D's Notebook

Month: September 2024 (Page 2 of 2)

Friday Playlist

September 13, 2024 /

“Favourite Songs” – Maximo Park
This was the week I learned that MP and bands like them – The Kooks, The Futureheads, Editors, The Wombats, Bombay Bicycle Club – were lumped into a sub-genre called “Landfill Indie” by some critics. That was not considered a term of endearment. Which bummed me out because I liked a lot of those bands in the stretch during the early 2000s when they were popular. MP is still around, and while this won’t challenge for my favorite song of the year like “Going Missing” did in 2005, I do enjoy this track. Screw the critics!

“D&T” – Japandroids
Further proof there will be no re-invention of the Japandroids wheel on their final album.

“Cut and Run” – Jessica Boudreaux
Boudreaux wrote this for an un-named Apple TV+ show, but the producers ended up passing on it. Their loss. Actually, probably her loss, because it would have gotten a lot more exposure had it landed on the show. But you get what I’m saying.

“I Got Views” – Getdown Services
This band describes their music as “post-Brexit apocalypse disco,” which is awesome. Twat is such a good word. I might start using it to see how it goes over.

“Starting Again” – The Sluts
I’ve been listening to The Bridge, the public radio station in Kansas City that plays music right up my alley, more over the past several weeks. I’ve heard this track a few times, always identified as a local song. Turns out the band is from Lawrence, and maybe the biggest thing in that scene these days. Appropriate that this has a very turn-of-the-millennium sound given that’s about the time the classic Lawrence scene fell apart. I dig.

“Too Much” – Nectar
Speaking of the classic Lawrence scene, this band sounds similar to Frogpond, one of the most successful bands of the Nineties KC/Lawrence scene. But they are from Champaign, IL and very much a current group, not one that faded away 25 years ago.

“High” – The Cure
This week’s The Alternative Number Ones entry (subscription required) was this track from 1992, which topped the Alt chart for four weeks. I had forgotten what a joyous, delightful, silly song it is. Tom Breihan gave it a much-deserved 8/10.

“Come To The City (Live…Again)” – The War on Drugs
TWOD released another live album today. This time rather than picking his favorites from their last tour, Adam Granduciel took individual parts of different performances and stitched them together into new tracks. Which seems like a lot of work. But makes sense if you know how he makes music. This is the song that utterly blew me away when I last saw them. You don’t get the full sense of its power here – I’m convinced anyone with long hair had it blow backwards by the sheer force of the music that night – but I’ll still listen to this a dozen times, cranked all the way today.

“Are We Ourselves?” – The Fixx
Another week with fairly slim pickings from the bottom of the 1984 chart. Don’t get me wrong: I love The Fixx. They are underrated, and this song is super solid. But it doesn’t qualify as a classic of ’84. That said, I do have a vivid memory of hearing it while enjoying the final weekend that Worlds of Fun was open for the year, a balmy, breezy October afternoon. At #32 this week, on its way to #15.

D’s Notes

September 12, 2024 /

I’ve been doing some blog maintenance lately, going back and adding tags to all of my nearly 3500 posts. After two weeks of work, I’m about two-thirds of the way complete. I’m not really sure why I decided to do this. Tags are hard. I tried to use them years ago and gave up because I was never sure how to granular to get when categorizing posts. Even now, I don’t really understand their utility. Am I going to start searching old posts by tag? Probably not. But I got a bug that made me want to do it, so here I am.

Related, there is now a tag cloud in the right sidebar if you want to dive into any specific topics.

In addition to working backwards adding tags, I also continue my monthly review of what I posted exactly 20 years ago. This month’s entries included month two of fatherhood, and leaving my corporate job. While working through the archives, I realized I got away from the entries fill with small, random thoughts. Thus, today’s post!

L started getting letters from college basketball programs a year ago. I don’t know if it was her AAU program or CHS that shared her contact info, but she received about a letter a week from various small schools. They were always for camps and showcases, not actual recruiting letters.

Last month this was in the mailbox, and I got momentarily excited.

title

Then I realized it wasn’t THE UM, but rather a satellite campus. They are also the Wolverines, but play at the NAIA level. I guess all the IU campuses use the same logo as the main campus in Bloomington, so this isn’t unusual. It was kind of disappointing, at least to me. She didn’t seem to care.

L has pre-season practice on Tuesday and Thursday mornings starting at 6:00. We leave the house at 5:30, which means my alarm is set for 5:20. There is zero traffic so I’m usually back home right at 6:00. For some reason I can never fall back to sleep when I return home, and my attempt to catch about an hour of shuteye before I start the process of getting C out of bed is a failure. And then I’m a wreck the rest of the day, no matter how much caffeine I drink or if I can squeeze a nap in later.

I thought as you age getting up earlier in the morning was supposed to be easier. My mom’s dad would get up at like 4:30 and sit there smoking his pipe and drinking coffee until the TV stations in central Kansas came back on air at 6:00. Maybe I need a pipe…

I’m also hungry all day on Tuesdays/Thursdays. I’m only getting up 90 minutes earlier than normal. It shouldn’t be this destructive to my body.

