Set me free, set me out on the run.

Football as an American political metaphor. Okay, whatever. I'm still in it for the Lady Haha.

Distance: 3.25 miles
Avg. Pace: 8:51
Duration: 28:47
Route: Forest Hill Loop

Left hamstring is irritated, clumps of snow caused some awkward landings and twists. Still, feels great to get out. Air is clean and cool, I'm cold for about ten seconds and then very comfortable Love the park.

Pavement: shoveled, dry. un-shoveled, crispy, treacherous snow and ice.
Temperature: 25°
Climate: cold
Mood: I'm thinking.

Baseline: 174 lbs.
Today: 166.5 lbs. (-0-)
Goal: 165 lbs.
Ideal: 160 lbs.

2009 Playlist
Bad Romance - Lady Gaga
Paparazzi - Lady Gaga
Empire State of Mind - Jay-Z ft. Alicia Keys
Heads Will Roll - Yeah Yeah Yeahs
Something Good '09 - Utah Saints
Mute (Jokes of the Scene Remix) - The Brash
Ghosts 'N' Stuff - Deadmau5 ft. Rob Swire

Self-sufficience please, and get to work.

Let me spell out my name.

Twenty runs in January. A tie! Why run so much? Fear? Anxiety? Because the weather has been mostly good, probably.

Kids have school off again today, while I must get to the office. Tour rehearsals have begun, and there is much catching up to do.

Distance: 2.75 miles
Avg. Pace: 9:04
Duration: 24:56
Route: Neighborhood Run

This report is deceptive. There are banks of unshoveled snow, the first part of my run was like something out of Rocky, picking my knees up to my waist. I was pretty sure I would keep this to one lap, but once I was off the main boulevard I ran in the street and decided I could run the neighborhood streets until I was satisfied.

Pavement: like ice cream
Temperature: 27°
Climate: cold & snow
Mood: determined

Baseline: 174 lbs.
Today: 167.5 lbs. (+0.5)
Goal: 165 lbs.
Ideal: 160 lbs.

1995 Playlist
Underground - Ben Folds Five
Army of Me - Bjork
Gerbil * - Filter
Les Ailes - Khaled
Alice Childress - Ben Folds Five
Geek Stink Breath - Green Day
Car Song - Elastica

Ben Folds. Elder statesman, like the Alex Chilton of the Millennial Generation. I don't know what to say about that.

Move on.

First things first, please visit my GoFundMe page and make your plans to see I Hate This at Talespinner Children's Theatre on Saturday, May 7.

Thank you.

Distance: 6 miles
Avg Pace: 8:18
Duration:49:46
Route: Cain Park/Noble Loop
Week Five Total: 21 miles
Training To Date: 102 miles

Snow on the ground. Just another weekend I can throw up my hands and say, well! You can't expect me to do any yard work today. Housework, however, is being done. It has not been a rough winter but it doesn't take much for this place to become a seedy warren.

Temperature: 36°
Climate: cold, windy and unpleasant
Pavement: Fuck you guys.
Weight: 161 lbs. (-0.5)
Mood: fine, I guess

Ugh. That was awful. Not just cold and windy, but the sidewalks were all clogged with ice and snow. Was going to do seven but I was near enough to home I just said fuck it. My knees and ankles hurt. Guess I'm just spoiled this year, this stuff is normal for January, February and March.

Nobody Needs To Know Playlist
Nobody Needs To Know - "The Last Five Years" Original Cast Recording
Hindi Sad Diamonds - "Moulin Rouge" Motion Picture Soundtrack
The Origin of Love - "Hedwig and the Angry Inch" Cleveland Public Theatre
All I Care About - "Chicago" Motion Picture Soundtrack
Superboy and the Invisible Girl - "Next to Normal" Original Cast Recording
In The Heights * - "In The Heights" Original Cast Recording
Move On - "Sunday In The Park With George" Original Cast Recording
Skid Row (Downtown) - "Little Shop of Horrors" Original Cast Recording
Friends On The Other Side * - "The Princess and the Frog" Motion Picture Soundtrack
What Would Brian Boitano Do? - "South Park" Motion Picture Soundtrack

Once again Lin-Manuel Miranda has ruined my day. So, I was looking up Hamilton lyrics on Genius and find that the phrase "Nobody needs to know," in Say No To This is a direct, intentional and authorized reference to the song of that title from the musical The Last Five Years.

