KU basketball has become a roller coaster ride. Which is not the coolest thing when you are a fan. A week ago they lost to an undermanned, sleep-deprived West Virginia team at home. It was the first time the Mountaineers had ever won at Allen Fieldhouse. In true WVU form, they tried their hardest to blow a big lead, but KU could only tie then have two awful possessions when they had the chance to take the lead.
Chart Week: January 7, 1978 Song: “Don’t It Make My Brown Eyes Blue” - Crystal Gayle Chart Position: #16, 22nd week on the chart. Peaked at #2 for three weeks in November/December 1977. What is the first American Top 40 show I remember listening to? If you know me, you understand that I wish I could identify that broadcast to give it the appropriate commemorative post. My first vivid memories of hearing Casey’s voice for which I can clearly identify the year are from 1978.
Friday I had an appointment to get C’s iPad looked at. After confirming it needed a new battery, the guy helping me said the replacement would take about a week to arrive, so it would probably be “next Monday.” He paused, we looked at each other for a moment, and then we both started laughing. We both thought Friday was Monday because of the New Year’s holiday. Time and space gets freaky over the holidays!
What better time than a snowy Sunday to finally share the links I’ve been stacking up over the past month or so. After reading a 007 novel recently, I wondered why we haven’t heard a timeline for when the movie franchise will launch its post-Daniel Craig era. Turns out there is a lot of drama between the long-time producer of the series and Amazon, who now own the rights to it.
Still not back in a normal music groove yet, so today you get one of my occasional, fun, “let Spotify spit some random tunes out and make a playlist from them” deals. open.spotify.com/playlist/… “Spin The Bottle” - The Juliana Hatfield Three What a great blast from the early Nineties. “Needle” - Middle Kids Even their “mediocre” songs from overlooked EPs sound great. “Dance Of The Clairvoyants” - Pearl Jam It was nearly five years ago we were excited about this PJ song.
I completed my final book of 2024 late Saturday/early Sunday as I was battling some insomnia. It was my 62nd book of the year, making 2024 one of my best reading years ever.[1] I read seven books in two different months, six books in three separate months, and never fewer than three books in a 30/31-day stretch. Pretty good work. Now I get to start all over again. The Siege - Ben MacIntyre I’ve read two of MacIntyre’s books before, and heard about this latest one via a couple different podcasts.
Holiday Shit Elf Christmas Vacation A Christmas Story Die Hard Assorted SNL holiday sketches A’s all around. Band Aid - The Making Of The Original ’Do They Know It’s Christmas?’ Not a true documentary but rather a collection of the raw film shot on November 25, 1984, the day the vocals were recorded for this holiday classic. A remarkable view of a moment in time that became eternal. A Holiday Baking Championship Surprise winner!
As usual for the first post of the New Year, here are the artists I listened to most over the past 365, errr, 366 days. As you might expect, when Pearl Jam puts out a new album that is really good and also perform in Indy, they end up dominating. Pearl Jam - 725 Middle Kids - 274 The War on Drugs - 197 Jack White - 188 Wild Pink - 170 Hurray For The Riff Raff - 153 Waxahatchee - 148 Crowded House - 131 Japandroids - 124 Spoon - 123 And now the all time numbers.
We had a pretty good holiday week. Lots of good times and good food with family. The weather was mostly decent, dreary but unseasonably warm all week. There was some good basketball. The only bummer was I caught cold #1 of the season last weekend and it wore me down several days. Christmas Day and the day after were when I felt the worst, which kind of sucked. Luckily on the scale of worst colds I’ve ever had, this was maybe a 5, so more annoying that truly debilitating.
It’s taken a little longer than normal - I am almost certain this is the latest in the calendar year I’ve ever posted it - but at last I can reveal my 20 favorite songs of the year. This year I’ve had the the least enthusiasm I can recall about the process.[1] Usually I’ll dive into the songs in mid-fall and slowly get obsessed with the list, or at least with certain songs on it.
Christmas week has finally arrived! The countdown that begins sometime around October 1 in my mind is just about done. Reading through old posts, I see I often updated you all on my state of holiday spirit. This has been a weird year for me. I’ve listened to less holiday music than anytime this century maybe? Don’t get me wrong, I’ve still listened to plenty, probably more than the average person.
