D's Notebook

Month: July 2021 (Page 2 of 2)

Friday Playlist

July 16, 2021 /

This week a focus on new songs by (mostly) long-established artists.

“Galacticana” – Strand of Oaks
Oh hell yes, new music from Timothy Showalter! And it sounds great! And one critic has said the album this comes from is the finest of his career! It comes out October 1 for those of you who track such things.

“Living in the USA” – Son Volt
Jay Farrar says this song follows in the tradition of others like “Born in the USA” and “Rockin’ in the Free World,” asking questions about the failures of the American Experiment. Specifically, “How can so much wrong happen in this country that’s held up as an example of what’s righteous?”

“Feel Nothing” – Amen Dunes with Sleaford Mods
It’s been over three years since Damon McMahon offered us new music. This one is a doozy, keeping the core DNA of Amen Dunes’ sound while adding some exciting new layers to it.

“Seventeen Going Under” – Sam Fender
More sneak peeks at albums coming in October. Fender’s second album will be out the second week of October. Based on this track, he doesn’t seem to be messing with the good thing that was the sound of his first album.

“Nothing Else Matters” – Miley Cyrus, WATT, Elton John, Yo-Yo Ma, Robert Trujillo, and Chad Smith
For the 30th anniversary of their mainstream break-through, self-titled album, Metallica has asked a ton of outside folks to record cover versions of its tracks. There’s no track listing yet, but I believe there will be over 30 cover versions on the final product. I was never a big Metallica fan so I’m not super excited about either the remastered originals or the covers. But this one works just fine for me.

“6 Underground” – Sneaker Pimps
Sneaker Pimps just released some new tracks last week, their first in nearly 20 years. I sampled them and had no strong reaction. So why not throw back their most famous track, from the glory days of Trip Hop in 1996?

“Summer Nights” – Van Halen
I’m getting that urge to do my annual “Listen to Diver Down and 5150 in the same afternoon” thing.

The other night I was going to get L from basketball. While sitting at a red light, some young guys – I’d guess new high school grads or only a year or two into college – cruised by me in a very nice Mustang. They all had brand new hats on, that were perched high on their heads, which I assume is how kids are doing it these days. They looked like they were trying very hard to cultivate a Look. I chuckled as they passed. After I got L we drove back through the same area and saw these dudes walking around. She started cackling, “Those guys look so dumb!” I didn’t tell her that 30+ years ago my friends and I would have been rocking the late ’80s version of that same look, likely driving around in our buddy’s Camaro or whatever Chevy sportscar his dad brought home from the plant he ran.

The things young men will do on hot summer nights to try to draw attention…

ASG, 2021

July 14, 2021 /

Ahhh, the All-Star Game! The mid-summer moment when we set aside our differences and come together as Americans to celebrate our once-and-always National Pastime.

Well, except for this year, which was ruined by the forces that want to keep us apart, that want us to continue arguing about manufactured wedge issues to distract us from the true damage being done to our sacred, national institutions.

Yes, I’m talking about those fucking terrible, straight ass uniforms.

For about the 8000th time in recent years, Major League Baseball has shown how they are clueless, tone deaf, run by the worst people, and care more about pleasing their advertising partners than catering to the fans of the game.

One of the greatest parts of baseball’s All-Star Game is always seeing the players collected from every team in the league, wearing their varied jerseys on the same field. In eras of excellent uniforms, the team/field pics were glorious, multi-hued snapshots of moment in baseball, and American, history. Even in bad years, when almost every team wears the same shade of gray on the road, it’s still fun to see the different caps scattered about the field.

But, for $ome rea$on, ba$eball decided to $crap nearly 100 year$ of tradition and ae$thetic $plendor to put the team$ in league-$pecific uniform$.

It’s not just that the idea of AL and NL uniforms was bad, it’s that they were executed so incredibly poorly. They were ugly and filled with awful design elements. One of the beauties of the All-Star Game has always been a quick glance at the screen can tell you who an unfamiliar player’s home squad is. All of that was lost, as you had to catch the camera view just right to see a player’s home logo plastered onto the All Star logo on his cap, or try to decipher the rec-league quality graphics on the fronts of their jerseys.

