Archives

Reaching For The Stars, Vol. 129: Chart Week: September 4, 1982 Song: “Valley Girl” - Frank Zappa Chart Position: #34, 8th week on the chart. Peaked at #32 for two weeks. Frank Zappa was not a pop artist. Nothing about his music was aimed at earning airplay on mainstream pop stations. If you heard his songs on the radio, it was …

NFL Predictions: The NFL season begins tonight, the latest blow in the war of dumb against all that is decent in sports. It’s been bad enough that the season has started on Thursday for years. But adding a Wednesday game so they can play a game in Australia on Thursday, US time, is taking things to a whole other …

Weekend Notes: Going to try to blow through this rather quickly, taking a day-by-day approach. Also, I’ll note up top where it, hopefully, does not get overlooked, that this site may be a bit wonky for the next week or so. I’ll explain once things are locked down but if you get errors at any point, please be …

Friday Playlist: Fewer songs this week, but I make up for that by including two songs that are a combined 13 minutes long. “Insignificant Other” - Queens Of The Stone Age QOTSA does the Atlanta Rhythm Section? And Josh Homme sounding more like Chris Cornell than he ever has. I definitely dig! “Sweet Devotion” - …

Reader's Notebook, 9/3/26: After completing nine books in July I totally slacked off and read just seven in August. Embarrassing. Adding insult to injury, my last two books of the month were both strange and unsatisfying. The Unveiling - Quan Barry This was included in the 2026 Tournament of Books, which is generally a …

August Media: Movies, Shows, Etc. Margo’s Got Money Troubles This got a more lengthy breakdown here. A- Hard Knocks I don’t think I’ve ever watched a Hard Knocks season in real time. Mostly because I’m not sure we’ve ever had HBO in the summer before this year. As always, I’m aware everything we are shown is …

Weekend Notes: HS Football Week two of the season started better for CHS, but ended with another loss. Up 13-7 on Loyola Academy at the half, the defense fell apart in the second half and the Irish lost 33-19. It could have been worse. Loyola had a long touchdown pass called back on their first offensive play of …

Friday Playlist: For obvious reasons making an adjustment to our format this week. [youtu.be/6xSEStRIs...](https://youtu.be/6xSEStRIs88?si=0foQfWMxaAln2KMR) “Jolene” - The White Stripes covering Dolly Parton I once read a fine summation of the greatness of the White Stripes’ take on Dolly’s classic. Paraphrasing, …

Dolly: It’s been a little over 10 years since I admitted that I finally understood people who cried when a famous person died. Two years later the death of a much lesser known singer completely floored me. Since then? No celeb death has had more than a momentary effect on me. As I began getting the texts …

Reader's Notebook, 8/25/26: Icarus 17 - Charles Cumming The latest entry in Cumming’s usually enjoyable BOX 88 series. In this one, his master spy Lachlan Kite has been asked by his former co-worker and one-time lover Martha to help find her son, Max, who has disappeared in Athens, Greece. Max is on the run with his …

Weekend Notes: Another fairly boring weekend for most of our family, so today’s entry will focus on sports. Senior Pics OK, one big family event over the weekend. L had her senior picture session on Sunday. C came home for a couple hours to help her with her makeup. I was allowed to help carry things to the car …

Friday Playlist: Going back-and-forth to Bloomington twice this week cut into my new music time. As I begin this, I anticipate it being a little lighter than usual, but we’ll see where the music takes us. [open.spotify.com/playlist/...](https://open.spotify.com/playlist/0NCsqo5Grrh3oz2UJ4D8Kx?si=b0d98e03eb6b4a0f) …

Weekend Notes: Yesterday was moving day for C, thus the flip of the blog schedule and your Weekend Notes dropping on a Tuesday. The Flood of ’26 Well, things certainly got interesting here over the weekend on the weather tip. Our week of torrential downpours culminated with the White River flooding through Carmel …

Reaching For The Stars, Vol. 128: Chart Week: August 4, 1984 Song: “The Warrior” - Scandal featuring Patty Smyth Chart Position: #33, sixth week on the chart. Peaked at #7 for two weeks in September. Who were the biggest songwriters of the Eighties? I’m not talking about Prince, Lionel Richie, etc, multi-platinum artists who wrote …

Friday Playlist: Songs about rain, three local/regional tracks, and despite Pumpkin Spice items beginning to show up in the grocery store this week, we keep the summer songs rolling. [open.spotify.com/playlist/...](https://open.spotify.com/playlist/5VWF8PMGYRSlYo3x8fw6OU?si=33a7d67615744890) “Rain” - The Beatles …

Reader's Notebook, 8/12/26: I’m spending my morning in a dentist’s waiting room while C gets the first of two crowns. What a way to wrap up her summer! With time to kill I figured I’d go ahead and do my next RN entry based on a single book. Fortunately it gave me a lot to think about and then share with you. Wearing The Lion …

Weekend Notes: Our boring weekends got a little more boring over the one just completed. No college visits. Thick humidity rolling in contributed to that quite a bit. I bet I can still crank out 1000+ words about the last three days. We had friends over during the day Saturday for a pool gathering. These are two …

Friday Playlist: [open.spotify.com/playlist/...](https://open.spotify.com/playlist/6EKTR0p52YxDs03Bprnh7W?si=72423cb62d8a4760) “All The Beauty” - Pete Yorn I like it better when Yorn makes B+ versions of his best songs than when he goes off on odd tangents. This is one of those good ones. “MMA” Hannah Cole When I …

More European Vacation Notes: I’ve been sitting on several leftover notes from our European vacation. At this point I doubt I’m going to remember anything interesting or important so seems like time to finally purge them from the notebook. Good grief, Europe is expensive! I know this isn’t a news flash or anything. It didn’t …

Reader's Notebook, 8/4/26: Well, July was quite the reading month. I knocked out nine books. NINE BOOKS!!! Three were rather slight things I loaded onto the Kindle for our trip that I won’t bother to include here. This entry includes five of those July books and then the first book of August. Headstone, Purgatory, Green Hell …

Weekend Notes: Another weekend that, honestly, not much exciting happened in our lives. Most of the weekend was dreary, from Friday evening until late Sunday afternoon. We got a decent downpour overnight into Saturday morning, enough that the pool cover pump was completely submerged when I tossed it out Saturday …

July Media: This is not as heavy as I thought it would be a few weeks ago. I didn’t watch nearly as many movies on our flights to/from Europe as I expected to. I had tickets to see The Odyssey last week, but a family snafu nixed that. Finally, I was lazy last week. I had a couple other movies lined up to watch …

Friday Playlist: For the second-straight week I am putting this together and scheduling it on Thursday evening, as I will be out of the house early Friday. Two throw back songs from the mid–90s mixed in with the new stuff, a tribute to a lost troubadour, and a summer classic to round it all out. Happy weekend to …

Spending Like Drunken Sailors: S and I have been cautiously counting down the various financial milestones we are about to check off as parents. Earlier this month we had a mini celebration when we paid CHS tuition for the final time. This is also the last year we will be paying tuition for three kids. As a family that chose to …

Weekend Notes: It was nice to have a laid back weekend after several weeks of travel and other nonsense. Although a few of us spent time in the car. Unfortunately, I am still sick. Today will be day 14. I guess this is my punishment for going so long without being ill in any way. Last week I tried one batch of …

Friday Playlist: I have a mega-glut of music after the past month’s travels. That means you will likely get extra-stuffed playlists for at least a few weeks as I work on clearing out that backlog. We’ll kick off this week with three new songs by bands that have been around since (at least) the early Nineties. Then …

World Cup Notes: Some words to wrap up the World Cup, which was unexpectedly delightful for most of the past month. Sunday’s final was a true snoozer. Poor Spain. The country that was never quite good enough has now won two of the last four World Cups. In each case, though, their opponent abandoned their typical …

Summer Vacation 2026: Four years after our first family vacation to Europe, we again jetted across the pond last week, splitting it between London and Dublin. It was a pretty good trip, although there were two significant bummers and a couple other smaller disappointments that kept this from surpassing either Italy or …

Friday Playlist: Our travels, holidays, etc have me off my new music game. I’ve been adding tons of music to my library for review, but have struggled to get through it. Fortunately we have something on our calendar that gave me the excuse to include several songs that would not normally make the list. Hopefully …

Reader's Notebook, 7/8/26: Two books that came with recommendation from Brother-In-Books Dave V. Although I would have read one even if he had not suggested it. The Heart’s Invisible Furies - John Boyne This one was a surprise. A thoroughly delightful novel about a rather unique Irishman, Cyril Avery. Born in the 1940s to an …

USMNT Postscript: Belgium 4, USA 1 That kind of sucked. And was also totally expected, given our nation’s history in the World Cup. It was certainly one of the biggest examples of Ball Don’t Lie, karmic paybacks I can recall in sports.[1] Don’t need to say much more about that aspect of the game. I’m also not going …

Holiday Weekend Notes: In some ways this was our most boring Fourth of July weekend ever. In other ways it was super packed with events. Independence Day We didn’t do a whole hell of a lot for the Fourth. S had a four-day weekend and she mostly used it to prep for our upcoming vacation. As we were between trips we …

Independence Day Playlist: This post hits harder this year, the 250th anniversary of the British Colonies in North America declaring independence from the Kingdom and establishing the United States of America as a free country. As always with these moments, between the cookouts and fireworks and cheesy commemorative t-shirts, …

June Media: A rather spare month. One of these entries was for just one episode. That will happen when you travel a couple weekends and spend more evenings outside on the back porch than inside on the couch. Movies, Shows, Etc. Your Friends & Neighbors, season two The finale was a doozy, setting up all …

Colorado Trip Notes: We had a wonderful, long weekend in Colorado, checking a number of boxes along the way. Somehow, despite sleeping poorly Saturday night, I was unable to sleep well last night. Forgive me if this is disjointed, and it may not be as inclusive as my trip summaries were in the past. The primary cause …

Friday Playlist: Hopefully this playlist comes together ok. I imagine I’ll schedule this to post on the normal Friday morning time slot. By then we will have left town about 18 hours earlier for a weekend in Colorado. I started putting this together Monday afternoon. Let’s see how it turned out! …

Quick NBA Draft Thoughts: The NBA Draft was once an annual opportunity for a lengthy, rambling post where I pretended to be Bill Simmons or some other national writer. Or at least that’s how my first ever blog post here went. 2026 seemed like a year to jump back into that routine, as a Kansas Jayhawk was poised to be …

Weekend Notes: Plenty happened over the weekend that requires at least a quick blurb or two. HS Basketball This was an evaluation weekend, when college coaches can come in and watch teams play, so CHS participated in one of the big, local events. Two games Friday, two Saturday. The team went 3–1. They won two …

Friday Playlist: So much new music this week from old friends, some of whom we have not heard from in years. In fact, there are so many songs that fall under that description that I can only play a few of them this week so there is room for other tracks. …

Weather And Sports Notes: We are very lucky this morning. Last night’s storms all passed just to the south of us. There were radar-indicated tornadoes about 30 minutes south of downtown Indianapolis.[1] A large tornado blew through the area where we used to own a lake house. C and I kept getting texts to shelter in place …

Reader's Notebook, 6/17/26: Something very odd happened last week: I did not read a single day. Or at least I did not read a book during the week; there were plenty of NBA Finals articles, Bluesky posts, and the other random bits of text I digested each day. But I did not (virtually) crack a book the entire week. It wasn’t for …

A Weekend In Chicago: What a great weekend! At least as far as my trip to Chicago was concerned. It was really a top notch trip, as Judge Smails would call it. I don’t know if this will be as detailed as some of my old trip summaries were, but here’s a general accounting of my 48-ish hours away. Travel Driving up to …

Friday Playlist: By the time most of you get to this post, I will be somewhere on I–65 between Indianapolis and Chicago. This playlist (mostly) celebrates the reason for my journey. [open.spotify.com/playlist/...](https://open.spotify.com/playlist/4KhaO7MwJpBblfBsD6qa0Y?si=3269d080c46e4c86) “Your Little Hoodrat …

Thursday Sports Notes: I had a couple quick-ish sports thoughts to share today. And then last night’s game four of the NBA Finals required over 1000 words… NBA Finals HOLY SHIT!!!!! ☠️☠️☠️ The Spurs did everything they were supposed to do to even the series before heading home for game five. They weathered a big Knicks …

Reaching For The Stars, Vol. 127: Chart Week: June 1, 1985 Song: “Voices Carry” - Til Tuesday Chart Position: #28, 8th week on the chart. Peaked at #8 the week of July 13. I am positively giddy as I prepare to write this entry. This song/band/countdown combination checks so many boxes that get me fired up to share music trivia with …

Weekend Notes: It was a proper summer weekend. The weather was warm and got warmer and muggier as the weekend progressed. That turned into torrential downpours Sunday afternoon. We lazed in the pool when the weather allowed. Sunday S and I went to the graduation party for the daughter of one of her partners. As it …

Friday Playlist: Looking at the calendar, we’ve reached Silly Season for my Friday music posts. This week L and I have to be out of the house at 7:00 AM for an all-day basketball tournament. In the next month or so I will be leaving the house early on a Friday for a weekend in Chicago, spending a long weekend in …

Wednesday Links: Brian Phillips lists some of the many ways tech makes our lives harder, more infuriating, etc. 4. Please, please stop asking me to verify my humanity by clicking on tiny motorcycles. OMG YES!!!! The 40 Most Rage-Inducing Problems in Tech And John Gruber wrote about a very specific example of how …

May Media: Movies, Shows, Etc. Your Friends & Neighbors, season two One episode left. There was a rather large cliffhanger at the end of episode nine that I was expecting to drop in #10,[1] so we’ll see what Friday’s finale has in store. Incomplete There’s Something About Mary A month or so ago I came …

Weekend Notes: A weekend with some big sporting events to discuss. Hibachi I did some Good Dad stuff to start the weekend. L’s favorite restaurant is a hibachi place near us. Since I got a Blackstone grill last year I’ve made a far-less-elaborate home version a couple times. She had bragged about my skills to her …

Friday Playlist: Unlike last week, I had almost too much music to pick from today. Let’s see how well I do editing. (One track, marked with ***, is not available in Spotify and I’m too lazy to adjust. Another vote for Apple Music…) …

Reader's Notebook: Polostan - Neal Stephenson I’ve not read a Stephenson novel since 2010. The blurbs for this one got me interested enough to pick one up again. This book, which kicks off a new series, takes place primarily in the 1920s and 1930s, flipping between the Soviet Union and US. At the heart of it is …

Weekend Notes: The first weekend of summer has passed. Based on the forecast for the next week or so, it looks like Monday Mother Nature finally decided to get her act together and push the cool, rainy weather away. I swam my first laps of the year Monday and we sat outside much of the day, enjoying the sun. L …

Emergency Monday Video: It is a Monday holiday, which normally would mean no posts. But with the horrible news Friday that hip hop legend Rob Base had passed at the age of 59, it seemed rude not to share the video of his biggest hit. “It Takes Two” came out of nowhere in the fall of 1988 and became a timeless classic. I …

Friday Playlist: As you can guess by the lack of activity on this website, it was a busy week for me. In strange ways, which we may or may not get to next week. Because of that, my working playlist for today was half-formed, at best. Good thing it is Memorial Day weekend, though. That unlocks multiple fun tracks for …

Weekend Notes: Another relatively unexciting weekend for us, with one notable exception. Saturday was rainy and lazy, the kind of day when you look out the windows and think it is in the 50s and are surprised to step outside and find it is actually near 70. Sunday was much better, approaching hot in the afternoon …

Friday Playlist: Perhaps a bit of an edge to this week’s playlist thanks to the general theme of a few songs. [open.spotify.com/playlist/...](https://open.spotify.com/playlist/3Bk62PyZlhdVd8BRiPVDDH?si=154a3e9b9e0c494c) “American Dream” - Alabama Shakes Brittany is letting people know! “Heatin Park” - DMA’S As if …

Wednesday Links: After a long dry spell, I finally have some good stories from around the Internet to share. This is an amazing piece of journalism that, so as to not provide spoilers, I will not attempt to describe. I think this passage at its close is the best summation: Some stories take on a life of their own …

Weekend Notes: Not much went on this weekend in our house, so we’ll focus on a few basketball stories. NBA Draft Lottery So much for the Hoops Gods rewarding the Pacers for the heartbreaking loss of Tyrese Haliburton at the worst possible moment in the NBA Finals a year ago. After a season of tanking, which only …

Friday Playlist: [open.spotify.com/playlist/...](https://open.spotify.com/playlist/2qXzUcQOdaiVAhbIYD5vSw?si=d2d865fe274e4e89) “Chance Encounters” - The Menzingers These guys almost always hit. I heard this for the first time about four minutes after I posted last week’s playlist. “Like A Chump” - Mute Swan This …

Reader's Notebook, 5/6/26: The Buffalo Hunter Hunter - Stephen Graham Jones My second Tournament of Books read of the year, I enjoyed this one more than the first. It falls into a genre I don’t usually have much interest in. However, its presentation was so unique that I really enjoyed it. The novel is built around a diary …

April Media: Movies, Shows, Etc. Shrinking, season three Well God damn, they absolutely nailed the landing here. This season was very good, but I was a little annoyed throughout as it didn’t seem to be moving forward much. Or at least Jimmy wasn’t. And as the main character, it seemed like he should be doing …

Weekend Notes: Finally a weekend with a few more activities. Crowded House Saturday morning S and I drove down to Bloomington to move C home for the summer. She had brought some stuff when she came home for L’s prom, and was confident we could get everything into S’s Telluride. Man, it was close. We had pretty …

Friday Playlist: [open.spotify.com/playlist/...](https://open.spotify.com/playlist/4QWhz7iaOteJt4JvXALj1V?si=fd9ef1fe6bee4b5d) “First Of May” - Jonathan Coulton USE CAUTION WHEN LISTENING TO THIS AT WORK. Unfortunate that we are sliding into a cooler-than-normal spring as we flip the calendar to May. I did some …

Reaching For The Stars, Vol. 126: Chart Week: April 22, 1978 Song: “More Than A Woman” - Tavares Chart Position: #34, 17th week on the chart. Peaked at #32 the week of May 6. When I was a young music fan, any statement Casey Kasem made on American Top 40 was accepted as an absolute fact. What Walter Cronkite was to adults, Casey …

Jayhawk Talk: The Big Commit and A Spring of Swings: Warning: long, meandering college hoops recruiting talk ahead. Just skip if that’s not your thing. I haven’t looked back to track this exactly, but it feels like there have been a lot of springs in the last 10 years or so where KU basketball seemed hopeless, the up-coming season a disaster waiting …

Weekend Notes: It has been weird getting to Monday mornings lately and, more often than not, struggling to find things to write about. No kid sports. The sports I write about most are out-of-season. I’m waiting for a couple players to make their final decisions on where they play next year before diving into the …

Friday Playlist: [open.spotify.com/playlist/...](https://open.spotify.com/playlist/0eWS0WFktT04UpqmcPCG7v?si=1442bca6432c4848) “Radio” - Junior Varsity Back in my music podcast days, I liked to begin each transmission with a song that referenced either radio or political struggle, to represent my fight against …

Staying Put (Maybe): The Royals are getting a new ballpark. I wasn’t sure what punctuation to use after that sentence. An exclamation point, suggesting excitement? A question mark, noting that despite the length of yesterday’s press conference there weren’t a lot of hard details, and given how long this saga has already …

When The Digital World Makes It Difficult To Remember: Yesterday was the 10th anniversary of Prince’s death. His passing is a celebrity death I can remember exactly where I was when I got the news. More significantly, it was the first celebrity death that genuinely floored me. Sometimes it still does. Prince seemed mysterious and eternal. He wasn’t …

Reader's Notebook, 4/21/26: Tomlinson’s Wake - Randy Wayne White Another book from Steve Donoghue’s Best of ’25 lists. And another one that didn’t quite work for me. Apparently the main characters in this book have appeared in previous books by White, so perhaps not having a history with them affected my enjoyment. The opening …

Weekend Notes: A focus on family in today’s post. Prom Saturday was L’s junior prom. Originally the plan was for her and a group of girlfriends to go together. A month ago we rented a sprinter van that would hold up to eight, with plans for everyone to gather, get ready, and do pictures at our house before the …

Friday Playlist: A pretty solid playlist this week. Two songs I’m especially jazzed about. [open.spotify.com/playlist/...](https://open.spotify.com/playlist/5ULdIllOsaPvq3bHDqmJN7?si=e64ab5db785143e7) “ATTEMPT A CRASH LANDING - THEME” - The Twilight Sad Kind of a pretentious title, between the name itself and the …

Reaching For The Stars, Vol. 125: Chart Week: April 10, 1982 Song: “Juke Box Hero” - Foreigner Chart Position: #26, 9th week on the chart. This was the song’s peak. There are songs, albums, and bands that are foundational to our love of music but get forgotten as we age. We go through phases, tastes shift, and over four or five …

Weekend Notes: I had a very quiet weekend. L scooped ice cream both Friday and Saturday nights. She had some friends over Sunday, one of whom got promposaled here. S went down to Cincinnati for M’s sorority Ladies’ Day on Saturday, spending the night. Sunday L and S went to a bridal shower for L’s “god cousin.” C …

Friday Playlist: For the second straight week we lock into a general vibe through this entire playlist. Rather than being reserved, though, this one is bright and full of the vibrance of spring. [open.spotify.com/playlist/...](https://open.spotify.com/playlist/2syOK1WY3q1SkcAODbaVJn?si=7cf573799e134e48) “Pay No …

Wednesday Links: A big ol’ bag of links to get you through the day. An amazing, super in-depth profile of Robyn. Listening to her music, you’re not enveloped in the minutiae of her emotional universe, as you are with someone like Taylor Swift. Rather, Robyn will extract from her universe the simplest of plots—a …

Weekend Notes: Final Four Well, at least UConn lost. That’s the only good takeaway from the men’s Final Four for a neutral observer. The championship game was an ugly slog. Michigan was clearly the better team all night, but was missing easy shots, then forced things by taking terrible shots. The teams combined to …

Reaching For The Stars, Vol. 124: My Easter weekend extends through today, so I’ll save the weekend notes for tomorrow and instead get back on the Reaching For The Stars horse after too long of a break. Chart Week: April 5, 1986 Song: “What You Need” - INXS Chart Position: #6, 12th week on the chart. Peaked at #5 the week of April …

Final Four: Some quick Final Four thoughts. I was downtown Monday evening and the place was deserted. However, preparations were well underway for this weekend’s events.[1] One popular restaurant had shut down early and was getting a thorough floor cleaning. A nearby hotel was having its exterior power washed. …

Friday Playlist: We are going to start out heavy but quickly fall into a mood. Seems appropriate for Easter weekend. [open.spotify.com/playlist/...](https://open.spotify.com/playlist/1MNQcI5gUVuNJu5V76OSSi?si=b247c3ab094449bc) “The House of I” - The Afghan Whigs The Whigs released a couple new covers earlier this …

Reader's Notebook, 4/2/26: I read three-plus books on spring break. I also had three blurbs written up before break that I should have posted two weeks ago. Combine those and you get an extra large helping of my reading notes. Bright Lights Big City - Jay McInerney I never read this, as it came out just a couple years before …

March Media: Movies, Shows, Etc. The Diplomat, season three I’m not sure why I put this off so long, this season debuted last fall. Once I started, I figured I would knock it out in four or five nights. However, the early episodes were a little slow and drifted towards the soapy side, as this show can do at some …

Jayhawk Talk: Another Frustrating End: I only watched a few minutes of basketball here and there over our spring break. It wasn’t that I couldn’t watch; CBS was available on our TV and I’m guessing the one quasi-sports bar on the site could get other games. My enthusiasm for the tournament was low to begin with and I figured I’d rather …

Spring Break 2026: It was a spring break different from any other we’ve taken. Turned out it was also one of the our best spring break trips, in no way because of who was not with us. First off, it was straight-up weird traveling with just one kid. Much different than when we traveled without M the last two springs. …

Friday Playlist: [open.spotify.com/playlist/...](https://open.spotify.com/playlist/12t00IxHlbIcqfDI9luYE7?si=4c8705a007bd4e91) “Vacation” - Touch Girl Apple Blossom We are off for our spring break tomorrow. This song is more about getting your heart broken than sitting in the sun, but it is jangly enough to evoke …

Final Picks: As expected, I’ve changed some of my Final Four picks. After the initial run, I realized I can’t have three Big 10 schools coming to Indy. Every time I’ve watched Illinois this year, their games have been awesome. The most potent offense in the country is a lot of fun to watch. Their band of Euros …

Wednesday Links: A couple college basketball related links as we prep for the tournament to launch in full force tomorrow. A great story about a moment in college basketball history I knew nothing about. The video clips, especially, are a time warp to another era. That was the winter I was discovering college …

Weekend Notes: Not a ton to talk about that isn’t basketball related. C came home for her spring break Friday. She took a detour to Cincinnati on the way. Her high school friend who goes to Auburn visited her in Bloomington on Wednesday and they drove over to visit friends at UC Thursday before finally looping …

Friday Playlist: Another week, another playlist. [open.spotify.com/playlist/...](https://open.spotify.com/playlist/4MbU06JBji8ubvRCE0kOpG?si=44b16e342eaa49ec) “I Danced With Another Love In My Dream” - Brigitte Calls Me Baby I’m telling you, if radio didn’t suck, this band would be on the verge of blowing up. The …

Sports Notes: Colts The Colts held on to their two most important free agent pieces this week. I’m not sure the process was right, nor am I sure the results were ideal. First, they slapped the transition tag on quarterback Daniel Jones. By doing so they immediately made wide receiver Alec Pierce a free agent, …

Reader's Notebook, 3/10/26: I forgot one book in last week’s entry, then another I’m saving because I have a similar book in my queue and I want to write about them together. I hope no one minds that these books are not in the exact order I read them in. The Anthony Bourdain Reader - Edited by Kimberly Witherspoon One down …

Weekend Notes: The quiet weekends continue. We started our latest in-home project, only to be foiled by problematic wallpaper. S painted a little bit. I cleaned some gutters. We started laying out clothes to prep for spring break packing. Other than that, slow times. Jayhawk Talk The one event of the weekend was …

Friday Playlist: I’ve been going through an especially persistent bout with my periodic insomnia this week. I have no idea how I couldn’t sleep last night but here we are, me bleary-eyed after hours of tossing and turning, getting up to read and reset my brain, then more tossing and turning. We’ll see how that …

Reader's Notebook, 3/5/26: Such Great Heights - Chris DeVille My second book about modern rock of the year. This one, by one of Stereogum’s best writers, covers the indie rock of the past 25 years. From its rise out of the ashes of ’90s alternative rock to its embrace of hip hop, R&B, and traditional pop music in more …

Wild Night: Sub-title Too Long For The Web: In Which An Effort To Unload Some Unused Furniture Becomes An Opportunity To Show What Nice People We Are The main title has nothing to do with KU’s loss Tuesday night to a very mediocre Arizona State team. A game in which Bill Self was ejected, Jacque Vaughn …

February Media: Movies, Shows, Etc. The Night Manager, season 2 Five years ago this show’s first season confused me a bit, as I struggled with its presentation and pacing. I found season two to be silly and uneven. There was some plot stuff that was flat-out strange and perhaps unnecessary. And I was annoyed when …

Weekend Notes: This will be a brief(ish?) entry as we had a rather lazy weekend and I need to get outside and push the snow that fell overnight off the driveway. It looks like close to 2” from inside.[1] CHS is delayed for two hours so L gets a longer weekend than she already had. Tomorrow will be in the 50s and …

Friday Playlist: I realized at about 10:35 Thursday evening that because I have an appointment Friday morning, if I didn’t put this together right away, I might not get it posted until nearly lunch time Friday. Let’s see if I can keep my eyes open long enough to crank out something worthy of your attentions. …

Wednesday Links: I haven’t read many pieces lately that seemed worth sharing. But there’s a very important TV premiere tonight that forced my hand. Even then, one of these is a YouTube video. I need to read more/better during my Internet time. OMGOMGOMG, Scrubs is back! One of my eight favorite comedies of all …

Sports Notes: Jayhawk Talk Well that was much better. Sure, it took about 17 minutes to get going, but once the Jayhawks found an offensive rhythm last night, they had no issues with Houston. Great games from Melvin Council Jr. and, especially, Tre White. Darryn Peterson played the whole game again! He didn’t do …

Weekend Notes: Last weekend was our first without football. This one was our first without high school basketball, at least directly. Yes, we’ve entered the dog days of winter. Mother Nature was sure to rub it in a bit. Jayhawk Talk Well that fucking sucked. Not just coming out like ass in a classic trap game. …

Friday Playlist: [open.spotify.com/playlist/...](https://open.spotify.com/playlist/5xIBXihq3JqosAMvRNQtVd?si=51a7c57336914af9) “This Tornado Loves You” - Neko Case “Victim Of Luck” - Metric I put these two songs together, that have nothing to do with each other, because of the weather just down the road last …

Weekend Notes: I didn’t intend to put this off a day, but Monday ended up including a trip to Bloomington so that kind of messed my routine up. Let’s get to the details of the weekend, which involved a couple rough basketball results. State Regionals Well, our girls damn near pulled it off. Saturday they were …

Friday Playlist: [open.spotify.com/playlist/...](https://open.spotify.com/playlist/0MeodQldwRTo8nMN8A80OH?si=45e24d68587445b3) “PUNK ROCKY” - ASAP Rocky One of many successful hip hop artists I knew the name of but was not familiar with their work. At least until I heard this terrific track on The Bridge a couple …

Reader's Notebook, 2/11/26: With all this terrible weather,[1] I’ve been doing some of that reading shit. Hotel Ukraine - Martin Cruz Smith Smith died last summer. Over his long career he wrote over 30 books, most famously his Arkady Renko series, which began with Gorky Park. I never read any of his books, although my mom …

Jayhawk Talk: An Allen Classic: It is funny how my relationship with sports in general and Kansas basketball in particular has changed in recent years. As I get older, I’m less fired up than I used to be. Or, better stated, less fired up as often. I can still work up some intensity, but it doesn’t last as long, good or bad. My …

Weekend Notes: One of the last busy weekends of the season before the late-winter lull hits. Super Bowl Every year around this time we have dinner with some good friends to celebrate a shared birthday, S’s and the male half of their duo. This year Super Bowl Sunday was literally the only day that worked for both …

Friday Playlist: A lot of really good music this week, including TWO videos! [open.spotify.com/playlist/...](https://open.spotify.com/playlist/4QFMOnnfVrZRmDROeqGzsq?si=b574a327800f49cb) “w-w-w-w-w” - hemlocke springs This is the latest in a new year I’ve ever gone without creating my working list of favorite …

Reaching For The Stars, Vol. 123: Chart Week: February 4, 1984 Song: “Break My Stride” - Matthew Wilder Chart Position: #5, 21st week on the chart. Peaked at #5 for three weeks. Nearly five weeks into the new year without any RFTS entries. Trust me, it’s been keeping me awake at night. Fortunately, during the countdown I listened …

Two Nights Of Hoops: An eventful first two nights of the week on the hardcourt. Let’s run through some notes from each. Jayhawk Talk The Jayhawks went to Lubbock, refused to take over a game that was there for the taking in the first half, let a couple of rotation players scorch them for about five minutes, and found …

January Media: The Pitt, season one If you haven’t watched, believe the hype. One of the best TV shows I’ve watched in some time. Completely engrossing, never a moment that felt wasted, incredible performances. A well deserved first Golden Globe for Noah Wylie. We will be watching season two as soon as we can …

Weekend Notes: We’ve reached the part of the year when our weekends get kind of boring. Weather is terrible. No football. Still, A LOT of basketball to get caught up on, at least from the past week. HS Hoops L remained out for the past week. It seems like she’s getting better but we’ll see how school goes today …

Friday Playlist: The new music is really starting to stack up, which is nice. Also some stuff going on in the world which inspired the inclusion of several other songs. [open.spotify.com/playlist/...](https://open.spotify.com/playlist/7n62MlP6Q2zACiliJt1X51?si=dc5b7c0a82b345b2) “Slumber Party” - Brigitte Calls Me …

Thursday Links: A couple links about where technology is headed. Joanna Stern does such great work with tech-focused multimedia for the Wall Street Journal. Here she shows how her team “broke” an AI agent that was tasked with running a vending machine. I found this both incredibly funny and creative, and another …

Wednesday Notes: A few more randoms to clear out of the notebook and brain. Weather Well, we got through the snow. The roads here in Indy were still anywhere from fair to terrible yesterday when I was out and about. CHS did eLearning the first two days of the week then began on a two-hour delay today. I drove L in …

Reader's Notebook, 1/27/26: The Devils - Joe Abercrombie Another book that appeared on multiple Best Of lists I scrolled through at the end of 2025. With good reason: it was one of the best books I’ve read in the past year or so. At its core this is your classic quest novel. A teenager is identified as the presumptive heir to …

Weekend Notes: A cold, snowy weekend that was pretty lazy when we weren’t braving the weather to clear our driveway. Weather The big event of the weekend was the massive winter storm that blew through the eastern half of the US. The snow started at our house around 4:00 Saturday afternoon and didn’t stop until …

Friday Playlist: A different week around our house, leaving less time for music, but I still managed to put a little something together for you to listen to. [open.spotify.com/playlist/...](https://open.spotify.com/playlist/3lWGQVRW1K3jR7dKPyaCNb?si=1a6fda3437564d34)    “Long Live Love” - Sugar The second new song …

The New Gym: We are three weeks into the New Year and I’ve still not written about an important development that took place over the holidays. I mentioned last fall that we were looking to convert part of our unfinished basement into a workout room. S had an appropriately bougie plan that would fit the rest of …

The Magical Ending: We moved to Indiana in the summer of 2003. IU basketball was one year past an unexpected run to the national title game, where they lost to Maryland. It seemed like they were coming out of a lean period and would reclaim their place amongst the game’s elite. While not inevitable, it felt like the …

Weekend Notes: I was thinking about putting off the Weekend Notes until tomorrow, given that today is a holiday. Since tonight is kind of a big night for the state of Indiana, I figured it’s better to clear everything out so I can focus on another topic tomorrow. HS Hoops City champs again! For the third straight …

Friday Playlist: The new music really started flowing again this week. At one point my folder of songs to review was crammed with more than 40 tracks. Trying to work through those means a lot of songs got only one play instead of several. As I type this nothing is really planned out for where this playlist will go, …

Reader's Notebook, 1/15/26: I started 2026 with two books that were recommended from a couple sources I trust. With mixed results. American Sky - James Grady This novel landed on the best non-fiction list of Steve Donoghue, a poster of tremendous and voluminous year end lists. Thus I was really excited to get to it, described …

Wednesday Catch Up Notes: A very good Tuesday night in our house. First, the Irish began the City tournament with an expectedly easy, 33-point win. Next, as a nice surprise, KU pounded previously unbeaten Iowa State. Can’t ask for a better evening than that. Rather than dive into those games, I’ll instead share a post I’ve …

Weekend Notes: CFP My goodness! I expected IU to beat Oregon. But like that? A complete ass kicking, the type you expect Alabama or Georgia or Ohio State to put on some feel-good-story team that got a bunch of breaks and stumbled into the playoffs? No, no way could the Hoosiers do that to the Ducks, a team loaded …

NFL Playoff Predictions: Every four weeks for the past four months I’ve shared some brief thoughts about the NFL season. The common theme was I had no idea what was going on, as teams took turns looking good for 2–3 games then looking terrible. Following that trend, as I look at the playoff bracket, I am befuddled. How the …

Friday Playlist: [open.spotify.com/playlist/...](https://open.spotify.com/playlist/1khaUmcFyoxiQgYpkKT6w2?si=e785712237c44101) “Gold Paint For Blue Skies” - Peter Matthew Bauer Former Walkmen lead singer Hamilton Leithauser released an excellent album almost exactly a year ago. Here his former bandmate’s latest …

Hoops Notes: Overtimes For Everyone: A wild couple nights of basketball that included three extra periods to resolve two games. Because of that, a rare mash-up of college and high school notes. Jayhawk Talk From the verge of a disastrous 0–2 Big 12 start to an exhilarating win that didn’t really answer the questions thanks to a pretty …

Reader's Notebook, 1/7/26: My final four books of 2025, which ended up being my most prolific reading year on record. Appropriately, and I’m not making this up, I read 67 books last year. Honest to God! SIX SEVEN!!!! Cross, Sanctuary, The Devil - Ken Bruen Three more entries in Bruen’s brilliant Jack Taylor series, read over …

Fitness Update: A few more catch up posts I need to crank through before we officially turn our backs on the old year. The final quarter of 2025 ended up being my worst workout stretch of the year. Not a huge surprise, as the weather turned, I had a couple weeks of foot pain, I spent several days shuttling C …

Holiday Break Notes: Shut down the blog for nearly two weeks and there’s a lot to catch up on. I’m sure none of you want to get back to work anyway, so consider this a public service on my part. Holiday Stuff It was your standard Christmas around our house. I spent nearly all Christmas Eve day prepping, making five …

December Media: The Usual Suspects Elf Christmas Vacation A Christmas Story A+, A+, A+ Holiday Baking Championship Well, they did it. After how ever many years of watching these holiday baking shows - at least a decade - the Food Network finally drove me away. Following the semi-debacle that was this year’s …

Friday Playlist: [open.spotify.com/playlist/...](https://open.spotify.com/playlist/6tvtOhBpV86iwslJC9dDey?si=bf12d86559754283)  “The New Year’s Resolution” - Spielbergs I made just one resolution this year, and I already broke it. Such is life. “Fighting Back” - Voxtrot Voxtrot had a little moment during the blog …

End Of Another One: For my readers who have followed me here for years - thank you all! - you know my brain works in very linear/circular ways.[1] I’m very into the rhythms of the year: the flow from week-to-week, the changing of the seasons, when school begins and ends, etc. Something was ingrained in my brain when I …

Favorite Songs of 2025: Once again we have reached the end of a calendar year and one of the greatest days of the blogging year: the unveiling of my favorite songs of 2025. This year the process was as fun as I can recall. As you know, I keep a running list throughout the year, constantly shuffling songs in and out as they …

Christmas Playlist: Time to close up Ye Olde Blogge Shoppe for the Christmas holiday. To celebrate I’m going to offer a playlist I last shared a couple years back that features some of my favorite Christmas music deep cuts. Some of these are fun, some are wonderful, all of them are terrific. Merry Christmas to all my …

Weekend Notes: A relatively chill weekend for us without any of our football teams playing and no KU basketball. Power Out Friday morning I was jolted out of bed around 5:30 when high winds sent a tree or branch into a power line located a couple hundred feet from our back windows. The sky lit up with all the fun …

Friday Playlist: I am putting the finishing touches on my Favorite Songs of 2025 list. Not sure if it will get posted before or after Christmas, but it is getting very close, my friends! For this week’s playlist I’ll share the songs that were in the running for the final list but just missed. …

Reaching For The Stars, Vol. 122: Chart Week: December 11, 1982 Song: “The Look Of Love (Part 1)” - ABC Chart Position: #20, 14th week on the chart. Peaked at #18 for three weeks in January 1983. As a true music geek, sometimes it really pisses me off when a band’s best song was not their biggest hit. I realize this is purely …

Wednesday Links: Some of these I knew, some were new. I can’t believe this one was new to me. “Love Will Tear Us Apart” by Joy Division was a direct response to the popular pop song “Love Will Keep Us Together” by Captain & Tennille. Very Good Music Fun Facts So fun he quickly did it again. More Very Good Music …

Weekend Notes: Winter is kind of horseshit. Talk about that and other things that happened over the past few days below. Winter Weather The biggest event of the weekend was our latest winter storm Saturday. We didn’t quite hit the predicted snowfall of 6–7 inches, but we were easily over 5” at our house. It …

Friday Playlist: Just enough songs this week to put together a playlist, with a little help from a couple seasonal tracks. This is likely the last normal FP of 2025. Also, I think I finally figured out how to embed Apple Music playlists. With Spotify becoming more and more problematic, I think it is important to …

Reader's Notebook, 12/11/25: The Poet’s Game - Paul Vidich Vidich’s books have been hit-and-miss with me, perhaps because they lean more towards proper literature than pulpy, exciting spy works. There’s a dryness and darkness to them that feels very Russian, and for me difficult to connect with. Honestly I could flip a coin on …

Reaching For The Stars, Vol. 121: Chart Week: December 1, 1984 Song: “Valotte” - Julian Lennon Chart Position: #18, seventh week on the chart. Peaked at #9 the week of January 12, 1985. When Julian Lennon released his first album in the fall of 1984, there was no mistaking his genetics. His voice was eerily similar to that of his …

Weekend Notes: A HUGE sports weekend in our house, for a lot of reasons. Border War I’ll start with the best part of the weekend, for me at least, KU pounding Mizzou in Kansas City. And Darryn Peterson was back! Well, kind of. That’s a whole other deal that I’m not going to get into today. The Tigers battled …

Friday Playlist: Apologies for there not being a playlist last week. I intended to post one but didn’t get around to it before I had to take C and her friend to the airport. That leaves me with a lot to share this week. We’ll see if I am able to edit or that means you get a super-stuffed edition this week. …

NFL: Down The Stretch They Come: As NFL week 14 begins tonight with a massive game between Dallas and Detroit - Are the Cowboys for real? Can the Lions salvage their season? - it reminds me I’m due for my monthly collection of thoughts on the league. Sadly the NFL remains as inscrutable as it has been all season. Two weeks ago it …

Wednesday Notes: A couple quick notes before an emergency high school basketball update. Weather We had winter storm #3 of the young season Monday evening into Tuesday morning. The heaviest snow of the event fell right during Monday rush hour, meaning both S and L had to drive home in it. They made it here safely, …

November Media: Video Slow Horses, season five A bit slower to start than some previous seasons, but a pretty fantastic ending. And plenty of Roddy Ho meant this might be the funniest season so far. At least one more season to come. A- The Lowdown Lots of critical praise for this, which turned out to be pretty …

Holiday Weekend Notes: Thanksgiving week 2025 is in the books. It was mostly good. Other than me thinking Friday was Saturday all day. Lots happened, so here’s a lengthy breakdown to wade through as you ease back into your routines. Thanksgiving We hosted this year, only having 15. We could fit everyone at one (big) …

Tuesday Links: This whole Olivia Nuzzi thing is wild. I remember reading one of her pieces a few years back, when she first rose to prominence, and thinking she was trying too hard to make herself part of the story. Little did I know! Another example here of a writer who only dabbles in politics cutting through an …

Weekend Notes: HS Hoops It was a two-game weekend for CHS. Things began with a bummer when L was told on Thursday she was going back to JV (along with one other junior). She needs minutes and JV needs players. That was a rough night in our house, as you might imagine. That’s about all I’ll say on that topic for …

Friday Playlist: Between wrapping up the first pass through my Apple Music library, doing some work on my Favorite Songs of the Year list, and other random stuff, I didn’t spend as much time listening to newer music as I normally do this week. So a blend of the new and old. open.spotify.com/playlist/… “Hinge” …

Music Update: A quick (hopefully!), navel-gazey post today to share that my initial run through my entire library on Apple Music is finally complete! After transitioning over from Spotify in April, I spent several weeks attempting to recreate how I organized iTunes over 10 years ago to balance both new and old …

Hoops Notes: Let’s run through some quick hoops thoughts. Jayhawk Talk As expected Darryn Peterson did not play last night against Duke. As expected, Duke won comfortably. Not as expected was KU showing a lot of fight and progress from last week’s games. There was still, obviously, a big hole on offense due to …

Reader's Notebook, 11/18/25: Somehow I haven’t read a spy book since July. It was time to revert to the mean, so this entry features one proper spy story, one that brushes up against the genre, and a proper mystery. Sheepdog - Elliot Ackerman When I added this to my reading list, I noted that it was described as being for …

Weekend Notes: Another pretty laid-back weekend in our house, made even chiller without football games for either KU or the Colts. Trust me, I still sat on my ass and watched a lot of football. Strangely I watched more on Saturday when it was in the low 70s than Sunday when it was still nice but significantly …

