The college hoops lull has arrived, a brief pause before all the big conferences kick off their tournaments over the next 72 hours. An opportunity to reflect on the regular season and think about the real tournament that is just over a week away.
In my case it’s a chance to begin working up a healthy case of nerves about KU’s chances to end their season in Houston. That’s an outcome that I figured had roughly zero chance of happening just over a month ago.
My Instapaper queue is crammed full of articles. Unfortunately for all of you, the bulk of them relate to a couple topics I’m really into now that won’t necessarily be that interesting to anyone else. So just a few things to share this week.
This is really long, and really geeky, but here is a very detailed look at how the Millennium Falcon came to be. I admit I got about halfway through and just skimmed the rest while paying more attention to the really cool sketches and storyboard samples.
Spring is nigh. Sure, it snowed here today, and is expected to again on Saturday. But it is also supposed to jump into the 70s next week. Mornings and evenings are getting a little brighter each day as our daylight stretches out. Spring training baseball has begun. My anticipation of warmer days is like a little kid’s on December 10 counting down the days until Christmas.
Also, love is in the air.
I’ve shared quite a bit about L’s first basketball season. C didn’t play a winter sport, but did go to a softball clinic Saturday and had a great time. She’s excited to play both softball and go through her first kickball season this spring. That leaves M, who is in her second year of volleyball.
Unfortunately, we had a lot of conflicts between volleyball and basketball over the past month. And since I was coaching basketball, I only got to see M play in about half of her games.
It is that time of year again. No, not a birthday for one of my girls. Although it may as well be. Time for my annual “KU Won the Big 12 (Again)” post. Feel free to skip if you’re sick of these. I’ll probably end up repeating myself from the last 11 anyway.
Twelve.
Even I will admit that is dumb. It should not happen. It can not happen. This isn’t some hoops giant stuck in a league with a bunch of schools that consider basketball an afterthought.
I’m feeling some tremors just below the surface of our house that signal a change is coming. M is growing up. This morning I was thinking about how that affects how I share stories about her. I realized that it’s one thing to share a story that could be embarrassing to one of your kids when they are a toddler. It’s another to do so when they are pre-teens/teenagers and the information you share about them could be found by friends (and rivals) at school.
One thing I forgot to include in my post this morning that Stace’s comment kind of reminded me of, was a Tweet from writer Drew Magary over the weekend.
twitter.com/drewmagar…
That is 100% true. We were getting our asses kicked on the offensive boards Saturday. I think the other team had something like 15 OBs as they opened up a 10–0 lead to start the game. I’m not even exaggerating.
We closed out L’s first ever basketball season over the weekend, losing by 10 in our tournament semifinals. We were down by 20 at one point but somehow whittled that down to 8 with a couple minutes left. We ended up going 2–5 for the year, only beating the other St. P’s team both times we played them. Coincidentally perhaps, they were the only other team that had as many first graders as we did.
We’ll kick this week’s edition off with a couple music-related links.
Stereogum is excellent when it comes to putting together long profiles of artists just before they release a new album. Ryan Leas’ deep look at the recording process of The War On Drugs’ Lost In The Dream played a huge role in setting expectations for that album. Here he catches up with Frightened Rabbit as the prepare to release their fifth studio album.
Another addition to the list of stories I share so you can make fun of me.
Ya’ll know I’m not the most handy guy in the world. I can do some basic, minor repairs around the house. But when it comes to things behind, below, or under walls that involve electricity or plumbing, I recognize my limits and am happy to write a check to get things done. That need for outside help has been aided in recent years by our next door neighbor, who can handle just about any project.
It’s Winter Break time at St. P’s. Otherwise known as the most annoying weekend of the winter. For some reason, our school has scheduled a five-day weekend anchored by President’s Day as long as we’ve had girls there. Just over a month after Christmas break ended, and with two short weeks in-between. Some years spring break has been less than a month down the road, too. It’s kind of maddening for us - well for S.
youtu.be/37HXyAK-k…
“God’s Eyes” - Spookyland
Digging this song a lot right now. There’s a certain mid–90s vibe to it, from that final blast of the alt rock revolution before everything became derivative and poppy. From the first word, you can tell these lads are Aussies.
Some words about music.
I’m wrapping up my first week of a rather grand experiment: avoiding iTunes/Apple Music and using Spotify in their place. I cancelled my subscription to the now defunct Rdio streaming service and went all-in with Apple Music as soon as it went live back in June. While Apple Music wasn’t perfect, I liked how it was the only service that could combine all the music I’ve downloaded over the past decade, plus stream new music, and then give me access to all those songs across all my devices.
A slow start to the new year, with only three books completed. But I did have some other things going on in January. I polished off my first book of February Sunday night, so I’ll include it in this list.
The Whites - Richard Price writing as Harry Brandt Richard Price is one of the best crime writers around. In addition to his own novels, he was a contributing writer on The Wire.
So, that was a pretty terrible Super Bowl, huh? Unless you’re a Broncos fan, or were pulling for Peyton to win, I guess.
Fortunately I really only saw about half of the game. We went to a party and I spent most of the first half socializing. By the time we made it home and got the girls to bed, I was able to see the Panthers doink their field goal attempt early in the third quarter.
