“Much Ado About Nothing” – Waxahatchee
A leftover track from her most recent album that got a proper single release this week. In a very Pearl Jam-way, this as good as most of the tracks that made Tigers Blood. I nominate Ms. Crutchfield to be our queen.
“What About The Children” – Gary Clark Jr. with Stevie Wonder
Not a bad pull for a guest by Mr. Clark, huh?
“Slugger” – SASAMI
We have a fantastic new entry in the Crying In The Club Bop hall of fame.
“Grocery Store” – Enumclaw
A very difficult song to search for, as the engines want to tell you about grocery stores in Enumclaw, WA. Maybe it is hard to find info on this song because it has a very 1995 vibe, from before the days when Yahoo, Alta Vista, and eventually Google would change our lives.
“1995” – Starflyer 59
Speaking of 1995, why not segue straight into a song that doesn’t just sound like that year, but is named for it?
“Brakes” – Onsloow
OK, one more. The lead singer of this band sounds a lot like Juliana Hatfield, who was kind of a big deal in 1995 or so.
“Penny Lover” – Lionel Richie
I had another song picked out for this week that I like a lot more than this one. I realized this morning that other song does not have a video. And there is a ton of great trivia behind it. So I’m going to tuck it away for a future RFTS post and shift to this, the final single from Richie’s massive Can’t Slow Down album. Over 13 months or so, Richie released five singles from the album, all of which landed in the top 10, two of which topped the chart. This one peaked at #8. Not my favorite song, nor one of my favorite artists. But as Lionel was a huge part of the legend of ’84, he deserves some run here. It cracked the Top 40 this week at #38 in just its second week in the Hot 100.
Chart Week: October 4, 1980
Song: “I’m Alright” – Kenny Loggins
Chart Position: #8, 13th week on the chart. Peaked at #7 the next two weeks.
Every successful career has a turning point, a moment that elevates it from being run-of-the-mill into something special and lasting. This song, for example, recorded as a favor to a friend for a movie that initially was a bit of a flop, helped turned Kenny Loggins into one of the best known artists of the Eighties.
After a decent run in the Seventies – first with The Nitty Gritty Dirty Band, then in Loggins and Messina, and finally as a solo artist – Loggins hit the Top 40 six times in the 1980s with songs that appeared on movie soundtracks. Four of those would crack the Top 10. His title track for the movie Footloose would become the only #1 of his career.
It’s funny for me to think of him in just that way. That’s primarily because my mom really liked his music and had many of his solo albums. I can go deep on some early ‘80s Kenny! Really, only three of his movie songs had staying power beyond their chart runs. “Footloose,”“Danger Zone,” from Top Gun, and “I’m Alright” were so big, they are what people remember him for, not the eight other Top 40 hits from his solo albums, or for co-writing the Doobie Brothers’ #1 hit “What A Fool Believes.” But it seemed like every summer would bring another Loggins song (or two) that was tied to a movie.
He started on the path to his honorary royalty thanks to another movie connection.
In 1976 he wrote the song “I Believe In Love,” which Barbra Streisand sang in that year’s version of A Star Is Born. Through that project he became friends with the movie’s producer, Jon Peters. A few years later Peters called Loggins and said he was working on a new movie, Caddyshack, and needed a song for the title sequence. Loggins saw an early cut of the movie – one that did not yet include the animatronic gopher tearing up the golf course – and was struck by Michael O’Keefe’s character Danny Noonan.
“… I got the idea they wanted to portray him as a bit of a rebel, even though he had not yet achieved that particular character,” said Loggins. “(He) was trying to figure out where he fit. But at the same time he wanted people to leave him alone and let him find his own way. So I wanted to grab him and summarize that character, and that’s what ‘I’m Alright’ is doing."
I’m not sure I ever got much of that. Probably because I was nine years old when the single was released and didn’t bother to consider the lyrics much then. Or since, to be honest. It was just a really good song that I heard often before, during, and after our move from southeast Missouri to Kansas City in the summer of 1980. I heard it often on the AM radios in my parents’ cars and on the transister radio I received for my birthday that I carried around everywhere.
It also fit Peters’ title sequence perfectly. It followed Noonan as he rode his bike from his chaotic, overfilled, over-the-top stereotypically Irish home to the assumed relaxed and refined environment of Bushwood Country Club. The song is fun, engages the listener, and has some momentum to it that gets you amped for what you’re about to see on the screen. I also hear the rumble of the road in our multiple trips between Southeast Missouri and KC that summer.
When re-listening to “I’m Alright” this week, I thought for a moment that Lindsey Buckingham might have co-wrote it with Loggins. There are so many elements to it that sound like a Buckingham song. The structure, the instrumentation, the layering of the vocals, that hint of country-rock. Hell, the drums, with their floppy, heaviness recall Mick Fleetwood’s work behind the kit, so I guess this sounds more like a Fleetwood Mac song without the female vocalists than a Buckingham solo effort. There might be some common threads in there, but neither Buckingham nor Fleetwood had any involvement in the track’s writing and recording.
Casey Kasem’s introduction for the record on this week’s countdown blew my mind a little. He said sometimes a song will be a hit no matter what gets in its way. In this case, he noted, Caddyshack had not done well at the box office, and the soundtrack wasn’t selling well either. But “I’m Alright” was doing just fine on its own, still climbing in its fourth month on the Hot 100.
It’s wild to hear a transmission from the fall of 1980 claiming that Caddyshack was a commercial disappointment. I didn’t see it then, but it seemed like every kid I knew with an older sibling had seen it. There was much talk about it at the bus stop. Weird that Caddyshack didn’t really become a huge hit until a few years later, when it landed on cable and our generation could watch it over-and-over, memorizing every line, and boring bystanders with horrible immitations of Carl Spackler’s “Gunga galunga” speech.
