Monday, December 31, 2007

Tis' the Season

My Mom, Dad and I checked out one house in Bayside (Queens) with infamous lighting. I'm at a loss for words:

Sunday, December 23, 2007

Don't Stick a Fork In Me Yet

I noticed this ad has recently started showing up on my Facebook profile. I know my birthday is this June, but couldn't they wait?

Whatever, thirty is the new twenty.

Saturday, December 22, 2007

Pudding Pies



I used to dream about these and I was devastated when they were discontinued.

The Food Pyramid

Dennis found this and this shit took me back! Not that I grew up in the 'hood (just Park Slope pre-hyper hipsterfication), but anyone who grew up in NYC should remember trying to stretch that dollar as far as it could go at the cake stand at their local local bodgea, Korean grocery, Optimo, Te-Amo what have you...

"These won't go bad until 2000 forever."

My winning combo:
  • $.50 Crunchy mini-donut pack/Iced honey bun (with the white frosting, not that clear shit/frosted apple pie cakes
  • $.25 4-cookie Drakes packs (strangely not covered in this video). I think they're up to $.35 a pack now which sucks, but for a quarter, they were a ton of calories for the penny. Best flavors: lemon, coconut or oatmeal
  • $.25 Gotta go savory now, bag of chips. Dipsy doodles(BBQ!)/Crispy cheese doodles(never puffy)/sour cream and onion.
Other winners:
  • $.25 Nutty bars (wafers=carbs, peanut butter=protein, TWO came in one pack)
  • $.50 Those GIANT 2-for- a-dollar cookie packs!!! Yo, I used to make myself sick eating those things. The fudge striped cookies were the best, and you knew they were bootlegs of the Keebler ones you always saw on TV, but it didn't matter.


My poor mother, she packed me tuna and alfalfa sandwiches and wondered why she had a fat kid...LOL

Sunday, December 09, 2007

Coup Proofing

We've already seen Britney go off the deep end in 2007. You know who might be joining her for the holidays? Every single Knicks fan!

You can't overstate the level of passion and frustration here. I have rational, thoughtful friends sending me e-mails like, "I turned down courtsides tonight because I would have ended up walking over to Dolan's seat and punching him in the face."
Bill Simmons wrote a (typically) funny column lambasting us Knicks fans, telling us to stop feeling sorry for ourselves and making the (accurate) point that one of the only reasons that the ongoing black comedy/tragedy that is the Knicks gets as much national attention as it does is because we're such a big damn media market. I say give them some credit, a multi-million dollar lost sexual harassment suit? Star players having sex with interns in their trucks? An owner that cares more about the outfits of the Knicks City Dancers than the Knicks' actual won/lost record? I'm not even getting into the Rangers. I think this might get some national attention even coming out of Utah.

Seriously though, I get his point. It's not that bad and it's our memory of the recent good years that make this now so awful. But at least we had the good years.

Alright, now that I've perfunctorily acknowledged my self absorption as a native New Yorker and longtime Knicks fan, I'm going to proceed to bitch and moan and feel sorry for myself.

I am officially on Knicks strike. I am not a Knicks fan until Dolan sells the team. It's not enough to fire Isaiah. Even if he's fired, he'll just get replaced by some other sycophant that will continue to run that team into the ground. No self-respecting basketball professional is going to work in that madhouse. Only kiss-asses that know how to navigate the dysfunctional culture that Dolan has created will take this job. For my organizational behavior class at Wagner, one of our readings was about how Saddam Hussein had coup-proofed himself in Iraq by setting up reward structures that all flowed through him, ensuring that no group of factions would ever get together to overthrow him. Dolan, for all his basketball incompetence, is a pretty damn good despot. Even fucking David Stern can't get him removed.

Looking at the team itself, one of the things that frustrates me the most is that it's actually really hard to hate this team which is why I'm choosing to hate Dolan. This isn't like the Jailblazers of the late 90s. Save Steph when he's acting petulant, most of them seem like likable people. They always publicly support the coach, each other and the organization. It was classy to stand as a team at Don Marbury's funeral as a public statement of unity, especially after Steph had so recently cut out on them. Talent-wise, each player is someone I can easily see most general managers wanting on their roster depending on their needs. Save Jerome James (why???), there really isn't any dead wood on the roster. Everyone has some valuable basketball assets (just not enough defensive assets). But it's like Zeke wants the whole to end up equaling less than the sum of its parts.

So I'm on Knicks strike. I'm not rooting for an NBA team (though I enjoy watching the Celtics) until Dolan is replaced.

Saturday, November 10, 2007

Monday, November 05, 2007

NYC Marathon Thoughts...

When you see thousands of people cheering you on, handing out all sorts of goodies (thank goodness for those orange slices) and telling you that you will make it, you are reminded of how the bond of humanity connects us at a far deeper level and how it bring us all together in good and in bad times. I realized then how proud I was to be a New Yorker and so blessed to be living in one of the greatest cities in the world.
My friend Raj's girlfriend, Nadia, like me, ran her first marathon yesterday and said this about it. She took the words right out of my mouth. It was incredible. The last time I felt this kind of citywide sense of unity, of brotherhood and sisterhood was, sadly, just after September 11. But this was obviously different, a joyous celebration of life and achievement.

Coming off the Verrazano bridge running fourth ave and hearing and seeing all the people cheering for us almost brought tears to my eyes. The unconditional support for our utterly quixotic endeavor moved me. Virtually every neighborhood we went through had people out on the streets, rich, middle class, poor, all races and ethnic groups, lifelong New Yorkers to transplanted hipsters to recent foreign immigrants. From reggateon rappers in Spanish Harlem to the Bishop Loughlin Marching Band to merengue blasting in Sunset Park we ran through a pageant of New York City, even though we were the ones on parade.

I was so proud to be a New Yorker, reminded how much I love this city, but also sadly realized how much work has to be done to continue to fight to keep this city a place where the vitality I saw and experienced along the route can always exist, where people can afford to live, go to school, work and sustain themselves.

