Category: Uncategorized (Page 1 of 336)

Posting this early as we head off to Florida for vacation this weekend.

Movies, Shows, etc

Tour de France
A good first two weeks became a rather boring final week as Tadej Pogacar destroyed the field for an easy win. Luckily, that last week was when I barely watched, between travel basketball and the British Open. As always, the Peacock production of the French images was laughably bad at times. My favorite was the day they were convinced a guy that had been leading solo for about an hour had the race won, and literally 15 seconds later five other riders roared past him. But at least we can still watch here in the US.

B+

Shrinking
S pulled this out again when we had visitors over the Fourth, as they had not seen it. We watched two episodes with them, then watched the next eight the next night after they left. As good as the first time.

A

Beverly Hills Cop: Axel F
Sigh. It didn’t make me laugh, there were no Magic Eddie Murphy Moments, some of the cast seemed way too old to have been rolled back out for another entry in the series, the story was pretty much like 8000 other cop movies, the many references to the first three films felt heavy handed, and a lot of the jokes seemed forced and/or straight out of an 80s action film playbook. And what was up with Joseph Gordon-Levitt’s accent? His character was born in Chicago then moved to Beverly Hills, yet had some weird, quasi-McConaughey Texas thing going?

C

For All Mankind, season four
This show has found a way to always stick the landing through the first three seasons. That wasn’t the case this time. Kind of a silly season all around, with some extreme silliness in the finale. Not nearly as compelling as the first two seasons, for sure, and lacked the pure drama that wrapped up season three. I read that Costa Ronin will join the cast for season five, making him the third? fourth? fifth? cast member of The Americans to make the jump. We need to find a way to tie the shows’ plot lines together, like he’s still the technology expert who was stationed in the US in the 1980s but is the KGB director in the alternative 2012 USSR of season five.

B-

Shorts, YouTubes, etc

Patagonia Gear Expert Breaks Down His One-Bag Travel Essentials and Everyday Carry
This guy has a great job. Working for a company that makes all kinds of cool shit; getting to try that cool shit out and decide what goes to market, what needs improvement, etc.; and getting paid for it.

‘The Bear’ Cast Test How Well They Know Each Other
Or do they know each other well?

When an actor got dumped…and decided to conquer Hollywood
Swingers is one of the five, non-holiday movies I’ve watched the most in my life. It’s been too long since I’ve watched it. Shame it is kind of hard to find to stream for free. Or at least it’s not on any of the platforms we currently pay for. And we pay for a lot of them.

Dave Spends The Day With Richard Simmons
So great. RIP to Richard.

Top Ten Reasons Joe Biden Dropped Out Of The Race
When I first saw this in my feed, I got excited that Dave was putting out new material. Alas, this is from 1987. Still funny, though.

How The Tour De France Is Filmed (It’s A Technical Masterpiece!)
Technical masterpiece is a bit of an overstatement, but it is cool how the images get from the road to the TV.

The Day Remco Evenepoel CHEATED DEATH
Holy schnikies! I would not have been able to watch this if I wasn’t aware that he survived and was riding in this year’s Tour.

Romain Bardet & Kevin Vermaerke ripping canyons in California
I assumed this was on a closed road for some reason. So it freaked me out the first time one of the riders was deep into the opposite lane on a curve and, moments later, a car came by in that lane. 40+ MPH down a hill on a bike is not for the faint of heart.

Descent Disciples ||Vol 13|| Tom Pidcock vs. The Fish
He almost bites it on a curve near the top, and I about pissed myself as his back tire slid.

This really aired
Dig around and you’ll find evidence both for this ad airing once and it never airing. Surely it is the later, right? Regardless, it is hilarious.

The Thrilling Tale of Terry Bolinger: The 13-Year-Old Daredevil of Indianapolis
This is brilliant. How many of us made similar attempts without the harsh glare of the local media?

CHiPs “Roller Disco” – The most Seventies scene in 1970s TV
This is some fun, wild stuff.

Car Content

Electric Family SUV Race To Vegas! Model X v R1S v EV9 v EQS – Part 1 Part 2
Still watching these, and I pick up something new that benefits my EV ownership every time I do.

I Drive A BYD For The First Time! The Seal Is A Direct Tesla Model 3 Competitor In China & Europe
The Chinese are coming.

New Tesla Model 3 Performance Top Speed & Extreme Thermal Stress Test! Yikes, Improvements Needed
Good Lord, some of these autobahn passes are insanely close!

Belated notes after a morning of driver’s ed, some cleaning up after our travels, and starting to prep for our next trip.

Kid Hoops

Five months of travel ball came to an end this weekend in Louisville. L’s team went 2–2, losing both of their bracket games. It was a very weird weekend.

Like last week, the courts were filled with teams from all over the country. We saw teams from Georgia, Colorado, Florida, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Louisiana, Massachusetts, Michigan, New York, Ohio, Texas, Virginia, California, Tennessee, Arkansas, Missouri, Kansas, West Virginia, Wisconsin, North Carolina, Alabama, Oklahoma, Iowa, New Jersey, and Nebraska.

