“I Want To Find What Can’t Be Found” – A Deeper Understanding Review
I’ve been listening to The War on Drug’s A Deeper Understanding nearly non-stop for almost a month now. Yet, I’ve been struggling to put some thoughts about it together to share here. I love the album, so it should be easy to write about, right? Turns out I’m running into the same problem that I think Adam Granduciel faced when…
Friday Playlist
https://open.spotify.com/user/224aiwksicafjldlua6nnpo4y/playlist/5ufdmgyU59aoKmMbmTzXEV “Plimsoul Punks” – Alvvays. Man, this song is just so good. Power, jangle pop with just a hint of shoegaze in the background. Perfect. “Strangers Kiss” – Alex Cameron and Angel Olsen. Something about this song feels straight out of 1981. “Rained On” – Frightened Rabbit. A surprise three-song EP dropped today from my co-favorite band. The entire thing…
Big Ol’ Sports Notebook
I had hoped to wrap up the kickball regular season today. But Irma’s remnants turned yesterday into a drizzly mess, and our biggest game of the year was postponed. More on that in a bit. M ended her season last week. Her team finished up 5–1 and claimed second place in their division. Just that opening game loss to their…
Looking Back
I wrote this yesterday, but forgot to post it before heading out for an afternoon of kickball. I believe M is coming home with an assignment tonight to ask S and I what our memories of September 11, 2001 are. Her social studies teacher wrote her memories of that day on her whiteboard and shared a pic of it on…
Friday Playlist
A very special playlist this week. I don’t listen to a ton of 70s music – there’s some OG punk and very early new wave that sneaks in, along with a pinch of classic rock – as I generally skew towards 80s music when listening to the old stuff. But my love of music came from my parents always having…
Professional Football Prognostication
Oh boy. Football season is here. “Do I detect a certain ‘Meh’ in that statement?” many of you might ask. I will confirm, there is plenty of ‘Meh’ in that statement. For a variety of reasons, I get a little more disengaged from the NFL every year. Likely the biggest factor is how L plays soccer on Sundays,[1] something she’s…
Summer’s End
The last real weekend of the summer is in the books. And, if you judge only by how tired I was last night, it was a good one. Fortunately by nearly every other measure it was indeed a fine way to wrap up the summer. It’s become a tradition that our KC friends the Belfords come into town this weekend.…
Friday Playlist
https://open.spotify.com/user/224aiwksicafjldlua6nnpo4y/playlist/2C7eOMtEDxiI2dLQRKUsuK “September” – Earth, Wind & Fire. This is a god damn great song. How this peaked at only #8 on the Billboard Hot 100 is another indictment of the 1970s. “September Gurls” – Big Star. One of the greatest power-pop songs of all time. “Wake Me Up When September Ends” – Green Day. Since we’re sticking with a theme…
Reader’s Notebook, 8/31/17
A Divided Spy – Charles Cumming. I hate it when I realize, a decent stretch into a book that is part of a series, that I missed the previous entry in the set. I had read book one of Cumming’s Thomas Kell series and then picked this one up. Problem is this is book three. And as the books all…
Out of the Fish Business
We’re out of the fish business. Our last betta, Harry Potter, died an unfortunate death today. He was on his last legs already – L was sure he was dead last weekend – but then I accidentally wacked the side of his bowl with a lid to some Corningware while I made my lunch. Water and gravel went everywhere. By…