Zilch Day 3 in a row

Third day in a row without a run or a hike.

Still resting this strained hamstring.

Should be okily dokily tomorrow.

first movie in a week

I'm not sure why but it's been a week since I've seen a movie.

The Robber Bride (Made-for-TV, 2007)

The Oxygen network, I think primarily aimed towards women, claims that The Robber Bride is an Oxygen Original movie. Maybe that's true but from all outward appearances it looks to be just a movie made for the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. Was it truly commissioned by Oxygen? By the CBC? Or just a movie made and then the broadcasting right sold to the CBC and Oxygen? The answer: who cares.

After a woman is apparently killed, there's a whole lotta her blood but only one finger is found. In a nice, polite manner, the Canadian police arrest one of their own for the crime. His friend, a former cop now an insurance man, is asked to clear his name. From there we learn about the "deceased's" relationship with three women but not much about who Zenia really is.

It's a strange yet mostly boring story. Why did Mary-Louise Parker accept the primary female lead in this second-rate production? Needed money? A favor to someone? She shouldn't have 'cause this movie is just not worth watching unless maybe you're a fan of the CN Tower in Toronto or something.

recovery continued

Ouch Day 2. Hamstring better and I could certainly run on it. But, uh, that wouldn't be too bright for it could just worsen and sideline me for even longer. In baseball guys often get put on the 15-day Disabled List for a hamstring strain. 15 days! Hopefully I won't be down for more than three.

ouch day

All last night after my run I had no aches, no pains; felt great!

Woke up today and I hobbled out of bed.

Left hamstring again.

No run. No hike.

a breeze!

Maybe I'm not making my advancements in running time difficult enough? Maybe that's not important! I'm completely satisfied with improving by small increments. And once again, this evening at sunset, I successfully added on again!

76 minutes on the trail...

Running Time -- 14 minutes & 49 seconds (+19 seconds)

Charlie Robison -- Life Of The Party (1998)

My Hometown
Loving County
Indianola
Molly's Blues
Arms Of Love
Poor Man's Son
You're Not The Best
Barlight
Waiting For The Mail
Don't Call Me A Fool
I Don't Feel That Way
Sunset Boulevard
+
Tennessee Jed -- Bruce Robison
Stella Blue -- Willie Nelson

So many people hate country music. Hey, that's their choice. There's a whole lot that ain't your typical NashVega$ Top 40 on the Country charts [stuff.] I think it's usually called "Alternative Country" when it doesn't get airplay. Charlie Robison's one of those dudes who gets slapped with that label. He writes his own tunes, for the most part, probably has a relationship with Nashville but he's Texas country for the 21st Century. This is good music! Fun to run to.

And then to close out the playlist, a couple GD covers. Charlie's brother Bruce does a great TN Jed and Willie's Stella Blue, well, I wasn't too thrilled with that, too much electric geetar, I thought. I'll give it another listen, though. Maybe it'll grow on me. Of course nothing can hold a candle to Jerry, but sometimes GD covers aren't too bad.

Unsafe 4 Years Later?

A buncha hoopty doo on CNN this afternoon about something John McCain said. Apparently on Monday, on a radio show, McCain said:

"There are neighborhoods in Baghdad where you and I could walk through those neighborhoods."

Wolf Blitzer, on The Situation Room on CNN, had a chance the next day to question McCain about what he said:

Blitzer: "Everything we hear, that if you leave the so-called Green Zone, the International Zone, and you go outside of, uh, that secure area, relatively speaking, you're in trouble if you're an American."

Presidential hopeful McCain responded: "That's where you oughta catch up on things, Wolf."

Wolf, at some point later in his show, had on from Iraq CNN correspondent Michael Ware who said the following:

"No way on Earth can a Westerner, particularly an American, stroll any street of this capital of more than five million people. I mean if al-Qaida doesn't get wind of you, or if one of the Sunni insurgents groups doesn't descend on you, or if someone doesn't tip off a Shia militia, then the nearest criminal gang is just gonna see dollar signs and scoop you up. Honestly, Wolf, you'll barely last twenty minutes out there. I don't know what part of Neverland Senator McCain is talking about when he says we can go strolling in Baghdad."

Thank goodness for the cable system's recent development and implementation of their Enhanced TV Start Over option for certain stations including CNN otherwise I never woulda been able to get exact quotes.

In any case, the stupid security situation in Baghdad just completely friggin' annoys me. There's no reason why people've gotta be blowin' other people up. There's no reason why Americans should be swept up off the street and held for ransom and/or tortured and/or shot & killed. Who's gonna win? Those who want democracy or those who want militant Islam to rule the land? When will all the crap over there stop and be reasonably safe like almost everywhere else on Earth?

Obviously I don't want death in Iraq to continue in the manner it occurs day in and day out... but I'm also concerned about my quest to kayak the Tigris River as a fundraising benefit for our wounded troops as well as other charities related to the recovery and wellness of Iraq, particularly the health of the rivers and southern marshlands. Every other day or so I read a sentence of a story about killings in Iraq, about bodies found in the Tigris. That's, uh, nice. That's not what rivers should be for!

I've been off and on thinking about a journey down the Tigris since the damn war started. Once already I have postponed the trip. The target time period is now late winter next year, a little less than one year from now. Can much change in Iraq between now and then? At this point it doesn't seem like it. '08 will be the 5-year mark which would be a significant anniversary for the event to take place. Should I wait until March 2009... 6 years later just doesn't have the same ring to it.

All I know is I wanna go, I wanna start planning, get sponsorship, start collecting the gear I need, plan for plane tickets, one trip beforehand to scout the river then another trip weeks later ready to paddle. But how much would I be putting my life on the line if I decided to 100% go forward with a plan for March of next year?

