Truesday.

The Week, The Weekend, The Real.

So...
Friday (2/22/08) kinda sucked. Firstly, the powers that be who make my writing gig financially viable have decided that they are going to take all the time they have alloted to send out checks. Instead of getting them within two weeks of billing, I will probably get it just on the cusp of exactly two weeks. Very annoying, but it was the final straw for me. I finally decided to go with their Direct Deposit set-up, which I was hemming and hawing about -- mainly because it isn't a 'regular' job situation. It's freelance, and I like seeing the check in my hand. But oh well. Then...

Yes, kids, that is one sharp-ass piece of glass. That I found in my Vegetarian Roll that I bought for dinner. (Although I feel it necessary out of safety's sake to say that it was purchased at Whole Foods here in the loop, I must say that I don't want to disparage the store as it is. They were extremely helpful and understanding.) Yup. What a day. I went to the comic shop, got a few titles, and decided it was time to get some veggie rolls for me and the Dr. to enjoy over Friday night TV -- which for us is centered around E!'s The Soup. Home I go with for boxes of lovely veggie/sushi enjoyment (and dog food -- the dog eats the good shit here) and while Amanda is getting washed up, I just go ahead and dig in. Roll section #2, chew, chew, CRUNCH! Urgh. So I go over to the trash, spit it out, wash out my mouth, and go back to eating. I figured it was a rock, or uncooked something or other. No biggie. Then section of the roll #5 (I'm guessing)... Chew, chew, CRUNCH. URRGHHH! So, this time, I decide that a closer inspection is due. And the picture above is what I pulled out. Great. Rinse out again, pack up all the food (Amanda hadn't eaten any of hers) and back to the store. They were surprisingly concerned -- which was great -- and refunded us our money AND gave us a gift card so we could get food for the night. Which Amanda would prepare, and it was friggin' amazing. Carrot/Broccoli/Tofu Noodle stir fry. My god, she's just so good with flavor. I can cook sustenance type things, filling meals, but she has a skill with mixing flavor and taste that just eludes me.

So...That sucked. For the last couple of days I've been watching all my...uh...you know...for any sign that I missed any glass. No such luck so far. Thank god.
And then Saturday. Sheesh. Went to the local Randall's (downtown) to take in some change to cash in to avoid putting more money on the cards and halfway through the process, the machine jams. No biggie, right? Call the manager! Wrong. The MOD doesn't have a key. So we have to wait until today (very early this morning) to call and get our print outs and put the rest of the change in.
I think god is telling me to keep my shopping trips limited to the Fiesta down the street.

Running was good, however. I've sorta upped my standard run. I noticed that I could just keep going and going the longer I ran, so I've upped to a 60 minute standard. Three of those a week, M-W-Sa, with Friday being a 30 minute recovery run. Sorta. Still gotta get 'slow' on that one. So I ended up running a grand total of 23.74 miles. Jeez. Wow. The funny part is that during yesterday's run, at about mile 6.2, I just felt like I could go another lap around Rice (making it three) and... I finally felt that a marathon is, well, doable. A very realistic goal, really. Honestly, I didn't really feel like I hit my stride on the run until I was over 6 miles. It just felt good at that point. I didn't really want to stop. Does that make me a weirdo?

Probably.

Now, let's get all deep.

No! Wait. I want to take a moment and bitch a moment about Ralph Nader entering the election today.

Okay, I am just as aware as any left-leaning that the current system is controlled by the corporate world, that money rules all, blah blah blah...

But I am also aware that we have two courses to take here if the system is to change. First is total unabashed revolution. Scrap the system. Start over. I would love to be in a world where the intelligent fringe could be in a position of power, but there are too many stupid people out there to trust in Libertarianism (the very pure kind) and there are just too many people, period, to have some one like Nader be effective. Which brings us to the second point, if we are to make changes, they have to be gradual. I would rather have a Obama or an Edwards in office than a third party crackpot (Yes, I said it. I think Nader -- outside of his reputation and such -- isn't the guy you'd really want in office, and he's just getting old. I think he's more driven by his ego than anything) or loon from the far right being kicked around Washington for four years.

So, to all you who think that Nader is the only answer: Third parties in this country have not risen to the top by running for the executive. Start at the local level. Get Greenies or Libs or whatever on your city, county and township ballots. Then work to state. Then national. Then take majority. Then... You get the idea. You want a government that can't get anything done? Or an executive who has NO power? Put a third party guy/gal in there now.

Remember: ALL politics is local.

Ok, depth.

For those of you who are around my age...
Remember REAL? Remember how back in the early 1990s, it was all gonna get 'real?' MTV put a bunch of strangers in a house... and they got 'real?' Or how about music? Suddenly bands like Rush and Kiss were putting out albums that were 'real!' (I am speaking of Counterparts and Revenge, respectively) So, what happened? When I look back, shows like Friends and such were there to push aside the Huxtable formula of televisual entertainment, and we were all gonna act and be...well, REAL. But the truth was, it didn't get real, it just got a nicer sheen. The fashions changed, and we weren't gonna be fooled by poodle metal bands with big hair anymore. Or acid washed jeans. No way, man. Warrant had to cut their hair, and guys started wearing flannel shirts with work boots and faded jeans. Funny. Everyone tends to look on the eighties as a 'polished' decade, but the nineties (outside of the fantastically drug ridden bands that did get some attention -- drug riddled idiots, sure, but it was more real than what we were being fed -- thank you Gin Blossoms) were way too shiny. Perhaps I'm finally getting jaded about the decade I once worshipped. Truth be told, I'm not fooled anymore. The years there have a special place in my heart, but in my mind, I know better. It was a wonderful, foolish haze to be a part of, but I think we had a lot of work to do -- which, for the most part, got looked over in the end. So that's that. I'm off.

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.