• Friday Playlist

    Some brand new songs and one that goes back nearly 50 years for this week’s playlist. (Spotify embedding is cranky this morning, so here’s a link) Friday Playlist 12/9/22 https://open.spotify.com/playlist/6PrFQ6Y0xt5JJnHAB5wx1b?si=a478ce2e928544ab “Peace Blossom Boogy” – Babe Rainbow Not sure how/why it happened, but I just heard this five-year-old song about going to Venice for the first time. Spotify must be tracking…

  • Reader’s Notebook, 12/8/22

    Long Road: Pearl Jam and the Soundtrack of a Generation – Steven Hyden One of two books I loaded onto my Kindle for our Italy trip, and the only one I really read much of, mostly on the train. This is Hyden’s take on the story of Pearl Jam, told through chapters that each center on one song selected from…

  • Wednesday Links

    A music-heavy list of interesting pieces this time. Since the Milli Vanilli scandal came in the prime of my music listening years, it will always resonate. While reading this piece, it struck me that a lot of younger people have no idea what it was about, just that it is a cultural punchline. In this review, the author makes some…

  • November Media

    I think I broke my media consumption habits in October and have yet to get them right. A lot of basketball (on TV and in person) and another week away from home didn’t help. Thus, another rather short list of things to share this month. Movies, Series, Shows Halloween Baking Championship I wrapped up the most recent season on November…

  • Weekend Notes

    A fairly quiet weekend for our family. A couple folks are still trying to get their sleep schedules back to normal. Me? I’ve been sleeping awesome all week. I probably just jinxed myself to a week of insomnia… College Football Bowls and Playoffs I must be getting old. The stupid little “controversy” that took over my Twitter feed Friday about…

  • Friday Playlist

    Since returning home I’ve been super focused on getting my Favorite Songs of the Year playlist put together. I’ve made a lot of progress and expect to post it in about 10 days. In the meantime, the next two weekly playlists will feature some songs that were weeded out as I get the big list down to its final number.…

  • Catching Up

    A few things happened either before or while we were traveling that deserve a few words. Youth Sports The Friday before we left, St P’s had an assembly for the two girls basketball teams that made it to the City finals including L’s team. She still refused to hold the trophy. I laughed. It was a nice way to end…

  • Stats

    November 2022 Beatles – 48 Gang of Youths – 33 Congotronics International – 31 John Mellencamp – 29 Pearl Jam – 26 Complete stats available at my Last.fm page.

  • La Nostra Avventura Italiana, 2022

    What follows is an epic, old school breakdown of our Thanksgiving week trip to Italy. I spent almost all day Sunday working on it, so I hope it is coherent and interesting. I’ve broken it into sections so you can read in chunks or skip around as you like. Departure/Chicago The trip began a little ominously. I woke up feeling…

  • Reaching for the Stars, Vol. 80

    Chart Week: November 20, 1982 Song: “Heartbreaker” – Dionne Warwick Chart Position: #28, 7th week on the chart. Peaked at #10 for two weeks in January 1983. Dionne Warwick has had an amazing career. Hits upon hits, all kinds of notable and interesting personality quirks, a side-career that kept her in the public eye, becoming Twitter famous, and most recently…