Alexandersmap

    Month: May 2020

    • Masked Regard

      When I was first out of college I worked in construction to support my coaching habit.  By habit I meant I was trying to make a living coaching crew, but rowing at the time wasn’t a particularly lucrative field (but still the best job I’ve ever had).  Working on construction sites was the first time I wore a mask in public, not counting Halloween, and it felt perfectly normal to me to be wearing a mask that kept the nasty stuff floating in the air from entering my lungs.  But I remember watching a demo crew take down a wall using a power cutter, which looks like a chain saw with a giant spinning wheel that could take your arm off in one second.  Those guys attacked that cinder block wall and had it down in ten minutes and carted away in another ten.  Time is money, and they hustled.  Not one of those guys was wearing a dust mask, and only the guy cutting the wall was wearing safety glasses.  The clouds of dust kicked up by that power cutter were impressive, and I remember shaking my head at the stupidity of not protecting your lungs from the assault.

      Fast forward to the current COVID-19 pandemic we’re all living through.  I’m on my third mask, and it seems the third time is the charm in comfort level achieved.  The first time I wore a mask was to the market, where I’d grown uncomfortable with the casual disregard for social distancing by some of the unmasked, unconcerned patrons.  It felt strange to be wearing it, but I quickly learned that I was more uncomfortable not wearing it.  I bumped into an old friend in the market one day last week, me in a mask, he unmasked, and I mumbled something about wearing it because I’d promised my wife I’d wear it…  but a week later I’m less inclined to make some silly excuse for having it on. Just as that dust mask protected my lungs from construction dust on that job site years ago, this cloth mask offers a small measure of protection from whatever respiratory droplets you’re exhaling while generously reciprocating and keeping my own respiratory droplets safely captured in my mask.  Seems logical to me.

      But then I see the videos of the Constitution bangers crowding into a coffee shop in Colorado or protesting in close quarters with firearms draped across their backs, all of them unmasked, and I can’t help thinking about the geniuses cutting that wall down with no regard for their health.  At least those guys weren’t infecting their parents and grandparents with that construction dust.  We’re living in an experiment in Social Darwinism, coupled with epic narcissistic selfishness.  There’s no doubt the United States messed this one up in not having a better pandemic response preparation, in not having enough testing available to support the population, and in not having enough inventory in ventilators and Personal Protective Equipment…  like masks.  But collectively we own our behavior now, in this current reality, and not enough people are stepping up. The sooner we get beyond the current crisis the sooner the economy will rebound, so man up and do your part.

      At some point the world will return to normal, people will know whether they have or have had COVID-19, and the wearing of a mask in public may seem unnecessary again.  But I don’t believe it will ever again seem strange to see someone wearing one at the airport or walking through the train station.  We’ve been collectively educated through adversity, and masks are the new normal.  For those who choose to walk around without them, I marvel at the disregard.  The collective sacrifice of millions compromised by a percentage of indignant outliers.  But that’s the world we find ourselves in now, hoping for herd immunity and shrugging at the tens of thousands of deaths as if it were a conspiracy to infringe on your rights.  Simply getting over yourself and wearing a mask, washing your hands and maintaining appropriate social distancing doesn’t seem like much of a sacrifice.  I view it as my overall regard for the well-being of others to wear a mask and practice social distancing, and I appreciate yours.

    • Going to Do

      “What’s the me in ten years going to think about what I did today?” – Hugh Howie, TKP Interview

      I wrote a 500 word post Friday night about what I was going to do, read it and tucked it away in the drafts folder. I won’t write about what I’m going to do, I’m just going to do it and write about it after I’ve accomplished something. I have nothing against planning, but I’ve been caught in the trap of making bold claims and not getting there. No more “We will go to the moon” proclamations, just set the goal and get it done. And then I listened to a couple of The Knowledge Project (TKP) podcast interviews I’ve been meaning to get to, and it clarified my thoughts on the matter. I’ve noted my short-term goals, and I’ll pursue them earnestly, but quietly.

      “A lot of our calcification, the inability to break our stasis and launch our lives in a different direction is the feeling that we should have done it ten years ago and we’ve lost the opportunity and now we can’t do it.  But ten years from now we’re going to think the same thing about this very moment, today…  whatever you think you could have done five or ten years ago to change the direction of your life, you can do that right now, today, and make that deflection point, that decision…” – Hugh Howie, TKP Interview

      I can look back and see deflection points throughout my life. Places where I did something that led me to something else that led me here. We all can, really. And sometimes you’ll wish you’d done this or that other thing along the way, or done more of something that clearly would have brought you further down the path to where you wish you were at. But Howie turns that around and points to the future you looking back on you today. Today is your deflection point – what will you do with it?