Honestly I’m shocked it took MLB this long to fuck up the All Star uniforms. Each year they roll out another set of “special” caps for any and every holiday that falls during the season, all of which cater to the America First/Support the Troops crowd even if the holiday has no patriotic angle. These alt caps are almost always terrible. Why MLB didn’t realize they could use the summer’s biggest showcase to force another shitty hat on the public sooner is really a small miracle.

The uniforms put me in a bad mood from the start, so most of the notes I took during the game were cranky, snarky, and cynical. Since I’ve written enough about the uniforms already, I’ll dispense with most of those and just focus on one other major point from the night.

I’ve never liked anything about Fox bothering mangers in the dugouts or miking-up players on the field during the game. In regular/postseason games, the conversations with the managers rarely provide any real insight into what’s happening during the game as they are reluctant to share any information that might put them at a disadvantage. The ASG in-game miked-up moments are usually awkward between technical difficulties and guys, you know, trying to play the game.

Last night was no different.

Freddy Freeman was solid, as he is affable and seemed eager to be involved. He did seem to have scripted some lines ahead of time. Which is fine; his segment was filled with “banter” rather than awkward pauses.

I enjoyed the Ozzie Albies and Khris Bryant segments, too, as they seemed the most like what a conversation with those guys would actually be like. They both seemed like laid back dudes who were enjoying being part of the event.

But the others? Yeesh.

Fernando Tatis Jr. is one of the great young stars in the game and is super media savvy. But his segment showed how tough it is to find guys who can speak naturally to people he can only hear while also trying to play a game. Maybe the worst broadcast moment of the night was when Joe Buck yelled into Tatis’ ear “Say something to him!” when his pal Vladimir Guerrero Jr. sauntered by after his massive home run. It seemed like a desperate attempt to salvage an awkward segment and ignored the fact that there was a 100% chance that Tatis was going to say something without being prompted. I wish Tatis chose Spanish for his comments as an F-you to Buck and Fox, but I think he’s too nice for that and just used the language Guerrero was most comfortable with.

Talking the Xander Bogaerts while he’s in the batter’s box seemed like a horrible idea, and made for bad TV. It also kept Fox from giving any attention to Guerrero Jr. nearly killing Max Scherzer with a wicked line drive and then going over and to hug him in apology afterward. They were too busy trying to get Bogaerts to share his approach in the box.

AL closer Liam Hendricks was miked-up, too, but apparently couldn’t hear Buck. Fox kept his mike on, though, which allowed us to hear his grunts on each pitch and a shouted “GODDAMMIT!” when he spiked a breaking ball. Later he dropped a clear f-bomb. It all came together when he conferenced with catcher Mike Zunino and Zunino advised him to keep quiet because of his mike.

“It’s ok, it’s not working,” we clearly heard Hendricks reply.

Thank goodness he didn’t say something truly offensive.

Trying to talk to batters in the box and pitchers on the bump is taking this too far. They should be focused on playing the game safely, not on what Joe Buck is saying in their ear or what they might accidentally say that goes out over the airwaves.

I’m open to trying new things tp spice up the broadcast. Sports coverage shouldn’t be static over time. If it was, we wouldn’t always be able to see the time and score or get other information on the screen. We wouldn’t have constant replays from 100 angles. And so on.

But when these innovations distract from the game rather than add to it, someone at Fox has to make the call to scale back rather than add another layer every year. Then again, all the attention they put everywhere other than the action on the field is a reminder of what the All-Star Game has become: a massive marketing event where the game is secondary to moving product.

That said, maybe all those distractions were a good thing. Baseball is pretty boring right now, and the game was indicative of that. Lots of swings-and-misses punctuated by a few home runs. At least the game wasn’t interrupted by a bunch of replay reviews.

This long run of American League dominance still feels weird to me, as I bet it does to most children of the ‘70s and ‘80s. We were raised on the idea that the National League always was, and always would be, superior. Sure enough, most Julys the NL would come out and beat the AL no matter how stacked the AL roster was.

My first sports gambling moment came when I was 8 and my uncle bet me a nickel that the National League would win. Dave Parker’s unforgettable outfield assist was the capper on a night when I first discovered sports bitterness and cemented in the idea that the AL was inferior.

Even after the 26 wins in 32 years, though, it feels very strange to me that the AL runs the game.

