zilch day

Another day off from being on the trail.

Since all this running (it's a lot for me) hasn't produced any nagging aches or pains, no injuries at all (for the most part,) I hope days off like this work in my favor by helping my body heal anything that might be wrong but I can't feel, something that could lead to a serious problem.

I guess that's what I will think to mentally turn a zilch day into a positive thing.

Otherwise I'm just another lazy person not caring about their weight.

So easy to do, isn't it? But so wrong.

no catchy title

Fall In (1942)

As America entered World War II, along came a series of short movies (around 50 minutes each) starring William Tracy and Joe Sawyer. They play a couple of Army sergeants getting to into one misadventure after another. Fall In has them busting up a Nazi spy ring operating in the same town as an Army training base.

When a movie is under an hour, you don't get a lot of backstory on the characters but the time flies by without any time to yawn. While a little corny, this was an enjoyable hour. I'm sure in '42-'43, when America's young men were heading off in droves to fight for freedom, many never to return home, it was nice to go to the movies and be able to laugh a little.

minor milestone

Is 11 minutes significant? I'm not sure. Considering I'm sort of trying to be able to run a marathon in about, oh, 4 hours . . . 11 minutes is a loooooooonng way away. Considering I'm running four to five times a week, this is indeed a significant mark. Each run isn't cake but I'm not completely dying. After each run I nearly suffer for a minute or so but I'm so glad that I haven't quit this, that I'm keeping it up. I don't have to do this. I'm not a runner. Not at all. But I run because it's right in order for me to be a healthier human being.

out on the trail about 67 minutes

running time -- 11 minutes, 1 second (+30 seconds!)

retro tunes:

Violent Femmes -- self-titled debut album (1983)

Good Feeling
Gone Daddy Gone
To The Kill
Confessions
Promise
Prove My Love
Please Do Not Go
Add It Up
Kiss Off
Blister In The Sun

find a dload @ Infinite Foolishness

+ some live Femmes tunes: American People,
Rejoice And Be Happy, Positively 4th Street
+
The Sweet Sunny South
Stealin'
The Thrill Is Gone -- Jerry Garcia & David Grisman

What a great hour+ of music! It's been years since I've heard that whole Femmes album. Esta mucho classico! Just like with watching horrible movies and then watching a great one completely makes up for those that are pure blah, listening to so much mediocre music is all made up for with one great playlist like this one.

just plain horrible

National Lampoon's Adam and Eve (2005) (½ star out of 5)

starring: Cameron Douglas, Emmanuelle Chriqui

Can a movie be more rude, crude, disgusting, vile, lame, sad, idiotic and/or pathetic? Yes. Probably. However this ranks right down at el bottomo of the listo, without a doubto.

Emmanuelle Chriqui plays the princess, in a manner of speaking. How incredibly beautiful she is. If there's anything good about this movie it's seeing her. Cameron Douglas plays her boyfriend. He's, well . . . oh boy, I'm shaking my head thinkin' about how this dude lives. In a huge way I could relate to the massive party scene in the house near campus, and living that life, only not as disgusting. Not nearly as disgusting. Some of his roommates . . . alright, now I'm just wasting my time typing about this movie any further.

feelin' good

Felt great to be running again. Well, the running itself doesn't feel great. Not at all. The feeling afterwards is just tremendous, so healthy feeling. 10½ minute run? Big whoop. Yeah, it is a big whoop to me. I'm not a runner, plain and simple. Plus I haven't been in good cardiovascular shape. 10½ minutes ain't exactly easy for me.

trail time: about 69 minutes

running time -- 10 minutes, 31 seconds (+11)

yee-haw:

Janie Fricke -- Live at Billy Bob's Texas (2002)

Don't Worry 'Bout Me Baby
Let's Stop Talking About It
He's A Heartache
Any Other Stone
Your Heart's Not In It
I'll Need Someone To Hold Me (When I Cry)
She's Single Again
Do Me With Love
Someone Else's Fire
See-Saw Ride
You Don't Know Love
Down To My Last Broken Heart
Tell Me A Lie
Quilt Of Dreams
Bouncin' Back
It Ain't Easy Being Easy
Love For Evermore
+
Friend Of The Devil
Ripple -- David Cullen

If I was buying music rather than renting it, for the most part, Janie Fricke is someone I would probably never get around to hearing. (I'm about 99.9% sure of that.)

