You feel you want to run away.

That's the face he makes.

Saw Tony again last night, this time with Toni. I liked it better the second time. First, because I wasn't taking it too seriously. Second, because the theater was full and there was a lot of laughter. Third, she was sitting with me.

Distance: 3.1 miles

Duration: 28:54
Pace: 9:01

Route: Forest Hill Loop
Temperature: 55°
Climate: crisp & ideal
Mood: down in it

Songs from "Tony" (2026)

Magic Mountain * - War ft. Eric Burdon

Girlfriend - Modern Lovers

The Calvary Cross - Richard & Linda Thompson

Mighty Sly - Funk Society

Everything Merges With the Night - Brian Eno

Something On Your Mind - Karen Dalton

Strawberry Letter 23 - The Brothers Johnson

The more we make movies that take place in the 1970s, the deeper the needle drops have to get.

Stretches: yes
Water: yes
Weight: 168.8 lbs. (-0.4)

Planks: TBA
Push-ups: yes

Sit-Ups: yes

Things are going great ... and they're only getting better.

I cannot see anything.

Forty years ago I was just beginning my college experience, and it was a lot. I think of what was on the television in he communal spaces. In my dorm, that was in the basement, and it was mostly music videos. In Hog's dorm it was Transformers. 

Distance: 3.1 miles

Duration: 28:18
Pace: 9:07

The music videos all seemed to be communicating the same thing -- neon and pastel was dead, the playful first half of the 1980s was shifting into something more dour and serious (See: Miami Vice Season 3) in grays and blacks.

Route: Forest Hill Loop

Temperature: 70°
Climate: damp
Mood: all right

And my girlfriend's dorm room, like all the dorm rooms, painted cinderblock and tile floors. It was a cold dynamic, and as the days also cooled, so did our attention for each other.

Not our affection, mind. Our attention.

Fall 1986 Playlist

Notorious - Duran Duran

Big Time - Peter Gabriel

The Future's So Bright, I Gotta Wear Shades - Timbuk3

Higher Love - Steve Winwood

In Too Deep - Genesis

You Can Call Me Al - Paul Simon

Stretches: yes
Water: yes
Weight: 169.2 lbs. (-0.2)

"Lombardo"

Last night was Pandemonium. When I performed at Pan ten years ago, I was enticed to extend the evening by going to a local establishment. It was so late I think I thought I was sober but of course I wasn't.  The next day I had a terrible hangover and actually got sick in front of the kids; we were driving across town for a photo shoot for Talespinner. I should have stayed home. Anyway, I was humiliated.

Last night, CPT was serving three premium NA beverages at the bar, a beer, a wine and a mule. When I arrived at the stage where we were performing with an Athletic Gold Lager, it began a conversation (starting with, "Oh! Where did you get that?") about the choice not to drink. It was really cool.

I was in bed by eleven last night. I was also up at three AM, uncomfortable and with my thoughts running, so I got up for a bit and did housework. That was also cool.

Planks: yes
Push-ups: yes

Sit-Ups: yes

More exercises, please. I feel good, by the way. My knees feel all right, minor pain during rehearsals last week (I was on my feet a lot) the rest of me is copacetic. That's where I am today.

Who's going to plug their ears when you scream?

As if the collective reputation
of runners wasn't bad enough.

The ADS has been hitting me very, very hard. Woke up on Thursday after a full night's sleep with something like a hangover. Only I haven't had alcohol since last Friday afternoon. Which just goes to show.

But seriously, I have been hit with rounds of brain farts and it is not pleasant. I hope these subside soon.

This is a new era. No antidepressants, also no depressants. I wonder what will emerge. It may be confidently angry.

Distance: 3.1 miles

Duration: 28:29
Pace: 9:10

Bero Noon Wheat is a banger, add a slice of orange, *chef's kiss* or whatever it is the kids say.

Route: Forest Hill Loop
Temperature: 65°
Climate: overcast & cool
Mood: not great, but determined

Fall 1984 Mixtape

Strut - Sheena Easton

The Warrior - Scandal ft. Patty Smyth

Cover Me - Bruce Springsteen
On the Dark Side - John Caffrey & The Beaver Brown Band

Flesh For Fantasy - Billy Idol

Rock Me Tonite - Billy Squier

Drive * - The Cars

Stretches: no 
Water: yes
Weight: 169.4 lbs. (-0.8)

Planks: TBA
Push-ups: TBA

Sit-Ups: TBA

There’s life after high school.