I'm so frustrated with this. With Hussein in power, paddling the rivers was a dream with absolutely no hope of happening. There was no entry into Iraq then like how North Korea is now. But with Hussein out of power Iraq is open and the 1,200 mile long Tigris is just sittin' there needing to be paddled followed a year later by the 1,400 mile long Euphrates (which, while it doesn't go through Baghdad, is probably more dangerous in certain areas than the Tigris. Oi vey, ay caramba.)

Just need to keep constantly watching the news, reading the news, assessing as best I can from here whether or not next year is doable or massively completely insane. Probably the latter.

No problema!

Another excellent run. Third time in a row now (I think) that I've clocked just about exactly 74 minutes. Much of that is a nice hike in my trail running shoes but once again I've added 24 seconds. A year ago I never ever would have imagined that I was running for over 14 minutes seemingly easily on my way to 15!

How do I keep getting 74 minutes of trail time?

Running Time -- 14 minutes & 30 seconds (another +24 seconds!)

Porno For Pyros . . . self-titled debut album (1993)

Meija
Black Girlfriend
Porno For Pyros
Packin' .25
Cursed Female
Cursed Male
Bad Shit
Sadness
Blood Rag
Orgasm
Pets

and...

Grateful Dead 4-21-72
Beat Club, Bremen, West Germany

soundcheck
Loser, Black-Throated Wind,
about 10 fun minutes of tuning & soundchecking

Great music from start to finish. Just about can't go wrong with Perry Farrell. Good stuff to run to! And then the GD was kinda neat. Two pretty straight-forward songs followed by a whole bunch of tuning and noodling. That occurs on many shows but not really on this level. Pretty fun stuff to listen to.

zilch

Sat today out. Yesterday when I left for my run I felt a small mostly insignificant straining of my right hamstring. The run itself felt okily dokily and all the hours afterwards were fine, too. When I woke up this mornin' it kinda hurt. Wasn't too bad, really just discomfort on the 0 to 10 Pain Scale... about a 4 to a 5. To risk worse injury would be stoopid. Figured in this situation it's better to be safe than sorry so I rested the leg. No hike. No run.

Feel the Byrne

Running in the evening, returning when there's almost no light left on the western horizon, at a time of the day when it's cooler outside, much cooler than under the early afternoon sun, is so much easier! Even with the added time being nearly a whole half a minute, this was almost a piece of cake!!

Another 74 minutes on the trail . . .

Running Time -- 14 minutes & 6 seconds (+24 seconds!!! that's a lot)

David Byrne . . . Uh-Oh (1991)

Tiny Town
She's Mad
Somebody
Now I'm Your Man
A Million Miles Away
Something Ain' Right
The Cowboy Mambo (Hey Lookit Me Now)
Girls On My Mind
Hanging Upside Down
A Walk In The Dark
Twistin' In The Wind
Monkey Man
+
Dawg's Waltz
I Truly Understand -- Jerry Garcia & David Grisman

Talking Heads = classic. But the number of David Byrne songs I've ever heard must number in the whopping 1-3 range. I had a pretty good idea I'd like the music but didn't know this album would be that good. Yup. Great stuff. A lot sounds fairly Talking Heads-ish which I must say I kinda liked. He didn't have to go to some completely different sound. Others might argue that since it's so Talking Heads-ish, what's so special about it? Well, I like it. Glad I chose this, I look forward to hearing it again! Byrne's got other sounds on other albums so it's gonna be sort of an adventure with him should I ever dload something else of his.

And again, two excellent Garcia-Grisman tunes to close out the trip. El musico twas fantastico!

spooky!

The Crazies (1973)

Around a small, mostly rural area of Pennsylvania, a virus is on the loose. The military moves in to take control of the situation but what will it take to contain the problem? Perhaps even a nuclear weapon dropped from a B-52 Bomber ordered to circle overhead?

Called a horror movie, there's nothing to truly warrant that label. Some of the local residents turn completely homicidally insane, there's a ton of totally fake gunshot wounds, but no zombies as director George A. Romero is known for.

In one way this truly is a horror movie and that's if you imagine this happening for real. What would our government do to contain a virus that could potentially wipe out the entire population of not just a small town but the entire country?! Would they round people up and not tell them what's happening? Probably. Would they lie? Of course they would. Would they sacrifice all the citizens within an entire perimeter? Would the citizens be able to fight back?

It's probably ludicrous to think about but who knows. Could such an accident even take place in America today? Scarily yeah, it probably freakin' could! Hopefully, of course, it never will and the closest that America will come is in this movie... or in the new remake that might very well be in production right now to come out in 2008. And that remake undoubtedly will be a better movie than this was. The budget Romero worked with was immensely miniscule and that's clearly visible throughout. Acting from almost every character, major and minor, is a long way from Oscar-worthy. No Olivier or Brando here, that's for sure.

But it works. It all works. The pace cruises along and if the viewer can look past the unprofessional production, there's enough substance here that pulls everything together and makes it worth watching. This is surely a film I will check out again someday.

wicked tough run 2

Second day in a row with a run during the hot early afternoon sun. I thought after yesterday today would be much easier. Nyet. Time was successfully added on yet again but when I stopped running, I was so spent. Kinda dumb to beat oneself up like I did but then again tis better to suffer through minor agonies like these than be yet another fat, unhealthy American.

Trail time: about 74 minutes . . .

