Month: March 2015 (Page 2 of 2)

“Let’s Groove” – Earth, Wind & Fire

EW&F was a big part of the broad musical education my parents gave me. I remember there being a couple of their albums in our record crate, and I loved flipping through them because of their fantastic, futuristic, outer-space themed covers and liner notes. The music was pretty solid, too.

I found myself listening to one of the greatest hits collections earlier this week. The music stands up. Really well. So here’s a song I bet a lot of you have forgotten, but that you likely grooved to at the skating rink in the early 80s. And the video is freaking amazing!

The only problem with this song is there’s not enough Philip Bailey.

Not enough Philip Bailey? I can solve that problem…

“Easy Lover” – Philip Bailey and Phil Collins

What a great song, both ironically and legitimately. Hearing it always makes me think of two things (which I’m sure I’ve shared before):

1 – A Sunday evening in the spring of 1985 when I scanned through the entire AM band to see how many stations I could find that were playing the night rerun of American Top 40. “Easy Lover” was the song I was listening for as I raced through the frequencies. Sadly, I did not have a blog back then so the number of stations is lost to history.

2 – When we bought some new appliances a few years back, our salesman was named Philip Bailey. I so badly wanted to say, “If you sing a few bars of ‘Easy Lover’, we’ll gladly take the extended warranty on all these items!” One of the top five regrets of my life that I did not have the nerve to say it.

I went on record a couple months ago saying that KU’s conference championship streak would end this year.

As always, that was a good reminder not to take anything I write here as basis for betting your monthly mortgage payment.

I don’t know that this year’s title is the most improbable of the streak. I don’t know that it’s the most fortunate of the streak. I think 2009 is probably the answer to both of those, when a bunch of guys who played limited minutes the previous year, or who were new to the program, surrounded Sherron Collins and turned into a pretty solid team while Blake Griffin missed a handful of games for Oklahoma that opened the door for KU to sneak in another title.

But, despite assertions that I was sandbagging, this one is still kind of hard to believe.

The conventional wisdom was that KU was too small, lacked proven scorers, and had too many question marks in the backcourt to navigate the toughest conference in the nation.

Texas, with its massive front line and lightning quick guards was the most obvious pick to supplant KU. And then there was Iowa State, who finally had a big man who could protect the rim along with a bunch of dudes who could shoot it and run. And Oklahoma, whose best player boldly proclaimed over the summer that the Sooners would be Big 12 champions this year. And West Virginia, who had the pre-season conference player of the year and a new style that promised to give other teams fits.

Sure, each of those teams had question marks and holes of their own. But it seemed like the field was finally deep enough and KU down enough where the math had changed.

And then KU ran out to an 8-1 start, forcing writers to frantically crank out columns stating that the race was over, wondering why they ever doubted Bill Self, asserting the only givens in life are death, taxes, and Kansas winning the Big 12, etc.

So KU promptly lost three of five, Iowa State got hot, and KU fans looked at the remaining schedules glumly and just hoped that the Jayhawks could win out at home and the Cyclones could somehow slip up and the teams would finish tied.

“Iowa State isn’t losing again, and no way do we win in Norman. I think the streak is over,” is the conversation I had with several people.

But Iowa State did lose again. Twice. The math abruptly swung back in KU’s favor. When Iowa State beat Oklahoma on Monday, KU clinched no worse than a tie for the conference title. Beating West Virginia, who would be playing without its best player and another starter, would just be a formality before KU snipped the nets down at home on senior night.

Given how this season has gone, with its mood/momentum/math swings, it should not be a surprise how Tuesday night’s game played out.

It took a furious comeback and overtime, but the same team that got pounded by a decent but unspectacular Temple team right before Christmas had won the Big 12 title again. And outright.

Eleven in a row. Nutty. I was not yet a father the last time KU did not win the Big 12.

I believe I’ve tried to put this streak into context each year when I’ve written this post. This year, it feels like the focus should be on the players.

Perry Ellis, who is frustrating because he’s not emotional and hangs his head sometimes, and is asked to play without another big man to draw defenders, has been steady all year. Until he injured his knee Tuesday, he even seemed to be morphing into Nick Collison, “Either help me or get out of my way” mode, playing the best basketball of his KU career.

Frank Mason, a recruiting afterthought who only ended up at KU because he flunked a class as a high school senior and could not attend Towson where he had committed, became the most valuable player in the Big 12. Late in every game, he was the steadying force who inevitably made a big driving layup (or two) and knocked down clinching free throws.

