Monday Links
C and I are off to Bloomington for a campus visit today, so weekend notes will have to wait. To tide you over, a slew of links, including three oral histories. I’m rarely at the beginning of any trends. But I did get my first Livestrong bracelet right around this time 20 years ago. I was wearing it when M…
Friday Vids
No true playlist this week. Instead I’ll share two fun videos I’ve been sitting on for a few weeks. First, clips of classic Peanuts cartoons edited to somewhat match the classic Boston songs “Foreplay/Long Time.” https://youtu.be/qxtgJIQk1Ec?si=wfCl8mz0f5SIIhuD Next, someone recreates New Order’s “Blue Monday” using a staggering variety of Casio instruments.
June Media
Movies, Shows, etc The Americans, seasons one and two I’m finally doing it: devoting this summer to re-watching one of my very favorite TV shows. My original plan was to try to knock all five seasons out in June. But as I can’t watch more than a couple shows a night, even if I love something, and there were a…
Independence Day Playlist
Here we go! One of my favorite music days of the year! Two new songs for 2024. We’ll see if any of you can pick them out. No fair peeking back to last year’s post: it’s the same Spotify playlist so the posts for the last five years all update to show the new additions. Happy Fourth of July to…
The Bear, Season Three Review
We knocked out season three of The Bear over the weekend, binging six episodes Friday and four Saturday. Before I dive in, a couple preliminary notes. First, I had not heard official word that there will be a season four until after we finished. I believe I heard there might be another season, but not that it had been confirmed.…
Weekend Notes
Originally I planned on taking this week off. We have family coming in on Wednesday, holiday activities the rest of the week, and a busy two days before all that. But plenty happened over the weekend and I have a couple other posts nearly ready to go, so looks like we’ll slide into the holiday on a nearly normal schedule.…
Friday Playlist
I’m putting this list together late Thursday, for reasons I’ll get to in a moment, so it could take some weird turns. “Summer Girl” – HAIM Yep. “Save It For Later” – Eddie Vedder We were busy with the last night of summer league ball Thursday, so I couldn’t give any attention to the biggest event on TV: season three…
Reader’s Notebook, 6/27/24
Chain Gang All-Stars – Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah I almost stopped reading this book twice, despite the critical acclaim it has received. The opening chapters seemed repetitive as Adjei-Brenyah slowly introduced a series of characters through similar sets of events. They are all convicted felons working to earn their freedom by participating in the Chain Gang All-Stars, a competition where inmates…
Reaching For The Stars, Vol. 102
Chart Week: June 20, 1987 Song: “I Want Your Sex” – George Michael Chart Position: #36, 3rd week on the chart. Peaked at #2 the week of August 8. Hey, a countdown that landed on my birthday! How did I celebrate turning 16? Well, we lived in San Leandro, CA at the time, and had dinner the night before at…
Weekend Notes
We had a very boring weekend. S worked both days, filling in for a hospitalist who is on maternity leave. The girls all spent time with friends. I read, watched some shows, swam. It was our first weekend in quite awhile where there weren’t multiple things on the calendar that we had to rush around to. It was a nice…