Favorite Songs of 2021
We’ve made it to another year-end list of my favorite songs of the past twelve (-ish) months. Usually I start working on these rankings in early October. This year I didn’t put any real work into it until after we returned from Hawaii on December 1. Some of that was because my working list was about as tight as it…
Getting Back
Over the weekend I knocked out all of The Beatles: Get Back. A few observations and thoughts about Peter Jackson’s nearly eight-hour documentary of the January 1969 Beatles studio sessions. I’m pretty sure I saw the original movie that was made from the film shot at those sessions, Let It Be, years ago. When I first saw the trailer for…
Rivalry Renewed?
After a week of fun buildup, Kansas and Missouri finally took the floor against each other Saturday for the first time in nearly a decade. The result felt a bit empty, although the process was a lot of fun for us Kansas fans. The Jayhawks’ 102–65 win was the third-largest margin of victory in series history. That wasn’t a surprise.…
Friday Links
A few links to kick off your weekend. ‘Wrong team won both days’: Flashback to epic finale of KU-Mizzou basketball in 2012 Kansas and Missouri renew their basketball rivalry in Lawrence tomorrow. This is a good summary of how they ended their time as conference rivals almost ten years ago. For the record: Thomas Robinson’s block was 100% clean. Now…
Friday Playlist
Like the good little elf that I am, I’ve been hard at work on my Favorite Songs of the Year list since we returned from Hawaii. My goal is to publish it the middle of next week. As has become tradition, I will offer this prelude: my favorite songs for each year since 2004. These are in chronological order, so…
Reaching for the Stars, Vol. 65
Chart Week: December 10, 1977 Song: “Here You Come Again” – Dolly Parton Chart Position: #12, 9th week on the chart. Peaked at #3 for two weeks in January, 1978. This edition features another musician origin story.[1] I really like this one; hope you do, too. It is a tiny miracle that anyone becomes a recording star. There are, what,…
Jayhawk Talk
A couple flawed yet fairly easy wins after the Thanksgiving tournament for the Jayhawks. Now everyone can look ahead to Saturday’s game. Not me, though. Or at least not yet. The last three games have brought a very nice and surprising development: Christian Braun is good. Really good. He struggled so much in the opener against Michigan State that I…
November Media
Movies and Shows Blondie – Apollo Theatre, Glasgow, 1979 This is AMAZING! Debbie Harry in her white-hot prime. The freaking drummer is insane, doing his best Keith Moon impression in his gold lamé suit. A The Bourne Identity The Bourne Supremacy The Bourne Ultimatum I hadn’t watched any of these since the third installment came out in 2007, when I…
Holiday Notes + Kid Sports
It seems like most of the family has re-acclimated to being in the eastern time zone, but our days are still all messed up. A full, five-day school week this week will surely get us back on track. Our holiday schedule is all out-of-whack from normal, though. The day after Thanksgiving is normally our decorating day. Since we were hiking…
Friday Vids
It will take me another week to get back into the swing of things musically, so a couple videos to share today. “Hero Takes a Fall” – The Bangles I read this wonderful interview with Susanna Hoffs this week. In it she said this was the song through which Prince first came to know their music. Which, of course, led…