Finally, a shout out to the many, many, many, many minority-owned businesses in Cobb County Georgia who were decimated by MLB’s cruel decision to yank the All-Star Game away from them. Cobb County has long been a bastion of racial equality and minority empowerment and it is a damn shame that they got barreled over by the leftist, socialist, critical racial theory, politically correct agenda.

Summer of Freedom

July 13, 2021 /

I realized yesterday that this has been, and should continue to be, a pretty boring summer.

Sure, we’ve had a few gatherings to take advantage of the pool and the new pool house. We’re trying to schedule a few more but as kids get older, it gets harder and harder to pin a group of families down to a single night when they are all available to join us.

C’s summer school meant no traveling in June, and limited what we were able to do on those days close to home.

We do have a trip on the calendar – actually three different trips, but two are just for S and I – but those will all be later this year and can’t be labeled as Summer Vacations.

The girls and I were hoping to go camping with our old neighbors, but we’ve had a very hard time finding any camp grounds with available spots.

The weather hasn’t been great. We’ve had a couple brief hot spells, and plenty of dry days. But it sure seems like it has been cloudy, cool, with periodic rain more days than not.

This nasty cold, or whatever it is, that I couldn’t kick for over a month eventually caught up with L and M, and C is now in the midst of her battle with it. I should have bought a family antibiotic plan back in May to save some trips to Walgreen’s.

Throw all of that together and the girls and I have all fallen into a weird rhythm where we don’t do a whole hell of a lot. If the sun is out, the pool is open. C sleeps until noon so we can’t run out and do anything before either the heat or afternoon showers kick in. We go to Target twice a week, since someone always needs something. M leaves to hang out with friends a couple afternoons/evenings a week. C and her closest friend get together at least once per week. L plays basketball one or two nights a week, depending on if her classmates are going and how her knees feel.

There’s nothing wrong with having a boring summer. Especially since, unlike a lot of people, we’ve been to Florida twice in the past year. It’s nice to have the calendar be wide open and not constantly be thinking about/preparing for the next big event.

Summer is passing by quickly, though. The girls just hit the one-month mark before they will return to school. It doesn’t feel like there are any big options open for us, but I need to put on my Good Dad hat and find us some small things that can break up the weeks and help to make some good memories for the summer of ’21.

Friday Playlist

July 9, 2021 /

The new music has been, thankfully, piling up again. So let’s go deep this week with an extra-packed playlist.

“House Burn Down” – King Princess
Being pessimistic about your life shouldn’t sound this good.

“Lockdown” – The Wind Ups
Maybe it’s just me, but I hear a lot of the Ramones in this track.

“Why Don’t You Touch Me” – Leon Bridges
Another A+ track from Mr. Bridges. His new album comes out in two weeks.

“Across That Fine Line” – Nation of Language
NoL was listening to a lot of Krautrock and Krautrock-influenced music when they recorded their latest album. You can sure hear that in this track.

“How Can I Make It OK?” – Wolf Alice
The new WA album got a lot of hype and good reviews. But this was the only song that really hit with me.

“Available” – The National
I didn’t get into The National until their 2005 album Alligator, and I’ve never felt a desire to dig into their older albums. They recently released a remastered edition of the 2003 album Sad Songs for Dirty Lovers. Most of that album fits that title, with slower, more traditionally “The National” songs. But this one rocks and was a big surprise to me.

“Goodtimes” – Flyying Colours
Who doesn’t just want to have a good time?

“Summer Song” – Joe Satriani
Man, Satriani has a hell of a Wikipedia page. He taught Steve Vai and Kirk Hammett, among others. He’s worked with Crowded House, Mick Jagger, Deep Purple, Spinal Tap, Alice Cooper, and Greg Kihn. His music has appeared in movies and TV shows. Still, odds are this is the only Satriani song you know.

Early July Sports Notes

July 7, 2021 /

KU Hoops

It would be nice to say a dizzying three months of roster flux at Kansas came to an end Tuesday when Ochai Agbaji and Remy Martin both announced they were pulling their names from the NBA draft list and would be playing as Jayhawks in the coming season. But given how crazy college hoops is at the moment, can we be sure anything is locked in?

For the sake of discussion, let’s assume there will be no more roster changes between now and when KU plays Michigan State in November’s Champions Classic.

