Monday, September 14, 2020
Football is back! After three weeks of high school action, the college and pro ranks joined in this weekend to give us another nudge towards a sense of normalcy. Let’s run through the weekend’s happenings. High School CHS played arch rival BCHS on Friday. CHS was ranked #1 in 5A, BCHS #1 in 3A. Despite the difference in size (CHS is a natural 4A school, with about 350 more students and draws from a bigger geographic region), this is a pretty even rivalry.
Friday, September 11, 2020
open.spotify.com/playlist/… “Child’s Romance” - Nap Eyes This song sounds soooooo Australian. Yet this band is from Nova Scotia. Even if they aren’t from my favorite musical continent, I still really dig this song. All kinds of good bits in it. “Mustang” - Strange Not sure there’s anyone in music right now like Bartees Strange. He combines a variety of disparate influences into a unique sound. He’s also a pretty interesting cat.
Thursday, September 10, 2020
Over the weekend I dug into the blog archives a little bit. I would pull up a random month from the past and scroll through the entries, skimming any that jumped out at me. I had thought a good quarantine project would be to re-read through the entire history of the site, but I never got around to that. Maybe that can be a winter project. As I went through Septembers of the past, I realized to keep with precedent, I should throw together some NFL predictions for the upcoming season.
Wednesday, September 9, 2020
A late return after the long holiday weekend. My in-laws have been in town since last Wednesday, which has adjusted my daily routine a little. Our Labor Day weekend was pretty low-key. Friday night was so cool that we kicked on the outdoor fireplace for the first time this season. A couple of the girls hung out with friends on Saturday. On Sunday we hosted a light family gathering at the pool.
Friday, September 4, 2020
Let’s see what I can whip up for you this week. Some old stuff, some new stuff. All good stuff. open.spotify.com/playlist/… “You Got The Love” - Rufus & Chaka Khan This week I read a long interview with Ray Parker, Jr. He seems like a pretty cool dude and has had an amazing career. He wrote this song with Chaka back in 1974. I had never heard it before but he mentions it in the piece.
Thursday, September 3, 2020
Funny what happens when sports come back. My media consumption was waaaay down in August. Or at least compared to the previous five months. Here is what I did knock out. Jayhawkers I remember when this movie was made. Justin Wesley, a recent KU basketball player and brother of former KU great Keith Langford, was cast in the main role as Wilt Chamberlain. A KU professor - Academy Award winner Kevin Willmott - was making the film.
Tuesday, September 1, 2020
Three highly lauded books have kept me busy the past couple weeks. Disappearing Earth - Julia Phillips The last part of a book is so important to how readers feel about the entire story. This is an example of a book that was elevated by a nearly perfect ending. It begins with the disappearance of two young sisters from Petropavlosk, the capital of the Russian region of Kamchatka. The rest of the book advances in one-month increments, with each chapter focused on a different person.
Monday, August 31, 2020
Two full weeks into the school year and we’ve had our first major change. Beginning today, and for the foreseeable future, M will be home on Mondays. In Thursday’s normal parent newsletter, the CHS principal announced that the entire student population would be virtual and on a fixed schedule on Mondays. Several reasons were offered, but the one that seems the most compelling is to give all the kids the same experience at least one day per week.
Friday, August 28, 2020
I didn’t work on a playlist this week, so only a video today. youtu.be/i06UL-8AM… “Release” - Pearl Jam I couldn’t settle on something to watch last Saturday so started scrolling through YouTube and came across Pearl Jam’s 2018 performance at Lallapalooza in Brazil. Two and a half hours later I had watched the entire thing and knocked out a couple bourbons and started digging for rarer performances. Eventually I found this, from a month before the band appeared on Saturday Night Live for the first time and truly began to blow up.
Thursday, August 27, 2020
I’m having a hard time with what is happening around this country right now. What frustrates me most is that I no longer have the patience to sit down and hammer out a couple thousand words about what is going on. I’ve tried, but the longer I type, the madder I get. So in place of a post I would have offered in the past, when I could work through that anger to try to get something coherent to share, I will offer this video from Trevor Noah.
