randomduck

Finally found this gem from Leno’s show - have a happy!

Popularity: 20% [?]

Activity: road cycling
Location: Dupont Circle > Bethesda/Glen Echo, MD
Distance: 15.3 miles (moderately hilly)
Duration: 1:01
Weather: clear and cold, 36 degrees
Avg HR: 160 (max 175)
Type: aerobic

Pre-dawn ride on a clear, cold and beautiful morning. Rode on Chain Bridge Road, which added a significant hill and slowed down the ride a little - thus the shorter distance.

Popularity: 15% [?]

Activity: road cycling
Location: Dupont Circle > Glen Echo, MD
Distance: 18.3 miles (moderately hilly)
Duration: 1:10
Weather: breaking high clouds and cold, 43 degrees
Avg HR: 160 (max 178)
Type: aerobic

The pre-dawn ride again. Felt good, and we managed to avoid red traffic lights for all but the last quarter of the ride - no small feat.

Popularity: 12% [?]

The big trend this year: rock stars doing holiday songs. These are rockers who typically rock hard (or used to rock hard), and suddenly they’re feeling the need to spread holiday cheer. And some do it better than others.

First, there’s Billy Idol’s Happy Holidays, which finds the “White Wedding” singer entering the land of crooning as he covers the old Christmas standards. The delivery isn’t bad, though the videos available on Idol’s MySpace page are a bit painful to watch. Billy: the shirt doesn’t need to be unbuttoned to mid-chest these days - it just looks creepy.

Then there’s Twisted Sister’s Twisted Christmas, which is both a reunion album for the 1980s hair band and their self-professed final album. This album finds the band still in hair metal mode, which works for them. Dee Snider can still wail out a tune very well. But, like Idol, watching the band can be a bit trying on the eyes. While Snider can still wear his leathers from the day, the rest of the band is…. a bit older, softer, rounder. It looks like those other than Snider (who is now a radio DJ in his non-performing periods) got office jobs.

But the most surprising of these is Scott Weiland, formerly of Stone Temple Pilots and Velvet Revolver. The guy is a hardcore singer and the last person anybody would expect to hear crooning. Yet on tonight’s episode of The Tonight Show with Jay Leno, Weiland fronted a jazz quartet with a string section. And wearing a sensible black suit, with a white shirt sans tie, he delivered a beautiful and moving cover of “Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas.” He used the original Meet Me In St. Louis lyric, which is a rather sad tale of hardship that’s tempered with veiled optimism of better times coming at some point. Weiland really impressed - and I wish I could find this one on CD, it’s that good.

Popularity: 18% [?]

Just heard from the lips of Fox 5’s Will Thomas:

“Yet another setback for the New York Nits…”

He meant to say “New York Knicks,” but “Nits” is not far off from the actual state of said team: they’re so pathetic as to be inconsequential in the NBA universe. The only role they can play is spoiler, given their pathetic quality of play, sub-standard player ethics, etc.

In other random NBA funnies: the Utah Jazz appeared (in “body” only) on tonight’s superb holiday episode of The Simpsons.

Popularity: 10% [?]

Activity: road cycling
Location: Dupont Circle > Potomac/Avenel, MD
Distance: 24.2 miles (moderately hilly)
Duration: 1:36
Weather: high clouds with sun, 43 degrees
Avg HR: 158 (max 176)
Type: aerobic

Activity: road cycling
Location: Dupont Circle > Hains Point
Distance: 23.2 miles (flat)
Duration: 1:12
Weather: clear at dusk, 60 degrees
Avg HR: 165 (max 171)
Type: aerobic

A two-fer riding day because of the glorious weather. The first ride was early in the morning, the latter at sunset. Felt good on both rides, though now I have a pain behind my right shoulder that’s most annoying. I think it’s due to sleeping in a funky position. Whatever - it was a great day to ride.

Popularity: 17% [?]