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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
youtu.be/MTrKkqE9p… “Coming Home” - Leon Bridges If you haven’t heard Leon Bridges yet, you’re just in time. His singles have been thrilling the music world the last couple months and his debut album just dropped on Tuesday. I’m fascinated by how artists make choices in what aesthetics they will adopt. I assume Bridges grew up listening to old Sam Cooke and Otis Redding albums. Any kind of pre-Beatles, pre-Motown soul music for that matter.
For years I’ve been a Back Up Nazi. I let people know how important it is not just to back up the data that is valuable to you - photos, videos, music, important text documents - but to have more than one backup copy. One copy around the house. Then an extra hard drive at a neighbor’s home or bank safe deposit box and collect it every few months to update it.
Some sporting notes. US Open I rarely watch golf anymore. Mostly because I haven’t swung a club in over eight years.1 And when Tiger flamed out I suddenly had no real rooting interest. The wave of new, young players all seemed like only slightly different versions of the same guy. Which, to be fair, is always kind of the case in golf. But I did watch healthy doses of Sunday’s final round of the U.
Happy Fathers Day to all the other dads out there! Chuck Klosterman’s Billboard cover story on Eddie Van Halen made some waves this week. Especially when Sammy Hagar put a pointed rebuttal/response on YouTube. I think we can all agree that Michael Anthony is the only guy of the first five to be in Van Halen that doesn’t seem like a total jerk. Eddie Speaks With the release of Inside Out Friday, ranking all the Pixar movies was a popular activity.
youtu.be/D-xcbL-Ca… “Gates Of Dawn” - Heartless Bastards HB has been kicking around for a lot of years now. Each time they put out an album, I think, “That’s pretty good.” But they’ve never made my Top 10 album or songs lists to end a year. That might change this year, though.
Long-time readers of this site will recall, likely with great pleasure, my periodic updates on the wildlife around our home from years past. We’re in a bit of a boon in that area, so lets revisit that genre of post. One night last week I was walking through the living room right at dusk and noticed movement between our deck and trashcans. Like so many times over the past 12 years,1 there was a big, fat raccoon slinking into our woods for an evening patrol.
The Stanley Cup playoffs ended Monday night and the NBA Finals wrapped up last night.1 Winter sports are finally over! Our family’s sports are in transition, too. Softball finally came to an end last week, albeit an earlier-than-expected one. C.’s team dropped their opening game of the tournament by four runs. They were down by 10 runs early, cut it to one in the 5th, but had the wrong part of the lineup up in the 6th and couldn’t get over the hump.
Wide awake I rearrange the way I listen in the dark Dreaming of starting up again Perhaps because I go to so few concerts, I approach them with a sense of trepidation. Will the singer be in good vocal form tonight? Will a mercurial band member be in a bad place and bring the whole group’s energy down? Will the sound be bad? Will the crowd suck, and the band not push forward because of the lack of energy and love coming toward them?
Only three articles worth sharing this weekend. It’s kind of a tradition that there be a Joe Posnanski story included. So here’s his take on the LeBron vs. Jordan comparison. Such Great Heights As much as I hate to admit it, I’m beginning to be swayed that this is both a legit question and there are reasonable arguments for LBJ. The biggest thing that makes it difficult is how much the game has changed since Jordan retired.
youtu.be/SmFVauPAv… “Eyes To The Wind” - The War on Drugs “I’m just a bit run down here at the moment…” Falling in the second half of their lovely Lost In The Dream album, perhaps no line sums up the disk better than this one. A weary proclamation of a man beaten up by the wallowing and self-flagellation that comes with romantic loss, it sets up all the glorious “moving on” tracks the dot the rest of the album.
I’ve been thinking about my next Royals post for a couple weeks. In the interim, they had a slow and steady descent into their first extended cold spell of the season. It began with concerns about pitching, as each member of the starting rotation had at least one terrible start and both Jason Vargas and Danny Duffy landed on the Disabled List. Soon, though, the Same Old Royals appeared at the plate.