Revisiting Classic Gifts
I was digging through the blog archives last night and came across this post, from December 2004. It is an accounting of the best Christmas gifts I received as a kid, which was about as “typical 2004 personal blog post” as you could get. I had two thoughts as I read it: 1 – If I re-did the list today…
Friday Playlist
Christmas vacation, or what counts for it in 2020, is nigh. My in-laws have arrived, the girls have about four more hours of class, and by early afternoon we will be in the final countdown for Christmas. For this year’s Blog Christmas Playlist, I’ve chosen to focus on songs you probably won’t hear on your local Christmas music station. Use…
The Office Christmas Episodes, Ranked
My Wednesday activity, other than preparing for my in-laws to arrive tonight, was watching all of The Office Christmas episodes. As you can imagine, this was an extremely good way to spend time, especially on a very cold, snowy night. As I watched I thought, “I should put together some kind of rudimentary list, ranking them in order of my…
Reader’s Notebook, 12/16/20
Pretty good run of books. Lucky Supreme – Jeff Johnson The trick to writing a good crime novel, when approximately eight billion of them have been written, is to find a new angle and/or place the story in an unusual situation. Johnson did that quite well with this book. Darby Holland owns a tattoo parlor in Portland. He’s kind of…
Favorite Songs of 2020
My pre-list State of Music comments are pretty simple this year: 2020 felt like a weak musical year. I don’t know whether to blame that on Covid, me getting older and having to fight changing tastes harder, or that it was just a rough year for good tunes. There are some high quality tracks in this list, but I’m not…
A Hunch Proved Right
My Christmas spirit is at an all-time low. I don’t think I’m alone in that this year, nor do I need to explain why. I’ve only watched a couple Christmas movies, I’m not reveling in Christmas music every waking hour, and we’ve had a couple hard discussions about what our family Christmas gathering plans should be. But one thing has…
Reaching for the Stars, Vol. 51
Chart Week: December 3, 1983 Song: “Love Is A Battlefield” – Pat Benatar Chart Position: #6, 11th week on the chart. Peaked at #5 the week of December 10. There’s no great story behind the song this week. Nope, this entry is simply an excuse to share one of the iconic videos of the 1980s. Pat Benatar enlisted director Bob…
An Univited Ghost
One of the greatest things about the Internet is the ability to dive into your past, to try to clarify memories that have become hazy over time or reconnect with people who were once an integral part of your life. I don’t do a whole lot of biographical scrolling these days. It’s been years since I’ve looked up an ex-girlfriend…
Friday Playlist
I’ve been a little slower than normal slapping together my Favorite Songs of the Year list. I can just #Blame2020 and leave it at that. I will also add that I’m having a devil of a time picking my favorite song of 2020, which I kind of need to do in order to complete the list. But I’m working on…
Blueblood Battle
Some things never change. Those glamorous, early November college basketball matchups that ESPN creates to fill the air in the opening weeks of the season almost always disappoint. Oh, you might get a close game, but rarely are these games ones where, afterward, viewers say, “That might be the game of the year!” The Champions Classic is the ultimate example.…