A super busy weekend, with plenty of time in the car. Kid Hoops L had her first, big, out-of-town tournament as a high schooler in Cincinnati. It was a three-day deal, and we had booked two nights in a hotel. Then we got the schedule which had our first game at 12:30 Friday and our second at 6:30 Saturday night. Our team agreed it was easier to drive back-and-forth than try to kill approximately 30 hours between games.
Randomly, this week is all men, or male-led groups. open.spotify.com/playlist/… “Wreckage” - Pearl Jam It’s finally Pearl Jam day! The most excited I’ve been about a new PJ album since 2006? 2000? 1998? The early reviews for Dark Matter are mostly great. The first two singles were very good. Then they dropped this on Wednesday. In recent years I’ve flat out hated their Old Man Rocker Ballads that have taken up more and more space on their albums.
Chart Week: April 3, 1982 Song: “I’ve Never Been To Me” - Charlene Chart Position: #32, 8th week on the chart. Peaked at #3 for three weeks in May/June. Worst Song Ever. That’s a heavy crown to wear. Were I to sit down and figure out my least favorite songs of the Eighties, Charlene’s sole Top 40 hit would for sure be at the top of that list. Expanding that to all time, I think it would comfortably squeeze into the top five.
I said there was some bigger news from the weekend. I wasn’t lying. Saturday I brought home a 2024 Tesla Model Y Long Range. I’m pretty pumped about it so far. However, even with my two test drives and literally hours of watching videos about how to drive Teslas, I’m still deep in learning curve mode. The purchase, or lease actually, happened pretty quickly after two months of research. And obviously a little quicker than I had expected.
A pretty solid weekend around our house. Enough went on that I will divide this into two parts. Smaller items in this post, a bigger post to come tomorrow. After a crappy four days of rain and steadily decreasing temps, the weekend was gorgeous here in Indy. Sunday it got into the 80s for the first time this year. We took advantage by doing phase one of pool opening prep, power washing all the crap that had collected on the cover since last October.
open.spotify.com/playlist/… “Rain” - The Beatles Ridiculously rainy week here in Indy. We’ve had close to 4" of rain in our area since Tuesday. And it is still raining as I type. Lots of areas had serious flooding yesterday. It’s kind of a miracle that Eclipse Day was nearly perfect. “Docket” - Blondshell featuring Bully There are millions of songs by male rockers about being on the road and all that entails.
Things have quieted down a lot on the car buying front. Which is weird because I will likely have a new car before the end of April. How is that possible? It’s not as interesting to share what I’m learning when it is all centered on one car rather than a comparison of several. Or at least it seems that way to me. There was a moment of drama while we were on spring break.
Eclipse Well, I feel silly. I’ve been making fun of all the preparations and build-up for the eclipse since 2024 began. I laughed out loud when I saw t-shirts on racks in grocery stores and in pop-up stands at busy traffic corners. I shook my head when I heard that roughly a million people were expected to visit Central Indiana to watch the event. And then I saw it. I don’t take it all back.
Happy Eclipse Day (for those who celebrate)! youtu.be/fsgWUq0fd…
open.spotify.com/playlist/… “The Rain That Falls” - Cast I don’t know a thing about this band, but apparently they’ve been around since the early 1990’s and were stalwarts of the Britpop scene. They were also big influences on the Gallagher brothers. This song, off their brand-new album, sounds like a mature Oasis and better than anything the Gallaghers have done in their various post-Oasis groups. “Stray” - The Mysterines Like Cast, this band is from Liverpool.
My reading pace has slackened a bit. I’m actually taking a day or two off between books, which is likely a good thing. Because of that I only finished three books in March. Nettle and Bone - T. Kingfisher I famously don’t read much Fantasy fiction, yet something about the genre always holds an allure. I occasionally search for something that can reignite the magic of reading The Lord of the Rings for the first time when I was 12, only to be disappointed by another impenetrable story.
Easter A relatively chill, long Easter weekend for us. Having kids in Catholic school means it was a four-day weekend, stretching from Good Friday through Easter Monday. Not that we took much advantage of it by doing anything special. M had a high school friend visit her at UC on Friday, so she didn’t come home until Saturday morning, with her pal giving her a ride to Indy. Then she spent Saturday evening with friends.
I said last month that I needed to reset my YouTube algorithm so I was getting better recommendations. I think I’ve accomplished that, spending way too much time on the platform over the last six weeks. Now it is skewed to like 90% car stuff. Which I’m fine with, at the moment. That has caused me to add a new category for at least this month. Otherwise, not a lot of long form programming in March.
open.spotify.com/playlist/… “Late March, Death March” - Frightened Rabbit It’s about as late in March as you can get. “3 Sisters” - Waxahatchee Katie Crutchfield has done it again. Her new album, Tigers Blood, is stunning. Most of it drifts deeply into the alt-country sound, and I don’t mind one bit. There’s something pure and honest in her vocals that blasts right through all my normal reluctance to embrace that genre. Expect it to be at or near the top of every Best Of list at the end of the year.
You take everything written about Apple with a grain of salt because of the company’s notorious secrecy, but even if this piece is only partially true, it is a fascinating look at their failed attempt to get into the car business. How Apple Sank About $1 Billion a Year Into a Car It Never Built And I liked this effort to find something good in Apple’s car program. Or any EV manufacturer, for that matter.
I love honoring musical anniversaries, mostly by dropping songs with birthdays into my Friday Playlists. I missed a big one while we were on spring break, one that demands more than just a song in a playlist. March 18 was the tenth anniversary of the War on Drugs’ Lost In The Dream. It is an album that has been a huge part of my life since the day it was released.
I’m sure some of you are far more interested in my thoughts on Kansas Basketball than what we did over spring break. I’ve been ruminating on the topic since Saturday’s loss to Gonzaga. The result is a classic two-parter. Here, in part one, I’ll look back. Part two will look ahead. I picked KU to lose to Gonzaga in both of my pools. I was not expecting a 21-point loss that featured a ridiculous 39–9 run by the Zags to open the second half, though.
What a fun week we had on Anna Maria Island, Florida for our spring break. Travel was mostly a breeze, with one exception we had terrific weather, and we were able to enjoy a relaxing week in the sun. Alarms were set for 3:50 AM a week ago Saturday so we could be at the airport by 5:00. We made it comfortably and it was literally the easiest airport experience we’ve ever had this time of year.
[open.spotify.com/playlist/...](https://open.spotify.com/playlist/6tSkKKX6aWg1u2EACTEoiS?si=589bb970d01843ef) "The Trap" - R.M.F.C. If you read these posts closely, you know how I love to identify Australian groups by their common sound alone. I don't know that these kids jumped out as Aussie to me right away. It leans a little more Southern Cali surf rock, although that sound does have a big influence the Australian sound I like so much. "Neon River" - Pond Let's stay Down Under with the latest from these Aussie psych-rock heroes.
As promised, a second Car Buying post for the week. I’ve had to revamp this one several times, because my brain has been overloaded with info the past few days, and I’ve struggled to turn it into a coherent piece. Today’s mostly revolves around Ze Germans. Why I Am Ditching Audi I think I addressed this a bit in my first post, more about why I’m stepping down from my Audi in terms of finances.