Something very odd happened last week: I did not read a single day. Or at least I did not read a book during the week; there were plenty of NBA Finals articles, Bluesky posts, and the other random bits of text I digested each day. But I did not (virtually) crack a book the entire week. It wasn’t for a lack of inventory. I just got a fresh stack of Ken Bruen books from Thrift Books.
What a great weekend! At least as far as my trip to Chicago was concerned. It was really a top notch trip, as Judge Smails would call it. I don’t know if this will be as detailed as some of my old trip summaries were, but here’s a general accounting of my 48-ish hours away. Travel Driving up to Chicago is a breeze. Even Friday morning, when I was passing through multiple areas where tornadoes had been Thursday evening.
By the time most of you get to this post, I will be somewhere on I–65 between Indianapolis and Chicago. This playlist (mostly) celebrates the reason for my journey. [open.spotify.com/playlist/...](https://open.spotify.com/playlist/4KhaO7MwJpBblfBsD6qa0Y?si=3269d080c46e4c86) “Your Little Hoodrat Friend” - The Hold Steady Tomorrow two of my brothers-in-music and I will be watching THS in Chicago. Can’t wait. “She’s been calling me again…” “Drowning Machine” - Liquid Mike Maybe not directly THS influenced, but I think you can say they occupy a similar general space in the modern rock world.
I had a couple quick-ish sports thoughts to share today. And then last night’s game four of the NBA Finals required over 1000 words… NBA Finals HOLY SHIT!!!!! ☠️☠️☠️ The Spurs did everything they were supposed to do to even the series before heading home for game five. They weathered a big Knicks comeback in game three to grab their first win of the series. Last night in game four, they were crushing the Knicks.
Chart Week: June 1, 1985 Song: “Voices Carry” - Til Tuesday Chart Position: #28, 8th week on the chart. Peaked at #8 the week of July 13. I am positively giddy as I prepare to write this entry. This song/band/countdown combination checks so many boxes that get me fired up to share music trivia with my readers. Such as: A band commonly considered to be a One-Hit Wonder that, in fact, had more than one charting single.
It was a proper summer weekend. The weather was warm and got warmer and muggier as the weekend progressed. That turned into torrential downpours Sunday afternoon. We lazed in the pool when the weather allowed. Sunday S and I went to the graduation party for the daughter of one of her partners. As it poured we reminisced about M’s party getting broken up by similar storms, and said a little prayer that we get through L’s party next year without a deluge.
Looking at the calendar, we’ve reached Silly Season for my Friday music posts. This week L and I have to be out of the house at 7:00 AM for an all-day basketball tournament. In the next month or so I will be leaving the house early on a Friday for a weekend in Chicago, spending a long weekend in Colorado for a wedding, and another week I will be in Ireland on music day.
Brian Phillips lists some of the many ways tech makes our lives harder, more infuriating, etc. 4. Please, please stop asking me to verify my humanity by clicking on tiny motorcycles. OMG YES!!!! The 40 Most Rage-Inducing Problems in Tech And John Gruber wrote about a very specific example of how tech can trigger us. If you visit a website you should … see the website. See its content. Be able to read the article whose page you are attempting to visit.
Movies, Shows, Etc. Your Friends & Neighbors, season two One episode left. There was a rather large cliffhanger at the end of episode nine that I was expecting to drop in #10,[1] so we’ll see what Friday’s finale has in store. Incomplete There’s Something About Mary A month or so ago I came across this on cable and watched for about 10 minutes. A couple weeks later it turned up on Netflix just when its Rewatchables episode dropped, which was the perfect excuse to watch it, front-to-back, in unedited form.
A weekend with some big sporting events to discuss. Hibachi I did some Good Dad stuff to start the weekend. L’s favorite restaurant is a hibachi place near us. Since I got a Blackstone grill last year I’ve made a far-less-elaborate home version a couple times. She had bragged about my skills to her friends and requested that I cook up a meal for her crew. Not everyone was able to make it but I did cook for a total of 10 people Friday night.
