I like to listen to John Adams when I'm on the stationary bicycle.
Me too. His Defence of the Constitutions of Government of the United States gets me in the groove.
When running, ears are for keeping track of traffic, not for listening to music.
Also, were you running with the band Paramore, or were you saying hi to your paramour in the OP? If the latter, hi, um, Stanley's paramour.
3: I'm currently lusting after a Pearl Izumi "screaming yellow" convertible (you can zip off the sleeves) jacket for the car-avoidance problem. But I can't really justify $80 for a jacket I'll wear for forty minutes a day. Then again, my birthday's coming up, and I'm a big fan of self-gifting.
4: The band. I've been wondering how to refer to my ladyfriend on Unfogged. I was kind of leaning towards Thundersnow, actually. She's that awesome.
5: This assumes that they're paying at least a tiny bit of attention, which hasn't always been my experience. I got the crap scared out of me a while back by a Prius moving slowly enough that the gas engine wasn't running, which made me realize just how much I rely on my hearing to stay out of trouble.
Also, I look like shit in yellow.
I highly recommend getting mildly hit by a car. It makes for a good story, and then later the person buys you a drink. Fact.
I have actually done that, but I didn't get a drink. Or find five dollars. It turns out to be rather disconcerting to look over your shoulder and see a pickup ten feet behind you on the sidewalk and gaining fast. Luckily the guy hit a telephone pole a lot harder than he hit me.
NPH is right (about the listening, not necessarily about the yellow; also hey there, long-absent NPH). Hearing is essential, unless you'd like the element of surprise when you get run over.
Hey likewise. Having a job that you actually enjoy but that's a bit all-consuming cuts into commenting time. I've been lurking a bit, but mostly when you're all sleeping or something.
You people who run without music are aliens. The ability to escape into music is part of the attraction for me. Forty minutes alone with the new La Lupe compilation was in the queue today, but it got derailed by OK Computer being a surprisingly good running album. I do often switch to podcasts for the end of the run. Take me home, Click 'n' Clack. Take me home.
On the other hand, people who bike or drive with earbuds in freak me the fuck out.
I actually liked running in silence, or rather, ambient sound, back when I used to run.
I can't believe no one has yet remarked on Stanley's use of the phrase "for the first time all year" on the first of February.
Yeah, I usually hit that particular milestone along about the first of January.
14: I also realized it's a lie. I ran in shorts in Key Biscayne a couple weeks ago and then jumped in the ocean.
6: Hurray for awesomeness! However, as exciting and novel as thundersnow might at first blush seem, having shoveled out a full half of my driveway l can assure you that thundersnow is more of a pain in the ass than it's worth. Your ladyfriend should be referred to by a term that is all awesome, without the pain. "Ladyfriend" could work. In any event, I find that term terribly charming.
Oh, also, I run with music. But then, I also run on a treadmill which limits the need to listen to what's around me.
14: I still haven't read the post.
I ran in shorts in Key Biscayne a couple weeks ago and then jumped in the ocean.
That's my favorite scene in Blue Lagoon!
But I can't really justify $80 for a jacket I'll wear for forty minutes a day.
If you run every day, or even just fairly often, this doesn't really seem so crazy.
Embarrassing admission: I used to run to the soundtrack from "Full Metal Jacket", and if I was hitting the right speed for the run, the last track, which is the Marine Corps Hymn, came on just as I was going into the final straight and heading home.
Did you do a Benny Hill style sprint when Surfin' Bird came on?
It is odd to go Presidential for that admission. Not sufficiently embarrassing unless you are in the Air Force or something.
Obviously I didn't mean "Presidential-Presidential." I just meant "'Presidential.'"
"thundersnow" is awesome and (thundersnow is awesome) is awesome. i might suggest the variation "fucking lady friend" but i guess it's crass. this thread is putting me in the mood to run but it's hard to have faith there will ever be sidewalks again.
i got an insomnia going. woke up at 4am, have now come to terms with wakefulness. my date was ok, but what kind of guy starts drinking at 40? i was like "well you see beer comes in many flavors..." moreover... yeah.
a little nervous to look out the window and see what has happened overnight. it's getting light though i think. my insomnia comes with cravings. will anything be open in an hour? coffee, cherry peach blueberry square, snickerdoodles, tomato and basil pizza? will any of you be available to me today? coffee, true friend, i know you will...
Thundersnow is an awesome name for a centaur.
A surprisingly good running song is Ella Fitzgerald's version of "A Tisket, a Tasket." She was truckin' on down the avenue...
Since I've taken to running outside rather than on a treadmill, I've had a hard time listening to music because it makes me go too fast.
I've had a hard time listening to music because it makes me go too fast.
Yes, if I were to take up running again I'd probably need something like "Sister Morphine" to match my pace.
I like the idea of a maximally slow mix for incredibly unfit runners.
