Full Moon Four Miler:

8th place 22:05 (5:31 pace)

Sloppy hand writing led to a murdering of my personal info.

Which one is the Shea?

Kinda TSOed (took shit out) I guess; that was pretty stupid when I think back on it.  Hadn’t raced seriously in well over year and I’m leading through the mile, probably should have sat back on shit.  I remember being out in 5:15, then maybe 16:14, which would mean I closed in 5:50ish, probably pretty accurate. That’s tough.  Ah welp, lessoned learned for a month from now.  There were hot air balloons doing their thing around the course which was definitely an original touch, but other than that the course wasn’t too exciting.  One stretch felt eerily similar to roads I’ve run on in New Jersey:  cookie cutter white house, wide neighborhood road without any hills or even trees on the horizons; just like the shore, sans the seagulls and indelible stench of salt and garbage.  I didn’t stick around for any awards (got 2^nd, well really third but they don’t count the winner, in my age group).  Got my free beer (very pleased they had more than just miller light), watermelon and chex mix, and bounced because the mosquitoes where swarming.

Even Obama hates flies.

I have been deluged by more bugs this summer than any before in my life.  Mind you, I spent numerous summers running around outside all days at various camps, so I’ve experienced my fair share of incestuous abuse.  After every run I look like Gary Busey painted me with a black brush.  Anytime I stop, pint sized blood suckers flock.  Shit, they have bitten my ass through my shorts.  There have been runs when giant flies bash into the back of my head for a quarter mile straight.  I have no idea why these flies do this, its not a way of protecting their territory, I’m ‘running away’ the whole time!  When they finally cease this futile activity they are at least a quarter mile from where they started.  I don’t know much about bugs, but I’d imagine a quarter miles worth of flying, let alone the persistent attacks on my skull, is enough for a life time.  So that’s probably why they stop bothering me, they died.  Now, I cant go freaking out and try to swat at all these bugs, I usually run on the side of the road.  Doing this on the shoulder could garner some unwanted attention and some driver might think it best to remove some lanky shirtless kid spazzing on the side of the road from this earth.  I know if I was trucking along at 50mph and saw me flailing about on some county road, I’d think about ending my misery.  So I just run, and wipe and itch away when I’m finished, and bitch to you about it all.  Thanks for listening, it means a lot.

Hopefully TShea beats her.

This is the last entry coming to you from Wisconsin.  I’ll keep updating on the running and my travels leading up to Labor Day Weekend.  Hmm… I’ll have to consider a title change, because a Dairyland Memoir cannot be written on the East Coast.

TShea

For your viewing pleasure, please enjoy this flawless lookbook.  The quality of the spread and images originally caught my eye.  I don’t know much about the artist, but the content, photograph sequence,  the photographic quality, and the compositions have been put together with what i think of as impeccable taste.  The images have captured the essentials of masculinity, boyhood, taste, and style.  A single photo from the series could have been enough, but the collection of the 12 images have managed to create not only an awesome narrative but it also has the ability to reflect male-ness and style completely and fully.  I fully recognize that my affinity towards this lookbook is partially due to the utterly romanticized version boyhood, which in turn, has further reinforced penis-envy on my end.  But having said that, adidas original really has done a good job at capturing the essence of youth-hood– carefree attitudes, style, and self-indulgence, appropriately titled “felicity”.   Making this a successful project for adidas, if all romanticized ideals can be marketed with amazing photography, making their efforts and intentions explicitly obvious, I can fully submit to the idea of exploiting art to promote consumerism.

Find the source here

Read an interview with Kuraishi via hypebeast

As some of you might have already assumed, the tour of Southeastern Wisconsin fell through.  Funds are running low and a drive across 7 states to Boston is looming.  As a result of this personal financial crisis, life has been uneventful.  Last weekends highlight was marked by sneaking a twelve pack into the hospital and downing 10 local brews while listening to my vinyls.  Unfortunately, my needle was starting to wear about 6 months ago and the vocals all sounded a bit off, hissy if I may, but after beer five or 6 that didn’t really concern me.

This one's for the GF.

