D's Notebook

We’ve reached what may be the busiest 10–12 days of the year for our family. Thus I’m putting this together Thursday evening, which could lead us in some surprising directions.

“Friday On My Mind” – Brògeal
This seems like a good way to start. When writing about this band, Tom Breihan said, “They look and sound like the most Scottish motherfuckers you ever saw in your entire life…” which might be the greatest description of a band ever.

“Better Than You” – Briston Maroney
A standard, solid Maroney jam.

“My Love Will Bring You Home” – Allo Darlin’
This band was responsible for the wonderful “Capricornia,” my 13th favorite song of 2012. Their last album was 11 years ago. They broke up nine years ago. But they are back together, and seem to have locked right back into that joyful yet also melancholy sound of their first go-round.

“I Broke My World” – Alien Boy
I dig this band’s fuzzy, garagey sound. While putting together their latest album they said they listened to a lot of 90s music, including Smashing Pumpkins and Third Eye Blind. I can hear both of those bands in this track.

“Come Alive” – Phantogram
I’m not sure if I ever listened to Phantogram’s latest album, which came out seven months ago. But each time a hear a song from it, I like it.

“Sports Gun” – Lawn
I was almost positive this band featured the lead singer of Parquet Courts. It is not him. I think I like this band’s sound better than PC’s. They seem less snotty and more fun. Better guitars, too.

“Bitch Heart” – Frankie Cosmos
A fun song about how we are in a constant battle between comfort and cutting loose.

“Solid” – Cut Copy
I feel like I used to like this band, but even digging through the old iTunes library on my network drive doesn’t show that I had any of their songs. Memory is weird sometimes.

“Sister Jack” – Spoon
This week’s anniversary album is Spoon’s Gimme Fiction, released 20 years ago. I have vivid memories of listening to it on my iPod in the basement of our old house while trying to nap while S would do things with Baby M upstairs. Here’s Stereogum’s anniversary writeup. One of my top 5 Spoon songs.

“Go Your Own Way” – Fleetwood Mac
Nope, not including this because Will Ferrell sings it in his current commercial. Rather, it is here because of a delightful development in our house. L has been getting into vinyl recently. She has albums from a few of her favorite current artists like Frank Ocean, SZA, and Leon Bridges. A few weeks ago she came home with Fleetwood Mac’s Rumours, which made me raise my eyebrows. A few days ago she said they are now her favorite band. I told her she should go find one of several documentaries about the making of that album so she could learn about what a mess the group was at the time. “I’ve watched a couple of them already,” was her response. I told her the Seventies were a wild time. I think she wants to read and/or watch Daisy Jones & the Six now, knowing it was loosely based on Mac. Surprising all around!

A few more links to pieces some of you may be interested in.

I love thinking about how this will delight some Star Wars geeks, and make others super angry.

The Phony Physics of Star Wars Are a Blast

Sadly I didn’t find this recent interview with Bob Mould until after I saw him last week.

What are your feelings right now about the state of the country?
It’s the end of an era, this great experiment we put together. I don’t know how we get out of this. I’m 64. I’ve seen a lot. Nothing like this. I don’t even know where to start. Every single person, whether you stand up against the MAGA movement or whether you’re part of it, you’re going to feel it, unless you’re in the very tippity, tippity top of the one percent or maybe the top two percent of income earners in America.

‘THIS IS WAR’: BOB MOULD ON AGING INDIE, HIS MUSIC’S LEGACY, AND WHERE THE U.S. GOES FROM HERE

The headline for this piece is hardly an original thought – I’ve had it many times over the past nine-ish years – but there’s never a bad time for giving Carl Hiaasen some attention and props. So many of his books are similar – if still enjoyable – that I haven’t read a new one in years. I’ve added his most recent to my list.

Yet even the most detestable characters are more complicated than they appear at first glance: Hiaasen aims to create, as he once put it, villains whom “people don’t want to shoot right away.”

We’re All Living In A Carl Hiaasen Novel

Perhaps this should be a launching point for a longer piece by me, but I figured it’s better just to link to the article and share a couple thoughts about Myles Turner. It’s hard to believe he’s been in Indy so long. His career has been odd, as mentioned in the piece. But a funny thing happens when a player hangs around long enough: they become beloved. That he’s in the center of the success of the current edition of the Pacers is as satisfying as it is surprising.

Myles Turner made me cry: On his decade-long journey with the Indiana Pacers

Fantastic news! Although this begs the question as to why NBC even exists anymore if they are going to hide this on Peacock.

Amy Poehler, Mike Schur Reunite for Peacock Comedy ‘Dig’

I feel seen.

THIS FIVE-HUNDRED-WORD BUMPER STICKER ON MY TESLA EXPLAINS WHY I’M NOT A BAD PERSON

Another wild few days in the NBA, on the court and off.

Pacers

They did it again! Going back to Cleveland for game five Tuesday felt like a sure loss, even with all the Cavs’ injury woes. Take the L on the road, the final punch of the year from the proud-yet-battered #1 seed, and then close out the series at home on Thursday.

