D's Notebook

Month: January 2019 (Page 2 of 2)

NFL Predictions

January 11, 2019 /

I should probably lock in some kind of prediction for tomorrow’s game between the Colts and Chiefs.

I’ve watched zero minutes of the Chiefs this year, so I only know what I’ve read about them. But that’s been plenty. They spent much of the season being the most talked about and exciting team in the NFL. For all the nervousness among some Chiefs fans about their playoff history against the Colts, KC is a 5.5 point favorite for a reason.

I haven’t watched a ton more of the Colts, to be honest. Their Sunday night finale in Nashville was the only game I’ve watched more than half of all year. Still, I’ve watched enough to have a good feel for the team.

Fittingly, I doubt I’ll watch much of tomorrow’s game. C has an all-day volleyball tournament. KU plays Baylor at roughly the same time as the football game. And we’re supposed to get our biggest snow storm in several years during the day. I’m hoping it hits early enough for the roads to be so bad volleyball gets cancelled. I’m really not looking forward to dragging C out of bed at 6:30 so we can be on the court by 7:30.

I think the Colts will make a game of it, especially if the weather is bad. Andrew Luck is playing the best football of his career. The offensive line has, out of nowhere, become one of the best in the game. The running game has been punishing in the last two months. And the defense has been a true revelation, stuffing the run, playing well-enough against the pass, and forcing turnovers. For a team that was terrible last year the Colts are very, very solid.

But making the jump from Wild Card winner to conference finalist feels like one step too far. Especially having to do it in Arrowhead. Unless the Colts can force multiple turnovers, or the weather is so bad that it turns into an old-school game where every play is a handoff, I just can’t see them getting it done.

The Chiefs will put to rest 24 years of playoff misery against the Colts.

Kansas City 38
Indianapolis 27

In other games:
Rams over Cowboys. I think this will be closer than anyone would have expected six weeks ago.
Chargers over Patriots. I think Philip Rivers is a first-class douche. I have a hard time finding myself pulling for him. But I just don’t think this year’s Patriots are as good as their record is.
Saints over Eagles. Surely Nick Foles magic isn’t enough to take out the Saints in New Orleans?

Friday Playlist

January 11, 2019 /

“Seventeen” – Sharon Van Etten. Still no new albums worth getting excited about. But next week is the first big push of new disks, including Sharon Van Etten’s newest. Of the early singles she’s released from it, this is my favorite. I love it’s rough edges and long, slow build.

“Sunday Driver” – The Raconteurs. The Raconteurs are back! Two lead singles from an untitled new album with no release date hit last week. This one sounds exactly like what you want a Raconteurs song to sound like. 

“Crazy Now” – Ryan Adams. DRA has been teasing us for awhile. He dropped the excellent single “Baby I Love You” last Valentine’s Day and hinted for the rest of 2018 that he had a new album ready to go. So it brought of mix of both excitement and disappointment when he leaked this week that he will release three albums in 2019, although the first will not hit until April. The first single has got some airplay but has not seen an official, digital release yet. In it’s place, here is one of the better tracks from his 2017 Prisoner B-Sides collection.

“Easin’ In” – Edwin Starr. Another classic find from Tom Breihan’s The Number Ones series. Yesterday Breihan highlighted Starr’s most famous song, 1970’s “War.” But in the comments he also shared this amazing Starr track. I knew it from it being sampled many times over the years. Most notably to me was on Ice-T’s “High Rollers.” This is a jam.

A little something different for the video section this week: two different artists’ takes on the same song.

“Police on My Back” was recorded and released by the British band The Equals in 1968. The Equals were touted as one of the first multi-racial bands to reach the British charts. Their primary writer and vocalist was Eddy Grant, who children of the 80s know for “Electric Avenue,” “Romancing the Stone,” etc. This was a minor hit for them – their biggest and best song was the most excellent “Baby Come Back” – and largely faded from history. Until The Clash put on their 1980 triple LP *Sandinista.” Like so many songs that The Clash covered over the years, it was a perfect cover: respectful to the original but completely updated for the times and their sound.

