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 paid for the beer, man.

Still in the Seventies. Last weekend, our elder child humored me, they let me show them Dazed & Confused, Richard Linklater's second motion picture. Released in 1993, it takes place on the last day of school in 1976, in a small town in Texas.

I told my kid that it's not like other "teen movies" though watching it for the first time in decades, I'm not sure they would agree. It's not zany like some of John Hughes' movies, but it does dwell a great deal on the rude behavior of teenagers and some of it must seem downright psychotic.

Don't care. Love Linklater, love this movie. And it was the first great step into the 1970s revival of the 1990s. We'd spent the 80s loudly mocking the fashion and music of the Me Decade, and then we were handed this gem of a soundtrack. 

And the 90s truly began.

Distance: 3.1 miles

Duration: 28:08
Pace: 9:04

Dazed & Confused (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack)

Rock and Roll, Hoochie Koo - Rick Derringer

Slow Ride - Foghat

School's Out - Alice Cooper

Jim Dandy - Black Oak Arkansas

Tush - ZZ Top

Cherry Bomb - The Runaways

Fox On the Run - Sweet

Low Rider - War

Route: Forest Hill Loop
Temperature: 78°
Climate: light clouds and hot
Mood: spirited

The run was great, felt great, not terribly hot. No pain. And yet, my continued exercise is certain exacerbating my sciatica. Also, both knees hurt, and sometimes a lot. I've been seeing many shows at BorderLight this weekend, the plastic chairs are not helping.

Maybe I should take a day off. Today was not that day.

Stretches: yes
Water: yes
Weight: 165 lbs. (-0-)

Planks: TBA
Push-ups: TBA

Sit-Ups: TBA

Incidental highs.

Gabriel & Dresden's eponymous debut album was released twenty years ago, on June 1, 2006. My first record of having run to any of its tracks was Tracking Treasure Down, in February 2007.

The first time I ran to the entire album was on April 28 of that year. 

"I have been waiting some time to attempt a run listening to the entire Gabriel and Dresden album. That's my record of the year. I picked up a track on iTunes a few weeks back and really liked it, and then they started the "complete your album" promotion and so I got the whole thing — which includes the entire album mixed as one, uninterrupted track. Except for this Pink Floyd-esque thing right in the middle, the entire record makes for a dynamite run."

Distance: 5.9 miles

Duration: 55:35
Pace: 9:25

A few downbeat tracks are a bit of a drag, and the whole thing is one hour thirteen. Today, I have chosen a mix which suits my recent summer weekend loop. It's one of the only albums I have returned to (and more than twice) as part of Albums For Running.

Gabriel & Dresden - Gabriel & Dresden (2006)

Let Go

Enemy

Dust In the Wind

Mass Repeat

Closer

Sydney

Dangerous Power

Tracking Treasure Down

 

Route: Forest Hill-Cain Park Loop 
Temperature: 69°
Climate: nice
Mood: mostly good

So, no. It was not something I listened to while training for New York in 2006. But it was a major inspiration while I was writing And Then You Die. It is my mid-life crisis soundtrack. Regret, yearning, aspiration, doubt, determination, guilt, and on and on. 

Stretches: yes
Water: yes
Weight: 163 lbs. (-3.0)

Heading out I had pain in two points in the back of my right knee. Unpleasant, not debilitating, and it subsided soon enough.

Around mile five, I got a sharp pain on the inside of my left knee cap, and that was debilitating. I stretched, I hobbled, I endured. It, too, subsided. Oof.

Anyway, here's Father's Day.

Planks: yes
Push-ups: tba

Sit-Ups: yes

When I’m moving too fast.

Something else summer makes me think of: R.E.M. My interest in the band dropped off after they signed with Warner Brothers, their IRS cannon is just spectacular. 

While I enjoyed singles like Pop Song 89 and Losing My Religion (one of my favorite songs of all time) albums like Green and Out of Time don't hold up ... and don't get me started on every Gen Xer's favorite, Automatic for the People, which is straight-up trash.

