open.spotify.com/playlist/… “Eden” - Baths A little world music influence to this buoyant, fun track. “Ankles” - Lucy Dacus We are officially on the clock for a new Lucy Dacus album. No surprise it seems like it’s going to be wonderful, as usual. “Take Your Aim” - Rocket Some serious Smashing Pumpkin vibes on this track. Fortunately their singer is better than Billy C so I can happily listen to it.
A terrific feature about SNL’s Lorne Michaels as the show celebrates its 50th anniversary. Many writers have sat beside him watching their sketches die, only to have him turn and say, with stony sarcasm, “You must be very proud.” If the host’s monologue is flat, he’ll moan, “Can we get any charm out of him?” If a piece is too erudite, he might tell its writer, “Can they take the Emmy away?
Once again I am behind on these, so let’s get caught up with my last four reads. The Miracle of St. Anthony - Adrian Wojnarowski What a book! Future NBA scoops guru Woj spent the 2004–04 season embedded with the basketball team at St. Anthony High School of Jersey City. The program was famously coached by Bob Hurley for 45 years. For much of that time Hurley also worked tirelessly to keep the school open, spending countless hours fundraising and donating the money he made from speaking engagements and clinics to the school.
Well, one big topic to get to, and not the one most of the rest of the world is discussing today, so I’ll blow through the first two subjects quickly. Jayhawk Talk More stupidity. This team seemed to quit in the second half against K-State. Afterward, Bill Self said his players showed poor effort in practice Friday. This entire team is too old to not figure out the effort thing.
We stay knee-deep in the new music another week. open.spotify.com/playlist/… “Prisoner of Beauty” - The Limiñanas, Bobby Gillespie I can find almost no information about this song or band, which is from the far south of France. So all I can say about it is that it 100% sounds like it should have been in some gritty film during the mid-90s indie movie craze. “All My Freaks” - Divorce Kind of funny that a brand new band is writing a song about all the troubles that come with being famous.
Me, in Monday’s post: I’m not sure if I have a worse feeling about tonight’s KU game or Tuesday’s CHS one. Shows what I know about ball. Jayhawk Talk Well, that was much, much better. Arguably KU’s best, wire-to-wire, performance of the year, jumping on Iowa State early and never letting up. The offense was humming, moving the ball quickly and finding the open man. Aside from a few ill-advised drives by guys who couldn’t shoot and Rylan Griffen missing four wide-ass-open 3’s, you couldn’t ask for much more on that end of the court.
Yeesh. Quite a weekend for basketball stuff, so I guess that will be my focus today. Let’s get the worst of it out of the way first. Feel free to skip; it ain’t brief. Jayhawk Talk I’ll begin by saying I’ve never been happier to have missed watching a KU game live than I was Saturday. Yet I was still angry and frustrated later that evening because I had checked the score just as KU took a 21-point lead on Baylor late in the first half and felt pretty good about how things would turn out.
Movies, Shows, etc Rebel Ridge Movies like this are hard for me to watch these days. The moments of injustice seem far too real and common in the real world. That said, this was a good, old fashioned action flick. Not too complicated. Amazingly, despite a lot of gunplay, there’s not a ton of bloodshed nor are there any deaths as far as I could tell. There are some BIG leaps in logic in the final 20 minutes, but that goes along with the old school, action movie vibe.
No sign that the current pace of new music will slacken any time soon, which means I will continue to have the pleasure of providing music to soundtrack a good chunk of your Fridays for the foreseeable future. open.spotify.com/playlist/… “People Of Substance” - Craig Finn DAD ROCK ALERT!!!!! Craig Finn has new music out! And it is produced by Adam Granduciel! And the other members of The War On Drugs are playing on it!
More basketball stupidity, at both the high school and college levels, yesterday that I prefer to avoid for now. So, I’m launching a new series that promises to be randomly occasional: a few words about some of the favorite things in my life at the moment. Olukai Kekaha Boots It is a little weird that a Hawaiian company, famous for making casual shoes designed to be kicked off at a moment’s notice, has made some very nice cold weather boots.