      And that brings me to another TKP podcast that the interviewer Shane Parrish highlighted in his newsletter; Robert Greene’s concept of alive time. It’s been borrowed and amplified by Ryan Holiday as well. I keep coming back to this concept, and the words “alive time” chirp in my ear whenever I waste time playing one-too-many games of computer chess or watching television or scrolling through political opinions on Twitter. No, you were meant for more than this, get to it already.

      “You really don’t own anything in life. When you’re born, and you come out of your mother’s womb, and you’re kicking and screaming, and you go through your 60, 70, 80, 90 years of life, you think that you own stock and money, and this, that, and the other, but really, you don’t own anything, because it all disappears, it all goes away, and you die, and there’s nothing left. The only thing, the only thing that you own, the only thing that we can say is that you own time. You have so much time to live. … Let’s just say you have 85 years to live. That is yours … Alive time is time that’s your own. Nobody tells you what to do, nobody is commanding you how to spend it. … Taking ownership of your time means I only have this much time to live, I’d better make the most of it, I’d better make it alive time, I’d better be urgent, have a bit of an edge, be aware of each moment as it’s passing and not in a fog.” – Robert Greene, TKP Interview

      So when we talk about this pandemic in ten years, how did it serve as a deflection point in your life? How did you use your alive time to pivot into a new and exciting pursuit? How did you use the extra time with family? What did you learn? What workout did you do that proved foundational in your path to better fitness? What’s the me in ten years going to think about what I did today?

    • Home Workout

      The Saturday workout was supposed to be a 10,000 meter row. Sometime around 1:30 I realized that wasn’t happening, but I got a six hour workout in anyway: I painted the ceilings downstairs. Now before you roll your eyes dismissively at me, consider the logistics for a moment. In that time I climbed the equivalent of 31 flights of stairs, walked 8000 steps and performed countless overhead presses from taking a wet roller on a pole and rolling in awkward positions for hours. In the process of performing the latter I reacquainted myself with the shoulder pain I had from too many burpees in 2019.

      If there’s anything positive about this pandemic, its that I’ve finally stopped procrastinating on home improvement projects that have nagged me for years. This isolation and my sweat equity have brought a new kids bathroom, freshly painted laundry room and kids bedrooms, new door hardware on all the upstairs doors, new ceiling fans in each of the bathrooms, new shower in the master bathroom, new ceiling with crown molding in the guest bathroom, removal of the massively overgrown junipers that greeted visitors along the driveway and now, finally, freshly painted ceilings in the downstairs rooms. The house is like new, if you will, and today I walked around feeling both a sense of accomplishment and soreness in places I wasn’t aware you could feel soreness.

      So yesterday, as it snowed outside in that “it’s 2020 why not throw squalls in May at them to complete the mind f**k” kind of way, I ignored the outside world and checked boxes that were way down the list when we started this year. If the world was normal I’d be getting ready for my son’s graduation, planning a trip to New York to move our daughter back from college, and complaining about the pollen count while tactfully ignoring my to-do list of home improvement projects. But it’s not normal, and I’m pressing ahead on that list, making the most of found time at home. I’ll still need to get that 10,000 meter row in before the weekend ends, but I’m not complaining. My alternative workout yesterday turned out to be pretty productive after all. Now what else is on that list?

    • Those Beloved, Perfect-Enough Movies

      There are no perfect movies, despite the Twitter debate going on around it.  Nothing is perfect, but you have to ship it at some point, and hopefully you get close enough to the mark.  Perfect doesn’t always mean commercially successful, but if the stars align and word of mouth lifts a movie’s profile, it sells enough tickets.  Anyway, I’m not Roger Ebert, but I know a great movie when I see one.  Sure, I could pick the big ones that I love, like The Godfather or North By Northwest or Casablanca, but what’s the fun in that?  Let’s go one layer deeper and find some other gems.  Here are five perfect-enough movies – movies that I’d see over and over.  Like a near-perfect song or poem, there’s magic woven into each.  Some may be very familiar to you, some may be completely foreign, but they all have cast a spell on me in their own way.

