Wogging Out the Year End

What better way to put 2008 away than with a wog featuring Bob Marley’s reggae? So I let that Jamaican rhythm carry my feet effortlessly in this week’s wog, Lively Up Your Walk. The nice thing about these songs is that even if you don’t actually jog, the pace feels a lot livelier. Don’t be surprised if you throw in some extra moves, let your body surprise you with the way the rhythm takes you.

It’s a great way to at least temporarily forget about the horrors of war in the Middle East, Israel’s unfathomable act of destruction, aided by our own government. Many around the world anticipate the advent of a new America with the inauguration of Barack Obama, and wouldn’t it be nice if he actually takes a stand against the forces of destruction? Now that might put me in a permanent skiplek.

‘Tis the Season to be Swampy

Creedence Clearwater Revival—or CCR to their fans—was one of the few acts from the 60s that still sound contemporary today, and John Fogarty, their musical and spiritual leader, still performs with the same intensity, meshing solid roots rock with philosophical and political insights. It takes a certain genius to perform a song with a message in a way that doesn’t sound contrived or precious, and Fogarty has that in spades. This week’s wog, Keep On Jogglin’, is a brisk 36 minutes of some of his old group’s best numbers, including my favorites Ramble Tamble and Fortunate Son. Go to Podwogging.com if you want to wog through the jungle.

Bic Flickers!

Back in the day, before there were mosh pits (say, what?!?), adoring fans would pay tribute to their fave rockers by holding an illuminating object in the air, usual a cigarette lighter, at the end of said rockers’ performance. Hence Bic Flickers. No, they didn’t have to be Bics. Yes, I know this probably violated entire volumes of fire code. Let’s just be thankful that nobody did it while pogoing up and down and banging into each other. Anyway, this week’s wog is a Quickie—only 20 minutes long—so you’ll be flicking before you know it. Flame on! At Podwogging.com.

All Uber the World

Woggers of the World, Unite!

Don’t get me wrong, I love American and British pop music. But sometimes I get a hankering for something a bit different. So lately I’ve been checking out music from different places around the world, particularly Africa and Central Europe, and have discovered some fabulous stuff that makes for a truly international workout. This week’s wog features, among others, the hyperkinetic Afro Celt Sound System’s unique cultural fusions, a truly supernatural Finnish folk song by the gorgeously talented Värttinä, and two irresistible “gypsy punk” pieces off the very danceable Gypsy Groove CD. Also groovy are Latin Hip Hop artists Ozomatli, French/African sensation Zap Mama, and even the world’s greatest Klezmer clarinetist, Giora Feidman. Your passport is waiting at Podwogging.com.

But, I mean Jazz-ma-Tazz

Jazz purists may sneer at rock with a jazz bent as not being real jazz at all, but what of it? Jazz rock marries percussive power with lyrical expressiveness; if the beat is consistent enough, it makes beautiful wogging material. This week’s wog, Jazz-ma-Tazz, is also a flatliner—every song comes in between 120 and 129 BPM. Flatliners are ideal for treadmills, since they don’t require major adjusting between songs. This flatliner is a brisk walk all the way, and features Sade, Steely Dan, Weather Report, Traffic, and the Youngbloods. Immerse yourself in the vibe and the stride at Podwogging.com.

Reminder: Short samples of each song can be found in iMix; this requires the use of iTunes.

A Hazy Shade of Wogger

Winter is a far more intimate place than summer, and while it isn’t officially winter yet, the dense clutch of clouds hugging the Bay that frame bare trees on leaf-strewn streets makes me feel like finding my inner Simon and Garfunkel. Ergo, this week’s Weekly Wog, I Am A Walk. Hang onto your hopes, my friend, and keep your feet moving, at least until you sit down to that roast turkey, if fortune smiles on you. L’Chaim!

Web Site Problems
Unfortunately, my web site nav bar is acting weird. It kept giving me "file not found" error messages when I selected certain items, but only from certain pages. Until I get this thing figured out (Dreamweaver can be dense, at times), you may experience weird shit happening. Just don't let it stop you from going to Podwogging.com!

