Sunday, June 8, 2008

The Cure for good health could involve The Cure

After work tonight I was kinda stoked, yeah, stoked, to go out and have a couple pints, no more than that as I'd probably still have to drive the rest of the way home. I'd hit the local watering hole that many of the EMTs in town like stop in after their shift is done at 9. Then I remembered it's Sunday. Fairbanks is strange on Sunday nights -- like partially a ghost town. This is less true as the summer tourist season really starts going in a week or so but right now and on so so many Sunday nights -- snooze-o-rama. Whatever. Mmmm, but I was so craving a pint o' Guinness. I just didn't feel like sitting in a bar with 4 other people. This sure ain't Manhattan! Hell, it ain't even Manhattan, Kansas!

On the plus side, when I sat back down here and checked my email, there was some great stuff (understatement!) waiting for me, a few items I was so happy to see (understatement!) Click, read, whoa. Just whoa (understatement!) Going back to read a second time -- I was completely unable to sit through it... again. I had to stop and get up, short walk down the hall and back, twice now, mid-sentence.

If anyone actually read that paragraph, it means nothing to you unless you're the person who wrote me in which case -- SMILEY WAVE

Speechlessness can be such an interesting thing sometimes, can't it? Especially when it's related to matters that are only good. Man, oh my, sure helps make life interesting. Turns of events that are completely unexpected -- I wouldn't want to live without them!

Alright, time to save this and take my post-pints of Guinness run... except seein' as how I didn't actually indulge this evening, I'm just gonna have myself a nice run... probably exponentially nice on this night!

The North Face trail running shoe -- good for use in the Appalachian Mountains ... but seriously, they are rather small compared to the Rocky Mountains ... Sierra Nevada are sweet, too.  Would definitely use 'em in the Alps, that's for sure.  One thing's for sure -- Jerry Garcia or Bob Weir or Phil Lesh or Blaise Compaoré probably never went running in Paraguay, Liberia, Ivory Coast, Côte d'Ivoire, Burkina Faso, Ouagadougou, Pyongyang, 평양 직할시 조선민주주의인민공화국 平壤直轄市 朝鮮民主主義人民共和國, Türkmenistan, Kyrgyzstan, Кыргызстан, Киргизия, Uzbekistan, O'zbekiston, Ўзбекистон Республикаси, Tajikistan, Тоҷикистон.  Probably the same with Brent Mydland.  At least that's my gut feeling.  I could be wrong.  I mean, there were a lot of drugs at Grateful Dead shows and the good Lord above, He knows I did my share!65° at 9:45 pm, partially blue sky amongst the clouds
but mellow & way, way warm!
Sunday Nite After Work Run: 21 minutes 29 sec+7 sec
XXXXXXXXXX ·seconds in June: 06· XXXXXXXXXX
Run Time June:1 hour4 minutes
May:4 hours46 minutes
April:3 hours55 minutes

3rd run in 8 days = still bad.

Okay, so it's not bad but it's not good enough.

The warmth in the air is something I'm having to adjust to. It's not bad but it's wearing me down a LOT more than 40 or 50 degrees. Still I was able to keep on truckin' to my End Cue, made it huffing and puffing a little bit but my determination was there so that's a good thing. Quit is ALWAYS a thought... but does it happen a lot or a little? A little = a very good thing and tonight was only a little. Body feels fine afterwards and I'll make sure tomorrow to see how I am the day after. Seems that's always when problems pop up. We shall see. I don't anticipate any... just sayin'.

Goal for June -- 5 hours. I've most definitely got to pick up the frequency of outings if I'm going to accomplish that. And if I don't succeed in that goal? The world will have to come to an end.

For tonight again I added 7 seconds. That's the way the music playlist shook out and that's about what I wanted. I'm gonna seriously start to think about adding more time from now on. Maybe 8-12 every time... no less than that. I'd really like to start moving a little quicker from one minute level on up to another. Of course I could probably do that in just a run or two... but I'm still gonna take it a little bit easy... just not so seemingly wimpy as I had been.

