D's Notebook

Category: Uncategorized (Page 3 of 361)

Reader’s Notebook, 5/8/25

May 8, 2025 /

I’ve fallen behind again and I just started a book that’s going to take a week or so to get through, so some quick-ish book notes.

Charlesgate Confidential – Scott Von Doviak
A fun, pulpy novel that takes place over three different timelines in Boston, centered on an old building that has a complex (and haunted?) history. It begins with a mob heist and killing after World War II, jumps to a college student in 1986 who investigates the history of the building, and lands on a detective in 2014 who tries to tie a case he is working back to the weird cycle of past events. Like most novels of this type, multiple threads tie the three stories together.

The Book Censor’s Library – Bothayna Al-Essa
My first effort at a novel that made this year’s Tournament of Books. It takes places in a mystery country in a mystery time (the book was translated from Arabic, so my brain kept putting it in the Middle East, but an author’s note saying it could be placed anywhere) where the government has taken strong control of people’s lives. Books are heavily censored, and anything that will raise readers’ pulse rates – sex, religion, democracy – is removed from circulation.

One censor is introduced to classic works like Zorba The Greek and Alice In Wonderland by a superior and begins questioning why people aren’t allowed to read whatever they want. Soon he is sneaking books that were slated for destruction to a secret storage area where they are being hoarded for preservation.

There are obvious connections to books like 1984 and Fahrenheit 451, and Al-Essa directly references those. While these stories can always serve as warnings about the unchecked power of government, no matter who is in charge, they seem extra significant now when books are being pulled off the shelves of public and school libraries because of complains by parents who fear exposing their kids to different perspectives will turn them into mindless, godless woke-bots.

A Place Of My Own – Michael Pollan
Sometimes I read weird books. In this case, a rather lengthy one about a writer building a shed for him to do his work in. But it’s more than that. Pollan gets deep into all kinds of theory and history of design, architecture, and human shelter in general. I can’t say it was all super engaging and there weren’t some sections about theory that I either skimmed or read with glazed eyes and did not retain much from.

That said, I’ve been fascinated with the idea of a workshop, “he-shed,” or similar spaces for some time. It’s not that I need a space to get away from it all. We have a big house and I spend a lot of the day/week in it alone. I can do pretty much whatever I want wherever I want. And when S is home at night, I often default to watching movies, shows, etc on my iPad sitting on one couch while she sits on the loveseat on her own screen rather than go watch stuff on the big screen downstairs. Not that we’re all lovey-dovey, but I just like being near her in the few hours she is home and awake.

But there is some primal desire I can’t beat down for a space of my own. I’m not into tools, mechanical projects, etc, so there’s no need to convert part of our garage into a workshop, or to carve out a section of our unfinished basement for “D’s projects.” I love the idea of what Pollan did, though, building a little structure that would be dedicated to writing, reading, etc. But 1) I don’t make any money from my writing and don’t really have prospects to at the moment, 2) we did build a big structure in the backyard five years ago, aka our pool house, 3) I have about 18 different places in the house where I can go and write, read, etc. and 4) we are in the process of subtracting kids from the house so we are gaining space rather than searching for areas to call our own. M’s room could become my writer’s nook.

Still, the concept appeals. And it was cool to follow Pollan making it happen with the assistance of a friendly architect and helpful carpenter who guided him through the process.

Wild Night

May 7, 2025 /

A crazy few hours Tuesday night.

Holy Shit, Pacers!!!

I knew the Pacers were in trouble when I saw, about an hour before game two of the Eastern Conference semifinals, that Cleveland would be missing three starters. THREE. How did I know they were in trouble? Because any time the Pacers faced a situation like this in the regular season, they laid a huge egg, either losing to a bad team or having to work like crazy in the fourth quarter to avoid an embarrassing L. In fact, there are multiple memes in the Pacers-verse about how the team plays like champions against good teams, and ass against bad/injury riddled teams. Just last month, as the regular season wound down, Indiana played the Cavs who were resting all their starters after locking up the top seed. Those replacement Cavs gave the Pacers starters everything they had for about ¾ of the game before the Pacers finally eeked out the win.

While the nation might have expected an easy Pacers win, I knew better.

So most of the game was no surprise. The shots that were falling in game one for Indiana kept bricking off. Cleveland played inspired, especially on the defensive end, and Donovan Mitchell was wearing his Superman cape. The Pacers trailed by 20 multiple times. By 14 going into the fourth quarter. As much as I wanted to expect a late-game rush like last month, the playoffs are a different animal and Cleveland was playing like their season was on the line while the Pacers just couldn’t find the right gears.

The margin was seven with under 50 seconds left. Five with 27 seconds left. Three with 12 seconds left. Two with 1.1 seconds left. And the Pacers won.

In that stretch Aaron Nesmith had a SICK follow dunk off a Pascal Siakam missed free throw.

Then he drew an offensive foul from Mitchell.[1] Tyrese Haliburton went to the line down three with 12 seconds left and swished the first. Then I’m pretty sure he missed the second on purpose, wiggled through traffic to grab the loose ball, and drained a step-back 3 to win the game.

There was screaming and yelling all over Indy, including in our living room, when the ball ripped through the net.

2–0 out of nowhere and who knows what the Cavs’ health, physical and mental, will be going forward. Mitchell took a beating, some of it self-imposed because of how he plays, and was hobbled late in the game.

I found this insane stat in ESPN’s story this morning:

Since 1997–98, playoff teams have won only three of 1,643 games when trailing by at least seven points in the final minute of the fourth quarter or overtime, according to ESPN research.

The Pacers have accounted for two of the wins in this postseason.

If the Pacers win this series, Haliburton’s 3 and Nesmith’s dunk will go down in franchise lore, shots that are shown in montages for decades.

At this point you have to at least consider the possibility that the Pacers are on some charmed run. And the Celtics seem a little banged up and blew their game one against New York. The NBA doesn’t usually have Cinderellas but maybe…

Of course now the Cavs will probably win games three and four in Indy and turn it into a best-of-three series.

High Speed Chase

I was about to wrap up things and head to bed Tuesday night when I heard loud car sounds. We live just off a very busy street and while it was after 11:00, we do get the occasional fool who takes advantage of the lighter traffic to rip down the road.

