Daddy likes men

Route: Downtown Circle

Distance: 3.25 miles
Time: 4.30 pm
Stretches: yes
Sit-ups: 60
Bicycles: 60
Drink: Gatorade

1977 Playlist
Second Hand News - Fleetwood Mac
Nothing Achieving - The Police
Cretin Hop - The Ramones
We're A Happy Family - The Ramones
Turn To Stone - Electric Light Orchestra
(Get A) Grip (On Yourself) - Stranglers
Stayin' Alive - Bee Gees
Solsbury Hill - Peter Gabriel

Cooldown:
God Save The Queen - Sex Pistols
Warsaw - Joy Division
Heroes - David Bowie

"We can try to understand the New York Times effect on man."

Tonight was opening night, we tech'ed during the afternoon, and I had enough time to put in a run around downtown. It must have been fast - it was three and a quarter miles but I cleared it in roughly 25 minutes.

Lately I have been having some difficulty justifying my existence. Not much to show for thirty-eight years, living in the same space. The brief loop I took around downtown showed me many things - it will sound like showing off, but these things happened, they are true, this is my life.

Heading out from Playhouse Square - where I am performing on the stage of the Ohio ...

Past the Greyhound bus station - where I picked up R. & P. before heading back out with them to Los Angeles in '91 ...

Down 13th Street and past the Galleria - where I got to shake hands with Clinton ...

Onto Lakeside and turning right at the Free Stamp onto East 9th street where I saw ...
1. The Coast Guard Station, where L. and I received recognition form Gulf War vets for a theatrical production we collaborated on ...
2. Voinovich Park, where my wife and I participated in a Spencer Tunick installation and interviewed a bunch of nude people (while nude) for an audio diary broadcast on NPR ...
3. The Rock Hall, where I performed my one-man show on an early March morning three years ago ...

Then ran past the Stadium - where they taped that nationally broadcast sit-com I had a featued appearance in ...

Up West 3rd towards the Renaissance - where I married a couple last November, and where my wife and I had our wedding night ...

Turned left onto Frankfort, past the Old Stone Church - where we produced a fantastic Christmas pageant in 2000 ...

By the war memorial - where I was an extra in a Hollywood movie ...

Up East 5th and past the library - where C. and I performed scenes from Farenheit 451 ...

Around the BP building and down Euclid, past where my father used to work, past the building my uncle used to own - and where I spent a summer in college as a go-fer ...

And back to Playhouse Square - where I work for a living, and where there is a big-ass picture of me dressed a Shakespeare on the marquee.

A three-mile diameter. I own this town.

But who's buying?

My blood wants to say hello to you

Distance: 5.15 miles
Time: 9.30 am
Stretches: yes
Sit-ups: 60
Bicycles: 60
Drink: Gatorade
Weight: 165.5 lbs.
Weather: 46º

1997 Playlist
One Angry Dwarf and 200 Solemn faces - Ben Folds Five
Parsec - Stereolab
Burning Ground - Van Morrison
Block Rockin' Beats - Chemical Brothers
Smack My B*tch Up - Prodigy
The Perfect Drug - Nine Inch Nails
Atom Bomb (Atomix 1) - Fluke
Tubthumping - Chumbawumba
Good Sh*t - Cornershop

"Pissing the night away."

Tech was a bear yesterday, just worn out and weary. I could deal with the hours - 12 noon to 11.30 pm - if I did have to wak up at six-thirty with a two year-olds foot up my nose. I almost bagged the run today to go back to sleep after the kids went off to school, but I'm sticking with it.

Hey, uh ... I ran out of 90s.

"Kiss my ass."

My whole life flashed before I crashed

Distance: 5.15 miles
Time: 9.30 am
Stretches: yes
Sit-ups: 60
Bicycles: 60
Drink: Gatorade
Weight: 165 lbs.
Weather: 66º overcast & cool - perfect

"We got an engine, but we ain't got wheels."

1987 Playlist
Pump Up the Volume - M/A/R/R/S
A Japanese Dream (remix) - The Cure
Fear Is Never Boring - The bears
Join In the Chant - Nitzer Ebb
Higher Ground - Red Hot Chili Peppers
True Faith - New Order
Party Machine - Hoodoo Gurus
Smooth Criminal - Michael Jackson

TOO DUMB TO NOTICE

Pulled a hamstring in my right cheek almost years ago, plagued me all last year ... and it's gone now, entirely. Pulled a string in my right big toe that fall, stuck with me all last year ... not there. So things are good.

