Reader’s Notebook, 6/29/22
Midnight in Siberia – David Greene Interesting timing on reading this. Greene is a former NPR reporter who was the network’s Moscow bureau chief in the early 2010s. Late in his tenure, he took the Trans-Siberian Railway 6000 miles across Russia. In 2014, he returned to take the same journey and write about it. It is a fascinating read because of where Russia was in 2014 and where it is now. In 2014 the country seemed to be growing impatient with Vladimir Putin’s leadership, and he was countering that by making his first encroachments into Ukraine. Of course today he is fighting a full-scale war in Ukraine and has crushed…
NBA Draft Notes
I loathe the NFL draft. It is the most over-hyped event in sports. Primarily because there are very few players picked in that draft that make an immediate and profound impact on their teams. For every Joe Burrow, there are dozens and dozens of players that take two, three, even five years to acclimate to the professional level, complete their physical maturation, and become difference makers in the NFL. And yet we hear about the next draft for roughly 11.5 months of the year on ESPN and other sports media outlets. The NBA draft is only slightly better these days. I think I was bombarded by at least two new…
Travel Hoops Wrap Up
Travel basketball came to a disappointing end for L over the weekend. Her team lost in the semifinals to a squad they had beaten twice this year. That team went on to win the championship by four points. So it was right there for our girls and they blew it. Saturday’s pool games were two very different contests. In the first we played a team we beat by 10 two weeks ago. They are super big, very physical, but not very good.[1] They make the game ugly, and our girls don’t like ugly. We were in control the entire game Saturday but just couldn’t put them away. We held on…
Friday Playlist
https://open.spotify.com/playlist/2FbAXvuHtGlC0YyOzLsW1a?si=e73c41154e6b4525 “Birthdays” – Craig Finn Hey, I had a birthday this week! Coincidentally this is the best song from Craig Finn’s latest solo album. “I Was Neon” – Julia Jacklin The first single off JJ’s up-coming album was solid. This one cooks. “Wait ‘Til the Morning” – Frightened Rabbit Spotify suggested this, a bonus track from the final FR album, a few weeks back. When the disk came out I didn’t think much of the extras. But the passage of time made this one sound fresh, and it’s been in my rotation lately. “Talk For Hours” – Fever Dream If the lead singer sounded more like John Lydon, I would…
Reaching for the Stars, Vol. 75
Chart Week: June 20, 1981 Song: “Angel of the Morning” – Juice Newton Chart Position: #38, 18th week on the chart. Peaked at #4 for four weeks in May. Juice Newton was a classic Right Artist at the Right Time success. Although she came up in the world of folk music, by the early 1980s she had slid into a country-rock hybrid that was well suited to the moment. As we’ve discussed before, there was that little window in the late ‘70s and early ‘80s when many country artists were able to have mainstream, pop success. Think Kenny Rogers, Dolly Parton, The Oak Ridge Boys, and so on. I don’t…
Top Gun Links
Following up on yesterday’s posts, here are a couple articles related to Top Gun. First, Michael Baumann dives into the details and comes up with his best guess for what county is the target of the movie’s main mission. This is important journalism here. But like Maverick, Rooster, Hangman, and their buddies, I was given a mission. My editors came to me, the idiot who six months ago wrote a long column about how Russia was no longer the technothriller enemy it used to be, confident that I could identify the anonymous villain in Top Gun: Maverick. Specifically, that I could do so before government agents showed up to whisk…
A Day at the Cinema – Top Gun: Maverick
It’s damn hard to make a good sequel. Think of how many absolutely ass ones have polluted our cinema and entertainment room screens. So when one hits all the right notes, it feels like a triumph. And when you do it nearly 40 years after the original, you’ve really pulled off a miracle. I took C and L to see Top Gun: Maverick last week. We all loved it. I think C liked it the most, and it was her second time seeing it! I watched the original Top Gun a few nights before, so all of its elements were fresh in my head. I loved how the creative crew…
Miles on the Odometer: College Visits and Weekend Hoops
A long post about a long few days. Thirteen months into my Audi lease I was in great shape, milage-wise, about 1000 miles lower than where I should be. I pretty much wiped out that deficit over the past few days. Thursday M and I drove to Cincinnati to take her first college campus visits. We toured the University of Cincinnati and Xavier. UC is a popular spot for Indy-area students as it offers nearly in-state tuition to most Indiana grads. Xavier always looks to bring in kids from Indianapolis Catholic schools, and is known for being very generous with scholarships. Seemed like a good way to knock out a…
Friday Playlist
A little different playlist this week, as about the time this posts, L and I will be on our way to Knoxville for a weekend of hoops. So here are a bunch of songs about the Volunteer State (and one summer song). https://open.spotify.com/playlist/6GYEgxZQ14qbl6lpe07cHY?si=def048340c6b4b85 “Tennessee” – Arrested Development I think I shared this last fall when we went to Nashville. But as the greatest song ever about Tennessee, I must include it again. “Jackson” – Johnny Cash, June Carter Cash Second-best song about Tennessee ever. “Knoxville Girl” – The Lemonheads I had never heard this before, a song that goes back to the 19th century and has been covered countless times.…
Another Night of Music
Two concerts in a week! Both at new venues (to me)! Quite a run! Last night was a little extra special. Not only did we go see The Lumineers, one of S’s favorite bands, but we took all three girls with us. It was the first official show for C and L, although they had seen Blues Traveler at Symphony on the Prairie years ago. C barely remembers that and L doesn’t at all, plus they had no idea who Blues Traveler was, so I think this counts as their first real concert. M was quick to remind everyone that she’s been to lots of concerts. She was kind of…