People have been telling me to listen to Last Five Years for some time now. Like, for some reason I give people the impression this is my kind of musical.

So last Friday I started by listening to Nobody Needs To Know and got profoundly depressed, so then I watched a pirated video of Norbert Leo Butz performing the song off-Broadway, which was devastating, and so I finally listened to the song in German and just hung my head and cried for the rest of the morning.

Well ... I talk about it. Talk about moving.

Coming to a location near you.

February closes. Five runs in February, lowest since 2011 and there really wasn't much of a damn thing I could do about that. When it was above 10 degrees, I ran, and those days were few and very far between.

We are rehearsing the tour every night this weekend and on until we open on Tuesday. Tomorrow March begins, and I cannot express my enthusiasm for turning the page on this calendar. 

Temperature: 25°
Distance: 2.95 miles (Sorry, Stephani.)

Early this past week, the city brought out the sidewalk plow. A plow about four feet wide with a v-shaped plow blade. They did what they could to the frozen mounds all up and down Monticello. Still pretty crappy to run on, but better than the street. Thank you, Heights Department of Public Works!

Tomorrow it will be above freezing. On Tuesday, it rains. Here comes the flood.

1980 Playlist
People Who Died - Jim Carroll Band
Make the Move (164 bpm) - Kenny Loggins
That's Entertainment - The Jam
Another Journey By Train - The Cure
Funkytown - Lipps Inc.
Same Old Scene - Roxy Music
Antmusic (162 bpm) - Adam and the Ants

Well, he ran down the hall and he cried.

Simple task, run no less than ten times in January. Didn't happen. It is very challenging, my physical therapy exercises take up between forty minutes to an hour daily (half that time in the morning, half in the evening.) Combine that with assisting the rest of the family, especially the one currently employing a wheelchair, and there is neither time nor motivation to pursue my own extra-curricular activity.

The activities alleviate the pain. My PT says that eventually the disc will be back in place, and perhaps it shall, I am not certain yet I believe him. Last Sunday was very painful, since then I have been mostly all right. I will continue to do these exercises because I do not want to feel worse, the question is whether I will ever feel better.

Temperature: 32°
Distance: 3.25 miles
Climate: lovely snow

I really like running. That felt really good. Today is the first day since the end of last year that conditions have made it possible to run my traditional circuit. It's the same route I have used for years, but the circular route makes me feel I am going somewhere. Jogging up and down the neighborhood streets is tedious, especially the streets are short, and have a noticeable incline.

By tomorrow, the unshoveled sidewalks will have become a minor obstacle course, one I might have traversed in years past, but not in my present condition.

Kerry Fined For Unshoveled Sidewalk

Kerry was hit with the fine after a passerby submitted a picture of the snow-filled sidewalk on the city of Boston's online "Citizens Connect" portal on Wednesday.
- CNN.com

I am so totally doing this tomorrow. Monticello Boulevard, you are on notice.

1976 Playlist
Lonely Boy - Andrew Gold
Disco Inferno - The Trammps
Don't Fear the Reaper - Blue Oyster Cult
Shout It Out Loud - KISS
Brand New Arkansas Traveler * - Alex Bevan
More, More, More - Andre True
Crazy On You - Heart

It's the memory of our betters that are keeping us on our feet.

Sound of Silver - LCD Soundsystem (2007)
Get Innocuous! 
Time to Get Away 
North American Scum 
Someone Great 
All My Friends 
Us v Them

James Murphy writes the soundtrack of my aging hipster bones.

Last week I finally used a birthday gift card to purchase three pair of new pants. All of them with a 33 inch waist.

Silly me, I don't have a 33 waist. I have a 34 inch waist. I can wear them, but they are snug. I did not do this on purpose. And yet, I have two choices. Return them and accept my fate, or work it.

Temperature: 36°
Distance: 4 miles
Pavement: Some clear, much crusty.
Gear: Shorts, short-sleeved-tee, windbreaker, knit gloves, fleece hat.

