Birthday

Today is my birthday. Everybody gets pitchforks.

I am 30 today. I am ecstatic. Sarah got me a pretty great running watch. This will help with marathon training. Since getting rid of the gym membership, I have continued to run but I have no way of knowing how far I am actually running. I have a general idea because a solid year on a treadmill has given me a basic understanding of my pace, but it will be nice to not have to estimate. I have to figure out a way to calibrate the watch. Perhaps I will ask Lady Gaga.

Lady Gaga? Yes, Lady Gaga. She is making the marathon mix tape because it is hard not to relate to songs about boys eating your heart on a subway.

The songs from The Fame Monster that make the marathon mix tape:

Bad Romance (4:54)
Alejandro (4:34)...Not really that good of a song, but I like making fun of it.
Monster (4:09)


Oh, Maksim got me a great Philadelphia Union pin for my pin collection. This collection is kept on a Natty Light wrist band that is wrapped around my truck's stick shifter. Other pins so far include one for Richmond, VA and the Irish flag. Great collection if you ask me. It only costs $5 to view this exhibit.

He also got me a soccer referee book, so now I can give out proper yellow and red cards whenever needed. The homemade cards that I was using were bunk.

Beach House

Another CD that was purchased with borrowed money was Beach House's "Teen Dream". I heard them once or twice driving around in my truck on WXPN. I think that radio station had them as an artist of the month, one month. A mental note was made that if I ever get back into music, I would check out a cd. I was a little disappointed after the first listen, so I decided to leave the disc alone for a while. A day later, I am hooked. The whole album is perfect for my marathon mix tape. The music fits my running style perfectly (spacey and slow) so I am sure not to qualify for Boston if I listen to these songs on repeat. The band sounds My Bloody Valentine-y at times, while the vocals bring Nico to mind. pretty good combo. It's tough to separate the album into separate tracks for a mix tape, but I was able to eliminate a couple of songs. The team and a sub remaining:

Zebra: 4:48
Silver Soul: 4:58
Norway: 3:54
Walk in the Park: 5:22
Used to Be: 3:58
10 Mile Stereo: 5:03


The cd was cool because it came with two discs. One disc, wrapped in a blue zebra cd sleeve contained music, while the other, wrapped in a pink zebra cd sleeve contained a DVD.

marathon mix tape continued

Sarah and I threw a party for ourselves since we both turn 30 in July. Unexpectedly, people brought gifts. Among these gifts was a Best Buy gift card from Shaun (sp?) and Lisa (sp?) for a billion dollars (sp?) (they also got me a super Jonas Bros. Helium Balloon which is super great (sp?))

With this gift card, some musical cds were purchased. I bought the Mumford & Sons CD, "Sigh No More", because I liked their performance on the Jimmy Fallon show. The cd is pretty good. I think it probably will get old fast, but I'll add three songs from it anyway. Mumford & Sons is on regular radio I believe and they sound punky w/ banjoes. Vocals sound like the Irish dude from Once, but not as whiney. That's my expert analysis. They don't have a drummer, but instead the main dude kicks a kick drum while guitarrin and singin. Now that they are bigger, they might want to hire a drummer. But I guess whatever works for you is also good.

Tracks added:

Sign No More (3:27)
The Cave (3:38)
Little Lion Man (4:07)


In other news, David Kahn just traded for Delonte West and Sebastian Telfair. This offseason, Kahn has signed or traded for Darko, Telfair/West, and Michael Beasely. Awful. Too bad I will be forced to watch this team because I want to follow Wes Johnson's pro career.

Knives and necks, the yes-hitter.

I didn't have that dream where I couldn't run after you. At the same time I didn't have the dream where I couldn't run away. I didn't have the dream where I couldn't yell out your name because my vocal chords were replaced with turkey wish bones in a back alley operation performed by amateur surgeons armed with nothing but salvation army knives and dental floss. A call for help in this dream resulted in a thousand dentists running. So I take this as a good sign that these dreams weren't dreamt. If I did have these dreams my own personal I had a dream speech would seem sort of depressing. An endless baseball game where your team's last remaining pitcher is the infamous hurler of the eternal yes-hitter. Instead, I would begin by saying that I had a dream but I only remember the ending, but that ending was real nice. The judge judged accordingly and everyone got to go home.

Gogol Bordello

Ryan made a good point about Nick Cave songs not really being good running songs. While they will stay on the mix tape, I decided to find something with more of a tempo. The next two songs will be from Gogol Bordello, the gimmicky Gypsy Punk band from Ukraine and NYC.

Tracks:

Wonderlust King (Time: 3:58)
American Wedding (Time: 3:38)

Both of these tracks are off the Super Taranta! album.
These tracks will hopefully come on during my kick.

Marathon mix tape

In preparation for this November's marathon, I have decided to try and listen to music again. I've been anti-music for a while now, because I have difficulty figuring out how and where to listen to music. I rather read on the train, and I don't like running with music because I have to pay attention to cars and WMDs. This limits music listening. I try to listen to music at work every now and again, but everything I listen to is pretty terrible.

This will change though. I'm going to stop riding the train next week because I am going to have to start picking up Maksim from grandmom's house after work. Since I will be in the car more the opportunity for music listening will increase. I am excited about it. I can teach Maksim all about how great albums such as Murder Ballads are. I'm going to buy so many new cds. Or I will use Sarah's pink iPod. I also plan to make a new marathon mix, since listening to music was enjoyable during the last marathon, although I couldn't figure out how to listen to music in a non-alphabetized manner.

The first two songs to make the cut the marathon set list:

Where the Wild Roses Grow (Nick Cave featuring Kylie Minogue. Time: 3:57)
Death Is Not the End (Nick Cave I believe covering a Bob Dylan song Time: 4:27)

Both of the songs are on the Murder Ballads album. The whole album was close to making the marathon set list, but I figured I couldn't put a whole album on a mix tape! I just can't do it! It wouldn't be fair to the other jokers making music.

If you have any suggestions, let me know. I'm interested in getting back into music.

Thanks!

hats

If you are like me, then you know what a pain it is to travel without ruining your two favorite baseball hats. One of the biggest problems I have had over the years when traveling is packing and eventually ruining my green and red Yankee hats. There is not an easy way to pack two hats. Put them in your suitcase? They'll get smashed. Put them in your carry-on bag. Smashed. Put them in your jean jacket pockets. SMASHED! Wear them on your head? Can't. I usually travel with the Pink yankee hat on and three hats on a head looks foolish. I've considered UPSing them to the hotel but I need to wear the red at dinner and the green in the restroom. Always need my two extra hats at arms length.

Annoying.

Until NOW!

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