Running Time -- 13 minutes & 42 seconds (+19 this time, not bad)

The Lightning Seeds -- Dizzy Heights (1996)

Wish Away
You Showed Me
Waiting For Today To Happen
You Bet Your Life
Like You Do...
What If
Fingers And Thumbs
Touch And Go
Fishes On The Line
Sugar Coated Iceberg
Ready Or Not
Imaginery Friends
+
Arabia
Friend Of The Devil -- Jerry Garcia & David Grisman

It's been many a year since I've listened to Cloudcuckooland by the Lightning Seeds. Thought I'd give them a listen, this time to something I've never heard. Good stuff. And then a great (of course) Jerry & David finish!

wicked tough run

While temporarily in South Carolina, I'm finding the heat nearly unbearable. Getting back to the most comforting cold weather of central Alaska cannot happen too soon! For now I will put up with it. Sometimes I'll even suffer a little. Today's run was under the mid-afternoon sun with a temperature around 80° Fahrenheit. I've done this before and even with a Heat Index over 100°. Those were shorter runs and I rested for five to ten minutes immediately afterwards with ice-cold water or Gatorade to sip on and hold to my wrists and neck to try to cool myself down a bit. Even though it wasn't that hot today, it still wasn't such an easy run. As soon as my time was reached I had to stop and do the brief bending over with hands on knees, so grateful the run was done. Still I achieved the time I was going for.

74 minutes out on the trail . . .

Running Time -- 13 minutes & 23 seconds (+27 seconds!!)

Billy Ray Cyrus -- Some Gave All (1992)

Wher'm I Gonna Live?
Someday, Somewhere, Somehow
Never Thought I'd Fall In Love With You
Could've Been Me
Ain't No Good Goodbye
Achy Breaky Heart
These Boots Are Made For Walkin'
I'm So Miserable
Some Gave All

Monty Python -- Matching Tie & Hankerchief (1973)

Salvation Fuzz, Elephantoplasty,
Novel Writing, Word Assocation, Bruces,
The Adventures Of Ralph, Cheese Shop,
Wasp Club/Tiger Talk, A Great Actor,
Side 2, Side 3

Hmm, Billy Ray Cyrus? I really chose this? Achy Breaky Heart?!? It actually wasn't so bad. Boy bands will make me wanna hang myself. Death metal might make me wanna go on a shooting spree in a mall and then cut my head off with a plastic knife. But this wasn't too bad. (But isn't saying that still saying it was bad just not that bad?) Actually it was okay. I'll probably even listen to ol' Billy Ray again someday... but not anytime soon. Sorry, Hannah Montana, I just don't dig your dad too much. (It mighta been that incredibly idiotic mullet he once had. Sometimes an image sticks and it just ruins all future thoughts. I suppose I'll see if other tunes on his later albums are a little less mullety.)

After my run and Billy Ray was over, the Monty Python album made for a nice return hike. It does takes more concentration to absorb it all. Because of that, even on such a plain trail, I'm not sure listening to comedy on the mp3 player is a grand idea. Music can take much less focusing while the eyes might wanna wander to the surroundings or to other thoughts. But doing that at least partially during the Python sketches makes it kinda easy to get a little separated from what's being performed. I'll give it another try sometime on a plain trail that I'm just out for an hour or two on but comedy I certainly won't bring on my Appalachian Trail hike (assuming that even gets to happen sometime down the line.)

rest

so tired today.

opted for 24 hours of rest so it's not truly considered a wasted day like those days when i wanted to get out but stupidly failed to.

closin' in on one three

Hoo bingo, another run, and yet another ¼ minute added. Not a lot but it's something.

73 minutes of trail time . . .

Running Time -- 12 minutes & 56 seconds (14 seconds added)

Ice-T -- Power (1988)

Intro,
Power, Soul On Ice, I'm Your Pusher,
Grand Larceny, The Syndicate,
Girls L.G.B.N.A.F., Personal,
High Rollers, Drama, Radio Suckers,
Outro
+
Shakedown Street
Reuben and Cherise
We Bid Your Goodnight -- David Cullen

Well, that was interesting. Rap. (The last time I purposefully listened to a rap album was probably DJ Jazzy Jeff & The Fresh Prince circa 1987? Was it seriously that long ago when Will Smith first put out an album?! Wow!) Surprisingly this was good to run to. It kept my mind occupied on listening to what's in the lyrics. Ice-T's songs are heavily against the gang-banger lifestyle that plagues so many inner-city areas such as Compton where he came from. The words are so coarse and nothing a Christian should really be listening to but then again Ice ain't like the devil or nuttin'. Listening to stuff like this ain't gonna make me go buy a key of coke or pop a cap in someone.

short Dead hike

Had a nice but short afternoon hike.
Only about 1 hour and 28 minutes.

Music before I left:

Grateful Dead ~ 2-12-86
Henry J. Kaiser Convention Center
Oakland, California

1st Set
Hell In a Bucket-> Sugaree, Tons of Steel,
Tennessee Jed, Cassidy-> Don't Ease Me In

Music on the trail:

2nd Set
Scarlet Begonias-> Fire on the Mountain,
Estimated Prophet-> Space-> Drums->
Drums with members of the Neville Brothers-> Jam,
Willy and the Hand Jive, The Wheel,
In The Midnight Hour-> Johnny B. Goode
Encore: U.S. Blues

Review I wrote:

Ash Wednesday. What could the boys possibly have in the gas tank the night after a Fat Tuesday Mardi Gras blowout? Would it even be possible to put on a show that'll stand the test of time?

Out of the starting gate they came. The opening Bucket was tight and rockin' followed by a sweetly played, crowd mellowing Sugaree. Jerry clearly stood out on guitar and really sailed effortlessly along. The two songs are a fairly standard opening combo but how can ya complain when they get the show rollin' in fine fashion?

