Judge Not...

A few years ago, a good friend of mine was running along the National Mall, listening to music, completely oblivious to the fact that there were two police cars directly behind her, sirens blaring, speeding down the sidewalk of the Mall, trying to get her out of the way. (There had been a stabbing up ahead and they were en route to the scene).

Now, some might see this as a good parable explaining why we shouldn’t listen to music when we run in the city near cars; I, however, see this is a good parable explain why you think through the intended point of any given story – in this case, upon hearing the tale, the question that was immediately asked was: “Yeah, but what song were you listening too?”

The answer, she finally admitted, was Hanson’s “MMM Bop”, to which we all made fun of her, because… Hanson. And then of course we went home and downloaded the song immediately, because say what you will, that is a damn good running song.

I was thinking about this story the other day as I was running along jamming to the ultra-cool title track from “Flashdance,” and I realized that, really, even the biggest music snob gives a pass when the playlist being considered is for running. In that spirit, I give you the last few tracks played on my run from earlier this week, assuming, of course, the “No Judgment on Music Taste” principle extends to the Internets:

- Paper Planes
- Let’s Hear It For The Boy (WHAT?)
- My Life Would Suck Without You (oh man, I love you too, K.Clar.)
- The trailer music to “Kill Bill”
- Summer Love (Timberlake, not Travolta)
- Regulators
- Just a Friend
- Sweet Child o Mine
- Encore (JayZ/Linkin Park)
- Cold Hearted Snake (WHAT?!)
- Before He Cheats
- Cherry, Cherry. (Yeah, I said it. WHAT)