Day 1 of week 3 was a whole ‘nother level of hard, I have to say. There wasn’t any point during the workout when I thought I would have to stop, but I was watching the clock during both of the longer jogging segments. I’m not sure I’m building up as much stamina as I should be by now, and maybe I’m due to repeat a week when I get to the end of this one. But I won’t make any decisions about that until day 3, of course. And first I have to get through day 2, anyway.
So my friend Jason tagged me on Facebook in his top 15, and I’m still nowhere ready to do mine, but progress has been made. After agonizing and fretting over my top 5, I finally nailed it down. Provisionally, of course. So herewith my top 5; the other 9ish may or may not be in the form of a numbered list.
1. The Clientele, Strange Geometry
(tie) 2. Dolly Varden, The Dumbest Magnets
(tie) 2. The Delgados, Universal Audio
4. Scott Miller, Thus Always to Tyrants (I feel like I should apologize to Scott for that relatively low ranking. So: I’m sorry, Scott.)
5. Malcolm Middleton, Into the Woods. (Since this is the new addition to the list from the last version, I should note that I’m not sure this is actually the best of the prolific Mr. Middleton’s albums this decade; you can make a convincing case for A Brighter Beat being better, and I think 5:14 Fluoxytine Seagull Alcohol John Nicotine is a seriously underrated record. But this is the one that turned me into a devoted Malcolm fan, and it’s a perfectly splendid record. If I could somehow make you listen to it, I would.)