Cream: We're Going Wrong.
Country Joe: Bass Strings.
"This is the kind of music you have on a workout tape if you're skinny, and want to get fat."
lily, rosemary, and the jack of hearts.
I just listen to whatever you guys recommend. It's always the best!
Why do I keep talking to myself? Stay tuned to find out!
34: That's actually in my "who am I kidding, I'm not going to take up running any time soon" uptempo playlist, along with Joni Mitchell's "California".
34: There's a number of long Dylan "dirges" that would work. But I think Leonard Cohen might win for random song likely to be a drag for running.
There's probably someone somewhere running while listening to Ligeti.
33: My inability not to laugh at Beavis and Butthead, even as I approach my 30s: it's uncanny.
Stanley,
I vote for "Ladyfriend" in quotes.
"Fade Into You"
"Angie"
"Sunshine On My Shoulders"
If you want music for running really really slow, that is, on an elliptical set to maximum resistance, I would go with early Swans.
I used to go "running" to NPR; music makes me boogie.
I stopped listening to music as I ran. I got afraid that I would get into a zone and be smashed by a car I didn't hear.
Holy shit, the google art project. Love love love it.
29 A surprisingly good running song is Ella Fitzgerald's version of "A Tisket, a Tasket." She was truckin' on down the avenue...
This sounds so great I might have to take up running just to experience it.
43: I'm sure I've gone into this here, but I have been known while running to start busting a move on the treadmill without thinking about it, if something especially dancy comes on. Tough luck, fellow gym goers! I'm still much nicer than the grotesque man who makes wholly unnecessary he-man grunts to show how tough and committed he is, and punctuates them with burps and farts -- all of which I can hear *over* my headphones. UGH. (I wish this man harm.)
Is there a particular brand of running shoe best suited to a runner who doesn't want his gear made by child labor? That is, what are the tried and true liberals wearing these days?
Is there a particular brand of running shoe best suited to a runner who doesn't want his gear made by child labor? That is, what are the tried and true liberals wearing these days?
http://stuffwhitepeoplelike.com/2008/04/20/96-new-balance-shoes/?cp=6
They have several factories in New England and mark on their website what is union made, US made, and US assembled.
Here are the US-made women's sneakers.
Is there a particular brand of running shoe best suited to a runner who doesn't want his gear made by child labor? That is, what are the tried and true liberals wearing these days?
Wow. Uh, I am going to blame the snow for that...
Allow me to be the first to suggest New Balance.
If you're running in the snow, allow me to suggest putting down fresh salt first.
Fresh Salt's mother wears combat boots. I'm off.
Huh. Not that I run (bad back), but I tend to like speed-walking (shut up) to story-telling sorts of music, which often means folk. David Francey's Far End of Summer was appropriately meditative for quite a while.
I tend to like speed-walking (shut up)
In the mall?
You have permission to kill him, pars.
"Fade Into You"
I find that this is ok for a warmup, but once you really get into your run nothing beats Z'EV.
I like to put on Morton Feldman's Second String Quartet and shuffle around the neighborhood.
61. Please.
Here. It's quite lovely. 1.3 miles per circuit, tons of people of all ages and races out, from 60-something black ladies strolling to 20-somethings stepping out to 35-ish office workers huffing and puffing, to 5-year-olds attempting to roller-skate; people doing tai chi on the grassy verge; and bikers, either whipping past or resolutely pedalling along, bike helmets akilter. Great place! Everybody smiles.
65: The internet suggests that place has a much more Ray Lewis-y sort of name. Also: fed by Big Gunpowder Falls? Say it ain't so, Stringer Bell.
OK, I'm not finding this previous Alkaline Trio mention. Which song? "My Little Needle" was on a mix that I used to listen to while working out.
"Tai Chi on the Verge" would make a good title for somebody's autobiographically essay in one of those magazines that prints autobiographically essays.
68: I mentioned it here. "I Found Away" but really pretty much everything by Alkaline Trio is good running music, which is mildly amusing given that some significant portion of it was probably written/recorded on heroin.
Thanks all. Shoes ordered and on their way. I wound up going with New Balance.
67: Loch Raven is distinct (and actually only a couple of miles from my house), not remotely like Lake Montebello, which is effectively a small man-made 'lake' in the city. The Gunpowder river system, Big and Little, is a water system that winds up, down and around everywhere here. It's nice; you kind of have to get further north, toward PA, before you get to grander falls and waterways. Once you head south toward Baltimore City, the Gunpowder "River" is really a network of wide streams. Which are fine! They support all sorts of wildlife.
Prettyboy Reservoir is mighty fine. You head further north toward that area if you want to go canoeing or get in some good hiking that involves marveling at beavers and their activities.
If I were a prettyboy, I would have to hike so far to marvel at them.
The contrast between what Stanley associates with Gunpowder and the presence of Prettyboy is interesting. Kids these days.
