Thursday, December 8, 2016
A few notes as I wrap up a short week in our home. Wade Davis Trade Wow, it was almost exactly four years ago that the Royals traded Wil Myers and others to Tampa for James Shields and Wade Davis, a trade I HATED. I guess everything worked out ok, didn’t it? It hurt a little when the Royals couldn’t re-sign Ben Zobrist or Johnny Cueto last year. But those were expected losses.
Wednesday, December 7, 2016
It seems like every day there is another piece of evidence that the Internet is a terrible place, and that far too many humans are loathsome people. And then there are things like this, which reaffirm my faith that the Internet is ultimately a good thing. I discovered it just after last Christmas, so I’ve been sitting on it for a while year. I’m glad I’m finally able to share Greg Maletic’s look back at the 1977 Sears Wish Book!
Tuesday, December 6, 2016
A couple NBA links this morning. First, another excellent link to a piece on The Ringer, who is NBA-heavy in content. In this one, Shea Serrano breaks down the five most disrespectful dunks of the young NBA season. Even if you don’t like the NBA, this is a fine article to read through. I hope he continues to do these through the year. The Disrespectful Dunk Index Next, and I only have a Twitter link here, the official NBA Twitter account offered up Shawn Kemp’s 47 best dunks in honor of the Reign Man’s 47th birthday last week.
Friday, December 2, 2016
youtu.be/WQylnGUCA… “Feel Right” - Esmé Patterson. This time of year can be frustrating for me, music-wise. I have the holiday tunes in high rotation. At the same time, I’m paring down the list of my favorite songs I’ve been building all year into its final form. And I’m reading other Best Of lists to make sure there’s nothing I’ve missed, which there always is. Yesterday I read through Frank Turner’s list of favorite albums of the year and gave most of the entries a brief listen.
Thursday, December 1, 2016
Yesterday was a big day for our girls. There was a trip to the dentist for C and L, and you really can’t beat a trip to the dentist.[1] M went on a retreat with the rest of the sixth grade to visit a monastery in southern Indiana. They had to be at school at 6:30 AM and didn’t get home until around 6:00 in the evening. She was so tired when they returned that I have yet to hear how it went.
Wednesday, November 30, 2016
It wasn’t that long ago that I abandoned my Friday Links posts. I promised to share interesting links individually, hoping that I wouldn’t get so backed up with things to share and also post a little more often. I’ve kind of screwed that up. I need to rethink my workflow, obviously, because I keep forgetting about cool things I’ve read. Anyway, here’s one I meant to share a couple weeks back when the NBA and college basketball seasons began.
Monday, November 28, 2016
A mostly-good Thanksgiving weekend here. Hope you had a fine weekend as well. Our actual holiday went off quite well. We were not hosting this year, so only had to provide a couple dishes. I was doing the mashed potatoes and used a different recipe than I’ve used in the past. It became a little problematic as it took longer to get completed than I anticipated. But we were driving exactly two blocks, so we didn’t delay the family meal or anything.
Wednesday, November 23, 2016
I realized a few weeks back that this year is the 30th anniversary of my all-time favorite TV episode, Cheer’s “Thanksgiving Orphans,” which first aired on November 27, 1986. I taped the show that night and held onto that tape for years. Somewhere along the way the tape either gave out or I lost it. I recorded it again sometime in the late 90s or early 00s, and it became an integral part of my Thanksgiving celebration.
Tuesday, November 22, 2016
Saturday evening we were on our way to dinner and my phone kept chirping, notifying me of incoming text messages. A couple college friends and I had been texting about random life stuff before we left home, and that thread continued as we drove. My wife asked, “Is your team playing?” Usually if I’m getting a stream of texts that means a game is going on. I shook my head and answered, “No, they played last night…Well, they’re playing football right now, but that’s not what we’re texting about.
Friday, November 18, 2016
open.spotify.com/user/224a… “Blank Tapes” - From Indian Lakes. This song sounds like it could have landed on Bombay Bicycle Club’s most excellent, 2011 album A Different Kind of Fix. Remember when a pack of blank tapes was a must-purchase item on any trip to the mall? “Video Child” - Many Voices Speak. A melancholy song for melancholy times. “Come True” - Suburban Living.And now to bring you back up a bit, some lovely dream pop from Philly, USA.