Saturday we started against a team from Michigan. We led by seven at halftime unofficially. I say unofficially because the old dude running the clock and scoreboard had no idea what he was doing. At one point we had seven points even though we had not hit a 3 or a free throw, thus should have been on an even number. Later, when we did hit a 3, he gave both teams two points. Our assistant coach keeps track of stats on an iPad and tried to correct him multiple times, but old man was not having it. So, officially, we were just up four at the half. The dad from the other team who was keeping the official book was no help. He tracked the score with slash marks rather than numbers. So, for example, when L hit a 3-pointer, rather than write down a 3 on his sheet, he wrote down III. Thus he couldn’t reconcile his scoring to our coach’s digital version. Three of us rotate keeping the book when it is our team’s responsibility, and we took turns ripping this guy and discussing our scoring methods when we heard this after the game.

Anyway…we trailed 45–37 with about six minutes left before our girls got their shit together and ripped off a very nice 18–2 run to put the game away.

We were supposed to play a team from Florida Sunday, but they didn’t make the tournament and we won by forfeit, which also clinched first place in our pool. For some reason despite teams being in four team pools, you only played two pool games.

Weird.

Our coach asked for a replacement game and we got one against a team from Wichita. Since the game didn’t count in the standings, and they were coming straight from another game, the coaches agreed we would play 16 minute halves with a running clock rather than 14 minute halves with dead ball stops. And their coach asked ours not to press because his girls were tired.

So, naturally, our team was the one that looked tired and we trailed 18–2. Our coach said, “OK, we’re pressing now,” and got it down to two points at halftime. Then someone decided the second half would be just 12 minutes.

Whatever, we ended up winning by two.

Weird.

Onto bracket play. We started with a team from Arkansas. All skinny, white girls. They had won their two games both by 30+. Watching them in warmups, I leaned over to another dad and said, “I hate to jinx us, but this doesn’t look like a team that will beat us by 30.”

Any guess what happened next?

Yep, these skinny chicks from the ‘Saw ran our girls off the court. We hit one 3 in the first half. They missed one, going 7–8. We were down 35 at one point. But, hey, we got it down to 29 so I wasn’t wrong!

Their coach was a true piece of work. She ranted and raved the entire game. At halftime she screamed at her girls like they were down 15 not up 15. She yelled at our dad who was keeping the book when he tried to help her get her roster in. She yelled at the very nice older woman who was running the clock. I think her team played so good because they were genuinely frightened of making her mad and getting murdered.

Monday morning, our loser’s bracket game, against another team from the same program as the one we beat in game one. Nice little game. We trailed most of the first half but started the second half on an 8–1 run to jump up by six. Gave it all back and trailed by 4–5–6 most of the last six minutes. We put on a surge late but came up just short, losing by two. The real killer was we had a stretch where everyone kept selling out on the offensive boards and letting them get run-outs because no one got back. They scored six points on layups when we had no one within ten feet of the scorer. That’s the ballgame, right there.

I was keeping the book this game and their coach got super salty at the end of the game. She had been pretty quiet most of the day but in the last five minutes started screaming about every call. When her team was late coming out of a timeout and ref put the ball on the floor and started counting, she kept yelling “That’s fucked up!” over and over. When we fouled to put them on the line, she was all over the ref about how it was an intentional foul. She would not let up. The ref warned her multiple times before she finally walked away but kept yapping. Later we decided it would have been hilarious if she got T’ed up in the last 10 seconds of a two-point game and we won because she was an idiot.

Alas…

L did ok. Her best game was that last one, when she scored nine and had three assists and two steals. She scored 4, 7, and 5 in the other three games. She hit a couple threes but otherwise all of her scoring continued to be by finishing tough drives. She was, again, pissed that her team struggles because half the players don’t know the plays. She has basically told me she doesn’t care where she plays next year, as long as it’s on a team that practices. Once again it was glaringly obvious that every team we played gets regular practice time together. The close wins would have been more comfortable, I think we could have hung with that Arkansas team, and we win the last game if we practice a couple times a week.

Not the best ending for the team. I see some real growth in L’s game. Her finishing has gotten a lot better. Her defense has improved. Her free throws were much improved until the last two weeks. She actually airballed one on Monday. Yikes. We need to keep working on the jumper and her being better with both hands when facing tough defenders.

She had her last CHS weight lifting session of the summer today, has her last open gym tomorrow. They’ll take a few weeks off and in late August probably start doing some morning open gyms. After we get back from vacation we’ll figure out if she’s going to do any private work with teammates like she did in June, or we focus on individual workouts.

Feature Court

We had a couple hours to kill between games Sunday so a couple dads and I checked out the feature court, where the semifinals of the U–16 tournament were taking place. There were bleachers on one side and double rows of chairs for college coaches. When we walked up there was a game between a team from Ohio and one from Colorado going on. There were so many college coaches there that the IU head coach had to stand next to us since all the seats were taken. Eventually she got away from us schmucks.

We also saw coaches from Syracuse, USC, UCLA, Cal, Notre Dame, Ohio State, Alabama, Tennessee, Louisville, and Wisconsin.

I know I’ve shared this before, but it is really incredible watching these high-level games. Teams will run out 3–4 girls who are well over six feet tall. They can all shoot, rebound, and get up-and-down the court insanely fast.

Later we watched a team from Oakland that is sponsored by Jason Kidd. Bradley Beal had teams there. Good to see those guys supporting the women’s game!

Hotels

I forgot to mention last week that we finally stayed at decent hotels. In Cincinnati we were in a Courtyard and you would have thought we were in a luxury resort the way the girls acted when we checked in. Our coach said, “See, those nights in the bad hotels made them appreciate this more than they did before.”