This discussion reminds me of when my The Wire fandom led me to waste multiple hours on Wikipedia figuring out the boundaries of various Baltimore city council districts and police divisions. That lake looks great. I love Baltimore!
Wait, Parsi, do you live in Chum?
77: Nope. That's just where Lake Montebello is (and I'd actually never heard the designation "CHUM"). It's on my route to/from work, and now that I've discovered it and how cooperative and happy-making it is, I'd make it a destination in its own right. It's had a reputation for being slightly dangerous, which is hogwash, though I tend not to walk there after nightfall, just because there aren't many people around.
On the other hand, I had a terrific walk there on a chilly late autumn evening when it was misting, very light rain. Just me and one other woman striding around purposefully with our respective hoods up, saying to each other each time we passed: Damn! I don't know how much longer I'm up for this! Then laughing.
60: Parisomn, you need to upload a workout mix of Richard Shindell and Kate McGarrigle songs.
79: Should I be suspicious about your suggestion?
70: Huh. I remember that thread, but apparently didn't click the link. And now I realize that I haven't heard new music by Alkaline Trio in about a decade and so had missed not only the heroin, but the general transistion from Whinecore to Over Productioncore.
Speaking of, it occurs to me that the Velvet Underground's "Heroin" would make a fine running song, what with the alternating sprints and cool downs.
80: Not at all! I could see you really liking Richard Shindell. His "Wisteria" makes me choke up a bit, though that's because I'm a total sap.
the general transistion from Whinecore to Over Productioncore
Yeah, it's been weird. I keep listening, because I have a soft spot for over-produced/slick-sounding music. But my punker-than-I housemate despises what they've become and probably regrets getting an Alkaline Trio tattoo.
83: "really liking" maybe have been a stretch. What was I being so positive about anyway?
I had actually hoped that NickS, if he's around, which I think he's usually not during the daytime, might have picked up on my David Francey link in 60.
NickS: Whenever you're around and if you're inclined, any thoughts?
85: No no, 83 crossed with 82. I hadn't seen 82.
Those of us with a taste for singer-songwriters can be cautious when we find ourselves in the wider musical world. We get made fun of, you know. I've heard of Richard Shindell, but don't have any specific associations with him.
NickS: Whenever you're around and if you're inclined, any thoughts?
Thanks for drawing my attention to it.
I am around during the daytime when I'm not distracted by work, but I can't listen to music or watch videos until I get home. But I will plan on giving it a listen.
He isn't somebody that I know anything about.
89: I will plan on giving it a listen.
That's nice. You may or may not like it; and I'm of course not asking for approval. But given some of the other things we've talked about, Francey is worth a listen.
You can still run to their music, I suppose, but no more masturbating to The White Stripes.
But given some of the other things we've talked about, Francey is worth a listen.
That's more than fair, and enough encouragement to get me to listen.
A random link in return, you might (or might not) enjoy knowing about Alice Stewart. Somebody sent me a link to her version of, "I Feel Like Hank Williams Tonight" (from "Live At The Triple Door") and I thought it very well done.
I suppose this gets back to our discussion of country, since the song is originally a country song, but her version isn't particularly.
92: Eek! Country!
No, fine. I'm off now for a while, however.
Speaking of music, the concert tickets I most recently purchased had free shipping if I chose USPS but were $2.50 to print from home. Doesn't that seem bonkers?
Fun fact: Alice Stuart was briefly a member of the Mothers of Invention. Also, All the Good Times (her first recording, I think) is a good folk revival album.
I used to run to rap music and went through a huge rap phase only because the beats were so helpful for keeping a decent pace. I'm glad I bike now instead because that music was really awful.
Slightly off topic, has everyone already discussed the NY bill that would ban people from using phones and listening to music while crossing the street?
You can still run to their music, I suppose, but no more masturbating to The White Stripes.
I had been intended to call shenanigans on this unjustified extension of the rule to a wholly new fact-pattern merely on the principle of the thing, but I'll let Marshall McLuhan speak for himself, as it were (using your very link!):
"The White Stripes do not belong to Meg and Jack anymore. The White Stripes belong to you now and you can do with it whatever you want."
Italics mine.
I figure [boogeying counts as] cross-training.
Not just a rationalization! My calves were genuinely sore the next day from my dancing the night before.
Err, I meant that to say "from my dancing on Saturday."
The White Stripes belong to you now and you can do with it whatever you want
Oh, sweet. I bet the ASCAP income alone is gonna be a pretty penny.
David Francey
I think his voice is gorgeous, and I could listen to more of his songs just for the voice.
I think his songwriting and general performance is above average but not exciting. I liked it; I certainly wouldn't mind listening to him, but I wouldn't go out of my way to track it down either.
98: I just put the White Stripes in my pants.
Eek! Country!
How do you feel about Steve Earle?