Friday Vid
youtu.be/hqf7DxBAu… “False Hope” - Laura Marling If the year ended today, this would be in my top 10 for songs of the year. Possibly top 5.
⦿ Mid-Week Links
A week or so behind, and a lot of long reads to share. Thus I’m going to split the offerings into two posts. The longer articles will be listed below. The rest will be shared tomorrow or Friday. First, Maciej Ceglowski wraps up his tales of traveling through the New Madrid earthquake zone. Confronting New Madrid (Part 2) Keeping it in the earthquake genre, Kathryn Schulz wrote this frightening accounting of how devastating a Big One in the Pacific Northwest could be.
Johnny Friggin' Cueto!
Holy shit! Normally this time of year, Royals fans are begging general manager Dayton Moore to sell off the team’s most valuable free-agent-to-be to bring in more prospects for the future. Two years ago, it was Ervin Santana. The Royals kept him and went on a tear through August and September that saw them fall just short of making the playoffs. Last year it was James Shields. A week after the All-Star break the Royals were floundering and it seemed like the smart move to sell Shields and hope 2015 might finally be the year.
Eleven
Eleven years ago Saturday, we welcomed our first daughter into our family. Which is totally an amazeballs thing to say. Eleven freaking years. Seriously? How in the hell did that happen? M. celebrated in a very M. way: stretching it out and keeping as much attention on herself as possible. Now that’s not exactly fair. She didn’t ask to have her birthday celebration span three days (with more to come today).
Friday Vid
youtu.be/bpz2AWu4P… “Cuts You Up” - Peter Murphy When seminal Goth band Bauhaus broke up in the early 80s, its members went two ways. Daniel Ash, David J, and Keith Haskins went mainstream with their new band Love and Rockets. But former lead singer Peter Murphy continued to make darker music that, while not pure Goth, certainly was aimed more at the college/alternative/modern rock audience. This single, released in early 1990, was Murphy’s biggest solo hit.
Summer Notes
Some catch up on general summer notes. Monday was our annual trip to the 4H fair where the girls’ cousin shows pigs every year. As usual, they had fun walking through the buildings and viewing the pigs, cows, goats, sheep, and rabbits. No poultry this year because of the avian flu thing and the horses were not shown on Monday, so it wasn’t quite as comprehensive a view of farm animals as in the past.
Storm Follow Up
Turns out we did have some storm damage after all. We arrived at the LVS Saturday, ready to greet 12 friends for 26-ish hours of fun, and our power was still performing erratically. Some circuits worked, some did not. Those that worked seemed to be humming along at half-voltage. The fridge was running, but not cooling at all. I plugged in the blower to clean up leaves and twigs and could barely get any juice.
Storm Induced Stress
As I mentioned in my camping/All Star game post, the girls and I had to make a trip Thursday morning. It was a trip that began with a tremendous amount of stress and worry but ended up being only mildly annoying. We headed down to the LVS. Not to boat or swim. Or even meet a contractor to do something cool to the house. Rather we were checking on it to make sure it was ok.
Friday Vid(s)
A couple more Song of the Summer contenders this week. youtu.be/2jhRtybGY… “Dreams”- Beck Whooo boy! I’ve never been a huge Beck fan but this song grabbed me the first time I heard it and refuses to let go. And in typical Beck fashion, it’s just quirky enough to make it stand out. In the absence of an official video, this oddball collection of clips from the 1970s Dallas Cowboys Cheerleader movie seems perfect.
Curveball -or- A Break In Tradition
Normally this time of year, I’m sharing my thoughts on the MLB All Star game. In fact, it’s kind of a tradition. You can look it up in the archives, even! This year I was really looking forward to the All Star game, what with Royals fans highjacking the voting and sending four starters and Mike Moustakas to Cincinnati. Throw in Ned Yost and his coaching staff, plus Yost’s picks Wade Davis and Kelvin Herrera, and it was going to be a night to celebrate the Royals’ fantastic October run and terrific first half on the national stage.
Crimson and Blue and Gold
When news first broke, about a year ago, that KU would be representing the United States in the World University Games this summer, I was pretty pumped up about it. KU basketball in the summer, extra practice for the team, and a chance to get new players adjusted to the KU system before official practice even starts? What’s not to like? Who knows, maybe the summer work would sway a key recruit or two to select KU over a rival school.
⦿ Friday Links
With the holiday last weekend, things have piled up a bit. So a veritable smorgasbord of interesting posts and articles to share with you this week. Following up on our viewing of Back To The Future earlier this week, here is one ranking of the best movies of the summer of 1985. Just look at that list. I could be pretty happy with just these 10 DVDs for the rest of my life.
Friday Vid
youtu.be/5q3dXiQJu… “So You Want To Be A Rock ‘n’ Roll Star” - Tom Petty and The Heartbreakers covering The Byrds A HUGE day in music history. No longer will new albums be released on Mondays in Europe and Tuesdays in the U.S. From now on, new albums will hit the shelves (virtual and physical) on Fridays around the world. Supposedly the the music industry thinks this will help prevent piracy and leaks.
R's: Oh No
Each of the past two Augusts, I’ve written about a Royals series against contending teams that came in front of big, loud crowds and wondered if that would be the high point of the season. It likely was in 2013. Last year, though, things got about a kazillion times better over the next two months. I mention that because I can’t help but wonder if last night was as good as it will get for this year’s version of the Royals.
June Books
Will Not Attend - Adam Resnick A first-class collection of short stories by the former writer for Letterman and producer of The Larry Sanders Show, among other entries on his résumé. They are all utterly ridiculous - some to the point where you wonder how far the truth has been stretched in them. But most, especially those that feature his father, are laugh-out-loud funny. Remember Me Like This - Bret Anthony Johnston A book that seems written to be turned into a big, summer movie at some point.
Gotta Get Back In Time
A pretty solid holiday weekend, all things considered. We had good weather; it did not rain for two days, which has been unusual over the past month, nor was it blazingly hot. We had our traditional family gathering at the LVS. Not as many people as the past few years but still a decent-sized crowd. The only downer was the air conditioner deciding not to work when we were crowding 14 people into a small area to eat dinner.
Friday Vid(s)
The official middle of summer - the halfway point between Memorial Day and Labor Day - isn’t for another two weeks. But, for all intents and purposes,[1] this is the middle of summer since so many kids will be back in school four or five weeks from today. Thus, we should have a good idea of what the Song of the Summer will be. Or at least several strong, early contenders.
2015 NBA Draft
For the second-straight year I was stuck on a swimming pool deck watching dozens of 5–14 year olds swim during last week’s NBA draft. I was far less interested in this year’s draft than any recent one, primarily because KU didn’t have any expected top 10 picks and my interest in the NBA has waned even further. Although I never got around to doing a break down of last year’s draft, I might as well adhere to site tradition and share some thoughts on the 2015 draft.
Weather And Swimming
I think we’ve officially reached the point where I can say that this is a weird ass summer. At least weather-wise and so far. We are in week three of consistent storms, cloudy skies, and crazy temperature swings. First, we had a cool week. Then a very warm week where we had thick, nasty, Kansas City/St. Louis/Cincinnati humidity. And now it’s back to being relatively cool and overcast. Last week was one huge thunderstorm after another.
Love
History is undefeated. Someone said that once, right? And history won again today when the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that gay men and women can legally marry across the country. As much as scared old people and misguided middle aged and young people tried to dig in their heels, it was going to happen. A majority of the country supports gay marriage, something that seem unfathomable just a few years ago.