But this was different. There seemed to be a lot of engines racing. And then I noticed a lot of police sirens. I looked out our front door and saw five police cars fly by. We get emergency vehicles up-and-down that street all day but I’d never seen cops driving this fast. They were going so fast I heard their engines before the sirens.

Seconds later our power flickered, which seemed really weird. It flickered twice more in the next minute or so, and I thought I heard a transformer blowing somewhere.

Then two more cops flew by. And then two more.

C, the only other person awake, texted me saying “So many cops!”

And then more cops raced down the street, followed by a fire truck.

This continued for a while. In total, at least 20 police cars passed our house in about a 10 minute stretch.

I finally came to my senses and launched a police scanner app to try to get an idea for what was going on.

From what I could gather, a high-speed chase started at least two suburbs away, continued through Carmel, and then cut through our part of northern Indy. Three or four blocks from our house the car being chased crashed, taking out a power line in the process. We were lucky; about 300 people lost power for several hours but ours just blinked those three times.

Most excitingly, it seemed like driver of the car had fled the crash on foot and cops were setting up a perimeter to nab him. The Indy Metro Police network pulls in calls from all over the city, so it was very hard to follow as calls about a shooting on the east side, a fight in a parking lot downtown, and a couple welfare checks in other parts of the city slipped between the calls from the officers working the chase. I was able to hear cars checking in from various intersections in our area where they had posted up. There was a momentary thrill when one cop radioed in the intersection right outside our house, although I think the feed was delayed and he had already moved closer to the action. I could also hear cops from different cities involved in the chase coordinating their search. It sounded like they had the guy pinned down, or at least had an idea where he was and were using both a dog and drone to get a better view.

Eventually the calls dwindled and it was midnight and I had to get up early so I checked out. Naturally I can’t find a thing about it on any local TV station’s new page or on the paper’s site. I had to take L to PT and then school this morning. On my way back I drove through the neighborhood where the search was and couldn’t find any evidence of a wreck, damage to a power line, or remnants of police activity. Disappointing.

In our nearly seven years here we’ve now had a murder half a mile away that we could hear the shots from, a crazy person having a brief armed stand-off with cops a half mile the opposite way, a homeless person die while sleeping outside the grocery store around the corner, some idiot empty a clip on their handgun in the street two doors down, and now a high speed chase. I’m not sure if that’s going to be a selling point when it comes time for us to downsize but it makes for interesting evenings.

 

  1. Truth: Nesmith probably should have been called for a violation for stepping over the 3-point line before Siakam shot the ball. But Mitchell should have been called for a flagrant foul instead of a common foul. So even?  ↩

Tuesday Links

May 6, 2025 /

A bunch of good reads to share.

When I went to Washington D.C. with L’s class two years ago, one of the most impactful experiences was the several hours we spent in the National Museum of African American History and Culture. It was emotional, made me angry and proud to be an American at the same time, and should be a required stop on any DC visit. Naturally it is under fire because telling the truth about our past offends too many old, white people.

This nation’s history exists inside this museum. Attempting to strip the institution of the stories that tell the truth about who we have been is an attempt to perpetuate a lie about who we are.

What It Means To Tell The Truth About America

This is an amazing piece in general, attempting to both quantify the Vietnam War and then put those numbers into context. This passage really struck me, though. It very much sums up Trump’s America, where you never admit you made a mistake so you never take responsibility for how your actions impact others (emphasis in pull quote is mine).

The US has given $750 million for the cleanup effort, which seems like a large sum until you realize that the country spent $352 billion ($2.2 trillion after inflation) on the war effort. Earlier this year, the Trump administration ~suspended funding~ for bomb removal in Vietnam. Given the size of the issue, and how much progress has been made in five decades, it’s difficult to imagine a bomb-free Vietnam in the next 500 years — unless the current pace is significantly accelerated.

For Scale

This is a good companion piece.

How Photography From the Vietnam War Changed America

Sammy Hagar loves talking about himself and Van Halen. It’s always entertaining. Here he theorizes on why Eddie Van Halen stopped making new music late in his life.

So, that’s why he stopped writing, I think, because he just ran out. Shit, how much do you need? How much can you squeeze out of the dude? He gave his blood, brother.

SAMMY HAGAR TO ALEX VAN HALEN: ‘JUST LEAVE ME ALONE. I’LL LEAVE YOU ALONE’

Steven Hyden with his latest list. I feel like there are some stretches, but as a member of the CD generation, there are also a lot of entries here that pretty much everyone my age owned at some point. I loved this line, too.

There have been 15 (!) Aerosmith greatest hits albums in all, an incredible statistic considering there are (I’m being generous because I actually like Aerosmith) about 15 genuinely good Aerosmith tunes.

The Most ‘CD Album’ Albums Ever, Ranked

I watched the latest Fletch movie over the weekend, a movie I either did not know or had forgotten existed until I scrolled past it looking for something else. So I did some digging, and here are two of the better pieces I came across about the decades-long efforts to make the next entry in the series.

The Lost Roles of the Unproduced Fletch Reboot
Forget the steak sandwich, the 30-year journey to the Confess, Fletch trailer is over

WHAT IN THE ACTUAL FUCK?!?!?!

He felt the most dramatic way to raise awareness of the issue was to allow himself to be bit, repeatedly…To date, he estimates he’s willingly been bit some 200 times by all manner of venomous snakes — black mambas, taipans, cobras, kraits and many others.

He let snakes bite him some 200 times to create a better snakebite antivenom

Interesting Bluesky thread about the production cycle, and costs, for Nikes, and how tariffs might affect them.

derek guy (@dieworkwear.bsky.social)

Weekend Notes

May 5, 2025 /

A week after prom and before four consecutive weeks where we will be very busy, it was a nice, boring, lazy weekend.

Weather

There’s no delicate way to say this: our weather was ass most of the weekend. It rained Friday night into Saturday, then off-and-on the rest of the weekend. The temps slowly dropped from the 70s into the 40s. Sunday was dark and dreary and misty and generally ugly. It felt more like January in Portland, not Indianapolis the first weekend of May.

Fortunately spring will come drifting back over the next couple days. Our landscaping guys are due here this week to clean everything up and lay new mulch. And the pool guys will be here Friday to get it started up for the season. Spring is undefeated, folks.[1]
That crappy weather meant we didn’t do a whole hell of a lot over the weekend. So more notes about sports than anything else. With one exception…

Moving Back

Thursday S and I drove down to Cincinnati to move M out of her sorority house. It was kind of an interesting trip.