Cure’s Galore

Is the bloom off the rose? Post-election blues got you down? Maybe what you need is stiff shot of the Cure. My weekly wog features Galore, one of the best single collections by any musical group, and is an excellent introduction to this band’s music. Lovesong and Friday I’m in Love are but two Cure hits on this album; my favorite, perhaps, is the delicately moody Fascination Street. While by today’s standards their proto-Goth appearance was pretty tame, at the time they were darlings of the daring to be different set. Robert Smith’s vocals ache with life’s bruises, but never crosses the line into self-pity, and all the numbers on this album make for good walking and jogging. So go to Podwogging.com and take the Cure!

A Walk In the Sun

In the post-election glow it only seems appropriate to highlight one of my favorite African American performers in this week’s Weekly Wog. Like Barack Obama, Stevie Wonder exudes warmth and cool simultaneously. He sings outrageously catchy tunes that can carry either an upbeat message of pure spiritual possession, sound a warning to those in political power, or plumb the depths of his feelings without getting maudlin or trite. Like Obama, he’s crossed the racial divide with grace and style. This wog won’t wear you out—it’s got only 3 minutes of light jogging in it—but I can’t think of a better way to lift your heart. It’s a brand new day, folks!

Weekly Wog SNAFU: Unfortunately an unexpected problem with my server kept the proper Weekly Wog REGIME CHANGE from being displayed earlier. It’s working now, but for Stevie Wonder, not Regime Change. However, you can still view Regime Change! Honest!

REGIME CHANGE

If you’re like me, this election is shaping up to be one of the most significant changes in my lifetime. Not since forever has a presidential candidate actually spoken to pressing needs, with such panache and vision. So go out and vote for Ralph Nader!

Kidding.

Seriously, assuming the right wing vampires don’t suck the blood out of every American voter, the Big O will take office in January with a huge mandate. A mandate that’s been years in the making, and has been celebrated in song since the early days of Dylan. As befits such a marathon, this week’s Wog, Regime Change, is a Wog-a-Thon*. It’s 78 minutes of songs from such sources as Crosby, Stills & Nash, Midnight Oil, Tracy Chapman, and Bob Marley. A few lesser-knowns also get into the act: Pearls Before Swine, Hothouse Flowers. Even Steve Miller (yes, that Steve Miller). Not to mention Stevie Wonder, the Animals, the Stones, U2, Rush, Karan Casey, and that old anti-war chestnut (unh!) by Edwin Starr. So what are you waiting for? Raise your fist and give Change a Shout-out on your way to the polls tomorrow.

Check it out at Podwogging.com.

*A Wog-a-Thon is split into “sub-thons,” shorter sequences if you don’t want to do the whole thing at once. Alternatively, you can skip songs in the sequence, since the pace pattern always follows a slow-medium-fast-medium-slow-medium-fast-medium, etc. pattern.

Not Bad for a Piano Man

He may not have been a paragon of rockdom, but in the 70s Billy Joel knew how to jam beats out of his piano. His songs are already entertaining, and the pop wisdom they impart are at least worth a smile or two. Only the Good Jog Young is the Weekly Wog, and herein you will indeed find a wog that is paceworthy. My personal favorite is his lively history lesson, We Didn’t Start the Fire, whose lyrics about America’s transgressions and banalities he shouts out with exultant glee. Check it out at Podwogging.com.

Sunshine of your Wog

Of the thousands of rock albums that have been released over the years, only a few were instant hits, and even fewer stand up to the test of time. Disraeli Gears by Cream was such an album. Psychedelia had always chosen blues as its starting idiom, and with Cream, led by Eric Clapton, the British psychedelic blues reached full flower. Heady, pulsing with primal energy, poetic, at times otherworldly, Disraeli Gears was a must listen then, and is still a great listen today. The classic Sunshine of Your Love is the best-known song, but my favorites are Tales of Brave Ulysses and We’re Going Wrong. It’s not a particularly long album, so this One Album Wog is a Quickie, with brisk walking but not much in the way of jogging. Find the BPMs for this week's wog at Podwogging.com!

