Small Mercies - Dennis Lehane According to my master reading list, it’s been eight years since I had read a Lehane novel. Which doesn’t seem possible, until I realized he’s only released one new novel in that span. This story takes place in the summer of 1974, just before the city explodes when forced busing to desegregate Boston’s public schools takes effect. Mary Pat Fennessy’s teenage daughter disappears after a night out with friends, and no one wants to tell her what may have happened.
It was an extra-long weekend featuring many hours in the car.
Hoops in the Lou L and I drove west to St. Louis for her first out-of-town tournament of the year. The hoops were good. We went 3–1, winning the championship game by nine thanks to a 9–2 run in the final minute to put away a game we were trying to lose. We led by nine with 8:00 left, five with 5:00 left, but by just two as the clock ticked under a minute.
open.spotify.com/playlist/…
“Police On My Back” - The Clash I watched like my 60th documentary about The Clash this week and dove into their music for a bit after. I maintain they are the greatest cover band of all time, taking songs by other acts that were already great and elevating them as they made them their own. Here’s a perfect example, originally written and sung by Eddie Grant with his band The Equals in 1967.
Good news for those of you with video game collections: you will soon be able to buy an actual new game for your Atari 2600!
’Mr. Run and Jump’ will be the first official cartridge for the Atari 2600 since 1990
Not sure I buy this writer’s argument, but it is an interesting counter to the conventional wisdom about season three of Ted Lasso.
Kindly allow this brief dissenting opinion: Perhaps Ted Lasso isn’t broken—we are.
A lot to get caught up on after a long holiday weekend.
July 4th Our standard family pool party for the Fourth of July. Almost all the locals were over for a daytime gathering. I smoked rather than grilled burgers for the first time and they turned out pretty good. All the young ones were well behaved, and it seems like both generations of sisters got along for the day, too.
It is my fifth year offering a playlist to celebrate the day in my own, unique, musical way. There are two new songs this year, one of which I can’t believe took me five years to add.
open.spotify.com/playlist/…
Movies, Shows, etc Severance OK, this was the strangest, most messed up show I can recall watching. The way the finale ended - SPOILER ALERT - without resolving anything and instead setting up the next season was maddening. As a lover of the color blue, I did enjoy how many different gorgeous shades were integral to the show’s aesthetic. B
The Hateful Eight I didn’t like this as much as Tarantino’s other Western, Django Unchained, mostly because it felt a little long (and I did NOT watch the extended version).
open.spotify.com/playlist/…
“Neighborhood #3 (Power Out) - Arcade Fire As I write this our power has been out for about 15 hours, our home just one of over 45,000 in Indianapolis that remain powerless after major storms hit us yesterday afternoon. Unfortunately for us, it seems like just one wire affecting 4-5 houses in our neighborhood is causing our outage. So we could be waiting awhile. I will not let that deter me from using some of the remaining power in my electronics from getting a playlist out to you!
As promised, a look back at the very first post I ever published to this site. Perhaps you’ve already gone back and re-read it. I thought it would be fun for me to annotate it with some thoughts.
I have edited out sections of the original that did not inspire me to add something new.
With apologies to the Sports Guy… Ah, back when I read and loved everything Bill Simmons wrote.
It is June 27, 2023.
That means this site, or at least its earliest version, was Internet birthed 20 years ago today. That first post is here. I’ll be addressing it directly soon.
A lot sure has happened in that span, hasn’t it? If you want a full accounting you can dig through the over 3300 posts I’ve racked up since then.[1]
S and I had been married for nearly two weeks when I posted that first entry.
L had a game early Thursday evening and then wanted to stay and watch her teammates play in the second game, so I didn’t make it home until the late teens of the NBA Draft. Thus no extensive breakdown this year.
Gradey Dick was, apparently, the star of the show for his outrageous suit. I got a few texts about him from non-KU people. I heard a lot of commentators destroying him for his fit.
Quite a few things to discuss this week, so I’m going to split this into two posts. The personal stuff first, the NBA Draft stuff later on today.
Weather We dodged a big ol’ bullet Sunday when storms roared through our area. There was a tornado on the ground about 10 minutes north of us. Several on the ground on the south side of Indy did significant damage. There was fairly large hail within two miles of our house.
open.spotify.com/playlist/…
“Body” - Briston Maroney It’s always exciting when young artists prepare to release their second album, and it seems like it will be as good as their first one.
“Roll the Credits” - Danielle Ponder As if it isn’t enough that Ms. Ponder can sing like this, she also used to be a public defender. What are all my attorney friends doing in their free time?
“Hard to Build. Easy to Break.
I have not returned to baseball this year. The Royals are truly terrible - on pace for their worst season ever - and have given me no reason to drop my boycott of the sport, prompted when the dishonest and corrupt combination of MLB ownership and commissioner Rob Manfred manufactured last year’s labor strife.[1] I don’t have much idea what’s going on in the sport right now, other than the Royals sucking.
A rather uninteresting weekend around here, even with an extra day thrown in, so let’s jump straight into our latest exploration of Old School American Top 40s.
Chart Week: June 23, 1979 Song: “I Want You To Want Me” - Cheap Trick Chart Position: #16, 9th week on the chart. Peaked at #7 for two weeks in July.
Sometimes our musical memories trick us into believing a band was more popular that it actually was.
Boy do I have a list for you this week. A couple gems I’ve come up with on my own. Some discovered via Spotify’s suggestions. Two new entries in the “Country Or Not” category. One track from a performer facing a huge challenge. And our latest shoutout to a lost artist.
open.spotify.com/playlist/…
“No Reason” - Sunny War If this song doesn’t get you tapping your toes, snapping your fingers, nodding your head, or wiggling your ass a little, I don’t want to be friends with you.
There’s been a lot of talk about M here lately. Maybe too much talk. A few words about her sisters.
Middle Sister C has had a pretty quiet summer break so far. She has filled M’s spot working for their aunt the chef on weekends a couple times. She will take that job over full time in August so this has been good preparation for that. It’s good that she’s made a little money.
Quick Blog Note You may have noticed that I updated the header image of the site. I actually did a little bit of Dicking Around™ with the entire site over the weekend. I installed a couple new themes and played around with them for about five minutes before switching back to the one I’ve been using for five years. I was content to swap in the new image, stolen from one of the themes I sampled, and call it a night.
A busy weekend in the past and a packed day ahead of me, so we’ll get caught up tomorrow. For now, some links I’ve collected in recent weeks.
First, a rather chilling account by a Ukrainian from the front lines of the war with Russia.
I haven’t had a chance to personally kill any Russians. They say it’s good luck to kill someone in front of you. But in this war you rarely see the enemy.
open.spotify.com/playlist/…
“It’s Alive!” - Ratboys It’s been a fairly slow album year; my New Music list that I check each Friday has the fewest entries I can recall. But I just added one for Ratboys on August 25 that has me very excited.
“The Narcissist” - Blur Their first new music in ages, and it sounds exactly like how music from a once-huge band who has drifted for years should sound like.