Monday, April 28

Taking a break from my A-Z listening, I put on Pink Floyd's Dark Side of the Moon, an album so famous I sometimes forget to listen to it. Growing up, Floyd was hands-down my favorite band. My early fandom coincided with their Roger Waters-less revival, and in 1988 my parents took me to see them play at the Palace of Auburn Hills. I was 11 and my neural pathways were wide open for the pomp of a big art-rock stadium show. The lasers, lights, projections, fog machines, flying pigs and airplanes, and most of all the music… I assumed that's what all rock shows would be like from that point forward. Between us, my brother and I collected all of their albums, read articles in guitar magazines, and learned everything we could about Floyd's different eras, from Syd Barrett's woeful decline into mental illness and the deep experimentation of the early-'70s on into the peak commercial period that stretched from Dark Side to the The Wall. 

I'm remembering all this because I saw the new 4K cut of Pink Floyd at Pompeii – MCMLXXII on the big IMAX screen yesterday and it blew my mind all over again. When I saw the Becoming Led Zeppelin documentary at this same multiplex in February, I was one of about eight paying customers and expected something similar for Pompeii film. I was a little shocked when the theater filled almost to capacity with rowdy, excited fans for a Sunday matinee. After the slow-zoom opening shot of the band beginning "Echoes" in the empty Roman amphitheatre, it kicked into close-ups of David Gilmour and Rick Wright harmonizing and they became my favorite band all over again. 

Today the neighbors are getting a new roof. There's a lot of hubbub on the block. I run five miles and officially kick off the training schedule for my next race which is at the end of summer. I prefer running in the shoulder seasons, but this one fits my schedule and I've never run it before. A new challenge.