It sure looked like that’s where things were headed as Cleveland built a 19-point lead early in the second quarter. Just like game two, the Pacers were missing open shots before the Cavaliers ratcheted up their defense to get Indiana away from what they wanted to do and then started hitting shots of their own.

The turnaround was quicker this time.

The lead was down to four at halftime and after Cleveland scored four-straight points to start the third quarter, Rick Carlisle called a quick timeout. Here came the big run, and the Pacers were leading by 12 with under a minute to play in the period. There were some rallies in the fourth quarter – the Cavs got it down to one point twice – but once again the Pacers always had an answer. Myles Turner hit a corner 3 with 23 seconds left to clinch the win and the Cavs’ dream season was suddenly over.

There was a very telling moment early in the third quarter. The Cavs were up eight when Donovan Mitchell picked off a bad Andrew Nembhard pass. There was nobody ahead of Mitchell and the Cleveland crowd was roaring in anticipation of a powerful dunk. Only Mitchell chopped his steps and timidly tried to lay the ball up, which Turner came flying in to block away. We knew Mitchell was playing with a bum ankle but he couldn’t even elevate for a breakaway dunk. After that play I knew the Pacers would win.

Mitchell did have to sit out a few minutes to get his ankle looked at, but still scored 35 points, including a couple huge 3s late in the game that gave the Cavs hope. But he also missed three-straight free throws during that run which could have cut the Pacers’ lead to three with just under 2:00 left. That dude is amazing and never stops, but his body let him down.

Darius Garland also could barely walk at times, it seemed, although Kenny Atkinson was reluctant to remove him since the Cavs’ bench was mostly ass in this series. It’s a testament to how good Cleveland was this year that they were still in this game until the end.

But, as many national observers have finally started to notice, the Pacers were simply the better team. They are a nightmare matchup for other guard heavy teams thanks to the relentless pressure they put on the ball and withering pace they try to sustain on offense. As I said a week or two ago they are a well-constructed squad where all the parts fit together nearly perfectly. And they seem to never get rattled by the moment.

Also, poor Cleveland.

It is now on to the conference finals for the second-straight season. And, most likely, there will be a surprise opponent waiting for them there. Because…

Tatum/Celtics-Knicks

I’m not a Celtics fan but it was terrible watching Jason Tatum blow out his achilles Monday night. He seems like a very good dude, in one of the best players in the world, and is never injured. Until now. He was playing one of the most complete games of his life. And then a teammate threw a bad pass that Tatum had to lunge for, only he crumpled to the ground as his achilles gave out.

The Celtics had already screwed that game, and the series, up. But any hopes of a comeback in that game or the series were gone when Tatum left the court. And now the future of the Celtics is very much in doubt. Tatum will likely miss an entire season. They face a massive salary crunch. A team that was built to contend over a 5–6 year period might need a total revamp by the time Tatum is healthy again. Time moves quickly in the NBA.

The real story from this series, though, is how the Knicks have thoroughly taken it to the Celtics. The Celtics have led by double digits in every game in the series, yet find themselves down 3–1. The Knicks were a regular season disappointment, but have found something the last couple weeks (although they barely survived Detroit in round one) and are on the verge of making this a truly special year. They’ve been lucky with injuries so far. As a Pacers fan I’m hope the reverse devil magic that seems to waylay Pacers opponents strikes the Knicks. And I would love it if the refs would not allow the Knicks to play a style closer to football than basketball, although we know that’s not going to happen based on how the playoffs overall have been officiated.

Side note about that: way back when L was in third grade and I was helping to coach her team, we had a girl who would put her arms around whoever she was guarding and give her loose hugs to stay close to her. We kept having to tell her you can’t hug the girl you are guarding. I keep thinking of that kid as I watch the playoffs this year. Superstars who are off-the-ball get completely wrapped up so they can’t move. When they try to break out, defenders will grab jerseys, waistbands, and arms, and I haven’t seen a single whistle for it. Then the Knicks take that to another level and do this to players who have the ball. I don’t get it. Prepare for a lot of complaints about that from me once the conference finals begin.

Draft Lottery

As big as the Tatum news was, the biggest NBA news of the week came earlier that evening when the Dallas Mavericks somehow won the NBA Draft Lottery despite having less that 2% odds to grab the #1 pick. Outrageous!

San Antonio grabbed the second pick, Philadelphia the third. All the truly bad teams – Washington, Charlotte, Utah, New Orleans, Brooklyn – got screwed. The Mavericks, who made the play-in tournament and would have been comfortably in the bottom of the playoffs had Kyrie Irving not blow out his achilles, leaped all those teams and get to take Cooper Flagg.

I was of the opinion that this was a massive fail by the Hoops Gods, rewarding Dallas GM Niko Harrison for his insane trade of Luka Doncic earlier this year. Others pointed out perhaps the Hoops Gods did this as a gift to Dallas fans for watching their homegrown superstar be traded away.

I’m not sure which is correct, I just know Dallas picking first is stupid.

Of course there were immediate jokes that Harrison would try to trade the pick to the Lakers to get Luka back. Or he would make some other dumb trade or pick rather than just plug Flagg in next to Anthony Davis, Klay Thompson, and eventually Kyrie Irving. I don’t think he’s dumb enough to screw this gift up, though.

