Sunday, October 24, 2010
Wholesome, strollsome Sunday. Last weekend, when I probably should have been doing work, I created an iPod playlist of songs at walking pace. Or, more precisely, I enlarged and organised this playlist. Today, I had my first go of using it.
I pretty much always have my iPod on shuffle. Whenever I'm walking somewhere, listening to my iPod, and I notice that the current song suits my walking pace, I'll add it to my 'On-The-Go' playlist, then every time I plug the iPod into my computer I transfer these songs to my 'Walking Pace' playlist.
I downloaded a BPM counter so I could organise the songs into an arc of gradually increasing, then decreasing BPM. The slowest song is my 'cool-down' song, 'The Things We Do For Love', at 106 BPM. My sweet spot is between 110 and 115 BPM, which gets me into a jaunty, Leonardo DiCaprio-esque strut. The fastest song used to be 'How Will I Know' by Whitney Houston, but today when I tried walking to it, at 118 BPM I found it a bit too much like a workout for my liking.
The playlist is a work in progress; at the moment it goes for 1.4 hours and consists of:
Black Sweat – Prince
Life In The Fast Lane – The Eagles
Hungry Eyes – Eric Carmen
Kim & Jessie – M83
Lovefool – The Cardigans
There Must Be An Angel (Playing With My Heart) – Eurythmics
Never Gonna Give You Up – Rick Astley
Say It Isn't So – Hall & Oates
Rock With You – Michael Jackson
Promised You A Miracle – Simple Minds
Hella Good – No Doubt
Black Or White – Michael Jackson
Fences – Phoenix
What Have You Done For Me Lately – Janet Jackson
Caribbean Queen – Billy Ocean
Under Pressure – David Bowie and Queen
House Of Cards – Radiohead
Flashback – Kelis
Who's Johnny – El DeBarge
Damn Girl – Justin Timberlake
The Things We Do For Love – 10CC
Clearly the '80s were a prime decade for my walking pace.
Given it's a lovely day today, and that yesterday I hacked a pair of pancake-soled Rubi Shoes by gluing the soles from a pair of rubber thongs to them, I decided to test out my newly comfortable shoes on an epic walk.
Walking without any particular destination in mind is not a regular habit for me. I was actually quite bewildered about where I would walk to. I had already gone to North yesterday, and thanks to the fug of shame in which I live my life, I try not to frequent the same venue more than once a week in order to mitigate my paranoia that the staff think I'm a loser.
Anyway, I'd heard there were some new cafés up towards the end of the 96 tram line, and even though I am a creature of habit and the prospect of going somewhere new made me deeply uneasy, I decided to walk to one of them.
I started the playlist at 'There Must Be An Angel', and it took me until 'Hella Good' to reach Pope Joan. The food and coffee was quite good – I had "The Cornish", a delicious chicken sandwich, and then I also had a slice of hummingbird cake, which came with an intriguing pink cream that turned out to have strawberries in it. While eating I read my book, The Half-Child, which was my share of our second-prize haul at the Kill Your Darlings literary trivia night.
Then I walked back down Nicholson Street to the (now deleted) strains of 'How Will I Know', and by the time 'Black Or White' was beginning, I'd decided to pop into Second Hand Lane Way, a vintage shop much frequented by Gemma and Renée when they lived in Canning Street. I spent $5 on a pair of pearl and diamante clip-on earrings, to which I plan to attach a chain and turn them into sweater clips, seeing as I own 16 cardigans and like to wear them unbuttoned.
Then I walked home. It took me until 'House Of Cards'. Then I sat in the back yard and finished off my book. It was a pleasant day, and I can virtuously claim to have got some exercise, too.
I pretty much always have my iPod on shuffle. Whenever I'm walking somewhere, listening to my iPod, and I notice that the current song suits my walking pace, I'll add it to my 'On-The-Go' playlist, then every time I plug the iPod into my computer I transfer these songs to my 'Walking Pace' playlist.
I downloaded a BPM counter so I could organise the songs into an arc of gradually increasing, then decreasing BPM. The slowest song is my 'cool-down' song, 'The Things We Do For Love', at 106 BPM. My sweet spot is between 110 and 115 BPM, which gets me into a jaunty, Leonardo DiCaprio-esque strut. The fastest song used to be 'How Will I Know' by Whitney Houston, but today when I tried walking to it, at 118 BPM I found it a bit too much like a workout for my liking.
The playlist is a work in progress; at the moment it goes for 1.4 hours and consists of:
Black Sweat – Prince
Life In The Fast Lane – The Eagles
Hungry Eyes – Eric Carmen
Kim & Jessie – M83
Lovefool – The Cardigans
There Must Be An Angel (Playing With My Heart) – Eurythmics
Never Gonna Give You Up – Rick Astley
Say It Isn't So – Hall & Oates
Rock With You – Michael Jackson
Promised You A Miracle – Simple Minds
Hella Good – No Doubt
Black Or White – Michael Jackson
Fences – Phoenix
What Have You Done For Me Lately – Janet Jackson
Caribbean Queen – Billy Ocean
Under Pressure – David Bowie and Queen
House Of Cards – Radiohead
Flashback – Kelis
Who's Johnny – El DeBarge
Damn Girl – Justin Timberlake
The Things We Do For Love – 10CC
Clearly the '80s were a prime decade for my walking pace.
Given it's a lovely day today, and that yesterday I hacked a pair of pancake-soled Rubi Shoes by gluing the soles from a pair of rubber thongs to them, I decided to test out my newly comfortable shoes on an epic walk.
Walking without any particular destination in mind is not a regular habit for me. I was actually quite bewildered about where I would walk to. I had already gone to North yesterday, and thanks to the fug of shame in which I live my life, I try not to frequent the same venue more than once a week in order to mitigate my paranoia that the staff think I'm a loser.
Anyway, I'd heard there were some new cafés up towards the end of the 96 tram line, and even though I am a creature of habit and the prospect of going somewhere new made me deeply uneasy, I decided to walk to one of them.
I started the playlist at 'There Must Be An Angel', and it took me until 'Hella Good' to reach Pope Joan. The food and coffee was quite good – I had "The Cornish", a delicious chicken sandwich, and then I also had a slice of hummingbird cake, which came with an intriguing pink cream that turned out to have strawberries in it. While eating I read my book, The Half-Child, which was my share of our second-prize haul at the Kill Your Darlings literary trivia night.
Then I walked back down Nicholson Street to the (now deleted) strains of 'How Will I Know', and by the time 'Black Or White' was beginning, I'd decided to pop into Second Hand Lane Way, a vintage shop much frequented by Gemma and Renée when they lived in Canning Street. I spent $5 on a pair of pearl and diamante clip-on earrings, to which I plan to attach a chain and turn them into sweater clips, seeing as I own 16 cardigans and like to wear them unbuttoned.
Then I walked home. It took me until 'House Of Cards'. Then I sat in the back yard and finished off my book. It was a pleasant day, and I can virtuously claim to have got some exercise, too.
