They say that time's supposed to heal you.

With Daniel Hahn and Taneisha Cordell

Going to try some BPM runs for a while, to bring up my speed. Maybe it will help the metabolism. Or not. Anyway, it feels good to go faster.

Distance: 3.1 miles
Duration: 29:12
Pace: 9:25
Route: Forest Hill Loop
Temperature: 54°
Climate: sunny, cool
Mood: all right
Stretches: yes
Water: yes

We were on Good Morning Cleveland today, promoting I HATE THIS: A Play Without the Baby. Got your tickets yet?

Breakfast: oatmeal with brown sugar, dried fruit, butter & cream, coffee (2x)

Snack: grapes, almonds

Lunch: Pesto pasta w/roasted string beans

Dinner: ribs w/fries & broccoli, beer (2x)

Control is not eating everyone on your plate when you go to a restaurant. I was practically ill. That was unnecessary.

155 - 164 BPM Playlist

5 Out of 6 - Dessa

Tainted Love - Gloria Jones

Good Times - Fine Young Cannibals

Thank You - Dido

Hello - Adele

Alex Chilton - The Replacements

Flight Test - The Flaming Lips

A Well Resected Man - The Kinks 

Good Times - The Easybeats

I know I'm a bit too intimate.

No, David!

Read all the way to the bottom for a special video.

So busy! So much homework! And work work! But I've got too exercise!

And stop eating so much! I am back in the "whatever" zone and I need to break out of it.

Truth is, eating is a great way to procrastinate, and I am seriously pushing back against my responsibilities. More podcasts and chores, fewer sandwiches and nuts.

I will resume recording my diet. It's the best way to check myself.

Distance: 3.1 miles
Duration: 30:59
Pace: 10:00
Route: Forest Hill Loop
Temperature: 56°
Climate: lovely
Mood: all right
Stretches: yes
Water: no (ope)

What's That Lruic?

Big Time Sensuality - Björk

When someone great is gone.

Brief run, We wind down toward the race. Chris and I have made plans to walk to the Expo during lunch on Friday. Very glad the Expo is once again downtown, the last time I ran the CLE it was out at the I-X Center, a fact which I was kinda whiny about.

Distance: 3 miles
Route: Forest Hill Loop

This weekend I performed I Hate This for an audience of fifty at Talespinner Children's Theatre. Pretty epic. Check it out. Someday, perhaps, I will revisit the marathon play.

Temperature: 52°
Climate: cool
Weight: 164 lbs. (+0.5)
Mood: not the best

BABY GEESE! LOTS AND LOTS AND LOTS OF BABY GEESE AT THE PARK!

Crown On The Ground Playlist
Crown On The Ground * - Sleigh Bells
Song For No One - Miike Snow
Infinity Guitars * - Sleigh Bells
I Think Ur a Contra - Vampire Weekend
Someone Great - LCD Soundsystem
Diane Young - Vampire Weekend

That woman at Gerber. Her name. It actually was Diane Young.

And I only just got that.

I am leaving many people feeling worse than before.

Last night I performed I Hate This (a play without the baby) at Talespinner Children's Theatre. I took the photo at right backstage, minutes before the show began.

I first performed this piece when I was thirty-five. The events it describes happened when I was thirty-three. I am now nearly forty-eight.

I had, on occasion, used hair dye to cover those patches of gray which were arriving daily, to keep my appearance more in line with how I looked in my early thirties.

Now that seems kind of pointless. My skin sags, my eyes have sunk. If I darkened my hair or put pink in my cheeks I'd look like Aschenbach. (Literary allusions for 100, Stephani.)

Besides, the whole point of this endeavor was to tell the story from now. Not in any obvious way (though I did add a brief, new scene to represent Calvin's most recent birthday) but if this go-round has taught me anything it is that the piece works best when I just tell it. More telling, less acting. The writing has always been better, anyway.

Distance: 6 miles
Avg Pace: 7:37
Duration: 45:42
Route: Cain Park-Noble Loop
Week Nine Total: 22 miles
Training To Date: 194 miles

We move into week ten of training, the final week. By this time next Sunday, we will be well past the finish line.