Meanwhile the Spurs, who were doing just fine until Victor Wembanyama got hurt, now have a massive opportunity to either plug another young star in next to him, or flip that pick to bring in a veteran star (Giannis?). And the Sixers, who had one of the most disgusting seasons in NBA history, are gifted their fifth top three pick in 11 years, which doesn’t seem right.[1]

I’m not big into conspiracy theories about the draft. As Zach Lowe pointed out, it’s hard to believe 29 other owners would stand by and let the commissioner rig it so one of their competitors were able to get a specific player. This sure seems odd, bordering on fishy, though.

Well that was a fantastic weekend! Belated Happy Mothers Days to all the moms out there. I hope you had as good of weekends as we did.

Visitors

Our good friends Dave and Maureen visited from KC over the weekend. The reason for their trip, other than hanging out at blog headquarters, was so Dave and I could watch Bob Mould play some rock ’n’ roll Saturday night. Maureen was nice enough to share her Mother’s Day weekend with us old men. I’m comfortable speaking for us all in saying that we had a terrific time together.

Friday evening we took them to Harry & Izzy’s for shrimp cocktail and steak/fish. I tried to get us into St. Elmo’s downtown, but with it being Grand Prix weekend they were already totally booked when I checked a few weeks back. H&I gets you 90% of the St. E’s experience, and as it is 10 minutes from our house, a little easier to get to. The shrimp never disappoints. As I get older I can tolerate the horseradish a little less. Sigh.

Saturday we did brunch at one of our favorite spots then did a tour of the city, including getting out to walk around/have a beer on funky Mass Ave. Maureen is an IU alum so she spent some time in Indy back in the day and was familiar with the bones of the city, although a lot has changed since she returned to Missouri in 1993.

Saturday night Dave and I went to the show with another local buddy. More on that in a moment. The wives drank wine, watched a movie, and chatted. You should not be surprised that two short, opinionated, Irish women got along famously. We should get them to run for office.

For Mother’s Day, Dave and I whipped up a spread for the ladies (and our girls) that was well received. Then we enjoyed the gorgeous weather by sitting outside for their final few hours in town.

All-in-all a terrific visit. Our many mutual friends who read this should be excited to know that the ladies came up with all kinds of fun plans for when we all are empty nesters in a few years.[1]

Bob Mould

Wow I’ve never been to a show quite like what the 65-year-old punk/indie rock legend put on Saturday.

It was at the Hi-Fi, a very small club in the quirky Fountain Square area just south of downtown. Capacity is 500 people and it’s honestly not much bigger than our swimming pool. The place was jam-packed with people who, from the looks of it, mostly went waaaaay back with Bob. Dave and I were some of the youngest people there.

What made the show unique is how Bob and his band played. They took the stage, he said a few words of greeting, and then ripped into the songs and never really stopped. Six-straight songs without a break of any kind. Then a quick swig of water and right back to it. About an hour into the show he paused for about 30 seconds to thank the opening band then introduce his bassist and drummer, then into the next song. I believe one other time he made a few quick comments but other than that, zero banter, and generally straight from one song to the next. For an hour and 25 minutes or so. With nary a ballad in the setlist. Just an absolute blowtorch of a show. Bob is a large man in his mid–60s. But he is up there shouting and screaming and playing insanely loud guitar without interruption. There wasn’t even an encore. Just 27 songs with maybe two or three collected minutes of breaks between. Super impressive. And super entertaining.

Despite our hopes that as it was the next-to-last stop on the tour he might throw a few surprises at us (Sugar songs!), he stuck to the rigid list he’s been playing all tour. The only minor disappointment on the night.

Last Day of School

Friday was C’s final day of normal high school classes. She has to go back tomorrow to take one test but otherwise is done. I was a little surprised she wasn’t more excited when she got home Friday afternoon. Over the course of the weekend I realized I think she’s a little emotional about the moment. Not that she loved high school all that much, but rather the weight of everything that is happening is coming down on her. And as our sensitive, anxious, ADHD kid, that means she’s not jumping for joy at being done with CHS.

L has one more week of regular classes and then finals next week before she is done. C’s graduation is a week from today then her party will be on Memorial Day. You are all welcome to join us!

Pool

The pool is open. The water warmed up the quickest it’s ever gotten to a reasonable temperature, reaching 80 early Sunday morning after starting in the low 60s. That’s what some good, bright, May sunshine will do for you. Some of the nephews came over and swam Sunday afternoon. The water was getting cloudy Sunday evening so I’m already in the early struggles of getting the chemistry to a good baseline.

New Pope

Hey, we got a Pope from Chicago! I’m pleased that he’s already on record basically calling our vice president a liar. Although he better watch out; Pope Francis didn’t survive 24 hours after meeting with J.D.

Just like when Francis was elected, M was the first person to let me know the process was complete. She came running down Thursday afternoon and yelled, “There’s a new pope!” I guess she’s my go-to source for pope news.

Pacers

I missed most of Friday’s game three as we were out eating with the V’s. By the time we got home the Pacers were down around 20, and while I guess they made a run to cut it to seven at one point, Dave and I decided to watch the end of the Royals walk-off win instead. Good choice.

