Even down a kid, it was a pretty busy week. Although some of that activity was due to the missing kid.
Jinxed Myself I mentioned in last week’s post that I was off the hook for driving to/from school for awhile. Well, not so fast… C got rear-ended leaving campus by another student on Monday. No injuries, thankfully. Her car is still drivable, fortunately. But at some point it will go to the shop and stay there for a bit as it gets repaired, putting me back on the daily driving grind.
I must begin this week’s playlist with an apology. Last week I teased that I would be doing something new and exciting this week. Unfortunately that will not happen.
I was going to get back into the world of podcasting, inserting actual vocal segments between songs. I’m not sure anyone needed or wanted to hear my voice, but I was eager to scratch that radio DJ itch I haven’t been able to service since I stopped my “secret” podcast years ago.
Somehow in my highly organized list of future posts,[1] my latest collection of articles to share got bumped out of sight. Which is a shame because two of these are some of the best pieces I’ve read this year and I shouldn’t be sitting on them for over a month before I recommend them.
I have no interest in Robert Kennedy Jr. I think many of his views are abhorrent.
I talk a lot about how the summer of 1984 was the greatest moment in pop music history, normally backing that up with examples of some of the songs that were on the chart that summer.
As I was listening to a 1984 countdown a couple weeks ago, it struck me again how freaking solid those 40 songs were. There were a few duds, as there are in any countdown. But there were also a ton of timeless tracks that still get heavy airplay on Eighties stations today.
Lots of lasts and firsts over the past seven days. Let’s see if I can get through them all without getting too wordy or emotional.
First Week at CHS L had her traditions orientation last Sunday evening and then a half-day schedule walk through on Wednesday before Cathedral began the school year on Thursday. When we picked her up from the traditions orientation and asked how it went, her response was, “Fine.
A heads up for my loyal listeners that I’ve been working on a format change for these playlists. I’m hoping to unveil the newest, latest version next week. If it works as I hope, I think you’re going to enjoy it.
open.spotify.com/playlist/…
“Motorcade” - Peggy Sue I love it when the algorithm spits out terrific songs I haven’t heard in a while. I would imagine I played this for you sometime in 2019/20 when it was first released.
I’ve been on a decent reading run. A few blurbs about my most recent completions.
Once Upon a Time in Hollywood - Quentin Tarantino This has been sitting in my cabinet for something like two years. I’m glad I finally got to it. This is not a straight novelization of the movie, but rather an expansion on its base. Lots of weird tangents about the history of Hollywood. Lots of backstory about the characters in the movie.
After just a week it’s already time for some more sports notes.
Big 12/Realignment I neglected to include a section about college realignment in last week’s post as it seemed like the next domino was close to falling. I was expecting medium-sized news, like the Big 12 adding one-to-three more PAC schools to complete its expansion. Little did I know the general landscape was so tenuous that it would quickly feel like 2011 again.
open.spotify.com/playlist/…
“Dream Some More” - The High Water Marks A bunch of schools around us went back to class this week, which is a tragedy. There should still be a month left of days wide open for listening to music like this.
“Outta Time” - Bethany Cosentino Cosentino just released her first solo album which takes her sound in a very different direction from where it was in Best Coast, which is on indefinite hiatus.
Periodic losses of power, some pool gatherings, and three weeks of travel basketball cut my list a little short last month.
Movies, Shows, etc They Shall Not Grow Old I’ve been waiting for this to hit a streaming service for a couple years. Peter Jackson took footage from World War I, colorized it, and overlaid it with interviews given by British veterans of that war to offer a limited view of what that conflict was like.
I’ve stacked up a lot of sports thoughts over the past several weeks. Let’s dive in and see how long it takes to get through them.
Tour de France After watching the Netflix show Tour de France: Unchained in June, I was all-in for this year’s tour, even ponying up for Peacock for the month to watch.[1] It was like the good (bad) old days watching Lance Armstrong as I turned the race on first thing every morning and tracked the day’s progress.
No major events from the weekend to share. We were busy, though. The weekend was all about preparing to be social then actually being social around the pool.
Saturday night we had L’s basketball team over for a final get together to celebrate the season. Eight of the nine girls came and most of the parents hung out. The girls had a good time and enjoyed their final night together as a single team.
open.spotify.com/playlist/…
“(Love Is Like A) Heat Wave” - Martha Reeves & The Vandellas We have been very lucky and this has been one of the best spring/summers I can recall, other than the Canadian smoke. Until this week. The heat that has been plaguing the rest of the country finally hit us, although its worst has held off until today and will clear out Saturday night when some storms pass through.
When Irish women with distinctive voices who were successful in the 90s die, I’m required to write about them.
The terrible news came Wednesday of Sinéad O’Connor’s death. It’s an understatement to suggest she did not have an easy life, so while a shock, this is also one of those deaths that can seem like a relief from all the pain she dealt with in her 56 years. Tom Breihan wrote a nice obituary on Stereogum.
Three-fifths of our family spent the weekend in Ohio. You want details? I got details!
Kid Hoops L and I went to Cincinnati for the final travel tournament of the year. We’ve never done well in these events but were looking forward to one last shot to prove ourselves on the national stage. We had six games, so I’ll keep the breakdowns brief. We played Friday and Saturday at the event’s main gym, a building in Hamilton, OH that had 30-ish courts.
open.spotify.com/playlist/…
“Midnight Sunburn” - Dog Ears Big, crunchy, power pop for mid-summer.
“I Need Ya” - Somebody’s Child If the Strokes were from Ireland, they would probably sound like this.
“Forgiving Ties” - Deer Tick I had to triple check this wasn’t a lost Tom Petty demo that someone else had finished.
“The Spiral” - Body Maintenance This is some proper-ass post punk from Down Under. Like all great post punk, it could be from 1983 or 2003 just as easily as be the brand new song it actually is.
Chart Week: July 15, 1989 Song: “Buffalo Stance” - Neneh Cherry Chart Position: #20, 16th week on the chart. Peaked at #3 the week of June 24.
I have always been fascinated by the details of how songs are made. There’s the initial inspiration. The writing and recording process. How a song is mixed and produced. Whether it goes on an album or not, and if it does, how it is sequenced.
A few notes about the state of social media.
About three weeks ago I was struck by how Twitter seemed to have settled down. While there were still plenty of minor issues, the major blowups that had been endemic since the Tech Toddler’s arrived had decreased.
That’s not to say I was a happy user. The elimination of third party applications meant I was still spending lots of time dodging promoted Tweets and ads I had no interest in.
Kid Hoops A weird weekend for L and her teammates. We were in Bloomington for this week’s games. While that seems close it also involves navigating a shit-ton of construction and means we’re in the car for nearly three hours each day.
Saturday we opened with an easy win. In fact, I’m not sure we’ll ever have an easier win. At halftime we were ahead 39–0. We added 16 more points before these poor girls finally got their first bucker.
open.spotify.com/playlist/…
“The Window” - Ratboys Every time I type this band’s name, my devices autocorrect it to “Batboys.” You would think I’ve typed their name enough over the years that my various Apple OSes understand that, yes, I really mean Ratboys. Given that their up-coming album seems like it is going to be excellent and I will be writing about them plenty more this year, maybe the OSes will finally figure it out once the fall updates land and Apple’s new auto correct, machine learning algorithms take over.