Enjoy The Equals rather goofy video, from the German music show Beat-Club, and then The Clash performing it live in Japan. 

Reserve Readings

January 9, 2019 /

I guess I spoke too soon. One more quick piece of clean-up from 2018.

Here are three excellent articles I read in the last month that I think are worth sharing.

First, a pretty amazing story about a crazy-ass endurance race, and the woman who competes with men to win the damn thing.

Ultrarunner Courtney Dauwalter Takes On The World’s Most Sadistic Endurance Race

In theory the race sounds easy: run a 4+ mile loop through the woods on a Tennessee farm every hour. But, as with taking a shot of beer every minute for an hour, it wears you down a lot faster than you would expect. This race sounds bananas.

Next, a pretty sobering account of the health of the Internet. Specifically in how much of what is out there is real. And it is just going to get worse as technology improves.

The “fakeness” of the post-Inversion internet is less a calculable falsehood and more a particular quality of experience — the uncanny sense that what you encounter online is not “real” but is also undeniably not “fake,” and indeed may be both at once, or in succession, as you turn it over in your head.

Maybe we should just shut it down and start over again.

How Much of the Internet Is Fake? Turns Out, a Lot of It, Actually.

Finally, I’m betting a lot of you have already read this one, about the unlikely friendship between Charles Barkley and as Asian-American man from Iowa. Save this one for a bad day, because it will clear the clouds a little bit, guaranteed.

My Dad’s Friendship With Charles Barkley

Reader’s Notebook, 1/8/19

January 8, 2019 /

The kids are back at school, so time for one more piece of 2018 wrap up.

I finished my reading year with two more excellent books, one of which was a big a change-of-pace for me.

The Flight Attendant – Chris Bohjalian
I put several books that I saw on Best of 18 lists on hold at the library, and this was the first to become available. Man, is it a humdinger of a read!

It begins with Cassandra, a flight attendant with a penchant for heavy drinking and hooking up, waking in a strange bed in Dubai. As she reviews the events of the previous night to figure out where she is and how she got there, she realizes the man next to her is dead. Not “died peacefully in his sleep” dead, either. But rather dead because his throat was slashed and he bled to death.

Egads!

From there we follow Cassandra as she makes a long series of bad decisions, which, apparently, is pretty standard for her life. Although she, and we, are fairly certain she wasn’t responsible for killing the man she woke up next to, her actions at least give the impression that she has something to hide. Which is a problem because the FBI has their eyes on her – along with the rest of the flight crew she flew to Dubai with – and so does a woman who appears to be working for Russian interests. Cassandra may be innocent, but by being in the wrong place at the wrong time, and by acting rather stupidly after the fact, she’s placed herself in the crosshairs of some very powerful folks.

The book then transitions into more of a spy novel, and does so deftly. The final 150 pages or so are pretty breathless. And outstanding. Bohjalian lays on a series of “Oh shit!” moments so casually that you almost miss them.

Reading some reviews after I finished the book, a number of readers were disappointed that Cassandra was such an unsympathetic lead character. That’s true, although Bohjalian offers evidence for why she is so messed up and presents her as a changed person at the book’s close. But a lead character lacking in redeeming qualities did not distract from what is, otherwise, an excellent and quick read. At least to me it didn’t. Perfect for long flights, in fact. Ironically, I found someone’s boarding passes to flights from Indianapolis to LAX and LAX to Honolulu tucked inside the front cover. I hope that woman enjoyed the book as much as I did.

Because of Mr. Terupt – Rob Buyea.
L is in a book club with several of her classmates. They meet once each month after school to talk through what they’ve read. A mom does a great job running it, and a couple grandmothers and one of the 4th grade teachers usually help with their meetings. I decided I wanted to read something L was reading, and based on discussions with the mom in charge, this seemed like a good one to jump in on.

