bob's blog

I loved Billy Preston's music, especially the funk and drive he lent to the late-term Beatles, as they struggled to inject new blood into their acrimonious relations. When he digs into Let it Be, just measures before the chorus, Preston suddenly reimagines the music with a deep, spiritual groove, which laid that song's path to greatness. And don't get me started on Billy's smoking Fender Rhodes in Get Back. Billy Preston, I miss you already.

No drugs. No bypasses. No scars. Just solid DIY advice on how to keep your heart pumping

In 1991, you started using condoms. Sunscreen followed in '95. And this spring you were wearing a surgical mask when the Toronto Blue Jays visited Fenway. Your policy on life-threatening diseases: maximum protection.

Thus opens an eye-popping article with some unexpected tips on staying healthy. Eat steak. Run inside. Smack a punching bag...and that's just the beginning. For those of us who are into living well, this item from Men's Health offers good--and decidely oddball--words-to-the-wise.

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Jogging without shorts

Here is what I call a running "'expose:"

A FLASHER surprised two women when he jogged past them naked on the Downs Link at Partridge Green.The friends were out walking when a six foot man ran past them fully clothed on Monday May 8 at about 6.30pm

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Where I live, the Powers That Be are just starting to catch on to the benefits of encouraging bike commuting. Pity about all the potholes and stressed motorists. Anyway, it's been nice to see interest if not exploding, at least, well, growing. This story from the Wall Street Journal pretty much announces that bike community has come of age. Respectability doesn't get much more pin-striped than WSJ!

I've been looking for organizations that help people get involved in fitness activities at the level they are most comfortable. For walkers, who comprise one of the largest fitness categories in the nation, the American Volkssport Association offers a coast-to-coast network of clubs that offer walks and hikes for participants.

"What would you do for an iPod?" That's the question at the top of the home page of Spymac. The intriguing answer is: just about anything! Members can offer up iPods of any kind in exchange for something/anything they think others might be willing do. From offering a 1GB shuffle "to find out exactly under what circumctances tattoos may appear & dissappear as a result of magic or involvement of supernatural forces and antidote rites to this," to asking for an iPod in exchange for "my WoW account."

Yoga was once considered exercise for the counterculture. It came to America much earlier than the 1960s of course, but its popularity increased greatly in the context of the Baby Boomer's fascination with all things Eastern. Now, it appears, yoga's going mainstream.

There's great stuff going over at iComposition, a site for Garageband composers to post their original compositions. This stuff is mostly for the downloading, it's fresh, and much of it is fitness-ready. Take, for example, Water Sphere, by David Bowles. He describes it as Track 7 of my 9-track project, "Two Skies, Two Swords, Five Spheres," a series of pieces inspired by Miyamoto Musashi, arguably the greatest swordsman in Japanese history.