Through the Past, Woggly

There are times in one’s life when certain music takes on an added importance. A song heard only once may stick in your mind for years, giving it a meaning that is unique to you and perhaps those around you who shared the experience. When was an undergrad at Stanford University in 1972, I spent six months on their overseas campus on a small hill, covered with a vineyard, overlooking Beutelsbach, Germany. We only had a few albums with us, and they tended to get played over and over: the Grateful Dead’s American Beauty, the Rolling Stones’ Sticky Fingers, Cat Stevens’ Tea for the Tillerman, Jefferson Airplane’s Bark, and albums by Derek & the Dominoes and John Denver are the ones I remember. Thus in honor of those days I’ve concocted two woggings sets, one faster (Schneller) and one slower (Langsamer). This week’s Weekly Wog is the faster one, but I’ve posted both. Check it out...und Viel Glück (good luck)!

Let’s Bounce to Blondie

Last week I strutted to Madonna’s stuff. This week I take on another female singer from the same era, Blondie’s Debbie Harry. Like Madonna, Harry has unfailing pop instincts and a brassy attitude. Unlike the Material Girl, she truly rocks—One Way or Another and Hanging on the Telephone will send you into New Wave Pulse-Pounding Heaven. You’ll also hear classy disco (Heart of Glass), reggae (The Tide is High), punk (Rip Her to Shreds) and rap (Rapture) in this set. Put this one your pod for a high-energy Blondie mix! Check it out at Podwogging.com.

What have I done, Ma?

She’s never really gone out of vogue, and her beats are brisk and true blue. I’m talkin’ about that spotlight-lovin’ pop goddess and and ramped-up vamp, Madonna. In this week’s Weekly Wog, power walk your way through eight of her hits for 37 minutes. You won’t find any of her boyfriends, no kisses from Britney Spears, and no Kabbala either—just pure vintage Madonna pop from the 80s. See it at Podwogging.com!

It’s All About the Shoes

To teenagers, this statement is self-evidently obvious. Though it refers here to functionality more than fashion statement, the same can be said for woggers. What you shove your feet into before you hit the path can have a huge effect on your workout. It can mean the difference between a sore toe and healthy one, between a fallen arch and a strong one. A good shoe can make your wog a pleasure; a poor one can turn your joints into a collection of groans.

I get my shoes from a place called The Next Step, out on San Pablo Ave. in Albany. They not only sell me shoes, they make sure I have the right kind of insert installed, adding even more cushioning for my feet. They even warm the inserts up before I put them on for the first time, which allows them to properly mold to my feet. Since inserts wear out before the shoes do, I can always duck in for a new pair.

The brand I get is Asics. They aren’t cheap, but at my age I’m willing to pay a bit extra to ensure my body doesn’t break down before it needs to.

This Weekly Wog on Podwogging.com: Legendary Pink Floyd was known more for romps through auditory space than for beat-solid rock. But there’s enough exquisite woggable material in their mind-freaking bag of musical tricks to make this set possible. So take a short, sharp, shock and Jog Like Hell.

The Somatic Self

We humans may know about Time and Fate and how to put computer chips into running shoes, but we’re still cut from the same cloth as our furry and scaly friends, and unless we disappear into the Matrix we will continue to spend much of our time hauling our bodies around. So let me go Zen master on you: Posture counts! Keep your head up and eyes forward, check for shoulder slump! And don’t forget, Grasshopper, to watch the cat and the dog and the even snake, how their bodies stretch naturally when they move. For us, being bipedal puts extra stress on our bodies as we take gravity head on, so RELAX, dammit!

OK, that felt good. This all leads to the Weekly Wog, of course, and this ÜberWog is dedicated to the rest of the Food Chain: Animüberals. Great songs by the Beatles, David Bowie, The Beastie Boys (of course), Cream, Joni Mitchell and others, all set to your inner Relaxed Beast. 47 minutes, Very Light. Something tells me it’s all happening at Podwogging.com.

Requiem for a Grove

Going off-topic here: as a bona fide tree-hugger, I want to give a salute to some brave souls who have spent the better part of a year protesting the University of California’s cutting down a grove of 50 old-growth oak trees in order to make room for a spanking new athletic facility. Derided by the media, cut off by the university, the tree-sitters have been reduced to four, and now occupy the sole tree in the grove that’s yet to be cut down, a majestic redwood. Scorn them if you will, but how many us would have the courage of our convictions to put ourselves on the line as they have? The media makes them out to be stubborn ignoramuses, but consider:

• The oak trees were for some reason resistant to Oak Root Fungus, which has been attacking and killing oak trees by the thousands throughout the state. This grove offered an excellent opportunity for study that is now wasted.