Temperature: 55°
Climate: cool and bright
Weight: 163.5 (+2.5)
Mood: relieved

Great run. Check out the playlist. Before the show last night we played Kid A, which has been the traditional pre-show music since the beginning. The set, the props, everything was retro last night, so why change the music? Made me think I would run to that this morning.

But not after last night. so much joy, so much life. I would rather be in the now, thank you.

2015-16 School Year Playlist
Cake By The Ocean - DNCE
Giving Up On You * - Wild Belle
Run - San Cisco
Stay Alive * - Company from "Hamilton"
Restless - New Order
Water - Ra Ra Riot
Snakeskin - Deerhunter
I Can't Give Everything Away - David Bowie
The Party Line - Belle & Sebastian
Leave a Trace - CHVRCHES
Price Tag - Sleater-Kinney

Send David To Alaska

Here's the big news:

One night only, Saturday, May 7, 2016, I will present my award-winning solo performance I Hate This (A play without the baby) at Talespinner Children’s Theatre, 5209 Detroit Avenue.

This autobiographical, one-hour play describes the experiences my wife, Toni, and I had before and after the stillbirth of our first child. He was born 15 years ago this March, and I’ve hoped to have an opportunity to share the piece again in 2016.

Recent productions of I Hate This in Manchester, England, and at Hartwick College in New York, featuring other actors playing me, have encouraged me to try some new things in telling this story that is so important to us.

Any contribution toward my journey to LFTC will be greatly appreciated, but I would be so happy to see you at the performance May 7, by which time I hope – with your help – I will have made my goal.

Click here to visit my GoFundMe page and make a donation and reserve your seat for May 7!

Distance: 4 miles
Avg Pace: 7:39
Duration:30:36
Route: Cain Park Loop

More cold. Bear with it. Speaking of bears, I wonder what how safely I can run in Valdez. Run in packs with jangly keys, I imagine. Headphones would be a very bad idea.

Temperature: 34°
Climate: cool and windy
Weight: 161.5 lbs. (-0.5)
Mood: not bad

Odd playlist, Genius generated, nothing I would have put together for myself, and it was awesome.

Mother Sky Playlist
Mother Sky - CAN
Penetration - The Stooges
I Don't Wanna Be Learned/I Don't Wanna Be Tamed (demo) - The Ramones
Nothing In This World Can Stop Me Worryin' Bout That Girl - The Kinks
Banned In D.C. - Bad Brains
Give Him A Great Big Kiss * - The Shangri-Las
Urban Guerilla - Hawkwind
Dopesmoker - Sleep
Shake Appeal * - The Stooges
Mod Lang - Big Star
The Court of the Crimson King - King Crimson

Jockstrap broke during my run. That's new.

Long, black train.

First day of Spring. Earliest I have gotten up this year intentionally to take a run. Would have just gone back to sleep but there are plans ahead. Plans to visit the aquarium, the zoo, visit Riverside. Later we will have cake.

Plans for the week, too. The wife is taking a writing holiday and we will miss her. Next week the kids will visit Athens for the week. So many plans. So much to do. So much life moving forward.

The other day I had occasion to read over I Hate This. Strange, I last performed this piece five years ago. I watched it performed last fall, Reading it out loud myself, there were things that struck me as odd. Dated. And by dated, I mean they didn't make sense coming out of my mouth in 2016.

Fifteen years. The more things change, the more they will never be the same again.

Distance: 6 miles
Avg Pace: 7:50
Duration: 47:01
Route: Cain Park-Noble Loop
Week Two Total: 18 miles
Training to Date: 35 miles

My back has been acting up. What a pain.

Temperature: 30°
Climate: light snow
Weight: 162.5 lbs.
Mood: sleepy

2001 Playlist
August Day Song (King Britt Mix) - Bebel Gilberto
Smoke - Cornelius
Hella Good - No Doubt
Lady Marmalade - Christina Aguilera, Lil Kim, Mya & Pink
Can't Get You Out of My Head - Kylie Minogue
Mystery Train - Michael J. Sheehy
Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger - Daft Punk
This Charming Man - Stars
Pulk/Pull Revolving Doors - Radiohead
Start the Commotion - Wiseguys
Weapon of Choice - Fatboy Slim
Digital Love - Daft Punk

Moving through the Cleveland heat.

Fuck tha police.

Outstanding! What a tremendous week, but one with no time for running. My wife and I simply cannot get to bed until midnight most days, there's so much going on.

