, then not drinking, now there is casual drinking again. We have cut my medication in half, but there is still an evident reaction when drinking happens. Also, too much sugar. Too much candy.

While I am not losing any weight, I do feel the difference engaging in this "plank challenge" (see Nov. 3.) Up to one minute today. Yes, it makes a big difference. A surpising aount of difference.

Sixty degrees at 7:30 AM. These days will not last.

I'm running free, yeah. Oh! I'm running free.

Sweat stain on my shirt.

Running eventually makes me winded if I do not take a day between runs. Okay. But it is in the 60s today, and Teenage Kicks was on, so it was imperative to get out the door. 

Distance: 3 miles

Duration: 28:24

Pace: 9:28

Route: Forest Hill Loop

Temperature: 64°

Climate: sunny & warm

Mood: better

Teenage Kicks 11/7/2020

Birds Fly (Whisper To a Scream) - Icicle Works

Perfect Day - Lou Reed

Never Enough - The Cure

I Kicked a Boy - The Sundays

Ace of Spades - Motorhead

Running Free - Iron Maiden

Photogrpah - Def Leppard

Open Letter (To a Landlord) - Living Colour

My persuasion can build a nation.

Thank you, Ms. Abrams.

But the sun comes up and the world still spins. Still doing this "plank challenge" but I forgot to do it yesterday. It feels better to plank and then run, like I'm getting twice the effects from it. Planking and then sitting back at my desk, not really effective.

Distance: 3 miles
Duration: 27:22
Pace: 9:07
Route: Boulevard Loop
Temperature: 55°
Climate: 
Mood: holding
Weight: 180 lbs. (-0-)

Count every vote.

What's That Lyric?

Run the World (Girls) - Beyoncé

There's a flag pole rag and the wind won't stop.

Feelings of helplessness are entirely acceptable at this point. We do not know what the future holds, but we do know that inspite of massvie voter turnout, just as many showed up to say they like this as those who sought to repudiate four years of bellicose hatred and ignorance.

America is a fucking lazy country, full of lazy, stupid people. This is by design.

I am on a self-imposed media blackout. There is no point in commisserating with my fellows and I will not stand for Wednesday morning quarterbacking. I-told-you-so's from cynical white men are not welcome.

One thing I can do is exercise.

Distance: 3.1 miles

Duration: 29:35
Pace: 9:32
Route: Forest Hill Loop
Temperature: 54°
Climate: sunny & cool
Mood: 
Weight: 180 lbs. (+1.0)

Sweeping Up at Grebe's Playlist

Too Shy - Kajagoogoo

Love My Way - Psychedelic Furs

Space Age Love Song  - Flock of Seagulls

Human Nature - Michael Jackson

King of Pain - The Police

Time (Clock of the Heart) - Culture Club

More Than This - Roxy Music

Pleasure of Love (Instrumental Version) - Tom Tom Club

Those gangster presidents.

Okay, so we're doing this.

Today has been a mental mess, I am absolutely unable to accomplish a single thing.

But wait! It's fucking gorgeous out! I should run!

So that's what I did.

Distance: 3.1 miles
Duration: 29:19
Pace: 9:27
Route: Forest Hill Loop
Temperature: 52°
Climate: sunny! nice!
Mood: desperately anxious!
Weight: 179 lbs. (-0-)

Yeah, so. It's sugar season. Bought way too much candy for Halloween (actually, bought a lot - and then more showed up) so there's a lot of candy around and I am trying very hard not to eat it.

But seriously, it's Election Night 2020. There are literally no calories tonight.

Sweeping Up at Grebe's Playlist

Legal Tender - The B-52's

I Want Candy - Bow Wow Wow

Favourite Shirts (Boy Meets Girl) - Haircut 100

Oblivious - Aztec Camera

Come On, Eileen - Dexy's Midnight Runners

Black Coffee In Bed - Squeeze

She's a Beauty - The Tubes

I Melt With You - Modern English

Always Something There to Remind Me - Naked Eyes

I swear, as that long song started to play, I thought I could smell discarded industrial cooking grease. I feared I was having a stroke.