It’s a delightful book. It tells the story of Mr. Terupt, a new fifth grade teacher at a school in Connecticut who has different methods of connecting with his students. The story is told from the perspective of seven of his students. We see how they slowly come to appreciate his style, how he guides them through difficult moments, and how he helps them to become better classmates. Much of how the story plays out can be predictable. The new kid becomes an integral part of the class. The kid who acts out constantly and the mean girl are both forced to change their behaviors. Two girls who want to be friends but who are forbidden by the family of one of them eventually become fast friends. And there’s a deeply sad moment in the middle of the book that resolves itself in a wonderful way.

But the book is written for young readers, and I’m not sure the endings will be as easy to figure out for them as they are for adults. And Buyea, a former teacher, is a fine writer. The characters are full of life and each has their individual voice.

L told me this was her favorite book she’s ever read before she was even halfway through it. I think the sadness in the middle gave her some pause, but the ending pulled her back in. And I’m glad that I read it, too.

With everything accounted for, I knocked out 63 books this year, my best total in several years. Granted, 10 of those were graphic novels, but at least those were each collections from the Y: The Last Man series. And my pace really slacked off from May-July. Otherwise I could have really put up some big numbers.

My favorite reads of 2018 were:
Citizen Vince – Jess Walter
American War – Omar El Akkad
All the Pieces Matter: The Inside Story of The Wire – Jonathan Abrams
Star of the North – D.B. John
In The Woods – Tana French
The Long and Faraway Gone – Lou Berney
Beartown – Fredrik Backman
The Flight Attendant – Chris Bohjalian

I’ve already completed book #1 for 2019, but will save that for my next Reader’s Notebook entry.

Weekend Notes

January 7, 2019 /

It is the last day of Christmas vacation in our house. It might hit 50 for the third-straight day, but no one seems real interested in getting outside and doing something. Probably has something to do with me telling everyone their rooms need to be cleaned up before anything else gets done today, and no one is moving all that quickly to start cleaning. C does have a volleyball practice in a bit, but other than that looks like one, final, lazy day to wrap up two-plus weeks of them.

So let’s look back at the weekend.

KU

Man, that’s about as shitty of a weekend as I can remember for KU sports fans. There were the big events: Udoka Azubuike getting ruled out for Saturday’s game at Iowa State because of an injury suffered in practice Friday, the Jayhawks getting run off the court in the second half by the Cyclones, and then Sunday’s announcement that Udoka is done for the season.

And then two smaller events, one of which that is, really, bigger: Gary Woodland getting caught by the red-hot Xander Schauffele and losing the Tournament of Champions by one stroke and former KU football great – and father of a current Jayhawk – Kwamie Lassiter dying of a heart attack at just 49. Seriously, there was a lot of bad texting amongst my KU friends this weekend.

The loss to Iowa State was miserable. Despite playing terribly, KU was still in a good spot with 1:00 to play in the first half. It was one of those “If they can survive the next minute, get into the locker room, make some adjustments, this is anyone’s game.” Then then gave up a bad and-one, followed by a bad possession on offense and a 3-pointer by Iowa State that, effectively, ended the game. The second half was brutal. Iowa State, who I had read was not a very good 3-point shooting team, hit just about everything they threw up. The KU defense seemed only mildly interested in guarding anyone and in the last 10 minutes often stood and watched while ISU had a glorified shoot around.

So a bad loss on paper, but in the grand scheme of things, it was just a single loss. One I had chalked up at the beginning of the year, a belief that was reinforced when Udoka’s injury was announced before the game. KU had a lot of work to do to get better, but Bill Self is always able to adjust and get the best out of whatever his mix of talent is. As long as Dok didn’t miss more than a couple games, KU would be fine, although the Big 12 race would clearly be a dogfight.

And then the Udoka news broke Sunday. This will sound dramatic to all you non-KU folks, but the season is over. In a season after a Final Four appearance, and in which they began a national title favorites, the loss of Udoka from an already flawed team means all the lofty goals of November are trashed. The Big 12 streak will end and KU will be fortunate to get to the Sweet 16.

