D's Notebook

It’s the Friday before Memorial Day. That means it’s both time to break out the summer music and to play a song I always play this weekend. Two songs, actually.

“Jack & Diane” – John Mellencamp
Years ago, when we were still lake people, one of my better Facebook posts was something along the lines of “It’s not Memorial Day weekend until you’re drunk at the lake and you hear ‘Jack And Diane.’” We don’t have a lake house anymore. I don’t really get drunk, either. But we can still listen to Mellencamp to kick off the biggest weekend of the year in Indy.

“Sober” – Elbow
Speaking of not drinking…I’ve been hot and cold on Elbow over the years, but have been enjoying their most recent music.

“What’s Fair” – Blondshell
When Sabrina Teitelbaum first hit the scene she took a lot of heat for capitalizing on her father’s status and wealth to establish her career. With album #2 out, there’s no doubt she’s a legit talent.

“Radio Armageddon/What Rock Is” – Chuck D
Mistachuck is back! I listened to his new album last week. It’s solid, especially when considering that he is 64 years old. But so much of it, from his voice to the production to the arrangement of the songs, comes off as a B-minus version of his classic work in Public Enemy. These are the first two tracks on the album. They give you an idea of what most of the rest of the album sounds like.

“Metal” – The Beths
The Beths’ music almost always makes me happy.

“Bird On A Swing” – Cory Hanson
A dramatic shift in tone and sound from his last project, which was jammed full of Eighties-esque shredded solos.

“My Friend Dario” – Vitalic
It’s race weekend. Vroom vroom.

“My City Of Ruins” – Bruce Springsteen Live in Manchester, May 14, 2025

I attempted to include this in the playlist above, but for some reason it’s not showing up. Seems fishy to me. If you’ve been following the news this week, you know why this is here.

“Summertime” – DJ Jazzy Jeff and the Fresh Prince
DRUMS PLEASE!!!!

Normally on a day like this, after what happened at Madison Square Garden last night, I would have hopped out of bed early and banged out 25,000 words about the latest inexplicable Pacers, come-from-behind win.

Funny thing happened last night, though. If funny is a proper synonym for infuriating.

At 7:59 I set aside my small screen where I was watching YouTube vids and hit the power button on the remote to fire up the big screen for the game. The TV began it’s warmup process and just as the screen came to life, our power went out.

There were no storms at the time. We didn’t hear the sound of a transformer blowing somewhere near us. Nor someone using a chainsaw that had possibly sent a tree towards a power line as happened last month two houses down the block.[1]

So I waited a few minutes in case it was one of the temporary outages that we sometimes experience.

No dice.

By the time I dug out my little radio, the Pacers were up by six early.

I checked our power company’s website but it did not show any outages in our area. I refreshed it a couple times without any updates, so went to the page where you report outages. Naturally it was not working. Our power company is truly the worst when it comes to customer relations. If there’s one page on a utility’s website that should never go down, it is their Report An Outage page!

So I called. The nice lady who eventually answered said there had been reports from 15 others in our area, they couldn’t identify what the cause was yet, but that a crew was on the way to investigate. By the time we got off the phone the outage map showed 48 people in our little area were without power. There weren’t any other large outages in the city, so I hoped that meant a quick resolution. By halftime, at least.

All I could do was wait and listen to the game on the radio. Which was what I did for the next three-and-a-half hours. Thus I missed much of the experience.

The Pacers hung with the Knicks until the fourth quarter, when they decided to stop playing defense and gave up a huge run despite Jalen Brunson sitting on the bench with five fouls. I was about to turn the radio off and go to bed late in the fourth quarter with the Pacers down 14. Time to get ready for game two.

Then Aaron Nesmith hit a 3. And another. And another. And another. Meanwhile the Knicks were missing shots, both from the field and the free throw line, and turning the ball over. When Nesmith hit his fifth 3 of the quarter it was suddenly a two-point game. The teams exchanged some free throws as the Pacers slowly ran out f time.

As I said last month, though, never count the Pacers out.

This was not nearly as cool on the radio, as I didn’t see Tyrese Haliburton’s frantic retreat to the arc, the insanely high carom of his shot off the rim, the ball falling through the net, nor the wild celebration. The Pacers radio guys went momentarily crazy but quickly saw that Haliburton’s toe was on the line and that the game would be going to overtime.