Now needing a new needle is surely a bummer, but also an accomplishment.  This lets me know I have been putting this 3 year old Christmas present of a turntable to good use.  It’s a similar feeling to needing running shoes without the leg pain.  It sucks that you gotta dump 60 to 120 bucks into footwear but after logging about 500 miles in one set of kicks, you certainly feel you earned it.  I scored a new pair of Brooks Adrenaline GTS 10s a few weeks back for a great price thanks to Letham’s high stature at Jack Rabbit Sports, and shit they have been doing me well.  Not Benny ‘The Jet’ Rodriguez well, but hopefully they will come close on Saturday night.  The Full Moon Four Miler will be my first road race since two Thanksgivings ago.  It’ll also be my first night race, as the start is slated for 8:30pm.  I mean, I have raced at night before at the Penn Relays, but that was a debacle that saw me never officially race, as I ran in the wrong heat…still, I count it (running on that ten lane track was a life goal since fourth grade).

And now for something completely different…

This one's for all the ladies.

This morning, like every morning without the World Cup or the Tour of France (that’s American for Le Tour), I turned on Sportscenter as soon as I turned off my alarm.  I saw this. I was amped and this exchange between Winn, an upcoming member of the media/marketing world, and I, a young health care provider, ensued via text messages during the first few hours of our respective work days

Me: Kenny Powers KSwiss commercial.  On the come back.

Him: Yes. Did you make that endless summer mix?

Me: Ya, thoughts?

Him: I found it about 30 minutes ago. I showed up 15 minutes late to work. Boston is playing a free show tonight on the Hudson. Hammered. I’ll have a full report later.

I know its not the type of exchange that sitcoms are made of…but think, we are the future of this bold land and this is where our heads are at.  To that I say: “Hammered. I’ll have a full report later”.

I’ll finish off with giving you some free music….LEGALLY!!!!

J Dilla – Donut Shop EP

Curt@!n$ – The Dissertation: The Wu-Thesis

Wale – More About Nothing

TShea

Find the source here

View some of his collections here

trend source: here

Unfortunately, my absence last week did not mean I was off doing something awesome. Instead,  I went into town to a local bike factory to join in on a metric century ride last Saturday morning and it wiped me out for the whole weekend.  In my defense, it was my longest bike ride by about 20 miles and was around 90 degrees without a cloud in the sky. But now I’m back, but without too much to offer compared to my trip to Milwaukee (I failed to really explore the Dairyland anymore, sorry).  Funds are low and a trip to Madison next weekend is likely, so I’m prepping to hit it hard out there.  It could be my last Hoo–Rah before I leave the flat lands of Southeastern Wisconsin in three weeks for the cities of Rochester, Boston and the Illadelph (I may make a few other stops before school kicks back up too).  To make up for my missed deadline,  I give you this TShea AKA 6ft Unda’s Endless Mix 4 an Endless Summer (just right click and save as…don’t know what you mac-ies have to do) The wonders of Dropbox.

Dilla. Dilla. Mix. Mix. Mix.

As for right now, things are docile and good.  I just copped over a gig of Jay Dee and am trying to listen to as many of his (I wont even attempt to sum up this much Dilla with one word, I’ll just use this parenthesized fragment to communicate its awesomeness) beats before this bottle slips me into yet another sweaty slumber.  I’m also exercising my brain by watching Jackass Vol. 2 on mute…..but that’s about as much exercise as I was doing before my Dairyland Training. Let’s see what else basic hospital cable offers on a Saturday night.

One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest – If I wasn’t reading the book this would have been a lock.

Adult Swim is a letdown; some anime show with disembodied talking dogheads.

This dude needs some PT.

E!, MTV, VH1, Spike offer their typical garbage.
Bravo – House.

Well, Bravo. We have a winner.