This past weekend we held a fishing derby birthday party for an eight year-old, which turned into an all-day affair, as well as soccer games to attend and curtain speeches to make downtown. It's only Wednesday (morning) and we have conducted interviews for next year's actor-teachers, I led a tour of PlayhouseSquare for students from Lake County, and yesterday was packed with performance workshops and sharing I Hate This a medical conference.

We are also laying the groundwork for a fundraising campaign to get Double Heart to the New York Fringe, popping all over to shoot attractive, young actors video in exciting, outdoor locations.

So glad I did not also have to run a marathon last weekend.

However, it has been an entire week since my last run, and I only went out today because my wife suggested I should. I woke this morning with the same backache, and (surprise) a spasm in my left calf. So, yes. Run, we must. But I shouldn't have to spend the summer waiting until she tells me to to do it.

Temperature: 74°
Climate: cool breeze, but humid
Distance: 3.25 miles

School Is In Genius Playlist
Precious - The Pretenders
To Live and Die in L.A. - Wang Chung
Double Life - The Cars
Our Lips Are Sealed - The Go-Go's
Nightspots - The Cars
Last Chance on a Stairway - Duran Duran
Blood & Roses - The Smithereens
Mexican Radio (163 bpm) - Wall of Voodoo

Yes, children. These are the 80s.

Eleven

Otters who look like Benedict Cumberbatch.
Saturday was a bit overwhelming ... as confident as I was running eighteen miles, going out for an extended meal and a show threw me considerably. And Sunday we had a triple run-through technical rehearsal for The Velocity of Autumn, and had no time to take a recuperative follow-up three-mile run. I am sore. I am bruised. I am very, very tired.

And yet, I feel bright and alive, more mentally competent than I have in ages. Positive. Engaged. On my feet. On my game. However, I need to sleep more, and I need to drink more water, all the time, every day.

Distance: 6 miles
Route: Neighborhood loop

Audio: I Hate This (radio drama)

Temperature: 63º
Climate: Nice.
Weight: 167 lbs.
Snack: no
Hydration? yes
Stretches? yes

I'm gonna make somebody love me.

Thanks, Ali!
Emotional withdrawal, the heightened sense of tension and excitement that comes with the dawn of a new endeavor, getting to the beginning, what will it be, what will happen, followed by the, well, there it is. Okay. What next?

Houses have been small. Productions like these count on word of mouth. My mouth has been open an screaming for attention for weeks now. I am still a little surprised, and disappointed, by turnout. We "opened" last night. There were maybe 12 people in the house.

The cleveland.com review was, indeed, in the print edition of The Plain Dealer. The Saturday edition, which no one actually reads. It is difficult to build word of mouth when there are so few mouths to speak.

My house in empty this morning, they all (wife included) spent the night at a friends' house. Went grocery shopping. Made coffee. Feeling depressed. Nothing to do but go running.

Distance: 5.15 miles
Temperature: 63º
Weather: incredible!
Weight: 168 lbs.

Well. That put things into perspective. Moving through space, warm air, deep breaths, sweat, bright light. Time to accomplish mighty works.

Next performance: Tomorrow night! Yes! Monday!

2005 Playlist
Sixteen Military Wives - The Decemberists
Bound Too Long (Hyper Mix) - The Crystal Method
That's How I Know - D'Nell
Every Day Is Exactly The Same - Nine Inch Nails
Tear You Apart - She Wants Revenge
Water of Nazareth - Justice
Solsbury Hill (12" Version) - Erasure
Summer Skin - Death Cab For Cutie
Do You Want To - Franz Ferdinand

Hmn. 2005. Boring.

The continuing story of the skinny little boy ...

'I Hate This'/'And Then You Die' at Cleveland Public Theatre: The first is brilliant, second pales
By Christine Howey, cleveland.com
It's too bad the title "The Agony and the Ecstasy" has been taken, for it might accurately describe the journey David Hansen wants to take his audience on in his solo one-acts: "I Hate This" followed by "And Then You Die." (more)

Go ahead. Read it. Then come to the show tonight. The whole thing is awesome.

1976 Playlist
Cherry Bomb - The Runaways
Play That Funky Music - Wild Cherry
Don't Fear The Reaper - Blue Oyster Cult
Let's Dance - The Ramons
More, More, More - Andre True
Isn't She Lovely - Stevie Wonder
Blinded By The Light - Manfred Mann's Earth Band
Don't Go Breaking My Heart - Elton John w/Kiki Dee
Golden Years - David Bowie
Skinny - Alex Bevan

Distance: 5 miles
Duration: 42 minutes
Pace: 8.4 min/mile
Temperature: 54º
Weather: bright awesomeness
Weight: 168 lbs.

You either got it or you don't.

Put Those Shoes On: Running Won't Kill Your Knees
NPR 3/29/2011
In one study, Swedish researchers found that exercise, including jogging, may even be beneficial. Felson describes how researchers took one group of people at risk of osteoarthritis and had them engage in exercise, including jogging. The other group didn't exercise. After imaging the joints of the participants in both study groups, they found that the biochemistry of cartilage actually appeared to improve in those participants who were running. Felson says that suggests that "running is actually healthy for the joint."

Imagine my relief.

Going over both plays in my head while running, they become one. Little similarities bounce back and forth ... things I had not noticed. In case of emergency I have a pager in 2001, a cellphone in 2006. I have not run in two weeks, over two weeks. This makes me sad. It cannot be helped, there is no time. But my heart beats peaceably, my breathing is regular, I feel good. I feel very good.



Today is a full-day technical rehearsal. Multimedia is in a really good place, thanks to Mr. Josh. Did I mention he is designing two shows which open on the same day? I hope everyone appreciates that. Josh Brown is awesome.

Josh-hawk (not Josh) and the crew were taking care of lighting yesterday (I had something like a day off) and we put it all together today. That is some kind of good place to be.

2006 Playlist - All Timbaland, All The Time
My Love - Justin Timberlake featuring T.I.
SexyBack - Justin Timberlake
Wound Up - Office
Upside Down - Jack Johnson
Pump It - Black Eyed Peas
Munich - Editors
Ankle Injuries - Fujiya & Miyagi
Say It Right - Nelly Furtado
Mass Repeat (Extended 12" Version) - Gabriel & Dresden
Crazy - Gnarls Barkley
Sound of Silver - LCD Soundsystem

Distance: 5.15 miles
Temperature: 37º
Weather: awesome.
Weight: 168 lbs.

You can't break me, 'cause I'm already this way

Socked with another terrible headache yesterday, this time on the left side of my sinuses. This is distressing because I am trying to judge the effect of this new medication and it comes exactly at the change of season - when I traditionally get killer migraines.

I felt it coming on when I woke up. I do not believe 8.30 is sleeping in, and this never happened over the summer when I would occasionally get some extra sleep, only when the weather cools.

40 degrees. Jacket weather. Downing a "Jet Blackberry" GU I found in my kit box. Doesn't expire for a year but it seemed more appealing to me this morning than a banana.

Until I ate it.

Distance: 3.25 miles
Temperature: 40º
Weather: awesome
Weight: 163.5 lbs.

A second piece of quiche? No, thanks. A beer? That's okay, I'll just drink this. Mn, no popcorn, not tonight. Let's see how long I can keep this up.

Future Sightings Genius Mix
Future Sightings - I Am The World Trade Center
Brakhage - Stereolab
Watch The Tapes (153 bpm) - LCD Soundsystem
Divorce Song - Liz Phair
Girl and the Sea - The Presets
No Expectations - I Am The World Trade Center
Ticker-Tape of the Unconscious - Stereolab

Ah, the skunks of Cleveland Heights. Okay, I am just waiting for a knee to blow out. Really. Because one must, right? Could be either one. I have no idea what is going on inside of me. I guess there is not much to be done about it except to keep on until injury, and keep taking omega-3s, being kind to myself, etc.

A lot of talk this weekend at the censorship symposium at CPT about my shows this Spring. At least, a lot of talk in my vicinity. Really, can I see a show at CPT without Raymond calling me by name - twice - from the stage? (Am I complaining? Of course not.) But I did get to sell the piece to a number of people.

Now I need to work on it. Actually technical work, of any kind, is on hold until KILL WILL goes up ... my entire crew is working on that. But though I have the edits in my head, I have not spent much time actually making them. I get some writing time this Sunday, if I can focus I could dedicate that time solely to these pieces.