D's Notebook

Month: April 2020 (Page 2 of 2)

Reaching for the Stars, Vol. 40

April 14, 2020 /

Chart Week: March 30, 1985
Songs: “Missing You” – Diana Ross, “Nightshift” – The Commodores
Chart Positions: #15, 18th week on the chart. Peaked at #10 for two weeks in April. #10, 10th week on the chart. Peaked at #3 the week of April 20.

Music fans know where I’m going with this entry. These two songs were both tributes to one of the greatest singers in American history.

Marvin Gaye was murdered by his father on April 1, 1984 following an argument between the two men. They had a long, troubled history together. Marvin Gay Sr. (note the difference in spelling of their last names) brutally beat his son often during his childhood. Their final altercation came when Marvin Jr. intervened in a fight between his parents. Marvin Sr. grabbed a gun and shot his son to death at the age of 44.

Marvin Gaye had one of the most amazing careers in American music. He broke out as an early star of Motown, both writing for other label acts and as a singer. He began with classic, wholesome songs like “Ain’t That Peculiar,” “How Sweet It Is (To Be Loved By You),” and “Can I Get a Witness.” He had a long series of hits partnering with Mary Wells, Diana Ross, and most notably Tammi Terrell.

Seriously, if all he had ever released were his songs with Terrell, he still might be the greatest Motown act this side of Stevie Wonder.[1]
“Ain’t No Mountain High Enough,” “If This World Were Mine,” “If I Could Build My World Around You,” “Ain’t Nothing Like the Real Thing,” “You’re All I Need To Get By.” As I often say in these pieces, many artists would kill to have one of those songs. Marvin had all those…and many more.

In the 1970s his music become both more introspective and worldly, embracing political causes and addressing social ills. What’s Going On was his magnum opus, and of the greatest albums of its, or any, time. “Mercy, Mercy Me (The Ecology),” “Trouble Man,” and the album’s title track changed the arc of Black music, opening doors for performers to do more than sing love songs or dance tracks. Thanks to the album’s success, both critically and commercially, Motown relaxed the control it forced upon many of its artists, notably Stevie Wonder, who was about to go on one of the greatest runs of music ever seen. Well, heard.

Marvin struggled in the late 1970s, between addiction, marital woes, tax issues, and so on. But he returned in late 1982 with the triumphant “Sexual Healing,” and seemed poised for a glorious third act to his career before his death.

A little over a year after his passing, two artists hit the top ten with songs that were tributes to him.

Diana Ross’ “Missing You” was based on conversations she had about her former collaborator with Lionel Richie, who produced the track. It’s a little over-the-top, but Diana was always a little over-the-top so it fits. It still felt honest and moving.

The Commodores’ track, which was split between honoring Gaye and Jackie Wilson, who had also died in 1984, is my favorite of the two tracks. I’ve always loved its warmth, its soul, and how it felt more open than Ross’ highly personal track. Ironically, “Nightshift” was the only Top 40 single the Commodores had after Richie’s departure. Vocals were split between Walter Orange, who handles lead vocals on “Brick House,” and Richie’s replacement, J.D. Nichols. I found it interesting that the band did not want to release the song as a single but were forced to by their record label. It only went to #3 and earned them a Grammy a year later. Sometimes the label is right.

Marvin Gaye was a musical giant. He created dozens of timeless tracks, he helped many other acts find success, and he changed the musical world for all that followed him. These two tracks were fitting tributes.

  1. Smokey Robinson, The Supremes, and the Jackson 5 would all like to have a word with me.  ↩

Covid Chronicles, 4/13

April 13, 2020 /

Well, it is April 13, Easter is behind us, and after a week-plus of fine-to-perfect weather, suddenly it feels like winter again. Currently the winds are roaring, the sky is filled with thick, angry clouds, and the windchill is a nippy 26 degrees. Ah, life in the Midwest!

These last gasps of winter this time of year always suck. Over the past week the trees have all budded out; flowers and ornamental grasses are emerging; and the yard is that almost painful shade of green that comes after some rain, some warm weather, and its first cutting of the year. Everything visual screams spring. And then you step outside. Oh well, soon enough we’ll be bitching about the heat and humidity.

We had a successful, modified Easter Sunday. While we had no direct plans with extended family, we did get almost all of S’ siblings and parents together on a Zoom call. Later we had our own Easter dinner. We had ham – grocery store rather than Honey Baked but it was fine – shrimp, company potatoes. M made deviled eggs. We had a salad. C and L did most of the work on a fancy cake. It didn’t quite turn out like the Pintrest pics but most of the errors were in the parts that I did, so they get an A for their work.

We also had two birthday drive-bys over the weekend. On Saturday we cruised over to the old neighborhood as M’s buddy was turning 16. We ended up hanging out in the street for 30 minutes or so, chatting with many of our old neighbors while casting eyes at our old house to see how much work the new owners had done. Sunday L had a friend turning 12 and we were part of a large parade outside her house.

