Friday, November 2, 2018
Chart Week: October 13, 1984 Song: “Strut” - Sheena Easton Chart Position: #31, 8th week on the chart. Peaked at #7 the week of November 24. To me, at least, it seems like Sheena Easton’s career was longer than it actually was. She exploded onto the scene in 1981 with the world-wide smash “9 to 5 (Morning Train),” which went to #1 in four countries and was top 10 in four others.
Friday, November 2, 2018
We’ll start with a playlist. If all goes well, I’ll have a video for you later in the day. open.spotify.com/user/224a… “Rain Check” - Carl Broemel. I’m not sure if I totally missed Indy native Broemel’s new album earlier this year, or if I listened to it and it just didn’t connect. I’m guessing it is more option A because this song rocks and I’m sure I would not have ignored it had I heard.
Thursday, November 1, 2018
I mentioned some time after our move last summer that we were all having a hard time making the small adjustments that come with a new home. Where are the cooking pots? Where are the cutting boards? Where is our stash of paper towels? Etc, etc etc. The longer we’ve been in this house, the more all of that newness has become routine. What continues to be strange, though, are the seasonal things we did in the old house and how to bring them to the new house.
Wednesday, October 31, 2018
I’m sure several of my loyal readers have been anticipating this post. So, finally, here are some disjointed thoughts on college hoops, shoe companies, and the FBI. It’s been a crazy ass few weeks for college basketball in general, and KU basketball in particular. The first of several trials that resulted from the FBI investigation into shoe companies and agents allegedly defrauding universities featured KU at the center. When the trial began, I was hoping that nothing worse that what we already knew about KU’s ties to the case would come out.
Monday, October 29, 2018
A strangely busy yet boring fall break weekend. L had a soccer tournament to wrap up her season. This came after not playing for two weeks and, unfortunately, it really showed. The girls, and L especially, were just not on their game. Friday we played our opening game at 7:45 under the lights. The windchill was in the upper 30s, there was a stiff northerly breeze, and it was raining steadily.
Friday, October 26, 2018
youtu.be/PJwt2dxx9… “Steppin’ Out” - Joe Jackson. Wait, is it Friday already? These fall break weeks mess with my mind. The girls were arguing yesterday about what day it was; one insisted it was Saturday while another claimed it was Friday. And they only get two days off, so it really shouldn’t be that tough. We’ve had a couple sleepovers and another friend over to play. Today is our annual flu shots and Steak & Shake day.
Tuesday, October 23, 2018
Each November I tell myself, “Self, you should really watch more than just the “Thanksgiving Orphans” episode of Cheers this year. Then I debate whether to just watch the rest of season five, which I own on DVD,[1] or dive into the entire series on a streaming service. And, every year, I end up just watching that single episode around Thanksgiving. Last spring I came across the article I’ve linked to below.
Monday, October 22, 2018
Chart Week: October 7, 1978 Song: “Whenever I Call You ‘Friend’” - Kenny Loggins (with Stevie Nicks) Chart Position: #10, 11th week on the chart. Peaked at #5 for two weeks in November. Controversy! A countdown from the 1970s?!?!?! SiriusXM rebroadcasts original ‘70s AT40 countdowns on its 70s on 7 channel. Unlike their updated version of 1980s countdowns on 80s on 8, which are aired several times from Friday until Tuesday of each week, the 1970s AT40s were normally aired just once on Saturdays, which made it tough to catch them.
Friday, October 19, 2018
IT’S DECORATIVE GOURD SEASON, MOTHERFUCKERS
Friday, October 19, 2018
vimeo.com/42364454 “Crazy Little Thing Called Love” - Queen. I haven’t been able to cobble together a playlist this week, so only a video for this Friday. But it’s an epic one. Believe it or not - given it was only 1982 - but this was the final Queen performance in the US. And their only appearance on SNL. Despite losing his voice that day, Freddie Mercury was in fine form. This was a solid A- performance until the band decided to rip everything up and rock out for the last two minutes.