S and I take walks once or twice a week as her schedule allows. We usually walk through the neighborhoods around us, but occasionally take the Monon Trail that runs near our home. When we do that, I like to be a grumpy old man and keep track of how many people riding bikes either ring a bell or announce themselves as they pass you. On our most recent trip down the Monon, just three of 14 bikers did the courteous thing. Also, a group of four bikers coming the opposite way rode four-across, forcing us to get out of their way even though two of them were well across the middle line.

WE ARE LIVING IN A SOCIETY, PEOPLE!

Another weird fact about me: I actually enjoy cleaning up after a gathering. As long as it can be the next day. Last Sunday morning, following the get-together we hosted the night before, I had no problem getting motivated to collect all the trash and recycling, clean the kitchen, put outdoor furniture away, etc. Same on holidays. As much as I enjoy Thanksgiving day, there’s something super satisfying about getting up the next morning, with the kids still in bed and S at work, and spending an hour or so working through the remaining dishes, getting things put back into their proper cabinets, and so on. Maybe it’s because there’s way less stress than when you are prepping and it serves as a mental bookend to the event.

A true sign that fall is arriving. I’ve had to wear a jacket to the gym a couple mornings. No need for pants over shorts yet. I can usually make my two minute walk there without too many layers until it truly gets cold. It’s the walk back, though, with sweaty clothes, when the added clothing is a must.

Those days were momentary exceptions, though. It looks like we are going to be in the mid–80s for at least the next two weeks. Summer lingers.

Another sign that fall is creeping up on us: I listened to my working list for favorite songs of the year for the first time yesterday. Just one pass through, enough to jot notes about a couple songs, but I won’t truly dive in for another 5–6 weeks. Still plenty of time for new songs to work their way in before I start whittling it down to its final order.

A Reaching For The Stars Series Update

September 11, 2024 /

My momentum in this series has been off for a few months. No worries for the two or three of you who care about these posts; I’m not giving up on them!

A combination of factors over the summer kept me from listening to American Top 40 very often. Less time in the kitchen, where I play the iHeart Radio Classic American Top 40 channel the most. No more SiriusXM in the car, so no 80s on 8 Big 40 countdowns to supplement my Casey shows.

While every AT40 boradcast ever aired has been re-mastered and digitized, iHeart Radio and Premiere Networks only play a portion of them. No one is sure why. As I’ve been listening to them, one way or another, for close to 20 years, many of them are repeats to me. Which both makes them a little boring and strips them of material for RFTS posts.

There is a way around this. The man who is responsible for those remastered editions also has the right to sell them. A couple weeks ago I learned that I could have the entire original Casey Kasem era – from 1970 to 1988 – delivered on a hard drive for the low price of $1500. Say I just wanted his shows from the 1980s? $750.

Ok, I love American Top 40 but fifteen hundred bucks, or even seven-fifty, is a lot. Me being me, I did think about it for a minute before deciding it was certainly too much to sneak past S when she reviewed that month’s credit card bill. She’s indulgent of my hobbies, but all indulgences have their limits!

However, I do have a high speed internet connection, a web browser, and the ability to use search engines. Thus I spent about a week finding and downloading hundreds of old AT40 recordings for free. My media hard drive in the basement now holds copies of 365 shows that aired between 1976 and 1986, my golden era of pop music.

I did the most damage in the Seventies, grabbing 196 countdowns, or 94% of the shows recorded between 1976–1979. For some reason the shows from the Eighties were harder to find. I managed to obtain just 46% of them, with as many as 37 (1981) and as few as 14 (1986) per year.

Yes, I tracked them in a spreadsheet.

My source was Archive.org, a brilliant, world treasure of a site for all kinds of material. There were several contributors who have uploaded AT40 programs, a few of which had just been updated. I figure if I keep an eye on those pages, some of my missing shows will eventually appear on them.

I also focused on downloading shows that were available in a single audio file. I skipped over dozens and dozens that had been broken into individual files based on either program hour or side of the original AT40 LP. When I’m bored with this original run of 365 countdowns, there should be opportunities to get more.

Most of the programs were ripped from radio broadcasts, so they include ads and local breaks from the stations that aired them. It has been jarring to hear weather reports from who knows when in the midst of some of them.

So what the hell am I going to do with 365 (and counting) American Top 40s? Play them and write some fucking blog posts!

At 3–4 hours per show, that’s a lot of listening.[1] I figure each week I’ll select a couple that correspond to that moment on the calendar, then scrub through them, focusing on Casey’s trivia between songs and tunes that jump out at me as interesting topics for new posts. I can’t see myself playing them all start-to-finish. I have too much other music and podcasts to listen to.

I’ve already reviewed two of my downloads. One was from September 9, 1979. While there was no great trivia for a new RFTS post in it, I was amazed that Gordon Elliott served as the guest host that week. This was before Elliott came to the States and established himself as a third-tier media personality. He was still a radio DJ in Australia at the time. Apparently one with good contacts in Hollywood!

