BOOKCELLAR NOTES (3/18/03 Tues):

CDs played today:
- Oh-OK THE COMPLETE RECORDINGS (Xgau: A minus)
- John Cage THE WORKS FOR SAXOPHONE 1 (Mode’s Cage #24)
- Lightning Bolt RIDE THE SKIES (Xgau: A minus)

---This came in today:
Walpole, Hugh TARNHELM: The Best Supernatural Stories of…, Tartarus Press '03, one of 500 copies, (George Gorniak intro; 363 + xiv pages), new in dj 55.00

---I faxed my total-guesswork NCAA picks to my brother in Atlanta this morning. Last year I was 87 percent correct on Thurs and 13 percent on Friday, so that was pretty much guesswork too (a coinflip could have been just as correct; and picking the higher cedes would have doubtless been more effective). I admit I checked out the tournament rundown in the LA TIMES online this year, cribbing some darkhorse, upset, good-game selections from there, and totally reproducing the Final Four picks. I mean, what do I know? I have barely been following the college basketball season at all this year. So if I come up with a hundred percent batting average this year, credit it to my abject willingness to defer to authorities who pay more attention to their subjects than me. Like my adherence to Robert Christgau for rock/pop music-CD choices. He, at least, doesn’t have to try to shoehorn his tastes to fit fifteen-dollar investments, as does the average word-of-mouther. Plus the fact that his pithy analyses are always brilliant and on the money, even when they defy the prevailing opinion of the herd (critical or music-buying). By the way, the atheistic contraction to Xgau is Christgau’s own. I am tempted to go by Xopher myself.

---Ran the five miles again today. Temps in the 50sF, overcast, expecting rain later. Not bad. I will have to figure out the old chronometer again one of these times out to get a benchmark I can try to improve upon. Tomorrow I hope to extend my long run to 6 miles. Scheme is to run 4 out of 5 days, with 2nd of each running set a long run improvable by a half-mile each time. And maybe the fourth one a time trial to try to get my effort level up a bit. I found that when I was timing myself rigorously a while back, my runs were on a par with what I could do in races, thus obviating the need to go to races to try to see what I was actually capable of. Races, requiring logistics of registering to run, getting there, etc., and always being run in worse places than my bike trail, with the element of callow competitiveness albeit in the 50+-age category, have lost their appeal; especailly with a lifetime supply of t-shirts already at hand.