No, seriously. If you like listening to Man on the Moon, you're an idiot. 

Distance: 4 miles

Duration: 37:50
Pace: 9:27

The jangling pop stylings of this Athenians quartet came at just the right moment for me as I was expanding my musical sensibilities as I was approaching adulthood. I jumped on in the summer of 1985, with their third album, Fables of the Reconstruction, and worked my way back.

For me, Reckoning is a long drive down a rural two-lane highway (in my case, one in Maine) lost in thought and regret. It's peaceful and melodic and ruminative but also spirited and upbeat. 

Route: Forest Hill Loop
Temperature: 59°
Climate: bright & cool
Mood: good

Reckoning - R.E.M. (1984)

Harborcoat

7 Chinese Bros.

So. Central Rain (I'm Sorry)

Pretty Persuasion

Time After Time (Annelise)

Second Guessing

Letter Never Sent

Camera

(Don't Go Back To) Rockville

Little America

The other night, the wife and I watched a documentary about Squeeze. It was apparent how the band lost interest for me, and everyone else, when they became overproduced and immediately sounded like absolutely everyone else.

I appreciate that artists need to expand, to create new things. But when what they did in the first place is so affecting, and what they do later is not, I don't need to remain a fan.

You know who is good at experimenting and can also return to form and also consistently creates great work? That's right. Elvis Costello.

Stretches: yes
Water: yes
Weight: 163 lbs. (+1.0)

When I was a sophomore at O.U. I bought the VHS collection of music videos called R.E.M. Succumbs.

"An introductory clip at the beginning of the collection features guitarist Peter Buck and the band's then-manager, Jefferson Holt, introducing "citizens of the future" to an "outmoded artform" called the "video", predicting it would have a staying power similar to that of Nehru jackets and other forgotten fads." - Wikipedia

He wasn't wrong. But what the tape did include was an experimental (see: non-narrative) short film called Left of Reckoning, directed by James Herbert and shot at Whirligig farm. The soundtrack was the first ("left") side of Reckoning without drawing any literal or figurative connection to the music itself.

I must have watched that short film dozens of times during my college years, and then never again. 

Planks: yes
Push-ups: yes

Sit-Ups: yes

Seem to have pulled a string in my right cheek. It is a pain, indeed. Standing, sitting, getting out of the car — having to drive well over thirty minutes, both ways. I wish I could take the bus.

I sense. I feel.

Pride weekend in the CLE. I thought of dropping in, but I have many things to do, many beautiful, creative things, right here at home. That, and the cat always wants to be outside these days. He used to rummage around in the tall grass, now he just wants to laze in the sun. Who can blame him.

Distance: 4.4 miles

Duration: 41:00
Pace: 9:20

Metropolis - Original Motion Picture Soundtrack (1984)

Love Kills - Freddie Mercury

Here's My Heart - Pat Benatar

Cage of Freedom - Jon Anderson

Blood From a Stone - Cycle V

The Legend of Babel - Giorgio Moroder

Here She Comes - Bonnie Tyler

Destruction - Loverboy

On Your Own - Billy Squier

What's Going On - Adam Ant

Machines - Giorgio Moroder

Route: Forest Hill Loop
Temperature: 68°
Climate: light fluffy clouds & breezy
Mood: determined

Georgio Moroder's experiment in reviving this classic silent film has dated somewhat, the film is timeless but the songs aren't -- with the exception of his own instrumental themes. Machines is a very important track to me. 

Machines is 1984. It is the future. It is Metropolis. It's iconic. Timeless. 

Stretches: yes
Water: yes
Weight: 167 lbs. (+4.0)

It's not just that we returned to drinking, those those calories are real. It's the junk food that comes with it and I ate a lot yesterday, a Saturday. I even had a stress dream about driving into a McDonald's (not like, crashing into it, I was driving my car down an aisle) that had a build it yourself burger bar that was utterly disgusting.

It gets worse, after building my burger I accidentally dropped it into a wastebasket and fished it out. That is how bad my subconscious feels about the dinner I had last night.