Obstacle course out there, but perfect weather. No wind, just a lot of hard work on the knees navigating sidewalks that were left unshoveled, sometimes dodging into the street. Kept to the large block route, taking some side roads to save my knees. My knees hurt. But in that good way, you know?

During the snows on Friday evening I used the Wii for the first time in almost a year. It's good for a warm-up, but not so great for aerobic work. Muscles have been stretched, but not really used. And running place really sucks.

Good news, though - I have run more times this November than any November since 2010. And it isn't even Thanksgiving!

Heights Citizen: I am sick of these kids walking the street like they own the place.

- Later -

Heights Citizen: Shovel the sidewalk? Fuck you, I rent.

Is this the road that you take till the end?

It takes a village to keep sidewalks clear

by Jason Stein, Heights Observer, March 1, 2014

A little late in the season, but appreciated nonetheless, CH-UH Councilman addresses one of my pet peeves, my fellow citizens' inability to or disinterest in clearing their damn sidewalks.

As I have already pointed out, the perpetually frigid temps mean that snow which is not cleared when it falls remains and hardens, making what was merely inconvenient to travel downright dangerous.

The fact that I have had no safely available paths on which to run is not everyone's concern, but the councilman points out it also means children and the elderly have resorted to walking in the streets, so it isn't just me.

A reasonable man, the man lists several reasonable proposals. Here is to hoping that one or more are actually initiated, if not this year then by next winter.

Girl On The Run
Temperature: 36°
Distance: .85 miles

The girl and I took a run around the block. She started Girls On The Run (GOTR) yesterday, she said today she could do maybe a half-mile. I said a trip around the block was little more than that, and she did fine -- in spite of the mounds of melting snow.

Got my new shoes yesterday, they are actually a half-size larger than the green shoes. But those shoes can make my small toes chafe, so I am going to stick with these.

Distance: 3.25 miles

Today we packed up the tour, dropping off costumes, the set and props, and returning the van. This afternoon I met with one about about possible new writing project, and two about a reading of a new work next week.

A door closes. Jump out the window!

1991 Playlist
The Globe - BAD II
A Roller Skating Jame Named "Saturdays" - De La Soul
Volte Para O Seu Lar - Marisa Monte
Gypsy Woman (She's Homeless) - Crystal Waters
There's No Other Way - Blur
All This Time - Sting
International Bright Young Thing - Jesus Jones

Oh man. I usually wear the clown shoes without socks ... but these new shoes cut me during my brief run with the girl. So I put on socks. And now I can reasonably declare that these are the best shoes I have ever worn.

Papa's in the ice box.

Rite Aid Cleveland Marathon to Revamp Course for 2014 Events

Runner feedback prompts the course to head further west

The Rite Aid Cleveland Marathon can suck this runner's cock. Runner feedback may call for trips through sunny Rocky River and Lakewood, but that means false advertising. It should be called the Near West Side of Cleveland Marathon or West Side Suburbs of Cleveland Marathon or We Are Ashamed of Cleveland Marathon.

To think I was considering running the Half Marathon this year, but fuck that.

Yes, I take this personally. Fuck the Fucking Rite Aid Not Fucking Cleveland Fucking Marathon.

Fuck.

Temperature: 34°
Pavement: Depends. Are we on Monticello?
Distance: 3.25 miles
Weight: 175.5 lbs.

Three days in a row I have woken from less than happy slumber with a pain in the back, just below the left shoulder blade. It subsides as the morning moves on (thank you wii fit yoga) but two days in a row is, uh, a pain. Perhaps it stems from the outreach tour, in which there are many, many words. That, and rehearsals until 10 pm. Settling in late does not sit well with rising early.

Of course, maybe it is the complete and utter lack of running.

The cold has been ... dispiriting. I can run in cold weather, I have enjoyed running in cold weather. But every time I have been free and available, every fiber of my being says meh.

What I keep forgetting is how this aerobic exercise stimulates that heating unit in my blood, which perpetuates itself, for days, when properly stoked. Now, I am no longer cold. Not at all. I do not even feel the air around me.