True.

We were in a Hilton Garden Inn this week. It was perfectly fine. We gambled a little by booking there, which was just a couple minutes from the expo center where the tournament took place. It was not on the official hotel list, so we didn’t have an approved reservation number when we pre-registered the girls for the tournament. When they checked in to get their tournament badges, they had to show proof of lodging. I nervously stood to the side with another team dad while our daughters checked in, waiting to get called over and be asked to pay the “opt out fee” but they both got their badges and we hustled out.

Again, big fucking racket. It cost $70 to get in for the weekend, a bottled soda was $5, parking was $12 per day. And then they want you to stay only at the mediocre hotels that are on their list. We decided that’s why our hotel wasn’t on the “approved” list: there was a free shuttle so you didn’t have to pay for parking.

Democracy

Well, two weekends in a row that were monumental for news regarding our electoral process. Where last week’s news was an unwelcome surprise, Sunday’s news that President Biden was dropping out of the race was the exact opposite. It seemed inevitable and probably best for everyone. We tend to avoid talking politics in our AAU parent group, but this news had us cautiously discussing it, mostly regarding the historical ramifications rather than what we thought of any of the candidates involved.

I don’t know that Biden’s move saves the Democrats’ hopes this fall, but it for sure helps them. I think he’s a good person and that his presidency will generally be regarded as decent. He did some big things that benefitted a lot of people, including many who didn’t vote for him in 2020 and had zero chance of voting for him this year. But he inherited a disaster of an economy on the heels of an insurrection designed to overthrow our democracy. All his big projects, while good in the long term, may have been ill timed given the health of the economy, extending the inflationary period beyond the Covid days. Then again, our economy was so jacked that maybe anything any president did would have had as many negative effects as positive ones as we tried to get supply back in sync with demand.

Now we just have to hope Kamala is up for the fight that is ahead. JD Vance has already rolled out the lazy “she’s not grateful enough” line that tends to get attached to women and minorities. I’m sure that’s going to be repeated constantly over the next four months. Fortunately, she is facing a horrible human being that most of the country does not like. Seems like a low bar but we failed to clear it eight years ago and nearly tripped over it four years ago.

The Dog Days of Summer are supposed to come later, say very late July into the early weeks of August. That gap when the heat really kicks in, the newness of summer activities has faded, and boredom starts to kick in.

But, I realized this week, they really should arrive sooner since kids go back to school a lot earlier than our generation did. Which might explain why things seem kind of dead around our house and I’m lacking in blogging material.

C did knock out her senior pics last night. That was a little dicey. A cold front was supposed to slide through late in the afternoon, bringing cooler weather with it.[1] But, as the front passed, it was also likely to kick off some storms. Right around picture time. Uh oh…

She lucked out, though. There were some storms in the area, but they avoided the locations she had picked. The temperature did bump up to 90 late in the afternoon, and a breeze kicked in behind the front. But neither was troublesome for pics. It sounds like all went very well, and she and S came home in good spirits. You can never be sure with that kid in high-stress moments, so that was a huge relief. And it was the first big item checked off her senior year list.

L and I are off to Louisville Saturday-through-Monday for her last tournament, so no Weekend Notes post until Tuesday. M is off to St. Louis this weekend for a national leadership conference for her sorority. Wish us all safe travels.

What a weekend! I assume a lot happened in the world, but last weekend was a live period for college basketball recruiting, and there were several massive tournaments in the Midwest. We played against or saw teams from Pennsylvania, Washington state, California, Colorado, North Carolina, Massachusetts, Michigan, Georgia, Illinois, Connecticut, Virginia, New York, New Jersey, Nevada, Kentucky, Ohio, Kansas, Missouri, plus a ton of teams that didn’t have a location in their name so we couldn’t identify them.

The best player I saw was a 6’5”-ish girl from Michigan. I randomly walked over to her game as it was ending. The seats reserved for college coaches were filled. People were lined up three-deep around the court. I only saw her line up for a rebound so didn’t see anything of her game. I also tried to find her on a recruiting list but had no luck. Of course, while she plays for a Michigan team, she could be from anywhere, so without a name I was kind of stabbing in the dark.

L’s team had seven games in five days, in two different tournaments, in two different cities, so the days are a bit of a blur. I didn’t see any of Spain’s fantastic Sunday, Tadej Pogacar blowing open the Tour de France, the Home Run Derby, or anything else that was newsworthy. Fingers crossed nothing happened that will be in the history books one day.

Kid Hoops

No need to give a full breakdown of all seven of L’s games. That would take too long plus they run together to me at this point. It wasn’t a great weekend, anyway. Her team went 1–6 in those seven games.

Two of losses were against teams we had no business being on the same court. Both play the equivalent of two levels up from where L’s team is slotted in the AAU hierarchy. Thursday we lost to a team from Pittsburgh by 25. Friday we lost to a team from North Carolina by about the same score, but where we were only down 10 at the half in the first game, we were down 10–0 two minutes into the second game.

We later learned that North Carolina doesn’t have the same restrictions as Indiana when it comes to high school teammates playing together. In Indiana, only three girls from the same high school program can play travel ball together. There are zero rules in North Carolina, so this team was mostly from the same school. Not only have they been playing together for years, they play together year-round. Makes sense that they looked like a well-oiled machine.

