Andy Gapin

Last night’s The Playlist was one of the last ever that I’ll be doing. The decision has been made that I’m not going to continue the show in the Fall semester. That would be the start of my tenth year at the station, but I don’t think it’s going to happen. I still plan on keeping my status as an active DJ by attending meetings, but I will not have a regular show anymore. I’ve been doing The Playlist itself for seven years and I will definitely be sad to see it come to an end, but last night sort of solidified the decision for me.

Ultimately, what it comes down to is that the station is a different place than it was a few years ago. The station is different, almost all of the people are different, the atmosphere is different. That’s not to say that it’s better or worse, it’s just different. It isn’t the station that I feel in love with and devoted much of my life to. The station is directly or indirectly responsible for most of the things in my life even now, but that’s not the same station that I still host The Playlist at. That difference really is the breaking point on top of all other things pointing towards moving on.

Like I said, I still plan on staying active and maybe subbing a show here or there and I’m not ruling out doing another show in the future sometime, but it won’t be called The Playlist and it won’t be the same format. With that being said, I don’t know the exact date for my last edition of The Playlist, but it will probably be in a few weeks. I’ll update when I know.

Last night’s show was a reminder of how bipolar doing a radio show based on new music can be. One week can be great and the next can be a struggle with no emotional connection to it. It was the latter last night, I just wasn’t there emotionally for the show, I didn’t feel connected to it at all. It was just CD in, CD out.

Here’s what I played…

• The Love Language – Heart To Tell – Libraries
• The Orbans – Left Side – When We Were Wild
• White Fence – Destroy Everything – White Fence
• The Like – Wishing He Was Dead – Release Me
• The Streets On Fire – Hey Lou – This Is Fancy
• Menomena – TAOS – Mines
• Seneca Hawk – Steal Your Heart Away – Sun Year Long
• These United States – Water And Wheat – What Lasts
• Upstairs Downstairs – Stationary’s Helping – Inland And Out
• Dean And Britta – Herringbone Tweed – 13 Most Beautiful: Songs For Andy Warhol’s Secret Tests
• Rogue Valley – I-5 Love Affair – Crater Lake
• Miniature Tigers – Dark Tower – Fortress
• Social Studies – Drag A Rake – Wind Up Wooden Heart
• Maps And Atlases – Living Decorations – Perch Patchwork

Source: 90.3 The Core

A friend recommended Bad Biology not that long ago so I figured that I’d give it a shot. As the credits began to roll, I immediately texted said friend asking “what the hell did I just watch!?” I still don’t have an answer for that. I think he stands by his recommendation and I’m not sure that I didn’t like it myself. Actually, I don’t know what the hell to think of it. This flick is definitely one of the weirdest films I’ve ever seen.

The story goes something like this…Jennifer has seven clitorises and gives birth to mutant babies two hours after having sex. The babies are discarded afterwords, to use the phrasing from Wikipedia for lack of a better way to say it, as she considers them to not be real babies. No man can satisfy her. Batz, is a dude with a drug-addicted, self-aware penis. Yup. Both are at the mercy of their biology (err bad biology?).

The film is completely outrageously overly sexual with plenty of nudity and discomforting situations and visuals. This definitely isn’t a family movie by any means. While my fiancée is generally down to watch just about anything with me, I could tell she was not enjoying it in the least. I contemplated turning it off and freeing her, but, with each passing moment, I felt myself asking “alright…now where are they going with this?” I couldn’t turn it off. I needed to see more. I needed to see what happened when Jennifer and Batz finally met.

I don’t know how to rate Bad Biology. I don’t even know if I think I should recommend it or not. It’s definitely worth a watch for those that are into weird, dark horror or hypersexuality, but beyond that, proceed with caution, I guess?

Tonight’s run was much better than Sunday’s was, actually, it felt much like Saturday’s run with a nice pace and leaving me feeling energized afterwards instead of tired. I could have definitely kept going at the same pace for a few more miles or stepped up the pace quite a bit. I’d like to thank the weather a bit for dropping in humidity a lot after yesterday and not being too hot.