And then came Sunday’s game four.

When I was 12 or 13, I went to the old NAIA tournament in Kansas City.[2] The night we went was in the quarter- or maybe semi-finals, and Ft. Hays State, where my parents went to school, was playing. The Tigers were an NAIA power at the time, winning back-to-back titles in 1984–85, and a ton of folks had made the four-hour drive to KC for the tournament. They filled most of Kemper Arena that night. Anyway, I vividly recall a guy wearing a shirt with the old, iron-on letters that said “Ft. Hays Basketball Is Orgasmic.” I wasn’t sure exactly what that meant but still found it to be very funny.

That might be the best way to describe Sunday night’s game four. Or at least the second quarter. And just for Pacers fans, obviously. That was one of the most thorough ass-whoopings I’ve seen in an NBA playoff game. Although the Pacers kind of did the same thing to the Knicks last year in game seven at MSG.

The Pacers were clearly the best team from the start. A bigger deal Sunday since the Cavaliers began the game with all their normal starters on the court. Indiana led by 15 at the end of the first quarter. Early in the second quarter Bennedict Mathurin got ejected for “striking De’Andre Hunter in the sternum with a closed fist.” It was some typical bullshit all around: Mathurin for taking the swipe, which was far closer to a love tap than a punch, Hunter for somehow not also getting tossed for responding with way more force than Mathurin used in his initial “punch,” and the refs for looking at the replay for five minutes and somehow coming to that conclusion.

Anyway, it was a dicey moment. Would the Pacers be able to hang on without one of their most important bench players?

They only outscored the Cavs 42–16 in that quarter, so I guess they weathered the storm. I’m not sure what the right nature analogy is, but it was either a tornado, hurricane, avalanche or tidal wave that blew Cleveland off the court. It was breathtaking. Or even orgasmic if you’re into that kind of thing.

I normally get somewhere from antsy to upset when a team continues to press when they get up by 20–25 points. At least at L’s games. But the Pacers were pressing up 40 late in the second quarter and I loved every second of it. They ripped the hearts and souls out of the Cavs in that quarter, and at the risk of jinxing the final series outcome, I don’t see any way Cleveland can recover. The Pacers are the better, more cohesive team right now. Donovan Mitchell sat out the second half with an ankle injury. Darius Garland played but is clearly still hobbled.[3] Crazy things can happen in sports so you don’t want to get ahead of yourself. But the craziness in this series seems to be that the #1 seed in the East will get run out of the playoffs in round two.

Also, Cleveland remains a cursed sports city. One of the best regular season teams in league history and they’ve been decimated by injuries and bad luck for the past week. Folks in northeast Ohio probably saw this coming.

I feel like I’m settling into my new groove after the switch to Apple Music, finding a better balance between the old and new music. I think you’re going to like this week’s choices, which includes a couple special tracks.

“Black Confetti” – Bob Mould
Hey, I’m seeing Bob Mould tomorrow night! And my brother-in-music Dave V. is coming to town to join me! I’m very excited to see the legend in person…and Mr. Mould, too.

It is a slight downer that Mould seems to be playing pretty much the same 27 songs each night, and there isn’t a single Sugar song in the setlist. I’m sure he has a reason, but as much as I admire his Hüsker Dü work and enjoy his 30-some years of solo efforts, I think he hit his peak in his Sugar days. A minor complaint, though. And, who knows, maybe he’ll throw caution to the wind and mix things up for us good folk in Indy. I bet it’s still going to be freaking awesome and I won’t be able to hear for a week after.

“Tyrants” – San Fender
Another example of an artist releasing a pretty good song not too long after releasing a pretty good album. In this case, “Tyrants” goes back a few years and Fender has played it live many times, but this is its first studio recording, released for Record Store Day ’25.

“Running of the Bulls” – Le Pain
Funny how a name and a sound can fool you into thinking a band is from somewhere far from where they actually hail from. This sister act is from LA, but they sure seem French to me. Until the guitars explode at the end, then they seem very LA.

“Neverender” – Justice with Tame Impala
Well this group is French. Or at least Justice is. Kevin “Tame Impala” Parker is from Australia. Hey, you got your French electro pop in my Aussie psych rock!

“Real Good Dream” – Acid Dad
Good, spring-ish, synth pop.

“Your Little Hoodrat Friend” – The Hold Steady
We’ve reached the anniversary portion of this week’s playlist. THS’ legendary Separation Sunday just celebrated its 20th anniversary. This song blew me away the first time I heard it, and still does every time I play it to this day. Tom Breihan wrote a predictably great accounting of the album. She’s been callin’ me again…

“Listen Like Thieves” – INXS
And Listen Like Thieves just turned 40. “What You Need” was the bigger hit, but this is my favorite song not only off that album, but maybe from the band’s entire discography. This is a new remix from the 40th anniversary re-issue which is out today.

“May Ninth” – Khruangbin
And guess what today is?