Planks: yes
Push-ups: TBA

Sit-Ups: TBA

Move your feet (to the rhythm of love).

Le Hoodoo Gurus third album, Blow Your Cool! was a banger that arrived during spring quarter my freshman year at Ohio University.

It was a hot and sweaty season, we spent a great deal of time out of doors, throwing frisbee, drinking beer, and hanging brain. 

This one played on boomboxes in the quad, out the windows of our dorms, and on my Walkman headphones as I tried, tentatively, to develop a running routine around South Green. 

Party Machine is the closer every album should have.

Distance: 4 miles

Duration: 36:02
Pace: 8:47
Route: Forest Hill Loop
Temperature: 67°
Climate: overcast & warm
Mood: good!

The summer of 1987 was the peak of New Psychedelia. The trend had started a couple years earlier, with Talking Heads' Little Creatures and Prince's Around the World in a Day. 

But in 1987 (the 20 year anniversary of the "Summer of Love") we received Sgt. Pepper's on compact disc, and the Grateful Dead scored their first and only number one single. The Monkees were on tour for the first time since the 1960s, XTC posing as the Dukes of Stratosphear dropped Psonic Psunspot, tie-dye made a huge comeback, and we got this album. 

Flip your wig. Blow your cool.

Blow Your Cool! - Hoodoo Gurus (1987)

Out That Door

What's My Scene (167 BPM)

Good Times

Hell for Leather

Where Nowhere Is (164 BPM)

In the Middle of the Land

Come On

On My Street

Party Machine

Bonus: Miss Freelove '69

Stretches: yes
Water: yes
Weight: 163 lbs. (-4.0)

Planks: yes
Push-ups: yes

Sit-Ups: yes

Last night, I attended a high school alumni event, a bunch of us went to see The Outsiders. The show is pretty incredible, but I was even more delighted to see and catch up with fond old friends, and beloved educators.

It's been a Big Bay 80s week for me, I guess. Teaching at the middle school, visiting the beach (twice), this show, and these albums.

The echo machine ran wild.

US Cover

I have older brothers, and they have friends who became my friends and so I was into a lot of cool stuff many of my contemporaries were not, like indie movies from the 1970s, and some truly great albums.

One guy did a two-person, acoustic gig with his roommate /in their mod at O.U. which went over gangbusters for the twenty or so people who were in attendance, and I got a bootleg recording (yes, we can call it that) which I listened to a lot when I was a junior in high school.

Most of it was covers and they did a devastating take on the Hoodoo Gurus Dig It Up. It's not exemplary of their work, it's more of a novelty song, but it inspired me to pick up Stoneage Romeos, their first LP.

The Hoodoos had this funky retro garage band style, like Violent Femmes with more polish.

Distance: 3.1 miles

Duration: 27:24
Pace: 8:46
Route: Forest Hill Loop
Temperature: 46°
Climate: bright & cool
Mood: determined

AU Cover

Stoneage Romeos - Hoodoo Gurus (1984)

(Let's All) Turn On

I Want You Back

Arthur

Death Ship

Dig It Up

Leilani

Tojo *

In the Echo Chamber

Oh, dear. The same casual racism toward Asians as evidenced in contemporary tracks like Turning Japanese and China Girl.

Stretches: yes
Water: yes
Weight: 167 lbs. (+1.0)

When do I just stop recording my weight?

Here’s the thing. I have been drinking a lot. Like, I feel like I have consumed more alcohol in the first four months of this year than I did in all of last year.

That’s how bad things are. Not at home, not with the world in general. Just to calm my nerves about my work. I still love everyone I work with. But it is so hard to manage all these thoughts. To rest. To sleep. To focus on one thing; a book, a movie, a conversation. It’s all too much.

Planks: TBA
Push-ups: TBA 

Sit-Ups: TBA

Make your lungs hold breath inside.

Roger Daltrey at Woodstock, where they performed
almost the entire thing even though no one there
had heard any of it before.

We probably watched Ken Russell's film adaptation of Tommy (1975) in the early 1980s. I found it unsettling, which is only appropriate.

