Our travels, holidays, etc have me off my new music game. I’ve been adding tons of music to my library for review, but have struggled to get through it. Fortunately we have something on our calendar that gave me the excuse to include several songs that would not normally make the list. Hopefully I’ll get back in the swing of things in a couple weeks.
[open.spotify.com/playlist/...](https://open.spotify.com/playlist/49QdLks2GLkw9HG9wYjwcs?si=8f97a1f5eabb4f46) “Summertime” - The Sundays
Two books that came with recommendation from Brother-In-Books Dave V. Although I would have read one even if he had not suggested it.
The Heart’s Invisible Furies - John Boyne This one was a surprise. A thoroughly delightful novel about a rather unique Irishman, Cyril Avery.
Born in the 1940s to an unwed mother who was banished from her home village by its priest for becoming pregnant, Cyril was immediately given up for adoption after birth and landed with an eccentric couple.
Belgium 4, USA 1
That kind of sucked.
And was also totally expected, given our nation’s history in the World Cup.
It was certainly one of the biggest examples of Ball Don’t Lie, karmic paybacks I can recall in sports.[1] Don’t need to say much more about that aspect of the game.
I’m also not going to spend much time on the horrific performance by the Americans’ back line, which we knew was an issue coming into the tournament and was responsible for the team’s weakest moments over the past month.
In some ways this was our most boring Fourth of July weekend ever. In other ways it was super packed with events.
Independence Day We didn’t do a whole hell of a lot for the Fourth. S had a four-day weekend and she mostly used it to prep for our upcoming vacation. As we were between trips we decided not to host a big family gathering. A couple locals came over to swim for a bit Saturday, but I didn’t cook, we didn’t have a house full of people, and I did my best to avoid the heat.
This post hits harder this year, the 250th anniversary of the British Colonies in North America declaring independence from the Kingdom and establishing the United States of America as a free country. As always with these moments, between the cookouts and fireworks and cheesy commemorative t-shirts, it is important to reconcile where we are as a nation with where we should be. This year, in particular, we fall far short of the mythical and unrealistic expectations we Americans have for our country.
A rather spare month. One of these entries was for just one episode. That will happen when you travel a couple weekends and spend more evenings outside on the back porch than inside on the couch.
Movies, Shows, Etc. Your Friends & Neighbors, season two The finale was a doozy, setting up all kinds of nonsense for season three. I would not call this show prestige TV, but it is immensely entertaining.
We had a wonderful, long weekend in Colorado, checking a number of boxes along the way. Somehow, despite sleeping poorly Saturday night, I was unable to sleep well last night. Forgive me if this is disjointed, and it may not be as inclusive as my trip summaries were in the past.
The primary cause for traveling was the wedding of the daughter of some of our closest friends here. Our friends also happen to be L’s godparents, so I guess this was her god-sister that was getting hitched.
Hopefully this playlist comes together ok. I imagine I’ll schedule this to post on the normal Friday morning time slot. By then we will have left town about 18 hours earlier for a weekend in Colorado. I started putting this together Monday afternoon. Let’s see how it turned out!
[open.spotify.com/playlist/...](https://open.spotify.com/playlist/2ineOwehm78VuIxVQ0ZIYu?si=293522ce1d3d44da) “Artificial Sunlight” - Les Big Byrd
Nothing artificial about the light we’ve been having lately. Genuinely one of the greatest Junes I can recall, weather-wise.
The NBA Draft was once an annual opportunity for a lengthy, rambling post where I pretended to be Bill Simmons or some other national writer. Or at least that’s how my first ever blog post here went. 2026 seemed like a year to jump back into that routine, as a Kansas Jayhawk was poised to be selected at the top of the draft.
Alas, this was no ordinary college player, or at least he did not have an ordinary season.
Plenty happened over the weekend that requires at least a quick blurb or two.
HS Basketball This was an evaluation weekend, when college coaches can come in and watch teams play, so CHS participated in one of the big, local events. Two games Friday, two Saturday. The team went 3–1. They won two overtimes games, one in doubt OT. They crushed one team. And got hammered pretty good in the fourth game.
So much new music this week from old friends, some of whom we have not heard from in years. In fact, there are so many songs that fall under that description that I can only play a few of them this week so there is room for other tracks.
[open.spotify.com/playlist/...](https://open.spotify.com/playlist/3q673P7M3RhOLN2B3UMjB7?si=ac91f89d98ae4f8a) “Get Away From Me (I Think I’ll Love You Soon)” - Julia Jacklin
A week ago Jacklin announced she had signed with 4AD records, a big jump up for her.
We are very lucky this morning. Last night’s storms all passed just to the south of us. There were radar-indicated tornadoes about 30 minutes south of downtown Indianapolis.[1] A large tornado blew through the area where we used to own a lake house. C and I kept getting texts to shelter in place from IU as three different tornadoes passed Bloomington.
This after the local news spent the entire day stressing that massive storms would likely go through the Indy area.
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.