Wednesday, February 4, 2015
The Martian - Andy Weir As I mentioned in my December wrap up, this is the book I began in 2014 but finished on Jan. 1, 2015. I destroyed this book. Once I started it, it was hard to put down. In fact, I started it after midnight on Dec. 30 when I could not sleep. I went downstairs, flipped on the Kindle, and thought I would read 20 minutes or so and then try to sleep again.
Monday, February 2, 2015
I love Pete Carroll. If, through some miracle, I could suddenly play football (and be 20 years younger), there is no coach who I would more want to play for. I LOVED his call to go for a touchdown rather than just kick the field goal at the end of the first half last night. I wouldn’t have done the same thing, but I loved it. But, man, his call to throw on second down with the ball at the one-yard line with 26 seconds to play last night was atrocious.
Friday, January 30, 2015
Part two of the big link catch-up project. First, a profile of Lego. I had no idea the company nearly went under just over a decade ago. Jonathan Ringen explores the history of the company and how it first dig a hole, then made a series of tremendous decisions that have left it one of the strongest brands in the world. How Lego Became The Apple Of Toys Speaking of Apple, you may have read that the company had the most profitable quarter in the history of business to close out 2014.
Friday, January 30, 2015
Terrible. That’s how I would describe my blogging performance over the past week. I not only failed to share links last week, I kept putting it off and putting it off when I had chances to post them. So here I am with at least ten sharable links. Some pruning is clearly in order. But that still leaves quite a collection of quality content. So, prepare yourselves for two links posts today.
Friday, January 30, 2015
youtu.be/WSO4Y9ygP… “The Frug” - Rilo Kiley I’m not a regular viewer of Austin City Limits, but last week, when Ryan Adams and Jenny Lewis split the episode, I definitely set the DVR. Lewis threw in a couple tracks from her first band, Rilo Kiley. This was not one of those selections, but I’ve always loved it and the oh-so-late–90s video makes it a perfect share.
Thursday, January 29, 2015
Karma is a bitch. No where is that more true than in sports. Example: In the 2013 Sweet 16 in Arlington, Texas, KU guard Elijah Johnson decided to cheap shot Michigan forward Mitch McGary in the sack early in the game. Anyone watching the game knew the Hoops Gods would exact revenge. They teased us, but then they did so in crushing fashion. Johnson hit a 3-pointer with under seven minutes left to give KU a 14-point lead.
Thursday, January 29, 2015
Deserving of a post independent of other links, here is the annual Super Bowl edition of Breaking Madden. As always, it is awesome. Especially the closing video. I OPEN UP MY WALLET AND IT’S FULL OF BLOOD
Tuesday, January 27, 2015
A combo piece this morning, taking one entry from my up-coming review of January books and combining it with the movie on which it focused. Let’s Go Crazy - Alan Light I shared the excerpt from this a few weeks back, and the book finally hit the library two weeks ago. I snatched it up and raced through it in about a day. It was awesome. It details the creative process surrounding both the movie and album Purple Rain.
Friday, January 23, 2015
youtu.be/EvQVbfLgn… “Purple Rain” - Martin Sexton Earlier this week, I ripped through Alan Light’s Let’s Go Crazy, his book about the making of Purple Rain, both the movie and album. When I returned it to the library, I picked up the DVD of the movie, which I will be watching at some point this weekend. So, I’ve been on a bit of a Purple Rain kick. Which makes this the perfect week to share this wonderful cover of the song by Martin Sexton.
Thursday, January 22, 2015
Some kid notes We’ve had a rash of lost teeth lately. L. lost three in just under two weeks, and is currently missing all four corner teeth. And then M. lost a tooth just before bedtime Wednesday. As I’ve related before, my Tooth Fairy game is off its peak of a few years back. One night for L., when I went in her room and began fishing around under her pillow for the baggie with her tooth, she rustled, yawned, and then rolled over toward me.