The song holds up. It’s not just nostalgia for the movie that keeps it in high rotation on ‘80s stations. It’s a genuinely good song, by an artist who knew better than anyone else how to craft a pop tune that pulled in vibes from the film it was attached to.8/10
One more note: when Loggins was recording “I’m Alright,” Eddie Money was working on his own album in a nearby studio. Loggins invited him over to lay down some background vocals. You can hear Money most distinctly when he sings the line “You make me feel good!” in the bridge.
Well, Loggins did not give Money an official credit for his contribution. That started a grudge that lasted at least 34 years.
“I’m not a fan of Kenny Loggins to tell you the truth,” he told Cincinnati morning show host Kidd Chris of WEBN in 2014. “I sang the bridge in that. We were label mates, you know.”
I wonder if they made up before Money passed in 2019.
A busy, warm, disappointing, and significant weekend.
FNL + Party
Friday was a big night for a couple reasons. First, L was having friends over to celebrate her birthday. Seven girls, including her middle school buddy who goes to the rival high school, gathered at our house after school. They are a good group and fun to be around. They are mostly sassy and confident and silly, and while they usually congregate away from us, when we have to interact with them they always make me laugh.
Once S got home we ran them over to Marion University, which was hosting the big Center Grove vs Cathedral game. This was class 6A #5 vs #7. CG came in at 4–2, CHS 3–2. CG had won three in a row in the series and have dominated it over the past decade. In a change, it was moved from the final week of the season to week eight this year for some reason.
It was a wild game.
CHS scored on the first play of the game, a 64 yard run.
Trailing 10–0, CG had an 80-yard TD run.
CHS answered with a 74-yard TD pass.
CG led 30–27 at halftime, and eventually 45–35 with about six minutes to play.
The game ended with this sequence in the final five minutes:
Cathedral touchdown.
Cathedral successful onside kick.
Cathedral touchdown.
Center Grove interception.
Cathedral punt.
Center Grove interception.
Game over.
Huge win for the Irish. Normally you would say these teams are on a collision course for a rematch in semistate. CHS is going to have trouble getting past Lawrence North, who is 7–0 and destroyed #2 Warren Central this week, in sectionals though. They would also likely have to beat #1 Brownsburg between sectionals and Center Grove, and they’ve already lost to them. Anything is possible I guess.
The only bummer to the night was apparently there weren’t a ton of CHS kids at the game. Marion is on the opposite side of the city from school. Since CHS kids come from literally everywhere – something like 80 middle schools are represented in L’s class – you would think that wouldn’t be an issue. Especially for the Center Grove game, which is always huge. But I guess it was an issue. Anyway, L texted us at halftime that they wanted to leave because “no one is here” and it was boring. So the girls were eating cake and ice cream at our house when the Irish made their furious comeback. I kept listening and let them know the result.
What truly sucked was the Royals pitchers walking 80 Yankees batters. The fifth inning was really when the Royals lost this game. That inning went walk-single-walk-walk-foul out-fielder’s choice-walk. Two runs scored, both on bases loaded walks.
You don’t expect to lose in Yankees Stadium because you walked in more runs than you allowed on homers.
The Royals are a resilient bunch, though, and I think the loss will get them more re-focused than discouraged. Hopefully the pitchers are a little more locked in Monday while the hitters can keep generating runs.
Oh, and this ALDS schedule is nuts. Three days off in a five-game series? When these teams played a five-game ALCS in 1980, games one-through-three were played on consecutive days. And that was with a night game on Thursday in Kansas City and a night game Friday in New York. Since the Royals swept that series, I don’t know if an off-day was scheduled before either game four or five. But in 2024, there are scheduled off days between games one and two, two and three, and four and five if needed. Dumb.
KU
Same old same old. A disastrous end to the first half. A lead in the fourth quarter. The inability to stop the opponent when it mattered most. A fifth loss in a row.
Lawrence radio guy Derek Johnson posted this amazing stat on Twitter after the game: In each of their losses, at some point in the second half KU has had at least a 74% win probability. Add those up, and the odds of going 0–5 over that stretch is 0.01%, or about 1 in 10,000. Yet KU found a way to do it. Never say we can’t do amazing things in football season!
I think that stat also points out the truth to this season, something I pointed out last week. KU got just about every break possible last year. This year, though? No breaks. Or when they get a break, they find a way to fuck it up.
The offense and OC Jeff Grimes have taken the bulk of the criticism this year. The offense was fine Saturday. Yes, there were a few bad choices, notably in the two three-and-outs after KU forced turnovers because of hopelessly conservative play calling. One first down late in the second quarter and Arizona State never gets a chance to tie the game going into halftime. Jalon Daniels, who might have had his best game of the year, rushed a throw to a wide open Quentin Skinner that cost KU four points in a four-point loss.
Those aside, Saturday was on the defense. Yes, they forced two turnovers and blocked a field goal. But there were, yet again, massive holes for ASU to exploit all night. Almost no pressure on the quarterback. KU got destroyed at the line on running plays and gave up 313 yards rushing! Not technically on the defense, but they also gave up another long punt return to a player who should have been tackled seconds after fielding the ball by one of three players.
I know they were missing one defensive captain the entire game, and Cobee Bryant left the game late with what appeared to be a bad injury. That doesn’t excuse how bad the D looked as a whole, and has looked all season.
I read a theory this week that the transitional recruiting class between Les Miles and Lance Leipold, which was ranked in the 110s nationally, is what is killing this team. There are a ton of seniors of various types, a lot of freshmen and true sophomores, but not many of those third year players who maybe aren’t ready to start, but have been in the system and can come in briefly to spell the starters when needed.