We knew we would be driving into rain, but had no idea we’d spend about 20 minutes driving through a series of near-severe storms with torrential rains. The second round was the worst. Visibility was basically down to zero on the interstate, which is always fun. Even with folks using their hazard lights we were basically crawling, hoping we didn’t hit someone or run off the road. Then I came up on some fool who refused to put their hazards on. We were still in the midst of the storm when a few other fools went blowing past us at normal speeds while the rest of us were maybe going 25 MPH.

We made it to campus safely and had to dodge graduation traffic to find a parking space. Then we had to hustle to get our cars full of M’s stuff before the storms rolled into Cincy. We were parked roughly a block from her house, down a rather large hill. So there was a lot of running up the hill, then walking back down it and its multiple sets of old, concrete steps with arms full of crap. If you know our oldest daughter, it won’t be a surprise that she was moving much slower than we wanted her too, then being overly dramatic about how hard she was working.

Thankfully we got the cars loaded and her checked out of her house just before the rain hit. We went to one of her favorite spots just off campus for her final UC lunch of the academic year. Luckily the storms were going around the city, so it was just a steady rain we waited out while eating. We made it back home in normal time and filled up our bonus room with everything we moved back for the next two weeks before she returns to Cincy for her summer internship. Luckily we won’t have to move everything back right away. She’s sub-leasing from a friend who left all her furniture, so will mostly take clothes for the summer. Now in August, when she moves into the apartment she’ll have the next two years, we will need to rent a truck to get all her furniture down. I’m sure that will be a real joy. And we get to move C to Bloomington at about the same time. Are there people you can pay to do this for you?

Anyway, good to have M home for a few weeks. Her grades aren’t official yet but she’s pretty sure she got straight A’s again this semester. She’s halfway done with college! Actually more because the fall semester of her senior year she will likely be doing a co-op and not taking any classes.

Pacers

DAMN, that’s how you start a series!

The Pacers went into Cleveland, built up a big first half lead, weathered a bunch of Cavaliers runs, and ended up winning by nine after making some huge plays on both ends late.

Now, Cleveland was without Darius Garland, who was a late scratch because of a lingering injury. The Pacers shot the lights out and the Cavs had one of their worst 3-point nights of the year.

But 1–0 and stealing home court advantage is all the matters.

Another game that showed what a great combination of talent this squad is. People who don’t see them every night have a hard time getting it. They’re not an NBA title contender. But they are a team that can steal any seven game series because they know who they are and never get rattled. Tyrese Haliburton was absolute ass on defense much of the night, then somehow forced two huge stops late. Always a wild ride with him.

Local TV broadcasts of games ends when the conferences semifinals begin, so I was forced to watch the TNT feed. Which was fine. Mega props to Greg Anthony for saying, when the Pacers challenged an offensive foul on Myles Turner late in the game, “I like the challenge but I don’t think they are going to win it.” I forgot what wild stuff he says sometimes since he was in announcer purgatory for a few years.

Also, a broader NBA observation, I LOVE how NBA series between evenly matched teams swing. I haven’t watched a ton of ball outside Pacers games, little bits and pieces of each series, but am still deep into The Ringer’s NBA pods, so I hear the breakdowns after each game. It is so fun how team A will win a game comfortably, the series seems under their control, and two nights later team B has made some huge adjustments and are right back in it. The Clippers really should have won their series against Denver. Detroit probably should have upset the Knicks. The Rockets-Warriors series was crazy. I think Pacers-Cavs is headed down that same path, with two of the best offenses in the league taking turns dropping 15–3 runs on each other for another 4–6 games. It’s a league where coaches can scheme around anything but it often comes down to which team gets the hottest from behind the 3-point arc.

Fever

It’s opening week for the WNBA. ESPN showed the Fever’s final exhibition game Sunday, a matchup with the Brazilian national team in Iowa City. You can’t take too much away from the game since this was far from Brazil’s full Olympic squad – one of their best players in yesterday’s lineup is an 18-year-old who will be a freshman at South Carolina this fall – but it was cool to see all the new Fever players. They’ve added a ton of size, but it is athletic, rangy, perimeter size rather than more post players to backup Aliyah Boston. DeWanna Bonner seems like the perfect Den Mom for a mostly very young team, and was a delightful in-game interview. Loathe as I am to give a Missouri alum credit, Sophie Cunningham adds a level of toughness and versatility that was missing last year. And she might have the most “don’t look at it when your wife and kids are around” Instagram account in the league. Not that I looked.

Caitlin Clark missed Friday’s exhibition game with a minor leg injury, and played limited minutes Sunday, but her range looked deeper than a year ago and the experienced players the Fever brought in already understand how to run to spots where she will get them the ball. Kelsey Mitchell will get a little overlooked because of the new talent, but she looked to still be the steady scoring threat who is an ideal partner for Clark. Lexie Hull’s 3-point shot still looks locked in after whatever mechanical adjustment she made in the middle of last season.

As an added bonus, second round draft pick Makayla Timpson might be an absolute steal. I’m not sure if she will be a huge contributor this season. But with so many of the league’s rosters in flux because of the CBA expiring after this season, having a player with her skills on her salary could be massive in the Fever building a team that contends for years to come.

Racing

I actually watched parts of two car races Sunday. That’s how annoying the weather was and how limited the TV offerings were in the afternoon. It is May, I guess.

I watched the back halves of both the Indy Car Grand Prix race in Alabama and then the F1 race in Miami. It was hilarious how, since both races were won by large margins, each broadcast focused on “races within the race” further back in the pack. The F1 broadcast was almost exclusively about the two Ferrari cars and the bickering involved in their team trying to figure out if they should pass each other or not. Such weird drama.

Hey, we actually watched multiple horse races Saturday, keeping the NBC coverage of the Kentucky Derby on for hours, so this might have been the most “watching cars/animals chase each other around a track” weekend of my life!

  1. I just checked my notes and it appears that summer, fall, and winter are also undefeated. Wild if true.  ↩

Friday Playlist

May 2, 2025 /

As I shared many words about earlier this week, my switch to Apple Music means I’m pulling more songs from the past up into my daily soundtrack. Which means these playlists are going to start including more classics. Which was my intention back when I started them however many years ago. There will still be plenty of new music if that’s why you come to these posts.

