Sad news from the radio world.
Faced with growing competition from digital alternatives, traditional broadcasters have managed to expand their listenership with an unlikely tactic: offering less variety than ever. The strategy is based on a growing amount of research that shows in increasingly granular detail what radio programmers have long believed—listeners tend to stay tuned when they hear a familiar song, and tune out when they hear music they don't recognize.
Overheard on the way home from school yesterday.
C.: M.! Did you hear Justin Beaver got arrested?! (She still has a few words where she replaces B’s with V’s. I love that Bieber is one of them.) M. (bored): Yes. L.: Why’d he get arrested? C.: He egged his neighbor’s house. And he snuck out of a club. L.: Oh. He left a club? What’s that? C.: It’s like a place people go at night.
Sadly, all this cold has sapped my brain of writing inspirations. So yet another link for you. This is a good one, though.
Grantland offers up the oral history of all oral histories: an insiders’ tale of the making of the movie Swingers. It’s great, although not nearly long enough for extreme devotees of the flick. Still, plenty of great tidbits, including this story about the inspiration for the closing scene of the movie.
I saw this article linked to from a couple sites last week. Both pointed out that, on its surface, it seemed like a silly story about a silly fad. Apparently artisanal toast - at $3, or more, a slice - is the new big thing in San Francisco and beginning to spread to other major cities. But both sites said the story went deeper than over-priced toast and was worth diving into.
I’m pretty sure at some point in the past ten years I’ve written about my mini-fascination with soldiers, mostly Japanese, who disappeared into the jungles of the Pacific during the closing days of World War II and lived for years thinking that the war was still being fought only to eventually learn that peace had been declared long ago. I suppose it’s just an extreme take on the marooned in the wilderness fantasy.
This will cause some of you to shake your heads, perhaps in disbelief, perhaps in disgust, perhaps in resignation. But I must share it anyway, because it’s just so excellent to those of us who follow the Kansas Jayhawks.
Grantland’s college basketball guru, former Ohio State player Greg Titus, produces a weekly column in which he ranks his top 12 teams of the moment. It’s an often hilarious look at what happened over the previous week of college hoops.
It’s been awhile since I’ve shared any news from the road. Of course, there haven’t been a ton of really interesting stories from the winter sports season so far. But here are some tidbits to keep you updated on what I’ve been doing.
I forget if I shared my experience writing a preview on one of the boys teams we cover. So allow me to repeat myself if I did.
From January 25-27, 1978, the Indianapolis area got over 15” of snow, which came on top of 5” of snow from a few days previous. The winds howled at over 50 mph. Snow drifted to between 10 and 20 feet. The wind chills were below -50. People were trapped in cars on the highways. Amtrak trains were stranded on their tracks. The entire city shut down for three days. The pictures of that time, extra grainy as they came in the low-res, black and white newspaper photo era, are incredibly eerie.
Tonight the Kansas Jayhawks officially begin pursuit of their 10th straight Big 12 conference championship. Despite an immensely talented roster, that quest seems rife with concern at the moment.
There’s no denying it: the season has been disappointing so far. Disappointing, not a disappointment. While it’s been far from worst-case - the Duke and Georgetown games were fun - I think this season has been a textbook example of the perils of running a team full of freshmen and limited experience sophomores out against tough competition.
I read 55 books in 2013. Not bad. Not bad at all. Here’s the last of the bunch.
A Christmas Story - Jean Shepherd You Better Not Cry: Stories for Christmas - Augusten Burroughs Shepherd’s work is an annual tradition for me. Before I can watch the movie, I have to go back and read the original essays it was based on. And, each Christmas season, I try to include at least one new holiday book.
There’s no two ways about it: this sucks.
Over a foot of snow. Windchills are currently -40. There are travel bans all over the area, meaning unless you have an emergency or you’re on your way to a shelter, you can be arrested for taking your car onto a road. And worst of all, M. and C.’s holiday break was extended a day. It’s too cold to send them outside, we can’t drive to a mall or the library, and we’re all sick of each other.
A - Many of you have been saying I’m an idiot for a long time. B - Chiefs fan, you might want to skip this one.
I’ve been claiming, for years, that I’ve shed many of my sports superstitions. And that’s true to a point. Back in the glory days of my superstition-dom, game days involved elaborate ceremonies of picking the correct clothes, going through proper pre-game activities, finding the correct seat, saying and thinking the proper things before the game, and so on.
Our girls keep using the word “awkward” incorrectly. For example, earlier this week we ran into their Uncle D at the grocery store and then him again with Aunt J walking their dog through the neighborhood the next day. Both times the girls kept shouting, “AWKWARD!” I had to explain that awkward means uncomfortable, weird, strange, not just an expression surprise. So it’s not awkward to run into people you want to see.
In case you missed it over the holidays, the New York Times had a fun quiz that, based on the words you use for certain terms and how you pronounce those words, shows how you compare to people across the country.
The first time I took this, my most similar cities were Denver and Aurora, CO and Albuquerque, NM. Later I read that it works best if you use the words and pronunciations you grew up with.
Happy New Year! We woke to 4-5” of new snow on the ground, with even more predicted for Saturday night. The girls are excited. I’m excited I can finally get them outside of the house for awhile.
With apologies to all the fans of Epiphany out there, the holiday season has officially ended. Yesterday we took our tree to the recycling pile at the park and packed up all our decorations.
I know none of you probably pay any attention to these monthly accountings of my music listening habits. Like most of what I do here, it’s mostly for my amusement.
First, what I listened to in December. As always, it was a little different that what I listened to the other 11 months of 2013.
Frank Sinatra - 68 Bing Crosby - 45 Dean Martin - 40 Vince Guaraldi Trio - 30 Ella Fitzgerald - 26 Next, a look at the artists last.
That’s what the family calendar on the refrigerator shows this morning. Three hundred sixty-five days down, zero to go. Which means, though the sun will rise in the morning and the normal work-week will continue (for some) on Thursday, today is still an end and tomorrow another beginning.
2013 was, for the most part, great for our family. Three big family trips (Disney in January, spring break in Florida, Boston for a family wedding).
I woke up early this morning, for no real reason. I had been sleeping until 8:00, even 8:30, much of the past week. Something caused me to wake up shortly after 6:00 today, though, and after trying to fall back to sleep, I gave up. I went downstairs, made coffee, and enjoyed the silence of the morning with my current book. S. was off to work early and the girls all kept with their holiday trend of sleeping in.
First, my obligatory annual statement about how fast Christmas flies by when you’re an adult. The time from final dismissal before Christmas break for the girls to about 9:30 last night, when the kids were all in bed, most of the clean-up was done, and we could just sit and relax seemed to pass in a blur. I think that’s because we had a fine Christmas.
As is tradition, we had an uncle and two aunts join us for Christmas morning.
Here we are. Two days left on the Advent calendar. A couple loops left on the Christmas ring chain C. brought home. Done with school for the year. The cookies have all been made. Christmas day menu planned. Yep, it’s Holiday DEFCON level 1.
All three school programs went well. M. shined as Mistletoe the FBI agent in her grade’s The Christmas Files program a week ago. She had one minor hiccup with a line, but caught herself quickly and powered through.