Wednesday, January 21, 2015
My usual early morning routine is something like this: Get the girls up, get them breakfast, and then get them on the path to getting ready for school. When I reach the point where they are getting dressed, I start running through Twitter to see if I missed anything overnight. Well, last night I apparently went to bed right before the news broke that the NFL found that 11 of 12 balls used by the New England Patriots in Sunday’s AFC title game were inflated less than required.
Monday, January 19, 2015
Which is the worst way to end a season? In an utterly crushing, heart-breaking manner, losing a game that seemed convincingly won, and in which any of a series of singular, seemingly simple, plays over the final minutes would have been the final nail in the coffin of the eventual winners? Or to be completely outclassed and embarrassed and made to appear to be frauds to have even had designs on advancing to the Super Bowl?
Friday, January 16, 2015
The momentum is gathering for the nostalgia-fest that will be the celebration of the 40th anniversary of Saturday Night Live. It’s crazy to think that my freshman year of college was the 15th anniversary. I, and many like-minded pop culture fiends, recorded the 15th anniversary special and watched it over-and-over.[1] There will, of course, be an official NBC special. But VH1 Classic is getting into the act by airing a 19-day marathon of SNL’s, beginning with the most recent and working back to the original episodes.
Friday, January 16, 2015
youtu.be/TU3-lS_Gr… “Dreaming” - Blondie I was in Dick’s Sporting Goods yesterday, getting Colts shirts for the girls so that they could have an out-of-uniform day today, and this song came on over the piped-in background music. It’s not the first song I think of when I think of Blondie, thus I forget what a great song it is. Interesting to read up on the song and see the band said it was basically a rip-off of Abba’s “Dancing Queen.
Tuesday, January 13, 2015
Today is school day number six of the new calendar year. Thus far, we have had two normal days. Four times we have had two-hour delays, thanks to a combination of snow (last Tuesday), extreme cold/iced over roads (Wednesday and Thursday), and just ice (yesterday). Today we were back on normal start time, but C. is home with me sick. And even one of those “normal” days has an asterisk next to it since I was out-of-town that day and S.
Monday, January 12, 2015
Some weekend of heated action on the old gridiron! Most significantly, to me at least, was the Colts going to Denver and, aside from shaky first possessions on both sides of the ball, completely controlling the game and escaping with a border-line shocking 11-point win. I say border-line shocking because while many people this morning are acting like it wasn’t that big of an upset, there weren’t many people outside central Indiana picking a Colts win before kickoff.
Friday, January 9, 2015
youtu.be/e-ORhEE9V… “Blank Space” - Taylor Swift I know, I know. This one will take some explanation. Taylor Swift hits the sweet spot in the category of “pop culture things I hate.” She was a teenage phenom, something I generally abhor.[1] Worse, she came from the country music realm, an area I have zero interest in. A country music teen phenom? Forgetaboutit. As she got older, she moved into a third area of our modern culture that I hate: a queen of celebrity gossip.
Wednesday, January 7, 2015
Pretty much the moment Kentucky began treating KU like a high school JV team, I was sure that not only would KU’s Big 12 conference title streak end this year, but that Texas would be the team to do it. Texas isn’t as big or deep or talented as Kentucky. But the Longhorns are probably the biggest team in the nation next to the Wildcats. Their top 7–8 is awfully talented.
Sunday, January 4, 2015
Decembers tend to be big book months for me. December 2014 was no exception. I finished seven books and got most of the way through an eighth.[1] Thus my final total for the year was 57 books. I’m pleased with that effort. The Rise & Fall Of Great Powers - Tom Rachman I loved Rachman’s The Imperfectionists, which was a pretty dazzling debut. So I picked this one up with high hopes.
Friday, January 2, 2015
Finishing the clean up of the long list of links I’ve gotten behind on. This first one got linked to right around the anniversary of John Lennon’s death. It is journalist Jimmy Breslin’s article from the night Lennon died. First, read the article. Then read the details of how quickly Breslin put it together. It’s a pretty amazing piece of journalism. Are You John Lennon? Your average basketball fan knows the basics of Larry Bird’s story.