“Rock ’n’ Roll High School” – Ramones
We are a week and change from having just one high schooler left in the house.

“Somebody New” – Tunde Adebimpe
I said I was looking forward to his album, then didn’t get around to listening to it when it came out. And now this is the best of the singles released from it, each sounding a little different.

“Every” – Swanpalace
An interesting supergroup of sorts, built around two artists most of us have never heard of along with Jim Eno, a founding member and long-time drummer of Spoon. This has a terrific, late Seventies sound. To my ears it bumps right up next to Cheap Trick.

“There’s A Part I Can’t Get Back” – Sunflower Bean
A truly harrowing, yet beautiful, song about how grooming steals innocence from its victims.

“Outside” – Jawdropped
A hint of grunge in this jangle rock makes it stand out nicely.

“Cutting Room Floor” – Gordi
These last four songs all fit into some kind of musical Venn diagram I’m too lazy to clearly delineate. But Gordi sounds a lot like Christine McVie on this track, so it would pull in some Fleetwood Mac angle I guess.

“Month of May” – Arcade Fire
The most important month of the year in Indianapolis is here. Also, AF has new music out but I did not dig their lead single so I’ll stick with this more time-appropriate oldie.

“Dead Souls” – Joy Division
I know I just shared a JD song a couple weeks back, but I heard this one yesterday and had to slap it into the playlist.

“Rock the Bells” – LL Cool J
Talk about mission statements! Back in the days of vinyl/cassettes, sometimes the first track on side two was as important as the first on side one. This was Side Two, Track One on not only LL’s first album, but the first full length album ever released by Def Jam. Dropping Bruce Springsteen, Madonna, Michael Jackson, and Prince’s names seemed outrageously ambitious at the time. But James Todd Smith knew where he and the label were headed.

Not sure why a new video was released for this two months ago but I like it.

April Media

May 1, 2025 /

Movies, Shows, etc

Court of Gold
I mostly watched these on our flights too and from Florida. You know what you’re getting with shows like this. Highly edited game highlights. Interviews with the participants and analysts that are aimed at casual fans and thus not super insightful. But, man, the formula works. Last summer’s Olympic basketball tournament was electric and this captured that magic well.

A

September 5
A brisk, tense, and very well done dramatized look at how the ABC crew in Munich handled the day Palestinian terrorists took Israeli athletes hostage at the 1972 Olympics. One of those period piece movies that will make our kids shake their heads at how primitive technology was when their parents were kids.

A

The Last Stop In Yuma County
A quirky, creepy film about a bank robbery and subsequent hostage stand off going wildly wrong. The story is just a little thin, thus it felt like there are a lot of stretched out moments to get the movie to its 90 minute run time.

B

Dunkirk
Second time watching this? Still a magnificent combination of story, pacing, visuals, and soundtrack.

A

1917
Another second viewing of an excellent, modern war movie. All wars are hell, but World War I was a particularly nasty hell.

A

High Fidelity
A top five movie about music and loving music.

A

Almost Famous
While I’ve watched High Fidelity many times, I believe I had only seen Almost Famous once, when it first came out in the theaters. Yowsa. So many people hold it in such high esteem it’s crazy I had not re-watched it for 25 years. I forgot how brilliant so many scenes are. So many terrific performances. It hits a different, slightly less relatable side of being a music lover from High Fidelity, but no less impactful.

A

30 Rock, season one
After starting this in March I knocked out the second two-thirds of season one in April. As good as it was from the very beginning, it got even better as the season progressed. I’ve started season two, but just barely into it, making it a May entry.

A

Pearl Jam – 2003–06–22 Noblesville, IN
I’ve noted before how amazing modern, fan-shot concert videos are. Smartphones shoot incredible video. Modern editing software allows you to piece together videos from dozens of devices seamlessly and then sync it perfectly to the soundboard recording.

This is a less advanced effort, and it shows. The audio and video are slightly out of sync. And I think this was just someone with a big lens standing at the top of the lawn section at what is now called Ruoff Music Center, shooting the video screens rather than the stage. Which was still pretty incredible for the time. Thanks to the official bootleg audio it sounds awesome.

This show was five days after I moved to Indiana, and I did not try to attend because it had been kind of a busy week. Also stark is how Eddie had not yet become the showman he is today. He seems a little angry and drunk at this show.

A

Shorts, YouTubes, etc

Bullitt | The Car Chase | Full Scene | Warner Classics
This might still be the greatest on-screen car chase ever. No CGI or camera trickery here.

Quick-witted Craig Ferguson
I don’t know that I ever watched Ferguson’s show live. But if you look around at all at YouTube, there are dozens of compilation pieces like this where he’s flirting with extremely attractive and well dressed female guests. Tough job.

From Takeoff To Landing: The Fascinating World Of Aviation | BBC Earth Science
This needed to be a longer show. In fact, maybe it was and these were bits taken from that show(s).

Utah Is on a Mission From the Basketball Gods | Home & Away
Weaponizing the Mormon Church to turn BYU into a basketball power is a wild and unexpected result of the NIL era. Good to know there’s a strong culture of hoops in Utah already.

Martin Scorsese Breaks Down His Most Iconic Films | GQ
Terrific.

Michael Fassbender Breaks Down His Career, from ‘Inglourious Basterds’ to ‘X-Men’
For some reason these Vanity Fair projects aren’t as interesting as the GQ ones. Which seems dumb since it’s the exact same concept.

We Answer YOUR Travel Questions | Best Shoes, Packing Tips & More!
Even though our next big trip is a year away, I’ve already started diving into the YT travel vid rabbit hole again.

20 Things You Didn’t Know About High Fidelity
Good stuff, but a Brit mispronouncing dozens of American English words drove me nuts.

Why Anyone Lives On The Falkland Islands (And Why You Can’t)
People live in weird places.

Travelling America With One Rule: Eat Only At Diners
Beau Miles bullshit.

A moment 29 years ago changed everything
Not the usual bullshit, but rather a Beau Miles origin story. Very well done.

How a Traded-In Apple iPhone Gets Refurbished
Relevant as April was new phone month for me.

Proper Honest Tech
Stephen Robles
Speaking of my new phone, I spent a lot of time watching videos about the latest generation of iPhones and how to harness their powers, the best cases, etc. These were two channels I kept going back to.

Seth and Paul Rudd Go Day Drinking
Hilarious.

