Monday, November 9, 2020
Sunday night I sat down to bang out some election thoughts. After about an hour and a couple beers I had over 2500 semi-coherent words. Younger me would have pushed on, getting everything out of my system, working until well after midnight to finish and then post the piece. 2020 me, though? He was ready for bed. And as morning dawns I feel like I want to take another, sober, stab at my 2020 election post.
Fuck you, Don. Try not to destroy too many more things on your way out.
Friday, November 6, 2020
I had a regular list put together to share like any other Friday. But given the news of the morning, I’m scraping it and throwing this ad hoc list at you. You should be able to figure out which songs are directed at which candidates. open.spotify.com/playlist/…
Thursday, November 5, 2020
Baseball took up a lot of time last month. But I still squeezed in some quality television programming. The Spy This brief series tells the story of Eli Cohen, a Mossad agent who infiltrated Syrian society in the 1960s and became a deputy minister of defense before being discovered and executed. It is a compelling, interesting story that is very well acted and paced, and beautifully photographed. I also enjoyed the old school spy tale angle.
Wednesday, November 4, 2020
Nothing much going on today. Might as well share my most recent reads. A Short History of Nearly Everything - Bill Bryson My master reading list isn’t complete; I didn’t really start digitizing it until the mid-to-late 2000s, so a lot of books I read in the first decade of this century aren’t accounted for.[1] So I know I’ve read a few of Bill Bryson’s travel books, I’m just not certain how many.
Monday, November 2, 2020
Here we are, the week many of us - a plurality of those who voted four years ago - have been looking forward to for an entire election cycle. And it dawns dominated by a sense of dread. Regardless of the results of tomorrow’s election, I think the US is on a horrible course, one where democracy is constantly subverted by a vocal minority. Where intimidation and voter suppression has become a normal part of one party’s methods for hanging on to political power.
Friday, October 30, 2020
open.spotify.com/playlist/… “Impossible Weight” - Deep Sea Diver with Sharon Van Etten The music to this sounds thoroughly modern, but Sharon’s vocals have a terrific New Wave quality. “Guest in Your Life” - Sinai Vessel This song sounds warm and familiar, like the fall clothes we are all pulling out as the weather gets cooler. “80 Days of Rain” - Lande Hekt Apparently this song is about climate change. “Oceans” - Pearl Jam Last week PJ released the recording of their 1992 MTV Unplugged performance in the US for the first time.
Thursday, October 29, 2020
I’m overwhelmed by numbers. The more I look at them, the more my sense of dread and disappointment and even fear grows. That’s right, it’s time for a long overdue update on my golf game. Quick summary: not good. Now, for the people into that kind of thing, far too many details. Feel free to skip the rest, although you’ll miss the accounting of the greatest moment of my golfing life.
Monday, October 26, 2020
Chart Week: October 23, 1982 Song: “Steppin’ Out” - Joe Jackson Chart Position: #32, 10th week on the chart. Peaked at #6 for three weeks in December. I’ve written many times about how my parents influenced the music I have listened to. I’ve also mentioned how my grandparents always had the radio tuned to the local station, which between farm reports and news/weather bulletins, played the most generic blend of Top 40 pop possible.
Friday, October 23, 2020
An extra-large playlist this week. I had some time to kill before a World Series game started and did a little more work than I normally do on the curation side. open.spotify.com/playlist/… “Around Your Room” - Kississippi This doesn’t sound much like the music Kississippi has made in the past. It sounds more like a CHVRCHES song. It is utterly fabulous. “CRY” - Julia Jacklin Last week Julia released two new songs inspired by the state of the world.
Thursday, October 22, 2020
Man, I hate fall break. I’m pretty sure I’ve ranted about this before. But as our girls are on fall break right now, it is on my mind. A year ago at one of L’s soccer practices I was making sarcastic comments about fall break with the dad who I had coached with for a few years. We agreed fall break was dumb and messed up youth sports, which should always come first.