Plus they were just really good. Their best player scored 23, and we had a running clock for the last 17 minutes of the game. She hit 3’s. She drove and scored. She blocked shots and grabbed rebounds. An athletic, 6’1”-ish player. I wish I had written down her name to follow if she ends up anywhere in three years.

Another loss came in double overtime to a team from the Seattle area. I missed this game but I guess we had every chance to win in regulation and OT, but blew both, then L had a chance to win the game in the second OT but didn’t get a foul call. In this tournament double OT ended when a team was up two points. In our second tournament, double OT was timed and the third OT was sudden death. Can we get some consistent rules here, tournament organizers?

The fourth loss was the most frustrating of the weekend. This was to another team from that same North Carolina program. We started up 12–0 before giving up a 14–0 the other way. The rest of the game was back-and-forth. L hit a 3 with about 3:00 left to give us the lead, but we gave up an immediate 3 on the other end and never got the lead back. Our girls just faded badly and couldn’t handle the physicality of summer ball.

These first four games were here in Indy. Sunday we drove down to Cincinnati for two days.

We lost the first game by 11. Again, we wilted against the physical nature of summer ball and trailed by 14 at the half. We finally started being tough in the second half and cut it to three but gave up back-to-back 3s that killed us. L had a half-court shot go in-and-out at the halftime buzzer. I told her if that had dropped, we would have won. The math doesn’t work out there but I insist the momentum shift would have been massive.

Finally, in game six, we played a bad team from Colorado. It took us a half to get going but ended up winning by 25.

Then Monday we finished against a team from New Jersey. They kept getting up by 5–7, then we would come back. We had a little run right after halftime and got it down to three. L missed a tough runner to cut it to one, we gave up a 12–0 run, and the game was over.

Yikes.

I mentioned this a couple times in there but our girls just looked super uncomfortable with the adjustment to travel rules after playing high school ball in June. Refs call almost nothing in travel ball to keep the clock moving. So teams are super physical knowing they can get away with it, and our nice, mostly suburban girls, just do not like that. I bet we win at least two of those games we lost with high school rules in place.

Plus you could tell that all seven teams we played against practice on a regular basis, where we had a couple partial practices around the holiday weekend that never had more than half the team there. There was a lot of grumbling from our parents about how our program needs to change their high school model, which does not allow for regular team practices except for the highest level teams. Our organization will have its own facility starting this fall. We hope that means the high school girls can get at least one practice per week in there, but there’s been no word about next year’s model yet.

Our team is not the most talented – I’d say we have one girl who would be a varsity player at any school, and then not until she’s a junior or senior – but they are very smart and when they had a chance to play together a lot in May, looked really good against similar competition. Getting practice time would not make a difference against those high level teams. I’m confident we would have won at least two more games if we practiced on a regular basis.

How did L do?

She had two really good games, then was decent in the others.

She guessed she scored 13 or 15 in that double OT game, but didn’t look at the scorebook to confirm. Our coach texted me and said she played well and did a great job getting to the rim and finishing in that game.

She had 13 in the game we blew the big lead. She should have had 15 but she totally wiped out on a breakaway. She claimed there were wet spots all over the court and slipped on one. She also had four assists and three steals in this game.

In the other five games, she averaged just under five points. Didn’t hit many 3s. Like most of her teammates she had way too many turnovers. Her free throws had been great all summer, but something was off there this weekend and she went just 1–5 (that I saw).

You can definitely see how all her work has paid off in her finishing. She was super aggressive all weekend and had her fair share of shots blocked inside. But she’s learned how to find an angle and get a shot up on the rim that often falls in. She takes some crazy-ass shots sometimes, but a decent amount of them either crawl in or at least have a chance where they used to be wild tosses that had no chance.

She was not enthused on the way home. She’s pissed more about her team and their inability to get on the same page than the losses. She complains about girls that don’t know the plays. Our offense is not super complicated but, again, when you don’t practice, teammates who aren’t like her and learn where everyone is supposed to be quickly are going to struggle. A couple girls in particular were always in the wrong spot on both ends and it killed us in a couple games.

On the other hand, one of our girls who is new to basketball and is struggling to figure out how 6’1” body and a new game at the same time had a couple stretches where she was really good.

We go to Louisville next weekend for our final event of the summer. Based on the early, partial schedule we’ve seen, we should be playing teams closer to our skill level. Fingers crossed…

Teeth

It’s been a rough dental summer in our house. All the girls have had to get multiple fillings. Pretty awesome when we just have a preventative dental plan.

Both M and C have had to go in for multiple visits to get everything fixed. One of C’s new fillings was giving her a lot of trouble. So, rather than go to L’s first game Friday, I took C to the endodontist for a consult. Fortunately there’s no need for a root canal at the moment. The doc was hopeful that the sensitivity is just because the filling is so close to the nerve and in time there will be new calcification that insulates the nerve better. But there is also the chance C will still need a root canal down the road.

When C told the endodontist she goes to CHS, the doc said her kids graduated from there a few years earlier.

“You probably know their crazy cousins, though.” One of her nephews was in M’s class and they were friendly. Another is in C’s class, but they run in different circles. And her niece is one of L’s best friends. Later we found out that until a few weeks ago the doc lived two doors down from one of M’s best friends. In fact, M went to her daughter’s grad party a few years ago just because she was at her best friend’s house that day. And the doc’s son goes to UC, although he’s older than M and they wouldn’t overlap in classes.