Friday Playlist: open.spotify.com/playlist/… “Dopamine” - Robyn Our Swedish Queen has returned! Her first new music in over seven years. “WAITING FOR THE PHONE CALL” - The Twilight Sad Speaking of artists that have been away for a bit, this song is the first new music from The Twilight Sad in six years. They …

High School Hoops: An Ominous Start: Last night CHS finally played their first game of the year. I say finally because their opponent, and many other schools in the state, had already played two games. I know our coaches were trying to find a game to fill last week, but that fell through and we got off to a late start to the new …

Weekend Notes: Well, a real bummer of a sports weekend that was partially saved by Jonathan Taylor. Let’s get into it. Friday Shades of late August/early September as I was both listening to the Cathedral game and watching sports on the TV. My attentions were less divided than back then, though, as most of my …

Friday Playlist: open.spotify.com/playlist/… ‘’Over Our Heads” - Snocaps Last week’s big music surprise was the new album from Katie and Allison Crutchfield. Rather than resurrect one of their previous bands, they brought in pal MJ Lenderman and longtime Waxahatchee producer Brad Cook to do something …

Reader's Notebook, 11/6/25: The Hunger Games, Catching Fire, Mockingjay - Suzanne Collins One of the great parenting gifts I’ve received recently is L re-discovering her love of reading over the past year. She started reading more in the spring while she was rehabbing. When summer rolled around she kept up with it. After she …

NFL Mid-Season Review: It is time for our monthly overview of the NFL. As with the month one check-in, teams seem committed to confounding and keeping us from making any broad assessments about which are the best. Before I get to my breakdown, some thoughts about the Colts making, for the first time in years, a move at …

Tuesday Links: I just found this fantastic profile of American Treasure Katie Crutchfield that came out last spring. I knew she had a twin sister - more on that later this week - but did not know there was a third sister in the family. Turns out that sister’s story is a huge, emotional part of the music Katie has …

Weekend Notes: Not the most exciting weekend we’ve ever had, although there was one, massive event that sucked up a lot of my attention and messed with my sleep schedule. Halloween As usual a low-key night at our house. We had maybe 40 total trick or treaters. It’s always weird because we can see tons of kids …

October Media: Another month in which, both by choice and by chance, I didn’t watch a ton of TV. Also remember I’m stripping out a lot of the trivial stuff I glance at on YouTube (although I’ve cut a lot of that, too) and just sharing the substantial or impactful things I have watched/listened to. Harvesting …

Friday Playlist: open.spotify.com/playlist/… “Halloweenhead” - Ryan Adams When Halloween falls on a Friday, I kind of have to play this. “Anywhere” - Ratboys Second pre-release banger from the next Ratboys album, which has officially been given a February release date. “Paint Me A Picture” - Magdalena Bay MB …

Dumb Or Not: A week into the NBA season and I’ve already listened to two podcasts and read one article that tries to decide if early developments are legit or not. Based on 2–4 games. Because that’s the world we live in. I thought I would take that concept a different direction and work through several subjects …

Reaching For The Stars, Vol. 120: Chart Week: November 2, 1985 Song: “Lovin’ Every Minute Of It” - Loverboy Chart Position: #9, 11th week on the chart. This was its peak. First off, shout out to my brother-in-music E$ for messaging me when he heard this song on an old AT40 while driving through Iowa recently. Astute listeners may …

Weekend Notes: What a weekend. S and I were actually social three days in a row! That’s a record or something. Thus I’ll break it down a little differently than normal. Getting Out Of The House Friday we went to a fund raiser some friends were hosting for a lady who is running for secretary of state here in …

Friday Playlist: open.spotify.com/playlist/… “Stay In You Lane” - Courtney Barnett Our Aussie queen is back! “Talk To You” - Sam Fender featuring Elton John Last week Fender won the Mercury Prize for best album from the UK or Ireland. The next day he announced a deluxe version of People Watching that will …

Reader's Notebook, 10/23/25: Just one book in this entry, as I’ve begun a trilogy that might take a week or so and don’t want to forget about this one in the interim. The House Across The Lake - Riley Sager I read a couple of Sager’s thrillers last October, and they had a nice dose of spookiness that butted up against the …

On 30(-ish) Years Online: The wonderful piece I’m linking to below reminds me that I missed a golden opportunity this time last year when I failed to post a retrospective on my 30th anniversary of first getting online. Sadly, for some reason, it whizzed by without me realizing the significance of the moment. Which is a damn …

Weekend Notes: A very busy weekend centered on the entire family getting together to watch football. Or at least prepare to watch football. Friday M came home Friday afternoon, so we got to hang with her for the second time in two weeks. We sat around catching up while listening to Cathedral’s regular season …

Friday Playlist: [open.spotify.com/playlist/...](https://open.spotify.com/playlist/03v5PJTxT3s4rCEe6jQ1no?si=5fcdc031567746a7) “House Of Dead Memories” - Sugar OH SHIIIIIIIIIIT!!!!!!! SUGAR IS BACK!!!!! Like, seriously back. This isn’t a song that was recorded 35 years ago and lost on a master tape hidden in a …

A Mid-Lease Car Update: As we are in the back half of October, that means I am officially halfway through my current auto lease. With 18 months in the books as an EV owner, and 18 months left before I need to make a decision on my next car, it seemed like a good moment to check in and see how I feel about things. It is a …

Wednesday Links: Steven Hyden with a wonderful retrospective on one of the great American bands that never really went away, at least on classic rock radio, but also never had a big revival. Listen to the Cars in 2025, and you’ll hear the accumulated history of 20th-century rock music—the elemental directness of …

Reader's Notebook, 10/14/25: A bit of a slog lately, as I’ve worked through a group of books that I did not love. These are the risks you take when you grab suggestions from many different sources. Swag - Elmore Leonard Last month I came across an article that was an appreciation of some of Leonard’s lesser known works. I’ve …

Weekend Notes: Another weekend that was brightened by visits from college kids and a few more signs that we are deep into fall. Fall Break Part 1 M came home Wednesday evening. UC had a two-day fall break this year, but she had to go back Friday evening because her boyfriend’s fraternity had their annual trip to …

Friday Playlist: [open.spotify.com/playlist/...](https://open.spotify.com/playlist/4I739P1vODsreoZSExAp2f?si=1a56afaf1ac74cea) “October” - The Helio Sequence We’ve finally had a couple of cool days and chilly mornings, although temps will creep back up closer to 80 next week. Close enough for me to bust out this …

Reaching For The Stars, Vol. 119: Chart Week: September 24, 1983 Song: “It’s A Mistake” - Men At Work Chart Position: #38, 13th week on the chart. Peaked at #6 for two weeks in August. What clichés about Eighties music jump into your head the quickest? Big hair and spandex? Synthesizers? Gender ambiguous British men in suits …

Fitness Update: We’re a week into the fourth quarter of the year[1] and I bet a few of you are annoyed with me for not sharing my latest fitness update. My bad. Here it is. Q3 was my best of the year so far. Which makes sense as it was the warmest, least stormy stretch of 2025 so the pool was always available, even …

Weekend Notes: A much better weekend of football compared to a week ago. Added bonuses of fun stuff involving two of the kids, and maybe the last summery weekend of the year. Let’s get into it. Friday Friday was L’s 17th birthday. To celebrate we took her and some of her friends to our local hibachi place, which …

Friday Playlist: open.spotify.com/playlist/… “Summer Soft” - Stevie Wonder You find It’s October, and she’s gone… “Dipped” - HighSchool Earlier this year Aussie band CIVIC released a song called “Chrome Dipped.” Now we have another Aussie band, which does not sound very Aussie at all, with a similarly named …

Reader's Notebook, 10/2/25: In the Weeds: Around the World and Behind the Scenes with Anthony Bourdain - Tom Vitale A book that has been out three years but I managed not to hear about until just now. Written by one of Anthony Bourdain’s closest associates, it is definitely a warts and all accounting of what it was like to …

September Media: September seemed like a long month. Yet here we are and I only watched one TV series and zero movies? The first holiday baking show of the season is already stacking up in my YouTube TV library, so next month should be better. Also, over the past week or so I’ve been dialing back my YouTube usage …

Some More Sports Takes: As promised, a few more sports takes. NFL A month into the NFL season, so time for a quick look at where we are at. Is there a dominant team, or any clear Super Bowl favorites? I don’t think so. Buffalo is undefeated, but only thanks to an epic comeback in week one against Baltimore. Their defense …

Weekend Notes: Two weeks ago my theme for the football weekend was special teams. This weekend it was the teams I follow having meltdowns in the fourth quarter. Only one of those teams survived, sadly the team I care least about. High School Football Cathedral played Trotwood, a team from Ohio, for homecoming. …

Friday Playlist: A busy week that’s been a bit out-of-sorts, so this week’s playlist includes more old music than I’ve been doing recently. Still good songs! [open.spotify.com/playlist/...](https://open.spotify.com/playlist/3rn7OBbgqmgz5Hghf0hcuy?si=578974db27b440e9) “Light Night Mountains All That” - Ratboys Last …

Thursday Links: I’m off to the eye doctor shortly, which means he’ll dilate my eyes, which means I’m going to be worthless all afternoon. So rather than finish another post I was working on, I’ll share some links instead. I offer this one without comment, lest any of you report me to my boss and get me fired. How …

When Childhood Obsessions Turn Into Letdowns: We are planning for a project that would involve finishing a portion of our currently unfinished side of the basement. To prepare, I’ve been going through some of the crap stored down there to free up space. Part of that is digging through the massive box of sports cards I’ve been lugging around for …

Weekend Notes: A slightly different weekend than usual around here. Plenty of sitting on my ass watching football, which is normal. But a couple car trips, a gathering, and two visitors mixed things up a bit. High School Football Cathedral had their one easy game of the year Friday, against winless Southport. In …

Friday Playlist: This week’s list might be a teensy bit leaner than normal. We have a couple house visitors and it’s been a busy week, so less time to stock this up over the past few days. [open.spotify.com/playlist/...](https://open.spotify.com/playlist/1sYqXGH4mDSfdLFuWle5oI?si=1cd65398d8b04d95) “September” - …

Reaching For The Stars, Vol. 118: Chart Week: September 8, 1984 Song: “Sunglasses At Night” - Corey Hart Chart Position: #9, 16th week on the chart. Peaked at #7 the week of September 1. Every era of music has its own unique set of identifiers that some listeners use to immediately discredit and dismiss a song. Two entries ago, I …

Tuesday Links: A terrible day for America, but this is A+++ headline writing. In win for infectious diseases, Florida to end all school vaccine requirements I was never a full-time journalist, but this piece brought back some memories of my days at the Daily Journal. Especially the footnote about keeping a …

Weekend Notes: There was a theme for my football weekend: special teams. High School Football What a game Friday night, in the big Indy Northside Catholic matchup! Class 4A #1 Chatard jumped out to a 13–0 lead early in the second quarter. The 5A #4 Cathedral defense had actually stopped them on both drives, only …

Friday Playlist: A juicy list this week with a bunch of good, new tracks; a throwback; a re-imagined classic; and another by a classic artist that is new to me. open.spotify.com/playlist/… “New Distraction” - fanclubwallet Perfect, late summer song. Our three weeks of False Fall have passed and it is going to …

Reader's Notebook, 9/11/25: The Magdalen Martyrs, The Dramatist, Priest - Ken Bruen Books three, four, and five of Bruen’s Jack Taylor series. I read them in five or six days. They are that good. Like many series there are multiple repeating themes and plot devices. Bur Bruen was a good enough writer that he made each book …

US Open Notebook: As promised, a few more thoughts from the US Open I scribbled down over the past two weeks. In general ESPN’s coverage was quite good, as usual. They mix in enough back court matches during the afternoons to give you an idea of that environment. They also do a great job in those pre-prime time …

Weekend Notes: A very busy weekend, at least when it came to me sitting on my ass in front of the TV. High School Football A week after being shut out by the best team in Indiana, Cathedral was barely better against one of the best teams from Ohio. The Irish managed just two field goals in a 24–6 loss to St. …

NFL Predictions: It’s that time of year again: the moment for some extremely half-assed NFL predictions. To begin, let’s spend a few minutes discussing my local team, the Indianapolis Colts. This week The Athletic ran a feature about what franchises were the most optimistic about the upcoming season. This was based …

Friday Playlist: Not to ruin your expectations before you work your way through this week’s songs, but I’m not sure about a few of these. Feels like we’ve reached a lull in the new music where I have a lot of B songs. Don’t get me wrong, there are some decent ones in here, especially in the front half of this list. …

Reaching For The Stars, Vol. 117: Chart Week: August 30, 1986 Song: “Dreamtime” - Daryl Hall Chart Position: #23, 5th week on the chart. Would peak at #5 the week of October 4. Through the history of pop music, there has been a natural career progression for lead singers of successful bands: once your group peaks, hit the eject …

Wednesday Links: Short week. I’m sure none of you working stiffs want to do anything productive. Here are some links to help get you a little closer to the coming weekend. Here is the oral history that led to my re-watching The 40 Year Old Virgin a couple weeks ago. I loved this tidbit. Apatow: Steve talked about …

Weekend Notes: A laid-back, restful holiday weekend is in the books. Friday was the highlight in terms of number of things going on, so that will be the focus of my notes this week. Friday As happens this time of year, my attentions were pulled multiple directions Friday evening. The Cathedral game started at …

August Media: Movies, Shows, etc Dept. Q Lots of chatter about this in July, all saying it was basically Slow Horses but in Scotland and with cops. Which was very accurate. But this was much, much darker than any of the Slow Horses seasons I’ve watched. And broader. In some ways funnier. And definitely more …

Friday Playlist: Yes, it has arrived: the end of summer. Good thing we’re about to hit the best three months of the year, or I’d be more sad that another summer is in the books. [open.spotify.com/playlist/...](https://open.spotify.com/playlist/0RltQooc7msHF5HaXBOgUn?si=f1a6ae48484d4911) “Summer’s Over” - Jordana …

Reaching For The Stars, Vol. 116: Chart Week: August 20, 1977 Song: “Telephone Line” - Electric Light Orchestra Chart Position: #16, 11th week on the chart. Peaked at #7 for two weeks in September and October. When I dove into this countdown last Saturday I was interested to see what it had to offer. Would a particular song jump …

Reader's Notebook, 8/26/25: I’ve been on a hot streak this month. In addition to the books below, I have three more I need to share. As they are related, I’m saving those for next week. King of Ashes - S.A. Cosby The latest addition to Cosby’s growing collection of terrific thrillers. Here Roman, a rising Atlanta financial …

Weekend Notes: A relatively laid-back weekend that saw the return of football at multiple levels and a glorious change in the weather. High School Football The high school season began in Indiana Friday. 5A #2 CHS took on Ben Davis, a traditional 6A power that won state two years ago but is in rebuilding mode.[1] …

Friday Playlist: As I begin putting this playlist together Thursday evening, I’m not really sure where it is going. There are several older songs in the queue and I’m trying to figure out which newer ones to pull in. Let’s take a musical journey together and see where we land! …

Moving In: Like some of our friends a few hundred miles west, yesterday was college drop-off day for us. We picked a good one, too. The first day of IU dorm move in was Tuesday, a day that saw heat indices well over 100° with rounds of heavy rain in Bloomington. Wednesday, though? Cloudy, relatively cool, with …

Sports Notes: A few sports notes before we head to Bloomington in a couple hours… Colts Welp, it’s official: the Colts are a disaster. Tuesday they named Daniel Jones as the starter for the coming season. Which means Anthony Richardson must have been really, really bad in camp, because Jones is about as mid as …

Tuesday Links: I just read Niko Stratis’ book, which is part memoir, part reflection and analysis of the music she has loved. I found this interview with her, and this passage really struck me. I strive for my posts that are about music and memory to be accurate, but I often wonder how accurate my recollections …

Weekend Notes: A pretty chill weekend, with not a lot to share. Most activities revolved around making final preparations to move C to IU this Wednesday. A final trip to Target. A final order (or three) on Amazon. Many loads of laundry. A lot of organizing of our bonus room, which is the staging area. There are …

Friday Playlist: A funny thing happened as I began putting this week’s list together. I noticed a common thread through many of the songs in my working pile of music. So that led me in a slightly different direction than I had planned. See if you can figure out what these songs all share. …

Reaching For The Stars, Vol. 115: Chart Week: August 14, 1982 Song: “And I Am Telling You I Am Not Going” - Jennifer Holliday Chart Position: #26, 7th week on the chart. Would peak at #22 for three weeks. One aspect of the pop chart that messed with my head when I was young was how songs that were huge hits on the genre charts …

Wednesday Notes: Fever Well, I sure jinxed the Fever! The last time I mentioned them I pointed out how they had their longest winning streak in a decade, all without Caitlin Clark. Since then they’ve lost three-of-four, the only win against hapless Chicago. Worst of all was last week’s game in Phoenix. I didn’t stay …

Tuesday Links: Steven Hyden on seeing Oasis in London. Noel Gallagher is not a great or even cogent lyricist, and his melodies can sometimes seem a little samey. But when it comes to writing songs that large groups of individuals in various states of inebriation can sing in unison, perfectly, Bob Dylan and …

Weekend Notes: Some notes about things, some of which happened before the weekend began. But first… A Blog Update Yes, I fucked around with how the site looks over the weekend. I believe I had used the same theme for six or seven years. That package had not been updated in ages, and while it has continued to work …

Friday Playlist: Several repeats of artists I’ve played recently who have more solid, new music out. [open.spotify.com/playlist/...](https://open.spotify.com/playlist/4s8rTf2kcdLGrtXrnzYNxt?si=146f44ed92674909) “Sleep All Summer” - Crooked Fingers Hey, our freshman-to-be’s theme song! “Angelus” - The Berries Before …

Reader's Notebook, 8/7/25: The Happy Isles of Oceania - Paul Theroux The latest re-read - for the fifth, sixth time? - of my all time favorite, non-fiction book. I actually meant to take it when we traveled to Hawaii four years ago but couldn’t find it. It turned up a year or two later and has been sitting on my shelf, …

Reaching For The Stars, Vol. 114: Chart Week: August 5, 1978 Song: “Love Will Find A Way” - Pablo Cruise Chart Position: #9, 10th week on the chart. Peaked at #6 the week of August 26. There are many factors that go into determining my favorite musical years. Clearly the songs are the biggest factor. It is a huge bonus if most of …

July Media: Movies, Shows, etc Arrested Development, season one I figured “Why not watch this again?” the week of July 4th. Never disappoints. A Long Way Home This is Ewan McGregor and Charlie Boorman’s fourth series about riding motorcycles long distances. I watched the first, 20 years ago, and then didn’t …

Weekend Notes: A very busy weekend, at least the front half. A Wedding Friday evening we all went to the wedding of O, the oldest daughter of our neighbors at our old house. M was a bridesmaid, her first of many I’m sure, so it was an extra big deal for her. It was a very nice ceremony and reception; the bride …

Friday Playlist: Another big, eclectic mix of music this week. [open.spotify.com/playlist/...](https://open.spotify.com/playlist/50aIgpY3rbMCVTaKnjpU0V?si=3f8a7e3addea46c2) “Summer Drive” - Dragon Turtle For those moody, nighttime drives when summer’s hold begins to slip. “mangetout” - Wet Leg It took a minute, but …

Thursday Links: Too late to implement this idea for the summer of ’25, but something for parents to keep in mind for next year. Just like the 1890s and the 2020s, they’ll play with the unvaccinated kids down the street and drink raw milk until dark. Then at daybreak, I’ll hand my children their metal lunch pails, …

Jayhawk Talk: Can't Take The Heat?: I probably should have included this in my Weekend Notes post, but was also debating how deep to go on the latest health scare for KU coach Bill Self. Without knowing much about what actually happened, I didn’t want to turn it into 3000 words about the future of the program. That’s always a …

Weekend Notes: The clock is starting to run out on academic summer. There are actually a couple public districts around here that started last week. The one we live in starts this Thursday. L returns on August 7. It goes by fast. Some notes from one of the last weekends before we start worrying about school …

Friday Playlist: Back to extra-stuffed this week. So stuffed that I’ll only include one summer song. And apologies to Chuck Mangione, but there’s no room to honor his passing with more than these words. [open.spotify.com/playlist/...](https://open.spotify.com/playlist/35X5UYCMtCeOZsTTLDDBv3?si=8ba6894dbcc7486e) …

Fitness Update: A belated review of my fitness activity in April-through-June. You can read about the first quarter of the year (and L’s ED visit) here. I exercised 73% of the days in those three months, which I was hoping to beat in Q2. Which I did. Barely. Officially I was at 73.3% in Q1. This past quarter I was …

On Malcolm: Celebrity deaths that are somehow connected to your childhood always hit a little harder. But, man, the news that Malcom-Jamal Warner drowned while on vacation in Costa Rica had an extra big wallop to it. Part of it was the circumstances. Pretty much every person who reads this has been on a …

Weekend Notes: Once again this weekend notes piece will involve more than what went on from Friday to Sunday. I’ll start with a focus on the actual weekend, though. WNBA All Star Game The best players in the league were all in Indy over the weekend for Saturday’s All Star Game. While that was exciting, it was …

Friday Playlist: This week’s playlist is dominated by the ladies. [open.spotify.com/playlist/...](https://open.spotify.com/playlist/5SzWq3O8UnsqRly0vDE73x?si=a65c0e29779d40ac) “Pool Hopping” - illuminati hotties Yeah, pool hopping sounds great and all, until every pool you jump into is 95°. “Jealous Boy” - The Bug …

Reader's Notebook, 7/17/25: This week has gone a little off the rails. We are expecting a contractor at the house shortly, which was planned. Had another very much unplanned visit on Tuesday that ended up costing us the equivalent of a nice vacation. More about those next week, probably. I had planned on saving my latest RN …

Tuesday Links: Bruce Springsteen’s Tracks II set came out a few weeks ago. I’m not a big enough fan to wade through all the songs, but I did sample the ones highlighted in the various articles that dropped at the same time. Naturally, Steven Hyden had the best of the bunch. Another Side of Bruce Springsteen At …

Weekend Notes: We had a great weekend highlighted by some visitors, both local and from KC, and lots of basketball. But first we need to jump back and review C’s trip to Bloomington for orientation. Orientation We got up bright and early to make check-in at 9:00 AM last Monday. Thank goodness the I–69 extension …

Friday Playlist: Between the holiday weekend and me spending mornings watching the Tour de France, I’ve been a little slower on getting through the music this week. I think I can still come up with a few decent ones to share with y’all. …

Greatest Songs Of The Century (So Far): It’s been 12 years since I’ve updated my Favorite Songs of All Time list. Which seems like a crime for someone like me: a music freak with lots of free time and a blog. I’ve thought about it a lot, trust me. I’ve reached the point in my life, though, where the return on that process doesn’t seem to …

Holiday Weekend Notes: C and I are off to Bloomington early Monday morning for her IU orientation, thus the Sunday evening post. Our holiday weekend was a little less chaotic than in recent years, so I’ll throw in some other stuff that happened over the past week as well. Holiday Weekend Our Fourth was fairly laid back, …

Independence Day Playlist: It’s one of my favorite music days of the year! For the seventh time, I present my Independence Day playlist! As a reminder, these aren’t necessarily patriotic songs, nor ones that have anything to do with this holiday, other than their titles. The first edition back in 2019 included 11 songs. With …

Reader's Notebook, 7/2/25: My Documents - Kevin Nguyen Books like this can be unsettling. It is about a fictional moment in modern America, but through the worst kind of serendipity, lines up with real events we are seeing on the news these days. The book follows an extended Vietnamese-American family that crosses several …

June Media: Movies, Shows, etc NBA Playoffs A+, until Hali blew out his achilles. Your Friends and Neighbors I think I have this complaint about all but the best modern, streaming dramedies: there were the wrong number of episodes. Some shows go on two episodes too long, others have two too few. It’s a tough …

The Bear, season 4: We had a very slow, uneventful weekend, which leaves this space open to discuss how S and I spent Thursday and Friday evenings: binging season four of The Bear. If you want the TLDR version: I liked it. Although it had some flaws and inconsistencies and did not match the first two seasons, it was a …

Friday Playlist: Several new songs by old artists this week. And some new songs by new artists. In other words, a normal week. [open.spotify.com/playlist/...](https://open.spotify.com/playlist/2WgARyZSDLHw3lNVkBGm6O?si=3777cf98291c4f1e) “In The Sun” - Blondie We’ve had a little too much sun this week. It’s been …

Reaching For The Stars, Vol. 113: Chart Week: June 23, 1984 Song: “I’ll Wait” - Van Halen Chart Position: #32, 11th week on the chart. Peaked at #13 for two weeks. I made my three-hour drive to Lexington, KY last Saturday morning solo. As it was also my birthday weekend, I thought the best way to celebrate would be to listen to an …

Wednesday Links: I’ve started following Denny Carter in recent weeks and enjoy his perspective on politics and the general state of the world. The sub-head of this piece is perfect: Being an asshole is a choice. Free speech was meant to empower the powerless against the powerful, not to provide protection for …

More Hoops Notes: A day later I still have a lot of Pacers thoughts. And I still need to catch you up on a very busy weekend. So this may turn into two posts, depending on how long I yap about the first topic. Pacers Followup I became a Pacers fan when we moved to Indy in 2003, but they have never been at the top of …

Crushing: Sports can be unbelievably cruel sometimes. They can step up and make the worst possible thing happen in the worst possible time. That’s how the Indiana Pacers’ dream run through the postseason ended last night. Not because the favored Oklahoma City Thunder dominated the third quarter to turn a …

Three Down...: OMG OMG OMG!!!! The Indiana Pacers are playing for the NBA championship Sunday night! Thursday was a wonderful night of professional basketball. At least if you are a Pacers fan. They started out slow, missing like their first 100 shots, and trailed 10–2. From then on it really wasn’t much of a …

Friday Playlist: Summer is here (officially)! The time is right… [open.spotify.com/playlist/...](https://open.spotify.com/playlist/6JAyHMd8FY0zlmDNCiyH1r?si=5dc54ac9c4954fbb) “Dancing In The Street” - Van Halen A lot of people shit on it, but this is one of my all-time favorite summer songs. “This Summer” - Sleigh …

Great Eight Comedies: I’ve been busy trying to finish an amazing book and get some work outside done before storms roll through later. For today’s post I dug into my list of ideas and found this one, which has been sitting there since George Wendt died last month and news broke that there will be a Scrubs revival. With …

A Bummer Of A Game Five: After a nearly two-month dream ride, the Pacers run might be over. It wasn’t just that they lost game five in Oklahoma City last night by 11, after trimming an 18-point deficit to two midway through the fourth quarter. It wasn’t just that they routinely threw the ball away. It wasn’t just that they …

Weekend Notes: A full, fun weekend that had healthy doses of sadness and even a little fear. KC Trip As mentioned Friday, I headed back to Kansas City for the weekend to attend the memorial service for Jack N, the father of one of my closest friends. We’re at the age where these are happening more frequently, but …

Friday Playlist: Well this has turned into quite a significant playlist. We lost two absolute musical giants over the past week. I found an incredible live performance from an artist we lost nearly 30 years ago. I am also headed back to Kansas City for the weekend, so I have to throw something from the (old) KC …

A Night Of Hoops: A full evening of basketball with some big moments worth sharing. Pacers WOW! Up 2–1 on the massive favorites thanks to two amazing quarters. Oklahoma City was the better team for two periods Wednesday, the first and third. Sadly for them, the Pacers were even better in the second and fourth and …

Reaching For The Stars, Vol. 112: Chart Week: June 5, 1976 Song: “Love Really Hurts Without You” - Billy Ocean Chart Position: #36, 10th week on the chart. Peaked at #22 for two weeks in May. It’s always fun to be surprised when listening to old American Top 40’s. As I worked my way through this countdown, and glanced ahead at the …

Weekend Notes: Pacers Well, the Thunder showed up Sunday evening. As has been routine in these playoffs, the Pacers missed a ton of open looks early as they fell behind. The difference in game two was that I don’t think it would have mattered. OKC was absolutely locked in from the beginning and once they took the …

Playoff Miracle, Vol. 186: I have a very busy day, but still want to squeeze in some quick words about game one of the NBA Finals. It started about how I expected: the Pacers were sped up and nervous and when they could get shots, were missing thoroughly makable ones. The Thunder were also nervy at the beginning, but their …

Friday Playlist: After a slight lull, the music has really started to pile up again, so we are back to the thick and juicy playlists. [open.spotify.com/playlist/...](https://open.spotify.com/playlist/4sZDasp5hTKSaJdCR3kVSf?si=5942c3fa06f045d8) “Celebrated Summer” - Hüsker Dü (Nods head.) Yeah, this is the good shit. …

NBA Final Preview: The NBA Finals have arrived. I’ve been listening to podcasts previewing the series all week, and reading everything The Ringer has posted on the topic. Since I know most of you are 1) far busier than me and 2) don’t care as much about the result as I do, allow me to offer a summarization of all that …

Wednesday Links: John Siracusa is one of the most respected members of the Apple blogosphere. In these two pieces he lays the smack down on Tim Cook. Apple Turnover Apple Turnaround Another bonkers and amazing addition to the legacy of the Voyager project: thrusters that had been assumed unusable for over 20 years …

Reader's Notebook, 6/3/25: Taste: My Life Through Food - Stanley Tucci Coincidentally my hold on this came in just as his latest travel/food show premiered. It is equal parts autobiography and food diary of his entire life. He writes exactly as he speaks on his travel shows, which is either a good, comforting thing or …

Hell Yes 'Cers!: Holy shit, it happened! The Pacers are in the NBA Finals! I gotta be honest, I was angry Friday morning. And worried. After the Pacers played like ass in New York Thursday it meant little to me that the series was coming back to Indy for game six. It seemed like the Knicks had figured out how to …

May Media: Movies, Shows, etc Confess, Fletch There’s a reason it took over 30 years to make the next Fletch film. No matter who filled the title role, no matter how talented they were, they would be compared to Chevy Chase at the absolute apex of his comedic powers. After years of rumors and starts and stops …

Friday Playlist: This came together surprisingly well for it being a short, busy week. It helps that we are in Summer Music season. [open.spotify.com/playlist/...](https://open.spotify.com/playlist/0ra5DjXARpQDidVsgr9sdm?si=f8daf02bc15c4f88) “Constructive Summer” - The Hold Steady Always good advice to build …

Weekend Notes, Part 2: Sports: Continuing our look back at last weekend (and slightly beyond), let’s get into the sports. PACERS!!!! Quite the swing of emotions, this Eastern Conference Finals series. Game one was the Pacers’ legendary comeback and overtime win. Game two Friday was a Big Brother game for them, getting another …

Weekend Notes, Part 1: Another super busy weekend, not to mention some big news that lead in to the weekend. Because of that, I’ll probably split this into two posts, the second coming tomorrow. Our school year officially ended on Friday with L’s last final. She just had one exam in her first period, so I called her out …

Friday Playlist: 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. open.spotify.com/playlist/… “Jack & Diane” - John Mellencamp Years ago, when we were still lake people, one of my better …

OMG In MSG: 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 …

Pacers-Knicks: 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 …

Long Weekend Notes: 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 …

Reader's Notebook, 5/19/25: 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 …

Friday Playlist: 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. [open.spotify.com/playlist/...](https://open.spotify.com/playlist/3mT5nGMKrJ0eLbbX4mxa9z?si=33646f35c89c4398) “Friday On My …

Thursday Links: 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 …

NBA Notes: 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 …

Weekend Notes: 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 …

Friday Playlist: 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. open.spotify.com/playlist/… “Black Confetti” - Bob Mould Hey, I’m …

Reader's Notebook, 5/8/25: I’ve fallen behind again and I just started a book that’s going to take a week or so to get through, so some quick-ish book notes. Charlesgate Confidential - Scott Von Doviak A fun, pulpy novel that takes place over three different timelines in Boston, centered on an old building that has a complex …

Wild Night: A crazy few hours Tuesday night. Holy Shit, Pacers!!! I knew the Pacers were in trouble when I saw, about an hour before game two of the Eastern Conference semifinals, that Cleveland would be missing three starters. THREE. How did I know they were in trouble? Because any time the Pacers faced a …

Tuesday Links: A bunch of good reads to share. When I went to Washington D.C. with L’s class two years ago, one of the most impactful experiences was the several hours we spent in the National Museum of African American History and Culture. It was emotional, made me angry and proud to be an American at the same …

Weekend Notes: A week after prom and before four consecutive weeks where we will be very busy, it was a nice, boring, lazy weekend. Weather There’s no delicate way to say this: our weather was ass most of the weekend. It rained Friday night into Saturday, then off-and-on the rest of the weekend. The temps slowly …

Friday Playlist: As I shared many words about earlier this week, my switch to Apple Music means I’m pulling more songs from the past up into my daily soundtrack. Which means these playlists are going to start including more classics. Which was my intention back when I started them however many years ago. There will …

April Media: Movies, Shows, etc Court of Gold I mostly watched these on our flights too and from Florida. You know what you’re getting with shows like this. Highly edited game highlights. Interviews with the participants and analysts that are aimed at casual fans and thus not super insightful. But, man, the …

Never Count Them Out: Good Lord that was a basketball game! The Pacers laid a big, fat egg early, taking nearly seven minutes to score their first six points, blew multiple chances to put the game away in the second half, then somehow managed to come back from being down seven with 40 seconds left in overtime to win game …

A New (Old) Musical Home: As I wait out some morning storms before I head over the gym, it seems like the ideal moment to share (or at least start the post that shares) my latest music project. For months I’ve been thinking about writing a lengthy post about how I don’t upend my digital life as often as I used to. People …

Prom Weekend Notes: Another very busy weekend for us, mostly revolving around C’s senior prom. We kicked off the weekend by going across the street to watch the #1 high school volleyball team in the state, FHS, play our local squad. “What a weird way to spend a Friday night,” you might say to yourself. True, true. We …

Friday Playlist: A slight change-of-pace this week. I’ve been working on a new music project this week that has slowed down my processing of the new songs considerably. (I’ll share more about that project next week.) Plus a couple of these songs/bands are tough to Google, so I wasn’t able to find out much about …

Pacers-Bucks Notes: A few thoughts about game two of the Pacers-Bucks series last night. Once again the Pacers jumped out to a big, early lead. Not as much of an ass-kicking as in game one, but there was never any doubt who the better team was. And that was with Dame Lillard coming back. He actually played remarkably …

Easter Weekend Notes: As it is Easter Monday, our holiday weekend continues. Or at least it does for C and L, who have the day off. Might as well keep to the normal blog schedule, though. Let’s run through the days rather than individual events. Friday A lot of work and errands to get ready for the holiday weekend. L …

Friday Playlist: I have an absolutely loaded Friday as we prepare for weekend guests and our extra-large family gathering for Easter on Sunday. Because of that I’m starting this Thursday evening, and I’m not really sure where it’s going to take me after this odd week. Let’s find out together! …

Health and Fitness Updates: A double-barreled discussion of health topics, one about a kid, one about me. A Hospital Visit My week got thrown off its already adjusted trajectory by spending four hours in the emergency department with L yesterday.[1] She’s fine but it was a stressful morning. Her stomach started hurting badly …

Tuesday Links: Given that our government is run by a fool who should be on some serious ADHD meds, it is nearly impossible to follow what is going on in Washington as it wildly careens from one insane policy to another every 6–12 hours. Thus, a couple of the articles I’m linking to below were out-of-date almost as …

Weekend Notes: A pretty chill weekend, at least for me. We knocked out a bunch of yard stuff over the past few days. I installed some new exterior lighting with a huge assist from a friend. S and I ripped out some dead plants and replaced them with new ones. Our lawn crew came for the first time on Friday. If not …

Friday Playlist: Yowza! Take a week off and not only does the music pile up, but there are also a couple large events to recognize. So this week’s list is EXTRA large for your listening pleasure. And that’s even with me probably cutting a song or two from my working list as I finalize what I share. …

Reader's Notebook 4/10/25: I read two-and-a-half books while on break. I admit I had to go back and read a summary of one of them. That’s what happens when you read most of it in small doses on the beach, I guess. The Seventh Floor - David McCloskey The latest entry from the former CIA analyst and host of The Rest Is …

Reaching For The Stars, Vol. 111: Chart Week: April 4, 1981 Song: “Take It On The Run” - REO Speedwagon Chart Position: #27, third week on the chart. Peaked at #5 for two weeks in May/June. What makes a song great? There are like a million different things we could talk about when breaking that question down. I respect you and don’t …

Hoops Chat: A lot of hoops thoughts to work through as the college season has come to a very entertaining end. Women’s Tourney Man, UConn roared through the tournament like they were all mad the program hadn’t won a title in nearly a decade. Their performance in the Final Four was as dominant as I can remember …

Spring Break 2025: Home after a nearly perfect week in Siesta Key, FL for C’s senior spring break. This might have been the easiest spring break we’ve ever had. In nearly every way you can assess it, things went as well, or even better, as we could have hoped for. We were on one of the B Team breaks for C’s class. The …

Friday Playlist: Nothing special about this playlist in advance of our spring break. Although it is chock full of great tunes. No playlist next week, as that is our fly home day. Hope everyone has a great week. …

March Media: A little earlier than normal so it doesn’t sit in the Drafts folder until we return from spring break. Movies, Shows, etc The Agency Tuuuuuurific! I had read/heard raves for this and was waiting until S needed to get her next Taylor Sheridan fix on Paramount+ so I could watch it. It lived up to the …

Freedom!: A quick kid update. L had her cast taken off this morning. Everything looked great. No swelling, no pain. The doctor said the incision and tendon anchor in her foot all seemed fine. When he had her rotate her foot inward, an action that triggered her pain pre-surgery, she could do so without …

Wednesday Links: Steven Hyden has a new megalist out, this one his favorite 100 indie rock albums of the last 25 years. Once I started reading, I couldn’t stop, spending over an hour working through it while building a playlist based upon it to listen to over spring break. The Best Indie Rock Albums Of The 21st …

Reaching For The Stars, Vol. 110: Chart Week: March 24, 1984 Song: “Eat It” - ‘Weird Al’ Yankovic Chart Position: #18, 3rd week on the chart. Peaked at #11 the week of April 14. It’s been a while, and for that I offer my endless apologies. I still listen to at least part of an AT40 show every weekend. Over the past couple months …

Weekend Notes: A weekend mostly filled with basketball, the last time I’ll say that until late next fall. Jayhawk Talk What an appropriate ending. KU had a three-point lead over Arkansas Thursday with just over 3:00 remaining in the game. In the following 90 or so seconds: AJ Storr forced a bad shot early in the …

Friday Playlist: open.spotify.com/playlist/… “Bang Bang Bang” - Sports Team UK funsters making fun of Americans for our fascination with guns. “Afraid of Guns” - Motorbike Cincinnati funsters making fun of Americans for our fascination with guns. “Death of a Giant” - Murder …

NCAA Picks: I hate my picks. That’s how I’ll sum up this year’s NCAA tournament. Which seems perfect for a college basketball season I have mostly hated. Spoiled KU fan, I know. As hard as I tried not to, I ended up going with all four #1 seeds to reach the Final Four. Which is an idiotic way to fill your …

Early NCAA Thoughts: Here we are, NCAA tournament time. The time of some of my favorite, non-family of course, moments of my life. And also some of my least favorite. I suppose that’s the good thing about KU’s relative mediocrity this year: if I genuinely have no expectations, there is only opportunity for good memories …

Weekend Notes: As I said Friday, last week was a very odd one around here, at least in terms of our daily schedules. Monday was a normal day, although one third of L’s classmates were gone on their retreat. She did go in late after getting her stitches removed and new cast put on. Tuesday had the same schedule, …

Friday Playlist: Weird week around here. So weird I’m putting this together Thursday afternoon as I have some plans Friday morning. open.spotify.com/playlist/… “Fur Mink Augurs” - Bob Mould Bob’s new album came out last Friday. It is exactly what you would expect from a Bob Mould …

Reader's Notebook, 3/11/25: I just read a remarkable book that demands its own post. The Real Hoosiers - Jack McCallum McCallum, the longtime NBA writer for Sports Illustrated, dove into the history of the Indianapolis Crispus Attucks high school basketball teams of the mid–1950s, when Oscar Robertson starred there. Famously, …

Weekend Notes: I had a busy morning, so will blow through a few items from another rather laid-back weekend. Jayhawk Talk Saturday’s regular season finale with Arizona summed up the season for KU. Nice start, only to fell apart when Hunter Dickinson went to the bench. Another solid run in the last 6–7 minutes of …

Friday Playlist: open.spotify.com/playlist/… “Dollar Store” - Ben Kweller featuring Waxahatchee Katie Crutchfield is starting to show up in as many songs by other people as Phoebe Bridgers. Thank goodness both of them are always great collaborators. “Bethany” - Craig Finn Speaking of …

Reader's Notebook, 3/6/25: Beirut Station - Paul Vidich I’ve read a couple of Vidich’s books and was luke warm on both, so had largely written his work off. His spy stories seemed reserved, dry, and emotionally complex in a way that I did not connect with. But I heard him on a podcast where his personality seemed the opposite …

Wednesday Links: Heavy on James Bond content today, as there was some major news regarding the series’ future along with two other tidbits that haven’t received nearly as much attention. First, Amazon threw another billion dollars at Michael Wilson and Barbara Broccoli to take over full control of the Bond series. …

Jayhawk Talk: Checking Out: What a stupid, unserious team. That was one of my biggest thoughts after KU lost to Texas Tech Saturday. There’s no shame in losing to Tech; they are a hell of a team and now have wins at KU, at Houston, at K-State, and at BYU. They are very much like Iowa State in that they have a terrific coach …

Weekend Notes: A kid-focused notes post to kick off this week. I’ll save the sad, angry, frustrated hoops thoughts for tomorrow. Foot Girl L continues her healing process after surgery. Actually, things are going great. She went back to school last Monday and other than leaving early one afternoon because her …

February Media: Movies, Shows, etc Groundhog Day Every year I think, “Hey, I should watch this again!” when February 2 rolls around. Then it either isn’t available on a free service, or I missed when it would air on cable. This year I finally did it! Probably the first time I’ve seen it all the way through since …

Friday Playlist: open.spotify.com/playlist/… “Snowflakes” - Dropkick Some beautiful, hazy, power pop to start this week’s list. Is it asking too much that our days of snowflakes on the ground be done for this year? “Hardly” - Free Range This week’s Alternative Number One …

Reader's Notebook, 2/27/25: Alias Emma - Ava Glass To start, a crackling British spy caper. Emma, a young agent in a secret department within the British secret service, is tasked with guiding the adult son of a former Russian agent to safety before a Russian death squad can liquidate him. The catch is the Russians have tapped …

Weekend Notes: As I mentioned in Friday’s Playlist, last week was a very odd one in our house. Monday was a school holiday. Tuesday the girls got up and went to school, then C called me as soon as they arrived saying she had thrown up in the parking lot. So back home she came. She puked again that night, so she …

Friday Playlist: A crazy week in our house, for a bunch of reasons, so my comments on this week’s batch of music will be even more half-assed than normal. Never fear, the songs are still good! open.spotify.com/playlist/… “Focus” - Preoccupations This band’s sound never changes much, …

Jayhawk Talk: Hopeless: I’m starting this post Wednesday as I sit in the waiting room while L gets her foot operated on. I thought about just skipping this topic, but since I have time to kill, I might as well share a some thoughts about the Jayhawks. I don’t know of any way to label the last few weeks as anything other …

Success: A quick note to share that L had her surgery this morning. Everything seemed to go well, no surprises, and she did great. She’s upstairs in bed, still groggy from the anesthesia and waiting for the pain meds to kick in. She’ll be home for a few days but hopefully back to school next week and on the …

SNL 50: Saturday Night Live is one of the core pop cultural tentpoles that helped mold the person I am. From when I was first able to watch its prime time specials in the late Seventies, to when I started watching the show live in the early Eighties (along with the Seventies re-runs that played after …

