Belated links this week. Friday was a beast.
First up, a story that I imagine will strike different readers in a variety of ways. I find it funny and charming. Others may find it a little creepy. Or even inappropriate. Regardless, here is the story of the letters Texas Tech football coach Kliff Kingsbury and a woman in Arkansas exchanged recently.
Arkansas fan ‘breaks up’ with Kliff Kingsbury, coach responds with letter of his own
I’m not the first to say this, but that dude has a rough life.
For some time I’ve had an idea in my mind to make a running list of the Best Band In Rock over time. It would be based mostly on record sales, radio play, and media buzz. Whether I wrote about it or not was another thing, but I thought it would be cool to look back and see how it changed over time.
Well, Steven Hyden decided to go all-in with that idea. He went back further than I did, and cast a broader net than I would have. And his determining factors were different from what I would have chosen. Thus, his list includes some bands I never would have thought of. But it’s a tremendous read, even if you disagree with most of his choices.
The American Band Championship Belt
While we’re talking about music, one man in Brazil is trying to buy up all the vinyl ever made.
The Brazilian Bus Magnate Who’s Buying Up All the World’s Vinyl Records
Awhile back we got a huge stack of catalogs from Restoration Hardware. It was a ridiculous mailing, especially since we hadn’t bought anything from there in years.1 Of course, we get at least two copies of every mailing from Pottery Barn for some reason, and I’m sure they total way more than the stack from RH. Still, I couldn’t help but be shocked at the marketing effort.
The New Yorker dove in to the backlash against the catalogs and some of RH’s hollow statements defending them.
Restoration Hardware’s Mail-Order Extravagance
Where can you buy the best beer in a MLB ballpark? The Washington Post tackled this important question that faces our nation. Surprising to see Cincinnati so highly rated. Disappointing to see Kansas City so low.
Finally, after watching that amazing Richard Pryor Show video a couple weeks back, I read this staggering New Yorker feature on him from 1999. At his peak, there’s never been another comic like Pryor. But he was such a complex man, full of contradictions, demons, self-destructive and self-loathing tendencies, an astute eye for the ironies of life, and a healthy dose of pure, old fashioned, even corny love for everyone around him.
With Robin Williams’ death this week, this is another reminder that sometimes the people who make us laugh the hardest are filled with more sadness and struggle than you would imagine.
- It might undermine my complaint a bit that since we received the catalogs, we did make a big purchase from them. The chairs are perfect, but we didn’t feel good about buying them, I assure you! ↩