Reader’s Notebook, 8/30/23
Rememberings – Sinéad O’Connor After O’Connor’s death, there were many references to her autobiography, most of which came with the comment that it was a fantastic read. Those recommendations were right on. This is one of the best musician autobiographies I’ve ever read. It’s frank, funny, and frightening although also incomplete. O’Connor admits that a long stretch of her life…
Tuesday Links
This is kind of a weird piece. I would put passing on Breaking Bad or Arrested Development’s disastrous fourth season in the same category as the networks calling Florida for Al Gore in 2000. And I’m not sure the numbers next to some of these match their significance. It is a pop culture list, though, and you all know how…
Weekend Notes
Not the most exciting weekend of the year. I feel obligated to share the minor doings anyway, since that’s kind of our thing here. HS Football Number two Cathedral went west of town to Brownsburg, where they went 1–1 last year, to face the #5 Bulldogs. Last August CHS fell behind 21–0 before making a furious comeback that fell short,…
Friday Playlist
https://open.spotify.com/playlist/4xlUTikI4RjEoJWONdXfTI?si=84ecccd1bfa64faa “Make It Work” – Swiss Banks Holy Smiths tribute! Or is it an Interpol tribute? The vocals are straight out of the Morrissey school. But musically, this song is way closer to Interpol than The Smiths. Interesting combination. I think it works. “Different Now” – Courtney Barnett covering Chastity Belt It’s been awhile since I’ve enjoyed one of Barnett’s…
Ranking Shit: Old Man Stuff
Time for another entry in the (very) occasional Ranking Shit series. This time I’m going to rank a few of my Old Man Tendencies that have popped up, or grown stronger, in recent years. 5 – Fussy About the Dishwasher I’ve set some very clear standards on how our dishwasher should be loaded. But the other three (sometimes four) people…
Reaching for the Stars, Vol 89
Chart Week: August 29, 1981 Song: “For Your Eyes Only” – Sheena Easton Chart Position: #29, 6th week on the chart. Peaked at #4 for for weeks in October and November. I’ve heard a glut of 1981 countdowns recently. To be honest, it’s a little much. The quirkiness of that era grates rather quickly upon repeated exposure. However, I did…
Weekend Notes
Even down a kid, it was a pretty busy week. Although some of that activity was due to the missing kid. Jinxed Myself I mentioned in last week’s post that I was off the hook for driving to/from school for awhile. Well, not so fast… C got rear-ended leaving campus by another student on Monday. No injuries, thankfully. Her car…
Friday Playlist
I must begin this week’s playlist with an apology. Last week I teased that I would be doing something new and exciting this week. Unfortunately that will not happen. I was going to get back into the world of podcasting, inserting actual vocal segments between songs. I’m not sure anyone needed or wanted to hear my voice, but I was…
Thursday Links
Somehow in my highly organized list of future posts,[1] my latest collection of articles to share got bumped out of sight. Which is a shame because two of these are some of the best pieces I’ve read this year and I shouldn’t be sitting on them for over a month before I recommend them. I have no interest in Robert…
Reaching for the Stars, Vol. 88
I talk a lot about how the summer of 1984 was the greatest moment in pop music history, normally backing that up with examples of some of the songs that were on the chart that summer. As I was listening to a 1984 countdown a couple weeks ago, it struck me again how freaking solid those 40 songs were. There…