On Saturday morning I met up with the Arc-En-Ciel crew for a long, hard bike ride. It was about 75 miles and the pace was pretty up tempo all the way. These guys are all older than me by 15-20 years but they are animals. As one of them told me, if your still banging out the miles and races into the 50's your good because the weak have long since quit. These guys are some of the best in New England for their age and they have so much knowledge. We rode double pace line all the way and felt OK but a little off. On my second pull with Todd Buckley I decided to go a little harder to see if I could warm up. Todd was willing and since he is much stronger than I am he took it as a bit of a challenge and took it to me big time. Our pull ended up being 20 minutes hard effort. Warming up worked but my overall energy was still lacking. The ride finished up and I was wiped, more than I should have been. By Saturday night I was still cold and even though I tried to rally at a couple of Xmas parties I went to it was not happening. I didn't sleep on Saturday night and woke up Sunday with the cold/virus I have been fighting for months. Throat swollen up, chills, neck and back pain. The usual. No big deal, just a day in bed and a lot of fluids. Today was a little better but not great. I still went into work because the thought of sitting around my house all day was very unappealing. I need to kick this bug tonight because tomorrow I am heading to Philly for some dinner and beers with Bob Schwelm, which usually ends up messy......
Because of my dour mood and negative outlook (I'm a big baby and very angry when I'm sick) I decided that today I would listen to some easy, breezy pop music. I decided to revisit The Radio Dept. On first listen to this album about 3 or 4 months ago I was very much on the fence. I liked it but there was nothing to love. It wasn't fitting the bill given how much good music was knocking around this summer and the fact that everything I heard was being compared to Jonsi-Go and Wolf Parade - Expo 86. So today, with no sun in the sky, a very sore throat, and no energy at all I decided I needed some shoegazy, dream pop stuff. I remembered this album and listened through again. Lovely. This is the Radio Dept. 3rd album. They are a Swedish Indie-pop band with a very Cocteau Twins meets Kings Of Convenience sound. I am going to listen to this album a lot more. Its very enjoyable and melodic. Of course I should have been listening to it on those long hot summer nights but better late than never. Check out tune below. Its lovely.
I just want to take a minute and congratulate the Irish U23 XC team for winning the European Cross Country champs. Great performance that could have been even more dominant if Ciaran O'Lionaird ran how he did at NCAA XC. I reckon he was under the weather. Even David McCarthy had a sub-par run given his recent road race at Manchester. They still battled and still won. Awesome.
Peace and Love,
Kel
great music, unfortunately the bogus capalist process has really led to the advent of both popular music and the reaction against it. without one there would inevitable be no "other". radiohead, as you well know, among a few "other" bands have been able to find a way to climb within the capitalist schemes. in fact, they are part of the current generation on the "other". music culture is built with the idea of consupmtion, not to say that the idea of consumption means an excahnge of two physical goods, but the exchange of two things, tangible or not. the desire to "consume" the result of the creation of music leads to the possibility of the creation, but the money behind the creation is what lets the artists begin to live from their art which is almost a necessity for the success of the art iself. the structure is what also helps mark those things which are acceptable as culture and those that create the counter culture. the machine that builds tthe devise is the driving force behind the structure as well as the "consumption" within it, correct? so i would argue, that although the concept of capitalism destrying culture is romantic and in some ways beautiful, the reality appears to be that the capitalist sructure has become an intricate part of the machine and the resulting product would be inexistent without it.
ReplyDeleteget better as well, so some day within the next centum days there can be a meeting of broken minds and wishful bodies... also, I have not proofread for mistakes, nor do i really care to at the moment.
yes those old cyclists are brutal! I remember showing up for one of my first races in Colorado and seeing many former pros. Got dropped almpost immediately.
ReplyDeleteFunny I was riding with some 50+ dudes in my group down in DC and man they can sprint.
ReplyDeletePS Get yourself down here with your Rothar and I will take you on some great rides.
You can show the lads some Shoes and drink pints with Davis.