Distance: 4 miles

Duration: 36:09
Pace: 9:00

In the 1990s, a local theater produced the musical adaptation, and even cast an actual p*dophile as Uncle Ernie.

Route: Forest Hill Loop
Temperature: 53°
Climate: sunny! 
Mood: grateful

Tommy - The Who (1969)

Do You Think It's Alright?

Fiddle About

Pinball Wizard

There's a Doctor

Go to the Mirror!

Tommy Can You Hear Me?

Smash the Mirror

Sensation

Miracle Cure

Sally Simpson

I'm Free

Welcome

Tommy's Holiday Camp

We're Not Gonna Take It

You Better You Bet (162 bpm)

While it makes sense that Tommy would work as a musical -- it is entirely sung through, and comprehensible as such -- I believe the themes are so painful that depicting the story, visually, is unbearable. I can only enjoy the album.

Stretches: yes
Water: yes
Weight: 162 lbs. (-0-)

When I got home, I had zero interest in running, It was overcast and cool and windy and I thought, no. An hour later the skies had cleared and so had my mood.

Planks: yes
Push-ups: yes

Sit-Ups: TBA

So, how to conclude. The first side was experiential, inside the mind of a traumatized child. Three expansive instrumentals. Side two is all plot driven. Brief, interstitial moments (Extra! Extra! Read all about it!) which propels the narrative to its conclusion. 

If I were listening to the entire thing I might find that sloppy -- a thoughtful, digressive musical journey, followed by a rush to tie up the plot -- but taken as two albums they are separate, and complimentary.

You're gonna hit the road.

When I was in the Twin Cities last month, I heard the finale to The Who's Tommy as part of the 1969 playlist. I have learned a great deal about the creation of this particular album thanks to Andrew Hickey and his 500 Songs podcast.

Distance: 4.25 miles

Duration: 38:45
Pace: 9:07

One of my brothers got big into this when I was maybe twelve years old. Sounds about right. I listened first, put the story together in my mind. It was very upsetting. But it made sense.

Route: Forest Hill Loop
Temperature: 58°
Climate: overcast & perfect
Mood: good

I felt that learned a great deal about abuse and trauma and how the mind works from this album, and it came at an appropriate time in my life. I mean, it is a simple story, simply told. Sometimes we need those. And I just love the music.

Tommy - The Who (1969)

Overture

It's a Boy

1921 (156 bpm)

Amazing Journey

Sparks

Eyesight to the Blind (The Hawker)

Christmas

Cousin Kevin

The Acid Queen

Underture

Perfect side for running, by the way. The entire thing. Very rhythmic but also a lot instrumentals to let your mind wander freely. The Hawker should go before Acid Queen, though. I think they changed that for the movie.

One of Hickey's observations is that it is difficult to follow because different members of the band - Daltrey, Townshend and even Entwistle - they take turns singing various songs without any consistency to which characters they are singing for. This never bothered me, because I couldn't much tell the difference between their voices when I first heard it, and just followed the words.

Stretches: yes
Water: yes
Weight: 162 lbs. (-3.0)

As for what it has to say about hero worship, I dig that, too. We are relieved and even joyful when Tommy overcomes his inability to respond to the world around him, but that's no excuse to become a self-styled guru and capitalistic huckster.

Planks: yes
Push-ups: yes

Sit-Ups: yes

Audition week. Audition month, actually. We don't always get things right just because we take more time. But it helps.

Next up: Disc Two!

This is the life.

It has been a long week. I have chosen to rest rather than run ... but how have I been resting? Not well at all. Sleep broken by ether cats or snoring. Waking before the alarm, lying awake then giving up. 

Time is short, anxieties are mounting. The holidays are a time of joy and activity, but also stress. I am behind. We are, all of us, behind.

Then there is work. We can talk about that later. For now, I have roused myself to take a run. And that is all that matters (at the moment).