Wednesday, November 16, 2016
Well, it’s been some start to the new college basketball season for the mighty Kansas Jayhawks. A highly enjoyable and entertaining overtime loss to Indiana in Hawaii on Friday night, and a less enjoying but equally thrilling last-shot win against #1 Duke in New York late last night. Even as an Indiana resident, if KU had to go 1–1 in these games, this is the split I would prefer. A quick aside about having these marquee matchups so early.
Tuesday, November 15, 2016
I’m woefully behind on sharing my most recent reads. As that has been my habit, I’m thinking about changing how I do my book summaries. I may go back to doing an individual post for each book. I’m getting ready to dive into the Harry Potter series, so doing the individual book posts may have to wait until 2017. For now, a quick run through the four books I read in October, then I’ll go ahead and knock out my first, pre-Potter, book of November.
Monday, November 14, 2016
Some week, last week. Not my favorite of the year, I’ll admit. But, to be fair, not the worst, either. Perspective. Monday got off to a fun start when C threw up in her bed at 3:00 AM. Just when you think you’ve changed pukey sheets in the middle of the night for the last time… So she and I hung out Monday. She was flipping through movies on Amazon to watch and picked A League Of Their Own.
Friday, November 11, 2016
youtu.be/s38ignmTq… “Carry On Wayward Son” - Kansas. Musician John Roderick Tweeted out a link to this video a couple nights ago, wondering how he had never seen it before. I had the same reaction. How on earth have I never witnessed the beauty and majesty of this performance in my 45 years on this planet?[1] The conga drums! The keyboards! The lead singer’s outfit! The backup singer! The tambourine! The hair!
Friday, November 11, 2016
A little early? Sure. But since over half of the nation could use a pick-me-up, I decided to go ahead and share this. Christmas TV Schedule New this year, he highlights what big, traditional shows are debuting each day. Helpful for making sure you don’t miss a show that is on just a handful of times, and early in the season.
“Red Skies” - The Fixx. This is all I have right now.
Monday, November 7, 2016
Well, here we are, the day before the end of the world. Perhaps. As I shared sometime last year, I just don’t have the stomach for politics the way I used to. I had largely disengaged before this fall, sick of how our political process had become a system not of checks and balances, give and take, discussion and compromise, but rather a zero sum, destroy your opponent, repeat lies until they become truths, never ever compromise, slash-and-burn mess.
Friday, November 4, 2016
November. You know what that means? Yep, Wednesday morning I heard one of the SiriusXM DJs talking about the Christmas music channel being up and running. A quick run through the stations and, sure enough, the Holly station was blasting holiday tunes. Apparently the other Christmas music station won’t fire up until December 5, which is almost as weird as starting on November 2. It was even weirder to be hearing songs about crisp, cold days when it was 75 and I was wearing shorts.
Thursday, November 3, 2016
Now that’s what people are talking about when they get all giddy about a game seven finale for a championship series! It wasn’t the prettiest game ever played in the World Series. It wasn’t without its head-scratching moments. But, man, was it entertaining. Especially if you weren’t committed to either team. I can’t imagine what that game was like for Cubs and Indians fans. First off, props to MLB for starting the game on time.
Wednesday, November 2, 2016
Day late, dollar short I guess. Had a last-minute schedule change yesterday that kept me from getting out the obligatory Halloween wrap-up post. So my apologies, as I know many of you spent your entire day refreshing the site, waiting for that post to appear. It was, perhaps, our best Halloween ever. Temps were in the low 60s and it was dry, making it an ideal evening to be out. M went as a panda.
Friday, October 28, 2016
open.spotify.com/user/224a… “Brand New Lover” - Dead or Alive. Perhaps you heard that DoA lead singer Pete Burns died this week. Here’s a reminder that the band had more than the one good song you probably think of first at the mention of their name. “Dead Alive” - The Shins. Purely coincidental, but The Shins released a new song this week that name-checks Dead or Alive. “Wanna” - BRONCHO. This doesn’t sound like a band from Norman, OK should sound, does it?