Small world.

Democracy

I don’t write about politics much these days. It depresses me. I think we’re in a very bad place, and headed to a worse one, no matter who wins this year’s elections. Or the 2026 ones. Or the 2028 ones. Our process seems hopelessly broken. Despite it seeming like most rational people want other choices, seek elected officials that will work to find common ground and represent all instead of a narrow set of interests that will keep them from getting primaried, we remain stuck with the mess we’re in.

Yet it seems like I need to share a few words about the shooting Saturday night. Very few words.

Once the initial shock passed and we got some clarity on the situation, the thought I was left with was Malcolm X’s famous line about chickens coming home to roost.

In this case, when you forge a political identity and movement based on fear, hatred, and manufactured bogeymen; make said movement about a person rather than an ideology; endlessly malign and delegitimize anyone and any view that is counter to yours; lie, lie, lie, and lie again; and throw in a heaping dose of paranoia, well, it’s not surprising we got here. All the ingredients are there in America 2024 for a disaster. It’s a bit of a surprise it took this long for us to reach this point. I’m hopeful this was a momentary blip. I fear it was the beginning of an even more difficult and tense time in our nation’s history.

It’s sad when you start hoping climate change destroys the world before our nation has a chance to fall apart.

After taking a break for the holiday, I’m offering you an extra jam-packed playlist at no extra cost.

“Rain In The Summertime” – The Alarm
After the remnants of Hurricane Beryl rolled through this past week, there’s a chance of rain every day for the next week. I won’t complain, though, as the showers will be scattered each day and will help moderate our temps just a little bit. By the way, did you hear that Beryl closely followed the path of April’s eclipse? Really makes you think.

“Red” – World News
Stereogum had Tom Breihan write the blurb for this track when it was released, which was perfect. Who better than the master of the Billboard charts to point out that this song sounds straight out of 1980’s college radio? Yet it’s brand new!

“Favourite” – Fontaines D.C.
A slight adjustment in direction for FDC. I like it a lot.

“OUTTAMYMIND” – Wings of Desire
Not sure exactly how to describe this song, but it fits the vibe of this week’s playlist.

“Hot Sun” – Wilco
Two weeks ago we honored the 20th anniversary of Wilco’s A Ghost Is Born. That same day the band dropped a new EP that featured a mix of traditional and instrumental tracks. This is the best of the bunch, and perfect for the middle of summer.

“Ananda” – Strand of Oaks
Timothy Showalter has never been shy about sharing what he was going through in his life via his music. Whether it was infidelity and strife in his marriage, a struggle with drugs and alcohol, or mental health issues, it’s always been right there in his songs. He seems like he’s in a good place these days, thus this track, which takes its name from a Sanskrit word for bliss and happiness. He says it explores the “unexpected sensuality of connection through spiritual practice.” OK then.

“Stuck In The Middle With You” – Stealers Wheel
Gerry Rafferty died a few years back. His partner in Stealers Wheel, Joe Egan, passed this week. This made it to #6 in the US in 1973 and re-entered our cultural memory when Quentin Tarantino used it in a particularly gruesome scene in Reservoir Dogs.

“Sleep All Summer” – Crooked Fingers
Our middle daughter’s goal for 2024.

“Rock Me Tonight” – Billy Squier
The week off left me with several terrific options for this week’s 1984 vid. Van Halen’s “Panama.” “Round And Round,” by Ratt. But the obvious choice debuted in the Top 40 at #39 in just its second week in the Hot 100. It isn’t Squier’s best song – “The Stroke” is the undefeated champion there – but it is still pretty solid. This video, though, sets it apart.

Widely considered one of the worst videos ever made, it either helped the song go to #15, or limited it to peaking there, depending on who you ask. But the backlash against the video was so strong that Squier never had another Top 40 pop hit.

Why a backlash you ask? Well, watch the video. It’s a little campy, a little cringey, but mostly goofy. However, in 1984, if you were an otherwise heterosexual dude and you made a video like this, not only would people think you were gay – which was one of the worst things you could be in 1984 – they would also stop liking your music so other idiots didn’t accuse them of being gay. Like the kid at my bus stop who told several of us that we were XXXs for listening to Prince. 1984 had some of the greatest music and movies ever. But society was still kind of fucked up. Some things never change, I guess. If a straight dude made this same video today, I’m not sure anyone would care.

You can read more about the video here.

Holiday Weekend

Not a bad Independence Day weekend at all.

S’s sister who lives in Denver and her family came to stay with us from Wednesday through Sunday. We had a couple cornhole tournaments (L beat her cousin in one, and she and I beat the cousin and his dad in the other).The kids went and played mini-golf in the midst of a downpour. We hit a hibachi place one night. And other assorted nonsense.

Our big family gathering was scheduled for our house on the Fourth, but as the forecast showed rain all day, we did a last-minute switcheroo and reserved some lanes at a bowling alley for Thursday at lunchtime. Somehow one of the eight-year-olds had the best score out of the 18 bowlers. The kids then played laser tag and spent some time in the arcade. That evening we went to one of S’s other sister’s homes for food and hanging out. A couple small showers pushed through, but once they passed the temperature dropped and the humidity disappeared and it felt more like early October than July 4.