1998 Playlist
One Week (Pull's Break Remix) - Barenaked Ladies
Jump Jive An' Wail - Brian Setzer Orchestra
Body Movin' (Fatboy Slim Remix) - Beastie Boys
Hot Rod Motorcycles - Bobby Wayne
Gettin' Jiggy Wit It - Will Smith
Good Riddance (Time Of Your Life) - Green Day
Sea of Heartbreak - Johnny Cash
Cominagetcha - Propellerheads

Citizens of Monticello Road: Since it last snowed a week ago the Ice Goblins have not come to devour the snow from your sidewalks. So I recommend you get out there and fucking eat it.

Work that booty.

GAWKER: Shovel Your Fucking Walk

So what happens when the snow comes down hard AFTER you've run four miles, which should have been two or thee miles only, really, and then you have to dig out not once, not twice, but three times in the course of two days?

You dread going outside and get generally all miserable and downy and wish it weren't now and feel pathetic and act unhappy and shit.

This is when you don't want to run, and also when you need to run.

Temperature: 12°
Pavement: lots of deep snow
Distance: 2 miles
Weight: 178.5 lbs.

Wow. That was challenging, just charging up (instead of down) Taylor, in deep snow, lifting those knees, seriously feeling it in my back. More galling still, all those great people on Monticello (I counted about a dozen) who can afford to have their driveways plowed, but don't touch their sidewalks. Fuck. You.

1993 Playlist
Boom! Shake The Room  - DJ Jazzy Jeff & The Fresh Prince
Supermodel (You Better Work) - RuPaul
Sunflower - Paul Weller
Never Said - Liz Phair
Like I Used To - Cyndi Lauper
Shoop - Salt-N-Pepa
That's What I Think - Cyndi Lauper

Well. I'm far behind.

In rehearsal.

"Better to get that run in now, and dream of the next warm front ... which should arrive in maybe two weeks." - 1/13/2013

Supposed to be in the fifties on Tuesday. Two weeks.

But boy howdy, today was a workout. Deep, uneven snow (SYDS) I had to dip into the street a few times where the traffic was thin but damn that is dangerous. It may thaw tomorrow, but that snow won't have anywhere to go fast.

Temperature: 27°
Climate: shovel your damn sidewalks
Distance: 4 miles
Route: To Parkside Blvd. and back.

1987 Playlist
What's The Matter Here? - 10,000 Maniacs
Good Times (157 bpm) - INXS ft. Jimmy Barnes
Big Love - Fleetwood Mac
Devil Inside (151 bpm) - INXS
Zydeco Gris Gris (179 bpm) - Beausoleil
Like The Weather - 10,000 Maniacs
Fear Is Never Boring - The Bears
The Perfect Girl - The Cure
New Sensation - INXS
Bad - Michael Jackson
Big Time [Extended Version] - Peter Gabriel

Gotta move on.

First long run of training. Would have been entirely painless, except for all the damn snow.

1. Peering over the bridge at East Green and Green, watching a family of ducks float downstream in the icy creek. This is part of the joy.

2. People exiting the drive-thru at KFC alone are inevitably fat and unhappy looking.

3. Whoever it is plowing all of the sidewalks on north-side Mayfield Rd. in Cleveland Heights, I LOVE YOU.

4. All homeowners on the south-side of Monticello between Lee and Taylor who plow their DRIVEWAYS but neglect to shovel their SIDEWALKS should have their houses burned down and fucking die. And that's pretty much every single one of you (except that one guy with the shovel I said 'thanks' to. You are safe.)

5. My foot dropped into a snow-covered hole while headed up Monticello and I stumbled onto my hands and knees. I'm all right, though. Bruised my thumb. YOUR HOUSES.

Distance: 8 miles
Route: Monticello-Trebisky-Anderson-Mayfield-Lee Circle

Temperature: 25º
Climate: Snow on the ground.
Weight: 179 lbs.
Lunch: CLIF bar
Hydration? yes
Stretches? yes

Family gave me bath stuff from LUSH for my birthday which has sat, forlorn, abandoned. Until today.