• The athletic facility is being built directly atop the Hayward Fault. Making it quake-safe costs more money, and who knows whether it will actually work in a big quake? Meanwhile Cal has to retrofit the entire stadium, at the cost of who knows how much money.

In this new era of Global Warming, every tree is a valuable carbon sink and oxygen giver. When I go wogging on land with trees, I feel immeasurably better than when I’m wogging on naked pavement surrounded by glass, asphalt, and choking fumes. But I’m not surprised by UC’s attitude toward trees, especially since Stanford’s mascot is one.

Weekly Wog: Finger-poppin’ Fifties: 19 minutes of vigorous Fifties Fun, perfect for a lunch break pick-me-up or wog to the store. Times, Starting with Hollywood Argyles’ Alley Oop and finishing with the Everly Brothers’ Cathy’s Clown, it also includes Bobby Darin, Guy Mitchell, and one of my all-time faves, Del Shannon’s Runaway. Get the list with BPMs and outrageous comments at Podwogging.com!

The Fixx Is In

Ever hear of a group from the 80s called The Fixx? If not, and you like righteous alternative British rock that’s less bombastic than U2 (sorry, Bono) and flows better than Coldplay (ditto, Chris Martin), you’re in for a treat. Intense, highly rhythmic, with personal as well as political overtones, they’re one of the best groups to ever hail from Scotland. This week’s Weekly Wog, One Jog Leads To Another, features 35 minutes of great, pulse-pounding exercise music. Check it out at Podwogging.com!

And speaking of podwogging, I can now Google podwogging and get an actual hit count! OK, only 14 hits, but hey. It’s a start.

BTW, my exhortation “pick up thy pod and wog” is a nod to what song? E-mail me the answer at jsibleywebsterATmindspring.com (replace AT with @).

Keep on woggin’...

Last Wave

Alas, the summer days are dwindling as the days slowly get shorter. School has started for many already, and the first hints of yellow and red tints are appearing on trees. But before the summer ends, how about one last cry of “surf’s up!” and hit the beach before hitting the books? To that end, check this week’s wog, Surf Fit. Much more than just the Beach Boys, this wog is a set has all kinds of surf music maestros, including some boss instrumental rockers, the demonic Wipe Out, and hits from Jan and Dean, the Trashmen, and others. So catch the Wog Wave at Podwogging.com!

The Zen of Wogging

Podwogging.com now has an active Zen of Wogging section. It will contain material taken on from this blog: tips on tweaking your wog, rolling your own, using the right shoes and equipment, the proper way to wog, Path Dharma, etc. We start with the Zen of Beats Per Minute (8/2/08) and will include the following:

The Way of the Path

Running, jogging, and even walking are not easy on the body. Unlike swimming, gravity works against you. Coming down on hard surfaces like concrete exacts a toll on feet, knees, hips, and other joints. Stretching before and after workouts helps the body stay limber, but the surface you exercise on can also make a huge difference between feeling tired, creaky and sore, or vibrant and refreshed, after a workout.

If at all possible, choose a wogging path that has give to it. To my mind, the best possible path is a forest trail with at least two inches of pine needles under my feet; running on such a trail almost feels like flying. Unfortunately, unless you live near such a forest, such opportunities come few and far between.

But you can still seek to cushion the impact. Concrete is perhaps the hardest surface, which is unfortunate, since nearly all sidewalks are made of it. Asphalt is more forgiving, especially when hot weather has softened it. Of course streets can be dangerous, so if you wog in the street, make sure there’s not much traffic, and pay careful attention to cars. Jogging paths in parks are often asphalt, though if a dirt trail runs parallel to it I often like to use that instead.

