Reaching for the Stars, Vol. 50
Chart Week: October 27, 1984 Song: “Purple Rain” – Prince & The Revolution Chart Position: #4, 4th week on the chart. Peaked at #2 for two weeks in November. (This ended up being a big coincidence, but not a bad choice for the 50th entry in this series!) One of my favorite things about listening to old AT40’s is when…
A Satisfying Ending
Sunday night I sat down to bang out some election thoughts. After about an hour and a couple beers I had over 2500 semi-coherent words. Younger me would have pushed on, getting everything out of my system, working until well after midnight to finish and then post the piece. 2020 me, though? He was ready for bed. And as morning…
Fuck you, Don. Try not to destroy too many more things on your way out.
Friday Playlist
I had a regular list put together to share like any other Friday. But given the news of the morning, I’m scraping it and throwing this ad hoc list at you. You should be able to figure out which songs are directed at which candidates. https://open.spotify.com/playlist/1cAnXT8WozwT0sCdPiKhJx?si=H1ymXrKER2WlCSOpcbyXrQ
October Media
Baseball took up a lot of time last month. But I still squeezed in some quality television programming. The Spy This brief series tells the story of Eli Cohen, a Mossad agent who infiltrated Syrian society in the 1960s and became a deputy minister of defense before being discovered and executed. It is a compelling, interesting story that is very…
Reader’s Notebook, 11/4/20
Nothing much going on today. Might as well share my most recent reads. A Short History of Nearly Everything – Bill Bryson My master reading list isn’t complete; I didn’t really start digitizing it until the mid-to-late 2000s, so a lot of books I read in the first decade of this century aren’t accounted for.[1] So I know I’ve read…
Weekend Notes
Here we are, the week many of us – a plurality of those who voted four years ago – have been looking forward to for an entire election cycle. And it dawns dominated by a sense of dread. Regardless of the results of tomorrow’s election, I think the US is on a horrible course, one where democracy is constantly subverted…
Stats
October 2020 Throw back month! * Bruce Springsteen – 72 * Pearl Jam – 47 * U2 – 39 * cartalk – 26 * Bob Mould – 24 Complete stats available at my Last.fm page.
Friday Playlist
https://open.spotify.com/playlist/7FSOf4fPfyFoe4U8InfjXs?si=OGiK1H0STFa8dtoxhOvqyw “Impossible Weight” – Deep Sea Diver with Sharon Van Etten The music to this sounds thoroughly modern, but Sharon’s vocals have a terrific New Wave quality. “Guest in Your Life” – Sinai Vessel This song sounds warm and familiar, like the fall clothes we are all pulling out as the weather gets cooler. “80 Days of Rain” – Lande…
Fall Links Life
I’m overwhelmed by numbers. The more I look at them, the more my sense of dread and disappointment and even fear grows. That’s right, it’s time for a long overdue update on my golf game. Quick summary: not good. Now, for the people into that kind of thing, far too many details. Feel free to skip the rest, although you’ll…