Independence Day Playlist
It’s one of my favorite music days of the year! For the seventh time, I present my Independence Day playlist! As a reminder, these aren’t necessarily patriotic songs, nor ones that have anything to do with this holiday, other than their titles. The first edition back in 2019 included 11 songs. With one addition this year – can you find…
Reader’s Notebook, 7/2/25
My Documents – Kevin Nguyen Books like this can be unsettling. It is about a fictional moment in modern America, but through the worst kind of serendipity, lines up with real events we are seeing on the news these days. The book follows an extended Vietnamese-American family that crosses several generations, specifically a set of cousins. One set of the…
June Media
Movies, Shows, etc NBA Playoffs A+, until Hali blew out his achilles. Your Friends and Neighbors I think I have this complaint about all but the best modern, streaming dramedies: there were the wrong number of episodes. Some shows go on two episodes too long, others have two too few. It’s a tough needle to thread. I felt like this…
The Bear, season 4
We had a very slow, uneventful weekend, which leaves this space open to discuss how S and I spent Thursday and Friday evenings: binging season four of The Bear. If you want the TLDR version: I liked it. Although it had some flaws and inconsistencies and did not match the first two seasons, it was a nice rebound from the…
Friday Playlist
Several new songs by old artists this week. And some new songs by new artists. In other words, a normal week. “In The Sun” – Blondie We’ve had a little too much sun this week. It’s been miserable. This song makes me feel a little better about it. “Breakaway” – Been Stellar These kids keep cranking out good tracks. “Modern…
Reaching For The Stars, Vol. 113
Chart Week: June 23, 1984 Song: “I’ll Wait” – Van Halen Chart Position: #32, 11th week on the chart. Peaked at #13 for two weeks. I made my three-hour drive to Lexington, KY last Saturday morning solo. As it was also my birthday weekend, I thought the best way to celebrate would be to listen to an American Top 40…
Wednesday Links
I’ve started following Denny Carter in recent weeks and enjoy his perspective on politics and the general state of the world. The sub-head of this piece is perfect: Being an asshole is a choice. Free speech was meant to empower the powerless against the powerful, not to provide protection for society’s privileged members to hurl invective at the unprivileged and…
More Hoops Notes
A day later I still have a lot of Pacers thoughts. And I still need to catch you up on a very busy weekend. So this may turn into two posts, depending on how long I yap about the first topic. Pacers Followup I became a Pacers fan when we moved to Indy in 2003, but they have never been…
Crushing
Sports can be unbelievably cruel sometimes. They can step up and make the worst possible thing happen in the worst possible time. That’s how the Indiana Pacers’ dream run through the postseason ended last night. Not because the favored Oklahoma City Thunder dominated the third quarter to turn a close game into a comfortable win, clinching their first NBA…
Three Down…
OMG OMG OMG!!!! The Indiana Pacers are playing for the NBA championship Sunday night! Thursday was a wonderful night of professional basketball. At least if you are a Pacers fan. They started out slow, missing like their first 100 shots, and trailed 10–2. From then on it really wasn’t much of a game. The Pacers destroyed the Thunder in pretty…