There was one piece of trivia Elliott shared that was familiar. He told a story about Dionne Warwick’s career going sideways when she changed how she spelled her name on the advice of her astrologer. Casey would relay the same anecdote three years later; I wrote about it two years ago.

Kind of sloppy, AT40 folks. I imagine I’ll find other examples of repeated stories as I work through my digital pile of shows.

What does this all mean for you, the blog post consumer? Hopefully it gets me back on track for one or two RFTS posts per month. I’m currently working a draft based on a song from the second downloaded show I listened. The ratio of my collected shows also helps me with a goal I’ve had for a long time: writing more about music from the Seventies.

So that’s yet another weird way I’ve been wasting my time, obsessing about a radio show from my childhood. I know it makes me seem (even more) like a psychopath, but we all need hobbies. And you benefit from my mania, so everybody wins!

  1. The first show I listened to had no commercials. The second had ads every two breaks in the countdown. So I figure 3.5 hours is the average for the whole collection. Which puts me at 1277.5 hours of American Top 40.  ↩

Tuesday Links

September 10, 2024 /

I had a couple longer posts in various states of readiness that I hoped to select from to post today. But, man, these early mornings getting up to take L to basketball wipe me out. More about that in another post. Instead of posting something longer, I’ll just share some links for now.

A great story about a group in Oakland that is making sure that professional baseball survives there after the A’s leave.

Growing up as an Oakland sports fan, I thought of the A’s more as a kind of church or nation-state than as a product. My relation to them was tribal far more than transactional. Then I was forsaken. And I was tired of feeling like there wasn’t anything I could do about it.

How to Start a Professional Sports Team, Win Games, and Save the Town

I love writing like this. A deep, investigative piece that is told with terrific humor.

A conservative estimate holds that there are 240 billion pennies lying around the United States — about 724 ($7.24) for every man, woman and child there residing, and enough to hand two pennies to every bewildered human born since the dawn of man…As far as anyone knows, the American cent is the most produced coin in the history of civilization, its portrait of Lincoln the most reproduced piece of art on Earth.

America Must Free Itself from the Tyranny of the Penny

Hey, it’s another big, pop culture list to argue about! I can say with confidence that I’ve seen just 34 of these, although I would imagine there are a few others from older shows that I saw at some point but don’t remember. Unlike a movie list this is harder to go back and fill in the holes since you really need to context of everything that came before the selected episodes to appreciate them. “Theo’s Holiday” should be waaaaay higher.

The 100 Best TV Episodes of All Time

I’m mostly past dealing with school parking lot nonsense, although I have had to pick L up a couple times already and brave with the CHS hill after school. It is always good advice that, when in doubt, just CIRCLE THE BLOCK.

New School Year Drop-Off and Pick-Up Rules

Weekend Notes

September 9, 2024 /

Another weekend jam-packed with sports dominating my attention.

Personally, it was a tough weekend for football. Cathedral lost Friday night against Cincinnati St. Xavier in the closing seconds of their game, 35–31. KU lost to Illinois despite dominating on defense and having an unstoppable running game they, for some reason, went away from. M’s Bearcats blew a big lead and lost. And the Colts failed to get a win on opening day for the 11th consecutive season.

Well, S’s Hoosiers did put up 77 points Friday. But she doesn’t follow them, so she doesn’t get any credit for the W.

Amazingly the CHS game got my most attention out of all of those games. I listened to the entire thing on the radio. It was back-and-forth all night until the Irish let the Bombers go 65 yards in about a minute with no timeouts to get the win. St. X’s quarterback in Chase Herbstreit, son of a certain media personality. I didn’t get the impression he’s a big time recruit, but he played great in the biggest moments Friday.

We had people over Saturday evening so I was only able to sneak peeks at the KU game rather than give it my full attention. Every time I looked up it seemed like something was going wrong for the Jayhawks. A penalty that wiped out a touchdown. An interception. Giving up a big completion on third down. It was a super bummer to lose. Diving into the numbers, this was a game they could have easily won, probably should have won, with lots of areas to build on. The defense was very good. The O-line great. Devin Neal and Daniel Hishaw nearly unstoppable.

It is definitely concerning that Jalon Daniels made so many mistakes. Not sure if he’s pressing, his body is compromised and will never be what it once was, he’s struggling to mesh with the new offensive coordinator, or something else is going on. I also think it’s too early to bail on the OC. It sure seems like he wasn’t taking advantage of a clear advantage he had, though.

Hey, being bummed about KU losing a close road game to a Power 4 team is new territory. I’m not going to get too worked up over it. I don’t think the ceiling is as high as we were hoping, though.

Hey, that Northern Illinois win over Notre Dame was fun! Not just because Notre Dame lost, although that is always amusing. Nor because we watched the closing minutes with a friend who went to Notre Dame. No, the way NIU coach Thomas Hammock reacted to the win was the greatest sporting moment of the weekend. Sports are awesome.

