Random Rules Playlist 037: A Workout Mix For The Rest Of Us

Here's my first post of the year, originally intended to go live on Jan. 8

I originally planned for this post & playlist to go live on Jan. 8, 2025. It’s a workout mix, so the timing would have been perfect as everyone attempted to implement their new year’s resolutions to start working out more (I am just making this up but “try to work out more” is the #1 new year’s resolution of all time).

Instead of sending out this post & workout playlist on the morning of Jan. 8, I woke up to giant plumes of black smoke billowing over my house as the Eaton fire raged just a few miles away from my house in LA. We were not in a mandatory evacuation zone, but the smoke was so thick here it wasn’t even a choice but to get out ASAP, we packed up our cats and our go bags and drove to Orange County.

It’s kinda odd to think about now, but school (my kids attend a public high school even closer to Altadena than our home) was only canceled for three or four days due to the fires, which ended up being one of the worst natural disasters in US history (definitely in the history of Southern California). Instead of spending January getting back on track with working out / walking / running more, we instead spent the month (and the months since then) running from toxic air, staying in different hotels, Airbnbs, etc. all over Orange County and eventually Ventura County. Of course, we have had it relatively easy, as many friends of ours in the Altadena area lost everything, and I want to acknowledge those losses and the loss of life that occurred in the fires.

My wife has long covid and we tried numerous times to bring her back to the house in LA, but each time it became clear that she could not breathe when she was there, just too many toxins (VOCs) still in the air. If you think about how many older homes, full of asbestos and lead paint and other chemicals were burned in the fire, it would make sense to evacuate the adjacent neighborhoods to Altadena for at least a few months, but of course, this didn’t happen. From different Zoom meetings we’ve logged onto about the air quality after the fire, there were estimates that conditions might improve after three months, but that it could take as long as two years for things to go back to normal levels of VOCs in the air. So, we’re still sort of living in limbo, with my wife having to live in a rental unit outside of the city and the rest of us going back and forth to our house so that the kids can attend school, etc.

I’m only telling you all of this because I feel that I owe you, my loyal subscribers, some sort of explanation as to why I haven’t been updating the Substack over the past 4 months. I actually now have a bunch of new themed playlists I have been working on that are almost ready to share with you, so we should resume normal activity here momentarily. And to my paid subscribers (none of whom have cancelled, despite these delays and setbacks) I want to send you an EXTRA huge thanks for sticking with me.

About The Actual Playlist

I tried to really focus on songs with a good BPM for walking / working out, and I road tested these songs on walks, and by getting feedback from a few close friends. These songs all have a driving, propulsive beat, with a steady BPM that for the most part, remains consistent throughout each song. I decided to bounce around between Krautrock, post-punk, old school hip-hop, IDM and Meet Me In The Bathroom-era indie, plus a couple grime and Italo Disco gems. It also clocks in at 5 and a half hours, so if you put it on random, you should be able to use it for more than one workout without hearing the same song twice.

Enjoy - I hope this gets your heart rate to its most ideal level.