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.

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

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:

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

Hiking

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

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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.

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.

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.