Exploring California’s Highway 39 – Closed For Over 40 Years
This would be more interesting if there were abandoned businesses and homes along this stretch of road. Still some gorgeous views.

There Will Never Be Another Anthony Bourdain
No shit.

New Series | Tucci in Italy | National Geographic
Tucci’s show is very different than Bourdain’s, but his are no less compelling. Glad to see someone new is paying him to continue exploring Italy after CNN stupidly cancelled Searching For Italy.

why do some things just look so good?
Let some South African kid teach you about aesthetics.

The War On Drugs: Tiny Desk (Home) Concert
I busted this out for the first time in a couple years. I maintain this might be the best sound ever in one of these pieces. Whoever mic-ed up that studio and produced the sound deserved an award.

Landings at San Diego Int Airport Nov 23, 2012
Not sure whether I’ve seen this before or not. Five hours of flight activity compressed into 30 seconds.

Ice Cream Sandwiches | How It’s Made
Mmmmm, ice cream sandwich season is here!

I built a Tiny Office to be more Productive
On one hand, I think this is super cool and brilliant. On the other, it’s kind of insane. I also wish I had stumbled into some career where you could make a living just doing videos like this that allowed you to fill up a workspace with the latest tech, hundreds of cool notebooks, etc.

James Bond & The Omega Seamaster – The Untold Story
I’m a sucker for a Bond-Omega vid.

Shipwrecks Depth Comparison
I know I’ve seen some exercise like this before, but they are always cool to watch.

Why didn’t the US nuke Tokyo?
Great question.

Charley Steiner Outtakes Including Kerry Wood
I miss the days when Sportscenter had anchors with true gravitas instead of people either trying to become comedians or others who just want to spout non-stop nonsense in hopes of at least one take going viral for 24 hours.

How Apple INVENTED the Laptop as we know it
Fascinating progression.

Into the Wild – 7 Days in the Sahara Desert
Ah, to have the freedom to jump in a Land Rover and just drive all over the planet.

10 Things David Harbour Can’t Live Without
For some reason I expected cooler, more original stuff from him.

Bill Hader Does Van Halen
Something about Hader’s real voice makes his impressions even better, like it’s a surprise they came from him.

Inside This Entrepreneur & Former Pro Surfer’s Coastal New Jersey Home | Huckberry Homes
A little weird to be so intentional at how you decorate your home when you don’t see it as a long term residence.

One of the Most Beautiful Drives in America
Glad these guys have a new adventure to share.

Car Content

Nearly Two Months Wait To Get Rivian Service! Racing 60,000 Mile Warranty Expiration
Austin Rivian Space Has Free Charging, Rooftop Terrace, Trail Access & More!
Polestar 1: The Most Interesting Car in the World
The Lucid Gravity Is The Most Exciting EV Of 2025! Full Tour Of This Grand Touring Production Model
Three Years & 26,000 Miles in the Lucid Air Grand Touring | This Is What It’s Like to Live With
Lucid Air | The Final Drive

Photography

The Problem With Digital Cameras…
My Favorite Camera: Fujifilm X-T3
A day of Street Photography in Porto l Fujifilm X-T4 l Film Emulation
The Trip of a Lifetime: Two Weeks in Norway with my Dad
This camera is phenomenal.
Lofoten Islands 🇳🇴 with one lens
A Photographic Day in the Life with my OM System OM–3 + Nikon Coolpix P310
40mm is Everyone’s new Favorite Focal Length
Travel Photography in New York City // Fuji X-T5
Spring on the Oregon Coast – A Solo Roadtrip

Podcasts

The Zach Lowe Show
He’s back! After being fired last fall because ESPN chose to pay their loudmouths and didn’t value their best actual analysts, Lowe landed at The Ringer this month. In addition to his own show, he’s been on Bill Simmons’ a couple times as the NBA postseason began. Great to have him back. Shame on ESPN for not letting him keep his original pod name, The Lowe Post. He came up with it but somehow it’s their property, even though they didn’t want to employ him. Corporate America sucks.

Never Count Them Out

April 30, 2025 /

Good Lord that was a basketball game!

The Pacers laid a big, fat egg early, taking nearly seven minutes to score their first six points, blew multiple chances to put the game away in the second half, then somehow managed to come back from being down seven with 40 seconds left in overtime to win game five of their series and send the Milwaukee Bucks home for the summer.

Actually, there was no somehow about it. As I wrote a few weeks back, the Pacers have been doing this for the past three months, often against Milwaukee: improbably winning games that seemed lost with outrageous play in the closing seconds.

Tuesday it was Tyrese Haliburton getting two steals and a defensive rebound and scoring six-straight points in the closing minute of regulation to send the game to overtime. He then hit a 3 to open OT to stretch his run to nine-straight. However, he missed his next four 3’s, while the Bucks, specifically Gary Trent Jr., hit four straight 3’s to go up 117–111.

Trent was incredible. His shots were barely touching the net. Two were shots he barely had in his hands before launching as the shot clock expired. This should have been one of the great days of his career, and the launching point for someone to give him a shitload of money this summer.

However…

With 29 seconds left and up four points, Trent threw a terrible pass that turned into a Haliburton and-one layup. Seconds later, AJ Green threw a pass to an unguarded Trent as the Pacers tried to trap and get another steal or foul. The pass sailed directly to Trent…then through his hands and out-of-bounds. The Pacers had 10 seconds to go for the win. Which Haliburton clinched by blowing by Giannis and laying the ball in with one second left.

Reggie Miller stuff.

I felt kind of bad for Trent. Then I remembered he’s a Dukie so fuck him.

And then things got really interesting.

After time expired, for some insane reason Haliburton’s dad ran on the court and began taunting Giannis, who initially looked confused then stepped to the old man. They were separated, cooler heads seemed to prevail, and both teams went through the postgame interactions normal after a tense, physical series. Only when Giannis met Bennedict Mathurin, events took another turn. There’s been no word on who said what and who said it first, but soon Giannis was gripping Mathurin tight to his own body, not letting him leave and speaking directly into his ear. Soon players and coaches were pulling the duo apart, but this led to other players yapping and shoving. Amazingly, Bobby Portis Jr, the most belligerent of the Bucks anytime these teams play, seemed pretty chill and was slapping hands with Pacers. And then Giannis and Old Man Haliburton went at it again, with Giannis putting his forehead directly on Haliburton’s as they “chatted.” Kevin Porter Jr. was losing his shit at midcourt, which nearly caused another ruckus.

