The Koyaanisqatsi Workout

Today’s “random iPod shuffle track that started playing during my workout” (see also The Mandy Patinkin Workout) was The Grid, a Philip Glass composition from the 1982 Godfrey Reggio film Koyaanisqatsi.

It nearly killed me.

It’s 21 minutes long. It has all sorts of dramatic tempo changes. It generally chugs along at about 90 to 100 beats per minute, a pace that, on a stationary bicycle, is challenging to keep up with for 21 minutes solid, when you’re already 15 minutes into your pretend journey. Especially given the little bits of “no, wait, 80 bpm, okay, now 100.”

But, truth be told, it didn’t kill me. It made me stronger. I think.

And as if preordained, after speeding along to a track from a film subtitled “Life out of Balance,” during the “cool down” phase of my workout Shore Fields by Allan Rankin randomized itself into the mix:

Before we star talkin’
Would you do me a favor?
Have a look at these old pictures
There cracked and faded
Torn at the edges
But that’s the way I’m feelin’ tonight