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6 Songs I Love

Jeff tagged me for six songs I love, so here goes:

Duh. (Run, Run, Run, Run, Run – The Velvet Underground) Three cords at its finest, bumpin’ bass line, catchy lyrics, drummer absolutely out of her mind. One of the common themes you’re going to find in my favorite songs is variations on a theme – I absolutely love listening to musicians take a riff – blues, jazz, rock and/or roll, hip-hop – twist it beyond all recognition, and then re-converge on the same riff at the end.

Take Five – The Dave Bruebeck Quartet, Time Out. Same elements as the Velvets, ‘cept Jazz. I got to see Dave Bruebeck with the Hartford Symphony Orchestra a few years ago – absolutely insane to think I had a chance to see one of the greats.

Up Against the Wall – Jerry Jeff Walker, Viva Terlingua. Captures the Texas with which I grew up. Granted, it was mythology even as I was growing up, but it was living memory to my folks and grandparents. Mind numbing stretches of two lane, small towns, people larger than life. Knowing a bar-b-q joint or a store with an ice-cream cooler at just the right time on every trip. Fishin’ in farmer’s tanks. Heh – maybe my cycling fetish has something to do with a desire to shrink the world into knowable chunks.

Twofer – Rhymin’ and Stealin’ – Beastie Boys, License to Ill and When the Levee Breaks – Led Zepplin, (The Stairway to Heaven Album). Guess it’s time to place me within a year or two. I got a hold of License to Ill back in middle school. My parents found it, listened to about 30 seconds and pitched it. Hmm, that’s got to be a cool album. Dubbed a copy from a friend, hid it under my mattress, and listened to it every night. Everyone else thought that Fight for Your Right (to Party) was where it was at – I was captivated by the big drums and references. Towards the end of high school, I figured I’d try to see what the stoners and heads saw in Zepplin (as an “Alternative” kind of guy, if it wasn’t English, or if it was played with a melody, or rhythm other than “bangbangbangbangbang”, I wanted none of it). Dropped my jaw when I heard the big, booming drums at the beginning of When the Levee Breaks, and in one fell swoop had a huge appreciation for “classic” rock, hip hop’s re-interpretation of everything (hey, three in a row for taking a theme, bending it, and returning to the beginning), and finally understood what piano and violin teachers couldn’t push through my thick skull – the difference between melody and rhythm (Yeah, I’m a slow learner).

Fat was a Feminist Issue – MJ Hibbett and the Validators, This is Not a Library – Uh, yeah. I’m also a lyric guy – these are priceless. Plus, these guys are, like, normal types. You may have heard their “Hey, Hey, 16K” tribute to old computers a while back – someone did a Flash animation for it. Sweet horn section. Did I mention good lyrics?

Superfly – Curtis Mayfield, Superfly Soundtrack – Sweet mix of funk, jazz, and soul, and a kickin’ horn section. Plus, ripped off by the Beasties. AND another epiphany and appreciation for both Funk and blaxploitation flicks. Heh. Archeology through audio.

Special Bonus – 40 – U2, Under a Blood Red Sky. I’ve always struggled with faith. You may not have noticed, but I’ve got a pretty analytical mind. Faith, true faith, does not lend itself to analysis. Patience, likewise, is not something I’m inclined to. “Waiting patiently for the Lord, incline and hear my cry …” Likewise, redemption, promise, and hope – “I will sing, sing a new song.” Vertigo had a very similar effect at a tough time in my life last fall.

So, that’s that. Dear god, I hope no-one tries to psychoanalyze me over this.

I’d like to tap – well, someone, but I’m about 3 generations down on this one, so it’s tough to find people. Kind of like multi-level marketing.

Jitters

So I’m doing a Tri tomorrow. Not quite sure why, but I’m all worked up about it. Actually, I do know why I’m all worked up about it – the new junior engineer in the office is doing the race, too. She’s great – smart, attractive, picks up new stuff quick, etc, so on and so forth. And she’s 10 years younger than I am, which means that I’m getting stomped.

Not that I wouldn’t get stomped anyway; it’s just that this time I’m getting stomped by someone I know.

I don’t think it’d bug me as much if we’d run together before, but until lunch on Monday neither of us knew the other were into running, etc. And schedules being what they are – Monday she didn’t have shoes, Tuesday I had T-Ball, today was a wreck – it’s an unknown. So tomorrow’s the first time we’ll get to judge pace, etc, for each other, and I don’t want to seem rude. But I’m kind of nervous about the whole Tri thing anyway…

AND to top everything else off –

Congratulations! You have been accepted into the ING New York City Marathon 2005! We are so glad to have you joining us along with athletes from all 50 states and more than 100 countries. Sunday, November 6, is less than five months away, and all of us are working hard to ensure that your race experience is the best ever. Coming off an incredible event in 2004, this is a challenge. But we love challenges, and you can expect a number of enhancements this fall, such as a smoother start for the fastest runners and dozens of great live bands along the course. We’ll keep you posted between now and then, but in the meantime bookmark http://www.ingnycmarathon.org, our official Web site, and visit it often for the latest news.

Crap.

Now this isn’t just an exercise in theory.

Back to the question at hand, though: Item the first – any cyclist knows that the absolute last thing that you want to do the day before a huge ride is major work on the bike. So what do I do tonight?
1) Swap wheelsets – this is kind of justified, I was checking spokes, and the winter set had one spoke where the nipple wasn’t even finger tight.
2) New brake pads. Again, somewhat justified – the old pads were original from 2001, and were pretty well glazed. Not squealing, but I didn’t feel a whole lot of grab on Sunday’s ride.
3) New cassette – finally threw on the 12-23 SRAM I’ve been staring at all spring.
4) New chain.
Yeah. But being smart got me fat. Jeff pointed that out a couple of days ago. I think that’s my new motto.

Let’s see – blew off Monday as a rest day after Sunday’s epic. Ran 4-ish Tuesday noon-ish after spending the morning sitting the baby (Hey Jon – remember, “the sitter’s not supposed to sit upon the baby”) while Missy and Jake checked out Kindergarden. Jake was kind of freaked out about the whole deal, but there’s a bunch of kids from his pre-school in his class. Half day, afternoon – jeeze, I wish I had his schedule. Then actually got to play at the t-ball practice. The dad-kid ratio was about 2/3, and there were only about 5 kids at the practice. So we let them actually try to hit, and tried to keep the other kids entertained by playing catch. Good times, except I have no gauge on how hard I throw any more.

OK, back to tossing and turning.