Our re-scheduled pool party went off Saturday without too many issues. It was warm and breezy and just about perfect. After a couple cool nights, the pool water checked in at 85 degrees, which had to be the coolest it has ever been for our family gathering on July 4. Or July 6, I guess.

And now we’re less than a month from C and L going back to school. Summer flies.

Driver’s Ed

L officially started her in-car driving lessons last week. She’s knocked out three of her six required sessions. Or rather, will have knocked out three by the time you read this. Her third lesson is Tuesday morning. She seems to be doing pretty good. We haven’t had much time to practice because of basketball, family stuff, etc. but I had her drive to the lesson last Friday and she did just fine.

College Visit

C and I visited IU Monday, her first, official campus visit. It was pretty much the same routine that I went through with M two years ago. C seemed to enjoy it but wasn’t blown away or anything. IU is where she wants to go, her grades and test scores seem to line up with what they are looking for. That all makes it pretty easy, fingers crossed.

I don’t know that we’ll make any more official visits this summer. She wants to spend some time with M at UC this fall. M will start leading tours on campus then, so C can get both the official and personal perspectives. She might also visit a friend who will be a freshman at Ball State once classes start. Then we’ll see if she wants to squeeze in any official tours before it’s time to start sending off applications.

Right now she says she wants to study forensic psychology. She is interested in CSI-type stuff, and working for the FBI is one of her goals. Or just deal with patients individually. Plenty of time to dial it in.

We had lunch at the always tasty Village Deli. While we ate C asked me which was bigger, Bloomington or Lawrence. I guessed they were pretty similar, but a check of Wikipedia showed that Lawrence is roughly 15,000 people bigger! That surprised me. It also surprised me that Lawrence has grown nearly 50% since I was in school. Damn!

One interesting aspect of our visit was there are a group of pro-Palestine demonstrators who are camped out on the IU campus. This is kind of a big deal because there was a rather violent encounter between the protesters and campus/state police in April. I’m not going to get into that too much, but it was pretty clear that the authorities WAY overstepped their mandate that day.[1] However, a lot of people in Indiana didn’t care because the Palestinian cause isn’t really a hot issue in this state. And most Hoosiers figured the protesters were dirty, commie, hippies and deserved whatever they got.

Anyway, our information session included a disclaimer that IU supported the right of people to assemble peacefully and express their beliefs. We were encouraged not to engage with the demonstrators during our tour, but were free to go back and talk to them on our own if we wanted to.

There were two groups of demonstrators who parked themselves in an area where each tour group had to pass. They peacefully, but loudly, stated their cause as we passed, which was basically that IU programs have helped develop weapons used by the Israelis in Gaza and IU has investments in Israel they want the university to back out of. A few politely offered us pamphlets.

Another highlight of the day was that the iHeart Radio AT40 station extended its holiday week marathon of year-end countdowns into this week. So we drove down listening to the middle of the Top 100 songs of 1984, and drove home listening to a nearly corresponding section of the 1985 countdown. Not sure if it’s a coincidence or not, but C napped most of the way down and back. I sure enjoyed the music, though!

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 was born, as my first pictures as a father can confirm.

I can’t take any credit for knowing that the bracelets would turn into a ubiquitous accessory within a few months. I was just buying something from Nike.com when they were first released, and there was a suggestion to add one to my basket at checkout. This must have been shortly after they were first released, based on how quickly they became impossible to find. I liked Lance Armstrong. I was into everything Nike. My step-dad was a cancer survivor. Why not for a buck?

One of the proudest moments of my life came a few weeks later when one of our neighbors’ kids, who was in middle school at the time, came running over to me when I was working in the yard to show off his Livestrong bracelet.

Of course, we all know that Livestrong bracelets and clothes went from being everywhere for nearly a decade to something no one wanted to be seen in again. Makes sense for a trend that I was onto at the start.

Anyway, this is a look back at how a 15-cent ring of silicone changed the world.

Whole companies now exist to manufacture silicone bracelets—tens of millions each year—in every color of the rainbow, customized for specific types of cancer, for other diseases, or as individual memorial totems. That all started with a little band of yellow.

Making the Band: An Oral History of the Livestrong Bracelet

I’ve avoided any reviews or discussion of the new Beverly Hills Cop movie because I want to hope it’s decent and not be disappointed when I watch it sometime this week. But I did read this spoiler-free breakdown of the series.

Ashton: I remember the “supercops” thing in the first one. Well, Eddie made all that up. It was just all made up. He said, “Wait a minute.” He walked away for a while and he came back and he says, “OK, I’m ready.” And then it was a three-shot with me and Judge and Eddie, and Eddie’s going, “These guys are supercops. You ought to give ’em capes.” I was trying not to laugh.

The Heat Is On, Again: The Oral History of Axel Foley

This history of Dodgeball: A True Underdog Story features one of the greatest celebrity anecdotes I’ve ever come across.

Williams: I don’t really spend money in strip clubs. I’m making sure that I’m OK for work the next morning. I’m in the bathroom, and Vince is in there. I’m like, “Hey, I’m gonna head back to the hotel.” He’s like, “What are you talking about?” I was like, “You know, we gotta work in the morning.” He’s like, “No, no, no, no.” He pulls out $400, gives it to me, and he goes, “You go back out there, and you make me proud.” So I was like, “OK, I guess I’ll stay for a little longer.” We had such a great time.

