NFL Playoffs Picks
Funny how fast the NFL season goes when you spend the first two months of Sundays on the soccer fields, casually following scores and paying more attention to fantasy stats. But here we are, Wild Card weekend. Thus, my patented, half-assed picks for who will make it to Glendale in a month. AFC Wild Card Round Pittsburgh over Baltimore. A…
Friday Vid
“Tiny Prayers” – Restorations A band that I read about in the fall but then lost in the normal end-of-the-year shuffle. Fortunately, they landed high on one of my favorite music writer’s Best Of 2014 list, so I’m diving into them now. Terrific, crunchy, power-punk building on influences from all over the past 20 years. I have to make a…
Stats
The biggest navel-gazing post of the year!1 The cast of usual December (and late November) characters dominated the last month of the year. And then, no surprises in my top artists of 2014 if you gave any attention to my favorite songs of the year list. December 2014 Frank Sinatra – 77 Bing Crosby – 56 Dean Martin – 55…
Fin de Año
Last day of the year. As is my routine, this morning I paged back through the site’s archives for the last 12 months and jotted down some highlights. In January we kicked off the Worst Winter Ever[1] with nearly 20” of snow in three days, followed by the first Polar Vortex. Of a possible 35 hours of school the first…
⦿ Tuesday Links
I’m a horrible blogger. Christmas and its associated activities got me well behind in sharing links. So not only do I have a general glut, but I also have a few that should have been shared before Christmas. I’m going to knock out those holiday-related ones today and attempt to get the rest of the queue cleaned out on Friday.…
Top Albums of 2014
Sharing my favorite songs of the year with you was not enough. Thus, I must offer a few thoughts on the year in music in general, then share my favorite albums of the year. I like to think of it as a rough guide for people with some iTunes or Amazon credit to burn who would like to add an…
Christmas 2014
Well, I believe it was a fine Christmas at our house. As I type this at about 10:30 PM, Christmas night, the girls are all in bed snuggling with one new item or another. As I take my last listen to my favorite Christmas songs, I’ll share a few details of our holiday. Christmas Eve was a blur of trips…
Final Countdown
Happy Christmas Eve, eve! It feels like I should say, “Man, the time between Thanksgiving and Christmas has really flown this year,” since I think I say that each year. But it’s especially true in these years when we’re on the short side of the holiday cycle. In those years where there are nearly five weeks between the holidays, I…
Favorite Songs Of 2014, #1
“Red Eyes” – The War on Drugs It’s hard to write about a song that you love so much, but can barely sing along to. Adam Granduciel hides many of his lyrics deep beneath layers of guitars, synthesizers, distortion, and plain old mumbling. For much of the song, I’m just kind of humming along, guessing at words here and there,…
Friday Vid
http://youtu.be/RfurmGiKZ5k “Christmas (Baby Please Come Home)” – Darlene Love Most holiday seasons there is one Christmas song I listen to a little more than the others, or one that connects with me a little more than the rest. Some years it is a relatively new song that gets stuck in my head. Other years it is a song I’ve heard…