Tuesday, October 16, 2018
I’ve been on a sports book tear the past couple weeks. Football, futbol, and golf. Big Game: The NFL in Dangerous Times - Mark Leibovich This book, by The New York Times Magazine’s chief national correspondent, arrived with nearly endless praise about a month ago. Promised as an investigation to the troubles the NFL faces in current times, it delivered as something perhaps not so comprehensive but way more fun than I expected.
Monday, October 15, 2018
Finally a (fairly) easy and relaxed weekend. No cross country for the first time since August. Coincidentally Saturday morning was the day one of C’s cross country coaches hosted his annual fall get-together. He’s a real estate agent - actually the listing agent on our new home - so he invites lots of clients in addition to friends and St. P’s families. So it was a pretty big gathering. The XC parents stood around in the fall chill and commented on how different it was from last Saturday.
Friday, October 12, 2018
open.spotify.com/user/224a… “Full Disclosure” - Line & Circle. Fall has finally arrived. We were pushing 90 earlier this week - with the heat indices well above 90 - but suddenly this morning it was below 40 and people were scrambling to turn on their furnaces. The next week promises only one day above 60. Mother Nature is a bitch… Perfectly timed is this song, which may hew a little too close to early R.
Tuesday, October 9, 2018
Chart Week: September 27, 1986 Song: “Heartbeat” - Don Johnson Chart Position: #14, 6th week on the chart. Peaked at #5 for two weeks in October. The history of pop music is riddled with vanity projects by actors, comedians, athletes, and others in the public eye who decided to leverage their fame in other mediums in an attempt to get a hit record. The 1980s in general, and 1986 in particular, were thick with these songs.
Monday, October 8, 2018
This was a weekend of sports endings and beginnings. And waitings, too, I guess. C wrapped up her cross country season with the annual City championship meet. Once again it was hot and humid for the biggest meet of the year, which is always an afternoon meet to avoid high school sectionals. I will give her this: she might fuss and worry about the conditions on hot days, but she almost always powers through where other kids wilt.
Friday, October 5, 2018
open.spotify.com/user/224a… “Heaven” - Late Bloomer. I’ve been meaning to share this song since July. It’s a big, crunchy, aggressive song that would have fit right into alternative rock radio in 1996. “Apocalypse Now (& Later)” - Laura Jane Grace & the Devouring Mothers. LJG’s announcement that she was transgendered and would be transitioning tore her previous band, Against Me!, apart. A few members of the band could not deal with her changes.
Tuesday, October 2, 2018
Righteous - Joe Ide I was a big fan of Ide’s debut novel, IQ, which I read earlier this year. I was very pleased to read an interview with Ide in which he confirmed he would continue writing about the lead character, Isaiah Quintabe, aka IQ, the Sherlock Holmes of south central Los Angeles. I did not know he had already published his second book in the series until I saw this on the shelf at the library.
Monday, October 1, 2018
To get the week rolling, I’ll knock out a variety of subjects in one post. First, apologies for the lack of a playlist or video last Friday. We added one, final task to phase one of our home improvement process and that was getting wrapped up on Friday. I have to say, our house looks pretty fantastic now. A week ago Friday our living room furniture arrived. It was nice to have that but after our designer “fluffed” everything Thursday and Saturday, it has transformed from nice to spectacular.
Wednesday, September 26, 2018
A couple links related to two of the greatest SNL talents of all time. Last week the Washington Post published this feature on Chevy Chase. There aren’t really any surprises in it for anyone who has followed his career. At age 74, you wonder how many more disappointing pieces about him are left to write. Chevy Chase Can’t Change After reading this, I noticed a link at the bottom to a feature on Eddie Murphy from about three years ago and immediately read it.
Monday, September 24, 2018
Another busy weekend with the kids. L had soccer both days - one win, one tie, four goals, two assists - M babysat for 8 hours Saturday and cheered on Sunday, and C ran on Sunday, getting 8th place with her strongest run of the year. Thus I missed a lot of what was broadcast on the teevee over those two days. I was able to catch a lot of Tiger getting his first PGA Tour win in over five years.