Unfortunately what rolls must eventually stop, or at least slow down and that's what happened next. Tons Of Steel wasn't exactly new at the time but to most in the hall it was new 'cause it hadn't yet appeared on a studio album and how many in attendance were in attendance for the previous only a handful of times it had been played in the past year plus? Probably not many but the song got some kind applause followed by Bobby steppin' up to the mic and sayin' to us, "Even the best trains occasionally leave the tracks." Perhaps that was in reference to the song still bein' a little . . . not quite so polished, maybe a little bit of a trainwreck in its earliest performances?

Hopefully Tennessee Jed will get this show back on track? Not completely. Jerry messed up a little bit but the song flowed along alright. It didn't do much for me, though, not tonight. Maybe just a lull in the first set? Seems Billy mighta been a little off kilter, too, at least according to Bobby who announced, "Billy's losing points on the Most Valuable Player contest tonight." Did he know the band wasn't all there? Come on, Billy, pull it tighter and maybe Jerry'll step up a bit more, too? Purely speculation, of course.

There was no wondering where Phil was, he helped lead the charge on Cassidy. Now we're talkin'! That was just a lull 'cause we are definitely rollin' again! YES!! Huge smile . . . they're playin' this one out so well. Everyone's 100% on the same page. The HJK is goin' nuts!! What a sweet freakin' jam!!!!! YESSSS!!!!!! Only the fifth song of the show but this night could end right now and all would be right in the world. Cassidy achieved nothing less than Pure Bliss . . . but wait, what the?! WHAT THE?! WHY?!? What happened? They brought this sucker down way too fast, like it fell off a freakin' cliff, like it was shot down by insurgents, like someone looked at their watch and said, "oh crap, we've gotta end this set in 4 minutes or the whole universe will collapse in on itself." Bobby was clearly caught off guard when Wham! it was time for -- "flight of the seabirds, scattered like lost words," quiet ending, all done, Don't Ease Me In -> "We'll be back in a little bit." 39 minutes?!?!? Check the time again. Yup. A 39 minute 1st Set. [confused sigh.]

Hmmm. That was interesting. I was left feeling like the prince of confusion and if more than half the crowd didn't feel the same way then maybe this whole life I'm living is just a dream. 39 minutes?! Well . . . alright, at least that sweet, sweet (most of) Cassidy was completely worth it. I woulda driven a thousand miles for that alone. Let's just hope the 2nd Set smokes...

Scarlet -> Fire kicked things off sort of strangely. Lyrically the two-some fell short of splendid but that was made up for musically, particularly in Fire. I tell ya, when Jerry blows the words, thank goodness he can be all there with his fingers on guitar strings! While the even flow of the two songs was noticeably disturbed, I still couldn't keep from dancin' all the way through. Nice!! Despite the lyrical flaws, the boys held it all together quite superbly!

Bobby soon took the reigns and a solid Estimated followed. Definitely a highlight of the 2nd Set. Through much of the song he and Jerry worked perfectly in tandem while other times Rockstar Bobby had to go for the crowd pleasing, spotlight stealing screamage. Not too much, though, nothing crazily over the top tonight. Then contrary to Deadlists and Deadbase, Estimated never really transitioned into Drums. It petered out and Brent tried a few bars of Never Trust A Women but that never came close to taking off. Instead Jerry just wandered and led the rest into a few minutes of a Spacey Jam, absolutely completely non-Estimated by that point. This part of the setlist should truly read: Estimated-> Space-> Drums!

After Drums, what comes next interestingly isn't Space. After Mickey & Billy play, the transition is into More Drums a.k.a. Drums Part II with members of the Neville Brothers. It really picks up a ton of steam here. Compared to just Mickey & Billy, this is louder, faster, it's got a bunch of rhythm and made me wanna dance around like a mad banshee with my head cut off!

In a few minutes some other instruments kick in. A familiar theme is touched on in there but my mind hasn't been able to pick out exactly what that was. In any case, what we've really got here is: Estimated-> Space-> Drums-> Drums Part II (with the Nevilles)-> Jam. A second after that Jam dwindles to an end, everyone launches at once into . . . into what? It almost sounds like Hey Pockey Way . . . but, no, it's one of the Neville Brothers taking the lead vocals on Willie And The Hand Jive! And who's that on bass? Not Phil, that's some completely different funky bass, another of the Nevilles. Wow, this is fun and sweet! They must've run through it at least once during a soundcheck to be able to be puttin' it all together so well.

A very short but well done Wheel was next. Similar to Estimated earlier, it petered out at the end. A nice segue into Midnight Hour completely did not happen. Were they even sure what they were gonna play next? Still a nice version albeit short and not at all jammed out. Jerry accompanied beautifully while Bobby and Brent carried the song, Bobby even asking for a little audience participation.

What came next, for some reason, had me floored. Jerry completely and so perfectly ripped into Johnny B. Goode. It was like after coasting on cruise control he just came truly alive for the first time all night. I'm not usually a huge fan of JBG but this was really cool. The Bob & Jerry Show was in full swing and here it was Jerry who was the one offering up some screamage, almost letting people know he was present and accounted for!

Post-Drums had no jams to speak of but it all seemed to work! The U.S. Blues encore, even with, again, some messed up lyrics, helped to close out the night on a great high.

This is a show that was truly uneven but I gotta tell ya, there were only five GD shows in the first 2½ months of 1986 and I woulda driven hundreds of miles back and forth just to see this one alone. No, it wasn't epic. No, it wasn't perfect. It was even sloppy. I've listened to this a couple times in a row now and each time I was left feelin' pretty content at the end. Even when musical perfection was not achieved, when ya add together all the good parts it proves that sometimes a show can still be quite satisfying!

sweet runnin', cher

Back in running shoes! It's only been like, what, a week? Oi. When the run was done, I was soooo thankful; it wasn't easy but it felt great that I'd made, once again, over 12½ minutes!

around 95 minutes on the trail . . .

