play misty for me...

So folks, inspired by the nigh-above zero temperature outside (and some increasingly snug pencil skirts) I rolled off the couch tonight and out for a run.  It was that kind of perfect experience that reminds you how great it can feel (the next will probably be one of those lead-footed, wooden leg experiences in contrast!).  I usually go quite late, around 9:30 or 10- that's usually when I have my second (or first) wind of the day.  Fortunately I live on the cusp of a ritzy, beautiful neighbourhood where the only crime risk would be of the white collar variety, and I think I'm safe from any rampaging stockbrokers in my taped-up sneakers, mis-matched gloves and 4-year old ipod nano!

Said ipod, bitter at lying unused for countless months, is suddenly giving me the 'white screen of death'- it still works but I can't see the menus.  However this was one of those great runs, where the shuffle just gives you exactly what you didn't know you needed!

Outside was dark and foggy, with a slight misty rain that only began once I was warmed up and ready for it.  From vintage De la Soul, through spaghetti western and Detroit soul, I was totally mellow until I hit the bottom of big hill #1, when Arcade Fire's Funeral was enough to carry me up with a smile on my face!  Another string of meditative pieces from Feist and some Japanese movie themes carried me up the long, long incline of hill #2 at which point I was totally going to walk for a bit.  Except the ipod, in its wisdom, knew it was time for its favourite- I had to laugh when Billy Idol's Mony Mony started!  so I kept running- my ipod adores Billy Idol.  On any given shuffle sequence at least 2 of the 4 songs in my collection will play (out of 1000 or so songs...) and then it was just a pleasant mix of Interpol, Metric and Pet Shop Boys until I got home.  sigh- let's hope there are more of these to come!

Listening to Ryuichi Sakamoto's heart-breakingly beautiful theme for Miyazaki's Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind just makes me hurt for Japan- the beauty and destructive force of nature is such a powerful presence in all Miyazaki's films, alongside an ever-present fear of human technology and its dangers.  But then, that's been a theme in japanese film since 1945- from Godzilla to Kurosawa's Dreams (holy f**ing s**t- I'd forgotten about the whole nuclear disaster sequence...)