Reader’s Notebook: #58
For my final entry of 2016, I’ll make my first attempt at my promised adjustment in how I share the books I’ve been reading. No more monthly entries, where I can barely remember the details of the book I read five weeks ago. Back to individual posts for each book. Or occasionally a small group of books. I began 2016…
Carrie
Yesterday was one of those weird afternoons where you take a brief nap and, after waking, nothing seems quite right for an hour or so. The cobwebs seem too thick to push through and you’re left feeling like you’ve taken a bunch of cold medicine. As I was sitting there, trying to find solid ground again, I picked up my…
Christmas 2016
A very busy and fun first quarter of our Christmas break is in the books. As is required of anyone who still runs a personal blog, here is a rundown of the past few days. The girls were not released from their academic responsibilities until 1:00 Thursday. By comparison, the neighborhood kids all finished the previous Friday, so our girls…
Harry
I didn’t read, or really pay any attention to, the Harry Potter books or watch movies when they were first coming out. Sure, I was aware of the phenomenon. I knew what Hogwarts was. I knew that adults seemed to enjoy the stories as much as young adults. But they came along at a point in my life where I…
Holiday Catalog Insanity
Over the past year or so, Drew Magary has become one of my favorite writers. Whether in his novels and collections of anecdotes about being a parent, his writings for GQ and Deadspin, or just on Twitter, he never fails to amuse me. I might have first discovered him through his holiday-themed posts on Deadspin. You might recall when he…
33 Favorite Songs of 2016
I usually offer some State of the Music Union thoughts when I share my favorite songs of the year lists. 2016 got off to a great start and then kind of cruised to the finish. Most of my favorite albums of the year came out during its first six months. There were some albums I was greatly looking forward to…
Friday Playlist
A special playlist this week. I think I finally got my Favorite Songs of the Year list hammered out yesterday. I’ll finish my write up over the weekend and share it early next week. When I used to do a semi-private podcast, each year before I shared my favorite songs, I would do a review show counting down the #1…
Fifteen Down, One To Go
My counting may be off – I did make a chart to double-check my numbers – but I’m pretty sure that last night was the 15th, and next-to-last, Christmas program of our girls’ school lives. Every year since 2007 we’ve had at least one school program. 2013 was the sweetest spot in that stretch, with M performing in the St.…
Weekend in Chi-town
We had a nice weekend up in Chicago, the Mrs. and me. The occasion was for her to attend a conference for work, something we did for the first time a year ago when we went to Arizona. Amazingly, this was the first time I’ve been to Chicago in 15 years, since I ran the marathon in 2001. We’re three…
Friday Playlist
https://open.spotify.com/user/224aiwksicafjldlua6nnpo4y/playlist/3XEkU3WfxctbH0M1KK4oRu A few weeks back, we got a new Japandroids single plus a 2017 release date for their next album. Over the past week, two more artists I’ve spent a lot of time listening to in recent years did the same thing. “Radio Kids” – Strand of Oaks. Someone said this sounded like Ryan Adams doing a Dinosaur Jr. song.…