And Sunday was a gorgeous day so I watched the Colts game on the outside TV while doing various clean-up tasks from our Saturday gathering. It was pretty much what I expected from the Colts. Anthony Richardson made three or four straight ridiculous throws. He made about as many terrible/confusing/infuriating throws, including missing a wide-open AD Mitchell for a sure touchdown. That is who he is right now. I don’t know that he’s ever going to be a great pro, but he will always be interesting. The offensive line, which rebounded last year from a poor ’22, looked old and slow. The run D, allegedly a strength, got gouged all day. And the thing Colts fans have been complaining about all summer, the defensive backfield, confirmed all those concerns.

Eleven straight years without a win on opening day seems impossible, right?

I know it’s early, and we shouldn’t make too many snap judgements. But I did not like the new NFL kickoff rules. Of course, in the three games I watched, nothing much happened on kickoffs. I know returns were way up around the league, including one touchdown. Some analysts remain bullish on the dynamic kickoff concept. It seems to me like, after giving up a few big returns, coaches will start kicking the ball into/out of the end zone and willingly let the opponent start at the 30 instead of risking the long return.

Just like last week, I also sprinkled in a lot of US Open action, following the Royals big sweep of the Twins online, and watching parts of the Fever games both Friday and Sunday. The Royals have a six-game cushion for the final playoff spot! The Fever’s five-game winning streak came to an end Friday, but they rebounded with an overtime win Sunday. Caitlin Clark had 23 and 8 assists Friday, 26 and 12 Sunday.

Saturday morning I ran L over to CHS so she could go to the JV football game. I ran some errands and then hung out in the parking lot rather than go in. I had left my season sports pass at home and didn’t want to pay $5 for a game I didn’t care about. She had fun, although the JV also took an L to St. X.

About that gathering, we had several of S’s high school pals over Saturday evening. It was a fantastic fall evening, in the low 60s/high 50s. Perfect for sitting outside with a fire going while enjoying beverages, food, and good company. We had the pool heated and open, but that was mostly for looks. We were hoping someone might get nutty and jump in but no one drank enough to try it out. I’m sure our neighbors appreciated that. I actually felt pretty good Sunday morning, which was not my expectation.

Football is fully back. The baseball playoffs are close. The US Open, a marker of seasonal transition, is complete. This morning is our third straight with temps in the 40s. I actually wore pants a couple times over the weekend. It will be close to 90 in another 48 hours, so fall is not fully here yet. But it is close.

Friday Playlist

September 6, 2024 /

I’ve finally wrapped up the music projects that have been eating up a lot of my time lately. As I do, I find my new music playlist is down around 40 songs. For a good chunk of 2024 it’s been closer to 60 songs. The new tunes have definitely dried up over the past month. Hopefully just a lull before another wave flows before the holidays. It took adding a few old songs to pad this week’s playlist out to a reasonable size.

“Suddenly Last Summer” – The Motels
I was thinking I shared this more often in the past after Labor Day. A check of the blog archives, though, shows I’ve only done it twice before. A good song for a weekend when we will go from 90 one day to the low 40s two mornings later. And then it’s going to be 90 three days later. September in the Midwest is a roller coaster.

“You Wreck Me” – The War On Drugs covering Tom Petty
Last month we got Eddie Vedder. This month TWOD add their entry to the Bad Monkey soundtrack/Petty tribute album. When I heard they were on the LP, this was one of the first songs I imagined them doing. Like the EdVed track, they don’t do much to reimagine the original. Which is fine, because it fits their sound so well.

“I Thought You’d Change” – Hotline TNT
This song came out almost exactly a year ago, and was featured on all the big sites, yet somehow I missed it until this week. Bummer, because it’s a solid mashup of pop and shoegaze. They are signed to Jack White’s Third Man Records.

“A Bit Like James Bond” – The Bug Club
This is fun!

“Casual Drug Use” – Katie Gavin
The second solo single from the lead singer of MUNA. I’m not the first to make this observation but her solo work slides into a space where a lot of country and country-adjacent artists have moved in recent years, while remaining steadfastly pop.

“Wild” – Spoon
So one of my mysterious “Music Projects” was listening to every Spoon album and making a list of my favorite songs. Which I did over the course of about two, two-and-a-half weeks. Then I realized I doubt many of my readers are interested in that list. So I’ll just share the song that I ranked #1. They do have a lot of great ones.

“Until The End Of The World” – U2
Tom Breihan just got to the last song from U2’s Achtung Baby album that reached #1 on the Alternative Rock chart, “One.” In his three entries about AB songs, he referenced other tracks on the album that either were not singles or did not hit #1. So many of them got 8’s, 9’s, and 10’s in his grading scale! A reminder what a great album that was, with almost no misses or songs you skip past. This did not get a big push from the band or label, but still made it to #4 on the Alt chart. He gave it a 10, which was absolutely a deserved ranking.

“Caribbean Queen (No More Love On The Run)” – Billy Ocean
We may have reached the point where all the iconic songs of 1984 have made their chart debuts. Well, almost. I can think of a couple more in the weeks/months ahead. But that great run of the middle part of the year has clearly come to an end. Not that this is a bad song. It went to #1 for two weeks in November. I don’t love it as much as some of the other classics I’ve shared, but it’s still fun and I’ll happily listen to it if I have to.