Running Time -- 12 minutes & 42 seconds (up 12 from last run)

some music for Mardi Gras & The Big Easy

Moon Over Bourbon Street -- Sting

Basin Street Blues -- Preservation Hall Jazz Band

Bourbon Street Parade -- Al Hirt

Canal Street Blues -- Louis Armstrong

Christmas In New Orleans -- Louis Armstrong

New Orleans Stomp -- Louis Armstrong

Blues For New Orleans -- Duke Ellington

Do You Know What It Means To Miss New Orleans? -- Ellis Marsalis

New Orleans Bump -- Wynton Marsalis

Sweet Home New Orleans -- Dr. John

Mardi Gras In New Orleans -- Harry Connick, Jr.

Go To The Mardi Gras -- Art & Aaron Neville

Mardi Gras Boogie -- Clifton Chenier & His Red Hot Louisiana Band

Walkin' To New Orleans -- Buckwheat Zydeco

Talkin' Bout New Orleans -- The Meters

City Of New Orleans -- Arlo Guthrie

New Orleans Instrumental No. 1 -- R.E.M.

Great music. Just about feels like I'm back in my hotel room in the Quarter after a nice run through New Orleans. Okay, it doesn't really feel like that at all but it was a nice selection of music celebrating New Orleans & Mardi Gras. Of course Fat Tuesday was like 2 weeks ago but better late than never!

been far too long

Twas over 4 whole freakin' days since I last got on the trail. FOUR DAYS!?! But finally this afternoon that streak came to an end. Probably coulda gotten out yesterday evening, my calf felt okay then, but I wanted to give it one more nights rest just in case. But I got out this late afternoon!

Short hike -- only 1 hour 20 minutes

3 selections from...
Marlo Thomas & Friends: Thanks & Giving All Year Long

Benefit album for the St. Jude Children's Research Hospital . . .

The Mouse, The Bird and The Sausage -- David Hyde Pierce
The Thing About Generosity -- Marlo Thomas
Josie's First Allowance Day -- Rosie Perez

and . . .

The Neville Brothers ~ 2-12-86

(opened for the Grateful Dead)

Henry J. Kaiser Convention Center

Oakland, California

Fire On The Bayou, Africa, Run Joe, People Say,

Caravan, Sitting In Limbo, Fear Hate Envy Jealousy,

Go To The Mardi Gras-> New Suit,

Big Chief-> Smoke My Peace Pipe,

Hey Pocky Way

Josie's First Allowance Day by Rosie Perez a completely unexpected treasure, twas especially good and probably all on its own worth the price of the album. Then again, all proceeds went to the hospital so that in itself is a billion percent worth it!

Then onto my feature presentation. Pretty darn good opening show from the Neville Brothers! Had I been there way back when I woulda danced my butt off even before the Dead came on stage! Definitely worth the download!!

the Neville Brothers 2/12/86 is @ Archive.org
for listening or downloading

to heal thy calf

Day 3 of healing my strained right calf.

Oh well.

more swindling

Old Overland Trail (1953)

Rex Allen, Slim Pickens and Leonard Nimoy star in this what could almost be categorized as Really Bad B-western. There was apparently next to no money given to this project. Why make it look real? Film, for the most part, on a sound stage indoors and use generic stock footage and piece it all together to make a fun and enjoyable hour long movie. Uhh, didn't work. The story has Allen as a government investigator getting involved with a government contractor who's using indians and settlers essentially as slave labor to build a railroad. It's a decent enough plot but the filmmaking just fails.

With so many B-westerns,

ya win some, ya lose some . . .

hurtin'

Still hurtin'. Day 2 sidelined with a strained right calf. My best guess is to go for a run or a hike would absolutely not be a good thing. If there's healing to be done, a hike or a run would just prolong that healing, perhaps even make the problem a little worse.

So I keep the heating pad on and try to stay off my feet.

Having a legitimate reason not to be on the trail is actually, in a way, better than not exercising due to just being a lazy bum.

Here She Is

Nancy Drew -- Detective (1938)

This is definitely not Nancy Drew text messaging while wearing a mini-skirt. No, that's the new upcoming Nancy Drew movie. When that opens in theaters, Nancy, in a manner of speaking, will be 69 years old. At least that's how many years it's been since she was first on the silver screen way back before World War II. In 1938 everything was simpler, prim & proper, but still kids could have fun and Bonita Granville as Nancy Drew played the part well.

Having never once read a single sentence of a Nancy Drew book, there's no point in trying to compare the film on the screen to the words in the book. One shouldn't ever do that anyway, for each is its very own entity; there is no law of cinematography that says a movie must be similar to a book. In any case, in Nancy Drew -- Detective, the teen sleuth is busy with her friend Ned solving a case involving a missing benefactor. There isn't a whole lot of substance to the movie which is the case with practically all B-movie serials of the time. That's not to say it's bad but when a film is so short (only about 65 minutes) it should move along faster. This kind of drags a little. Most kids now would find this wicked boring so I'm hoping that kids in 1938 were able to appreciate the time they spent in front of their TV while this played in the old DVD machine, oh wait, ummm, while this was shown on the screen down at the local movie house . . . which probably cost 15¢ for a ticket and 5¢ for popcorn!

muy mal a.k.a. ouch-o

Horrible day!

Seems yesterday mornin' i strained my right calf to the point where it really hurts to walk. I don't get it. Why? All I did was go for a nice two hour hike. Felt fine. Felt great, in fact. Nothing noticeable all day yesterday afterwards. Gettin' up outta bed this mornin', though -- ouch. Not good. No way I can go for a run today. Just no freakin' way. Talk about things that bite -- Dead shows with all kinds of splices and cuts on the master reels, taxes especially raised taxes, crocodiles, grizzly bears, Jaws, a strained right calf muscle.