Tuesday, August 25, 2020
Chart Week: August 14, 1982 Song: “Someday, Someway” - Marshall Crenshaw Chart Position: #40, 6th week on the chart. Peaked at #36 for two weeks in August/September. Some one-hit wonders are easy to explain. There are the accidental hits, songs by unknown artists that get tied to popular movies or TV shows. There are novelty hits that piggyback on some cultural fad and ride its popularity to chart success. And there are the dozens and dozens of artists who capitalize on some musical trend - disco, new wave, etc.
Monday, August 24, 2020
I swore that I had written a detailed breakdown back in 2004 of my first Indianapolis 500 weekend living here, which until this year was the strangest Indy 500 day of that era. Alas, after checking the archives, I found I wrote way more about the crazy weather that day than about my experience on my first race day as an Indiana resident. Yesterday was way stranger than 2004, which just featured tornado warnings as the race was ending.
Friday, August 21, 2020
A delayed but very special playlist for this week. Today would have been Joe Strummer’s 68th birthday. To celebrate, a group of musicians is doing a virtual tribute concert for Joe later today. Sadly I’ll be running around getting the girls then heading to kickball, but I will certainly be watching a replay over the weekend. As Strummer is on my Mt. Rushmore of influential musicians, seems like I should honor him as well.
Tuesday, August 18, 2020
Three days into everyone being back in school. I wouldn’t say it’s been a smooth transition, as both schools continue to adjust on the fly as conditions warrant. At CHS, they have had to make multiple changes to students’ schedules. We heard that the first change was because they had a higher students-per-class ratio than the county health department wanted. So over the weekend 62 sections - I’m assuming that means groups of similar classes - had to be revamped to hit that threshold.
Friday, August 14, 2020
All about the ladies this week. Well, kind of. There is a male artist in the PL, but as you’ll learn, he was “in a phase,” as my mom would have said. [open.spotify.com/playlist/...](https://open.spotify.com/playlist/0qnJThjEn3irKQDbqIwjNu?si=uQNjlCdESFyn7EOxNKP4UQ) “the 1” - Taylor Swift I give Taylor all the credit: show knows how to write a fucking song. I keep getting drawn back to her folklore album. It might be the best album I’ve listened to this year.
Thursday, August 13, 2020
Chart Week: August 2, 1986 Song: “Your Wildest Dreams” - The Moody Blues Chart Position: #20, 16th week on the chart. Peaked at #9 for two weeks in July. Having a teenage crush on a teacher is kind of a rite of passage, the stuff dozens - perhaps hundreds - of trashy novels and movies have been based on over the years. However, I don’t recall every being infatuated with one of my teachers.
Wednesday, August 12, 2020
After five months at home, C and L finally went back to school today. We shall, of course, see how long this lasts. The entire 7th/8th grade football team is currently quarantining at home after at least one kid tested positive last week. There will be more positive kids that pop up soon and all we can do is hope those numbers stay low enough to keep the school open and that our girls don’t get sick.
Tuesday, August 11, 2020
Feel free to skip this article if you think the “China virus” is overblown, that it is going to disappear any day, that Democratic lawmakers are using it as an excuse to institute socialism and take away your freedoms, etc. But if you’re sane, this is a completely devastating reminder of just how royally the president has fucked everything in 2020. Coronavirus: How Trump killed tens of thousands of Americans.:
Monday, August 10, 2020
It’s taken me awhile to get into them, but sports are back! Kind of, sort of, that is. As I type this fall college sports are looking nervously at the drain, aware that a hand is lingering near the handle to flush them away to 2021. But the pros have been keeping us entertained for a few weeks now. And it has been surprisingly good. Golf Golf was the first major American sport back, and had a glorious weekend with the first major championship of the year, the PGA Championship played at Harding Park in San Francisco.
Friday, August 7, 2020
With our situation constantly in flux, a lot can change in a week. But as it stands this morning, all three of our girls are scheduled to be back in a school classroom this time next week. Which makes this the final playlist of a rather long summer. Nothing specific to celebrate that, but this will be a mega playlist this week as I do some housecleaning. open.spotify.com/playlist/… “Jeannine” - Pete Yorn A lovely song that sounds like saying goodbye to those summer romances as you head back to the real world.
Wednesday, August 5, 2020
I’ve accumulated five books that require discussion. I’ll try to make this quick, but you know me, so strap in. The Match: The Day the Game of Golf Changed Forever - Mark Frost I knew nothing about this book or the event it covered until I heard a discussion of it on a podcast. The focus is the 1956 match between professional golf legends Ben Hogan and Byron Nelson and young amateurs Ken Venturi and Harvie Ward.