Famously released first as “European Queen,” it bombed. Only when Billy re-cut this version, and another called “African Queen” that was released in Africa, did it become a smash. Which should have been obvious. European Queen makes me think of someone who is old and stuffy and from a long line of possibly inbred people. Caribbean Queen sounds like someone who is young, fun, and you would do anything to spend time with them. It debuted on the Top 40 this week at #36.

NFL Predictions

September 5, 2024 /

My NFL predictions are always half-assed. Let’s see if I can make them even more half-assed (quarter-assed?) by typing them up on a morning when a chirping smoke alarm woke me up at 3:30, it took me an hour to fall back to sleep after finding/quieting the proper alarm, then I had to be up less than an hour later to get L to practice…

I never do any real research for these posts, although this year I’ve listened to a few preview pods. I don’t know that they gave me any great insights because there were some wildly varying opinions of certain teams. One guys loves the Cowboys and hates the Bengals. His cohost feels exactly the opposite. How is this supposed to help me? We’ll see how much that limited amount of information has screwed up my perspective.

AFC East

The first of several divisions that are tough to pick. Most folks think the Jets are the most talented across the roster, and their success comes down to whether you trust Aaron Rodgers to 1) be healthy and 2) to somehow regain his 2021 form at age 40 coming off an achilles injury. Buffalo shed a ton of talent to get out of salary cap hell, but still have Josh Allen. Miami? Their shit only worked against bad teams last year. I have no faith in Rodgers, but the Jets won seven games with below-replacement level quarterbacks last year. If Rodgers can play most of the season, he doesn’t have to be an MVP for the Jets to win the division. New York Jets

AFC North

Is Joe Burrow healthy and/or will the Bengals’ receivers’ contract situations be distractions? The Steelers and Browns will suck on offense, and be fantastic on the other side of the ball. That makes it the Baltimore Ravens by default, even though they lost a few very important players. Always trust Lamar. Until January…

AFC South

There is a lot of worry here in Indy because Anthony Richardson looked so erratic in the preseason. I would remind people he played just parts of four games as a rookie, and came into the league as a project. The best hope is that he stays healthy this year, by the end of the season we are seeing progress/growth, and maybe the Colts can sneak into a Wild Card spot. Jacksonville is a mess, although if Treor Lawrence can get his shit together they can make a Wild Card run. Tennessee is terrible. The Houston Texans are an easy pick here, even if CJ Stroud doesn’t get an ounce better than he was as a rookie. The team is young, talented, and loaded.

AFC West

The Kansas City Chiefs until Patrick Mahomes’ arm falls off. And don’t give me this “The Broncos are interesting” talk I’m hearing. They still stink. The Raiders are horrible. Odds favor Jim Harbaugh turning the Chargers around, but not enough to challenge the Chiefs.

Wild Cards

Buffalo
Pittsburgh
Cincinnati

NFC East

This was long the league’s glamor division, filled with three east coast teams plus Dallas. You could generally count on at least three of the teams being excellent. This year? Is even one of them very good? The Eagles will either be super focused and scary good, or be overwhelmed by all their internal drama and struggle to win eight games. Dallas could go either way, too, and we know if they are great from September to December, then they will find a new, humiliating way to lose in the playoffs. Washington and New York are at different parts of the rebuild curve, but both at the bottom. I’ll go with Dallas simply because they won 12 games last year and Dak Prescott is playing for his next contract.

NFC North

Everyone loves Detroit now, which is a weird thing to type. The Packers are a half-step behind them. Chicago could be sneaky good, although it feels early for Caleb Williams to turn them into a winner. The Vikings will host several games against playoff teams. Detroit did it longer than Green Bay last year, so I go with the Lions.

NFC South

This division is a good argument for regulation. Couldn’t we drop New Orleans, Carolina, and Tampa Bay, bring up Georgia, Oregon, and Ohio State and get more competitive games? I know, I know, that is a truly dumb thing to say. It might actually work this year, though. Atlanta by default.

NFC West

I, like many, want to pick against The 49ers here. They have the Super Bowl loser hangover to contend with. The summer was filled with contract drama. Christian McCaffrey is already hurt. Even then, they remain one of the deepest teams in the league. LA has a lot of holes but Sean McVay is a true coaching witch. A lot of folks think Seattle could be sneaky good. I’m not on the bandwagon. Arizona will be better, but still bring up the rear. They may only win 9–10 games this year, but I still like San Francisco.

Wild Cards

Green Bay
Los Angeles
Philadelphia

I was going to pick all the playoff games, too, but that is too much for my brain today. Instead I’ll jump straight to the Super Bowl. Kansas City 30, Detroit 24. In triple overtime. Detroit misses four field goals in OT and Mahomes finally throws a 75 yard TD on the first play of the third extra period.

Reader’s Notebook, 9/4/24

September 4, 2024 /

Well, August was quite a month when it came to reading. I finished seven books last month. And that was with a vacation, the Olympics, paying more attention to baseball (at least some of the time), and watching the US Open mixed in. I guess I used my free time wisely. Also I read some very enjoyable books that kept me engaged and turning the pages.

Here are the last four from that run.