Distance: 3 miles

Duration: 25:25

Punch the Clock - Elvis Costello & The Attractions (1983)

Let Them All Talk

Everyday I Write the Book

The Greatest Thing

Love Went Mad

TKO (Boxing Day)

Charm School

The Invisible Man

The World and His Wife

Route: rec center
Temperature: 38°
Climate: not freezing!
Mood: exhausted

I've had the edit of Punch the Clock on my list for some time, and this morning I needed some serious motivation. I almost went back to bed, because I was tired, but also because I was feeling lost and aimless.

I was not a huge fan of Elvis as a high school student, I knew his songs from MTV, but I did like him. In college my best friend was a serious fan and taught me so much about his catalog. This one has retroactively entered my teenage imagination, even though I didn't own it, because it is so of it's time, thanks largely to producers Clive Langer and Alan Winstanley who also worked with Madness, Dexy's Midnight Runners, and other 1983 one-hit wonders.

Stretches: yes 
Water: yes
Weight: 165 lbs. (-0-)

Planks: TBA
Push-ups: yes

Sit-Ups: yes

Not running out while my heart's unsteady.

Mini-vacation is Cincinnati. The boy has not one but two gigs this week. Feels like an exercise in enforced relaxation, for which we are immensely fortunate. A couple of nights at the Gaslight Bed & Breakfast, our home away from home, to write, watch TV, listen to jazz and flop around. And run.

Distance: 2 miles

Duration: 18:00
Pace: 9:00

The Best of Everything But the Girl (2025)

Before Today

No Difference

Driving

Each and Every One

Rollercoaster

I love each and every one of these tracks. But are they the best? Which is to say, is there nothing above? I have to quibble. Three tracks from Walking Wounded and one track from Temperamental -- and it's not "Five Fathoms"?

Nothing from Love Not Money? It's okay there isn't anything from Worldwide.

They should have asked me to curate. And perhaps I still may. A playlist called The Very Best of Everything But the Girl.

Route: Gaslight Loop
Temperature: 50°
Climate: sunny & beautiful
Mood: determined

Stretches: yes
Water: yes

Planks: TBA
Push-ups: yes

Sit-Ups: TBA

Actual lyric: "Not running out for a while, my heart's unsteady."

Two steps ahead of everyone.

How odd. By the end of the day on Wednesday, I was feeling poor, like I was getting a cold. I noticed during my run that I felt rather weak. Not weak enough not to run, and maybe that was it. I was using a BPM playlist and perhaps pushing myself harder than I should have been.

I thought I would wake up Thursday completely sick, but that did not happen. I am grateful. I don't want to be sick.

Still, in my torpor I polished off a bag of Peanut M&M's and what was left of a bag of Doritos from Sunday night. Illness as an excuse.  

Distance: 3 miles

Duration: 26:01

I'd really love a brief uptick in the weather, for one more run in the woods. Committing to the rec center so soon is a drag. The fact is, I run faster in the rec center; it's flat, level, no dips or possible places to trip. I sometimes torture myself with images of losing my feet and going forehead-first into an I-beam.

But I can't tell if I'm the asshole or if it is everyone else. I know you are enjoying your time at the gym, but I am sick of people walking four abreast. They know there is a runner on the track, but they just chat and try to pay attention to when I come around but it's not that wide of a track. I come around in less than a minute.

I think they think I should just use the treadmill, but Jesus Christ, so could they.

Route: rec center
Temperature: 38
Climate: overcast & cold
Mood: driven

Best thing about the track is that I pause, briefly, after every mile and have a big healthy drink of water. That’s extremely helpful.

Stretches: yes
Water: yes
Weight: 165 lbs.

We're failing sugar season. Time to tighten up. But I did make this amazing pizza last night, using the marinara pasta with Romanesco as a topping.

Planks: yes
Push-ups: yes

Sit-Ups: yes

The Best of Everything But the Girl (2025)

Missing (Terry Todd Radio Edit)

Nothing Left to Lose

Tracey in My Room (Lazy Dog Bootleg Vocal Mix)

Walking Wounded (159 BPM)

Single

Corcovado (157 BPM)

This singles collection was released today, November 14, 2025. Most of the tracks I listened to today are from 1994-1996, so there's a lot of guilt and shame in there. My God, what would I have done without Tracey and Ben?

