• Friday Playlist

    https://open.spotify.com/playlist/7curiq1YPat8lwaHLQzfIR?si=7715cf94c2a04e21 “Roman Holiday” – Fontaines D.C. FDC’s new album dropped last week, to critical acclaim. It is a little too one-note for me, so no surprise that this track is the one that stuck out to me, as it is the only one that varies (slightly) from the rest of the album’s sound. “Wonderment” – Chastity Brown Hey, it’s Adele…

  • Weekend Notes: Prom and Sports

    Prom We survived our first prom weekend with pretty much zero drama. Well, I should say prom night was pretty easy, but there was plenty of drama leading up to it. M found a dress quickly and easily, got it altered well ahead of time, and had most of the basics squared away several weeks ago. But the planning for…

  • Friday Playlist

    https://open.spotify.com/playlist/3pPq5rG5tq9LcLyLoO2rhc?si=ff9c013661944deb “More Than Love” – Hand Habits Meg Duffy spent the lockdown huddled in a home with fellow artist Sasami and engineer Kyle Thomas. Duffy said the time spent with them gave her the courage to write the songs for her latest album. I’ve given it a listen and this is, by far, the standout track from it. “Dignitary Life”…

  • Sports Notes

    Thanks to the NCAA tournament, spring break, and general laziness, I’m behind on a couple sports stories. When a huge one broke Wednesday night, that jogged my memory that I should probably get to them. Jayhawk Talk Hey, did you know the Kansas Jayhawks won the national championship two weeks ago? It was pretty cool! We’ve had a steady run…

  • Reaching for the Stars, Vol. 71

    Chart Week: April 19, 1986 Song: “A Little Bit of Love (Is All It Takes)” – New Edition Chart Position: #38, 8th week on the chart. Peaked at #38 for two weeks. Every teen pop group faces a dilemma as they get older: how do they maintain their audience as they, their fans, and their music matures? New Edition was…

  • Reader’s Notebook, 4/19/22

    I’ve been on a good reading stretch lately. Here are some blurbs. The Mercenary – Paul Vidich Vidich gets a lot of critical acclaim for his espionage novels. I wasn’t crazy about his first book I read, The Good Assassin. It was so noir-y that I felt no warmth towards or connection with any of the characters. Despite that, I…

  • Weekend Notes

    Sometimes the Midwest really sucks. We had a decent Easter weekend, weather-wise. Not perfect – if it was 5–10 degrees warmer it would have been ideal – but at least it was warm enough to do little kid activities outside. Then this morning it was snowing when I woke up. And it’s going to be 80 by Friday. Sheesh. We…

  • (Good) Friday Playlist

    I promised an extra-thick playlist last week. To be honest, I really didn’t deliver. Since it’s a holiday weekend, I’ll recommit myself to dropping a heaping helping of high quality tunes on your ears. https://open.spotify.com/playlist/4hpfZLwW3nPTES1rVVOhF1?si=735baf9bb4274b9c “Don’t Turn Around” – Crystal Eyes I know it’s dumb when I say things like “This band sounds like they are/are not from this place.”…

  • D’s Links

    I thinned out my Instapaper queue quite a bit over spring break. Which means I’m way past due in sharing some of my favorites (along with a few I’ve added in the past week). First, a couple pieces about the situation in Ukraine. As with any fast-moving current event, these are already a little out-of-date. I think they are still…

  • Weekend Notes

    That was a weird weekend. No big sports of any kind. No basketball or football on the TV for the first time since Labor Day. No kid sports. Sure, I watched some of the Master’s, but we were often busy during the peak watch times so I wasn’t able to give it a ton of attention. Plus it wasn’t a…