Good grief. Busy-ness (as opposed to business), laziness, a holiday weekend, and a general late-school year malaise have me well behind in sharing links. This period of inattention just happened to coincide with a flood of great things to share. So brace yourself, grab a beverage, shut your office door (or send the kids to bed if the hour is appropriate), and take a deep breath before diving into these.
youtu.be/daUyogS1w… “Constructive Summer” - The Hold Steady A GREAT fan-made video that takes the words of a song and uses them in an unexpected way. Charming, funny, and inventive. Oh, and the perfect song for the unofficial start of summer. Let’s build something this summer!
As you know, I dig series finales. I love it when a show that has been on for years, and has built a loyal audience and deep back-story, closes everything out with one last episode and goodbye. But when it’s a person who is leaving air rather than a show, and 33 years of history rather than just a solid 5–7 year sit-com/drama run, it’s a little different. It’s tougher to draw a straight line and connect all the dots between the first episode and last when you’re dealing with over three decades and two different networks.
Some assorted Kid Notes that have been jotted down in recent weeks. This is totally unofficial, and I base it without knowing anything about the rest of the school, but I’m declaring my girls the Reading Champions of St. P’s. Second graders are given reading wheels during second semester they are required to complete. They contain 12 categories, with the entries each, that the kids have to read a book for.
What birthday summed you up the best? I’m not saying your best birthday, or the most memorable one. I’m saying, which of your birthdays contained all the elements that, combined, explained the person you were/are? I ask that question because I believe yesterday was the most C. birthday of C.’s life. She was happy, crazy, giggly, and excited. She also had three meltdowns, got in trouble and sent to her room, and had some of her favorite toys taken away because she was fighting over them with one of her sisters.
youtu.be/ldWSMhu4C… “True Trans Soul Rebel” - Laura Jane Grace with Miley Cyrus Miley is doing some interesting things these days. I can’t say I’m on-board with, or understand, many of them. But her Happy Hippy Backyard Sessions are often fantastic. I highly recommend checking out the other performances. Here, she joins Against Me!’s Laura Jane Grace for one of the best songs off one of the best albums of 2014, Transexual Dysphoria Blues.
I hinted last week that I had made a purchase that would require a lengthy post. I’m sure some of you immediately thought, “That glorious bastard bought an Apple Watch!” Nope. My feelings about the Apple Watch are pretty similar to how I viewed the initial iPhone back in 2007: cool gadget, but I don’t see the need for one in my life. I think we’ll all be wearing some kind of connected watch in the relatively near future.
We have a truck-load of mulch being delivered shortly,[1] so some links to help you pass the time while I try to beat the rain. We’ll begin with basketball. This article is a year old, but got passed around again after the player who it focuses on, Cheick Diallo, committed to play his one year of college basketball at Kansas two weeks ago. Interesting how, at least when it comes to college choice, the headline was 100 percent accurate.
Takes almost as hot as the weather here in central Indiana.[1] A-Rod Wow, the Yankees have made Alex Rodriguez a sympathetic figure, something that seemed impossible. I love to hate A-Rod, but I also admire his comeback. It would have been easy after his last injury and suspension to just retire and disappear into the void. He could say goodbye to the media, to fans booing him at every at-bat, and to all the drama that has surrounded the last part of his career.
youtu.be/qVtAteilk… “Turn Around” - Mikal Cronin In the style of Natalie Imbruglia’s “Torn.” Cronin’s new album, MC III, is one of my favorites of the year. As he did on his last album, he perfectly combines classic power pop with straight-ahead rock, and this time throws on some layers of strings to add a lushness to each song.
I am a wee bit distracted this week. We’ll get into it more soon, likely next week, but I made a semi-major purchase over the weekend. Which, of course, demands that I share a lot of words about the research that went into said purchase and how the purchase is working out. But that’s a few more days away. In the meantime, a rare political post! It’s the worst time of the year.
Station Eleven - Emily St. John Mandel I ended March with a disappointing semi-apocalyptic novel, Black Moon. As I was finishing it, I got the notice from the library that my hold on Station Eleven had come in. It was much better. Mandel goes to the Stephen King well to find the source of her apocalypse: a super flu that races around the world and quickly wipes out much of the population, leaving the few survivors to attempt to forge a new society with almost no modern technology.
Man oh man. May is here! April freaking flew by, with the three girls playing different sports and locking up our calendar just about every afternoon or evening of the month. Along the way it got seasonably warm, then we suddenly had a stretch of about 10 days with below-normal temps. But then, gloriously, last Friday the sun came out, the mercury raced well past 70 and has stayed there since.
David Letterman is now in his final month hosting a late night talk show. Here is a fine Q&A with him from The New York Times. David Letterman Reflects on 33 Years in Late-Night Television After over a decade of blogging, I’m finally linking to something from Playboy. And it’s an article! Anyway, you might want to view this page carefully. Of course, given what can be found on the Internet, Playboy seems awfully damn tame.
youtu.be/98AJUj-qx… “Once In A Lifetime” - Talking Heads One of the oddest, and thus most memorable, videos from MTV’s earliest days.
A few quick, random thoughts to share. Why do you have to verify that you are at least 21 years old before you access the website of a brewery? It’s not like you can pour a free sample out of your monitor once you put in your birthdate. And there’s no age requirement to watch the 8000 beer commercials that are on TV each day. Though it would be nice if you could lie about being under 21 and thus avoid those stupid Bud Light commercials.
C. got her own sports post last week. The sisters deserve updates, too. We’re in the last week of kickball season. Baring a miracle finish (and collapse by another team), M.’s team will not make the tournament. They’re currently 5–1, but that one L was a 27–2 loss to a team they face again in the season finale. That game was brutal. It was a cold, windy, nasty day. St.
youtu.be/jFvtMp7hR… “Street Fighting Man” - The Rolling Stones In honor of Yordano Ventura and the 2015 Kansas City Royals, who are apparently going to get into some kind of altercation with every team they play this season.
Lost in the early baseball season rush, I’ve forgotten to share something very important with you: my summer 2015 cap choice. Frankly, I’m a little surprised I haven’t received angry emails demanding I reveal my pick. Allow me to rectify. I found myself in a bit of a quandary this year. Last year’s cap is still in decent shape. And there was a lot of good luck contained inside of it.
I haven’t kept many mementos from my childhood sports days. There are a few stats sheets and participation patches hidden away in a box in the basement. But all my trophies were tossed out long ago. Nor are there any old uniforms or hats crammed into a cedar chest somewhere as reminders of my pre-high school sports glory days. Among a group of six baseballs I have tucked into a drawer in our dresser, though, I do have two game balls that I saved from my YMCA/Little League days.