How weak you must feel.

Good lord, tripped on a cat on my way upstairs in the dark last night and it feels like I sprained my toes.

Distance: 3.1 miles

Duration: 28:50
Pace: 9:18

As many runs as I completed in both 2019 and 2021. And in 2019 I was training for a marathon. Of course, that was also the year I was losing my mother and basically didn't run the last two months of the year.

Then again, after Chicago, I am surprised I ever ran again.

Route: Forest Hill Loop
Temperature: 58°
Climate: partly cloudy & cool
Mood: all right

Fall quarter, freshman year. I was eighteen. This was thirty-nine years ago. For context, thirty-nine years before that was 1947, when my parents were only twelve. Don't know how that is relevant, but it seems important to me to appreciate just how long thirty-nine years is. I digress. 

Fall quarter, freshman year. It was 1986. I did not know yet how to take care of myself. I remember I was ill that semester, and in the middle of the night I was hungry and had some milk (don't ask, it's gross, adults who drink milk are monsters) and was surprised to learn it had gone sour. I was grateful that one of the water fountains on the floor was right outside my dorm and was able to spit it up there.

The point is, I was eighteen and had never had bad milk before, because I had a mother who would never let anything go bad in her refrigerator. I had never thought to check the expiration date, of anything. It had been taken care of. I had been taken care of.

And yet, there I was. Living, in a way, on my own. Someone still made my meals for me, that is what a dining plan is for. And I was warm and safe, presumably so that I could concentrate on my studies which was why I was there. I was still like a high school student, but in many ways, on my own. Still a pampered child, only now I drank beer, smoked cigarettes, and screwed.

My girlfriend had a roommate who did not care for me, and I do not blame anyone who did not care for me when I was below the age of thirty-five. When I think of the room they shared I see the bed, the cinderblock walls, the naked, tile floor. It was a room like the other rooms. We did not sleep over at each others' rooms, that may have had as much to do with our own feelings of discomfort (sleeping in the same bed as someone else is a skill, especially a narrow dormitory bed) as it did with our roommate situations. Better not to make things weird.

Also, I think it wasn't allowed. That makes more sense, too. But people did it, of course. We did not.

"You have this, too? I have this."

Her roommate had a copy of Suzanne Vega's first album, and the girlfriend developed an affinity for it. So did I, though even at that time I felt that she, and by she I mean Vega, was criticizing me. Or maybe, more to the point, that she had my number. Or that she had ours.

I want to be clear, I was never physically abusive to her, my girlfriend. But that does not mean I was always kind, or smart. I was a fool. Several of the songs on this album (others of hers, too) allude to domestic violence, even as she serenely sings and elegantly plays her guitar. The song Marlene On the Wall, more than any other song on that album, reminds me of that time, of that place, and of that young woman. 

An old black and white poster, it may have been that one that every female college student had at that time, "Kiss by the Hôtel De Ville" by Robert Doisneau, the one Campbell Scott shows us in Singles (if you know, you know) but in the song it is Marlene Dietrich, witnessing the uneducated fumblings of a couple who are soon to come apart, a poster blu-tacked to the painted cement, a romantic image that attempts to add warmth and style to a utilitarian domicile with cold walls and a cool floor.

Other evidence has shown that

You and I are still alone

We skirt around the danger zone

And don't talk about it later

Suzanne Vega - Suzanne Vega (1985)

Cracking

Marlene On the Wall

Small Blue Thing

Straight Lines

Undertow

The Queen & The Soldier

Knight Moves

Neighborhood Girls 

But the only one here now is me

I'm fighting things I cannot see

I think it's called my destiny

That I am changing

Stretches: yes
Water: yes
Weight: 160 lbs.

Got my kit on this morning, stepped outside and it was raining. I'm not in training, there is no reason to deal with that. Not cold, not wet. Time to transition to the rec center.

Planks: yes
Push-ups: yes

Sit-Ups: yes

Rolling in Andromeda.

