Morning Laughs
Deserving of a post independent of other links, here is the annual Super Bowl edition of Breaking Madden. As always, it is awesome. Especially the closing video. I OPEN UP MY WALLET AND IT’S FULL OF BLOOD
Purple Greatness
A combo piece this morning, taking one entry from my up-coming review of January books and combining it with the movie on which it focused. Let’s Go Crazy - Alan Light I shared the excerpt from this a few weeks back, and the book finally hit the library two weeks ago. I snatched it up and raced through it in about a day. It was awesome. It details the creative process surrounding both the movie and album Purple Rain.
Friday Vid (Plus Song)
youtu.be/EvQVbfLgn… “Purple Rain” - Martin Sexton Earlier this week, I ripped through Alan Light’s Let’s Go Crazy, his book about the making of Purple Rain, both the movie and album. When I returned it to the library, I picked up the DVD of the movie, which I will be watching at some point this weekend. So, I’ve been on a bit of a Purple Rain kick. Which makes this the perfect week to share this wonderful cover of the song by Martin Sexton.
Kids
Some kid notes We’ve had a rash of lost teeth lately. L. lost three in just under two weeks, and is currently missing all four corner teeth. And then M. lost a tooth just before bedtime Wednesday. As I’ve related before, my Tooth Fairy game is off its peak of a few years back. One night for L., when I went in her room and began fishing around under her pillow for the baggie with her tooth, she rustled, yawned, and then rolled over toward me.
Make It Stop
My usual early morning routine is something like this: Get the girls up, get them breakfast, and then get them on the path to getting ready for school. When I reach the point where they are getting dressed, I start running through Twitter to see if I missed anything overnight. Well, last night I apparently went to bed right before the news broke that the NFL found that 11 of 12 balls used by the New England Patriots in Sunday’s AFC title game were inflated less than required.
Gut Punch vs. Embarrassment
Which is the worst way to end a season? In an utterly crushing, heart-breaking manner, losing a game that seemed convincingly won, and in which any of a series of singular, seemingly simple, plays over the final minutes would have been the final nail in the coffin of the eventual winners? Or to be completely outclassed and embarrassed and made to appear to be frauds to have even had designs on advancing to the Super Bowl?
⦿ Friday Links
The momentum is gathering for the nostalgia-fest that will be the celebration of the 40th anniversary of Saturday Night Live. It’s crazy to think that my freshman year of college was the 15th anniversary. I, and many like-minded pop culture fiends, recorded the 15th anniversary special and watched it over-and-over.[1] There will, of course, be an official NBC special. But VH1 Classic is getting into the act by airing a 19-day marathon of SNL’s, beginning with the most recent and working back to the original episodes.
Friday Vid
youtu.be/TU3-lS_Gr… “Dreaming” - Blondie I was in Dick’s Sporting Goods yesterday, getting Colts shirts for the girls so that they could have an out-of-uniform day today, and this song came on over the piped-in background music. It’s not the first song I think of when I think of Blondie, thus I forget what a great song it is. Interesting to read up on the song and see the band said it was basically a rip-off of Abba’s “Dancing Queen.
Not A Routine Start
Today is school day number six of the new calendar year. Thus far, we have had two normal days. Four times we have had two-hour delays, thanks to a combination of snow (last Tuesday), extreme cold/iced over roads (Wednesday and Thursday), and just ice (yesterday). Today we were back on normal start time, but C. is home with me sick. And even one of those “normal” days has an asterisk next to it since I was out-of-town that day and S.
Football Notes
Some weekend of heated action on the old gridiron! Most significantly, to me at least, was the Colts going to Denver and, aside from shaky first possessions on both sides of the ball, completely controlling the game and escaping with a border-line shocking 11-point win. I say border-line shocking because while many people this morning are acting like it wasn’t that big of an upset, there weren’t many people outside central Indiana picking a Colts win before kickoff.
