The Safari did not really travel far today folks, just across the Delaware River to the Port Richmond area of Philadelphia, the city that the new progressive metal band Tungsten calls home! Their debut album The Reservoir was released today, Jan 14th. Tungsten is a progressive metal band whose signature sound according to their biography at their website is.
So when I turned on my Runmeter app this afternoon, the first thing I saw was my last run – November 18, 2013 and I cringed! I knew it had been a long time since my last run, but I thought that the last one was closer to the end of the month!! It was about the time that the clocks got set back and it started getting dark at 5 o’clock! And then the weather turned nasty and cold and Christmas came along and before I knew it December was gone!! But then I also admit that I am a fair weather runner, when it gets dark and cold, this old body doesn’t really want to go out and run!! But today was nice the high temperature was in the upper 50s and it was sunny with hardly any wind!! I was also off, due to lack of work, (ugh!) and the gave me the opportunity to run in the sun!! I certainly told myself that all I wanted to do was get a 30 minute run in. I didn’t have to set any world speed records and I did a good job throughout the run of slowing down. I often use that trick that if you can talk comfortably you are running comfortably, and I often ask myself (out load) how I am doing and I respond back! If folks are watching they may think I’m crazy,but then again they probably just think I’m on the phone!! Don’t you love that when you are walking along and people come up from behind you and you here their voice and turn to respond only to find that they are talking on the phone!! Happens to me all the time at Target I hear a voice and turn and oh yeah!! But I digress, back to the subject at hand running, or at this point jogging!! So after many thoughts of cutting the run short and mentally figuring where I should turn around I made it to the second mile at between 21-22 minutes and I knew I could make it to the 3o minute mark!! The final distance for the 30:14 minute run was 2.8 miles for an average pace of 10:44 min/mile and I am satisfied with that now I just have to keep going!! The soundtrack for the run was a Prog Rock Album Clessidra from an Italian Prog Band Laviantica. You can read about it at FreeWheelin’ Music Safari 
When I signed on to Facebook this morning I saw that it was the birthday of one of my favorite Americana musicians, Greg Trooper! Greg was born on this date in 1956 in was born in Neptune Township, New Jersey, and raised in nearby Little Silver. I first listened to Greg’s music sometime around 1999 when his release Straight Down Rain,found its way into my library. That album was quickly followed by his prior release Popular Demons which had been released in 1998, on Koch Records and produced by Buddy Miller. His current release Incident on Willow Street is currently number 2 on the Roots Music Report’s Roots Rock chart! 
Here’s Greg performing “All the Way to Amsterdam” one of my favorites from Incident on Willow Street! Happy Birthday, Greg!!
Ok so I admit that I am a fair weather runner. When it’s dark and cold out Edward is not in the mood for running! But today it was nice, a decent temperature, bright and sunny and so off I went! I won’t bore you with my times. etc. If you’d like to read about them though you can go to Me, Myself, Music and Mysteries in a bit and check that stuff out. But for here I’ll write about the soundtrack for the run, which was the Italian Progressive Rock band Laviantica. I have started to listen to their latest release Clessidra several times at Progstreaming, but I usually get interrupted, but tonight I was a captive audience for a little over 30 minutes! Once again the biographical information that I came up with is sparse.
So I finally finished book No. 1 for 2014, Cut to the Bone by Jefferson Bass. Cut to the Bone is the 5th book in Body Farm series, which features the exploits of forensic anthropologist Bill Btrockton. The character of Bill Brockton is based upon the life of the real life director of the Body Farm at the University of Tennessee, Dr. Bill Bass. Bill Bass is half of the writing team that creates these great novels. The other half of the writing duo is journalist, writer and documentary film maker Jon Jefferson.
Originally posted Oct 20, 2013 @ Me,Myself,Music and Mysteries
So early this evening after the Eagles loss to the hated Cowboys I listened to Three Monks a prog rock band with a different sound. Their forte is music that has arisen from organist/composer Paolo Lazzeri’s,study of romantic classical music, both symphonic and for solo organ…… Pause and switch gears – my evil wife posted this ecard on my Facebook
So sometime in the late 1980s or early 90s,I heard Robert Earl Keen‘s the “Front Porch Song”, on one if the shows that Gene Shay produced here in Philly, and feel in love with his wit and music and I’ve been a fan ever since. Today Robert Earl Keen, Jr. (that’s the way I knew him first) celebrates his 57th birthday!!!
So on this date in 1970, while I was in my senior year in high school, Alex Staropoli,the keyboardist for the Italian symphonic prog rock band Rhapsody Of Fire was born! While I am not familiar with Alex on an individual basis, I have listened to Rhapsody of Fire/s latest release Dark Wings of Steel and enjoyed it particularly the keyboards!!