I love these. It sucks for kids to not be able to have parties, go out to dinner, etc on their birthdays. But these drive-bys will ensure they are special and memorable.

With so much time to waste, I find myself doing a lot of Ebay browsing. I don’t normally spend a ton of time on Ebay. Every now and then I’ll buy something on it, usually for things adjacent to whatever my hobby of the moment is. It’s been years since I’ve sold anything on the platform. These days I find myself looking at golf clubs a lot. My instructor told me to wait to buy clubs until we have my swing more locked in. Who knows when I’ll get to see him again, let alone get out and play. Yet I keep scrolling through clubs I’m interested in, putting ones I like in my Watch List. I’m also spending a lot of time on 2nd Swing and other used club sites. I haven’t bid on anything on Ebay so far. But I have put several clubs into my basket on 2nd Swing and others to reveal their discounted price. I feel like I don’t have much willpower right now and a purchase is bound to happen.

In the real world, the numbers and news seem to be shifting in a more positive direction, even if slowly. In general this is a good thing. Fewer sick people, fewer people dying, less crowded hospitals, etc.

I worry greatly about this news, though. I worry about all the people, encouraged by a large swath of the media and political world, who are using this as an excuse to ignore the scientists and doctors who have warned us about the scale of this pandemic. I worry that the President is going to ignore how the worst numbers were always a long-term projection, not just about April/May, and use it as an excuse to drop social distancing recommendations. I worry that even people who have taken this seriously, who have followed the guidelines for hunkering down, will combine these numbers with their restlessness, with their financial concerns, with their desire to get back to normal, and also will rush to get back to normal too soon.

Outside New York, Seattle, and a few other hot spots, we Americans have been extraordinarily fortunate so far. As bad as our numbers are, they seem to be focused on those distinct areas. Emergency departments in many areas are not seeing the flood of patients they expected. Numbers are trending the right way. But that doesn’t mean this is over. Flattening the curve was never about ending this quickly. It was about giving our health care system a chance to manage the crisis. Part of flattening the curve meant stretching the pandemic out over the course of this year and into next year, when a natural second wave was likely to hit anyway. If we jump back into normalcy too soon, all those worst-case scenarios will come flooding back into the realm of the possible, just in June or July or August rather than April.

This is a deeply sucky time. Until our government(s) demonstrate the ability to manage it properly, we all need to resist the urge to completely jump back into our pre-Covid routines. We may be able to slowly lift restrictions, a few at a time. But the lives we led in February aren’t completely coming back for a long time.

Friday Playlist

April 10, 2020 /

I think of myself as pretty knowledgable about tech things, or at least tech things that I use regularly. For months, years maybe, I’ve been lamenting how I have to delete my Friday Playlists out of Spotify after a month so my local library doesn’t get too unwieldy to scroll through. “If only you could do nesting folders like in old iTunes,” I thought. But I never, you know, looked to see if that was possible. I finally did last week and – LO! – you can! So now I have a folder where I can dump my old FP’s, which means these will hang around rather than turn into dead links after a month. In case any of you ever look back at them.

On to this week’s tunes…

“Somewhere” – Gum Country
This LA band claims to be “harsh twee.” To me this sounds like straight, early 90s, college grunge. And I like it.

“Forever Nevermore” – Sea Wolf
“You Fear the Wrong Thing Baby” – The Radio Dept.
I don’t know why, but I lump these two bands – and a few others like Longwave, Rogue Wave, Matt Pond PA, etc – together even though they don’t sound much alike and I discovered them several years apart. Weird. Anyway, two solid new songs from two bands that I’ll always take a listen to when they drop fresh material on our ears.

“Catch the Sun” – Doves
Shit, man. We’re starting to hit 20-year anniversaries of things that happened this century. I’m not sure I can get my head around that. This past week was the 20th anniversary of Doves’ debut album Lost Souls. I’m a bigger fan of their later work, when they tightened things up a bit and shifted in a slightly more pop direction. I don’t think I got into this song until about a year later, as I recall it being a big part of my summer of 2001 playlists. Still, it was my entry point for one of my favorite bands of the early 2000s.

“Lovely Day” – Bill Withers
We lost a couple legends this week. I don’t know much about John Pine, but a lot of people and artists I like were moved by his passing. Bill Withers, though, was one that hit me. I never owned a Withers album, never played any of his songs on repeat. But once you heard his songs, they were in your head and heart forever. He has at least four timeless songs that pretty much everyone alive in the 1970s and 1980s will remember forever. I figure we need a lift these days, so I picked this one.

“Secret Separation” – The Fixx
Our current separation is not so secret, but this seemed appropriate for the times as well.