My Performance
I guess I'll start with the positives:
  • I finished (!)
  • I experienced severe cramping at various points from mile 19 and had to stop several times to walk and stretch it out. I seriously thought I would have to stop the race all together the cramping was so bad. But I worked out the cramps, got a second wind at mile 20 and ran most of the rest of it and ran a strong finish for the last 1.2 miles
OK, now to the heart of it:
I was shooting for a time of 4:30 (my best half is a 1:56, granted at Staten Island, which is flat compared to the NYC course, but I thought it was still a realistic target) and ended up clocking in at 5:00:39. I can't believe I didn't even break five hours, which I'm embarrassed by. I analyzed where and how my body broke down and despite a scientifically calculated training schedule tailored to my pace, it didn't include any hill training which is what killed me in the end. The Pulaski Bridge at mile 13 and the Queensboro bridge at miles 14 to 16 took everything out of my legs and led to my calves cramping at mile 19. I'm mad, but now I know what to differently for my training next year. I'm swear, I'm going to rock the sucker out next year...

The highlights
Mile 1-2: The Verrazano bridge. It was breathtaking to see the bridge tower over us on what was a beautiful clear sunny day with music blasting and the Queensboro bridge in the distance knowing that was where we were headed.

Mile 3: The rush of humanity into the cheering crowds on fourth avenue, I almost cried.

Mile 4-6: Sunset Park. The smell of Mexican food, I really wanted to stop and grab some food....sopes?

Miles 6-10: Just trying to hold back at a solid 10:30/mile pace. Holding down my adrenaline, breathing steadily. Favorite part here was the Bishop Loughlin Marching Band set up in front of the school playing the theme of "Rocky."

Miles 10-13 Uh-oh, finally starting to feel some achiness, I had been hoping I cold stave off serious pain until mile 18 or so...

Mile 13 to 14 The Pulaski Bridge, or what I like to now call the "widow maker". The ramp onto the bridge was steep and I wasn't ready for anything like that. Hill workouts in Harlem in Central park didn't cut it. I'm training on bridges next year I swear to fucking...

Miles 14 to 15: The best moment of the race for me. I saw my father on Vernon Blvd, he had a big grin on his face when he saw me and I stopped and shook his hand. He said my mom was on her way, but I couldn't wait so I kept going and he wished me luck while I ran off. I felt bad missing my mom, but then I saw her around the corner and ran up to her and she gave me a hug and kiss. Everyone running with me started clapping and she wished me luck when I got back in the pack.

Miles 15 to 16: The Queensboro bridge, or the "widow maker part II". Whatever structural integrity my calves had left after the Pulaski Bridge was killed here, especially on the sharp downhill ramp coming off the bridge (ow, ow, ow, ow, ow...)

Miles 16 to 19 Basically, I was in a daze while I struggled to keep my feet under me on first ave. This is supposed to be the most exciting part of the race, but all I remember was seeing a lot of fogginess and hearing a lot of noise on the sides. Oh, I think I was trying to run also. One of my friends from Wagner saw me around 90th and yelled my name. I don't even know how I heard her. Two of my best friends saw me at mile 19 and yelled my name just as I hit my wall.

Mile 19: Severe cramping, walk, run, stretch, repeat. At the top of the Willis Ave Bridge (fucking bridges) I stopped and did some thorough stretching and gentle flexing/extension of my calves which finally worked.

Mile 20: My legs finally recovered, I'm running gingerly, but I feel good, I've got a second wind. Any chance of making 4:30 is now out the window, but finishing under five hours is well within reach so I run confidently through the South Bronx. Not being so concerned with my time now, I relax, high five a bunch of kids and pump my arms and wave at the crowds. Basically, I start having some fun.

Mile 21: My boss yells my name and jumps out and runs with me a couple of blocks. I've been alone the entire 21 miles so far (I ran half the bridge with Raj, but that was about it) and it was a great boost to have someone out there with me, even for just two blocks.

Mile 22 to 24 Holy fucking shit, why did they put this incline at the end of the race?? 119th and 5th ave south to 90th and 5th Ave. Walking it, you'd never think of it as a hill, but at the end of a marathon it's a miserable, slow, painful climb...

Mile 24: My legs give out, I can't feel them I can't run, I'm walking and it hurts too much to walk. People are yelling 'you can do it!' and I want to lie down and die and/or yell back 'leave me alone, I can't do it!!!'.

Mile 25: I have to figure something out, I can't walk, I can't run. I pull over to the side and say 'fuck my time, I'll be damned if I'm walking across the finish line' and take a good 5-10 minutes and stretch my calves, quads, gluts and hamstrings. Once I've got my blood circulating again (and after I've refused medical attention three times) I hop back on the course and my legs feel great, I'm kicking myself for not having stopped sooner to stretch out again (walking hadn't felt any better than running anyway), but I take off for the last 1.2 miles.

Mile 26: Columbus Circle: I see my friends Gloria and Anil who shout my name out, I'd been running well the last mile, but seeing them and knowing I was at the finish gave me the final kick I needed and I took off passing a bunch of people at the tail end:



Pulling into Central Park: The other moment I almost cried. After all the pain and wondering if I was going to even finish, after having to humbly alter my target goals mid race, I realized I was going to finish the damn thing, and I was going to finish strong, and I was doing it at the intersection where I had been doing all of my long runs dutifully every Sunday preparing for this moment.

26.2 miles: The finish, I threw my arms up and crossed the finish line.

And the worst part? Having to walk another mile to get out of the damn park :)

Congratulations to every single person who trained and entered this race. I just read Siddhartha, and for all of us, it's about the journey.

Stupid Trivia

I own the rather dubious distinction of being the youngest AND the slowest 'Yoon' in the entire 2007 NYC Marathon:
But at least I was the fastest 'Jason' who ran slower than five hours (chew on that one):
Glenna, my friend, training guru and sometime training partner, and I ran bizarrely similar splits for good chunks of the race despite being not even seeing each other the entire race
And lastly, I was mostly pissed that I wasn't going to be listed in today's hard copy New York Times because they typically only list runners who finish under five hours. But I assume because they had to fill the last page they actually went all the way up to 5:04 so I still back doored my way into today's paper! WooHoo!

My New Training Log

I'm now on a mission to eat as much junk food as I can and undo all of my training. For lunch today, I had General Tso's chicken and pork fried rice from the ghetto Chinese spot near work on Gerard Ave and 161st. Dinner was fried chicken wings and french fries. Tomorrow I'm hitting the fried fish joint on 161st for lunch (see a pattern?).

Later this week, I'm hitting the chuchifritos spot across from Casa Latina (after I treat myself to a new CD) for some mofongo with gravy and pasteles. I'll also hit Mannas before they go out of business (I read in the Daily News their building is getting bought out). And yes, I will get the fried rice there.

