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US Open with A Dash of NBA Finals Notes

I think I firmly established my old man status by watching approximately 800 hours of golf this weekend. Now, it was the US Open, which is always big. Before we had a lake home and spent most of our June weekends there, I was still watching the Open for hours on Father’s Day weekend. And Topeka, Kansas’ own Gary Woodland leading for over half of the tournament, from his late Friday charge through his memorable back nine Sunday to win his first major, also helped.

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Friday Playlist

Back at it after a week off. open.spotify.com/playlist/… “Call Me Snowflake” - Middle Kids. MK’s new EP came out a couple weeks back. I don’t know why I was surprised, but it is really, really good. I guess I figured since they had released a couple solid singles from it in advance, there wouldn’t be much more to it. But turns out that it is fantastic front-to-back. Proving they are as good as anyone making music at the moment.

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KU Hoops: Spring of Drama

It is mid-June.[1] What better time to talk some KU hoops? Especially after the weirdest season in decades turned into the weirdest offseason over the same span. In the wake of the boat-racing by Auburn that mercifully ended the 2018–19 season, what should have been an opportunity for relaxing and regrouping became one of the most dire stretches in the Bill Self era. Dedric Lawson, Quentin Grimes, and Devon Dotson all declared for the NBA draft.

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San Diego Notebook

Our summer trip is already in the books. After C and L wrapped up their school year last Tuesday, we set early alarms and headed off to the airport at 5:30 Wednesday morning to get our flight to San Diego. It was the girls’ first trip to California, and the first visit to San Diego for S and I. Other than normal teenage sister bullshit and a few too many clouds, it was a good trip.

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Grad Days

Looks like I forgot to hit post on this yesterday. St. P’s is, apparently, the only school outside of Massachusetts that is still in session. C and L have two more days, today and tomorrow, both of which will be filled with watching movies, playing games, field day, and other nonsense. Parents voted for this schedule a year ago, and there have been a lot of sarcastic comments in the halls, in the parking lot, and at school events by people who hate the choice.

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Friday Playlist

open.spotify.com/user/224a… “You’re Trying Too Hard” - Nightjacket. I feel like I definitely have a sound for 2019 so far: Female vocals over what is mostly indie pop with some hints of other genres mixed in. This band fits right in it, blending some dream pop and shoegaze into their pop stew. “Who You Are” - Mannequin Pussy. This band fits right into that pocket, too. Mostly straight-ahead pop-rock with a touch of jangle pop.

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One Down...

On August 16, 2010 we began a new chapter in our family life: we sent M off to St. P’s for her first day of kindergarten. Today, we close the book on her life there. Today is the last day for her eighth grade class. This afternoon they will clear out their lockers, pack up their bags, and walk through a tunnel of their kindergarten buddies at about 2:45. If tradition holds, both the eighth graders and the kindergarteners will be in tears.

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Belated Holiday Wrap

A quick holiday weekend wrap up. It was a strange Memorial Day weekend. For the first time since 2013 we were not at the lake. As the weekend got closer, it kept feeling very strange not to automatically have plans and to not have people asking us, “You going to the lake this weekend?” As other friends went off to their own lake homes, and as the temperature and humidity climbed, I did have a few moments of wishing we still had the house.

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Camp

St. P’s fourth graders always make an overnight trip to CYO camp in the spring. Given L’s troubles with sleeping over at other people’s homes - she’s had one successful sleepover ever and shown no interest in trying again after her most recent meltdown last summer - I knew I would have to go along with her. Since M and C have both gone there multiple years in the summer, and always raved about their experience, I was moderately excited about the trip.

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Friday Vid

youtu.be/Kr0tTbTbm… “Summertime” - DJ Jazzy Jeff & The Fresh Prince Apologies for the lateness; I spent the last two days with L down at CYO camp and just got home a little after 3:00 today. But it is Memorial Day weekend, so let’s kick off the summer of 2019 with the greatest summer song of all time.