“Brimful of Asha” – Cornershop
Remember when these guys had a tiny moment? Most of you probably just responded “No.” It was such a short moment it was easy to miss. A remixed version of this track went to #1 in the UK but was a minor blip here, making it to #16 on the Modern Rock chart. Great song, though. And cool video.

I’ve fallen behind again and I just started a book that’s going to take a week or so to get through, so some quick-ish book notes.

Charlesgate Confidential – Scott Von Doviak
A fun, pulpy novel that takes place over three different timelines in Boston, centered on an old building that has a complex (and haunted?) history. It begins with a mob heist and killing after World War II, jumps to a college student in 1986 who investigates the history of the building, and lands on a detective in 2014 who tries to tie a case he is working back to the weird cycle of past events. Like most novels of this type, multiple threads tie the three stories together.

The Book Censor’s Library – Bothayna Al-Essa
My first effort at a novel that made this year’s Tournament of Books. It takes places in a mystery country in a mystery time (the book was translated from Arabic, so my brain kept putting it in the Middle East, but an author’s note saying it could be placed anywhere) where the government has taken strong control of people’s lives. Books are heavily censored, and anything that will raise readers’ pulse rates – sex, religion, democracy – is removed from circulation.

One censor is introduced to classic works like Zorba The Greek and Alice In Wonderland by a superior and begins questioning why people aren’t allowed to read whatever they want. Soon he is sneaking books that were slated for destruction to a secret storage area where they are being hoarded for preservation.

There are obvious connections to books like 1984 and Fahrenheit 451, and Al-Essa directly references those. While these stories can always serve as warnings about the unchecked power of government, no matter who is in charge, they seem extra significant now when books are being pulled off the shelves of public and school libraries because of complains by parents who fear exposing their kids to different perspectives will turn them into mindless, godless woke-bots.

A Place Of My Own – Michael Pollan
Sometimes I read weird books. In this case, a rather lengthy one about a writer building a shed for him to do his work in. But it’s more than that. Pollan gets deep into all kinds of theory and history of design, architecture, and human shelter in general. I can’t say it was all super engaging and there weren’t some sections about theory that I either skimmed or read with glazed eyes and did not retain much from.

That said, I’ve been fascinated with the idea of a workshop, “he-shed,” or similar spaces for some time. It’s not that I need a space to get away from it all. We have a big house and I spend a lot of the day/week in it alone. I can do pretty much whatever I want wherever I want. And when S is home at night, I often default to watching movies, shows, etc on my iPad sitting on one couch while she sits on the loveseat on her own screen rather than go watch stuff on the big screen downstairs. Not that we’re all lovey-dovey, but I just like being near her in the few hours she is home and awake.

But there is some primal desire I can’t beat down for a space of my own. I’m not into tools, mechanical projects, etc, so there’s no need to convert part of our garage into a workshop, or to carve out a section of our unfinished basement for “D’s projects.” I love the idea of what Pollan did, though, building a little structure that would be dedicated to writing, reading, etc. But 1) I don’t make any money from my writing and don’t really have prospects to at the moment, 2) we did build a big structure in the backyard five years ago, aka our pool house, 3) I have about 18 different places in the house where I can go and write, read, etc. and 4) we are in the process of subtracting kids from the house so we are gaining space rather than searching for areas to call our own. M’s room could become my writer’s nook.

Still, the concept appeals. And it was cool to follow Pollan making it happen with the assistance of a friendly architect and helpful carpenter who guided him through the process.

A crazy few hours Tuesday night.

Holy Shit, Pacers!!!

I knew the Pacers were in trouble when I saw, about an hour before game two of the Eastern Conference semifinals, that Cleveland would be missing three starters. THREE. How did I know they were in trouble? Because any time the Pacers faced a situation like this in the regular season, they laid a huge egg, either losing to a bad team or having to work like crazy in the fourth quarter to avoid an embarrassing L. In fact, there are multiple memes in the Pacers-verse about how the team plays like champions against good teams, and ass against bad/injury riddled teams. Just last month, as the regular season wound down, Indiana played the Cavs who were resting all their starters after locking up the top seed. Those replacement Cavs gave the Pacers starters everything they had for about ¾ of the game before the Pacers finally eeked out the win.

While the nation might have expected an easy Pacers win, I knew better.

So most of the game was no surprise. The shots that were falling in game one for Indiana kept bricking off. Cleveland played inspired, especially on the defensive end, and Donovan Mitchell was wearing his Superman cape. The Pacers trailed by 20 multiple times. By 14 going into the fourth quarter. As much as I wanted to expect a late-game rush like last month, the playoffs are a different animal and Cleveland was playing like their season was on the line while the Pacers just couldn’t find the right gears.

The margin was seven with under 50 seconds left. Five with 27 seconds left. Three with 12 seconds left. Two with 1.1 seconds left. And the Pacers won.

In that stretch Aaron Nesmith had a SICK follow dunk off a Pascal Siakam missed free throw.

Then he drew an offensive foul from Mitchell.[1] Tyrese Haliburton went to the line down three with 12 seconds left and swished the first. Then I’m pretty sure he missed the second on purpose, wiggled through traffic to grab the loose ball, and drained a step-back 3 to win the game.