If KU could suddenly find an elite shooter who had immediate eligibility I would hold out hope that they could right the ship. But this team’s fatal flaw is that it has zero reliable outside shooters in an era where you need multiple guys who can hit the 3. There’s no getting around that.

Some people have been saying today, “Well, if Silvio De Sousa gets eligible, that changes things.” He’s not getting eligible. If it was going to happen, he would have been cleared by now. I’m sure KU is doing everything they can to get him cleared, but that ship has sailed. He should head to Bosnia, or wherever Billy Preston went last year.

That’s not to say this is a terrible team, or that I will not still watch every game with great interest. In fact, this season suddenly becomes pretty much stress-free. Knowing the Streak will end this early in the season means there’s less pressure on the next 16 Big 12 games. Losses on Big Mondays won’t mean I’m awake until 3:00 AM replaying what went wrong in my head. The Big 12 race will suddenly be about KU being spoilers rather than favorites. Knowing they don’t have a chance to make a repeat trip to the Final Four should make March games much more tolerable to watch.

It all sucks, but it’s not the end of the world.

Colts

As KU was losing in Ames, the Colts were hammering the Texans in Houston. As I understand it only a pass interference penalty and a tipped interception kept the Colts from leading 35–0 before halftime. I was switching over during commercials enough to get the gist of the game without all the details. As impressive as the Colts performance was, I do temper my enthusiasm a bit knowing they were playing Houston, the biggest frauds in this year’s playoff field.

Now it is on to Kansas City for a very, very interesting matchup. The Chiefs should be healthy favorites; I give the Colts about a 10% chance of winning. As good as the Colts’ defense has been this year, they’ve not faced an offense like the Chiefs’. But the Colts’ suddenly stout running game makes an upset not entirely out of the question. Get a lead, start pounding the rock, convert third downs, anything can happen. Not that the Colts have ever beaten the Chiefs in the playoffs before, so there’s really nothing for my Chiefs fan friends to worry about Saturday…

Other Football

I caught parts of the other three playoff games. I’m really not sure what Seattle was thinking on offense, although I’m not an expert on these things. I laughed at all the people who were saying “No one wants to play the Ravens!” a week ago after the Chargers pounded them. I did see that stretch at the end of the third/beginning of the fourth quarters when the referees somehow managed to totally botch three consecutive plays in at least five different ways. All those guys should be done for the playoffs. And the last couple minutes of the Eagles-Bears game were simply fantastic for neutrals. What an ending!

Spidey

C, L, and I went to see Spider-Man: Into the Spiderverse yesterday afternoon. It was really, really good! I was a little surprised at how much I enjoyed it. I’m not into movies based on comics,[1] nor was I a comics fan when I was little. I do recall owning some Spider-Man comics, though, and recognized the sense of humor that was unique to them in the movie. L has always been a Spider-Man fan, so she really enjoyed it. As we were walking out, we saw a little guy, maybe four, in his Spider-Man costume. She had the same costume when she was younger and I bet she would have worn hers if the movie had come out back then.

Weather

I think M is the only one complaining about our mild weather. She was supposed to go on a middle school ski trip yesterday to some hills down near Cincinnati, but with it being well over 60 down there, the trip had to be postponed for a couple weeks. She was most annoyed about having washed dishes for a month to pay for the trip. “If it doesn’t happen, I will have washed all those dishes for nothing!” she whined. I let the comment go, lest she think it through a little more and demand cash in exchange for her services.

Back to the grind tomorrow. M and C will get their volleyball schedules soon. We’re counting down the days until spring break. And after the first semester wraps up next week, M will be in her final semester at St. P’s.

  1. I don’t think I’ve seen any of the modern Marvel or DC movies other than Ant-Man.  ↩

Friday Playlist

January 4, 2019 /

Is it Friday already? Time for the first playlist of the year, then!

