Another weekend that was brightened by visits from college kids and a few more signs that we are deep into fall. Fall Break Part 1 M came home Wednesday evening. UC had a two-day fall break this year, but she had to go back Friday evening because her boyfriend’s fraternity had their annual trip to the horse races in Lexington, KY Saturday. She’s doing well. In fact, her life got even better while she was home.
[open.spotify.com/playlist/...](https://open.spotify.com/playlist/4I739P1vODsreoZSExAp2f?si=1a56afaf1ac74cea) “October” - The Helio Sequence We’ve finally had a couple of cool days and chilly mornings, although temps will creep back up closer to 80 next week. Close enough for me to bust out this fall classic, at least classic to me. “Break The Girl” - Florence Road Wonderful, bouncy track by some young ladies from Wicklow, Ireland. “Automatic” - Spiritual Cramp In their write up about this song, Stereogum compared this band to early ‘00s’ bands like the Killers or TV On The Radio.
Chart Week: September 24, 1983 Song: “It’s A Mistake” - Men At Work Chart Position: #38, 13th week on the chart. Peaked at #6 for two weeks in August. What clichés about Eighties music jump into your head the quickest? Big hair and spandex? Synthesizers? Gender ambiguous British men in suits wearing more makeup than your mom? Artists with little-to-no musical talent earning hits based on the quality of their videos and/or the prettiness of their appearance?
We’re a week into the fourth quarter of the year[1] and I bet a few of you are annoyed with me for not sharing my latest fitness update. My bad. Here it is. Q3 was my best of the year so far. Which makes sense as it was the warmest, least stormy stretch of 2025 so the pool was always available, even if I had to kick the heater on in the morning to get it warmed up a bit over the past month.
A much better weekend of football compared to a week ago. Added bonuses of fun stuff involving two of the kids, and maybe the last summery weekend of the year. Let’s get into it. Friday Friday was L’s 17th birthday. To celebrate we took her and some of her friends to our local hibachi place, which is always fun, more-so with six goofy high schoolers. Our dinner overlapped with the start of the big Cathedral-Center Grove game, but none of us cared, as we expected it to not be much of a game.
open.spotify.com/playlist/… “Summer Soft” - Stevie Wonder You find It’s October, and she’s gone… “Dipped” - HighSchool Earlier this year Aussie band CIVIC released a song called “Chrome Dipped.” Now we have another Aussie band, which does not sound very Aussie at all, with a similarly named track. “Light Sleeper” - Home Front One of my top 5–10 post-punk bands making music right now. “DCWDTTY” - Bartees Strange Strange takes some post-punk, mixes it with some Tunde Adebimpe-sounding vocals, and turns it into an ode to his hometown of Washington, DC.
In the Weeds: Around the World and Behind the Scenes with Anthony Bourdain - Tom Vitale A book that has been out three years but I managed not to hear about until just now. Written by one of Anthony Bourdain’s closest associates, it is definitely a warts and all accounting of what it was like to work with the late chef/TV personality. It should not be a surprise that Bourdain was, at times, prickly, quarrelsome, thin-skinned, impatient.
September seemed like a long month. Yet here we are and I only watched one TV series and zero movies? The first holiday baking show of the season is already stacking up in my YouTube TV library, so next month should be better. Also, over the past week or so I’ve been dialing back my YouTube usage for various reasons. So that part of these posts may get leaner beginning next month.
As promised, a few more sports takes. NFL A month into the NFL season, so time for a quick look at where we are at. Is there a dominant team, or any clear Super Bowl favorites? I don’t think so. Buffalo is undefeated, but only thanks to an epic comeback in week one against Baltimore. Their defense has been shaky as hell. The Ravens are a complete mess at the moment.
Two weeks ago my theme for the football weekend was special teams. This weekend it was the teams I follow having meltdowns in the fourth quarter. Only one of those teams survived, sadly the team I care least about. High School Football Cathedral played Trotwood, a team from Ohio, for homecoming. The Irish jumped out to a 18–0 lead and led 18–6 at halftime. After an early fourth quarter touchdown they led by 19.