1980 Playlist
Generals and Majors - XTC
Turn It On Again - Genesis
Call Me - Blondie
The Other Way of Stopping (165 bpm) - The Police
Can You Feel It - The Jacksons
I'm Alright (163 bpm) - Kenny Loggins
Red Light - Linda Clifford
Same Old Scene - Roxy Music
Play For Today (164 bpm) - The Cure
Antmusic (162 bpm) - Adam and the Ants
You Make My Dreams Come True (166 bpm) - Hall & Oates
That's Entertainment - The Jam
Canary In A Coalmine - The Police
Do You Wanna Touch Me? - Joan Jett
Girl U Want (173 bpm) / Whip It (158 bpm) - Devo
Funkytown - Lipps Inc.
Driven To Tears (159 bpm) - The Police
Crosseyed and Painless/Once In A Lifetime - Talking Heads

Cooldown:
All Over The World - Electric Light Orchestra
She's Lost Control - Joy Division

I haven't felt this way since Funky Town! - Homer Simpson

... then you die.

Route: Garfield's Loop

This was not how I planned it. No. Not my intention to run a scant five times during February. Or to consume as much garbage food as I have this month. But it has been a grueling month, physically, emotionally, mentally ...

We did get the cat back. His five day absence -- and another entire night two week later where we could not find him -- cast a pall on what was already an endurance test of a month. The tour took a lot out of me in many ways. The weather has been wretched, yes, I know it's February, but the sheer amount of snow dumped all at once ... I mean, we all complain about it, for me it was just another thing I needed, literally, to shoulder.

This run was a release. But also an ordeal. Where the great drifts of snow that fell yesterday had been plowed, it was dry, where it had not -- I'M LOOKING AT YOU, MOTORCARS!!! -- it was impassable. I was in the street a lot. I do not like that. I have a family to think of.

My shoes are full of slush. It is amazing how little you need to run with wet socks to develop a callous or a blister. Jesus.

1997 Playlist
Space Junk [Wang Chung '97] - Wang Chung
Around the World - Daft Punk
My Hero (154 bpm) - Foo Fighters
Busy Child - The Crystal Method
Rumble In The Jungle - The Fugees
Collision and Improvisation (174 bpm) - Pizzicato Five
Tubthumping - Chumbawamba
Spudnik - Plaid
Bittersweet Symphony - Verve
One Angry Dwarf and 200 Solemn Faces - Ben Folds Five

Distance: 5.15 miles
Temperature: 48º
Weather: nice, but ...
Groundcover: Dry! Wet! Crunchy! Snowy! SLUSHY!
Weight: 166 lbs.

Training:
Did you drink a glass of water when you woke up this morning? Yes.
Did you have a snack when you woke up this morning? Yes, one piece of cold pizza. (Hey. It was there.)
Breakfast: Two eggs, two pieces of bacon, on a small waffle. Lots of coffee.
Anything else: Not yet. Good boy. I plan on a simple lunch, and then beer for dinner.

Standing on the corner with a piece of pizza

Must find a new route away from the major thoroughfares until the snow is melted away. I can no longer manage the unshoveled sidewalks of foreclosed properties, shut-ins and Heights assholes (like that fucking condo development where the JCC used to be.)

1979 Playlist
When You're Near Me I Have Difficulty - XTC
My Sharona - The Knack
Pop Muzik - M
Making It - David Naughton
Look Back In Anger - David Bowie
Cleveland Rocks - Ian Hunter
Tusk - Fleetwood Mac
Eat To The Beat - Blondie
Deathwish (178 bpm) - The Police

Distance: 3.7 miles
Temperature: 18º
Weather: cool
Groundcover: ankle-breaking hardened snow on most sidewalks
Weight: 167.5 lbs.

An evening eating spinach pie, fries and shakes at Tommy's and I still only bump up a pound? I must be doing something right.

I can show you some of the people in my life

It has begun. The snow. Temperatures below freezing for the foreseeable future. My paths will be snowy, icy and treacherous for the next two months.

A working couple must have a crockpot. I cracked our crockpot two years ago, just dropped it from a high cupboard while half-asleep early one morning. Asked for a new one for Christmas, got two. Nothing keeps you well-fed and well-fed than a slow-cooked anything. Cheap, easy, filling, healthful. And the kids generally love whatever comes out of it.