Eventually everyone calmed down. Mathurin was basically drug to the locker room. James Johnson, the most feared player in the NBA, approached Giannis pleasantly and got an earful about Mr. Haliburton’s actions. Somehow all this happened while NBA TV was interviewing Tyrese so he never got involved in it and was surprised when he got to the locker room and was told about his dad’s actions.

Ironically, while all this was going on Metta Sandiford-Artest, FKA Ron Artest, was sitting courtside taking it all in, looking serene as could be. Thankfully events didn’t spiral they was they did when Artest lost his mind in Detroit 21 years ago.

What a truly dumb moment. A terrific win, one that will be recalled for decades around here, got sullied by a player’s father inserting himself where he did not belong. Mr. Haliburton has always seemed a little thirsty for attention. It might be time to make his ass watch from a suite or outside the arena if he can’t keep it in his seat. I’m not sure what he thought he would accomplish by infuriating a much younger man who is 6’11”, 245 lbs. and all muscle.

I don’t think Giannis was completely innocent here. As noted on Bill Simmons’ pod this morning, he’s had a few postgame run-ins with opponents in the past. Like so many superstars, he is wildly competitive and sometimes lets that get away from him in defeat. But he absolutely won the post-game press conference, which made the Pacers look even worse.

What is important is the Pacers, despite a rough start, closed the Bucks out and can now take a few days to relax before they face #1 seed Cleveland. I don’t think that’s a terrible matchup for the Pacers, as long as they remain focused. Which is always a crapshoot with these guys. They can throw waves of defenders at Cleveland’s guards. They can go small against Cleveland’s bigs. Most of all, they know exactly who they are, how they need to play to maximize their skills, and have been deeper in the playoffs more recently than the Cavs. Cleveland should absolutely be favored. But the Pacers aren’t some sacrificial opponent they can run right through before likely meeting the Celtics in the conference finals.

A New (Old) Musical Home

April 29, 2025 /

As I wait out some morning storms before I head over the gym, it seems like the ideal moment to share (or at least start the post that shares) my latest music project.

For months I’ve been thinking about writing a lengthy post about how I don’t upend my digital life as often as I used to. People close to me experienced this when I changed my email address, moved where I published our family pictures, or even adjusted where this site was located far too often. A pain in the ass to you, I knew. But, dammit, I needed to try all the cool digital toys that were available!

This nomadic quality was more apparent if you were to look over my shoulder and see how I interacted with my Macs on a daily basis. I’d switch text editing apps each time a new one dropped. Digital junkdrawer apps came and went even more frequently. A new browser drops? Of course I’m going to import all my bookmarks and give it a shot. And so on. If there was a buzzy new app, I was going to give it a shot, no matter the headaches it caused through moving files around and changing workflows.

I’m not sure exactly when, but at some point I stopped doing this. Or at least slowed it way down. This site has looked the same for, what, 5–6–7 years now? I did switch hosts at one point because of access issues with a previous provider, but I don’t think any of you noticed that unless you tried to check in right when I was moving things around. And I’ve been parked at this URL since right around when we moved into this house, I believe.

Same for the apps I use on a daily basis. I’ll occasionally try something new that I read a review of. But, more often than not, I go back to the ones I’ve been using for years.

Is this all because I’m getting old and don’t like change? Or don’t have the patience to deal with all the extra baggage that comes with switching around constantly? Or have apps largely coalesced around a common set of design language and functions so one really is like the other, compared to back when I ran multiple different podcatching apps that did very different things?

I think we can blame the rise of the iPhone/iOS for some of this as well. I want to be able to accomplish the same tasks the same ways on different devices. It’s harder to switch around when testing something on the Mac breaks how I do things on my phone.

There’s your standard, long-ass introduction to my actual point: for the past two weeks I’ve been testing Apple Music with the goal of switching to it from Spotify.

Big news!

I’m not sure when I first started using Spotify. Somewhere in the range of 10–11 years ago, I guess. Rdio was the first streaming service I used, and to this day nothing has matched its community discovery aspect. When it started to circle the drain, I tried Apple Music. I was deep in the Apple world already and all my old iTunes files would seamlessly blend in.

The only real problem with Apple Music at the time was that it totally sucked. I would listen to a playlist on my iPhone then the next time I used my Mac, there would be two versions of that playlist. Then go back to the iPhone and a third would pop up. I was never really sure why this happened, but it was infuriating.

After a few months of this I bailed for Spotify and never looked back. Spotify, to use an Apple phrase, just worked. And for several years they seemed to have a better selection of music than Apple.

I’ve had no qualms with how Spotify worked since then, although I do have issues with some of their business practices. There were things I wish it did better, but for the most part it did its job.

Every so often I get an offer for a free month of Apple Music. Several times I’ve spent about 10 minutes dicking around on AM before deciding it was too much work to jump. Plus our girls all love Spotify and I couldn’t convince them that their playlists could be copied over to AM easily.

So what changed? Last month I got a new iPhone. With it came the normal offers for free Apple services. The one that grabbed my attention was the Apple One service. I already paid for a higher iCloud storage tier. What attracted me was the access to Apple News+, which would get me behind the paywall of several good magazines and newspapers. I pay for Apple Arcade a few times a year for the girls, and that would roll into it, as well. We would have constant access to Apple TV+ instead of buying it only when shows we like are new. Plus my iCloud storage would take another jump up. Apple Music would be an easy swap for Spotify as part of this process.

I crunched the numbers and once the free trial was over, while I would be paying Apple quite a bit more, the value proposition aspect worked.

Thus I signed up for the free trial and spent an entire weekend getting all my Spotify songs and playlists into Apple Music.[1]

The first thing that struck me was how much AM is still built on the old iTunes architecture. Most notably you can rate songs and make smart playlists based off of all kinds of user selected options. That’s how I interacted with my library the first 12–13 years of the digital music era. It felt like being home again.

At the same time it pissed me off my music geek brain that I had spent so long on Spotify. That was over a decade of play counts, ratings, and other data that was just lost since Spotify didn’t track any of. At least publicly. Suddenly the nearly 4000 songs in my library were all brand new.[2] It’s going to take a few weeks/months to get each track played a few times so the smart playlists can start doing their magic.