Friday was a busy day filled with household activities and paperwork.[1] That kept me from getting a Super Bowl prediction in. So, quickly, I’ll try to get something posted here Sunday morning so I am on record.
I’ve not paid too much attention to the pre-game coverage, or read many predictions for how the experts believe the game will play out. But of the general vibe I’ve picked up, it seems like most people want to pick Carolina to win big, but the strength of Denver’s defense has them thinking it will be a close Panthers win.
Touching on some of my favorite music of the new year today.
youtu.be/h2QQAvRjH…
“Quiet Americans” - Shearwater
First, from my favorite album of the year so far, this very mid–80s Bowie-like track from Shearwater.
Shearwater is a band that has slowly grown on me over their career. They began as a side project for two members of Okkervil River, another band I’ve come to love over the years, taking a more art-rock tack than OR did.
And now the stretch run begins.
After a weekend of play against SEC teams (more on that in a bit), the Big 12 season gets going again tonight. Every team has ten games to play before the conference tournament. And with six teams within a game of first place, at first glance the lead race seems wide open.
I think that first glance is a bit deceptive. The title is Oklahoma’s to lose.
Some links as you waste time waiting for the weekend to begin.
First, this terrific find. Jim Henson produced a series of brief TV commercials for the Wilkins Coffee company in the late 1950s and early 1960s. They were designed to run in 10-second windows for station IDs. The primaries are two creatures that resemble others we would become more familiar with 15–20 years down the road. The big difference between these commercials and the Muppets of the future is that these commercials are very dark.
youtu.be/mtTqR9oZX…
“Black Metallic” - Catherine Wheel
Catherine Wheel is one of those great, lost bands that seem to both define a certain time and still hold up well. Being British, with droney guitars as their dominant sound, they are generally considered part pf the shoegaze movement. But their sound transcended that genre. Of their five studio albums, two are fantastic (Ferment and Chrome) and they had a handful of minor hits on the alt rock charts through the mid–90s.
I like the ambiguity of that post title.
Am I writing about the Big 12 basketball race? We’re only halfway through the season, but it is looking more likely than it has ever looked that KU’s 11-year title streak is going to end.
Or am I going back a few years and writing about the machine that is Apple and how it seems to be, finally, slowing down a little bit?
Sunday Links
As I mentioned, some of these go back over a month. They are worth sharing despite not being the freshest links in the world.
First up, Complex did a visual representation of the best rapper alive, by year, from 1979 to the present. I disagree with a few of their choices (Chuck D. was never #1????), and I must admit my ability to critique their choices ends at about 1994.
I’ll share a traditional links post over the weekend, but I wanted to devote some focused words on one link in particular.
Most of you have probably heard about the Star Wars toy controversy: that Rey is almost entirely absent from the new toys released with The Force Awakens. This article lays out much of the story.
Where’s Rey?
Some of the sources are anonymous, and thus I recognize that we may not have the whole picture.
youtu.be/i7nXvOTqy…
“Bad Art & Weirdo Ideas” - Beach Slang
This is the first great New Music Friday of 2016. The first two Fridays of the month were rather slow, lacking both a large number of new releases and a bunch of eagerly awaited albums. But this week there are three new albums I’ve been looking forward to. And based on the review aggregation sites, 4–5 more that I should give some attention to.
L. kicked off her basketball career a week ago. I wrote a lengthy accounting of her epic debut last Monday but didn’t get around to posting it before I had to leave town. Just because I didn’t share it with the world does not mean I’m not still on the hook for the resulting jinx.
She is playing at the high school where she and her sisters are 90% likely to go to school.
December is always a big reading month for me. Each year I read Jean Shepherd’s A Christmas Story, which only takes a couple hours. I generally squeeze in at least one other quick Christmas read. And then the holiday break at the end of the month allows me to really finish the year strong.
2015 was no exception. I knocked out eight books this December! I think that’s even more impressive given the final book was a nearly 800-page beast that took over a week to get through the first quarter or so.
It has not been the best start to the New Year. As I would imagine most of you know at this point, my stepfather died a week ago today. I had mentioned his health issues, somewhat anonymously, in my final post of 2015 and my early posts for 2016. Unfortunately, his cancer had reached the point where there was just no beating it. As much as it hurts to lose him, I’m thankful that he is no longer suffering.
Among the various Breaking News bulletins on my phone when I woke this morning was the notification of David Bowie’s death.
I think I’m like a lot of people of my generation: not a huge Bowie fan - I really didn’t know who he was until his 1983 album Let’s Dance, which was the poppiest, most mainstream of his career - but I certainly recognized the impact he had on music.
youtu.be/IBtlTHYRS…
“Listen Like Thieves” - INXS
Already Friday of the first full week of 2016. Hard to believe we have just 51 weeks left before 2017. Which means only 50 weeks of shopping until Christmas. Better get a move on!
If my records are accurate, I’ve never shared an INXS track in the Friday Vids series. Which seems like a terrible oversight. As I’ve discussed with a few of you, I think INXS is a wildly underrated band.
I’m trying to get back into a routine after the holidays, and a few big sports stories demand some words.
As I drove home Monday night, I was able to listen to the Kansas-Oklahoma game. When I pulled into my garage, OU had just gone up by 8 with around eight minutes to play in the second half. By the time I got my gear inside, said hello to S.