D's Notebook

Month: February 2017 (Page 2 of 2)

Friday Playlist

February 10, 2017 /

“The Punisher” – Lucius. I don’t know anything about this group, but this song is awesome.

“Thick as Thieves” – The Menzingers. This band has always leaned a little too emo for my tastes. But they shifted ever-so-slightly on their latest album and I’m finding a handful of the tracks very nice to listen to. Good to hear some guitars in the indie rock world!

“The Distance” – Emma Ruth Rundle. Rundle doing what she does best: gorgeous, dark, moody indie rock.

“No Known Drink or Drug” – Japandroids. The first album of 2017 I looked forward to with great anticipation has been out three weeks now. Japandroids’ Near to the Wild Heart of Life is quite good. The only problem is it must be compared with their last album, Celebration Rock. Celebration was an all-time classic, and one of the top five albums of the new millennium. An impossible measuring stick. Wild Heart of Life is fun to listen to, but leaves me feeling a little empty simply because it doesn’t reach the epic heights Celebration reached. A good problem to have, I think. And more guitars!

“Pash Rash” – Jeff Rosenstock. Rosenstock’s album Worry was on a ton of Best of ’16 lists. I finally gave it a listen a couple weeks back. Like Menzingers, he brushes up against that emo/pop-punk sound that is not my favorite. But he has plenty of songs like this that I can crank up and enjoy.

Reader’s Notebook, 2/9/17

February 9, 2017 /

Catching up on three recent reads.

On Bullshit – Harry G. Frankfurt. “One of the most salient features of our culture is that there is so much bullshit.” Thus begins what is, really, an extended essay in book form on the meaning of bullshit. I read a blurb about this somewhere over the holidays and thought it sounded like a hilarious and quick read. In fact, Frankfurt was a professor of philosophy at Yale and Princeton, among other places. This is a serious look at BS. Seriously. He delves deeply into what exactly bullshit is, and how it compares to outright lying, for example. I’ve never done great with philosophical texts, so I admit my enthusiasm waned quickly. Probably far more interesting in title than in execution.

Reputations – Juan Gabriel Vázquez. This wonderful book has won numerous awards both in its original Spanish, and after being translated. All the best awards, too!

Vázquez centers the tale on a political cartoonist in Colombia. For decades Javier Mallarino has skewered the famous and powerful of Colombian society, mostly from a leftish point of view. His career is celebrated as he is presented an award for his contributions to Colombian society. Following the ceremony, a young blogger approaches him and asks if she can come to his studio and interview him for her website. He agrees, and their conversation ends up shaking everything he believes to be true about his work.

As the title suggests, the central theme of the book is about reputations. How they are made, what they mean, how they can come to dominate all aspects of our life. Mallarino had been comfortable making and breaking the reputations of others, and in turn building his own as a champion of the common man in the face of the rich and powerful. However, his visitor makes him consider the effects his cartoons can have on individuals other than his direct targets. She also forces him to recall a moment from his past, on which one of his most famous cartoons was based, and determine whether what he drew was based on true events, or just his perception of them.

My Struggle: Book 3 – Karl Ove Knausgaard. Karl Ove is back with book 3 of his epic novel/memoir. This time he focuses on his childhood years, growing up on a small Norwegian island in the 1970s. It is mostly a carefree time, although as always with him, there is drama. He is effeminate, prone to outbursts of tears, mean to many of his friends in the manner many smart kids are, and painfully learns that most of the children he goes to school with don’t like him. Yet, like is still pretty idyllic. He runs around an island pretty much unchecked.

Except for his relationship with his father, who is distant, uncommunicative, and unceasingly cruel to Karl Ove. Knausgaard lives in constant fear that even the most minor misstep will invoke the wrath of his father. A lost sock. Candy bought without permission. Eating two apples instead of the allowed one. Running in the house. Not sitting up straight. Young Karl Ove lives in near paralysis when his dad is around, knowing every action puts him on the verge of a rage by his dad.

The relationship with his father puts Book 1 in better perspective. Its easier to understand now how Karl Ove felt so conflicted about his dad’s death, and how they had become so distant in his father’s final years of life. Karl Ove is already building that distance as Book 3 ends, when he is about to go to high school.

The one part of the book that really frightened me was the closing section, when Karl Ove and his classmates are discovering and exploring their sexual urges. This was 1970s Scandinavia, so kids were allowed to go off into the woods in groups and basically figure things out on their own. The boys all became sexual predators by today’s standards, and the girls did little to stop them. As the father of three daughters, one of whom is 12, this section made me even more uncomfortable that I already was about what’s to come.

Prince’s Friends Speak

February 8, 2017 /

I really should be flogged for not sharing this earlier. It took me several nights back in December to get through it. And it was worth every second.