For all the annoyance that comes with that process, that is exactly why I think I’m going to stick with Apple Music. Because Spotify lacks those two key features, I find older music gets lost in the shuffle. Literally. Unless I’m listening to an album, I almost always listen in shuffle mode. Because I can’t tease out songs that are old and haven’t been played for a while via smart playlists, or force it to select songs I like the most, it seems to focus on the newer tracks I’m listening to more often. Which makes sense, but also takes away some of the magic that iTunes had by always inserting cool old songs in the midst of new ones.

There have been growing pains. In Spotify adding a song to a playlist does not automatically put it into your library. For example, I kept all my Christmas music in distinct playlists that are hidden away 11 months of the year without adding them to my Liked Songs. So I never get random holiday tunes included when I am shuffling. In Apple Music, tracks are either in your library or not. On the Mac I can uncheck all those holiday songs and they get skipped over. But to the cloud they are still in my library. So listening on my phone, iPad, or in the car can bring those unwelcome surprises of songs meant for December.

It was also enraging that I had to download a separate app to control Apple Music across devices. If I am playing Spotify on my Mac, I can open their app on my phone, see what is playing, control the song, volume, and which speaker the audio is going to natively. I had to do a ton of research, download a separate app, then jump through a bunch of hoops with my Apple account before I could mimic that in Apple Music.

I also had to dive deep into some settings in all that mucking about to get play counts to track across devices. That probably seems dumb to 99.9% of you. My Smart Playlists rely heavily on play count information, so not being able to track those across different devices hampers their effectiveness.

You really would expect that Apple Music would be the service that worked seamlessly across devices and Spotify be the one that took the extra work to build this system.

The Tesla AM app is also a little wonky. Certainly less reliable than Spotify. Both have their quirks in connecting to the network, but Apple Music is more likely to get stuck in a loop where it only loads a few songs and loops back to the first rather than continuing to work through the playlist/library.[3]

The past two weeks I’ve been trying to remember how I organized my music all those years ago in the iTunes era. What were my favorite smart playlists? How did I rate songs? And so on. The goal is to create a Daily playlist that splits the difference between the newest music in my library and older tracks. I think I have the rules adjusted close to how I had them 15 years ago, but, again, I’m going to need to work through my library a few times to make sure they are where I want them to be. Songs I haven’t heard in ages that are indeed popping up, which is good. Hopefully the benefits like that outweigh the annoyances where Apple Music does not match Spotify.

How will this affect you, my loyal readers/listeners? Hopefully not at all. Other than reading this blog post. The girls have talked me into letting them stay on Spotify. Which means I am paying for two music streaming services. The benefit to you is that I can continue to share my Friday Playlists from Spotify, something that is not possible in Apple Music. I’ll build them in AM over the course of the week. Then on Friday mornings I’ll launch Spotify, quickly pull those songs together and insert that playlist into WordPress as I’ve been doing for years.

  1. I used Playlisty for Apple Music. It takes some manual effort, but pulls all your Spotify songs and playlists across to AM. There were a few times it picked the wrong version of a song, but otherwise a great utility.  ↩

  2. I was also able to trim a lot of duplicates that were hiding in Spotify, plus some songs I’m not into anymore. All told, I’m about 400 lighter than I was two weeks ago.  ↩

  3. Coincidentally, Tesla just dropped their big, spring software update. Included in it was an update to the Apple Music app that allows it to shuffle through playlists that have more than 100 songs in them. I’m not sure why that was still a limitation in 2025.  ↩

Prom Weekend Notes

April 28, 2025 /

Another very busy weekend for us, mostly revolving around C’s senior prom.

We kicked off the weekend by going across the street to watch the #1 high school volleyball team in the state, FHS, play our local squad. “What a weird way to spend a Friday night,” you might say to yourself. True, true. We have good friends with a senior on FHS and we’ve been meaning to see him play for a couple years. We couldn’t turn down a chance when he was literally across the street.

After a sluggish opening set in which they had to come from behind to win, FHS trounced the school our property taxes support in the next two sets for an easy win.

NFL Draft

You all know I hate the NFL draft. So many words wasted setting up and breaking down an event when Sure Things routinely bust, and No Names routinely become All Pros. It’s all a crapshoot, but we break it down in more detail than we do the policies of people running for office. “Maybe if we focused more attention on…”

The Colts did ok. They got their tight end in Tyler Warren. Will any of the quarterbacks be good enough to get him the ball, and will the offensive line, which they didn’t do much to improve, be able to protect whoever is taking the snaps?

There was another big story from the draft. But since I didn’t watch a minute of it, I can’t really get into the lunacy of how this story was treated by people inside the NFL media and, bizarrely, by the most attention hungry near 80 year old in the world.

I think the whole Shedeur Sanders thing is weird because I listened to exactly two podcast segments previewing the draft and in both of them there was a clear indication that he was slipping, for whatever reason. One previewer flat out said he would not be a first round pick. And once Sanders didn’t go early, I think there were a lot of teams that might have admired his skill and potential but had no interest in bringing all the drama that would come with picking him into their quarterback room. Especially since, at that point, he’s probably starting as QB3. All I know is he didn’t look that good against KU and neither of the two DBs who basically shut down the CU passing attack, two short passes that turned into long gains excepted, didn’t get picked. Where’s the outrage in that, I ask you????

Prom

OK, onto the biggie.

I missed the fun of C’s junior prom as I was in Cincinnati with L for basketball. Which is where I would have been again this year had L not had surgery. Or, more likely, I would have spent part of the weekend in Cincy but been back in Indy Saturday evening. I’m not sure I would have survived missing two prom nights in a row.[1] Anyway, I was indeed here this year.

On balance it was a good night. C went with a buddy, as did most of the folks in her group of 11. We hosted them before prom for pictures and food, put them on a bus for the event downtown, then had them dropped here afterward. After changing they went to a big post-prom party about a mile from our house. I collected the girls from the bash at 1:45. All of them were able to walk on their own and other than being VERY chatty in the seven minute ride home, seemed no worse for the wear. One of the girls even noted how we had a “fun” conversation when I was driving them around Siesta Key a few weeks ago. I appreciated the self awareness and humor.

