Jayhawk Talk: Ups and Downs
KU basketball has become a roller coaster ride. Which is not the coolest thing when you are a fan. A week ago they lost to an undermanned, sleep-deprived West Virginia team at home. It was the first time the Mountaineers had ever won at Allen Fieldhouse. In true WVU form, they tried their hardest to blow a big lead, but…
Reaching For The Stars, Vol. 109
Chart Week: January 7, 1978 Song: “Don’t It Make My Brown Eyes Blue” – Crystal Gayle Chart Position: #16, 22nd week on the chart. Peaked at #2 for three weeks in November/December 1977. What is the first American Top 40 show I remember listening to? If you know me, you understand that I wish I could identify that broadcast to…
Weekend Notes
Friday I had an appointment to get C’s iPad looked at. After confirming it needed a new battery, the guy helping me said the replacement would take about a week to arrive, so it would probably be “next Monday.” He paused, we looked at each other for a moment, and then we both started laughing. We both thought Friday was…
Sunday Links
What better time than a snowy Sunday to finally share the links I’ve been stacking up over the past month or so. After reading a 007 novel recently, I wondered why we haven’t heard a timeline for when the movie franchise will launch its post-Daniel Craig era. Turns out there is a lot of drama between the long-time producer of…
Friday Playlist
Still not back in a normal music groove yet, so today you get one of my occasional, fun, “let Spotify spit some random tunes out and make a playlist from them” deals. “Spin The Bottle” – The Juliana Hatfield Three What a great blast from the early Nineties. “Needle” – Middle Kids Even their “mediocre” songs from overlooked EPs sound…
Reader’s Notebook, 1/2/25
I completed my final book of 2024 late Saturday/early Sunday as I was battling some insomnia. It was my 62nd book of the year, making 2024 one of my best reading years ever.[1] I read seven books in two different months, six books in three separate months, and never fewer than three books in a 30/31-day stretch. Pretty good work.…
December Media
Holiday Shit Elf Christmas Vacation A Christmas Story Die Hard Assorted SNL holiday sketches A’s all around. Band Aid – The Making Of The Original ’Do They Know It’s Christmas?’ Not a true documentary but rather a collection of the raw film shot on November 25, 1984, the day the vocals were recorded for this holiday classic. A remarkable view…
Stats
As usual for the first post of the New Year, here are the artists I listened to most over the past 365, errr, 366 days. As you might expect, when Pearl Jam puts out a new album that is really good and also perform in Indy, they end up dominating. Pearl Jam – 725 Middle Kids – 274 The War…
Christmas Week Notes
We had a pretty good holiday week. Lots of good times and good food with family. The weather was mostly decent, dreary but unseasonably warm all week. There was some good basketball. The only bummer was I caught cold #1 of the season last weekend and it wore me down several days. Christmas Day and the day after were when…
Favorite Songs of 2024
It’s taken a little longer than normal – I am almost certain this is the latest in the calendar year I’ve ever posted it – but at last I can reveal my 20 favorite songs of the year. This year I’ve had the the least enthusiasm I can recall about the process.[1] Usually I’ll dive into the songs in mid-fall…