So I've got it on top of a heating pad. This won't keep me layed up too long but an injury keeping me sidelined even one day is an injury I do not want . . . but I've got so what can I do?

Wait and perhaps a little prayer for some divine healing.

foggy!

When I saw the intense fog this mornin', I knew I couldn't let it go unhiked. There's somethin' so eerily peaceful about a hike in the fog.

Time on the trail: 2 hours 11 minutes

Ministry -- Twitch (1986)

Where You At Now?/Crash And Burn/Twitch
Over The Shoulder
Just Like You
We Believe
All Day Remix
The Angel
My Possession
Over The Shoulder (12" version)
Isle Of Man

Ministry -- The Land of Rape and Honey (1988)

The Missing
You Know What You Are
The Land of Rape and Honey
Deity
Golden Dawn
Destruction
Hizbollah
I Prefer
Flashback
Abortive
Stigmata
+
Jackaroo
Off To Sea Once More -- Jerry Garcia & David Grisman

Ministry sounds like it might make a great name for a Christian music group. This music isn't satanic or anything ridiculous like that . . . but it's certainly on the opposite end of the spectrum from Christian! What intense music for a dreary morning foggy hike. Awesome stuff! And then to clearly demonstrate my range in musical tastes, a nice Garcia-Grisman double encore!!

Saving the Fish Hatchery

Susanna Pass (1949)

starring: Roy Rogers, Trigger, Dale Evans & the Riders Of The Purple Sage

Yet another later year B-western gem from screen legend Roy Rogers! Owing great thanks to Republic Pictures, we are treated to a presentation in full TruColor. As far as these types of movies go, this is top notch quality screenwriting, directing, and acting. In between the action and mystery solving, there are the standard western songs and sidekick laughs for good measure, all helping this 65 minutes along. Of course the ultimate outcome has the hero saving the day again.

Interestingly, there's almost a pro-environment feeling about this movie, at least in afterthought. There certainly was in Roy's little speech to the audience at the end of the film. An entire reservoir, used as a fish hatchery, could have been completely decimated in the name of oil. Isn't oil and making money more important than anything else?!? Many would like you to think so . . . but it's not. Roy knew that the answer wasn't DRILL FOR MORE OIL!!! . . . somehow he knew the answer was alternative fuels plus he knew the importance of a fish hatchery, to provide a source of recreation away from the bustle of busier areas, to provide youth a reason to get out in the country, away from the stoplights, Sprawl-marts and $tarbucks. I'm sure a lot of "conservative" Republicans today could very easily look at Roy Rogers as a swell role model. Why, then, aren't most of them conservation-minded when it comes to the environment?

Conservative . . . conserve . . . protect . . . not destroy.
That always boggles my mind.

zilch day

Wasted day. No run. No Hike.

Zilch.

i absolutely HATE going two days in a row without getting outside for movement, for a little exercise, to get the heart rate going. Two days!? 0 minutes. Why can so many able-bodied people go a week with 0 minutes? Many can go a month!? Wow.

Just hope i can get out tomorrow. "can" get out? i WILL get out!!

Nothin' says Appalachia like the Sierra Nevada

The Incredible Journey Of Doctor Meg Laurel

(Made-for-TV 1979)

starring: Lindsay Wagner, Jane Wyman

Once upon a time there was a little girl who had a bad experience with the local, uh, witch doctor. Never did she want others to suffer as she had so she went off to a real medical school in Boston, Masschusetts. Big city traditions in the 1930's dictated that Doctor Meg Laurel couldn't make a man look bad, even if she's right and he's a big doofus. But after Dr. Laurel publicly embarrasses a very important judge, she decides to go and lay low for awhile. She sets off on a journey to her hometown in the Appalachian Mountains in the state of, well, they never told us. Why they didn't tell us, I dunno.

In any case, Dr. Meg arrives with medical supplies in tow, hoping to bring some real medicine to these backwoods hillbillies. That was not such an easy task. The mountain people don't care much for Outsiders and their ways. It's quite a challenge for Doc Laurel. Slowly but surely she's able to reclaim these people as her very own.

Going into this TV-movie, I had high hopes that The Incredible Journey of Doctor Meg Laurel would be a gem. All I took away from it was a bit of a feeling of what that kind of life was like back in the first part of the 20th century. The mountain people lived, in a bunch of ways, very weird lives compared to how we live in 21st century suburbia. They even lived quite differently than people only a few hundred miles away in big cities like Washington, D.C., Baltimore, Philly and NYC. Unfortunately most of the movie just seemed to fall flat. I haven't done any research but I'm guessin' this is truly based on a real-life woman who I'm sure lived quite a remarkable life! Sadly, the story on the screen was kind of unimpressive and a little bland.

On top of it all, the producers completely misrepresented the geography of the Appalachian Mountains (on the Eastern side of America) by filming in the Sierra Nevada Mountains (in the West.) For shame.

zilch day

Oi. Another zero day. No run. No hike.

No excuse.

saving the day . . . again

Riders Of The Rio Grande (1943)

So many B-westerns were made in the 1930's and 40's and many of those leave a lot to be desired. Thankfully there was one company in particular, Republic Pictures, who could be counted on to give us something of decent quality.

Riders Of The Rio Grande features The Three Mesquiteers once again to the rescue. When they ride into town they're quickly mistaken for a gang of outlaws. They roll with it and in the end the real bad guys are all found out.

How many B-westerns were made that are so similar to this? A thousand? More? They only took mere days to film in many cases. It seems like the Encore Westerns channel has a never-ending stream of titles I've never seen . . . and I've seen quite a few! But I just can't get enough. A week without watching one of these is a weak week of movies no matter what else I might see!

escalation...