As tends to happen in these situations, the team that ended regulation on the run and had the miracle finish kept the momentum and the Pacers stole game one. Thank goodness for Haliburton, as it would have been tough to come back from giving the Reggie Miller choke sign to the crowd and then losing the game.

This is the third time the Pacers have done this in this year’s playoffs, coming from at least seven points down in the final 50 seconds of regulation.

I tried to tell you people about how this team never gets rattled or gives up. Maybe you’ll start listening to me now.

(Edit: It was terribly fun to follow Pacers bloggers and listen to the radio announcers as they tried to talk themselves into the comeback after Nesmith’s third 3. So many variations of “Is this really going to happen again?” which got progressively louder as the deficit got smaller.)

Three wins to the Finals.

Oh, and the power came back on just after 4:00 AM. First I noticed that our bathroom light was on. Then I heard our TV downstairs, blasting whatever TNT shows at that ungodly hour. Now I have a fun morning ahead of clearing our two fridges of all the perishables and making a trip to the grocery store to replace them.[2] In the midst of the outage I was doing research on whole-home generators. If we assume L is going to get a fat academic scholarship in two years, we might be able to make it work…

The long wait is over: the NBA Eastern Conference finals begin tonight. The Pacers have been sitting around for more than week as the Knicks closed out the Celtics and then the stupid NBA calendar got situated. Somehow the Western Conference finals started before the Eastern, even though the Thunder just finished their series against Denver on Sunday. Dumb.

Anyway, it’s finally here. This is a truly fascinating series and it’s been fun to hear the NBA podcasters I pay attention to twist themselves around trying to pick a winner. While most seem to land on Knicks in seven, they still have a hard time getting there.

For most reasons you have to throw out last year’s Pacers triumph in seven games in the semifinals. The Knicks were mega-banged up in that series and were literally falling apart by that final blowout. They’ve added Karl-Anthony Towns and Mikal Bridges, and Mitchell Robinson is finally healthy. Meanwhile the Pacers are basically the same team, with Pascal Siakam having an entire season in Indy and Andrew Nembhard turning into a starter in his second NBA season. Bennedict Mathurin was out last year because of injury and is the only big change in Indiana’s main rotation.

Despite the roster changes I think the Pacers did take away a lot from winning last year. They won a game seven on the road, at the time the most anticipated basketball game in New York City in a generation. Although they were swept by the Celtics in the conference finals, they easily could have won three of those games. In the NBA there is often a stair-stepped process for teams to win a championship. The Pacers took a couple of those steps last year.

The stylistic matchup is terrific. Both teams try to wear down their opponents, but in very different ways. The Pacers are always forcing tempo, running on offense and pressing on defense. The Knicks are trying to batter you on both ends, the fouling-est team that never gets called for it on defense and then Jalen Brunson punishing people at the end of the shot clock on offense. Both teams’ strengths line up exactly with their opponents’ weaknesses. The Pacers are deep, athletic, and can really shoot it, but are small and basically don’t worry about offensive rebounding. The Knicks are thin, injury-prone, but have an ideal, modern, non-scoring big in Robinson, who is a shot-blocking fool and rebounding machine. To me he might be the key to the entire series, as the Pacers don’t have anyone who can match him. Both teams are built around point guards who are end-of-game wizards.

I think the Knicks are too reliant on Brunson. So I probably just jinxed them into Towns and Bridges having huge series. I think the Pacers do a much better job of always having another player step up, not just game-to-game but moment-to-moment. So now Siakam and Myles Turner are going to be dominated by Mitchell, Towns, and OG Anunoby.

The Pacers might shoot and run the Knicks out of the series. Josh Hart might get away with 1000 fouls on defense (then bitch on every dead ball about the calls he’s not getting) and take Tyrese Haliburton, Nembhard, and/or Aaron Nesmith out of what they want to do. We know Brunson is going to fall down 100 times a game, then lie there like he got shot, and draw fouls when he didn’t get touched.[1]

Yes, I’m already getting worked up about the refs and the Knicks. Just like last year when Turner is going to get called for two absolute garbage illegal screens in crunch time while Hart never comes close to fouling out.

