File this under “Greatest Internet Finds.” It’s spectacular. In 1977, NBC gave Richard Pryor a prime time show. It last four episodes. Well, three and then an unaired final episode. That unaired episode is on YouTube. Find 45 minutes to watch it. It’s not a standard sitcom or variety show episode. Rather, it is a full-on roast of Pryor by the writers and performers of the show. Tim Reid, who went on to play Venus Flytrap on WKRP In Cincinnati.
youtu.be/g7_1R_b4x… “Refugee” - Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers (Forgive me if I shared this one recently. I thought I had, but my running lists of Friday Vids does not show it. I occasionally miss writing one down, though.) In general, I’m not a huge Petty fan. That said, I really enjoy his early work, let’s say ‘77-82. And a ton of music I’ve been listening to this year1 is directly influenced by his sound.
It was an incredibly long week, but also an incredibly fast week. Thanks to all of those in Kansas City who helped me out in some way over the past week. Whether you offered me lodging, legal advice, companionship at lunch, a beer and room on your couch to watch the Royals, or just moral support, it was much appreciated. There were parts of the week that were very good. I saw several relatives I had not seen in a long time.
I’ll be gone for a couple days. As many of you know, my dad died last week. I’m off to attend his memorial service and begin the process of dealing with his estate. I’ve debated whether to write much about this. It’s no secret my dad and I were not close, and had not been for many, many years. Other than my wife, few know the details of why that was the case.
We’ve hit double figures. Friday, M. left the world of single digits behind and entered the realm of the big kids, the drama of the pre-teen years, the marketing target of the Tweens. That’s right, she’s now ten years old. As is our family custom, this was the year for a big party for her. And she was the first girl to break the monopoly Monkey Joe’s had on our family’s birthday parties.
Time for our (now) usual roundup of things I read over the past week. First up, a rather interesting history of Autocorrect. It focuses more on the early development of the tool rather than our current, constant need for it in the age of touch screens. The Fasinatng … Frustrating … Fascinating History of Autocorrect Next, an interview with Hall and Oates, who are still performing and making new music.
Following up on the article I linked to last week, debating whether the concept of a “song of the summer” was out-dated, here are my two picks for the song of the summer of 2014. youtu.be/5GBT37_yy… “Girls Chase Boys” - Ingrid Michaelson Unlike Iggy Azalea, this song is being played everywhere from Radio Disney to pop stations to our local, “cool music for middle-aged hipsters” station. So I’ve been hearing it a lot.
As promised, the second of two nostalgia-focused entries. Last week I spent some time cleaning out our attic and some boxes in a basement closet. I don’t have a ton of old stuff left around. I purged much of it when I moved away from Kansas City 11 years ago. But there were still a few boxes with fun memories of my youth in them. The biggest box contained all my old Star Wars and GI Joe toys.
OK, I’m no fan of NASCAR. But this is kind of incredible. youtu.be/xnqjTWUuz…
The first of two nostalgia-laden posts. My apologies; I’m a writer in my 40s. I can’t help myself. This morning I finally wrapped up my review of the old posts here on the site. I won’t promise everything is completely cleaned up. But the number of posts with unreadable HTML segments smack in the middle of a sentence should be fairly low. I didn’t read the posts closely while going through this exercise.
I suppose I owe you a few notes from Monday’s trip to the 4H fair. That’s why we’re here, after all, right? I looked back and, unfortunately, our last trip to the fair two years ago fell in that missing gap in the site’s history. So I’ll apologize if I’m repeating details. If I can’t remember them, I doubt any of you will, either. Luckily it was about 20 degrees cooler than two years ago.
Three-and-a-half weeks of summer left. What an odd week this past one was. Monday and Tuesday it barely reached 70, with the lows at night touching the upper 40s. When it did warm up, it stayed below 80 until Saturday. Needless to say, there was no pool time last week. It looks like it’s going to be more normal this week. We may even have our first 90 degree day of the year tomorrow!
Back for another week of links. I’m digging deeper into the Instapaper archives to pull out some articles I wanted to share earlier in the summer but never got around to doing. Do you like The Smiths? How about a list of their 30 best songs with notes about each from other artists and celebrities? The Smiths’ 30 greatest songs – as chosen by the band and their famous fans
youtu.be/m3a4OTh2Y… “New Moon On Monday” - Duran Duran You know, when you take a look at Duran Duran’s list of singles, it’s pretty solid. It was easy to hate on them, because they wore makeup and dressed fancy and made use of synthesizers as much as guitars. But you have to admit, they had a terrific run of songs from 1982-1986 (In the US) with a nice mini-comeback in 1993.
As has become custom, I settled down just a few minutes after first pitch to watch Tuesday’s MLB All Star Game. I was pretty sure it was on Fox and first pitch was in the 8:30 EDT range. Our program guide even said that the ASG was to air at that time. Instead, though, the MLB Tribute To Derek Jeter Starring New York Yankees Captain And World Champion Derek Jeter (with the 2014 National League And American League All Stars) was on.
Yeah, yeah, the site looks different. Normally when this happens I share a long, detailed accounting of the hows and whys that went into it. Not this time. A variety of user errors piled up over recent months and had things not working the way I wanted. After a week of tinkering I decided to scrap the system I’ve used for the last 11 months and go back to something less fiddley.