Tuesday, October 20, 2020
A couple recent departures from the University of Kansas athletic program that deserve a few words. Silvio First, late last week Silvio De Sousa announced he was leaving the basketball program. KU, like every Power 5 sports program, has a long list of players who were “disappointments.” Silvio might be at the top of KU’s list. During the 2017–18 season, when Billy Preston was ruled ineligible and Udoka Azabuike was injured, De Sousa seemed like a gift from the hoops gods.
Monday, October 19, 2020
It felt like I mostly sat on my ass watching sports this weekend. Turns out a lot went on. Here are some details. HS Football M snagged a ticket at the last minute to the Indy high school game of the year: 5A #1 Cathedral vs 6A #1 Center Grove. Both teams were undefeated, had rolled through their first eight games pretty much unchallenged, and were ranked in the top 25 of the USA Today national poll.
Friday, October 16, 2020
open.spotify.com/playlist/… “You Held My Heart” - The Flatmates “1-2-3-4!” is a great way to start off any weekend. “Music Makes Me High” - The Avalanches This could easily be my theme song. “Moment in the Sun” - Sunflower Bean The days are getting shorter. Daylight Saving Time ends in two weeks. Our moment in the sun is almost over. “Bailey” - Suzie True Another piece of fun garage pop to book-end the newer music on the list.
Thursday, October 15, 2020
I rediscovered my reading mojo over the past few weeks. It helped that I found a book I had been trying to locate for a year or more, and then two other great reads on top of that. Walk This Way: Run-DMC, Aerosmith, and the Song That Changed American Music Forever - Geoff Edgers First is the book I’ve been trying to find for at least a year, since I read a brief excerpt before it was published.
Monday, October 12, 2020
We’ve hit that moment in fall that is both lovely and sad: the last burst of really warm, humid weather before things change. We are scheduled to have the pool closed on Wednesday, so last weekend was our final chance to swim. Friday I cranked the heater up to be sure the water was tolerable. That took the chill off but we may not have needed it Saturday as the temperature burst into the 80s.
Friday, October 9, 2020
open.spotify.com/playlist/… “Ain’t Talkin' ‘Bout Love” - Van Halen Been listening to a lot of VH this week. Like a pretty high percentage of white dudes (and some dudettes) who were born between 1965 and 1980. “When You’re Gone” - Lydia Loveless I’ve been waiting for Loveless’ new album for nearly four years. In the period since her last album, she got sober, got divorced, fought with her record company/the music industry, and pulled back from the public eye.
Thursday, October 8, 2020
Chart Week: September 16, 1989 Song: “Friends” - Jody Watley with Eric B & Rakim Chart Position: #33, 14th week on the chart. Peaked at #9 the week of August 26. For some reason I’ve struggled with this entry. I’ve been working on it for two weeks but can never seem to find the right tone. I’m setting a timer for 30 minutes and when that’s up, you get what I’ve got.
Wednesday, October 7, 2020
Ted Lasso As with the first month of shows, Ted Lasso continued to shine in the final five episodes of season one. Sure, there were predictable, clichéd choices in how the show progressed. But the dynamic between the main characters is what carried the program. I believe I said this last month but it was a little shocking how good Jason Sudeikis is in the emotional moments of Ted’s life. Hannah Waddingham and Juno Temple were both outstanding, too.
Tuesday, October 6, 2020
Fuck, cancer got Eddie. Hard rock wasn’t necessarily my thing. But I learned that Eddie Van Halen was one of the 10 or 20 coolest people on the planet in the early ’80s and it was a good thing to know about and like his music. Shame that David Lee Roth was so atrocious in this performance because Eddie sounded as good as ever. RIP. youtu.be/Jm4leF-hZ…
Tuesday, October 6, 2020
A lot of ground to cover so let’s get into it. Today is a first: first sick kid day of the year. M is home for the first time in her high school career with an upset stomach. L also seems to be getting a cold, which is delightful. Usually C is the first to fall when illnesses begin circulating. The 2020 primary parental hope is that one symptom doesn’t turn into two, which turns into quarantining and testing and whatnot.