If I add on only five or ten or twelve seconds, that I planned due to music reasons. An added fifteen seconds is the minimum I usually shoot for; mucho acceptable. An added 20-25 seconds is better. Adding a whole half a minute is, for me, just STUPENDOUS!!! (gotta add a LOTTA emphasis on STUPENDOUS, maybe like a circus ring announcer type of dude. Not just stupendous. Not even STUPENDOUS! More like -- STUUUPENDOUSSS!!!!

72 minutes on the trail . . .

Running Time -- 12 minutes & 30 seconds (+30!!!)

mucho classico:

Allman Brothers Band

self-title debut album (1969)

Don't Want You No More
Trouble No More
Every Hungry Woman
Dreams
Black Hearted Woman
It's Not My Cross To Bear
Whipping Post

Idlewild South (1970)

Revival
Don't Keep Me Wonderin'
Hoochie Coochie Man
Please Call Home
Leave My Blues At Home
In Memory Of Elizabeth Reed
Midnight Rider

There isn't much to say about those two albums. They're both just full of incredibly great songs. Once again, listening to such a great hour or so of tunes like this completely makes up for the gobs of mediocre music that I give a spin on occasion.

ABB self-titled debut, grab it from -> Freemusic07
-and-
Idlewild South also from -> Freemusic07

a waste

Dead Men Walk (1943)

I'm quite surprised this film is on DVD. The quality is some of the worst ever shown on Turner Classic Movies. Dead Men Walk truly doesn't deserve to exist. It should never have been made. I should not have watched it.

The story involves a doctor who must stop his twin brother who has returned from the dead as a vampire out to kill, obviously. To continue typing would be a waste of the few minutes more I would spend on this film so I am done . . . just about. It does no one on Earth any good to see this 65 minutes of horrendous moviemaking. One star is probably generous.

zilch day

another zilch day.

no hike. no run.

no excuse.

terror underground

The Cave (2005)

starring: Cole Hauser, Eddie Cibrian, Piper Perabo, Morris Chestnut

Scientists call in a group of ultra-expert cave divers to help map a cavern system in the mountains of Romania. A piece of cake and an adventure is what it should have been. No one counted on it being more like hell than anything else.

I had no idea what to expect but what it turned out to be was a quick-paced, semi-interesting horror/suspense flick taking place almost exclusively underground. Like so many movies made in this same layout, we never get to really know who these characters are. The suspense is supposed to make up for that and here in The Cave it does. The action flows along nicely, killing off one person after another but without a whole lot of gore. A lot of the acting is just plain and even bordering on lame. I wasn't bored but neither was I left thinking this is a very good movie. All together everything levels out into a mediocre viewing experience.

Furthest Ever!

I've now officially run further than ever before! Last summer I did around a dozen or so runs of about 10-11 minutes but I'm pretty sure I never reached 12. Now I have!

yet again just about 70 minutes on the trail . . .

running time -- 12 minutes, 0 seconds (+25 from last time)

a lil honkytonk, a lil Dead:

Danni Leigh -- 29 Nights (1998)

Chain Me
I Feel A Heartache Coming On
Weren't You The One
29 Nights
Teardrops, Teardrop
If The Jukebox Took Teardrops
Mixed Up Mess Of A Heart
Touch Me
Beatin' My Head Against The Wall
Ol' Lonesome
How Does It Feel To You

Grateful Dead
5-5-67 Fillmore Auditorium, San Francisco

He Was A Friend Of Mine
The Golden Road (To Unlimited Devotion)->
New Potato Caboose
Alligator

Twas a few years back when I heard a song belonging to Danni Leigh but haven't heard anything since. She's one of those country singers who's come along and made good music but not gotten much mainstream airplay. What does that mean? I dunno. But for some reason it makes me respect her music and music like even more than the run-of-the-mill, Nashville-made, radio-friendly stuff that makes CMT's Top 20 every week. Anyway, really like Danni Leigh, will run with her again eventually!

And here's my 2¢ worth on . . .

Friday, May 5, 1967

Fillmore Auditorium, San Francisco

Pretty good little (portion of a?) show! Apparently it's not known what the whole setlist consisted of. Luckily four songs, almost 40 years later, exist for us to groove on and enjoy today.

He Was A Friend Of Mine opens this recording on a nice, mellow note. If this was somehow the first song in the show and someone was seeing the Dead for their first time, wow, they'd have no clue what they were in for! Friend Of Mine cuts off near the end and cuts into the band in between numbers, bantering probably under the influence of, well . . . items of interest to those seeking hallucinogenic enlightenment. That fun couple of minutes goes into a nearly lightning fast but sweet Golden Road.

The first notes of New Potato kick in as Golden Road comes to a close and we soon hear Bobby yell out, "This number's for Laughlin."

Now, after a little internet research, I found nothing to tell me definitively who this Laughlin person is. Closest I can figure the name refers possibly to a 60's Bay Area guy named Chandler A. Laughlin a.k.a. Travus T. Hipp.

Back in that era Laughlin helped open the Cabale Creamery on San Pablo Ave. in Berkeley. In early '66 the Dead had a show scheduled there but it was cancelled. Later the Cabale became the Questing Beast where the Dead may or may not have rehearsed. Once upon a time a tape was in circulation labeled "Questing Beast" but it's since been determined that those sessions are from another date and location. Interestingly, The Beast closed down on May 9, right about the time the May 5th Fillmore show was thought (but not definitively known) to have taken place . . . uh, except The Beast is said to have closed in '66 (according to http://www.chickenonaunicycle.com) and this show is from '67. Hmmm.

