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50ish Recent Songs Bike

50ish songs, Best Music of the Ride

The Beastles lbum cover

50ish recent songs, mostly picked by my phone.

Just Like Heaven – The Cure

Prologue – Schlong
This will always make me think of Renee, who introduced it to me.

Changes – No Vacation
Falling – Howard
Big Rock Candy Mountain – The Beat Farmers
Nowhere Man – Low
The Haunted Mansion: Grim Grinning Ghosts – Disney
It’s Alright, Follow – Tarek Musa
Good Day (Extended Edit) – The Kinks
Paper Planes – I’m From Barcelona
Paper Thin Walls – Modest Mouse

Word To The Mic – dj BC and The Beastles
These folks have multiple full albums of Beatles/Beastie Boys mashups. Some of them (like this one) work pretty well.

She’s Leaving Home – The Beatles
Over the Rainbow (live) – Rufus Wainwright
Tumbledown – The Jesus and Mary Chain
Empty puppet – Mary Bell
Hold Your Head Up – Argent

The House Where Nobody Lives – Tom Waits
Specifically, this live version from a 20 year old VH-1 special. I like it a lot more than the album version, but it’s really hard to find a decent recording of it.

Sympathy for the Soul of the Beast – Celebrity Murder Party
Happy Together – Mel Torme
Summer Wind – Frank Sinatra
Red Right Hand – Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds
Worse Things Happen At Sea – Toy Dolls
Critic Intro – They Might Be Giants
Pop All The Stars – Emmett Kai
King Kong – Tom Waits
Blow Me Down – Harry Nilsson
Strawberry Fields Forever (Take 26) – The Beatles

Once In A Lifetime – Talking Heads
The second-best song of today’s ride.

Prince Charming – Adam Ant

She’s Got A New Spell – Billy Bragg
The best song of today’s ride.


Gypsy – hana vu
1 2 3 4 – Feist
Maiwaige – The Princess Bride
This Time Tomorrow – The Kinks
Gypsy Town – Wet Illustrated
Don’t Stop Now – Crowded House
Birth of the Cool – Miles Davis
Infatuation – The Rapture
Fatal Attraction (And It’s So Strange) – The Ultraviolets
Wrong About Bobby – Eels
Money – Pink Floyd
One For My Baby (And One More For The Road) – Billie Holiday
Paul’s Pal – Sonny Rollins Quartet
Fade – Goth Dad
LNT – Stevan
My Funny Valentine – The Miles Davis Quintet
Highness – Envy And Other Sins
Telegram Sam – Bauhaus
Song For Dan Treacy – MGMT
Schoolhouse Rocky – Bob Dorough & Others

Young Fresh Fellows Theme – Young Fresh Fellows
This wasn’t on the ride. If it had been it probably would have won best song of the ride.

Also: Really good ride today. 30 miles and a better-than-normal average pace. All it needed to be perfect was for me to remember my water bottle.

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Uncategorized

Move Over, Weight Watchers!

Our old bathroom scale does that thing where it gives a different weight every time you step on it. So I did some research and bought a scale listed as most consistently accurate. I weighed myself this morning and it claimed I lost a couple of pounds overnight. I thought “You bought this because the old one wasn’t working right- of course they don’t match.” To prove it I weighed myself on the old scale.

It also said I lost a couple of pounds overnight.

I have learned the secret of rapid weight loss: MAKE YOUR OLD SCALE JEALOUS.

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Better than here

phil-are-go.blogspot.com – Because other people are funnier than me

Have you visited https://phil-are-go.blogspot.com/ yet? You should. They make one of my favorite things: fake book covers. Like this one:

https://phil-are-go.blogspot.com/2019/12/the-gazebo-haunted-by-stevie-nicks.html

Go! Go now! RIGHT FREAKING NOW.

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50ish Recent Songs Bike

50ish Recent Songs, and the Best Song of Today’s Ride

Tire levers and multi-tool
Tools of the day.

50ish recent songs, mostly picked by my phone. About half of them were from today’s ride, where I decided to get a pinch flat AND whack my hand into a utility box.

Oh, and I didn’t tighten the bolts on my new cleats enough, so one came loose. NEAT.

Big Time – Peter Gabriel
The Most Beautiful Girl (In The Room) – Flight of the Conchords
I Heard It Through the Grapevine – Marvin Gaye

The Girl Is Mine – Richard Cheese and Lounge Against the Machine – You haven’t heard this song until you’ve heard a lounge version with Stephen Hawking.

Cartrouble, Pts. 1 & 2 [Original Album Version] – Adam and The Ants
No Rain – Blind Melon

Julie’s Been Working For The Drug Squad – The Clash

Hot Hot Hot!!! – The Cure
One Way Or Another – Blondie
Everybody’s a Star (Starmaker) (mono mix) – The Kinks
The District Sleeps Alone Tonight – The Postal Service
Yew – BUHU
Hard To Handle – The Black Crowes
Bedlam – Elvis Costello And The Imposters
Train In Vain – The Clash
Birthday – The Beatles
Pretty In Pink – The Psychedelic Furs
Chicago (acoustic version) – Sufjan Stevens
Three Car Jam – Minutemen

Love Will Tear Us Apart – The Hot 8 Brass Band – presented in its original form as a New Orleans jazz band song.