A busy week that’s been a bit out-of-sorts, so this week’s playlist includes more old music than I’ve been doing recently. Still good songs! [open.spotify.com/playlist/...](https://open.spotify.com/playlist/3rn7OBbgqmgz5Hghf0hcuy?si=578974db27b440e9) “Light Night Mountains All That” - Ratboys Last week I shared a recent cover by Ratboys. Right after that they dropped a new single of their own, although no word on a new album date. This one rips. “Another Second Chance” - Rocket The fifth track I’ve shared from Rocket this year, which seems a little excessive.
I’m off to the eye doctor shortly, which means he’ll dilate my eyes, which means I’m going to be worthless all afternoon. So rather than finish another post I was working on, I’ll share some links instead. I offer this one without comment, lest any of you report me to my boss and get me fired. How to Tell the Difference Between a Lone Wolf and a Coordinated Effort by the Radical Left
We are planning for a project that would involve finishing a portion of our currently unfinished side of the basement. To prepare, I’ve been going through some of the crap stored down there to free up space. Part of that is digging through the massive box of sports cards I’ve been lugging around for decades. I knew these were largely worthless at this point. My generation grew up hearing about the cards bought for pennies in the Fifties and Sixties turning into items that could finance a family vacation, home addition, or even college tuition fund.
A slightly different weekend than usual around here. Plenty of sitting on my ass watching football, which is normal. But a couple car trips, a gathering, and two visitors mixed things up a bit. High School Football Cathedral had their one easy game of the year Friday, against winless Southport. In fact SHS had not scored a point this year. You knew it was going to be a rough night when the radio announcers said one of the keys to the game for CHS would be to get to a running clock situation as quickly as possible.
This week’s list might be a teensy bit leaner than normal. We have a couple house visitors and it’s been a busy week, so less time to stock this up over the past few days. [open.spotify.com/playlist/...](https://open.spotify.com/playlist/1sYqXGH4mDSfdLFuWle5oI?si=1cd65398d8b04d95) “September” - Earth, Wind, & Fire It’s that time of year. “Change My Mind” - Phantastic Ferniture Before she struck out on her own, Julia Jacklin had a band with some friends. Their last album came out in 2018.
Chart Week: September 8, 1984 Song: “Sunglasses At Night” - Corey Hart Chart Position: #9, 16th week on the chart. Peaked at #7 the week of September 1. Every era of music has its own unique set of identifiers that some listeners use to immediately discredit and dismiss a song. Two entries ago, I discussed string sections in Seventies rock. In the Eighties, it was the synthesizer. To many music fans, often young men, the presence of a synthesizer meant a record was artificial; a soulless studio creation by people lacking musical skills.
A terrible day for America, but this is A+++ headline writing. In win for infectious diseases, Florida to end all school vaccine requirements I was never a full-time journalist, but this piece brought back some memories of my days at the Daily Journal. Especially the footnote about keeping a running box score of a high school football game. I’ll get to The Paper at some point. The Local Newspaper Is Dead.
There was a theme for my football weekend: special teams. High School Football What a game Friday night, in the big Indy Northside Catholic matchup! Class 4A #1 Chatard jumped out to a 13–0 lead early in the second quarter. The 5A #4 Cathedral defense had actually stopped them on both drives, only to be called for penalties that kept the Trojans alive. The Irish seemed to score their first TD since their opening drive of the season only to have it called back for a penalty.
A juicy list this week with a bunch of good, new tracks; a throwback; a re-imagined classic; and another by a classic artist that is new to me. open.spotify.com/playlist/… “New Distraction” - fanclubwallet Perfect, late summer song. Our three weeks of False Fall have passed and it is going to be in the 90s much of the coming week, so the song fits the moment in our part of the world.
The Magdalen Martyrs, The Dramatist, Priest - Ken Bruen Books three, four, and five of Bruen’s Jack Taylor series. I read them in five or six days. They are that good. Like many series there are multiple repeating themes and plot devices. Bur Bruen was a good enough writer that he made each book completely compelling and just different enough where they did not feel like three versions of the same story.