Picking up from the party was a scene, man. It was in a very fancy neighborhood. One P. Manning used to live a couple blocks from the host’s home when he was still a Colt. When I pulled onto their narrow street, there were cars parked unevenly on each side. It’s basically a one-lane road, so this made it extremely stressful driving through. In the dark. With drunk kids stumbling around. There was one gap that I could not have had more than a couple inches on each side as I squeezed S’s Telluride through it. I made it. Somehow.

So I’m almost to the house, C knows I’m coming and is supposed to be rounding up the girls spending the night at our house, and I see this kid on the side of the street. He looks at me and kind of waves his arms to get me to stop. I come to a halt, roll down the passenger window, and he leans in:

“Hey Mr. B. Do you want me to go get C for you?”

It was the younger brother of one of M’s best friends. I thought that was hilarious. It was pitch dark, I was driving my wife’s car, and he somehow identified me. Apparently he does not drink, which could have been a factor. I texted his dad Sunday morning to both pass along my thanks and tell him how impressed I was.

I think I got C and her crew right in time. Big packs of kids were wandering the streets. Car alarms were going off. Kids were parked up on very nice lawns. I guess there had been a late flood of students who were not invited and had just been turned out. We didn’t hear about the cops coming, but it would not have surprised me if they showed up shortly after we left.

The kids had great weather for pictures. The prom itself was apparently pretty fun. C’s group all got along, which given they are all a little flakey/squirrelly, was a minor upset. Last year her date, again just a friend, acted like an asshole to her all night. This year she and her date seemed to get along fine.

Just two bummers on the day. Like last year, she had a meltdown when getting her hair done earlier in the day. I didn’t have to experience either episode directly, just had to be the target of S venting after. We agreed that at some point we are going to suggest that when she’s ready, C should elope rather than go through all the stress of a wedding day. If getting her hair done to hang out with friends for a few hours cranks up her anxiety, I can’t imagine what prepping for a wedding will do to her.

The second bummer was Sunday morning, when I came downstairs, I found the large box of Jimmy John’s that had been leftover from the pre-prom part of the night had been taken out of the fridge by the girls and left on the counter all night. There was about $60 of sandwiches in there, and I planned on getting into them on Sunday. I wasn’t willing to play the food poison lottery so, not without anger, tossed the box into our trash dumpster.

I guess the important thing is we survived prom weekend and C, other than being totally wiped out Sunday, seemed happy with how things went.

Another item, and a big one, checked off of her senior year list.

Pacers

When we got back from volleyball Friday the Pacers-Bucks game had just gone to halftime, with the ‘Cers leading by 10.[2] They hit the first shot of the second half to go up a dozen and then the bottom fell out. Horrible shots, terrible passes, curious coaching decisions, Bennedict Mathurin losing his mind momentarily when the game was still close. Tyrese Haliburton letting his home state crowd get in his head. OK, Giannis and Gary Trent, Jr. were going off. Trent hit nine 3’s. NINE. But the Pacers had the game in control and totally fell apart all on their own. Still, up 2–1 in the series.

That set up a pivotal game last night. Which I did not watch, for three reasons. 1) I was operating on about four hours of sleep. 2) I had to get up extra early Monday to take L to PT. Most importantly, 3) Tip off was at 9:30 PM Eastern. WTF????

Apparently I didn’t miss much. Dame Lillard blew out his achilles early. When he went down, so did the Bucks’ chances, as the Pacers played terrific ball for another easy win.

Three-one with the series coming back to Indy and Dame done for the series. Both sad and indicative of the world we live in that the first 20 minutes of Bill Simmons’ podcast Monday morning were about where Giannis plays next year.

  1. L also had a game the night of M’s junior prom, but it was in town so we did pictures and stuff and then hustled over to watch hoops. Not sure how we avoided a conflict M’s senior year.  ↩
  2. I’m not sure who decided this ‘Cers thing needed to happen, but I hate it, and only used it here so I could bitch about it.  ↩

Friday Playlist

April 25, 2025 /

A slight change-of-pace this week. I’ve been working on a new music project this week that has slowed down my processing of the new songs considerably. (I’ll share more about that project next week.) Plus a couple of these songs/bands are tough to Google, so I wasn’t able to find out much about them. As a result, a slightly more lean playlist than we’ve had recently. We should get back in the regular flow for the first playlist of May.

“Full of the Joys of Spring” – The Sundries
What a joyous week this was, at least in terms of the weather and feeling like spring, etc. Bright, warm, sunny days. The grass is thick as hell after all our recent rains. All the trees, plants, and flowers are budded and bloomed and otherwise looking healthy after the retreat of winter. I’m regretting not opening the pool sooner. Next weekend the lows are going to be in the 30’s°, a good reminder that I did NOT open the pool yet because I didn’t want to pay like we were heating the house in January to get the pool to a reasonable temperature.

“Loline” – The Bats
The Bats have been together, without changing their lineup, for 43 years. Which is amazing. They sound like a band that came up a long time ago, and I mean that in the best way. Here they sing about a popular bike from their homeland of New Zealand.

“Come Down” – Reb Fountain
Where The Bats 100% sound like a band from New Zealand, this singer sounds more like she’s from the UK and influenced by the trip-hop acts of the Nineties. She is, though, a Kiwi, too. And that’s about all I can find about her.

“It’s Your Funeral” – Ultra Lights
Another band that is hard to Google. I would have guessed they were the next, snotty, kind of arty, New York garage band, in the line of The Strokes and Parquet Courts. But they are from Atlanta. Which is wild.

“At Zero” – Dream, Ivory
I’ve been kicking this song around for a few weeks, never sure whether I should include it or not. Luckily for this brother act, I kept it around long enough to run into a week light on music so I had to finally use it.

“In This Mess” – Say Sue Me
I just included a SSM track last week. But when they drop a song this good immediately after, there is no waiting period before I share it. Holy shit, the guitars!

“Give It Up” – 8mm
Long-time music followers will remember this from the early days of my podcast. I’m not sure if I first played this in 2005 or 2006. I do remember it came on the advice of a brother-in-music I’ve lost touch with, and our shared joke was this song was so sultry that we felt like we needed to confess something to our wives after listening to it.

8mm actually has some new music out. Their new song is ok, but doesn’t stand up to this classic.

“Take A Walk” – Neil Finn & Friends
I missed honoring the greatest concert series ever earlier this month while we were on break. With two other New Zealand acts in this week’s PL, seems like the perfect moment to rectify that oversight.

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