Thursday, July 20, 2023
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 and produced. Whether it goes on an album or not, and if it does, how it is sequenced.
Wednesday, July 19, 2023
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 elimination of third party applications meant I was still spending lots of time dodging promoted Tweets and ads I had no interest in.
Monday, July 17, 2023
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 ever have an easier win. At halftime we were ahead 39–0. We added 16 more points before these poor girls finally got their first bucker.
Friday, July 14, 2023
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 seems like it is going to be excellent and I will be writing about them plenty more this year, maybe the OSes will finally figure it out once the fall updates land and Apple’s new auto correct, machine learning algorithms take over.
Wednesday, July 12, 2023
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 forced busing to desegregate Boston’s public schools takes effect. Mary Pat Fennessy’s teenage daughter disappears after a night out with friends, and no one wants to tell her what may have happened.
Tuesday, July 11, 2023
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 trying to lose. We led by nine with 8:00 left, five with 5:00 left, but by just two as the clock ticked under a minute.
Friday, July 7, 2023
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 they made them their own. Here’s a perfect example, originally written and sung by Eddie Grant with his band The Equals in 1967.
Thursday, July 6, 2023
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 conventional wisdom about season three of Ted Lasso. Kindly allow this brief dissenting opinion: Perhaps Ted Lasso isn’t broken—we are.
Wednesday, July 5, 2023
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 behaved, and it seems like both generations of sisters got along for the day, too.
Monday, July 3, 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/…
Monday, July 3, 2023
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 were integral to the show’s aesthetic. B The Hateful Eight I didn’t like this as much as Tarantino’s other Western, Django Unchained, mostly because it felt a little long (and I did NOT watch the extended version).
Friday, June 30, 2023
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 just one wire affecting 4-5 houses in our neighborhood is causing our outage. So we could be waiting awhile. I will not let that deter me from using some of the remaining power in my electronics from getting a playlist out to you!
Wednesday, June 28, 2023
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 to the Sports Guy… Ah, back when I read and loved everything Bill Simmons wrote.
Tuesday, June 27, 2023
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 I’ve racked up since then.[1] S and I had been married for nearly two weeks when I posted that first entry.
Monday, June 26, 2023
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 texts about him from non-KU people. I heard a lot of commentators destroying him for his fit.
Monday, June 26, 2023
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 the ground on the south side of Indy did significant damage. There was fairly large hail within two miles of our house.
Friday, June 23, 2023
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 used to be a public defender. What are all my attorney friends doing in their free time? “Hard to Build. Easy to Break.
Thursday, June 22, 2023
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 labor strife.[1] I don’t have much idea what’s going on in the sport right now, other than the Royals sucking.
Tuesday, June 20, 2023
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 weeks in July. Sometimes our musical memories trick us into believing a band was more popular that it actually was.
Friday, June 16, 2023
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. open.spotify.com/playlist/… “No Reason” - Sunny War If this song doesn’t get you tapping your toes, snapping your fingers, nodding your head, or wiggling your ass a little, I don’t want to be friends with you.
Wednesday, June 14, 2023
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 has been good preparation for that. It’s good that she’s made a little money.
Tuesday, June 13, 2023
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 for five years. I was content to swap in the new image, stolen from one of the themes I sampled, and call it a night.
Monday, June 12, 2023
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 it’s good luck to kill someone in front of you. But in this war you rarely see the enemy.
Friday, June 9, 2023
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” - Blur Their first new music in ages, and it sounds exactly like how music from a once-huge band who has drifted for years should sound like.
Thursday, June 8, 2023
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 no better way to waste time than flipping through your cable dial to find one of your favorites, then not moving until it was over.
Wednesday, June 7, 2023
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 struggling with it for over a week. Put all of that together and in the last four weeks I’ve only logged two books into my reading list for 2023.
Tuesday, June 6, 2023
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 extra episodes that messed with the momentum of the rest of the season. A-
Monday, June 5, 2023
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 looked totally wiped out. So naturally we - meaning S and I and other parents who have known M for years - made fun of her for being so tired from just having fun.
Friday, June 2, 2023
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 Life” - Bloc Party “American Candy” - The High Water Marks “Ease On” - The High Violets “Standing on an Empire” - Highspire “It’s Fine” - Bethany Cosentino A bunch of songs or acts with that all contain the word high.
Thursday, June 1, 2023
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 going old school and having to wait seven days for the next one.