The Very Best of 2009

Memories of Christmas 2009:
pink pony pillow
filled pancakes
coffee with Bailey's
happy Felix
Joe's roast with Yorkshire pudding
meeting Molly
Artie at the Skull
rain
the history of slavery in 10 minutes
Mary Poppins
Christmas songs on cable
Little Richard
CARS racetrack
Sherlock Holmes
Elliott bringing the Avalanche
and a little snow

I did have enough songs for one more "Best Of" list, I run I did not get to my third day in town. But as it turns out, they were pretty crappy songs (two by Black Eyed Peas? Come on, those things always have a shelf-life of three days.) But it did end with this:

Don't Stop Believin' - The Kids from "Glee"

Born with a weak heart

Best of 2009 Playlist
This Must Be The Place - Miles Fisher
Cooking by the Book (lil' Bigger Mix) - Mastgrr
Sugar - Flo Rida ft. Wynter
Before the Worst - The Script
The Golden Age of Video - Ricardo Autobahn
Breakeven - The Script
Mothership - Kid Beyond
Bulletproof - La Roux
Single Ladies (Put a Ring On It) - Beyonce
The Fear - Lily Allen

Distance: 4.25 miles
Temperature: 40º
Weather: cloudless n' sunny

Gravity can't forget

Best of 2009 Playlist
Single Ladies - Pomplamoose
Jai Ho! (You Are My Destiny) - A.R. Rahman ft. The Pussycat Dolls
Halo - Beyonce
15 Step - Radiohead
Just Dance - Lady Gaga
Paris Is Burning - Ladyhawke
Rehab - The Kids from "Glee"
In For The Kill - La Roux
4 Minutes - Madonna ft. Justin Timberlake

God bless us, everyone.

Distance: 4.25 miles
Weather: wet and sunny ..?

Thank you for this

Weak. Eyes livid, moist-searing edges. Practically trembling. This was before I ran. It's been over two weeks, there has been no time nor opportunity - nor much desire. The weather turned, it has been below freezing ... until today.

I fried chicken and made french fries for our children, who missed their mom - the wife was out of town last night. So I tried something new. I feel like I have swallowed a pound cake. I have gained weight. I need to play an emaciated vampire this winter. I need to stop eating poorly.

I also need to run again, but mostly I need to stop eating poorly. And so often. But I have found out I make a very good fried chicken (thank you, as always, to Mark Bittman.)

Distance: 3.25 miles
Temperature: 50º
Weather: damp and cool. extremely pleasant.
Weight: 160.5 lbs.

Phone call at 12:10 AM
Leah: So I started watching Twin Peaks.
Pengo: Oh, you never?
Leah: No, I remember seeing that part you showed us when we were making THE GULF.
Pengo: Man.
Leah: Yeah.
Pengo: That was ... a heady time.
Leah: It sure was.
[awkward pause]

I meant 1991. She meant 2001.

It Won't Be Long Genius Playlist
It Won't Be Long - Alison Moyet
Wrap It Up - Eurythmics
Antmusic - Adam and the Ants
Perfect Skin - Lloyd Cole and the Commotions
Let Me Go - Heaven 17
Take a Chance on Me - Erasure
Fame Is - Crowded House
Sexcrime (Nineteen Eighty-Four) - Eurythmics

If you are not yet a follower of my other blog I wanted to announce I am 2010 CPAC Creative Workforce Fellow. It is a great honor, and a wonderful opportunity. I had submitted a portion of And Then You Die in my application, so thank you to you for supporting this play.

The World Is a Vampire

Another Sexy Boy Vampire Playlist
Supermassive Black Hole - Muse
Bullet With Butterfly Wings - Smashing Pumpkins
Reckoner - Radiohead
Do You Want To - Franz Ferdinand
Brand New Colony - The Postal Service
The Sound of Settling - Death Cab for Cutie
Chelsea Dagger - The Fratellis
All I Need - Radiohead
Breakeven - The Script
Wake Up - Arcade Fire
No Surprises - Radiohead
Great DJ - The Ting Tings
Blue Light - Bloc Party
Mrs. Robinson (interlude) - Simon & Garfunkel
Walcott - Vampire Weekend

I think I figured out the Twilight Hate ... listening to today's playlist - which was generated by the GENIUS feature of iTunes - I realized that today's plump and balding Gen X-er's are hellapissed that vampires are no longer GOTH. I mean, vampires pre-existed Goth culture - Goth was an offspring of vampire culture, to be sure - but any mother can produce varied children. Today's "vampires" descend not from Peter Murphy and and Poopy Z. Brite, but from a different branch of the family tree.