Weekend High School Hoops Notes: I would wish you all a happy Presidents’ Day but, well, you know. Speaking of bullshit, I’m splitting what would normally be in the Weekend Notes post into two entries this week to separate the fun from the bullshit. Although there will still be some bullshit in this post. Regional Champs! Saturday …

Friday Playlist: open.spotify.com/playlist/… “Eden” - Baths A little world music influence to this buoyant, fun track. “Ankles” - Lucy Dacus We are officially on the clock for a new Lucy Dacus album. No surprise it seems like it’s going to be wonderful, as usual. “Take Your …

Wednesday Links: A terrific feature about SNL’s Lorne Michaels as the show celebrates its 50th anniversary. Many writers have sat beside him watching their sketches die, only to have him turn and say, with stony sarcasm, “You must be very proud.” If the host’s monologue is flat, he’ll moan, “Can we get any charm out …

Reader's Notebook, 2/11/25: Once again I am behind on these, so let’s get caught up with my last four reads. The Miracle of St. Anthony - Adrian Wojnarowski What a book! Future NBA scoops guru Woj spent the 2004–04 season embedded with the basketball team at St. Anthony High School of Jersey City. The program was famously …

Weekend Notes: Well, one big topic to get to, and not the one most of the rest of the world is discussing today, so I’ll blow through the first two subjects quickly. Jayhawk Talk More stupidity. This team seemed to quit in the second half against K-State. Afterward, Bill Self said his players showed poor effort …

Friday Playlist: We stay knee-deep in the new music another week. open.spotify.com/playlist/… “Prisoner of Beauty” - The Limiñanas, Bobby Gillespie I can find almost no information about this song or band, which is from the far south of France. So all I can say about it is that it 100% sounds like …

More Hoops Talk: I Am A Fraud: Me, in Monday’s post: I’m not sure if I have a worse feeling about tonight’s KU game or Tuesday’s CHS one. Shows what I know about ball. Jayhawk Talk Well, that was much, much better. Arguably KU’s best, wire-to-wire, performance of the year, jumping on Iowa State early and never letting up. The …

Monday Hoops Notes: Yeesh. Quite a weekend for basketball stuff, so I guess that will be my focus today. Let’s get the worst of it out of the way first. Feel free to skip; it ain’t brief. Jayhawk Talk I’ll begin by saying I’ve never been happier to have missed watching a KU game live than I was Saturday. Yet I was …

January Media: Movies, Shows, etc Rebel Ridge Movies like this are hard for me to watch these days. The moments of injustice seem far too real and common in the real world. That said, this was a good, old fashioned action flick. Not too complicated. Amazingly, despite a lot of gunplay, there’s not a ton of …

Friday Playlist: No sign that the current pace of new music will slacken any time soon, which means I will continue to have the pleasure of providing music to soundtrack a good chunk of your Fridays for the foreseeable future. open.spotify.com/playlist/… “People Of Substance” - Craig Finn DAD ROCK …

Favorite Things: More basketball stupidity, at both the high school and college levels, yesterday that I prefer to avoid for now. So, I’m launching a new series that promises to be randomly occasional: a few words about some of the favorite things in my life at the moment. Olukai Kekaha Boots It is a little weird …

Weekend Notes: A lot of hoops to get through. Not looking forward to some of it, though… HS Hoops Two games for CHS last week. Wednesday we traveled south to take on Center Grove, ranked #7 in 4A. After our city championship, we had snuck back into the media rankings at #11 in 3A. Varsity lost by 17. We were down …

Friday Playlist: open.spotify.com/playlist/… “Giving Up” - Michigander This sounds super happy, which was how I wanted to start this week’s playlist. Then you evaluate the lyrics and see it’s not happy after all. There’s a metaphor in there somewhere. “Jealousy” - …

Reader's Notebook, 1/22/25: There’s Always This Year - Hanif Abdurraqib I started the year with this wonderful book. It is a multi-layered examination of the places we call home and how we relate to them as we age, all set against a backdrop of basketball. For the most part, Abdurraqib’s tale follows the career of LeBron …

Weekend Notes: Hope you had a good Monday celebrating the legacy of Martin Luther King Jr. and all he stood for. Equal opportunity, justice, empathy, love. We’ve come a long way since he was murdered. Yesterday was a reminder that we still have a long way to go. Let’s review some stuff that happened over the past …

HS Hoops: Double Champs: With one more big football game scheduled for tonight, I’ll hold off on the weekend summary until tomorrow. That also allows me to devote more space to writing about high school hoops. City Tournament The semifinals of the Indy City tournament were Thursday. On the JV side, L and her pals crushed …

Friday Playlist: The new music for the new year continues to pile up, so for at least the next couple weeks I’m going to share extra-stuffed playlists. Think of them as musical firewood to keep you warm as the polar vortex announces its unwelcome arrival. open.spotify.com/playlist/… “Here We Go …

High School Hoops: Exactly two months since her last game, L finally returned to the court last night. So a quick update is in order. We knew going in that she probably would not play much. This was our opening game in the Indianapolis City tournament, so with (likely) games on Thursday and Friday and Tuesday’s …

Pacers + Health Update: Two weeks into the New Year and there are a couple posts I’ve been putting off for far too long. Before I get to a quick health update on your beloved blogger, I can’t believe I forgot to include a blurb about the Pacers yesterday. So… Pacers Hey, my Indiana Pacers have won six in a row! Including …

Weekend Notes: A quieter weekend, although there were still enough activities over the past 5–6 days to justify an overly-long blog post. Weather A little over three new inches of snow Friday, on top of the 9+ we received last Sunday/Monday. Our street is one of the few side streets in our area that gets …

Friday Playlist: We’re finally back in the normal swing of things this week. I’m pleased to say my various new music playlists are being refilled after the holiday break. I should have no trouble coming up with regular-sized playlists full of new music for the foreseeable future. …

Jayhawk Talk: Ups and Downs: KU basketball has become a roller coaster ride. Which is not the coolest thing when you are a fan. A week ago they lost to an undermanned, sleep-deprived West Virginia team at home. It was the first time the Mountaineers had ever won at Allen Fieldhouse. In true WVU form, they tried their hardest to …

Reaching For The Stars, Vol. 109: Chart Week: January 7, 1978 Song: “Don’t It Make My Brown Eyes Blue” - Crystal Gayle Chart Position: #16, 22nd week on the chart. Peaked at #2 for three weeks in November/December 1977. What is the first American Top 40 show I remember listening to? If you know me, you understand that I wish I …

Weekend Notes: Friday I had an appointment to get C’s iPad looked at. After confirming it needed a new battery, the guy helping me said the replacement would take about a week to arrive, so it would probably be “next Monday.” He paused, we looked at each other for a moment, and then we both started laughing. We …

Sunday Links: What better time than a snowy Sunday to finally share the links I’ve been stacking up over the past month or so. After reading a 007 novel recently, I wondered why we haven’t heard a timeline for when the movie franchise will launch its post-Daniel Craig era. Turns out there is a lot of drama …

Friday Playlist: Still not back in a normal music groove yet, so today you get one of my occasional, fun, “let Spotify spit some random tunes out and make a playlist from them” deals. open.spotify.com/playlist/… “Spin The Bottle” - The Juliana Hatfield Three What a great blast from the …

Reader's Notebook, 1/2/25: I completed my final book of 2024 late Saturday/early Sunday as I was battling some insomnia. It was my 62nd book of the year, making 2024 one of my best reading years ever.[1] I read seven books in two different months, six books in three separate months, and never fewer than three books in a …

December Media: Holiday Shit Elf Christmas Vacation A Christmas Story Die Hard Assorted SNL holiday sketches A’s all around. Band Aid - The Making Of The Original ’Do They Know It’s Christmas?’ Not a true documentary but rather a collection of the raw film shot on November 25, 1984, the day the vocals were recorded …

Stats: As usual for the first post of the New Year, here are the artists I listened to most over the past 365, errr, 366 days. As you might expect, when Pearl Jam puts out a new album that is really good and also perform in Indy, they end up dominating. Pearl Jam - 725 Middle Kids - 274 The War on Drugs - …

Christmas Week Notes: We had a pretty good holiday week. Lots of good times and good food with family. The weather was mostly decent, dreary but unseasonably warm all week. There was some good basketball. The only bummer was I caught cold #1 of the season last weekend and it wore me down several days. Christmas Day and …

Favorite Songs of 2024: It’s taken a little longer than normal - I am almost certain this is the latest in the calendar year I’ve ever posted it - but at last I can reveal my 20 favorite songs of the year. This year I’ve had the the least enthusiasm I can recall about the process.[1] Usually I’ll dive into the songs in …

Weekend Notes: Christmas week has finally arrived! The countdown that begins sometime around October 1 in my mind is just about done. Reading through old posts, I see I often updated you all on my state of holiday spirit. This has been a weird year for me. I’ve listened to less holiday music than anytime this …

Friday Playlist, Part 2: For part two, the annual review of my favorite songs of the past 20 years. Remember there have been ties for #1 a few years, thus the extra tracks. Also don’t forget that these lists remain static once published. There are several songs I would replace with others if I re-evaluated their years …

Friday Playlist, Part 1: As promised, two different playlists and two videos for the last Friday before Christmas. We begin with the 11 songs that just missed making my Favorite Songs of 2024. That list isn’t completely done - I just moved a couple songs around before I started typing this - but the songs are locked …

Reaching For The Stars, Vol. 108: Chart Week: December 13, 1980 Song: “(Just Like) Starting Over” - John Lennon Chart Position: #4, 7th week on the chart. Peaked at #1 for five weeks across December and January. This entry is less about a specific song than an extraordinary moment in American Top 40 history. And an opportunity for …

Overheard At The Gym: In case you haven’t noticed, I’m dialing back the blogging a bit to close the year. I’ve been working on my Favorite Songs list. I’m hoping to squeeze out one more RFTS post before the year is over. And general end-of-the-year busyness is keeping me from sitting down at the keyboard too much. That …

Weekend Notes: A slightly quieter weekend. No sitting on the couch for 183 hours watching football. I actually got out of the house both days. Multiple times! Let’s review. College Girls I’ll share the biggest, best news up top: C got her acceptance letter from IU on Thursday. That’s the only school she’s really …

Friday Playlist: Doing things a little different the next couple weeks. Today I’m going to share some new, indie rock, Christmas-y tracks I’ve discovered this year. Next week will be a double playlist of both the songs that just missed my Favorite Songs of the Year list, and a review of the #1 songs of …

Reader's Notebook, 12/11/24: A Spy Like Me - Kim Sherwood The second installment in Sherwood’s planned 007 trilogy, it continues to tread ground that is very unlike anything ever written for the Bond franchise. James Bond himself remains absent (mostly), as the rest of the Double-Os attempt to unravel a network that finances …

Weekend Notes: Well, a lot to get caught up on. Not thrilled about all of it… College Football I spent the better part of 11 hours on the couch watching the big conference title games Saturday. Literally. I know I got up to eat dinner. Obviously a few restroom runs. Maybe I ran out to get the mail? Those were …

Friday Playlist: I’m behind my normal schedule, but my annual December shift in music has begun. More holiday music and reviewing my favorite songs of the year than listening to new tunes. Which means this is a last-minute collection, rushed a bit as I have to get a kid to an early appointment before school. …

Reaching For The Stars, Vol. 107: Chart Week: December 6, 1976 Song: “More Than A Feeling” - Boston Chart Position: #9, 12th week on the chart. Peaked at #5 the week of December 25. A perfect song. I could end this post there and it would be enough. Why waste your and my time cranking out a thousand or so words breaking down the how …

Jayhawk Talk: A few thoughts about how the Jayhawks fared Thanksgiving week. Hoops A good week. A very good week. With one exception. First, taking care of Duke in Las Vegas was a nice way to wrap up the first part of the season. KJ Adams basically shut down super phenom Cooper Flag for three-quarters of the …

November Media: Movies, Shows, etc The Americans, season 6 Why re-watch something I’ve seen before when I have so many unwatched shows on my list that I need to get to? Because this is my favorite TV drama ever made, it never had a subpar season, and its final 10 episodes were as good as any concluding season ever …

Weekend Notes: A long, extra-stuffed Thanksgiving weekend is in the books. Let’s run through the highlights. Thanksgiving For the first time in ages that we’ve been home for the holiday,[1] we did not host the local gathering on Turkey Day. One of S’s sisters and her husband opened up their house to the family. …

Friday Vid: No playlist this week, as the days have passed too quickly and I’ve been too busy to cobble together a few songs. Doesn’t mean I will skip sharing a video from the Billboard Hot 100 chart of December 1, 1984. youtu.be/LHcP4MWAB… “(Pride) In The Name Of Love” - U2 Last …

Reader's Notebook, 11/27/24: Happy Thanksgiving to all! Hope your travels and gatherings are safe and enjoyable. The Right Stuff - Tom Wolfe Somewhere I ran across an author/poster I follow who mentioned that they had recently read this book. In their blurb, they said something about not loving Wolfe’s writing style but still …

Weekend Notes: The last weekend update before we dive neck-deep into the holiday season. KU Football How ‘bout them Jayhawks?!?!?! Taking the Colorado Buffaloes out to the woodshed on the sturdy legs of Devin Neal. There could not have been a more appropriate day for #4 to go off than the 33rd anniversary of Tony …

Friday Playlist: open.spotify.com/playlist/… “Drive” - R.E.M. This playlist took a long time to come together, so I had to call in a couple ringers to bookend the new music. To open, this week’s The Alternative Number Ones over at Stereogum (subscription required). A little shocked Tom only …

Reaching For The Stars, Vol. 106: Chart Week: November 9, 1985 Song: “You Belong To The City” - Glenn Frey Chart Position: #4, 9th week on the chart. Peaked at #2 for two weeks. The fall of 1985 was one of those proverbial Big Times in my life. I was a freshman in high school, which brought all kinds of new excitement and perils …

Wednesday Links: As noted a couple weeks ago in my Friday Playlist, the legendary Quincy Jones died recently. He had many epic interviews over the years. I had these two saved and re-read them over the past few days. What a storyteller! Quincy Jones Has a Story About That In Conversation: Quincy Jones I had no real …

High School Hoops Chronicles: Two Game Nights and One Huge Bummer: Two games to catch up on from last week. Tuesday the Irish played their Jesuit sisters from down the block. L was excited because the Braves were missing two of their best varsity players, meaning girls from their kinda crappy JV team had moved up, so she was hoping for two wins. She got them. CHS …

Weekend Notes: A Great Weekend To Be A Jayhawk Saturday, specifically. First, just before noon Eastern, Bryson Tiller, the #20 recruit in the current senior class, signed to play at KU next year. This was unexpected. KU had chased him hard, but earlier in the week his Overtime Elite teammate Samis Calderon had …

Friday Playlist: open.spotify.com/playlist/… “Vanish” - Blueburst with Marty Willson-Piper The story behind this song is one of the cooler ones I’ve come across this year. Craig Douglas Miller was in a band in the Nineties that got some major label attention during the great Alternative Rock …

Reader's Notebook, 11/14/24: Let the Right One In - John Ajvide Lindqvist I put several scary books on hold in late September and hoped one or two would come in before Halloween. This one actually came through after the holiday, but that was perfect as it takes place in the week before and after Halloween, 1981. In Sweden. So …

Reaching For The Stars, Vol. 105: Chart Week: November 4, 1978 Song: “Alive Again” - Chicago Chart Position: #21, 3rd week on the chart. Peaked at #14 for two weeks in December. In the Seventies and Eighties the band Chicago was like air: they were always around. In over 21 years of hitting the pop chart, they had 34 Top 40 singles, …

Weekend Notes: A busy weekend with more driving than normal, some big events I was not able to watch live, and the standard wide range of topics to discuss. High School Hoops L’s sophomore season kicked off Friday with a trip 90 minutes north to play Norwell, class 3A runners up last year. We played their varsity …

Friday Playlist: My routines have been a little out of whack this week, so an abbreviated playlist for today. [open.spotify.com/playlist/...](https://open.spotify.com/playlist/0ggsOVibMQrKin407AZovx?si=b74e7dbd4dd44b48) “Cult of Personality” - Living Colour Sigh… “Don’t Stop ‘Til You Get Enough” - Michael Jackson …

Jayhawk Talk: Season Opener: It is finally here, the day we’ve all been waiting for. That’s right, it’s time to start talking KU hoops again! After another wild offseason filled with recruiting twists and turns,[1] the Jayhawks crushed poor Howard University by 30 Monday night. Howard is a good program and is picked to win …

Weekend Notes: This was a fairly quiet weekend thanks to a KU bye week and the girls being busy on their own. Halloween Our Halloween was relaxed. We decided to go hang with our old neighbors. It sure brought back memories to sit in their driveway and watch kids scamper through the cul-de-sac. That was where our …

October Media: Kind of an odd media month. There was some baseball early, but not much after the Royals were eliminated. A lot of reading The Lord of the Rings. A fall break vacation. But not much long-form stuff. That should shift in November. And there was a changing of the hobbies, a switch that is reflected …

Friday Playlist: open.spotify.com/playlist/… “Afterlife” - Sharon Van Etten New SVE music! We won’t get the album until February, making it the first 2025 album on my New Music list. For the first time, she collaborated with her band on writing songs rather than bringing songs to them to …

Sports (Mostly Hoops) Notes: A few sports thoughts, mostly about basketball. KU Hoops Much better performance Tuesday in the second exhibition contest against Washburn. Of course, they better have looked better against a D2 team. Hitting shots is always a good thing, and KU actually seems to have multiple shooters this year. …

On Government, Politics, and The Election: Sometimes it is hard to articulate why you believe the things you believe, especially long held views. They become a part of who you are and the inflection points that led you to adopt those stances can be difficult to recall. Take politics, for example. People our age have likely held the same …

Reader's Notebook, 10/29/24: The Hobbit, The Fellowship of the Ring, The Two Towers, The Return of the King - J.R.R. Tolkien I’ve thought about re-reading The Lord of the Rings for several years and finally pulled the trigger. Which was dumb. Given how focused I am on nostalgia, memories, and anniversaries, I really should have …

Weekend Notes: These summaries are usually heavy on the sports. After a weekend like the one just passed, that is problematic. Nothing, and I mean NOTHING, good happened for teams I follow over the past three days. Just a reminder that sports are terrible and I’m dumb for letting them hold such large sway over my …

Friday Playlist: open.spotify.com/playlist/… “Halloween I & II” - Cloud Nothings Happy Halloween! “Dance Now” - Girl and Girl If I had gone into a coma in 1983 or 1984, woken up this week, and this was the first song I heard, I bet I wouldn’t have realized I just slept …

Pacers Thoughts: The new NBA season kicked off last night and the Pacers begin play tonight. When we last saw them, the Pacers were making a surprise, fun-as-hell run to the Eastern Conference finals. They could have easily won three of the first four games against the eventual champion Celtics, but were instead …

D's Notes: A few other notes from last week/the weekend plus life in general. Health I’ve had a couple longer spells of irregular heart beats lately, so the week before we went to Denver I wore an event monitor again. Just like the first two times I wore one, I had zero issues, so it wasn’t really helpful. …

Fall Break 2024: Colorado: To celebrate the glories of CHS fall break, we took the girls (well, C and L) to Denver to stay with S’s sister and her family for a few days.[1] We hadn’t been to Colorado since Christmas 2017, although we were scheduled to spend spring break there in 2020 until, well, you know… We flew out …

Reader's Notebook, 10/16/24: Going to fire off three quick summaries of recent books before we head to the airport. Middle of the Night - Riley Sager The Only One Left - Riley Sager I was not at all familiar with Sager’s work, but when I saw Middle of the Night pop up on multiple lists of must read new books over the summer, I …

Wednesday Playlist: A special, early playlist this week, as we are headed to Denver later today to visit family over the CHS fall break. open.spotify.com/playlist/… “Tell Me Why U Do That” - Grace Bowers & The Hodge Podge So Grace Bowers is some kind of prodigy. She’s still in her teens, …

Weekend Notes: Kind of a quiet weekend for us on the personal tip. Plenty of other shit to review on this gloomy, chilly Monday morning. Northern Lights Since we live inside the city’s light dome, we weren’t able to just walk out and see Thursday’s northern lights. I was able to get a couple shots, using a long …

Friday Playlist: open.spotify.com/playlist/… “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 …

Reaching For The Stars, Vol. 104: 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, …

Weekend Notes: 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 …

Friday Playlist: open.spotify.com/playlist/… “October” - The Helio Sequence It is here, people. Decorative gourd season. Motherfuckers. “Perfect Me” - Blossoms First off, these dudes don’t sound like your typical Manchester band. I would have guessed Southern California first. …

R's: Surviving and Advancing!: 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 …

D's Notes: 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 …

September Media: A few changes prompted a new sub-section. Movies, Shows, etc 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 …

Weekend Notes: 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 …

Friday Playlist: 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. open.spotify.com/playlist/… …

Fever End Of The Road: 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 …

Wednesday Links: A year ago Will Ferrell made an unannounced and odd appearance at a Wal-Mart on the southside of Indy. Word came that it was part of a project he was working on. That project hits Netflix this week, and tells the story of a road trip he took with his fellow SNL alum Harper Steele after Steele’s …

Weekend Notes: Another full-ish weekend, with most of our attention focused on the corrupt and disgraceful arena of sports. Sports suck. Family Let’s flip our normal order, though, and kick it off with family chat. M came home for the weekend. It was her first visit of the semester and nice to have her in the …

Friday Playlist: It’s been a good week or two and my new music folder is getting filled up again, making it more difficult to pick what to share than to scare up enough songs to share. It helps we have an anniversary song, an old song that is new to me, a new version of an old song, and a calendar song all in …

Reader's Notebook, 9/19/24: Trust Her - Flynn Berry Three years ago I read Berry’s A Northern Spy, about an unaffiliated Northern Irish woman, Tessa, who gets pulled into the conflict between the IRA and British authorities because of her sister. In this follow up, set a few years later, the siblings are settled in Dublin …

Wednesday Links: Today’s first selection is a must-read for any fan of Prince, music in general, or celebrity in America. It is a deep examination of Ezra Edelman’s attempt to make a massive, nine-hour documentary about Prince’s life and death, and how changes in ownership of Prince’s estate may keep anyone from …

Reaching For The Stars, Vol. 103: Chart Week: September 7, 1985 Song: “Cry” - Godley & Creme Chart Position: #24, 8th week on the chart. Peaked at #16 the week of October 5. Every decade is filled with unlikely hits. In the Eighties, the best way to force your way into the Top 40 was by making a video that was unique and …

Weekend Notes: As has become standard so far this fall, Friday night was jam-packed with sports action from the couch. Things were ratcheted up a notch this weekend, as KU was playing, meaning I couldn’t casually watch tennis, baseball, or basketball while listening to high school football. No, this week I would …

Friday Playlist: open.spotify.com/playlist/… “Favourite Songs” - Maximo Park This was the week I learned that MP and bands like them - The Kooks, The Futureheads, Editors, The Wombats, Bombay Bicycle Club - were lumped into a sub-genre called “Landfill Indie” by some critics. That was …

D's Notes: I’ve been doing some blog maintenance lately, going back and adding tags to all of my nearly 3500 posts. After two weeks of work, I’m about two-thirds of the way complete. I’m not really sure why I decided to do this. Tags are hard. I tried to use them years ago and gave up because I was never sure …

A Reaching For The Stars Series Update: My momentum in this series has been off for a few months. No worries for the two or three of you who care about these posts; I’m not giving up on them! A combination of factors over the summer kept me from listening to American Top 40 very often. Less time in the kitchen, where I play the iHeart …

Tuesday Links: I had a couple longer posts in various states of readiness that I hoped to select from to post today. But, man, these early mornings getting up to take L to basketball wipe me out. More about that in another post. Instead of posting something longer, I’ll just share some links for now. A great …

Weekend Notes: Another weekend jam-packed with sports dominating my attention. Personally, it was a tough weekend for football. Cathedral lost Friday night against Cincinnati St. Xavier in the closing seconds of their game, 35–31. KU lost to Illinois despite dominating on defense and having an unstoppable running …

Friday Playlist: I’ve finally wrapped up the music projects that have been eating up a lot of my time lately. As I do, I find my new music playlist is down around 40 songs. For a good chunk of 2024 it’s been closer to 60 songs. The new tunes have definitely dried up over the past month. Hopefully just a …

NFL Predictions: My NFL predictions are always half-assed. Let’s see if I can make them even more half-assed (quarter-assed?) by typing them up on a morning when a chirping smoke alarm woke me up at 3:30, it took me an hour to fall back to sleep after finding/quieting the proper alarm, then I had to be up less than …

Reader's Notebook, 9/4/24: Well, August was quite a month when it came to reading. I finished seven books last month. And that was with a vacation, the Olympics, paying more attention to baseball (at least some of the time), and watching the US Open mixed in. I guess I used my free time wisely. Also I read some very enjoyable …

Holiday Weekend Notes: It was an action-packed weekend. At least for watching sports from the comfort of my house. Friday night in particular was kind of crazy. High school football on the radio. Indiana Fever and US Open on the TV. Royals-Astros Gameday coverage on the Mac. With bonus weather monitoring on every screen. …

August Media: Movies, Shows, etc 2024 Summer Olympics Already much discussed in this space. A The Americans, season 3 The re-watch continues. Season three was a tight, excellent set of episodes: I believe every show fell between 43 and 48 minutes. Even in 2015, that was rare in the prestige TV realm. The last …

Friday Playlist: After months of having more than enough songs in the queue for these posts, the tide of new music might finally have slowed a bit. Have no worries, I still have plenty of songs for you. It is just taking a tad more work to put this week’s playlist together. Which I, of course, do not mind. …

Football Is Back!: College football is finally here! With it comes what is the most anticipated and also oddest season for the Kansas Jayhawks in my life. Anticipated because a program that won nine games last year enters week one with 20 of 22 starters who are either seniors or redshirt juniors, a level of experience …

Pearl Jam In Indy - Finally: As hinted at in yesterday’s post, I got to do something insanely awesome Monday night that I’ve been waiting a long time for. Even with a short night of sleep, I’m still a little keyed up from it this morning. If you choose to proceed, prepare yourself for an overly detailed accounting of my evening …

Weekend Notes: This weekend seemed pretty chill to me. There were enough things going on to justify a blog post, though. Let’s see how many words I can stretch this alleged slow weekend into. Friday Night Lights High school football started in Indiana last week. In a shocking upset, it was a perfectly pleasant …

Friday Playlist: A little smaller selection this week, as I’ve had two music projects that have been sucking up my listening time this week. open.spotify.com/playlist/… “London Calling” - The Clash Joe Strummer was born 72 years ago this week. At first, I accidentally added the entire London …

EV Driving Update: I am now four months and over 5000 miles into Telsa ownership, err, leasership? Blog rules dictate that an update is in order. I don’t think I have anything super profound to say. For the most part, I love the car and EV life. I would say it has been a 90–95% positive experience, with mostly small …

Tuesday Links: I probably should have shared these first three links last week, when we were all still gripped by Olympic fever. Ranking Every Summer Olympic Sport Based on How Terrible It Would Be for the Average Person The Winners and Losers of the 2024 Paris Olympics Merci, Paris: We needed these Olympics As I …

Weekend Notes: An Unexpected Trip What started as a boring, uneventful weekend ending up being surprisingly fun. S worked full time all weekend, filling in for a hospitalist who is on maternity leave. She had like 1000 babies to see,[1] so was at the hospital until 5:00 Saturday, nearly as long Sunday. Because of …

Friday Playlist: open.spotify.com/playlist/… “Archbishop Harold Holmes” - Jack White What an idiot I am! White dropped his No Name album on streaming services two weeks ago, and I listened to it a ton after we got home from vacation. Then, somehow, I forgot to include a track in last week’s …

Reader's Notebook, 8/15/24: Dynastic, Bombastic, Fantastic - Jason Turbow My brother in books David V handed me a copy of this on my visit to Kansas City in June. It took me some time to work through my stack of virtual books to crack it open, and once I did, I realized I had read it before, back in 2017. Looking back, I loved …

Family Notes: Catching up on some family stuff from the past few weeks. Back to Campus The biggest event was moving M back to school on Sunday. In every way it was so much easier than moving her into the dorm a year ago. She’s living in the sorority house this year. She and three other girls share a little quad …

Final Olympic Notes: Strap in for a good, old fashioned, mega post about the Olympics! In a week filled with amazing events and results, it would be impossible for me to not start with Saturday’s men’s basketball gold medal game. The first quarter was nearly perfect, a breathless, back-and-forth, up-and-down, …

Friday Playlist: A week off means we stick with the extra-stuffed playlists. I don’t hear any complaints. open.spotify.com/playlist/… “Summer In The Park Pt. 1” - East Coast Connection Early August used to mean you got focused on how to maximize the last few weeks of summer. Not these days, …

Reader's Notebook, 8/8/24: City in Ruins - Don Winslow The final entry in Winslow’s Dan Ryan trilogy. Like the first two, it moves briskly. Also like the first two, that briskness makes it feel only partially formed. It was an interesting writing exercise, especially when compared to his Mexican cartel trilogy, cutting the …

Olympic Notes, Part 1: Tradition requires me to share some Olympic thoughts. I debated waiting until the games ended and publishing one, extra-stuffed post. But the games move so fast that things that struck me in week one are bound to get over-written by events of week two. Hell, the notes I’m about to share may already …

Vacation Notes: Our week in Florida wasn’t perfect, Mother Nature saw to that. But it was pretty good. For the first time in eight or nine years, we drove for a vacation in the south. It was 11.5 hours, door-to-door, and traffic was not terrible on either trip. A lot of travelers, to be sure, but nothing like …

Friday Playlist: No playlist next week, so I’ll see if I can cram a few extra songs into this one. open.spotify.com/playlist/… “Florida” - Modest Mouse We will depart early Sunday for a week in the Florida panhandle. This is the only song overtly about Florida in my collection, thus its …

July Media: Posting this early as we head off to Florida for vacation this weekend. Movies, Shows, etc Tour de France A good first two weeks became a rather boring final week as Tadej Pogacar destroyed the field for an easy win. Luckily, that last week was when I barely watched, between travel basketball and …

Weekend Notes: Belated notes after a morning of driver’s ed, some cleaning up after our travels, and starting to prep for our next trip. Kid Hoops Five months of travel ball came to an end this weekend in Louisville. L’s team went 2–2, losing both of their bracket games. It was a very weird weekend. Like last …

Friday Playlist: Another long-ish collection this week. I doubt any of you mind that much. open.spotify.com/playlist/… “Summer Nights” - Hazel English Nothing better. “Chicago” - Japandroids Tuesday I listened to Japandroids' classic Celebration Rock all-the-way-through for the first …

Dog-ish Days: The Dog Days of Summer are supposed to come later, say very late July into the early weeks of August. That gap when the heat really kicks in, the newness of summer activities has faded, and boredom starts to kick in. But, I realized this week, they really should arrive sooner since kids go back to …

Weekend Notes: What a weekend! I assume a lot happened in the world, but last weekend was a live period for college basketball recruiting, and there were several massive tournaments in the Midwest. We played against or saw teams from Pennsylvania, Washington state, California, Colorado, North Carolina, …

Friday Playlist: After taking a break for the holiday, I’m offering you an extra jam-packed playlist at no extra cost. open.spotify.com/playlist/… “Rain In The Summertime” - The Alarm After the remnants of Hurricane Beryl rolled through this past week, there’s a chance of rain every …

Weekend Notes: Holiday Weekend Not a bad Independence Day weekend at all. S’s sister who lives in Denver and her family came to stay with us from Wednesday through Sunday. We had a couple cornhole tournaments (L beat her cousin in one, and she and I beat the cousin and his dad in the other).The kids went and …

Monday Links: C and I are off to Bloomington for a campus visit today, so weekend notes will have to wait. To tide you over, a slew of links, including three oral histories. I’m rarely at the beginning of any trends. But I did get my first Livestrong bracelet right around this time 20 years ago. I was wearing it …

Friday Vids: No true playlist this week. Instead I’ll share two fun videos I’ve been sitting on for a few weeks. First, clips of classic Peanuts cartoons edited to somewhat match the classic Boston songs “Foreplay/Long Time.” youtu.be/qxtgJIQk1… Next, someone recreates New …

June Media: Movies, Shows, etc The Americans, seasons one and two I’m finally doing it: devoting this summer to re-watching one of my very favorite TV shows. My original plan was to try to knock all five seasons out in June. But as I can’t watch more than a couple shows a night, even if I love something, and …

Independence Day Playlist: Here we go! One of my favorite music days of the year! Two new songs for 2024. We’ll see if any of you can pick them out. No fair peeking back to last year’s post: it’s the same Spotify playlist so the posts for the last five years all update to show the new additions. Happy Fourth …

The Bear, Season Three Review: We knocked out season three of The Bear over the weekend, binging six episodes Friday and four Saturday. Before I dive in, a couple preliminary notes. First, I had not heard official word that there will be a season four until after we finished. I believe I heard there might be another season, but …

Weekend Notes: Originally I planned on taking this week off. We have family coming in on Wednesday, holiday activities the rest of the week, and a busy two days before all that. But plenty happened over the weekend and I have a couple other posts nearly ready to go, so looks like we’ll slide into the holiday on a …

Friday Playlist: I’m putting this list together late Thursday, for reasons I’ll get to in a moment, so it could take some weird turns. open.spotify.com/playlist/… “Summer Girl” - HAIM Yep. “Save It For Later” - Eddie Vedder We were busy with the last night of summer league …

Reader's Notebook, 6/27/24: Chain Gang All-Stars - Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah I almost stopped reading this book twice, despite the critical acclaim it has received. The opening chapters seemed repetitive as Adjei-Brenyah slowly introduced a series of characters through similar sets of events. They are all convicted felons …

Reaching For The Stars, Vol. 102: Chart Week: June 20, 1987 Song: “I Want Your Sex” - George Michael Chart Position: #36, 3rd week on the chart. Peaked at #2 the week of August 8. Hey, a countdown that landed on my birthday! How did I celebrate turning 16? Well, we lived in San Leandro, CA at the time, and had dinner the night …

Weekend Notes: We had a very boring weekend. S worked both days, filling in for a hospitalist who is on maternity leave. The girls all spent time with friends. I read, watched some shows, swam. It was our first weekend in quite awhile where there weren’t multiple things on the calendar that we had to rush around …

Friday Playlist: We are almost halfway through the calendar year and something weird has happened: I have zero albums on my running list of new music slated for release. Usually I have at least five entries in thre, stretching out months in advance. I’m sure I’ve missed a few albums, and there are ones I …

Sports Notes: Time to knock out some sports notes while I avoid going outside and facing Heat Dome ’24. Say Hey The incomparable Willie Mays died Tuesday night. I never saw him play live as the tail end of his career just barely overlapped with my life. I did hear the stories and saw the grainy highlight reels. …

Reader's Notebook, 6/18/24: The Charm School - Nelson DeMille I had never heard of this 1988 book before. I was pleasantly surprised that despite its age, it held up pretty well. In fact, its age was one of the best things about it. The book is split into two halves. In the first, an American student traveling through the …

Weekend Notes: Father’s Day came at the right moment. After three very busy days preceding it, Sunday was a nice day to relax and not have to be anywhere. S got us donuts for breakfast. We had my in-laws over for dinner, eating some carry-out barbecue. I received a Solo fire pit as a combo Father’s Day/birthday …

Friday Playlist: open.spotify.com/playlist/… “Summer Breeze” - Seals & Croft Yes, yes, yes. “Disconnect” - Fanning Dempsey National Park I doubt many of you know the names Paul Dempsey and Bernard Fanning. Dempsey was the lead singer for the band Something For Kate, while Fanning …

Basketball Notes: Let’s talk basketball for a few minutes. Kid Hoops L has been busy with her high school teammates. They have activities on the calendar four days a week for most of June. Three weight training sessions, one two-hour open gym, then two different nights with two games. She’s also volunteering at the …

Reaching For The Stars, Vol. 101: Chart Week: June 4, 1983 Song: “Wanna Be Startin’ Somethin’” - Michael Jackson Chart Position: #22, 2nd week on the chart. Peaked at #5 for two weeks in July. High Fidelity was one of my favorite movies of the early 2000s. I loved the record store culture it celebrated. Hanging around with fellow …

Weekend Travel Notes: A busy weekend back in the Motherland. KC Trip Lots of fun on my first Kansas City visit in two years, first solo one in five. As always, it was too brief but I packed plenty in. I flew in Friday morning and got to experience the new KCI for the first time. Soooo much better than the old airport. I …

Thursday Playlist: Posting this a little early as I have a busy Friday morning. open.spotify.com/playlist/… “Sabotage” - Beastie Boys Thirty years and one week ago the Beasties released Ill Communication. I’ve always been a Paul’s Boutique guy, but there are plenty of people who think IC …

Reaching for the Stars: The First 100: With 100 Reaching for the Stars entries under my belt, it is time to break down where we’ve been, AT40 style. It should be no shock that there have been more entries from 1984 than any other year, a healthy 18 posts from the greatest year in pop music history. I was mildly surprised that 1982 was …

May Media: My goal for May was to adjust away from so much YouTube back towards more traditional shows and movies. I didn’t do a great job of that. I have started a summer viewing project, so while the hours may adjust in June, I don’t know if the number of entries in each section will change much for awhile. …

Friday Playlist: open.spotify.com/playlist/… “Bored In The Summer” - Bad Bad Hats Too soon? “Dotted Line” - Why Bonnie Blair Howerton wrote this in a moment when she “felt the weight of capitalism” pressing down upon her. I love shit like that. Also a nice warning to …

Wednesday Notes: A few more random notes that didn’t fit into the weekend wrap-up. Number Three Behind The Wheel L finally got her learner’s permit today. She had been gung-ho about driving since she was 13, and dove into the driver’s ed self-teaching program when we signed her up back in December. We’ve been …

Weekend Notes: A long holiday weekend filled with guests, rain, and fun. L had a group of girl friends over Friday night. Storms curtailed their pool time but otherwise they kicked off their summer well. Since she spends so much time with basketball girls, it’s always good to get a confirmation that she hangs out …

Friday Playlist: It’s summer time, bitches! open.spotify.com/playlist/… “Summertime” - DJ Jazzy Jeff & The Fresh Prince DRUMS PLEASE! “Dancing In The Streets” - Van Halen This song has always meant summer to me. It seemed like I heard it constantly Memorial Day weekend 1982, …

Reader's Notebook + Thoughts On Cassettes: High Bias: The Distorted History of the Cassette Tape - Marc Masters A single-book focus for this entry, less because of the book’s quality than what it got me thinking about. The book itself wasn’t as good as I hoped it would be. Masters begins by laying out the history of the cassette tape and …

Tuesday Link: I spent much of the afternoon working through a long read that is probably best shared on its own. I’m not sure when I first came across Maciej Cegłowski’s work. I know I used his Pinboard bookmarking service a several times, although never as a primary collection tool. At some point I discovered …

Weekend Notes: Lots of notes from the past several days. Travel Hoops Pretty good weekend of hoops in Louisville. For the first time ever, we went 3–0 in pool play at a national event. We won our first game Friday by 11. It was a very tough, defensive contest that we controlled pretty much from the opening tip. …

Friday Playlist: open.spotify.com/playlist/… “I See The Light” - The Men Just the thing to shake you awake and start your Friday off right. “Baby Bangs” - Snarls These Ohio kids had my second-favorite song of 2020. Since then, their output has underwhelmed. This is a nice return to …

Reaching for the Stars, Vol. 100: Chart Week: May 15, 1987 Song: “Don’t Dream It’s Over” - Crowded House Chart Position: #15, 18th week on the chart. Peaked at #2 for one week in April. A few months ago, as I moved into posts 90-plus in this series, I considered whether I should do something special for number 100. Then I realized …

Wednesday Links: Several car articles, since I’m still in that mode. I’ll slip those stories to the bottom if you aren’t super interested in them. I’m not a government hater, but shit like this makes me furious. You would think the possibility of preventing the most prevalent forms of cancer would get all our …

Reader's Notebook, 5/14/24: Reckless - Chrissie Hynde While doing my research for the recent RFTS post about The Pretenders, I came across several references to Hynde’s memoir. As soon as I completed that post, I checked and, LO!, the ebook was available at the library. I got it onto my Kindle and knocked it out over the next …

Weekend Notes: A nice weekend here in Indy. I know eventually it will come back to bite us in the ass, but this is like the fifth or sixth straight season here that has been terrific. It got warm early but didn’t turn into summer in April. We’ve had a few cooldowns but none of those surprise weeks when you go from …

Friday Playlist: I had to get up early to attend a function this morning. I’ve very excited to share details next week, but that is the explanation for this getting out a little later than usual. open.spotify.com/playlist/… “22” - Hana Vu Remember when turning 22 felt like you were getting …

Car Notes: I could write about the Pacers-Knicks series today. But given how the first two games have left me royally pissed off, I think you all would rather read more car content rather than me bitching about the referees or the Nova Knicks or how the Pacers refuse to play defense or block out guys four …

Dark Matter: We are nearly three weeks out from the release of Pearl Jam’s Dark Matter. As an OG PJ head, I should probably do a review. Especially since I’ve been listening to it daily over that entire stretch.[1] That last sentence could be the entire review. For the first time since 2006’s self-titled album, …

Weekend Notes: Kid Hoops Teenagers are funny. One day they are on top of the world, the next everything is shit. That might be a little dramatic but it kind of sums up the weekend for L’s travel team. Saturday they played great, winning their two games by a combined 22 points. They should have one the first by 20+ …

Friday Playlist: It’s a two-video week! open.spotify.com/playlist/… “Prep-School Gangsters” - Vampire Weekend There have been times when I’ve loved Vampire Weekend, others when I would be happy to never hear another song from them. Thus it took me awhile to get to their new album. …

Reader's Notebook, 5/2/24: The Bullet Swallower - Elizabeth Gonzalez James This book has gotten crazy praise in literary circles, landing on numerous Best Of lists already. With good reason. It is a very well-told, fictional story of three generations of Mexicans and their family history. One is a bandit in the late 19th …

April Media: Back in February I vowed to get my YouTube algorithm re-calibrated so it was sending me more good videos. Jumping into the car-buying process kick-started that process. It might be time to swing back the other way, as I only watched a few “normal” shows in April and my YT feed is overrun with car …

Reaching For The Stars, Vol. 99: Chart Week: April 30, 1983 Song: “Back On The Chain Gang” - The Pretenders Chart Position: #37, 21st week on the chart. Peaked at #5 for three weeks in March and April. The Pretenders were on the verge of big things in 1982. They already had a #1 hit in the UK - 1979’s “Brass In Pocket,” which maxed …

Weekend Notes: Some quick weekend notes. I’m going to try to really let the content flow this week. So be prepared either to read a lot or be disappointed if I only crank out a couple posts. Home For The Summer I went down to Cincinnati Friday morning to pack up M for the summer. She had called me Thursday night …

Sunday Links: Let’s start with a fantastic Q&A with Jerry Seinfeld. The great joy to me is: I’m making this up, but let me see if I can make it sound like it makes sense to me. That’s what comedy is to me. They know I’m lying from the first line, and they don’t care. Jerry Seinfeld Says Movies Are Over. …

Friday Playlist: open.spotify.com/playlist/… “Oh Shit” - The Libertines One of the first songs I bought from the iTunes Music Store back in 2004 after I bought my first iPod was The Libertines “Can’t Stand Me Now.” They’re still making decent music. “Like A …

New Car Notes: Nearly two weeks into Tesla ownership, with two big drives under the hood; time for a status update.[1] The transition has gone reasonably well. There are still moments when I struggle with one-pedal driving. One example is when cruising towards a right turn where I don’t have to stop, just slow …

Weekend Notes: A super busy weekend, with plenty of time in the car. Kid Hoops L had her first, big, out-of-town tournament as a high schooler in Cincinnati. It was a three-day deal, and we had booked two nights in a hotel. Then we got the schedule which had our first game at 12:30 Friday and our second at 6:30 …

