Race Review: 2017 Walt Disney World Marathon (1/8/2017), or: “Sky blue flight on a cold wind to Valhalla…”

I’ve wanted to run a COLD marathon since like forever, man. And by cold, I mean “Cold to someone who has lived in South Florida” for 90% of his existence, and the entirety of his formative years and most of his adult life. I want the Ice Age experience, and by that I mean something…

Buttkickin’ Holiday Songs: “Jack Frost And The Hooded Crow” — Jethro Tull (2003)

It’s not the holiday season for me without some Jethro Tull. Something about Ian Anderson’s arrangements, soaring flute passages, and witching-hour vocals just evokes powerful imagery of, as C. S. Lewis might put it, the Deep Magic from the Dawn of Time; music with one foot in the Ancient Pagan world, but also one in…

Buttkickin’ Holiday Songs: “Last Man At The Party” — Jethro Tull (2003)

Well the Holiday Season is in full swing, isn’t it? People are still digesting their Thanksgiving dinners nearly a week later, legions of American consumers with peace and love and good cheer in their hearts are butchering their fellow citizens like pigs at the slaughter at Black Friday events all over the country, and DVRs…

Buttkickin’ Holiday Songs: “Holly Herald” — Jethro Tull (2003)

Hi and welcome back for another year of festive holiday musical happy-time! No big hurrah here, no major write-ups, I thought I’d jump right into this year’s selections with an instrumental piece from legendary prog-rock band Jethro Tull. Their 2003 release Jethro Tull Christmas AlbumĀ is one of my favorite seasonal listens. It’s equal parts Pagan…

Buttkickin’ Holiday Songs: “Ring Out Solstice Bells” — Jethro Tull (1977)

Jethro Tull’s 1977 album Songs from the Wood remains one of my alltime favorite albums, weaving a rich tapestry of paganesque folk imagery amidst lively musical accompaniment. Where I live, here in South Florida, there’s no sense of seasonality, no winters, no real sense of an Old World or the passage of time. This album…