I have no idea if that explains KU’s defensive woes or not. I am starting to think last year’s performance was a fluke. DC Brian Borland should definitely be under as much pressure as Grimes, because he hasn’t found a way to scheme around talent issues.
I genuinely hated sports late Saturday night. The Royals and KU games overlapped some. I had the Royals on the TV, KU on the MacBook. It was harder to follow both than my attempts to listen to CHS and watch tennis or football earlier this year. Higher stakes, I guess. KU and the Royals both scored at about the same time once, which was fun. The Yankees scored the go-ahead run at nearly the same moment Arizona State tied the game going into halftime, which was not fun.
Oh, a couple of my KU buddies and I had talked about going to this game a while back. We didn’t go forward because, for some reason, tickets even on Southwest were over $500. I was glad we chose to stay home. Not just because of the loss, but also because it was 106° at kickoff. I read somewhere this was the hottest temperature at kickoff for an ASU game this century. And, (in)famously, whatever Sun Devil Stadium is called these days has all aluminum bleacher seating. I can’t believe the game was nearly sold out.
Colts
No Anthony Richardson or Johnathan Taylor, plus a couple key defensive injuries. An offensive lineman breaks his leg during the game. And the Colts hadn’t won in Jacksonville in 11 years.
So no surprise that after giving up their third ridiculously long touchdown of the game, they trailed by 14 late. I went outside to water some plants, figuring my weekend didn’t need any more sports disappointment.
A few minutes later I noticed S looking at the window trying to get my attention. I strolled over and glanced inside at the TV and saw the Colts were kicking a PAT to tie. Apparently Joe Flacco and Alec Pierce did their best to save the day, but the Jags kicked a field goal to win at about the same point in the clock as where Arizona State beat KU. Perfect.
I don’t think the Colts are terrible. But they are definitely on the bottom half of the mediocre middle of the NFL. That middle is so big that any team in that group can beat any other, so the Colts might still manage six or seven wins. I wonder if they would be better served to start thinking about the draft and focusing on getting the best pick possible. Which means as tempting as it will be to keep starting Flacco when AR is healthy, you have to focus on both developing Richardson and determining if he is the man going forward. You can’t delay that question another year while you’re chasing a Wild Card spot with Flacco.
LB
Some milestones for B girl #3.
She turned 16 Thursday.
Saturday we got her travel basketball assignment for next year. She’s with the same coach she’s been with. It does suck that we’ve lost two more of her best friends she’s played with the last three years. We might steal one of those girls back but we’re not confident. Travel ball at the high school level is brutal when it comes to roster building. You have very little say in who you get, as teams higher in the pecking order can “steal” girls if they need them. That happened to one of her besties, and from what I’ve heard from that girl’s mom, she does not want to play with the team that picked her. L is hopeful they can get her switched back to our team, but I’m doubtful.
L is still suffering from the lingering effects of mono, but will try to go back to preseason practice this week. She feels mentally bad about missing two weeks, but also feels physically bad any time she breaks a sweat. Knock on wood I don’t get a call at 6:30 AM Tuesday that she’s sick at practice, or just can’t continue and needs to get picked up.
Sunday she passed her driving test. She’s been doing a great job with her practicing, so there wasn’t much doubt. Her instructor even said “Piece of cake” when they returned. She can officially get her license on Jan. 1, although she’ll obviously have to wait another day.
Weather
A gorgeous, warm weekend to wrap up an unseasonably warm week. Saturday I hardly watched any football during the day, partially because I knew I would be watching both the Royals and Jayhawks at night. But also because I wanted to sit outside and read and enjoy the beautiful day.
All last week they were saying this week would be much different. It is cooling off a little; we’ll be down in the upper 40s for a few mornings. But days will still be in the low 70s, slowly warming back to the low 80s by the weekend. These are the days you have to hold on to because even when they are mild, the Midwest winters will suck the life out of you.
“Perfect Me” – Blossoms
First off, these dudes don’t sound like your typical Manchester band. I would have guessed Southern California first. Then, they said this song is a homage to their love of Abba, Bruce Springsteen, and The Killers. I hear some Killers, the other two? Not so much.
“Drop Me Out” – High Vis
If it doesn’t work because I’m not smart enough to make it work, there should be a GIF of Beavis and Butthead headbanging and yelling “YES!!!!” here.
“Under A Cloud” – Susanna Hoffs
Ms. Hoffs is releasing an album called The Lost Record that features tracks she recorded in her garage 25 years ago. This one eventually landed on the Bangles 2011 reunion album Sweetheart of the Sun. There isn’t a ton of difference between the songs. This one is a little funkier. The Bangles’ version has slightly more dreamy harmonies. Oh, and Susanna is a national treasure that should be protected by an act of Congress.
“On The Floor” – THUS LOVE
I don’t know much about the Vermont post-punk scene. I do know, though, that when I want to listen to post-punk music from Vermont, this is the first band I think of. Like all good post-punk, this song could be from 1984, 1994, 2004, 2014, or 2024. It is brand new, for the record.
“Dangerous” – Liz Stringer
I’ve been down on Spotify’s Discover Weekly playlist lately. However, a few weeks it spit out this remarkable track and it kind of makes up for all the other crap. Stringer is a bit of a cult artist in Australia. Other artists love her, but she hasn’t had a ton of commercial success. Musically, this could be a Ryan Adams song from 10 years ago. Her lyrics are fantastic. I need to dig into her music more, as I’ve read a couple interviews with her and it seems like she’s had quite a life and has written a lot about what she’s been through.
“Edge of Town” – Middle Kids
Speaking of Aussies, my current favorites released a surprise live album last week. I’m not normally crazy about live albums, but I found this one to be quite good.