Okay, so perhaps Bobby's shout out to Laughlin is for the following (which appears on http://www.fatchance.org) -- "Chased across the Mexican border twice by the FBI for subversive associations and drugs, and back once by the Federales of that noble nation for somewhat the same reasons, Hipp finally fell afoul the law and was doing a short term of county time when he was bailed out by the legendary Tom Donahue to go to work for KMPX, America's premier FM rock station in 1967."

Until I ask around some more and maybe find out from someone who knows, the true meaning of Laughlin will remain a mystery to me.

In any case, the Golden Road segue into New Potato Caboose is almost as quiet and mellow as He Was a Friend of Mine, really not at all indicitive of what's to come. On a down side, the vocals in the mix are almost lost behind the music, almost a little muddy. Thankfully, it's not the vocals that I'm listening for! Once the lyrics are done with, at about the three minute mark, the song quickly picks up a ton of steam and blasts so well into a cataclysmic atomic shebang. While the vocals aren't all there, the smile on my face along with the feeling I had made me fully aware the music is all there!!!

Alligator rolls forward in a very similar fashion. Once the seemingly half-hidden vocals are out of the way after the first few minutes of the song, the music picks up some intense primitive Dead strength cranking into the final screams of "Allligatorrrrrrrrrrr . . . Alligatorrrrrrr," it's clear what a contrast the last two songs are in comparison to the first.

Great audio quality for the era and seeing as how there's so little '67 Dead to listen to, this is 31 minutes to be nothing less than treasured.

a what?

Yankee Fakir (1947)

After coming into town, a traveling snake-oil salesman, Yankee Davis, (rather quickly) gets involved with the owner of the boarding house he checks into. (This guy was really forward with a woman he only just met!) When the woman's Border Patrol agent father is killed, Yankee sets the wheels rolling to find out who the killer is.

After a whole lot of nothingness, Mr. Davis wraps up the mystery. Getting back to hawking goods on his snake-oil wagon, he's called "Yankee Fakir." Huh?

I know fakir in Turkish means poor or needy.

According to the American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, fakir means:

1) A Muslim religious mendicant.

2) A Hindu ascetic or religious mendicant, especially one who performs feats of magic or endurance.

Well, Mr. Yankee Davis was seemingly neither Muslim or Hindu. There was nothing religious about him. He wasn't a beggar, either.

So I'm not sure why they used the word "fakir" in the screenplay and in the title. This is not a word used everyday in the American language.

Whatever. One more thing about this film -- it was not a western. Just 'cause it takes place in southern Arizona wayback before automobiles, that doesn't mean it's a western. One again -- whatever. Not a great B-"Western" by any means. Fairly boring, sadly. Definitely below average.

13 more

Just another run . . .

almost 70 minutes on the trail

running time -- 11 minutes, 35 seconds (+13 seconds)

is it country?:

Kim Richey -- Rise (2002)

A Place Called Home
Cowards In A Brave New World
Me And You
Hard To Say Goodbye
Good Day Here
No Judges
This Love
Without You
The Circus Song (Can't Let Go)
Reel Me In
Fading
Girl In A Car
Electric Green
+
I Fell Asleeep At The Grateful Dead Show -- Jones Crusher
Jerry's Gone -- Chad Hollister
Old Hippie Christmas -- The Bellamy Brothers

It's interesting and a little weird to hear someone who doesn't really fit into a particular category of music. Kim Richey's album Rise isn't country, it isn't "alternative," it isn't rock . . . it's an amalgamation of sounds, at times kind of Sheryl Crow-ish, other times Shawn Colvin-ish. In any case, it was pretty good-ish. Most of it isn't that rockin' which makes it fairly ideal for a nice, mellow running pace or late-night driving tunes. I'll definitely revisit her in the future and try some of her other albums.

more spies stealing secrets

The Scarlet Clue (1945)

starring: Sidney Toler (for like the two dozenth time as this character)

World Famous Detective Charlie Chan gets involved in a case dealing with spies stealing radar technology. Number three son and number two assistant help piece together a clue or two and in the end, surprise, Charlie solves the case.

I was pretty sure when watching this that I've indeed seen it before. Of the dozens of Charlie Chan movies I decided to pick one of the few that I've seen in the past. Oh well. Unfortunately there's nothing too special about this but then again I'm not sure there's anything special about any Charlie Chan movie. They all, at least from what I know, seem to be pretty standard fare. Fortunately they're not too bad so even without a whole lotta story to work with, this was an okay hour or so. But the title has absolutely nothing at all to do with the content of the film. Hmmm.

What I'm wondering now, though, isn't it extremely politically incorrect to have a guy from Missouri playing a man from China?

adding on...

Just another run. I'm not really sure that it was just another run 'cause I'm not backing off. To be able to continuously run 26.2 miles is a semi-goal of mine so each time out that I go a little longer is important. Should I never achieve the accomplishment of running a marathon that'll be no big whoop to me, no disappointment whatsoever. Running is still healthy, even if it's just ten minutes a day. In any case, I'm pushing onward...

70 minutes on the trail

running time -- 11 minutes, 22 seconds (up 21 seconds)

post-Veruca Salt:

Nina Gordon -- Tonight And The Rest Of My Life (2000)

Badway
New Year's Eve
Black And Blonde
Tonight And The Rest Of My Life
Now I Can Die
Number One Camera
Horses In The City
The End Of The World
Hold On To Me
Too Slow To Ride
Fade To Black
Got Me Down
Hate Your Way
2003
+
Mason's Children
High Time -- Henry Kaiser, Bob Bralove, Tom Constanten

Good stuff. What a voice! I remember well the great mid-90's song Seether by Veruca Salt. Since then I haven't heard any more by them and never even knew about Nina Gordon until very recently. She hasn't quickly risen to the ranks of my favorite non-Dead music but I'll definitely dload her again.