"Annie, are you ok? Annie, are you ok? Are you ok, Annie? Annie, are you ok? Annie, are you ok? Are you ok, Annie? Annie, are you ok? Annie, are you ok? Are you ok, Annie? Annie, are you ok? Annie, are you ok? Are you ok, Annie?"

Just a minute, let me slip something on

Distance: 5.15 miles
Time: 3.30 pm
Stretches: yes
Sit-ups: 60
Bicycles: 60
Drink: Gatorade
Weight: 162 lbs.
Weather: 64º

1990 Playlist
Mama Said Knock You Out - LL Cool J
Everybody Everybody - Black Box
Gonna Make You Sweat (Everybody Dance Now) - C+C Music Factory
New Power Generation - Prince
World In My Eyes - Depeche Mode
Here's Where the Story Ends - The Sundays
Little Fluffy Clouds - The Orb
The Power - Snap!
Burning the Ground - Duran Duran
Hippychick - Soho

"Stay off my back or I will attack and you don't want that."

Now, I used to think using painkillers was cheating, but everyone does it, don't they? I'm watching people at rehearsal sucking down liquid ibuprofen like it's going out of style. My life is filled with protein bars, energy drinks, pain relievers and lots and lots of water. And I feel healthier than I ever have done.

I am completely in denial that I am approaching 40.

Stop f*cking with me

Distance: 3.25 miles
Time: 9.30 am
Stretches: yes
Sit-ups: 60
Bicycles: 60
Drink: Gatorade
Weight: 164 lbs.
Weather: 42º

1995 Playlist
Scream - Michael Jackson and Janet Jackson
I Saw the Light - The The
I Don't Wanna Grow Up - The Ramones
White Lines - Duran Duran
The Hearts Filthy Lesson (Alt. Mix) - David Bowie
Car Song - Elastica
1979 - Smashing Pumpkins
Cooldown: Geek Stink Breath - Green Day

"Sometimes I just can't function. My heart's spaghetti junction."

Sometimes it's more enjoyable to climb a steep incline, and then run downhill the rest of the way home. But that's clockwise. There isn't anyway to run counter-clockwise that way.

And why does this matter? Because, it's also impossible to run clockwise without crossing a million streets. I have a pretty safe three mile path navigated through my neighborhood, something that will prevent my getting struck by a bus, and going through as few intersections as possible.

Also, is it just me or is it always preferable to make left turns to right turns when running?

"And we don't know just where our bones will rest, to dust I guess,
Forgotten and absorbed into the earth below."

You’re lucky, lucky, you're so lucky!

What you listen to when you jog matters

Distance: 3.25 miles
Time: 9.30 am
Stretches: yes
Sit-ups: 50
Bicycles: 50
Drink: Gatorade
Weight: 166 lbs.
Weather: 36º

It is always 36º. It always has been 36º. It always will be 36º.

2005 Playlist
Touch the Sky - Kanye West feat. Lupe Fiasco
I Predict a Riot - The Kaiser Chiefs
Winners - 7 Seconds of Love
Badass - Chemical Brothers
Water of Nazareth - Justice
The Sporting Life - The Decemberists
Do You Want To - Franz Ferdinand
Cooldown: The Hand That Feeds - Nine Inch Nails

"So far I had known no humiliation in front of my friends and close relations."

Chug, chug, chug.

Ja tvoi sluga. Ja tvoi Rabotnik.

Distance: 2.25 miles
Time: 3.40 pm
Stretches: no
Sit-ups: no
Bicycles: no
Drink: water
Weight: 165 lbs.
Weather: 36º and dreary

1978 Playlist
The Robots - Kraftwerk
Spinning Top - XTC
Next To You* - The Police
Birdland* - Maynard Ferguson

"Just like a needle that's sticking in the same old groove."

Okay, so there's this ad for a dual cellphone/mp3 player that takes place in this gym, and there's this muscle-bound date rapist-looking guy who shares - with us - his love of a new song by Fall Out Boy (?) and then takes the headphones back because he's got a call from his "lady" ...

I mean, is there a joke here I'm missing?

Oky, so I had twenty minutes to run before picking up the girl from school. I wouldn't get a chance later, I won't have the opportunity tomorrow. I could wait until Wednesday ... OR RUN REALLY REALLY FAST WITHOUT STRETCHING.

Lesson: Don't do this.

It was a great, fast run. And now I am in pain. Like, would I rather not take share of these shin splints? Is it, like not important to me at all?