Friday Playlist: Randomly, this week is all men, or male-led groups. open.spotify.com/playlist/… “Wreckage” - Pearl Jam It’s finally Pearl Jam day! The most excited I’ve been about a new PJ album since 2006? 2000? 1998? The early reviews for Dark Matter are mostly great. The first two …

Reaching For The Stars, Vol. 98: Chart Week: April 3, 1982 Song: “I’ve Never Been To Me” - Charlene Chart Position: #32, 8th week on the chart. Peaked at #3 for three weeks in May/June. Worst Song Ever. That’s a heavy crown to wear. Were I to sit down and figure out my least favorite songs of the Eighties, Charlene’s sole Top 40 …

Car Buying Notes: Something New, Something Blue: I said there was some bigger news from the weekend. I wasn’t lying. Saturday I brought home a 2024 Tesla Model Y Long Range. I’m pretty pumped about it so far. However, even with my two test drives and literally hours of watching videos about how to drive Teslas, I’m still deep in learning curve …

Weekend Notes: A pretty solid weekend around our house. Enough went on that I will divide this into two parts. Smaller items in this post, a bigger post to come tomorrow. After a crappy four days of rain and steadily decreasing temps, the weekend was gorgeous here in Indy. Sunday it got into the 80s for the first …

Friday Playlist: open.spotify.com/playlist/… “Rain” - The Beatles Ridiculously rainy week here in Indy. We’ve had close to 4" of rain in our area since Tuesday. And it is still raining as I type. Lots of areas had serious flooding yesterday. It’s kind of a miracle that Eclipse Day …

Car Buying Notes: Early April Update: Things have quieted down a lot on the car buying front. Which is weird because I will likely have a new car before the end of April. How is that possible? It’s not as interesting to share what I’m learning when it is all centered on one car rather than a comparison of several. Or at least it seems …

Weekend Notes: Eclipse Well, I feel silly. I’ve been making fun of all the preparations and build-up for the eclipse since 2024 began. I laughed out loud when I saw t-shirts on racks in grocery stores and in pop-up stands at busy traffic corners. I shook my head when I heard that roughly a million people were …

Monday Vid: Happy Eclipse Day (for those who celebrate)! youtu.be/fsgWUq0fd…

Friday Playlist: open.spotify.com/playlist/… “The Rain That Falls” - Cast I don’t know a thing about this band, but apparently they’ve been around since the early 1990’s and were stalwarts of the Britpop scene. They were also big influences on the Gallagher brothers. This song, …

Reader's Notebook, 4/4/24: My reading pace has slackened a bit. I’m actually taking a day or two off between books, which is likely a good thing. Because of that I only finished three books in March. Nettle and Bone - T. Kingfisher I famously don’t read much Fantasy fiction, yet something about the genre always holds an …

Weekend Notes: Easter A relatively chill, long Easter weekend for us. Having kids in Catholic school means it was a four-day weekend, stretching from Good Friday through Easter Monday. Not that we took much advantage of it by doing anything special. M had a high school friend visit her at UC on Friday, so she …

March Media: I said last month that I needed to reset my YouTube algorithm so I was getting better recommendations. I think I’ve accomplished that, spending way too much time on the platform over the last six weeks. Now it is skewed to like 90% car stuff. Which I’m fine with, at the moment. That has caused me to …

Friday Playlist: open.spotify.com/playlist/… “Late March, Death March” - Frightened Rabbit It’s about as late in March as you can get. “3 Sisters” - Waxahatchee Katie Crutchfield has done it again. Her new album, Tigers Blood, is stunning. Most of it drifts deeply into the …

Thursday Links: You take everything written about Apple with a grain of salt because of the company’s notorious secrecy, but even if this piece is only partially true, it is a fascinating look at their failed attempt to get into the car business. How Apple Sank About $1 Billion a Year Into a Car It Never Built And …

Ten Years Being Lost In The Dream: I love honoring musical anniversaries, mostly by dropping songs with birthdays into my Friday Playlists. I missed a big one while we were on spring break, one that demands more than just a song in a playlist. March 18 was the tenth anniversary of the War on Drugs’ Lost In The Dream. It is an album …

Jayhawk Talk: The End: I’m sure some of you are far more interested in my thoughts on Kansas Basketball than what we did over spring break. I’ve been ruminating on the topic since Saturday’s loss to Gonzaga. The result is a classic two-parter. Here, in part one, I’ll look back. Part two will look ahead. I picked KU to …

Spring Break Notes: What a fun week we had on Anna Maria Island, Florida for our spring break. Travel was mostly a breeze, with one exception we had terrific weather, and we were able to enjoy a relaxing week in the sun. Alarms were set for 3:50 AM a week ago Saturday so we could be at the airport by 5:00. We made it …

Friday Playlist: [open.spotify.com/playlist/...](https://open.spotify.com/playlist/6tSkKKX6aWg1u2EACTEoiS?si=589bb970d01843ef) "The Trap" - R.M.F.C. If you read these posts closely, you know how I love to identify Australian groups by their common sound alone. I don't know that these kids jumped out as Aussie to me …

Car Buying Notes: As promised, a second Car Buying post for the week. I’ve had to revamp this one several times, because my brain has been overloaded with info the past few days, and I’ve struggled to turn it into a coherent piece. Today’s mostly revolves around Ze Germans. Why I Am Ditching Audi I think I addressed …

Car Buying Notes: I’m finding the titles of these posts to be cumbersome. Plus they overlap with my high school hoops post titles. So, going forward, I’m just using this generic title. It’s been an eventful week on the EV front. Not just for me, but also in the news. For today’s post I figured I would knock out …

Weekend Notes: In some ways it was a terrible weekend. In other ways it was a good one. The common theme was a lot of basketball. Jayhawk Talk I’m very glad that I didn’t see a minute of Houston destroying KU. I had this game chalked up as an L ever since KU easily beat the Cougars last month. A 30-point loss, …

Friday Playlist: open.spotify.com/playlist/… “Birthday” - Late Bloomer Their album came out last week and it is filled with agreeable rock like this. “Brown Paper Bag” - DIIV Their first new music in five years, their new album is focused on the state of the world and, from the …

Reader's Notebook, 3/6/24: I might be reading too fast. This is the 10th week of the year and I’m about to finish my 14th book of 2024. Because of that they are running together a bit. I apologize, as these summaries aren’t the most detailed of my writing career. The World We Make - N.K. Jemisin Jemisin’s Great Cities series …

Car Shopping Chronicles, Season 2 Part 4: I said in my last car post that despite deciding to get a Tesla Model Y, I would continue to research EVs until I actually pulled the trigger to make certain of my final decision. It doesn’t take much to send me down research rabbit holes, and I spent a decent chunk of the weekend re-evaluating my …

February Media: Movies, Shows, etc The Greatest Night In Pop The funny way to sum up this look at how “We Are The World” was recorded would be to say it was outrageous. Some of you will get that joke. I’ve read about that night several times, but there were still some terrific little tidbits in this film. I’m on …

Weekend Notes: A relatively laid-back weekend, although some of that was unexpected, so a quick post to get the new week started. No, I did not buy a car. Jayhawk Talk Another road loss, although the game at Baylor was chalked up as an L to begin the season, so no real harm. Kevin McCullar came back and looked …

Friday Playlist: open.spotify.com/playlist/… “The Sound of Suffering” - Salim Nourallah I’ve long used these playlists to celebrate Spotify’s Discover Weekly feature, and share new discoveries I’ve made through it. I have to admit that something about their algorithm has changed …

Thursday Links: Weird week here. It was in the 70s Monday, high 60s Tuesday, then the wind chill was in the teens all day Wednesday. The sun is bright and dazzling today, but it is still very chilly. That combined with some other things has thrown my body clock off.[1] I’m having trouble sleeping at night then …

Car Shopping Chronicles, Season 2 Part 3: When I realized that the Kia EV6 likely wasn’t the car for me, I started thinking about the areas where it failed to be sure about what I was looking for. Kia is fairly new to EVs, so their products are not mature. They don’t seem to have a strong organizational commitment, on either the corporate …

Weekend Notes: It was a three-day weekend at CHS. Which was good since L and I started the weekend off early. Caitlin-palooza I took L and one of her hoops buddies down to Bloomington Thursday night for the Iowa-Indiana game. This was my first time in Assembly Hall 2003. Our seats were better for that game. We …

Friday Playlist: This week features several new songs from artists who have played a large role in my musical life. open.spotify.com/playlist/… “Dark Matter” - Pearl Jam One of my all-time favorite bands returns. This isn’t too bad at all. Now sending out good vibes to keep anyone in the …

Car Shopping Chronicles, Season 2 Part 2: Things are moving quickly compared to my last car buying adventure. As I shared yesterday, in the span of about 36 hours I went from casually looking at one set of cars with a planned acquisition date in early May to suddenly test driving a totally different car with the chance of bringing it home …

Car Shopping Chronicles, Season 2 Part 1: I mentioned Monday that I fell into a rabbit hole over the weekend. If you pay close attention to all my nonsense, you probably could have made a pretty solid guess as to what that rabbit hole was. I am officially car shopping again! Just like when I did this three years ago, there’s going to be …

Reaching For The Stars, Vol. 97: Chart Week: February 25, 1984 Song: “Nobody Told Me” - John Lennon Chart Position: #7, 6th week on the chart. Peaked at #5 the week of March 3. I’ve been thinking about songs by dead people lately. There’s no mathematical way to quantify it, yet I keep trying to isolate the effect an artist’s death …

Weekend Notes: Snow! Our first significant snow of the year hit Friday afternoon. Which was perfect for A) kids who are driving home from school, B) a wife who has to commute through rush hour traffic, and C) the opening night of All Star Weekend. Perfect in this case meaning the opposite of perfect. We ended up …

Friday Playlist: open.spotify.com/playlist/… “Cured” - Restorations This band enjoys taking its sweet time between new releases. It’s been six years since their last album. I think you can hear the effect of the breadth of their career in Jon Loudon’s vocals. “Distinct …

Thursday Notes: I had planned to post a new Reaching for the Stars entry today, but I can’t quite get the right flow to the piece, so I’m going to keep at it a few more days. Instead, some assorted notes to unload my brain. Health After nearly three weeks I think I’m finally beating whatever has been ailing me. S …

Reader's Notebook, 2/13/24: Sing Her Down - Ivy Pochoda I read this book while I was sick. Maybe the infection or virus or whatever was plaguing me combined with a lack of sleep and cold meds kept me from appreciating it. Because I did not get this book at all. It is the story of two women who are released from prison during …

Weekend Notes: Super Bowl Most years I watch the Super Bowl fairly closely, tracking the game, commercials, and halftime show with an idea of being able to take an active role in whatever the post-game discourse is. Last night I sat on the couch for four-plus nearly uninterrupted hours, but was often letting my …

Friday Playlist: An extra-stuffed playlist this week. There’s been a good run of new music, plus a lot of Other Stuff that deserves inclusion. open.spotify.com/playlist/… “Blue Skies” - Finnoguns Wake The best piece of music I’ve heard so far this year is Finnoguns Wake’s …

Thursday Links: I meant to post these yesterday and got sidetracked by this-and-that. Thus Wednesday links become Thursday links. As someone who dabbles in obsessive, esoteric pastimes, this article fascinated me. I know I occasionally get into weird little spaces where I am beyond consumed by a particular topic, …

January Media: Movies, Shows, etc Fargo, season five I loved this season, it is right up there with season two as my favorites in Fargo’s TV run. There were a couple small moments that bugged me which kept it from being a straight A, although after listening to an interview with creator Noah Hawley they made a …

Weekend Notes: Last week was pretty much a lost week for me. I could never shake my cold. In fact, it kept getting worse. I thought I had turned a corner Friday before my stomach and head started hurting in the evening. I woke up Saturday feeling even worse. I ate some cereal, took some meds, and passed out on the …

Friday Playlist: open.spotify.com/playlist/… “Real Doll Time” - VR SEX I’m not sure exactly how to describe this song. It harkens back to the earliest days of punk with its aggression and hint of nastiness, but sounds thoroughly modern at the same time. No matter how it ends up getting …

High School Hoops Chronicles, S1V12: Finale: Wednesday’s sectional quarterfinal went pretty much as expected. Lawrence North jumped on Cathedral early and never let up. It took four possessions for CHS to even get the ball into the paint on offense, and that resulted in an immediate turnover. Our first shot was a hurried airball. LN hit their …

High School Hoops Chronicles, S1V11: After 23 games over three months, Cathedral’s regular season is complete. Sectionals officially started Tuesday with CHS set to play their opening game tonight. I’ll wrap up the regular season in this post and save whatever happens in the playoffs for a separate entry(-ies). The Irish opened their …

Belated Weekend Notes: I’m still battling a cold. It’s one of those shitty ones that isn’t crazy bad during the day, more annoying than debilitating. But at night between the coughing and sneezing and body aches manages to keep me from sleeping. Each of the last two nights I’ve given up and gone into M’s room to toss and …

Reader's Notebook, 1/29/24: I have started 2024 on a huge reading run; I finished my seventh book of the year early this morning. It helps that I’ve been sick the past couple days and unable to sleep, so I’ve stayed up deep into the night knocking out the final book in this list. Said illness and lack of sleep will also push …

Friday Playlist: open.spotify.com/playlist/… “Train Full of Gasoline” - Ducks Ltd. Not sure it’s possible to write a catchier song about an ecological disaster than these guys have done. Believe it or not, this band is not Australian. They are from Toronto. I bet they listened to a lot of …

Wednesday Notes: NFL Because of basketball (KU and CHS) and some other activities, I didn’t get to see much of the four playoff games last weekend. San Francisco is very lucky to advance, and does not seem like the same team that ran roughshod through their opponents during stretches of the regular season. Jordan …

Jayhawk Talk: Here's Johnny!: Fans can be overly dramatic about tiny moments in a long season, both good and bad. Keep that in mind when I tell you that Johnny Furphy has saved KU’s season. He certainly saved the game Monday against Cincinnati, the only KU player who seemed to be locked in and engaged for every minute he was on …

High School Hoops Chronicles, S1V10: As we had a pretty quiet weekend and KU plays tonight, I’m going to flip my normal routine and cover high school hoops today. Two more games last week - both wins for JV and varsity - but L was a little off. In Tuesday’s practice she rolled her troublesome ankle when she landed on a teammate’s foot. …

Friday Playlist: open.spotify.com/playlist/… “Blue Tuesday” - Francis of Delirium Spotify has been spitting a lot of FoD tracks at me lately. I’ve yet to hear one I did not like. I don’t think I realized, when I’ve shared songs from them in the past, that they are based in …

Reader's Notebook, 1/18/24: Julia - Sandra Newman My first book of the year was a real uplifter! Officially sanctioned by the estate of George Orwell, it is labeled as a re-telling of his classic 1984. Newman flips the script, and instead of focusing on Orwell’s protagonist Winston Smith, she uses Smith’s lover, Julia, to …

Reaching for the Stars, Vol. 96: Chart Week: January 5, 1985 Song: “Centipede” - Rebbie Jackson Chart Position: #24, 14th week on the chart. This was its peak. This is at least the third entry in the RFTS series that is as much about the massive cultural impact of Michael Jackson as the highlighted song or artist.[1] This time we …

High School Hoops Chronicles, S1V9: A super busy week with a very exciting ending as L and her teammates played in the Indianapolis City tournament. Tournament rules allowed for three swing players who were eligible for both JV and varsity games. These players had to be named before the tournament and could not change from …

Weekend Notes: Kind of a strange weekend, mostly due to the weather, which kept us cooped up inside. I spent roughly 87.2% of Saturday and Sunday on the couch, under a blanket, either watching sports on TV, watching shows on my laptop, or reading one of two books. Jayhawk Talk: Hoops It took awhile to get going, …

NFL Playoff Picks: I should register some NFL picks before it is too late. After a wild, uncertain regular season, I don’t feel great confidence in any teams or matchups. No upset would surprise me. The NFL is League Chaos, which makes it extremely fun. NFC Dallas over Green Bay. People are getting too excited about …

Friday Playlist: open.spotify.com/playlist/… “Grace” - IDLES Even though this is band is always surprising, this is miles from anything I’ve ever heard from them before. It veers dramatically from their normal, caustic sound towards gentle, Radiohead territory. I like it. “Sage” …

Sports Notes Emergency Entry: Events demanded an emergency sports notes post. I’ll try to keep these relatively brief. Jayhawk Talk: Disaster Well that fucking sucked. Arguably the worst Big 12 loss of Bill Self’s career, the first time his team lost when they led by 16 or more points. Having that big lead is what made it worse …

Wednesday Links: Tuesday we learned that Sinéad O’Connor died of natural causes. As so often happens in these situations, that initially came as a relief but then was even more heartbreaking. I’ve been sitting on this very good remembrance of her by people who knew and admired her for a bit. Seems like the right …

High School Hoops Chronicles, S1V8: The Irish were back on the court for two games last week. It ended up being a pretty frustrating stretch for L. Thursday the teams took a bus to Louisville to face Assumption. About all we knew about them was that they are a national volleyball power. They’ve won at least six national championships, …

Weekend Notes: It was odd walking downstairs this morning. We put all the holiday decorations away Sunday, so this was the first time since Thanksgiving I was greeted by a dark main floor. C said our family room looked “emo” without the decorations yesterday. I’m not sure if emo is the term I would pick, but it …

Friday Playlist: I’m still transitioning out of the long stretch at the end of each year where I listen to holiday music, I put the finishing touches on my Favorite Songs of the Year list, and I’m generally too busy to listen to new music. So this week’s list begins with a few new(ish) tracks then …

Reader's Notebook, 1/4/24: Bing Crosby: The Hollow Man - Donald Shepherd and Robert F. Slatzer Each December, as I listen to a shitload of Bing Crosby music, I think, “I should learn more about his life.” I picked up a little of the general, collective pop-cultural memories of him as a kid. But I was six when he died and that …

High School Hoops Chronicles, S1V7: Rivalry Week: After playing six games in the first 19 days of December, L and her Irish teammates are in the midst of a much more leisurely three-games-in–18-days stretch. Throw in three days off for Christmas and two for New Year’s and it has been a nice breather after that tough run. Their only games over the …

Holiday Wrap Up: I dropped our Denver relatives off at the airport early this morning and returned to a quieter and emptier house than we’ve had in about ten days. The decorations are still up and the college kid is still with us, but the holiday season has ended. We had a busy and mostly fun week-plus of holiday …

December Media: Holiday Stuff Most of the usuals are in here. One thing missing, though, was The Office Christmas episodes. This is the first time in a few years we haven’t subscribed to the streaming service that allows you to watch the episodes of your choice. Maybe they’ll be back somewhere real (i.e. not …

Music Stats: You may have noticed I stopped posting my monthly listening stats a year ago. Or maybe you didn’t. I’m not sure why, I just decided it wasn’t necessary. I will not be skipping the annual updates, however. Here’s a look at what Last.fm says I listened to most in 2023, and since I began logging my …

Jayhawk Talk: Bowl Game Breakdown: I planned on taking most of this week off from blogging. But Tuesday’s bizarre shitshow of a football game that was the Guaranteed Rate Bowl[1] required me to share a few words about the mighty Kansas Jayhawks winning nine games for the first time since the 2007 season. I mean, I was up until 1:45 …

Reaching For The Stars, Vol. 95: Chart Week: December 16, 2023 Song: “Christmas (Baby Please Come Home)” - Darlene Love Chart Position: #21. Current all-time high is #15 the week of January 7, 2023. I heard the wonderful tidbit this post is built around earlier this year on an AT40 from December 1984. It was one of Casey’s …

Jayhawk Talk: As tends to happen in these pre-holiday weeks, time has gotten away from me a bit. I can’t believe it is Thursday and I still haven’t written about KU’s win in Bloomington last Saturday. Turns it was good to put it off as now I can write about football signing day, too. KU-IU Hoops This game was …

High School Hoops Chronicles, S1V6: A quick, one-game summary to wrap up the first half of the season. Last night CHS took on HSE, ranked #2 in class 4A. HSE has a junior who is committed to IU and just passed the 1000 career points mark last week. They also have a sophomore who already has multiple D1 offers and was taking visits to …

Favorite Songs of 2023: It seems like most Decembers recently I write something like “Well, it wasn’t a great year for music…” as I prepare to share a bunch of songs I both liked and listened to a lot. Something was different this year, though. According to Last.fm, I listened to about 15% less music in 2023 compared to …

High School Hoops Chronicles, S1V5: Our weekend was pretty boring, other than a bunch of basketball Saturday, so I’m changing things up for this week’s posts. I’ll begin by recapping L’s hoops then get to some Jayhawk Talk later this week. In our last volume in this series, I detailed a pretty rough week for L. This post will have a …

Christmas Playlist: To get your pre-Christmas week started right, I put together a playlist of seldom played, (mostly) non-traditional Christmas songs to counter all the usual stuff you’re hearing at the mall, in your car, on TV, and in your offices/homes. Enjoy roughly 40 minutes of cool Yuletide tunes. …

Friday Playlist - Bests Of: In preparation for next week’s unveiling of my Favorite Songs of 2023, a review of my past favorites. This playlist begins with 2004 and includes co-favorite Songs of the Year for 2017 and 2022. Also below are links to my annual Favorite Songs posts. 2009’s list has been, somehow, lost …

Wednesday Notes: A good, old fashioned notes dump like the old days. CHS Lockdown There was a lockdown for about an hour at Cathedral yesterday. Apparently someone called 911 claiming to be inside the school with a gun. About a million cops showed up and no person with a gun was ever found. We live in wonderful …

High School Hoops Chronicles, S1V4: A kind of bizarre and not very successful week for L on the court, with one very notable exception. Tuesday CHS played Zionsville, where a travel teammate goes to school. L came out firing early, hoisting six 3-pointers in the first half. She missed them all, but was fouled on one and hit …

Weekend Notes: We had a super-busy Saturday that featured a lot of L’s for our family. Fortunately, for me, the one dub was a big one. Throwing hoops and real life together, our family went 1–7 for the day. Cathedral lost JV and varsity games. More on that tomorrow. S’s Hoosiers lost to Auburn. M’s previously …

Friday Playlist: Looking at the calendar, this may be the last regular FP of the calendar year. Next week will be a set-up piece for my Favorite Songs of the Year playlist, which will drop the following week. I plan on a non-traditional holiday music playlist for sometime the week before Christmas. Then I will most …

Reader's Notebook, 12/6/23: Please Report Your Bug Here - Josh Riedel This was my Florida Trip book about a month ago. It is framed as a modern take on the workplace novel, which I didn’t know was a thing. I know there are workplace shows. I guess that means it makes sense for there to be a whole swath of novels that relate to …

High School Hoops Chronicles, S1V3: Two games last week. One of them was the biggest night of L’s young career. Tuesday we played Ben Davis, a west-side of Indianapolis school that is the second-biggest in the state.[1] Their athletic program is generally quite good. Their football team just won the 6A state title and their boys …

Weekend Notes: Jayhawk Talk What a game Friday night between #5 KU and #4 UConn! Since this is rolled into a Weekend Notes post, I’ll chop my thoughts up into chunks tied to the four quarters of the game. Opening tip to 10:00: This is awesome! The Jayhawks are unbeatable! UConn are frauds! The crowd is AMAZING! …

November Media: Another pretty light month. Movies, Shows, etc Once Upon a Time in Northern Ireland An amazing five-part documentary about The Troubles in Northern Ireland. It is a balance of archival footage and interviews with people who lived through the worst years of the conflict. One of the most moving …

Friday Playlist: We’ve reached December, the month when these playlists can get a little squirrelly. There’s less new music to begin with. I’m listening to holiday music much of the day. I’m also focused on my Favorite Songs of the Year playlist. This year has the added element of me just …

High School Hoops Chronicles, S1V2: Time to catch up with L’s exploits on the hardwood. Two Fridays ago we traveled to North Vernon, IN, about 90 minutes south, nearly all the way to Louisville. The varsity team was playing the #14 team in the state, which features a senior who signed with Michigan State earlier this month. She …

Holiday Weekend Notes: For the first time in three years we were home for Thanksgiving week. We packed a lot in, and it deserves a wide-ranging, extra-long breakdown. College Visitor I picked M up Tuesday around noon after her last scheduled class of the week. We grabbed lunch at Hangover Easy, a place just off campus …

Reaching For The Stars, Vol. 94: Chart Week: November 14, 1981 Song: “Never Too Much” - Luther Vandross Chart Position: #37, 6th week on the chart, first week in the Top 40. Peaked at #33 for two weeks. Happy Thanksgiving week to you all! A quick entry based on a Casey anecdote about how a pop artist paid the bills before he …

Weekend Notes: Kind of a chill weekend, with the holiday ahead of us. M does not come home until Tuesday so it was the usual crew around the house. L had a game Friday, more on that later. The weather was nice, so S and I did some yard work at a sister’s house Sunday. And a fair amount of football, the biggest …

Friday Playlist: open.spotify.com/playlist/… “Beaming” - The Treasures of Mexico What a glorious piece of jangle pop this is, harkening back to the mid-80s college rock scene. “What Now” - Brittany Howard Howard bringing the funk to her blues. If you don’t like this, stop reading …

Jayhawk Talk: Champions Classic: Without going back and reading a bunch of them, I’m assuming my Champions Classic posts have a similar theme every year: that wasn’t pretty basketball. Most years it is at least competitive, but despite the big-time matchup, it rarely has the same juice as a March tournament game. Chalk that up for …

Tuesday Links: As promised, I have a big batch of articles to share. I read most of these while on our trip last weekend, thus on my Kindle, which meant I couldn’t clip pull quotes as I read. With a couple exceptions, you’ll just have to trust me that these are worth your time. Most are pretty lengthy, so if you …

Weekend Travel Notes: It was Adult Fall Break time for S and me, the first time we’ve done this in a couple years. This was for a medical conference, the first time we’ve done that since before Covid. We spent Thursday through Sunday in Clearwater Beach, FL, staying right on the beach. Like in a hotel, not in a tent or …

Reaching for the Stars, Vol. 93: Chart Week: November 5, 1983 Song: “Automatic Man” - Michael Sembello Chart Position: #34, 7th week on the chart. This was the song’s peak. A quick RFTS to fill the place of the Friday Playlist as we are taking an adult fall break for the next few days. The 100th entry in this series is getting …

High School Hoops Chronicles, Season One, Volume One: Welcome to the first post in a new, recurring series in these parts. L started her high school basketball career Tuesday night, and I think that deserves a clearly identified set of entries to document her adventures. The season opener was against the Jesuit school not too far from our house, BPHS. …

Reader's Notebook, 11/7/23: The Kennedy Men - Laurence Leamer After about a month of reading, split into sections, I knocked out my Big Book for the fall. A neighbor passed this to me over the summer. We were sitting on the porch having some drinks and somehow books or the Kennedys or something along those lines came up and …

Weekend Notes: Not a bad weekend at all. The weather was wonderful, and looks to remain that way for a few more days, then seasonably warm after that. Changing the clocks always sucks. And plenty of football, of course. HS Football The Cathedral game was on TV so we were able to watch them get a relatively easy …

Friday Playlist: An extra-stuffed playlist this week, heavy on tracks from albums I have previously shared songs from. Also, a heads up that there may be no playlist next week. I will be traveling for a couple days and may leave the playlist machine at home. Then again, maybe I’ll whip something together …

Reaching for the Stars, Vol. 92: Chart Week: October 30, 1982 Song: “I.G.Y. (What A Beautiful World)” - Donald Fagen Chart Position: #36, 4th week on the chart, debut week in the Top 40. Peaked at #26 for three weeks in November and December. Pop music tends to be pretty limited thematically. Amongst the bazillion or so songs about …

October Media: I’m clearly not wasting enough time watching TV or stuff on my computer as this month’s list is again rather lean. Don’t worry, with colder weather arriving and the holiday TV season beginning, I expect to get this back where it should be soon. Movies, Shows, etc Halloween Baking Championship It’s …

Weekend Notes: What a weekend, filled with swings of mood and weather. KANSAS FOOTBALL!!!!!!! Kansas 38, Oklahoma 33. LET’S GOOOOOO!!!!! One of the biggest wins in program history. That alone would make Saturday’s win over the #6 Sooners memorable. It just had so much of…everything, I guess, that no KU fan who …

Friday Playlist: I didn’t blast much new-ish music this week, so today’s playlist will skew in a slightly different direction than normal. open.spotify.com/playlist/… “Collect” - Torres It’s been a couple years since we had new Torres music. That album landed not one but two …

Reader's Notebook, 10/26/23: Tales from the Torrid Zone - Alexander Frater I mentioned in my last entry that I was taking on a rather long book that seemed like it might be a chore to get through. With that in mind, I decided that since it is divided into three parts, I would take a break after each section and squeeze in …

Pro Sports Notes: Time for a few thoughts about the exciting world of professional sports. MLB Playoffs I have continued to watch the playoffs most nights. Maybe not as closely as I did a few years back, but I’ve had them on which is a big step for me. Since I’ve been checked out on baseball for the past two …

Weekend Notes: It was a pretty good fall break/long weekend around our house. It included another trip to Cincinnati, a new family toy, and a variety of news on the high school sports front. Let’s dive into the details. CHS Fall Break C and L were off Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday for their fall break. L had …

Friday Playlist: Man, the weeks are really adding up. One more playlist before we slip into the final two months of the calendar year. It always seems like it will take forever to get here in January and February, then it is suddenly late October and both holiday music and my Favorite Songs of the Year playlist are …

A Return to Stuckeyville: It’s weird how random things can trigger memories and send you down a path that brings a surprise ending. Last week I was watching TV and saw a commercial for the new Goosebumps series, which features actor Justin Long. I chuckled, thinking back to the time I first encountered Long on the small …

Weekend Notes: Another very good weekend that was focused on travel, football, and friends. For the second time in three weeks I left Indianapolis to attend a Big 12 football game. This trip was to Cincinnati to watch M’s Bearcats take on Iowa State. Making the trip even better, I would be hanging with my buddy, …

Friday Playlist: open.spotify.com/playlist/… “Stuck” - Soft Science There’s been an influx of modern shoegaze in my playlists lately, and I am not complaining about it. “Your Day” - Pastel A buddy of mine who is super into all things Manchester described this as sounding like …

“Six Years And All We Got Was This Lousy T-Shirt?”: Obviously I’m reaching a bit with my subject line. For it to work you have to imagine it is one of the geniuses at the NCAA asking the question when they realize that after six years of investigation and invective and irritation the biggest outcome of their inquiry into the Kansas basketball program …

Reaching for the Stars, Vol. 91: Chart Week: September 29, 1984 Song: “On the Dark Side” - John Cafferty & The Beaver Brown Band Chart Position: #24, 19th week on the chart (charted twice, see below). Peaked at #7 for two weeks in October/November. The history of pop music is filled with opportunists. If an artist or musical …

Reader's Notebook, 10/10/23: I just started a book that is probably going to take me a few weeks to get through. Seems like a good moment to clear out the queue so I don’t forget about these two. We Cast a Shadow - Maurice Carlos Ruffin Writers have been using the “how far would you go to protect your child” trope for ages. …

Weekend Notes: Going to flip things up a bit, as our family had a rough week that’s worth getting caught up on first. Squad News Monday M got diagnosed with mono. She’s been sick for weeks and it took a turn last weekend, so she went and got checked. She told us she could see the test turn positive from across …

Friday Playlist: open.spotify.com/playlist/… “Spring” - Briston Maroney “Autumn” - The Gaslight Anthem That’s right, we’re getting crazy with the seasons this week! Here two new songs representing the opposing equinoxes. Oddly enough, I find both songs to sound very …

Sports Notes: NFL Four weeks into the NFL season and I’m not sure what to make of things. Is there a single team that deserves unquestioned trust? The Chiefs lost at home to Detroit opening night, righted themselves over the next two weeks, then apparently looked kind of crappy against the Jets last Sunday before …

September Media: A pretty slow month for some reason. I guess tennis took up time at the beginning of the month, then I never really got into a groove? I was also listening to football on Fridays and watching a lot on Saturdays and Sundays, with the occasional Thursday and Monday game thrown in. Still kind of weird …

Lone Star Weekend: With a notable exception, I enjoyed a very good weekend down in Austin, Texas. There were a couple motivations for going. One of my best buddies from college, E-bro, has lived there for something like 15 years. Another KU buddy, Billy Sweets, lives in Dallas. The three of us text pretty much every …

Thursday Playlist: I’m off to the airport around 5:45 AM Friday for my weekend trip to Austin and I’ve got a busy day ahead of me as I prep, so I’ll post this 20-something hours early to avoid either forgetting to send it or messing up the scheduling options in Wordpress. …

Reader's Notebook, 9/27/23: I’m not sure why but I’ve struggled to put together blurbs for my most recent books. I’ll bash away for a paragraph or two then realize I’m not really sharing anything interesting other than a basic summation of the plot and give up. After three false starts I’m officially throwing in the towel and …

Tuesday Links: I’ve been informed that our internet will disappear sometime this morning as Xfinity “works to improve the quality of the network” in our area. I think that’s code for finding a way to charge us more. Of course, they’ve said this like three times in the past week and it always ends up getting …

Weekend Notes: HS Football Cathedral went down to Lexington, KY to play last year’s Kentucky 5A state champs. The Irish got an early lead, weathered their normal letdown, built the lead again, then held on for a nine-point win. Probably their best, most complete win of the season, from what I could judge by …

Friday Playlist: open.spotify.com/playlist/… “September” - Earth, Wind & Fire OK, we’re a day off. But I can’t miss my annual chance to throw this into a playlist. “Deep End (Paul’s in Pieces) - The National The National dropped a surprise album Monday, serving as a …

Reaching for the Stars, Vol. 90: Chart Week: September 19, 1981 Song: “General Hospi-tale” - The Afternoon Delights Chart Position: #35, 9th week on the chart. Peaked at #33 for two weeks. I’ve been reading through the RFTS archives and was surprised that I’ve never written properly about a novelty song, stuff like “Pac-Man Fever” …

Tuesday Links: Curb fans will enjoy this real-life origin story. One evening, as they drank into the night, it dawned on them. ‘I looked at his face and I said, “There’s something about you, man, that spooks me.” Just saying that spooks everyone!’ It clicked. ‘“You’re Richard Lewis!” “You’re Larry David!”… I was …

Weekend Notes: HS Football Two games again this weekend. Friday night Cathedral played at the public school down the street. Both girls had some friends over before the game and we walked to the stadium. First play of the night CHS snapped the ball over the quarterback’s head, he chased but could not cover, and …

Friday Playlist: The music vault is overstuffed again, so we’re back to extra large playlists. open.spotify.com/playlist/… “Little Fires” - The Gaslight Anthem Now we’re talking! This is the return to the classic TGA sound we’ve been waiting for. “Coming Home” - Echo …

Tuesday Notes: I have some assorted items that have been sitting around for a week or two that aren’t big enough for their own post. So you get back-to-back Notes entries. Kid Hoops L is in her third week of basketball workouts at CHS. The first two weeks were before school on Wednesdays and Fridays. She’s been …

Weekend Notes: A lot of sports and stuff to get through from the past weekend. HS Football Weirdest game of the season for Cathedral, against rival Bishop Chatard. It was CYO Night + Homecoming + Chatard, so the stadium was packed. We got there an hour early and still had to park in the overflow section a couple …

Friday Playlist: Pearl Jam Favs: It’s a big weekend for me: Sunday evening I’m seeing Pearl Jam for the first time since 2000. I’m pretty excited about it. I re-added the SiriusXM Pearl Jam channel as a favorite a couple weeks ago and have been listening to it a lot in preparation. I’ve also been spinning their songs on Spotify in …

Friday Vid: A special playlist to come later today. [youtu.be/CN_-BFeRr...](https://youtu.be/CN_-BFeRrrU?si=sk1xh9RrVdl6adur) “Love is Alive” - Gary Wright Mr. Wright died this week. Contrary to popular belief, he was not a one-hit-wonder: he had three songs that cracked the top 20. By every measure except for …

NFL Predictions: As I skimmed the site’s archives over the summer, I realized I’ve gotten away from the half-assed NFL predictions that used to be a staple this time of year. That is mostly because I was busy with kid sports and the beginning of the NFL season often snuck up on me. And because I loathe how the NFL …

Labor Day Weekend Notes: It wasn’t that long ago when Labor Day weekends were big, involved deals for us. When we were lake house owners, that would always be the last blowout of the year. Lots of friends or family down for two final days of floating, swimming, boating and fun. We’ve backed off that pace quite a bit and …

August Media: Movies, Shows, etc Step Brothers I had the joy of introducing this to S, who had never seen it before. Not sure she totally got it. Then again, I don’t know if I did, either, the first time I saw it. A delight for me, though. It also made me look up and re-read this piece. Unadulterated Joy: An Oral …

Friday Football Notes: A rare Friday post about something other than music promoted by the beginning of college football and an interesting night at a high school game earlier this week. KU Football I was thinking last night that there have been very few falls in my life when KU fans were genuinely excited about the …

Friday Playlist: open.spotify.com/playlist/… “Labor Day” - The Dead Milkmen How old do you have to be to get this song? Happy holiday! “Truck” - illuminati hotties This song is about mortality and whether or not heaven exists. Which is great. To me it hits as a late summer song for …

Reader's Notebook, 8/30/23: Rememberings - Sinéad O’Connor After O’Connor’s death, there were many references to her autobiography, most of which came with the comment that it was a fantastic read. Those recommendations were right on. This is one of the best musician autobiographies I’ve ever read. It’s frank, funny, and …

Tuesday Links: This is kind of a weird piece. I would put passing on Breaking Bad or Arrested Development’s disastrous fourth season in the same category as the networks calling Florida for Al Gore in 2000. And I’m not sure the numbers next to some of these match their significance. It is a pop culture list, …

Weekend Notes: Not the most exciting weekend of the year. I feel obligated to share the minor doings anyway, since that’s kind of our thing here. HS Football Number two Cathedral went west of town to Brownsburg, where they went 1–1 last year, to face the #5 Bulldogs. Last August CHS fell behind 21–0 before making …

Friday Playlist: open.spotify.com/playlist/… “Make It Work” - Swiss Banks Holy Smiths tribute! Or is it an Interpol tribute? The vocals are straight out of the Morrissey school. But musically, this song is way closer to Interpol than The Smiths. Interesting combination. I think it works. …

Ranking Shit: Old Man Stuff: Time for another entry in the (very) occasional Ranking Shit series. This time I’m going to rank a few of my Old Man Tendencies that have popped up, or grown stronger, in recent years. 5 - Fussy About the Dishwasher I’ve set some very clear standards on how our dishwasher should be loaded. But the …

Reaching for the Stars, Vol 89: Chart Week: August 29, 1981 Song: “For Your Eyes Only” - Sheena Easton Chart Position: #29, 6th week on the chart. Peaked at #4 for for weeks in October and November. I’ve heard a glut of 1981 countdowns recently. To be honest, it’s a little much. The quirkiness of that era grates rather quickly …

Weekend Notes: Even down a kid, it was a pretty busy week. Although some of that activity was due to the missing kid. Jinxed Myself I mentioned in last week’s post that I was off the hook for driving to/from school for awhile. Well, not so fast… C got rear-ended leaving campus by another student on Monday. No …

Friday Playlist: I must begin this week’s playlist with an apology. Last week I teased that I would be doing something new and exciting this week. Unfortunately that will not happen. I was going to get back into the world of podcasting, inserting actual vocal segments between songs. I’m not sure anyone needed or …

Thursday Links: Somehow in my highly organized list of future posts,[1] my latest collection of articles to share got bumped out of sight. Which is a shame because two of these are some of the best pieces I’ve read this year and I shouldn’t be sitting on them for over a month before I recommend them. I have no …

Reaching for the Stars, Vol. 88: I talk a lot about how the summer of 1984 was the greatest moment in pop music history, normally backing that up with examples of some of the songs that were on the chart that summer. As I was listening to a 1984 countdown a couple weeks ago, it struck me again how freaking solid those 40 songs …

Weekend Notes: Lots of lasts and firsts over the past seven days. Let’s see if I can get through them all without getting too wordy or emotional. First Week at CHS L had her traditions orientation last Sunday evening and then a half-day schedule walk through on Wednesday before Cathedral began the school year on …

Friday Playlist: A heads up for my loyal listeners that I’ve been working on a format change for these playlists. I’m hoping to unveil the newest, latest version next week. If it works as I hope, I think you’re going to enjoy it. open.spotify.com/playlist/… “Motorcade” - Peggy …

Reader's Notebook, 8/9/23: I’ve been on a decent reading run. A few blurbs about my most recent completions. Once Upon a Time in Hollywood - Quentin Tarantino This has been sitting in my cabinet for something like two years. I’m glad I finally got to it. This is not a straight novelization of the movie, but rather an …

Sports Notes: After just a week it’s already time for some more sports notes. Big 12/Realignment I neglected to include a section about college realignment in last week’s post as it seemed like the next domino was close to falling. I was expecting medium-sized news, like the Big 12 adding one-to-three more PAC …

Friday Playlist: open.spotify.com/playlist/… “Dream Some More” - The High Water Marks A bunch of schools around us went back to class this week, which is a tragedy. There should still be a month left of days wide open for listening to music like this. “Outta Time” - Bethany Cosentino …

July Media: Periodic losses of power, some pool gatherings, and three weeks of travel basketball cut my list a little short last month. Movies, Shows, etc They Shall Not Grow Old I’ve been waiting for this to hit a streaming service for a couple years. Peter Jackson took footage from World War I, colorized it, …

Sports Notes: I’ve stacked up a lot of sports thoughts over the past several weeks. Let’s dive in and see how long it takes to get through them. Tour de France After watching the Netflix show Tour de France: Unchained in June, I was all-in for this year’s tour, even ponying up for Peacock for the month to …

Weekend Notes: No major events from the weekend to share. We were busy, though. The weekend was all about preparing to be social then actually being social around the pool. Saturday night we had L’s basketball team over for a final get together to celebrate the season. Eight of the nine girls came and most of the …

Friday Playlist: open.spotify.com/playlist/… “(Love Is Like A) Heat Wave” - Martha Reeves & The Vandellas We have been very lucky and this has been one of the best spring/summers I can recall, other than the Canadian smoke. Until this week. The heat that has been plaguing the rest of the …

Sinéad: When Irish women with distinctive voices who were successful in the 90s die, I’m required to write about them. The terrible news came Wednesday of Sinéad O’Connor’s death. It’s an understatement to suggest she did not have an easy life, so while a shock, this is also one of those deaths that can …

Weekend Notes: Living That Buckeye Lifestyle: Three-fifths of our family spent the weekend in Ohio. You want details? I got details! Kid Hoops L and I went to Cincinnati for the final travel tournament of the year. We’ve never done well in these events but were looking forward to one last shot to prove ourselves on the national stage. We had …

Friday Playlist: open.spotify.com/playlist/… “Midnight Sunburn” - Dog Ears Big, crunchy, power pop for mid-summer. “I Need Ya” - Somebody’s Child If the Strokes were from Ireland, they would probably sound like this. “Forgiving Ties” - Deer Tick I had to triple check …

Reaching for the Stars, Vol. 87: Chart Week: July 15, 1989 Song: “Buffalo Stance” - Neneh Cherry Chart Position: #20, 16th week on the chart. Peaked at #3 the week of June 24. I have always been fascinated by the details of how songs are made. There’s the initial inspiration. The writing and recording process. How a song is mixed …

The Social Media Landscape: A few notes about the state of social media. About three weeks ago I was struck by how Twitter seemed to have settled down. While there were still plenty of minor issues, the major blowups that had been endemic since the Tech Toddler’s arrived had decreased. That’s not to say I was a happy user. The …

Weekend Notes: Kid Hoops A weird weekend for L and her teammates. We were in Bloomington for this week’s games. While that seems close it also involves navigating a shit-ton of construction and means we’re in the car for nearly three hours each day. Saturday we opened with an easy win. In fact, I’m not sure we’ll …

Friday Playlist: open.spotify.com/playlist/… “The Window” - Ratboys Every time I type this band’s name, my devices autocorrect it to “Batboys.” You would think I’ve typed their name enough over the years that my various Apple OSes understand that, yes, I really mean Ratboys. Given that their up-coming album …