1980 Playlist
Once In A Lifetime - Talking Heads
A Forest (160 bpm) - The Cure
Fashion - David Bowie
Hell Is For Children (end bit: 166 bpm) - Pat Benatar
Take This Town - XTC
Incubation - Joy Division
Turn It On Again - Genesis
Red Light - Linda Clifford

Distance: 3.25 miles
Temperature: 27º
Weather: snowy, windy, in my face
Groundcover: blanketed with dusty snow
Weight: 167 lbs.

I hope you feel better later on

I think there are a lot of people on Monticello who think it doesn't matter if they shovel their driveways because then people will just assume their house is abandoned.

1996 Playlist
Seasons of Love - Cast of "Rent"
Magic Carpet Ride - Mighty Dub Catz
Before Today - Everything But the Girl
Shoe Box (152 bpm) - Barenaked Ladies
Fast Love - George Michael
Lovefool - Cardigans
Soundtrack to Mary - Soul Coughing
The Beautiful People - Marilyn Manson
To You I Bestow - Mundy
Wannabe - Spice Girls

Storm's coming.

Distance: 4 miles
Temperature: 24º
Weather: just cold, but at least not windy
Road conditions: crusty, crusty, crusty
Weight: 157.5 lbs.

To search, to find, to have, to hold

The temperature may rise above freezing on Wednesday. The streets are clear-ish, where snow remains it is even enough to may running just a little slippery, and in some cases pleasantly cushioned. Like running on a sandy beach. Only freezing.

My normal route goes out and around a familiar track, mostly level, but uses main arteries of traffic. With the snow entirely untouched in front of abandoned homes, it would be necessary to run in the street, which is stupidly dangerous on those streets. So I stick to the side-streets around my home, infrequently traveled and below the speed limit. Two miles is fine, next week I will need to raise that to three and will no doubt just do another circuit very near my house. Safe. Sane.

Initiating my running routine, prior to getting a gym membership in 1998, It was always such an endurance test getting up that first street. Was it my weight? Was it the fact that I still smoked? Well, it is only with modern technology that I have gone online and checked the elevation of that first street, and what do you know - it is steep!

I have been running it the past week. It is still steep! But not such an endurance test anymore.

1974 Playlist
Junior's Farm - Paul McCartney & Wings
Waterloo - ABBA
Killer Queen - Queen
You Ain't Seen Nothing Yet - Bachman-Turner Overdrive
Loose Booty - Sly & the Family Stone
Verb: That's What's Happening - Zachary Sanders

Distance: 2 miles
Temperature: 24º
Weather: face is freezing, torso sweaty. discuss.
Weight: 161.5 lbs.

Twice in two days? Sure, that's what a weekend is for.

Time to get stupid

Citizens of Monticello Road, I am putting you on notice.

I am insane. That is insane business. And I LOVE IT.

Fact is, I would much rather run in unbroken snow than the winding trail of people hiking through the unshoveled drifts. Much less likely to break my ankle, or slip and fall ... but it does mean picking up my legs, hoisting up those knees. Really, two miles is enough. Really.

1989 Playlist
Steppin' to the A.M. - 3rd Bass
Veronica - Elvis Costello
Eye Know - De La Soul
Sin (Long) - Nine Inch Nails
King For A Day (12" Version) - XTC

Distance: 2 miles
Temperature: 25º
Weather: at least it's not 18º
Weight: 160.5 lbs.

You know you live in Cleveland when ... there's a two hour wait to dine at a place that serves fried cheese sandwiches.

Around the world and back

Route

Wow. I really hated that route. Took my regular way, then kept going up Lee to Cain Park - such a nice day, thought I would take the scenic route.

Well. Though the park has been plowed, the snowbanks at the sides of the paths cause meltwater the pool. Then I ended up on Taylor Road, which had unshoveled sidewalks, and so had to content with driving blockheads. I took side streets with which I was unfamiliar, and ended up taking a dispiritingly winding trek back to home.

Best laid plans.

Distance: 4.35 miles
Temperature: 49 degrees
Weight: 150 lbs.

Sinuses

With the exception of one day last week, we have been submerged in sub-zero temps since New Year's. Last weekend my right sinus collapsed and I was spiraling into migraine territory. Cahs-strapped, I have been avoiding the prescription stuff in favor of Sudafed, though I needed an Imitrex following the girl's sixth birthday party.

