Wednesday, May 31, 2023
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 said, homie knocked out the Mass in 40 minutes, which I fully support. The graduation ceremony afterward went well.
Tuesday, May 30, 2023
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 28 kids seemed manageable. Everyone was well-behaved, they all got picked up on time, and I felt bad for secretly hoping it would storm and cancel the event.
Friday, May 26, 2023
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 documentary on MMJ’s 2004 Bonnaroo performance the other night. Which means I spent the next hour listening to some of their best tracks. This seems like a good song to open any playlist with.
Wednesday, May 24, 2023
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 spiels, and other unsolicited mailings, following these suggestions can eliminate many of them. I wish there was a way to also stop the local mailings.
Monday, May 22, 2023
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 activities each day but Thursday was when things really got cranking. That morning she met with a group of girls on campus to take pictures.
Friday, May 19, 2023
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 super into all things Manchester. Man United. The whole music scene. But especially Oasis. The first time I heard this I sent it to him and said, “This is totally some Stephen K bullshit.
Thursday, May 18, 2023
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. Then there are the bands that are lost to time because their sole hit barely scratched its way onto the chart and failed to register in our generational memory.
Tuesday, May 16, 2023
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 certain content that could be sensitive for their regime. Whichever comes first. I WILL DEFEND FREE SPEECH TO THE DEATH. OR UNTIL AN AUTOCRAT ASKS ME TO STOP I’ve earned a lot of credibility with my girls for openly enjoying Taylor Swift’s music.
Monday, May 15, 2023
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 open the game and never looked back. We had a running clock before halftime and won 59–5.
Friday, May 12, 2023
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 which were older tracks. Which is a good problem, obviously, as it means extra music for you as I work to get through them all.
Wednesday, May 10, 2023
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, which was somewhat tied to my blogging history. I’m pretty sure I first learned about podcasts sometime in early 2005.
Tuesday, May 9, 2023
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 just obsessed with Hitler. Still. This takes a different tack, and does so well.
Monday, May 8, 2023
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 her; she was first eligible to get her license the week of Thanksgiving but wasn’t close to either being ready or having enough hours behind the wheel then.
Friday, May 5, 2023
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. I’ll get into the weeds on this later - there is expected to be more roster news soon - so for now I’ll focus on the three transfer players we know will be joining the Jayhawks next year.
Friday, May 5, 2023
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 different from how they used to sound, which makes a huge difference. “Days Move Slow” - Bully The new Bully album is going to be a monster. “Binge” - DEADLETTER Starting to sense some buzz building for these kids.
Thursday, May 4, 2023
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 clarified their initial plans and will keep the archives up. I just used those this week while looking at film lenses.
Wednesday, May 3, 2023
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 the decision. I unsubscribed from every photography website, podcast, YouTube channel, Instagram account, etc. I wanted nothing to enter my information feeds that might make me start looking at replacement gear.
Tuesday, May 2, 2023
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 dives into all the theories. Not sure it gets us any closer to an answer, which makes sense given how the plane has never been found.
Monday, May 1, 2023
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 week, and another girl has been a bit of a wank which has caused some rifts in their core group.
Friday, April 28, 2023
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. “Scabs” - Speedy Ortiz SO was one of the bigger buzz bands of the early 2010s, but disappeared for a bit as lead singer Sadie Dupuis concentrated on her solo work. This is the first new track in five years.
Wednesday, April 26, 2023
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 it felt more like mid-November than mid-April. Although the sun is out right now - and will roast you if you are sitting in your car waiting for you kid to get dismissed from school - the thermometer barely made it to 60 this afternoon.
Monday, April 24, 2023
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 rearranging her room. As always, assembling Ikea furniture was maddening at times. The final result looked good, though, and C was pleased.
Friday, April 21, 2023
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 tracks like this, which sounds straight out of a 1988 American Top 40. Although that would be awesome. “Perfect Blue” - Bodywash Some dense, modern, shoegazey goodness for a cold, rainy morning here in Indy.
Thursday, April 20, 2023
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 off, elephant in the room: damn there are a lot of parenthesis in these two titles!
Wednesday, April 19, 2023
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 lengthy philosophical rumination about how/why we select our pastimes instead of getting to the point and sharing a bit of news.
Monday, April 17, 2023
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 good team. They were long, athletic, took and hit 3’s, and were just a tough all-around matchup.
Friday, April 14, 2023
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” - World News This could be from 1985 just as easily as it could be from 2010. Yet it’s brand new. “Cicada” - Fucked Up Oh man, this a great song!
Tuesday, April 11, 2023
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 weeks old and my thoughts about it murky. That’s the case with this, a very good book written by a native African raised in London about how the rest of the world views his ancestral continent.
Monday, April 10, 2023
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 service day on Thursday and it was even longer. C has the “Punta Plague,” as M is calling it.
Friday, April 7, 2023
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 collaborations with all three taking turns. Here Julien Baker is up front. Critic Steven Hyden liked this song so much he said Baker should put out an album filled entirely with songs influenced by the grunge era.