It's a lot of work, but I think I can do it...

Saturday, November 03, 2007

Marathon Training (last one!)


Ryan Shay (r) at the 2002 USA Outdoor Track & Field Championship

I'll start this by offering my condolences to the friends and family of Ryan Shay who died this morning while running the Olympic Marathon Trials in Central Park. I woke up early to watch the Olympic Marathon trials in Central Park to get some inspiration for tomorrow's NYC Marathon. I'm always awed watching the mechanics and focus of the elite runners. I got to the race at about 9:30 and cheered for the runners before heading over to Javits Center to pick up my registration for tomorrow. I didn't find out until later that afternoon what had happened. I'm not sure how I feel about it, I'm not worried for myself running tomorrow, it's a freak incident that you can't dwell on, especially if you've been taking care of yourself. I think it's the fact that he died literally in the thick of pursuing his dream while probably at, or near, the peak of his ability as a runner. On one hand, for a competitive athlete, it may be the ultimate way to go out, but on the other hand I can't help but think of all the lost potential and what could have been for him.

Rest in peace Ryan, we'll all be thinking of you while we're running tomorrow.

Now, the final two work outs of the workout schedule I started way back in August. Looking back at my original schedule, I am really proud of having stuck to it. I've done every work out on the schedule plus countless dance classes and I know I am prepared for tomorrow.

November 1, 2007
Tempo run
1 mile warm up 86th St and Lexington Ave to 103rd and 5th Ave

3.2 miles (I ran it in 27:13)
From 103 and 5 to the finish of the NYC Marathon at Tavern on the Green

Half mile cool down
Total mileage
4.5 miles

Comments:
It was really exciting to run in the park and see the fencing out in the final mile, the bleachers and the finish line at Tavern on the Green. The finish is going to be tough, hopefully adrenaline will pull me through.

November 2, 2007
2-mile easy run

Wednesday, October 31, 2007

NYC Marathon

My friend forwarded me a pretty cool spreadsheet that calculates (roughly) what time you'll cross each marker at the NYC marathon based on your bib number and your expected time of finish. My times are below. if you want to download the whole spreadsheet, you can get it here.

Marathon Training

October 30, 2007
2 miles easy run
19:53

October 28, 2007
5 miles
58:52

11:46 per mile

Did the Poland Spring 5-mile kick off. Was supposed to do 8 miles total, but some late night partying did me in...

October 25, 2007
2-mile warm up to Astoria Park

Was supposed to do 3 miles at 8:59
Actual splits:
1 8:18
2 8:28
3 8:06

1-mile cool down

Total: 6 miles

Sunday, October 21, 2007

Marathon Training

Marathon Training October 18, 2007
Because I was heading out of town early Thursday morning, I did my tempo workout early Thursday instead of in the evening.

I was supposed to do seven miles, one mile warm up, five miles at 8:53/mile and one mile cool down. I ended up doing a one mile warm up and only four miles in
43:16, a pretty miserable pace. But I had gone to Djoniba's dance class the night before which killed my legs, so I think I deserve a mulligan for that workout.

Marathon Training October 21, 2007

My final endurance run!

I ran 18 miles in Central Park (3 loops all heading north from the 72nd St east side entrance) in 3:14:05 which comes to 10:47 (rounded) per mile. My work out calendar said my pace should have been 10:17 per mile but Central Park has a number of hills that the training calculator doesn't take into account. I felt great and from here on out, it's time to taper until November 4th!

Sunday, October 14, 2007

Marathon Training

Supposed to do a long run of 16 miles at a 10:14 pace. I got to the Staten Island Half Marathon early and ran three miles in roughly an 10:30-11:00/mile pace. Then I did the actual half marathon (13.1 miles) in 2:09:21 for a 9:52 pace.

Here is the actual result:


Comments:
I felt very very good during today's run. I didn't push myself too hard and gradually descended my splits (roughly 10:30-11 for the first 5, down closer to 10 for the next 5, then 9 for the final three 3 miles). Next week's long run peaks at 18 (yikes) then I begin to taper.

Saturday, October 13, 2007

Chocolate Thunder!

On my ongoing quest for inspiration I'm still reading The Impossible Will Take a Little While, a collection of essays, stories etc. by some serious heavy hitters in social justice movements (Marian Wright Edelman, Desmond Tutu, Nelson Mandela etc.), but its the very personal writing in this collection by the people I don't know as well that have affected me the most (e.g. Billy Wanye Sinclair refusing to bribe his way out of prison at a huge personal cost, Diane Ackerman wondering if her work at a suicide hotline makes any difference at all on the "pageant of humankind").

The story I have been reading most repeatedly has been Do Not Go Gentle by Sherman Alexie. He describes being in the hospital with his wife and his dying new-born baby. To clear his head he goes out shopping for baby toys but ends up in a sex-toy store. Suddenly, he is inspired to buy a vibrator and create a new ritual to save his baby. He rushes back to hospital inspired and a bit delusional. But what he describes is so moving, I felt his emotions, his hope, his despair but refusal to give up on the life of his son (the line breaks are mine, not his):
I ran into the fourth floor ICU, pulled Chocolate Thunder out of its box, held it up in the air like a magic wand, and switched it on.

It was sex that made our dying babies, and here was a huge old piece of buzzing sex I was trying to cast spells with. I waved it over our baby and ran around the room waving it over the other sick babies. I was laughing and hooting, and a few others didn't know what the hell to do. But pretty soon everybody was taking their turns casting spells with Chocolate Thunder. Maybe it was blasphemous, and maybe it was stupid and useless, but we all were sick and tired of waiting for our babies to die.

We wanted our babies to live, and we were ready to try anything to help them live.

Maybe some people can get by with quiet prayers, but I wanted to shout and scream and vibrate. So did plenty of other fathers and mothers in that sick room.

We humans are too simpleminded. We all like to think each person, place, or thing is only itself. A vibrator is a vibrator is a vibrator, right? Everything is stuffed with ideas and love and hope and magic and dreams. I brought Chocolate Thunder back to the hospital but it was my magical and faithful wife who truly believed it was going to bring our baby back to life.

Sherman Alexie from Do not Go Gentle from Ten Little Indians
A vibrator is a vibrator is a vibrator huh? I love it. Is it a pipe? I've been reading this story repeatedly, I'm not sure why. I'm not a parent, but Alexie makes me feel like what it must be to be one and I think it's that unconditional love and faith (irrational as both may be at times) that he expresses so beautifully that keeps calling me back.