Friday, October 2, 2020
First off, apologies. I had a morning project that took longer than expected then lunch duty at St. P’s and I am a bit behind. Better late than never, though. open.spotify.com/playlist/… “Ghosts” - Bruce Springsteen. HOLY SHIT!!! The lead single off Springsteen’s up-coming album, the title track “Letter to You,” is pretty good. But this? Again, HOLY SHIT!!! Best song he’s put out since 1987? Maybe his poppiest song ever? And, like so many things, it seems like the perfect song for a moment when pretty much everything seems horrible.
Tuesday, September 29, 2020
My reading pace has fallen way off over the past month. I tried to start a book I was very much looking forward to reading but couldn’t focus and gave up. That lack of focus is most of the problem. Where I’m usually itchy and nervous if I’m not reading in my free time, I currently lack the motivation or excitement to start something new. I also got new glasses a few weeks back and my eyes, as always, are slow to adjust to the new prescription, which makes it difficult to read at times.
Monday, September 28, 2020
It’s time for the weekly Monday sports review! Gale Gale Sayers was waaaaaay before my time. He retired about six months after I was born, and his final two years in the NFL were slowed by a series of serious injuries that robbed him of his breath-taking speed. But there were uncles, and friends of uncles, and other people their age who would get emotional when they talked about watching him play in his prime.
Friday, September 25, 2020
Another week when I’m not terribly prepared to share a playlist of (mostly) new music. I’ve reached the point in the year when I start looking backwards and doing some tentative work on my Favorite Songs of the Year list. While there has been plenty of new music in the middle half of the year, and some of that music quite good, there’s clearly been a drop off from a very good start to the year.
Wednesday, September 23, 2020
A couple kid milestones to share. First, C got her braces taken off yesterday. This was both early and late. She was originally pegged to be in them 22–24 months, and this was just month 17. But it was also late because she missed an appointment during lockdown so likely would have had them removed 4–6 weeks ago had she stayed on that schedule. She was thrilled to get them removed, although a bit bummed that some of the ceremony that goes with having them taken off has been wiped out by the Covid era.
Monday, September 21, 2020
It was a weekend dominated by watching sports, mostly on the TV. Friday night we went to an (outdoor) fundraiser that a high school friend of S’s was throwing. This is her pal who nearly died of Covid back in April. He brought together a few well-connected friends he has (one is an NBA player) to throw a neighborhood concert that would raise money for families that were struggling with expenses because of Covid-related hospital stays.
Friday, September 18, 2020
For most of this week I’ve been listening to A) the new Doves album, which is awesome, and B) working through Steven Hyden’s The Best Bruce Springsteen Songs, Ranked list. As of Thursday night I am just past the mid-point of the list. I’ve discovered some songs that are new to me that I’ve really enjoyed while building more respect for and knowledge of The Boss' full catalog. Because of that, I haven’t listened to much new music.
Thursday, September 17, 2020
It only took six weeks for Tom Breihan to roll through the 20 number one songs of 1984. 1985 has some bangers, for sure, but we’re approaching the point where I’ll be more interested in his words than in the songs themselves. In the comments, people ranked the Number Ones of 1984 in their preferred order. Believe it or not I’m not registered to comment; not sure why but I’ve never signed up.
Tuesday, September 15, 2020
The fall 2020 kickball season has come to an end for our family. L’s team capped their season Wednesday with a run-rule win against the nearest parish. L had a grand slam, a three-run triple, and a single to close out the season. She didn’t kick quite as well this year as in the past. I’m not sure if that’s because she hasn’t played soccer in a year, or just from her body changing - she’s stretched out more over the past few months - and her form changing along with it.