Events demanded an emergency sports notes post. I’ll try to keep these relatively brief. Jayhawk Talk: Disaster Well that fucking sucked. Arguably the worst Big 12 loss of Bill Self’s career, the first time his team lost when they led by 16 or more points. Having that big lead is what made it worse than the TCU loss in 2013. Because they had this game won. They were toying with UCF.
Tuesday we learned that Sinéad O’Connor died of natural causes. As so often happens in these situations, that initially came as a relief but then was even more heartbreaking. I’ve been sitting on this very good remembrance of her by people who knew and admired her for a bit. Seems like the right time to finally share it. Yes, she was controversial and ahead of her time, but aren’t all our favorite artists controversial and ahead of their time?
The Irish were back on the court for two games last week. It ended up being a pretty frustrating stretch for L. Thursday the teams took a bus to Louisville to face Assumption. About all we knew about them was that they are a national volleyball power. They’ve won at least six national championships, if you can believe the banners in their gym.[1] They even honored their volleyball team for their latest state title at halftime of the varsity game.
It was odd walking downstairs this morning. We put all the holiday decorations away Sunday, so this was the first time since Thanksgiving I was greeted by a dark main floor. C said our family room looked “emo” without the decorations yesterday. I’m not sure if emo is the term I would pick, but it does always take a few days to get used to the tree, etc being packed away for another 11 months.
I’m still transitioning out of the long stretch at the end of each year where I listen to holiday music, I put the finishing touches on my Favorite Songs of the Year list, and I’m generally too busy to listen to new music. So this week’s list begins with a few new(ish) tracks then pick up some other things I’ve read about/listened to. As I look at it, it’s kind of a bummer playlist.
Bing Crosby: The Hollow Man - Donald Shepherd and Robert F. Slatzer Each December, as I listen to a shitload of Bing Crosby music, I think, “I should learn more about his life.” I picked up a little of the general, collective pop-cultural memories of him as a kid. But I was six when he died and that was all basically background noise. This year I finally looked into his biographic options.
After playing six games in the first 19 days of December, L and her Irish teammates are in the midst of a much more leisurely three-games-in–18-days stretch. Throw in three days off for Christmas and two for New Year’s and it has been a nice breather after that tough run. Their only games over the holidays were big ones: split doubleheaders against big rival Bishop Chatard. Last Friday the JV boys and girls played back-to-back at Cathedral, then Saturday the varsity teams matched up at BCHS.
I dropped our Denver relatives off at the airport early this morning and returned to a quieter and emptier house than we’ve had in about ten days. The decorations are still up and the college kid is still with us, but the holiday season has ended. We had a busy and mostly fun week-plus of holiday celebrations. S’s brother from Boston and his family were in town for about a week over Christmas, staying with another sister.
Holiday Stuff Most of the usuals are in here. One thing missing, though, was The Office Christmas episodes. This is the first time in a few years we haven’t subscribed to the streaming service that allows you to watch the episodes of your choice. Maybe they’ll be back somewhere real (i.e. not Peacock) next year. Or I’ll just record them all off Comedy Central over the course of 2024 and save them for next holiday season.
You may have noticed I stopped posting my monthly listening stats a year ago. Or maybe you didn’t. I’m not sure why, I just decided it wasn’t necessary. I will not be skipping the annual updates, however. Here’s a look at what Last.fm says I listened to most in 2023, and since I began logging my music with them in 2005 2023 Pearl Jam - 236 The National - 201 Ratboy - 186 The War on Drugs - 166 Bully - 148 boygenius - 126 Frightened Rabbit - 125 Middle Kids - 124 The Gaslight Anthem - 124 The Rural Alberta Advantage - 110 All Time Frightened Rabbit finally knocked out of the top spot.
I planned on taking most of this week off from blogging. But Tuesday’s bizarre shitshow of a football game that was the Guaranteed Rate Bowl[1] required me to share a few words about the mighty Kansas Jayhawks winning nine games for the first time since the 2007 season. I mean, I was up until 1:45 AM, and then struggled to sleep, because of this stupid game and its aftermath. I’m going to have some thoughts.
Chart Week: December 16, 2023 Song: “Christmas (Baby Please Come Home)” - Darlene Love Chart Position: #21. Current all-time high is #15 the week of January 7, 2023. I heard the wonderful tidbit this post is built around earlier this year on an AT40 from December 1984. It was one of Casey’s “Special Reports,” music trivia blurbs not related to the current countdown that were occasionally inserted between songs. I copied down the details, wondering if there was some way I could work it into an RFTS post.
As tends to happen in these pre-holiday weeks, time has gotten away from me a bit. I can’t believe it is Thursday and I still haven’t written about KU’s win in Bloomington last Saturday. Turns it was good to put it off as now I can write about football signing day, too. KU-IU Hoops This game was played at the same time as L’s JV game Saturday. Actually they started a few minutes earlier in B-town, so I knew the Jayhawks were down 15–6 or whatever early.
A quick, one-game summary to wrap up the first half of the season. Last night CHS took on HSE, ranked #2 in class 4A. HSE has a junior who is committed to IU and just passed the 1000 career points mark last week. They also have a sophomore who already has multiple D1 offers and was taking visits to big-time schools as a freshman. A very good program from a huge suburban district.
It seems like most Decembers recently I write something like “Well, it wasn’t a great year for music…” as I prepare to share a bunch of songs I both liked and listened to a lot. Something was different this year, though. According to Last.fm, I listened to about 15% less music in 2023 compared to 2022, and my least music since 2015. I’m not sure what caused that decline, whether it was changes in me/my habits, a quirk in how I was listening, or something specific about this year’s music.
Our weekend was pretty boring, other than a bunch of basketball Saturday, so I’m changing things up for this week’s posts. I’ll begin by recapping L’s hoops then get to some Jayhawk Talk later this week. In our last volume in this series, I detailed a pretty rough week for L. This post will have a decidedly better vibe and includes another milestone in her young career. Thursday CHS hosted New Palestine.
To get your pre-Christmas week started right, I put together a playlist of seldom played, (mostly) non-traditional Christmas songs to counter all the usual stuff you’re hearing at the mall, in your car, on TV, and in your offices/homes. Enjoy roughly 40 minutes of cool Yuletide tunes. open.spotify.com/playlist/… “Main Title” - John Debney 2003. M and I sing the “Bop-bop bop-bop-bop” line at each other often. “Sleigh Ride” - The Ventures 1965.
A good, old fashioned notes dump like the old days. CHS Lockdown There was a lockdown for about an hour at Cathedral yesterday. Apparently someone called 911 claiming to be inside the school with a gun. About a million cops showed up and no person with a gun was ever found. We live in wonderful times, friends. Our girls seemed more annoyed that they had to stay and finish the day after the all-clear than worried/scared by the threat.
A kind of bizarre and not very successful week for L on the court, with one very notable exception. Tuesday CHS played Zionsville, where a travel teammate goes to school. L came out firing early, hoisting six 3-pointers in the first half. She missed them all, but was fouled on one and hit two-of-three free throws. She also had 2 rebounds, an assist, three steals, and no turnovers in the first half.
We had a super-busy Saturday that featured a lot of L’s for our family. Fortunately, for me, the one dub was a big one. Throwing hoops and real life together, our family went 1–7 for the day. Cathedral lost JV and varsity games. More on that tomorrow. S’s Hoosiers lost to Auburn. M’s previously undefeated Bearcats lost to Xavier. The Pacers lost to the Lakers in the IST championship game.