Grass is softer still. The only problem with grass is that hidden holes and divots can play havoc with your ankles—gophers are a grass wogger’s bane. Gyms with springy floors are also pretty good, and many indoor tracks have a forgiving spongy surface. Whatever your path, look for a way to make your gravity your friend. You’ll be wogging for a lot longer time if you do.

Stone Roses make a long, lovely wog

This week’s wog is unique in that it is both a Single Album wog and a Wog-a-Thon. The Stone Roses’ eponymously-named album is a long one—over an hour—so I decided to make it into a Wog-a-Thon. If you like ringing, melodic rock and have never heard of the Stone Roses, you’re in for a treat. Check it out at Podwogging.com!

And a one, and a two, and...

New Weekly Wog: Starting with U2’s One and finishing with CCR’s Ninety-Nine and a Half, this week’s wog is one you can count on for a 47-minute vigorous workout. This one’s a mix of popsters from the 60s & 70s (Beatles, Crosby Stills & Nash, the Vogues, Creedence, Keith, Alan Parsons) and more recent fare (U2, Wallflowers, Echo & the Bunnymen, Guster, Bloc Party, School of Fish). It has two solid jogging chunks, one near the start and one near the end, and a nice relaxed middle. If you want to be in that Nümber, check it out at Podwogging.com!

No Time to Be a Xenophobe

Europop is the genre featured in this week’s Weekly Wog, a 36-minute Brisk workout. It’s Euroferocious! Featuring classics from across the Big Pond like the Caesar’s Jerk It Out (from an iPod commercial), Take On Me by A-Ha, and Darude’s techno/rave Sand Storm. And what would a Europop wog be without an ABBA hit? This one is also in iTunes’ Sport iMixes, so you can listen to samples and download the songs, or even the entire playlist. Check it all out at PODWOGGING.COM!

The Zen of Beats Per Minute

What is the sound of one beat wogging?

There’s a good reason why the BPM field in songs on iTunes is usually blank, even on songs you download: this is not an easy number to quantify. Saying that a song has a BPM of 120 doesn’t describe how the song’s rhythm varies. Is it rock steady from start to finish? Drum-machine precise? Does the song gradually speed up or slow down? Does it have a few brief interludes with different rhythms, or no rhythms at all?

My approach requires judgment on my part. If a song’s rhythm varies only slightly, I sample as much of the song as I can, and find an average BPM value. If the song has a short section with a different rhythm but the main rhythm otherwise predominates, I stick with the main rhythm. If there are a number of different distinct rhythms in several sections, I may average them, but indicate in the song’s comment field that the song is inconsistent, and give a low PC (Pace Consistency) rating; if the rhythms are too inconsistent or incompatible, the song gets a PC of 1 and never makes it into a woglist (BTW, don’t look for PC in iTunes—this is my own rating).

All this is why software that analyzes a song’s beat is often not enough to determine a song’s BPM. And why only Podwogging.com gives you artisan, hand-crafted BPMs for your wogging pleasure.

Rapid Wogging Movements

Has there ever been a group that screams “ALTERNATIVE ROCK!” more than R.E.M.? Born of Southern intellect and passion and tossed into the MTV Revolution of the 80s, R.E.M. turned out an astonishing array of really interesting music that both embodied pop success and transcended it. To celebrate them, this week’s Weekly Wog is an ÜberWog, Übermatic for the People. If you dig Michael Stipe and his sounds, check out these 57 vigorous minutes of wogging bliss. It’s all on my website, podwogging.com.

Special Tribute Wog

The artist who dies too young is an all-too-familiar occurrence in the business of selling music. A surprising number have died in plane crashes; others fell to drugs, alcohol, and other demons. The Weekly Wog celebrates these artists in a 17-song Überwog mix, featuring songs from Jim Morrison, Aaliyah, Jeff Buckley, and others. Chances are you know some, and never heard of others—check it out at podwogging.com!

Four New Woglists Added

The air in the East Bay has cleared up and today I went up into the hills for the first time in several weeks. Excellent! I’ve also been busy putting new woglists up on my site, podwogging.com. All four are Single Artist lists, featuring Bob Dylan, Björk, Van Morrison, and the Beatles. Check ‘em out!

Don’t Feel Like Walking? Skip It!