“Out of Touch” – Daryl Hall and John Oates
I told you there were some big songs left, and some weeks where it was going to be tough to choose what song to share. This week I could have selected Wham’s “Wake Me Up Before You Go Go,” or Tina Turner’s “Better Be Good To Me,” which both cracked the Top 40 at #32 and #34 respectively. However, I couldn’t ignore one of my all-time favs. In just its second week in the Hot 100, it landed at #38. In December it would spend two weeks at #1, the duo’s sixth and final US #1. I will never, ever change the station or hit the skip button when it comes on. Dance on your knees!
What a glorious October morning today was. Made all the more glorious by the mighty Kansas City Royals sweeping Baltimore to advance to the ALDS against the evil New York Yankees.
It’s like the late 70s up in here!
Two tense games in gloomy, Baltimore weather, which made the Wild Card series feel so much like the 2014 ALCS between these two teams. Poor Baltimore. That’s six-straight losses to the Royals in the postseason, a healthy chunk of their 10 straight postseason losses. The Royals won those six games by a combined eight runs. Three times they won 2–1!!!
To make things worse, aside from one bad misplay by MJ Melendez Tuesday, the Royals were flashing leather like it was 2014. Both Melendez and Tommy Pham had catches that would have made Lorenzo Cain proud.
In the Wild Card era, baseball playoffs have consistently been the most volatile of the professional sports postseasons. Home field doesn’t matter as much as in other sports. A couple good pitchers can make up for a huge disparity in total talent. And baseball is just the streakiest of sports. All that is amplified in the current system, which begins with the three-game Wild Card series. One bad inning can doom your entire postseason in a series that short. The Orioles gave up a couple hard singles to Bobby Witt and are now headed to Cancún or wherever.
So while it’s not a huge surprise the Royals got the Wild Card win, neither is it ridiculous to think they can keep things going against the #1 seed Yankees. Now, it would be nice if they could score more than a run or two per game. In fact, I’m going to go out on an analytic limb and say the Royals must score more than that if they want any chance to upset the Yanks. Then again, the Royals pitchers were absolute nails in Baltimore. Who’s to say that won’t continue and a few well timed runners and hits will be enough?
It’s just a lot of fun that the Royals are still alive. Even more fun that they seem to be mimicking the ’14–15 Royals by playing terrific defense, getting great pitching from the entire staff, and using their speed to create runs. They still feel a little flukey. I doubt they care what outsiders think.
It is also worth mentioning that this week’s games were far less stressful for me than those games in ’14–15. I’m sure a lot of that is because I’ve not been as fully into this team as I was those. While I paid a lot more attention to them this year than in the past 3–4 years, my investment still wasn’t nearly what it was before and during that championship run. It would have been a bummer if the Royals had lost both games in Baltimore, or split then lost the deciding game today. I would not have been crushed the way I was after game seven of the 2014 World Series, or would have been if the Royals had lost game four in Houston in 2015.
In those two playoff runs I was locked in, every pitch a super-stressful moment. I missed parts of a few games because of work, family, and kid sports, but I was still following every moment of those games. This week I was able to often be splitting my attention elsewhere, which surely helped my blood pressure a bit.
Anyway, it is October, the Royals are heading to New York for a playoff series, and it would not be completely ridiculous if they were still standing in 10 days.
Another dive into the notebook for a selection of random notes.
College NIL
Shockwaves went through college sports last week when UNLV quarterback Matt Sluka, who tore up KU in week three, announced he was sitting out the remainder of the season so he could transfer and retain a year of eligibility. He claimed that UNLV had not lived up to their NIL agreement. UNLV fired back that they had provided everything promised and he was looking for a better deal elsewhere because of his hot start.
Before we get to the NIL angle, there’s actually another dumb thing that needs to be addressed. In college basketball, if you play one game, you have burned your eligibility for that season. In football, players can appear in as many as four games and maintain their redshirt option going forward.
That is one of the stupidest rules the NCAA, an organization with a lot of dumb rules, has instituted. Before NIL you would occasionally see a player decide after week four he was shutting it down so he could jump to another program. Khalil Herbert did that at KU a few years back, running all over Boston College one week then not playing again that season before jumping to Virginia Tech. I think this might sneakily be the most destructive element of the modern, free transfer era. It’s bad enough coaches have to re-recruit their own players every year. Now you have to worry about whether they’re going to make a business decision before week five that wrecks your season.
I’m all for player power, but I think they have too much power in this situation.
Back to NIL proper. I just laugh at this, and know more of it is coming. For the 100th time on this site, let me remind you that the NCAA could have nipped this in the bud 20 years ago. All they had to do was share a fraction of the money they made from using players’ names in video games, which was the right thing to do on every moral and legal level imaginable, and then allow schools to throw kids a few bucks when they sold jerseys with their names and numbers on them. But, no, they insisted on protecting the “sanctity of amateur sports,” when college football and basketball decidedly hadn’t been amateur at the highest level for at least a generation, and refused to allow any of that to happen. Now we’re in a wild west where the NCAA has no rules or control and no higher authority is interested in stepping in to create ground rules. The result is kids getting paid flatly to play at specific schools rather than profiting off the use of their name, image, and likeness as was supposed to happen. Boosters are funneling money into NIL collectives rather than university booster organizations or general funds.
Congrats, NCAA! You managed to both destroy college sports while trying to protect it, and create a significant financial shortfall for universities at a moment when they face increasing budgetary hostility from the legislatures that fund them. That is some amazing work!