Covid Chronicles, 4/8

April 8, 2020 /

One of my memories of April 4, 1988, was what a glorious day it was. Sunny, in the 80s, and perfect. At least in Kansas City. I remember going to Dairy Queen with friends after school and then mowing the lawn in the lead up to the national championship game. It was one of those early spring days in the Midwest that fools you into thinking summer is closer than it actually is.

We are currently in a nice run of similar days. Yesterday it was pushing 80. Today it will again be in the mid–70s. We’ve been able to wear shorts outside for several days. I’ve likely spent too much time in the sun already. There has been a lot of shooting baskets, hitting practice golf balls, taking bike rides, and decorating the driveway with chalk. We even talked about opening the pool, although I’ve put off calling our pool service.

Alas, as I said, these days are big teases. After today there isn’t a single day in the extended forecast where the high will be above 60. Several days it will only be in the 40s. We have several hard freezes ahead of us at night.[1]

These warm days almost make our lockdown tolerable. It’s like being asked to shelter at home in San Diego. With the weather about to turn, and the national news getting worse each day, the next 7–10 days are going to be a mental struggle.

One horrible story I have not shared yet is that a CHS student was shot and killed two weeks ago. He was a junior, so M did not know him. He was also a very good football player, one of the team’s best defensive backs last year who often returned punts and kicks as well.

The story reveal has been rather strange in the local media. The day of the shooting there was a story about it, saying two men were shot and killed while a juvenile had been taken to the hospital in critical condition. No names were given. M quickly heard through the CHS grapevine that the student had died. We assumed he was the juvenile and there were three fatalities.

A day later there was a story in the paper about his death, with reaction from the football coaches, fellow players, and school administrators. There was no mention in the story of his cause of death or that he had even been involved in the shooting incident.

M later heard a rumor that, whatever caused the event, the football player had jumped in front of his younger brother to protect him during the shooting. So the football player must have been 18 and one of the dead adults while his brother was the juvenile who went to the hospital. We have not heard how he is doing.

The school had a drive-through memorial service, where families could drive up the school hill to pay their respects. There was an online service.

Just an awful story in a terrible time.

S and I took a walk the other night around the high school across the street. There were a few kids on the football field doing workouts. As we approached the soccer fields we saw some guys out playing. Just then another car pulled up and 6–7 more guys hopped out. S and I looked at each other, shook our heads, and she said, “Well, maybe they’re all brothers.” Then they started jumping over and crawling under the fence, or squeezing between the gates to get into the fields. She cringed further, worried one of them would get carved up.

As always, teenage boys aren’t the sharpest knives in the drawer.

I’ve been out twice this week, Monday morning for a quick grocery store run and today to Costco for the first time since early February. Both times I wore a mask, as that is now the thing to do. When I first walked into the grocery story Monday, the first 5–8 people I saw were all mask-less and I started to feel self conscious. Fortunately as I got deeper into the store I saw more and more people who were wearing masks. At Costco it was probably 60–40 masks to no masks. I was surprised how many employees were working without masks on.

I get that masks can be hard to find. They are uncomfortable. I was at the grocery store right when they opened at 7:00, so perhaps some people thought they could get in and out without needing one. And some people, honestly, may not have heard that the guidance on whether to wear a mask or not has changed. I refuse to judge people for what they do or do not do. It’s an emotional enough time without people giving you the stink eye. I just hope they are washing their hands thoroughly when they get home.

I’m going out more than I should, mostly because I wanted to get that Costco trip in and with it being Easter week we are slowly putting together a menu for Sunday that will likely require another trip out. I’m justifying all these tripes since I seem healthy, I’m wearing a mask, I’m going as soon as stores open and they are not crowded, and I’m getting in-and-out quick. I’ll likely cut way back next week, though. I get nervous about being out so much.

Speaking of masks, I keep seeing people driving with them on. I understand if they are delivery people who are constantly encountering people. But I’ve seen people who live down the street leave or come back with their masks on. Which I think is really weird. If you’re by yourself in your car, you don’t need to wear the mask. Maybe they just worry they will forget to put it on when they get to their destination if they don’t do it as soon as they get into the car?

One thing I keep thinking of is the long-term effects all of this will have on people. Not in terms of the economy, jobs, finances, etc. More in terms of how my grandparents were scarred for life by the Depression. My mom’s mom, who was a farmer’s wife, could not throw out food to save her life. Even if there was a tiny bite of something left, she would pack it into Tupperware and stash it in the fridge. Those little bites served as lunch additions or snacks between meals. Often on Saturday nights she would pull everything out and lay it out across the table, and you made a plate from the accumulated leftovers from the week. She also let me have root beer floats with my dinner on those nights, so as much as I hated having to eat week-old casserole, I kind of enjoyed those summer, Saturday nights I spent at their house.

But those were the scars that trying to survive in rural Kansas during the Depression left.