More B-52's! More songs about space age fantasy and hot bods at the beach!

Distance: 4 miles
Duration: 36:55
Pace: 9:13

The B-52's - The B-52's (1979)

Planet Claire

52 Girls

Dance This Mess Around

Rock Lobster

Lava

There's a Moon in the Sky (Called the Moon) *

Hero Workshop

6060-842 *

Downtown

Route: Forest Hill Loop
Temperature: 72°
Climate: clear & warm
Mood: all right

Bit of a surprise, my cholesterol is not high, it is merely elevated and not only that it is borderline elevated. The doctor does not suggest medication, but improved diet and to continue exercising. That last is easy, the former is more challenging. But not impossible.

Stretches: yes
Water: yes
Weight: 161 lbs.

Planks: yes
Push-ups: yes

Sit-Ups: yes

Follow your bliss.

We were Seniors once, and young. Last fall we visited Good Stuff, the mediocre follow-up to the career reviving album Cosmic Thing by The B-52's. Not every band gets such a powerful second act, and one that was arguably, thanks to the corporate awareness of college music.

When I hear the song "Deadbeat Club" I was always remember my best friend, singing along with this big, beatific smile on his face. He loved singing to the girls' parts.

Distance: 4 miles
Duration: 37:38
Pace: 9:24

Cosmic Thing - The B-52's (1989)

Cosmic Thing

Dry County

Deadbeat Club

Love Shack

Junebug

Channel Z

Topaz

Follow Your Bliss

Never crazy about the song "Roam." I know it was a big hit, it kind of gets on my nerves. I think it's because it sounds like a very ordinary pop song, the least B-52's thing they ever recorded.

Route: Forest Hill Loop
Temperature: 56°
Climate: ideal
Mood: all right

The band composed some amazing instrumentals. The album closer is so atmospheric, evocative, makes me feel youthful. Were we ever so youthful?

Stretches: yes
Water: yes
Weight: 161 lbs.

God bless Nile Rodgers.

Planks: yes
Push-ups: yes

Sit-Ups: yes

I'm not alone in reaching for a perfect life.

Tested negative yesterday. How long was I contagious? Anyway, running Sunday was a risk, I guess. Big sweat, exhausting, also restorative. I feel mostly good.

Just in time for residency rehearsals. Well done.

Distance: 4 miles 
Duration: 36:37
Pace: 9:06

Ghost In the Machine - The Police (1981)
Spirits In the Material World

Every Little Thing She Does Is Magic (164 BPM)

Hungry For You

Demolition Man (154 BPM)

Too Much Information

Re-Humanize Yourself

One World (Not Three) (168 BPM)

Omegaman

Secret Journey

Darkness

Route: Forest Hill Loop
Temperature: 77°
Climate: clear & lovely
Mood: good

Without question, this is the very best album by The Police. Okay, really, I have no idea what's their best. However, I can say that this one has no skips, which is rare for any album for running.

Well, almost. I skipped "Invisible Sun." It is a bit downbeat, emotionally.

A friend who sat in front of me in history class wrote the words "spiritus mundi" on my brown paper book cover a day or so before he shot himself. This was in late 1984. I do not know where he learned that phrase, I knew it from the opening track of Synchronicity. 

I was brought before the guidance counselor, to ask if he had given any sign, any indication. I thought they were blaming me, they fucked that up, big time. I did not tell them about his message. It wouldn't have done them any good, anyone any good, but it scarred me.

I also used the opening track of this album for an English paper my senior year, as I compared lyrics to the plot of A Midsummer Night's Dream. I got an A.

My wife translated the lyrics from "Hungry For You (j'aurais toujours faim de toi)" for her French class. They are pretty hot.

No sleep to night

I want you

Until I’m thirsty

But our bodies are all wet

Completely covered in sweat

We clean ourselves in the tide

I have no desire

You have broken my heart

And me, I’ve drank your blood

But we can do what we want

I’ll always be hungry for you

And so on. She also put the song on her first mixtape to me, this is why we are still together. I think she also got an A, but I gave her the big D.

