Today's lesson - G

The Teach Erica Something World Tour: New England Edition has mostly consisted of teaching Erica to use power tools.  Today, however, something a little bit different:

Teach Erica Something Lessons Two and Three

Man, I love Berkeley.  I'm definitely going there in my next life.

This road trip, number 1 of 3, is off to an amazingly wonderful start.  Great times with good friends and excellent lessons!  Teach Erica Something Lesson Two was how to play the very nerdy game Dominion.  I failed kind of disastrously at my first game, but I still learned how to play, so it counts, and any game in which I can say the sentence "I'm going to Throne Room my Festival to buy a Province" and have it make actual sense is a win in my book.

Plus, I had drank a Whole Entire Beer by time the game was halfway through and for me, that's A LOT.  That's like, RDB's Totally Sloshed (cheap date, anyone?), so I am willing to cut myself a little slack.  Lesson Two was immediately followed by Lesson Three: how to play the ukulele.  The ukulele!!  I learned four chords and one strum pattern, and apparently I can play about half of North America's popular music with just that.

So fantastic.  And that whole day began with an extremely exhilarating ride on a friend's motorcycle.  We ride for a little bit and he says to me, "Isn't it nice to remember you have adrenaline?"

  I AM A HAPPY GIRL.

L'educazione, Seconda parte

Tonight's Italian movie was Mid-August Lunch (Pranzo di ferragosto). Terrible.

Obsessed with this song:

Started Italian class the other day, and started listening to the very cute "Drive & Learn Italian" cds in my car last week. I remember having this Berlitz Hebrew tape when I was a kid and I thought it was such a good cultural lesson, in addition to language instruction, because the English speaker would say some polite thing in an upbeat-but-polite manner, "thank you very much!" and the Israeli would say, "ehh, toda raba, toda raba" like he'd rather be anywhere else, doing anything else, than saying thank you. So I'm having that experience again, but reversed: these Italian speakers are So. Happy. To. Speak. Italian. Every word is a jubilant song. Adorable.




Hey, today is 9/10/11. Cute, no?

Nobody? Nobody?

You all texted or emailed to complain either about prescriptivism or "to a lesser degree" lonely but no one, no one noticed that pesky subject/verb agreement thing?

Sigh.

A Running Year in Review; or, Yay Me.

We recently passed the one-year anniversary of my first marathon-training run - it was on Halloween, 2009.

I have run 4 marathons since that day, within about 9 months.

I have run over 383 miles since then. That's not a big number for a runner, but I'm not a runner; I'm a girl who decided to do a couple few several marathons. Four of those miles occurred after my last marathon, but I still don't really intend to do much more running. It's on to biking for me - much better for the knees!

An extremely important fact I'd like you to know: over the course of this whole temporary insanity, I have not lost even one toenail. None have turned black, ever. I hear constantly about this phenomenon and I just skipped it entirely, thank you.

I ran two of these marathons for friendship and two for charities. For the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society I raised over $5000. For the Blue Card Fund (for needy Holocaust survivors) I raised another $2500. If you helped make that happen, I thank you from the bottom of my heart.

The NYC marathon was a really hard one for me physically. I was tired, jetlagged, sick, and not well-trained. It was still a glorious day and it meant the world to me that my family came out to support me (did you see that amazing video???? I am so obsessed with it) and that a dear friend flew into town just to be there for me. I am so grateful and I will never forget it.

I posted my marathon playlist after the LA marathon and I won't repeat it, but I did add a few songs for this one, for example:
Go Go Erica Yaa Yeah / Goldma Family 1:25
(the audio from that video!!)

In honor of running NY:
The Only Living Boy In New York / Simon & Garfunkel 4:02
New York State Of Mind / Billy Joel 6:03
New York Mining Disaster / The Bee Gees 2:09
An Englishman In New York / Sting 4:27
New York City / They Might Be Giants 3:02
The 59th Street Bridge Song (Feelin' Groovy) / Simon & Garfunkel 1:43
I kind of threw them into the mix wherever, without calculation, but don't you know THE 59TH STREET BRIDGE SONG CAME ON WHILE I WAS RUNNING ACROSS THE 59TH STREET BRIDGE!! Oh yes.

(Empire State of Mind (Jay-Z and Alicia Keys) was already on there)

And, in honor of having come straight from a yoga and mediation tour of India, a few mantras and related songs:
Mahamrityunjaya Mantra 4:28
Lokah Samasta 1:07
Om Tryambakam with Swami Vishnu-devananda 1:14
Loka Samastha Sukhino Bhavantu 1:08
Gobinda Gobinda Hari Hari / Snatam Kaur Khalsa 10:47

And that's the end of my marathon career! Right?