How will this period, however long it lasts, affect us? Will Americans begin wearing masks more often? Will we, in general, practice better hand hygiene? Will more people keep their pantries and freezers stocked for potential moments of food supply disruption? Will social distancing become deeply ingrained in our society? Will people who are young kids today always be fearful of strangers, as their parents tell them to stay away from people at the park, while taking walks through the neighborhood, etc.?

There are likely long-term effects that we aren’t aware of yet that our grandkids will laugh at us for in 20–30 years.

  1. Maybe that will kill all the wasps and yellow jackets that have been buzzing around.  ↩

Reader’s Notebook, 4/7/20

April 7, 2020 /

Well, I did it. I finished my pile of books I checked out from the library last night. I have a couple books on my Kindle that I’ve purchased to get through the next week or so. After that I guess I’ll start checking out ebooks from the library, which I kind of hate to do after learning about how difficult the ebook system is for libraries. (Long story short: publishers screw libraries on ebooks.) I also have a pile of books that I have already read but loved and can re-read.

The Cold War: A New History – John Lewis Gaddis
Gaddis has many Cold War titles to his credit. Which is appropriate a he was long considered one of the greatest American CW scholars. In the early 2000s he noticed how his students were beginning to reach the age where they had not actively grown up during the Cold War. He decided Americans of this new generation needed a less dense overview of the Cold War, and one that focused more on the final outcome of the era rather than the details.

This book is the result. And even for history buffs like myself, its brevity is useful. Gaddis glides through the major sections of the Cold War, picking out key events and showing how each side acted and reacted and putting those actions in context of the broader US-Soviet rivalry.

The book’s strongest sections are those that cover the 1970s and 1980s, when the cracks were starting to form in the foundation of the Soviet bloc. Gaddis points out that it took a handful of leaders who viewed the world in very different ways from the calcified, Cold War viewpoints that had the world stuck in a system many believed could not change. Ronald Reagan, Margaret Thatcher, Pope John Paul II, Mikhail Gorbachev, and Deng Xiaoping all rejected the existing order and worked to break it down, each in their own, personal ways. Together that hammered those slowly forming cracks and brought about the events of 1989, when the world, almost overnight, totally changed.

I’m no great fan of Reagan or Thatcher’s domestic politics. But credit where credit is due: their rejection of the orthodoxy their parties/countries were wed to helped make the world a much safer place for 25 years or so.

Pravda Ha Ha – Rory Maclean
I did not read these two books back-to-back – there was one in between – but I chose to write about them together as they are good counters to each other. Maclean is a British travel writer. In the aftermath of the fall of the Berlin Wall and the opening of Eastern Europe, he traveled and wrote about his experiences in the once closed-off countries of that region.

Here he goes back to those countries nearly 30 years after their opening to see what has changed. He travels through Russia, Estonia, Latvia, Ukraine, Poland, Hungary, and Germany before returning home to a Britain that is disengaging from Europe. What he finds frightens him. Russia is again run by a strongman, with Putin controlling the country with an iron – capitalist rather than communist – fist. He threatens countries like the Baltics and Ukraine that earned their independence after the collapse of the Soviet Union. In Poland and Hungary, democracy is also on the wane as right-wing, nationalist governments have taken over, stamped out dissent, and used Putin-like techniques to control the media.

Maclean also explores the issue of refugees, running into a Nigerian man in Russia who is attempting to get somewhere safe. He helps the man to escape Russia and, at the book’s close, finds him in a small British town, working in an off-the-books job but with glimmers of hope that he can establish his legal status thanks to an unlikely benefactor.

This is a pretty sobering book. While there are success stories from the end of the Cold War – a reunited and peaceful Germany being the most obvious – it is clear those heady days are over as more and more of Eastern Europe slips back into authoritarianism and the west looks to isolate itself more. With the rise of nationalism, borders that were drawn in the aftermath of war, and fewer safety valves to prevent conflict, you can’t help but wonder if the 30 years of peace since the Berlin Wall came down aren’t a temporary aberration and Europe could soon slip back to its bad old ways of continuous conflict.

The Mars Room – Rachel Kushner
I read Kushner’s highly acclaimed The Flamethrowers five years ago and did not love it. This book also got tons of critical praise but because of that previous experience, it took me awhile to get to it. I’m pretty sure I’ve checked it out from the library once before and did not read it. Thank goodness for a lockdown that forced the issue, because I really enjoyed it.

The Mars Room is named for a strip club (fictional I believe) in San Francisco where Romy, the book’s center, was once employed. When the book begins she is on a bus to the women’s prison in Stanville, CA to serve two life sentences for murdering a former Mars Room customer.

Most of the book lays out her life in prison, from her that first bus ride to her eventual escape, capture, and presumed death. Along the way there are flashbacks to her life before prison and stripping, the story of her trial and ineffective legal representation, back stories on her cellmates, and tangents about her in-prison educator and a dirty cop with a connection to the women’s prison. In addition to her day-to-day life in prison, Romy also fights to find security for her 12-year-old son after her mother, his guardian and her only other family member dies. Only at the very end does Kushner finally lay out the events that led to Romy’s conviction.