From the bourgeois, from white trash, from America - not Europe. They are no longer pretentious. They are the kind of ordinary embraced by, well, Sarah Palin supporters. They aren't special. They are repressed. They are Puritan.

Happy Thanksgiving.

Distance: 6.15 miles
Temperature: 50º
Weather: cool and clear
Pavement: Uneven

A weekend at the rents, my brother and his family are in town from Minnesota. It's a big, small child weekend in Lakewood (missing the fifteen year-old in London whose birthday is today!) Took that lap around the west side of town ... West Side of Cleveland, that is, the run is the length of Lakewood and back, usually I go down Lake and Clifton, this time it was the other way 'round.

My right arm aches, I can only imagine it is from poor weight training. Every now and then I use it, but these day I mostly don't. In my imagination I do sit-ups, but in the real world, I don't. Josh told me about a study that indicated that thinking about exercise can actually be as effective as doing it. Well. Works for him (Ooh! That stings! Good night, Cleveland!)

Tomorrow, by the way, I will be performing on the stage of Severance Hall, playing Dvorak as we explain the origins of the New World Symphony. Come and check it out, it's fun.

Anyway, my arm hurts. I hope tonight's physical activity helps. Now back to eating like hell.

Top 10 Chunkiest Hits from The Decade Just Past

(2001) Weapon of Choice - Fatboy Slim
(2003) Toxic - Britney Spears
(2002) Work It - Missy Elliott
(2004) Chase Me - Hexastatic
(2008) Single Ladies (Put a Ring On It) - Beyonce
(2000) Music - Madonna
(2009) The Fear - Lily Allen
(2005) Touch the Sky - Kanye West
(2007) Big Girl (You Are Beautiful) - MIKA
(2006) SexyBack - Justin Timberlake

Facebook Chat:
OATMAN: Any word?
PENGO: I got it.
OATMAN: Cool.
PENGO: It is cool.
OATMAN: I'm working on a new play.
PENGO: What's this one about?
OATMAN: A three hundred pound black guy who runs a marathon.

(And then I laughed so hard I got a hernia.)

Distance: 5.15 miles
Temperature: 52º
Weather: rainy
Weight: 157.5 lbs.

Top 10 Dance Tracks from "The Last Ten Years" (Part 2)

(2001) Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger - Daft Punk
(2009) This Must Be The Place - Miles Fisher
(2003) Brand New Colony - The Postal Service
(2007) The Girls - Calvin Harris
(2000) Idioteque - Radiohead
(2005) Badass - The Crystal Method

I realized earlier this week that the media just gave up - this decade will have no name. And that's only proper, it was a kidney stone of a decade. But no one even attempted to come up with a name that would stick. There was chatter about it at the beginning of "The Decade" - will it be "The Ohs" or "The Naughts" or "The Nil Set" or what have you. But once that died down, nothing had been decided.

It's like that point in history when everyone was talking about the names of generations. And those who controlled the media at that time - Baby Boomers - came up with names for generations going back centuries. They weren't happy with naming cohorts of a certain genre or way of life - the Lost Generation, the Beat Generation - they were dead set on proscribing when these generations began and ended, and everyone fell into the same category (everyone white and middle-class, anyway) and called their parents the Greatest Generation, themselves re-branded as Boomers and lowly old us as Generation X.

And then, apparently ran out of ideas. (Gen Y? Gen Z? As the kids say, for real?) Or interest. Because it doesn't really hold up well.

So we have no name for this decade. As Top Ten Lists are created, they are sheepishly referred to as "The Top Ten Songs Of The Past Decade" or "Of The Last Ten Years" ignoring the fact that this is going to make it very difficult for lite contemporary stations to sell their playlists. Know how pop stations play the hits from "The 80s, the 90s ... and Today!" Next year they will be playing "The Hits from Today ... and yesterday!"

I heard some guys on the radio bickering about whether next year will be called "Two Thousand Ten" or "Twenty-Ten." Well, duh. People are going to call it both, and no one is going to be punched in the face for it.

I think my favorite turn of phrase was when someone referred to their upcoming season as the "Oh-Nine, Oh-Ten Season."

Distance: 3.25 miles
Temperature: 50º
Weather: cool & leafy
Weight: 159 lbs.