We did two laps of the park we normally go to after work. Each lap is just slightly under two miles and the path we take in to and out of the park is a mile itself. It makes for a simple 6 mile run with a built in warm up and cool down stretch between the parking lot and our standard start/stop point. The park can sometimes be a little muggier than the rest of the area since it’s mostly in the woods along a river. And the muggier it gets, the buggier it gets along that mile stretch that goes in to and out of the park. We generally end up wiping bugs off our faces as they stick to the sweat. It’s gross, but the park is very close to work and highly convenient. If we go straight from the office, we can easily do 4, 6, or 8 miles there and then head home with no traffic at all. Total win.

This is what a comic book movie should be. Scott Pilgram vs. The World is finally the movie that makes me feel like I should fix my childhood wrongs and start reading comics…all the time. And start playing video games. That too.

I really liked everything about this flick. The casting, style, visuals, music, everything. It was all awesome. The style seems unlike just about any other movie out there and I really liked it. The way the movie was put together really felt more like I was in a comic book or video game and instead of in a theater watching a movie. The mix of comic, video game, and cartoon elements with a little Kill Bill thrown in was perfect. Visually, the movie is just downright fun.

Even though the movie is almost 2 hours long, there is enough going on with solid pacing that you hardly notice how long it is. The well-roundedness of the film, covering story, humor, and action equally, helps a lot here. I was actually a little sad when it ended, I could have gone for more.

I don’t really get the whole anti-Michael Cera thing that’s been going around lately, but I thought he worked great for a character in a movie adaptation of a comic book series that I had never heard of before a few months ago. And I enjoyed Aubrey Plaza as pretty much the same character she plays in Parks and Recreation.

Simply put, Scott Pilgrim vs. The World was everything I loved in my childhood wrapped up in a package for my age. I would like to see this again soon.

Rating: A+

Even though the weather was just as good, this morning’s run was not nearly as good as yesterday’s. I felt lethargic and tired and had a headache the entire time. Our pace felt slow even though it wasn’t that much slower than yesterday’s run, but by the end, I was done.

I guess that’s what I get for hopping out of bed and trying to run right away without eating something.

The decision has been made, I’m going to run the half marathon in Disney World this upcoming January. It conveniently falls right in the middle of a trip I was already planning on taking there so I feel like I have to do it. I actually can’t believe how much I want to do another one. The first one was one of the most physically intense things I’ve ever done, during the last three miles of the race, I hated myself for doing that to myself. Despite that, it didn’t take long to forget about those feelings and want to do it again.

There are a few half marathons that all fall on the same day this October, but unfortunately, my fiancée and I will be away that weekend so we won’t be able to make any of them. Since we both love Disney World and got engaged there, we felt like it was almost fate that it fell on a day in which we were already planning on being there. I mean, I don’t really believe in fate, but you know.

This time around, I plan to train more intensely with more longer runs and a faster pace. I was insanely happy with my time in the last race, but I want to do better this time. I think with the right training, I can take a few minutes off without a problem. My biggest concern about the race is that it’s right in the middle of a vacation. It took me a couple days to recover after the last one to the point where I could actually walk without much soreness. I don’t want that to happen again, I don’t want to lose a couple days of Disney because of the race. If we have to take the rest of race day easy, that’s okay, we’re going to be there for a full week, but the next day, I want to get back to having fun. Going to Disney World is a very walking intensive trip and since we’re going with a group, I don’t want to slow anyone down. The other thing is that for a couple days before the race, I want to be careful how I eat so that I don’t have anything in me that’s not going to feel great around mile nine or ten.

I’m hoping that some solid training starting now will help a lot with those issues. I want to get my body to the point where 13 miles isn’t such a shock. I think if 10+ mile runs are more the norm for me by then, I should be able to get through the race with a great time and without being sore for a few days afterwards.