86 songs, 5.4 hours, 346.9 MB

Ok, remember how I ran these coupla marathons and said that I'd post my iPod music playlist and never did it? So, a coupla months later and a week before I walk a half-marathon with a group of friends (some of whom I haven't met yet) (except one might end up not walking at all, and one might do the full instead of the half, and honestly if we aren't doing it together then I'm gonna wanna run instead of walk and in that case, why do only a half? Please, someone stop me from running my third marathon next week!!)... what was I saying? Oh yeah, here's the playlist.

If I were to do a marathon right now, a few songs would be added immediately to the list: Gaga's Alejandro, and a couple of Mumford and Sons songs, especially "Little Lion Man", to which I've linked so you can listen to it incessantly, like I've been doing.

Ok, five+ hours of music to run to, if you're me... plus occasional commentary.

This is very nearly the list I ran to in New Orleans, but with modifications made for Los Angeles.

We start out with a bunch of silly KIIS FM-style stuff, songs with a great beat and which I can sing along to in a totally mindless manner, without really paying attention to it:

Bad Romance / Lady GaGa
Paparazzi / Lady GaGa
Hard feat Young Jeezy / Rihanna
Whatcha Say / Jason Derulo
Scared Of Lonely / Beyoncé
Sweet Dreams / Beyonce
Empire State of Mind (feat. Alicia Keys) / Jay-Z
American Boy (Radio Edit w/ Kanye) / Estelle
Halo / Beyonce
Human / The Killers ["Are we human, or are we dancer?" How can I not love this song?]
Carry Out / Timbaland

Then, the more meaningful stuff starts. The next two songs are from the video "Running to Tyler", more inspiration to run to beat cancer.
If Everyone Cared / Nickelback
Chasing Cars / Snow Patrol

Then a few more good-beat mostly-mindless songs.
Baby Boy (Ft. Sean Paul) / Beyonce
Crazy in Love (ft. Jay-Z) / Beyonce
Naughty Girl / Beyonce
Lucifer / Jay Z [LOVE this song. Thank you, Alex Garry.]
Kick Push / Lupe Fiasco [LOVE this song. Thank you, Laura Katz.]
Independent Women (Part 1) / Destiny's Child
Lose Yourself / Eminem

Now the really meaningful and personal choices. Great stuff, great run. (Oh man, so much '80s stuff! What can I say?)
Lighten Up / The Beastie Boys
Fast As I Can / Erin McKeown [One of my favorite songs ever.]
Ooh Child Things Are Gonna Get Easier / The Five Stairsteps
Baby's Got Sauce / G Love and Special Sauce
Mr Brownstone / Guns N' Roses [One of the BEST moments of the NoLA run!]
The Girl From Ipanema / Stan Getz & Astrud Gilberto [My favorite song ever]
Physical / Olivia Newton John
Hit Me With Your Best Shot / Pat Benatar
Hey Mickey / Toni Basil
Because The Night / 10,000 Maniacs
She Said She Said / The Beatles [My favorite Beatles song]
Birchovot Paris / Yair Ziv [The only Israeli song!!]
Rock the Cradle of Love / Billy Idol
Fighter / Christina Aguilera [This song, with its specific lyrics, came on at precisely the right moment in NoLA, given what I was passing at that moment... serious serendipity.]
Laid / James
Mighty Quinn / Manfred Mann
Girlfriend / Matthew Sweet
The Way You Make Me Feel / Michael Jackson [Sexiest MJ song]
Porch / Pearl Jam
7 / Prince
Belleville Rendez-vous (French) / The Triplets of Belleville
Cantaloop / Us3
Livin on a Prayer / Bon Jovi
Gett Off / Prince
It Feels So Good / Sonique
You Give Love A Bad Name / Bon Jovi

Now, 30 minutes of pure soul-lifting Revelations joy!!
I Been Buked / Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater
Didn't My Lord Deliver Daniel / Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater
Fix Me Jesus / Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater
Processional / Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater
Honor, Honor / Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater
Wade In The Water / Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater
I Wanna Be Ready / Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater
Sinner Man / Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater
The Day Is Past And Gone / Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater
You May Run On / Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater
Rocka My Soul In The Bosom Of Abraham / Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater

We Built This City / Jefferson Starship
We Belong / Pat Benatar
Aqualung / Jethro Tull
Dancing In Heaven (Orbital Be-Bop) / Q-Feel
Embryonic Journey / Jefferson Airplane
Eye of the Tiger / Survivor <--- of course!
I Feel Free / Eric Clapton
Informer / Snow
My Sharona / The Knack
Where did you sleep last night / Nirvana
Killing In The Name Of / Rage Against The Machine
Youth Gone Wild / Skid Row
18 And Life / Skid Row
Home Sweet Home / Motley Crue
Non je ne regrette rien / Edith Piaf
Somebody To Love / Jefferson Airplane
Piece Of My Heart / Janis Joplin
Nights In White Satin / The Moody Blues [Not at all a running song, but how could I not? Breathe Deep.]
Untouchable Face / Ani DiFranco
Crucify / Tori Amos
Standing Outside a Broken Phonebooth / Primitive Radio Gods
White Rabbit / Jefferson Airplane
Baba O'Reilly [Live] / The Who **SUCH A GOOD RUNNING SONG**
Blister In The Sun / Violent Femmes
Danger Zone (Top Gun) / Kenny Loggins
Expression / Salt N' Pepa
Here Comes The Rain Again / Eurythmics
La Isla Bonita / Madonna
Maniac (Flashdance) / Michael Sembello

It's been interesting to make this list, because it's clearly not a list of just my favorite songs - most of my really favorite songs are soulful and moody and not at all fit for spurring on an exhausted runner. No Joni Mitchell? Barely any Tori, Ani, Regina? No Simon and Garfunkel or Arlo Guthrie? Just not running stuff, as much as I may love it.

I also have a 3-hour California mix I love, and since I was going to be running the streets of Los Angeles, I had trouble resisting the urge to dump a bunch of L.A.-themed stuff in there. I mean, how funny to be listening to "Nobody walks in L.A.", right? Still, most of that stuff isn't runny, so it wasn't for the marathon. That's a different playlist.

JogBlog2 (and 3, let's say)

I couldn't go to my mid-week team run on Wednesday, so I ran on my own on Thursday, around my neighborhood. In keeping with RDB's patented method of not-boring-your-socks-off, here's the playlist. I did not choose this in advance; apparently my iPod wanted me to have a very mellow chick-singer run:

Somedays / 3:22 / Regina Spektor
Crucify / 4:59 / Tori Amos
Silent All These Years / 4:12/ Tori Amos
Happy Phantom / 3:17 / Tori Amos
Me And A Gun / 3:45 / Tori Amos
Work Your Way Out / 3:41 / Ani DiFranco
Tom's Diner / 3:47 / DNA feat. Suzanne Vega
Days Go By / 7:08 / Dirty Vegas
Bittersweet / 6:13 / Big Head Todd and The Monsters
Blues Pt2 - crazy extendo-version / 11:46 / Blood Sweat & Tears
(but I only got about halfway through that song.) I ran about 4.5 miles in about 49 minutes. My mom was visiting from Florida this week, so we went out together, I to run and she to walk. I was criss-crossing my neighborhood and she was walking up a street, so there were a few minutes in the middle there where we met up and stopped to chat, so I wasn't exactly worrying about my pace. It was a lovely morning.

AND THEN WHAT DID I DO YESTERDAY? WHAT DID I DO FOR THE FIRST TIME IN MY LIFE?

I. Ran. 10. Miles.

TEN MILES.

in 95 minutes. Yeahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh.

Have you contributed to my fundraiser yet? Like, the whole reason I'm doing this? Thank you so much to those of you who have!!!!

RunBlog0

So, I've always been interested in running a marathon (and by "always" I mean since summer of 2002 when I first read The Philosopher's Diet and then The Long Run Solution) and I've spent a lot of years thinking about doing it and saying that I will *someday* run a marathon... just not today. And during that time I've read some very inspirational and wonderful books on running and it's probably the case that until now, I've spent more cumulative time reading about running than I have actually running. And when I meet someone who tells me they have run a marathon, I'm always very interested and I think I'd be very interested in reading their stories about the experience, and it does seem that almost everyone who runs a marathon keeps a blog about it and posts endless narratives with the details of mileage and injury and hunger and hydration levels and... I find them just mind-numbingly boring, I'm truly sorry to say. This is something I *think* I want to read about, but apparently I don't actually.

So.