Replay/Refs
Pretty much every game I watch these days refs make terrible calls. WNBA refs might be the worst I’ve ever seen, worse even than high school refs. At least high school refs are out-of-shape, thin-skinned, semi-pros so you expect them to suck. I think WNBA refs make up the rules as they go some nights. Twice in their playoff series the Fever had to use a challenge in the first quarter because the referees assigned a foul to the wrong player. In each case it was obvious an error was made, but the refs made no move to correct their call, forcing the Fever to burn a challenge early. Fortunately, in each case they won and the call was changed. ESPN’s Rebecca Lobo blasted the refs and league for putting the Fever in that situation. A referee mistake should not force a team to burn their challenge.
Refs suck. You know what else sucks? Replay. In so many ways.
We can see a replay on TV and often in five seconds know if a call was right or wrong, then we sit around for three minutes while the refs try to figure it out. And then sometimes the refs still come up with the completely wrong call. The worst is in college basketball, where they will review an out-of-bounds call, realize the initial call was wrong, in the process see there was a foul that went uncalled, but can only change who has possession, not assign the foul that caused the turnover.
Then there are all stupid rules about what is and is not a catch in football. Or how in baseball a player’s body coming a fraction of an inch off the bag for a fraction of a second somehow means he was out. And so on.
I’m pretty sure I’ve suggested this before but I think replay review should only be shown at real-time speed. We don’t need to slow it down to one frame per second to analyze whether a ball moved a fraction of an inch when a receiver hit the ground. If we’re checking the refs, we need to check them at the same speed they made the call.
Yeah, folks will throw a fit if slow-mo shows detail that real time does not. That’s a downside I’m more willing to live with than how replay is used now.
And every review should be a coach’s review, with a limited number of challenges per contest. Give us back our games!
Kids
I forgot to mention the M got her sorority Little last weekend. It was the girl she/we expected, an architecture student from California. They both looked excited in the pictures we saw, so that’s good. We were worried the new girl wouldn’t be as into the process as M and her Big were last year. Looks like she can at least fake it.
We submitted C’s two college applications she plans on sending Monday evening. One to IU, her top choice, and one to UC. M got her acceptance letters from both schools in mid-November of her senior year, so we should know fairly soon.
Our mailbox has been flooded with promotional material from schools for both C and L. This week C got a package from High Point University. When we opened it up, this book was inside.
It’s a legit, hardback book. She hasn’t checked a box expressing any interest in them, so I assume thousands of these went out unsolicited. I guess at a hair under $70K a year, before aid, they can afford to send some books out. Seems like a weird choice for 17–18 year olds, though.
L has been sick for a couple weeks. It’s been so bad that she’s had to skip a few morning basketball workouts. We’re are pretty sure she had/has mono, but when we had blood work done last week, somehow the mono test got lost. There were other indicators that suggest mono so we’re going with that. Official basketball practice begins in three weeks, hopefully enough time for her to start feeling better.
ESPN
The alleged World Wide Leader is having rough times. Last week they laid off Zach Lowe, one of the best sports writers/analysts across all sports, and the finest basketball analyst they had. Another sign all they care about is the hot-take side of “analysis” that can be chopped up into Tik-Tok videos.
Also, last week I was sitting in a waiting room reading their story about the final home game for the Oakland A’s. It was a great story, and proof that ESPN does still allow some long-form journalism to take place under its watch.
But check out how user-hostile the reading experience was.
I’ve noticed this a lot lately. You get roughly halfway through a piece and this footer filled with disclaimers, etc pops up. You can’t dismiss it. You can scroll up and it will disappear, but when you scroll back down it returns. It remained on my screen until I finished the article. It’s not even a freaking ad, just a bunch of legalese that the reader should be allow to dismiss, or better yet, should auto-hide after a few seconds.
Finally, multiple times Monday ESPN showed graphics for the baseball playoffs that were completely wrong. One had the Royals and Tigers flipped, the Royals playing Houston and Detroit going to Baltimore. At least this one you could kind of explain away. The Royals and Tigers finished with the same record, the Royals getting the five seed thanks to winning the season series with Detroit. Obviously someone didn’t know the tie-breaker rules and either gave Detroit the higher spot because of alphabetical order or because they had a better record over their last 10 games. Or because they didn’t bother to look at MLB.com to get the official bracket. Still super dumb, but understandable since ESPN, like much of sports media, has fired many of their experienced editors and replaced them with cheap talent that doesn’t understand context.
Later in the day, though, they flashed a graphic that had Oakland in the playoffs. The A’s finished 17 games out of the final Wild Card spot. Worse, they had them playing the Padres…on the National League side of the bracket. I guess leaving Oakland means the A’s are also switching leagues?
US Open, week two
The non-stop action of week one is more fun, but week two still dominated our TV.
A-
The Americans, season four
In general The Americans is a bleak show. I forgot how beyond-bleak season four was. Thirteen episodes of crushing negativity, applied a little heavier each week. Important characters are killed or deported or exfiltrated or question everything about themselves. It wasn’t as flashy as some of the earlier seasons, but perhaps that makes it more like what spying really is like? Also a reminder that this show kept getting better as it progressed.
A
The Americans, season five
When it initially ran, this was the lowest rated season of The Americans aside from the first year. Now, that meant a 94 on Metacritic so “lowest rated” is relative, but people still complained about its slowness and rather restrained finale. Watching it when you know what comes next changes that. This was indeed a slow year, with lots of long, drawn out scenes featuring sad gazes and exhausted sighs. But it was all about setting up the decision the Jennings made near the end, and how that choice would carry over to season six. It also continued to focus on the tedium of being a spy than the cool, James Bond-y parts of the job. And while the finale lacked fireworks, it had a huge emotional impact. Ten episodes to go, which include several of the best in the show’s entire run.
B+
Pearl Jam – Orpheum Theatre, Boston, 04.12.1994
So fun and interesting to go back and watch this, considered one of their greatest shows of the era, and compare it to seeing them in person last month. A lot of experimentation on stage, with songs from Vs. not fully fleshed out yet in the setlist. Dave A on drums, for better and worse. Eddie weird, angry, and distant. Not even three albums into their career they could still bust out a 25-song show. The video quality is about a D-, but the sound is incredible.