“Lombardo” at Pandemonium this weekend!

Beautiful days. Very busy. Talented, engaged actors. More performances in the mix. Evenings on the side porch with my partner, watching the game.

Distance: 3.1 miles

Duration: 28:19
Pace: 9:08

We are mindful, which is is nice. It doesn't last, which is acceptable. Already psyching myself up to attend Pandemonium and not drink. And that's okay.

I haven't gone so long without chemical abuse in such a long time. It means these feelings can't be explained away by depressants.

Speaking of which, I'm leaving Sertraline. And I think this is good timing. I ride the brain zaps mindfully (natch) by just feeling them, working not to be annoyed by them. Just breathe. There they are. Being still helps. They will not last. Nothing ever does, am I right?

Route: Forest Hill Loop
Temperature: 71
Climate: moist

Mood: good

Fall 1984 Mixtape

Adult Education - Hall & Oates

Hot For Teacher - Van Halen

Two Tribes - Frankie Goes to Hollywood

Take Me With U - Prince & the Revolution

The Glamorous Life - Sheila E.

I Feel For You - Chaka Khan

Uff. What a cuck I was. But, oh! What a season.

Stretches: yes
Water: yes
Weight: 170.2 lbs. (-3.0)

Planks: TBA
Push-ups: yes

Sit-Ups: TBA

When the seasons change will you stand by me?

Lovely cool morning. We are having a dry season. Not a bad time for it, considering all the NA craft beer concerns which are popping up.

And we're home.

Aftermath 0123

Distance: 3.1 miles

Duration: 28:01
Pace: 9:04

It's taken four years, but I have finally completed the first season of Zombies Run ... which debuted what? Fourteen years ago? We've been through so much, and yet it is as relevant as ever. Isn't that charming?

Route: Forest Hill Loop
Temperature: 58°
Climate: light fluffy clouds
Mood: better

American Sign Museum

fall running playlist!!

Sweater Weather - The Neighborhood

Hide * - Rainbow Kitten Surprise

Mind Over Matter * - Young the Giant

Matchbox - Rainbow Kitten Surprise

Seven - Rainbow Kitten Surprise

Cough Syrup - Young the Giant

Almost (Sweet Music) - Hozier

Jackie & Wilson - Hozier

Whoever created this playlist really likes Rainbow Kitten Surprise. But it’s a playlist. Skipped the Backseat Lovers song, which begins as a ripoff of Across the Universe and swiftly degenerates into childish wailing.

Stretches: yes
Water: yes
Weight: 173.2 lbs. (-0-)

Planks: yes
Push-ups: TBA

Sit-Ups: yes

Hug you to death.

Things are changing, question mark? She is coming home this weekend. And I feel as uncertain about that as I have been about her being away.

It will be a dry fall, and I am looking forward to that. It's been a long and lonely summer. Yeah. Lonely. And I have been unhappy about that. I have done my best to take care of myself. Now I know I can take care of myself, Big deal, who cares. Didn't think I wanted that.

Distance: 3.1 miles

Duration: 28:41
Pace: 9:15
Route: Forest Hill Loop
Temperature: 64°
Climate: overcast & humid
Mood: maintaining

Summer 1987 Playlist

I Want Your Sex - George Michael

Why Can't I Be You (Extended Mix) - The Cure

La Bamba - Los Lobos

She's On It - Beastie Boys

Heart and Soul - T'Pau

U Got the Look - Prince ft. Sheena Easton 

One more summer playlist before we go. Maybe next Zombies?

Stretches: yes
Water: yes
Weight: 173.2 lbs. (+1.5)

Planks: TBA
Push-ups: TBA

Sit-Ups: TBA

T-minus zero. Time to go.

Somewhere deep inside something's got a hold on you ...

Shortly after Crowded House released their second album, Temple of Low Men, I encountered my former roommate who said he had been listening to it. I asked him how it was and he said, entirely deadpan, "It's terrible."

I said, "Oh. I heard that. That's a shame."

He responded with some irritation, "What? Where did you hear that? It's amazing."

I sputtered something like, "Oh, I mean. Maybe I didn't? I don't know. Cool."

This says all you need to know about both of us.

Anyway, it's the best album of the 1980s. Top five, at least. Maybe? I don't know. I love it.

Distance: 4.05 miles

Duration: 37:17
Pace: 9:12

Rehearsals are in full swing. Things are going well. I would say they are going very well, but I can't tell anymore.