We shall see!

The weather outside today is beautiful. It’s under 80 and the humidity is much lower than it has been. Breathing was very easy today which was helpful. My fiancée and I did our normal route near our house in reverse. We started out at a nice quick pace, but after the 4th mile, she started feeling like she was going to throw up so we slowed it down a bit.

The route in the reverse was a nice change of pace, it really felt a lot different.

We were doing under 8.5 minute miles for the first three and a halfish miles, but I felt like we were dragging out feet and not going anywhere. A year ago, this was a very quick pace for me, but now it feels slow. It makes it hard for me to judge my pace anymore, but it’s nice to know that I’ve grown as a runner so much that this feels slow.

Unfortunately, the rain kind of put an end to the idea of an outdoor run tonight. So we had to head to the gym and use the treadmills. Time ended up being limited because of some family issues that kept me on the phone with my Dad for a little while.

So I decided to keep a nice quick pace the entire time instead of slowly ramping up like I normally do on the treadmill. I ran at 7.5mph almost the entire time with a little but a 8mph at the end and a little 7mph to start.

I could have done more at that pace easily, but time was short. I’m looking forward to getting back outside this weekend for a couple runs. The fiancée and I decided when we’re running our next half marathon so we’re going to start training for that soon. More on that in a little bit.

These days, it’s starting to seem like every other week that I can’t make my radio show. Last night, I had my first allergy shot after work and wasn’t sure how everything was going to work out with timing so I figured it would be better to just get a sub for the show. I’ll be there next week, but I don’t know what the future will hold.

Taking these allergy shots is going to be a three year commitment and my allergist only has Monday and Wednesday hours at the office near me. On Mondays, they’re only there until 4pm so that’s basically out. It’s too far from the office to be able to leave work and go back afterwards so I essentially have no other choice than to go after work on Wednesdays. Unfortunately, this doesn’t leave me a lot of time as they require you to stay for twenty minutes after taking the shot to make sure you don’t have a reaction to it. Being able to get dinner with enough time to eat and prepare for the show each week is going to be a large pain in the ass.

Since I’ll be taking the shot every Wednesday for two months and every other Wednesday for two to three months after that (at that point, the shots are every three to four weeks for the remainder of three years), Wednesday isn’t really going to work out for me anymore. I’m thinking that it may be time to move on from the show. I’ve been saying that for a while, but pushing the show back to 10pm where it used to be doesn’t sound that appealing to me anymore and I don’t want to switch days. The other weeknights have a lot of steady shows that I wouldn’t want to try to move. And I wouldn’t be able to commit to a weekend show. Besides all of that, it’s a college radio station and I graduated five years ago. I probably shouldn’t still be taking time away from students.

A decision will need to be made soon, but it’s not looking good for The Playlist right now.

Jimmy Eat World is streaming the first single from their upcoming album, Invented, on their site right now. It’s called “My Best Theory” and it serves as proof that not even Mark Trombino can bring these guys back from the land of mediocrity that they’ve fallen into in the last ten years.

This band seems to get an endless number of chances from old fans that have been around pre-Bleed American. With each release since Bleed American, I hear the same thing about how the previous album wasn’t that great but this new one coming out is going to be so much better and serve as a “return to form” for the band. There’s always some good enough sounding reason behind this too. I always buy into it, but it never pans out. This time around, Mark Trombino was supposed to be their savior. I was willing to give it chance, what he’s done with them before was strong, there’s no denying that. But the truth is, despite what they graced us with in the second half of the ’90s, this band is just mediocre. Many of us “indie” kids still have a very soft spot in our hearts for Jimmy Eat World, but I think it’s time to give up hope. Let’s just walk away with Static Prevails and Clarity and be happy that we got those two incredible records from them. With two-thirds of their albums just being alright and their new single giving little hope for their seventh album, I think it’s time, guys. I’m sorry to be the one to say it.

To quote Gaslight Anthem, “those days are gone and you should just let them go.”