I just surprised myself by being able to immediately name all 14 players who are currently under scholarship to play next season.[1] I figured I would forget someone along the way. Which, honestly, is probably the second biggest story for the coming year: some kids are going to get forgotten.

We’ll get to that in a moment. The biggest story, obviously, is that KU’s likely starting lineup is pretty sick. Martin, Agbaji, Joseph Yesufu, Jalen Wilson, and David McCormack is a terrific top five with Christian Braun as a super sixth man.

Beyond those top six, there’s a backup for every spot on the floor. There is athleticism and length and shooting and defensive ability.

KU might be the deepest team in the country. At least on July 7, which if I’m correct, has zero bearing on games next November through March.

Lots of folks are super excited about this ultra-stacked lineup and already arguing that KU should be ranked no lower than #2.

Which is fine, I get it, and I, too, am excited about what’s to come in the ’21–22 season.

There will be plenty of time to go over potential starting lineups, what bench players get the most minutes, etc.

For now, though, what fascinates me most about this team is how Bill Self is handling all these bodies. How has he communicated with the guys already on the roster the thinking behind adding players. I’m sure DaJuan Harris wasn’t thrilled when Self brought in not one, not two, but three point guards.[2]

What did he say to guys like Cam Martin and Yesufu, who committed in April/May when he brought in more transfers in June that added more competition to already limited playing time?

Most of all, how has worked with the incoming freshmen and their families to prevent a mass exodus by them next spring after they sit on the bench for an entire season? Baring a rash of serious injuries, Zach Clemence seems to be the only freshman who has any path to even limited minutes this year.

I’ve won about 800 fewer games than Self, but my advice to him would be to get guys like Ben McLemore and Travis Releford, who sat out seasons because of academics or choice and saw their games blossom during their year of practice but no play, talk to those young guys and explain how this year can greatly benefit them if they remain patient.

So here, in July, I’m far more interested in the psychological angle of how Self will keep an absolutely stacked KU roster together through six months together than how that group matches up with Michigan State, Kentucky, Missouri, Baylor, Texas, Alabama, and the other teams the Jayhawks will play during the 2021–22 season.

Euro Sports

This has been a glorious few weeks for European sports, if you’re into that kind of thing. Theoretically, I am. Although in practice I have not watched as much as I should have.

In the European soccer championship, I watched a ton of early games but checked out last week when we had company. I tuned in for the final 10 minutes of extra time and penalties of Tuesday’s Italy-Spain semifinal. A treeeemendous atmosphere at Wembley Stadium, which seemed to be dominated by Italian fans.

Long time readers may recall that I’ve long been a fan of the Azzurri, so you would expect that I was happy with the win. Well, things have changed. One of Italy’s most notable players has made several either borderline or overt racist statements in recent years. While it’s not fair to damn the entire team for one player’s actions, he is a veteran and leader of the national team, and hasn’t gotten a lot of pushback from other Italian players for his comments.

So I was rooting for Spain? Well, not exactly. Someone on Twitter, having a similar dilemma as me, pointed out the Spanish coach has also made blatantly racist comments.

Sad that these days if you are a neutral fan, it might come down to which team has the fewest racists on it.

I would imagine today’s game between England and Denmark will be spectacular, and an England-Italy final be truly over-the-top as English fans get to cheer on their perpetually disappointing squad in person. To win their first trophy since 1966 on home soil would be epic.

Once upon a time Wimbledon was appointment viewing for me. I can’t get into to it too much these days. Too few Americans, too many random players with Russian-sounding names that all kind of blend together to me.

I have been watching a bit of the Tour de France each day. But that, too, is difficult because I’m not sure who to pull for. It was easier when you just followed Lance Armstrong and slowly figured out the race by the coverage of his performance. Look at where that got me.

I’m sure I could still dive into the media surrounding the event and really get into it. It’s easier to just casually watch and enjoy the magnificent visuals.

Oh, and the British Open is next week. That I will be getting up early to watch.

Royals

Man, they suck. I watched a game a few weeks back, maybe the second week of June, which they pissed away in glorious fashion, and haven’t watched a game since. I didn’t expect them to contend this year, but I did expect better than what they’ve given us. The fact every young pitcher has either regressed or fallen on their face makes it hard to believe contention is a year or two away. Pitching coach Cal Eldred might need to go.