Kelly Oubre looked like a complete bust for the first two months of the season. But he found his confidence and has played like a man since the Big 12 season began. For a team that doesn’t rebound well or force many steals, he’s the one guy who can rip a rebound out of traffic and straight-up take the ball out of a dribbler’s hand.

The rest of the roster has struggled at times. But every player has had moments where they made huge contributions.

There’s no college superstar on this team. There’s no future NBA All-Star. I don’t know that there’s even a KU All-Time great on the roster, although Ellis may move into the level if he has a strong senior year.

In a tournament against the previous ten KU Big 12 title teams, I think this team would finish last, or next-to-last, more often than not.

But they still found a way to win the nation’s toughest, deepest conference.

As we get older, I think a lot of us are too tough on our favorite teams. We see the flaws more than we did when we were younger. We focus on the negative, “Yeah, we won, but we were lucky. Our offense was horrible…” We don’t savor the beautiful moments as much as we once did.

Given all the flaws I’ve pointed out, Perry Ellis’ potentially balky knee, and Cliff Alexander’s eligibility issues, this is a year that I’m flat out expecting an early NCAA exit.

All the more reason to celebrate and appreciate this latest conference championship just a little extra. And then ten that came before it.

To close, one crazy, personally focused, number.

I began college in 1989-90. In the last year of an epic four-year run when the Big 8 was as good as any conference in the country, KU finished tied for second with Oklahoma, a game behind champs Missouri. There were two bitter losses to Mizzou, both when KU was ranked #1 in the country, that made the difference in the race.

Despite that bitterness, that was a pretty great start to my college career, especially since KU was picked by many to finish in the second half of the conference.

In the 25 seasons since then, KU has won the conference 21 times. In those four other years, they’ve finished third, second, fifth, second, and second.

That’s not a bad little run.

This morning, after dropping the girls off at school, I went around the corner to fill my vehicle up with gas. I started the pump and jumped back into the car to avoid the cold. Seconds later I heard a honk. Then another. And finally a third, along with a muffled yell that sounded like my name.

I looked around and there was a friend from St. P’s who had just pulled into the next pump. He just looked at me and shook his head.[1]

I can’t think of a better way to sum up what happened last night in Lawrence, KS. A shake of the head. A shrug of the shoulders.

As I said in an email to a friend who was in Europe for business and missed the Kansas-West Virginia game, that was batshit crazy.

Down 18, looking absolutely lifeless and inept, to a team that was missing its two best players. And then we lose our best player just before halftime. Of all the epic comebacks at Allen Fieldhouse over the years, this seemed the least likely.

Back in 1995, UCLA led by 19 in the first half. But it was A) early, B) KU had a ton of talent and C) it only took KU daring UCLA to shoot from outside, something they absolutely could not do, to change the game.

In that epic 2012 game against Missouri, the Tigers led by 19 early in the second half. That was a great MU team, playing with insane amounts of confidence. Odds seemed awfully low that day that KU would come back. However, they had a first team All-American, terrific talent at every other spot on the floor, and there was this underlying feeling that there was no way KU was going out like that against MU.

Even earlier this year, Florida led by 18 in the first half. But that’s not a very good Florida team and you just had the sense that once KU settled down and ran offense and guarded, the tide would turn.

But last night? No way. With Perry Ellis injured in the locker room and already short Cliff Alexander, KU was going to battle the best offensive rebounding team in the country with Jamari Traylor, Landon Lucas, and Hunter Michelson? Nuh uh. And KU’s guards all looked gassed in the first half. How could they both guard well enough to slow down the Mountaineers and still have energy on the offensive end?

This was not meant to be.

By halftime I had yelled, thrown couch cushions, sent angry texts, and hit the ottoman so hard a knuckle was swelling up. When Perry Ellis left the game and went to the locker room, I switched over to the Kentucky-Georgia game.

When the second half began, I decided to watch last week’s episode of Brooklyn Nine-Nine. I’d give it 20 minutes and then check the score. I tuned back in right around the 10:00 mark. The lead was still 10 and KU had two-straight fantastic defensive possessions. Which they wasted by taking a bad shot and throwing the ball into the crowd on the other end.

I switched back to UK-UGa.

I watched the local weather.

I checked the game again. Eight point deficit, but another WVU offensive board, off a free throw, turned into another deep 3-pointer.