Reader's Notebook, 7/12/23: Small Mercies - Dennis Lehane According to my master reading list, it’s been eight years since I had read a Lehane novel. Which doesn’t seem possible, until I realized he’s only released one new novel in that span. This story takes place in the summer of 1974, just before the city explodes when …

Weekend Notes: It was an extra-long weekend featuring many hours in the car. Hoops in the Lou L and I drove west to St. Louis for her first out-of-town tournament of the year. The hoops were good. We went 3–1, winning the championship game by nine thanks to a 9–2 run in the final minute to put away a game we were …

Friday Playlist: open.spotify.com/playlist/… “Police On My Back” - The Clash I watched like my 60th documentary about The Clash this week and dove into their music for a bit after. I maintain they are the greatest cover band of all time, taking songs by other acts that were already great and elevating them as …

Thursday Links: Good news for those of you with video game collections: you will soon be able to buy an actual new game for your Atari 2600! ’Mr. Run and Jump’ will be the first official cartridge for the Atari 2600 since 1990 Not sure I buy this writer’s argument, but it is an interesting counter to the …

Weekend Notes: A lot to get caught up on after a long holiday weekend. July 4th Our standard family pool party for the Fourth of July. Almost all the locals were over for a daytime gathering. I smoked rather than grilled burgers for the first time and they turned out pretty good. All the young ones were well …

Independence Day Playlist, 2023: It is my fifth year offering a playlist to celebrate the day in my own, unique, musical way. There are two new songs this year, one of which I can’t believe took me five years to add. open.spotify.com/playlist/…

June Media: Movies, Shows, etc Severance OK, this was the strangest, most messed up show I can recall watching. The way the finale ended - SPOILER ALERT - without resolving anything and instead setting up the next season was maddening. As a lover of the color blue, I did enjoy how many different gorgeous shades …

Friday Playlist: open.spotify.com/playlist/… “Neighborhood #3 (Power Out) - Arcade Fire As I write this our power has been out for about 15 hours, our home just one of over 45,000 in Indianapolis that remain powerless after major storms hit us yesterday afternoon. Unfortunately for us, it seems like …

2003 NBA Draft Diary Revisited: As promised, a look back at the very first post I ever published to this site. Perhaps you’ve already gone back and re-read it. I thought it would be fun for me to annotate it with some thoughts. I have edited out sections of the original that did not inspire me to add something new. With apologies …

Happy Blog-iversary: It is June 27, 2023. That means this site, or at least its earliest version, was Internet birthed 20 years ago today. That first post is here. I’ll be addressing it directly soon. A lot sure has happened in that span, hasn’t it? If you want a full accounting you can dig through the over 3300 posts …

NBA Draft Notes: L had a game early Thursday evening and then wanted to stay and watch her teammates play in the second game, so I didn’t make it home until the late teens of the NBA Draft. Thus no extensive breakdown this year. Gradey Dick was, apparently, the star of the show for his outrageous suit. I got a few …

Weekend Notes: Quite a few things to discuss this week, so I’m going to split this into two posts. The personal stuff first, the NBA Draft stuff later on today. Weather We dodged a big ol’ bullet Sunday when storms roared through our area. There was a tornado on the ground about 10 minutes north of us. Several on …

Friday Playlist: open.spotify.com/playlist/… “Body” - Briston Maroney It’s always exciting when young artists prepare to release their second album, and it seems like it will be as good as their first one. “Roll the Credits” - Danielle Ponder As if it isn’t enough that Ms. Ponder can sing like this, she also …

Notes on Relocation, Bad Owners, and Loyal Fans: I have not returned to baseball this year. The Royals are truly terrible - on pace for their worst season ever - and have given me no reason to drop my boycott of the sport, prompted when the dishonest and corrupt combination of MLB ownership and commissioner Rob Manfred manufactured last year’s …

Reaching for the Stars, Vol. 86: A rather uninteresting weekend around here, even with an extra day thrown in, so let’s jump straight into our latest exploration of Old School American Top 40s. Chart Week: June 23, 1979 Song: “I Want You To Want Me” - Cheap Trick Chart Position: #16, 9th week on the chart. Peaked at #7 for two …

Friday Playlist: Boy do I have a list for you this week. A couple gems I’ve come up with on my own. Some discovered via Spotify’s suggestions. Two new entries in the “Country Or Not” category. One track from a performer facing a huge challenge. And our latest shoutout to a lost artist. …

Kid Notes: There’s been a lot of talk about M here lately. Maybe too much talk. A few words about her sisters. Middle Sister C has had a pretty quiet summer break so far. She has filled M’s spot working for their aunt the chef on weekends a couple times. She will take that job over full time in August so this …

Weekend Notes: Grad Party SZN: Quick Blog Note You may have noticed that I updated the header image of the site. I actually did a little bit of Dicking Around™ with the entire site over the weekend. I installed a couple new themes and played around with them for about five minutes before switching back to the one I’ve been using …

Monday Links: A busy weekend in the past and a packed day ahead of me, so we’ll get caught up tomorrow. For now, some links I’ve collected in recent weeks. First, a rather chilling account by a Ukrainian from the front lines of the war with Russia. I haven’t had a chance to personally kill any Russians. They say …

Friday Playlist: open.spotify.com/playlist/… “It’s Alive!” - Ratboys It’s been a fairly slow album year; my New Music list that I check each Friday has the fewest entries I can recall. But I just added one for Ratboys on August 25 that has me very excited. “The Narcissist” …

Ranking Shit: Most Watched Movies: When I watched part of Real Genius a week ago, it got me thinking about the movies I watched the most between 1985 and 1994.[1] These were the glory days of movies on TV, a time when there was a great chance you would find one of, say, 40 different movies playing on one channel or another. There was …

Reader's Notebook, 6/7/23: I’ve been in a weird reading space since May began. Over that span I did not enjoy two of the books I have completed. As I mentioned in my previous RN post, I only finished Bret Easton Ellis’ The Shards because I’m stubborn. I think that effort wore me down, as shortly afterward I quit a book after …

May Media: Movies, Shows, etc Ted Lasso, season two Got S caught up. She enjoyed it. I don’t think my second viewing changed my opinion of it. It was funnier, deeper, and more emotional than season one. But it also lacked the magic of that first year. Season one wins in a nose because it didn’t have the two …

Weekend Notes: We’ve hit a cycle of boom-bust weekends that should extend at least a couple more weeks. This was one of the bust weekends. At least for four of us. M had parties all weekend, I believe she had 12 she could have attended from Friday through Sunday. We met her at one of her buddy’s on Sunday and she …

Friday Playlist: The bulk of this week’s playlist is one of my dumb group of songs that share some minor trait. The music is good even if the “concept” is stupid. open.spotify.com/playlist/… “Summer Breeze” - Seals and Crofts It’s summertime, bitches. “High …

Ted Lasso: One for the Road: Some notes about the end of Ted Lasso. To reset, S had never watched the show before, so in April we watched together from the very first episode. We got caught up three weeks ago, watching the final three episodes on the nights they were released. After binging 30 or so in about 20 nights, I hated …

Grad Night, Part 2: We had our final official event at St P’s last night: the graduation of L’s 8th grade class. We got a new priest a little over a year ago after our long-time, very popular priest retired. The new guy has received a decidedly mixed reaction. As I’m not Catholic I won’t get into the details. That …

Holiday Weekend Notes: It was a very busy, extra long, extra special holiday weekend. Let’s get into the details. Thursday L’s next-to-last day of middle school. She begged us to host the annual 8th grade pool party. After weeks of badgering us we relented. Not sure I would have said yes if her class was bigger, but only …

Friday Playlist: I planned on taking this week’s playlist one direction, then some things happened in the music world, I realized it was a holiday weekend, and we ended our academic year, so I decided to mix things up. open.spotify.com/playlist/… “Lay Low” - My Morning Jacket I watched a …

Protecting Your Mailbox: A very busy week around here, so not sure if I’ll get any more proper posts up until after the holiday weekend. I did run across this article this morning and it’s how I’ve been spending the last 30 minutes or so. If you’re sick of your mailbox being filled up with credit card offers, insurance …

Graduation Weekend Notes: Grad Week We officially have a high school graduate! The week leading up to Sunday’s graduation ceremony was jam-packed for M. Her final day of school was last Monday. They were supposed to go in for first period Tuesday but she (and most of her classmates) opted to skip that.[1] She had little …

Friday Playlist: Quite the mixed bag this week. We’ll begin with a couple tracks that owe a huge debt to ’90s Brit Pop, hear a classic from that era, dive into some Aussie music, and then get even more eclectic. open.spotify.com/playlist/… “Savior” - Siracuse I have a buddy who is …

Reaching for the Stars, Vol. 85: Chart Week: April 23, 1983 Song: “Whirly Girl” - Oxo Chart Position: #28, 10th week on the chart. This was its chart peak. We love to celebrate the one hit wonders that made a big impact on the charts and the culture. Toni Basil. Nena. Tommy Tutone. Artists of that nature that you still hear today. …

Tuesday Links: The Tech Toddler has struck again. Naturally it was McSweeney’s that called him out best. As a free speech absolutist, only death could stop me from defending the rights of Twitter users to speak without censorship. Well, either death or a request from an autocratic leader asking that I censor …

Weekend Notes: Kid Hoops A great weekend for L’s team. They played in a one-day shootout Saturday about 30 minutes away from home. Our coach moved us up to the 8th–9th grade bracket, so we were worried going in. That was dumb; both teams we played were awful. The first was an all-freshman team. We hit two 3’s to …

Friday Playlist + Mini Concert Review: My Friday Playlist pool has been pretty full this year. There was a little lull in the past month where I had to do some digging to fill out the weekly lists. Suddenly, though, I am overflowing once again. When I started working on today’s edition, I had 17 songs in the queue, only two of …

My Podcast Life: We are coming up on the 20th anniversary of this blog. Or at least the original site the current iteration grew from. I’m sure I’ll whip together something to commemorate the proper anniversary in June. This morning I saw an article about podcasts and got to thinking about my history with them, …

Reader's Notebook, 5/9/23: Beat the Devils - Josh Weiss The genre of alternate histories can be very fun if done right. I recently ran across a list of best recent alt history novels and was amazed by how many were centered on World War II. I guess that era has a lot of opportunities for writing about What Ifs. Or people are …

Weekend Notes: This weekend was certainly slower than the previous one. Doesn’t mean we didn’t pack a few things into it, one of them rather momentous. On the Road The family checked off another big milestone when C passed her driver’s test and got her license on Saturday. It has been a bit of a struggle with …

Jayhawk Talk: Big Dick(inson) Energy: The biggest signing in the history of the transfer portal (for now) requires a quick, emergency Jayhawk Talk. Thursday former Michigan big man Hunter Dickinson announced he will transfer to KU. That news immediately vaulted KU from a top 15-ish squad to a legit national title contender next season. …

Friday Playlist: Mostly uptempo rockers this week. A notable exception at the bottom for a very important reason. open.spotify.com/playlist/… “Positive Charge” - The Gaslight Anthem The first new GSA song in nine years is a little underwhelming to me. Brian Fallon’s vocals sound very …

Thursday Links: I’m overdue on sharing links. To be fair, I haven’t saved very many of late. A major bummer in the photography world, as Amazon is shutting down DP Review. Anyone who has bought a camera, lens, or other equipment in the past two decades has likely used DP as a resource. It looks like Amazon has …

A Change in (Pas)Times, Pt. 2: Time for part two of my hobby update. In the first entry, I shared how I had sold all my camera equipment. I ended that post by mentioning I had also done something unexpected and possibly dumb. In those weeks after I sold my camera gear, I did everything I could to quash any second-thoughts about …

April Media: Movies, Shows, etc Argo It had been several years since I watched this. Still holds up, even with all the historical inaccuracies. A MH370: The Plane That Disappeared Maybe the biggest mystery of our time is what happened to this Boeing 777 when it disappeared in 2014. This three-episode series …

Weekend Notes: A big weekend full of big events. Prom The big event of the weekend was M’s final CHS prom. It was quite the stressful week leading up to the dance. There was way more drama in her friend group this year than last. There was one breakup last week, another of her friends is dumping her boyfriend this …

Friday Playlist: open.spotify.com/playlist/… “Need You No More” - Chappaqua Wrestling These kids cracked my Top 10 last year and just released their full-length album. It’s not bad; it’s getting mostly positive reviews around the webz. This is probably the second-best track. …

This Weather Is Bullshit: After an amazing first two weeks of April, we had the inevitable backslide. I shouldn’t be surprised. Last week was back-and-forth until Thursday night, when a cold front rolled through and sucked all the warm weather away with it. Monday morning it was 28. We had several chilly, gloomy days where …

Weekend Notes: It was a pretty boring weekend in our house. There were no games or practices. No parental social events. Nothing at all on the calendar. C talked S into taking her to Ikea to get her birthday present a little early - a new desk set - so we spent Saturday afternoon putting that together and …

Friday Playlist: open.spotify.com/playlist/… “One That Got Away” - MUNA MUNA’s first album was filled with great songs with a variety of influences, from indie to dance to country. Knowing that, I’m going to assume their follow-up isn’t going to be 100% shiny, late ’80s …

Reaching for the Stars, Vol. 84: Chart Week: April 17, 1982 Songs: “Stars On 45 III (A Tribute To Stevie Wonder) (Medley)” – Stars On 45, “Pop Goes the Movies (Part 1) (Medley)” – Meco. Chart Positions: #38, 4th week on the chart. Peaked at #28 for two weeks in May. #35, 10th week on the chart. Peaked at #35 for two weeks. First …

A Change in (Pas)Times: I’ve been working on this post for literally two months. It isn’t groundbreaking, super important, or one that I think my readers will finish and say, “Damn! That was some good blogging!” It’s just a post about hobbies and how my interests change over time. The problem is I keep turning it into a …

Weekend Notes: A weekend of transition in various ways. Kid Hoops Back to tournament action for L and her travel teammates. Her ankle is still recovering from the sprain she suffered over a month ago. In our games Saturday that showed. She seemed sluggish and a step slow. We lost the first game by 18 to a very …

Friday Playlist: open.spotify.com/playlist/… “Let’s Hang Out Forever” - The High Water Marks This was a great song to soundtrack the past week, as it felt more like summer than spring. “Want To Know” - Free Range Country or Not entry of the week. “Wrapped in Gold” - …

Reader's Notebook, 4/11/23: Africa Is Not A Country - Dipo Faloyin Those of you who read these posts should know I’m perpetually behind, and even after nearly 20 years I’m still not smart enough to jot down my thoughts about a book shortly after finishing it. So the first entry in each post is usually going to be about four …

Holiday Weekend Notes: A pretty good Easter weekend in our house. Family Weekend As happens when your kids are in Catholic schools, it was an extra-long weekend. CHS had a four-day weekend, while St P’s had early dismissal Friday and were out for Easter Monday. Throw in C being home sick and L having her annual school …

Friday Playlist: open.spotify.com/playlist/… “Anti-Curse” - boygenius The supergroup released their first full-length album last week. It’s very good, or at least the high points are. I love how it’s a combination of songs where each singer takes the lead and songs that are …

College Hoops Notes: Let’s wrap up the college basketball season. Jayhawk Talk Bill Self finally appeared before the media on Wednesday, his first interaction with the press since before his heart episode nearly a month ago. He looked and sounded great. In his recorded interviews with Greg Gurley during the NCAA …

Ranking Shit: Alternate Hoops Programs: As mentioned awhile back, I have a few of these in various stages of development. With the college basketball season complete, seems like a good day to dust off this one. This idea comes from a KU-centric podcast I listen to regularly. During the holidays they had a segment where they selected an …

Spring Break 2023: A long week in the Dominican Republic to celebrate M’s senior class spring break. Not only did we take the whole family, one of C’s best friends came along with us. There was some drama, a few travel difficulties, but overall it was a pretty good seven days. Location We stayed at the Hard Rock …

March Media: Slow month between lots of basketball early in March, watching one show exclusively for a week, and then spring break. Movies, Shows, etc From Paseo To Pembroke: Kansas City’s Golden Era I had heard of this but didn’t realize it was on YouTube until KC buddy Newman sent it my way. A great look at …

Thursday Playlist: I decided to go with a Thursday Playlist after noting the date. We are off very early tomorrow for a week in the Dominican Republic with roughly a third of M’s graduating class. Two other local high schools will also have large contingents at our resort, so it’s going to be Indy in the …

Wednesday Quickie: It’s been a busy week. Our spring break begins on Friday and there is much to be done to prepare. Lots of errands, laundry, organizing, taking kids to appointments, prepping the house, etc. Much of my free time has also been taken up by trying to finish a show I’ve been watching that will disappear …

Weekend Hoops Notes: Not a good weekend of basketball. Nope, not good at all. Jayhawk Talk Well, I feared playing Arkansas from the moment the brackets came out a week ago. Long, athletic, fearless, a little crazy. They resembled Texas and TCU, teams that gave KU three of their worst losses this year. Saturday …

Friday Playlist: open.spotify.com/playlist/… “Get Out of My House” - Miya Folick Folick described this song as an exorcism. Which makes it a perfect metaphor for the last weekend of winter, a time for throwing out all the unnecessary things that have collected over the past little while. …

The Most Wonderful Day of the Year: The appetizer of the First Four is complete. Now it’s time for the real deal. NCAA thoughts. Jayhawk Talk I’m not sure how to feel about this team. Kevin McCullar and Gradey Dick both say their back issues are fine. Can we trust them? Might they be fine against Howard today and flare back up …

Reader's Notebook, 3/14/23: In Patagonia - Bruce Chatwin Chatwin’s work was the inspiration for so many other travel writers I’ve read over the years, so this piece has always been in the back of my mind. If you’ve ever purchased a Moleskine notebook and bothered to read the insert that came inside, you know that Chatwin …

Hoops Notes: As you might expect, I have a lot of words about basketball today. HS Hoops A quick note about HS ball. Cathedral’s run as defending state champs came to an end in the regional round of this year’s tournament, losing to #1 Ben Davis by 10. The Irish did have the lead at halftime. I had to run L …

Friday Playlist: open.spotify.com/playlist/… “Not Strong Enough” - boygenius This is what I’m talking about! The first set of songs from the upcoming boygenius album each featured a different lead singer. On this one, Phoebe, Julien, and Lucy all take turns. The result is wonderful. …

Thursday Links: I haven’t run across as many pieces lately that struck me as sharable. So this entry spans over a month of collection. Thus the first is a little out-of-date, and I’m guessing many of you who would be interested in it have already read it. Wright Thompson is a modern Gary Smith: everything he …

Reaching for the Stars, Vol. 83: Chart Week: February 25, 1978 Song: “Falling” - LeBlanc and Carr Chart Position: #28, 20th week on the chart. Peaked at #13 the week of April 1. Normally I put my song grade at the end of these posts, but for this entry it seems best to offer the assessment up front. This is not a good song. In …

Waylaid: You may recall that a few years back I made fun of S for getting poison ivy for the 90th time since we began dating. I bragged about how I had never gotten it so I must not be allergic to its oils. Within two weeks I wandered into a whole mess of poison ivy vines, had sores all over my body, …

Weekend Notes: College Hoops I’ll save most of my thoughts for a post later in the week. It is always a bit of a relief when we reach this point in the season and have a few days off. November and December are usually a mix of big games and ones that KU should win easily. I’m always left wanting more from that …

Friday Playlist: I’ve been dropping a bunch of old school tunes into my working playlist. So this week’s edition is going to be both extra meaty and heavy on the old. open.spotify.com/playlist/… “Room” - TV Star Seems like a good song for a week when we just broke the record for …

February Media: Shortest month of the year, but I was not short-changed on the media tip. Movies, Shows, etc A Cook’s Tour, season one As I said last month, I recently discovered these were on YouTube. Which is awesome because I’ve never seen them. Anthony Bourdain’s first TV show, and you can see the seeds of …

Ranking Shit: Wasted Items: I’ve not been very good about continuing with this concept. It seems like I mostly think of it in relation to music, and I figure I have enough music content here already. Or when I get a decent, non-music idea, I have enough other posts lined up. I have a few of those ideas sitting in my drafts …

Weekend Notes: Kid Hoops A week ago L’s team beat some good sixth graders in the best game they’ve played all year. This week they played another sixth grade team and got crushed. It was a 50–26 loss. And that was with us scoring six points in the last minute. The team we played made at least 7 3’s to our one. …

Friday Playlist: I didn’t spend much time with the new music this week. Between that and a family development, this week’s selections will lean to the old. open.spotify.com/playlist/… “I Wasn’t Thinking at All” - Cold Irons Band Jason Isbell released the first single from his …

Reader’s Notebook, 2/23/23: I’m a little behind once again, so these will be brief both for brevity’s sake and because the two older books aren’t so fresh in my noggin. The Confession of Copeland Cane - Kennan Norris I loved this book. It is exactly what the title says: the confession of Copeland Cane, a young Black man from …

Jayhawk Talk: Escaping Ft. Worth: Monday night’s win in Ft. Worth deserves a few notes. In Nick Hornby’s Fever Pitch, he attempts to determine what the perfect win is. Now this was British soccer he was talking about, so the standard is a bit different. I think he settled on a 3–2 triumph when your side trails both 1–0 and 2–1 and …

Decision Time Coming: Our trip to Cincinnati was good. We drove down with one of M’s long-time friends, A, who was planning on confirming her enrollment at UC on our visit. At check-in we ran into one of their CHS classmates and her mom. When the parents were comparing notes on the college search process, I mentioned …

Weekend Notes: An early weekend roundup, as M and I are headed to Cincinnati early Monday for an admitted students orientation. We will likely do the same at IU in March as she continues to gather information before she makes a final decision. Kid Hoops L’s team played a sixth grade squad Saturday. That always …

Friday Playlist: More older music than new this week. And, sadly, another rather important In Memoriam entry. open.spotify.com/playlist/… “It’s Just A Bit of Blood” - bdrmm Normally by now I’ve already dropped several songs into my running Favorites list that will be the basis of my …

Car Chronicles: The Loaner: I had the pleasure of driving a loaner car for the past week. All the excuse I need to dust off the Car Chronicles series! My Audi Q5 has been great. I’m nearly two years into my lease and other than a few annoyances, I have been extremely happy with it. Late last year I received a notice for a …

Jayhawk Talk: Streaking: A few brief-ish notes about the Jayhawks, who are suddenly in a three-way tie for first place in the Big 12 after a very good week. Tuesday’s win at Oklahoma State was terrific in many ways. It capped a week in which KU got better over the three-game stretch, beating two very good teams relatively …

Reaching for the Stars, Vol. 82: Chart Week: February 9, 1980 Song: “I Wanna Be Your Lover” - Prince Chart Position: #20, 11th week on the chart. Peaked at #11 for two weeks in January and February. It started here. This was the very first Prince single to crack the Top 40. It took a few years, but eventually just about everyone …

Weekend Notes: HS Hoops I ended up going to the Cathedral game Friday night after C and a friend decided at the last minute that they wanted to go. Amazingly this is the first boys game I’ve attended in my four years as a CHS parent. We only stayed for three quarters, as C’s back started acting up around halftime. …

Friday Playlist: I have a couple appointments in the morning, so posting this late Thursday night. open.spotify.com/playlist/… “Anyway I Find You” - The Men A pretty solid song on its own. But the vocals remind me of an old-school classic… “Old White Church” - Arthur Dodge & …

NBA Trade Deadline Insanity: I have a couple posts in various states of readiness that I figured I would focus on for today. Until I turned on the local news at 7:00 AM this morning to catch the weather - storms were blowing through at the time - and saw a blurb on the crawl at the bottom of the screen saying Kevin Durant had …

Jayhawk Talk: Bouncing Back: I admit I was dreading Monday’s KU-Texas game. Normally, coming off a terrible loss like Iowa State’s destruction of the Jayhawks Saturday, I would be fired up for a Big Monday home game. It would be a chance to wash away the bad taste of the loss with a big, loud crowd and a W. But I also watched a …

Monday Links: We had a pretty boring weekend and I’m saving the Jayhawk Talk for tomorrow, so a good day so share the latest stack of links I’ve accumulated. Simply the best accounting of what Tech Karen has done to Twitter. Extremely Hardcore It’s pretty amazing how many of the people who came out of Toronto’s …

Friday Playlist: Generally my focus in these weekly playlists is on sharing new music, the stuff I have time to dig up that I know most of you are unable to. I’m going to tweak that recipe going forward. There will still be plenty of new music. In addition, though, I’m going to start throwing in more …

Reader's Notebook, 2/2/23: Surrender: 40 Songs, One Story - Bono One of my sisters-in-law received this book from her employer awhile back and passed it along to me. I wasn’t super excited to read it, since I’m not much into U2 anymore. But when brother-in-music E$ told me he was reading and liking it, I pulled it from the …

January Media: Movies, Shows, etc Wednesday This was on constantly in our house over the holidays. I think the girls and S all watched it on their own, then we had several episodes on the main TV while we had guests. I sat and partially watched a few of them. I thought it was funny, clever, and generally good. …

Insomnia/Sick Day Notes: Ugh. I had battled a cold for a week or two, with this weird congestion passing back-and-forth between my head and chest. I never had a sore throat, never felt bad. Just constant plug of yuck in part of my body. In the midst of that, I took NyQuil for several nights so I could breath and sleep …

Weekend Notes: A lot of sports this weekend. Kid Hoops L’s team played one game Saturday night. They were matched up with a team that we think were all soccer players in a hoops league for winter conditioning. We play at least one of these teams a season. Sometimes these teams are really good. This one was not. …

Friday Playlist: It seems like embedding Spotify playlists has been funky for the past week. I’ve checked old posts a couple times and received error messages where the playlist should be, only to find them available again a few hours later. So just a note to check back later if it is being a bitch when you …

Thursday Notes: Snow Day We had the first snow day of the year yesterday. It was kind of a dud. The storm that was supposed to drop 5–8” of snow here could only muster about 2.5 inches. As the storm was expected to hit right at the morning rush, most area schools had either cancelled classes or jumped to e-learning …

Reaching for the Stars, Vol. 81: Chart Week: January 23, 1988 Song: “Don’t Shed A Tear” - Paul Carrack Chart Position: #21, 11th week on the chart. Peaked at #9 for three weeks in February. It feels like I’ve lost the momentum for this series lately. After reviewing the numbers, I did add 15 entries in 2022, which was three more …

Jayhawk Talk: 1-2-3, Time to Panic?: Perhaps THE thing that has set Kansas apart and made their Big 12 success so consistent in the Bill Self era is their ability to avoid losing streaks. Lose one? They almost always win the next. On the rare occasions they lose back-to-back games, a win in the third is about as easy money as you can …

Friday Playlist: This was the week when I tried to figure out what my new normal listening habits are. The Bridge went back to playing their regular rotation of music, so while I still listened to their stream often, I wasn’t quite as obsessive as during their Z to A countdown. But I also didn’t …

Jayhawk Talk: The First Slipup: Well, KU’s end-game luck had to run out eventually. After winning 15-straight games that were decided by less than 10 points, KU came up a point short in overtime in Manhattan Tuesday night. KU missed 10 free throws and 23 3-pointers. They had the ball at the end of regulation and overtime and …

Monday Links: Over the holidays I worked hard to get my Instapaper queue cleaned out, especially a whole swath of very long reads that had been sitting there for months and months. Of them, this might be my favorite, an accounting Susie Goodall’s attempt to sail around the world by herself. There are all kinds of …

Friday Playlist: A little late today as I spent most of the morning running around doing things for the girls. It’s also been a rather odd start to my music year, and I’m not piling up the new music the way I normally do. More on that below. I have managed to cobble together a few songs for your …

Jayhawk Talk: Another nail biter for KU on Tuesday, an improbable four-point win over Oklahoma after trailing by ten (and looking dead) with about 5:00 left. KU went over 11 minutes without hitting a field goal. ELEVEN MINUTES! Oklahoma was loose and focused. Then KU got a dunk. Followed by two offensive boards …

Reader's Notebook, 1/11/23: Often December is when I really pad my reading stats. There’s always at least one holiday book. I also tend to get locked into a good reading groove as the days get cold and dark and the girls are out of school. Not this December. I only finished three books last month. Despite that, I still logged …

Weekend Notes: It’s back to semi-normal today. L returned to school after her Christmas break. M and C still have one more week of J-term, so they go in a little later and get out a little earlier. But all three have to get up in the mornings again. Last week I had to get up to make sure C was up, so my alarm was …

Friday Playlist: Back to the grind this week. open.spotify.com/playlist/… “Flaw In The Design” - Home Front Holy 1983, Batman! I hope these guys dress like they’re from the original New Wave, too. “Harvard” - Briston Maroney This guy can’t help but make solid, indie-pop …

December Media: Holiday Shit The Classics Dr. Seuss’ How The Grinch Stole Christmas, A Christmas Vacation, A Elf, A Four Christmases, B+ SNL Christmas Special, A- I did not watch this the past two years, instead catching my favorite sketches on YouTube. That was a good decision. They’ve made some updates and a …

Hoops Notes: UConn Women I took L and her best friend to meet some of their travel teammates at Hinkle Fieldhouse for the Butler-UConn women’s game last night. A lot of people had the same idea. I’m guessing this was Butler’s most-attended game of the year, with nearly 3,000 people showing up. A good chunk of …

New Year's Weekend Notes: Our holidays come to an end today. M and C go back to class tomorrow, although CHS is once again having a two-week J term filled with electives, so they don’t have “real” school for awhile. L has another week off but I will still have to start setting an alarm to make sure her sisters are awake …

New Year's Day Playlist: I believe I promised this for Monday, but it makes more sense to share this today. Happy 2023 to all! open.spotify.com/playlist/… “nye” - Runner “The New Year’s Resolution” - Spielbergs “New Year’s Day” - U2 “New Year’s …

Stats: As I do every January 1, a slightly different accounting of my listening habits. December 2022 Bing Crosby - 79 Frank Sinatra - 76 The Jackson 5 - 57 Burl Ives - 37 Otis Redding - 36 2022 The War on Drugs - 362 Gang of Youths - 326 The Beatles - 298 Eddie Vedder - 249 Wet Leg - 166 All Time [1] …

Friday Playlist: The final playlist of 2022. It will be a little different as I plan a special playlist for Monday and will hang on to new tracks until next Friday. open.spotify.com/playlist/… “Man at C&A” - The Specials “Our Lips Are Sealed” - The Go-Go’s Terry Hall, …

Bowling: I guess if you have to go 14 years between bowl games, this is the way you want to return. Well, kind of. A win sure would have been nice. And not going down by 25 points would have made for a more interesting game. But the Kansas Football Jayhawks sure found a way to make Wednesday’s Liberty Bowl …

Christmas Weekend Notes: A stressful but pretty good Christmas weekend. Obviously the big issue the past several days has been the weather. We ended up only getting between 1–2” of snow Thursday, a far cry from that initial forecast of over a foot. But it was still enough, combined with the wind and cold, to make travel …

Friday Playlist: I realized after I posted my Favorite Songs of the Year that I forgot to share my Year By Year favorites playlist. So, on this very cold morning (–9, wind chill –36 as I type…), I will send you into the holiday weekend with those 21 songs, running from 2004 to the present. Merry Christmas! …

Friday Links: A few links to get your holiday weekend going. What? Some element of our annual Christmas celebrations is completely made up? Unbelievable! So, what does it mean? “Nothing,” says Holton. “It’s basically gibberish.” FWIW we saw Mele Kalikimaka displayed quite often in storefronts, etc last year when …

Holiday Week Notes: It’s been a crazy couple of days. That will happen when a massive winter storm is predicted to arrive just as the biggest holiday of the year arrives. M and C finished finals Tuesday. They seemed pleased with their performances. We’ll find out in a few weeks. L wrapped up school Wednesday. It was …

Weekend Sports Notes: What a weekend of sports at all levels! Hoo, Hoo, Who? I was unable to watch the Indiana-Kansas game live, which was a major bummer, because it was another first-rate ass kicking. One so comprehensive that I’m left wondering if IU really isn’t that good and, thus, us KU fans shouldn’t overreact to …

Friday Playlist: There’s not much music left in my FPL pool, so seems like a good week to take this in a different direction. It’s been an odd weather month here in Indy so far. Not warm but not cold, generally in the upper 40s with a few days up into the low 50s. THe issue has been that we’ve been …

Finals Week: M and C start their first semester finals today. I’m pretty sure that CHS has changed their finals schedule all four years that M has been there, which she finds annoying. This year the days are split between two morning exams and two afternoon review sessions. So, technically, finals began …

Favorite Songs of 2022: We have arrived at one of the most glorious days of my blogging year: the reveal of my favorite songs of the past 12 months. I often attempt to find common threads that wind through my selections. At first I wasn’t detecting any this year. There were a few songs about dead people, but that was a …

Weekend Sports Notes: Border Dud Last year, when Kansas and Missouri played basketball for the first time in nearly ten years, I wrote this: That’s the good news for MU: things change quickly in college hoops these days. They could add some solid transfers and the young guys who were overmatched on Saturday may be much …

Friday Playlist: Some brand new songs and one that goes back nearly 50 years for this week’s playlist. (Spotify embedding is cranky this morning, so here’s a link) Friday Playlist 12/9/22 https://open.spotify.com/playlist/6PrFQ6Y0xt5JJnHAB5wx1b?si=a478ce2e928544ab “Peace Blossom Boogy” - Babe …

Reader's Notebook, 12/8/22: Long Road: Pearl Jam and the Soundtrack of a Generation - Steven Hyden One of two books I loaded onto my Kindle for our Italy trip, and the only one I really read much of, mostly on the train. This is Hyden’s take on the story of Pearl Jam, told through chapters that each center on one song selected …

Wednesday Links: A music-heavy list of interesting pieces this time. Since the Milli Vanilli scandal came in the prime of my music listening years, it will always resonate. While reading this piece, it struck me that a lot of younger people have no idea what it was about, just that it is a cultural punchline. In …

November Media: I think I broke my media consumption habits in October and have yet to get them right. A lot of basketball (on TV and in person) and another week away from home didn’t help. Thus, another rather short list of things to share this month. Movies, Series, Shows Halloween Baking Championship I wrapped …

Weekend Notes: A fairly quiet weekend for our family. A couple folks are still trying to get their sleep schedules back to normal. Me? I’ve been sleeping awesome all week. I probably just jinxed myself to a week of insomnia… College Football Bowls and Playoffs I must be getting old. The stupid little …

Friday Playlist: Since returning home I’ve been super focused on getting my Favorite Songs of the Year playlist put together. I’ve made a lot of progress and expect to post it in about 10 days. In the meantime, the next two weekly playlists will feature some songs that were weeded out as I get the big …

Catching Up: A few things happened either before or while we were traveling that deserve a few words. Youth Sports The Friday before we left, St P’s had an assembly for the two girls basketball teams that made it to the City finals including L’s team. She still refused to hold the trophy. I laughed. It was a …

Stats: November 2022 Beatles - 48 Gang of Youths - 33 Congotronics International - 31 John Mellencamp - 29 Pearl Jam - 26 Complete stats available at my Last.fm page.

La Nostra Avventura Italiana, 2022: What follows is an epic, old school breakdown of our Thanksgiving week trip to Italy. I spent almost all day Sunday working on it, so I hope it is coherent and interesting. I’ve broken it into sections so you can read in chunks or skip around as you like. Departure/Chicago The trip began a little …

Reaching for the Stars, Vol. 80: Chart Week: November 20, 1982 Song: “Heartbreaker” - Dionne Warwick Chart Position: #28, 7th week on the chart. Peaked at #10 for two weeks in January 1983. Dionne Warwick has had an amazing career. Hits upon hits, all kinds of notable and interesting personality quirks, a side-career that kept her …

Reaching for the Stars, Vol. 79: Chart Week: November 23, 1985 Song: “Separate Lives” - Phil Collins and Marilyn Martin Chart Position: #3, 8th week on the chart. Peaked at #1 the week of November 30. (Note: To tide you over during our Thanksgiving vacation, I’ve scheduled a couple posts to drop while we are away. I’m hoping all …

Friday Playlist: I’ve pretty casually mentioned a couple times that our family had a trip to Italy planned. The time for that trip has arrived. Tomorrow morning we will drive up to Chicago, hop on a flight to Paris, and hopefully end up in Rome by early afternoon Sunday. Over the next seven days we will be …

Kid Hoops: Denied: L’s team came up short in the City championship game Thursday. It was a tough, defensive matchup between two teams that knew what their opponent was trying to do. The difference was St O got to the basket more than we did, and hit a couple big threes to stretch out a lead on their way to a 30–20 …

Reader's Notebook, 11/17/22: Five Decembers - James Kestrel I cheaped out when I bought my Kindle and got the one that has “special offers,” a euphemism for constant advertising on its sleep screen. All so I could save $50 or whatever. This book was often featured in those ads late last summer. I’ve found a lot of the books …

Jayhawk Talk: Winning Ugly Is Better Than Losing: Nothing like a (very) late game on a Tuesday night to get the real college hoops season started! First, although I got many texts asking this question, I should clarify that I did not go to the KU-Duke game last night. This is the first non-Covid Champions Classic game played in Indy I have not …

Surviving, Advancing: Two down, one to go. L’s team won their CYO A League City basketball semifinal 35–20 Monday night. It wasn’t as easy as the final score makes it look, though. When she woke up Monday her left knee was still swollen and sore from whatever happened to it Saturday. She had already taped it up and was …

Weekend Notes: FNL Regional Friday in Indiana with teams fighting to make the final four in their respective classes. For the second time this year Cathedral traveled out west to Brownsburg, where they lost their only game of the season, 42–35, back in August. They trailed by 21 much of that game and only a …

Friday Playlist: open.spotify.com/playlist/… “October Passed Me By” - girl in red DAMMIT! I meant to include this last week. I guess it still applies. “Honey” - Romero I just learned that this song is a couple years old, but it appears on Romero’s first full-length album that was …

Colts Talk: WTF?!?!: What’s going on with the Colts right now is so strange I had to take a day off, cut the grass, and think about it before I put any thoughts into a text file.[1] Quick refresher if you’re not up to date on your NFL news: The Colts have had their standard terrible start to the season. They benched …

Kid Hoops: A lot of youth basketball last week. I’ll try not to stretch this out too long, but you know how I get when I am typing about hoops. L’s St P’s team visited the undefeated, first place squad last Tuesday night. St B’s was 5–0 and their closest game was an eleven-point win. Their average margin of …

Weekend Notes: An unexpectedly long weekend. And not just because of the time change. Flu Both M and C got the flu and stayed home Thursday and Friday. They tested negative for Covid and had all the classic flu symptoms. I don’t think either has ever had the true flu before, and were a little overwhelmed by how …

Sunday Links: A few links have stacked up, and I have a few posts lined up for the coming week, so might as well share them on a Sunday. Most of these are music-related, which seems ideal for a weekend. Tennessee’s win over Alabama was spectacular.[1] The images of the orange-clad Volunteer fans taking over the …

Friday Playlist: open.spotify.com/playlist/… “How Far We’ve Come” - The Big Pink This big, positive track is a good thing to listen to in the heart of the political season. There’s a lot going wrong in the world, and I tend to think we’re heading a very bad direction in so many …

College Hoops Thoughts: Your defending national champion Kansas Jayhawks play their first exhibition game tonight. Seems like some hoop thoughts are in order. KU and the NCAA The saga continues its glacial slide towards a resolution. Wednesday KU announced that it was imposing various penalties, ranging from Bill Self and …

October Media: A light month thanks to reading The Stand and being out-of-town for a week. Movies, Series, Shows Halloween Baking Championship I have two episodes left, so no final grade yet. Interesting that the baker that seemed to be clearly the best took herself out of the competition early by taking an …

DC Trip Notes: I had a really good week in Washington, D.C. with L and her classmates. It wasn’t all great, but we avoided the major issues that often plague these trips. We did A LOT. I took some notes along the way, but I think the best way to share the experience is just to list everywhere we went and add a …

Stats: October 2022 Alvvays - 81 The Beatles - 48 The War on Drugs - 41 The Big Pink - 18 Stevie Wonder - 18 Complete stats available at my Last.fm page.

Weekend Notes: Friday L had the day off after our DC trip (more to come on that tomorrow), although I still had to get up and take C to school. Why did I have to take her? M was on her senior retreat Tuesday through Friday. Friday evening was the welcome home ceremony for the seniors. That was interesting, as all …

Friday Vid: youtu.be/_ul7X5js1… “Superstition” live on Sesame Street - Stevie Wonder L and I arrived at our house, tired but happy, around 1:00 this morning following a long, jam-packed, and mostly excellent trip to Washington, D.C. with her classmates. I’ll get to all of that next …

Monday Playlist: Monday playlist? WHAT?!?! That’s right, a very special playlist to kick off the week. By the time you read this I will likely be in the air, on my way to Washington, D.C. as a chaperone for L’s 8th grade class trip. We have an action-packed week ahead of us, from the moment we land until …

Weekend Notes: Fall Break A pretty boring break for us, as we have trips ahead of us. M went up to Ball State to hang out with a friend of hers. Apparently they went to a few parties Friday night, but I tried not to hear too much about that. Normally we get our flu shots over fall break but I couldn’t wrangle all …

Friday Playlist: Slow week here at blog headquarters. Or actually a busy one in terms of commitments outside the home which has meant for limited posting opportunities. Expect the same next week, but more on that later… Here is this week’s selection of music. open.spotify.com/playlist/… …

Reader's Notebook, 10/18/22: The Stand - Stephen King I mentioned in my last entry I was working through a very big book. Nearly 30 years after reading the original version, I decided to read the “completed and uncut edition” of The Stand. Released in 1990, this version included over 400 pages cut from the original 1979 …

Weekend Notes: FNL For the ninth-straight year Cathedral ended their regular season schedule against Center Grove. They are almost always great games, although CG had a 6–2 advantage coming into this year’s game. Two years ago the game came down to Cathedral being unable to get less than a yard on fourth down. …

Friday Playlist: Back to the (mostly) newer music this week. open.spotify.com/playlist/… “Lucky One” - The Big Pink I like the heavy, almost ominous feel of this track. “Literary Mind” - Sprints I’m a long-time sucker for songs that capture the feeling of being young and in love, …

Thursday Links: I’ve been focused on my book this week, so not a lot percolating in the ol’ noggin’ worthy of writing about. Thus, some links for your enjoyment. Become 007 With Pelorus’ Bond-Worthy Travel Experience I wonder if the girls will be upset when I tell them that their college accounts have been drained …

Reader's Notebook, 10/11/22: I am deep into the longest book I’ve read in years. My Kindle tells me I’m 54% through it after more than a week of work. Figured I better get to the books I read before I started it so I don’t totally forget what they were about. Italian Ways - Tim Parks Hmmm, a book about taking trains in Italy. …

Weekend Notes: A quick run through a busy weekend. FNL It was Cathedral’s homecoming week. They pounded their Jesuit brothers pretty easily, winning 42–21 with two of those scores against coming late in the game. I went for the first half but it was chilly, C’s back was bothering her (she’s been seeing a …

Friday Playlist: I did not do a lot of new music listening this week. So, to switch things up, I’m just going to play my Spotify Liked Songs on shuffle and see what it throws out for this week’s list. I’ll also make it extra-long, hopefully a good soundtrack as you wrap up your week. …

Kid Hoops Notes: A quick kid hoops update, as L’s St P’s team has hit their (stupid) fall break-break. First, a refresher about the dumbness of the CYO girls basketball schedule. Girls hoops has always been a fall CYO sport, so that the gyms are cleared out for boys basketball and boys/girls volleyball in the …

Weekend Notes: A belated rundown of this past weekend. FNL Cathedral finally had their first home game of the year. Since they only have one after this, and it has already been tagged as homecoming, Friday became senior night. Which was a little weird. I stayed home and listened to an easy 37–6 win over …

September Media: Movies, Series, Shows US Open Probably watched as much of the tournament this year as I’ve watched in several years. It was time well spent. A 30 for 30: Shark I LOVED Greg Norman when I was a kid. He was my first favorite golfer and until Tiger came along I was all-in with the Great White Shark. …

Stats: September 2022 Stevie Wonder - 62 The Beths - 40 Maggie Rogers - 34 The War on Drugs - 34 Beastie Boys - 22 Complete stats available at my Last.fm page.

