A Spy By Nature - Charles Cumming. I read Cumming’s Trinity Six earlier this year. After a slow start, I really liked it. I keep hearing Cumming’s name listed as one of the best young espionage writers going, so dove back in for another. Here, he focuses on a young British man, Alec Milius, who is drifting through his early 20s in the early 90s without any direction while his friends from school find success and fortune.
OK, cramming three things together that aren’t each related to the others, but I can link them enough to justify the single post. And, I know, all of these would have been much more timely a week ago. You were busy, too. Let’s get caught up together. First, radio. Last week was the 75th anniversary of the War of the Worlds broadcast. I’ve always been fascinated by it for a variety of reasons.
A very busy few days. So let’s catch up quickly. Halloween was postponed a night in most of central Indiana thanks to some heavy rain and dangerous winds that rolled through Thursday. It actually wasn’t bad until most kids would have been inside, but I doubt walking through the rain would have been very much fun for anyone. Friday was a gorgeous, mid-fall evening. We had a peacock (M.), cat (C.
The girls are on high alert, as the holiday season officially begins this week. There is extra tension in the air this year, as the Indy area is expected to get hit with big storms tomorrow night, likely to include heavy rain, damaging winds, and lots of lightning. Several cities have already postponed trick-or-treating until Friday. Our city has not done so yet, but it would not surprise me if that changes in the next 24 hours.
It’s time. The Pacers kick off their regular season and KU plays their first exhibition game tonight. Two teams with huge expectations begin their journeys to hopefully joyful spring endings. More about the Jayhawks next week, when their real season begins. For now, the focus is on the Pacers. I heard one national radio blowhard1 say he expected the Pacers to, far and away, have the best regular season record in the league this year.
Wrapping up our break of fall while watching Game Four of the World Series. Lots of fun crammed into the past four days. We headed down to the LVS Thursday afternoon. It was cold, rainy1, and the LVS lacks cable and internet. This was our first time trying such an outing. I’ll admit, I was a little worried. But everything worked out pretty well. The girls played and read and watched movies and, yes, fought and annoyed us on occasion.
M. and C. begin fall break today. Well, actually it began at 1:00 yesterday thanks to early dismissal. Now they get today, tomorrow, and Monday off. Catholic schools know how to do it! So naturally we’re off to Florida again… Kidding! Two trips to Florida is enough for one year. We are getting out of town, though. We’re heading downtown, first, and making our annual trip to the Children’s Museum’s haunted house.
Three weeks ago I picked the Red Sox to beat the Cardinals in six games in this year’s World Series. Look at what teams made it to the Series! Still, I have to change my pick. The Cardinals pitching is too good. Wacha and Wainwright will stifle the Red Sox bats early in the series. Those two will pitch at least twice each should the series go seven games. The Sox have good pitching, but it’s not that good.
House policy is that our girls get to have a big party, where friends are invited, for their birthday every fifth year. Which meant this was the year L. got to do something. Following in the footsteps of both of her big sisters, she selected Monkey Joe’s for two hours of jumping around. We waited until her school was on fall break so we could do it while M. and C.
Indy is a little bleary-eyed today. And for good reason. Man, was that some game last night. From the Colts fan perspective, it had about all we could ask for. The brief, but appropriate, tribute to Peyton Manning before the game. The quick three-and-out by Denver to start the game. A vintage Manning drive after a couple punts that put an “Uh oh, here we go,” vibe in the stadium. The huge plays by the Colts defense to change the tide of the game (Four different times, no less!
For some reason it’s been very hard to write up my thoughts about Pearl Jam’s Lightning Bolt. Not because I don’t like it; I do. Not because it follows the same basic formula the band has been using for nearly a decade; that is true but that doesn’t make it indistinguishable from the last two albums. Not because there’s nothing interesting about the album to put into words; there’s plenty. Not because I find myself agreeing with the theme of every positive review of the album I’ve read; I can always find something to write about my favorite band of our generation.
Posnanski revisited his 32 Best Calls In Sports History to honor the 25th anniversary of Kirk Gibson’s home run in the 1988 World Series. Checking in at #10 is Larry Munson’s epic call of Lindsey Scott’s 92-yard catch-and-run that helped Georgia beat Florida in 1980. I remember watching the game live, and probably hearing some network announcer call it, and I’ve heard the central part of Munson’s call many times. But I had never heard the aftermath, which is absolutely incredible.
My current favorite music writer, Steven Hyden, goes beyond the simple album review for the new Pearl Jam disk. Instead, he examines the band’s entire career, assesses what’s overrated, what’s underrated, and what’s been properly rated, and then does the final math. Pearl Jam made some great records in the '90s, some not-so-great records in the early '00s, and some very solid records in the last several years. The band is always worth seeing live.
Slapping together some notes while attempting to actually stay awake past halftime of a Monday Night Football game, as the Colts are battling the Chargers. Not sure why I’m bothering. The Colts vs. San Diego has been nothing but bad news for about ten years. My assignment last Friday was to cover RHS going to play DCHS, the team that lost the 83-78 thriller earlier this year. DCHS came in averaging 56 points and 550 yards per game.
It’s been a busy and frustrating couple of weeks. And some of it is beginning to catch up with us. The last two Sundays we’ve had torrential rains, which have wiped out soccer games each week. L. had her first make-up game last night (She scored two early goals, then none after that.) and M. has one tonight. Plus regular practices on top of that has us rushing around even more than normal.
I recently came across a new classic rock station1 that has a “Twelve O’Clock Double Shot” lunch show. Which is great, because I pick up L. at 1:00 so while I’m sitting in line waiting for the kids to come out, I get to listen to the last few minutes of the program. One day last week I lucked into a Motley Crüe block. It was a gorgeous day, so the windows were down.
Man, it’s like there was some kind of conspiracy to troll the over-energetic part of my brain that is responsible for nostalgia last week. First, Alexander Zaitchik wrote for Salon about how close we may have come to nuclear war in 1983, and how that, along with The Day After, freaked out some of us Gen Xers with nightmares about the nuclear apocalypse. Then Sunday’s American Top 40 was from ’83.
Where were you five years ago? We were at the hospital, greeting daughter #3 into the world. Man, has it gone by fast. L. has always seemed older than she is, and when we’re reminded of her actual age it’s always a surprise. Recently, as I’ve been thinking about her birthday, I always have to pause for a second and think, “Wait, she’s just now turning five?” That’s what spending your life chasing after two bigger sisters will do.
Whoops. It looks like, between our early September travels and the various changes I made to the site last month, I never posted my list of August books. My bad. Here they are, to be followed shortly by my September list. 30 - VJ: The Unplugged Adventures of MTV’s First Wave - Nina Blackwood, Mark Goodman, Alan Hunter, and Martha Quinn with Gavin Edwards. I knew before reading this, from the reviews, that it wasn’t considered to be nearly as good as I Want My MTV, the oral history of the glory days of MTV I read last year.
The leaves have begun to fall in our yard. The corn fields around the corner are in the process of being harvested. Which means it’s the perfect time to recycle these two classics. I don’t know about you, but I can’t wait to get my hands on some fucking gourds and arrange them in a horn-shaped basket on my dining room table. That shit is going to look so seasonal.