Old = Good But Never Great. Pearl Jam Lightning Bolt Review
For some reason it’s been very hard to write up my thoughts about Pearl Jam’s Lightning Bolt. Not because I don’t like it; I do. Not because it follows the same basic formula the band has been using for nearly a decade; that is true but that doesn’t make it indistinguishable from the last two albums. Not because there’s nothing…
Run Lindsey!
Posnanski revisited his 32 Best Calls In Sports History to honor the 25th anniversary of Kirk Gibson’s home run in the 1988 World Series. Checking in at #10 is Larry Munson’s epic call of Lindsey Scott’s 92-yard catch-and-run that helped Georgia beat Florida in 1980. I remember watching the game live, and probably hearing some network announcer call it, and…
Rock God Math
My current favorite music writer, Steven Hyden, goes beyond the simple album review for the new Pearl Jam disk. Instead, he examines the band’s entire career, assesses what’s overrated, what’s underrated, and what’s been properly rated, and then does the final math. Pearl Jam made some great records in the ’90s, some not-so-great records in the early ’00s, and some…
Kids, Football, And Seeing My Name In Ink
Slapping together some notes while attempting to actually stay awake past halftime of a Monday Night Football game, as the Colts are battling the Chargers. Not sure why I’m bothering. The Colts vs. San Diego has been nothing but bad news for about ten years. My assignment last Friday was to cover RHS going to play DCHS, the team that…
Bits And Pieces
It’s been a busy and frustrating couple of weeks. And some of it is beginning to catch up with us. The last two Sundays we’ve had torrential rains, which have wiped out soccer games each week. L. had her first make-up game last night (She scored two early goals, then none after that.) and M. has one tonight. Plus regular…
For Those About To Rock
I recently came across a new classic rock station1 that has a “Twelve O’Clock Double Shot” lunch show. Which is great, because I pick up L. at 1:00 so while I’m sitting in line waiting for the kids to come out, I get to listen to the last few minutes of the program. One day last week I lucked into a…
Of Cold Wars, Nuclear Nightmares, And Safety Dances
Man, it’s like there was some kind of conspiracy to troll the over-energetic part of my brain that is responsible for nostalgia last week. First, Alexander Zaitchik wrote for Salon about how close we may have come to nuclear war in 1983, and how that, along with The Day After, freaked out some of us Gen Xers with nightmares about…
Five
Where were you five years ago? We were at the hospital, greeting daughter #3 into the world. Man, has it gone by fast. L. has always seemed older than she is, and when we’re reminded of her actual age it’s always a surprise. Recently, as I’ve been thinking about her birthday, I always have to pause for a second and…
Books
Whoops. It looks like, between our early September travels and the various changes I made to the site last month, I never posted my list of August books. My bad. Here they are, to be followed shortly by my September list. 30 – VJ: The Unplugged Adventures of MTV’s First Wave – Nina Blackwood, Mark Goodman, Alan Hunter, and Martha…
Fall Links
The leaves have begun to fall in our yard. The corn fields around the corner are in the process of being harvested. Which means it’s the perfect time to recycle these two classics. I don’t know about you, but I can’t wait to get my hands on some fucking gourds and arrange them in a horn-shaped basket on my dining…