Music Archives - Renaissance Granddad

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Thoughts of Ten Years After and Chick Churchill on His Birthday

Undead Showcases the keyboard chops of Chicjk Churchill

It’s Chick Churchil’s Birthday – January 2nd (1946) While I browsed around the Internet to discover what happened on past January 2nds, I discovered today is the birthday of Chick Churchill. Chick is a member of Ten Years After one my favorite bands from the 60s and 70s. Churchill was/and is the keyboard player for the band. The other original band members included guitarist extraordinaire Alvin Lee, bassist Leo Lyons and drummer Ric Lee. About Chick Churchill Chick Churchill was born on January 2, 1946 in Ilkeston, Derbyshire…from the Ten Years After website… Chick began playing piano at the age of six and continued classical studies until the age of fifteen. At this point he became more interested in Blues and Rock and joined his first band, a Nottingham outfit, Sons Of Adam. lChick met Alvin Lee. at a local gig of The Jaybirds, in whose line-up were bassist, Leo Lyons and drummer Ric Lee. At first, Chick joined as Road Manager but soon became keyboard player when The Jaybirds became the backing group for a chart vocal act, The Ivy League. In 1968, after Chick secured an audition for the band at London’s Marquee Club under the name The Bluesyard (the only gig the group ever performed under this name), the quartet became the highly successful rock group, Ten Years Read More About Ten Years After Undead may not have been the first Ten Years After album I bought, but it was one of my favorites and one of…

My Yoga and Walking Challenges Lead to a Month of Runs…

A few weeks after I started my 21-day Yoga Challenge I realize that wanted to add some more to my exercise regime. I thought back and remembered how I started to gain weight, when I stopped babysitting Oliver two plus years ago. While I was babysitting I would take him for two or three 30 minute walks during the day. Once those walks stopped on came the weight! Anyway I thought even though you won’t be pushing a stroller you can walk twice a day numb nuts! So I created the 30-day Oliver Walking Challenge. The aim of the challenge was to use walking to help me get back into shape with the idea that I would then be able to start and run again. Well the Walking Challenge worked so well that within two weeks or so, I was running again. .The Run: 3.1 Miles…. Yesterday I ran for the third time this week. It’s the fourth week in a row that I have done such! The first week I ran 3.1 miles on Sunday and then did the same on Tuesday and Thursday. On the following three Sundays, including this past Sunday, I ran four miles and 3.1 miles on the following Tuesday and Thursday. The end result is that I ran 11 days in May and have run 3 days so far in June. Yesterday’s run was my fourteenth since May 1st and one of my fastest. I completed the 3.1 mile course in 33:53 about…

A Running Update -Sunday’s 4-Miler with Gazpacho

A Brief Running Update So I guess I should catch up before I write about this week’s runs. Last week I ran three times. Sunday, Tuesday and Thursday. Each run was 3.1 miles. Two were over the same course. So far this week I have also run three times. The first run was a four-mile run on Sunday. The second was a 3.1 mile run on Tuesday and I ran another 3.1 on Thursday. Sunday’s Run Sunday’s run (May 20th) was my first four-mile run of 2018. I ran my old standby run called Creek Out and Back. And I screwed it up! A little after I ran the first mile in 10:40, my fastest mile so far this year, I looked down and saw my shoe was coming untied. I stopped to tie it and paused the Fitbit. I thought I restarted it but a half-mile later I looked and the distance and pace hadn’t changed. So I stopped briefly and restarted it and continued on. At the end of the run (which I know is 4 to 4.1 miles) my Fitbit registered 3.69 miles. I think that the pace ended up somewhere around 11:40 min per mile. The pace was slow because I struggled over the last mile. My average heart rate was 145 bpm and I burned 563 calories. So overall it was a productive run. The Soundtrack -Soyuz by Gazpacho The ‘soundtrack for the run was Soyuz the latest release from the progressive rock band Gazpacho. Gazpacho…

A Recap of what has been happening so far in 2018

Let the Devil Sleep -John Verdon the first read of 2018

Ok so I haven’t yet written a post in the new year, but that doesn’t mean that things haven’t been happening. The big news is that in three days our third grandchild will be born. The first son of our third son, Peter and his wife Missy will be delivered via c-section on Wednesday morning. Now that should make babysitting very interesting! I actually won’t have to worry about babysitting for a newborn and a three-year plus old for a while. Anti-Aging Activities Need to Be Initiated Now while this year does not find me as out of shape as I was last year I am in as good as shape as I want to be in. So January will find me again trying to lose some weight and get back in shape. 2018 Reads One thing that I have done well over the last several weeks is to continue to read at a pretty good pace. I finished reading my third book of 2018 yesterday only moments before the Eagles playoff game. The books that I have finished are: Let the Devil Sleep by John Verdon, book three in Verdon’s Dave Gurney series. The Unexpected President: The Life and Times of Chester A Arthur by Scott S. Greenberger The Dry – by Jane Harper – book 1 of the Aaron Falk series. I will try to write about each one of these books within the next few days A 2017 Playlist of My Top Tracks Finally at the start of…

Ugh! Humidity Slows Me Down! The Bucking Mules Pick Me Up!

Yesterday’s Run: Humidity Slows Me Down While The Bucking Mules Pick Me Up! Yesterday’s run was both good and bad. The good was the great picking from The Bucking Mules while the bad was the high humidity! When the start of the run I knew the humidity was bad. It had rained the night rained Tuesday night and weather.com listed the humidity at 90 plus percent. Anyway I decided that I wouldn’t worry about running a shaded route because it was cloudy. I picked the old Creek out and back 4-mile course. Over the first quarter-mile of the run I knew it was going to be a tough run. The air was heavy and didn’t seem like it didn’t want to go into my lungs! But I did make the first mile in fairly good shape. But the further I went the hotter I got and the more I was sweating. I finished the second mile with an overall pace of 10:42 minutes per mile. However I was really sweating and by this time sweat was getting in my eyes. Finally, I’d had it and did something I really have only done a few times over the years I stopped and walked! I walked for about 4 tenths of a mile and then started to run again. The brief walk allowed my heart rate to drop down a little and while I ran slowly over the last 1.6 miles I did make it! The walk/run third mile was covered 12:29…

Blog My Day – EdK Date 24,020 – Workouts, Zoe – Steve Krase’s Blues!

My Morning Workout – Master Your Domain So since it was fairly cool and mostly cloudy this morning, I thought maybe I would run. But when I got up and started to move around I noticed a pain in my left calf. The pain made me contemplate not running. So even though I was thinking about not running, I exercise as if I was going to run. I decided that I would do my favorite Kundalini kriya Master Your Domain. I knew it wouldn’t burn many calories but whenever I do the routine I always find that later in the day I am zooming around. Whether that is a result of the kriya or not I can’t really say, but to me it seems it is. Here is A video for the kriya. Give it a try…. On This Day – July 5, 1916 – The Van Buren Sisters Begin Their Motorcycle Trip across America On this day July 5th 101 years ago in 1916 Addie and Gussie Van Buren began an historic motorcycle trip across the US. You can read about it here Today’s Music – Should’ve Seen It Coming – Steve Krase Houston Bllues Harpist Steve Krase’s latest release Should’ve Seen It Coming has been in my music rotation for a couple of weeks now and it’s a good one! You can read more about it at FreeWheelin’ Music Safari Today we are babysitting our granddaughter Zoe. Our daughter Elizabeth bought Zoe some new toys and gave them to…