In recent years, I haven’t listened to music as much as I used to. Most of it is a matter of time to absorb music. Since the kids were born, I don’t have as much time on my hands to focus on leisure activities. I like podcasts too, and these days, rather than listen to new music, I prefer to get information. I suppose I’m hoping to use the information I gather from listening to podcast some time in my life. In a lot of cases, I used to listen to music during my workday, and working from home now, it’s not as necessary. I don’t need it to occupy the downtime. I can simply get up and do other things, things that need to be done around the house. Or I get a workout in. A walk around the neighborhood, a floor climb exercise, a little bit of time on the exercise bike. I’m good with cardio, but I have trouble with resistance or weight training. And funny enough, it’s the trouble with weight training that has brought me back to music.

Lately, I’ve been listening to a lot of metal. I used to listen to metal when I was young, around 12 or 13, but somewhere along the line we went our separate ways, me and metal. It wasn’t that I didn’t like it anymore. If “Master of Puppets” came on, I was all about it. Same with anything by Black Sabbath. And of course, if you consider AC/DC metal, I’d turn the radio up when they came on. Back in the day, too, I preferred the gruffer voices, the harder metal: Slayer, for example. But now I find, the easiest way to get myself into the weight training mindset is to turn on metal. Get the aggression going, pump a little adrenaline into the system. It’s not even like the weight training I’m doing it all that vigorous. I usually do several weight exercises three days a week, but I hate it. I’ve always been a walker and a runner. When I was a teen, I’d get unsettled or emotional and walking always cured it. So it seems second nature. I don’t even have to prompt myself. If there’s a day I don’t go for a long walk, I feel strange, like somethings missing. But I’ve never seen the point of picking up and putting down heavy objects in one spot. I’ve never really cared about muscle mass. But of course, one of the things I’ve learned in the podcast listening, particularly from Peter Attia’s The Drive, is just how important resistance training is as we age, how integral it is to health to maintain our muscle mass.

Hence, the metal, and because I was looking for new stuff, stuff I hadn’t listened to in the past, I turned to Rolling Stone’s Top 100 Metal Albums of All Time. I figured I’d make my way through them from 1-100 in that order, and while I did, I’d do my weight workouts. Now this has not only been surprisingly effective in getting me to do the workouts, but it’s made me realize that some of the higher-pitched voice, some of the crossover metal that had hooks that I disliked in my teen years, is actually amazing. I even have a handful of new favorites in Judas Priest’s British Steel and Iron Maiden’s self-titled debut and Run to the Hills. I’m not sure why I didn’t like these records when I was young. They just didn’t seem as good as Metallica and Slayer did to me back then. And then, there are all these bands I’ve missed in the intervening years, all these acts I get to catch up on, and that’s exciting.

With streaming services, it can be difficult choosing what to listen to. I have playlists of old favorites that I can turn on shuffle. But they’re often made up of stuff I’ve listened to a million times and I want to listen to new stuff on occasion. And while metal is good for my weight workouts, I want something different in the background, so I decided to work my way through Pitchfork’s 200 Best Albums of the 1960s in concurrence with the 100 metal albums. What’s funny to me is, having Googled, that, the first record on the list, clocking in at 200 is the soundtrack to The Good, The Bad and The Ugly. Really? I mean, don’t get me wrong, that whistling is iconic. And I love the movie. But I never thought that this would be on a list of greatest records of the 1960s. But then I listened to the whole thing, and I listened to it again. In fact, I’ve listened to it four times today, all the while doing my writing, my office work, or sitting and reading Elizabeth Strout’s Abide with Me before I sat to compose this post. I love it. I’m amazed how much I love it. But I do. And it’s going to be in the rotation for a while going forward.

As for the rest of life, had Back to School Night last week (or BTSN as the teachers condense it; really? like the boy band?). My kids teachers seem good and the reports I’m getting back are that my kids are well-behaved. My daughter became a safety so she always wants to get to school a little early to man her brother’s line. Really her job is just to tell running kids not to run, and I’d say 70% of the time, they pay her no mind and she has to keep repeating it, but it’s responsibility, and I like it when my kids take on responsibility. This week I’m getting my flu shot, which is always fun times. I never had any side effects except to feel like I’ve been punched in the arm. And I usually get it in my dominant arm so the feel fades quickly with use. I’ve been submitting to journals again. Not really sure what else you do with short work and I love working short form. The Eagles played yesterday and won again to make themselves 3-0. My dad came up to watch the game and we opened a bottle of Talisker Distiller’s Edition, which was absolutely delicious. Whenever I open a really solid Islay Scotch I can’t help but wonder why I ever buy anything else because there isn’t another style of whisky in the world that’s of the same class. I’ve never tasted a bourbon, Irish, rye or Japanese whisky nearly as good as the Talisker DE, and it reminded me of the Laphroaig PX finish they released last year as their Cairdeas release, which was also phenomenal. Anyway, the kids are off today and tomorrow for the holiday, so I’m a little beat and going to get back to Abide with Me. Ah, Elizabeth Strout, I adore your work, and only have The Burgess Boys and Lucy by the Sea to finish now to have read all your work. What will I do then?