A+
Shorts, YouTubes, etc
How an Interior Designer Maximizes Her 650 Square Foot NYC Apartment
This brings back memories of the two small, urban apartments I lived in alone before I got married. Of course, I was a late 20s/early 30s single dude and put zero effort into decorating or where the furniture would go. What a surprise this video was! You can actually put thought and care into your living space, no matter how small it is.
The Office moments that were NOT scripted
It would be more fun to see how these moments came about, and any breaks they caused in early takes, rather than the finished product, where they don’t stand out as much.
A Tour of Antarctica by Drone
This is nine years old. I wonder what an updated version of this would look like, between the better drone technology and what elements of the film have changed because of climate change.
The Conet Project – Disc one
After reading the two Jeff Tweedy books, I listened to a bunch of Wilco music, including their 2001 album Yankee Hotel Foxtrot, which took its name from this, a collection of recorded shortwave radio spy transmissions. So, naturally, I had to go listen to the Conet Project. Or at least the first disk. Remember, I had a shortwave radio as a kid so this shit is cool to me.
The Ringer WNBA Show
It took me a while but I finally added a WNBA pod to my collection. In my defense this one, hosted by the fantastic Seerat Sohi, is a new spin off from The Ringer’s NBA pod feed. I really enjoyed the episode that looked at the end of the Fever’s season, what they did right, what they did wrong, and the moves they need to make to improve their odds next year.
Another weekend in the books. This one had some familiar elements, yet was still quite different than other recent weekends.
Helene
The biggest event of the weekend was the remnants of Hurricane Helene kind of ruining our weekend. That’s overstating things. Other people had far worse weekends than we did because of the weather. But it was cloudy, breezy, and muggy at best all weekend. Off-and-on drizzle all day Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. And then about five hours of pretty intense rain and wind Friday evening as the biggest waves from the storm blew through between 5:00 and 10:00 PM.
We were very lucky. Our power blinked a few times Friday night, but never fully went out. Which is a miracle given that the line that feeds our house runs through dozens of old trees that are growing into/against it. I was sure at least part of the line had pulled loose at one point, as we kept getting little waves of partial outages. But we made it through. Lots of people around us lost their power for much longer than a few seconds.
We desperately needed the rain, so that was welcome. TV said we were somewhere between an inch and inch-and-a-half of rain for the storm. Normally when we get any significant rain our sump pit in the basement will make lots of noise as it fills and the pump ejects the collected water. It had been so dry here none of the rain made it to the pit and our basement remained eerily quiet.
Driving and walking around Saturday and Sunday there were tons of big trees and limbs down in our part of the city. Lots of power crews working to repair lines. We just had one small branch come down in our yard, along with lots of leaves. Again, very lucky.
We have friends who were not so fortunate.
Parents of one of S’s best friends live on Anna Maria island. We spent our first day of spring break this year at their house while we were waiting for our rental to open. Friday night they had water waist-deep inside their house. Our friend lost contact with them overnight, and she was freaking out. Fortunately cell service came back up Friday morning and they were safe. However, they likely lost everything they own inside the house.
S also found video of the place in Siesta Key where we are going for spring break this coming year. It took a lot of water damage. It is a high rise, so we are hoping our rooms aren’t on the first floor and got through without any damage.
She also has an old friend in Asheville, NC which is apparently in terrible shape because of flooding. S sent her a text and got a response, but no real word on how they are doing.
High School Football
Cathedral picked a great week to have a bye. I’m sure the coaches weren’t thrilled to have a hole in their schedule, but they were able to avoid having to deal with the weather.
Most games here Friday were postponed to Saturday. But some foolish schools decided to play. The worst of the storm was going through right during game times Friday. At their peak, the winds were gusting to around 70 MPH. Oddly there was no lightning associated with the storm, so most games that started just kept on going through the worst of it. A couple games kicked off then stopped when the power went out.
Although the Irish were off, I did have football plans for the night. Our friend Coach H was bringing his team to play NC, the school across the street from us. That game was moved to Saturday morning, so I walked over and watched with Mrs. H. Poor NC entered on a 32-game losing streak. Coach H’s guys did their job and easily extended that streak to 33 games. It was fun to catch up with Mrs. Coach.
The Jayhawks
As the season continues to go down the toilet, I can step back a bit and react from a distance. Noticing things like it’s interesting how you can be mad about one thing during a game, then afterwards realize you should be mad about something else completely.
During the loss to TCU Saturday, most KU fans were steaming about a series of replay reviews and calls/no-calls that went against KU. All were very close, but in the heat of the moment they all seemed horribly wrong.
After the game, though, it was clear KU didn’t lose that game because of the refs. They lost, mostly, because on three massive plays, they missed a total of 187 tackles. They let what is basically a fullback run a punt back over 80 yards for a touchdown. They had the TCU QB dead in the backfield only to let him slip away and complete a pass that not only secured a massive first down, but turned into another score when tackles were missed on the back half of the play.
Offensive coordinator Jeff Grimes is taking most of the ire of KU fans because his offense seems unimaginative and predictable while former OC Andy Kotelnicki took his super-fun offense to Penn State and is doing amazing things. And Grimes deserves that ire. His offense is dumb and his play calling at times infuriating. Not giving the ball to the best running back in school history one time when you have first and goal inside the five is just stupid.
But the defensive coaches need to take their share of the blame. They haven’t figured out a way to either get consistent pressure on the quarterback or cover receivers downfield. There are far too many big holes for receivers to get open and run freely. On top of that, this team tackles terribly. It’s like they don’t practice it.