Kushner does a wonderful job getting into the lives of Romy and the women she is in prison with. Some are legit psychos. Some were in the wrong place at the wrong time. Some were too young to have any idea they were putting themselves in bad positions. And some, like Romy, were victims of a system that doesn’t have the time to dive into cases and discover their true causes. Especially if the accused are poor, a minority, a woman, or some combination of those three.

Romy is a compelling character, even with her great flaws. In many ways she is everything you would never want your daughter to be. But she is also fiercely independent, capable of surviving in the most trying circumstances, and her ultimate crime is done out of protection of her child, not out of true malice.

Old School Gaming

April 6, 2020 /

It should be national championship night. Maybe KU would be playing tonight in the school’s ninth title game seeking their fourth NCAA title. The Chicago Tribune ran a simulation and had the Jayhawks beating Michigan State tonight to indeed grab the 2020 nets. USA Today had KU beating Dayton on a buzzer-beating shot.

Alas, there was no tournament this year so we’ll never know if Dot, Dok, Marcus and company could have won four to six games to hang another banner in Allen Fieldhouse.

With the lack of a Final Four this weekend, I reached back to my past to rediscover one of the most beloved teams of my life: the 1988 Jayhawks. I watched the Elite Eight game against Kansas State, the national semifinal game against Duke, and the title game against Oklahoma. Thank goodness for YouTube!

My memories of that 1988 tournament run are, naturally, some of my favorites ever. But it had been awhile since I watched any of these games. Back in the day I watched them often, the tapes of them some of my most sacred possessions. So reviewing the YouTube videos quickly shook free memories that had been gathering dust for years and years. I sensed when big moments were coming, I remembered exact phrases the announcers used.

That ’88 KU squad was about as star-crossed a team as you will ever find. They seemingly couldn’t get a break in the regular season, losing six players to injury, grades, or other issues. Larry Brown had to recruit two football players just to have enough bodies for practice. They lost five of six games and were hoping to end Danny Manning’s career with an NIT home game.

Then, following a 21–11 regular season, KU got every break possible in the NCAA Tournament.

First round opponent Xavier badmouthed host city Lincoln, NE and Manning. The Jayhawks waxed the Musketeers by 13 to open the tournament. Instead of #3 seed NC State, which featured seven players who got NBA minutes, KU faced Murray State in the second round and survived by three to advance to the Sweet 16.

Waiting for them was #7 seed Vanderbilt who had upset the big, physical #2 seed Pittsburgh. Manning abused Will Perdue for 38 points and it was onto the Elite 8 where in-state rival K-State was waiting after knocking off top-seed Purdue. This was likely the greatest team in Purdue history – Troy Lewis, Todd Mitchell, Everette Stephens, and Melvin McCants gave the Boilermakers four studs – and KU would have had no chance against them. In the regional championship game, K-State controlled the game for large stretches of the first 32 minutes until a KU run gave them control and they cruised to a 13-point win. Scooter Barry played the game of his life on a day when Mitch Richmond was harassed by KU’s stifling defense.

Improbably it was back to Kansas City for the 50th Final Four and a meeting with Duke, who had beaten the Jayhawks a month earlier in Lawrence. KU jumped out early, leading 14–0 and 26–4.[1] Duke came roaring back. A three-point shot that could have turned it into a two-point game spun out with about 4:00 left, and Duke never got closer than four after that.

Somehow KU would be playing for the national title. They would take on Oklahoma, who had beaten them twice by eight points in the regular season. That OU team was loaded. Harvey Grant was a first team All Big 8 player on the greatest All Big 8 team of all time: Manning, Grant, Mitch Richmond, Derrick Chievous, and Jeff Grayer. OU also had Stacey King, who would be the 1989 Big 8 player of the year and Mookie Blaylock, one of the greatest defensive guards to ever play in the Big 8. The Sooners had lost just three times, scoring over 100 points an amazing 20 times.

KU famously ran with the Sooners for the first half, 20 minutes of gorgeous basketball than ended in a 50-all tie. The second half was more deliberate, and the teams traded leads until KU stretched out a lead in the closing five minutes. A massive, last second, flip-it-and-hope shot by Chris Piper splashed through as the shot clock expired at the 4:00 mark and KU was up by six. Kemper Arena was a madhouse, sounding more like a game in Lawrence than in a “neutral” setting.