Prince’s Closest Friends Share Their Best Prince Stories

The saddest thing about Prince dying is that we lost the chance that he would ever really open up about his life and career. He was slated to put out an autobiography, but I’ve not heard how deep into that project he was. I imagine if he ever really loosened up and shared with the public, he would have some amazing stories to tell.

Without his reflections, these stories are pretty great.

Sports, Man

February 8, 2017 /

Sometimes sports are the worst. Sometimes they’re the best. There’s been a lot of both lately.

Super Bowl

Had I been fully neutral, that would have been an awesome Super Bowl. The league heavies get blasted early and look thoroughly overmatched by their young, brash, high-powered opponents. Then an epic comeback, featuring an all-time play, and the first overtime game in Super Bowl history that ends with the Patriots staking claim to greatest franchise in league history and Tom Brady officially passing Joe Montana as the greatest quarterback ever.

That’s pretty great, right?

However, I was not neutral. I reveled in Atlanta’s early dominance. I was giddy when Brady threw a pick-six. I laughed as Atlanta’s defense punished Brady every time he dropped back. It was going to be a really fantastic day!

And then, just like I secretly feared they would do, New England completely flipped the script. They took Atlanta’s offense out of their game. They started finishing their drives on offense. They converted one two-point attempt. They survived a massive throw by Matt Ryan and catch by Julio Jones that really should have ended the game.[1] Then they turned into the Pats we all know and hate. Edelman, Hogan, Amendola, and Bennett started carving up the Atlanta secondary. Edelman’s fingertip catch still looks utterly impossible. And then another score, another two-point conversion, tie game.

Man, Matt Ryan had a great season and was great in the first half. But you knew there was no way he was going Aaron Rodgers and getting he Falcons 60 yards in 40-some seconds for a winning field goal attempt. If it’s fair to say there was a less-than-zero chance, that’s what I’d call it.

I don’t know why they even bothered playing overtime. Even if Atlanta had won the toss and received the ball first, I don’t think anyone but the biggest Falcons fan believed they had any chance to win at that point. Not for the first time that weekend, I snapped off the TV before the final play ended to avoid the post-game celebrations.

Just an awful outcome. The worst, Jerry, the worst.

KU Basketball

Yep, I turned the game off before the final buzzer on Saturday, too. Coming off fantastic wins at #4 Kentucky and at home against #2 Baylor, KU looked awesome in the first half against Iowa State. They shot 71% from the field. They out-rebounded the Cyclones 19–3. They had a 14-point lead at halftime. Life was great!

Except the Jayhawks must have thought, “OK, we’ve had a rough ten-day stretch. We can just cruise to the finish from here.” No flow on offense. No commitment on defense. Terrible turnovers. Missed free throws. Failing to cover shooters. It all added up to an overtime loss and the end of the 54/51 game home winning streak.[2] Thank goodness for Frank Mason, otherwise the game never would have made it to overtime. I wish he would have drained the potential game-winner, though, which was the same shot, opposite side, that he hit to beat Duke back in November.

Sports are awful.

Until they’re not. About an hour later, Baylor lost at home. Two hours after that, West Virginia also lost at home. While the home court winning streak was over, the Big 12 title race stood exactly where it was at the beginning of the day. Weird.

KU had to get their shit together quickly and go play at Kansas State Monday night. A K-State team that felt they should have won in Lawrence last month and had zero fear about playing the Jayhawks. Especially at home. When it was 20–8 K-State early and Bill Self asked a player “WHAT THE FUCK ARE YOU DOING?” as he called a timeout, I was saying the exact same thing. What the fuck are you guys doing?

A 14–4 KU run turned the tide. KU controlled most of the rest of the game, although that grasp was pretty tenuous in the last 6:00. K-State got the lead once – and caused me to throw my remote, two pillows, and pound our leather ottoman while shouting a string of expletives – but KU quickly answered and weathered the storm to pull out a game most KU fans had chalked up as a loss.

Sports are fun!

Except for all the nonsense going on off-the-court around the KU basketball program right now. Which makes sports terrible. I’m keeping my head in the sand and hoping the people I know who are close to the program and keep saying this will blow over are right.

So…just over halfway through the Big 12 schedule, KU has a one-game lead. They’ve played in Morgantown, but not Waco. They’re done with Iowa State and K-State. They have tricky trips to Stillwater, Lubbock, and Austin left. I’d love it if they finished 14–4, which is what I picked at the beginning of the year. I think that’s optimistic, given their depth, how many minutes #BIFM is playing, and how tough the league is. The good thing is I expect Baylor and West Virginia to pick up a stupid loss or two in addition to the expected losses. It ain’t over, but I’d rather be a game ahead than a game behind at this point.

