Happy Halloween For Me

"The cottage is windswept now there's only sorrow here follow evacuation signs
You're detached and broken and so sentimental now remembering how we passed out time
Ohh ohh,ohh ohh somebody waits for me ohh ohh,ohh ohh far beyond our halloween
Germanic forces marching on concrete squares our love is just defenceless sound
And could we believe all that you said was true we could be so determined now
Slowly emerging dividing Germany,everyone's lost in east Berlin
And only believing in just what you want to hear,we're waiting in stations once again
Ohh ohh,ohh ohh somebody waits for me,ohh ohh,far beyond our halloween"

Halloween-Japan

Well here we are again in "back tracking mode" been a lot of that recently,anywho Saturday's freakish weather not only put the kybosh on my track repeats but running period,in fact the weather was so nasty I said to hell w/ it and took a "zen like" approach to my recliner for the day,when life gives you lemons........however the fall out of that was come Sunday I now had all of Saturdays chores(pay the rent,go food shopping), on top of laundry and work everything around calling home to talk to my mother and getting a phone call from my brother,add in the clocks going back in England already that added another wrinkle to the whole thing and frankly fitting in my regular Sunday 12 miler seemed unlikely,I guess if I absolutely,positively had to get my 12 miler in I'd have worked around my schedule like I have countless times b4 and no doubt will countless times again but in a week that had seem me already miss a bunch of runs I figured one more wasn't going to matter,after all I'm meant to be in taper mode for this Sunday's race.

Putting all of last weeks woes behind me I got out yesterday for an easy 8 miler,this is an easy week,it'll be easy 6 milers tomorrow through Thursday b4 2 days off in prep for Sunday as I aim to erase my oldest pr in the books(27 years.....this sucker needs to go!!!) also this could be my final week of runs along Cobbs Creek Parkway,w/ the clocks going back on Sunday I may need to switch up my runs down Spruce St and over South St bridge for my 6 milers,out to the Art Museum along the Schuylkill Banks for my 8 milers and out along Kelly Drive to Girard bridge for my 10 milers as parts of my out and back along trusy and these days leafy CCP will be pitch black(mainly the section through the park after Baltimore Ave upto CCP and then in reverse on the way back) but this is an issue for next week but if this is my swansong along CCP till it begins getting lighter in the evenings next late Feb/early March then sobeit.

Given my born again black hearted celtic pagan nature it's no surprise that Halloween is one of my favourite days on the calender...it is after all a Pagan holiday!!! and this year I had two reasons to cheer,my beloved "Land Of The Lost" which got bumped from it's regular last Friday of the month time slot got a 3 hour slot tonite between 8pm-11pm,3 hours of the dark side of new wave lots of Bauhaus,Sisters Of Mercy,Siouxsie & The Banshees,and of course The Cure which was the other reason I was a happy camper.

Earlier this year The Cure performed their first three albums(yep there I go again showing my age.....albums...!)in two shows in Australia which were filmed for dvd release later this year but the clamour for them to reprise these shows resulted in a one off 7 show series,1 in London,3 in LA and 3 in New York at The Beacon over Thanksgiving Day weekend,tickets went on sale today(the irony ) and I managed to snag a ticket for the third and final show on Nov 27th,get ready Big Apple I'll be getting my goth on,christ upper Manhattan is going to resemble something like "the children of the corn" as the black clad masses descend from far and wide for those three shows.....happy goth? is that a massive contradiction?who knows,who cares,me a couple of hundred like minded souls and The Cure in NYC....it truly is a Happy Halloween!!!!

Twenty Four Twenty Four Split

Well,so much for a final 3x2mile track repeat b4 The Bridge Run 10K next Sunday,I woke up to pouring rain which put the kybosh on that for me,then remarkably the rain turned to snow.....yep friggin snow at the end of October which reminds me a classic line from Colm Mealey in the movie "The Van" when him and his buddy are sitting on a beach freezing and he says"global warming me bollocks"!!!!!