I don’t know why I have found myself watching so many medical dramas this summer, it might have to do with living in a hospital.  Shows like House, Royal Pains and Scrubs (this one’s more of a comedy, whatever) have been making me put down the remote more often than the other shit on TV.  On my drive out here I was hoping to frequently experience the irony of watching That 70’s Show while actually in Wisconsin, but it’s not on nearly as much as I would have hoped.  You’d think the local stations would dedicate their late night time slots to shows repping the Dairyland like the aforementioned That 70’s Show and Happy Days (Oh you didn’t know Happy Days was based in Milwaukee, neither did I till I got here, and boy, are the locals quick to tell you about the Bronze Fonz).  I wonder if Kelso will ever be immortalized on the western shores of Lake Michigan.  Unlikely, considering hitting the jukebox and riding a motorcycle is much more accepted by the these cow loving conservative than ripping a bong and driving a VW bus.

This is a bit rough when room temperature is like 80…

Today was my first ever brick.  Yea I don’t have any idea why a bike ride and a run in the same day is called a brick, Letham says it’s a triathlon thing, I believe him, but I don’t want to.  I tried to come up with my own term by combining the words but ruke, rike, bun and bin don’t really work and aren’t terms commonly used in drug dealing.

TShea as a drug dealer.

I love drug dealing.  For a while now I have fantasized about dealing drugs in a big way.  It’ll never happen though, the girlfriend would never approve, ‘nuff said.  Seriously though, The Wire, Weeds (before the whole Mexican theme started), American Gangster, Half Baked, The Wu-Tang Clan and all their solo productions will always be favorites of mine.  If I ever was a drug dealer, I wouldn’t be dealing with the hard shit you know, I don’t aspire to be a Toni Montana or a Marlo Stanfield, but that guy James Franco plays in Pineapple Express seems like a decent guy to be.  He’s not killing any one with his product, if you asked his ‘customers’ I bet you they’d say he does them a service or even a favor by conveniently providing such a wide selection of HIGH quality products.  I wouldn’t use as much as he does, but he still keeps it together to take care of grandma, so he’s still a good guy.  I would dabble in psychedelics a bit as well, Tom Wolfe make them sound so fun.  Which brings us to Ken Kesey and back to One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, the book this time though, which is more enticing then another muted House. That means I’m down here as well. Until next week.

Dilla will stay though, Dilla will always stay, Dilla Lives Forever.

TShea

Mitten Glove by hobo

As fall is quickly approaching, fashion is already warming up for the cold.  hobo brand has recently come out with a line of boxing glove mittens–looking sturdy and warm!  Unfortunately, this brand is not available in the United States, but we can all admire these fun boxing glove mittens from the Japanese men’s brand hobo (not to be confused with the handbag line Hobo International).  The color combinations are really bright which would bring cheer in the terrible winter days.  Despite the impracticality of mittens, they really are the way to go for warm hands in the cold seasons. Interesting fact: these products are manufactured right here in the States (!).. but until we get cooler ‘imports’, eye candy for now.  Check out the site here

sourced from here

What that means is that even though we aren’t posting, pretty much, at all, we are still working to revamp Not Drugs to become more suitable for what we want, and for what we think you want.

From now until mid to late August, Not Drugs will be posting pretty infrequently, because we’re working to modify ourselves and solidify ourselves for what we really want Not Drugs to be.

We thank you for your patience, and we hope that you can stick by us during this short period of time.

Come the Re-Up…you won’t regret it.

After a soggy ass bike ride yesterday evening I was pretty wiped, too wiped to throw together the 5^th installment of my Memoirs.  Now I am throwing this piece down while watching the best show on television, No Reservations.

Delicious.

There was a Marathon of this show 4^th of july weekend leading up the season premier, and it carried me threw my hangover.  Now Anthony Bordain is not a guy I think I would want to hang out with, because I think he seems like a pretentious hipster who would, despite giving up half a foot to me, look down at me for the entire interaction.

But damn, he can sell a city.

He could go to a moldy basement of a pet store at the Jersey Shore and if some banging hoagies are served there, he’ll have me seeing if I can get there the next time I’m home to the Philly ‘Burbs.  What’s giving him this undeniable pitchman characteristic is how he seems to just travel somewhere on his own and enjoy it.  Yeah, he has his chef friends walking him through cities and a production team researching and setting up his stops, but it makes me feel like everywhere on the earth has something worth seeing, Southeastern Wisconsin included.