For part two, the annual review of my favorite songs of the past 20 years. Remember there have been ties for #1 a few years, thus the extra tracks. Also don’t forget that these lists remain static once published. There are several songs I would replace with others if I re-evaluated their years today. Flags fly forever, and favorite songs of the year never die. open.spotify.com/playlist/… 2004 - “Float On” - Modest Mouse 2005 - “Gone Missing” - Maximo Park 2006 - “Star Witness” - Neko Case 2007 - “Intervention” - Arcade Fire 2008 - “The Modern Leper” - Frightened Rabbit 2009 - “Whirring” - The Joy Formidable 2010 - “FootShooter” - Frightened Rabbit 2011 - “He Gets Me High” - Dum Dum Girls 2012 - “The House That Heaven Built” - Japandroids 2013 - “Holy” - Frightened Rabbit 2014 - “Red Eyes” - The War On Drugs 2015 - “California Nights” - Best Coast 2016 - “To Know You” - Wild Nothing 2017 - “Pain” / “Strangest Thing” - The War On Drugs 2018 - “Night Shift” - Lucy Dacus 2019 - “Weird Ways” - Strand of Oaks 2020 - “Can’t Do Much” - Waxahatchee 2021 - “Stacking Chairs” - Middle Kids 2022 - “the man himself” / “in the wake of your leave” - Gang of Youths 2023 - “The Window” - Ratboys
As promised, two different playlists and two videos for the last Friday before Christmas. We begin with the 11 songs that just missed making my Favorite Songs of 2024. That list isn’t completely done - I just moved a couple songs around before I started typing this - but the songs are locked in. Here are the remnants, presented in no particular order. open.spotify.com/playlist/… “If It’s Gone” - Good Looks This band put out a great album and a terrific two-song EP.
Chart Week: December 13, 1980 Song: “(Just Like) Starting Over” - John Lennon Chart Position: #4, 7th week on the chart. Peaked at #1 for five weeks across December and January. This entry is less about a specific song than an extraordinary moment in American Top 40 history. And an opportunity for me to revisit a lost piece of writing from my past. One December night in the mid–2000s, I sat down and quickly typed out what I think is one of the best things I’ve ever written.
In case you haven’t noticed, I’m dialing back the blogging a bit to close the year. I’ve been working on my Favorite Songs list. I’m hoping to squeeze out one more RFTS post before the year is over. And general end-of-the-year busyness is keeping me from sitting down at the keyboard too much. That said, I had an encounter today I thought was interesting and worthy of a quick post. I have all kinds of stories from the gym.
A slightly quieter weekend. No sitting on the couch for 183 hours watching football. I actually got out of the house both days. Multiple times! Let’s review. College Girls I’ll share the biggest, best news up top: C got her acceptance letter from IU on Thursday. That’s the only school she’s really interested in, so I think she’s locked into being a Hoosier.[1] She’s pretty excited. Coincidentally she wore an IU shirt to school Thursday.
Doing things a little different the next couple weeks. Today I’m going to share some new, indie rock, Christmas-y tracks I’ve discovered this year. Next week will be a double playlist of both the songs that just missed my Favorite Songs of the Year list, and a review of the #1 songs of each year I’ve made those lists. Plus, bonus videos each week! You all have been very good this year and deserve a little something extra!
A Spy Like Me - Kim Sherwood The second installment in Sherwood’s planned 007 trilogy, it continues to tread ground that is very unlike anything ever written for the Bond franchise. James Bond himself remains absent (mostly), as the rest of the Double-Os attempt to unravel a network that finances terror attacks before it can strike again. They’re also searching for clues for Bond’s status and whereabouts. And seem to be getting killed off at a fairly concerning rate.
Well, a lot to get caught up on. Not thrilled about all of it… College Football I spent the better part of 11 hours on the couch watching the big conference title games Saturday. Literally. I know I got up to eat dinner. Obviously a few restroom runs. Maybe I ran out to get the mail? Those were momentary breaks, though, and I spent the better part of noon-to–11 PM with my ass firmly planted in the same spot.
I’m behind my normal schedule, but my annual December shift in music has begun. More holiday music and reviewing my favorite songs of the year than listening to new tunes. Which means this is a last-minute collection, rushed a bit as I have to get a kid to an early appointment before school. open.spotify.com/playlist/… “Ceiling Fan” - Swapmeet While not taking over the mainstream, I think 2024 will partially be remembered as the year this third (fourth?