Last Sunday, as I often do, I turned on the American Top 40 replay from the 1980s on our local soft rock station. The countdown was from this week in 1985, and I caught it just in time to hear the #1 song from that week, John Parr’s “St. Elmo’s Fire (Man In Motion)”. First thing first, whether you approach the song with irony or earnestness, it’s a damn fine song.
Heyo! It’s NFL kickoff[1] weekend, which means it’s time for some half-assed, barely-informed predictions! It should be noted I pay almost no attention to what happens in the NFL offseason. I know Teddy Bridgewater got hurt a week ago, and the Vikings traded for Sam Bradford to replace him. The Colts drafted a bunch of shitty guys who will never contribute. I think someone the Cowboys drafted got into trouble with the police.
I believe I’ve said this before, but one of the reasons I like Spotify a lot more than Apple Music is because of the new music Spotify recommends to me. Apple Music’s recommendations always seemed to suck. Every week, between the Discover Weekly playlist on Monday and Release Radar playlist on Friday, I find at least one new act to listen to thanks to Spotify’s suggestions. This week’s playlist kicks off with two artists I was introduced to over the past week via those lists.
Apple product launch announcements aren’t the must-watch events they once were for me. I’ve scaled back my purchasing of new electronic toys to a much slower pace.[1] No more new Mac to replace a perfectly good one every 12–18 months. I keep my phones well past the two years I’m obligated to keep them without having to pay to upgrade. Mostly this is because the pace of technology has changed, at least for now.
Before the Fall - Noah Hawley. As soon as I saw this on a list of recommended books to read this summer, I knew I had to read it. Hawley, who has worked in TV for years, is the main creative force behind the FX show Fargo. I’ve still only watched season two of the show, but you may recall that I was floored by how brilliant it was. Could Hawley’s brilliance translate to a novel?
Hall & Oates somehow just received their Hollywood Walk of Fame star last week. Which makes total sense. You know, an act that was in its prime 30 years ago just getting their recognition now. Honestly, it’s staggering if you scroll through the list of entertainers who previously received stars and compare some of their careers to H&O’s. Maybe there was some conflict back in the act’s prime that prevented them from accepting a star; Hall can be notoriously prickly at times.
The last weekend of the summer is in the books. It was a busy and fun one. It started super early, at least for C and I, as she had her first cross country meet of the year Saturday morning. I had to have her at the course by 6:30 am, which meant a 5:45 alarm for us. I was not super fond of the early wake time, but she did just fine.
We didn’t travel much when I was a kid. Summer vacations for me were just trips to my grandparents’ homes in central Kansas for anywhere from two to six weeks. So I was pretty much always home Labor Day weekend, with three days to kill before school started on the day after the holiday. Since my mom was generally working two jobs, she’d go in both on the Saturday of Labor Day weekend and on Labor Day itself.
The last weekend of the summer of 2016. Not all of these songs fit that theme, but most do. open.spotify.com/user/224a… “Not Gonna Kill You” - Angel Olsen. Olsen’s MY WOMAN just hit this morning. I’m not all the way through it yet, but based on what I’ve already heard, and the reviews, it’s a strong contender for album of the year. “Pony Show” - Heidi Gluck. Gluck used to perform with Indianapolis’ Margot & The Nuclear So and So’s.
Classic album covers with Star Wars characters? Hell yeah! Star Wars Album Covers
I was not looking forward to this week. Not because I had a medical exam on the calendar, or because I had to deal with some other uncomfortable, personal issue. Nope, I drew the jury duty card for this week. Luckily, while I had to report yesterday, my service was completed in about three hours and I was a free man before afternoon school pickup time. I was sweating it, though.
A few of my KC friends asked how the kickball thing was going. Well, it’s going, that’s for sure! Since this isn’t an entirely private site, I’ll share only some of what has filled the last month or so for me. As coordinator, my job is to make sure we get everyone registered by the deadline,[1] recruit coaches, put the teams together, order and distribute uniforms and equipment, communicate with the CYO office about when our teams can/can not play games, sort and approve practice time requests, making sure all participants have all their healthcare paperwork submitted, and put out any fires that develop along the way.
Once, summer trips to Kansas City were the norm for me. Just about every summer I would sneak away for a weekend that, famously, included the four B’s: baseball, Boulevard beer, barbecue, and buddies.[1] But as the girls got a little older, it became more difficult to get away. Buying a lake house where we spent most of our summer weekends added another layer of difficulty to making that trip during school vacation.
A quick run through the books I read last month. Arcadia - Lauren Groff. I really wanted to like this book. It received great acclaim in 2012 when it was published, so it’s been on my To Read list for ages. Unfortunately, Groff’s writing style just didn’t connect with me. The book mostly takes place on a hippie commune in upstate New York, from the early 1970s through the 1980s, then jumps ahead to the near future.
What up, fools?!?! It’s that time! Time for an epic Olympic notebook unloading! Not the most timely first edition this year, as I’m waiting nine full days into the games to get to this. So we’ll race through some of the things I jotted down 6–9 days ago that aren’t exactly fresh. Opening Ceremonies. Watching these things with kids is kind of the best. Because Olympics opening ceremonies are always wacky, and lend themselves to tons of questions.
Summer is done. At least the school vacation part, that is. The girls went back to school this morning. They were excited to see their friends, find their school supplies on their desks, and get back into their routines, I think. There certainly wasn’t any grumpiness this morning. I bet that changes early next week. Sixth, fourth, and second grades this year. Good times. School Shoes So how was the summer of 2016?
This will be a week of catch up. Before I begin diving into all the things that I’m behind on, first a confirmation that yes, I am keeping some casual notes as I watch the Olympics. There will be Olympics posts over the next couple weeks!1 But now let’s knock out the first, and biggest, piece of catch up: the camps and birthday of two weeks ago. As you may recall, we dropped M off at summer camp three Sundays ago.
So after this month,no more VCRs will be produced. Wait, they were still making VCRs? I guess there are probably some folks out there with shelves full of movies - purchased or taped from TV, professional and personal - who were never interested in buying them all again in a digital format, or didn’t want to invest the time and effort to convert them to digital. I know I still have some tapes stored in a cabinet in our basement.
We are deep into baseball’s silly season: the 7–10 days before the trade deadline. In the era of Twitter, fake “insiders,” who create accounts with names that look very similar to real “insiders” like Buster Olney and Tim Kirkjian, claim to break made-up deals that get the webz a buzzin’. That made it the perfect time for this “profile” of an account set up to parody both the fake and legit writers who are peddling rumors.
It’s a weird day in our house. Today is M’s 12th birthday, but she’s not here to celebrate. We dropped her off for her first-ever week at a summer camp yesterday. So our phones, or rather her phone, will not ring with calls from relatives looking to talk to her and wish her a happy birthday. There’s no special dinner planned for tonight, or cake for dessert. Kid birthdays are supposed to be big, all-encompassing days all about them but today our house is quiet.