This is a tough one.

If the Pacers can steal a win in one of the first games in New York, I say they win in six. If not, Knicks in seven. It’s going to be nerve wracking no matter who wins and in how many games.

We are in it.

Grad season has arrived. That and some other activities kept us very busy over the past few days. Let’s go day-by-day.

Friday

We lucked out and just missed the bad storms that rolled through our area Friday evening. We had our fingers crossed a little extra harder than normal because we had two fridges full of catered food for our Saturday activities. We did get heavy rain and high winds. But the power stayed on, thankfully.

The worst storms in Indiana passed about an hour south of us, including a tornado that was on the ground for about an hour. It was the first time in a while I’ve spent several hours watching severe storm coverage on TV, something that always gets the Kansan in me fired up. Foreshadowing!

We actually had two rounds of storms so I was able to pump the water off our pool between them. We have so much pollen in the air right now that the water after round one looked more like pea soup than rain water. Disgusting.

I was about to head to bed a little after 11:00 when I noticed the sky to the east lighting up. I checked the radar but there was nothing on it. The lightning kept getting more intense and, five minutes later, there was a massive red blob on the radar. Thankfully it was moving away from us. The storms were supposed to be over but there was so much energy left in the environment that this one blew up out of nowhere. Spring in the Midwest.

Saturday

Big day. First off, it was C’s 19th birthday. In classic middle child fashion, it fell on a day when we had to focus on something else. She celebrated by getting up pretty early (for her) to hustle down to the Southside of Indy for the grad party of one of her best friends.

The something else was hosting a bridal shower for our old neighbors, whose oldest daughter is getting married in August. Their youngest daughter leaves for six weeks in England next week and mom and dad will both left the country for a week on Monday, so this was the one weekend that worked. C was a good sport about it, plus they brought her a special cake.

M had “moved” into her new Cincinnati apartment for the summer on Thursday. I put “moved” in quotes because she just took a few things as the girl she’s subleasing from left all her furniture. She drove home Saturday morning as she is a bridesmaid in the wedding and was going to help run the game portion of the shower.

We had about 50 people over and spent all morning and early afternoon prepping for them. While the storms passing took the heat and humidity with them – it was downright nasty Thursday and Friday afternoons – they did leave strong winds in their wake. We had a big canopy over the tables and had to ratchet it down with six buckets full of water to keep it from blowing away. The entire day was a challenge to secure items so they wouldn’t get tossed, flipped, or otherwise ejected from their proper spot.

The shower itself went well, at least from our perspective. It was also a nice practice run for us since we are hosting a graduation party for C and two friends on Memorial Day. We now know we need to make a sign for the driveway so people don’t try to park in our yard or block our narrow street and instead use the parking lot at the YMCA next door. Like the invitation clearly stated but which no one seemed to read.

Sunday

To start the day, I went over to the Y with L to rebound for her first true shooting session in over three months. She’s been shooting a little, mostly form shooting, but was just cleared to shoot jump shots last week. Her form was crap and she got winded quickly, but I liked that when she made shots, they were ripping through the net. This was a nice milestone almost exactly 90 days after her surgery.

Our big event of this day came in the evening: C’s baccalaureate mass. Parking was a mess, as always. The CHS gym was crowded, muggy, and uncomfortable. Also as always. And the mass was too long. Again, as always.

One of the speakers noted that this class arrived on campus during the second year of Covid. At their orientation mass, they sat on the football field, socially distanced from each other, with masks on. Sunday we were crowded into a gym together again.

After Mass we took the girls to Portillo’s – C’s choice for her belated birthday dinner – then came home for delayed birthday cake.

I was about to go to bed when I saw a blurb about a tornado near where one of my college buddies lives in Texas. I fired up the YouTube weather geek network and found instead of the Texas storm – he was fine – they were focused on a massive, angry storm that was barreling towards the part of Kansas where I was born and my grandparents lived. So I spent the next hour watching storm trackers and storm chasers as a big tornado roared across fields and, eventually, a small, unincorporated town.

Monday

Graduation day!