Thursday Murder Club – Richard Osman
One of my sisters-in-law had this with her when she visited last Christmas and without asking her about it, I added it to my reading list. When I checked its status at the library there was a 30+ week wait for it. Yowsa. I placed my hold and waited until early August when my name hit the top of the list.

Worth the wait. It is a fun, entertaining, thoughtful, charming, at times poignant book.

A group of four residents at a British retirement community start a club where they dive into cold cases for fun, hoping to find clues the police missed and bring the proper people to justice. Hey, big surprise, the group stumbles into a real murder in the process! Then another. And another. Working on their own, and sometimes in concert with the police, they eventually solve all the mysteries. Naturally the cold case they started with ends up tied to the new ones they are looking into, with a surprising connection to their group.

The end got a little messy, as Osman unravels all the threads he’s spun, including several that intentionally led in the wrong direction. That is the tiniest quibble. And perhaps I was just reading too fast as I raced to get to the resolution. I’m looking forward to more adventures with the gang from Cooper’s Chase.

She Rides Shotgun – Jordan Harper
It’s been quite awhile since I read a super-dark book. Like cringey dark. I’m not sure if this officially qualifies – it’s not into Daniel Woodrell territory, for example – but it did make me a little uncomfortable.

This centers on the heart-warming story of a dad reuniting with his estranged 11-year-old daughter and them forging a new relationship.

Well, it’s not quite that simple. Nate has been in prison and, just before being released because of a technical error in his conviction, kills a higher-up in one of the prison’s Nazi gangs. Then he kidnaps his daughter, Polly, from her school because he knows she is being targeted by the Nazis as part of their plan to destroy his life in retribution. After grabbing his daughter, Nate finds her mother and new husband murdered by the Nazis. They flee both the Nazis and the police, who think that Nate is responsible for the murders. Then Nate teaches Polly how to be a badass and she helps him rob Nazi stash houses and whatnot to earn a measure of revenge.

And it keeps getting darker from there.

I think I would have loved this story 10–15 years ago. Now, though? Not so much. Not just because of the wrongness of teaching your 11-year-old how to choke people out. There were some strange parts of the book where my question was less where was the story headed than what drugs was Harper using when he wrote those chapters.

Again, I might just be getting old. I’m going to give another of his novels a shot at some point, as he’s got a lot of notice for taking up the banner of noir lit.

The Pine Tar Game – Flip Bondy
Would you be shocked I raced through this book, about the Royals-Yankees rivalry at large and a certain 1983 baseball game in particular, in about 36 hours? I have vivid memories of the Pine Tar Game – I was at my grandparents’ home, watching with my grandfather. He took a nap after the game and when we woke, first thing he did, before lighting his traditional cigarette, was look at me, shake his head, and say, “That damn Billy Martin…” – but it was still fun to relive that day in great detail. It was also cool that one of the greatest rivalries of its era got a full accounting. Since it was a league championship series rivalry, it has largely faded into history outside of Kansas City.

Carrie Soto Is Back – Taylor Jenkins Reid
Finally, another book my sister-in-law directly recommended to me and that I saved until the US Open. Fine timing! This is focused on the greatest (fictional) women’s tennis player of all time, and her return to the game after a younger player ties her record for most majors won. Along the way Carrie Soto reconnects with her father, who had been her coach but from whom she became somewhat estranged late in her career. She has to deal with the realities of being nearly 40 and attempting to compete in major tournaments. And she gains a love interest on his own comeback trail.

Every aspect of this story is predictable. Reid has such a great, breezy yet compelling style of writing that it doesn’t matter that every twist and turn is telegraphed from chapters away. You keep turning pages anyway.

Holiday Weekend Notes

September 3, 2024 /

It was an action-packed weekend. At least for watching sports from the comfort of my house. Friday night in particular was kind of crazy. High school football on the radio. Indiana Fever and US Open on the TV. Royals-Astros Gameday coverage on the Mac. With bonus weather monitoring on every screen. I guess I’ll break things down by subject rather than day.

KU Football

A slow start turned into the blowout it was supposed to be Thursday night for KU. Not sure you can make any great assessments of the team given the opponent. I thought Jalon Daniels looked a little rusty, but I also don’t know how open the playbook was. It seemed like the coaching staff was doing some experimenting with the offensive line. A pick-six for Mello Dotson, likely not the last for this defensive backfield this season. Devin Neal scoring touchdowns, Luke Grimm catching passes. We’ll find out a lot more about the Jayhawks next week when they go to Illinois.

The first game at Children’s Mercy Park seemed to go just fine. Word from people who went is that it was a great atmosphere. The replay system not working early and likely costing KU two scores was kind of a bummer.

HS Football

A week after beating preseason #1 Ben Davis, #3 Cathedral got a reminder their schedule is still brutal, losing to #6 Brownsburg 30–14. They got there a rather odd way.

BHS jumped out to a 17–7 lead Friday night before lightning was spotted. Although the storm was 10 miles away, and moving away from the stadium, the game was delayed over an hour before a second series of storms popped up and officials decided to postpone the game until Saturday afternoon.