Friday Playlist: Once again we are brushing up against a slowing stream of new music, so this week’s playlist is a little more eclectic, at least in terms of date of recording. open.spotify.com/playlist/… “At Attention” - Northern Portrait You cannot convince me these kids aren’t …

Baseball Notes (+1): My season-long boycott of baseball has continued. It’s really not been hard since the Royals have been so shitty this year. I’m not feeling any inclination to crack in a week when the playoffs begin. I’m sure I’ll watch some of the games, but I don’t expect to be as into them as I have been in …

"Yes, Chef" - The Bear: Every so often I bust out a post dedicated to a show or movie I have watched as soon as I see it rather than wait for my monthly Media edition. Last weekend I watched an entire season of a streaming service exclusive that rocked my world. Yes, I watched the latest season of Cobra Kai last week. But …

Weekend Notes: A jam-packed weekend full of events that may be of mild interest to my loyal readers. FNL Cathedral traveled three hours to play a horrible team - they were up 56–0 at halftime and held on to win by that exact score - so I walked across the street with my pal Nicole H to watch The Other CHS play …

Friday Playlist: open.spotify.com/playlist/… “Cold Shoulder” - Peace Ritual Since I first heard this band a month or so ago I’ve been trying to figure out who they remind me of. I know it’s some late ’90s/early ’00s band that I did not like. I think my mind is intentionally …

Ranking Shit: SNF Songs: Today I unveil a new style of post. Who knows how regular these will be, or how long they will last. But let’s give it a shot. As the title suggests, in these posts I will be Ranking Shit. Five things I will place in an order with just a few words of explanation. To kick us off, I will rank the top …

Reaching for the Stars, Vol. 78: Chart Week: September 18, 1982 Song: “Somebody’s Baby” - Jackson Browne Chart Position: #18, 8th week on the chart. Peaked at #7 for three weeks in October. I loved this song when I was 11. It wasn’t because I was a big Jackson Browne fan, or because it was a fantastic song. No, it was solely …

Jayhawk Talk: FOOTBALL!!!!: Some weekend. No Cathedral football Friday. L’s hoops team got blasted on Saturday. The Colts appear to be shitty and have made the wrong selection, yet again, for their quarterback. I could write a lot about two of those three topics. I’m going to save all my writing effort for another topic, …

Friday Playlist: open.spotify.com/playlist/… “Shine A Light” - Paolo Nutini Forget where I came across this, either via a Spotify recommendation or somewhere else, but it was a nice surprise. I remember Nutini’s name from somewhere in my musical past, but can’t find where I’ve …

Stuff to Read: I suddenly have a bunch of links to share. Not all of them are fully cooked, but I’ll go ahead and serve up what has been simmering for awhile. As I get older I realize how hard it is to do big lists like those in the next two links. I’m way overdue for updating my Favorite Songs of All Time list …

Reader's Notebook, 9/13/22: I’ve stuck to a pretty brisk reading pace lately. Several of my latest batch of books have some common themes, so I’m going to pair them up to attempt to get through them quicker. Suburban Dicks - Fabian Nicieza The Damage - Caitlin Wahrer Two mysteries from first-time authors that were both very …

Weekend Notes: The first full football weekend of the year. I have some notes. Friday We had the big 6A #3 Cathedral at 3A #1 Bishop Chatard game Friday. Or the girls did. S and I knew it was going to be an absolute shit show; BC has a tiny stadium in the middle of a packed neighborhood and it seemed like every …

Friday Playlist: open.spotify.com/playlist/… “The Queen Is Dead” - The Smiths I’m sorry, but if you think I’m not playing this song today you don’t know me very well. I’m not here to dance on graves but rather shout to the heavens, for the thousandth time, about the genius …

Kickball Wrap Up (Forever): Well, it’s over. L’s team went out with a whimper in their final two kickball games, losing 21–7 on Tuesday then getting run-ruled 42–13 on Wednesday, ending the season at 2–5. I believe that was the first time they had a losing record.[1] These two games were more of the same. We couldn’t kick or …

Reaching for the Stars, Vol. 77: Chart Week: August 30, 1986 Song: “Heaven In Your Eyes” - Loverboy Chart Position: #33, 5th week on the chart. Peaked at #12 for two weeks in October. A quick entry this time, based on a cultural nugget that shows how much the world has changed since 1986. Casey shared that Loverboy keyboard player …

Holiday Weekend Notes: I’m guessing this was our last ever four-day Labor Day weekend, at least on the academic side of things. St P’s generally (but not always) gives the kids Friday and Monday off, while CHS just takes the actual Monday holiday off. Who knows what M’s schedule will be this time next year, but she won’t …

August Media: Movies, Series, Shows Better Call Saul, season six I wrote about this here. A for the season, A+ for the series. The Queen’s Gambit It took me awhile, but I finally got to this. Not sure if it was better or worse to watch it well after its initial buzz had faded. While I enjoyed the story, I felt it …

Friday Playlist: The new music faucet finally seems to have been turned down a notch. My Latest Songs playlist is as light as it has been in months. Hopefully just a brief respite before things pick back up again for the fall. open.spotify.com/playlist/… “Paradise” - Briston Maroney One of my …

Kickball Notes: This season was supposed to be L and her team’s final run to kickball glory. Even with a tough schedule we figured they would be battling in every game and, because of the strength of their division, remain in the mix for a City championship berth right up until the end of the season. Instead it’s …

Stats: August 2022 The Beatles - 61 Spielbergs - 52 John Mellencamp - 29 Wilco - 24 Alvvays - 19 Complete stats available at my Last.fm page.

Weekend Notes: Kind of a weird weekend, or at least it got off to a weird start. L threw up all night Thursday and into Friday morning. I heard her throwing up again around 6:45 and went running into her room only to discover it was M across the hall throwing up in her bathroom. Just like old times! At least they …

Friday Playlist: open.spotify.com/playlist/… “Easy On Your Own?” - Alvvays Alvvays went eight years between albums number one and two. So a five-year wait for album number three doesn’t seem so bad! “Desert Snow” - Local Natives With the heat coming back after to Indiana after …

Reader's Notebook, 8/25/22: After finishing nine books in July I didn’t finish my first August book until the 15th. And then I finished two more books in just over a week. I think I’m doing just fine. After the Fall - Ben Rhodes The latest book by former Obama staffer Rhodes, this one is about the current state of the world, …

Tuesday Links: A few things for you to read. The already messed-up world of professional golf got even crazier last week when Patrick Reed filed a bizarre lawsuit against the Golf Channel and GC personality Brandel Chamblee. Attorney (and golfer) Will Bardwell had this terrific, and hilarious, breakdown of the …

Weekend Kid Sports Notes: Kid Hoops After a few weeks off, it’s back to the hoops grind for L. Saturday her travel team kicked off a Back to School league that will play on Saturdays for the next two months. I think this is the first time her coach has put his team into the league, and he’s doing his best to keep it light. …

Friday Playlist: open.spotify.com/playlist/… “You” - Julianna Riolino Should a Canadian with a name like this play music like this? I guess that’s a dumb question, because clearly she does. I’ve shot some songs back and forth with my brother-in-music E$ lately that have fallen on the …

Farewell to Saul: Vince Gilligan and Peter Gould faced a huge challenge as they brought their series Better Call Saul to an end. Not just because of the normal pressures that come with wrapping a critically acclaimed and beloved (by those who watched it) show. But also because of how they ended Breaking Bad, one of …

Weekend Notes: Some catchup from the last few days. Shots Fired…Literally Friday night we had our old neighbors from Carmel over for dinner. They like to rib us about moving from Carmel, which has little violent crime, to Indianapolis, which like most big cities has some issues. I joked that we hadn’t heard any …

Friday Playlist: Another week with a jam-packed list. The new music continues to roll in. I still have a couple tracks leftover from my podcast review. We just passed a significant music anniversary. There was a massive death in the music world this week. And an amazing YouTube find will cap things off. Strap …

The Old Man and The Scale: L went back to school yesterday. M and C started classes today. Thus our academic summer has ended. Which makes this the perfect day for a post I’ve wanted to share for quite awhile. It will be extra navel-gazey, so feel free to skip if you prefer my writings about music, sports, books, etc. to …

Weekend in KC: A very good weekend trip to Kansas City. Other than the heat, of course. Travel It was probably our easiest drive between Indy and KC we’ve ever had without driving at night. A few slowdowns, a few standard trucks passing each other or slow people in the fast lane issues. But otherwise it was kind …

Reader's Notebook, 8/3/22: July was one of my better reading months in recent memory. Nine books finished, and all were legit books. No graphic novels, manuals, photography collections, etc. mixed in. Here are some brief synopses. Phil - Alan Shipnuck The book that shook up the golf world when an excerpt was released earlier …

Life and Times of a Rising Senior: A busy week for M. Two college visits and senior pictures have all been checked off her To Do list. We went to Purdue last Wednesday and then IU on Monday. Both trips went well. She liked Purdue more than she expected, and when we left she felt like it had pulled even with Cincinnati as her …

July Media: M and I are off to Bloomington for campus visit number five today, so it is a perfect day to drop this list on you. Movies, Series, Shows Somebody Feed Phil, season one Crap, I forgot to include this in my June entry. After watching the Anthony Bourdain film, I tried to find something similar to …

Stats: July 2022 The War on Drugs - 31 Jack White - 23 Maggie Rogers - 20 The Beatles - 19 MUNA - 18 Complete stats available at my Last.fm page.

Friday Playlist: Just a little more cleanup from my podcast archives research, a whole heck of a lot of new music, and no playlist next week due to travel means (at least) one more mega playlist for your listening pleasure. open.spotify.com/playlist/… “In the Right” - The Boys With The Perpetual …

Wednesday Links: M and I are off to visit Purdue so it seems like a great day to share some more interesting reads. I don’t know a thing about cricket, and I’m guessing most of you don’t, either. That doesn’t mean you can’t appreciate the ridiculousness of this story. “I have never seen a scam like this. These guys …

Reaching for the Stars, Vol. 76: Chart Week: July 22, 1978 Song: “Baker Street” - Gerry Rafferty Chart Position: #2, 14th week on the chart. Peaked at #2 for six weeks. I’ve been wanting to write about this song for ages, and everything finally lined up thanks to an AT40 I caught last week. “Baker Street” is one of the greatest …

Family Notes: It has been a lazy few days around our house. M spent last week in Michigan with one of her best friend’s families. She seemed to have a great time. Boy was the house quiet without the most talkative sister around. Kind of a preview of what awaits us next fall. I had big plans to do something fun …

Friday Playlist: I continue to clean out the holding pen of music that is overflowing with both new tracks and classics I rediscovered while trolling the archives of my old music podcast. open.spotify.com/playlist/… “Alright” - Sam Fender The life cycle of albums can be strange. These days many …

Weekend Sports Notes: Some sports happenings over the past few days. Royals As if being shitty wasn’t bad enough, ten Royals players “did their own research” and decided not to get vaccinated against Covid, preventing them from traveling to Canada for the series with the Blue Jays over the weekend. Just an exhausting …

Friday Playlist: Normally my Spotify playlist where I stash songs for the Friday Playists has anywhere from three to eight songs in it. This week is different, though. First off, this has been a very good year for music already and it feels like a ton of solid tunes get released every week. So I have plenty of new …

Reader's Notebook, 7/14/22: The Committed - Viet Thanh Nguyen I read, and loved, Nguyen’s The Sympathizer in 2015. His sequel did not quite meet the original’s standard. The Committed picks up a few years after The Sympathizer, with the main character living in Paris in the early 1980s, and attempting to start a new life in …

Tuesday Links: A few links I’ve come across in the past few days that are worth sharing. First, the New York Times wrote about one of M’s classmates. That’s right, THE NEW YORK TIMES! I never guessed Booker would rise as high in the national rankings as he has (#2 in one list, #4 in another) when I stood next to …

Weekend Notes: School Visits and Tennis: A pretty boring weekend around our house. I wrapped up Stranger Things. M went to a concert. But other than that the weekend proper was pretty low key for our family. We had great weather so we spent a lot of time just hanging out around the pool or on the back porch. College Visits Thursday M and …

Friday Playlist: open.spotify.com/playlist/… “These Are The Days” - Inhaler I had not heard of this band until this week despite them having a #1 album in Ireland and the UK last year. They are a four-piece from Dublin that sound a little like the most famous band to ever come out of Dublin. …

June Media: Movies, Series, Shows Tokyo Vice I heard mixed things about this, but when I realized Michael Mann was involved, I decided to give it a try. It’s classic Mann: visually stunning with some high highs and low lows. My favorite part about the show was Ansel Elgort, the actor who plays main character …

Holiday Weekend Notes (Heavy With Cooking Content): We’ve reached the midway point in academic summer, an occasional always highlighted by our family’s July 4th celebrations. This year’s was a little lower key than recent ones. We had no out-of-town visitors this time, so fewer cousins, aunts, and uncles running around. It was as hot as it’s been any …

Independence Day Playlist: Only one change to the playlist for this year, which is now four years old. The dark tone that carries through many of these songs seems more appropriate this year. I hope you all have happy and safe gatherings. open.spotify.com/playlist/…

Emergency Sports Post: Some MASSIVE sports news dropped on Thursday. With Monday being a holiday, who knows what can happen between now and when I get around to sharing some thoughts. So a quick-ish, emergency post about… UCLA/USC Jumping To Big 10 WHAT?!?!!? Where the fuck did this come from? I have to say, I am utterly …

Friday Playlist: Over halfway through the year; that’s kind of nutty! Be looking for my annual bonus playlist on Monday. open.spotify.com/playlist/… “Rubberneckers” - Christian Lee Hutson A perfect mid-summer song in tone, this is about how many people you run across in LA who have made …

Stats: June 2022 The War on Drugs - 106 MUNA - 40 Dehd - 25 The Beatles - 25 Night Moves - 23 Complete stats available at my Last.fm page.

Reader's Notebook, 6/29/22: Midnight in Siberia - David Greene Interesting timing on reading this. Greene is a former NPR reporter who was the network’s Moscow bureau chief in the early 2010s. Late in his tenure, he took the Trans-Siberian Railway 6000 miles across Russia. In 2014, he returned to take the same journey and …

NBA Draft Notes: I loathe the NFL draft. It is the most over-hyped event in sports. Primarily because there are very few players picked in that draft that make an immediate and profound impact on their teams. For every Joe Burrow, there are dozens and dozens of players that take two, three, even five years to …

Travel Hoops Wrap Up: Travel basketball came to a disappointing end for L over the weekend. Her team lost in the semifinals to a squad they had beaten twice this year. That team went on to win the championship by four points. So it was right there for our girls and they blew it. Saturday’s pool games were two very …

Friday Playlist: open.spotify.com/playlist/… “Birthdays” - Craig Finn Hey, I had a birthday this week! Coincidentally this is the best song from Craig Finn’s latest solo album. “I Was Neon” - Julia Jacklin The first single off JJ’s up-coming album was solid. This one cooks. …

Reaching for the Stars, Vol. 75: Chart Week: June 20, 1981 Song: “Angel of the Morning” - Juice Newton Chart Position: #38, 18th week on the chart. Peaked at #4 for four weeks in May. Juice Newton was a classic Right Artist at the Right Time success. Although she came up in the world of folk music, by the early 1980s she had slid …

Top Gun Links: Following up on yesterday’s posts, here are a couple articles related to Top Gun. First, Michael Baumann dives into the details and comes up with his best guess for what county is the target of the movie’s main mission. This is important journalism here. But like Maverick, Rooster, Hangman, and …

A Day at the Cinema - Top Gun: Maverick: It’s damn hard to make a good sequel. Think of how many absolutely ass ones have polluted our cinema and entertainment room screens. So when one hits all the right notes, it feels like a triumph. And when you do it nearly 40 years after the original, you’ve really pulled off a miracle. I took C and …

Miles on the Odometer: College Visits and Weekend Hoops: A long post about a long few days. Thirteen months into my Audi lease I was in great shape, milage-wise, about 1000 miles lower than where I should be. I pretty much wiped out that deficit over the past few days. Thursday M and I drove to Cincinnati to take her first college campus visits. We …

Friday Playlist: A little different playlist this week, as about the time this posts, L and I will be on our way to Knoxville for a weekend of hoops. So here are a bunch of songs about the Volunteer State (and one summer song). open.spotify.com/playlist/… “Tennessee” - Arrested Development I think …

Another Night of Music: Two concerts in a week! Both at new venues (to me)! Quite a run! Last night was a little extra special. Not only did we go see The Lumineers, one of S’s favorite bands, but we took all three girls with us. It was the first official show for C and L, although they had seen Blues Traveler at Symphony …

Reader's Notebook, 6/14/22: Allow Me To Retort: A Black Guy’s Guide to the Constitution - Elie Mystal “Our Constitution is not good.” Thus begins a book that should infuriate anyone who reads it. Conservatives brave enough to take it on will be enraged by Mystal’s destruction of our most sacred document. Liberals will be …

Weekend Hoops Notes: I mentioned last week that L was finally looking healthy again. She had claimed her tailbone was healed from her recess injury last month, but I think she was still feeling some pain there. And her knees were a mess in May, but seemed better last weekend. This weekend she seemed as healthy as she’s …

"We're all just walking through this darkness on our own." - The War on Drugs Live: Last Wednesday night I went to my first concert in four-and-a-half years. Just as I did at that last show in December 2017, I went to see The War on Drugs. With S and the same friends we went to that Dec ’17 show with. This was a rather momentous night for me, though, as it was the first concert …

Friday Playlist: open.spotify.com/playlist/… “You Gave Me the Key” - Julie Doiron A bright, sassy, fun song. Perfect for summer! “She Still Leads Me On” - The London Suede The London Suede had one great song in the ’90s (“The Drowners”), a lot of hype, and not much …

Sports Notes: KU Hoops I still need to do an NIL post, and now that things finally seem to have calmed down a little on that front, I’ll move that up in the mental queue. KU’s roster appears to be locked in for next year, so a few thoughts on how that has shaken out. In general I think the transfer portal is a …

Reaching for the Stars, Vol. 74: Chart Week: May 24, 1980 Song: “Another Brick in the Wall, Part 2” - Pink Floyd Chart Position: #17, 19th week on the chart. Peaked at #1 for four weeks in March/April. Each week Casey would read letters from his listeners, generally either Long Distance Dedications or general music questions that …

Weekend Notes: Basketball and Gatherings: Nothing but hoops and parties for us this weekend. L’s basketball team was supposed to have the week off before their final push of the season. They got invited to play in a tournament at the last minute. Because of our schedules, she could only play in the Saturday games, which worked out just …

Friday Playlist: open.spotify.com/playlist/… “When They Come For Me” - Spielbergs When this dropped a couple weeks back, one of my Brothers in Music sent me a message that said, “Shit is hot.” My response: “Shit is indeed hot.” Still laugh about when we coached soccer …

May Media: Movies, Series, Shows Ozark, season four, part two Ozark found its groove in season three and maintained that into the first half of season four. S4, E8, which kicked off the last half of the final season, was one of the best hours in the series’ total run. And then things kind of fell apart. That …

Reader's Notebook, 6/1/22: :07 Seconds or Less - Jack McCallum The “season inside” schtick is one of the most satisfying sports book tropes available to writers. A reporter embeds with an athlete, team, or even entire sport for a year and relates the inside dope on their experiences after-the-fact. Unless the subject is super …

Stats: May 2022 Rolling Blackouts Coastal Fever - 66 Frightened Rabbit - 49 Hatchie - 31 Pink Floyd - 26 Spice - 23 Complete stats available at my Last.fm page.

Holiday Weekend Notes: The first weekend of the summer is in the books. We were busy. M and C finished classes on Thursday. Unless there’s a surprise coming we don’t know about, they both had really good semesters with just one B between them and a handful of A+’s. And now M is a senior. Yikes! I took C to finally get her …

Friday Playlist: open.spotify.com/playlist/… “Turn Up The Sunshine” - Diana Ross, Tame Impala Calling it right now: this is the cross-generational, cross-genre song of the summer. One of my nephews loved Pharell’s “Happy” when he was two. I predict his two-year-old brother is …

Some Bond Links: I really enjoyed this look at Pierce Brosnan’s career. Especially the section where the author discusses how despite, seeming to be the ideal James Bond, Brosnan’s run in the series always seemed lacking. Mostly, the Brosnan Bonds feel like a franchise trying to figure out how to pivot back to …

Reader's Notebook, 5/25/22: Good grief, I’ve gotten bad about these again. Didn’t I say I was going to start posting after I finished each book to keep from getting so far behind? Or did I just think it? Regardless, I clearly failed to follow up. I guess that will be my goal for the summer, when I expect my reading pace to …

Weekend Hoops: The Ville: L’s first true travel basketball tournament of her life is in the books. She had fun, but it was a mixed weekend results-wise. Hoops first. Her team went 2–2 for the weekend. Friday night they got absolutely annihilated by a team from Canada. Whatever your mental image of how Canadian seventh grade …

Friday Playlist: open.spotify.com/playlist/… “Rewind” - Whimsical Some very turn-of-the-millennium shoegaze from Northwest Indiana, of all places. “Alive” - POLIÇA Oh, damn! This song absolutely slays. “Bones” - Rosali After some shoegaze and electro-pop, let’s take …

Year One With An Audi: Last week was the one year anniversary of me acquiring my Audi Q5. As my car search series was immensely popular - I believe at least 10 people read it - I feel like I owe those fans a one year update. Aside from some minor quibbles, I am still deeply in love with my Audi. It isn’t perfect, but it …

On the iPod: You may have missed the news because of more important things, but Apple officially retired the iPod line of music players last week. That’s not exactly true, as the iPod Touches that were discontinued were more iPhones without a cellular radio than anything resembling the classic iPods. But, still, …

Weekend Hoops Notes: B-town: L finally got back in hoops action this weekend. The tournament her team was scheduled to play in in Indy got cancelled because of lack of teams. Our coach scrambled and got us into a tournament in Bloomington. Which is nice since they’ve been working on the main highway between Indy and B-town …

Friday Playlist: open.spotify.com/playlist/… “Better Days” - Liam Gallagher I’ve never been a huge fan of the Gallagher brothers' post-Oasis solo/group efforts. But this song is solid. And I hope that Liam is right that the better days we’ve been waiting for eventually get here. …

Things to Read: On Creed Bratton: I just can’t seem to get on a regular schedule for sharing fun things I run across in my internet travels. So I’ve decided to scrap the periodic link-heavy posts and move towards sharing interesting pieces individually, as I run across them. That means more content for you, dear readers! Let’s kick …

Reaching for the Stars, Vol. 73: Chart Week: May 5, 1979 Song: “Music Box Dancer” - Frank Mills Chart Position: #3, 15th week on the chart. This was the song’s peak. Songs like “Music Box Dancer,” complete outliers to everything else on the pop chart at the time, fascinate me. It makes no sense that this track spent over four …

Weekend Notes: A lighter weekend around our house. No basketball for L’s team, which was good as she was still recovering from her injury. She’s much better and is headed back to practice tonight. She should be good-to-go for this weekend, although the tournament they were scheduled to play in got cancelled so …

Friday Playlist: open.spotify.com/playlist/… “Do You Pray?” - Tess Parks When artists are described as “Psych rockers” it can go several directions. I like the direction Parks takes that description. “Falling Apart (Right Now)” - Wilco Wilco has had a hell of a journey …

Reaching for the Stars, Vol. 72: Chart Week: April 26, 1980 Song: “Cars” - Gary Numan Chart Position: #22, 11th week on the chart. Peaked at #9 for three weeks in June. It has always bothered me that Gary Numan never seemed impressed with the biggest song of his career, 1980’s “Cars.” I’ve read several stories in which he speaks of …

April Media: Shows and Movies Official Secrets Weird how huge events that happened A) overseas and B) while we were waiting for M to be born have totally slipped my mind. Here is a dramatic recounting of how Brit Katharine Gun leaked a confidential memo about the efforts to sway the UN Security Council to vote …

Weekend Notes: I was going to begin this post with a complaint about the weather. Then I realized that our recent run of swings between warm and cool are what spring is supposed to be like. Sure, it would be great if it was 60 for two weeks, then 65 for two weeks, and so on. Recent years have seemed a lot more …

Stats: April 2022 Wet Leg - 96 Crowded House - 48 Jack White - 41 Hatchie - 29 Arcade Fire - 26 Complete stats available at my Last.fm page.

Friday Playlist: open.spotify.com/playlist/… “Roman Holiday” - Fontaines D.C. FDC’s new album dropped last week, to critical acclaim. It is a little too one-note for me, so no surprise that this track is the one that stuck out to me, as it is the only one that varies (slightly) from the rest …

Weekend Notes: Prom and Sports: Prom We survived our first prom weekend with pretty much zero drama. Well, I should say prom night was pretty easy, but there was plenty of drama leading up to it. M found a dress quickly and easily, got it altered well ahead of time, and had most of the basics squared away several weeks ago. But …

Friday Playlist: open.spotify.com/playlist/… “More Than Love” - Hand Habits Meg Duffy spent the lockdown huddled in a home with fellow artist Sasami and engineer Kyle Thomas. Duffy said the time spent with them gave her the courage to write the songs for her latest album. I’ve given it a …

Sports Notes: Thanks to the NCAA tournament, spring break, and general laziness, I’m behind on a couple sports stories. When a huge one broke Wednesday night, that jogged my memory that I should probably get to them. Jayhawk Talk Hey, did you know the Kansas Jayhawks won the national championship two weeks ago? …

Reaching for the Stars, Vol. 71: Chart Week: April 19, 1986 Song: “A Little Bit of Love (Is All It Takes)” - New Edition Chart Position: #38, 8th week on the chart. Peaked at #38 for two weeks. Every teen pop group faces a dilemma as they get older: how do they maintain their audience as they, their fans, and their music matures? …

Reader's Notebook, 4/19/22: I’ve been on a good reading stretch lately. Here are some blurbs. The Mercenary - Paul Vidich Vidich gets a lot of critical acclaim for his espionage novels. I wasn’t crazy about his first book I read, The Good Assassin. It was so noir-y that I felt no warmth towards or connection with any of the …

Weekend Notes: Sometimes the Midwest really sucks. We had a decent Easter weekend, weather-wise. Not perfect - if it was 5–10 degrees warmer it would have been ideal - but at least it was warm enough to do little kid activities outside. Then this morning it was snowing when I woke up. And it’s going to be 80 by …

(Good) Friday Playlist: I promised an extra-thick playlist last week. To be honest, I really didn’t deliver. Since it’s a holiday weekend, I’ll recommit myself to dropping a heaping helping of high quality tunes on your ears. open.spotify.com/playlist/… “Don’t Turn Around” - …

D's Links: I thinned out my Instapaper queue quite a bit over spring break. Which means I’m way past due in sharing some of my favorites (along with a few I’ve added in the past week). First, a couple pieces about the situation in Ukraine. As with any fast-moving current event, these are already a little …

Weekend Notes: That was a weird weekend. No big sports of any kind. No basketball or football on the TV for the first time since Labor Day. No kid sports. Sure, I watched some of the Master’s, but we were often busy during the peak watch times so I wasn’t able to give it a ton of attention. Plus it wasn’t a super …

Friday Playlist: We'll go a little long this week as I attempt to clean out the queue a bit after missing a week. [open.spotify.com/playlist/...](https://open.spotify.com/playlist/0kNTguupxFGGSKkuqvElAy?si=f32dd0515a834d4d) "The Lightning I/II" - Arcade Fire Damn, I really should have included these two weeks ago …

Big Ass Jayhawk Talk: You might have heard that the Kansas Jayhawks won the NCAA men’s basketball championship on Monday. I didn’t want to let the occasion pass without sharing some, well a lot, of thoughts. These should be super disjointed as they were assembled in various moments and in different stages of sobriety. I …

March Media: Fewer entries this month as college basketball and spring break sucked up a lot of my time. Shows and Movies Don’t Look Up Reviews for this were so mixed, with some people loving it and others straight-up hating it. I was finally encouraged to watch by two different friends who told me they really …

Jayhawk Talk: CHAMPIONS!: Once again…WHAT A GOD DAMN GAME!!! So many mood swings. So much frustration at halftime. So much yelling in the second half. So much happiness when that last North Carolina shot grazed the front of the rim and fell short. I honestly don’t know how my family didn’t come check on me after I nearly …

Planes, Marbles, and Automobiles: Events have lined up so that it makes the most sense to combine what should have been two posts into one today. I’ll try to be as brief as I can to both get it out and make it readable. Spring Break ’22 Spring Break in Siesta Key, FL was largely a success. The weather was mostly good-to-great. We …

Stats: March 2022 Gang of Youths - 76 R.E.M. - 51 Eddie Vedder - 31 Bartees Strange - 19 Beach House - 18 Complete stats available at my Last.fm page.

Rock Chalking to NOLA: What a god damn game! (Excuse the blasphemy.) KU never makes it easy in the Elite 8. It’s a hard-ass game in a killer tournament where one bad performance can wreck a season of excellence. For every Kansas-Duke in 2018 and KU-UNC in 2012 - wide-open, flowing games where the teams exchange big shot …

Friday Playlist: A slightly larger playlist this week, as my pool of songs to share has grown and there will likely be no list next week as I enjoy my spring break. Bad weather in Siesta Key could always change that. open.spotify.com/playlist/… “Heavy Heart” - Bartees Strange Strange’s debut …

Sweetness: Ahhhh, Sweet 16 week. I’ve always said this is the best week of the tournament for the real hoops fan. Provided your team is in it, of course. The frenzy of the first weekend has been thinned out and we can get down to some real, serious hoops. There’s always an interesting story or three for the …

Freak of the Week: It’s been awhile since I’ve had a run-in with a local freak, for lack of a better term. You know them: the random, semi-crazy appearing/acting people who engage you in conversation without an invitation. My favorite such encounter was sometime in the mid–90s at a Dillons in Lawrence, KS with one of …

Reader's Notebook, 3/22/22: Damascus Station - David McCloskey I believe this is my third espionage novel written by a former CIA employee in recent months. And it was, by far, the best of that bunch. Set in, wait for it, Damascus, Syria, it is the story of an American CIA officer who recruits a member of the Syrian …

So Much Hoops: Jayhawk Talk It happened! It finally happened! A highly seeded KU team played a less talented team in the round of 32, saw that team go nuts from behind the 3-point line, and still managed to gut out a win and advance to the Sweet 16. The Creighton game was not a lot of fun to watch, at least as a …

Friday Playlist: A playlist filled with, mostly, heavier tracks this week. open.spotify.com/playlist/… “Angelica” - Wet Leg A little change in sound on this latest track from Buzz Band Wet Leg. There’s some Missing Persons in the DNA of this song. And some grungy guitars that aren’t …

EN-CEE-TWO-AY Picks: It’s finally here: the first normal NCAA tournament in three years! It’s also supposed to be well into the 70s here in Indy today, so it might be the most perfect day ever. I did not do a ton of research in preparation for making NCAA picks. I listened to a couple podcasts that had sections on …

Weekend Hoops Notes: Tourney Time: I watched a ton of hoops this weekend. The most in ages. Especially on Saturday, when I barely left the couch. Two of our nephews stopped by and one of them, the nearly six-year-old, asked C, “Why is Uncle D always watching basketballsports?” Basketballsports. One word. Made me laugh. You picked the …

Friday Playlist: Haven’t been as deep into the new music the last couple weeks, so this didn’t come together as quickly or smoothly as usual. I’ll adjust my listening habits for next week. open.spotify.com/playlist/… “Something” - Hater Some solid, noir-ish indie rock from …

Tuesday Links: As we come out of the age of Omicron and brace for whatever is next, this is a good reminder of how far we’ve come, and how quickly, in combating Covid–19. If Covid vaccines had taken as long as the mumps vaccine to develop, the world would have had to face the Delta and Omicron waves with the vast …

Weekend Notes: Spring? That first weekend each year when the weather turns warm is always a delight. Living in the Midwest you know there will be plenty of wild weather swings before spring completely arrives. Yet even in a year like this when winter wasn’t all that bad, these weekends are welcome. Saturday it was …

Jayhawk Talk: TC-Whew!: March is here! The days are getting a little longer, brighter, and warmer. Spring break is three weeks away. We’ve had a few geese in our yard already, the onslaught to come. The City of Indianapolis is fixing potholes! Baseball is about to start. And KU fans are freaking out. My experience with the …

Friday Playlist (With Bonus Album Review): Flipping the script this week, putting the video up top so my album review can land at the bottom of the post. youtu.be/u2dVuzzTW… “Seventeen Going Under” - Camp Cope covering Sam Fender I love everything about this. Including lead singer Georgia Maq’s Frightened Rabbit …

February Media: Shows and Movies Ozark, season four, part one Throughout Ozark’s run, I’ve been unable to keep from comparing it to Breaking Bad. I know I’m not the only one. And I’ve often felt that Ozark did not quite reach the same level as BB. Partially because BB came first, partially because there isn’t a …

Reader's Notebook: 3/1/22: Anthem - Noah Hawley Hawley can spin a story. Here he takes a little bit of everything going on in the world today and mixes it together: Covid, our former president, climate change, toxic discourse on social media, the Insurrection, and even Joe Rogan. He whips that up into the biggest possible …

Stats: February 2022 Eddie Vedder - 124 Gang of Youths - 93 Something for Kate - 40 Phantastic Ferniture - 27 The Beatles - 26 Complete stats available at my Last.fm page.

Weekend Sports Notes: Jayhawk Talk A large game in Waco Saturday. KU looked fantastic for the first 15 minutes against Baylor, then, other than a brief spurt in the second half, pretty pedestrian. I was as low-key about this game as any late-season, Big 12 contender matchup in years. I listen to three different …

Friday Playlist: open.spotify.com/playlist/… “A Real Thing” - The Beths This lovely track from New Zealand sets up a run of poppier tracks that make up the bulk of this week’s PL. “Bad Love” - Dehd In the write-ups for this song, I saw it compared to the blog rock of the …

Jayhawk Talk: Some Notes: One last breather before the biggest and toughest stretch of the year, via a good, old-fashioned thumping of Kansas State. I’m not sure why K-State decided to force the tempo Tuesday night. They damn near beat KU a month ago playing their normal style of ball. Why they thought they could come to …

Reaching for the Stars, Vol. 70: Chart Week: February 16, 1980 Song: “We Don’t Talk Anymore” - Cliff Richard Chart Position: #32, 18th week on the chart. Peaked at #7 for two weeks in January. I’m guessing most, if not all, of my readers have no memory of Cliff Richard. That’s kind of crazy, because he was one of the most popular …

Weekend Hoops Notes: Jayhawk Talk Ah, the trip to Morgantown, where so many good/great KU teams have gone and dropped total turds. It didn’t matter that this year’s WVU team is kind of bad and sitting in 10th place in the Big 12: this game should have frightened KU fans because of our past experiences there. (You could …

Friday Playlist: open.spotify.com/playlist/… “Invincible” - Eddie Vedder I included EV’s “Brother the Cloud” in last week’s playlist. That was also the release day of Ed’s solo album Earthing. Shortly after posting that PL, I virtually spun the album for the first …

Hoops Notes: Jayhawk Talk Two more wins, one entirely too stressful, the other had too much sloppiness but 15 of the better minutes of the year to balance. Saturday against Oklahoma, KU looked slow and uninterested for much of the game. Like they saw the line was KU –10.5 and figured they would just walk onto …

Super Bowl Notes: A pretty decent game, unless you live in Cincinnati. And even then, it was solid until the last five minutes or so. It had a game-winning score in the final 2:00, which always elevates a game. Only one traditionally spectacular play - Tee Higgins’ 75-yard touchdown catch to open the second half - …

Friday Playlist: open.spotify.com/playlist/… “Brother Cloud” - Eddie Vedder I wasn’t sure about this whole “EdVed solo album” thing. And then “Long Way” was one of my favorite songs of last year. Still, I held off listening to any of the other advance singles, …

Reaching for the Stars, Vol. 69: Chart Week: February 5, 1977 Song: “Carry On Wayward Son” - Kansas Chart Position: #36, 7th week on the chart, debut week on Top 40. Peaked at #11 for two weeks in April. The world is a much smaller place today than when my generation was growing up. Thanks to cable/satellite TV, the Internet, and …

Wednesday Links: As usual, this collection of links has been sitting in my queue for far too long. The two holiday-related pieces, though, were both published in the New Year, so they aren’t as old as they seem. Every Winter Olympic Event, Ranked by How Terrified I’d Be to Participate in It Has fighting the massive …

Jayhawk Talk: Win Some, Lose Some: A Jekyll and Hyde entry today, as I have two very different games to cover. Saturday’s win against Baylor was KU’s best and most complete performance of the year. KU smacked them in the mouth from the beginning and the Bears not only never responded, they never looked interested in responding. It …

Reader's Notebook, 2/7/22: Project Hail Mary - Andy Weir Officially a 2021 book, I finished this over New Year’s weekend. It was my 53rd book of 2021, just getting me over book-a-week pace for those 12 months. This treads similar territory to Weir’s excellent The Martian, again focused on a man who is stuck in space alone. …

Friday Playlist: Although our big winter storm was kind of a dud - I’m guessing we are in the 7-8" range instead of the 12"+ that was forecast - this is snow day number two for our girls. Which means as soon as I get this posted I’m outside for round number two of shoveling so S can head to …

Reaching for the Stars, Vol. 68: Chart Week: January 26, 1985 Song: “Do What You Do” - Jermaine Jackson Chart Position: #19, 14th week on the chart. Peaked at #13 the week of January 5. How do you define a single? That dilemma has long frustrated people who track the popularity of music. Over the years Billboard magazine has used a …

January Media: Shows and Movies Cobra Kai, season four See here. B+ Narcos: Mexico, season three A very good wrap-up to the series’ three-year look at the Mexican drug cartels of the ‘80s and ‘90s. Typically great casting and writing. This had some similar themes as season five of The Wire. It pulled in the press, …

Jayhawk Talk: Surprise, Surprise, Surprise: Bad news is supposed to come in threes. KU seemed poised to fulfill that cliché Tuesday in Ames, IA. Ochai Agbaji tested positive for Covid, taking the likely All-American out of a key road contest. Remy Martin’s knee refuses to heal, and he was ruled out of the Iowa State game as well. Throw in a …

Stats: January 2022 Something for Kate - 54 The Beatles - 42 Phantastic Ferniture - 35 The War on Drugs - 34 Frightened Rabbit - 25 Complete stats available at my Last.fm page.