There was screaming and yelling all over Indy, including in our living room, when the ball ripped through the net.

2–0 out of nowhere and who knows what the Cavs’ health, physical and mental, will be going forward. Mitchell took a beating, some of it self-imposed because of how he plays, and was hobbled late in the game.

I found this insane stat in ESPN’s story this morning:

Since 1997–98, playoff teams have won only three of 1,643 games when trailing by at least seven points in the final minute of the fourth quarter or overtime, according to ESPN research.

The Pacers have accounted for two of the wins in this postseason.

If the Pacers win this series, Haliburton’s 3 and Nesmith’s dunk will go down in franchise lore, shots that are shown in montages for decades.

At this point you have to at least consider the possibility that the Pacers are on some charmed run. And the Celtics seem a little banged up and blew their game one against New York. The NBA doesn’t usually have Cinderellas but maybe…

Of course now the Cavs will probably win games three and four in Indy and turn it into a best-of-three series.

High Speed Chase

I was about to wrap up things and head to bed Tuesday night when I heard loud car sounds. We live just off a very busy street and while it was after 11:00, we do get the occasional fool who takes advantage of the lighter traffic to rip down the road.

But this was different. There seemed to be a lot of engines racing. And then I noticed a lot of police sirens. I looked out our front door and saw five police cars fly by. We get emergency vehicles up-and-down that street all day but I’d never seen cops driving this fast. They were going so fast I heard their engines before the sirens.

Seconds later our power flickered, which seemed really weird. It flickered twice more in the next minute or so, and I thought I heard a transformer blowing somewhere.

Then two more cops flew by. And then two more.

C, the only other person awake, texted me saying “So many cops!”

And then more cops raced down the street, followed by a fire truck.

This continued for a while. In total, at least 20 police cars passed our house in about a 10 minute stretch.

I finally came to my senses and launched a police scanner app to try to get an idea for what was going on.

From what I could gather, a high-speed chase started at least two suburbs away, continued through Carmel, and then cut through our part of northern Indy. Three or four blocks from our house the car being chased crashed, taking out a power line in the process. We were lucky; about 300 people lost power for several hours but ours just blinked those three times.

Most excitingly, it seemed like driver of the car had fled the crash on foot and cops were setting up a perimeter to nab him. The Indy Metro Police network pulls in calls from all over the city, so it was very hard to follow as calls about a shooting on the east side, a fight in a parking lot downtown, and a couple welfare checks in other parts of the city slipped between the calls from the officers working the chase. I was able to hear cars checking in from various intersections in our area where they had posted up. There was a momentary thrill when one cop radioed in the intersection right outside our house, although I think the feed was delayed and he had already moved closer to the action. I could also hear cops from different cities involved in the chase coordinating their search. It sounded like they had the guy pinned down, or at least had an idea where he was and were using both a dog and drone to get a better view.

Eventually the calls dwindled and it was midnight and I had to get up early so I checked out. Naturally I can’t find a thing about it on any local TV station’s new page or on the paper’s site. I had to take L to PT and then school this morning. On my way back I drove through the neighborhood where the search was and couldn’t find any evidence of a wreck, damage to a power line, or remnants of police activity. Disappointing.

In our nearly seven years here we’ve now had a murder half a mile away that we could hear the shots from, a crazy person having a brief armed stand-off with cops a half mile the opposite way, a homeless person die while sleeping outside the grocery store around the corner, some idiot empty a clip on their handgun in the street two doors down, and now a high speed chase. I’m not sure if that’s going to be a selling point when it comes time for us to downsize but it makes for interesting evenings.

A bunch of good reads to share.

When I went to Washington D.C. with L’s class two years ago, one of the most impactful experiences was the several hours we spent in the National Museum of African American History and Culture. It was emotional, made me angry and proud to be an American at the same time, and should be a required stop on any DC visit. Naturally it is under fire because telling the truth about our past offends too many old, white people.

This nation’s history exists inside this museum. Attempting to strip the institution of the stories that tell the truth about who we have been is an attempt to perpetuate a lie about who we are.

What It Means To Tell The Truth About America

This is an amazing piece in general, attempting to both quantify the Vietnam War and then put those numbers into context. This passage really struck me, though. It very much sums up Trump’s America, where you never admit you made a mistake so you never take responsibility for how your actions impact others (emphasis in pull quote is mine).

The US has given $750 million for the cleanup effort, which seems like a large sum until you realize that the country spent $352 billion ($2.2 trillion after inflation) on the war effort. Earlier this year, the Trump administration ~suspended funding~ for bomb removal in Vietnam. Given the size of the issue, and how much progress has been made in five decades, it’s difficult to imagine a bomb-free Vietnam in the next 500 years — unless the current pace is significantly accelerated.

For Scale

This is a good companion piece.

How Photography From the Vietnam War Changed America

Sammy Hagar loves talking about himself and Van Halen. It’s always entertaining. Here he theorizes on why Eddie Van Halen stopped making new music late in his life.

So, that’s why he stopped writing, I think, because he just ran out. Shit, how much do you need? How much can you squeeze out of the dude? He gave his blood, brother.

