Grey Skies

I went for a run this evening, under grey clouds that threatened to bring rain but didn't, against a cool wind that felt more like Fall than mid-May. I ran through Cobble Hill, down Henry Street, and the wind brought smells of garlic frying in olive oil that filled the street. Good smells. Still lots of Italians around these parts. Overhead, a flock of black birds banked and headed north, silhouetted against the grey sky.

As I ran, I was listening to U2's Achtung Baby on my iPod. I hadn't heard it in a while, and my interest was renewed by a discussion with a coworker friend, who maintained that it was U2's best album. I always went with Joshua Tree for mainly sentimental reasons, but after having given the former a good spin, I think I have to concede he's right: Achtung holds up quite a bit better than its predecessor, and excels it not only in the overall strength of its songs, but in the album's impressive feat of taking a good sound and running with it in a completely different direction, to create something that sounded distinctly different, and better, than anything that had come before.

In other news, I started taking apart computers today, and even managed to get them put back together.