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.
In the bad old days, I would think the Royals were cursed. How else to explain getting off to a hot start - they’re currently tied for the second-best record in the bigs - yet still looking up at Detroit? The baseball gods hate the Royals, right? But these aren’t the bad old days. This is the brave new world where every roster move Dayton Moore makes works out, every in-game decision that Ned Yost makes turns to gold, and the team gets clutch hits from the bottom of its lineup late in games to pull out wins.
Again links are shared on Monday this week. But for a great reason. I had to get through the incredible oral history of the making of Airplane! before I could post. I’m pretty sure that Airplane! was the first grown-up movie I was ever allowed to see at a theater. And aside from the adult language, drug references, and sexual content, the comedy is largely aimed at nine-year-olds, making me the perfect age to see it.
Two classic Crowded House appearances from Letterman’s show this week. youtu.be/zyhDEE6bi… “Now We’re Getting Somewhere” Performed in 1987. Album one, side one, track three. In the heart of one of the all-time great opening stretches of any debut album. youtu.be/Y9oP8jfhO… “Locked Out” From 1994. Most famous for its inclusion on the Reality Bites soundtrack. Funny to see the difference between the original Late Night band and the first CBS version.
Several years back, as we were chasing likely just two toddlers around the yard, one set of our neighbors told us to enjoy those days. Because, they said, it wouldn’t be too long before our lives became this, and the husband pointed from our driveway, to the street, back to the driveway, back to the street. “You’ll be coming and going non-stop to practices, games, school programs.” They have two boys who are two years apart, both out of college now.
Monday links this time around. Salon has kicked off a series of interviews with former “Saturday Night Live” cast members. The first participant is Nora Dunn, who had a strong run with a rather controversial end during that fantastic late 80s period. Nora Dunn: “SNL is a traumatic experience. It’s something you have to survive” I trust I’ll be sharing more of these as the series continues. I know several of you have seen this already, as it popped up several times on my Facebook feed, but it’s an excellent reminder that not everything you read on the Internet is true.
youtu.be/ZNJOUIA_r… “Under A Rock” - Waxahatchee Two weeks after Courtney Barnett dropped the first great album of the year, Katie Crutchfield drops one that is almost as good. I’ve been a fan of Crutchfield since Waxahatchee’s last album, and I love her mash-up of mid–90s college rock with a healthy dose of the more recent indie sound. Say a mid-point between bands like Throwing Muses and Belly from back in the day, and Barnett, Cat Power, and Sharon Van Etten.
Allow me to admit something that may seem obvious to other parents out there, but which surprised me and may make you laugh at / mock me. As I’ve mentioned many times over the years, child care has never been an issue for us. S. comes from a large family, many of whom have lived near us, and thus we’ve pretty much always had access to free-to-cheap and readily available sitters on the rare occasions when we actually go out and engage in adult social activities.
On balance, it was a pretty solid Final Four for those of us who had no true allegiance to any of the schools represented. Yes, it sucks that Duke and Coach K won their fifth title last night. Especially given a couple awfully suspicious calls that went their way late. It wasn’t as bad as the ’01 Final Four game against Maryland, when pretty much every non-Duke fan watching believed that all three referees were doing all they could to help Duke win.