“Blue” – Thyla. This is kind of a perfect January song. Lyrically, it is dark and depressing, the singer complaining constantly about being “blue, blue, blue, blue, bluuuuuueeee.” Yet the music is driving and powerful as if it is pushing her through those January blues to the warmer months beyond.

“I Wonder” – Mike Krol featuring Allison Crutchfield. A nifty little rave-up that Crutchfield feels right at home joining Krol on.

“All Be Gone” – Buffalo Tom. I’ve held a grudge against Buffalo Tom for 25 years or so. They had that one single that hit big in the midst of the grunge era – “Sodajerk” – and based on that, alone, I bought their “Big Red Letter Day” album. Well, to be fair, one of my roommates told me he heard the album was great. I got it home, listened to it once, and pretty much hated every song other than “Sodajerk.” My roommate laughed, admitting he had never heard the album but wanted me to buy it so he didn’t make the same mistake. I wrote the band off forever, despite knowing there are a lot of people who really love their music. This song, which came out last spring, popped up on my Spotify Discovery playlist this week (more about Spotify and new music in a moment) and I loved it. Glad to see that they’re still making fine music. And props to me for getting over long-held grudges.

“Everlasting Love” – Carl Carlton. This may not be as well named as Carlton’s 1981 hit “She’s a Bad Mama Jama (She’s Built, She’s Stacked)” but it’s a better song, and it hit #6 in 1974.

“Head Alone” – Julia Jacklin. One of my on-going frustrations about the current music world is how some artists just get lost in the flood of new releases. Spotify insists on showing me 800 singles by artists I’ve never listened to instead of pulling songs by artists it should know I love to the top of the new releases page. Here’s the latest example: Julia Jacklin released this single last November and I just found it this week. It’s a fine song and I’m excited to hear her second album, which comes out in February.

Big 12 Hoops: The Beginning

January 3, 2019 /

A new Big 12 basketball season has begun. In a very strange first night of the year, there were three road wins. The only team to win at home? The Mighty Jayhawks of Kansas.

When the balls were first rolled out back in November, consensus was KU would have no problem rolling to their 15th-straight Big 12 title. Kansas State and West Virginia might challenge a little, but KU was supposed to be just too good to be caught.

That expectation has changed a bit. KU is not the juggernaut many expected them to be.

Kansas State has struggled to recapture their March form of last year and now face two key injuries. They lost at home by 20 last night and travel to Lubbock this Saturday. Starting 0–2 was not in the dreams of Purple fans.

I didn’t understand why people were so high on WVU. Jevon Carter was one of the most unique, disruptive players in league history. You can’t just plug someone in and replace him. Predictably – to me at least – the Mountaineers are 8–5 and were another team to lose at home last night. They will beat some good teams if they get healthy, but they are not contenders.

More surprising is who the challengers actually appear to be. Everyone figured Texas Tech would fall off after last season’s Elite 8 run. They’ve been really good through the first month, losing only to Duke in a game they kept close until late. The Red Raiders continue to be fantastic on the defensive end. The question is can they score enough over an 18-game schedule to get the 13+ wins needs to claim the title?

No one expected Oklahoma to be very good after losing Trae Young and a few other rotation players. But Lon Kruger always finds a way. They were in the game at Kansas last night until the final moments, and that came on a night when they were not hitting shots. Are they a true contender? I’m not sure. They’re deep, athletic, and full of interchangeable parts. Plus they have the second-best coach in the league. They look like a third-place team to me.

TCU is always on the verge of something, it feels like. They’re 11–1, have some really nice pieces, and have built up some scar tissue in recent years that teams about to break through often have to manage. But they’ve also played no one in the non-con season, so we have no idea who they are. In the end, they’re TCU, and until they actually string together good wins, I don’t see them being true contenders.

Then there’s Iowa State, who are 11–2 despite dealing with a rash of personnel issues. They’re beginning to get those bodies back and the only question to me is how quickly they can integrate everyone into the rotation without messing up their chemistry.

