Monday, September 26, 2011

I drop out of a marathon and rediscover emo

Kind of a strange weekend. I had been training, but not very well, for a marathon all summer, but due to a lot of stuff going on, never really got my head into it. I also neglected to buy new shoes when the old ones wore out and was wearing some pretty shot-to-hell footware for the big race on Sunday. So, anyway, I was not feeling good about the race in a lot of ways, but I had already paid so I thought I'd try. It was going all right until about 19 miles and then, very suddenly, I had that marathoner's existential crisis where you not only doubt your ability to finish, but your right to exist on earth...literally, it's like instant depression and it has a lot to do with carbohydrate depletion, so I ate goo and struggled on for a few miles. It happened again at 22 and by then my hip was hurting like hell (new shoes would have helped), so there I lost momentum and dropped out.

Anyway, it was a pretty long run. There's that.

I also bought a bunch of books and one record the day before in an uncharacteristic spree of consumerism.

Books
Vladmir Nabokov's Invitation to a Beheading
Katherine Dunn's Geek Love
Michael Kammen's Visual Shock: A History of Art Controversies in American Culture

Record:
Drive Like Jehu's Yank Crime

Which is pretty fucking great...see here

6 comments:

Ian said...

I really, really liked Geek Love. and at some point I need to catch up on the whole Drive Like Jehu diaspora, although I'm not sure which band/album to start with.

jenniferpkelly said...

I really love Hot Snakes.

This new Obits stuff is pretty good, as is Reis' Night Marchers, although he's on Vagrant so my review copy was too fucked up with copy protection to play on a computer...which is annoying.

Jean-Luc Garbo said...

I'm also reading that Kammen book now. I hope you like it because they're all good, especially American Culture American Tastes.

jenniferpkelly said...

Yeah, it looked like a good batch. Bill got a couple, too, which I will probably read when he's done: T.E. Lawrence's Seven Pillars of Wisdom and a book of short essays by Orhan Pamuk.

Jean-Luc Garbo said...

Oops, I meant that all of Kammen's books are good, especially that particular one. Good luck with Seven Pillars. I adore the film and find the man fascinating, but I still haven't made it through the whole book.

jenniferpkelly said...

I think I'm going to read Geek Love next.