KU closed poorly, though. Manning took two-straight poor, rushed shots that missed.[2] KU missed three of four free throws. Blaylock stole an inbounds pass. But Oklahoma could not take advantage. They got the lead down to two points once, but Scooter Barry and Manning closed the game hitting five of six free throws to clinch the title. Oklahoma, a team with three NBA first round picks, had lost to Manning and a bunch of spare parts. Milt Newton took terrible shots all weekend that all seemed to crawl in. He went 6–6 in the title game. Clint Normore, one of the football players, played 16 minutes, scored seven points, and was also perfect from the field. Piper, a Lawrence High School product who was playing injured, scored eight points and had seven rebounds, which would have tied for a team-best on Oklahoma.

And Manning. Good grief! In one of the greatest title game performance ever, he scored 31, grabbed 18 rebounds, had five steals, two blocks, and two assists.

Danny and the Miracles indeed.

So many feelings went through me watching these games. Manning was so freaking good. He’s the alpha KU player of my life, the clear #1 player in modern program history. But without seeing him in action for so long I forgot how insanely good he was. He had that quick, unstoppable jump hook. When I used to play a lot of pickup ball I tried to mimic Drew Gooden’s jump hook. Gooden’s shot was great, but it was nowhere near Manning’s shot. Manning could pass, flipping quick passes through gaps in the defense. He could dribble pretty well for his size and relative to his era. He was a strong rebounder. He could block shots. What really stuck out, though, was how he was so fundamentally sound and relied on that and not great athleticism to get the job done. He was fast, he was a decent jumper. But KU has had 30 big men who were more athletically impressive than Manning. He was miles beyond anyone else when it came to the basic skills of the game.

Larry Brown coached a perfect game. On a team that had lost most of its depth, he found a way to get decent minutes out of four bench players. He adjusted his offense throughout the night, always a step-ahead of Billy Tubbs. And for a coach known for mentally wearing down his players, he pulled every correct string to get a team that had no business playing for a national title to believe they were the best team on the court that night.

I remember that night, April 4, 1988, vividly. I trust as long as I am alive I will. I realized while watching these grainy copies of old VHS tapes on YouTube how long ago these games were. They were 32 years ago! It is crazy how moments like this, about sports, can stick with you forever.

The 2008 was the greatest KU team ever. But the 1988 team will always be my favorite.

  1. In the game in Lawrence KU lead 28–6 before losing in overtime.  ↩
  2. On of my favorite images from the game came during a timeout shortly after Manning’s second miss. As he walked to the bench, Brown walked toward him, smile on his face, pressing his palms down, saying “Calm down! Calm down!” Manning returned Brown’s smile. I love that. You can see that Manning, the best player in college that year, was amped up knowing he was moments away from a national title. It was such a human and authentic moment.  ↩

Friday Playlist

April 3, 2020 /

“I Know That Much” – The Lathums
This band is from England, but there is a distinctly 80s, Australian vibe to their music. To be fair, there is also a strong early 90s jangle pop feel to it as well. I also hear REM and Johnny Marr. This is turning into a wine description: “Oaky, but with a hint of vanilla, burnt caramel, and a touch of burnt hay in the finish.”

“Can’t Do Much” – Waxahatchee
The marquee album release last week was Pearl Jam’s Gigaton. But the new album I’ve listened to most over the past seven days is Waxahatchee’s St. Cloud. I’ve been a fan of Katie Crutchfield’s music for a long time. When she released her last album I said her music was on a clear curve of getting better upon each release. That is true here, again, as this is the defining album of her career. It is an utterly glorious listen, the tone perfect for the moment, ideal for listening to late at night when the house is quiet and I am contemplating what is going on in the world.

“Static on the Radio” – Jim White with Aimee Mann
For something like 10 years I hosted a bi-weekly music podcast. I kept it secret because I started it in the bad old days when sharing music online could cause a problem, and I wasn’t looking to get sued by some record label for sharing their songs with a couple dozen people. I don’t have all those old playlists anymore, but I’m pretty sure I played this song in one of the very earliest episodes, in the spring of 2005. I had forgotten about it totally until it played over the closing credits for El Camino. Glad I rediscovered it because it’s a really good song.

“Messing With My Head” – Tinted Windows
Adam Schlesinger, most famous for his role as primary songwriter for Fountains of Wayne, died of Covid–19 related issues this week. I didn’t know much about his music, but listened to a tribute playlist and this song jumped out at me. Tinted Windows was a supergroup effort between Schlesinger and members of Smashing Pumpkins, Hanson, and Cheap Trick. I had never heard this song before and it is a nice, power-pop gem.

“School’s Out” – Alice Cooper
The 2019–20 academic year has officially been wiped out here in Indiana. The governor announced yesterday that schools would not return this spring. Our girls were not enthused by that announcement. I will remind them of that next fall when they bitch about waking up in the morning. It’s not officially summer: they still have two months of eLearning in front of them. But they can sleep in until at least mid-August.

“Stacy’s Mom” – Fountains of Wayne
The Adam Schlesinger song most people are familiar with. It wasn’t just funny, it kicked the whole Cougar/MILF concept into the mainstream. Thus, a very important song! RIP to Adam.