What about Texas? They had three very good wins before waxing K-State in Manhattan last night. Tons of athletes. But they also have three terrible losses. I figure there’s not a team in the conference they can’t beat on the right night. And there’s also not a team in the conference they can’t lose to on the nights they go 2–43 from 3. That’s a recipe for fifth place. Fortunately all Texas fans are now focused on getting their arguments together why the Longhorns should be preseason #1 in football next year instead of how the basketball team is doing.

KU is in a somewhat similar situation as Iowa State. Losing Udoka Azubuike for four weeks meant revamping pretty much everything Bill Self wanted to do. Getting him back last weekend means adjusting again. They weren’t exactly playing smoothly before his injury. So I think they’re still three weeks away from figuring it all out. Udoka makes KU much better on defense and he’s un-guardable on offense, but I think Dedric Lawson has a tougher time finding his spots when he plays with Dok.

In the backcourt, thank goodness for Devon Dotson. He’s stepped right into the void filled by Devonte Graham and Frank Mason III the last few years, playing about as well as you can ask a freshman to. He’s not the scorer or distributor those other two were yet, but he’s already a better defender. And they were both pretty solid on the defensive end.

I think the key to KU is whether Quentin Grimes can ever get comfortable. He’s looked better the last few games, but still often looks lost or slow. He’s athletic, but not a great athlete, if that makes sense. It would be great if he could suddenly morph into a 13 ppg player. But if he can just get to where he’s hitting two 3’s and not making five dumb turnovers each game he will make the team so much better.

KU is still the favorite. They have the most talent, the best coach, the biggest home court advantage, and all those bags of Adidas money that get slipped into the referee locker room before games.[1] But do they have the Devonte, BIFM, Thomas Robinson on this team that will refuse to lose in big games in February?

Stuff always goes KU’s way in February. Shots crawl in for the Jayhawks and rim out for opponents. A team with an inside track on the title will blow a winnable game. Another team will suffer an injury that wrecks their chances. West Virginia will blow a double-digit lead against KU in a game that swings the entire race.

Every. Single. Year.

KU began the season as the #1 ranked team in the country. They clearly aren’t at that level yet, and may well not get there. The Big 12 was supposed to be down. It looks like there may not be the depth at the bottom of the conference that has been there in the past. But there are likely six really solid teams. The question that will get answered over the next two months is just how big that gap between KU and the other five contenders is, and whether there’s a team out there strong enough to shake off 14 years of history to break through and end the streak.

  1. Not really. The bags are sent directly to their off-shore accounts.  ↩

Starting Off Strong (In Theory)

January 2, 2019 /

Happy New Year! Hope your celebrations were safe, happy, and the headaches/stomaches that resulted have passed.

Our New Year’s Eve went well. The Pacers game was good. Well, other than spending 15 minutes to travel three blocks right before our parking garage. Not sure what the hell was going on but traffic was a nightmare. The Pacers won by 8, the girls seemed to enjoy it, and our seats were decent. We were actually in the same section I sat for the KU-Michigan State game in November, just 17 rows higher and slightly to the side. Still low enough to clearly see the game.

IMG 1074

 

New Year’s Day was our standard, put away the Christmas decorations while watching football day. Always weird to see your home after six weeks of having a tree and decorations fill the open spaces. Our house feels much bigger today.

Ah, but the highlight – to me at least – of the week has been a musical discovery. Or rediscovery, rather.

I had forgotten there is a station on iHeart Radio that plays nothing but old American Top 40s. I haven’t checked it in months, maybe over a year. I don’t listen to it often because the countdowns are random. Unlike the ones on local radio or SiriusXM, they do not correspond with the same week back in the day as the current calendar shows.

For some reason I decided to check it Monday afternoon before we left for the game. The song playing was something not immediately familiar, but likely from the late ‘70s. So I decided to listen until the end of the song to place it properly. That’s when I heard Casey say he was counting down the top 50 songs of 1979. Nice! I enjoyed the next 90 minutes or so of listening to the end of that countdown. There were some great songs in there.

Anyway, the 1979 countdown ends and they roll straight into the 1980 countdown.[1] You might see where this is going…

I listened to a little of 1980 before we left. I caught a little of 1981 later in the evening. And we listened to a big chunk of 1983 while taking the decorations down. With 1984 coming up, you might think I would huddle up for six hours and listen to the entire thing. Somehow I resisted that urge, and only listened to a couple bits here-and-there, along with a longer stretch when I went to the gym. And I listened to a long chunk of the ’85 countdown while reading before bed. As I write this I’m in the middle of the 1987 countdown, which was right when my listening preferences were beginning to separate from what was on AT40 each week.

As you will expect, I’ve really enjoyed listening to these countdowns. Lots of fun trivia. Several songs I’ve mentally flagged to write about if I hear them later this year. Plenty of notes I’ve texted several of my brothers in music about. And tons of great songs. To be fair a lot fo really shitty songs, too.

I was going a little crazy when I couldn’t matchup the songs Casey was playing with the lists I found online of the Billboard Hot 100 from each year. It took some digging, both online and into my memory as I think I’ve battled this issue before, but turns out the radio show’s top 100 was based on a December 1 – November 30 year, while the official top 100 was based on January 1 – December 31. I was going crazy especially in 1984, when Casey insisted “Say, Say, Say” was the top song while every list I’ve ever seen lists “When Doves Cry” as the #1 song of that year. Knowing the radio show cut back into 1983 made that make perfect sense, as “Say, Say, Say” was huge at the end of ’83.

I suppose, when much of the countdown was put together without the use of computers, it was a huge effort to count the songs, gather interesting tidbits about the list, and then record the show in-between the regular December shows in time for its late December release. Makes sense that they had to start several weeks early to meet that deadline.

The more you know…

Finally, I was reminded yesterday about how I’m getting older.

I consistently go to the gym 3–5 times each week. I’ve been on that schedule since the girls went back to school in August. I’m on ok shape, although I haven’t switched my routine up for awhile. I have been on a medium weight, high repetition program since mid-October.

I mixed things up yesterday, moving to a plan for men over 40 I found online. I would be using lighter weights, almost exclusively dumbbells, and focus on form. For example, rather than doing leg presses on a machine, I would do squats with dumbbells. Easy enough, I thought. Those had been part of my routine until October, when I went to pressing more weight on the machine.

I decided to throw in shoulder presses at the top of the squat, something I used to do in every strength session. It’s a great movement that hits your whole body. After the first set, my legs felt a little weird. After the second I thought all the supporting muscles in my upper legs were going to tear. On the third, my back seized up. Terrific.

This morning my back is still crazy tight, the legs are sore. All this just from doing different exercises with 15 pound dumbbells, much lighter than what I had been lifting last week.

Getting old sucks.

  1. 1980 seems to be the year that the year-end countdown went to 100 songs.  ↩

Stats

January 1, 2019 /

The always interesting final music stats post of the year. This year’s – or last year’s more properly – December numbers are even more out of whack than in the past thanks to our addition of the Sonos speaker to our household. In fact, December threw off the entire year’s numbers.

December 2018

  • Bing Crosby – 210
  • Frank Sinatra – 103
  • Sharon Jones and the Dap-Kings – 66
  • Ella Fitzgerald – 64
  • Darlene Love – 45

So I subtract the Holiday tunes and my wife’s music and we’re left with some odd numbers for an odd year.

2018

  • Ryan Adams – 205
  • The War on Drugs – 183
  • Frightened Rabbit – 164
  • Middle Kids – 159
  • Wild Pink – 156
  • Rolling Blackouts Coastal Fever – 141
  • Pearl Jam – 124
  • Julien Baker – 118
  • Lucy Dacus – 118
  • Restorations – 115

And, finally, updated All Time listening stats (Back to February 2005)

  • Frightened Rabbit – 3190
  • Pearl Jam – 2862
  • The War on Drugs – 2139
  • Ryan Adams – 2133
  • The Beatles – 1977

Complete stats available at my Last.fm page

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