The Loved One – INXS
Miracle Cure – The Who
13 A Sky Blue Rhapsody – ccc – ill chemist
Boys Don’t Cry – Grant Lee Phillips
All You Ever Think About Is Sex [12″ Club Version] – Sparks
It’s The End Of The World As We Know It (And I Feel Fine) – R.E.M.
Breakfast – Evolution Control Committee
A Sight For Sore Eyes – Tom Waits

American Tune – Paul Simon – Winner, Best Song of the Ride. I think Katherine knows this song.

New Moon on Monday – Duran Duran
Scarecrow – Beck
Everybody’s Got Something To Hide Except Me And My Monkey – My Brightest Diamond
Livin’ on a Prayer (Bon Jovi cover) (BL Rewind 2) – The Boat People
Nusrath Fateh Ali Khan – Piya Re Piya Re (Remix)
When I’m Sixty-Four – The Beatles
Alina’s Place – Fredrik

The Old Saloon – The Lonely Island – The most important song of a generation.

Falling – Howard
Where Do I Begin – The Chemical Brothers
Little Miss S. – Edie Brickell & New Bohemians
The Mighty Hercules – Johnny Nash
Lucky #9 (video version) – The Moldy Peaches
Poses – Kiki Pau
Graceland – Paul Simon
Abracadabra – Steve Miller Band
Hammering In My Head – Garbage
Same Changes – Sam Phillips
Tomorrow Wendy – Andy Prieboy
Transatlanticism – Death Cab For Cutie
The Tracks Of My Tears – Smokey Robinson & The Miracles

Hombre Secreto (Secret Agent Man) – Plugz – I used to play the hell out of this soundtrack.

Today’s ride. I actually had a short second ride, but it was slow and silly.

Categories
Bike

The three best songs of today’s ride

I had to try out my new shoes, so I did my usual loop around Balboa Park. It was a good ride. One sign of a good ride is a moment where I think “this is a really good bike song.” Today there were three. In order from least to most good (today):

They Might Be Giants: Istanbul (Not Constantinople)

Brian’s favorite band. Their cover is much perkier than the original version.

The Jam – Town Called Malice

A great song that Weezer casually stole and made happy, it would have been number one if not for the last song of the ride…

The Dead Milkmen – Punk Rock Girl

Oh, this song. It would never make any top ten list of mine, but it sure feels good when you’re on the last half mile and you want a little push.

Today’s ride:

Categories
Bike

New Shoes

My bike shoes are three and a half years old. They were fine- biking is not exactly tough on the soles- but I needed a second pair for work. Of course, as soon as I ordered the new pair, the old pair started falling apart. THEY KNEW.

My bike shoes.
Left: old and busted.
Right: New Hotness.
In the back: gloves (in case you need to dye your hair).

The new ones look more like sneakers, which is nice. They also look more like clown shoes, which might be okay as well. BONUS! One of my bikes is yellow, and the other is olive green. my feet will match either bike, which is what makes bikes fast.

Leo from Twin Peaks would be so happy.

I was going to put a video of Leo saying “new shoes,” but he’s gross and drooly., so you get some Angelo Badalamenti instead.
Leo is excited.
I told you he’d be happy.

Categories
Bike

My fingers didn’t like this ride

I ride a lot in the summer. I’m used to heat. I ride wearing gym shorts and a t-shirt.

Today was not hot: Sunny, but mid forties to low fifties. Not the best weather for thin shorts. I did adjust my clothing a tiny bit: I wore a long sleeved shirt. That helped my arms, but did nothing for my fingers or ears, which were mad at me for most of the ride.

Tomorrow: gloves!

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Uncategorized

I make important things.

Sometimes a dumb idea appears and must be indulged.
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Uncategorized

Please enjoy some bad writing about sex

Bad sex in fiction: read extracts from the 2019 shortlist

Don’t write like this. If you do write like this, don’t send it to a publisher. It’s creepy, embarrassing, and hilarious. You could be doing much more valuable things, like finally cleaning out that space under the kitchen sink or taking a really good nap.

Also: don’t publish writing like this. That’s paper that could be still be trees. Instead it’s a permanent record of a complete lack of understanding of composition, physical intimacy, and basic anatomy.

I changed my mind. Publish all writing like this. It accidentally brings the reader satisfaction. I hope that’s not a parallel to anything in the authors’ lives.

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Bike ridesfv

Today’s Silly Little Ride

I thought the hardest part of riding every street in the San Fernando Valley would be the long stretches, but so far it’s the back-and-forth required to get every side street and alley.

I’m sure once I start getting up into the hills I’ll wish I was doing twisty flat rides again.

Today’s goofy ride:

You can see my total progress here: https://www.strava.com/athletes/1133075/heatmaps/3eaec873#12/34.22072/-118.47229