Cycling

No random 10 story today, I’m going with some non-fiction instead. Hope you enjoy it.

Thursdays, Mrs. Mak has class in KC and this was her week to drive, so I had the entire night to myself and only my bike for transportation. Because I’m somewhat of an idiot, I figured I could use this opportunity to take an extended ride on the bike and push myself a bit. What I came up with was not on the scale of a trip to Wisconsin, but hey, I’ve got to start small. So here are 10 songs to go with my 10 mile trip around Lawrence.
• Kyuss – El Rodeo – And the Circus Leaves Town

Headed out straight from work (in jeans, mistake #1) with fuzzy rock and fresh legs (neither would last more than about 5 minutes).

• Led Zeppelin – In the Evening – In Through the Out Door

Zeppelin got me to this little music shop here in Lawrence (it’s called ‘Best Buy’, I heard they’re expanding a bit, there might be one near you soon) where I picked up ‘Horehound’ by The Dead Weather. A short ride to pick up some cat food for the starving pets at home and I headed back in the other direction.

• Counting Crows – A Murder of One – August and Everything After

I’ve had that Counting Crows album since it came out, and it wasn’t until tonight I realized that ‘A Murder of One’ is a play on the word for a group of crows. Apparently the bike ride finally got the mental juices flowing.

• (Hed) P.E. – Swan Dive – Broke

So this is the part of the ride I was most nervous about – the big $#@!ing hill behind our house. As I slog my way up the hill, I’ve got “What could be better than a swan dive into the asphalt?” blaring in my ears.  It seemed almost portentious.

• Coil – The Golden Section – Horse Rotorvator

Survived the hill, only to get the creepy gloom of Coil as my reward, beginning to think I overreached a bit with this trek.

• System of a Down – Spiders – (self-titled)

Recovered some and I’m almost to my next destination, 7 miles into the ride, I’m already thinking about the road home.

• Black Sabbath – War Pigs – Paranoid

I get to Blockbuster (yeah there was one closer, but the idea was to push myself) and I’m almost dead, it was pretty much uphill the whole way, fortunately no more backbreakers like the first one, but I arrive and probably look like hell, judging by the clerk’s reaction. I grab my movie (The Matador) and start back with the War Pigs guitar solo starting me off.

• Foo Fighters – Learn to Fly – There is Nothing Left to Lose

This is perfect.  I grabbed a drink and sat for a minute and I’m feeling much better.  Learn to fly, indeed.

• Mastodon – Hunters of the Sky – Blood Mountain

Another uptempo and loud one, perfect for the downhill ride all the way home.

• REM – Texarkana – Out of Time

Made it! And it felt pretty good. Felt even better after a shower and some supper. The movie was pretty good too, funny and well done (Pierce Brosnan was excellent).

New Music

The Dead Weather – Horehound – Clearly I just bought this, but I’ve listened to most of the songs on youtube. I do like a lot of Jack White’s stuff, and this was a little more dirty, bluesy and it caught my attention more than the other stuff. I don’t think it’s going to be one of my all-time favorites, but it should be a quality listen.

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