W/ no run to occupy my day I had more time to ponder the other big anniversary of the week,24 years since I left home and everything I knew in South East London and moved to Philadelphia here on the east coast of the United States.
To say things didn't quite go to plan would be an understatement but here I am 24 years later still carving out a life for myself.
I recall a relative of mine saying b4 I upped sticks that "if you don't go 10 years from now you'll regret you didn't" well 10 years was a while back,tack on another 14 years and I find myself having lived here in Philly as long as I lived in South East London.

Do I regret it?......no,in life I've learnt that all the regrets in the world don't change the facts and while there are several parts I'd "do over" again in a heartbeat the fact is life doesn't come w/ a how to handbook you're going to make mistakes....and boy have there been some howlers but life's a learning process and hopefully you learn from your mistakes.
So next year marks a quarter of a century out here,a year later I'll turn 50,were I that way inclined I''d be planning a couple of blow out parties but I somehow doubt that'll happen......unless one of those unexpected curve balls life tends to hurl your way from the mound meets my bat and I hit the sucker out of the park.......hey after 24 years here in America a little baseball is bound to have rubbed off on me but as I always say and probably always will
''you can take the boy out of South East London,but you'll NEVER take the South East London out of the boy".....oi!!!!!!!!!!!

If It's The Last Friday Of The Month......

"You go down,down past The Talk Of The Town you go down Greek Street then it's underground
Well it's Soho life for this mobile life it's the place to shoot,Friday night Beat Route"

Chant Number One-Spandau Ballet

At least in theory it was.....after a crap week and a long day all I could think about was getting my post work chores taken care of,showered and shaved, making dinner and then settling in for four hours of 80's tunes on ''Land Of The Lost" and hanging out in the chat room.........however nobody informed me this months installment of LOTL has been moved to Monday to accommodate the first of two 20th Anniversary concerts for Wxpn..........

Rather then get pissy about it it does mean Halloween just got a lot more fun on Monday nite!!!!!

Be Kind To My Mistakes

"Sailing down behind the sun waiting for my prince to come
Praying for the healing rain to restore my soul again
Just a toerag on the run how did I get here?what have I done?
When will all my hopes arise?how will I know him?
When I look in my father's eyes,my fathers eyes
When I look in my father's eyes,my father's eyes
Then the light begins to shine,and I hear those ancient lullabies"

My Father's Eyes-Eric Clapton

We all have those pivotal dates I our lives when things changed,for me two of the biggest "game changers" fall w/in 2 days of one another and are separated by three years.
On Saturday October 27th 1984 I returned home from a rare Saturday at work on overtime to make the grim discovery that my father had died from a heart attack in his bedroom.
At 51 I hadn't seen that coming so it was a shock to the system to say the very least and suddenly life as I knew it had changed dramatically overnite.

Some 27 years have passed since then,there's not a day goes by I don't think about my father,had he not've died when he did I'm reasonably sure I wouldn't have ended up here in America three years and two days later but that's the kind of curve ball life throws you when you least expect it
and sometimes things happen for a reason that you just can't fathom how or why.
As a mark of respect every October 27th I go to the local catholic church in center city and lite a candle and say a prayer for him,gone but not forgotten and while I'm confident I've done things in the past 27 years he wouldn't understand or approve I'd like to think through my running I've made him proud.

My relationship w/ Kevin in running was often mirrored by that of Peter and Seb Coe,Peter Coe always said he had no running background to draw from but felt nobody was better suited to train his son than him,ditto for Kevin and me and like Peter Coe my father could be brutal after a race,the infamous post Moscow 800m final quote from Peter to Seb was a scene too often played out between Kevin and I,I resented his "second isn't good enough" approach to me when I was younger but in the subsequent years since his untimely passing that "fear of losing" has stood me in good stead,god forbid I went home after a race and hadn't won but his "tough love" attitude when I was younger is often the driving force these days to be the best I can be,it wasn't a fear of losing,it was a dread of facing him if I hadn't won that shaped my early running career these days his harsh attitude has molded me in to a tougher runner that I could ever of been if he'd sat back and placated me w/ a "you did your best,that's all you could do" attitude.