Back for part two. LeBron I figured there was a good chance that LeBron would flee Miami for Cleveland when he opted out of his contract. That didn’t mean it still wasn’t a shock when the news officially broke that he was heading home for the next phase of his career. I hated the first Decision and the premature celebration in Miami that came with it. I rooted against the Heat every step of the way the last four seasons.
A few topics of importance that must be addressed. Turns out I wrote more about the World Cup that I expected, so I’ll split it into two posts. The World Cup As tends to happen, the final was a bit frustrating for those of us who enjoy soccer. Another game that went deep into extra time before a brilliant goal saved it from being decided on penalty kicks. It was frustrating because, as the natural conservatism of most coaches/teams took over in the knockout rounds, the beauty of the group-stage of this Cup got sucked away.
OK, time to start something new. I’ve been having trouble sharing all the interesting things I come across each week. I’ll stash them somewhere, in Instapaper or Evernote mostly, then forget about them. So instead, following the lead of a couple other sites I read, I’m going to offer up a post most Fridays full of the interesting things I’ve gathered. As always, we’ll see how long this lasts. Onto the links!
Man, talk about going out with a bang. The girls wrapped up their swimming season Thursday at the annual invitational meet, which featured all six swimming teams that make up the conference they compete in. Fortunately, rather than being held in a four-lane, neighborhood pool, it was at a 10 lane high school pool. Still, we arrived at 9:00 in the morning and walked out right at 4:00 pm. Believe it or not, everyone at the meet who were not first timers like us raved about how well run the meet was this year and how quickly it moved along.
This is utterly astounding. Brother in music and lover of all things Prince Mike A. sent me the link below. If you were ever into Prince, I highly suggest clicking on it and chalking up the next 15 minutes to enjoying pure awesomeness. What will you see if you click? The 1983 performance of “Purple Rain,” from which most of the album version of the song was pulled. I always knew that the song was mostly live, but I had no idea that there was video of the actual performance.
Season Ticket: A Baseball Companion - Roger Angell Perhaps the greatest ever writer on matters related to baseball in the decade I grew up with the sport? Damn right I’m reading this! It only seems like Angell has been writing about baseball forever1. A significant chunk of his writings have come for The New Yorker, where he’s been an editor nearly forever as well. The collections of his New Yorker writings, organized by decade, are some of the finest baseball books around.
Good lord that was a long week. Long because there was much fun involved. Long because there was much effort involved. Long because there was much beer involved. Long because many hours were spent in the sun and water, both sucking the energy from our bodies. Long because, as tends to happen, sleep came at a premium. Long because I married into a big family and when we get almost the entire clan together in one house for a couple days, it’s a production.
Man, where did June go? Are we really over a third of the way through summer? This week is our annual family get together at the LVS. Folks began arriving yesterday and Thursday we’ll all head down to spend a few days in the water. In the meantime, the kids are taking trips to local water parks and pools, we’re having cookouts, and generally waiting for this wet weather pattern we’ve been stuck in to clear away.
I’m not sure there’s any conversation that is more difficult to have with your children than one about death. It’s hard enough for us adults to grasp the concept, let alone put it into words. I’m not sure it’s fair to expect the kids to get it. Our girls have lost a couple great-grandmothers in their lifetimes, although neither woman was someone they saw on a regular basis. They all pay attention now when they hear on the news that some celebrity has died.
I’ve stated my case, many times, for 1984 being one of the best pop culture years ever. Over the weekend, there was another effort at laying down ’84’s case. I’m sure this crossed your Twitter/Facebook/Blogosphere streams, but I couldn’t let it go without sharing again. Thirty years ago last weekend, here’s what you could see at a movie theater: Ghostbusters Gremlins Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom The Karate Kid Star Trek III: The Search For Spock Top Secret!
That title is how I think L., the most hip-hop of my girls, might describe the past week’s worth of sports for me. There have been a few bummers. Let’s break it down, in reverse order. I’ve watched five minutes of the World Cup.1 Those five minutes were the last five minutes of the US - Portugal game. We were at my in-laws’ house, I was following the game on my phone, and saw the US had gone up 2-1 late.
interminable |inˈtərmənəbəl| adjective endless (often used hyperbolically): we got bogged down in interminable discussions. The girls have begun their competitive swimming careers. Their first meet was last Thursday, they swam again Tuesday night, and we have another meet scheduled for tonight. (Edit: Well, we were supposed to swim tonight. But just before warm ups were set to begin a huge line of storms rolled in and the meet was cancelled. It’s been three hours since they pulled the plug and it’s still pouring and lightning.
What a week. Late last week, former MLB pitcher Bob Welch died. He wasn’t an icon of his era, nor one of my heroes. But for kids who grew up watching baseball in the late 70s through the 80s, his passing was noted. Then Casey Kasem. And just as I was posting my thoughts about Casey on Monday came word that San Diego Padres legend Tony Gwynn had died. Such a terrible run of days for our generation.
We knew this was coming, based on recent, terrible, news reports. But it still hurts. Casey Kasem, 1932-2014. It is not hyperbole to say no pop culture figure influenced my life more than Casey. I began listening to “American Top 40” way back in its earliest days. My parents listened to “AT40”. Their friends listened to “AT40”. My uncles listened to “AT40”.1 My grandmother listened to “AT40.” Some of my earliest radio memories are of Casey’s voice in the background during car trips or just lazy weekend days when I was playing outside and my parents were lounging or doing yard work with the radio on.