Go Balls Deep: The Oral History of ‘Dodgeball: A True Underdog Story’

In advance of the latest Crowded House album, Neil Finn got the full treatment at Stereogum. A terrific, first-hand review of his career.

We’ve Got A File On You: Neil Finn

Where my weather geeks at? A cool site that shows which of the many forecasting tools out there have been most accurate for your location recently.

Forecast Advisor

While working on a recent RFTS post, I came across this piece about the history of AT40. I loved this line about the catch phrase I named the series for.

It was a very Casey Kasem thing to do. He felt compelled to provide a bit of philosophical advice for listeners — especially the younger ones — rather than simply say goodbye. Coming from anyone else, it might have sounded a bit corny but it sounded just right coming from Kasem. It was all part and parcel of making a countdown show more than a list of songs.

“American Top 40” is a Vital Chapter of Music History

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 lot of basketball nights in the month, I only got through the first two. Guess what? It still holds up!

A-, A

Tour de France – Unchained, season two
Required viewing to prep for this year’s race. Last year, based on my viewing of season one, I was pulling for Jonas Vingegaard. This time, Tadej Pogacar came across as much more normal and empathetic. Weird.

A

The Bear, season three
I just wrote about this Tuesday!

B+

Pearl Jam – 2024 – Los Angeles, CA – May 22nd
I watched/listened to this and began getting very excited about seeing them in a couple months. Eddie sounds great. Then he got sick last week and they’ve had to cancel the rest of their European tour, which makes me nervous for the Indy show.

A for show, D- for vibes

Shorts, YouTubes, etc

10 Things The Bear’s Ebon Moss-Bachrach Can’t Live Without
Bear content season!

Weird Science: 20 Things You Never Knew!
Eighties movie trivia is never a waste of your time.

I’m sick
Not our normal Beau Miles bullshit. An interesting turn of events.

The Victims of Eddie Van Halen
Victims seems a little harsh, but confirms that EVH had some issues dealing with others.

How This Photographer Crafted His Vintage Adventure Van
Ahh to be young and think this was a good idea.

Will Ferrell Acceptance Speech | 2011 Mark Twain Prize
I had never seen this before. My man Sir David V suggested it when I was in KC. It is outstanding, especially the part about his wife. Or wives…

Car Content

Lucid Air Sapphire is The Best Performance Sedan Ever Made!
Newest entry on my If I Won The Lottery car list. I laugh at how so many young reviewers complain that Lucids look like old man cars. I think they look great. I ran that by my buddy who owns a Lucid and he replied, “Well, we are old men now.” Yikes!

My Garage Update – June 2024
Kyle Conner has become a huge part of my media diet since February. I’ve watched tons of his videos and listened to hours of his podcasts in my car journey. I’ve always wondered how many cars he actually owned. Well, if you don’t want to watch over an hour of him breaking it down, I think the answer is 20. And that’s before the loaners he has for reviews and ones his business officially owns. Now I wonder where a dude his age has the money for 20 cars, plus insurance, plus registrations, plus maintenance. Surely not just from YouTube earnings.

Meet The Tesla That Won’t Die: 430,000 Miles On One Battery! Episode 1
Range Test! How Far Can a 430,000-Mile Tesla REALLY Go? Episode 2
Man, what a coup to parlay free Supercharging into a cornerstone of your business! Not sure why they’re being so stingy sharing the next vid in the series.

I Drive The Chevy Equinox EV For The First Time! Full Tour, Software, Comfort, & DC Fast Charging
Chevy is trying. I don’t think they’re there yet. But at least they’re making an effort. Hopefully in a few years their prices come down and their offerings get a little better and we see more decent EVs in the $35–40K range.

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 all!

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. Thus, when we paused things Friday night, I was a little concerned about how things were going to wrap up in the final four episodes. Turns out that season four, or at least part of it, was shot right after season three. There’s been no word about a release date, so maybe they just shot a few parts for continuity’s sake and will reconvene later this year for a summer 2025 release? Regardless, at least one more season of The Bear!

Second, this is such a beautifully shot show, and has such perfectly selected music, and is filled with such great actors, that even an uneven, possibly disappointing season like this one still delights in so many ways. It’s always been a gorgeous show to watch, but this year it went to another level in terms of pure visuals. So many stunning moments.

Now, calling it disappointing probably isn’t fair, but that’s in comparison to the bar set in the first two years. Like so many shows that move beyond season three, that third year becomes more about setup for what’s next than being as rich as its predecessors.

I think this season can be called disappointing largely because of how it ended. Season one ended with an immense sense of relief and hope for what was ahead. Season two’s finale was a big bummer, with Carmen melting down on opening night. But there was still a sense of accomplishment from actually getting the restaurant open and an eagerness to see what happened after that first night.

This time, though, it feels like the core of the show is spinning apart. Sydney is so dissatisfied with Carmy’s disfunction and controlling nature that she will surely take Shapiro’s offer to jump ship to where she has more control and security. Richie, having discovered how a prestige restaurant should be run, seems disgusted by every choice Carmen makes. Marcus is too expensive for what he provides (according to The Computer). Tina tries nobly, but often can’t handle the pressures of the dinner rush or meet Carmy’s expectations. Natalie just had a kid and her husband just won an important trial. She can turn her back on an enterprise that is home to exactly the kind of toxic relationships she does not want to expose her daughter to.