Tuesday, August 4, 2020
Please examine this picture. One the left you see an open box of Multi Grain Cheerios. It is nearly empty, but there is still a half-serving, give or take, left inside. Enough to start a bowl, fill a coffee cup,[^1] or be the perfect portion if you’re slicing a banana to go with. On the right you see the brand new box of Multi Grain Cheerios that I purchased yesterday.
Monday, August 3, 2020
Well, we spent a week in Florida. Whether that was a good idea or not, I suppose we’ll figure out in the next 10-14 days. But it was definitely fun to get away from home for a bit. There were enough mixed feelings hanging over this trip thanks to Covid-19. Then some other shit happened. We were scheduled to leave early Saturday, July 25. Our flight was at 7:30 so my alarm was set for 4:45.
Friday, July 31, 2020
[youtu.be/2RHTiXvEL...](https://youtu.be/2RHTiXvELNg) “Vacation” - The Go-Go’s As we enjoy our final day of vacation, please enjoy this classic video on the subject.
Friday, July 24, 2020
[open.spotify.com/playlist/...](https://open.spotify.com/playlist/5BNb2b5g7I6bFSYG7tlMt3?si=3XXdHA0_Rqa8KzE7sy2diw) "Mariana Trench" - Bright Eyes I've never listened to Bright Eyes, but I enjoyed Conor Oberst's collaboration with Phoebe Bridgers last year as part of Better Oblivion Community Center. As if for people like me, Bright Eyes is about to put out their first album in over a decade. Based on this track, I'll at least give it a courtesy listen. "Country Church" - Holy Motors If Mazzy Star made a song that had some swing to it, and it landed on the soundtrack of a mid-90s noir film, it would sound like this.
Thursday, July 23, 2020
July is not over. But as we will be out-of-town next week, and I haven’t found much to write about this week, I thought I’d go ahead and share my media post for the month. Brooklyn Nine-Nine Always reliable, but never quite as great as Michael Schur’s other creations. What was strange was watching a show that was recorded before and during the Coronavirus outbreak. It was weird seeing commercials and promos from back when life was normal and then suddenly seeing them change in tone when April rolled around.
Monday, July 20, 2020
Some notes from the past few days. Nephews We watched two of our nephews overnight Saturday. Number one just turned four, is very strong willed and stubborn, but generally a good kid. He loves to swim at our house, and spent a lot of time in the pool Saturday evening and Sunday morning. I tell you what, there’s nothing better for wiping a kid out than letting them swim for a couple hours.
Friday, July 17, 2020
[open.spotify.com/playlist/...](https://open.spotify.com/playlist/6ry5uT5xwwkEaixaHMnbNz?si=gBLHEzJUQ0WORZxNClIGKg) "Divine Accidents" - 5 Billion in Diamonds This band features Butch Vig, the drummer for Garbage and producer for dozens of big 1990s alt acts, and Ebbot Lundberg of Soundtrack of Our Lives. It sounds like a mashsup of SOOL and ELO, which is not unpleasant at all. "Destroyer" - Lala Lala Phoebe Bridgers recently recommended Lala Lala's new album. I have only listened to this song so far, but I really like its vibe.
Wednesday, July 15, 2020
Chart Week: July 3, 1982 Song: “Hurts So Good” - John Cougar Chart Position: #5, 11th week on the chart. Peaked at #2 for four weeks in August. This entry is about how the biological information Casey Kasem shared on American Top 40 was not always accurate. John Cougar (Mellencamp) is the perfect artist to demonstrate this point, as he charted under three different versions of his last name. For simplicity, I will refer to him by the name this song charted under.
Tuesday, July 14, 2020
Since I’m struggling to write about current affairs at the moment, I decided I am going to try to get back to doing something I used to do a lot more often: link to interesting articles. I can’t think of a better way to start than this piece. The Strange Disappearance of Ed, the Great Show That Time Forgot Old school friends will remember how much I loved Ed. Every few years something will remind me of it and I’ll sniff around a little to see if there has been any resolution to the music rights issues which have prevented it from ending up on cable or a streaming service.