Friday Vid
youtu.be/e-ORhEE9V… “Blank Space” - Taylor Swift I know, I know. This one will take some explanation. Taylor Swift hits the sweet spot in the category of “pop culture things I hate.” She was a teenage phenom, something I generally abhor.[1] Worse, she came from the country music realm, an area I have zero interest in. A country music teen phenom? Forgetaboutit. As she got older, she moved into a third area of our modern culture that I hate: a queen of celebrity gossip.
Big 12 Hoops Thoughts
Pretty much the moment Kentucky began treating KU like a high school JV team, I was sure that not only would KU’s Big 12 conference title streak end this year, but that Texas would be the team to do it. Texas isn’t as big or deep or talented as Kentucky. But the Longhorns are probably the biggest team in the nation next to the Wildcats. Their top 7–8 is awfully talented.
December Reading List
Decembers tend to be big book months for me. December 2014 was no exception. I finished seven books and got most of the way through an eighth.[1] Thus my final total for the year was 57 books. I’m pleased with that effort. The Rise & Fall Of Great Powers - Tom Rachman I loved Rachman’s The Imperfectionists, which was a pretty dazzling debut. So I picked this one up with high hopes.
⦿ Friday Links
Finishing the clean up of the long list of links I’ve gotten behind on. This first one got linked to right around the anniversary of John Lennon’s death. It is journalist Jimmy Breslin’s article from the night Lennon died. First, read the article. Then read the details of how quickly Breslin put it together. It’s a pretty amazing piece of journalism. Are You John Lennon? Your average basketball fan knows the basics of Larry Bird’s story.
NFL Playoffs Picks
Funny how fast the NFL season goes when you spend the first two months of Sundays on the soccer fields, casually following scores and paying more attention to fantasy stats. But here we are, Wild Card weekend. Thus, my patented, half-assed picks for who will make it to Glendale in a month. AFC Wild Card Round Pittsburgh over Baltimore. A bit of a tough pick, given the Steelers injury issues.
Friday Vid
youtu.be/w3HkiQxhG… “Tiny Prayers” - Restorations A band that I read about in the fall but then lost in the normal end-of-the-year shuffle. Fortunately, they landed high on one of my favorite music writer’s Best Of 2014 list, so I’m diving into them now. Terrific, crunchy, power-punk building on influences from all over the past 20 years. I have to make a long drive this weekend, and I think this album is perfect background music for setting the cruise control and moving down the road.
Stats
The biggest navel-gazing post of the year!1 The cast of usual December (and late November) characters dominated the last month of the year. And then, no surprises in my top artists of 2014 if you gave any attention to my favorite songs of the year list. December 2014 Frank Sinatra - 77 Bing Crosby - 56 Dean Martin - 55 The Philadelphia Orchestra - 30 Jonathan Coulton & John Roderick - 26 2014 The War On Drugs - 698 Ryan Adams - 596 Okkervil River - 239 Dum Dum Girls - 212 Wussy - 211 Angel Olsen - 199 Against Me!
Fin de Año
Last day of the year. As is my routine, this morning I paged back through the site’s archives for the last 12 months and jotted down some highlights. In January we kicked off the Worst Winter Ever[1] with nearly 20” of snow in three days, followed by the first Polar Vortex. Of a possible 35 hours of school the first week of January, M. and C. were in class for six.
⦿ Tuesday Links
I’m a horrible blogger. Christmas and its associated activities got me well behind in sharing links. So not only do I have a general glut, but I also have a few that should have been shared before Christmas. I’m going to knock out those holiday-related ones today and attempt to get the rest of the queue cleaned out on Friday. I suppose some of you still watch Christmas movies after Christmas.
Top Albums of 2014
Sharing my favorite songs of the year with you was not enough. Thus, I must offer a few thoughts on the year in music in general, then share my favorite albums of the year. I like to think of it as a rough guide for people with some iTunes or Amazon credit to burn who would like to add an album or two to their collections. I’ve long taken pride in my musical tastes.