Reaching for the Stars, Vol. 69
Chart Week: February 5, 1977 Song: “Carry On Wayward Son” – Kansas Chart Position: #36, 7th week on the chart, debut week on Top 40. Peaked at #11 for two weeks in April. The world is a much smaller place today than when my generation was growing up. Thanks to cable/satellite TV, the Internet, and social media networks, trends spread…
Wednesday Links
As usual, this collection of links has been sitting in my queue for far too long. The two holiday-related pieces, though, were both published in the New Year, so they aren’t as old as they seem. Every Winter Olympic Event, Ranked by How Terrified I’d Be to Participate in It Has fighting the massive time difference for the third-straight Olympiad…
Jayhawk Talk: Win Some, Lose Some
A Jekyll and Hyde entry today, as I have two very different games to cover. Saturday’s win against Baylor was KU’s best and most complete performance of the year. KU smacked them in the mouth from the beginning and the Bears not only never responded, they never looked interested in responding. It was as easy a win over a fellow…
Reader’s Notebook, 2/7/22
Project Hail Mary – Andy Weir Officially a 2021 book, I finished this over New Year’s weekend. It was my 53rd book of 2021, just getting me over book-a-week pace for those 12 months. This treads similar territory to Weir’s excellent The Martian, again focused on a man who is stuck in space alone. This time, though, the stakes are…
Friday Playlist
Although our big winter storm was kind of a dud – I’m guessing we are in the 7-8″ range instead of the 12″+ that was forecast – this is snow day number two for our girls. Which means as soon as I get this posted I’m outside for round number two of shoveling so S can head to work in…
Reaching for the Stars, Vol. 68
Chart Week: January 26, 1985 Song: “Do What You Do” – Jermaine Jackson Chart Position: #19, 14th week on the chart. Peaked at #13 the week of January 5. How do you define a single? That dilemma has long frustrated people who track the popularity of music. Over the years Billboard magazine has used a variety of definitions for how…
January Media
Shows and Movies Cobra Kai, season four See here. B+ Narcos: Mexico, season three A very good wrap-up to the series’ three-year look at the Mexican drug cartels of the ‘80s and ‘90s. Typically great casting and writing. This had some similar themes as season five of The Wire. It pulled in the press, which is an important part of…
Jayhawk Talk: Surprise, Surprise, Surprise
Bad news is supposed to come in threes. KU seemed poised to fulfill that cliché Tuesday in Ames, IA. Ochai Agbaji tested positive for Covid, taking the likely All-American out of a key road contest. Remy Martin’s knee refuses to heal, and he was ruled out of the Iowa State game as well. Throw in a game in an arena…
Stats
January 2022 Something for Kate – 54 The Beatles – 42 Phantastic Ferniture – 35 The War on Drugs – 34 Frightened Rabbit – 25 Complete stats available at my Last.fm page.
Weekend Sports Notes
Well, for most of my friends, this was a sports weekend to forget. KU I picked a very good night to have dinner plans that interfered with me watching the KU game. Thus I was able to not see a minute of KU getting whacked by Kentucky. We left right around tip off and by the time we got to…