Friday, September 21, 2018
A couple of vids for this week. As promised, one is from the 1985 countdown that played on SiriusXM last week. youtu.be/F7xreT4mC… “Do You Want Crying” - Katrina and the Waves One of the areas of music esoterica I pride myself in mastering is knowing minor hits by bands that are widely considered One-Hit Wonders. “Well, actually they had another song that hit the top 20…” You know, that kind of bullshit about one in 50 people appreciate.
Wednesday, September 19, 2018
Chart Week: September 7, 1985 Songs: “We Don’t Need Another Hero” - Tina Turner “Power of Love” - Huey Lewis & The News “St. Elmo’s Fire (Man in Motion)” - John Pass Chart Positions: Numbers three through one. This edition is a little meta. It’s not about the songs I’ve selected, or even the original countdown. Rather, it’s a celebration of my love of all things countdown and ‘80s music trivia related.
Tuesday, September 18, 2018
Our kickball seasons came to an official end last night. A season that began with back-to-back rainouts at the same school ended with back-to-back make-up games at that school in 90-degree heat. Not the best bookends. C’s season wrapped up Friday in pretty glorious fashion. Every girl was locked in and they cruised to a 44–5, run-ruled win. If we had played like that the previous Monday, we just might have had a chance against the team that won our division.
Monday, September 17, 2018
A couple NYC trip books. The Secret of Golf - Joe Posnanski Joe has moved to a Patreon model for his online writing. As much as I love him, I feel like I’m already subscribed to about a dozen content services that I’m paying for each month, so I have not become a supporter of his site. Yet. I was looking for a quick read for the trip, came across this, and figured I’d buy one of his books to support him.
Friday, September 14, 2018
Today is our 60 day warranty inspection, so I’ve got folks through the house. Thus, just a quick playlist for this week. open.spotify.com/user/224a… “Missing U” - Robyn. It’s always good to have new Robyn jams. “Poison” - David Nance Group. Some good, old fashioned, dirty rock ’n’ roll from Omaha, NE. “Christmas Down Under” - Phosphorescent. Despite the title, this song is appropriate for play in mid-September. And the new Phosphorescent album is shaping up to be a hell of a disk.
Tuesday, September 11, 2018
Once again, that bitch Mother Nature has been playing havoc with our family sports schedule. I’ve lost track of how many practices, games, and other events have been wiped out over the past month. Seriously, it didn’t rain here for like six weeks, then, as soon as fall practices started, we began getting multiple downpours each week right around the time a kid was supposed to be doing something. Here’s where we stand now.
Monday, September 10, 2018
It was a full weekend of football for at least some parts of our family this weekend. Here’s a breakdown. Friday was a big local high school game. Cathedral, where our girls will go, was playing their biggest Catholic school rival, Bishop Chatard. BC has the most state titles in Indiana history. Cathedral is second. I believe Cathedral leads the stat in total wins and championship appearances, though. Or something like that.
Sunday, September 9, 2018
A few very good music links to share. Apologies as a couple of these are slightly out-of-date with the change in seasons. Good reads regardless. First, investigative journalism at its finest. Taylor Swift and Bryan Adams’ Duet of “Summer of ’69” Reopens One of Music’s Great Historical Mysteries: Is This Song About the Sex Position? Next, isn’t it funny how if a song is good or great, it is easy to overlook logical inconsistencies within its lyrics?
Friday, September 7, 2018
Well, as I check this morning, it looks like Spotify and Wordpress are cooperating, so I’ll give the old Friday Playlist thing a shot. Which is good because I have a ton of great music that I need to make sure you’re paying attention to. Apologies if this (likely) breaks again by the time you get around to listening. open.spotify.com/user/224a… “Stay Down“ / “Me & My Dog" - boygenius. Off the EP by this indie rock super group that features Julien Baker, Phoebe Bridgers, and Lucy Dacus.
Wednesday, September 5, 2018
Ty! What’d you shoot today? Oh, I don’t keep score, Judge. Oh well, how do you measure yourself with other golfers? By height. Yep, first round of golf in something like 11 years, and only second round in 15 years. It went about as you would expect. I picked my ball up on three holes, so I did not finish with an official score. It would have been well above 100 had I completed my scorecard, though.