      The Shawshank Rebellion
      The ending is just about perfect and what everyone remembers in this film.  That scene is set up by the one I linked to, where Andy and Ellis have this conversation:
      Ellis: “I don’t think I can make it on the outside, Andy.  I been in here most of my life.  I’m an institutional man now.  Just like Brooks was.
      Andy: “Well, you underestimate yourself.”
      and later in this scene: “I guess it comes down to a simple choice, really.  Get busy living, or get busy dying.”

      Local Hero
      No shock for readers of this blog, as this remains my favorite movie.  Is it perfect? Of course not!  Parts of the soundtrack are charmingly locked in the 1980’s (while most of it is stunningly beautiful and  timeless).  Watch the scene in this link, as the band starts to play Mist Covered Mountains and Gordon walks up to join them, he places his glass of scotch on the snare drum and Rikki the drummer gives him a WTF glance.  Gordon gives his own glance soon after as Mac dances with his romantic partner Stella.  Small examples of the magic woven into this movie.

      Gettysburg
      This one is an outlier on this list, I know.  But this movie about the Battle of Gettysburg stays with me just as the other movies do.  And this scene with Sam Elliot is the highlight of the movie.  I was never a soldier, but I know the value of the high ground in a battle.  As a New Englander I tend to focus on the contributions of Joshua Chamberlain to holding the line, but the reason he had high ground to hold in the first place was because General John Buford held the high ground long enough for the Union forces to arrive.  That ultimately determined who would be victorious at Gettysburg, and this scene captures the moment when he decides to hold off the Rebel army long enough for the infantry to arrive.

      Hugo
      When Martin Scorsese created this movie he said in an interview that he wanted to make a movie his grandchildren could watch with him.  I use the word magic too frequently (indeed), but this movie about an orphaned Hugo Cabret living secretly in a train station in 1930’s Paris is truly magical.  This scene, where Hugo and Isabelle talk about their purpose is a lovely moment in the film, and set up a scheme to help Isabelle’s godfather re-find his own purpose.  I’ve watched Hugo with my daughter many times, it inspires her to create her own magic in this world.  And it just might do that for her father too.

      The Princess Bride
      Another Mark Knopfler soundtrack that I can’t stop listening to.  And another movie that casts a spell on you.  The characters of Inigo Montoya and Fezzik are the MVP’s of this film, with dialog sprinkled in fairy dust.  As a parent, I can think of no better movie to watch with your children.  As an adult, The Princess Bride is a welcome step into a world of wonder.  I wish it were longer, but there’s a lesson in it’s brevity too.  Nothing nearly perfect lasts forever, so enjoy every moment of it while you have it.  Want to watch it again?  As you wish.

       

       

    • A Pair of Opossums Enter the Scene

      I have two neighbors I’ve only seen once, just the other day from an upstairs window overlooking the backyard and the woods beyond. At the edge of the woods there’s a chain link fence that once occasionally held the dog in and now defines the wild from the manicured backyard I wrestle with endlessly. It seems at some point a couple moved into the vacant (of humans anyway) part of my yard that lies beyond the fence. A pair of opossums entered the scene and I can’t stop thinking about the new neighbors.

      I watched them, deep in opossum couple conversation, climb over the old stone wall that marks time in centuries, linger at the gnarled roots of a red maple and slowly make their way into the pile of brush piled just on the other side of the fence. It seems this is the ideal love nest for this pair, and they’re likely doing their business of creating the next generation of opossums as I write. I don’t mind, we can use all the tick and bug eaters we can get around here. I can do without the chipmunks and the groundhog that nibbles on my sweet potato vines and tomatoes, but the opossums are okay in my book. Keep gobbling up those ticks and we’ll be fast friends.

      Funny thing about opossums, the males are called Jacks and the females Jills. Their offspring are called Joeys. They’re nocturnal and generally transient animals, unless they find some cushy love nest anyway. Some people call me Jack, but nobody would call me nocturnal. But we all have our time, and Jack and Jill can have the night. We can say hello during the morning shift change. Hello, Jack! Hello Jack and Jill! And Joey, and Joey, and Joey… but I digress. Opossums have a way of distracting me with their delightfully different vibe.

      Which brings me to the elephant in the room: That silent O in opossum. Who’s idea was it to drop that in there anyway? I complain about learning French, but English is no picnic either. Silent O indeed. It’s my native language and I’m still inclined to start saying “O” when I read the word. Who made these rules anyway? Someone who thought about how delightful it would be to screw with the world for generations. Probably someone named Jack. Or Jill. You know they’re the troublemakers… unlike our friends the opossums.