Is my life any better now that I have heard her? Sorry, Janie, but I don't think so . . . although, it is a good thing to experience new music and this experience wasn't a negative one. It's not bad stuff.

Oh, the joy of a convenience store in NJ

Clerks (1994)

directed by Kevin Smith, his first feature film

What a very interesting little film. At this point in my life I didn't really care for all that's rude and crude but hey, that's what it's mostly like growing up in New Jersey. That's probably what it's like just about everywhere. These aren't the kinds of people I hung out with but growing up about an hour from where Clerks was filmed and takes place, I have this creepy feeling that I can sort of relate to them, or at least I've absolutely associated with them.

Shot for just under $27,000, not including the cost to pay for the soundtrack, Clerks, in all honestly, is pure genius. There are loads of flaws but it's all tied together in a nice and somewhat neat package. The actors aren't professional so that allows the viewer to better relate to them. The incredibly amateur production is fast forgotten about and we're drawn into the happenings in the lives of these somewhat odd and incredibly weird characters. Without a doubt, a day in the life of a couple of New Jersey convenience store clerks has never been better told.

Being a fan of the filmmaking of Kevin Smith, I'm a little surprised that it took me so long to see this. Glad I finally did. Despite all that's out there and disgusting about Clerks, I might decide to someday watch it again.

Has anybody seen a dog dyed dark green?

Third day in a row without a run. Why'm I so obsessed with running? I'm a hiker! I suppose it's a challenge that I'm taking on, a challenge in lieu of not really having one currently. Yeah, it's GREAT to get outside to run in hopes of not having a disease or cancer or some illness someday because I've gotten fat due to not giving a darn about my health . . . but running has taken the place of hiking, for the most part. I wanna hike more! AHHHHHH!!!! Perhaps it's God leading me to run for a future cause. I'm most definitely open to that, without even a millisecond of hesitation or doubt. So I'll keep running.

Today, though, I laced up the boots for nice hike till sunset.

some music:

The B-52's -- self-titled debut (1979) & Wild Planet (1980)

Planet Claire
There's A Moon In The Sky (Called The Moon)
Dance This Mess Around
Give Me Back My Man
Party Out Of Bounds
Devil In My Car
Lava
Hero Worship
6060-842
Downtown
Runnin' Around
Dirty Back Road
Strobe Light
52 Girls
53 Miles West Of Venus
Private Idaho
Quiche Lorraine
Rock Lobster
Planet Claire (Francois Kevorkian Mix)

It's kinda too bad these guys are like 50 years old now and not young and playing bars . . . or too bad that I never got to 'cause they are just fun! The album that got me into them many years ago was Cosmic Thing which was like 18 years ago. Unfortunately I never heard much of their older stuff until now and it's just great!

too late

Grrrr....

I waited too long to go for a run today and then the really bad weather moved in. Yay, i just love blowing a perfectly good morning and early afternoon leaving me with a second day in a row without getting outside more than to get the mail.

No hike. No run. Just another pathetic person who doesn't care enough to do anything about his or her own physical health. Well, that's the way I feel right now. Or maybe not. Perhaps I'm just ticked off that I've gone two days in a row without hitting the trail.

Mañana.

A Canadian Western?

Northwest Stampede (1948)

Can a movie that takes place post-WWII and involves the Calgary Stampede be called a western? No. Just no. No way. A Canadian movie cannot be called a western no matter what. Sorry, eh.

A film shot in the great outdoors of western Canada can surely be beautiful to look at and this one absolutely indeedy is! Wow!

When a gallavanting rodeo star learns that his father has passed away, he returns home to the ranch he left years ago. To sell or stay? Of course a girl changes the outcome. Along the way the viewer is treated to the majesty of Banff National Park and the gorgeous Canadian Rocky Mountains.

There isn't a whole lot of substance to Northwest Stampede but it works. It's enjoyable enough and the scenery makes it completely worth it!!!

blahhh

Another day without a hike or a run.

Blahhh.

It's truly not a good thing.

I suppose I could not worry about it and then just become another fat, lazy American. No. That would be wrong. Don't wanna do that. It would be unhealthy. To be a physically healthy Christian is serving God. Being a healthier Christian means one can be more productive. The opposite would be displeasing to the Lord.

But sometimes the body needs extra sleep to catch up, to heal, to etc. That's what took place today -- extra sleep. A lot of it. The timing for all this sleep was just not good to be able to go for a run. So while I'm not happy I didn't get out, I'm moderately okay with it 'cause I really caught up on sleep!

Cooked a fantastically healthy and delicious dinner, watched a little idiotic but funny tv, and listening to some sweet tunes. Hopefully I can hit the trail tomorrow!

an album for my Wednesday night listening pleasure:

U2 -- The Unforgettable Fire

A Sort of Homecoming
Pride (In The Name of Love)
Wire
The Unforgettable Fire
Promenade
4th of July
Bad
Indian Summer Sky
Elvis Presley & America
MLK

This is one I could listen to a couple times a year. All the way through not a bad song there!

Finally Past 10

I wonder if I could go for twenty minutes? I'll never know until I get to that point. Why not try for it now? 'Cause I'm takin' it slow. My lungs (and sometimes legs) can barely handle the times I'm achieving now so small steps (in time) suit me fine.

trail time: about 62 minutes

running time -- 10 minutes, 20 seconds (+25 seconds from last run)

music:

Phil Vassar -- self-titled debut album (2000)

Like I Never Loved Before
Somewhere In Between
Lucky As Me
Six-Pack Summer
Joe & Rosalita
Didn't You Know She's Gone
That's When I Love You
Rose Bouquet
Carlene
Drive Away
Just Another Day In Paradise
+
Grateful Dawg
Two Soldiers -- Jerry Garcia & David Grisman

Phil Vassar kinda sounds a little bit like Bruce Hornsby. Blasphemy! No, really, he does, in a Nashville kinda way. Reason: they both wail on piano. Actually, I'm not sure Phil Vassar pounds the keys like Hornsby but he does play the piano so the sound if definitely present. And a great thing about Phil Vassar -- he wrote or co-wrote all the songs on his debut album (plus most of the songs on later albums, as well.) Is that saying songs that country artists record but don't write somehow blow? No. Perhaps it just makes Phil Vassar more real or authentic than some who can't write worth a lick.

Ahhh, relief

Every now and then I watch a single movie that makes it okay to watch so much that's so terrible.

The Station Agent (2003)

starring: Peter Dinklage, Bobby Cannavale,
Patricia Clarkson, Michelle Williams, Passaic County (NJ)

What happens when a man leaves Hoboken hoping to find somewhere a little quieter? His life becomes more complicated. Fin is left, in his friend's will, an old run-down train station in rural Newfoundland, New Jersey (about 30 miles west of Hoboken and New York City.) What Fin finds there is a host of characters who are longing for company and/or who have their own problems to deal with. This guy who just wants some peace and quiet, to be left alone, must learn to deal with all of these new people and what they bring to his life. There are no special effects, no plot twists to figure out, no explosive situation to deal with. What's presented is just life.

It's been about a couple years since I first (and last) saw this wonderful film. What a treat it was to watch it again. The Station Agent is not without flaws but it's chockfull o' superb acting and such terrific directing, almost spot on from start to finish. For some reason the characters and their lives completely draw me in and in the end I was left with tears.

Having grown up in northern New Jersey, and having periodic longings to move back there one of these days, the scenery had me captivated. Breathtaking it is not. The Alaska Range or the Rockies? Not quite. Not even close. Yet somehow the Passaic County hillsides and Lake Hopatcong left me in awe.

New Jersey is not a pit of hell as many think. The state is full of beautiful places, quiet and green, not a refinery in sight (or smell.) Every state has peaceful places of stunning beauty, one just has to know where to go to find them. Alaska is Heaven on Earth . . . or at least a huge slice of Heaven of the United States. But my connection to NJ runs deep and I will stick up for my beloved New Jersey anytime someone wants to put her down. Maybe one day I'll get back to enjoy all there is to really love, all I never appreciated when I grew up there. I hope so. And until that time I can always read a book or turn on a great movie like The Station Agent.

Running with Spoons

With a brilliantly blue sky overhead, and not a cloud to be seen, it was a picture-perfect afternoon for a run.

trail time: about 67 minutes

running time -- 9 minutes, 55 seconds (+8 from last run)

listened to:

Soundgarden . . . a smattering of this & that

She Likes Surprises
Flower
Rusty Cage
Blow Up The Outside World
Spoonman
4th of July
Tighter & Tighter
Boot Camp
Burden In My Mind
Outshines
The Day I Tried To Live
Smokestack Lightning
Fell On Black Days
Black Hole Sun

Whew! Today's music compared to yesterday's is like a Porsche to a Honda -- one's got power, it's fun to drive, gorgeous to look at and definitely won't lull you to sleep . . . and did I mention it's got power?! And the other is, well, like I said yesterday, it's nice.

It's been years since I've listened to Soundgarden and the music just seems to have gotten better with age.

why do i torture myself so?

Scarecrow Gone Wild (2004, straight to video)

There must be something wrong with me. It never ends, this practice of watching some of the absolute worst movies made. To top off the insanity, I viewed this tripe just hours after watching the Academy Awards which celebrates (some of) the very best in motion picture making. The only nomination I would give Scarecrow Gone Wild is for Achievement in Crap. Right at the start I noticed the very same producers names who made the last movie I watched (Alien 51.) Oh joy. I knew I was in for a treat. And what a treat it wasn't -- a scarecrow comes to life and kills unsuspecting college kids. Surprisingly this is, apparently, the third movie in a few years time with this same killer scarecrow. Why?!

½ star out of 5 . . . and that's probably fairly generous.

(Will I ever learn?!?)

just nice

Back in hiking boots. Finally.
An afternoon hike, to sunset, almost 2 hours long.
Unfortunately the music I chose, well, it was nice.

Susan Ashton -- The Ultimate Collection (2006)

Waiting For Your Love To Come Down
No One Knows My Heart
Beyond Justice To Mercy
Love Will Be Our Home
In Amazing Grace Land
Song Of Reconciliation
No Remedy For Love
Down On My Knees
All Kinds Of People
Here In My Heart
A Rose Is A Rose
Hunger And Thirst
Walk On By
Summer Solstice
There Is A Line
Remember Not
Ball And Chain
Grand Canyon
You Move Me
Hide Or Seek
Crooked Man
I Will Follow
Walk On
Stand

I listen to such a wide array of music. Usually it's something I know I will like or really love listening to. Nowadays sometimes I choose something that I'm not sure about before I download it. Susan Ashton I wasn't sure about but I gave her a try. Not entirely my cup o' tea. Oh well.

So many of these songs, right up to near the end, well, they were nice. This (mostly) was music to fall asleep to on an airplane. Or perhaps nice to put on if you have your 60-year old pastor and his wife over for dinner. It was soothing and, well, nice. It had no edge. No pop. It did nothing for me. Finally in the last few songs there are a couple tunes that are closer to me really liking than being bored by. Crooked Man, in particular, sounded kind of like Bonnie Raitt. Up until then I was thinking this is probably the last time I'll listen to Susan Ashton. Maybe I'll give this another listen.

Almonds? Cashews? Peanuts!

I think I've forgotten what it feels like to wear my hiking boots! I've been so caught up in running that it feels like weeks since I've gone for a "hike." Of course, being on the trail for 93 minutes means I do a significant amount of hiking . . . but it's in my running shoes vs. lacing up my hiking boots for strictly a hike. Anyway, nice afternoon today. I didn't progress by my usual 20+ seconds 'cause I didn't have ready the playlist that I originally wanted to take. Still I went again a little bit longer, a little bit further. I'm in no rush.

time on the trail: about 93 minutes

running time -- 9 minutes, 47 seconds (+16 seconds this time)

listened to:

* from the album:
Marlo Thomas & Friends: Thanks & Giving All Year Long
(a benefit for the St. Jude's Children's Research Hospital)

* Teeny Meany -- James Earl Jones & Marlo Thomas
* The Little Stuff -- Marlo Thomas
* (I'll Give) Anything But Up! -- Hilary Duff
* Unsung Heroes -- Wayne Brady

Body And Soul -- Billie Holiday
Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas -- Frank Sinatra

Wynton Marsalis & Ellis Marsalis -- Joe Cool's Blues

Linus & Lucy
Buggy Ride
Peppermint Patty
On Peanuts Playground
Oh, Good Grief!
Wright Brothers Rag
Charlie Brown
Little Red-Haired Girl
Pebble Beach
Snoopy & Woodstock
Little Birdie
Why, Charlie Brown
Joe Cool's Blues (Snoopy's Return)
and finally
Russian Lullaby -- Jerry Garcia & David Grisman

With this outing I have reached my maximum limit (1) for Hilary Duff songs this decade. (It's actually not a bad song.) My run to Billie & Frank was nice and mellow followed by my first time ever hiking to jazz. Can't go wrong with Wynton Marsalis. Really good music. And once again Jerry to finish up.

I've got so many playlists for hiking ready, plus Dead shows. Maybe tomorrow . . . if I can break free from this temporary addiction for pushing my run times up.

Shoot Me, Please

Alien 51 (straight-to-video, 2004)

starring: Heidi Fleiss: ex-con and former prostitute/madam to the stars

Still twenty minutes later I'm in shock at this atrocity. Wow.
0 stars to 10 -- about a 0.2 . . . it did have a couple of minutes worth of cool music. Everything good about the movie I just stated. Everything else had me practically physically in pain. If I have seen 1,000 movies in the past 5 years, this ranks in the BOTTOM 2 or 3. That's pretty extreme but it's true.

This is the perfect movie to demonstrate that people with no discernable intelligence and/or talent can make a movie that people can see on a nation-wide cable TV channel.

Wow. I'm just truly, so very truly blown away by how un-freakin'-believably terrible this movie is. Great films leave one thinking, with sort of a high, appreciative even. Alien 51 has left me in shock and almost wanting to kill myself for watching it.

Closing in on 10

Uh huh!

70 minutes out on the trail

running time -- 9 minutes, 31 seconds (+21 seconds)

for my enjoyment:

Claire Lynch -- completely random mix of any ol' tunes

Between The Two Of Them
God Spoke His Name
Paul And Peter Walked
Go And Do The Same
He Leadeth Me
Somewhere Above
Your Presence Is My Favorite Gift
There Is A Fountain
Friends For A Lifetime
Who Do You Know?
My Name Is Judas
After The Storm
Lead Me On
Moonlighter
Out Among The Stars
+
David Cullen
Sugaree
If I Had The World To Give
Casey Jones

Claire Lynch -- Country music? Or Bluegrass?
Seems to me to be about Country-Bluegrass.
And most of the songs I picked had a Biblical story or message so, while it's not Contemporary Christian Music by any stretch of the imagination, I kind of see it as Country-Bluegrass-Christian.

I had no idea if I'd like Claire Lynch, hadn't even listened to a single song before leaving the house. How beautiful it was!! I was sooo pleased with this and am completely looking forward to downloading her again soon!

Popcorn. Halle! Eliza!

Finally a movie. It's been far too long. I love movies but I've been in a dry spell. In the first 54 days of the year, if I was to count, I'd only be around 20 movies, maybe 25 but that would be pushing it. Not many. Oh well.

Race The Sun (1996)

starring:
Halle Berry, Casey Affleck, Eliza Dushku, James Belushi, the Australian Outback

Based on a True Story, Race The Sun is about a group of kids in Hawai'i who join together for their high school science project -- a solar-powered car. If they win the Hawai'i regional solar car race, it's off to the World Solar Challenge from Darwin, on the northern coast of Australia, across the Outback to Adelaide on the southern coast, a race of over 2,000 kilometers.