And Carmen is so inside his own head that he can’t relax and enjoy the reality of running the restaurant he’s always wanted. He has stacks of notebooks filled with incredible ideas. Yet he spends hours staring at plates me makes, tinkers with, and then tosses aside because they can’t reach the impossible ideal he thinks will earn the Michelin star he craves. He’s forgotten what great food is supposed to be about, and is wasting his own talent and that of his crew in his pursuit of perfection. He built this great team, empowered and inspired them, then totally undermines them when they are on the verge of success. Instead of all the good things he learned from Chef Terry and others, he’s repeating the negativity pumped out by Chef David.

Where the audience could once put up with his moods and tantrums, he’s become unlikable in almost everything he does. He was one the tortured artist with a dream. Now he’s just kind of a dick.

All of this is worth it because, I think and hope, it will lead to someplace very interesting next season. It’s just a bummer that so much time was spent without advancing the story very far.

I LOVED episode one. Thirty minutes of food and photography porn. It was quite a way to remind, refresh, and reset. I can’t recall another show ever taking that direction to set up a new season, devoting an entire episode to the process. It also ended up being a perfect setup for how cluttered Carmy’s mind would be by the end of the year. The soundtrack by Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross, a constant drone that never either peaked or crashed, was a superb accompaniment.

We finally got Tina’s origin story! That was another of my favorite episodes of the season. You see where that fierce pride in her comes from. I think it helped that you know how it ends up, but her meeting and conversation with Mikey was a wonderful piece of TV. I like to think the tears in Liza Colon-Zayas’ eyes were because she knew what a powerful moment that was, not just because of her character’s emotions.

Little tidbit some of you might already know: the man who played Tina’s wife, David Zayas, is Liza’s real-life husband.

Another great episode: “Ice Chips.” Shockingly intimate moments between Natalie and Donna in the hospital. The intensity of them just looking and holding each other was as powerful as the screaming in season two’s “Fishes.” Them coming to an understanding of each other and Donna having to step aside when Pete shows up was a huge gut punch. I don’t think Donna is a super sympathetic character because she is SOOOO crazy. Sure, you feel sorry for how she is and how she got there. But you also see the havoc and pain she causes, especially in Sugar, and you want to tell her to knock it the fuck off. But the moment when she leaves Natalie’s room and you see life drain from her as she realizes she is alone again, was devastating.

This may be an unpopular opinion, but there were too many and too much of the Faks this season. When a show starts running out its comic foil more often, it generally means something is awry with the core story. In this case, I think they just needed 10 episodes and couldn’t quite get there, so padded each one with some Fak nonsense. Don’t get me wrong: I love the Faks! But like a powerful spice, they need to be used sparingly to avoid overwhelming the dish they are in.

Along those lines, John Cena was funny as Sammy Fak. But was he needed? His presence distracted. Just let Matty Matheson do his thing.

I didn’t get all the people who hated Claire’s introduction last year. Most of that criticism was that she was kind of formulaic and we never got to know much about her, thus her time on screen distracted from the story we were really interested in. I doubt those people will be pleased with how she floated in and out of this season, without ever being a big part of it aside from a couple scenes. And I guess this means she’s back next year?

Marcus is still the best. His eulogy for his mother was wonderful.

Favorite line of the year: Chef David telling Carmy “You basically made nachos” when he adds a dot of sauce to an already spare dish. Joel McHale is so good in his limited moments as David.

Another good line, this time from Richie: “Chef Carmen uses power phrases ’cause he’s a baby replicant who’s not self-actualized.” I love self-actualized Richie!

Richie is totally taking Jess to his ex-wife’s wedding, isn’t he? Good for them both. And good for Richie and his ex being civil to each other for their daughter’s sake. I loved their scene where they are having a normal, adult conversation then occasionally scream at their daughter not to eat something she finds on the playground.

Interesting to read theories about the Chicago Tribune review. I’m not totally convinced Carmen read it, but instead wonder if those words that flashed on the screen were another product of the mess in his head.

However, some TV critics think he did read it. One thought it was a bad review. One thought it was mixed, praising The Beef side of the business while dinging The Bear side. And another thought it was actually a positive one that pointed out that, like so many other new places, it needed some time to work out the kinks and find its focus.

I’m not sure any of it matters. Even if the review was positive, does that end up reinforcing in Carmen that he’s on the right path and he doesn’t need to make concessions that will bring The Bear at least to a break-even point? And, thus, Cicero pulls the plug? Might Syd be so far gone that she will take Shapiro’s offer no matter what the future of The Bear is? Is season four all about Carmy and Syd going two different directions because that was inevitable?

At the Ever funeral dinner, we see all these famous chefs, many of whom have worked together but eventually scattered out on their own. Great chefs rarely stay together for long. Even if Carmen cleans up his act and The Bear begins making money, Sydney is destined to take her own journey at some point.

One review of season three I read drew some parallels between the arc of The Bear and Ted Lasso. That writer suggested season four will follow the Lasso lead of putting everyone in a good place before it wraps up. I think we all want that to happen. But on The Bear, I’m wondering if a happy ending means the crew we’ve come to love so much end up going off on their own rather than conquering the world together.

There were plenty of high points in season three. Overall, though, it was frustrating because of its lack of focus. Or, perhaps, it was more focused on what’s ahead than what was in the present. I hope the writers know what they are doing, get their groove back for season four, and return the show to where it was in seasons one and two.

B