Things didn’t get much better in the resumed game. CHS was playing with their primary running back – who ran for 168 yards week one – hobbled Friday, then without him completely Saturday. L heard Sunday he’s probably having surgery and out for the year. Not sure if he was worth 16 points but I think he would have helped. If he is indeed out for an extended stretch, the Irish’s already brutal schedule looks even more formidable.

Weather

Last week was hot, sticky, and nasty. The heat index was up around 110 a couple days. Friday night three rounds of storms came through, and torrential rains and heavy winds blew the heat away. The humidity stuck around through Saturday. Then Sunday morning it was 52 and 100% pleasant. The extended forecast has a bunch of mornings like that, with a few even colder, and daytime highs mostly in the mid–70s with a few mid–80s sprinkled in. September is a truly glorious month.

US Open

I watched a ton of tennis last week and into the weekend. Week one of the Open might be the best week of tennis of the year, hell one of the best sports weeks of the entire year, with great matches in progress just about any time you turn on your TV from noon to midnight.

Weekend highlights were Frances Tiafoe’s two wins and both Carlos Alcaraz and Novak Djokovic losing early. It was a bummer that Coco Gauff went out early, but at least she lost to another American. In general it’s great to have several decent American players in both the women’s and men’s game at the moment. It sure makes for better crowds in New York.

Royals

Crap on a stick.

Last Wednesday afternoon the Royals were tied for first place and were up on co-leaders Cleveland going into the seventh inning, nine outs away from a four-game sweep of the Guardians. Then the Royals melted down a little and they’ve yet to recover, losing six straight games. Three injuries during that span have not helped. At least they still have a cushion in the wild card race for the time being.

It’s been a bit of a charmed summer for the Royals, totally unexpected and built on out-of-nowhere quality starting pitching. The pitching has still been fine, at least the starters; it’s been the bats that have let them down over the past week. They were nearly no-hit Friday and have gone deep into other games with just one or two hits. Maybe, hopefully, surely the hitters can lock back in and they can hold on to one of those wild card spots to complete this surprise season.

Fever

I know I’m not alone in having watched more WNBA games this year than in the rest of my life combined. I now know exactly when the Fever are playing, and on what channel. Unlike other sports, which S doesn’t really pay attention to, for the Fever she gets kind of locked in. Ironically our basketball playing daughter will still just breeze through and watch a few minutes, but rarely sits down and watches long stretches with us.

Two more wins over the weekend for the hottest team in the league. The Fever are now over .500 for the first time in five years. Which sounds made up. Have they really been that bad, for that long? Again, since I never watched I don’t know if that is a real stat or not.

It’s been fun watching this team figure each other out since their disastrous start. Kelsey Mitchell is a revelation, and a perfect backcourt partner for Caitlin Clark. Aliyah Boston finally settled down and started playing like the former #1 pick she is. Lexi Hull is one of the most fun players to watch, and seemingly can’t miss a 3 since the Olympic break.

And, of course, there’s Clark. She was starting to get comfortable before the break, but has looked like a first team all league player since getting some time to both rest and work on her game. In those seven games she’s averaging 24.6 points, 5 rebounds, and nine assists. And that’s with her teammates still booting 3–4 passes a night, or blowing open layups.[1]

She’s added a floater. Her teammates are getting better at anticipating her crazy passes. She’s handling the physicality of the league better. She still makes a few horrible passes a game, but when she’s averaging almost nine assists a game, you’ll take those. And her outside shot still isn’t locked in. That will come next year. Any questions about her transition to the pro game have been answered.

The only real bummer to the Fever turning the corner is it has kept us from going to a game. Tickets were crazy expensive at the beginning of the season, as you would expect. I planned on waiting until the hype died down and the team fell deep into the bottom of the standings before trying to grab some for a weeknight game. So much for that. I was looking at tickets for tomorrow’s game and even upper level seats were going for $200 each. That seems excessive, especially when L isn’t super into watching. Although she would go if given the chance.

Oh, one other WNBA note. The yammering idiots on TV need to drop the whole Caitlin Clark vs Angel Reese thing and focus on the real issue: how stupid are the four teams other than Indiana and Chicago who passed on drafting Reese? She’s getting 20 boards a night over the past three weeks and leads the league in rebounding for the season. From watching Chicago Friday, it’s obvious that some of those numbers come because her coach leaves her on the court deep into blowouts to pad her numbers. But 20 rebounds is 20 rebounds.

The rookie of the year argument is pretty much over, as CC is both having a better and more impactful year while Chicago is dropping like a rock despite Reese’s play. That shouldn’t hide the fact that Reese is having a phenomenal rookie year of her own.

College Football

It’s always hard for me to dive in this first week of real college football action. There’s so much other stuff going on, both on TV and in real life, that it’s hard to lock in. I had plenty of games on but other than Notre Dame – Texas A&M didn’t get super focused on any of them.

That was a big win for the Irish. Notre Dame’s defense looks incredible. They have a cake schedule. They will be one of the top four teams in the playoff. The obvious joke is they will then lose to Alabama or whatever SEC runner-up they play in the first round. But that game will be in South Bend. In December. Surely Touchdown Jesus will scare up some lake effect snow, or at least nasty windchills, to aid the Irish.