    • A Walk Amongst the Stars

      Walking out, the night was pleasantly still and clear, and I instinctively glanced up to see what the walk had in store for me in the darkening sky.  Venus shining brightly in the west offered promise, with a faint El Nath riding just above her.  El Nath is the star that marks the tip of the left horn of Taurus.  I’m a Taurus myself, and so I’m pleased to see a bit of the constellation as it drops down for the night.  Taurus, like his eternal hunter nemesis Orion, roams the winter sky. Everything has its season, even the stars.

      A quick survey around reveals Gemini to the southwest and further up Leo prowls above.  Like bird songs and French and cooking Indian food, I know the basics but I’m in no way a master at the night sky. But like those other pursuits I chip away at it when I can.  Tonight was no exception and I work at it a bit longer but the evening is already getting too bright.  Reaching the top of the hill I turn around and gasp at the stunning full yellow moon rising above the tree tops.  I linger in the middle of the road for a minute when I’m startled by a noise behind me.  A woman out for a walk is powering past, loud music vibrating out of her earbuds and reaching across to jolt me.  I mention the moon but she’s in no mood to talk to a stranger in the dark.  Neither was I, honestly.  I let her walk ahead to give her the space we all need on such a night.

      The walker shook the magic out of the moment and I reluctantly walk back home.  I’m teased by a shooting star off in my peripheral vision.  They have a way of doing that, the rascals.  As I walk down the hill the moon disappears into the trees, but still illuminates the sky.  The stars, just emerging, grow faint again and I know it’s time to call it a night.  One last look around; Leo nods down at me and I say my farewells.  Another evening walk in the books, different from others in so many ways, as they always are. I didn’t focus on how far I walked, but my watch tells me I spent most of my time in the stars. That’s just like me.

    • Recently Collected Quotes

      My mind’s distracted by work and projects. I need to write them all down and get them out of my head. Prioritize and tackle the list. First on the list is writing, and in writing I’m tackling another distraction: I’ve noticed my quote collection piling up again, which means I’m not sharing enough of them. I save quotes for blogs, for inspiration, for reflection… or simply to remind myself that others thought deeply before my attempts to do so, so get out of your head and do something. I was raised to share, so here are some favorite recent acquisitions to the collection:

      “Don’t do things that you know are morally wrong. Not because someone is watching, but because you are. Self-esteem is just the reputation that you have with yourself. You’ll always know.” – Naval

      “Wild success requires aggressive elimination. You can’t be great at everything.” – James Clear

      “Every great thing is done in a quiet, humble, simple way; to plow the land, to build houses, to breed cattle, even to think—you cannot do such things when there are thunder and lightning around you. Great and true things are always simple and humble.” – Leo Tolstoy

      “Dwell on the beauty of life. Watch the stars, and see yourself running with them.” – Marcus Aurelius

      “Reading is a basic tool in the living of a good life.” – Mortimer J. Adler

      “Write in recollection and amazement for yourself.” – Jack Kerouac

      “How vain it is to sit down to write when you have not stood up to live.” – Henry David Thoreau

      “Nothing is so certain as that the evils of idleness can be shaken off by hard work.” —Seneca

      Until tomorrow then…

    • Unfinished Business

      Lately I’ve been re-building lists. Lists of unfinished business I have to get to. Things to see and do, as soon as this other business is over. You might call it a bucket list, but for me I’ll stick with unfinished business.  Take a blank map, color in where you’ve been and you quickly see that there’s so much you’ll never see.  And that’s okay, I don’t want to see everything, but I do want to see some things.  Let’s begin with these.

      The Aurora Borealis has long been on this list, dancing just out of reach with the Southern Cross on the far ends of the earth sky. I suppose I’ll get to each eventually, beginning in the north, where I sit, just out of reach, thinking about such things. I blame Crosby, Stills & Nash for sticking the Southern Cross in my head, just as I blame Local Hero for my obsession with the Northern Lights. Remove “blame”, add “credit” if you will.

