For some time now I’ve done my 50-minute
gym sessions to the sound of the ‘Today Program’ and ‘Any Questions.’ I’m a
news junkie, and in some ways it helped take my mind away from the utter tedium
of pounding treadmills and stuff. It also actively encouraged dangerous levels
of exertion. My blood pressure is a passionate beast, and hearing weaselly
obfuscations and obvious untruths from the self-serving and corrupt, I
pound cross-trainers and treadmills even
harder, imagining their heads beneath my trainers, their tongues and brains pulping
under my feet.
Afterwards, usually in the shower,
I feel some Christian remorse, pull them to their feet and brush them down . .
. until the next time.
Just recently I’ve discovered a new
and more satisfactory way of passing time in the gym, one everyone else has
known for some time, everyone but me with my fixation on ‘news.’
Music—and with the added virtue
that no politician gets hurt in the process.
It’s my new iPod touch, and large
Bose headphones that unfortunately make me look like Nanook of the North. A
small sacrifice.
Since my entire music collection is
now on the iPod, I’m discovering albums I haven’t heard for years. My obsession
with ‘news’ is one of the reasons for this, that and the fact I can’t listen to
music when I’m writing. Some authors can, and to me that is mystery. I can
write or I can listen to music. I can’t do both since each have competing
demands and my brain has very small processing power.
It doesn’t need much processing to
punish your body; then distraction is everything and music a godsend. I feel
like St Paul on the road to Damascus telling everyone the news years after
everyone knows.
There is though music and music.
‘Dancing with Mr D’ (Rolling Stones Goatshead Soup) is particularly good on the
Cross-Trainer. ‘Not Fade Away’ fabulous for fast running on the Treadmill,
along with ‘Radar Love’ and most anything by Chuck Berry. ‘Emotional Rescue’ is
also quite versatile – useful for the Exercise Bike, Rowing machine and the
various Weight Machines that bugger your muscles. Ocasionally Hildegarde de
Bingen comes on, but she’s no bloody good at all.
There are pitfalls. You are in your
own world, oblivious to anyone else there. A few times I’ve been caught out
singing – and the gym quickly empties. Worse though is the occasional Mick
Jagger strut from machine to machine. Truly sad. A fourteen year old boy in old
man’s body. Me—not Mick.
Then there’s the swim. No music
just chlorine. The sauna that follows almost makes it all worthwhile. If I
could find some way to listen to Hildegarde de Bingen in the Sauna, that would just
be icing on the cake.
5 comments:
I have a hard time listening to music. Firstly because it means I have to have those buds in my ears, and secondly because I'm always getting tangled with the cords. Yes. I am that uncoordinated. :)
Glad you found your happy place. ...you don't really sing out loud, do you?
.."you don't really sing out loud, do you?"
The last time was 'Oh, no, it's only rock and roll but I like it..!' Usually I'm quick enough to turn it into a grunt or a short burst of coughing. :)
Aha! Thank you. Everyone in my writing group listens to music when they write. Last time I tried to do that, my hubby looked into my office and caught me conducting instead of writing. (It was instrumental only so no singing along.)
But for exercise, including housework, music is essential. Especially when I'm alone and can sing to my little off-key heart's content.
Yes, I have my pay list for housework, too. How sad are we :) But writing has to be done in silence. I agree. There is musicality and rhythm in words and you can lose it all when listening to competing rhythms.
Should be play list. And I wasn't even listening to music. So much for my theory!
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