Marathon Training

Did a speed workout last night.

1 mile warm up to Astoria Park Track

Supposed to do 4 miles at an 8:14 pace followed by half mile jogs. Actual splits:

1mile 7:50
half mile jog
1mile 7:51
half mile jog
1 mile 7:40
half mile jog
1 mile 7:26
half mile jog

1 mile cool down jog

Total: 8 miles

Comments: I felt very good and was surprised how easy it was to do what was for me fast splits. Next up, Staten Island Half Marathon, a key tune-up run for the NYC Marathon.

Monday, October 08, 2007

Marathon Training

10 miles in Central Park, time about 2 hours.

I experienced the first major setback of my training so far. My workout schedule called for 14 miles at 10:23 but my legs gave out at 10 miles and I had only been going at an 11:00+ pace. I hope this was just a temporary setback and hopefully it happened because I did a tempo run on Friday night instead of Thursday like I usually do.



Saturday, October 06, 2007

And Then There Was The Word...

I grew up a Christian (Protestant, First Baptist) and so naturally scripture was a big part of my reading growing up. As I’ve become more disengaged from the church in the last ten years or so I haven’t really been reading much of the Bible. But in a weird coincidence I’m currently reading three things that have taken me back to my church days but also have me thinking more critically about the Bible. How it has been assembled from myriad sources, how much translation is more art than science and how much historical context can affect interpretation of the texts, especially one written over hundreds of years.

In The Impossible Will Take A Little While, there’s an essay by Walter Wink, Jesus and Alinksy, in which he parallels Christ with the famous community organizer, Saul Alinsky. He argues that Christ’s instructions of passiveness, when examined in the context of the harsh Roman occupation of Judea at the time and common social norms, can be interpreted as instructing people to non-violently resist imperial authority through the assertion of dignity rather than meekly to submit to their earthly conditions in hope of a glorious after-life. Wink takes a closer look at three famous examples to make his case.

To Wink, the oft-referenced example of turning the other the cheek (especially cited when Christianity is being criticized for its role in colonizing people) does not mean that you are to be repeatedly pummeled in a fight between equals. It’s instead a dignified response to a very specific situation of a backhanded slap to your right cheek by someone who has complete power over you. In Jesus’ time, one could only hit the right cheek with the back of the right hand because the left hand was only to be used for unclean tasks. Wink argues that Jesus’ audience would have recognized the unequal power dynamic of the right cheek slap and understood his instruction of offering the other cheek to be an assertion of dignity (any other kind of protest in that situation would have been unthinkable) and a non-violent, but obvious message of protest.

Another example is Jesus’ instruction to carry a Roman soldier’s equipment for two miles if asked carry them one. Roman soldiers were actually not allowed to ask anyone to carry their things for more than one mile and this was well known. To try to exceed that limit would have been recognized as an attempt to diminish the dignity of the occupying soldier and assert your own. The third example Wink offers is the offering of your clothes in a debtor’s court to the point of nudity. Wink points out that nakedness was such a taboo that shame would have fallen not “on the naked party but the person viewing or causing the nakedness.” In a situation of complete powerlessness (destitution) Wink’s argument is that Jesus is teaching his audience how to assert power where there seems to be none available.

James Wood, in his review of Richard Alter’s new Translation of the Book of Psalms, looks closely at how Alter has tried to stay more faithful to the rhythm and brevity in the original Hebrew sources and how the King James Version [KJV] translation may have taken some liberties in translation to ensure a more docile people.

Wood compares Alter’s compact translation to the KJV:
He [Alter] is particularly alive to formal aspects of ancient Hebrew poetry and prose such as repetition, internal rhythm, and parallelism (in which a phrase amplifies and almost repeats a preceding phrase, as in “He shall come down like rain upon the mown grass: as showers that water the earth,” from Psalm 72). Because the Psalms are poems, he wants to preserve in English what he calls the “rhythmic compactness” of the originals, “something one could scarcely guess from the existing English versions.” His helpful introduction is more polemical than the exegeses he has provided for his other translations: he argues that even the King James translators, whom he, like everyone else, has always admired, pad out their versions with filler.
Later on, he looks at particular aspects of Hebrew syntax that Alter tries to remain faithful to such as the fact that in many Hebrew sentences the subject of a verb in a sentence is often left unstated and simply referred by the conjugation of the verb (I found this interesting because it’s actually similar to Korean sentences which almost always leave the subject unspoken, but assumed by conjugation and context).

Besides trying to staying faithful to Hebrew structure, Alter tries to clean the Psalms of their ‘Christianization’ and some of the liberties that the KJV translators must have made to align the mercurial, vengeful God of the Old Testament with the forgiving salvation-offering God of the New:
…he is determined to remind his readers that they are reading ancient texts with hybrid origins, not Christian prayers with dedicated destinations. The Psalms (like the Book of Job) were relentlessly Christianized by the King James translators.
Alter also makes the focus less on the after life and more on the current one:
Suddenly, in a world without Heaven, Hell, the soul, and eternal salvation or redemption, the theological stakes seem more local and temporal: “So teach us to number our days.” Psalm 23, again, is greatly refreshed by translation.

The K.J.V. has the last half line of the psalm as “and I will dwell in the house of the LORD for ever.” Alter slaps a term limit on the eternal, and suggests “And I shall dwell in the house of the LORD / for many long days.” Again, a footnote anchors the decision: “The viewpoint of the poem is in and of the here and now and is in no way eschatological. The speaker hopes for a happy fate all his born days.”
Lynne Truss, in the hysterical Eats, Shoots and Leaves, looks at how the choice of one comma placement can lead to “huge doctrinal differences.”
“Verily, I say unto thee, This day thou shallt be with me in Paradise”

“Verily, I say unto thee this day, Thou shallt be with me in Paradise”
The first being the Protestant interpretation that takes the crucified thief next to Jesus “straight to Heaven.” The second sentence is the Catholic interpretation, which leads to Purgatory. (“You’ll be with me in Heaven but I’m not saying when you’ll get there”).

These three articles/books are really helping to me look at something intimately familiar to me with fresh eyes. As much I’d like to think of myself as a critical reader, I was taught to accept the Bible as one unified book with one author (God working through the writings of various men) rather then a collection of writings and translations that are the products of incredibly diverse people and social and historical contexts.

