Friday, April 12, 2019
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.
Wednesday, April 10, 2019
It’s a Nephew Duty day so getting this out a little later than I planned. OK, now for the trip itself. First off, I must say, I can not recommend enough traveling on off-days during spring break. I believe we saved a little on the airfare by doing a Thur-Thur trip. More importantly, the airports were breezes to get through. Immigration in Mexico was a stupid easy; last year it took us nearly an hour to get processed.
Tuesday, April 9, 2019
I’ll hold off on my big spring break summary to share some thoughts on the end of the college basketball season. I don’t know if it is me getting older, the media getting stupider, or a combination of both, but I have a harder time following sports media without getting pissed off these days. For example, in the lead-up to last night’s National Championship game I kept seeing articles, mostly on ESPN, that referenced the “controversial” foul call at the end of the Virginia-Auburn national semifinal.
Monday, April 8, 2019
As expected, my Cancún summary is rather long. So I shall divide it into a couple posts for you. Part one goes back to the pre-trip drama I mentioned before we left. Two Sundays ago we were deep into the trip prep process. Packing, printing itineraries, making our 30th Target run, etc. As a part of this I pulled out our passports to make backup copies. I got through the girls’, threw mine onto the copier, and glanced at S’s.
Friday, April 5, 2019
youtu.be/ibyAiAfBt… “Real Thing” - Middle Kids. We are home, safe and sound, tanned and tired. We made it home a little after 9:00 last night thanks to multiple delays in our return flights. A long summary post of our week in Cancun will come Monday. I monitored my music sites while away, bookmarking posts I wanted to come back to. I was thrilled to see a new Middle Kids single and news of a new EP next month.
Friday, March 29, 2019
youtu.be/7VzakY8h5… “Mirror in the Bathroom” - The English Beat. RIP to one of the coolest men, and coolest names, in the second British Invasion of the 1980s, “Ranking Roger” Charlery.
Thursday, March 28, 2019
Chart Week: February 25, 1978 Song: “How Deep Is Your Love” - Bee Gees Chart Position: #10, 23rd week on the chart. Peaked at #1 for three weeks in December 1977 and January 1978. The most amazing chart stretch of my life was the Bee Gee’s run in the late ‘70s. They absolutely owned the charts thanks largely to the monster that was the Saturday Night Fever soundtrack. The soundtrack, which sold over 45 millions copies and spent over six months at #1 on the album chart, featured seven #1 singles - although three of those topped the charts before the album was released.
Wednesday, March 27, 2019
As I said Monday, this is a very busy week. It’s already noon on Wednesday and it feels like the first half of the week has raced by as we get closer to our spring break departure tomorrow morning. Last night M and C and I went to St. P’s first every big theater production. A few years back there was a suggestion that the school should bump up their arts offerings.
Tuesday, March 26, 2019
Usually when I post a link to an article, I like to offer a few thoughts about its content. I’ve been sitting on this one for a few days and, honestly, can’t come up with anything. It may be the most ridiculous thing I’ve ever read. Which is saying something: I’ve wasted A LOT of time on the Internet over the years. So, for your reading pleasure, please follow this link.
Monday, March 25, 2019
This is a very busy week, with our spring break beginning Thursday and a lot of prep in the days between now and then, along with some babysitting of a nephew one day. So I figured I would start my NCAA post Sunday night as I watch the final game of the weekend, Oregon-UC Irvine. KU I told you this was going to happen. OK, I feared a blowout because of Auburn’s experience, speed, athleticism, and depth.
Friday, March 22, 2019
A slap-dash, quickie playlist this week as I had a few things lined up this morning and have a lot of basketball to watch this afternoon. open.spotify.com/user/224a… “Friendly Aliens” - Chad VanGaalen. This guy is from Canada. This song is trippy and strange and fun. “Without a Blush” - Hatchie. Your weekly Australian song. Her EP last year was excellent. Looking forward to her full-length debut in June. “When Am I Gonna Lose You” - Local Natives.
Thursday, March 21, 2019
A rather busy week has kept me from diving too deep into the nitty gritty of this year’s NCAA tournament field. It’s the first week of kickball practice, so I’ve been making sure our teams are good to go, balls have been inflated and distributed, and making sure all the stuff I need to clear with the school office before teams get outside has been cleared. M had her scheduling night at CHS on Tuesday.
Wednesday, March 20, 2019
The First Major: The Inside Story of the 2016 Ryder Cup - John Feinstein Years ago I used to read a lot of Feinstein’s books. His A Season Inside is one of my all-time favorite sports books.[1] But, over time, I found his books to basically be the same format with different details. There were little moments that would appear in every book that drove me nuts. Plus he comes off as a bit of an arrogant prick.
Wednesday, March 20, 2019
You may have noticed something very important was missing around here last holiday season. Yes, I never linked to the newest edition of The Hater’s Guide to the Williams-Sonoma Catalog, the annual gut-bust of a read. Good reason for that: Drew Magary, the mad genius who puts those together every year, suffered a sudden and major health issue last December. Fortunately he has returned, apparently in good health, and realized the phrase better late than never applies to internet parodies as much as anything else.
Monday, March 18, 2019
Mid-March is here. The conference tournaments are complete. The brackets released. It’s the most wonderful time of the year. Yaaay… It can be hard to get tone across in text. If you guessed, based on the opening lines of this piece, that I’m not super pumped about the NCAA tournament, you would be correct. However, unlike some recent years, I also am not dreading it. Basically, because Kansas has no shot to make a deep run, and I’ve known that since the second week of January, I approach this year’s tournament without any excitement for the possibilities the next two to three weeks hold, but also without any fears of the potential bad outcomes.