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Anatomy of an Obsession

Over the years I’ve had plenty of obsessions that dominate my attention and time. Sometimes it was a person - sorry to all the girls I was a little weird about back in the day. Sometimes it was a band - there’s a long list of artists that I got way into and would listen to, non-stop, for months at a time. And sometimes it was an activity/hobby. Photography has been the most recent example.

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Reader's Notebook, 5/21/19

Oh snap, somehow I’ve gone over a month without an RN entry. I’ll blow through my last four books to get caught up. The Sisters Brothers - Patrick DeWitt This is a tremendous and lovely tale of two West Coast gunmen - brothers Charlie and Eli Sisters - who prowl Oregon and California for a regional crime boss during the early days of the Gold Rush. Charles is the head of the crew, the tougher, meaner, and more manipulative brother.

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Friday Vid

youtu.be/JoCIwkwH9… “Beautiful Stranger” - DMA’s covering Madonna. Just a video today. We had a huge, surprise storm blow through between 5:00 and 5:30 yesterday afternoon. Our power went out at exactly 5:32 and did not come back on until 4:45 this morning. Thus I’m scrambling a little this morning, and have to be at school for the annual Walkathon shortly. We were lucky; we only lost a few tree branches. There are houses very close to us with huge, old trees lying on their roofs.

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End of the Sports Year

We wrapped up the spring kid sports season last night with the City track finals. C had a very good night. She first ran in the final of the 400. Looking at the preliminary times I figured her best chance for a high placement was in the 200. She was fighting a cold and coughing/sneezing a lot, so I told her before this race that if she was struggling it was ok to back off and save some strength for the 200.

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Curses

Yesterday was the fourth time one of our girls played in a kickball City Championship game. For the fourth time, we played our worst game of the year and walked away losers. L’s team got waxed pretty good, 20–4, and it really wasn’t that close. The team they played was solid at the plate and really good in the field. They only had a couple girls who could really blast the ball, but every other girl knew how to either kick away from the defense or to the spot that forced the defense to make a tough play.

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Weekend Notes

It was a pretty quiet weekend for us. Friday was the annual St. P’s eighth grade Mother’s Mass. All the eighth graders and their moms got dressed up, had a special Mass first thing in the day followed by a brunch at school. Then they were excused for the day to go do stuff together. The girls all went to Top Golf and then a bakery to get treats.[1] Although I handle a lot of the mom duties in our house, S did take this one and I believe both she and M had a really good day.

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Friday Vid

youtu.be/nBcbDS5AG… “Head Rolls Off” - Frightened Rabbit. It was a year ago tomorrow that, just after getting home from dropping my girls at school, the official news broke that Scott Hutchison’s body had been found floating in the Forth, as he had warned us about ten years earlier. It’s been a tough year for me as a massive fan of Scott’s music, as I’ve documented a few times. There were the weeks after his death when I listened to his music non-stop in a state of emotional tumult.

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Friday Playlist

Separating the playlist from the video this week, as I need to say a few things about the video. open.spotify.com/user/224a… “They’ll Never” - Stef Chura. Oh hells yessssss! This is the perfect song to get the warm weather season kicked off right! (I say that when we have almost no chance of reaching 60 today). “Hello Sunshine” - Bruce Springsteen. Speaking of the sun…The Boss has a new solo album slated for later this year, and as this song shows, it will be a very different sound for him.

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Timeless Fashion (I Hope)

We’ve had a lovely run of weather lately that has kept me out of the house much of this week. Running some errands. Hitting some golf balls. Coaching and watching sports. Good stuff. Today the weather broke a bit. It is warm and muggy, but there are thick, ominous clouds racing across the sky as steady gusts blow. Storms are supposed to hit soon. Which is a real pisser because we have a very important kickball game on the schedule tonight and we’d like to get it in tonight before the weather turns much cooler tomorrow.

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Weekend Notes

We had a big sports and family weekend. So some quick notes are in order. Friday L had a big kickball game. This was against the only team to beat them this season, a game we lost by three runs after giving up 12 runs in the first inning. Things were a little different this time. We held them to six in the first and then scored 11 in our first kicks.