Marathon Training

Tempo Run

1 mile warm up, jog to Astoria Park Track

5 miles at 8:59 pace
Actual total time
42:11 for an 8:26:2 pace per mile


1 mile cool down (jog/walk home)

Total miles: 7

Comments

I did this work out after a big dinner at Saravanaas so it was pretty unpleasant (the workout, the food was great, the service not so much). I felt nauseous during miles three to four.

Sunday, September 30, 2007

Make It Stop...

Someone at ESPN must have gone to art school, look at this use of contrast!

sigh...

How Many Days Until Pitchers and Catchers?

No words, just no words....

Marathon Training

Ran 15 miles at the NYC Marathon Tune-Up Run today in 2:21:08 which comes out to 9:25 per mile. The race was 18, but I'm only up to 15 so I just walked the last three.

Comments:
I'm in pretty scary territory now that my long runs are getting into the upper teens. I felt great in the first six, but I started to feel serious pain in towards the end of the second six and was able to muscle out the final 3 miles to get to 15. I don't know if I could have made it to 18 and I sure as hell don't know where I'm going to pull the final 11.2 miles from.

Saturday, September 29, 2007

Jimmy Rollins for MVP! (maybe)

Watching the Phillies play DC today has got me thinking about Jimmy Rollin’s yearlong saga from goat to hero…

When I first read Donovan McNabb’s comments on HBO about being a black quarterback, I thought “no big deal”, white journalists probably ask him stuff /say stuff about him all the time that they wouldn't say about white quarterbacks and don’t even realize they’re doing it. Does it mean McNabb’s saying that that white journalists are going home burning crosses and putting on white hoods and are out to stamp out the black quarterback? No, but its not outlandish to say we live in a racist society and that we all (even the mental giants that we call sports journalists) probably act differently towards people based on their appearances more than we want to admit.

That’s why I loved reading about the study that analyzed 13 years of referee foul calls in the NBA, because the study took a population that’s rigorously monitored to ensure neutrality (refs) and controlling for a ton of factors, STILL found evidence of racial bias. I shudder to think what you would find if you analyzed my behavior towards people of different races that rigorously over 13 years.

Unfortunately, the issue in the media became about labeling which referees were “racist” and “not racist” (as if they were either/or categories like pure good and pure evil) rather than an opportunity to learn about what unconsciously guides our behavior towards others.
…several prominent academic economists said it [the study] would contribute to the growing literature regarding subconscious racism in the workplace and elsewhere, such as in searches by the police.

“I would be more surprised if it didn’t exist,” Mr. Ayres said of an implicit association bias in the N.B.A. “There’s a growing consensus that a large proportion of racialized decisions is not driven by any conscious race discrimination, but that it is often just driven by unconscious, or subconscious, attitudes. When you force people to make snap decisions, they often can’t keep themselves from subconsciously treating blacks different than whites, men different from women.”
So McNabb, who was just answering a question honestly, is now the center of controversy because some idiot white sports journalists can’t possibly believe they could ever in the slightest bit be biased in their coverage of athletes of color.

Which brings me to my Jimmy Rollins for MVP campaign (only IF they win the division, which I am rooting firmly against).

As a Mets fan, let me say up front that I detest the Phillies, and by association, Jimmy Rollins.

But in spring training, I watched in fascination as the overwhelmingly white sports media piled on him for saying the Phillies, and not the Mets, were “the team to beat” in the NL East.

Apparently, Rollins was not showing enough deference to the defending NL east champs and running his mouth and not letting his actions on the field speak for him. I love my Mets, but I didn’t give a shit that Rollins said what he did. He was trying to get his team inspired and believing in themselves (a franchise that’s been mired in negativity for way too many years), but instead of praising him for his “leadership”, he became just another trash talking overly brash black athlete.

Watching the double standard towards black athletes unfold with Rollins was amazing. I couldn’t believe he was getting crap for such an innocuous remark, there was no way a white athlete would have been treated the same way for trying to get his team amped. It turns out now that Jimmy Rollins has had an MVP year full of clutch hits and great defense and his team might actually (*gulp) pull off an incredible upset.

If the Phillies win the East, I gotta say, Rollins for NL MVP.

But, Lets Go Mets!

Ya Gotta Believe!!!


WE'RE TIED!

Magic number: TWO


Fall for Dance

Thursday night, I went to the first of the three nights of the Fall for Dance Festival I had gotten tickets for. It was the first "real" dance performance I had ever been to (maybe formal is a better word) not counting the countless performances I’ve been in the NY On2 Salsa scene.

I've been looking for some inspiration in dance. After having been locked into salsa for so long I was really excited about these shows. I've been talking to one of my salsa teachers about what I think is the overall lack of creativity and artistry in the on2 salsa scene. There are some amazing technical dancers, but not enough musicality, creativity and artistic vision. It seems like everything is about doing the most complicated routine with no regard for music, risk-taking and expanding how salsa as a dance is defined.

I find salsa dance and music fascinating because you can't separate it from issues of diaspora and postcolonialism and have found that dancers from all backgrounds (ballet, jazz, hip hop, African, ballroom etc.) have easily found a pathway into salsa because it has roots in so many dance styles and cultures. And vice versa, (in my case) it’s a great dance to work backwards from because you’ve already learned the very basic vocabulary of other dance forms through salsa.


Long story short, I'm looking for some inspiration and Fall for Dance was a great start. Here's what I saw and what I thought (please note that I'm no dance critic).

Paul Taylor Dance Company
"Arden Court" Choreographer: Paul Taylor

This was by far my favorite of the night. I found out later that this is one his most famous works. I had seats that were really high up, but it was perfect for a piece like this. The choreography uses the whole stage and the overall forms he creates are so beautiful, I thought he had a visual arts background. The movement of the dancers feels like pure expression of the music (I want to listen to more William Boyce now). The dancers move in perfect harmony with each other; at different tempos (men from women), darting, crawling and leaping across the stage. This piece also requires an incredible amount of strength, especially on the part of the men. I was reading that this is considered by many dancers a very "masculine piece", which is still a hard adjective for me to use when describing shirtless men prancing around in pastel-colored pointilist tights, but you know what, the strength required by this piece is straight-up Herculean. There is one part where the men stand on one leg, their other leg fully extended, their backs flat (or slightly arched upwards) and the women leap and land on the small of the men’s backs, and tuck into a ball and just sit there. And the men don't move, they don't flinch.