Unlike last week, I had almost too much music to pick from today. Let’s see how well I do editing. (One track, marked with ***, is not available in Spotify and I’m too lazy to adjust. Another vote for Apple Music…) [open.spotify.com/playlist/...](https://open.spotify.com/playlist/5bAXlJdaqd9CNcs2z4mtot?si=502f487273e6430a) “Summer Begins” - The Proctors Let’s go! “The Weak” - Iceage This is what The Strokes wanted to sound like but never did. The Strokes were never cool enough to have a deranged flute solo, either.
Polostan - Neal Stephenson I’ve not read a Stephenson novel since 2010. The blurbs for this one got me interested enough to pick one up again. This book, which kicks off a new series, takes place primarily in the 1920s and 1930s, flipping between the Soviet Union and US. At the heart of it is Dawn/Aurora, a young woman born in St. Petersburg, primarily raised in Montana, but who eventually flees back to the USSR after her father is killed in an attack on World War I veterans by a fascist wing of the US Army.
The first weekend of summer has passed. Based on the forecast for the next week or so, it looks like Monday Mother Nature finally decided to get her act together and push the cool, rainy weather away. I swam my first laps of the year Monday and we sat outside much of the day, enjoying the sun. L might have enjoyed it a little too much. It’s a good thing summer basketball does not start for a week as she’s sporting a sunburn that would not feel got to set screens with.
It is a Monday holiday, which normally would mean no posts. But with the horrible news Friday that hip hop legend Rob Base had passed at the age of 59, it seemed rude not to share the video of his biggest hit. “It Takes Two” came out of nowhere in the fall of 1988 and became a timeless classic. I did some rough calculating last night and figured that the song has been played at 87% of wedding receptions since then.
As you can guess by the lack of activity on this website, it was a busy week for me. In strange ways, which we may or may not get to next week. Because of that, my working playlist for today was half-formed, at best. Good thing it is Memorial Day weekend, though. That unlocks multiple fun tracks for us. [open.spotify.com/playlist/...](https://open.spotify.com/playlist/2cr7kkygbqwDEN78Z4s9cG?si=8103dce8ce38414d) “Constructive Summer” - The Hold Steady Raise a toast to Saint Joe Strummer, I’m seeing THS live in three weeks!
Another relatively unexciting weekend for us, with one notable exception. Saturday was rainy and lazy, the kind of day when you look out the windows and think it is in the 50s and are surprised to step outside and find it is actually near 70. Sunday was much better, approaching hot in the afternoon with big, warm gusts of wind. We power washed the pool cover for the second time - it is always a two-step process to get the winter crap off and prevent a build up of spring pollen - and did some other outdoor work before having the in-laws over for dinner.
Perhaps a bit of an edge to this week’s playlist thanks to the general theme of a few songs. [open.spotify.com/playlist/...](https://open.spotify.com/playlist/3Bk62PyZlhdVd8BRiPVDDH?si=154a3e9b9e0c494c) “American Dream” - Alabama Shakes Brittany is letting people know! “Heatin Park” - DMA’S As if these Aussies haven’t already pushed the Manchester sound enough through their first four albums, now the lead single for LP5 is about a park in Manchester. I salute them for being completely committed to the bit!
After a long dry spell, I finally have some good stories from around the Internet to share. This is an amazing piece of journalism that, so as to not provide spoilers, I will not attempt to describe. I think this passage at its close is the best summation: Some stories take on a life of their own because they show how things really are. Others spread because they tell us what we already believe.
Not much went on this weekend in our house, so we’ll focus on a few basketball stories. NBA Draft Lottery So much for the Hoops Gods rewarding the Pacers for the heartbreaking loss of Tyrese Haliburton at the worst possible moment in the NBA Finals a year ago. After a season of tanking, which only came about because basically the entire Pacers roster was legitimately injured for long stretches of the season,[1] the Pacers lost their first round draft pick to the LA Clippers thanks to the trade the teams made that brought Ivica Zubac to Indy in February.
[open.spotify.com/playlist/...](https://open.spotify.com/playlist/2qXzUcQOdaiVAhbIYD5vSw?si=d2d865fe274e4e89) “Chance Encounters” - The Menzingers These guys almost always hit. I heard this for the first time about four minutes after I posted last week’s playlist. “Like A Chump” - Mute Swan This presents as a mid-point between shoegaze and early Madchester music. “I Want To Remember Everything” - knitting This also might have a hint of shoegaze to it, but also sounds very much like turn-of-the-millennium, MusicChoice-type rock.