Royals

The Royals signed Brandon Moss and Jason Hammel over the past two weeks. I think they’re both good moves. Both players come with risks, but if they deliver, they could go a long way to keeping the Royals in the playoff race. If not, I guess we’ll see a fire sale in July.

The wife mentioned to me over the weekend that she thought we should take the girls back to KC for a game this summer. I’m thinking we schedule that trip early in the summer, lest we arrive when the big names have all been traded if the team is 10 games back at the All Star break.

Sports are ok, I guess. For now.

  1. What is it with coaches against New England in the Super Bowl who refuse to run the ball when there is absolutely no reason to throw it? Seattle should have won two years ago and now Atlanta goes from chippy field goal to clinch the game to punting the ball with all kinds of time for Brady to get the tying score. Terrible.  ↩
  2. The whole counting games in Kansas City thing was dumb. KU played a number of games in Kansas City during this stretch that weren’t officially home games, and thus were not counted. Same court, different rules. They even lost a couple of those. I don’t care if it’s KU playing in KC, Indiana playing in Indy, Duke playing at MSG: if you’re not playing on your home court, it doesn’t count as a home court win. Even if you sell it as part of your season ticket package.  ↩

Big Game Time

February 3, 2017 /

Sports are funny. As much as the location where you grew up or live, style of play, or favorite athlete, narrative is a huge part of how we choose the teams we root for. If you’re an uncommitted fan, or just a fan with no strong ties to a particular team to begin with, the story that surrounds a team can often be as big of an attraction as anything.

I was never really a Patriots fan. But I bought into their “No superstars, one team of egoless overachievers” ethos big time when they burst on the scene in the 2001 season. I admit, too, that much of my desire to see them win that year was who they played. They beat the Raiders in the Snow/Tuck Rule game. They beat the Steelers in the AFC title game. They beat the Rams in the Super Bowl. Three teams I did not like. Since I had no strong feelings either way about the Patriots, and they projected a laudable image, I jumped on their bandwagon that playoff year.

My admiration for them continued for several years. It’s kind of easy to forget now, but it took several years for Tom Brady to become TOM BRADY. For several seasons he still seemed like that guy who got lucky with a chance then took it and ran. Belichick was the coach who took a bunch of cast-offs and mis-matched parts every year turned them into winners.

Even as I became a Colts fan and the Patriots always found a way to beat them, I still generally pulled for the Pats against the field.

I don’t know when the change came, but eventually I bought into the “Pats are evil” narrative. Brady and Belichick turned into humorless, insufferable robots who showed almost no joy in winning and whined when things didn’t go their way. They bent rules. Maybe even broke some. And those are just the scandals that have become public. Surely there are more we don’t know anything about.

Unless you’re a true fan of a team, if they keep winning for too long, I don’t think you can help but to eventually root against them. Oh, and it didn’t help that Patriots fans are the worst. Seriously, has any fan base ever managed to be both insanely arrogant and dismissive of their opponents, and martyrs who constantly complain about how everyone is persecuting them at the same time? Cowboys fans are delusional.[1] Steelers fans are just arrogant, but in a tolerable way. Browns fans are pathetic. Raiders fans are best avoided. But Patriots fans somehow manage to stand on both extremes of the fan continuum, and in the process piss everyone else off.

So…where once I would be rooting for the Patriots against a generic NFC team in the Super Bowl, now I hope whoever they play crushes them. I mean, it won’t change the past 15 years, but it will make me feel good for a couple hours.

Still, I can’t help but admire what the Patriots have done. It’s really freaking tough to keep an NFL franchise competitive year-and-year. The Colts did it for a dozen years, but then fell off. The Eagles were really good for a long stretch, but had a deep dip at the end of that run. The Packers and Steelers probably come closest to doing what the Patriots have done in the salary cap era, and both of those teams have had some stinker years sprinkled in all their success. And neither has had the same level of success as New England has.

The Patriots just keep chugging along, though. Even when Tom Brady got hurt, they were still pretty good. All the pieces around him keep changing, but every damn year you know they’re going to play for the AFC title and will advance to the Super Bowl more often than not.

It’s a hell of a thing. And I hate them for it.

Sunday’s game seems to fit right into the classic Patriots narrative. Atlanta is the bright, shiny, new thing. The team that runs up-and-down the field and scores points at will, a thing of beauty to watch. They have athletic freaks all over the field. And they have a quarterback of which much has been expected who seems to finally be coming into his own.[2]

The Pats are their standard collection of middling parts around Brady on offense, and a stout, smart, but largely starless defense. You just know Belichick and his staff have spent 22 hours a day for the past two weeks coming up with 800 ways to shut down the Atlanta offense. They’ll bring out some looks no one has shown since 1977, then throw something at the Falcons that they drew up in practice yesterday and are running for the first time. It will be depressing to watch.