I looked carefully to see if I could catch any shifting or adjusting (I'm a dick like that), but nothing. Holy fucking shit. There’s no way the woman will hit the man’s sweet spot every time they do that move so move so they just have to compensate a slightly different set of muscles (hamstrings, abs, back, calves and God knows what else) to maintain that effect each time.

Wow.

Kirov Ballet of the Mariinsky Theatre of St. Petersburg
"Middle Duet" Choreographer: Alexei Ratmansky

This was technically incredible, especially the female dancer. The choreography demands a lot of the woman dancer who has to make near instantaneous switches in her foot position to full plie and back again. On one hand, I should have liked it because it was a ballet dance with shades of Latin partner work (sharp breakbacks, crosshands, turn patterns, multiple spins by the woman led by the man), but I didn't find it visually that compelling. The woman's technique and body control was really incredible though.

Shantala Shivalingappa
"Varnam" Choreographer: Shantala Shivalingappa

This was Kuchipudi "a classical dance style from South India". It was a solo dance accompanied by a live band of Indian musicians. My seat was too high and far to the side to see the musicians which sucked. I couldn't get into this piece, the woman was a very sharp, clean dancer and dancing solo is incredibly difficult, but after awhile the movements started to feel montonous. When she got to the part where she was vibrating her body while standing on a brass plate ("the varnam") it got interesting again, but that ended up being near the conclusion of the piece.

Juilliard Dance
"Deuce Coupe" Choreographer: Twyla Tharp

Tacky. That was the first thing that came into my mind, and the piece just kept reinforcing it. First off, the backdrop was some big busy faux graffitti backdrop with "peace" in huge letters that didn't seem to relate to the music (a beach boys song), the dancer's costumes (weird 50s-style all-American collared shirts and pants) nor the dance movements itself (an awkward mix of classical ballet and herky-jerky 50s teen party sock hopish movements). The dancers looked stiff when they were asked to do anything other than ballet (the men's shoulders were hunched and slouched when doing non-ballet moves which bothered me). I might have been missing what her vision was, but it just seemed like a lot mismatched pieces that didn't sing well together.

Philly-DC

4-0!!!

They hear the footsteps...

Philly-DC

3-0 Nats!

That's what happens when Subway Jared shouts out Ryan Howard's defense.

Philly-DC

5:02PM And another Phillies pitching change!

Phillies-Nats-Mets-Marlins

Adam Eaton is out of the game!! Go Washington! C'mon Manny, we helped kickstart your managerial career, hook us up!

In other notes, John Maine's start had better woke up the Mets, what a fucking clutch start.

Friday, September 28, 2007

Marathon Training

Tempo run

2 miles to Astoria Park Track

4 miles at 8:54 pace
My actual splits:
8:34
8:42
8:37
8:14

1 mile cool down (shuffle/jog/walk) back home

Total: 7 miles

Comments:
My legs and back were aching more than any tempo run (back from dance classes and legs from the Queens half on Sunday), I think I might be reaching the part of my training where my body aches more and I’m going to have to suck it up. Given that, I was glad my splits were all on target, its probably going to take more mental strength to maintain that (I really wanted to stop after the first mile).

Time to get ready for Jillian’s wedding.

Sunday, September 23, 2007

Marathon Training

Did the Queens Half marathon today. 13.1 miles in about 2:10 (I didn't look at the clock when I crossed the finish line).

Friday, September 21, 2007

Marathon Training

Ran 7 miles Thursday morning, easy run. This Sunday, Queens Half.

Tuesday, September 18, 2007

Marathon Training

Tagged along with the Team in Training workout in Central Park, just did some hill work, nothing crazy, but it was a good workout.

Saturday, September 15, 2007

Dead White Men

"undergraduates often arrive unprepared from high school and seeking courses “in what we might have thought of as the old-fashioned approach” — broad surveys. But many young professors aren’t interested in teaching outside their narrow specialties, nor are they generally prepared to do so. And colleges are loath to reinstate the core curriculums they abandoned in the ’60s. “Because we lack cultural self-confidence, we’ve lacked the ability to say, ‘This is a good book and should be taught, this isn’t and shouldn’t,’ ” said Judt, who was dean of the humanities at N.Y.U. in the early ’90s."
Very, very interesting article in the Times Book section. I've been thinking about this a lot, especially in the context of arts education and what it really means to “expose kids to the arts.” That phrase, thrown around a lot, is so loaded. It can be paternalistic, almost colonial (i.e. how do we “civilize” poor minority kids by exposing them to "great high artworks” and) or it can be empowering, helping kids find what’s beautiful and profound everywhere, even in their own experiences (which is my thing with 7ARTS).

But you don’t want the pendulum to swing to far in either extreme, how do you strike the balance between pushing someone outside of their comfort zones by providing "historical context" and reaching deep into the traditional "canon", but also exposing kids to works by people that are culturally relevant to them? As much as I believe in the opening of what we consider "the canon" (though I think the concept of one common canon a is long dead concept") I have begun to feel huge gaps in my own knowledge of Western culture, especially because I went to an art school focusing on studio art, my liberal arts education was much less broad than it could have been. I completely identified with this:
"As Alan Wolfe puts it, “Everyone’s read ‘Things Fall Apart’ ” — Chinua Achebe’s novel about postcolonial Nigeria — “but few people have read the Yeats poem that the title comes from.”
I never thought I’d reach an age where I actually began to see some merit in where E.D. Hirsch was coming from with his concept of “Cultural Literacy.” Maybe I’m just getting older and more Republican.

Bring on the dead white men, stat!

Marathon Training

Did 11 miles this morning at the NYRR long training run. I ran with the 10 minute/mile group. My legs were on fire at the end, I went to Djoniba's class on Wed and Fri and had my speed workout Thursday.

Friday, September 14, 2007

Go New York Go (away)

I’m done with the Knicks until Dolan and and Zeke go.

They were the first team I ever really closely followed beginning in the early 90s and to watch the franchise devolve from a hard-working team that scrapped and clawed for everything they earned in the league into a bunch of overpaid underachieving players has been extremely painful.

This whole Anucha Brown Sanders case is the final nail in the coffin though, it reveals how fucking completely amok the franchise is and that responsibility goes straight to the top at Dolan. This guy couldn’t lead people out of a fucking paper bag, let alone a franchise.

