Kind of a quiet weekend for us on the personal tip. Plenty of other shit to review on this gloomy, chilly Monday morning. Northern Lights Since we live inside the city’s light dome, we weren’t able to just walk out and see Thursday’s northern lights. I was able to get a couple shots, using a long exposure, that showed a bit of the colors. There were tons of amazing pictures from not too far from us.
open.spotify.com/playlist/… “Much Ado About Nothing” - Waxahatchee A leftover track from her most recent album that got a proper single release this week. In a very Pearl Jam-way, this as good as most of the tracks that made Tigers Blood. I nominate Ms. Crutchfield to be our queen. “What About The Children” - Gary Clark Jr. with Stevie Wonder Not a bad pull for a guest by Mr. Clark, huh?
Chart Week: October 4, 1980 Song: “I’m Alright” - Kenny Loggins Chart Position: #8, 13th week on the chart. Peaked at #7 the next two weeks. Every successful career has a turning point, a moment that elevates it from being run-of-the-mill into something special and lasting. This song, for example, recorded as a favor to a friend for a movie that initially was a bit of a flop, helped turned Kenny Loggins into one of the best known artists of the Eighties.
A busy, warm, disappointing, and significant weekend. FNL + Party Friday was a big night for a couple reasons. First, L was having friends over to celebrate her birthday. Seven girls, including her middle school buddy who goes to the rival high school, gathered at our house after school. They are a good group and fun to be around. They are mostly sassy and confident and silly, and while they usually congregate away from us, when we have to interact with them they always make me laugh.
open.spotify.com/playlist/… “October” - The Helio Sequence It is here, people. Decorative gourd season. Motherfuckers. “Perfect Me” - Blossoms First off, these dudes don’t sound like your typical Manchester band. I would have guessed Southern California first. Then, they said this song is a homage to their love of Abba, Bruce Springsteen, and The Killers. I hear some Killers, the other two? Not so much. “Drop Me Out” - High Vis If it doesn’t work because I’m not smart enough to make it work, there should be a GIF of Beavis and Butthead headbanging and yelling “YES!
What a glorious October morning today was. Made all the more glorious by the mighty Kansas City Royals sweeping Baltimore to advance to the ALDS against the evil New York Yankees. It’s like the late 70s up in here! Two tense games in gloomy, Baltimore weather, which made the Wild Card series feel so much like the 2014 ALCS between these two teams. Poor Baltimore. That’s six-straight losses to the Royals in the postseason, a healthy chunk of their 10 straight postseason losses.
Another dive into the notebook for a selection of random notes. College NIL Shockwaves went through college sports last week when UNLV quarterback Matt Sluka, who tore up KU in week three, announced he was sitting out the remainder of the season so he could transfer and retain a year of eligibility. He claimed that UNLV had not lived up to their NIL agreement. UNLV fired back that they had provided everything promised and he was looking for a better deal elsewhere because of his hot start.
A few changes prompted a new sub-section. Movies, Shows, etc US Open, week two The non-stop action of week one is more fun, but week two still dominated our TV. A- The Americans, season four In general The Americans is a bleak show. I forgot how beyond-bleak season four was. Thirteen episodes of crushing negativity, applied a little heavier each week. Important characters are killed or deported or exfiltrated or question everything about themselves.
Another weekend in the books. This one had some familiar elements, yet was still quite different than other recent weekends. Helene The biggest event of the weekend was the remnants of Hurricane Helene kind of ruining our weekend. That’s overstating things. Other people had far worse weekends than we did because of the weather. But it was cloudy, breezy, and muggy at best all weekend. Off-and-on drizzle all day Friday, Saturday, and Sunday.
We are bracing for the remnants of Helene in Indiana this morning. It is already raining and windy. By this afternoon heavy rain and gusts over 50 MPH are expected. Should make high school football interesting. CHS picked a good week to not have a game scheduled. open.spotify.com/playlist/… “Pop Seeds” - The Jesus and Mary Chain More completely enjoyable music from the Reid brothers. “whirling sad” - Mo Dotti LA shoegaze FTW.