Yesterday was another ugly one, though the OTC stuff did the job. My entire being sudders with relief over the respite from the deep-freeze that began today and will, hopefully, continue until next weekend.

Playwrights Unit

&TYD got its post-mortem from the Unit last Tuesday.

SG said it was longer than it needed to be ... but has no idea what is unnecessary. This was the general feeling about the piece. Nothing is boring, or uninteresting, but it does (ha ha) cover a lot of ground.

Some suggested MARATHON is too long ... but it keeps making Josh cry, so I am loathe to change it.

The Unit had said previously that we don't need two pooping scenes, and the second one seems "unfunny" though I do remember it getting a big response. Remember - hell, I have video! But I do understand, and I have been thinking long and hard about the S.O.S. scene.

SG was wild about the projections, especially Josh's maps, they really give the audience a sense of scale. The music, he said, was not nearly as well integrated, and I am with him on this. I also take responsibility for it, and have loads of suggestions on how to revise them. The music needs to work with the slides better, ad they need to work better with the performer. We can make that happen.

ML is still confused by how many wives I have.

1990 Playlist
World In My Eyes - Depeche Mode
Gonna Make You Sweat - C+C Music Factory
Never Enough [Big Mix] - The Cure
So Hard - Pet Shop Boys
Suck - Pigface
Everybody Everybody - Black Box
Groove Is In The Heart - Deee-Lite
Istanbul (Not Constantinople) - They Might Be Giants
Here's Where the Story Ends - The Sundays
The Power - Snap!
Tom's Diner - DNA ft. Suzanne Vega

Writing, not running.

Here's my dilemma ... I just got back to running a few times a week, but now it's snowy and dangerous outside. And cold, of course. I would like to sign up for a gym membership, but we're a little pinched right now and trying to cut out unnecessaries. So a treadmill is out ... and so are all of those weight machines which I seem to have no trouble using when I have a physical trainer to tell me what to do, how much, and for how long.

Keeping up with the regimen is challenging. It's not impossible. But, you know. I worry. Hopefully there will be time later today to hit the less scary parts of the neighborhood, the shoveled parts, I don't know.

It took a few months (in four segments, two weeks apart - and missing the last one) but the PU has finished hearing the &TYD.

That's my wife's appelation, by the way. Cute, right?

And word is good. I was most thrown and then moved when DM said there are places when the piece "devolves" ... (and I cringed as she lost her thought for a moment, considering if that were the right word before continuing) ... "into poetry."

Oh. Well. That's good.

FS likes the piece about the Jock in Geometry. Funny, I may be having lunch later this week with the guy I talk about in that piece. We've seen each other twince since graduation, both times at reunions. We've probably never watched each other eat in our lives.

wtf

Shovel. Your damn. Sidewalks.

I feel fabulous, by the way, absolutely liberated. After nine days cooped in due to weather - or wrecked because of the tour - it was a delight to get into the chilly rain and rotate my joints.

But my God, what a f***ing obstacle course we had out there today. I even stayed close to home, taking the circuitous route I had worn a groove into between 1994 and 2006. Still, there's no staying away from the main thoroughfares and nobody clears their walks. There oughta be a law.

In fact, I think there is.

Run stats:
Distance: 3.5 miles
Weight: 171.5 lbs.
Stretches: yes
Sit-ups: 80
Bicycles: 60
Temperature: 43º
Weather: cool & light rain
Gear: short-sleeved shirt, rain jacket, do-rag, shorts!

2001 Playlist
One More Time - Daft Punk
Because We Can - Fatboy Slim
Digital Love - Daft Punk
By Your Side (Ben Watt Remix) - Sade
Pop Muzik - eX-Girl
Another View Point - Cornelius
Warmdown: Star 69 - Fatboy Slim
This Charming Man - Stars

(Last Year's 2001 Playlist)
Weapon of Choice - Fatboy Slim
August Day Song (King Britt remix) - Bebel Gilberto
Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger - Daft Punk
Start the Commotion - Wiseguys
Get the Party Started - P!nk
Packt Like Sardines In a Crushd Tin Box - Radiohead
Drop - Cornelius
Cooldown: Hindi Sad Diamonds - Moulin Rouge soundtrack