Route: Forest Hill Loop
Temperature: 72°
Climate: overcast & humid
Mood: all right

Temple of Low Men - Crowded House (1988)
I Feel Possessed

Kill Eye

Into Temptation

Mansion in the Slums

When You Come

Never Be the Same

Love This Life

Sister Madly

In the Lowlands

Better Be Home Soon

"No skips" is a thing people say, but it's rarely true. There's always some weak track. 

There isn't a single song on this album I could skip, for anything. So, four miles.

Stretches: yes
Water: yes
Weight: 171.8 lbs. (-2.8)

Obsession, anger, romance, nostalgia, madness, betrayal. So much betrayal. You could soundtrack my entire life with this one album. 

Planks: yes
Push-ups: yes

Sit-Ups: yes

Drag-ass morning. The perfect day to have an afternoon run, instead. And maybe this should be the plan from this out?

T-minus two.

Why do I scream for pleasure?

We miss you, Paul.

Forty years ago Crowded House released their debut, eponymously titled album. I was a freshman and as soon as I could I signed up to be a DJ for the green radio station, this disc was in the "new releases" section and we were strongly encouraged to play the new releases. I may have played the lead off track, it didn't make a huge impression at that time.

Then again, neither did another new album, Baby, The Stars Shine Bright by Everything But the Girl. I think I played the song Little Hitler once because I found the title interesting, I wouldn't glom onto that act for another two years.

Distance: 3.1 miles

Duration: 28:50
Pace: 9:09

It wasn't until Don't Dream It's Over hit the top of the charts in spring the following year that I got the album and began my love affair with Neil Finn and by extension, producer Mitchell Froom.

Route: Forest Hill Loop
Temperature: 61°
Climate: cool & humid
Mood: ready

Crowded House - Crowded House (1986)

Mean To Me

Now We're Getting Somewhere *

Don't Dream It's Over *

Love You 'Til the Day I Die

Can't Carry On

I Walk Away

Tombstone

That's What I Call Love

No, I didn't include Something So Strong. There are some songs which were played so often when they were popular that I never want to hear them again. That is one, Everybody Wants to Rule the World is another. And these are from acts that I really like.

Three thoughts and trivia:

1. Can't Carry On was not on the LP, it was a bonus track on the CD.
2. I Walk Away is a cover version of a song Finn wrote for the final Split Enz album
3. That's What I Call Love is possibly the best final track of any album ever recorded

Stretches: yes

Water: yes
Weight: 174.6 lbs. (+1.2)

No, I don't understand it, either.

Planks: yes
Push-ups: yes

Sit-Ups: yes

Since May 23 she has been away from me as long as she has been with me. Fifty-five days here, and in Maine, fifty-five days somewhere else. On the West Coast, in Highland Hills, in Mason. Elsewhere. I have the right to have feelings about this.

T-minus four.

Wherever there is comfort there is pain.

On this date, twenty years ago, I was deep into marathon training. Five miles on a Wednesday.

"Okay, that hurt. I neglected (forgot?) my shin stretches before going out, and now they both are singing. The front of each shin was bright and pained, it made for little, tiny - but swift - steps. Hmn. Gotta watch that."

Indeed. Here we are, without pain in our legs at all. I was developing muscles on the front of my calves, I didn't know you could do that.

Distance: 3.1 miles

Duration: 29:07
Pace: 9:23

Also, I was listening to Podrunner a lot. On September 6, 2006 it was "I Put My Big Boy Pants On" which was one of those early mixes that included music he either didn't have the rights to or lost the rights to, in either case it is no longer available.

I have it burned on CD. It's one of my very favorites.

Route: Forest Hill Loop
Temperature: 70°
Climate: bright & beautiful
Mood: all right

In the 1970s, Tim Finn put together a band called Split Enz. It was quirky pop, frenetic post-punk, agitated (and agitating) tunes, aspiring to be "Ashes to Ashes" David Bowie or Sparks or early XTC but never really as good as any of those. 

By the early 1980s Tim's kid brother Neil had joined the group, who was to become one of the greatest (and underrated) songwriters of the decade. Singing lead for truly great songs like I Got You, One Step Ahead and Message to My Girl, you can see in the music videos how Tim tries embarrassingly to attract attention to himself, as if to remind people it's still his band.

Stretches: yes
Water: yes
Weight: 173.4 lbs.

New digital scale. And this makes sense. My revised weight goal is 165 lbs., which I believe is only appropriate. I much prefer the accuracy. I stepped on the thing three times, it said the same thing every single time. 

