Tuesday, January 21, 2025
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 few days. KU Hoops I’m about done with this team. Not in terms of watching, I’ll always watch the games.
Monday, January 20, 2025
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 HCHS by 28, opening the game on a 17–0 run. They beat the same girls by 17 a month ago.
Wednesday, January 15, 2025
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 opponent not being very good, there was no need for her to go all out. She checked in for the first time with just over a minute to play in the first quarter, to loud cheers from all her teammates.
Tuesday, January 14, 2025
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 a comprehensive win Sunday over the Cavaliers, which broke Cleveland’s 12-game winning streak.
Monday, January 13, 2025
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 attention; the neighborhood behind us pays a private contractor to pass through and we enjoy the benefits of that.
Thursday, January 9, 2025
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 blow a big lead, but KU could only tie then have two awful possessions when they had the chance to take the lead.
Tuesday, January 7, 2025
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 could identify that broadcast to give it the appropriate commemorative post. My first vivid memories of hearing Casey’s voice for which I can clearly identify the year are from 1978.
Monday, January 6, 2025
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 both thought Friday was Monday because of the New Year’s holiday. Time and space gets freaky over the holidays!
Sunday, January 5, 2025
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 between the long-time producer of the series and Amazon, who now own the rights to it.
Thursday, January 2, 2025
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 30/31-day stretch. Pretty good work. Now I get to start all over again. The Siege - Ben MacIntyre I’ve read two of MacIntyre’s books before, and heard about this latest one via a couple different podcasts.
Wednesday, January 1, 2025
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 for this holiday classic. A remarkable view of a moment in time that became eternal. A Holiday Baking Championship Surprise winner!
Wednesday, January 1, 2025
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 - 197 Jack White - 188 Wild Pink - 170 Hurray For The Riff Raff - 153 Waxahatchee - 148 Crowded House - 131 Japandroids - 124 Spoon - 123 And now the all time numbers.
Monday, December 30, 2024
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 the day after were when I felt the worst, which kind of sucked. Luckily on the scale of worst colds I’ve ever had, this was maybe a 5, so more annoying that truly debilitating.
Sunday, December 29, 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 mid-fall and slowly get obsessed with the list, or at least with certain songs on it.
Monday, December 23, 2024
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 century maybe? Don’t get me wrong, I’ve still listened to plenty, probably more than the average person.
Thursday, December 19, 2024
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 me to revisit a lost piece of writing from my past. One December night in the mid–2000s, I sat down and quickly typed out what I think is one of the best things I’ve ever written.
Tuesday, December 17, 2024
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 said, I had an encounter today I thought was interesting and worthy of a quick post. I have all kinds of stories from the gym.
Monday, December 16, 2024
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 interested in, so I think she’s locked into being a Hoosier.[1] She’s pretty excited. Coincidentally she wore an IU shirt to school Thursday.
Wednesday, December 11, 2024
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 terror attacks before it can strike again. They’re also searching for clues for Bond’s status and whereabouts. And seem to be getting killed off at a fairly concerning rate.
Monday, December 9, 2024
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 momentary breaks, though, and I spent the better part of noon-to–11 PM with my ass firmly planted in the same spot.
Friday, December 6, 2024
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. open.spotify.com/playlist/… “Ceiling Fan” - Swapmeet While not taking over the mainstream, I think 2024 will partially be remembered as the year this third (fourth?
Wednesday, December 4, 2024
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 and why when that simple phrase sums it all up? Because that’s not the point of this series, obviously.
Tuesday, December 3, 2024
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 night. I loved how the KU coaches made sure to stress it would be a group effort rather than KJ vs Cooper so KJ didn’t get in his own head about the matchup before the game.
Monday, December 2, 2024
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 filmed. Each season got progressively bleaker and more stressful. In season six, you could almost feel the weight crashing down on each charater, like a strong arm in the middle of your back forcing you to the ground.
Monday, December 2, 2024
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. It was nice to not have to clean before and after, run around wildly the morning of, and hope that we hadn’t forgotten anything as we started serving the food.
Wednesday, November 27, 2024
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 enjoying the book. I’ve never read any of Wolfe’s work before. At least for this piece, I loved his writing and the book.
Monday, November 25, 2024
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 Sands’ record-breaking performance. It was even sweeter after Buffaloes “senior quality control analyst” Warren Sapp trashed pretty much everything about KU in a video he posted last week.
Thursday, November 21, 2024
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 each day. The Royals got hot late in the season, came back from two 3–1 post-season deficits, and won the World Series for the first time ever.
Wednesday, November 20, 2024
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 interest in reading Alex Van Halen’s new memoir, Brothers. He was always just the huge presence behind the drum kit in Van Halen, not nearly as interesting as either his brother or David Lee Roth in the band’s glory days.
Tuesday, November 19, 2024
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 dominated the JV game and won by 20 in a game that wasn’t close after the first few minutes.