Chart Week: December 6, 1976 Song: “More Than A Feeling” - Boston Chart Position: #9, 12th week on the chart. Peaked at #5 the week of December 25. A perfect song. I could end this post there and it would be enough. Why waste your and my time cranking out a thousand or so words breaking down the how and why when that simple phrase sums it all up? Because that’s not the point of this series, obviously.
A few thoughts about how the Jayhawks fared Thanksgiving week. Hoops A good week. A very good week. With one exception. First, taking care of Duke in Las Vegas was a nice way to wrap up the first part of the season. KJ Adams basically shut down super phenom Cooper Flag for three-quarters of the night. I loved how the KU coaches made sure to stress it would be a group effort rather than KJ vs Cooper so KJ didn’t get in his own head about the matchup before the game.
Movies, Shows, etc The Americans, season 6 Why re-watch something I’ve seen before when I have so many unwatched shows on my list that I need to get to? Because this is my favorite TV drama ever made, it never had a subpar season, and its final 10 episodes were as good as any concluding season ever filmed. Each season got progressively bleaker and more stressful. In season six, you could almost feel the weight crashing down on each charater, like a strong arm in the middle of your back forcing you to the ground.
A long, extra-stuffed Thanksgiving weekend is in the books. Let’s run through the highlights. Thanksgiving For the first time in ages that we’ve been home for the holiday,[1] we did not host the local gathering on Turkey Day. One of S’s sisters and her husband opened up their house to the family. It was nice to not have to clean before and after, run around wildly the morning of, and hope that we hadn’t forgotten anything as we started serving the food.
No playlist this week, as the days have passed too quickly and I’ve been too busy to cobble together a few songs. Doesn’t mean I will skip sharing a video from the Billboard Hot 100 chart of December 1, 1984. youtu.be/LHcP4MWAB… “(Pride) In The Name Of Love” - U2 Last week was Madonna, which launched us towards 1985 and her ascension to pop music royalty. This week we get the first U2 song to crack the Top 40 in the US.
Happy Thanksgiving to all! Hope your travels and gatherings are safe and enjoyable. The Right Stuff - Tom Wolfe Somewhere I ran across an author/poster I follow who mentioned that they had recently read this book. In their blurb, they said something about not loving Wolfe’s writing style but still enjoying the book. I’ve never read any of Wolfe’s work before. At least for this piece, I loved his writing and the book.
The last weekend update before we dive neck-deep into the holiday season. KU Football How ‘bout them Jayhawks?!?!?! Taking the Colorado Buffaloes out to the woodshed on the sturdy legs of Devin Neal. There could not have been a more appropriate day for #4 to go off than the 33rd anniversary of Tony Sands’ record-breaking performance. It was even sweeter after Buffaloes “senior quality control analyst” Warren Sapp trashed pretty much everything about KU in a video he posted last week.
open.spotify.com/playlist/… “Drive” - R.E.M. This playlist took a long time to come together, so I had to call in a couple ringers to bookend the new music. To open, this week’s The Alternative Number Ones over at Stereogum (subscription required). A little shocked Tom only gave it a 9. “People Watching” - Sam Fender Everyone’s favorite Americana-loving Brit is back! For Fender’s upcoming album, The War on Drugs' Adam Granduciel offered some production help, including on this track.
Chart Week: November 9, 1985 Song: “You Belong To The City” - Glenn Frey Chart Position: #4, 9th week on the chart. Peaked at #2 for two weeks. The fall of 1985 was one of those proverbial Big Times in my life. I was a freshman in high school, which brought all kinds of new excitement and perils each day. The Royals got hot late in the season, came back from two 3–1 post-season deficits, and won the World Series for the first time ever.
As noted a couple weeks ago in my Friday Playlist, the legendary Quincy Jones died recently. He had many epic interviews over the years. I had these two saved and re-read them over the past few days. What a storyteller! Quincy Jones Has a Story About That In Conversation: Quincy Jones I had no real interest in reading Alex Van Halen’s new memoir, Brothers. He was always just the huge presence behind the drum kit in Van Halen, not nearly as interesting as either his brother or David Lee Roth in the band’s glory days.
Two games to catch up on from last week. Tuesday the Irish played their Jesuit sisters from down the block. L was excited because the Braves were missing two of their best varsity players, meaning girls from their kinda crappy JV team had moved up, so she was hoping for two wins. She got them. CHS dominated the JV game and won by 20 in a game that wasn’t close after the first few minutes.
A Great Weekend To Be A Jayhawk Saturday, specifically. First, just before noon Eastern, Bryson Tiller, the #20 recruit in the current senior class, signed to play at KU next year. This was unexpected. KU had chased him hard, but earlier in the week his Overtime Elite teammate Samis Calderon had signed with KU. They are not exactly the same player, but have some overlapping skills and attributes. Most recruiting nerds thought this was an either/or situation.
open.spotify.com/playlist/… “Vanish” - Blueburst with Marty Willson-Piper The story behind this song is one of the cooler ones I’ve come across this year. Craig Douglas Miller was in a band in the Nineties that got some major label attention during the great Alternative Rock Revolution but was never signed nor had any real success. Miller eventually retreated from the music world due to a variety of factors, most related to some severe mental health issues.
Let the Right One In - John Ajvide Lindqvist I put several scary books on hold in late September and hoped one or two would come in before Halloween. This one actually came through after the holiday, but that was perfect as it takes place in the week before and after Halloween, 1981. In Sweden. So it’s a little weird. Not sure I realized when I added this to my holds that it was a vampire book.
Chart Week: November 4, 1978 Song: “Alive Again” - Chicago Chart Position: #21, 3rd week on the chart. Peaked at #14 for two weeks in December. In the Seventies and Eighties the band Chicago was like air: they were always around. In over 21 years of hitting the pop chart, they had 34 Top 40 singles, 20 Top 10s, and three number ones.[1] Hits on top of hits on top of hits.
A busy weekend with more driving than normal, some big events I was not able to watch live, and the standard wide range of topics to discuss. High School Hoops L’s sophomore season kicked off Friday with a trip 90 minutes north to play Norwell, class 3A runners up last year. We played their varsity over the summer in a close, fun game we closed with a big run to win.
My routines have been a little out of whack this week, so an abbreviated playlist for today. [open.spotify.com/playlist/...](https://open.spotify.com/playlist/0ggsOVibMQrKin407AZovx?si=b74e7dbd4dd44b48) “Cult of Personality” - Living Colour Sigh… “Don’t Stop ‘Til You Get Enough” - Michael Jackson RIP to Quincy Jones, the greatest, most influential producer of all time. There are about a million songs of his that could fill this spot. Also props to Q for getting out before the world fell apart.
It is finally here, the day we’ve all been waiting for. That’s right, it’s time to start talking KU hoops again! After another wild offseason filled with recruiting twists and turns,[1] the Jayhawks crushed poor Howard University by 30 Monday night. Howard is a good program and is picked to win their conference, although they have a roster full of grad-transfers and looked like a group of players who don’t know each other well yet.
This was a fairly quiet weekend thanks to a KU bye week and the girls being busy on their own. Halloween Our Halloween was relaxed. We decided to go hang with our old neighbors. It sure brought back memories to sit in their driveway and watch kids scamper through the cul-de-sac. That was where our girls did almost all of their trick-or-treating. As we at chili we reminisced about the various holidays we shared with our friends, including the one when it was sleeting sideways and our girls insisted on going out.