Family Time

We didn’t do anything big family-wise for the holiday weekend. M stayed in Cincinnati. C and L went to the CHS game with friends Friday, but neither went back to the resumption on Saturday. L went to the gym with basketball friends Sunday. C went to the Pitbull concert Sunday night. We had the in-laws over for dinner Sunday, and three of the nephews over to swim on Monday. S and I went to dinner with friends Saturday.

I also found a little project for myself over the weekend. It scratches one of my biggest itches and will have a direct effect on some of my blog posts. I doubt most of you will be as interested in it as I am, but I’ll still share more details about it soon.

And with that, summer is over. Preseason training for school basketball started for L today, and I was up at 5:15 to get her to school on time. A perfect way for her to knock out some of her driving in the dark time!

  1. As the father of a lady baller, I will say the most frustrating part of the women’s game is how many layups are missed. That, more than any other area, is where the difference between men and women is glaring. It’s a lot harder to make a layup in traffic when you release the ball a foot/foot-and-a-half below the rim than within a few inches of it.  ↩

August Media

September 2, 2024 /

Movies, Shows, etc

2024 Summer Olympics
Already much discussed in this space.

A

The Americans, season 3
The re-watch continues. Season three was a tight, excellent set of episodes: I believe every show fell between 43 and 48 minutes. Even in 2015, that was rare in the prestige TV realm. The last four episodes, especially, were crackling with intensity as the Jennings’ secret started to spill out.

A-

Homicide: Life On The Street, selected episodes
One of the all-time great TV dramas finally arrived on a streaming platform last month. I watched a fair amount of Homicide, at least the early years, back in the day. I read the book it was based on. And, of course, I obsessed over its spiritual and thematic successor, The Wire.

TV critic Alan Sepinwall put together a list of 10 episodes he thought best summarized the show. I don’t really have time to go knock out the whole series so instead ripped through his list. Some very dated production, dialogue, and fashion, but the core stories still stand up. The late Andre Braugher was such a force. As jarring as it was to see him play comedy in Brooklyn Nine-Nine, it was equally jarring to go back and watch his intense portrayal of Frank Pembleton.

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Tourist Sauce, Return to Australia
The NLU crew went back to the location of their first travel series, nearly seven years later, with a bigger budget and crew, and a lot more knowledge of what they were doing. As usual, the result was great.

A

Pearl Jam 2024/05/30 Seattle
Prep for seeing them in person.

A

Ocean’s Eleven
Pretty much a perfect movie.

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US Open, week one
An annual marker that summer is ending and fall has arrived.

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Shorts, YouTubes, etc

Two Weeks of Exploring Southern Thailand
Beautiful part of the world + interesting film stock + great photographer = amazing images.

Buying The Cheapest Cameras In Japan
OMG!!! You don’t have to know a thing about cameras, or be interested in photography, to find this piece totally hilarious.

Every Olympic 100m Final (1912–2016)
This is pretty cool. It would be even cooler if it noted who won each race. Also, these are only men’s races, so it’s not really every 100m final.

29,000 Feet Up Mount Everest with DJI Mavic 3 Pro
Gorgeous.

I Visited Mount Everest Base Camp
An interesting undertaking: this kid doesn’t try to climb the entire mountain, but rather just get to base camp. Which is way harder than I would have expected, and even this is probably beyond the abilities of 95% of people.

Brad Leone Tries to Eat His Weight in Tacos on a California Roadtrip
I can think of way worse ways to spend your time than driving around cool places and eating tacos for every meal.

Mascots Savage Moments Against Little Kids
This might be the greatest video ever made. Each time I see it, I laugh my ass off. Also fun is finding the full-game videos from these events. The Colts’ Blue is a beast in those games.

Arrested Development moments I think about a lot
Arrested Development moments I think about a lot #2
It might be time to give AD another re-watch.

Redeeming 10,000 bottles and cans because of Seinfeld (Part 2)
It took a year to get there, but finally an end to this chapter of Beau Miles Bullshit.

Apple Computers 1995 Promotional Video “The Martinettis Bring Home A Computer”
Holy mackerel! Who are the ad wizards who came up with this one?

Car Content

I Drive The Fantastic Polestar 3 For The First Time!
I was super intrigued by the Polestar 2 when I was car shopping, specifically used ones, which have plummeted in value. Someone not too far from us owns one, and I keep wanting to catch them at Target or wherever so I can ask questions. However, the closest current service center is in Columbus, OH, I have concerns about the long-term health of the line, and then the difficulty in calculating how much damage the previous owner did to the battery. It looks like the company is continuing to do great things. Now the trick is coming out with one in the $45K range so I can test drive one in three years when I get back into the car shopping game. Another trick will be not going out of business before more affordable models can hit production.

What should an electric car sound like?
I had no idea so much effort had been invested in this space.

The Southern California EV Charging Problem!
Who knew SoCal would be more Chicago than Bay Area when it came to charging your EV?

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