Covid Chronicles, 4/2

April 2, 2020 /

The latest in America’s favorite new blog series!

Last night I had my first Zoom meeting with friends. Most of those buddies check in here on the blog occasionally – Nez, E$, Sir Dave, The Piddler – and we’ve been texting often. But it was still great to see their faces, have a conversation, and make a human connection.

Yesterday the Indianapolis mayor extended our city’s shelter in place order through May 1. Not a surprise, and I continue to be fine with moving these dates back slowly rather than going ahead and saying “OK, everything is shut down until June 1/July1/2023 or whatever.”

What was upsetting was that as a part of his order he decided to shut down golf courses. I had not gone out to play golf, mostly because I don’t feel comfortable leaving the girls home alone right now if S has to go to the hospital, and I don’t want to drive 20–30 minutes to get to a course when you’re not supposed to be out of the house. However, I had hoped if the weather dried up a bit I could run up to the pitch and putt course that is five minutes away next week. As many folks have pointed out, on a golf course you’re in a wide open space and even if you have playing partners you can create plenty of distance between others. Meanwhile on the walking trails you are constantly getting within six feet of others.

I get how this is purely about optics and it is pretty low on the list of things to worry about. I guess I’ll have to continue to be content to hit balls in the basement and practice balls in the front yard once it stops raining.

Speaking of indoor golf, I did order myself a practice putting mat a few weeks back. I got a model recommended by a brother-in-law and have been spending about 30 minutes each day on it. Hopefully it makes a difference if I can ever play “real” golf again.

This morning S got a call from the St P’s gym teacher. He is a great guy and we had heard he was checking in on other families. He spoke with her for several minutes just to make sure we were all doing ok and that the girls were getting outside. He doesn’t know us very well – thus the call to S rather than me – and when he asked how we were doing she mentioned that I was the at-home parent and she was a physician and has been in the hospital a few days. That elicited a whole series of questions on her opinion of where we are at and how long this will last. I’m sure that info will get passed along the line.

In global news, it is hard not to get bogged down in numbers. There are the numbers of infected/dead across countries and states. Models for what may happen and when they think it will happen. Numbers of unemployed, dollars for recovery efforts, etc. Just so many numbers, and numbers that change depending on what source you look at.

A detail about numbers I learned Tuesday that amazed me was how the daily reports we get are skewered. The Indiana state health commissioner noted that when they say X deaths were reported on day Y, that doesn’t mean X people actually died that day. Some may have died days ago but their positive test results just came back. I never thought of that, and it suggests that as testing gets better/faster that could shoot the numbers up even higher as the accounting of bodies catches up.

Then this morning I read an article that dove into the number of dead in Italy and Spain. It looked at the historic numbers of people who died in a specific area over a specific time frame, compared that to how many dead were reported over that span this year, then looked at how many of those deaths were officially related to Covid–19.

In one region in Spain the historic number was 500, the 2020 number was 835, but the Covid number was only 121. That means there were an “extra” 214 deaths. Some of those, the study said, were marked down as having general causes of death like pneumonia that could be Civid-related but did not have a positive test. Others simply weren’t tested.

If you figure this will be the case across the globe, the final, true death toll will be much higher than the numbers we are getting now. Yeesh, more good news.

I think I’ve said this before but each day is a constant blend of fascination and terror. There’s the fascination of this totally unique world event. As a history buff of holder of a political science degree, both the daily developments and their long-term ramifications are completely engrossing.

But there’s always that terror to balance. Most studies continue to show that a huge majority of people who get seriously ill from the coronavirus have underlying health issues. One study I saw showed over 80% of Civid-positive people who required hospitalization had a chronic issue like diabetes, heart disease, etc. And for the sickest people, those who require admission to the ICU, the number was even higher.

Yet everyday you hear stories of people in their 30s, 40s, and 50s who were otherwise healthy and suddenly got sick and deteriorated rapidly. My first thought is wondering how many of these people had some undiagnosed illness that had already chipped away at their immune systems and prevented their bodies from fighting off the virus. But even then, that leaves a section of people who were indeed relatively healthy and succumbed quickly.

That’s the stuff that scares the crap out of me. I’m being careful in my travels outside of the house. When we take a walk or see the neighbors at the mailbox I am careful to keep a distance from others. I wash my hands often. What if there is already some bomb ticking inside of me, though, that I wouldn’t otherwise have discovered for years that has knocked my immune system down just enough that, should I get infected, makes fighting it troublesome?

This is a minor worry compared to that for S, though. She’s having to go into hospitals and medical offices several days a week. She’s seeing patients occasionally. While in most cases she is isolated from people who have tested positive, by being out of the home and in an environment where sick people pass through, her risk factor is much higher.