Unless…that Atlanta offensive line can continue to dominate and open holes for Devonta Freeman while giving Matt Ryan plenty of time to find his receivers. Unless Julio Jones blows right past the Pats’ secondary like he has everyone else this postseason. Unless the Falcons defense can frustrate Brady by moving him out of the pocket and getting him out-of-rhythm.

It’s possible, I guess.

Not likely, thought.

New England 24, Atlanta 13

Crap.

  1. Well, until this year.  ↩
  2. Speaking of narratives!  ↩

Friday Playlist

February 3, 2017 /

Australia was in the news a little this week. I had some Aussie (and one New Zealand) tunes gathered. Seemed like a good time to put them together with a classic from Down Under to form a very pleasing playlist.

“Never Start” – Middle Kids. I discovered their “Edge of Town” way back in the spring of last year. It was good enough to land in my year end favorites list. Just as the New Year arrived, I began hearing it on local radio and SiriusXM quite a bit. I love it when a new band gets some traction. They still don’t have a full-length release, but their debut EP is out in two weeks. This preview from it is quite good. I’m really excited about this group.
“Richard” – Nadia Reid. She landed on my ’16 favorites list as well. Top 10, no less! Her second album is out in March, and it looks to be every bit as good as her debut from last year. Oh, and she’s our New Zealander.
“French Press” – Rolling Blackouts Coastal Fever. These lads nearly cracked the ’16 favorites list. But this song is way better than the several tracks of theirs I enjoyed last year. It’s classic, Aussie, jangle pop, clearly influenced by the band we’ll watch in a few minutes.
“Motherland” – Julia Jacklin. She also narrowly missed my ’16 favorites list. Her debut album Don’t Let The Kids Win was a stunner, especially for someone so young. That album had been tucked away for awhile, but this song popped up the other day and floored me once again. It’s just a beautiful piece of music.

https://youtu.be/oNNHEZzBDZk

“Bittersweet” – Hoodoo Gurus. Men at Work, Crowded House, Midnight Oil, and INXS were the face of Aussie music to the rest of the world in the 1980s. And although “Don’t Dream It’s Over” is my all-time favorite song, I think you can make an argument this was the best track to come from Oz back then. RBCF clearly listened to some of the Gurus when they were coming up. This song is so freaking great.

Clash of Titans

February 2, 2017 /

Some matchup last night, arguably the biggest of the year. When you get the best spellers from eight schools in the same room, you know there’s going to be some terrific performances.

Uh huh, last night was the local Spell Bowl! After serving as an alternate last year, M was selected to represent the St. P’s sixth graders this year. The weird thing is, she refused to talk about it with us beforehand. We found out she was picked two weeks ago. When I asked her about it, she just shrugged and acted disinterested. Each time we asked her for details – when is it, how does it work, does she have a list of words she could be studying, can we help her – she would just mumble “I don’t know,” or some other dismissive response.

So we went into last night totally clueless as to what the process was.

As the name indicates, this was not a spelling bee. Kids didn’t stand before the audience and spell words out loud and then wait to hear a bell or buzzer to learn their fate. Instead, the eight schools had teams consisting of one kid per grade, from fourth to eighth. Each grade took turns listening to seven words, writing them on a form, and then turning them in for judging. It went in reverse grade order, so fourth grade kicked things off and eighth grade closed it out. After each round, each school’s cumulative score was posted for all to see.

St. P’s was in third place with 13 of 14 points when it was M’s turn. I was super nervous during her round, staring down and the floor and sending mental prompts to her. She turned in her sheet, the judges conferred, and the high schooler who was posting scores wiped out both the 1 and the 3 of St. P’s 13. She got all seven right! But then he wrote another 1 followed by a 9. Crap. She missed one. I thought about having a word with that young man about not needing to erase the entire score unless needed afterward.

Her words were: carbohydrate, biannual, cornea, dilemma, exterior, announcement, and grotesque. S figured grotesque would be the tough one. I went with dilemma. M missed dilemma. Score one for dad! M said, “Grotesque is one of my favorite words. Why would I miss that?” Sixth graders…

St. P’s got another 6/7 in the seventh grade and went into the final round in third place, five points out of first. Unfortunately our eighth grader had a rough round, and St. P’s finished in fifth place. The winning school missed just three words across the five rounds.

After, M was finally willing to show some excitement about the event. She was pleased with her performance. They got little notebooks and pens from the high school that hosted, and she joked about how she wouldn’t use it since she plans on going to its rival school.

Our favorite part of the night was the certificate she got for being part of the team. They spelled her name wrong! At a spelling bowl! No idea who was responsible, M’s teachers or the host school. But you’d think they would look at the official class roster and get it right. She got a certificate for being an alternate last year and said they spelled it wrong then, too. Strange.

Yep, that was a big matchup. Oh, there was another one, too. We’ll get to that later.

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