Stephon Marbury, the Knicks’ star guard, testified in federal court yesterday that he had sex with an intern for the team after a group outing to a strip club in 2005. The intern worked for Anucha Browne Sanders, who is suing Isiah Thomas, the team’s coach and president, for sexual harassment.

Asked to recall what he told Kathleen Decker, the intern, Marbury testified, “I said, ‘Are you going to get in the truck?’ ” She agreed, he said.

Earlier, Browne Sanders, a former senior vice president for marketing for the Knicks, testified that Decker was one of several employees who told her about abusive behavior by Hassan Gonsalves, a cousin of Marbury who worked for Browne Sanders in a low-level job. Gonsalves got the job through Marbury’s request to James L. Dolan, the chairman of Madison Square Garden.

Gonsalves was later fired for sexual harassment.

NY Times
I expect pro athletes participate in their share of sexual shenanigans, but this is about managing your workplace and it reveals how Dolan simply doesn’t have control of it. It seems he’d rather be liked then set limits, from giving Zeke free spending reign without demanding any accountability (and extending his contract early despite his own stated requirements), to letting Steph’s cousin be hired for some bull shit job (Starbury’s already on already on contract, you don’t have to hire a knucklehead from his entourage if you don’t want to).

What’s also been clear from the coverage of this case is that Sanders repeatedly had difficulty getting Thomas and the Knicks to participate in marketing for the team.

I remember thinking that the TV promos on MSG for the Knicks featuring local New Yorkers interacting comically with life-size cut outs of different Knicks were clever and endearing, but I wondered why none of the actual players were actually participating live. Apparently, because they had frozen Sanders out refusing to work with her, a movement led by Zeke. How the fuck do you allow this Dolan? You may not care about creating a hostile-free workplace for your female employees, but this affects your bottom line. I’m going to guess that all standard NBA contracts have clauses requiring participation in marketing and PR for the league and franchise. If I’m the team owner and my marketing director tells the players to be part of a campaign they better hop the fuck to it and play nice. At the end of the day, we’re all trying to get paid.

But, it seems like Dolan wants to be one of the boys so bad, that he didn’t intervene in that and other situations and which is why this whole shit has spiraled into the mess it is.

Duck Folan

Marathon Training

Speed workout

2 miles warm up to Astoria Park track

1 mile at 8:06
800 meters jog
1 mile at 7:57
800 meter jog
1 mile at 7:25

1 mile cool down

total workout: 7 miles

Sunday, September 09, 2007

Escalating Commitments

After my 9-mile run, I headed to NYC Center to try to get the jump on their Fall for Dance Festival. Tickets are 10 bucks and each night is four very different types of dance troupes. After being not too inspired by the shows I saw at the most recent NYC Salsa Congress (and downright horrified when I saw Al "Liquid" Silver put on blackface for his James Brown impersonation-you know that feeling of horror and fear you get when you're experiencing someone doing something incredibly racist that's not aimed at your ethnic group? That's what I felt, I was kind of waiting for him to get jumped by all the black people in the audience, but everyone loved it, go figure. That routine merits its own whole other blog entry actually at some point) the City Center Shows seemed like a good chance to broaden my exposure to dance.

Tickets went on sale at 11, I got there right at 11 and the line stretched around the block.


I was willing to wait about 3 hours and I thought I would wait and get a sense of the pacing and see if it was worth it. The first two legs took about 2+ hours so I thought the final leg down 55th street to the box office wouldn't be much more than an hour. I don't know what the hell happened but I didn't make it to the ticket booth until 4:00. The final block was a backbreaking 3 hours. I can't figure out why it took so long, but at that point I had committed too much time to back out and I kept adding to the amount of time I had originally been willing too wait. Flashback to grad school and sunk costs and escalation of committment. But in my case I'm sure the dance shows will be all worth it and my behavior was completely rational.

Marathon Training

Schedule called for 9 miles in 10:29.

I did 9 miles in Central Park in 1:27:45 which comes out to 9:45 a mile. I'm a little concerned that I'm running this far below what my splits are supposed to be, but I'm not running harder than what a long run pace should be (conversation pace). At first I thought that maybe that the times were going to get much faster later in the schedule, but they don't. I may be pushing myself too hard or the runners world training calculator grossly underestimated what I'm capable of (haha).

Friday, September 07, 2007

Marathon Training

I experienced the first hitch in my training schedule, I skipped my workout yesterday (too tired after a long day at work), but made it up tonight:

Tempo run 7 miles total

2-mile warm up

4 miles at an 8:59 pace

My actual splits were:

1 in 9:01
1 in 8:38
1 in 8:48
1 in 8:21

1 mile cool down.

To be honest, the cool down was a mix of walking and jogging, actually running the cool down is getting harder and harder after my tempo runs, but I figure its still part of my mileage so I gotta work that out.

Tuesday, September 04, 2007

The Eye of Sauron

It is Mr. Díaz’s achievement in this galvanic novel that he’s fashioned both a big picture window that opens out on the sorrows of Dominican history, and a small, intimate window that reveals one family’s life and loves.

I guess this is why she gets paid the big big bucks to review books and I don't. She's prettty much summed what impressed me so much about the book which is how seamlessly Diaz manages to move from the big picture (the grand narrative of history to the small picture) the micro view and more importantly connect the two without privileging one over the other.

The way Trujillo dominates the lives of their characters makes me think of Park Chung Hee and the conflicted place he must hold in the psyche of many Koreans. On one hand, he's the father of modern Korea (try getting my father to say anything bad about him) and arguably the reason South Korea is not a third world country today, but at the same time a pretty damn Trujilloish dictator in his own right. Ironically, I didn't immediately think of the dictator to the North like the reviewer in the Voice did, calling Trujillio, the DR's very own Kim Jong Il. But I guess its easy to forget that it took some time for democratic elections to take root on the American client side of Korea too.

Sunday, September 02, 2007

Marathon Training

Did my long run today, was supposed to do 8 miles at 10:29 but I didn't have a timer but I did do 8 miles in Central Park this morning.

Friday, August 31, 2007

Footsie

On the tape, Craig and the arresting officer can be heard arguing over what happened in the men's room minutes earlier. Craig acknowledges that the men's feet bumped but says nothing improper happened.

"Did we bump? Yes, I think we did. You said so. I don't disagree with that," Craig said.

I've taken ALOT of shits in my lifetime and I don't know how you could bump feet with someone in the stall next to you "by accident."

