You could break me by the bones, until you break me inside.

So, I decided I'm going to run a half-marathon on August 5th. Yup, that's 13.1 miles. 13 miles, 192.5 yards to be exact. Figure, I've been running for almost a year now. I've gotten a lot faster and stronger. I've yet to top a long run of more than 6 miles, but think that gradually over the next four months, I can easily get up to at least 10, if not more. I'm not trying to set world records here or run in
outer-space, just trying to stay in shape and feel good about myself. needed a bit more of a challenge than doing 3-4 miles three or four days a week. The plan is to run sub-2 hours. This is a nice long-term goal, with a bunch of short term goals in the meantime. Planning on doing a 5k and 10k as a warm up over the next few months too. Depending on how well I do in the training, the race, and well, really, how my knees and ankles hold up, I may look into doing a marathon in 2008.


Just saw A-Rod hit another bomb to win the game. Man he is on fire. The other night I was out with some buddies, and they both seemed to think Alex could easily hit 60 homeruns. I argued, that he would top out at about 48. However, just seeing him over the past few days, maybe they are right. He keeps this up, he could very well hit sixty. His stroke just looks really short and compact, and he's getting around on pitches a lot better than he was last year. And having Bobby Abreu hit in front of him has been really good for him too. That guy makes pitchers work, making them throw plenty of pitches. I say the number of hits A-Rod hits will be based on how well Giambi and Matsui are hitting late in the season. If they aren't hitting well, A-Rod will get walked a ton. Man, last night I was hoping they would save some of those runs for the Boston series this weekend. Hoping those bats don't go cold over the short flight up to beantown.


Listening Pile:
Have been listening to Idlewild's new disc, Make Another World a bit lately. Being a huge fan of their 100 Broken Windows and The Remote Part, I was definitely underwhelmed by the last two discs. Maybe their label was as well, as they saw a departure from Capitol. And I don't even think Make Another World has actually been released in the US on current label Sanctuary. To put it best, the two earlier albums, just rocked enough and had better and more interesting arrangements. And, for some reason, those records just pop. They sound great. 100 Broken Windows being close to a perfect album, the Remote Part, not far behind. Warnings/Promises left a lot to be desired, yet had a few quality tracks, most notably, "Love Steals Us From Loneliness", "I Want A Warning" and "El Capitan".

Now on Make Another World, is not a bad record by any means. There are some really nice melodies and good guitar lines. There are some decent songs on here, "Finished It Remains", "A Ghost In The Arcade" and, easily the most propulsive song on the album, "If It Takes You Home". However, if you've ever seen this band live, you know they rock, and rock hard. And that to me, is the thing missing most from this album. It just noodles back and forth, with an occasional rocker here and there. The ballads and quiet songs, just don't have that lyrical hook you expect. On their earlier works, I just found that the lyrics were sharp, poignant and witty. The guitars were crunchy, as the rhythm section stayed just enough out of the way to make things interesting. Here, there is just too much teetering on the mundane here. However, I am quite interested to see them live again. I bet a bunch of these songs would sound great in a live setting.