Month: March 2023 (Page 2 of 2)

Waylaid

March 7, 2023 / DB

You may recall that a few years back I made fun of S for getting poison ivy for the 90th time since we began dating. I bragged about how I had never gotten it so I must not be allergic to its oils.

Within two weeks I wandered into a whole mess of poison ivy vines, had sores all over my body, couldn’t sleep because of the itching, went on steroids to stop the itching and then couldn’t sleep because of them, and soon had my first major Afib episode.

You’d think I would shut up about such things.

When I went in for my annual checkup last December I got my first shingles vaccine. When I got home S yelled at me.

“You’re an idiot. I’ve heard that’s the most painful vaccine out there. I’d rather deal with shingles than go through that.”

Keep in mind that she has had bad reactions to other vaccines, where I generally just get a sore arm for a few hours. Still, I thought calling me an idiot was a little harsh.

My arm was indeed tender for a few hours but I had no other issues. I even trash talked a couple friends who got stomped when they received their first shingles shots.

Shingles shot #2 was Monday at 9:00 AM. Again, some arm soreness but otherwise I was fine. Twelve hours after my shot I gloated to those same friends that I had once again skated without any side effects.

Dumb, dumb, dumb.

An hour later my head started to hurt. As did my legs. I planned on getting up early today to take L to the gym before school, so I figured I might as well go to an hour earlier than normal and sleep off whatever these pains were.

Within another hour my entire body hurt. I tossed and turned for hours. My headache got worse. I got up to go to the bathroom around 1:30 and was nearly floored by intense nausea. Soon every one of my joints was aching. There was no position in bed that was comfortable because whatever body part I put weight on screamed out in pain.

At 5:30, when I was supposed to get up with L, I came downstairs to eat some cereal so I could take some ibuprofen. I had to hustle onto the couch as another wave of nausea hit. Eventually I choked down the cereal and the meds and tried to get comfortable on the couch. I squeezed in 20-ish minutes of sleep, bringing me to a grand total of maybe three hours for the night. S checked on me on her way out the door. She had the grace to not make fun of me.

I haven’t had a reaction to a vaccine like this in at least 20 years. With that track record, you can see how I might brag about my body’s resilience.

Luckily I had nothing pressing on the calendar today. I’ll skip the gym and my planned trip to Costco. Over the past hour or so I’ve started to feel a little better, so hopefully if I can get a nap in I’ll rebound by the afternoon.

My apologies to all of you who I have mocked over the years because you had a bad, short-term reaction to something that was going to protect you. I now literally feel your pain.

Weekend Notes

March 6, 2023 / DB

College Hoops

I’ll save most of my thoughts for a post later in the week. It is always a bit of a relief when we reach this point in the season and have a few days off.

November and December are usually a mix of big games and ones that KU should win easily. I’m always left wanting more from that part of the schedule, as the Jayhawks often have week-long gaps between games.

The Big 12 schedule wears me down. I don’t know if it is just getting older and it’s harder for me to stay up for a late start and then have my normal struggles to come down afterward, or it’s still some remaining DNA from my youth when the Big 8 only played on Wednesdays and Saturdays, but two months of Saturday-Monday/Tuesday turnarounds make me feel like I’m playing and not watching. I want more time to savor those Saturday wins, or recover from the losses.

So when we hit conference tournament week and everyone takes a few days off, it is a nice break before the real stress of March kicks in.

Naturally in a few weeks I’ll be missing basketball. Such is life as a sports fan.

Kid Hoops

L’s winter league team wrapped up their season Sunday. They were supposed to play a semifinal Thursday and would have likely lost. But that team was unavailable for the weekend’s championship, so they forfeited.

Which left us playing a team that beat us by 41 three weeks ago. Fun.

The championship game got moved to Sunday morning. We were the only game in the building, which was weird. It gave our girls an opportunity to go through a real warmup instead of the three minutes of rushed layup lines on normal game day. I think that pregame shooting paid off.

We lost by 8 but played tough the entire game. We had the lead until just before halftime, dug a 12-point hole in the second half, and trimmed that down to four late.