Wednesday, October 26, 2016
If you follow Joe Posnaski on either Twitter or his personal blog, you no doubt saw his recent piece that was based on Xavier basketball coach Chris Mack’s list of favorite Bruce Springsteen songs. A Bruce Top Five There is so much for me to love here. A) It’s Poz, so it’s almost automatically great. B) It’s about music lists, something I’m also a little obsessive about. C) I enjoy the thought process Poz went through from first being floored by Mack’s list, to coming to an understanding of how we all come to different conclusions about music, to the natural end: sharing his own list of favorite Springsteen songs.
Tuesday, October 25, 2016
Welp, here we go. In about a week, either the Chicago Cubs or the Cleveland Indians will be World Series champions. A week after that, Donald Trump could be the president-elect of the United States of America. Y’all know I’m not a religious man, but if you believe in signs, I think those could be the first two of the three that signal the world is coming to an end! Hopefully since #2 is looking increasingly unlikely, the World Series will stand on its own rather than a portent of doom.
Monday, October 24, 2016
It was a pretty laid back fall break for us. As I said last week, we had no travels on the agenda and hoped for good weather so we could do some fun stuff locally. Things started off as well as I could ask: we had been home five minutes on Wednesday when I got a call from the mom of one of M’s friends, asking if she wanted to come over and spend the night.
Friday, October 21, 2016
We’re fall breaking it this weekend. No trips or super exciting and unique plans on the agenda. Just flu shots, playdates, sleepovers, and general chilling. Here are some songs that I’ve been listening to this week, and thus they feel fall break-y to me. open.spotify.com/user/224a… “Queens” - La Sera. La Sera put out an album earlier this year that got fine reviews, but which I did not like that much. Then they released an EP of extra tracks a couple weeks back, and I dug it the most.
Tuesday, October 18, 2016
A few assorted tidbits for Tuesday. Here’s the thing about Indian Summer: you never fully appreciate it. Sure, you can talk in wonder about it being in the mid–80s in the back-half of October. You can take a long lunch, leave work early, or just take the day off to get outside. But as good as these days feel, we are also craving those cool, autumn breezes. It looks like the weather here is going to shift dramatically in the next 36 hours.
Friday, October 14, 2016
open.spotify.com/user/224a… “Shadrach” - Beastie Boys. None of this week’s new releases really piqued my interest, so after dropping the girls at school this morning I threw on Paul’s Boutique and have been reliving the first month of my freshman year of college. At least musically. I haven’t been skipping classes and puking in trashcans. “Positron” - Palace Winter. Another very fine track - this one recorded live - from PW. “Tiny Fires” - Kevin Morby.
Thursday, October 13, 2016
I went through a stretch a few weeks back where I was watching a lot of Veep, the HBO comedy where Julia Louis-Dreyfus plays Vice President Selina Meyer.[1] And this week I finally cracked the seal on our DVR’s collection of The Good Place, the new Michael Schur comedy starring Kristen Bell and Ted Danson. That combination means I can finally share this piece from a few weeks back in which Steven Hyden posits that Louis-Dreyfus and Danson are the two finest comedy actors of the modern age.
Monday, October 10, 2016
Before I jump into the true topic of this post, a quick realization I just had. Lately many of the family stories I’ve been sharing in detail here have already been posted to Facebook in much more simplified form. Since the bulk of my regular readers are friends on Facebook, that means you’ve often had a sneak preview of the story about X or Y before I get around to putting a few hundred words about it up here.
Friday, October 7, 2016
I’m having a fun morning. I’m searching on what movies are appropriate for a 12-year-old’s sleepover. Up until now it’s been pretty easy to pick movies to show when our girls have friends over. But now that M is up on the verge of being a teenager, you can’t throw in a Barbie movie or even a good animated flick like Inside Out. She needs something that is a little more grown up for her and her friends who are sleeping over tonight to watch.