For the next few minutes I flipped around aimlessly. A few minutes watching any random show that interested me, then back to check the score. Nothing seemed to work. The lead never got below 8, and I never saw KU do anything that made me think they would get closer.

I killed the TV, walked upstairs and turned the furnace down for the night. I crossed the day off the family calendar, checked who had hot lunch on Wednesday, and headed upstairs. I brushed my teeth, changed clothes, and walked toward bed. After setting the alarm on my phone, I checked the score one last time. One minute left, six points.

Well, I thought, I can’t go to bed until it’s over. You know, just in case. So I walked back down to the kitchen. I got lunch boxes out, tossed some school papers into the recycling. Watered the basil plant. One more check of Twitter.

Two point game, 40 seconds left.

Oh shit.

I ran into the living room and turned on the TV, jinxes be damned.

From there on, things worked out ok. Devonte’ Graham hit two huge free throws and, in a scene recalling that MU game in 2012, a huge blocked shot preserved the tie and sent the game to overtime.[2]

Hey, I thought, this is the same TV I watched the overtime of the 2008 national championship game on.[3]

Five minutes of game clock later KU had escaped, the eleventh Big 12 title in a row was secured outright, and I sat and laughed at the sheer ridiculousness of it.

Clearly I should have switched TVs much earlier in the night.

And then I had to drink a couple more beers to get calmed down. While doing so and following the post-game comments, my buddy in Europe hopped on his phone and we exchanged texts for 20 minutes as I filled him in on what had happened, as best as I could.

Sometime around 2:00 AM I finally went to sleep. After brushing my teeth again, of course.

I’m still not sure how they did it. They didn’t hit a single 3-point shot. Meanwhile West Virginia hit nine. A 27-point difference in 3-point shooting is usually a pretty solid indicator that you’re going to win the game.

But I also read a stat that WVU went something like 27 minutes without hitting a 2-point basket.[4] Basically from before halftime through the end of overtime, all they did was hit threes and free throws. KU played some fantastic defense in the last 25 minutes.

But how does a team that is already offensively challenged at times produce a 25-point turnaround with their best scorer sitting on the bench in sweats?

It doesn’t make sense, but I’m not going to try to figure it out.

Another epic night in the Phog, one that will go down with the Oklahoma game in 1986, the Kentucky game in 1989, the Indiana game in 1993, the UCLA game in 1995, the Oklahoma State game in 2005, and the Missouri game in 2012 as an all-time great.[5]

And another Big 12 title. More about that sometime soon.

The shortest month of the year did not slow me down at all. Five books plus one leftover from January.

Interpreter of Maladies – Jhumpa Lahiri
I forgot to include this in my January list. Probably because I had a hard time thinking of what to write about it.

Not that it’s a bad book. It won the freaking Pulitzer for crying out loud. But, rather, I always have trouble writing about short story collections. Even if there’s a common theme that runs through each selection, I always struggle to say something coherent about them.

In this case most of the stories are of people either living in India, or who have come to America from India. There are themes of identity, culture, and defining who you are and how you fit into the society you live in woven through each one of these beautifully written stories. But, beyond that, it’s hard for me to say much else.

Prince of Fire – Daniel Silva
Another entry in the Gabriel Allon, Israeli super spy/commando/assassin series. He’s finally done chasing old Nazis and is dealing with more current issues, now revolving around the Israeli-Palestinian conflict as it was in 2003–04. The usual twists and turns, lots of action, some interesting background on the history of that conflict, and, in the end, Allon saves the day.

Redeployment – Phil Klay
I’ve lost track of how many books I’ve read about the American wars of the post–9/11 era. Thus, it’s a bit hard to measure this one, a collection of short stories by a former Marine who served in Iraq, against the others. It is certainly as affecting as any of the other works. It tends toward the dark and haunting side, although there are moments of humor and examinations of the absurdities of modern war.

It is mostly, though, about the horrors of war. About how humans, or at least humans that are reasonably sane to start with, are not equipped to handle the stresses of killing and attempting to not get killed. No matter how strong they are when a deployment begins, if they survive they come home with damage that is not always visible to the outside world.

Most of the stories are very strong, but the initial piece, for which the collection is named, is devastating.

The Magicians – Lev Grossman
Two books this month from genres that I want to like but can’t always get into.

Here is a fantasy book disguised as something else. Or at least partially disguised.