SAMMY HAGAR TO ALEX VAN HALEN: ‘JUST LEAVE ME ALONE. I’LL LEAVE YOU ALONE’

Steven Hyden with his latest list. I feel like there are some stretches, but as a member of the CD generation, there are also a lot of entries here that pretty much everyone my age owned at some point. I loved this line, too.

There have been 15 (!) Aerosmith greatest hits albums in all, an incredible statistic considering there are (I’m being generous because I actually like Aerosmith) about 15 genuinely good Aerosmith tunes.

The Most ‘CD Album’ Albums Ever, Ranked

I watched the latest Fletch movie over the weekend, a movie I either did not know or had forgotten existed until I scrolled past it looking for something else. So I did some digging, and here are two of the better pieces I came across about the decades-long efforts to make the next entry in the series.

The Lost Roles of the Unproduced Fletch Reboot
Forget the steak sandwich, the 30-year journey to the Confess, Fletch trailer is over

WHAT IN THE ACTUAL FUCK?!?!?!

He felt the most dramatic way to raise awareness of the issue was to allow himself to be bit, repeatedly…To date, he estimates he’s willingly been bit some 200 times by all manner of venomous snakes — black mambas, taipans, cobras, kraits and many others.

He let snakes bite him some 200 times to create a better snakebite antivenom

Interesting Bluesky thread about the production cycle, and costs, for Nikes, and how tariffs might affect them.

derek guy (@dieworkwear.bsky.social)

A week after prom and before four consecutive weeks where we will be very busy, it was a nice, boring, lazy weekend.

Weather

There’s no delicate way to say this: our weather was ass most of the weekend. It rained Friday night into Saturday, then off-and-on the rest of the weekend. The temps slowly dropped from the 70s into the 40s. Sunday was dark and dreary and misty and generally ugly. It felt more like January in Portland, not Indianapolis the first weekend of May.

Fortunately spring will come drifting back over the next couple days. Our landscaping guys are due here this week to clean everything up and lay new mulch. And the pool guys will be here Friday to get it started up for the season. Spring is undefeated, folks.[1]
That crappy weather meant we didn’t do a whole hell of a lot over the weekend. So more notes about sports than anything else. With one exception…

Moving Back

Thursday S and I drove down to Cincinnati to move M out of her sorority house. It was kind of an interesting trip.

We knew we would be driving into rain, but had no idea we’d spend about 20 minutes driving through a series of near-severe storms with torrential rains. The second round was the worst. Visibility was basically down to zero on the interstate, which is always fun. Even with folks using their hazard lights we were basically crawling, hoping we didn’t hit someone or run off the road. Then I came up on some fool who refused to put their hazards on. We were still in the midst of the storm when a few other fools went blowing past us at normal speeds while the rest of us were maybe going 25 MPH.

We made it to campus safely and had to dodge graduation traffic to find a parking space. Then we had to hustle to get our cars full of M’s stuff before the storms rolled into Cincy. We were parked roughly a block from her house, down a rather large hill. So there was a lot of running up the hill, then walking back down it and its multiple sets of old, concrete steps with arms full of crap. If you know our oldest daughter, it won’t be a surprise that she was moving much slower than we wanted her too, then being overly dramatic about how hard she was working.

Thankfully we got the cars loaded and her checked out of her house just before the rain hit. We went to one of her favorite spots just off campus for her final UC lunch of the academic year. Luckily the storms were going around the city, so it was just a steady rain we waited out while eating. We made it back home in normal time and filled up our bonus room with everything we moved back for the next two weeks before she returns to Cincy for her summer internship. Luckily we won’t have to move everything back right away. She’s sub-leasing from a friend who left all her furniture, so will mostly take clothes for the summer. Now in August, when she moves into the apartment she’ll have the next two years, we will need to rent a truck to get all her furniture down. I’m sure that will be a real joy. And we get to move C to Bloomington at about the same time. Are there people you can pay to do this for you?

Anyway, good to have M home for a few weeks. Her grades aren’t official yet but she’s pretty sure she got straight A’s again this semester. She’s halfway done with college! Actually more because the fall semester of her senior year she will likely be doing a co-op and not taking any classes.

Pacers

DAMN, that’s how you start a series!

The Pacers went into Cleveland, built up a big first half lead, weathered a bunch of Cavaliers runs, and ended up winning by nine after making some huge plays on both ends late.

Now, Cleveland was without Darius Garland, who was a late scratch because of a lingering injury. The Pacers shot the lights out and the Cavs had one of their worst 3-point nights of the year.

But 1–0 and stealing home court advantage is all the matters.

Another game that showed what a great combination of talent this squad is. People who don’t see them every night have a hard time getting it. They’re not an NBA title contender. But they are a team that can steal any seven game series because they know who they are and never get rattled. Tyrese Haliburton was absolute ass on defense much of the night, then somehow forced two huge stops late. Always a wild ride with him.

Local TV broadcasts of games ends when the conferences semifinals begin, so I was forced to watch the TNT feed. Which was fine. Mega props to Greg Anthony for saying, when the Pacers challenged an offensive foul on Myles Turner late in the game, “I like the challenge but I don’t think they are going to win it.” I forgot what wild stuff he says sometimes since he was in announcer purgatory for a few years.