It helped us that they were missing one good player and another girl who sucks but is super physical and fouls all the time and scares our girls.

Also L played her ass off.

She had a season-high 16 points, a couple assists, more rebounds than she’s had all season, and a couple steals. Those points didn’t come from just getting to the rim. She hit one 3, another just inside the arc, and two baseline jumpers.

Several of her teammates played their best games of the year as well. It wasn’t enough, but it sure was better than getting embarrassed.

We went straight from there to a meeting for her travel team. The program director brought in all the 7th–8th grade teams to talk about organization-wide goals, show them some sets they want all teams to run, and then watch the high level high school teams go through a workout. Not sure they got much out of it, but L was happy to see most of her teammates again. They begin practice next week with their first tournament the weekend of the 18th.

HS Hoops

Both Cathedral sectional games were on TV, and we watched each of them. Friday they played their typical sloppy ball and nearly blew an 11-point lead in the last 90 seconds, but held on to win by 4.

Then Saturday they took on one of the two Indiana teams they lost to during the regular season, a 10-point loss in the City championship game in January.

The Irish were ready for revenge. They jumped out to a 14–2 lead before play was stopped for 45 minutes because of a rim malfunction. After play resumed they didn’t lose any of their momentum and led by 25 at half, gave ten of that back early in the third, then went on a 16–0 run and cruised to a 43 point win. FORTY-THREE!!! Crazily it was the school’s first back-to-back sectional titles in 25 years.

They advance to regionals where they will face the other Indiana team that beat them this year: undefeated, #1 Ben Davis. BD beat them by 12 in December. Revenge game #2? If Cathedral takes care of the ball they can beat anyone. But they love to throw it/kick it/hand it away.

More Faux Spring

It was nearly 80 one day last week. It’s been in the low 60s several other days. We had heavy, spring-like rains Friday. A cold snap is coming, but it’s been nice to pretend it is spring for a few days.

We got all our spring garden trimmings done Saturday. Some years I’m all bundled up and taking regular breaks to get those knocked out. This year I was sweating.

An Old Friend

For the first time in several years, I found Boulevard’s Irish Ale at a local liquor store. It bums me out that Boulevard has scaled back their national distribution and eliminated a couple of my favorite beers in recent years. I wondered if it would take a trip back to KC this time of year to ever drink Irish Ale, my very favorite BLVD beer, again.

But I found two six packs and bought them both. I’m going to run back to that store later and see if they got any more that I can nab before it disappears for the season.

Friday Playlist

March 3, 2023 / DB

I’ve been dropping a bunch of old school tunes into my working playlist. So this week’s edition is going to be both extra meaty and heavy on the old.

“Room” – TV Star
Seems like a good song for a week when we just broke the record for warmest day on March 1 by five degrees. It is dreamy and spring-like.

“Give it Back” – Cass McCombs and Weak Signal
Heavier than anything I’ve ever heard from Mr. McCombs. I dig it.

“Don’t You Worry ‘Bout A Thing” – Stevie Wonder
I gave blood yesterday. Someday I need to write about the awesome lady who runs the donation center I frequent. Yesterday she was taking care of me and this song came on. She asked, “You probably don’t know who sings this, do you?” I looked her in the eye and said, “It’s Stevie Wonder!” I think I made a friend for life. Then we heard it again last night when the whole family was grabbing dinner at Panera. The Music Gods wanted me to play it for you!

“Whatever You Want” – Crowded House
I’ve heard this song twice in the past couple weeks on SiriusXM’s First Wave station. Each time I’ve had to look it up because I couldn’t immediately place it. Turns out it was released just a couple years ago. I checked the archives and it doesn’t look like I ever shared it back then, which is weird because while it isn’t classic CH, it’s still pretty good.

“Music Makes Me High” – The Avalanches
This is the good shit. I hear some influence from a song that is a couple down in this PL.

“Cool” – Pylon
“Cool” – Deerhunter
I enjoyed the segments in The Bridge’s Z to A countdown when they played a cover and an original back-to-back. I think I’ll start throwing a few of those into these playlists. First we have Pylon’s incredible 1980 track. It doesn’t sound like what should have been coming out of Athens, GA when Jimmy Carter was still president. I’ve loved it for a long time but couldn’t find it on Spotify until recently. We’ll follow it up with Deerhunter’s faithful cover from 2011, which is pretty awesome on its own.

