Truesday.

Second Things First

Yes, I ran this weekend. But I feel like writing about something else this brisk evening.

So, Wednesday beat Sheffield United 2-0 at Hillsborough. Thank god. Granted, they're still only one place above relegation, so it's still tetchy at best. On the bright side, there is a game in hand, and they have a good shot at beating Derby this week in the FA Cup replay at home. Just think, though. I could be rooting for a League One side next season. Sheesh.

Watched Cinema Paradiso on Saturday. Not a bad little movie. I hear the director's cut fleshes out other parts of the story. I will pass. Seems to me that the point of the thing was the idea of letting go...hmmm...

Today? Today was a good day. 6 hours of work, and I managed to make double what I did at my last job for a day's work. Sure, there are moments when I wish I were writing with a bit more freedom, about bands that really get me going, but hey! This pays the bills, and I get to work at home or at a cafe or...you get the idea.

The odd thing about most of these bios I'm doing is that they're winners of some sort of pop-idol contest TV reality show thing in their respective nations. Pop Idol Finland, for example. But one of the oddest has to be the contest to determine who would play Maria in a revival of the Sound of Music in London's West End. Weird. Granted, there are tons of reality entertainer shows going on here, it's just that I choose to ignore them. And since American Idol winners are covered for my job by others, I won't have to worry about who wins what or when in domestic competitions.

That all being said, I think my sudden kicking-ass as of late writing-wise has been noticed. I get to write bios and reviews on some of my favorite bands over the next day or so, so I can't complain. Which bands, you ask? Well:

Katatonia
Made Out of Babies
Battle of Mice

and reviews for:

Joe Lally
Red Sparowes
Made Out of Babies
Battle of Mice

It's gonna be a good week. And hell, I may manage to get enough done the next two days that I can not work Thursday and Friday at no loss. Why don't I get on these trips earlier?

It's really not lost on me that I write for a living, and I'm pretty good at keeping up here, but I never respond to emails anymore. I am aware, and I am working on it. Promise.

Vlorg!

Working the Bugs Out

So, the little experiment worked out pretty well. Granted, my head has been in a great place all day. I'll get to that later. The only problem I found is a matter of simple geometry. Let's look at the Rice loop as an oval for my purposes here. First, I have to park at one end of the oval, since my Rice parking pass for the (sorta) center of the campus is long expired. I think. Anyway, since I start at that one point, and then walk, then run, then run faster, by the time I finish the main set, I am on the other end of the oval. Now, in most cases, I would take the walk back easy, but given the cold, and the fact that I'd rather run or be home than walk in relative loneliness back to the car, I just want to avoid all that. So, instead of doing the 3 mile/20-25 minute main set, I decided to stretch that out to 4 miles, then run easy 5 minutes, then walk out the remainder of the loop. Which would have been fine, but it still took me ten damn minutes to get to the car. I know, I know, someday I will be able to just walk out the door, run to Rice, do the loop, then run back for a nice 6 miler, but I'm not back there yet.
So, as it was it was like thusly: 5 minute walk, 5 minute easy run @ 10:31/mile pace, 4 miles @ 9:17/mile pace, 5 minute easy run @ 10:30/mile pace, and what ended up being a 9 minute walk. I feel great. Tomorrow is going to be the 'recovery' run I have planned out in my head. I'm thinking 5 minute walk, 5 minute easy run, 25 minute run, 5 minute easy run, walk out the rest. This time, I'm going to do the initial walk in the wrong direction, then turn back for the run sets. That should put me in the right place at the end of the runs to turn around again at the walk back to make it to the car in about 5 to 6 minutes. Ah, how the mind boggles at greatness during a run. Sheesh.

Onto other things...
Last night we watched David Lynch's Wild at Heart. I'd forgotten quite a lot of that film over the years. Unfortunately, sub-par versions of that film (i.e., Kalifornia, True Romance, any of that Quentin Tarantino shit...) have overshadowed how pretty damn good it is. It's easily Nick Cage's last good film. He had done so well up to that point. Raising Arizona, Vampire's Kiss, Moonstruck. All great films, and all pretty damn good performances from an actor who always seems to be on the verge of falling apart on screen. And then...Crap. Con Air, anyone? (I must add that Con Air is my vote for worst movie of all time.) Laura Dern is probably the weak spot in the cast, but even so, she's really quite enjoyable. And she would also go on to make a bunch of crap in the following years. Jurassic Park! Sweet! Edgy! The real show stealers in Wild have to be Willem Dafoe and Diane Ladd. The false teeth through the pantyhose mask scene may be one of the most disturbing images in Lynch's canon. And that is saying one HELL of a lot. But nothing quite measures up to the lipstick-breakdown that Ladd has. Wow. Those few moments have it all. Crying, screaming, mental breakdown, face painting, vomiting. Pure film gold! Some may argue Blue Velvet, but this was the one for me. (Although I've heard raves about Mulholland Drive, I have yet to see it. Now I really want to.)

As a side note, the crazy blond nut job who presides over Harry Dean Stanton's demise in the film? George Costanza's 'almost' mother-in-law in Seinfeld. And the old lady who is telling the harem of gals how the 'silver dollar' guy expects his...uh...'ladies' to act? Yeah, that's the 'old bag' that Jerry liberates of her marble rye. A marble rye headed for -- wait for it -- George Costanza's soon to be in-laws. Brilliant!!!

Soup time. Bye.