PHONOGRAPH Running Tunes from
my Album Of The Night...
The Cure - The Cure (self-titled) (2004) (CD cover)The Cure

(self-titled)

2004

320 kbps
The Cure: self-titled 2004 (CD)The Cure: self-titled 2004 ... Part One

The Cure: self-titled ... Part 2
Lost
Labyrinth
Before Three
The End Of The World
Anniversary
Us Or Them
alt.end
(I Don't Know What's Going) On
Taking Off
Never
The Promise

Twas many a moon ago when The Cure was absolutely one of my favorite bands. Saw 'em three times, the last being at the Delta Center in Salt Lake City, summer of 1996. In the second half of '95 I had left SLC and moved to Missoula, Montana but when I heard The Cure was coming around (not to Montana) I decided to set up some plans to visit Utah again and see the show with my best friend Chris (plus some others.) "Wick" and I had seen The Cure together on two previous tours, back in NJ at Giants Stadium in summer 1989 (first North American show on the Prayer Tour) and at Nassau Coliseum in summer 1992 (final North American show on the Wish Tour... first and final shows, interesting how that worked out.)

GREAT concerts, all three of 'em! '89 was probably the best -- Love & Rockets and The Pixies opened. So sweet! '92 was supposed to be at a park in Queens, New York City but was changed to Nassau out on the island. We had been down at the shore essentially all summer but to drive back up for that show, that was on the schedule with tickets bought as soon as they went on sale. No Flushing Meadows (the park in Queens,) had to drive out onto the damn island (somewhat of a hassle but no biggie) but still a great show! And in 95, I didn't know the new [Wild Mood Swings] album as well as I did their past albums but still not bad, a powerful kick-ass fun fucking show!

My interest since then has waned, to say the least. This past 18 months or so has had my Cure intake at an all-time low. Even when I was seeing the Grateful Dead and Jerry Band quite regularly I listened to The Cure kind of often. Not lately. My mistake.

It may have been released like 4 years ago but this album is essentially brand new to me. Spinning it a bunch of times over the past few days has been a fucking pleasure. Took out for a run and listening again now and I'm almost kicking myself for not keeping up with this band. It's really no big deal as my primary musical interest is in something else completely different... but variety is nice and in musical past, The Cure has always been high up on the list.

Not the same Cure lineup as in the past but classic Cure shows itself in many of these songs. Still also present, and perhaps even more so than on Wild Mood Swing and Wish and Disintegration (I haven't heard Bloodflowers,) is a lot of loud guitar and a pretty heavy sound that is a million miles away from Killing An Arab!

I was skeptical what kind music the "new" Cure would make and if an aging Robert Smith still had it in him to make a killer album. At least in 2004 the answer is yes. And supposedly a new album is on the way, in September and the 2nd single is to be released in a few days. Perhaps I've got some renewed interest in The Cure now. Cool.

Yes, I'm still a hippie down beneath it all but hey, we like what we like and I happen to really dig the music of The Cure!

The Cure: self titled 2004 (rear insert)

video for "The End Of The World"

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

The Cure - My favorite... "Pictures Of You"

BTW.. don't be teasing and a taunting others about your tantalizing emails... UNLESS you share
;-P

Zoooma said...

Alright, I'll spill... I was speechless at the plans I received from my co-conspirator, plans that were quite unexpected, plans to hijack the International Space Station and hold it ransom for all the Swedish Fish in Laos... and not the small-sized red only Swedish Fish, BLAHHH, we're talkin the red and green and orange and yellow, too, in the bigger size. Hell yeah!

Oh, and we also want one 1975 VW bus (no Dead stickers) for our getaway.

Sugarmag said...

Chris, there is nothing wimpy about your running. I like reading about your progress, it's kinda inspiring :). I haven't listened to The Cure in a really long time, I will definitely check this out. Now I think I need to pull out their old stuff, too, it's been a long time...:)

one says one number and the other another
but they were set at the same time. Hmmm...

i love you amy uzarski.  always!
 
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