I Got Robbed

I’m just home from the gym, my usual gym, the one here in Forest Hills. (I didn’t get to Coliseum today because S needed the car.)

That guy Rob was there again, of course, with his workout partner Heidi. He spotted me for a few sets and we talked about gyms, equipment, and powerlifters like Dave Tate, Karl Gillingham, and Ed Coan. He showed me an assortment of supplementary exercises I can do to help my squat. Stuff like a “good morning” that evolves into a squat, very very wide-footed squats with low or no weight, and these sort of isometric bounces and jumps to do at the bottom of the movement. All good stuff. Today’s leg workout might have been my best ever. I definitely got over a plateau, and I’m already feeling (good) pain and burn that I usually don’t feel until about 10 hours after the workout.

Since it was his chest day, he and Heidi showed me (and let me try out) a number of exercises they do in the cage, including pushups performed on hanging cables. And then the same pushups with a rubber band around my back from hand to hand. The fact that you’re swinging while performing these requires every muscle you’ve got just to stabilize yourself for each rep. It was great stuff. I learned more from them in 45 minutes than any knowledge I’ve picked up in the last two years. And I appreciated that they were giving up time from their own sets to show me things and let me try.

Rob asked if I’d be at the gym tomorrow around 0930, so he can let me try out his Iron Mind Rolling Thunder for one-armed deadlifts. I said yessir I’ll be here. Unfortunately, I realized a few minutes later that I cannot make it. S is being interviewed tomorrow for a documentary, so H and I will be hanging out together at that time. I won’t make the gym until later in the afternoon, but those are pretty cool reasons for missing the Rolling Thunder.

It looks like I’ll be trying that Coliseum Gym on Wednesday for my next leg day. I’m most looking forward to doing my squats with chains on the bars. (They have all that gear there.) The chain work is deadly – it puts more stress at the top of the movement (when the chains are mostly off the floor) where there is usually no resistance. At the bottom of the squat, the chain is mostly piled on the floor. On the way up, it gets heavier.

Why am I telling you all this?

Um....

Here's today's Friday 10...

01 Real Cool Time - The Stooges: From that self-titled, why-don't-you-have-it-yet first record. Iggy's the fucking undisputed heavyweight champion, isn't he?

02 Does He Love You? - Rilo Kiley: From More Adventurous. I recently found a review of this disk, and although the critic like it, he had some shitty things to say about this track; something about it being over-the-top histrionics. Yeah, OK.

03 All Through A Life - Rites of Spring: The Rites of Spring EP is one of the greatest products ever to come out on the mighty Dischord label. (You can get it here, but the Dischord.com website is the best place to go for this stuff.) Rites of Spring were some serious musicians: the lyrics are strong and the music is blazing. The lineup (Eddie Janney, Guy Picciotto, Brendan Canty, and Mike Fellows) is the cornerstone of some of the best DC bands. They broke up after this EP (but reformed briefly as Happy Go Licky).

04 Coax Me - Sloan: The first time I heard these guys was the song "Underwhelmed" on MTV on a show hosted by Henry Rollins. I don't think it was 120 Minutes, it was just a random two-hour block of programming that they turned over to a cool host to play great music (videos). See, I managed to grab a musical victory out of the snapping jaws of the corporate beast of mediocrity! It must have been around 1992. I loved that song, and I bought all the Sloan albums I could find. None of them are a let down. They're from Nova Scotia, and don't get to the States very often, but when they do -- they're shows should not be missed. One of my top ten favorite live bands. The song I heard today, "Coax Me," is on their Twice Removed CD. If you're interested, start with One Chord To Another, it's bombproof.

05 What We Do Is Secret - The Germs: I've read that the Germs movie is finally happening. Jenny Lens and Alice Bag have stayed involved and written stuff about the film on their sites. The Germs are easily one of the best rock bands of the last 200 years; you cannot overestimate how powerful they are. Not easy to get to at first, but the rewards pay double on your effort. There are a lot of Germs songs scattered on comps and bootlegs, but if you get MIA, you'll have everything you need... for now.

06 Bloody Mother Fucking Asshole - Martha Wainwright: I love this song, and I've been crazy about Martha since I heard her perform "Many Rivers To Cross" at the original St. Ann's Church (Montague Street, Brooklyn) in 1997.

07 Meat Factory (L) - F.O.D.: Who doesn't remember the tail end of the Dead Milkmen song "Nutrition," where Rodney Anonymous says "I'm gonna go to the hardcore show and see F...O...D"? Yeah, you remember. F.O.D. is Flag of Democracy from Philly. I'd catch them at CB's pretty often from '83-'88; in a bill of eight or nine bands, they'd go on first, last, or anywhere in between. I think they're still together and recording on a German label.