Many songs in the slow walk range (85–100 BPM, approx.) can be transformed from a meander into a skip, which is not only loads of embarrassing fun, but burns more calories. I usually don’t skip for the entire song, but often I’ll burst into skip mode for a verse or a refrain or a tasty guitar solo. I call these SKIPLEKS. Songs in my woglists that can be skipped along to have the symbol SKBL in the comment field.

This week’s Weekly Wog consists entirely of skiplekkable songs: I, Skipper! I don’t recommend skipping to the entire list—I tried that and wound up with a sore groin muscle.

There’s even an entire website devoted to skipping—check out Skipper Kim at iskip.com.

Making Friends

Thanks to Dr. Bob at jogtunes.com, I now know how to make an iMix of my woglists and put it on iTunes. I wish I could make iMixes from all my woglists, but unfortunately iTunes doesn’t carry all the songs on my lists. Still, some are better than nothing. So far I have three woglists posted as iMixes: The Doors: The Über Side, U2: Achtung Baby, and Genesis: Abacab. You can listen to 30-second samples and purchase them if you wish. See my website, podwogging.com.

Another fun music exercise site is run by Dr. Bob’s friend, Peter Andersson, The 50 best songs for running ever made. These two are obviously as obsessed as I am!

See you on the trail...

JogTunes: JogTunes posts new music by Cheap Trick, The Hives, and many more artists, for BPM running and other paced workouts

JogTunes: JogTunes posts new music by Cheap Trick, The Hives, and many more artists, for BPM running and other paced workouts

Go uphill to pump up your wog

Last week I spent relaxing in Berkeley’s wonderful Tuolumne Family Camp, nestled against the South Fork of the Tuolumne River in the Sierra Foothills. One morning I wanted to get a wog in before doing tie-dye t-shirts (yeah!), and because of the elevation, heat, and my general mood, I wanted music that was melodic and mellow. Unlax Your Mind, this week’s Weekly Wog, fit the bill, music-wise. This woglist is a Flatliner, and a Very Light one at that—all the songs clock in between 90 and 95 BPM. How could I put a bit more life into this list?

The solution: I walked nearly all of it uphill. Going uphill will turn a light walk into a moderate or even brisk walk, and it carries with it other benefits: The angle of the slope naturally stretches out your calf and thigh muscles, as well as your Achilles tendon, plus it’s much easier on your knees. If you can find a way to walk uphill without having to walk back down, go for it!

Flatliners are designed for use on treadmills, and many modern treadmills can be set to an uphill angle. Especially for walks, I highly recommend it. If you haven’t yet been to Podwogging.com, check it out!

The Summer of Our Disco Tent

Wildfires Play Havoc with Wogging

After California went through its driest Spring on record, fire season, which normally doesn’t begin until August, has already hit the state hard. Huge fires on San Bruno Mountain and in Napa and Solano Counties have turned the Bay Area atmosphere into one big haze. It got so bad that I had to curtail my wogging, as bad air pollution makes it hard for me to breathe. Yesterday I finally went out to the Berkeley Marina with woglist primed on my pod, and found that the stiff breeze coming off the coast improved the air quality considerably, enabling me to do a good brisk wog to Disco Tent, the coming Weekly Wog. Still, it’s weird seeing a wan, reddish sun struggling through the sky, almost as though it were autumn instead of the middle of high summer.

Weekly Wog: Oddly enough, one of the songs in this week’s wog is Disco Inferno (Burn Baby Burn), by the Trammps. Let’s hope the only burnin’ going on where you are is body fat!

Summer!

What better way to kick off summer than a Wog-a-Thon called “Summer!”? Which also happens to be the Weekly Wog. Yesterday I biked over to the track by King Middle School and put Summer! on my pod. I didn’t have time to wog the entire 56 minutes, but the nice thing about Wog-a-thons is that they’re made so it’s easy to skip over songs for a shorter wog. So I skipped over The Doors’ Indian Summer, Joe Satriani’s Summer Song, Don Henley’s The Boys of Summer, the Lovin’ Spoonful’s Summer in the City, and Timbuk3’s The Future’s So Bright I Gotta Wear Shades—still good enough for a 37-minute workout. Summer! has a couple of excellent Skiplekkers in Seals and Crofts’ Summer Breeze and Chuck Prophet’s Summer Thing, which added to the intensity and fun of the workout. Check it all out at Podwogging.com.

