So I suppose I should finally do this. I won’t say this was the toughest time I’ve ever had putting a list together. While some years the songs kind of sort themselves, there have been plenty of Decembers when I’m still trying to figure out what to include and in what order right up until I made my list public. But, as I wrote last week, this has been a tough musical year for me to crack.
Last week of school before the holiday break. I could sense some anticipation as I drove the girls to St. P’s this morning. There are a series of parties and other holiday activities scattered through their weeks, and then they all get extra early dismissal on Friday. The first graders do an annual Living Nativity program that day, and then they, and their siblings, can leave school early.[1] So we’ll leave right around 11:00.
Just a few links this week. Drew Magary has become one of my favorite writers of late. He’s hilarious. Here is his epic takedown of the Williams-Sonoma holiday catalog. The 2015 Hater’s Guide To The Williams-Sonoma Catalog Scott Weiland’s ex-wife wrote a pretty powerful letter to the public in Rolling Stone. Scott Weiland’s Family: ‘Don’t Glorify This Tragedy’ Finally, I have Fargo on the DVR and will dive into it once the holiday TV season ends.
youtu.be/2lFVn6Q0U… The Frank Sinatra and Bing Crosby Christmas Special, 1957 Ol’ blue eyes. The Chairman of the Board. Frank Sinatra was born 100 years ago tomorrow. I know a few of my friends will be gathering in the suburbs of Kansas City to celebrate the occasion. I will be here in Indy, listening to some of Frank’s best Christmas songs, drinking something stiffer than your average Christmas beer. Sadly, this does not seem to be the entire special.
I’ve been struggling with my Music Favorites lists this year. Where I normally love sifting through everything I’ve purchased, streamed, and downloaded over the past year to put together my favorite songs and albums lists, this year it’s been a bit of a chore. My first inclination is to say that is because this has not been a particularly good year for music. At least for the types of music I listen to.
We are dedicated online shoppers. Have been for years. During the last 6–8 weeks of the calendar year, it’s a truly fantastic tool for doing your Christmas shopping. No fighting crowds in parking lots and malls. No picking through damaged boxes looking for that last one that hasn’t been touched by a hundred grubby hands. Fill up your virtual cart, click the purchase button, and wait for the UPS/USPS folks to show up.
(Standard disclaimer that I’m terribly behind in sharing links, I’ll do better starting next week, yada yada yada…) Let’s kick things off with a couple baseball links that are left over from October. First, a rather fine oral history of the 1985 World Series. Which, you may recall, was the last time the Kansas City Royals won the title before this season. I had never heard the story about how George Brett and Whitey Herzog spent the afternoon of game seven before.
For some reason this week I was thinking not backward, to Christmases past, but ahead ten years or so to Christmases future. When M. and C. are in college and home for their breaks and L. is wrapping up her high school years. I wondered if I would still have my love of the various pop culture elements of the holiday season, and would greet the girls - and their friends who popped over to say hello - wearing thick cardigans as I offer them hot chocolate and other holiday treats, all while playing songs that are 40, 50, hell, nearly 100 years old in some cases.
There have been a few eagerly anticipated freshman debuts at KU over the years. As recruiting hype has grown over the past decade, the attention on those opening games keeps getting bigger. When you throw in an NCAA-mandated delay, it’s like Christmas morning getting delayed. I remember being unreasonably wound up to watch Josh Selby play his first game after a brief, “extra-benefits” related suspension a few years back. He looked sloppy and out-of-shape, but he did knock down the game-winning 3-pointer.
A lighter month, as I tackled another beast of a book and then punted most of Thanksgiving week. With a strong finish - and December always includes a few traditional and quick reads - I’ll get to 52 books for the year. The Cartel - Don Winslow What is the official threshold that you need to cross for your book to be labelled as epic? Is it a physical size, surpassing X number of pages?
The first Monday after Thanksgiving, aka The First Day of the Longest Month of the Year. If you’re a kid, that is. M. has already said several times she wishes we could skip straight to Christmas and get this nonsense in-between holidays out of the way. I’m perfectly fine with four long weeks filled with Christmas shows, music, and beers. Anyway, I begin the month sitting on the couch, watching The Polar Express, with a seven-year-old who has been puking for roughly 19 hours next to me.
I should have shared this earlier, as it kicks off on November 1 each year and includes Thanksgiving shows. But my annual link to this page listing all the holiday shows. A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving is on tonight! Christmas TV Schedule Check daily and set your DVRs accordingly.
The holiday season is officially here! Which you know gets my juices going. It was weird to be sitting in Arizona last weekend, switching around TV channels while S. was in her conference session, and coming across a Christmas cookie show while it was pushing 80 outside. I spent one year in northern California - we moved west the week before Christmas 1987 - and it was odd to my Midwestern core for it to be in the 50s and 60s over the entire school break.
youtu.be/M4K7XZGeH… youtu.be/idnJnjV_8… “Tunnel Of Love” and “Brilliant Disguise” - Bruce Springsteen A prominent music writer noted during the flood of articles about Born To Run’s 40th anniversary earlier this year that he couldn’t wait for Springsteen’s 1987 album Tunnel of Love to get the same treatment. He was kind of kidding, but also kind of serious. To most people, Tunnel Of Love was a confusing, off-putting, and largely forgotten follow-up to Born In The USA.
I don’t know if I’m ready for college basketball to begin. People who have known me for many, many years should re-read that statement. Because, once upon a time, my sports life was a big countdown to the next KU game, to the next recruiting deadline, to the day when practice could begin in the fall, and so on. Other sports were secondary to the endless calendar of college hoops.
We had a relatively fantastic weekend. I say relatively because that only applies if you enjoy fall weekends in warm locales sans children. After years of talking about it, S. finally signed up for a medical conference outside of Indianapolis. A few years back we were on the verge of signing up to spend a weekend in New Orleans. Another time we strongly considered going to San Antonio. Each time either something else came up or we just put it off too long and weren’t able to plan the trip.
Now for non-Royals links. I’ve been sitting on some of these for nearly a month. I hope they’re still worth it! First, something brand new. Actor/comedian Aziz Ansari wrote in the New York Times about many issues surrounding minorities in TV and movies. It is funny and surprisingly great. Aziz Ansari on Acting, Race and Hollywood At Grantland (RIP), Mike Thomas wrote this wonderful profile of the late Jan Hooks.
So, so, so far behind on sharing links. So I’ll break them into two sets. We’ll begin with articles related to YOUR WORLD CHAMPION KANSAS CITY ROYALS! A rather significant sports journalism event took place during the baseball playoffs: ESPN shut down the wonderful Grantland sports/pop-culture site. Many took that as a sign that there isn’t room in the modern, hot-takes-centric media world. Turns out, though, there’s actually a ton of great sports writing out there.
Despite all the baseball last month, I still managed to get through four books. One of which inspired me to read two other of my October selections. For those keeping score at home, I began November with 44 books read for the year so far. Night Soldiers - Alan Furst You may recall I read Furst’s Dark Star a couple months back without knowing it was book two of a series.
I’m going to try to get back in a regular schedule of posting now that baseball is over. Although S. and I are heading out-of-town Thursday, which is yet another impediment to those plans. I’ll try my best! Let’s begin with an old style weekend round up! It was odd not to have a stressful baseball game two watch on Friday night. Or to be covering a high school football game.