NBA Finals

L and I have been watching moments of the playoffs, but rarely get locked in. It doesn’t help that so many games start relatively late for us in the Eastern time zone. We made it to halftime last night, watched a few minutes of the third quarter, and as Phoenix pulled away both bailed for bed. She wants the Suns to win, which I get since they are more fun to watch and loaded with great stories. I’d kind of like to see Giannis get a ring, but don’t have strong feelings for either team. I’d say I’m rooting for a great series, but when you can’t stay up to watch the whole game, what’s the point of even saying that?

  1. The standard 13 plus super senior Mitch Lightfoot.  ↩
  2. Harris already redshirted once. Even under the new, super liberal roster rules, I don’t know if he can again.  ↩

Holiday Week Notes

July 6, 2021 /

A busy family and holiday week is in the books.

We had visitors. My brother-in-law, his wife, and their three kids who live in Boston spent a week with us. Their kids are 6, 3, and 2. When I think of our kids being those ages and trying to spend a week as guests in someone else’s home, the word “disaster” immediately pops into my head.

But the week passed quicker than I expected and was more-or-less incident-free. There were some bedtime meltdowns but those are inevitable and didn’t grind the entire house to a halt or anything.

It was very funny having the two younger kids talk to me. The three-year-old comes across as an old soul. He would come up and ask me a question – Have you seen my mom? Do you know where my swimsuit is? Can I have a muffin? – and wave his arms around and scrunch up his face like he was an old man and the fate of the world depended on my response. He would also forget the name of whichever one of our girls was not in the room. So he would ask, “Where is the other cousin at?”

One night we were getting ready to watch a movie and he was irate at my choice. “I’VE SEEN THIS MOVIE BEFORE!!!!” he screamed at me over-and-over. My brother-in-law whispered, “Just start it, watch what he does.” Sure enough, I hit play, the kid went catatonic, and didn’t utter a peep the rest of the movie.

His little sister killed me with some of the things she said, too. She has a sweet little voice and has very good speech for a not yet two-and-a-half year old. One morning she was asking me about breakfast, where her cousins were, etc and then dropped this bomb, “Can you stop hitting me?”

WHAT?!?!

I promise, I had not touched the kid. We think maybe she was asking me to tell her brother to stop touching her. We laughed about that all week.

Another morning she kept saying something to me and neither her dad nor I could figure out exactly what she was asking. Finally my brother-in-law said, “Oh,” and laughed, “She telling you she has a vagina.” Then she repeated it like three more times before asking, “Do you have a vagina?” More laughter. A few minutes later she told me her brother has a vagina which set him off. “MOM ALREADY TOLD YOU I HAVE A PENIS!!!”

Later my sister-in-law told us that while everyone was waking up, the little one started asking when she would get a penis like her brother, which led to an explanation of what different body parts boys and girls have. That left her with announcements and questions to share with the rest of the family. We missed out on fun like this with three girls.

Every day these little ones cracked us up with stuff like this.

Their older sister reminds us a lot of M at the same age. They both are/were very smart, could read well for their age, LOVE to talk, and have curly hair. If she pinned you down and started a story, you had to be prepared to listen for 5–10 minutes until she wrapped it up. I had years of practice with that so it was no sweat to me.

It was lots of fun to catch up with them since we don’t get to see them very often, and it had been 18 months since their last visit to Indy.

We had crazy weather over the holiday week. Early in the week we were stuck in a stormy, wet pattern. Wednesday morning we got three inches of rain in an hour, which set off our sump pump alarm at 6:30 AM and flooded the low point in our front yard. No water in the house, thank goodness. The next night we had another big downpour that put as at nearly six inches of rain in a 36 hour stretch.

Most summer nights you can hear frogs in our neighborhood after dark. All that rain must have forced all the frogs out of the ground because they were insanely loud Thursday night. It sounded like the Brood X cicadas of a few weeks back. At one point I realized they sounded much closer than before. Our garage door was still up, and when I opened the entry door, sure enough, there was a big, fat frog sitting between our cars. I grabbed the pool net and forced him outside then shut the garage door to keep him and his buddies out.

