April 19 – Faithless Love

The other night I had the most overwhelming desire to hear “Faithless Love,” that splendid JD Souther song that he and Linda Ronstadt sing together. I needed to hear it so much I had to clear all the CDs I’ve been accumulating in the past year from the top of the record player. Please don’t be on Silk Purse. Please don’t be on Silk Purse. Because it’s a really swell album cover, and I have it, record inside, framed and sitting on a shelf. I thought and hoped as I looked through the albums not designated in the Ram 20 or framed that it would be on Heart Like a Wheel, and thankfully I was right. I removed Benny Goodman, who had been sitting on the turntable since I discovered I couldn’t live or exercise without my dose of Sly and the Family Stone, and turned the CD player that’s hooked up to the turntable to AUX. I listened to “You’re No Good,” sang along with Ronstadt’s country version of Paul Anka’s “It Doesn’t Matter Anymore,” wondering how I remember all the words and the notes, though I couldn’t hit a few of them, then played “Faithless Love” twice. It’s a sweet song, kind of simple, but Ronstadt’s voice makes it seem more monumental and the harmony with Souther, particularly at the very end, is enough to make one swoon. As a matter of fact, I believe I did.

It was a good warm-up, but the rest of the album is not workout-worthy. As I have found that the Santana/Thomas collaboration “Smooth” just inspires mindless movement, and lots of it, I have been playing it over and over, dancing around the apartment, chasing Max who I believe thinks that when the song starts, so starts playtime, and kind of getting too exhausted to complete all three sections of my usual workout routine. I have been slacking off, I’m sorry to say, blaming the long winter for being back in the size 12s, so I’ve been trying to up the ante by combining my three current passions (Faithless Love, Smooth and Sly), extending the aerobics, adding a few cobras, making sure I get those legs up the wall (that reference goes back to the very beginning of the blog), and rather than increasing the number of repetitions as I work the arms with the pair of three pound weights, I’ve been doing them slower and much more deliberately. And it’s working. The batwings, I’ve no doubt, will stay forever, but I am developing a nice set of guns, that will jiggle. But I barely have to flex to show a nice firm muscle, and I look forward to again having that cut along the biceps without twisting. So once more I am feeling more motivated and optimistic. Props to the sun.

Nice weekend, weather-wise, and nice day today as I had brunch with Vicki’s sister followed by a walk to Washington Square where we sat and watched some people playing petanque¹ while we chatted and soaked in some of that sun as if we were English (you have to know something about the weather in England and its people’s reaction to the sun making an appearance). We then headed uptown a bit where we had a mini and brief high school reunion with my friend who runs a bar in Chelsea.

Note to self: Get heavier weights.

¹ The French form of bocce ball – Vicki’s sister knew the difference, not I, and I trusted her judgment as I heard one of the players say something in French but not in Italian.