Surfice to say grey skies and the omnipresent threat of rain would not deter me from my 8 mile this evening,dead or alive that sort of attitude would not be tolerated by "the ould fella" so I got out and made the most of it,somewhere hopefully in heaven he's proud to see his iron fist in a velvet glove still holds court over a quarter of a century since his untimely departure

Every Picture Tells A Story

Greater Philadelphia Track Club M40 Masters Nationals 5k XC Bronze medal winners
From left to right,Me,Gene Tung,Andy Shearer,Chris Caroll,Dave Brown.

It's Funny,Cos It's True

Back tracking slightly,Sunday I ran 12 miles to round out my week at 53 miles
I had 41 going in and could've easily just ran 9 to round out my week at 50 but frankly if I was going to get out there and run 9 miles I might as well run 12.

Feeling the effects of a long week between Duran Duran,Howard Jones and Rochester I woke up Monday feeling run down,it felt like someone had put a faucet in my nose and sandpapered my throat when I woke up and at that time the prospect of a run post work seemed remote,getting to work to be informed my co worker had called out sick for two days meant I now had to pull double duty on top of feeling like crap,I knew a run was flying in the face of it so I sat out Monday.

Tuesday I felt better, the nose was still running but my throat felt better,I was tempted to run but thought better of it,w/ The Bridge Run 10k 11 days away now was as good a time as any to taper,w/ 10 weeks of 50 miles a week under my belt I could back off a little this week and next week,left to my own devices I might've looked at another 50 mile week this week but now having sat out two days this week hitting 50 mpw wasn't happening this week and there's no need for it next week either.

Wednesday out for an easy 8 miler, after two days off it felt good to be back out running again,having missed 2 days was bad enough but the fact they were in the low to mid 60's was galling,as we enter the tail end of October there's a feeling each nice day out there could be the last and missing one is a sin,two is unforgivable.
Fingers crossed I can get out there again tomorrow,I plan to rest Friday so that I can be fresh on Saturday for my final track workout b4 next Sunday plus it's the last Friday of the month which means "Land Of The Lost" on WXPN w/ Robert Drake which is a nite I like to be home early,chores done,showered and shaved b4 dinner and free to sample 4 hours of 80's tunes and the high jinx of the Land Of The Lost chat room.

I couldn't resist the photo of the kitten and the asperger caption,Precious has gotten a lot more vocal since turning a year old,maybe felines get "the terrible twos" early but she's becoming more of a handful these days but if memory serves me her big brother Hobbes was a rambunctious little devil when he was younger but he outgrew it and hopefully Precious will too,judging from the two hours of almost non stop running around after I returned from Rochester on Saturday she truly is my cat,and judging from the fact she's now curled up on my lap as I type she is a "daddies girl" and it's hard not to love her .....even if I'm getting called all sorts of names!!!!

Howard Jones An Everlasting Love

"There was a time there was nothing at all,nothing at all just a distant hum
There was a being and he lived on his own he had no one to talk to and nothing to do
He drew up the plans,learnt to work w/ his hands a million years passed by and his work was done and his words were these
Hope you find it in everything,everything that you see,hope you find it in everything that you see
Hope you find it,hope you find it,hope you find me in you"

Hide And Seek-Howard Jones.

Much like Mondays show w/ Duran Duran where I wasn't blown away w/ their debut single in 1981 ''Planet Earth" but then fell in love w/ them afterwards fast forward some eighteen months to September of 1983 Howard Jones's debut single "New Song" was released,it was ok and w/out it we wouldn't have discovered Ho Jo but it was his second single,"What Is Love?" that really captured my imagination and thus began my love affair w/ Ho Jo and his unique brand of synth pop.
To my chagrin I never saw Howard live in his prime,his debut album "Human's Lib" was released in 1984 but sadly his London date on the Human's Lib tour at(where else Hammersmith Odean) clashed w/ The Alarm around the corner at Hammersmith Palais) I'd discovered The Alarm earlier that year and their Dec 23rd Hammersmith Palais was my 4th Alarm gig that year,meanwhile "Our Kid" went to see Howie w/ his girlfriend at the Odean,over the following 27 years we've often joked about that nite,he was gung ho to see The Alarm w/ me till he found out Lisa had tickets for Ho Jo,sure I busted his chops(that's what big brothers do!)but I sometimes wish I'd seen Howie.......