Weekend Sports Notes: Well, for most of my friends, this was a sports weekend to forget. KU I picked a very good night to have dinner plans that interfered with me watching the KU game. Thus I was able to not see a minute of KU getting whacked by Kentucky. We left right around tip off and by the time we got to our …

Friday Playlist: I don’t trust the Spotify algorithm to suggest music to me very often. I make a quick pass through my Discovery Weekly and Release Radar playlists each week, but I will generally only find a song or two that are new to me and fit my tastes. Last week, though, the Discovery playlist spit out a …

Jayhawk Talk: Never Not Exciting: A delayed edition of Jayhawk Talk because Monday’s game against Texas Tech was far too stressful. I would complain about the rest of the season being as exhausting as the past week was for KU, but I prefer winning to losing. If that means 12 more games like the last three and a Big 12 title as …

Reaching for the Stars, Vol. 67: Chart Week: January 12, 1985 Song: “The Boys of Summer” - Don Henley Chart Position: #16, 10th week on the chart. Peaked at #5 the week of February 9. You might wonder why I spend a few hours each week listening to re-broadcasts of a 40-ish year-old radio show that features songs I can listen to …

Weekend Sports Notes: Some weekend of televised sports action! KU Hoops For the first time all year, I bailed on a game. Well, partially. After a truly atrocious first half in Manhattan, which saw them trailing Kansas State by 16, I moved the KU game over to the laptop, sat it on the coffee table, and put the …

Friday Playlist: This week features a song that choked me up and an oldie I’m guessing most of you won’t remember. open.spotify.com/playlist/… “Wishbone” - Husbands A cool post-post-post-post punk track by a duo from Oklahoma. With guest vocals from a third Sooner State artist. Doing …

Jayhawk Talk: I'd Like to File a Complaint: I guess I have to start getting used to this. Tuesday brought another ugly-ass road game for KU, this time in their visit to Oklahoma. The Jayhawks pissed away a 12-point lead in the second half, gave up a 20–2 run, saw their best player get injured early and go 34 minutes without scoring a point, …

Tuesday Links: A few good reads to jumpstart your short week. These are pretty funny. Although are we sure Pearl Jam is a sad dad band? I do shake my head at the word “crypto,” though, so they may be onto something. What Your Favorite Sad Dad Band Says About You Kevin Clark’s summary of the CFP National Title …

Weekend Sports Notes: A lot of sports notes from the weekend. I should probably split this into a couple different posts. But it is a holiday and we all have a little extra time. So one extra-large post it is! Kid Hoops L played in her first-ever AAU tournament over the weekend. Or rather it was a “shootout”: a one-day, …

Friday Playlist: Some terrific new songs and RIP to one of the biggest names in the history of popular music. open.spotify.com/playlist/… “Wild” - Spoon Spoon never, ever release a bad single. That doesn’t mean every single is great, but they always hold my attention for a week or two. This, …

Reaching for the Stars, Vol. 66: Chart Week: January 10, 1981 Song: “More Than I Can Say” - Leo Sayer Chart Position: #10, 16th week on the chart. Peaked at #2 for five weeks. (I will be adding an element to these posts moving forward. I’m going to copy my man Tom Breihan and rate each song using his 10-point scale.) One of the …

Jayhawk Talk: Heart Burn Edition: A near disaster in the Fieldhouse last night should have most KU fans very concerned this morning. Iowa State has proven that their 12–0 start was no fluke, and new coach TJ O (I refuse to learn how to spell his last name; this is a blog not a newspaper) deserves an enormous amount of credit for …

Sports are Dumb: This weekend was another reminder that sports are dumb. At least they were to the people - well me - in our house. KU You all know that I’m superstitious. So I got a bad feeling as news broke that Tech’s two best players, Terrence Shannon Jr and Kevin McCullar, would miss Saturday’s game against …

Friday Playlist: There is an unintentional theme to this week’s playlist. open.spotify.com/playlist/… “Tunnels” - Weakened Friends A huge, crunchy very 90s song about getting your heart broken. It’s awesome. “Lo Lo Lonely” - Young Guv YG returns in March with a double album …

You Have to Find Your Own Way: Cobra Kai, Season Four: I knocked out season four of Cobra Kai over the weekend. Six episodes Saturday, four Sunday. Solid work. I liked it, although I thought it took a long time to find a good rhythm and flow. I hoped there would be a payoff for a rather slow start, and, thank goodness, there was. In fact, the last three …

Jayhawk Talk: Unwatchable: What the hell was that? In the building named for Henry Iba, KU and Oklahoma State took turns sending basketball back to the Stone Age Tuesday. OSU was awful in the first 10 minutes. KU was even worse in the next 10, at one point missing 19 straight shots. And both teams looked like fifth graders in …

December Media: Holiday Stuff The Office, Christmas episodes I wrote about them last year; they get a collective A Christmas Vacation, A Elf, A Office Christmas Party, B+ Die Hard, A Community, “Abed’s Uncontrollable Christmas” This was the Community entry on a list of best Christmas TV episodes I found. I hadn’t …

So This Is The New Year...: Happy New Year, everybody! Let’s kick off another calendar year of discussing random shit, shall we? Our New Year’s Eve was rather quiet, as usual. M went to a party, which was a first. That meant we had to stay up until we were sure she was safely at the home of the friend she was spending the …

Stats: My listening stats for 2021: The War on Drugs - 417 Middle Kids - 303 Pearl Jam - 199 Manchester Orchestra - 115 Wild Pink - 112 Sam Fender - 110 Crowded House - 102 Hatchie - 102 Julien Baker - 98 Eliza Shaddad - 88 And since I began using Last.fm in February, 2005: Frightened Rabbit - 3532 …

Friday Playlist: It’s been awhile since we’ve had a normal Friday playlist. Might as well wrap up 2020 by getting back into the routine of sharing good music with friends on Fridays. open.spotify.com/playlist/… “Maelstrom” - Melts I’ve been sitting on this one for awhile. Turns …

Jayhawk Talk: The David Problem: KU has entered the silly season. Three-straight scheduled games either cancelled or postponed because of Covid issues with their opponent. The next regularly scheduled game is in jeopardy, too, although the new quarantine rules may save it. Odds are at least the first half of January will continue …

Reader's Notebook, 12/28/21: Only about six weeks behind on these, no big deal. If you got a gift card for Christmas maybe you’ll find something in here to use it on. The Last Tourist - Olen Steinhauer My latest entry from a recent list of best espionage novels. I knew this came from a series, but it got tremendous reviews so …

Christmas Notes: It is days like this you can’t help but wonder if climate change is a good thing. I’m sitting on our back porch, wearing shorts and a t-shirt, at 10:39 AM on December 27 and feeling completely comfortable. It feels like a May morning. Hell, it wasn’t that much warmer than this around sunrise in …

D's Notes: KU Hoops Well, I was hoping to post another Jayhawk Talk entry this week. I was looking forward to seeing how KU played three days after struggling to put away a Stephen F. Austin team that exposed some of their deficiencies. Alas, Colorado had some players test positive, the game got wiped from the …

Kid Stuff: Today is a strange day in our house. M and C wrapped up finals on Friday, so (as I begin this in the morning) both are still in a deep sleep. Hell, C probably finally went to bed somewhere in the 2–3 AM range. L, on the other hand, has class through Wednesday. So the two of us were up at the normal …

Favorite Songs of 2021: We’ve made it to another year-end list of my favorite songs of the past twelve (-ish) months. Usually I start working on these rankings in early October. This year I didn’t put any real work into it until after we returned from Hawaii on December 1. Some of that was because my working list was about …

Getting Back: Over the weekend I knocked out all of The Beatles: Get Back. A few observations and thoughts about Peter Jackson’s nearly eight-hour documentary of the January 1969 Beatles studio sessions. I’m pretty sure I saw the original movie that was made from the film shot at those sessions, Let It Be, years …

Rivalry Renewed?: After a week of fun buildup, Kansas and Missouri finally took the floor against each other Saturday for the first time in nearly a decade. The result felt a bit empty, although the process was a lot of fun for us Kansas fans. The Jayhawks’ 102–65 win was the third-largest margin of victory in …

Friday Links: A few links to kick off your weekend. ‘Wrong team won both days’: Flashback to epic finale of KU-Mizzou basketball in 2012 Kansas and Missouri renew their basketball rivalry in Lawrence tomorrow. This is a good summary of how they ended their time as conference rivals almost ten years ago. For the …

Friday Playlist: Like the good little elf that I am, I’ve been hard at work on my Favorite Songs of the Year list since we returned from Hawaii. My goal is to publish it the middle of next week. As has become tradition, I will offer this prelude: my favorite songs for each year since 2004. These are in …

Reaching for the Stars, Vol. 65: Chart Week: December 10, 1977 Song: “Here You Come Again” - Dolly Parton Chart Position: #12, 9th week on the chart. Peaked at #3 for two weeks in January, 1978. This edition features another musician origin story.[1] I really like this one; hope you do, too. It is a tiny miracle that anyone becomes …

Jayhawk Talk: A couple flawed yet fairly easy wins after the Thanksgiving tournament for the Jayhawks. Now everyone can look ahead to Saturday’s game. Not me, though. Or at least not yet. The last three games have brought a very nice and surprising development: Christian Braun is good. Really good. He struggled …

November Media: Movies and Shows Blondie - Apollo Theatre, Glasgow, 1979 This is AMAZING! Debbie Harry in her white-hot prime. The freaking drummer is insane, doing his best Keith Moon impression in his gold lamé suit. A The Bourne Identity The Bourne Supremacy The Bourne Ultimatum I hadn’t watched any of these …

Holiday Notes + Kid Sports: It seems like most of the family has re-acclimated to being in the eastern time zone, but our days are still all messed up. A full, five-day school week this week will surely get us back on track. Our holiday schedule is all out-of-whack from normal, though. The day after Thanksgiving is normally …

Friday Vids: It will take me another week to get back into the swing of things musically, so a couple videos to share today. youtu.be/YAbYsxd3A… “Hero Takes a Fall” - The Bangles I read this wonderful interview with Susanna Hoffs this week. In it she said this was the song through which Prince …

Paradise: Strap yourselves in for my mega-account of our trip to Hawaii! At around 3000 words, it might take you awhile to get through it. After a long day of travel and another of recovery, I’m hoping today (Thursday, Dec. 2) feels a little normal. Weird things happen when you travel nearly 9000 miles in …

Stats: November 2021 A new album by my favorite band, a vacation, and Spotify and Last.fm maybe not syncing up properly at the moment makes for a pretty boring list. The War on Drugs - 142 Sam Fender - 20 Bruce Springsteen - 15 Trace Mountains - 13 U2 - 13 Complete stats available at my Last.fm page.

Weekend Notes: Our house smells different this morning. Some of that is a real change in the aromatics that are spread around, some of it is the smell of anticipation. As we begin a Thanksgiving week unlike any other in our family’s history, some notes from the weekend. Friday was semi state for high school …

Jayhawks Notes: On Remy and Expectations: There was no time for a full Friday Playlist, but there is time for some words about the Jayhawks. Thursday’s game against Stony Brook was about what you expect this time of year. KU - especially David McCormack - was sloppy early; they struggled to guard a smaller, faster team; and generally …

Friday Vid: youtu.be/L65NNh6vJ… “Plowed” - Sponge No time for a full playlist this week, so I did the thing where I randomly scroll through my library and pick something that pops up. This was the third song I landed on, and it seemed appropriate since I heard an unplugged version of it on …

Real, Live Hoops: With L done with hoops for the time being, I figured I should still get out and watch some live basketball. Tuesday I went to my first high school game in a long time. C has a classmate that made the varsity team (girl also made varsity soccer as a freshman, so obviously she’s a stud). A few of the …

Reader's Notebook, 11/17/21: Cloud Cuckoo Land - Anthony Doerr When you win the Pulitzer Prize for fiction, as Doerr did for his wonderful All The Light That We Cannot See, it can be a bitch to follow it up. So why not build a story around five main characters who occupy 700 years of time? If nothing else, the sheer scope of …

What a Night: KU Football?!?!: Holy shit! There aren’t a lot of big, important, communal memories surrounding Kansas football. For those of us who were in school in the early 90’s, there was the Monte Cozzens game, when KU beat Oklahoma. For the few of us who stuck it out through the cold, there was the Tony Sands game. The …

Sunday Links: I’m not sure how I had never heard this story before. Nearly a decade before Pearl Harbor, the American military ran a series of war games in which an attacking force wiped out the forces sheltered at Pearl by launching a sneak attack from the north on a Sunday morning. Which is exactly what the …

Friday Playlist: open.spotify.com/playlist/… “Luna Moth” - Lola in Slacks Kind of a terrible band name. But this song cooks, so I’ll allow it. “When This Gets Out” - The Persian Leaps Rock ‘n’ roll, bitches! These guys sound like an updated version of The …

Reaching for the Stars, Vol. 64: Chart Week: November 6, 1976 Song: “The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald” - Gordon Lightfoot Chart Position: #3, 11th week on the chart. Peaked at #2 for two weeks. This entry is cheating a little bit, as I’ve written about this song before. However, I heard not one but two countdowns last weekend …

Kid Hoops: Fall Wrap Up: Another CYO basketball season is in the books. Thanks to a big win last week, with a guest coach on the bench, L’s team solidified itself as the solid middle of her league: they lost to each of the top three teams and beat each of the bottom three teams. Fourth place, bitches! Last Wednesday we …

Jayhawks Notes: Opening Night: Today I begin a new series. After most KU basketball games, I will do a brief collection of thoughts.[1] My goal is to keep these in the 500-word range, although exceptional performances may require more than that. The season opener went from concerning to a snoozer. KU could not shake Michigan …

Let's Go Hoopin': KU fans have put in their time suffering through the bulk of another football season. College basketball has finally arrived! The Jayhawks will take on Michigan State at Madison Square Garden tonight to kick off the hoops season. I think this is going to be a very interesting and important year for …

Reaching for the Stars, Vol. 63: Chart Week: November 2, 1985 Song: “And We Danced” - The Hooters Chart Position: #23, 13th week on the chart. Peaked at #21 the week of October 26. (Fear not, music trivia fans! After a long dry spell, I’ve got three, maybe four, of these posts queued up for the next couple weeks.) “Who the fuck are …

Friday Playlist: open.spotify.com/playlist/… “I Don’t Wanna Wait” - The War on Drugs Not that there was much doubt, but pretty sure based on the past week alone The War on Drugs will be my most listened to artist of the year. The new album, I Don’t Live Here Anymore, is fantastic. …

October Media: A fast start slowed by baseball playoffs and the beginning of the NBA season. Movies and Shows Halloween Wars Halloween Baking Championship It’s holiday baking season, bitches!!!! L and I only made it through a couple episodes of Halloween Wars, so it gets an incomplete. But S and I wrapped up HBC …

Kid Hoops Notes: The CYO basketball season got back to action last week, and L’s team had two games. It was their best week of the year. Tuesday we played St E, the church where all three of our girls went to preschool. Games against teams like St E are always tricky. They don’t have a grade/middle school, so are …

Halloween 2021: I swear October is the fastest month. It seems like just yesterday we were celebrating L’s birthday and now here we are on November 1 bracing for the onslaught of Christmas commercials. Hell, they started Saturday, from what I could tell so we’re already in it. Fall break, a trip, and lots of …

Stats: October 2021 Someone put out a new album last week. The War on Drugs - 122 Trace Mountains - 52 Sam Fender - 40 Middle Kids - 31 The Cranberries - 23 Complete stats available at my Last.fm page.

Friday Playlist: Well, folks, we made it! Today is War on Drugs release day! By the time you’ve read this I’m sure I’ve listened to I Don’t Live Here Anymore at least twice. My plan is to stay up late Thursday and listen as soon as it hits Spotify. We’ll see if that worked or not. …

Reader's Notebook, 10/28/21: Good grief am I behind on these. That makes total sense, though, because my reading pace has slowed to a level not seen in years. I’ve finished just one book in the past four weeks. I went nearly three weeks without starting my next reading project. Normally I break out in hives if I don’t …

Tuesday Links: A couple links to share as I continue my rebound from fall break and attempt to ease back into a routine. One last Bond link, this one about how John F. Kennedy both helped the Bond series become popular and used that popularity to further his fame. John F. Kennedy was a vocal Bond fan, and the …

Adult Fall Break: It was a very good weekend with some very good friends in Nashville. This was our first-ever trip to Music City, USA, and we had a great time. The four couples caravanned down on Thursday afternoon. We had a rental in the very cool area known as 12 South, not too far from downtown. Our house was …

Thursday Playlist: A strange week for scheduling around our house. The girls began their fall break yesterday, so we had some social activities Tuesday night plus an impromptu sleepover for C and some of her friends. We did our annual “flu shots and lunch somewhere that has ice cream” outing yesterday. S …

Weekend Sports: Another busy weekend filled with sports of various sorts. Friday night was the biggest high school football game in Indiana this year: 6A #1 Center Grove at 5A #1 Cathedral. Center Grove was ranked in the top ten nationally in every one of those “polls.” Cathedral was ranked as high as 14th but …

Friday Playlist: open.spotify.com/playlist/… “Brothers Gonna Work It Out” - Public Enemy This popped up on my workout playlist this week. Peak PE. “Crystal Bullets” - White Denim I can dig what these cats are laying down. “Knead” - illuminati hotties ih’s album Let Me …

A Night at the Theater: Bond: I saw my first movie in a theater since late 2019 last night. The reviews were decent enough and the Covid numbers here falling fast enough that I felt comfortable going to see No Time To Die with my brother-in-law. Four other people had the same idea, so we had plenty of room to ourselves and felt …

Weekend Hoops - October Madness: Although L’s basketball team is in week one of their three-week stoppage of play for fall breaks, there were still hoops to be played last weekend. St P’s normally hosts a Cadet (7th/8th grade) A team tournament over fall break. We had some logistical issues and weren’t able to host this year, but a …

Friday Links: A few items to add to your reading queue for the weekend. I’ve always bought into the myth that minor league baseball was somehow purer than big league ball, and the connection between minor league clubs and their communities was deeper than that between big cities and MLB clubs. That’s probably …

Friday Playlist: open.spotify.com/playlist/… “Silk Chiffon” - MUNA featuring Phoebe Bridgers MUNA is doing it right. They landed a gig opening for Phoebe Bridgers on her fall tour. Then they parlayed that into her taking a guest vocal spot on their latest single. In a different time, this song …

An Old Man on the Court: I’m a little shocked that I am upright and able to walk today. You see, L’s coaches cancelled their practice last night and decided to have a loose shoot-around/scrimmage. I took L then hung around in case they wrapped up early. The coach, who I’ve coached with four different times, roped me into …

Weather and Sports: Mother Nature can’t figure out what she wants to do. For the past few days, if you’ve looked through a window to see what’s going on outside, you would assume fall has taken over. It’s been cloudy most of the times, flat out dreary a few times, so you would think you would need to bundle up a bit …

September Media: Somehow I did not watch a single movie last month. I think that was mostly due to paralysis by too many choices. There were plenty of nights when I scrolled through the various streaming services we pay for, searching for a movie that jumped out at me for 30–45 minutes then gave up and watched a …

Stats: September 2021 The Cranberries - 30 Matt Pond PA - 27 The War on Drugs - 27 We Were Promised Jetpacks - 24 Beastie Boys - 23 Complete stats available at my Last.fm page.

Friday Playlist: Welcome to the fourth quarter of 2021. My late year itch to build my favorite songs of the year list has already started to make its presence known. Holiday music is eight weeks away. Let’s kick it off with a pretty standard Friday Playlist. open.spotify.com/playlist/… …

Reader's Notebook, 9/30/21: After a six-week-ish lull, my pace of knocking out books has picked back up. I’ll likely finish another book later today, but wanted to go ahead and get this out. Missionaries - Phil Klay Klay’s second work about modern warfare is his first true novel; Redeployment was a series of short stories …

Some Sports From the Weekend: My sports weekend was a little more compressed than normal. We hosted several of M’s friends and their families Sunday evening, so we spent a lot of time prepping for them and then enjoying their company. Friday night was CHS’ homecoming. We went to dinner with a couple other families and by the …

Friday Playlist: No long essays about how old music makes me feel this week. I do write a little more about most of these songs than I usually do, though. open.spotify.com/playlist/… “Waste Your Time” - Jackson+Sellers Jade Jackson says this song is about those final moments of a toxic …

Thursday Links: Finally worked through my Instapaper account to find some things I’ve saved to share with you. Dave Holmes Visits 1988 to Pay Respect to Casey Kasem’s Last True American Top 40 Countdown Someone posted this piece to the AT40 Facebook group I’m a member of. It comes from right after Casey Kasem died …

When It Is Hard To Watch: There are constant reminders that we live in crazy-ass times. Times where simple differences of opinion aren’t allowed and every debate has to be A Whole Thing. Times where civility has disappeared from discourse and it rapidly transitions into vitriol. Some of you know my wife has a second job, …

For Those Who Celebrate...: …Happy Holiday youtu.be/Qfi9JpgMc…

Reaching for the Stars, Vol. 62: Well piss. I swear that I’ve posted this about three different times over the past two days. Obviously I’m losing it. Chart Week: August 25, 1984 Song: “Breakin’…There’s No Stopping Us” - Ollie and Jerry Chart Position: #34, 13th week on the chart. Peaked at #9 the week of August 4. I love musical …

Friday Link: I need to run through my Instapaper account and collect some more good reads to share. To tide you over, here is one that made me laugh out loud from McSweeney’s. Wake Up Sailors, Scurvy is a Hoax

Friday Playlist: open.spotify.com/playlist/… “I Don’t Live Here Anymore” - The War on Drugs with Lucius The title track from the upcoming TWOD LP. It is the brightest, shiniest, poppiest track the band has ever done. Naturally I love it. Lucius provides a very nice vocal assist. “This …

Fall Kickball Wrap Up: Another kickball season is complete. L’s team was supposed to make up three games that had been rained out. One school never responded to multiple messages from our coach about a reschedule date. It’s the team L kicked six homers in one game against a year ago, and we’ve generally beaten them like …

Reader's Notebook, 9/15/21: My goodness, I am so far behind in sharing my recent completed reads. I imagine a few of these will be crappier than normal since I’ve put them off so long. A Spy In The Struggle - Aya de León I’ve been working through a list of good, recent espionage novels that this and the next book both were …

Weekend Sports Notes: A busy Monday kept me from getting this out yesterday, but allow me to share some brief sports notes from the weekend. Friday we took the entire family to the 5A #1 Cathedral matchup with arch rival and defending 3A state champs BCHS. Well, L rode with S and I and then ran off with her friends the …

Friday Playlist (With Bonus College Girlfriend Commentary!): I think you’re going to like this group of songs, but I bet you enjoy my essay about this week’s video more. It’s not often I dive into my romantic past here, so prepare to laugh at/mock me. open.spotify.com/playlist/… “Long Way” - Eddie Vedder WHOA! When I heard Eddie had a solo …

Kid Sports Update: This has to be the latest in the school year I’ve ever gone before sharing a kid sports update. Good reason for that: we only have one kid playing any sports at the moment! I should be writing a wrap-up of L’s kickball regular season. Her final game was supposed to be yesterday. “So,” attentive …

Weekend Sports Notes: It was the first weekend jam-packed with sports in a long time. Good thing we had a fourish-day weekend to squeeze it all in![^1] Friday night I took C and three friends to the Cathedral football game (M was also there with her own friend group). The 2–0, class 5A #1 Irish played a perennial 6A …

August Media: Movies and Shows Patriot “John Lakeman,” his professional name, is dealing with a lot of stuff. He’s trying to sway an election in Iran to prevent the country from gaining nuclear weapons. He’s attempting to pose as an expert in industrial piping as his cover, something he is woefully unprepared …

Friday Playlist: It’s the last weekend of the summer of 2021. My new music folder seems a bit light at the moment, so we’re going to get a little nutty this week. I hope you find the nuttiness pleasing to your ears. open.spotify.com/playlist/… “Red Hill Mining Town” - U2 Through hands …

Thoughts on "The Number Ones" of the '80s: Tom Breihan passed a notable milestone this week in his The Number Ones series: he finished the 1980s. Most days I just glance at the comments. But Monday, as Phil Collins’ “Another Day in Paradise” closed out the decade, I read deep into them, enjoying commenters’ various picks of favorites, most …

Stats: August 2021 Pearl Jam - 51 The War on Drugs - 32 Alien Boys - 27 The Rolling Stones - 25 Torres - 25 Complete stats available at my Last.fm page.

Tuesday Links: We’ll do some links today since I can’t seem to get my latest Reader’s Notebook entry finished, nor come to any thoughts worth sharing on other subjects. Guess I haven’t posted any links in a few weeks because the first is a few weeks old. Hell, it was old when I talked about it with friends in KC …

The Roy Kent Effect: This episode...hmmm. I thought about it a lot between my two viewings, the first on Saturday morning, the second Sunday evening. The idea kept occurring to me that every season has a lull episode, one where not much happens but the pieces are all getting sorted into the right places to build towards …

Friday Playlist: We’ve reached the point in the year when it starts to hit you how deep into the calendar we are. I’m only 4-5 weeks away from starting to give early attention to my favorite songs of the year list. Yeesh. open.spotify.com/playlist/… “Undone” - The Shivas I know I had …

"You had me at 'Coach'": Ted Lasso, S2,E5: I took a little heat from a few friends during our Kansas City trip for why the hell I’m not doing breakdowns of Ted Lasso as I did for ER back in the day. Sadly those ER breakdowns were all in my pre-blog life, and lost forever when I left my former employer in 2004. I wonder if they’re still …

A Return to the Motherland: A wedding took us back to Kansas City for a very quick trip over the weekend.[1] I think most of my regular readers were at the wedding, so most importantly it was great to see you all! The wedding was wonderful and the reception everything we hoped it would be. It was a terrific night with nearly …

Friday Playlist: By the time you read this post and begin listening to this week’s tracks, S and I will be on the road, headed west towards Kansas City and a weekend wedding. To honor that occasion, these songs are inspired by the collection of music the bride-to-be gave her DJ. Plus one song required any time …

Oh Crap: College Sports Realignment Talk: I believe it was right as the Olympics were beginning that the first rumors surfaced that Oklahoma and Texas might leave the Big 12 for the SEC. My immediate reaction was, “No way. Texas isn’t leaving all the Longhorn Network money on the table so they can lose to Alabama every year.” Within three …

Reaching for the Stars, Vol. 61: Chart Week: August 1, 1981 Song: “Don’t Want to Wait Anymore” - The Tubes Chart Position: #37, 7th week on the chart. Peaked at #35 for two weeks. The Tubes will collect residual checks until they die for one song: “She’s a Beauty,” their #10 smash from the summer of 1983. It is an absolute classic …

Blog and Weekend Notes: First day of the new school year with all three girls in class, which I guess makes this the first day of “fall” for me. Seems like I should get into a better groove about posting here than I did most of the summer. I have a few works in progress, but I think I need to do a better job of translating …

Friday Links: Time to share some more things I’ve been reading on screens of various sizes. The Vaccine Cards Are the Wrong Size In the grand scheme of things, this is not a big deal, as author Amanda Mull admits. But it sure is annoying. And signs of a bigger issue. The inconvenient paper vestige that …

Friday Playlist: open.spotify.com/playlist/… “Surrender” - Gold Star A lot of influences bubbling up in this track. I hear some Springsteen, but as if filtered through others who have used The Boss' music as a guide over the years. There’s also a stark, story-telling feel that reminds me of …

Reaching for the Stars, Vol. 60: Chart Week: August 8, 1987 Song: “I Wanna Dance With Somebody (Who Loves Me)” - Whitney Houston Chart Position: #17, 13th week on the chart. Peaked at #1 for two weeks in June and July. I tend to shy away from songs that hit number one since they will get the Tom Breihan treatment over at …

Olympics Wrap Up: Another Summer Olympic Games have passed. These were…fine, I guess. OK, that’s harsh. They certainly weren’t terrible. But they also do not measure up to other recent games. And the constant reminders of how the Covid pandemic is getting worse rather than better was a huge bummer. I remain worried …

Weekend Notes: Moving a little slow this Monday morning. We had several of S’s high school friends and their families over yesterday and the gathering ran rather late for a Sunday. Then I woke up at about 1:15 with one of those terrible, mid-summer “The AC is running but I’m still too hot to sleep” things that …

Friday Playlist: open.spotify.com/playlist/… “Hard On Everyone” - Kathleen Edwards I hadn’t heard anything from Edwards in several years. Turns out she chucked her music career in 2014 to open a coffee shop in suburban Ottawa, Canada. Maren Morris asked her to cowrite some music two years …

July Media: Movies and Shows The Night Manager This was a bit strange, and thus I’m not sure how to properly rate it. Based on a John Le Carré novel, and updated for the modern age, it follows a night manager at an Egyptian hotel - and former British Army officer - as he stumbles into an affair with a woman …

Olympics Notebook, Part 2: The first, and best, week of the Olympics is in the books. I say best because the swimming week tends to be better than the track week, which has fewer glamor events. And it also appears the US might suck at track. Puerto Rican medals are technically ours, right? Saturday night I went back and read …

Stats: July 2021 The War on Drugs - 27 Leon Bridges - 21 Flowertown - 19 Van Halen - 18 Wolf Alice - 18 Complete stats available at my Last.fm page.

Friday Playlist: A little different format this week. You will learn why below. open.spotify.com/playlist/… “Natural Light” - Flowertown This band went so hard for the retro sound that they put fake crackles and pops, as if you were listening to vinyl, onto it. In fact, they put those …

Reader's Notebook, 7/29/21: I Love Rock ‘n’ Roll (Except When I Hate It) - Brian Boone Between both switching to the smaller, satellite Indy library near our house from the larger Carmel library and Covid, I don’t just go wonder the library stacks very often, surprising myself with books that speak to me as I pass them. That …

Olympics Notebook, Part One: Not much has been going on the past few days. M turned 17 over the weekend. I read a terrific book in a single day. We went out on a boat with some friends. Ted Lasso returned. The Big 12 may be kaput. Oh, and the Olympics started. Thus it is time to bring back a time-honored recurring feature here …

Friday Links: This week’s round up of some cool shit I’ve read and think you might also enjoy. ‘You’ve never seen The Beatles like this before’: Peter Jackson on his epic Get Back docuseries This feature/interview sure makes the upcoming Peter Jackson Beatles series sound phenomenal. I found this line …

Friday Playlist: Another jam-packed playlist to please your ears and your hearts this week. open.spotify.com/playlist/… “Living Proof” - The War on Drugs Here it is, the first new TWOD song in four years! It does not hit with the same impact that the early songs from A Deeper Understanding hit …

Reaching for the Stars, Vol. 59: Chart Week: July 12, 1986 Song: “If She Knew What She Wants” - The Bangles Chart Position: #29, 10th week on the chart. This was the song’s peak; it fell out of the Top 40 the next week. I recall being in love with a lot of unattainable women in the summer of 1986. There was Heather Thomas, whose …

Reader's Notebook, 7/20/21: The Alice Network - Kate Quinn A friend gave me this book awhile back, but I left it in my bookshelf for months before finally cracking it open. When I did, S told me she had read it on one of our vacations and loved it. We don’t read a lot of the same books, so I was both excited and nervous about …

Weekend Notes: Another relaxing and laid-back weekend. Friday we wrapped up the rainiest week of a rainy summer by, yep, having more rain. By the time the storms stopped Saturday morning we were at six inches of rain through the first 15 days of the month. Which seems like a lot. The good news is I haven’t had to …

Emergency Vid: RIP to the Diabolical B-I-Z. youtu.be/9aofoBrFN…

Friday Links: I’m going to resurrect an old feature of the blog: sharing some of my favorite things I’ve read over the past week on Fridays. This will be an occasion feature, so don’t count on entry every week. And some weeks it might be loaded with cool stuff and others, like this week, only have one or two …

Friday Playlist: This week a focus on new songs by (mostly) long-established artists. open.spotify.com/playlist/… “Galacticana” - Strand of Oaks Oh hell yes, new music from Timothy Showalter! And it sounds great! And one critic has said the album this comes from is the finest of his career! It …

ASG, 2021: Ahhh, the All-Star Game! The mid-summer moment when we set aside our differences and come together as Americans to celebrate our once-and-always National Pastime. Well, except for this year, which was ruined by the forces that want to keep us apart, that want us to continue arguing about …

Summer of Freedom: I realized yesterday that this has been, and should continue to be, a pretty boring summer. Sure, we’ve had a few gatherings to take advantage of the pool and the new pool house. We’re trying to schedule a few more but as kids get older, it gets harder and harder to pin a group of families down to a …

Friday Playlist: The new music has been, thankfully, piling up again. So let’s go deep this week with an extra-packed playlist. open.spotify.com/playlist/… “House Burn Down” - King Princess Being pessimistic about your life shouldn’t sound this good. “Lockdown” - The Wind …

Early July Sports Notes: KU Hoops It would be nice to say a dizzying three months of roster flux at Kansas came to an end Tuesday when Ochai Agbaji and Remy Martin both announced they were pulling their names from the NBA draft list and would be playing as Jayhawks in the coming season. But given how crazy college hoops is …

Holiday Week Notes: A busy family and holiday week is in the books. We had visitors. My brother-in-law, his wife, and their three kids who live in Boston spent a week with us. Their kids are 6, 3, and 2. When I think of our kids being those ages and trying to spend a week as guests in someone else’s home, the word …

Friday/Holiday Playlist: ‘Tis the season for my annual Independence Day playlist. One new addition this year but otherwise the same collection of fine songs that can, at least tangentially, relate to American Independence Day. Everyone have a safe and happy Fourth of July weekend! open.spotify.com/playlist/…

June Media: Movies and Shows Big Shot Coach Korn and his band of merry basketball warriors triumphed. In that, there was no surprise. It was the trials and travails along the way that made their journey compelling. Will Coach Holly be on their arch rival’s bench next year? L and I hope there is a season two so …

Stats: June 2021 Middle Kids - 22 Wolf Alice - 16 Pearl Jam - 15 2nd Grade - 13 Crowded House - 16 Complete stats available at my Last.fm page.

Reader's Notebook, 6/29/21: We have a house full of guests this week. My brother-in-law and his family from Boston are staying with us. So far that has meant lots of pool and play time as we’ve dodged the daily thunderstorms. It’s also C’s first real week of summer after wrapping summer school up last week. In a few hours I’m …

Friday Playlist: open.spotify.com/playlist/… “Nashville Girls” - Janet Simpson This was about to drop off my current music playlist when I realized I had not shared it with you. Which is a huge error on my part, because it is a hell of a song, filled with swagger. “Inside My Head” - …

Reaching for the Stars, Vol. 58: Chart Week: June 12, 1982 Song: “Fantasy” - Aldo Nova Chart Position: #32, 12th week on the chart. Peaked at #23 for two weeks in May/June. I only caught a few songs of this countdown, but I tuned in at the perfect time. I’m guessing I had not heard this jam in a long, long time. Which is a damn …

On Packed Weekends and Golf: Decent weekend in our house. I watched a lot of golf, thanks to the US Open being played on the West Coast. Which is always the best. The girls were even moderately interested since we stayed right off the course during our visit to San Diego two years ago. I watched some Euro championship soccer. I …

Friday Playlist: open.spotify.com/playlist/… “Solar Power” - Lorde Oh good Lord(e)! Our New Zealand queen has returned in a major way. An almost instant Song of the Summer, one that arrives with a rather controversial album cover. Her album art makes me feel uncomfortable, so I’m just …

Early Summer Catch Up: Mid-to-late June is my favorite time of summer. It’s usually not too hot yet, or if it roasts for a day or two the heat will eventually break and you’ll have a stretch of pleasant days mixed in. The rhythms of the summer are still developing and the season holds seeming endless promise. At least …

Friday Playlist: It’s been a few weeks since we’ve had a proper playlist. The new music has dried up just a hair and I haven’t had much time to devote to what is available over the past couple weeks. I’ve hacked together something to keep you occupied for a half hour or so, including two …

Reaching for the Stars, Vol. 57: Chart Week: May 12, 1979 Song: “In the Navy” - The Village People Chart Position: #5, 9th week on the chart. Peaked at #3 for two weeks. I wasn’t old enough to “get” the Village People when they were at the height of their powers. I was 6–7 years old during their brief moment at the top of the pop …

A Disturbance in the Force: Before I get to our next Reaching for the Stars entry, I realized that I first need to share some disturbing news in the AT40 world that has radically changed my life. The local station that played American Top 40 on Sundays for at least 12 years has stopped airing the show. A week after we returned …

Reader's Notebook, 6/7/21: My reading pace slacked off significantly over the past month. I only finished three books in May, and none of them should have taken more than a couple of days. Because of that, the first two books in this entry don’t get very good recaps as it has been too long since I finished them to write …

Friday Vids: Just a couple videos this week. After a rather cool, rainy week summer weather is finally here. So, first, a summer classic. youtu.be/MsW8rXPcn… Next, something I stumbled across yesterday which absolutely requires ten minutes of your undivided attention. youtu.be/M-0Z_2j1a… …

May Media: Movies and Shows Confessions of a Dangerous Mind Hard to believe this movie came out in 2002. And that I’ve managed to not see it in those 19 years! Based on the “autobiography” of game show creator and host Chuck Barris, it details both his efforts to make it in the TV biz and his - likely - …

Weekend Notes: One of our more laid back Memorial Day holiday weekends is now in the books. Unlike most of the past decade, when we would either go to the lake or host a pool party, we had no major plans this year. We did have some friends over for dinner Friday, but it was cold and rainy that night so the adults …

Stats: May 2021 Middle Kids - 39 Manchester Orchestra - 25 Pearl Jam - 18 Dumptruck - 17 Paw - 16 Complete stats available at my Last.fm page.

On Lost Hits and a Must-See Classic Video: A special music post for this Memorial Day. It has nothing to do with the holiday, but this seemed like a good day to squeeze it in. Music writer Sean Ross tracks what he calls Lost Hits. Based on his self-created Lost Factor, he looks at old songs and sees how often they get played today. Songs …

Friday Vids: Drums please… youtu.be/Kr0tTbTbm… Summer is here! So why is the high only going to be 60 tomorrow? Remind me of this when the heat index is 115 in two months. youtu.be/F8V8_sIFL… Happy race weekend to my Indy peeps.

New Car Chronicles: Today marks two weeks in as an Audi owner. I owe you faithful readers of this series some thoughts. The honeymoon is not over; I still love, love, love my Q5. It is pretty much everything I was looking for in a replacement for my Big Chevys.[1] Nimble, quick, comfortable. It has just enough …

On Heroes, Villains, and Uncomfortable Decisions in Sports: We had great weather all weekend, and a ton of activities (L and I went to watch Indy 500 qualifying, C had her birthday dinner out with friends, and we hosted a nephew birthday party), so I did not sit and watch endless hours of coverage of the PGA Championship. I saw enough to get the vibe of the …

End of the School Year: We have reached the final week of the 2020–21 academic year. It’s kind of hard to believe the year was as “normal” as it was. To be very clear, it was not normal. There were all kinds of mandates and limits and headaches compared to what our girls had done every year before Covid hit. There were …

Friday Playlist: open.spotify.com/playlist/… “Don’t Go Puttin Wishes in My Head” - TORRES Mackenzie Scott has been making critically acclaimed, ground-breaking music for going on a decade now. This might be my favorite thing she’s ever done. “Heavy Glow” - The Glow I always …

Hoaxes and the Search for "Truth": Remember the 2002 film Catch Me If You Can? Leonardo DiCaprio starred as Frank W. Abagnale Jr., a man who fooled people into thinking he was an airline pilot, among other things, to live a jet-setting, check-forging, stewardess-banging life. The movie was wonderful, as I recall. It had just the …

Jayhawk Talk: Some thoughts on the latest goings on with University of Kansas athletics. KU football I mostly sat out the search for the latest KU football coach. I was aware of the biggest names that were getting thrown around - Buffalo’s Lance Leipold and Army’s Jeff Monken - but I refused to invest much time …

Car Shopping Chronicles, Part 7: If you’ve read my blog entries over the years, you know I can often be a little wordy with the background before I get to my point. I believe context is important and want to fully inform my readers. However, sometimes it is best to cut to the chase. So… Yep, I am now the proud lessee of a 2021 …

Middle School Spring Sports Wrap Up: After six weeks of action, we are done with spring sports. At least at the middle school level. We had a little scare before the week’s events began. L had knee issues last fall and winter, a combination of growing pains and Osgood-Schlatter disease. They largely went away after the winter …

Friday Playlist: Happy Friday! The sun is out, the birds are chirping, and the mini-chill that has dominated the first half of May seems to be moving out. Please enjoy this hand-crafted playlist. open.spotify.com/playlist/… “Misandrist to Most” - Lady Dan We’ve been trying to teach our girls …

Reader's Notebook, 5/12/21: Time for some book chat. The Marsh King’s Daughter - Karen Dionne I hate it when books that come highly recommended don’t hit me with the same impact they hit others. I found this book on some “best new thrillers” list, and its jacket featured some positive blurbs from other authors I’ve enjoyed. …

Car Shopping Chronicles, Part 6: When I began this process last fall, Audi was at the top of my list. It didn’t matter which Audi. The Q3 if I went with a subcompact. The Q5 if I went compact. The Q7 if I wanted to blow out the budget. Once upon a time, say in the early ‘00s, Audis were my ultimate car, specifically a …

Kid Sports Notes: Track The City track championship qualifying races were held Saturday. L ran the 50, 100, and 200. C ran the 100 and 200. L was a little annoyed with her assignments. Each athlete has a three event limit, and she was hoping to run a relay. Her coaches are smart, though. They know we will win the …

Car Shopping Chronicles, Part 5: I have no set order or reasoning to how I am scheduling my test drives. I guess some of it is stock dependent: if a dealer does not have the car I’m interested in on their lot, I’m not going to drive something else just for grins. In general, though, I head to whatever dealership my car muse sends …

Friday Playlist: open.spotify.com/playlist/… “Throw Me Around” - The Blips While not your standard supergroup, I think The Blips officially qualify. Made up of members from various bands in the Birmingham, AL scene, they may not be known entities, but they are still coming from different …

Reaching for the Stars, Vol. 56: Chart Week: May 1, 1982 Song: “867–5309/Jenny” - Tommy Tutone Chart Position: #8, 15th week on the chart. Peaked at #4 for three weeks in May and June. Quick show of hands: if you were alive and old enough in 1982, how many of you dialed 867–5309 to see if Jenny would answer? I know I did. I believe …

April Media: Shows and Movies Pearl Jam Live On 6/25/2010, Hyde Park, London, England To celebrate Easter weekend, I guess, online streaming service nugs.net put this show up for free from Good Friday evening through Easter Monday. An outstanding show with terrific sound and a stellar setlist. It was unnerving …

Weekend Kid Sports Notes: The pace is winding down but still kid sports notes to share from the past few days. Track Yesterday was CYO track meet #3. This one was a little different: kids were free to make their own schedules. They picked a race, show up when it was called, and then scanned their wristband at the finish …

Stats: April 2021 Middle Kids - 61 Manchester Orchestra - 39 The Natvral - 26 Dumptruck - 24 The Pack A.D. - 23 Complete stats available at my Last.fm page.

Friday Playlist: open.spotify.com/playlist/… “Keel Timing” - Manchester Orchestra Their new album drops today, and it is getting excellent reviews. I’ve really liked each of the advance singles. Perhaps an early contender for album of the year? I will give it my first listen as soon as I …

Car Shopping Chronicles, Part 4: We’ve made it! After three entries of background bullshit about my search for a new car, we’ve finally arrived at my first test drive! As previously noted, I am focusing on the luxury compact SUV class. While there are a ton of cars in this space, I have pretty much whittled it down to five I want …

Mid-Week Kid Sports Notes: I mentioned that this would be a very busy kid sports week. That has proven to be true. As there were a couple big developments, I’m going to go ahead and get you caught up on what’s gone down the past two days. Tennis Monday M played her second tennis match. We never heard why, but they mixed up …

Car Shopping Chronicles, Part 3: Crap. I realized in part two of this series, I left out one angle of my car search. It’s not terribly important to the big picture, but I figure if I’m writing about the process, and some of you are actually reading about it, I shouldn’t skip anything that happened along the way. At the end of my …

Weekend Kids Sports Notes: We are about to embark on our busiest week of the spring sports season: three tennis matches, four kickball games, one soccer game (two games missed because of kickball), and trying to squeeze in at least one track practice per girl before next weekend’s meet. Here’s how they did last week. Tennis …

Friday Playlist: open.spotify.com/playlist/… “How the Race is Done” - Smile This feels straight out of some 1986 College Rock compilation tape. Mostly because of that Peter Buck-like jangly guitar, which recalls early R.E.M. (with a lot more energy than R.E.M., though.) It has nothing to do with …

Mother Nature's Fury: It was some 24 hours we experienced from roughly 5:00 pm Tuesday to 5:00 pm Wednesday. On Tuesday we got hit by that freak, spring snowstorm that blew through the Midwest. Both C and L had kickball games scheduled, and both games were cancelled. C’s was actually cancelled on Monday night when their …

Car Shopping Chronicles, Part 2: This is the second entry in my collection of observations as I search for a new car. In part one I listed every car I’ve owned. You can read it here. Today, I’m going to set up some parameters for my next purchase. If you look through that list of past cars, a trend is obvious: the last four were …

Weekend Kid Sports Roundup: We have a very busy sports week ahead - weather permitting - and my plan was to hold off on another kid sports update. But it turned out to be a fairly significant sports weekend, so I’ll go ahead and share our girls’ latest accomplishments on the fields of athletic battle. Friday was M’s …

Friday Playlist: Another Friday, another list of fine musical products for your ears. open.spotify.com/playlist/… “Hot & Heavy” - Lucy Dacus Dacus was responsible for my favorite song of 2018. She may have released my favorite song of 2021 this week. This is just so freaking good, and she is a …

Spring Sports, Pt. 1: We are about 10 days into the spring CYO sports schedules, which means we are at roughly the halfway point of those compact seasons. Here’s a quick look at how the family has done so far. Both C and L are two games into their kickball seasons, with a third game rained out for each team. L’s team is …

Fun With Lists: This piece is from last fall, but I came across a Tweet that linked to it over spring break and saved it for a moment like now, when I’m busy and can’t generate any original #Content for you. Although I am a lover of pop culture lists, I can appreciate how they are often ridiculous. This “list” is a …

Current Status: Vaccinated: I received my second Pfizer vaccine shot on Friday. WHOOOO-HOOOOO!!!!! No issues, other than a sore arm. I’ve heard wildly varying stories from others who have already been through both shots. S and several other friends got wiped out by shot #2. In her case, she felt achy and sore and lethargic for …

Friday Playlist: Let us continue our adventure through the flood of (mostly) new music that has arrived with spring. open.spotify.com/playlist/… “Understand” - The Cry The Cry are one of those un-searchable bands. There are albums named The Cry. A TV show. A movie. Books. Enough noise that search …

Reader's Notebook, 4/8/21: Can’t Slow Down: How 1984 Became Pop’s Blockbuster Year - Michaelangelo Matos My spring break read seems like it was written directly for me. Matos takes a deep look at all of the music of 1984. It begins with Thriller dominating the music world in late 1983 and carried through to mid–1985 and Live …

College Hoops Thoughts: Well, we now live in a world where Scott Drew has a national championship and Kansas is facing probation. Just fucking great. If I could, I would light college basketball on fire and let it burn a slow, painful death. OK, that’s a little harsh. And, honestly, I can deal with whatever is going to …

Car Shopping Chronicles, Part 1: Welcome to a new series here on Ye Olde Blog. It will focus on my process to pick my next vehicle. I know, exciting, right?!?! Feel free to skip if you’d rather read my normal bullshit about sports, music, and books. For about five months I’ve been spending A TON of time researching what I should …

Friday Playlist: After a week away, and a week before with no playlist before that, it might take a few extra large playlists to dig through the pile of new(ish) music I have. You, my loyal readers/listeners benefit! So let’s get after it. open.spotify.com/playlist/… “A Rat Without a Tail” - …

Roy, Roy, Roy: Wow, in a shocker that is apparently not an April Fool’s Day joke, Roy Williams is retiring after 33 years as a head coach. I am equally surprised and unsurprised. Both because of his age and his demeanor in recent years, it has been fashionable to wonder if each season would be Roy’s last. But I am …

Stats: March 2021 Middle Kids - 47 The Pack A.D. - 42 Crowded House - 32 Hatchie - 18 Pearl Jam - 13 Complete stats available at my Last.fm page.

March Media: Don’t think I’m going to add anything new in the next 24 hours, so I’ll go ahead and drop this and knock one item off my new month checklist. Shows and Movies Spring Baking Championship It’s been awhile, but I finally decided to watch one of these shows that didn’t wasn’t focused on Halloween, …

Reaching for the Stars, Vol. 55: Chart Week: March 26, 1983 Song: “I Know There’s Something Going On” - Frida Chart Position: #13, 21st week on the chart. Peaked there for three weeks. One great thing about The Number Ones series is how it has forced me to re-evaluate artists I soured on over the years. Phil Collins is a perfect …

Spring Break 2021: Another spring break has come and gone. We spent the week on Anna Maria Island, Florida, just outside of Tampa. Although we planned our trip independently, it turns out AMI and the surrounding communities are one of the most popular destinations for families from Indy area Catholic schools. Our …

Oh Yeah...: Gonzaga, Texas, Baylor, Illinois. Zags over Illini in title game. KU loses to USC Monday. Unless they play Drake. Then they sweep the Iowa schools and lose by 12 (again) to the Zags in the Elite 8.

