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)!