Reaching For The Stars, Vol. 105
Chart Week: November 4, 1978 Song: “Alive Again” – Chicago Chart Position: #21, 3rd week on the chart. Peaked at #14 for two weeks in December. In the Seventies and Eighties the band Chicago was like air: they were always around. In over 21 years of hitting the pop chart, they had 34 Top 40 singles, 20 Top 10s, and…
Weekend Notes
A busy weekend with more driving than normal, some big events I was not able to watch live, and the standard wide range of topics to discuss. High School Hoops L’s sophomore season kicked off Friday with a trip 90 minutes north to play Norwell, class 3A runners up last year. We played their varsity over the summer in a…
Friday Playlist
My routines have been a little out of whack this week, so an abbreviated playlist for today. “Cult of Personality” – Living Colour Sigh… “Don’t Stop ‘Til You Get Enough” – Michael Jackson RIP to Quincy Jones, the greatest, most influential producer of all time. There are about a million songs of his that could fill this spot. Also props…
Jayhawk Talk: Season Opener
It is finally here, the day we’ve all been waiting for. That’s right, it’s time to start talking KU hoops again! After another wild offseason filled with recruiting twists and turns,[1] the Jayhawks crushed poor Howard University by 30 Monday night. Howard is a good program and is picked to win their conference, although they have a roster full of…
Weekend Notes
This was a fairly quiet weekend thanks to a KU bye week and the girls being busy on their own. Halloween Our Halloween was relaxed. We decided to go hang with our old neighbors. It sure brought back memories to sit in their driveway and watch kids scamper through the cul-de-sac. That was where our girls did almost all of…
October Media
Kind of an odd media month. There was some baseball early, but not much after the Royals were eliminated. A lot of reading The Lord of the Rings. A fall break vacation. But not much long-form stuff. That should shift in November. And there was a changing of the hobbies, a switch that is reflected below with a new section.…
Friday Playlist
“Afterlife” – Sharon Van Etten New SVE music! We won’t get the album until February, making it the first 2025 album on my New Music list. For the first time, she collaborated with her band on writing songs rather than bringing songs to them to join her on. None of her magic gets lost in the process, at least on…
Sports (Mostly Hoops) Notes
A few sports thoughts, mostly about basketball. KU Hoops Much better performance Tuesday in the second exhibition contest against Washburn. Of course, they better have looked better against a D2 team. Hitting shots is always a good thing, and KU actually seems to have multiple shooters this year. They ran a little more of what you expect to see on…
On Government, Politics, and The Election
Sometimes it is hard to articulate why you believe the things you believe, especially long held views. They become a part of who you are and the inflection points that led you to adopt those stances can be difficult to recall. Take politics, for example. People our age have likely held the same views, or some version of a core…