“Open Letter (To a Landlord)” – Living Colour
Vernon Reid’s amazing commentary on the early days of gentrification in New York City.

“A Roller Skating Jam Named ‘Saturdays'” – De La Soul
HAPPY DE LA SOUL DAY, PEOPLE OF THE WORLD!!!

“Bringin’ On the Heartbreak” – Def Leppard
I heard this one morning last week and was taken back to the spring of 1984, a year after the immense success of Pyromania. Def Leppard re-released their 1981 High ‘n’ Dry album, with this as a remixed single. I remember it getting played a ton on the rock stations in KC. Somehow it didn’t hit the Top 40, which is weird since those of us who were hungry for new DL material were all over it. Little did we know it would be three more years before we finally got the next Def Leppard album. See VH1’s Behind the Music for details.

February Media

March 1, 2023 / DB

Shortest month of the year, but I was not short-changed on the media tip.

Movies, Shows, etc

A Cook’s Tour, season one
As I said last month, I recently discovered these were on YouTube. Which is awesome because I’ve never seen them.

Anthony Bourdain’s first TV show, and you can see the seeds of what No Reservations and Parts Unknown would become. You see a host with a clear point of view trying to establish his voice but being a little off what we got used to later in his career. The production is pretty rough; portable video equipment was apparently not great in 2000–01? And the film crew tried a few too many “Hey look what I can do!” techniques.

Still, cool shit. Especially in some of the later episodes when, other than the production values, it really begins to feel like Bourdain’s classic work.

A-

Stanley Tucci: Searching for Italy, season one
I had heard of this show, and even recorded a few episodes before we went to Italy last fall. But since none of the episodes our DVR slurped up were about the cities we were going to, I never watched them.

I came across a recommendation for the show a few weeks back and checked to see if it was available. Turns out it was free to view on-demand, so that first night I watched four episodes of season one and was hooked.

What a great show! Just about every episode leaves me smiling thanks to Tucci’s good humor and easy interactions with the Italians he runs into during his travels. Makes me want to go back.

Minions: The Rise of Gru
We watched one of our nephews one night and this was how we kept him occupied for a bit. Not as good as the first couple movies in the Minions universe, but still good for some laughs. And the six-year-old enjoyed it.

B for me, A for him

Austin City Limits – The War on Drugs
A high quality hour of modern rock.

2023 Grammy Awards: 50th Anniversary of Hip Hop
I did not watch the Grammys, since I tend to think they suck. Several friends told me I needed to check out the 50th anniversary of hip hop performance. So I did. It was indeed outstanding. Lots of notable folks weren’t included, but several of my all time favs were. Jump the the 1:46.00 mark to see it.

A+

Triple Frontier
One of those “some good people know where some bad people have stashed their money and try to take it, succeed, but then it all goes wrong” tales.

In this case ex-Special Forces soldiers rip off a South American drug lord to the tune of $250 million. By the time they reach safety, it’s pretty much all gone along with one of their partners.

Nothing special, but I’ve wasted two hours watching worse.

Reservation Dogs, season one
I’ve heard great things about this for awhile. I finally watched and all those exceptions were met. Just a great show about teenagers in general. Add in the additional layers from setting (rural Oklahoma) and cast (Native Americans) and it is truly one of the most original and enjoyable shows about growing up I can recall. I hope season two lives up to the first.

Inglourious Basterds
Typical Tarantino fare. Parts were brilliant. Fantastic casting and performances. Great writing. But there were moments that lagged and sections of the story didn’t make sense. And there’s so much over-the-top violence, which I don’t mind but can be a lot to take.

B+

Jack Ryan, season three
I liked season one. Season two infuriated me and I swore future efforts off. Then I read some decent reviews and figured it was worth a shot.

What a mistake. Despite a compelling structure to build the story around – the Russians are reviving a Cold War-era plan to goad the US into war – it fell flat once again.

