Friday, March 6, 2026
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 affects the songs I put together for you today, and what I write about them. If this turns to gibberish by the end, you know the reason.
Thursday, March 5, 2026
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 recent years. And all the many stages in between. It is not just an accounting of the bands that were important to each stage of this process.
Wednesday, March 4, 2026
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 received a technical, and Elmarko Jackson was called for a flagrant foul, all of which seemed like garbage calls.
Tuesday, March 3, 2026
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 nothing was resolved but rather it all sets up a hypothetical season three. B- Miracle: The Boys of ’80 You’re telling me there’s a new documentary about one of the foundational moments in my relationship with sports, a mythical event that even 46 years later still does not make sense?
Monday, March 2, 2026
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 we’ll be well into the 70s later this week with thunderstorms.
Friday, February 27, 2026
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. [open.spotify.com/playlist/...](https://open.spotify.com/playlist/6gLFgnOjcen5g2z8C5RytR?si=c7a4145e082b49f7) “Stupid Bitches” - Grace Ives This seems like the perfect song for the moment. (Spotify is fighting me to put this one in Thursday night.
Wednesday, February 25, 2026
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 time! I trust Bill Lawrence and the rest of the team behind the show to revive it without sucking too much.
Tuesday, February 24, 2026
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 a ton, but two second half 3’s were huge in making sure Houston could not come back. The defense was outstanding.
Monday, February 23, 2026
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. Not just having the game sitting there, begging to be taken over, and KU refusing to do so until Cincinnati said, “Fuck it,” and ran the Jayhawks off the court over the last five minutes.
Friday, February 20, 2026
[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 night. C and her dorm mates had to take shelter when a tornado took dead aim at Bloomington. I have to say, as much as I enjoy watching TV coverage of severe weather, I got a strange feeling in my stomach as we watched the radar images showing the worst part of the storm passing within a mile of her dorm.
Tuesday, February 17, 2026
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 eight minutes from a huge upset over 3A #1 RHS. They came sooo close to getting it done.
Friday, February 13, 2026
[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 weeks ago. “C.L.U.T.T.E.R.” - Clutter Joining bands like Bad Company, Black Sabbath, Talk Talk, Bad Religion, and Living In A Box, among others, that have songs with the same name as the group.
Wednesday, February 11, 2026
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 owned a paperback copy of Gorky Park. This landed on a best thrillers list from last year so I gave it a shot.
Tuesday, February 10, 2026
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 family might argue, as there are still plenty of times when I’m either cussing in anger or roaring when a big play happens.
Monday, February 9, 2026
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 of us over a four weekend stretch. So we scheduled an early dinner for our celebration.
Friday, February 6, 2026
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 songs released since January 1. This is the remarkable song that finally prompted it. I knew nothing about hemlocke springs before I heard this jam, but apparently she’s been getting buzz for some time and has already opened for Chappell Roan.
Thursday, February 5, 2026
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 to last week, Matthew Wilder’s biggest (but not only!)[1] hit was spending its final week in the top five.
Wednesday, February 4, 2026
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 themselves down by 10 with eight minutes left. The home crowd was roaring, JT Toppin was finally getting loose, and KU had nothing going on offense.
Monday, February 2, 2026
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 binge them all over a couple nights. A+ The Chair Company I’m not sure what the best way to describe this show is.
Monday, February 2, 2026
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 and then her follow up with sports medicine goes tomorrow. Because of the weather we fluctuated last week between having three games and none.
Friday, January 30, 2026
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 Baby Pretentious new band alert! A lot going on here. This band gets its name from lead singer Wes Leavins being pen pals with the late Brigitte Bardot (RIP) when he was young and the film legend allegedly addressed him as “Baby.
Thursday, January 29, 2026
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 sign that folks need to pump the brakes on the “AI revolution.” There is no doubt that there are tremendous opportunities for AI to change our lives, the economy, etc, but we have a long, long way to go before it can safely deliver on those promises.
Wednesday, January 28, 2026
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 partially because I wasn’t sure of the roads but mostly because they have a game tonight and this way she can ride home with us rather than take the bus back to school to get her car.
Tuesday, January 27, 2026
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 a throne that could reunite two churches that have been split for ages.
Monday, January 26, 2026
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 nearly 6:00 Sunday night. Based on the maps I looked at, we were in the 11–12” range.
Friday, January 23, 2026
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 from Sugar dropped this week, along with the reveal of a full tour later this year. They come as close to me as Cincinnati. So if any of my brothers (or sisters) in music want to spend a Tuesday evening in October in the Queen City, let me know.
Thursday, January 22, 2026
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 our home’s design. We brought in a contractor that had done good work for some friends. It took a few weeks but eventually we got a quote that was reasonable.
Tuesday, January 20, 2026
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 2000s could bring another national title banner to Assembly Hall. Nearly 23 years later the Hoosiers haven’t sniffed a Final Four and are on their seventh coach over that span.
Monday, January 19, 2026
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 year we faced arch rivals BCHS in the City tournament championship game. Once again it was a tense, tight affair.
Friday, January 16, 2026
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, so I guess we’ll find out together. [open.spotify.com/playlist/...](https://open.spotify.com/playlist/55jdcLEh1oq83kKaV6Ne1u?si=d0209574cc7e496e) “DESIGNED TO LOSE” - The Twilight Sad