That was followed by two nearly perfect days, with cool nights, days in the 70s with low humidity. And then the normal July heat and humidity hit on Sunday for our Fourth of July gathering. The week ahead looks hot and muggy, so we’ll probably be doing a lot of sitting around in either the pool or remaining inside in the AC.

There were several gatherings over the week. A few informal ones around the pool during the days so the young ones could swim. Another of our local families hosted dinner and s’mores Friday night. We hosted the annual July 4th pool party for about 30, that included lots of food, drink, and Uncle D’s fireworks. We splurged for the extra-large Target fireworks kit this year. Monday we hung out with all of S’s partners around one of their pools for a few hours.

A pretty good week all around.

We have a quiet week ahead and then my in-laws arrive Saturday. My two brothers-in-law are flying down to Jacksonville Friday to load up a U-Haul while my in-laws fly up to Indy. Sunday we’ll all get them moved into their new house.

Friday/Holiday Playlist

July 2, 2021 /

‘Tis the season for my annual Independence Day playlist. One new addition this year but otherwise the same collection of fine songs that can, at least tangentially, relate to American Independence Day. Everyone have a safe and happy Fourth of July weekend!

June Media

July 1, 2021 /

Movies and Shows

Big Shot
Coach Korn and his band of merry basketball warriors triumphed. In that, there was no surprise. It was the trials and travails along the way that made their journey compelling. Will Coach Holly be on their arch rival’s bench next year? L and I hope there is a season two so we find out. Jessalyn Gilsig could coach my team anytime.

B+

Spring Baking Championship
Finally finished this. The thing about these baking competition shows is the best folks almost always win. Which is how it should be. But, sometimes, the best baker slips up. That happened this year, when Veruska, who was clearly the best of this season’s bunch, had a poor showing in the semifinals and got sent home. Still, Keya was a worthy winner based on her finals performance.

B+

State of Play
In May I started working through a master list of best espionage films I cobbled together from various lists gathered online. I don’t remember this at all from when it came out, so it was totally new to me. Russell Crowe was excellent as a Washington reporter looking into the mysterious death of a congressman’s aide. That congressman, played to smarmy perfection by Ben Affleck, just happened to be his college roommate, which led to interesting angles. Suspenseful, but the story tried a little too hard to be tricky and twisty at the end. Robin Wright Penn and Rachel McAdams were also excellent, and Jason Bateman filled a very Jason Bateman-ey role.

B+

42
L is a big fan of Chadwick Boseman. She watched a feature about him and wanted to go back and catch up on his films she had not seen. We started here. Both the sisters drifted through early in the film and S decided to educate them on who Jackie Robinson was. All the girls scoffed, “MOM, we learn about him in school!” Given the current state of education, and all the snowflake conservative parents who can’t let their kids be introduced to different perspectives, you can’t fault S for thinking it would be verboten to discuss Robinson’s role in breaking down racial barriers. Props to St P’s for doing so, although we hear there are some asshole younger parents in the parish who will probably find it offensive that we celebrate the end of segregation.

The girls were taken quite aback and how naked and ugly the hate thrown toward Robinson was, though. It’s good for them to see that, and understand a lot of that raw hate is bubbling back up again.

A-

For All Mankind, season two
Season two of this alternate history of the space program jumps ahead from 1975 to 1983. Episode one begins with a fun “summary” of how the world had progressed over those years. Ronald Reagan defeated Ted Kennedy in 1976 and was reelected in 1980. John Lennon was shot at but survived; Pope John Paul II did not survive his assassination attempt. The US hockey team was crushed by the Soviets in the 1980 Winter Olympics. Prince Charles married Camila Parker Bowles rather than Diana Spencer. And, later, one of the biggest real news stories of 1983 plays a major role in the second half of the season.

More importantly the US and Soviet Union have large, constantly-populated bases on the moon and the space programs are massive parts of each country’s budget and national mission. There are near-constant flights to and from the moon, ferrying replacement crews and supplies. In 1983 tensions are climbing, though, and they reach a peak late in this season that pushed the nations to the brink of war both in space and on earth.

This season did a fine job showing how the weight of the program weighed on the people involved in it, from the astronauts and administrators of NASA to their families and friends.

The space stuff is, again, cool. The whole What If premise of the series is even more fascinating this season as it is total fiction. Who knows what would have happened had the US and USSR pushed each other in space into the ‘80s? Without any real history here, the writers could really go crazy. And they did, in the best possible way.