Song Index now in text files: To reduce file size and unclog my website, I’ve now made the three song lists (by title, pace, and artist) downloadable, tab-delimited text files. This makes it easy to read them in word processors or spreadsheets for those who want to start using song BPMs to roll their own woglists.

Happy Solstice!

This morning I went for a wog before breakfast, an ideal time before the heat of the day can make wogging a chore. Tonight is another good time to wog–what better way to celebrate the longest day of the year? (Also, air pollution on hot days tends to be worse in the afternoons. If you have asthma or respiratory problems, wogging early or late may be your best bet.)

Be Streetwise While Wogging

The ideal place to go wogging is a track, or a hiking trail, or country road through a leafy forest. But if you live in an urban area like me, you might find yourself wogging on the streets and sidewalks of a city. In which case, certain commonsense precautions should be taken:

• Turn the volume of your earbuds down far enough so you can hear traffic sounds. I know, you listen partly because you want to drown those nasty noises out. But when crossing the street, hearing a vehicle coming your way can mean the difference between life and death.
• Be aware of other pedestrians around you. Pods can easily be snatched by muggers and thieves, and are a popular item with fences.
• Concrete is hard on the joints, so save the pulse-pounders for running tracks or other softer surfaces. Asphalt is a bit more forgiving, but make sure traffic on the street is light.

Master Songlists, Weekly Wog

Master Song Lists Now Online

All the songs in all currently posted woglists, together with artist, time, beats per minute, and pace consistency, are now available for viewing on Podwoggging.com, by clicking on Song Index in the navbar. There are actually three lists: one sorted by song name, one sorted by artist, and one sorted by pace. Thus you can use these lists, which will be updated as new woglists go online, to put together your own woglists.

Weekly Wog: Achtung, Baby!

U2 made a major move away from anthemic arena rock with this gritty, though still hook-laden, album from the early 80s. Starting with the wonderful She Moves In Mysterious Ways and ending with Tryin’ To Throw Your Arms Around the World, this set will give you a nice 36-minute light workout, all from this one album. Check for more single-album wogs in the future.

Weekly Wog goes to the Über Side

I needed a good, long wog to help me shake off a nasty cold, so who better to lead the way than the 60s' blues shaman, Jim Morrison? 58 minutes of intoxicating Doors' music later, I felt like a new man. This week's list is an ÜberWog, which is longer than a standard wog, but the pace is light enough to invigorate you, not deflate you. Check it out!

Coming soon to Podwogging.com: a song index, listing all the songs in every woglist I post on the site. So you'll be able to drop by and look up your favorite song, get its BPM (beats per minute), and add it to your own lists.

Pick Up Thy Pod And Wog

Welcome to your world.

You like to rock and keep fit. You have an MP3 player and find it fun to take out on the path while you walk and jog. You have some favorite songs, but you’d like more: more playlists artfully arranged, with the music you like at the beat that works for you.

You’ve come to the right place.

PODWOGGING is what I call the exercise that’s a hobby and a workout rolled into one. At my website, Podwogging.com, you’ll find all playlists of rock, pop, soul, R&B, folk—virtually every form of popular music with a beat—all designed to be used with your portable music player (POD) while you walk and jog. (A WOG is a combination of Walk and Jog.) You’ll find lists at all pace levels, from very light walks to pulse-pounding jogs, as well as very short lists (Quickies) to lists over an hour long (Wog-a-Thons). Every song in each list has a BPM (Beats Per Minute) rating, making it easy to see each song’s pace, and each list has a pace rating based on these BPMs.

I don’t sell these songs—for that you’ll either have to get them off albums, or download them from places like Apple’s iTunes or Amazon.com; nearly all the songs in these lists are available online. Chances are you already have many of them on your computer or POD, just waiting to be put into a perfect podwog playlist.

The current Weekly Wog is a 34-minute list of songs by the Cars, called Jogging in Stereo. I’ll be posting more woglists and blogging about wogging every week, too. Check it out!

Jim Webster