I’ve been out here 6 weeks and other than a solo bender in Madsion, I only saw Wisconsin through bike rides past farms and chasing a balloon.  I was selling America’s Dairyland, and myself, short.  I figured I had 6 more weeks to try and enjoy my stay rather than blindly complaining about it.

After a week of very sweaty runs that left my shoes soaked and disgusting every night, topped by a Friday workout that kicked my ass so hard, I have to write this standing. I needed to reward the body.

“This episode is taking me to Milwaukee.”

Damn….ah welp, that was a bit of a disappointment, Tony. Anyway, I made two stops on Saturday (I had four planned but a late start and an impending thunderstorm hindered my ambition).  The art museum on Lake Michigan and a Brewers game, were scratched, but The Miller Brewery wasn’t. It probably should’ve been.

TShea's Brewery Tour Guide.

I have been on a few brewery tours, all of them smaller breweries that made up for their size with great beer and a plentiful of free samples.  The Miller Brewery did the exact opposite.  It Pushed me through a factory, a warehouse, showed me two movies and gave me three 8oz samples.  One of the samples, though, was pretty good. They called it Batch 19.  No idea if Miller brews it, but its only available at a few location in Milwaukee.  Its a  ‘pre-prohibition’ recipe (on second thought, this sounds way too American grassroots for a company once owned by some South Africans).  Anyways, just like the answer I got to my question: “why use rice, corn and oats instead of all barley, which gives the beer a ‘crisper’ taste”… this experience left a lot to be desired.  My next stop certainly made up for it.

______________________________________

Maxies (take a tour of the site before you read further).

Milwaukee and Ithaca?  Are you serious?  Some dude thought that those two cities were the two places he wanted to open his Cajun restaurants?  Since I’ve frequented the latter, better visit the former.  I had a hell of a time: a dozen oysters, a heaping pulled pork sandwich, cole saw, baked pork and beans, and yellow grits with a gravy that should be on everything served in the joint.  Oh, and two 22oz of some local brews (it was happy hour), another Spotted Cow and a Lakefront IPA.  Like I said, a hell of a time.  Since I was sitting at the bar (my father tells me the only way to go out to dinner on your own is at the bar or with a book) I did my best to chum it up with the bar tender.  I, of course complimented him on the food, realized he’s not the cook, and complimented him on the beer.  I’m not a creative chum-er I guess.  I was especially impressed with the Lakefront IPA, so he tells me their brewery tour is the only one he’s been on where they give you beer before and after the tour.  Damn, did I pick the wrong brewery or what?

As I finished up, the barkeep re-stressed how the Lakefront tour is a must and gave me a few other of his must sees in the city.  In return for his enjoyable meal and bits of local knowledge, I gave him my copy of ‘How I Got Over’ (no, not instead of the tip, although it is that damn good).

This probably means nothing. Ah Welp.

On the drive back I decided to check a local bar out, and maybe collect some more info on what it is that a real Wisconsin-er is.  I mostly talked to them about Harleys and cheese, but did get a few beers for free (glad I adlibbed).  I also found out the Brewers Stadium does this, and that a T-Strom wouldn’t have affected the game at all.

This was my first try at giving Southeastern Wisconsin my best ‘No Reservation’ analysis, and I could have done better, but it was good to get out see if I was missing anything.  And yes, yes I was, and I hope to find out more in these next few weeks.  I’ll probably make it back to Milwaukee again, but look for Green Bay and Madison to play host to future weeks’ highlights.

I’ll close with a bit more on the re-fitnessing (cause I know that’s why you all are tuning in each week).  40 miles on 5 runs is pretty damn solid, I think, especially considering I was at 0 miles in 7 days a few weeks ago.  With how good I felt on today’s ten miler, my private coach laying out some ball busting workouts, and my previously mentioned mastery of the alumni race course…I’m really starting to believe I’ll have my readers rejoicing Labor Day weekend, celebrating a comeback of Philadelphia proportions from mile 1 to the finish line, just behind a kick wall at the end of the Terrace parking lot.

Moooooooooo.