      And then there’s sailing across the Atlantic Ocean (and back again on a southern route).  Long list on both sides of the pond, and of course in between.  Iceberg spotting in Newfoundland, hoisting a pint at The Brazen Head in Dublin, a fish sandwich on raisin bread at Woody’s in Bermuda, and lately, Christmas in Salzburg and Hallstatt without the throngs of tourists.  I definitely have unfinished business in Scotland, beginning with The Quiraing and the sunset at Neist Point and heading south to an immersive distillery tour in Islay. Across the channel and Normandy calls, and then a host of other Sirens scattered about Europe, taunting me; There’s no time to waste, you fool.  Don’t worry, other Sirens, I haven’t forgotten you…

      Another west coast calls me; Napa and some time with those redwoods, a drive down the Pacific Coast Highway to Monteray and Big Sur and a trip inland to Yosemite.  There’s something about west coasts that draw me, I suppose. Maybe it’s that restless northeast kid longing to get out there?  I’m a sunrise guy (greet the day!), but I do love a good sunset too.  I’ll follow the sun and see where it leads me.  Perhaps it will lead me to unfinished business in faraway places like Cocos Island and Easter Island and Iguazu Falls in Argentina and Machu Picchu in Peru.  I’ve never given you enough attention South America.  That’s an omission I hope to remedy, given the chance.

      And what of the world beyond?  So much unfinished business from Hawaii to the South Pacific to Australia to New Zealand to Asia and India and Africa all stacked up waiting their turn.  So much to do, so little time…  unfinished business all of it.  So let’s get this pandemic behind us, there’s a world to see, and precious little runway to take off.  Join me?

    • Rotating the Crops

      A necessary condition of early season gardening in the northeast is having the flexibility to move annuals in and out frequently. After a weekend of enthusiastic planting and placing pots of young flowers and over-wintered topicals all about the yard I moved every last one of them into the garage to sleep for the night. I repeat this any time the forecast calls for temperatures that drop to within ten degrees of a killing frost. I’ve learned the hard way that a forecast is only as good as the microclimate your plants are in. Better safe than sorry.

      So after a weekend of major yard work and roughly 40,000 steps inside an acre, Monday was a day working in front of the computer and on the phone. I can’t say my body minded the rest. In fact, moving the plants back into the garage was the most exercise I had all day. I’ll remedy that today with a long walk to earn the planned take-out taco’s on this Cinco de Mayo. The days of moving all day long are gone, but I was reminded of how much I missed them.

      Overnight temperatures were actually pretty mild. I was overly conservative moving the plants. So it goes. I needed the movement more than the annuals did. I’ll move them twice more today, and tomorrow probably, and so on. It’s a small toll for the body, paying immeasurable dividends for the well-being of the mind. I’m back at it for another season, and I quickly forget what there was to complain about.

      Eighteen containers and pots jammed in here, but who’s counting?

    • Ten Albums, in Ten Songs

      I’ve seen the challenges, the ten albums that have influenced me. Such things frustrate me because I don’t want to commit that much of my time to posting daily to social media, yet intrigue me because music is a good chunk of who I am.  So in my typical stubborn fashion, I’ll just run with the concept here.  Forget the rules!  Instead, I’ll honor ten of the many albums I could have chosen, but with live YouTube performances of one (or a medley) of the songs from that album.  Why play by someone else’s rules anyway?  So here you go, ten albums that have influenced me, in a slightly different way:

      Pink Floyd, The Wall
      When this album dropped I’d just moved to a new town at the fine age of 13 and was myself dropping into a new school system.  The radio played Another Brick In The Wall constantly because it’s catchy and short, just the way radio likes a song.  But the gold in this album lies deeper, and in extensive listens.  A lot of people point to Dark Side of the Moon or Wish You Were Here as favorites, and I can’t argue either choice, but for me it’s The Wall.  I’m sure I could find a Pink Floyd live performance, but since I’m breaking rules let’s go with the version that still blows me away with two other favorites, David Bowie and Eddie Vedder in the 12-12-12: The Concert for Sandy Relief performance:

      U2, War
      A close second in my formative years was U2 exploding in my world with War.  Sure, not their first album, but this was the one that MTV rallied around, especially with that foggy, rainy Live at Red Rocks EP that we’ll call War, part II.  U2 picked me up from my awkward teenage years and carried me into my adult life with stepping stone albums from Joshua Tree to All That You Can’t Leave Behind to How To Dismantle An Atomic Bomb to No Line On The Horizon to Songs of Experience.  All worthy candidates for this list but I’m only picking one per artist.  Frankly, I’m wondering why they haven’t been more active during the pandemic rallying the world with a flag.  I’ve been lucky enough to see U2 perform this live many times, but there are two performances I wish I’d seen with the sweaty masses, the Super Bowl performance and their Red Rocks performance.  Let’s go with flag waving Bono and the youthful band playing the edgy rebel song/not a rebel song Sunday Bloody Sunday:

      Eagles, Hotel California
      I can remember this album dominating the airwaves back in the 70’s.  I was just a kid then, figuring out what I liked, mostly being influenced by whatever I heard playing the most.  The Eagles and Fleetwood Mac seemed to be playing the most, carrying Southern California culture to the world.  The album is the band at their peak, and it eventually destroyed them, but what a trip.  You could make a case for a number of songs for favorite, but I’d be lying if I didn’t come right back to the title track:

      https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=KUGmtGA4gHI

      Pearl Jam, Ten
      If The Wall came at me in a time of massive change at age 13, this album did the same ten years later, as I was out of college and figuring out what next.  Next involved finding myself in an impulsive, bad marriage and alone in New York.  But there’s a reason for everything.  I eventually found my way to a much better life, and this album was a bridge for me across the chasm of crazy I found myself married to.  This version of Black resonated particularly well for me during that time:

      Beatles, Abbey Road
      Everyone who is a Beatles fan has their favorite Beatles album, and mine has always been Abbey Road.  I was listening to it constantly when John Lennon was shot, and it shocked me as it shocked the world.  The driving force with Abbey Road was Paul McCartney, and the medley was a good example of making something amazing out of a bunch of scraps.  But let’s not forget the masterful contributions of George Harrison, my favorite Beatle, with Here Comes The Sun and Something.  The album, like me, turned the 50 mark and keeps going.  The irony of Come Together being the last song the Beatles recorded isn’t lost on me either, but that medley, capped with The End, is what most people think of when they think of Abbey Road:

      https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=-mJt_T0N0mQ

      Steely Dan, Katie Lied
      If one album grabbed me in the middle of my college years, it was Katy Lied.  And the song that the title was derived from, Doctor Wu, remains one of my favorite Steely Dan songs.  I once dated a girl who loved Steely Dan, and I went out and bought every album they ever made so I could keep up in conversation.  I’ll call that my “Steely Dan phase”.  Anyway, I never did see them live, and I think it’s because I really like the studio product and don’t want to ruin that.  Twisted logic, perhaps, but so it goes.

      https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=TB6mUiDyRks

      Jack Johnson, In Between Dreams
      Deep into adulthood, I discovered Jack Johnson with his debut album providing a bit of joy in the dark aftermath of 9/11.  Deep into marriage, I smile when I hear this song, and like much of the album it remains in constant rotation on playlists well after the album released.  Sure, I could have put a Led Zeppelin or Rolling Stones album on here in this spot, but they don’t dominate my playlists the way In Between Dreams has.

      Billy Joel, Turnstiles
      New York State of Mind, Summer, Highland Falls, and I’ve Loved These Days are the foundation of this album, with Say Goodbye to Hollywood being the “hit”.  Like others on this list you can make a case for other albums by the artist – certainly The Stranger deserves consideration as the “best” Billy Joel album, but for me, Turnstiles is the one that takes my breath away, and that seems like a good indicator of where it stands on my list.  You definitely know you’re listening to a 70’s album when you go deep, but isn’t there charm in that too?

      https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=WC5dfGVOFfU

      Jimmy Buffett, A-1-A
      Yes, I am a pirate, thank you.  And a Parrothead too.  This is another album that’s charmingly locked in the 70’s, but once you get past A Pirate Looks at Forty and the string of songs that follow (Migration, Trying to Reason With Hurricane Season, Nautical Wheelers and Tin Cup Chalice) remain my favorite block of songs from Buffett on any album.  Life is more than angst and anger and melancholy, and there’s nothing like some beach music to get the party started:

      https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=i40DDI7Hplc

      Bruce Springsteen, Born To Run
      I really started listening to Bruce somewhere in my early teens, with this album and The River dominating my record player for a long time.  Born to Run has a restlessness to it that resonated for me then, and does again.  Like U2 Springsteen is one of those artists I’ve stayed with through every stage of my life.  I particularly love this version of Thunder Road, with a young Springsteen singing a stripped down version in a darkened London venue.  You really feel the power of his voice – Bruce is one of the great rock and roll voices, and this performance highlights that: