Cain Park Cross-Training

Lyle Lovett is coming!!

Oof. Hard to rise. Up far too late last night, performing necessary house repair, fixing a screen door, which took much more time than I had imagined. Woke sick to my stomach and sweaty.

Chose to podcast today, the Bowery Boys were covering "Secrets of Upper Manhattan" which is cool because the girl and I will be in New York in ten days and I am seeking inspiration. For the moment, we eschew beats.

Distance: 5.25 miles
Duration: 46:57
Pace: 8:56
Route: Cain Park Hills
Temperature: 73°
Climate: overcast & muggy
Mood: all right, considering
Stretches: yes
Water: yes
Snack: banana

Gods, I feel alive! It was a heavy run out to the corner of Taylor & Superior, but not unrewarding. Chris and I ran down and up the hills at Cain Park eight times, which made for about two miles. My running there and back was another three.

Tomorrow I plan to hit the gym and do upper body work, no running. On Independence Day - we race!

Baseline: 179.5 lbs.
Today: 164.5 lbs. (-0.5)
Goal: 160 lbs.

Faith ... faith ... breathe ...

The Bowery Boys: The Verrazano-Narrows Bridge

Explorer Giovanni da Verrazzano was devoured by cannibals. Discuss.

1988 Playlist
All She Wants Is (U.S. Master Mix) - Duran Duran
Spark - The Church
Last Night - Traveling Wilburys
Alphabet Street - Prince
Doctorin' The Tardis - The Time Lords (The KLF)
In The Lowlands - Crowded House

Running in the subzero temps wearing a Breathe Right Strip © makes the snot just flow to your shoes.

Distance: 3.3 miles
Temperature: 14º
Weather: freezing
Groundcover: crusty slush
Weight: 166 lbs.

New jockstrap. New man. (TMI?)

Six A.M.!

What Might Pengo See at the Fringe While He's In New York?

THE BACCHAE
By Euripides
Directed by Joanne Akalaitis
Original Music by Philip Glass
Translated by Nicholas Rudall
The Public Theatre in Central Park

The Bowery Boys: Shakespeare in the Park
What started in a tiny East Village basement grew to become one of New York's most enduring summer traditions, Shakespeare in the Park, featuring world class actors performing the greatest dramas of the age. But another drama was brewing just as things were getting started. It's Robert Moses vs. Shakespeare! Joseph Papp vs. the city! ALSO: Learn how the Public Theater got off the ground and helped save an Astor landmark in the process ... (more)

Listening to: PODRUNNER Classic - The Rush Hour (155 BPM)

Distance: 3.25 miles
Temperature: 66º
Weather: very nice
Weight: 154 lbs.

Cartoonist

I have been reading the biography of a famous cartoonist. It was a Christmas gift, year before last. I have been reading it on and off since then - it's not a boring book, far from it, but I have had so many other things I needed to read first ...

... which is unfortunate. There is a lot in this book which informs this play. Most notably - and I was shocked when I began to understand this in this book, as I had already expressed it in my play - it is the idea that you can spend your life thinking you are downtrodden and unappreciated, only to find that a) not only does everyone like you but b) thinking yourself downtrodden and unappreciated can turn you into a real dick. Not the pitiable character you want to be, but a real, arrogant buttwad.

At left: Your college-age Linus & Charlie Brown archetypes.

This evening I was reading while the kids fell asleep. It was a chapter on marketing, and all the products that came from his strip. And we had a lot of them, books, bedsheets - one they described was a playscript book that included cut-out masks of the characters. We had that. A book of short plays. Based on characters from the strip. Incredible. My life comes into focus.

Another cartoonist, Bill Watterson, lives in Cleveland. He once wrote a review of the book I am reading for The Wall Street Journal. In spite of his reclusiveness, I would like to meet him, though I am not sure what I would say. Your strip was really good. One of your main characters shares a name with one of my sons. I wear a T-shirt featuring a design stolen from you in my new show, but I wear it ironically, you know, because of the name. The name means I believe I am allowed to wear it.

Those are statements. I wish I could think of good questions.

GET THE SHIRT!

Josh has designed an AWESOME Retro-80s Runner's T-shirt design to celebrate sending ATYD to FringeNYC - and to generate some desperately needed income. Click on any of the designs there to take you to the CafePress shop to order yours now!

(For your information - we do get to keep quite a nice portion of the payment for each shirt.)

The Bowery Boys: The New York City Marathon

In early 2008 Leah turned me onto The Bowery Boys podcast, and I have just been loving it. My knowledge of history is not as deep as say, my father's is, but I do prefer non-fiction to fiction, in general.

Hmn. As if the majority of my produced work doesn't reflect that.

Check out the link to the NY Marathon podcast, it's easy to listen to, fun and informative.

Listening to: PODRUNNER Classic - One Tribe (130 BPM)

Sometimes my glasses strap really drills my glasses into the bridge of my nose. Damn.

Distance: 3.25 miles
Temperature: 65º
Weather: light rain - rain is good!
Weight: 152 lbs.

Finally made good on answering those three questions for nytheatre.com ... with a little help from my astonishing awesome wife.

1. What is your show about and what can audiences expect when they see it?

The show is about what goes through a man's mind as he runs the NYC Marathon, so it blends the experience of the race with people and events that, circuitously, brought him there. The protagonist is a cartoonist and illustrator who never thought of himself as an athlete. Beginning with his first running experience at age 12, he considers girls, hopes, girls, dreams, girls, professional frustrations, divorce, and other vagaries of becoming an adult. By the time he reaches the end and his waiting family, he (hopefully) knows the difference between the finish line and what it takes to get there.

Audiences can expect to travel the 5 boroughs, as well as the city of Cleveland, on foot, and to see simulated acts of smoking, vomiting, urinating and dancing. And they will see me naked (not simulated).

2. Why is your show pertinent to today’s times and/or why should your show be the choice for audiences to see?

It's more universal than pertinent. It is about having doubts and fears but doing things anyway. It's about triumph over adversity without being, you know, preachy or arrogant.

3. Why did you choose to present this show?

I tend to write about major events in my life, but to skew them in odd ways. Training for a marathon is just too f-ing hard to let go to waste, and it was something I never thought I would be able to do. To take that and create a solo piece about running in all five boroughs - and make it funny and interesting - was an exciting challenge. Plus it is sort of a love letter to New York, and my daughter.