When did I buy the manual scale, how long have I had that thing? Liar.

Planks: TBA
Push-ups: yes

Sit-Ups: yes

After Split Enz broke up, Neil started his own act, Crowded House, and almost immediately produced one of the best known and loved songs of the decade, "Don't Dream It's Over." The original Crowded House trio of the Neil Finn, Paul Hester and Nick Seymour created two amazing albums, Crowded House (1986) and Temple of Low Men (1988), which were so important to me during my college years.

Then in 1991 it was announced that Tim had joined the group. I can only imagine the holiday dinner over which Tim Finn was able to wheedle his way into the act. The result was Woodface, which includes some of my very favorite Neil Finn creations, and a couple unfortunate songs that are obviously Tim's. He even managed to sneak a few stupid turns of phrase into otherwise decent Neil Finn creations. A "lounge room lizard"? That's Tim's schtick. See also, his lead vocal on All I Ask.

And let us not mention the execrable, fat-shaming opening track, Chocolate Cake.

Woodface - Crowded House (1991)

Chocolate Cake

It's Only Natural

Fall at Your Feet

Tall Trees

Whispers & Moans

Four Seasons In One Day

Fame Is

... As Sure As I Am

Italian Plastic

She Goes On

That it dropped during the summer of that fateful year, as I was going through a tense will they/won't they with the person who I would eventually be married to (for a short while) gives the truly great songs a nostalgic pull for me, tracks like It's Only Natural, Fall at Your Feet, Whispers & Moans, Four Seasons in One Day and She Goes On, they are all hers.

Tim left the band during the tour.

I really miss hanging on each other's words.

Crazy, there's six first-run movies at the Cedar Lee this weekend that I have already seen.

Muggy days, rain and heat. I hope the fall is cool and long.

Distance: 3.1 miles

Duration: 28:09
Pace: 9:04

We had a power outage last night (always hated that word, "outage") which I managed by reading with a flashlight on the side porch. We have a gas stove so I was able to make ramen.

Route: Forest Hill Loop
Temperature: 70°
Climate: clammy
Mood: surprisingly focused

New For 2026 Playlist

Gas Station - Slayyyter

Cruising to Self Soothe - Ecca Vandal

Automatic - Jessie Ware

We Should Talk - Bleachers

Gotta Keep the Funk Alive - Minneapolis Funk All Stars

Dance ... - Slayyyter

One Step Away - Madonna

Danceteria - Soft Cell

This is how I remain young at heart.

Stretches: yes
Water: yes
Weight: 165 lbs. (+3.0)

No, no idea. I would like to purchase a new digital scale, the one we have now is an old school spring activated version, which changes your weight depending on whether you are leaning forward or back, and I'd like something consistent.

Yesterday, I was exhausted, all day. Just not enough sleep. I tried to keep myself awake by drinking a lot of water (which necessitated many more trips to the toilet) and obsessing about snacks, and though I did have a small snack in the morning (a tiny bag of graham crackers) and one in the afternoon (one packet of fruit snacks) that was it and the rest of my meals were normal.

Planks: yes
Push-ups: yes

Sit-Ups: yes

It is September. Rehearsals begin in earnest next Tuesday. A lonely three-day weekend. A friend did ask me out for dinner tomorrow night, which was very thoughtful and I am looking forward to that.

It's T-minus eight.

Come running at the drop of a hat.

And did we complete fifteen runs in August? Yes, we did.

Distance: 3.1 miles

Duration: 29:04
Pace: 9:22
Route: Forest Hill Loop
Temperature: 77°
Climate: warm & humid
Mood: a tad weary

New For 2026 Playlist

My Dead Astronaut- Robyn Hitchcock

the feeling - Steve Lacy

American Cars - Noah Kahan

In The Stars - The Rolling Stones

I Won't Be Home Tonight - Tony Carey

Sun and Moon - Danielle Ponder

Lonely in the Future - The Strokes

Supersize - Megasound ft. Bad Bad Hats & Party Nails 

Seriously, Stones? How did you do that? Eighty year olds produce a stone cold banger.

Had to look up Tony Carey, I thought that got on by mistake. Sounds like 1983. But he's old, too. So is Robyn Hitchcock. We're all old guys.

Stretches: yes
Water: yes
Weight: 162 lbs. (-2.0)

Planks: yes
Push-ups: yes

Sit-Ups: yes