Thursday Afternoon

We used to meet every Thursday
Thursday
Thursday in the afternoon
For a couple a beers
And a game of pool

Morphine, Thursday from the album Cure For Pain.

Morphine had a great live show I had the privilige of seeing once at First Avenue, a few months before Mark Sandman died onstage in Italy...I think it was Italy.  The two string slide bass enjoyed a brief illustrious resurgence...Presidents of the United States of America, (think Peaches and Lump), also had a singing two string slide bass player.  That's a mouthful.

Anyway, today, Thursday January 26th had a 40 degree Fahrenheit high.  Remarkable.  I went for a run and mapped it on mapmyrun, and listened to the following music:

You Can Get it if You Really Want, Jimmy Cliff
Youth Culture Killed My Dog, they Might Be Giants
Chicken Payback, A Band of Bees
Twilight, The Raveonettes
Toddler Hiway, They Might Be Giants
John Hardy, Uncle Tupelo
Who Made Who, AC/DC
Get Off This, Cracker
Pieholden Suite, Wilco
A Little Light, Bob Mould
What's Going On, Marvin Gaye
Wait So Long, Trampled By Turtles
True Dreams of Wichita, Soul Coughing
The Way You Do The Thing You Do, Earl Van Dyke
Again, Alice in Chains
Flying Saucer, The Wedding Present
Believe What You're Saying, Sugar
And Your Bird Can Sing, The Beatles
Pardon Me, Incubus
Panama, Van Halen
My Mind is Ramblin', The Black Keys
Learning to Fly, Pink Floyd
National Disgrace, Atmosphere

I haven't been paying too much attention to whether or not the playlist matches the time spent running...here's an ambitious idea, maybe in the spring I can take off the headphones and listen for different birdsong.  

Sunday Night Dance Party

You might have seen one out in Minnesota
Or maybe down by the sea in Sarasota
But they were made back in Worcester Mass
Of aluminum and bakalite and glass
- Martin Sexton

Immediately after completing this run, I got a voicemail and a couple of text messages telling me I had an opportunity to see Martin Sexton at the Fitzgerald theater, in downtown St. Paul.  He opened his show with the song Diner, from the album Black Sheep.  I've seen him at the Cedar Cultural Center, the 400 bar and now this, making three concerts I've witnessed his scatalogical singing and blues hammering guitar playing.  Totally enjoyed myself and still enjoy his ability to nail incredible vocal ranges as well as percussive-like syllable phrasing amidst gutsy and folksy ballads. 






While running tonight, I listened to the following music;

Something, The Beatles
Lime House Blues, Birelli Lagrene
Vamos, The Pixies
Crane Wife 1 and 2, the Decemberists
Miles and Miles of Texas, Asleep at the Wheel
Voodoo Child (Slight Return), Jimi Hendrix
Pot Kettle Black, Wilco
Wall of Death, REM
Little T & A, The Rolling Stones
Be Be Your Love, Rachel Yamagata
Prodigal Son, The Rolling Stones
Hoodoo Voodoo, Billy Bragg
ELT, Wilco
The Late Greats, Wilco
Viva la Vida, Coldplay
Rain King, Counting Crows
Start me up, The Rolling Stones
That's not my Name, The Ting Tings
Bone Machine, The Pixies
The Woods of Old Limerick, Patrick Street
The Smoothie Song, Nickel Creek
Wave of Mutilation, The Pixies
Yellow Ledbetter, Pearl Jam

During the run I tried picking up my pace between lightposts, for about a mile and half.  I remember reading that book, Into The Wild, about Christopher McCandless - one of the things Jon Krakauer mentioned was his passion for cross country running, his ability to take a cross country training run that had become mundane, and turn it into an adventure, with sprints, new trails and occasionally deliberately getting lost, just to keep running long enough to find his way home again - as captain of the team, his workouts were legendary.  The lightpost sprints is an idea from another captain, from a long, long, time ago.  Thankfully, neither of us have starved to death in an abandoned VW bus.

Chilly run

I've been doing some core strength workouts at the Saint Paul Skyway YMCA, trying to make sure those jumpy knee ligaments and tendons are staying in place while I'm on my bicycle. I've also started getting back on the treadmill, and tonight, I guess I got a spur in my saddle and went out for a ten mile loop. Yesterday I rode the Raleigh xxix in the snow and on some trails, and besides having a little too much air in the tires, had a good time despite myself.

The snowfall has everything looking still and feeling quiet.

"Growing up in a place that has winter, you learn to avoid self-pity. Winter is not a personal experience, everybody else is as cold as you, so you shouldn't complain about it too much. You learn this as a kid, coming home crying from the cold, and Mother looks down and says, 'It's only a little frostbite. you're okay.' And thus you learn to be okay. What's done is done. Get over it. Drink your coffee. It's not the best you'll ever get but it's good enough."
-MPR coffee cup

Playlist:

Cripple Creek, Leo Kotke
California Soul (Diplo Remix), Marlena Shaw
Who Made Who, AC/DC
Pieholden Suite, Wilco
When Doves Cry, Purple Rain
Knock Me Down, Red Hot Chili Peppers
Strawberry Swing, Coldplay
Ramble On, Led Zeppelin
Start Me Up, Rolling Stones
Voodoo Child (Slight Return), Jimi Hendrix
Basket Case, Green Day
Let's Go Crazy, Prince
Pop Song 89, REM
The Ballad of John and Yoko, The Beatles
Tears of Joy (Live), Robert Randolph and the Family Band
Purple Rain, Prince
Distance Equals Rate Times Time, The Pixies