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 Blog
April 2008
To the fans of organic music, Every so often I decide I have running skills. This is a delusion. But such is my capacity for self-delusion that I often find myself in cardiovascular situations I have no place to be in. I decided I was going to run the Boston Marathon back in 2005, began to train accordingly, and gave up after a 13-mile Saturday training session because my joints were suffering too much. Recently, a friend told me about a 10-mile race down in Charlottesville, VA, he was planning to run. In my mind, Virginia is fairly warm weather and people who run slower than I; plus, it was a distance I had already run, and was thus feasible. Perfect. I began training in February and marveled at how the pounds slid off. Those of you who have trained for any sort of long-distance running event will recall that weekdays usually feature shorter runs, while Saturday is the 'big' run of the week -- the long haul. On Saturday, March 1 I ran six miles; on March 8 I ran seven. I was supposed to run eight miles the week after, but I caught a cold and chose instead to catch up on bad movies. Nonetheless, I felt sufficiently prepared to run the race. I had once run 13 miles; I had trained regularly; the race was in sun-kissed Virginia. I was invincible. How extraordinary it was, then, to have completed only the third mile of the race and wonder if I would be able to finish. My miscalculations quickly became apparent. One: I had not trained on hills. (As any UVA graduate will tell you, Charlottesville is made of hills.) Two: I had not trained above sea level. (Charlottesville is about a thousand feet up -- nothing at all when you're Sir Edmund Hillary, but it packs a punch for us coastal types, especially over ten miles.) And I was exhausted from a teaching gig the preceding week that had me getting up every morning at 6:30 (don't laugh) and having flown in late the night before. I was dying. And that's just physically speaking. Psychologically, I kicked the bucket in the middle of the first mile, when at least 500 people passed me. (Hot tip: The initial positioning of yourself among your fellow runners is no time for optimism. Don't stand in the middle. Stand at the back. That way, you're sure to pass at least one person, even if it's your mom.) My body was feeling wretched, but my soul wanted to crawl in a hole somewhere. It is one of life's great injustices that those athletes who are well-trained are also the ones who succeed in getting 'in the zone' -- the zone being that benevolent place where sensory input fades, pain dulls, and the mind enters a benevolent, dreamlike state -- while those of us who trained poorly somehow retain the ability to notice and feel everything -- every pound of the pavement, every strain of the quadriceps, every rattling gasp. Our minds become hyper-acute. Pebbles become boulders. A warm sun is a death ball of fire. Ascending a gentle hill is like climbing a rope ladder. It was in this state of mind that I recall, with clarity, many of the exhortations that were verbally thrust upon me. Halfway through Mile 6: "Just keep going -- you'll be there before you know it!" I beg to differ. At the end of Mile 8: "One more hill, that's all you got!" This briefly gave me hope, until I discovered the man was either grievously unperceptive, blind or flat-out lying, as I climbed two hills, three slopes and one cliff, before the finish line appeared. If you're going to encourage me, please do so accurately. And the quote of all quotes, which I picked up while passing some fraternity house (as will soon become apparent) I regret I cannot repeat verbatim, as we try to keep our correspondence as frat-free as we can. But I'm sure your minds can supply the correct term. The quote, delivered by some 20-year-old, beer-swilling future president, was as follows: "Just visualize some [popular male nickname for female mammary glands], you'll make it!" For this guy, clearly, it was still Friday night, not Saturday morning. Strangely enough, I was unable to follow his instructions ... not that it would have helped. Another highlight was the donut stand at Mile 6. An enormous blue sign stretched across the road, with two words on it: <-- RUNNERS DONUTS --> Who am I kidding? I know which of these camps I fall squarely into. But I can pretend, at least, that I am a runner, not a donut-eater. Summoning a willpower and discipline I never knew I had, I chose the straight and narrow path, and ran on. Final time: 1:27. I came in, uh ... 609th. Over two weeks later, I'm still eating fat foods to reward myself. Hey Midwesterners -- we're coming your way! Come on out and catch me with special guest percussionist Blake Lindley in Ohio, Michigan, Illinois and Minnesota. Friday, April 11
Saturday, April 12 Trinity House Theatre, 38840 W. Six Mile, Livonia, MI. A little theatre on the edge of the Detroit metro area, this is always a good show. Call (734)464.6302 for tickets or visit http://www.trinityhouse.org. 8:00pm Thursday, April 17
Friday, April 18
Saturday, April 19
Friday, April 25
Saturday, April 26
Wednesday, April 30
Thursday, May 1
Saturday, May 10
If you've just signed up on this list, welcome. As you can see, it has two purposes: to let you know where I'm playing, and to let you take a break from your spreadsheets. Glad to have you here. So I played this show last week at a big, half-dilapidated old mansion out in Long Island, and it turns out they're going to podcast it. It's called Acoustic Long Island, and all you need to hear the show is iTunes (free at the Apple website). Then simply visit ALI's website (www.acousticlongisland.com) and click on the big, obvious button there, and you get to hear our whole show for free. Our set followed an hour of impressive open mic performers, capped off by an onstage proposal of marriage! Amazing. And very tough to follow, too -- I wish the husband-to-be might have considered our feelings a little more before just stealing the entire spotlight and running off with it. Also: I'm in a movie. Well, two of my songs are, anyway. 'The Cult of Sincerity,' which had its world premiere last night on Youtube (and is distinguished as being the first full-length feature film ever to be released on the site), features my songs 'Assassination Blues' and 'Keep the River on Your Right.' Check it out at http://youtube.com/watch?v=YnsLBEuqsYE. And a final bizarre note of business: If any of you has bought a 'Walking on the World' CD that actually turned out to be an all-xylophone recording of Beatles songs (you read that right) -- please let me know. We had a very strange incident last week in Santa Barbara with a very nice couple who were so excited about their new Jake Armerding CD that they immediately put it into their car stereo after the show and were dismayed to find it wasn't exactly what they ordered. Juuuust checking. Lots of love, and Happy Spring. Jake
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