Day 3: Funeral

Distance: 5k
Time: 29:46
Pace: 9:35 / mile
Album: Arcade Fire – Funeral

Today’s run was a commute. It wasn’t enjoyable. I’d have thought it’d feel slightly easier on the third day, but it didn’t.

The raised bridge to get from the Esplanade over to Boston Common was particularly brutal. It was also 8am when I started, so slightly warmer than before. I wore one layer too many and a backpack does add, even if it’s relatively light.

Despite that, I did it. Let’s see if it gets easier from here.

I could make a Funeral joke about how the run felt, but I won’t. It was sunny and pleasant outside, I shouldn’t complain too much. The album remains incredible and I’d like to say that Wake Up pushed me to keep running. And maybe it did, just not consciously. I was more focused on hills than the album and perhaps the fact I know it so well meant it didn’t add much colour to the run. Or I enjoyed it so little, I couldn’t even take much pleasure in the music.

Day 2: Late Registration

Distance: 5k
Time: 29:12
Pace: 9:24 / mile
Album: Kanye West – Late Registration

A potentially good thing about jet lag is waking up early. Today, it was definitely a good thing. I ran, came home, then commuted. I avoided lugging a heavy backpack on a run, which would have been very uncomfortable. Instead, I have left things at work that will make light work of the rest of the week.

Today’s run was not light work, despite little load. Faster than yesterday, bright and early. It was almost pleasant. It did feel good to have run so early and take some endorphins into the rest of my day, I can’t play that down.

I love Kanye (a statement that doesn’t need reading into), but is Late Registration really one of his best? Sure, there are some real bangers. Undeniable. But it’s not even the best Kanye album of the 00s. The Pitchfork list I used to form a shortlist of albums for this project listed it as the best of that decade, I disagree quite strongly. I think this says more about how highly I rate early Kanye than too much about this specific record. Solid listening for an early morning jog by the river, before the pavements fill with students and commuters.

My head was a little emptier so early and I didn’t notice too much. Other than a homeless man trying to feed an angry-looking pack of ducks. Other runners, the only people seemingly out. And the distance markings on the MIT bridge. No dead fish left overnight, though.

Day 1: In Rainbows

Distance: 5k
Time: 29:15
Pace: 9:25 / mile
Album: Radiohead – In Rainbows

This run felt hard quicker than I’d hoped it would.

I’m not sure what I expected to feel. I slept little last night. I took a transatlantic flight back from London to Boston today, but still hit the pavement within a few hours of arriving.

Tomorrow morning, I plan to run my commute. It’s a similar distance, but I’ll have a backpack with laptop in tow. I expect I’ll struggle. Not quite sure what I’m letting myself in for.

It did feel good to accomplish that despite the circumstances. In Rainbows was a fitting soundtrack. A cloudy cool Boston afternoon, accompanied by a rhythmic, melancholic, almost hypnotic soundtrack. It reflected both the greyness of the city and the slight disorientating feeling that jetlag gives you. My feet were pumping, just about.

I didn’t realise until the walk back that I’d left the shuffle button set and had played the album out of order. I noticed when Weird Fishes ended up as the closing track. It was playing when I walked past a strange sight on the MIT bridge, someone had left ten or so dead fish left scattered in two groups on the pavement. The album didn’t feel any weaker played out of order, which is testament to its strength.

Running with music

Today is the first of many consecutive days of running (hopefully, I am targeting 30).

Why am I doing this and declaring it publicly?

It’s fairly straightforward. I’ve been back in the UK recently and enjoyed several trail runs. Regular exercise is mood-positive, yet I am inconsistent. Things are easier when you make them habitual. Some public accountability can’t hurt.

To try to make the habit stick, I am trying to make it easy and combine it with fun.

I’ll run to work and I’ll listen to an excellent album each day. I’ll write a daily note on it here.

Heading on the first run now.

the ethics of indirect stealing

I was mugged yesterday. It was quite distressing. Or at least, would’ve been if the ‘mugging’ had been direct; if a switchblade had coaxed the money from my pocket, or even if the producer of a particularly menacing stare had demanded it from me. I was robbed in the least emotion-stirring way I can think of, by a woman and her young child, via a photobooth. I was aggrieved nonetheless, but can I claim that the woman and her child were morally reprehensible for their actions?

There I was, wanting some passport photos, £5 in coins in hand, slowly entering them into the machine slot one by one. The last coin didn’t register. The machine has no capacity for giving change. I’m alone, no one to look after the machine for me. No more change in my pocket. Stripped of freedom, I have to get another pound, take that small hit, but be able to get the passport photos I required. Two minutes later, I return, woman and child outside my booth, printing their commemorative Royal Wedding photos. They could’ve at least got something decent.

Now, can it be said that they directly caused my ‘pain’? If they did, it’s clear that they are morally reprehensible. Let’s analyse this in terms of counterfactuals; if they had not used my photo credit, then my photo credit would have remained intact… wait, that doesn’t work at all. It’s quite possible that had they not used my credit, someone else may have. So there’s no direct causal link between their use of my credit and my pain, it’s quite possible that my pain would be intact, even if they had not used my credit. Someone else could’ve used my credit. They’re not directly responsible. Then who is?

We can pick out two direct causal factors, we can either blame the machine, or we can blame ‘everyone’ (for permitting such actions in general). If the machine had not been faulty, then my photo credit would have not only remained intact, but would have been completed. The whole issue would never have arisen. On the other hand, mechanical failure is inevitable, plus I want someone to be morally accountable for my pain (this is surely not unreasonable). Crucially, had no one used my photo credit, then my photo credit would have remained intact. The individual is not directly responsible for my ‘pain’, but ‘everyone’ is. How can we draw a sensible conclusion from this?

‘Everyone’ is identifiable with the general culture the majority promote. If the general culture prohibited indirect leeching off of others, then problems such as this would not arise. As no individual is necessarily reprehensible (exceptions are accepted, this woman and child may well have had their lives at stake and required commemorative Royal Wedding photos to save themselves, who am I to stop them?), the general culture is to blame. If no one took advantage of fortune (when it is clear that this fortune is balanced by the misfortune of others) in such a way, then ‘pain’ would not be created in this way.

This same conclusion, if not a stronger one, can be drawn for illegal downloading of music. I find it unfair to pick out individuals – everyone can justify themselves to some extent on an individual level, but only because the general culture does not actively prohibit downloading. It doesn’t matter if the artist receives a miniscule amount of the profits, that the record labels receive a lion’s share; that you can’t afford to buy music as vociferously as you consume it. On an individual level, these aren’t morally reprehensible in themselves, but the culture that justifies such excuses really is. If anything, the individual can be held more reprehensible than the woman and child who thieved from me, as downloaders are acutely aware of the fact that they are short-changing their favourite artists when they indirectly steal their music. Just because there isn’t an active real process of stealing, in either the case of photobooths or when acquiring music online, it does not mean that the culture of allowing such things to occur is acceptable.

The general culture and attitudes held need to change in order to facilitate fair reimbursement for music artists. However, such a task won’t be easy. If I found a fiver on the floor, I’d keep it. Wouldn’t you? And there lies the problem…