Friday Vids: I have a busy day of spring break travel prep ahead of me, so just a video for this week. We shall reconvene for our weekly listening party on Good Friday. youtu.be/RJv2-_–E… “A Quick One (While He’s Away)” - The Who I’ve heard about this performance before, but …

Reader's Notebook, 3/18/21: Well, shit. It appears that I’ve lost what was supposed to be my most recent Reader’s Notebook entry. I remember writing it and swore I posted it. (The books included were N.K. Jemisin’s The City We Became and John Le Carré’s The Spy Who Came in From the Cold.) Since this entry references one of …

Whoa, We're Halfway There...: One shot down, one to go. That’s right, I am 50% of the way to being fully vaccinated against Covid 19! Indiana dropped the age limit to 45 yesterday. A friend, who also turns 50 this June, told me Monday night he heard rumors the state would be dropping the requirement below 50 Tuesday morning. He …

youtu.be/SN1kU7iQn…

Fun With Travel: This was a delightful read. Since it happened in 1977, seems legit. If you could even try to pull it off today - and seems like there’s too much technology to make it possible - I don’t think anyone would believe you. Also, 17 beers a day does not seem ideal. The bizarre tale of the …

KU Week in Review: Some week for KU sports, huh? Let’s review! Monday: fired a football coach for the fifth time in 11 years, this time for lying/covering up allegations of allegedly/likely putting female student staff members in uncomfortable situations at his previous job. Gross. Tuesday: Idiot athletic director …

Friday Playlist: open.spotify.com/playlist/… “Alex Trebek” - The Fleshtones I wouldn’t say this is a novelty song, but it comes close. Regardless of how serious it is or is not, it is absolutely delightful. “Bottom Feeders” - Tim Cohen A nutty song for nutty times. Something …

On TV Gems and Accessibility: Speaking of Ted Lasso, I ran across this column the other day. We have Apple TV+ free because of device purchases, and although it isn’t always super easy to find shows on the TV app, I didn’t struggle as much as this writer did. However, it has sucked that so many friends who I think …

Here We Go Again: Me, just over two years ago: Kansas football always finds a way to disappoint. I’d love to be surprised this time. And, My basic philosophy for KU football these days is that it can’t get any worse. Never stop being you, KU football! Since Les Miles arrived in Lawrence there have been rumors. Rumors …

Weekend Notes: Compared to other recent weekends, this past one was pretty laid back for us. It helped that there was no KU game.[1] The biggest factor in the lazy weekend was that my latest round of balance therapy really triggers my vertigo, and Sunday I spent almost the entire day on the couch giving my body a …

Friday Playlist: open.spotify.com/playlist/… “Change Kills” - The Pack a.d. I swear I shared a track from these ass-kickin' Canadians last week, but I guess not. I just discovered them last week, which is a pity since they are apparently on a (permanent?) hiatus. Last year they released it was fun …

The Roommate From Hell: If you’ve had more than one roommate in your life, you’ve likely had at least one bad roommate experience. Sometimes they were just minor annoyances that added up over time. I had a couple roommates who went through a “refuse to do dishes” phase. I reached the point where I …

The Pains of Getting Older: A (Long) Health Update: A couple weeks back I alluded to a health procedure I was about to go through and promised to share details down the road. I just wrapped up my seventh visit to a health care professional over the past two months, have an idea what is going on, and can finally give you an update on what’s going on …

February Media: College basketball and lots of reading slowed down the visual media I consumed last month. Or at least compared to the past two months. Still some solid recommendations if you’re looking to add to your watch lists. ZeroZeroZero Another entry in the gritty series revolving around the drug trade and …

Weekend Hoops: It’s March! That means Daylight Saving Time and brighter evenings are two weeks away, astronomical spring is three weeks away, and Madness in right around the corner. We had snow on the ground 27 of 28 days in February. There are still piles in parking lots and other areas that were packed up …

Stats: February 2021 Wild Pink - 40 Julien Baker - 35 Crowded House - 27 The Hold Steady - 25 Pillow Queens - 24 Complete stats available at my Last.fm page.

Friday Playlist: open.spotify.com/playlist/… “Strangers” - ACTORS Ooooh, this is some good shit! Just expert dark, post-punk that sounds straight out of the transition from the ’80s to the ’90s. Sounds a little like… “Cuts You Up” - Peter Murphy …ACTORS …

Reaching for the Stars, Vol. 54: Chart Week: February 16, 1980 Song: “Coward of the County” - Kenny Rogers Chart Position: #3, 14th week on the chart. This was the song’s chart peak. One of my complaints about the old American Top 40s that I listen to is that only a small selection of the total library of shows gets played. If you …

More Zen: I’ve spent a lot of time messing with this little tool, which shows you how any shape you draw would float if it were an iceberg. Iceberger Go head, fuck around with it for a bit. It’s fun to discover shapes that flip over to find their most buoyant position.

Weekend Sports Notes: It was a very busy weekend for sports, so let’s get into it. KU Hoops Five wins in a row! My big concern about this winning streak was that three of the wins came against K-State and Iowa State, the two worst teams in the Big 12. Was KU’s better play just a function of their opponents? Or was the …

Friday Playlist (Updated): [open.spotify.com/playlist/...](https://open.spotify.com/playlist/3CpuKpZT1Zc5OrhfFYXZV0?si=G81pG8LLT5a8d-bM-3i9tQ) "Couch" - PONY Some pretty good pop-punk. That opening riff sounds like it came from the first Clash album. "Richie Sacramento" - Mogwai This veteran Scottish act wrote this in …

Eleven Minutes of Zen: Normally when I see videos like the one I share below, I’ll watch a few minutes and then move on to something else. But I was absolutely mesmerized by this video of a boat traveling the waterways that connect Rotterdam to Amsterdam and watched the whole thing. Multiple times. I have a medical …

More Snow Day Ramblings: Our girls are all back in school today. Quite a few area schools either delayed or cancelled again, but we are on a normal schedule. The mechanics of snow days are very different now than they were for my generation. Remember having to sit by the radio or TV, breathlessly waiting to hear your …

Snow Day: Our long weekends got a little longer thanks to about nine inches of new snow yesterday. C and L were home Friday and Monday thanks to St P’s traditional President’s Day break, while M was just home Monday. All are eLearning today, although L had her assignments done in about 40 minutes and is …

Friday Playlist: open.spotify.com/playlist/… “You Don’t Own Me” - Pale Waves This song reminded me of something I’ve heard before… “You’re Not the One” - Sky Ferreira …perhaps this. They aren’t exact matches but have some serious shared DNA. I …

Reader's Notebook, 2/11/21: Three new books to share. Lives Laid Away - Stephen Mack Jones Jones’ second August Snow novel. Once again the former Detroit cop gets sucked into a case that goes far beyond the neighborhood he’s attempting to revitalize. In this case it deals with rogue ICE agents, sex trafficking, and racist …

Reaching for the Stars, Bonus Tracks: Songs: “Sweet Caroline” - Neil Diamond. Peaked at #4 the week of August 16, 1969 “Take Me Home, Country Roads” - John Denver. Peaked at #2 the week of August 28, 1971 “Smoky Mountain Rain” - Ronnie Milsap. Peaked at #24 for two weeks in February/March of 1981 A different kind of RFTS post today. …

More Sports Notes: With the Super Bowl out of the way, here are some more sports notes from the past few days. Kid Hoops L’s team had a big game Saturday. Her team played the squad they were tied with for second place in their league. Looking at comparative scores, it seemed like the teams were pretty evenly matched. …

Super Bowl Notes: Some thoughts on Sunday’s Big Game The Game I was certainly surprised by the result. Even though I had watched Tampa’s defense stifle Drew Brees and Aaron Rodgers, I never expected them to do the same to Patrick Mahomes and all of his weapons. That was a ferocious, courageous performance by the …

Super Bowl Memories: There’s been a discussion in my Twitter feed today about whether Super Bowl Sunday is an overrated sports day. I’m 100% on board with this take. The actual sports side of Super Bowl Sunday kind of sucks, as the game is always secondary to all the other things that surround it. The parties, the …

Friday Playlist: The first playlist of February. The sun is coming up a little earlier every morning and staying up a little later each evening. Sure, the windchill is going to be well below freezing for the next week, but with the added sunlight it’s time to start thinking ahead to spring’s arrival. …

Big Steps Ahead: We have reached the point in our home where college is not some far-off thing in our kids’ lives that we are casually planning for. It is approaching rapidly, and we are beginning to think much more seriously about the concept. M took the PSAT in the fall and ever since has received daily multiple …

Reaching for the Stars, Vol. 53: Chart Week: January 21, 1984 Song: “Undercover of the Night” - The Rolling Stones Chart Position: #20, 11th week on the chart. Peaked at #9 for two weeks in December and January. This edition is more about how I listened to the song than the song itself. Although there will be some song trivia …

January Media: Movies and Shows The Witches A movie L picked for us to watch New Year’s Night. Roald Dahl stories are always wacky and this one did not disappoint in that sense. Very weird and maybe/likely offensive at times? I’m not sure, but I get how some folks were offended. B Backstory: The Tale of T’eo …

Weekend Notes: This weekend was a little different that other recent ones. No football, for starters. I also avoided the KU game, mostly because other plans kept me from seeing the beginning and by the time I had a chance to fire up the TV, several friends told me not to bother turning it on. It was also our …

Stats: January 2021 A slow month of easing back into things and listening to tons of random stuff instead of focused listening. Wolf Parade - 25 Dua Lipa - 24 Lande Hekt - 21 The Rolling Stones - 19 Low Cut Connie - 18 Complete stats available at my Last.fm page.

Friday Playlist: Another week where I’ve reviewed a ton of new songs, and many of them have stuck. So it looks like you all are the winners, with another stacked playlist. open.spotify.com/playlist/… “Take Back the Radio” - Katy J. Pearson A few of my loyal blog readers were also listeners …

Reader's Notebook, 1/27/21: Deacon King Kong - James McBride My To Read list is always in flux. I’m constantly adding books, like any good reader should. And also culling books, figuring if a title has been on the list for a few years and I haven’t gotten around to reading it yet, odds are I never will. The list tends to grow …

Weekend Sports Notes: Some sports notes while waiting on an ice storm to arrive. NFL So the Super Bowl is Chiefs vs Buccaneers, just like we all thought. Seriously, I’m questioning a lot of what I’ve thought about football the last 20 years this morning. I was not alone when I believed, back when the regular season …

Friday Playlist: Phil Spector died last week. To say he leaves a complex legacy is an understatement. He crafted some of the most unforgettable songs ever, and created a sound that will forever be synonymous with his name: The Wall of Sound. But he was also, by many measures, a horrible human being. He ruined the …

Indy Sports Notes: When banging out my most recent Sports Notes post, I overlooked one very important local story. Which may have been a good thing because there was another very important local story that broke yesterday. Looks like I better bust out an Indy edition Sports Notes post! Pacers Make a Big Trade Anyone …

Sports Notes: Some notes from the sporting world. KU Hoops First back-to-back losses in Big 12 play in eight years, first Big Monday loss in 18 games. Neither of those are a surprise. Against both Oklahoma State and Baylor KU looked utterly overmatched early. Overmatched for sure in the athletic sense, KU …

Reader's Notebook, 1/18/21: A busy start to a new year of reading. Uncomfortable Conversations With a Black Man - Emmanuel Acho These are a series of essays by Acho, a former NFL player and currently a talking head on Fox Sports, to help white folks understand people of color a little better. It is light and breezy, at times …

Friday Playlist: open.spotify.com/playlist/… “Start All Over Again” - Candy Opera This sounds straight out of the early ’80s New Romantic movement, with a few modern flourishes. Which makes total sense as Candy Opera got their start in the early ’80s Liverpool music scene. They plugged …

Food Mysteries and Menu Additions: This is the best thing I’ve read this year. What the Hole Is Going On? The very real, totally bizarre bucatini shortage of 2020. Rachel Handler looks into the mysterious shortage of bucatini. It is hilarious and fascinating. I have to admit, I don’t think I had ever had bucatini before I …

Reader's Notebook, 1/12/21: In my final piece of 2020 business, here are the last three books I read for the year. These put my total at 59 books for the calendar year. I know this sounds dumb, but I was disappointed with that number. I’ve read that many books in a normal year. Surely in a pandemic year I should have knocked …

Weekend Sports: I think the first ever Super Wildcard Weekend was a success. Wall-to-wall football in the midst of a pandemic and winter weather felt right. We got mostly competitive games book-ended by the Colts blowing a winnable game and the Browns shaking off decades of failure and pulling off one of the …

Friday Playlist: After taking nearly a month off from sharing new-ish music, it’s time to start getting caught up. So an extra-long playlist this week, filled with recent songs and a few classics. open.spotify.com/playlist/… “Funny Farm” - The Hold Steady A late 2020 treat, and THS has a new …

Emergency Playlist: A special playlist is in order this morning. There are plenty of other songs about this fine state that I’m guessing came from folks not happy with what went down in Georgia last night, thus they have been left behind. Hell, some of these may make no sense in the context of the election, Jay …

December Media Mega Post: A lot of material to get through, so strap yourselves in. The Holiday Shit Classics: Elf, A+ National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation, A A Christmas Story, A Die Hard, A+ A Charlie Brown Christmas, B South Park: Mr. Hankey, the Christmas Poo, A The Office, see here New: Holiday Baking Championship …

Sports Takes: A lot of sports to get through, so let’s tackle the biggest issues of the day in no particular order. CFP Alabama crushing Notre Dame was no surprise. As an Indiana Catholic school parent I don’t hate Notre Dame nearly as much as I used to. I don’t mind them winning, but still take some pleasure in …

"There's Only One Animal That Can Kill a Snake": I watched a shit-load of TV in December and have an extra-heavy post coming up soon to cover all of that. First, however, something that would normally go into my January list requires immediate attention. Netflix did the world a solid by releasing season three of Cobra Kai on Friday. I watched the …

A (Gradual) New Start: Families in Indianapolis got an early Christmas present about two weeks ago when the county health commissioner said that schools could return to in-person classes beginning today, rather than waiting until Jan. 19. St P’s normally starts the Tuesday after New Year’s Day, so today is a mini-virtual …

Friday Playlist: It’s not every year that Jan. 1 falls on a Friday. I better commemorate the day properly. open.spotify.com/playlist/… “The New Year” - Death Cab for Cutie “New Years Morning” - JarJarBeatz “New Year’s Day” - U2 “New Year” - Beach …

Stats: I’ll dispense with the monthly stats, since December is dominated by Bing and Frank and other seasonal fare. Instead here are my totals for the year. I believe they reflect the oddness of 2020 appropriately. I would not have guessed Pearl Jam, Springsteen, the Beatles, or Prince would be in my top …

Good Riddance: Welp, it’s almost over. The worst year ever has but a few hours left. And then everything will magically get better at midnight, right? If only… 2021 has to be better. Vaccines are being administered and research continues to find more ways to fight Covid–19. It may take months, but the tide is …

Reaching for the Stars, Vol. 52: Chart Week: December 22, 1984 Song: “Bruce” - Rick Springfield Chart Position: #33, 6th week on the chart. Peaked at #27 for a week in January. As artists move through their careers they often jump from one record company to another. This can lead to uncomfortable situations when the artists break …

Beatles Songs, Ranked: “Favorite Songs by Artist X” lists are a dime a dozen when it comes to certain bands. They are click-baity and unnecessary, as they’ve been done and done and done again. Still, as a music fan I will almost always read them and listen to the songs they cover if it is a band I care …

A Christmas Unlike Any Other: Christmas, 2020. Like most folks, we were trying to have a semi-normal Christmas in the safest manner possible. Most years we end up having several big family gatherings of varying sizes. Last year was a banner year: four get-togethers greatly aided by temperatures in the 60s most of the week. Two …

Timeless: We’ve lost so much this year, but proving that there is some light in the world, Darlene Love is still with us. For years and years she appeared on David Letterman’s program to sing her signature song just before Christmas. I did not know she moved that over to The View after The Late …

Revisiting Classic Gifts: I was digging through the blog archives last night and came across this post, from December 2004. It is an accounting of the best Christmas gifts I received as a kid, which was about as “typical 2004 personal blog post” as you could get. I had two thoughts as I read it: 1 - If I re-did the list …

Friday Playlist: Christmas vacation, or what counts for it in 2020, is nigh. My in-laws have arrived, the girls have about four more hours of class, and by early afternoon we will be in the final countdown for Christmas. For this year’s Blog Christmas Playlist, I’ve chosen to focus on songs you probably …

The Office Christmas Episodes, Ranked: My Wednesday activity, other than preparing for my in-laws to arrive tonight, was watching all of The Office Christmas episodes. As you can imagine, this was an extremely good way to spend time, especially on a very cold, snowy night. As I watched I thought, “I should put together some kind of …

Reader's Notebook, 12/16/20: Pretty good run of books. Lucky Supreme - Jeff Johnson The trick to writing a good crime novel, when approximately eight billion of them have been written, is to find a new angle and/or place the story in an unusual situation. Johnson did that quite well with this book. Darby Holland owns a tattoo …

Favorite Songs of 2020: My pre-list State of Music comments are pretty simple this year: 2020 felt like a weak musical year. I don’t know whether to blame that on Covid, me getting older and having to fight changing tastes harder, or that it was just a rough year for good tunes. There are some high quality tracks in this …

A Hunch Proved Right: My Christmas spirit is at an all-time low. I don’t think I’m alone in that this year, nor do I need to explain why. I’ve only watched a couple Christmas movies, I’m not reveling in Christmas music every waking hour, and we’ve had a couple hard discussions about what our family Christmas gathering …

Reaching for the Stars, Vol. 51: Chart Week: December 3, 1983 Song: “Love Is A Battlefield” - Pat Benatar Chart Position: #6, 11th week on the chart. Peaked at #5 the week of December 10. There’s no great story behind the song this week. Nope, this entry is simply an excuse to share one of the iconic videos of the 1980s. Pat …

An Univited Ghost: One of the greatest things about the Internet is the ability to dive into your past, to try to clarify memories that have become hazy over time or reconnect with people who were once an integral part of your life. I don’t do a whole lot of biographical scrolling these days. It’s been years since …

Friday Playlist: I’ve been a little slower than normal slapping together my Favorite Songs of the Year list. I can just #Blame2020 and leave it at that. I will also add that I’m having a devil of a time picking my favorite song of 2020, which I kind of need to do in order to complete the list. But …

Blueblood Battle: Some things never change. Those glamorous, early November college basketball matchups that ESPN creates to fill the air in the opening weeks of the season almost always disappoint. Oh, you might get a close game, but rarely are these games ones where, afterward, viewers say, “That might be the game …

November Media: A pretty light month. I guess that happens when the election wipes out roughly a week of normal TV viewing. Plus I read a lot in November. Here’s what I did watch. Archer, season 11 The world’s greatest spy returns for another year. Archer seasons fall into one of two camps. There are the ones that …

Holiday Weekend Notes: Well, today begins a new phase in our home’s daily rhythms. C and L are now eLearning through at least mid-January, joining M who has been home for two weeks. Hopefully the expensive Internet access we pay for holds up; our signal likes to drop in the middle of the day which should make for …

Reader's Notebook, 11/24/20: The Wolf Wants In - Laura McHugh I saw this book described as being for fans of Gillian Flynn’s Sharp Objects and/or season three of True Detective. I loved Sharp Objects; I’ve never watched True Detective but have always heard good things. That was enough to get me to pick this up. It also help …

A Different Kind of Season: Usually I’m giddy right about now. Thanksgiving is a few days away. We’ll bust out the holiday decorations, crank up the Christmas music, and put the tree up Friday. The most wonderful time of year has arrived! But it’s fucking 2020, which means we can’t have nice things. Yes, we’ll be eating turkey …

Friday Playlist: A slow music week for me, so this week’s list will be more oldies than…uh, newies? open.spotify.com/playlist/… “let down” - Paris Jackson When I first heard this I had no idea who Paris Jackson was. Or, more correctly, I did not remember. Then I heard it again and the …

Some Sports Takes: The Masters Like most golf fans I was realllllly looking forward to the fall Masters. Seeing Augusta National under different conditions than we’ve ever seen it before and without any fans was a dazzling concept. And in practice it turned out to be pretty damn cool. I was surprised, though, that I …

Excellence in Journalism: This is just incredible. Not just the story, but also how it was reported. This is A+++ journalism of a style that, sadly, just doesn’t exist anymore. youtu.be/V6CLumsir… I have no memory of this, but apparently this story was a bit of a sensation in the 1990s, one of the first viral …

Weekend Notes: Several significant events in our house over the past few days. Let’s get caught up. School When I picked M up from school last Wednesday she had a weird look on her face. “Everyone says school is shutting down after this week,” she exclaimed. Apparently each day a few more kids were not showing up …

Friday Playlist: I will warn you the first song in today’s playlist is filled with NOT SAFE FOR WORK language. Play cautiously. That’s appropriate for today as yesterday came word that schools in Indianapolis will be required to go virtual again by the end of the month. More about that next week, though. …

In The Market: Yesterday we got our updated car insurance policy, listing M as an insured driver. The addition to our premium was a nice way to start the holiday season. She’s been hassling us about a car for weeks. I believe I already shared that CHS only gives parking passes to sophomores if there are …

Reaching for the Stars, Vol. 50: Chart Week: October 27, 1984 Song: “Purple Rain” - Prince & The Revolution Chart Position: #4, 4th week on the chart. Peaked at #2 for two weeks in November. (This ended up being a big coincidence, but not a bad choice for the 50th entry in this series!) One of my favorite things about listening …

A Satisfying Ending: Sunday night I sat down to bang out some election thoughts. After about an hour and a couple beers I had over 2500 semi-coherent words. Younger me would have pushed on, getting everything out of my system, working until well after midnight to finish and then post the piece. 2020 me, though? He was …

youtu.be/3GwjfUFyY… Fuck you, Don. Try not to destroy too many more things on your way out.

Friday Playlist: I had a regular list put together to share like any other Friday. But given the news of the morning, I’m scraping it and throwing this ad hoc list at you. You should be able to figure out which songs are directed at which candidates. open.spotify.com/playlist/…

October Media: Baseball took up a lot of time last month. But I still squeezed in some quality television programming. The Spy This brief series tells the story of Eli Cohen, a Mossad agent who infiltrated Syrian society in the 1960s and became a deputy minister of defense before being discovered and executed. It …

Reader's Notebook, 11/4/20: Nothing much going on today. Might as well share my most recent reads. A Short History of Nearly Everything - Bill Bryson My master reading list isn’t complete; I didn’t really start digitizing it until the mid-to-late 2000s, so a lot of books I read in the first decade of this century aren’t …

Weekend Notes: Here we are, the week many of us - a plurality of those who voted four years ago - have been looking forward to for an entire election cycle. And it dawns dominated by a sense of dread. Regardless of the results of tomorrow’s election, I think the US is on a horrible course, one where democracy is …

Stats: October 2020 Throw back month! Bruce Springsteen - 72 Pearl Jam - 47 U2 - 39 cartalk - 26 Bob Mould - 24 Complete stats available at my Last.fm page.

Friday Playlist: open.spotify.com/playlist/… “Impossible Weight” - Deep Sea Diver with Sharon Van Etten The music to this sounds thoroughly modern, but Sharon’s vocals have a terrific New Wave quality. “Guest in Your Life” - Sinai Vessel This song sounds warm and familiar, like …

Fall Links Life: I’m overwhelmed by numbers. The more I look at them, the more my sense of dread and disappointment and even fear grows. That’s right, it’s time for a long overdue update on my golf game. Quick summary: not good. Now, for the people into that kind of thing, far too many details. Feel free to skip the …

Reaching for the Stars, Vol. 49: Chart Week: October 23, 1982 Song: “Steppin’ Out” - Joe Jackson Chart Position: #32, 10th week on the chart. Peaked at #6 for three weeks in December. I’ve written many times about how my parents influenced the music I have listened to. I’ve also mentioned how my grandparents always had the radio …

Friday Playlist: An extra-large playlist this week. I had some time to kill before a World Series game started and did a little more work than I normally do on the curation side. open.spotify.com/playlist/… “Around Your Room” - Kississippi This doesn’t sound much like the music Kississippi …

An Annual Rant: Man, I hate fall break. I’m pretty sure I’ve ranted about this before. But as our girls are on fall break right now, it is on my mind. A year ago at one of L’s soccer practices I was making sarcastic comments about fall break with the dad who I had coached with for a few years. We agreed fall break …

Unexpected Goodbyes: A couple recent departures from the University of Kansas athletic program that deserve a few words. Silvio First, late last week Silvio De Sousa announced he was leaving the basketball program. KU, like every Power 5 sports program, has a long list of players who were “disappointments.” Silvio …

Weekend Notes: It felt like I mostly sat on my ass watching sports this weekend. Turns out a lot went on. Here are some details. HS Football M snagged a ticket at the last minute to the Indy high school game of the year: 5A #1 Cathedral vs 6A #1 Center Grove. Both teams were undefeated, had rolled through their …

Friday Playlist: open.spotify.com/playlist/… “You Held My Heart” - The Flatmates “1-2-3-4!” is a great way to start off any weekend. “Music Makes Me High” - The Avalanches This could easily be my theme song. “Moment in the Sun” - Sunflower Bean The days are …

Reader's Notebook, 10/15/20: I rediscovered my reading mojo over the past few weeks. It helped that I found a book I had been trying to locate for a year or more, and then two other great reads on top of that. Walk This Way: Run-DMC, Aerosmith, and the Song That Changed American Music Forever - Geoff Edgers First is the book …

Weekend Notes: We’ve hit that moment in fall that is both lovely and sad: the last burst of really warm, humid weather before things change. We are scheduled to have the pool closed on Wednesday, so last weekend was our final chance to swim. Friday I cranked the heater up to be sure the water was tolerable. That …

Friday Playlist: open.spotify.com/playlist/… “Ain’t Talkin' ‘Bout Love” - Van Halen Been listening to a lot of VH this week. Like a pretty high percentage of white dudes (and some dudettes) who were born between 1965 and 1980. “When You’re Gone” - Lydia Loveless …

Reaching for the Stars, Vol. 48: Chart Week: September 16, 1989 Song: “Friends” - Jody Watley with Eric B & Rakim Chart Position: #33, 14th week on the chart. Peaked at #9 the week of August 26. For some reason I’ve struggled with this entry. I’ve been working on it for two weeks but can never seem to find the right tone. I’m …

September Media: Ted Lasso As with the first month of shows, Ted Lasso continued to shine in the final five episodes of season one. Sure, there were predictable, clichéd choices in how the show progressed. But the dynamic between the main characters is what carried the program. I believe I said this last month but …

Emergency Video: Fuck, cancer got Eddie. Hard rock wasn’t necessarily my thing. But I learned that Eddie Van Halen was one of the 10 or 20 coolest people on the planet in the early ’80s and it was a good thing to know about and like his music. Shame that David Lee Roth was so atrocious in this …

Weekend and Kid Notes: A lot of ground to cover so let’s get into it. Today is a first: first sick kid day of the year. M is home for the first time in her high school career with an upset stomach. L also seems to be getting a cold, which is delightful. Usually C is the first to fall when illnesses begin circulating. The …

Friday Playlist: First off, apologies. I had a morning project that took longer than expected then lunch duty at St. P’s and I am a bit behind. Better late than never, though. open.spotify.com/playlist/… “Ghosts” - Bruce Springsteen. HOLY SHIT!!! The lead single off Springsteen’s …

Reader's Notebook, 9/29/20: My reading pace has fallen way off over the past month. I tried to start a book I was very much looking forward to reading but couldn’t focus and gave up. That lack of focus is most of the problem. Where I’m usually itchy and nervous if I’m not reading in my free time, I currently lack the …

Weekend Notes: It’s time for the weekly Monday sports review! Gale Gale Sayers was waaaaaay before my time. He retired about six months after I was born, and his final two years in the NFL were slowed by a series of serious injuries that robbed him of his breath-taking speed. But there were uncles, and friends of …

Friday Playlist: Another week when I’m not terribly prepared to share a playlist of (mostly) new music. I’ve reached the point in the year when I start looking backwards and doing some tentative work on my Favorite Songs of the Year list. While there has been plenty of new music in the middle half of the …

More Check Marks: A couple kid milestones to share. First, C got her braces taken off yesterday. This was both early and late. She was originally pegged to be in them 22–24 months, and this was just month 17. But it was also late because she missed an appointment during lockdown so likely would have had them removed …

Weekend Notes: It was a weekend dominated by watching sports, mostly on the TV. Friday night we went to an (outdoor) fundraiser that a high school friend of S’s was throwing. This is her pal who nearly died of Covid back in April. He brought together a few well-connected friends he has (one is an NBA player) to …

Friday Vids: For most of this week I’ve been listening to A) the new Doves album, which is awesome, and B) working through Steven Hyden’s The Best Bruce Springsteen Songs, Ranked list. As of Thursday night I am just past the mid-point of the list. I’ve discovered some songs that are new to me …

Tops of Eighty Four: It only took six weeks for Tom Breihan to roll through the 20 number one songs of 1984. 1985 has some bangers, for sure, but we’re approaching the point where I’ll be more interested in his words than in the songs themselves. In the comments, people ranked the Number Ones of 1984 in their preferred …

End of Two Seasons and A Career: The fall 2020 kickball season has come to an end for our family. L’s team capped their season Wednesday with a run-rule win against the nearest parish. L had a grand slam, a three-run triple, and a single to close out the season. She didn’t kick quite as well this year as in the past. I’m not sure …

Football!: Football is back! After three weeks of high school action, the college and pro ranks joined in this weekend to give us another nudge towards a sense of normalcy. Let’s run through the weekend’s happenings. High School CHS played arch rival BCHS on Friday. CHS was ranked #1 in 5A, BCHS #1 in 3A. …

Friday Playlist: open.spotify.com/playlist/… “Child’s Romance” - Nap Eyes This song sounds soooooo Australian. Yet this band is from Nova Scotia. Even if they aren’t from my favorite musical continent, I still really dig this song. All kinds of good bits in it. “Mustang” - …

2020 NFL Predictions: Over the weekend I dug into the blog archives a little bit. I would pull up a random month from the past and scroll through the entries, skimming any that jumped out at me. I had thought a good quarantine project would be to re-read through the entire history of the site, but I never got around to …

Post Holiday Notes: A late return after the long holiday weekend. My in-laws have been in town since last Wednesday, which has adjusted my daily routine a little. Our Labor Day weekend was pretty low-key. Friday night was so cool that we kicked on the outdoor fireplace for the first time this season. A couple of the …

Friday Playlist: Let’s see what I can whip up for you this week. Some old stuff, some new stuff. All good stuff. open.spotify.com/playlist/… “You Got The Love” - Rufus & Chaka Khan This week I read a long interview with Ray Parker, Jr. He seems like a pretty cool dude and has had an …

August Media: Funny what happens when sports come back. My media consumption was waaaay down in August. Or at least compared to the previous five months. Here is what I did knock out. Jayhawkers I remember when this movie was made. Justin Wesley, a recent KU basketball player and brother of former KU great Keith …

Reader's Notebook, 9/1/20: Three highly lauded books have kept me busy the past couple weeks. Disappearing Earth - Julia Phillips The last part of a book is so important to how readers feel about the entire story. This is an example of a book that was elevated by a nearly perfect ending. It begins with the disappearance of …

Of Classes and Sports: Two full weeks into the school year and we’ve had our first major change. Beginning today, and for the foreseeable future, M will be home on Mondays. In Thursday’s normal parent newsletter, the CHS principal announced that the entire student population would be virtual and on a fixed schedule on …

Friday Vid: I didn’t work on a playlist this week, so only a video today. youtu.be/i06UL-8AM… “Release” - Pearl Jam I couldn’t settle on something to watch last Saturday so started scrolling through YouTube and came across Pearl Jam’s 2018 performance at Lallapalooza in …

Everything is Bullshit: I’m having a hard time with what is happening around this country right now. What frustrates me most is that I no longer have the patience to sit down and hammer out a couple thousand words about what is going on. I’ve tried, but the longer I type, the madder I get. So in place of a post …

Reaching for the Stars, Vol. 47: Chart Week: August 14, 1982 Song: “Someday, Someway” - Marshall Crenshaw Chart Position: #40, 6th week on the chart. Peaked at #36 for two weeks in August/September. Some one-hit wonders are easy to explain. There are the accidental hits, songs by unknown artists that get tied to popular movies or …

Racin': I swore that I had written a detailed breakdown back in 2004 of my first Indianapolis 500 weekend living here, which until this year was the strangest Indy 500 day of that era. Alas, after checking the archives, I found I wrote way more about the crazy weather that day than about my experience on my …

Friday Playlist: A delayed but very special playlist for this week. Today would have been Joe Strummer’s 68th birthday. To celebrate, a group of musicians is doing a virtual tribute concert for Joe later today. Sadly I’ll be running around getting the girls then heading to kickball, but I will certainly …

School Daze: Three days into everyone being back in school. I wouldn’t say it’s been a smooth transition, as both schools continue to adjust on the fly as conditions warrant. At CHS, they have had to make multiple changes to students’ schedules. We heard that the first change was because they had a higher …

Friday Playlist: All about the ladies this week. Well, kind of. There is a male artist in the PL, but as you’ll learn, he was “in a phase,” as my mom would have said. [open.spotify.com/playlist/...](https://open.spotify.com/playlist/0qnJThjEn3irKQDbqIwjNu?si=uQNjlCdESFyn7EOxNKP4UQ) “the 1” - Taylor Swift I give …

Reaching for the Stars, Vol. 46: Chart Week: August 2, 1986 Song: “Your Wildest Dreams” - The Moody Blues Chart Position: #20, 16th week on the chart. Peaked at #9 for two weeks in July. Having a teenage crush on a teacher is kind of a rite of passage, the stuff dozens - perhaps hundreds - of trashy novels and movies have been …

First Day Back, Part One: After five months at home, C and L finally went back to school today. We shall, of course, see how long this lasts. The entire 7th/8th grade football team is currently quarantining at home after at least one kid tested positive last week. There will be more positive kids that pop up soon and all we …

How Shit Got So Bad: Feel free to skip this article if you think the “China virus” is overblown, that it is going to disappear any day, that Democratic lawmakers are using it as an excuse to institute socialism and take away your freedoms, etc. But if you’re sane, this is a completely devastating …

Sports!: It’s taken me awhile to get into them, but sports are back! Kind of, sort of, that is. As I type this fall college sports are looking nervously at the drain, aware that a hand is lingering near the handle to flush them away to 2021. But the pros have been keeping us entertained for a few weeks now. …

Friday Playlist: With our situation constantly in flux, a lot can change in a week. But as it stands this morning, all three of our girls are scheduled to be back in a school classroom this time next week. Which makes this the final playlist of a rather long summer. Nothing specific to celebrate that, but this will …

Reader's Notebook, 8/5/20: I’ve accumulated five books that require discussion. I’ll try to make this quick, but you know me, so strap in. The Match: The Day the Game of Golf Changed Forever - Mark Frost I knew nothing about this book or the event it covered until I heard a discussion of it on a podcast. The focus is the …

This Is What I'm Dealing With: Please examine this picture. One the left you see an open box of Multi Grain Cheerios. It is nearly empty, but there is still a half-serving, give or take, left inside. Enough to start a bowl, fill a coffee cup,[^1] or be the perfect portion if you’re slicing a banana to go with. On the right you …

A Week Away: Well, we spent a week in Florida. Whether that was a good idea or not, I suppose we’ll figure out in the next 10-14 days. But it was definitely fun to get away from home for a bit. There were enough mixed feelings hanging over this trip thanks to Covid-19. Then some other shit happened. We were …

Friday Vid: [youtu.be/2RHTiXvEL...](https://youtu.be/2RHTiXvELNg) “Vacation” - The Go-Go’s As we enjoy our final day of vacation, please enjoy this classic video on the subject.

Friday Playlist: [open.spotify.com/playlist/...](https://open.spotify.com/playlist/5BNb2b5g7I6bFSYG7tlMt3?si=3XXdHA0_Rqa8KzE7sy2diw) "Mariana Trench" - Bright Eyes I've never listened to Bright Eyes, but I enjoyed Conor Oberst's collaboration with Phoebe Bridgers last year as part of Better Oblivion Community …

July Media: July is not over. But as we will be out-of-town next week, and I haven’t found much to write about this week, I thought I’d go ahead and share my media post for the month. Brooklyn Nine-Nine Always reliable, but never quite as great as Michael Schur’s other creations. What was strange was watching a …

Weekend Notes: Some notes from the past few days. Nephews We watched two of our nephews overnight Saturday. Number one just turned four, is very strong willed and stubborn, but generally a good kid. He loves to swim at our house, and spent a lot of time in the pool Saturday evening and Sunday morning. I tell you …

Friday Playlist: [open.spotify.com/playlist/...](https://open.spotify.com/playlist/6ry5uT5xwwkEaixaHMnbNz?si=gBLHEzJUQ0WORZxNClIGKg) "Divine Accidents" - 5 Billion in Diamonds This band features Butch Vig, the drummer for Garbage and producer for dozens of big 1990s alt acts, and Ebbot Lundberg of Soundtrack of Our …

Reaching for the Stars, Vol. 45: Chart Week: July 3, 1982 Song: “Hurts So Good” - John Cougar Chart Position: #5, 11th week on the chart. Peaked at #2 for four weeks in August. This entry is about how the biological information Casey Kasem shared on American Top 40 was not always accurate. John Cougar (Mellencamp) is the perfect …

On Lost TV Shows: Since I’m struggling to write about current affairs at the moment, I decided I am going to try to get back to doing something I used to do a lot more often: link to interesting articles. I can’t think of a better way to start than this piece. The Strange Disappearance of Ed, the Great Show That Time …

Reader's Notebook, 7/13/20: Death in Her Hands - Otessa Moshfegh I read Moshfegh’s Eileen a few years back. After I started this one I had to go back and read my summary of it to recall that it was an odd little book. This one was odd, too. It is the story of a Vesta Gul, a widowed, 80-something woman who lives in an old Girl …

40 at 50: I missed an absolutely huge anniversary over the holiday weekend and have been grievously late in finally getting to it. Last weekend was the 50th anniversary of the first American Top 40 broadcast. If you follow here closely you know that there has likely been no bigger pop culture influence on my …

Friday Playlist: [open.spotify.com/playlist/...](https://open.spotify.com/playlist/390x9jvTMq1fxdXLtvPNCj?si=0qjDxbMyRrK7v3uJT098Ng) “Light in the Heart of Our Town” - Joensuu 1685 This Finnish band created some buzz about 10 years ago then splintered into side projects. They are back after that long fallow period …

The Fourth: I never served up a summary of the holiday weekend. Our family from Denver were in town and stayed with us: S’s sister, her husband, and their two kids. It was weird picking them up and dropping them off at the airport, which seemed mostly deserted, at least from the curb-view. Not that IND is often …

June Media: Mystify: Michael Hutchence What a beautiful man Michael Hutchence was. Not just physically, he had a beautiful soul, too. He wasn’t a voice of a generation - well, maybe he was in Australia - but if you came up in the late ‘80s and listened to pop music, he sang a lot of songs that were in high …

Reaching for the Stars, Vol. 44: Chart Week: June 23, 1984 Song: “Obscene Phone Caller” - Rockwell Chart Position: #39, 8th week on the chart. Peaked at #35 the week of June 30. I have always prided myself for knowing minor hits by artists who have been labeled as One Hit Wonders by the general public. Others find this trait …

Friday Playlist: As promised, a playlist for the holiday weekend. This is the same PL I shared last year on July 4. I listened to it again this week and still thought it was pretty good. I hope you enjoy it, and have a happy and safe Independence Day weekend.

New Jams for Your Head: I’m about to check out for the holiday weekend. I’ll post a special playlist for the weekend on Friday. Before I step back for a few days, I thought I’d provide some more music recommendations. So here are a few good albums from the first six months of 2020. If you have free time over the next few …

Reader's Notebook: The Cold Dish - Craig Johnson This is the time of year when I abandon my To Read list and seek out Best Summer Reads type lists online. One such list suggested this book, which was a nice spin on the detective procedural. Walt Longmire is a sheriff in a small town in Wyoming. He is in his 50s, …

An Update on the Golf: Life continues to be fairly boring. Well, at least in our house. There is obviously plenty going on in the world, and I’m feeling the urge to revive my Covid posts. This weekend was especially boring, thanks to plenty of much-needed rain most of the day Saturday and then on Sunday morning. S has …

Friday Playlist: Another longer set of music this week. “Find Your Way Back Home” - Neil Finn featuring Stevie Nicks and & Christine McVie The whole Neil Finn replacing Lyndsey Buckingham in Fleetwood Mac thing is so odd that I kind of refuse to believe that it actually happened. But Finn leveraged that to get …

Dads and Dishwashers: The dishwasher is a constant source of battle in our house. As I considered it this week, while once again rearranging dishes my kids put in the wrong spots, I realized I am never more of a Dad than when I’m correcting how they put dishes into the dishwasher. “These can’t go on the bottom rack, they …

Weekend Notes: First off, obviously some changes to the site’s look. Big changes, for now. I know it’s a little jarring and I’m not sure if I’ll stick with it, but as I was doing some other administrative work, I figured why not throw up a theme that looks like nothing else I’ve used in my 17-year blogging career? …

Friday Playlist: It looks like it has been nearly a month since I shared new music in a Friday post. That has left quite a backlog. So let’s get caught up with a mega-playlist to take us into Father’s Day weekend. “Carousels” - Doves. The first new Doves song in over a decade, and it does not disappoint. Sounds …

Reader's Notebook, 6/17/20: The Border - Don Winslow For an author, finishing a trilogy has to be difficult. Especially when you didn’t set out to write a three-book series to begin with. This is the final entry in Winslow’s excellent Power of the Dog series, in which he unfurls the epic story of the rise and fall of a Mexican …

This 'n' That: Before I get to some more notes on what’s been going down around here, a quick warning that I’m going to be doing some of my patented “jacking around with the blog” over the next few days. I’m hoping I can do it in a way that doesn’t prevent you from finding the site when you look for it. If not, my …

Roughin' It: It’s been a few days. A couple of you checked in - which I appreciate - and all is well. The girls and I spent a few days out in the wilderness. OK, that might be overstating it a bit, but here’s a breakdown. We went with our old neighbors to Turkey Run state park, about two hours east of Indy, …

Lazy Days Already: Just a couple weeks in and we’ve already entered the lazy days of summer. Swim most days. Have some family or small group of friends over on the weekends. Hope it doesn’t rain yet complain when it’s too hot. That happens quick when there’s no place else to go. S popped into the nearest mall one day …

Ten Influential Albums: I think I’m done with Facebook for awhile. I’m not a huge user to begin with. But over the past week I’ve been disappointed at both Mark Zuckerberg’s continued stance that FB has no role to play in reining in posts that are meant to deliberately mislead people and spread lies and with a few friends …

Friday Playlist: Another week in the books that was a little worse than the week before. I don’t know what the end point is, when things will start getting better, but I fear where the next worst week will take us. For this week’s playlist, some songs that both sum up what’s happening and how I feel about it. Not …

What I'm Watching, May 2020: My goal for May was to knock a bunch of movies off my To Watch list. At first glance it will look like I did exactly that. But I must admit I watched eight of these movies in that last nine days of the month. That was solid work! The Last Dance Well, shit, I never got around to writing about this. …

Heartbreaking Times: It is hard to know what to write today. We are in day four of an absolutely glorious run of weather. We got to see a few friends this weekend. The SpaceX launch was very cool. There’s a new wave of openings here in Indianapolis today which is making life feel a little more normal. But all that is …