The first year of the Indiana Fever’s Caitlin Clark era came to an end Wednesday night in an 87–81 loss to Connecticut in the first round of the WNBA playoffs. The Fever had an early lead then fell behind by double-digits multiple times, the last time midway through the fourth quarter, before mounting a furious rally and taking the lead with two minutes to play. Three consecutive Sun 3’s ended the hopes of getting the series back to Indianapolis for a decisive third game.
A year ago Will Ferrell made an unannounced and odd appearance at a Wal-Mart on the southside of Indy. Word came that it was part of a project he was working on. That project hits Netflix this week, and tells the story of a road trip he took with his fellow SNL alum Harper Steele after Steele’s transition. This is an interview with them about that project. Also, just to paint the picture, you were dressed as Sherlock Holmes.
Another full-ish weekend, with most of our attention focused on the corrupt and disgraceful arena of sports. Sports suck. Family Let’s flip our normal order, though, and kick it off with family chat. M came home for the weekend. It was her first visit of the semester and nice to have her in the house for about 48 hours. She had no plans and mostly chilled on our couch while doing homework or taking naps.
It’s been a good week or two and my new music folder is getting filled up again, making it more difficult to pick what to share than to scare up enough songs to share. It helps we have an anniversary song, an old song that is new to me, a new version of an old song, and a calendar song all in this week’s PL. open.spotify.com/playlist/… “September” - Earth, Wind & Fire It’s that time of year, y’all!
Trust Her - Flynn Berry Three years ago I read Berry’s A Northern Spy, about an unaffiliated Northern Irish woman, Tessa, who gets pulled into the conflict between the IRA and British authorities because of her sister. In this follow up, set a few years later, the siblings are settled in Dublin where they have carved out new lives with new identities. Until the IRA finds Tessa and threatens her family unless she attempts to turn the British agent she worked for when she was still in the North.
Today’s first selection is a must-read for any fan of Prince, music in general, or celebrity in America. It is a deep examination of Ezra Edelman’s attempt to make a massive, nine-hour documentary about Prince’s life and death, and how changes in ownership of Prince’s estate may keep anyone from ever seeing it. I understand Prince’s family wanting to protect his image. I think they are way off base, though, in believing that letting the world see this film would result in the interest in his music disappearing.
Chart Week: September 7, 1985 Song: “Cry” - Godley & Creme Chart Position: #24, 8th week on the chart. Peaked at #16 the week of October 5. Every decade is filled with unlikely hits. In the Eighties, the best way to force your way into the Top 40 was by making a video that was unique and memorable. That’s how Englishmen Godley & Creme earned their only hit as a duo in the US.
As has become standard so far this fall, Friday night was jam-packed with sports action from the couch. Things were ratcheted up a notch this weekend, as KU was playing, meaning I couldn’t casually watch tennis, baseball, or basketball while listening to high school football. No, this week I would be yelling at the TV while listening to the radio. Sadly, more yelling than I expected. For the most part that worked out ok, although there were moments that big things were happening in each game at the same time and it was tough to keep track of what was going on where.
open.spotify.com/playlist/… “Favourite Songs” - Maximo Park This was the week I learned that MP and bands like them - The Kooks, The Futureheads, Editors, The Wombats, Bombay Bicycle Club - were lumped into a sub-genre called “Landfill Indie” by some critics. That was not considered a term of endearment. Which bummed me out because I liked a lot of those bands in the stretch during the early 2000s when they were popular.
I’ve been doing some blog maintenance lately, going back and adding tags to all of my nearly 3500 posts. After two weeks of work, I’m about two-thirds of the way complete. I’m not really sure why I decided to do this. Tags are hard. I tried to use them years ago and gave up because I was never sure how to granular to get when categorizing posts. Even now, I don’t really understand their utility.