There were a few downsides to this season. I did not like one plot line in particular. It was telegraphed through much of the season and when it finally happened, I was greatly disappointed. I also kept doing the math on how old some of the characters really were, too. Could a guy who flew in the Korean War really have been an active NASA pilot in 1983? And would his wife looked as hot as she did? There were a few moments of clunky writing, too. And the massive earth/moon confrontation the entire season was built around got resolved way too easily.

Those quibbles aside, it was a really good season, culminating in two final episodes that had tons of fast-pulse moments.

One reason I started watching the show was someone, I forget who, that I follow on some platform mentioned that the season was good but the plot twist that comes late in the finale just blew him away. I had that in the back of my mind while I’ve watched these 20 episodes. Even so, I was totally blindsided when the twist hit. I had no freaking clue it was coming, and the final scene that leads up to it plus the reveal were outstanding.

The closing sequence for the season shows boots on Mars in 1995. So I guess we know where we’re jumping to next.

Season two expanded on, and improved on, the base season one set. That puts a lot of pressure on season three to continue that arc.

A

Luca
The latest Pixar movie. It doesn’t live up to the classics, but it’s a perfectly fine way to spend a couple hours with your kids. Or with your house guests who are 6, 3, and 2.

B

Raya and the Last Dragon
Another family movie we watched with our guests.

B

Back to the Future
L noticed that the Back to the Future movies were disappearing from Netflix on June 30 and wanted to try to watch them all in their final three days. We got about halfway through the first before she went to bed Sunday night. Then she finished it without me the next day. Rude! She didn’t have time to get to parts two or three, so kind of a failed exercise.

Even watching only half, this will always be an A+

Atomic Blonde
The Old Guard
Why not finish the month with a double dose of Charlize Theron kicking ass? Atomic Blonde was absolutely amazing in every aspect. The story. The visuals. The soundtrack. The general vibe. And Charlize kicking commie ass in Berlin in the final days before the Wall came down.

The Old Guard was much slower to get going and only redeemed itself with a solid last 20 minutes. A very interesting premise: immortal warriors who heal themselves from any wounds and have lived through, in some cases, thousands of years, are being targeted by a British, Big Pharma Bro in hopes of harnessing their genetic secrets for his financial gain. But it’s a chore to get to the payoff scenes, and some of the dialogue seemed almost an afterthought. The end is all about setting the base for a series of sequels to follow. Not sure they will be high on my list.

A
B-

Shorts

Juggling From Above
Mesmerizing

A

Jumping from 25,000 feet without a parachute
Nope, nope, a thousands times, nope.

A

Lovely shutter sounds of 18 cameras from 135 full frame to 810 large format
Who knew there were so many different shutter sounds for cameras? That Rolleiflex 3003 near the beginning is bonkers.

B

What Really Happened at the Hernando de Soto Bridge?
I think our political leaders in Washington should watch this. Knowing damage like this is probably present at countless other bridges around the country, it might give them the kick in the ass they need to agree on an infrastructure bill.

A-

Audi RS e-tron GT v Tesla Model S: 571-mile Scotland-to-London RACE & REVIEW!

I watched some of Mat Watson’s car videos during my research process and they were always entertaining. This piece is a terrific comparison of two sporty, high-end electric vehicles, the Audi e-tron and a Tesla Model S, driving over 500 miles through the United Kingdom. I did not consider EVs at all in my research process. That may change the next time I need a new car.

A

Audi RS e-tron GT v Porsche Taycan Turbo – which is best?

And then this dropped the last week of June. I may have to subscribe to Carwow’s videos, because I really like Watson’s work.

A

Restoring a Tissot 1853 watch
This is pretty impressive. Taking a watch that seems to be utterly destroyed and, through meticulous effort, making it not only run again but look beautiful in the process.

A

Great White Sharks in Infrared & Footage You’ve Never Seen Before

Meh. I mean, it’s cool to see great whites just kind of cruising and being normal. But, come on. When it comes to great whites we want carnage.

B

Stats

July 1, 2021 /

June 2021

* Middle Kids – 22
* Wolf Alice – 16
* Pearl Jam – 15
* 2nd Grade – 13
* Crowded House – 16

Complete stats available at my Last.fm page.

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