Quentin Coldwater is a brilliant New York high school student who gets invited to a secret school for magicians. Not like a school for card tricks and balloon animal magicians, but rather spells and wizardry magicians.

The first two-thirds of the book are entertaining, if not anything special. In fact, I kept thinking it could be any book about spoiled kids who have gone away to college, not dissimilar from Donna Tartt’s The Secret History.

Then, however, things really take off. There is a stretch of about 100 pages or so that I absolutely flew through with sweaty palms and a pounding heart. That part comes when the books shifts into straight fantasy mode, with battles against strange beasts in another world.

This is the first of a series. Based on some things I’ve read about the later books, I don’t know that I’ll continue with it. Which is fine because this was a really good book all on its own.

Now I Know Who My Comrades Are – Emily Parker
A “Walk By” book. Meaning I knew nothing about it until I walked by it at the library and decided to pick it up.

Parker looks at how activists in China, Cuba, and Russia are using the Internet to get around government restrictions and attempt to change their societies. It felt especially timely as China is about to enact new restrictions on its citizens who use social media channels, Cuba could be on the verge of a new era of openness, and Russia drifts toward overt despotism.

Parker spent time in all three countries with the subjects of her profiles. She demonstrates exactly how the activists in each country work to get their messages out, how the government controls their output, and what the effects on the broader political culture are.

But it feels a little incomplete. She offers up these case studies and then leaves them alone. There is a brief epilogue, but not real examination of where things are headed, what needs to change in each country, and so on.

Wonder – R.J. Palacio
M. is reaching the point where I’m interested in books she is reading. Last year we both read The One And Only Ivan, which I liked but was written in a rather simple manner, clearly aimed at younger readers.

This, though, is aimed at all ages. And while it closes with a nice, happy ending geared toward children, nothing about the story is watered down.

It follows August, a boy with massive facial deformities who, after being home schooled for his entire life, is about to begin the fifth grade at a private school. Which, as you can imagine, is stressful on everyone.

There are some predictable twists and turns. Of course there are moments of heartbreak that turn into moments of triumph. But the writing is terrific, Palacio is constantly shifting the point-of-view which adds to the book’s impact, and the ultimate message is one that is good for everyone.

Abandoned Book
Ancillary Justice – Ann Leckie
I had heard great things about this. But, as often is the case with deep sci-fi, I just could not get into it. I struggled through 40 pages and could not keep track of what race was from what galaxy, and the weird gender issues displayed by certain inhabitants of the host planet. So I took it back to the library and moved on to the next book.

I had this post planned out for weeks.

It was going to be a “Thank goodness we survived the worst two months of the year, bring on spring!” post.

I mentally crafted the words knowing there was a fine chance that the first week of March would feel more like January than April. The last two winters have been terrible, with cold weather lasting deep into spring and major snowstorms hitting us after the official change of seasons.

But, still, it was worth a shot. And the turning of the calendar to the third month of the year is a clear sign that even if winter is hanging on, its days are numbered.

So, naturally, we got over 8” of snow yesterday, it was in the low teens when I took the girls to school today, there is ice and snow in the forecast for the next 36 hours, and we are likely to set new records with lows below zero from Wednesday to Friday.

We get it, Mother Nature. You win. Please let spring come soon.

Last winter was worse; until yesterday we had not had a snow storm drop more than 4” on us this year and we were running over 50 inches behind last year’s snow totals. And we’ve had a couple brief warm-ups this year.

But February was a complete bitch. The third week of the month the average high was at least 15 degrees below normal. A couple days it was 30 degrees below normal. Where last winter was relentless and brutal, this one has been soul-crushing as it has slowly built up its strength and gotten worse as we get closer to the equinox.

As I drove back from school this morning I took in the gorgeous views of trees covered in snow as the sun rose over the eastern horizon. The entrance to our neighborhood, where the trees arc over the street from either side, was postcard picture beautiful. The snow and the cold made it hard to believe that by the end of this month, most of those trees will have buds on them, the grass will come back to life and begin turning green, and we just might not need to bundle up in three layers and let the car warm up for five minutes before heading out in the morning.

When winter sucks the life out of you, even the dreams of mornings in the 40s can keep you going.

I would not object to a quick warm up, though.

February 2015

• Ryan Adams – 73
• Butch Walker – 65
• Twerps – 38
• Father John Misty – 30
• Restorations – 28

Complete stats available at my Last.fm page