L and I kicked it off by going to an early PT session. She was officially cleared to begin some light jogging, working up to actual running next week. Still a couple more milestones to pass but getting back on the court is a little closer every day.

Graduation was, for the first time I believe, held at a new suburban events center. M’s two years ago was outdoors on the CHS baseball field, on a sunny, warm day. Weather didn’t matter Monday since we were indoors. But it was a perfectly pleasant evening. And the venue was nice, with ample parking and plenty of room inside for families.

The ceremony was pretty much like every graduation ceremony. A little long but still checking in just under two hours. So glad we sent our girls to a school where classes are under 300 kids.[1] The big suburban districts around us often have classes of 1000 kids or more. Even chopping them into two graduation nights makes for a long evening of listening to names.

Afterwards we had C’s grandparents over for cake. She opened her first grade time capsule that was sealed up 11 years ago. The highlight was finding her Daisy Scout vest in it. A picture of her and her friends in their vests from first grade had just hit my Time Hop yesterday.

M had to jump in her car and make a late drive back to Cincy as she starts her summer internship this morning.

On top of all that, over the weekend I watched a decent amount of Indy 500 qualifying – which had some real drama this year[2] – a little of the PGA, plenty of the NBA playoffs and the Royals-Cardinals series. Also in there I managed to let the pool chemistry get bad and I’m fighting to get the water clear again in time for L to have friends over Friday and so it looks decent for our grad party next week. I hate the first couple weeks of each pool season. It seems like something always goes wrong and I’m in a battle with something in the water.

I’m going to delay the weekend notes until tomorrow since we have a rather important event tonight. Fortunately I have two books that I need to share some thoughts about.

Surely You Can’t Be Serious: The True Story of Airplane! – David Zucker, Jim Abrahams, Jerry Zucker
Truly one of the most fun books I’ve read in a long time. The three men behind the movie Airplane! come together for an oral history of both how their partnership started and the lengthy, arduous process to get their classic comedy made. There are plenty of insights from other people, both from the cast and within the entertainment industry. I laughed almost as much reading this as I would had I been watching the movie, something I’m about to do again for the first time in ages.

My favorite piece of trivia that was new to me: Kareem Abdul-Jabbar’s part was originally written for Pete Rose. But as the film was being shot during the baseball season, Rose was unavailable and they had to scramble for a replacement. I can’t imagine Rose would have been anywhere near as shocking and funny as Kareem.

Also, fuck Pete Rose. For many, many reasons.

Lorne: The Man Who Invented Saturday Night Live – Susan Morrison
After waiting for months my hold on the newest Lorne Michaels biography finally came in. I’m not sure if this was essential, especially since I just read one of the great Saturday Night Live accountings earlier this year. But I heard Morrison on Bill Simmons’ podcast around the time her book came out and the access she got made it seem essential to an old SNL-head like me.

As a biography of a person rather than show, it obviously has a different focus. We learn all about Michaels’ upbringing in Toronto and the early days of his career in Canada and the US before he began SNL. We see how he developed his comedic point of view, both from absorbing the works of others and through his various failures early in his career.

In the SNL years, like so many other books that follow the show’s history, the earlier years get more attention than the later ones. Many anecdotes I’ve read multiple times before appear here. It was interesting, though, to see what ones Morrison highlighted or put into different contexts than past writers have done. There are plenty of quotes from many of the most famous performers in the show’s history. Big surprise that Chevy Chase’s reputation as an ass is confirmed for the millionth time.

We’ve always heard of Michaels’ various personality traits that have a profound effect on the show and its cast members. He can be cold and distant, cruel and direct, inscrutable and maddening. He encourages and supports people in their weakest moments and then ignores them when they triumph. He is a name dropper of the first order, and casually mentions his friendships with some of the most famous people in the world and vacations at some of the most exclusive parts of the world like everyone else, including new cast members with a couple hundred dollars to their names, has the same experiences. He’s kind of a weird dude.

Morrison gets at where all that comes from. The final portrait isn’t necessarily all that flattering. You can admire the institution he created while thinking he could have done some things differently over the past 50 years. I feel like that’s something that has taken me over 50 years to figure out for myself: you can like someone’s work while also thinking that they are kind of a dick.

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” – Sam 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.