Wednesday, March 26, 2025
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 Century, Ranked I’m not a vinyl-head by any measure, but I try to stay up on music news and trends.
Tuesday, March 25, 2025
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 I’ve started several drafts for new RFTS entries. However, each time I’ve lost enthusiasm while doing research and have let them die on the digital vine.
Monday, March 24, 2025
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 shot clock, missing. This came after a time out. As usual with Storr, Bill Self threw up his hands in disgust/disappointment after the play.
Thursday, March 20, 2025
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 bracket since it has happened exactly one time.[1] Some people think Auburn is creaky and vulnerable based on their late-season lull.
Tuesday, March 18, 2025
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 this week. I expect them to shit the bed, so anything other than that will be a pleasant surprise.
Monday, March 17, 2025
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, although this was her day to go on retreat. As it involved A LOT of walking, we excused her and she stayed home.
Tuesday, March 11, 2025
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, Attucks lost to Milan in the first game of the State Finals in 1954. Milan beat Muncie Central that night for the championship. Their tournament run inspired the movie Hoosiers.
Monday, March 10, 2025
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 the first half on the verge of going up 16, only to give up a seven-point swing in the final minute to destroy their momentum.
Thursday, March 6, 2025
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 of that, and read some good press for this book, so decided it was worth the shot.
Wednesday, March 5, 2025
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. Broccoli especially has not been thrilled with what she believes Amazon’s plans for the series are - she assumes they will milk it for content the way Disney has mined the Star Wars brand and dilute its quality and value - which has prevented any progress in either selecting Daniel Craig’s successor or even developing a script for the next 007 film.
Tuesday, March 4, 2025
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 who recruited players that fit his style of play and have the mentality he wanted, so they blend seamlessly.
Monday, March 3, 2025
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 splint was causing her pain, survived the week. She tried the knee scooter one day, but it was also rubbing against the splint so she decided to crutch around instead.
Sunday, March 2, 2025
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 the mid–90s. I forgot how dark it gets for a long stretch. The final quarter feels very 90s, but, hey, that was the time.
Thursday, February 27, 2025
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 into London’s security network and are able to track many of Emma’s movements. And they may have placed an agent at the top of the security service, preventing her from calling for help.
Monday, February 24, 2025
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 was home again on Wednesday. Wednesday was also L’s surgery day.
Thursday, February 20, 2025
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 than the biggest on-court disaster this program has faced in over 40 years.
Wednesday, February 19, 2025
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 path to healing.
Tuesday, February 18, 2025
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 midnight in Kansas City) it help establish my sense of humor and gave me a base to form friendships with like-minded classmates and neighbors.
Monday, February 17, 2025
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 we drove about an hour west of the city to Greencastle for the regional round of the Indiana State basketball tournament.
Friday, February 14, 2025
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 Aim” - Rocket Some serious Smashing Pumpkin vibes on this track. Fortunately their singer is better than Billy C so I can happily listen to it.
Wednesday, February 12, 2025
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 of him?” If a piece is too erudite, he might tell its writer, “Can they take the Emmy away?
Tuesday, February 11, 2025
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 coached by Bob Hurley for 45 years. For much of that time Hurley also worked tirelessly to keep the school open, spending countless hours fundraising and donating the money he made from speaking engagements and clinics to the school.
Monday, February 10, 2025
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 in practice Friday. This entire team is too old to not figure out the effort thing.
Wednesday, February 5, 2025
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 offense was humming, moving the ball quickly and finding the open man. Aside from a few ill-advised drives by guys who couldn’t shoot and Rylan Griffen missing four wide-ass-open 3’s, you couldn’t ask for much more on that end of the court.
Monday, February 3, 2025
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 still angry and frustrated later that evening because I had checked the score just as KU took a 21-point lead on Baylor late in the first half and felt pretty good about how things would turn out.
Saturday, February 1, 2025
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 bloodshed nor are there any deaths as far as I could tell. There are some BIG leaps in logic in the final 20 minutes, but that goes along with the old school, action movie vibe.
Friday, January 31, 2025
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 ALERT!!!!! Craig Finn has new music out! And it is produced by Adam Granduciel! And the other members of The War On Drugs are playing on it!
Wednesday, January 29, 2025
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 that a Hawaiian company, famous for making casual shoes designed to be kicked off at a moment’s notice, has made some very nice cold weather boots.
Monday, January 27, 2025
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 seven at halftime then scored the first seven points of the second half to tie.
Wednesday, January 22, 2025
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 James, from high school phenom to his first run with the Cavaliers, to The Decision and move to Miami, and finally his return to Cleveland and winning the title the city sought for so long.