So here we are, at the moment in my life in which I am not just talking about running or reading about running but ACTUALLY running. And actually training for my big MARATHON... and I have a BLOG... and I do NOT want to bore you to tears with the details.

So we're going to do this instead. My runs with Team In Training are necessarily iPod-free, so I'll just say this: First Saturday = 3 miles. Second Saturday = 4 miles. Tonight, however, was my first training run sans-team, meaning it was con-iPod and instead of giving you the details of my mental state at each moment, I'm gonna tell you what songs came on while I ran:

Wednesday 11/11/09

Deror Yik'ra / 3:40 / ESTA
If I Had $1000000 / 9:19 / Barenaked Ladies
The Old Apartment / 3:22 / Barenaked Ladies
It Feels So Good / 3:49 / Sonique
We Built This City / 4:49 / Starship
Mad About You-Ian / 3:53 / Sting
An Englishman In New York / 4:27 / Sting
Long Way Down / 4:00 / Michael Penn - but I only got halfway through it...

I ran about 2.8 miles (according to the very cool runningmap.com) in a very leisurely fashion, walking sometimes, stopping to get a schedule of the dance classes at a studio I passed, etc. According to the above playlist, I was out there for about 35 minutes, which means it was slooooooow going, (which it always is when I'm alone, yet a non-trying-hard timed mile last Saturday took me about 9:45) but it wasn't meant to be fast - it was just meant to BE.

So that's my plan, for the runs I do on my own - I'm gonna give you the playlist. Fun? Fun.

HAVE I MENTIONED YET THAT THIS WHOLE THING IS A FUNDRAISER FOR THE LEUKEMIA AND LYMPHOMA SOCIETY AND I CAN'T EVEN GO ON THE RUN IF I DON'T RAISE AT LEAST $3,800, WHICH I JUST REALIZED IS $145 PER MILE?? HERE I GO OFFICIALLY RUINING MY SUPER TOP SECRET REAL IDENTITY, ALL FOR THE CAUSE: HERE IS THE LINK TO MY FUNDRAISING PAGE. NOW YOU CAN DONATE AND SUPPORT ME YAAAAAAYYYYYYY FOOOORRRRRRRR YOOOOOUUUUU! thank you so much. More on the Leukemia/fundraising aspect of this to come.

Mary Travers has died.

ERIKA WITH THE WINDY YELLOW HAIR
Travers/Holdridge-
Cherry Lane Music Publishing Co., Inc. -ASCAP.

(spoken)
Erika with the windy yellow hair
Dancing through the day or moping by the stair
My joy to know my Erika with the windy yellow hair

Yesterday I met her running home from school
Her face was tear stained, she didn't know I knew
But I do, I do

Today she had a song to sing and a poem she knew
And with a kiss and a hug she dashed away, she had things to do
I do too, I do too

Lithesome child, I turn with care
When viewing you on step or stair
All my hope and love for you,
My Erika of the windy yellow hair

I give in: Pandora rules. (aka Music To Pack By)

That's it. Especially using Erin McKeown to build a station. I got Regina Spektor and Tracy Chapman and Ani DiFranco immediately. Hells yeah.

Oooh, and then I added Dan Bern to my channel, so they started giving me Bob Dylan and Loudon Wainwright III and Sondre Lerche. Goddamn.

"We'll wave like we're pretty."

If you took some of the things I love best, and you mixed them all together, like let's say:

Aimee Mann + FRENTE! + "The Science of Sleep" + Regina Spektor + Kimya Dawson + Ani DiFranco + "Amelie" + Erin McKeown + Feist + Jenny Owen Youngs + Sharpie markers + Sia + Dar Williams...

You might end up with Kate Micucci. Go now to KateMicucci.com (or her myspace page) and bask in her adorableness.

And come with me to see "Playin with Micucci" every last Monday of the month at the Steve Allen Theater.

Here's something I love about her lyrics that does *not* have to do with her utter adorability: she does this internal rhyme thing that I've always loved and found fascinating, where it isn't exactly the ends of lines that always rhyme, sometimes the rhyme is in the middle, or the rhymes come where you don't necessarily expect them. Also she doesn't settle for the easy ones... like in "Just Begun", she sings:
Can't you see that
You're not 63 yet?
instead of just going with the easier and more obvious:
Can't you see
You're not 63?

But of course, you just gotta listen or see her. Wow.

[Yes, of course I also love Tori Amos. No, I never got into Kate Bush. If you want to recommend or send me a specific song, I will try again.]