It's a shame that much of the story seems to have been pieced together without a lot done by the writer and director to give us some real attachment to these characters. All we get is a swift moving chain of events with very little background. Predictable it surely is but the ride is worth it because in the end it's a feel good story that worked well enough for me to shed a few tears of joy.

One song in the soundtrack -- Send Me On My Way by Rusted Root -- gave me a smile so bright, ya know I coulda been a candle . . . it had me dancing in my seat, as well. It's been many years since I last heard the great album that that song is on so an extra treat it was to hear it. It brought me back to some really good times when I first heard it in 1995 in Sperryville, Virginia.

I was spending a few days there, picking up a friend whom I was driving out west with. There was a Super Bowl party at someone's old farm house and the next day we were southbound. Two brief stops included Columbia, South Carolina and New Orleans, each place to see some friends of hers. The wintertime miles cruised along -- Earth (Texas) and Albuquerque and a hostel one night in Flagstaff before breaking down in the one blinking stoplight-at-midnight, podunk, Mojave Desert town of Four Corners, California. After a 98 mile tow to Bakersfield, my old '67 bus was stranded there for a few days getting a new head put in. A cracked head? Oi, headache. During our first day there, Summer decided to go ahead to Sacramento via Greyhound. I'd meet her at her new place in nearby Fair Oaks in a few days. Seventy-two hours stranded in a dusty city in the desert where I had absolutely nothing to do was not my idea of fun so what a relief it was to get out of there. Finally I was cruisin' myself on up to Northern Cali.

It was a great few days there with Summer and her roommate and a Deadhead she met on the bus, a dude from Berlin who was backpacking around the U.S. hoping to get to Salt Lake City for the Dead's first three shows of the year. Hey, that's where I was headin'!

Before we left Fair Oaks, we spun a few shows including a copy of that Rusted Root CD then eastward on I-80 Matthias and I went, across the Sierra Nevadas and the Nevada desert onward to my best friend Chris' house back in a city I had once called home.

After three fun shows at the Delta Center that included bust-outs of Alabama Getaway and Visions of Johanna plus the first ever GD singing of Salt Lake City, twas time to head back westward, back across the desert to the Sacto area once again. I'm fairy sure it was between SLC and the upcoming Oakland Mardi Gras shows that Jerry was scheduled for 3 at the Warfield . . . three which were cancelled. I had gotten tix and driven down, parked near Market and Dang It, No Shows. That was sad but Oh Well. So there was more time in and around Fair Oaks complete with seeing some cool ska bands up in Auburn.

The days passed and soon enough it was time to head yet again back on down to the Bay Area for the first three Cali shows of the year -- Mardi Gras! Each night afterwards we headed to someone's house in the small funky Marin County town of Fairfax, right near San Anselmo. Apparently in Fairfax, a long time ago, there was a baseball game played at a downtown public field between two teams who just happened to be the Grateful Dead vs. the Jefferson Airplane. Such a cool town Fairfax was to me then. I hope today it still has that charm that it did twelve years ago.

Even with the cancelled JGB shows, what a great few weeks that was! Rusted Root was played at least a dozen times during all those great days of Trader Joes, Nag Champa, and the American River. Six Dead shows topped it all off. What a tremendous time and hearing that one song in Race The Sun brought all that back for me. Hallelujah!

Slowly Improvin'

Yet another fantastic run! Going only somewhat more than a mile at what some might consider a snail's pace is, for me, a great run. Improving I am! Only about 3½-4 hours away from a Marathon!

total time out: about 72 minutes

running time -- 9 minutes, 10 seconds (up 20 seconds from my last run)

music:

just a little mix . . .

Berlin
The Metro (Acoustic)
Sex (I'm A...)

7 Year Bitch
It's Too Late
Derailed
Whoopie Cat
Rest My Head
Crying Shame

Berlin
No More Words
Take My Breath Away
The Metro
Sex (I'm A...) (Rosetta Stone Extended Mix)
+
Walkin' Boss & Rockin' Chair -- Jerry Garcia & David Grisman