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Friday Playlist

open.spotify.com/user/224a… “Datura” - GOON. I had to pick the order in which I listen to the various decade channels on SiriusXM the most, the two ‘80s stations would be first, obviously. Perhaps surprising to some the 70s on 7 would be second before Lithium, the 90s alternative and grunge channel. The ’90s just don’t connect with me these days the way they used to. So kind of a shock that I’m digging this so much, which sounds straight out of 1996.

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Reaching for the Stars, Vol. 26

Our Internet was out almost all day yesterday, so my web time was greatly reduced. Fortunately I had some notes pulled together for this post, which I was able to hammer out between other activities. Chart Week: April 26, 1986 Song: “West End Girls” - Pet Shop Boys Chart Position: #3, 7th week on the chart. Peaked at #1 the week of May 10. What is 80s music? Sounds and fads ebb and flow over a ten year period.

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Kid Sports

We put M on a bus to Washington, DC at 6:15 this morning. So seems like the perfect moment for a kid sports update time! Kickball C’s team, which I am helping to coach, is 0–2 with one game rained out so far, another removed from the schedule because the team we were supposed to play could not play on the date originally planned and were jerks about finding a makeup date, and tonight we play a team that is just crushing everybody, including one of the teams we lost to.

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Friday Playlist

Wait, it’s Friday already? And it’s almost May? Holy crap time has flown this week/month. So apologies for the last-minute playlist. open.spotify.com/user/224a… “any other night” - the dates. I’m having a hard time finding anything about this group, mostly because the combination of song title and group name falls into one of those Google holes where about 1000 other things pop up. I know Garrett Goddard is also in King Tuff, a band with a very different sound.

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School Days

I really want to crank out a kid sports update. But this is our busiest week of the spring - two games tonight, track meet tomorrow, two games Thursday, game Friday, track meet Sunday - and it seems like I should wait until we get through it before I start breaking things down for you. Instead I’ll share what I did with the girls last week, when I spent two days with them at school activities.

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Reaching for the Stars, Vol. 25

Chart Week: April 20, 1985 Song: “We Are the World” - USA for Africa Chart Position: #1, 5th week on the chart. Spent four weeks at #1. Ah, the 1980s celebrity/cause single. It seems like there were tons of these but a check of Wikipedia shows there really weren’t that many original songs written for this or that benefit. I guess it’s because so many came in a pretty tight window that they seemed so prevalent.

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Friday Playlist

A very Good Friday and Happy Easter weekend to you all. open.spotify.com/user/224a… “Everybody Here Hates You” - Courtney Barnett. This song is a grower. I was just thrilled CB had put out a couple songs for Record Store Day. But as I’ve listened to this more and more, it has gotten into my head and I really like it. “Caves” - Gregory Alan Isakov. Isakov’s albums are often tough for me to listen to because they are so spare and folksy.

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Reader's Notebook, 4/17/19

Through a combination of laziness last week and being super busy this week I haven’t caught you up on what I’ve been reading over the past month. Black Leopard Red Wolf - Marlon James This book arrived with massive hype. James’ last novel, A Brief History of Seven Killings captured nearly every major book award and was one of my favorites of recent years. For his next effort, James decided to take the classic elements of fantasy writing and incorporate African folklore, history, and themes into them.

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TIGER!!!

Holy shit! What else can you say to Tiger Woods winning the Master’s in 2019, 11 years after his last major victory and 14 years since his last win in Augusta? It was a pretty insane weekend down at Augusta National. First, a big shout out to Mother Nature. Usually if I’m discussing her I’m calling her a bitch. But by threatening severe storms in Georgia, and thus moving the tournament’s final round up to Sunday morning, and also raining out C’s track meet here in Indy, I was able to watch every second of Sunday’s glorious coverage.

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Friday Playlist

A bit of a busy week here for a variety of reasons, which has put me in the strange position of not having a big queue of new music to share. So some classics for you this week. open.spotify.com/user/224a… “Float On” - Modest Mouse. This song has jumped up a lot recently on Sirius for some reason. I think I’ve heard it 10 times in the last six weeks or so.

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