Seriously, I can watch dumb shows, especially if their dumbness is offered up with a wink. But dumb shows that pretend to be smart drive me nuts. And this one got dumber with each episode. I spent more time counting up the insanely illogical/implausible elements of the plot that paying attention to where it was headed. In fact, that’s the only reason I didn’t stop watching; I wanted to see just how stupid the show could be.

Answer: pretty fucking stupid.

Trying to salvage things by almost directly ripping off The Hunt For Red October didn’t help.

C-, only because I can’t admit I spent nearly eight hours watching something that I give a D

Edge of the Unknown with Jimmy Chin
A bit of the old bait and switch here. Chin follows extreme athletes to show how they push beyond the limits that stop normal folks. Episode one focuses on climber Alex Hannold, and how he prepared for his epic free solo climb of El Capitan. The climb that Chin followed in Free Solo. But after the Hannold episode, it goes a different direction. Instead of following athletes who face challenges, we watch a big mountain skier tumble head-over-heels down a 1000’ foot run. We see a kayaker get pinned under the water for over 3:00, his limp arms clearly displayed in his GoPro video. A snowboarder starts an avalanche and rides down a mountain in the midst of it. And so on. Luckily all of these people survive, although there is one episode that does include the death of a subject.

But it is a very interesting look at how these failures affected each athlete. Almost all are embarrassed, as they think since they are “experts” they shouldn’t have made the minor mistakes that turned into big ones. Some ended or altered their careers after their accidents. Others rededicated themselves, but in new ways.

What really makes the series is the camera work. In most cases there is gorgeous, hi-def video of majestic mountains or water falls. And in almost every episode the athlete has a GoPro strapped to their body or tools and we can see inside the avalanche, or have our view spin wildly as the skier tumbles down the mountain.

It’s hard to watch at times, but always beautiful.

Shorts, YouTubes, etc

The Mysterious 30 Year Journey of Apollo 12
Yet another amazing story from the Apollo program. The title is a little dishonest: the journey continues today.

Demolished NFL Stadiums Then and Now
These are fun to look at, especially the really old baseball fields, which had strange contours because of the spaces they were crammed into.

Shoegaze and Grunge Compared
I don’t agree with all of this guys points, but it is interesting to compare/contrast the two sounds, which had their peaks at about the same time.

10 Things Stanley Tucci Can’t Live Without
The algorithm is always paying attention, and spit this out after I watched Searching for Italy.

B–1B Lancer Pilot Cockpit Tour and Take Off
The B–1B is the coolest military jet the US has ever made.

DIRT Episode 1 — Seattle
DIRT Episode 2 — New Orleans
DIRT Episode 3 — The North
DIRT Episode 4 — NYC
This can be a little Urban Bro-ish, but I dug the result. A great example of food bringing people with very different backgrounds together.

Why everything you buy is worse now
Spoiler alert: it’s a nasty combination of capitalism and FOMO.

Road trip through KANSAS
I stopped watching The Adventures of A+K when they completed their Alaska journey, although their newest vids still hit my timeline. They made a stop in Kansas on their way back to Texas so I had to check that out. Eating at Joe’s Barbecue was smart. Driving past the Center of the Universe was dumb. Shame the Cosmosphere was closed because I would have liked to see how much that has changed since the last time I was there in 1984.

Cape York, 1972
I’ve been getting a lot of old travel videos in my feed. This one was cool, since I love Australia. I also wondered how different this journey would be today.

Pedro Pascal’s Top 10 Movie Picks
Pedro has been on a bit of a heater the past few years. So, yes, I am interested in the films that influenced him.

The Foreign Legion, another French exception
I’ve known the term “French Foreign Legion” since I was a kid. I didn’t really know what it was about, though. This video shows the modern legion in action.

Christian Braun is a basketball enigma
CB is having a solid rookie year. Love that some random NBA YouTuber has made multiple videos about him.

National Geographic: Polynesian Adventure (1969)
This was so awesome! I want to go to French Polynesia in 1969. I looked him up and the dad of this group, Stan Waterman, is still alive! If he can last two more months he’ll celebrate his 100th birthday.