Last year’s defense often played bend-but-don’t-break football. This year they break early and often. They had three take-aways Saturday, and should have had at least one more. And still gave up 38 points.
Honestly, I think you can summarize this year compared to last like this: last year, KU got nearly every break. This year, the Jayhawks are getting none. Watching games, you always expect something to go wrong. I think the players feel that, too. Which means things can get rougher as they lose faith. You know what I always say about KU football and things getting worse…
Colts
Hey the Colts with an impressive win, dropping 27 on the allegedly fearsome Pittsburgh defense. Twenty of those points coming after Anthony Richardson, shockingly, left the game with an injury. Old man Joe Flacco can still fling it. The defense was incredible early and made a couple huge plays late to hold off the rallying Steelers.
Again, I refuse to judge Richardson until the end of the year. But, man, he threw a couple more just incredible balls in the first two drives of the game. Then he got destroyed on two different QB runs and had to leave the game. Will Levis was the other option for the Colts to draft a year ago, and he looks like a disaster at this point, so I think AR was the right choice. It feels like he’s always, always, always going to be a massive risk-reward player, though. He’s got some Joel Embiid in him where even when he does the right thing, he manages to get some total freak injury. But, again, I’m not judging him yet.
Oh, would you be surprised that there were a series of incredibly inconsistent calls by the refs in this game? They both helped and hurt the Colts. Between this and the KU game, I’m about done with football refs. Looking forward to basketball refs ruining my life in about a month.
Royals
The Kansas City Royals are in the playoffs! One year after losing 106 games. What a turnaround, and totally unexpected. I would have been thrilled if they got close to .500 this year. If not for a bad September, the R’s would have been well over 90 wins in 2024.
That stumble to the finish doesn’t exactly inspire confidence for the Wild Card series with Baltimore. But the playoffs are all about pitching and the Royals have three solid starters, when they are on, plus the bullpen has been terrific for the last month or so. If they can just find a way to string together some hits again they have every chance to advance. A Royals-Yankees divisional series would be fun for us old folks.
I expect these playoffs to be much less stressful for me than the Royals’ runs in 2014 and 2015. I’m less invested now, the games move quicker, I drink less than I did a decade ago, and I have lower expectations. I still need to add sunflower seeds to my shopping list so I can recreate some of the magic from those two Octobers.
We are bracing for the remnants of Helene in Indiana this morning. It is already raining and windy. By this afternoon heavy rain and gusts over 50 MPH are expected. Should make high school football interesting. CHS picked a good week to not have a game scheduled.
“Pop Seeds” – The Jesus and Mary Chain
More completely enjoyable music from the Reid brothers.
“whirling sad” – Mo Dotti
LA shoegaze FTW.
“Sometimes, I Swear” – The Vaccines
File this one under Songs That Came Out A Year Ago That I Just Now Found. Hate when that happens.
“Somewhere” – Mates of State
Kori Gardner’s and Jason Hammel’s first new music in nine years. I don’t think they have lived in Lawrence, KS in a long time, but that’s where they started, so I’ll always claim them as LFK locals.
“Wildflowers” – Jim Nothing
Oh man, so much wonderfulness wrapped up in one song. Equal parts Eighties, indie jangle and classic Down Under pop vibes. Nothing is from New Zealand, so there has to be some Neil Finn DNA in there somewhere, too.
“The Great Divide” – Wussy
It’s been six years since we got new music from Wussy. During that gap guitarist John Erhardt died. They will make up for that absence by releasing a full-length album, Cincinnati, Ohio, and two EPs on the same day in November. This was a late addition to the album. Thank goodness they discovered this little piece of magic, which draws a lot from Erhardt’s death, floating in the studio air.
“Rain” – The Cult
You should have known something like this was coming given the forecast.
“Habits” – Gary Clark, Jr.
I debated whether to include this. It’s a terrific song, for sure. But at over nine minutes, I would imagine it sets some kind of record for length of song in these playlists. And there are several other really good songs on Clark’s new album. There’s something extra special about this one, though, that demanded I select it.
“I Feel For You” – Chaka Khan
Back to the timeless, mega hits of Eighty-Four! One of the most fun and unique songs of that fantastic year. It is also part of Prince’s takeover of the pop charts for a solid chunk of the decade. First written for Patrice Rushen (along with “I Wanna Be Your Lover”), she turned it down, so Prince recorded it for his self-titled, 1979 album. Chaka Khan got a hold of it a few years later, added rapping from early hip-hop icon Melle Mel, harmonica and sampled vocals from Stevie Wonder, and took it to #3. Melle Mel’s repetition of Chaka’s name at the beginning was not planned. Producer Arif Mardin accidentally hit a button while mixing the song that caused the stutter. He liked the way it sounded and kept it on the final mix. You can argue that was the element that made the track unforgettable.
Three songs kept it from reaching #1: Wham’s “Wake Me Up Before You Go Go,” which was #1 for two weeks and #2 for another week, then Hall & Oates’ “Out of Touch” which was #1 in Chaka’s third week at #3. The other song? Prince’s “Purple Rain,” in one of its two weeks at #2. Because of the weird chart rules at the time, despite peaking in late 1984, “I Feel For You” was officially one of the five biggest songs of 1985. It cracked the Top 40 this week at #38.
The first year of the Indiana Fever’s Caitlin Clark era came to an end Wednesday night in an 87–81 loss to Connecticut in the first round of the WNBA playoffs. The Fever had an early lead then fell behind by double-digits multiple times, the last time midway through the fourth quarter, before mounting a furious rally and taking the lead with two minutes to play. Three consecutive Sun 3’s ended the hopes of getting the series back to Indianapolis for a decisive third game.
