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.
Kind of an odd media month. There was some baseball early, but not much after the Royals were eliminated. A lot of reading The Lord of the Rings. A fall break vacation. But not much long-form stuff. That should shift in November. And there was a changing of the hobbies, a switch that is reflected below with a new section. Movies, Shows, etc Halloween Baking Championship The winner was a bit of a surprise, as Manny rallied in the final three episodes to take the competition.
open.spotify.com/playlist/… “Afterlife” - Sharon Van Etten New SVE music! We won’t get the album until February, making it the first 2025 album on my New Music list. For the first time, she collaborated with her band on writing songs rather than bringing songs to them to join her on. None of her magic gets lost in the process, at least on this track. “Raleigh Arena” - Jim Nothing Nothing’s album was one of four that came out the Friday we were in Denver I was interested in.
A few sports thoughts, mostly about basketball. KU Hoops Much better performance Tuesday in the second exhibition contest against Washburn. Of course, they better have looked better against a D2 team. Hitting shots is always a good thing, and KU actually seems to have multiple shooters this year. They ran a little more of what you expect to see on the offensive end than they did against Arkansas. My man Flory Bidunga is going to really good, maybe as soon as next year.
Sometimes it is hard to articulate why you believe the things you believe, especially long held views. They become a part of who you are and the inflection points that led you to adopt those stances can be difficult to recall. Take politics, for example. People our age have likely held the same views, or some version of a core set of opinions, for over 30 years now. Do we remember what it was that triggered our beliefs on how government should or should not behave?
The Hobbit, The Fellowship of the Ring, The Two Towers, The Return of the King - J.R.R. Tolkien I’ve thought about re-reading The Lord of the Rings for several years and finally pulled the trigger. Which was dumb. Given how focused I am on nostalgia, memories, and anniversaries, I really should have tackled it last year, the 40th anniversary of the first time I read it. In fact, that’s how I spent the fall of 1983, working through these four books as a couple friends did the same.
These summaries are usually heavy on the sports. After a weekend like the one just passed, that is problematic. Nothing, and I mean NOTHING, good happened for teams I follow over the past three days. Just a reminder that sports are terrible and I’m dumb for letting them hold such large sway over my life and mood. You people who waltz blissfully through your days without being affected by the result of a game have it right.
open.spotify.com/playlist/… “Halloween I & II” - Cloud Nothings Happy Halloween! “Dance Now” - Girl and Girl If I had gone into a coma in 1983 or 1984, woken up this week, and this was the first song I heard, I bet I wouldn’t have realized I just slept through 40-ish years. All kinds of Eighties goodness in here. Another great Aussie band to add to our collection. If S and I ever make it Down Under, she’s going to be bummed that I just want to go to clubs and watch indie rock bands.
The new NBA season kicked off last night and the Pacers begin play tonight. When we last saw them, the Pacers were making a surprise, fun-as-hell run to the Eastern Conference finals. They could have easily won three of the first four games against the eventual champion Celtics, but were instead swept aside. Their run was fueled as much by injuries to key players on Milwaukee and New York as by the play of the Pacers themselves.
A few other notes from last week/the weekend plus life in general. Health I’ve had a couple longer spells of irregular heart beats lately, so the week before we went to Denver I wore an event monitor again. Just like the first two times I wore one, I had zero issues, so it wasn’t really helpful. Plus it made it hard for me to sleep since I’m a stomach sleeper.
To celebrate the glories of CHS fall break, we took the girls (well, C and L) to Denver to stay with S’s sister and her family for a few days.[1] We hadn’t been to Colorado since Christmas 2017, although we were scheduled to spend spring break there in 2020 until, well, you know… We flew out Wednesday evening, returned Sunday morning/afternoon. Other than heavy fog causing us to sit at the gate for an extra 40 minutes before leaving Denver, we had no travel issues.
Going to fire off three quick summaries of recent books before we head to the airport. Middle of the Night - Riley Sager The Only One Left - Riley Sager I was not at all familiar with Sager’s work, but when I saw Middle of the Night pop up on multiple lists of must read new books over the summer, I jumped on it. Wise choice. It is an excellent, spooky, freaky, fun mystery revolving around the disappearance and presumed death of a young boy in 1994 and his best friend’s efforts to cope with that loss as an adult, and then deal with weird coincidences that pop up 30 years after the disappearance.
A special, early playlist this week, as we are headed to Denver later today to visit family over the CHS fall break. open.spotify.com/playlist/… “Tell Me Why U Do That” - Grace Bowers & The Hodge Podge So Grace Bowers is some kind of prodigy. She’s still in her teens, has had an endorsement contract with Gibson guitars for four years, and is already putting out music that sounds like this.