Category: Life’s Soundtracks

So the soundtrack for my run tonight was supposed to be the new release from Michael Lee Firkins – Yep but someone forgot that the album was not on the iPhone but would have been on the iPod if someone had remember to copy it to the phone from the computer! I wonder who that could be!! Probably the same person who embarrassed himself yesterday in the library when the iPhone was playing in his pants and he didn’t realize it and kept wondering why the woman at the computer behind him was blaring the music so loudly. He even accused said woman, when the library aide sheepishly asked him whether he was one with the music playing! That guy quickly apologized to all, collected his books, and QUIETLY left the library!!  The music that was playing, that I thought was pretty good and was surprised that the woman was listening to, was Decomposition by Michael Lee Firkins which became the soundtrack of my run this evening!! The run did not start out well!  Yesterday, I had walked about a mile from my office to the garage where our car was being worked on, along the way I turned on Runmeter to see my progress and time! When I started my run this evening, I didn’t realize that the walk had not been cleared. The lady said start and I did and felt pretty good. When I hit the first quarter-mile I looked down at the phone and the time of the run said 16:02 uh unless I am literally crawling that is not right!! So I stopped, realized what happened, and then walked around the block and started the run again!! The second time I hit the quarter-mile mark the time was 2:19 which was correct and I went on to run one of my fastest paces of the year 9:50 per mile and much of the time the pace was around 9:30 per mile! I felt comfortable throughout the run!! Michael Lee Firkins was born in Omaha, Nebraska in 1967. His father was a lap steel guitarist and his mother a pianist. Michael started playing acoustic guitar at the age of eight. Mostly self-taught, he also took lessons at a local Omaha music store. Learning the songs of the times, Michael was heavily into Lynyrd Skynyrd, Led Zeppelin, AC/DC, and Black Sabbath. Michael’s solo career started with the release of his self titled début album on !Records.The release sparkled with Michael’s blending of genres as  his music is rock blended  with country, blues and jazz (sounds pretty great to me!) His first release sold more than 100,000 copies. This well received album also lead to Michael being the winner of the “BEST NEW TALENT” reader’s poll in Guitar for the Practicing Musician and also runner-up in Guitar Player Magazine’s “BEST NEW TALENT” readers poll. He was also hailed as “ONE OF THE MOST INFLUENTIAL PLAYERS OF THE NEXT TEN YEARS” by Guitar for the Practicing Musician. As Michael’s music was also popular in Europe, Firkins won the Edison Award, which is Holland’s version of a Grammy!! (Website biography) The album that I listened to, Decomposition was released in 2001 and is an album of covers except for one Firkins original! Since I am not a big fan of Lynyrd Skynyrd or Rick Derringer. I didn’t recognize several of the songs. The tracks included: “Still Alive and Well,” from Rick Derringer, Manic Depression,” from Jimi Hendrix (yeah I know this one but Firkiins made it his own!) “I Need You,” and “I Know a Little,” both Lynyrd Skynyrd covers, A highlight of the album for me, was Michael’s cover of the “Pink Panther,” (yes by Henry Mancini!!)  Keeping with the eclectic nature of some of the covers, the closing track is a Duke Ellington tune “Caravan”. All in all, it is a great album and the label “guitar virtuoso” certainly fits Firkins!! Read More

So last night after work I ran. After the run I finished my post about Steve Strongman,  I showered, went to the store, and then ate dinner.  All the while  I was thinking that I would write about the run in a few minutes. So as the minutes passed, my energy slowly slipped away and before long I was closer to sleep than coherent thoughts and writing!! Which is why I’m sitting here on Friday afternoon writing about it! I maintained a pretty fast pace (for me)  throughout the run and my pace time continues to go down. There was one time during the run that I checked my pace and it was 9:06, so I sped up a little and sure enough the pace went under 9 minutes!! Unfortunately, I could only keep up that pace for a minute or less!! My pace, however, through the first three miles was just and shade over 10 minutes per mile!! And overall I ended the four-mile run in a time of 40:19 for an average pace of 10:05. I was a tired but happy camper!!! Now I couldn’t think of or find a Prog Rock album to use as the soundtrack for the run, so I selected an Americana album that I’ve been listening to over the last few days, My Rocket Ship from Markus Rill I really like this album. It’s full of great songs, husky, gravelly vocals from Rill and some fine music from his backing band The Troublemakers. Here’s some press from Markus’ website: “If voices were highways, Markus Rill’s would be gravel … like Steve Earle, Tom Waits and Lucinda Williams, Rill excels at songwriting” – PureMusic/USA “Europe’s premier Americana artist” – Rootstime/Belgium Yes, you read that last quote correctly, because… .. Read More

So today was good and bad, my son Andrew invited to come down to his house to watch the Eagles play. He has a much bigger and nice than mine and as a result of his wife’s efforts to cut their cable bill, he has the new Xfinity package with Red Zone, and yes Meaghan, that is a good thing!!Red Zone is perfect for Andrew who is a master of flipping channels!! Anyway that was the good! Thanks, Andrew and Meaghan. The bad was the Eagles lost the game!! But they are fun to watch, at least the offense!! The defense wouldn’t be bad if the could either cover the center of the field or get to the quarterback!! Read More

So for the last several weeks possibly a month I have been without my glucosamine and chondroitin pills and my knees have felt the effects, particularly when I go up and down the stairs. I think this is one of the reasons that I haven’t run as much over this time, maybe not consciously but on some level it’s made me feel less like running! Last Saturday I finally bought new pills and boy, what a difference after a few days my knees felt great going up and down the stairs and yesterday I actually felt like running! I still suck but a least my knees feel good today!! While I didn’t feel bad throughout the run I did though have to keep slowing down to keep my heart rate down! I finished a 3.8 mile run just a little faster than last time with an average pace just under 10:30 per mile! Just building miles!! Read More

Ok so yesterday we had a family gathering to celebrate Easter and Andrew’s 31 birthday, which is today. Anyway about midway through the day, Andrew went upstairs and came down with three albums by RPWL which I mentioned in the other days post about Blind Ego! So on the way down to the job site at milepost 53.9 on the Garden State Parkway, I listened to a mix of RPWL and enjoyed their music. I’ll write more after I’ve listened to the albums a few more times. Read More