Stretches: yes
Water: yes
Weight: 160 lbs.

I drove to Florida on my own in Spring 1989, to see both of my grandfathers, and my ex-lover. One of my grandfathers was dying, visiting him was very challenging. So was seeing the young woman, it was the end of the road for us. "Secret Journey" was on a mixtape I had made for the drive, for myself. 

You will see light in the darkness

You will make some sense of this

When you've made your secret journey

You will find this love you miss

I wish I still had that tape.

Planks: TBA
Push-ups: TBA

Sit-Ups: TBA

It's not my favorite Police album, it's not. But it may be their very best.

Got to keep my foot right down.

Eight consistent every-other-day runs. More runs than in 2022, when eye surgery took me off the road. Today, as many runs as I got in last month.

Distance: 3.25 miles
Duration: 30:30
Pace: 9:22

Leaves turn. The weather cools. I must make myself mentally prepared to return to the recreation center, if the weather is disagreeable. Strange, if you had asked me when I last renewed my membership I would have thought last October or something, but it was December.

Going to the gym is easy. It is important I remember that.

Route: Forest Hill Loop
Temperature: 58°
Climate: partly cloudy & cool
Mood: a bit sickly

Reggatta De Blanc - The Police (1979)

Message In a Bottle (151 bpm)

Regatta De Blanc (159 bpm - varies)

It's Alright For You

Bring On the Night

Deathwish

On Any Other Day (157 bpm)

The Bed's Too Big Without You

Contact

No Time This Time

This was always my favorite Police album, "Bring On the Night" was my favorite song during my Senior year in high school (which is a problem) and I will still say it is my favorite if only for the almost complete lack of bullshit. Every song is a banger ... except "Does Everyone Stare" which is goofy.

Goofy, but on point. "I'm gonna write you a sonnet but I don't know where to start." That was me. My wife says I just don't like Andy Summers and I said, maybe it's just that I don't like Andy Summers, and also that that song was written by Copeland. 

I also left "Walking On the Moon" off this play list because it's not good to run to. But, still. A classic.

My copy was a special release, two 10" vinyl records. Pretty cool. Wikipedia tells me Reggatta de Blanc (French for "Yacht Rock") is also Copeland's favorite of The Police records, so I feel validated. I don't really care which one Sting likes the best.

Stretches: yes
Water: yes 
Weight: 161 lbs. (+1.0) 

Now, allergies. Woke an hour earlier than my alarm, a tickle in my throat and in my eyes. Going to the doctor this afternoon, we'll she what she has to say about all this (gestures vaguely at his own form).

Planks: yes
Push-ups: yes

Sit-Ups: yes

Man. Now, see, those guys knew how to close an album.

People! Keep on running!

This is a poster I had in college.

The Red Hot Chili Peppers are trash and I do not understand why they have been inducted into the Rock Hall but what can you do. We dug them at the beginning, because they played stupid white funk and we were stupid, white, funky guys. 

Mother's Milk was their last good album (they've never produced a great album) which was followed by Blood Sugar Sex Magik for which Anthony Kiedis got the absurd notion that he could actually hold a note ("Under the Bridge") and was rewarded with a number one single. The rest is unlistenable history.

Distance: 4 miles
Duration: 36:58
Pace: 9:14

Mother's Milk - Red Hot Chili Peppers (1989)

Good Time Boys

Higher Ground

Subway to Venus

Magic Johnson

Nobody Weird Like Me

Knock Me Down (Long Version)

Taste the Pain

Stone Cold Bush

Fire

Johnny, Kick a Hole in the Sky

These things always fall apart at the end of the record, the two best songs are covers. Then Rick Rubin tells them, hey — you can fit 70 minutes of sound on one of these new compact discs. They can't even put together half that.

Good run, though.

Route: Forest Hill Loop
Temperature: 69°
Climate: clear & cooler
Mood: all right

Stretches: yes
Water: yes
Weight: 160 lbs.

Planks: yes
Push-ups: yes

Sit-Ups: yes