08 Working On My Tan - Tim Curry: Deep down inside, I have a hunch that this is a bad song. That fact matters very little to me. I like this song, and hell -- I like the album it comes from, Simplicity. It's way out of print. There must be hundreds of thousands of them in a warehouse somewhere, because I'm sure it didn't ship worth a shit.

09 Standing in the Shower... Thinking - Jane's Addiction: To this day, that I got to see them so many times still makes me feel lucky.

10 Oxgam - Miriam Makeba: One of my favorite Makeba songs. It's from The Magic of Makeba.

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Slap your mammy down, do it yourself: Put your mp3 player or digital jukebox on "shuffle all songs," and let us know the first 10 random songs out the chute.

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[posted with ecto]

On iTunes right now: Baby Out Of Jail from the album Poor Little Critter On The Road by Knitters, The

Comments

[SO'C]

1) Prowler - Iron Maiden
2) Something's Got To Give - Beastie Boys
3) You Got Me Floatin' - Hendrix, Jimi Experience
4) Kill Again - Slayer
5) 6 Underground - Sneaker Pimps
6) Kingdom Of Love - Soft Boys
7) Ramblin' Man - Hank Williams
8) American Dream - Bad Religion
9) Still Loving You - Scorpions
10) Rock Forever [live] - Judas Priest

[walein]

1) "The Blues, Parts 1 & 2"--Artie Shaw (Essence of Artie Shaw). He can title a track "The Blues, Parts 1 & 2" and that says something.

2) "Epistrophy"--Thelonius Monk (Monk's Music). A more swinging tune. Not my favorite but it's "skip rate" is about 35% so it can't be all that bad.

3) "My Girl"--Otis Redding (Live performance from somewhere in the world). I assume that this live performance took place before Redding's plane crash. It's a good version (not great) of the song, the sound quality on his voice is great, the band's sound quality a little less so.

3) "Blues After Hours"--Pee Wee Crayton (Devil in A Blue Dress soundtrack). Sometimes I feel like I have three albums on this goddamned thing and they're all titles "Bluesy Smoosey." This is a great electric blues guitar instrumental, with a piano and a rythm section that sounds about ready for bed. Very simple, very relaxing.

4) "When You Were Mine"--Cyndi Lauper. My girlfriend and I argue about whose version is better. The answer is Lauper's. My GF would leave me for Prince if he asked her to but since he fits in the palm of my hand I don't have any fear of that.

5) "Kiss of Fire"--Louis Armstrong (All-Time Greatest Hits). The song runs that Mack the Knife way but is strictly an old school love song.

6) "Thirteen"--Johnny Cash (American Recordings).

7) "Picking a Bride"--David Byrne (The Last Emperor sountrack). Byrne does half the soundtrack with mostly synth versions of Chinese instrumentation. When I first got the album, many moons ago, I never listened to Byrnes parts on it. I've grown in appreciation since then. Hey Tommy...this might be a good tune for when you're in the CAGE!

8) "This Heart's On Fire"--Wolf Parade (Apologies To The Queen). As my brother Nick says...this is their best song.

9) "Dear Yoko"--John Lennon (Unplugged). Great version of this song.

10) "Under the Boardwalk" (The Drifters). Classic. Especially with the unusually hot summer we've been having out here in SF the past couple of weeks.

[walein]

Correction: # 8 "This Heart's on Fire" is NOT their best song (a mix up on my part). That song would be "I'll believe in Anything"

[tim]

I'm going on the record and saying that Sean O'Connel's daily 10 is one of the best I've ever seen.
Tommy-you really need to lay off the weightlifting posts. All this talk about you "climbing into cages" and "hanging in the air" has kind of an S&M bent to it. I feel icky.....

[SO'C]

Thank you. But I must also credit the randomness of my iPod (version 3).

[Tim]

Dude-
you started it off with Maiden's "Prowler."
Enough said.
Can't beat that

[Nick]

1."Australia" - The Kinks - song about Australia
2."Carry Me" - Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds- song about wanting to be carried
3."To The Garden" - Nick Drake- The fall as metaphor for failed relationship.
4. "Major Leagues"- Professional sports promotion as metaphor for wanting to fix failing relationship.
5. "With Every Wish" - Bruce Springsteen- song about something having to do with the working class.
6. "If I Was Young" - The Raveonettes- English is not their native language, so I forgive them the title of the song.
7. "Pin"- Yeah Yeah Yeahs- Another excuse for singer to sound like Joan Jett.
8. "River Euphrates"- The Pixies- Another excuse for Frank Black to show his brilliance.
9. "Clap Your Hands!"- Clap Your Hands Say Yeah- Explains the name of the band.
10. "Still in Love" - Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds- Singer is still in love even though his wife cuckolded him, then killed him. If I was--strike that--if I were a masochist this would be my favorite song.