Also, a broader NBA observation, I LOVE how NBA series between evenly matched teams swing. I haven’t watched a ton of ball outside Pacers games, little bits and pieces of each series, but am still deep into The Ringer’s NBA pods, so I hear the breakdowns after each game. It is so fun how team A will win a game comfortably, the series seems under their control, and two nights later team B has made some huge adjustments and are right back in it. The Clippers really should have won their series against Denver. Detroit probably should have upset the Knicks. The Rockets-Warriors series was crazy. I think Pacers-Cavs is headed down that same path, with two of the best offenses in the league taking turns dropping 15–3 runs on each other for another 4–6 games. It’s a league where coaches can scheme around anything but it often comes down to which team gets the hottest from behind the 3-point arc.

Fever

It’s opening week for the WNBA. ESPN showed the Fever’s final exhibition game Sunday, a matchup with the Brazilian national team in Iowa City. You can’t take too much away from the game since this was far from Brazil’s full Olympic squad – one of their best players in yesterday’s lineup is an 18-year-old who will be a freshman at South Carolina this fall – but it was cool to see all the new Fever players. They’ve added a ton of size, but it is athletic, rangy, perimeter size rather than more post players to backup Aliyah Boston. DeWanna Bonner seems like the perfect Den Mom for a mostly very young team, and was a delightful in-game interview. Loathe as I am to give a Missouri alum credit, Sophie Cunningham adds a level of toughness and versatility that was missing last year. And she might have the most “don’t look at it when your wife and kids are around” Instagram account in the league. Not that I looked.

Caitlin Clark missed Friday’s exhibition game with a minor leg injury, and played limited minutes Sunday, but her range looked deeper than a year ago and the experienced players the Fever brought in already understand how to run to spots where she will get them the ball. Kelsey Mitchell will get a little overlooked because of the new talent, but she looked to still be the steady scoring threat who is an ideal partner for Clark. Lexie Hull’s 3-point shot still looks locked in after whatever mechanical adjustment she made in the middle of last season.

As an added bonus, second round draft pick Makayla Timpson might be an absolute steal. I’m not sure if she will be a huge contributor this season. But with so many of the league’s rosters in flux because of the CBA expiring after this season, having a player with her skills on her salary could be massive in the Fever building a team that contends for years to come.

Racing

I actually watched parts of two car races Sunday. That’s how annoying the weather was and how limited the TV offerings were in the afternoon. It is May, I guess.

I watched the back halves of both the Indy Car Grand Prix race in Alabama and then the F1 race in Miami. It was hilarious how, since both races were won by large margins, each broadcast focused on “races within the race” further back in the pack. The F1 broadcast was almost exclusively about the two Ferrari cars and the bickering involved in their team trying to figure out if they should pass each other or not. Such weird drama.

Hey, we actually watched multiple horse races Saturday, keeping the NBC coverage of the Kentucky Derby on for hours, so this might have been the most “watching cars/animals chase each other around a track” weekend of my life!

As I shared many words about earlier this week, my switch to Apple Music means I’m pulling more songs from the past up into my daily soundtrack. Which means these playlists are going to start including more classics. Which was my intention back when I started them however many years ago. There will still be plenty of new music if that’s why you come to these posts.

“Rock ’n’ Roll High School” – Ramones
We are a week and change from having just one high schooler left in the house.

“Somebody New” – Tunde Adebimpe
I said I was looking forward to his album, then didn’t get around to listening to it when it came out. And now this is the best of the singles released from it, each sounding a little different.

“Every” – Swanpalace
An interesting supergroup of sorts, built around two artists most of us have never heard of along with Jim Eno, a founding member and long-time drummer of Spoon. This has a terrific, late Seventies sound. To my ears it bumps right up next to Cheap Trick.

“There’s A Part I Can’t Get Back” – Sunflower Bean
A truly harrowing, yet beautiful, song about how grooming steals innocence from its victims.

“Outside” – Jawdropped
A hint of grunge in this jangle rock makes it stand out nicely.

“Cutting Room Floor” – Gordi
These last four songs all fit into some kind of musical Venn diagram I’m too lazy to clearly delineate. But Gordi sounds a lot like Christine McVie on this track, so it would pull in some Fleetwood Mac angle I guess.

“Month of May” – Arcade Fire
The most important month of the year in Indianapolis is here. Also, AF has new music out but I did not dig their lead single so I’ll stick with this more time-appropriate oldie.

“Dead Souls” – Joy Division
I know I just shared a JD song a couple weeks back, but I heard this one yesterday and had to slap it into the playlist.

“Rock the Bells” – LL Cool J
Talk about mission statements! Back in the days of vinyl/cassettes, sometimes the first track on side two was as important as the first on side one. This was Side Two, Track One on not only LL’s first album, but the first full length album ever released by Def Jam. Dropping Bruce Springsteen, Madonna, Michael Jackson, and Prince’s names seemed outrageously ambitious at the time. But James Todd Smith knew where he and the label were headed.

Not sure why a new video was released for this two months ago but I like it.