Somewhere in a shoe box in the basement is a 120 cassette of Howard Jones live in concert,back in the day Radio One used to broadcast either two half hour concert segments or one hour long concert on Saturday evenings in their "In Concert" series,that was as close as I ever got to seeing him though I was the proud owner of "Human's Lib" "The 12'' Album" and "Dream Into Action" and I'm sure several of his 12'' singles.

In either the summer of 97 or 98 I finally got to see him....barely! on the "Rewind Tour" that summer it was Howard Jones,The Human League and Culture Club finally a chance to see Ho Jo and Boy George and Culture club who I'd never seen and my first Human League gig since the first time time I saw them in 81.
I only caught half of Howie thanks to "cloth ears" my then and now ex girlfriend and her inability to listen to me"don't take 76 to The Mann Music Center the off ramp will be backed up to the hilt".....did she see listen.....NO! we sat in traffic forever,had to park miles away when we finally got there and subsequently missed half of Ho Jo,pissed was an understatement on my behalf while her defence was "I don't really like Howard Jones I didn't see the need to rush to get there".......and that dear ex is why you are an ex and Howard Jones is still a part of my life!!!!

Fast forwarding to the present when I learnt Howard was bringing his "Human's Lib/Dream Into Action" tour to America it was a no brainer,the chance to see him live after all this time and the opportunity to hear both albums in their entirety live was too good to pass up,I even found a way past my dislike for The Keswick in Glenside,I wouldn't say it's my least favourite concert venue but prior to Thursday I'd only been there once in 24 years,but Keswick or not I was going.
The whole album/albums tour is a good one,artists have been doing it for a few years now,last September Gary Numan performed 'The Pleasure Principle'' Stiff Little Fingers did "Inflammable Material" a few years back,earlier this year Echo & The Bunnymen performed their first two albums"Crocodiles" and "Heaven Up Here" a show I sadly missed but did catch The Church perform three albums "Untitled #23" "Priest=Aura" and "Starfish".

Each band has there own way of doing the whole album Stiff Little Fingers performed the whole album over the course of the show,Gary Numan did the whole album start to finish in the order it runs on album/cd but Ho Jo decided to mix up the running order of both albums
Opening w/ "Pearl In The Shell" instead of "Conditioning" Ho Jo would remark that performing the album in it's correct sequence would mean"getting all the hits up front" and then added w/ a smile"well they're all hits but you know what I mean!!!"
Ably backed up w/ a second keyboard player and drummer and using a video screen Howard faithfully performed his 84 debut to a grateful audience,I won't lie I haven't listened to "Human's Lib" or "Dream Into Action" in eons but did recently upgrade from vinyl to cd and will be downloading them onto my Ipod as soon as I workout why the pc won't recognise a new Ipod and allow me to sync the bugger,I may have to go "old school" and listen to them on my discman till then!!!

Taking a short intermission Ho Jo returned to perform "Dream Into Action" he dedicated "Look Mama" to his mother who used to run his fan club for him along w/ his father.
Hearing "Hunger For The Flesh" again after TOO long of an absence was worth the price of admission much like hearing "Don't Always Look At The Rain" and "Conditioning" off of "Human's Lib" gems I hadn't forgotten,just hadn't heard in way too long.
B4 calling it a nite Howie shed light on the fact that "not all 80's keyboard players idolized Kraftwerk" and how the Musician Union wanted to ban him back in the day for playing all the instruments on his keyboard" and the old chestnut that all he had to do was program his keyboard and not show up for his own gigs which was a frequent put down in the mid 80's.
B4 closing w/ "Things Can Only Better" Howard mentioned not really caring about winning awards or readers polls but how a 4th grade teacher had once emailed him and asked if she could use "Things Can only Get Better" as her class theme tune,that was an accolade he could live w/ the 80's might have been the era of Yuppies,the Me Generation and Gordon Gekko's "greed is good" but there was something wholesome about a 4th grade teacher using "Things Can Only Get Better" for he class theme tune.......and that's one of the reason's I still and always will love the 80's.