Friday, March 15, 2019
Some more rockin’ tunes this week. open.spotify.com/user/224a… “Satellite” - The Get Up Kids. This band might be the most successful to come out of the Kansas City/Lawrence music scene of the late 90s/early 00s. I run into people all the time who love them. But I was never a huge fan; emo just never was my bag. But this song hits me in the right spots, a fun little raver that makes me want to jump around.
Tuesday, March 12, 2019
Hey! Another super long post about kids sports! This one is a little special, though. After five years, M’s CYO sports - and likely all sports - career is over. It was not a bad ending. Her volleyball team came back from the brink of losing twice in their tournament, closed out their arch-rivals in the championship game, and ended the season as B-league City champs! First off, they got very lucky with how their tournament worked.
Sunday, March 10, 2019
Chart Week: March 1, 1986 Song: “Beat’s So Lonely” - Charlie Sexton Chart Position: #26, 12th week on the chart. Peaked at #17 for three weeks in March/April. One-hit-wonders come in all size, shapes, sounds, and types. Charlie Sexton may be one of the cruelest examples of a OHW. Sexton was a bit of a musical prodigy, trained in his preteens by legendary bluesman W.C. Clark. Soon after he was performing with bands and recording his own music.
Friday, March 8, 2019
open.spotify.com/user/224a… “Don’t Be So Hard on Yourself” - Alex Lahey. We don’t deserve all the great music that Australia is pumping out these days. Last week Julia Jacklin’s newest album came out. Stella Donnelly’s was released today. Alex Lahey is next on the list, with hers dropping on May 17. “In the Capital” - Rolling Blackouts Coastal Fever. Man did I get excited when I heard this track. A new album from RBCF in 2019?
Thursday, March 7, 2019
I’m in the midst of a mighty fine reading run, so some quick blurbs about four recent books. The Finnish Way - Katja Pantzar I kept seeing this one on the ends of aisles at bookstores, highlighted in the library, etc. and finally caved. I had to know what the hell the Finnish Way was. Pantzar, a child of Finns who was raised in Canada but moved to Finland as an adult, attempts to isolate what it is that makes the people of Finland unique.
Wednesday, March 6, 2019
Something was strange in our house this morning. M sensed it. She walked down the stairs, paused, and said, “It feels weird in here. Like I kind of feel like I did when I was a baby, but I don’t know exactly how or what that means.” L was on the couch, whimpering, muttering, “Dad? Dad, is that you? Why is it so cold, Dad?” C was just crying, but that could have been her braces.
Tuesday, March 5, 2019
It’s been a busy couple weeks for two of our girls’ teeth. M officially graduated out of her orthodontic practice two weeks ago. She had her braces taken off back in June but while her teeth emerged beautifully straight, her gums were “angry,” to quote her orthodontist. He floated the idea of some minor laser surgery to clean them up but wanted to give them more time to heal on their own first.
Monday, March 4, 2019
One staple of the blog that I’ve ignored of late is the Kid Sports update. So, here is a long-ass post with too many details about what our girls have been up to. M and C have been playing volleyball for the last couple of months. C returned after taking a year off and really enjoyed it. She’s still pretty spazzy on the court - there’s no other way to put it - and often that cancels out her natural athleticism.
Friday, March 1, 2019
It’s March! Which means accumulating snow Sunday followed by record cold for most of next week. Le sigh… Here’s some music to get you through the latest trash weekend. open.spotify.com/user/224a… “Capacity” - Charly Bliss. An ear worm that defies putting in a musical slot. I hear lines back to the music of at least three different decades in here. “stay” - pronoun. In a somewhat similar vein is this track. It makes me a little jittery that spring weather still seems far off, because this sounds like a track for outside activities.
Thursday, February 28, 2019
Chart Week: November 6, 1976 Song: “The Rubberband Man” - The Spinners Chart Position: #15, 9th week on the chart. Peaked at #2 for three weeks in December. As promised, our first journey into the 1970s. This is the perfect jam to make that deeper run into the chart history. As I’ve said many times in the past, my parents listened to a lot of soul, R&B, urban, or Black music, whatever you want to call it.
Wednesday, February 27, 2019
Oh my gosh, this is such a good read for pretty much everyone our age. Follow the Path of Least Resistance: An Oral History of ‘Office Space’
Tuesday, February 26, 2019
Well, here we are: three games left in the Big 12 season and after pounding Kansas State last night, Kansas is a game out of first place, needing to both sweep through their last three games and get some serious help if they want to extend The Streak to 15. In years past I’d say there was a 75% chance that KU would pull it off. This year, though? I think it is 25% at best.
Friday, February 22, 2019
open.spotify.com/user/224a… “Blankets” - Craig Finn. This is the first time I’ve really enjoyed one of Finn’s solo songs. It may make me reconsider his entire solo catalog. But I’ll likely just got back and listen to classic Hold Steady tracks. “Heart Attack Kid” - Ben Kweller. Kweller disappeared for awhile. This is a pretty solid return. “Devil May Care” - Son Volt. Jay Farrar is always gonna Jay Farrar. “F the NRA” - The Coathangers.
Wednesday, February 20, 2019
This mini-documentary hits a lot of things I like: photography, golf, beautiful eccentrics to name three. It made me both happy and sad as I watched it. Fair warning: plenty of NSFW language in this piece. vimeo.com/317860394 Via Kottke
Tuesday, February 19, 2019
I’ve dillied and dallied a bit on these, so some quick recaps of my four most recent books. Beastie Boys Book - Michael Diamond and Adam Horowitz Simply one of the best music memoirs ever published. I’m being 100% honest, not funny at all. This book is equally hilarious, poignant, thoughtful, and moving. Mike D and Ad Rock tell the band’s story from their early days cruising the seedier parts of New York’s hardcore scene, through their transformation into rappers, and then through their massive, international success.