Friday, January 2, 2015
Funny how fast the NFL season goes when you spend the first two months of Sundays on the soccer fields, casually following scores and paying more attention to fantasy stats. But here we are, Wild Card weekend. Thus, my patented, half-assed picks for who will make it to Glendale in a month. AFC Wild Card Round Pittsburgh over Baltimore. A bit of a tough pick, given the Steelers injury issues.
Friday, January 2, 2015
youtu.be/w3HkiQxhG… “Tiny Prayers” - Restorations A band that I read about in the fall but then lost in the normal end-of-the-year shuffle. Fortunately, they landed high on one of my favorite music writer’s Best Of 2014 list, so I’m diving into them now. Terrific, crunchy, power-punk building on influences from all over the past 20 years. I have to make a long drive this weekend, and I think this album is perfect background music for setting the cruise control and moving down the road.
Thursday, January 1, 2015
The biggest navel-gazing post of the year!1 The cast of usual December (and late November) characters dominated the last month of the year. And then, no surprises in my top artists of 2014 if you gave any attention to my favorite songs of the year list. December 2014 Frank Sinatra - 77 Bing Crosby - 56 Dean Martin - 55 The Philadelphia Orchestra - 30 Jonathan Coulton & John Roderick - 26 2014 The War On Drugs - 698 Ryan Adams - 596 Okkervil River - 239 Dum Dum Girls - 212 Wussy - 211 Angel Olsen - 199 Against Me!
Wednesday, December 31, 2014
Last day of the year. As is my routine, this morning I paged back through the site’s archives for the last 12 months and jotted down some highlights. In January we kicked off the Worst Winter Ever[1] with nearly 20” of snow in three days, followed by the first Polar Vortex. Of a possible 35 hours of school the first week of January, M. and C. were in class for six.
Tuesday, December 30, 2014
I’m a horrible blogger. Christmas and its associated activities got me well behind in sharing links. So not only do I have a general glut, but I also have a few that should have been shared before Christmas. I’m going to knock out those holiday-related ones today and attempt to get the rest of the queue cleaned out on Friday. I suppose some of you still watch Christmas movies after Christmas.
Monday, December 29, 2014
Sharing my favorite songs of the year with you was not enough. Thus, I must offer a few thoughts on the year in music in general, then share my favorite albums of the year. I like to think of it as a rough guide for people with some iTunes or Amazon credit to burn who would like to add an album or two to their collections. I’ve long taken pride in my musical tastes.
Friday, December 26, 2014
Well, I believe it was a fine Christmas at our house. As I type this at about 10:30 PM, Christmas night, the girls are all in bed snuggling with one new item or another. As I take my last listen to my favorite Christmas songs, I’ll share a few details of our holiday. Christmas Eve was a blur of trips to the grocery store, food prep, and last-minute cleaning and straightening jobs around the house before we had to get ready for 5:00 pm Mass.
Tuesday, December 23, 2014
Happy Christmas Eve, eve! It feels like I should say, “Man, the time between Thanksgiving and Christmas has really flown this year,” since I think I say that each year. But it’s especially true in these years when we’re on the short side of the holiday cycle. In those years where there are nearly five weeks between the holidays, I usually have a few days right before the Winter Solstice when I’m a little burned out on the whole holiday spirit thing.
Friday, December 19, 2014
“Red Eyes” - The War on Drugs youtu.be/aV4m04CyT… It’s hard to write about a song that you love so much, but can barely sing along to. Adam Granduciel hides many of his lyrics deep beneath layers of guitars, synthesizers, distortion, and plain old mumbling. For much of the song, I’m just kind of humming along, guessing at words here and there, playing a little air guitar or drums, and making up words that seem to fit.
Friday, December 19, 2014
youtu.be/RfurmGiKZ… “Christmas (Baby Please Come Home)” - Darlene Love Most holiday seasons there is one Christmas song I listen to a little more than the others, or one that connects with me a little more than the rest. Some years it is a relatively new song that gets stuck in my head. Other years it is a song I’ve heard hundreds of times that suddenly tickles the right part of my brain.