The game was a microcosm of the entire season. The Fever looked brilliant at times; totally helpless against an older, more experienced foe at others. There were possessions when the Fever struggled to get on the same page, the offense bogging down when the wrong player got the ball and no one moved to help them. However, during the run when they grabbed the lead, they were locked in, making passes before teammates began their cuts and the ball getting to the ideal spot at the ideal instant. For a team with almost no bench depth that required Clark and Kelsey Mitchell to play every minute of a brutally tough game, the Fever did pretty damn good to push the game to its closing seconds.
The other thing from this game that made it a good summation of the entire season: the building was packed, and it felt like half the crowd was cheering for the Fever. It was more like a high school tournament game on a neutral court than a professional playoff game played on one team’s home court over 800 miles away from the road team’s arena.
And there was Caitlin’s performance. She swished her first two long 3’s of the game. She made a few amazing passes. She also had a number of shots fall short during a stretch in the second half when she looked completely gassed. While she had just three turnovers, those were all because she got a little sloppy with the ball. A couple other probable turnovers deflected off the defense and went out of bounds. Teammates couldn’t finish when she set them up perfectly. She bickered with Sun players, the refs, and even the fans. Again, it all summed up her first year in the league.
I don’t think you can give her rookie year anything but an A. She led the league in assists and finished in the top 10 in scoring. Even people who were bullish on her transition to the pro game wouldn’t have expected 19+ points and over eight assists a game. There were rocky moments throughout the season, but she got better as she got more comfortable with both the pro game and her teammates. She handled all that came with being the new face of the league wonderfully. Holly Rowe interviewed her after the first quarter last night, a quarter in which she had jawed with both DeWanna Bonner and the refs, and she smiled and laughed when Rowe called her “spicy.” She’s been great with the media all year, which can’t be easy. The Fever had the highest home and road attendance numbers in the league, and blew away every TV rating number.
Her season was not perfect. She often plays with too much of an attitude. One local writer, appearing on a national podcast, said she plays “like an asshole.” Which he loved, for the record. I thought that was a solid way to label her: I bet she wears everyone out over the course of the game. She came very close to earning a one-game suspension for earning too many technical fouls during the regular season. Honestly she probably deserved that seventh T many times and was fortunate that refs walked away from her. I think she’s too negative when things don’t go her way. She flops a lot on hard contact while she hammers people on the other end. She’s not the first player to do any of that.
My biggest critiques, though, are about her game, and things that will get better the longer she plays. She needs to tighten up her handle a little, as she was picked clean too often by defenders like Connecticut’s Dijonai Carrington. She was never a great defender in college, often playing free safety rather than directly guarding people. She needs to improve her D both to help her teammates and avoid some of the cheap fouls she gets because she’s slow to a spot. She had a tendency to check out momentarily when she was pissed at the refs or herself, forcing her teammates to cover for her. She’ll get stronger which will help every aspect of her game. She just ended a 12-month cycle of nearly non-stop play. She claims she has no plans to either play overseas or in either of the 3-on–3 options available over the next few months, which hopefully means both rest and a chance to work on her body and game outside the rigors of the normal practice-play-repeat cycle of the season.
I have no idea how WNBA free agency and roster building works. Kelsey Mitchell is a free agent and the Fever absolutely need to bring her back. She was a perfect compliment to Clark in the backcourt, a cool, steady counter to Clark’s more fiery game. They also have to find someone who can play both guard spots off the bench, giving Clark and Mitchell the opportunity to sit down without the team falling apart in their absence. Aliyah Boston needs help on the boards, as giving up offensive rebounds was often the biggest factor in their losses and defensive rebounding fueled their attacking game.
There were some other negative aspects to the season, but those came from the outside. Commentators and fans who insisted on making the season a binary Caitlin vs Angel Reese competition until Reese suffered a season-ending injury. The people who used Clark’s presence as a platform to project their own political arguments without considering if she felt the same or asking for her support.
After Wednesday’s game, Sun player Alyssa Thomas called out Fever fans for racist comments on social media. Now, I live in a deeply red state, so I have no doubt a lot of what she was referencing indeed came from people here in Indiana. I’m betting, though, most of them came from people who probably rarely, if ever, watched a WNBA game before this year, have zero interest in the league aside from Clark, and view her as their opening to take shots at people within the league who say things and live their lives the commentators don’t like. The WNBA is filled with intelligent, vocal women who stand up for causes they believe in. A lot of those women are Black. A solid chunk of them are gay. Many of them lean to the political left. What better way to own the woke libs than to tell these people to shut up and dribble while supporting the woman they assume to be white, Christian, conservative savior from Iowa now playing in Indiana?
Of course, other than liking a Taylor Swift post, Clark hasn’t made a peep about politics. She may not care about politics, one of those athletes far more consumed with the game than anything else. Or she may be aware that she has a unique platform and doesn’t want to offend anyone. Or maybe she does have strong feelings one way or the other, but was just overwhelmed by all she had to deal with this year and decided she wasn’t ready to step out onto any political limbs. Look what liking a post did. Can you imagine if she actually expressed an opinion?[1]
That really should be a different post and I’ve already wasted too much time on it.
The big takeaway is that this was a terrific first season in Indiana for Clark. She and the team got much better from May-to-September. Two seasons ago the Fever won five games. This year they won 20. I can’t tell you the last time I willingly watched a WNBA game before this season. I probably watched 30–35 of the Fever’s games this year. I’m excited about the future of the team. Hopefully I find an affordable way to get L and I to a game next season.
I have zero idea what her politics are, but one local blogger pointed that that just as conservatives can assume she’s with them because she’s a white girl from Iowa, there is plenty in her background that suggests she could be liberal. Again, until she actually tells us, we don’t know, and it’s dumb to think we know. ↩