A lot of hoops to get through. Not looking forward to some of it, though… HS Hoops Two games for CHS last week. Wednesday we traveled south to take on Center Grove, ranked #7 in 4A. After our city championship, we had snuck back into the media rankings at #11 in 3A. Varsity lost by 17. We were down seven at halftime then scored the first seven points of the second half to tie.
open.spotify.com/playlist/… “Giving Up” - Michigander This sounds super happy, which was how I wanted to start this week’s playlist. Then you evaluate the lyrics and see it’s not happy after all. There’s a metaphor in there somewhere. “Jealousy” - Phantogram While we need happy songs at the moment, I’m also down with ones that sound good and pissed off. “Wants Needs” - Bartees Strange Strange is like a 50-50 artist for me.
There’s Always This Year - Hanif Abdurraqib I started the year with this wonderful book. It is a multi-layered examination of the places we call home and how we relate to them as we age, all set against a backdrop of basketball. For the most part, Abdurraqib’s tale follows the career of LeBron James, from high school phenom to his first run with the Cavaliers, to The Decision and move to Miami, and finally his return to Cleveland and winning the title the city sought for so long.
Hope you had a good Monday celebrating the legacy of Martin Luther King Jr. and all he stood for. Equal opportunity, justice, empathy, love. We’ve come a long way since he was murdered. Yesterday was a reminder that we still have a long way to go. Let’s review some stuff that happened over the past few days. KU Hoops I’m about done with this team. Not in terms of watching, I’ll always watch the games.
With one more big football game scheduled for tonight, I’ll hold off on the weekend summary until tomorrow. That also allows me to devote more space to writing about high school hoops. City Tournament The semifinals of the Indy City tournament were Thursday. On the JV side, L and her pals crushed HCHS by 28, opening the game on a 17–0 run. They beat the same girls by 17 a month ago.
The new music for the new year continues to pile up, so for at least the next couple weeks I’m going to share extra-stuffed playlists. Think of them as musical firewood to keep you warm as the polar vortex announces its unwelcome arrival. open.spotify.com/playlist/… “Here We Go Crazy” - Bob Mould Hey, Bob Mould has new music out! Hey, I just got tickets to see Bob Mould in May! “Sugar in the Tank” - Julien Baker, TORRES Well here is an interesting-as-hell test case for my Country Or Not identifier.
Exactly two months since her last game, L finally returned to the court last night. So a quick update is in order. We knew going in that she probably would not play much. This was our opening game in the Indianapolis City tournament, so with (likely) games on Thursday and Friday and Tuesday’s opponent not being very good, there was no need for her to go all out. She checked in for the first time with just over a minute to play in the first quarter, to loud cheers from all her teammates.
Two weeks into the New Year and there are a couple posts I’ve been putting off for far too long. Before I get to a quick health update on your beloved blogger, I can’t believe I forgot to include a blurb about the Pacers yesterday. So… Pacers Hey, my Indiana Pacers have won six in a row! Including a comprehensive win Sunday over the Cavaliers, which broke Cleveland’s 12-game winning streak.
A quieter weekend, although there were still enough activities over the past 5–6 days to justify an overly-long blog post. Weather A little over three new inches of snow Friday, on top of the 9+ we received last Sunday/Monday. Our street is one of the few side streets in our area that gets attention; the neighborhood behind us pays a private contractor to pass through and we enjoy the benefits of that.
We’re finally back in the normal swing of things this week. I’m pleased to say my various new music playlists are being refilled after the holiday break. I should have no trouble coming up with regular-sized playlists full of new music for the foreseeable future. open.spotify.com/playlist/… “Mallee Country” - Indian Pacific Nothing like some lovely, jangle pop from Down Under to make you think of warmer days. Especially good on a day when our second snow storm of the week is expected.