Oscar Wao is not Asian


I just finished this and I want to read it a few more times, but I have to say I'm very impressed, especially considering the leap he made from Drown (we only had to wait some 10 years).


Drown was great, but still just a bunch of short stories, vignettes. What Diaz has done with "Brief..." is create an epic story spanning three generations, numerous cultures, races and much more. The shit he's managed to weave together is so much more ambitious than Drown and I think it works, especially the omnipresent shadow of Trujillo looming over all Dominicans like a Darth Vadar, Big Brother, Eye of Sauron etc. I was worried that like Nas with Illmatic, Diaz may not have had much left in his tank after (I think) spilling the guts of his entire life in one incredibly tight, successful and memorable piece that rocketed him to fame at a young age (like Nas with Illmatic), but I'm glad to see his evolution.

There was an interesting article in the last issue of Poets and Writers about how his early success made it hard for him to write again, but I think he's done it. Hopefully his next book won't take another decade.



Thursday, August 30, 2007

NYC Marathon Training

Tempo run:

2-mile warm up to Astoria Park Track

Supposed to do 3 miles at an 8:59 pace and did:

1 at 8:59
1 at 8:38
1 at 8:18

1-mile cool down (shuffle) back to my apartment.

Total: 6 miles

Tuesday, August 28, 2007

Gloria and Anil's Wedding

I just spent the weekend in Portland Maine stuffing myself silly with seafood and watching my friends Anil and Gloria get married. It was a great weekend especially because it was a weekend out of town with a lot of my closest friends who are like an extended family to me. Here are some pics from my (shitty) camera phone. I've got to upgrade, I think I got some decent shots despite my technical limitations:

Monday, August 27, 2007

Marathon Training

Correction on what I wrote earlier afternoon.

My long run was 7.32 (not 7.5) miles in 1:26 in Portland ME (I was there for Anil's
wedding). I was supposed to do them at a 10:29/mile pace so I was off
a bit. I also stopped a few times to check directions so that may
have been the reason. The first 4 miles are great because they are right along the water, first on the ocean, then in the back cove. The last 3 were a little confusing because my map print out was small and I wasn't sure where to turn at a bunch of points.
Here is the course:


Courtesy mapmyrun.com

Friday, August 24, 2007

Hiking

Went hiking with the fam today, lots of fun. Hariman State Park.

Thursday, August 23, 2007

Torqued Ellipses

There's no gestalt reading. You don't know the form even if you walk around it several times. When you walk inside the piece, you become caught up in the movement of the surface and your movement in relation to its movement.

Richard Serra on Torqued Ellipses

Richard Serra is one of those giants of 20th Century art, whose work I'm embarrassed to admit, I've only experienced in slides and text books. I know about him through readings in art theory and case studies (Tilted Arc in the Federal Plaza). In my mind, he had devolved into the one-sentence you can use to quickly categorize a lot of artists (in his case, he was the white guy that did big steel sheets that pissed people off). But on a day trip to the Dia Beacon today, I had a chance to walk through Torqued Ellipses, one of his more notable works.

Incredible.

To move through them and feel the movement in and out of structures so stable and solid while you weave through yourself them was almost a spiritual experience. Light sneaks in creating a dramatic effect. The warm rust colors against the limited lighting reminded of how Mark Rothko had wanted his paintings to be a spiritual experience exhibited only in low light (one of his last projects was a chapel). The surfaces are incredibly painterly in their texture and colors. Even if they were flat they still would be beautiful. And apparently, just building the shit was an engineering feat in and of itself.

Wow, hell of an experience. Richard Serra, in my book, is now the white guy that does really cool big steel sheets that piss people off.





marathon workout

This morning's workout-tempo run@ Astoria Park track

1.5 miles warm up
1600 mt 7:52
800 jog
1600 mt 8:15
800 jog
1.5 mile cool down

Was supposed do each mile at 8:24 and am still learning to pace myself-went out like gangbusters on the first one then gutted the second one. I assume that my goal for these should be to get the times close to each other at the right pace.

Sunday, August 19, 2007

Workout-8/19/07

I was supposed to do 6 miles at 10:29/mile and meet a co-worker at 8:00am for the run. But...I stayed out a little too late last night for a friend's birthday party and slept through my alarm and got there really late and she had (understandably) took off without me. I cut across the park and caught her at about mile 3. I ended up doing the whole 6 at what felt like a 10:00 clip but I didn't have a time so you'll have to trust me.

Saturday, August 18, 2007

NYC Marathon Training Kick Off


I'm training for the NYC Marathon and I'll be logging workouts here to keep myself on track. I downloaded a training schedule on RunnersWorld which has a handy training calculator that lets you plug in some variables to give you a personalized schedule. I was a little alarmed that its only two days a week, but the mileage makes sense and as long as a I stick to the intervals and do cross training on off days hopefully I will be ok. Here's the schedule. Its based on my:

Most recent half marathon time: 2:00
Weekly running base going into the training period: 10-15 miles/week
Target Race: Full Marathon
Race date: Nov 4, 2007
How hard do you want to train? Hard
Long run day: Sunday

My first official work out was last Thursday morning, a tempo run. I'm not used to running against an interval, but I did it:

1 mile warm up (my house to Astoria track)
1 mile 8:30 (on the track)
1 mile 8:30 (on the track)
1 mile 8:40 (on the track)
1 mile cool down (back home)

Tomorrow:
6 miles at 10:29 in Central Park.

For those of you interested, my cross-training is 2-3 dance classes/week (African and Salsa). I'd like to add in a 3rd running work out a week to do drills. I need to add in some strength training.

Monday, May 28, 2007

Presidential Politics

From the latest issue of Business Week
Maria Bartiromo:
How is America perceived around the world?

John McCain:
It's worse probably than it has ever been. When I'm President, I will close Guantánamo Bay. I will address climate change in the most serious fashion. And we will never torture another person being held in detention. And I would be humble.
Not that I'm rooting for the Republicans to win this next presidential election, but I am discouraged that the one Republican candidate that seems to have any real intergrity and not just flip flop himself to appeal to a conservative base (see: Romney, Giuliani), is again going to lose to a candidate who is full of shit (Giuliani) but extremely well-funded. After reading that interview I check out McCain's wikipedia page to see the extent to which he had been tortured as a POW and the shit was bananas.

Apparently he also once joked,
"why is Chelsea Clinton so ugly? Because her father is Janet Reno."