The odds are very low that either of us will get sick, and then that either of us will get seriously ill. But those odds are still greater than zero, and the more stories you hear about people here in the US dying, the more you think about the worst cases and all the implications that come with that.

Hey, happy Thursday!

What I’m Watching, March

April 1, 2020 /

Obviously a busier month than normal. Let’s get to it.

Narcos, season three
Maybe not quite as excellent as the first two seasons, largely due to the end of Wagner Moura’s epic run as Pablo Escobar which carried the first two seasons. The move from Medellín to Calí still made for compelling TV. Despite that move, there was still a revelatory performance, this one by Matias Varela as cartel head of security Jorge Salcedo.

The season hit a peak at about its midway point and carried that all the way to its finale. An outstanding end to the first chapter of a great series. I’m excited to see what the move to Mexico for seasons four and five brings.

A-

Jack Ryan, season two
Ugh, so disappointing. The writing felt lazy and manipulative. Some of the major plot developments made no sense. And the last episode was damn near unwatchable. Seriously, a State Department liaison can just order a US helicopter to fly into another country’s presidential palace on its Election Day and start shooting the place up? Bullshit. Sad that John Krasinski and Wendall Pierce are attached to this crap.

C- most of the season but episode 8 was an F

Curb Your Enthusiasm, season three
I watched this series in about two days. It was really solid. I don’t know that it had an episode that matched season two’s The Doll, but it was still highly entertaining.

B+

El Camino
I finally got around to watching this last Saturday. I did not do what some had suggested and go back and read Jessie Pinkman’s Wikipedia entry to remind myself of everything he went through in Breaking Bad. The recap at the beginning helped, but I was still four or five years from watching BB and certainly forgot a lot.

I thought this was really well done. It was ironic that Pinkman was the original BB character that people were rooting for by the end. So it was fitting we got to see how his story played out. Seriously, poor fucking Jessie! The balance of both moving his life forward and filling in some holes of his relationship with Todd in the final year of BB was excellent. It had just the right tone to match that of the original series, and was filled with Vince Gilligan’s amazing eye for how to shoot a show. And Aaron Paul remains amazing.

A

No Laying Up’s Tourist Sauce, season five
My prime golf media connection is with these guys, via Twitter, their podcasts, and their web series. Tourist Sauce is their big travel series that drops twice a year and is centered on an extended golf trip somewhere. The first four seasons hit Australia, Scotland, the California coast, and Ireland.

Season five focused on the Carolinas. Because of that I think it lacked some of the emotional impact the other seasons had, especially the Scotland and Ireland seasons. Seriously, if you are even vaguely into golf, if you watch those seasons you will be ready to book a trip to go play your way around one of those islands.

The Carolinas just don’t have that feel. Well, until the final episode, which took place at the Tobacco Road course. That is a course that has the feels and I would love to go play.

B+

Trinity and Beyond
I came across a recommendation for this documentary about the US’ nuclear weapons testing program randomly and found the flick on YouTube. It is basically 90 minutes or so of video of the weapons testing the US did between 1945 and the late 1960s over dramatic, martial music and some narration by William Shatner. The footage is incredible to watch, but it does get a bit monotonous after an hour or so.

B-

Captain Marvel
Avengers Endgame
Spider-Man – Homecoming
C and L are into the MCU movies so we watched these three. L loved Captain Marvel. She even watched it again last night. I thought it was pretty cool, but I don’t get into these as much as they do. I was thoroughly confused by Endgame, but I know it got great reviews and reaction from fans, so I’ll accept that it was a good movie even if I didn’t get it. And this was our second viewing of Spider-Man – Homecoming since L is into Spidey. Can’t go wrong with your friendly, neighborhood Spider-Man.

Captain Marvel B+, Brie Larson A+
Endgame B?
Homecoming A-

Raiders of the Lost Ark
Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade
The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring
I talked L into watching some old movies with me. We started with these three. She seemed to like the Indiana Jones movies ok, but I forgot how silly and campy they were. I don’t think she got that at all. [1] They certainly felt dated.

Watching the Marvel movies got me wondering if she would enjoy The Lord of the Rings movies. I explained they were basically the Avengers with wizards, elves, dwarfs, hobbits, and orcs. She was game and we watched The Fellowship of the Rings over two days. She was thoroughly confused. It is amazing that for a nearly three hour movie how much they had to leave out from the books. I was constantly explaining things to her. I guess we could have watched the extended version which is an hour longer. I told her the next two movies are better. We’ll see if I can get her to watch them.

Raiders B+
Last Crusade B+
Fellowship B-

Back of the Net
L found this movie about a high school soccer player on Netflix and watched it over the weekend. It’s not very good. L thought it was pretty dumb, too. But when you’re looking for a way to waste a couple hours during the lockdown, you’re going to have to watch some crap to find the gems.

C

  1. I skipped The Last Crusade because I never loved it.  ↩
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