Chart Week: February 25, 1978 Song: “Falling” - LeBlanc and Carr Chart Position: #28, 20th week on the chart. Peaked at #13 the week of April 1. Normally I put my song grade at the end of these posts, but for this entry it seems best to offer the assessment up front. This is not a good song. In fact, it is borderline terrible. I’m sure a lot of people who were young and in love in 1978 remember it fondly.
You may recall that a few years back I made fun of S for getting poison ivy for the 90th time since we began dating. I bragged about how I had never gotten it so I must not be allergic to its oils. Within two weeks I wandered into a whole mess of poison ivy vines, had sores all over my body, couldn’t sleep because of the itching, went on steroids to stop the itching and then couldn’t sleep because of them, and soon had my first major Afib episode.
College Hoops I’ll save most of my thoughts for a post later in the week. It is always a bit of a relief when we reach this point in the season and have a few days off. November and December are usually a mix of big games and ones that KU should win easily. I’m always left wanting more from that part of the schedule, as the Jayhawks often have week-long gaps between games.
I’ve been dropping a bunch of old school tunes into my working playlist. So this week’s edition is going to be both extra meaty and heavy on the old. open.spotify.com/playlist/… “Room” - TV Star Seems like a good song for a week when we just broke the record for warmest day on March 1 by five degrees. It is dreamy and spring-like. “Give it Back” - Cass McCombs and Weak Signal Heavier than anything I’ve ever heard from Mr.
Shortest month of the year, but I was not short-changed on the media tip. Movies, Shows, etc A Cook’s Tour, season one As I said last month, I recently discovered these were on YouTube. Which is awesome because I’ve never seen them. Anthony Bourdain’s first TV show, and you can see the seeds of what No Reservations and Parts Unknown would become. You see a host with a clear point of view trying to establish his voice but being a little off what we got used to later in his career.
I’ve not been very good about continuing with this concept. It seems like I mostly think of it in relation to music, and I figure I have enough music content here already. Or when I get a decent, non-music idea, I have enough other posts lined up. I have a few of those ideas sitting in my drafts folder and will try to share them plus add some new entries so this can be a more regular feature.
Kid Hoops A week ago L’s team beat some good sixth graders in the best game they’ve played all year. This week they played another sixth grade team and got crushed. It was a 50–26 loss. And that was with us scoring six points in the last minute. The team we played made at least 7 3’s to our one. They worked us over pretty good on the defensive end. They dominated the boards.
I didn’t spend much time with the new music this week. Between that and a family development, this week’s selections will lean to the old. open.spotify.com/playlist/… “I Wasn’t Thinking at All” - Cold Irons Band Jason Isbell released the first single from his upcoming album this week. It didn’t jump out at me. Coincidentally, I also heard this track this week, which definitely has an Isbell-like vibe to it. Bonus points: these dudes aren’t from Alabama like Isbell, or even Nashville.
I’m a little behind once again, so these will be brief both for brevity’s sake and because the two older books aren’t so fresh in my noggin. The Confession of Copeland Cane - Kennan Norris I loved this book. It is exactly what the title says: the confession of Copeland Cane, a young Black man from East Oakland. Sometime in the near future (I think it is pegged around 2030), Cane is accused of murdering a police officer.
Monday night’s win in Ft. Worth deserves a few notes. In Nick Hornby’s Fever Pitch, he attempts to determine what the perfect win is. Now this was British soccer he was talking about, so the standard is a bit different. I think he settled on a 3–2 triumph when your side trails both 1–0 and 2–1 and scores the winner late. That result would be full of drama and angst, have moments of joy, and a big, cathartic ending.
Our trip to Cincinnati was good. We drove down with one of M’s long-time friends, A, who was planning on confirming her enrollment at UC on our visit. At check-in we ran into one of their CHS classmates and her mom. When the parents were comparing notes on the college search process, I mentioned that M was waiting to hear from Michigan. She butted in and said, ‘Yeah, that’s not happening, we don’t need to factor that in anymore.
An early weekend roundup, as M and I are headed to Cincinnati early Monday for an admitted students orientation. We will likely do the same at IU in March as she continues to gather information before she makes a final decision. Kid Hoops L’s team played a sixth grade squad Saturday. That always worries me because if a sixth grade team is playing up they are usually pretty good. Checking scores, they had beat a team that beat us by 20 by 32, so it seemed a little bleak.
More older music than new this week. And, sadly, another rather important In Memoriam entry. open.spotify.com/playlist/… “It’s Just A Bit of Blood” - bdrmm Normally by now I’ve already dropped several songs into my running Favorites list that will be the basis of my year end list in December. I had only added one through the first seven weeks of 2023. This is #2. It’s a ripper. “A Nocturnal Heresy” - Ondara I had never heard of this cat until last week, when this song dropped into my Discovery Weekly playlist.
I had the pleasure of driving a loaner car for the past week. All the excuse I need to dust off the Car Chronicles series! My Audi Q5 has been great. I’m nearly two years into my lease and other than a few annoyances, I have been extremely happy with it. Late last year I received a notice for a recall on the backup camera. When I called to schedule an appointment in early January, the dealer told me the repair would take at least a day, they were only scheduling two per day and the next opening was in February, and I would get a loaner while they had my car.
A few brief-ish notes about the Jayhawks, who are suddenly in a three-way tie for first place in the Big 12 after a very good week. Tuesday’s win at Oklahoma State was terrific in many ways. It capped a week in which KU got better over the three-game stretch, beating two very good teams relatively comfortably. It was a fantastic team performance, with the offense looking as good as it has looked all year.
Chart Week: February 9, 1980 Song: “I Wanna Be Your Lover” - Prince Chart Position: #20, 11th week on the chart. Peaked at #11 for two weeks in January and February. It started here. This was the very first Prince single to crack the Top 40. It took a few years, but eventually just about everyone around the world who owned a radio knew the name Prince. But in 1980, even the great Casey Kasem got his name wrong.
HS Hoops I ended up going to the Cathedral game Friday night after C and a friend decided at the last minute that they wanted to go. Amazingly this is the first boys game I’ve attended in my four years as a CHS parent. We only stayed for three quarters, as C’s back started acting up around halftime. We saw a very tense game in front of a packed gym. The #8 Irish were playing Fishers, who aren’t ranked but seem to have some good, young talent and gave Cathedral fits on defense all night.
I have a couple appointments in the morning, so posting this late Thursday night. open.spotify.com/playlist/… “Anyway I Find You” - The Men A pretty solid song on its own. But the vocals remind me of an old-school classic… “Old White Church” - Arthur Dodge & The Horsefeathers One of the most distinctive, if not necessarily famous, voices that came out of the Lawrence, KS music scene in the ’90s. “Crisis” - Elizabeth M.
I have a couple posts in various states of readiness that I figured I would focus on for today. Until I turned on the local news at 7:00 AM this morning to catch the weather - storms were blowing through at the time - and saw a blurb on the crawl at the bottom of the screen saying Kevin Durant had been traded to the Phoenix Suns. WHAT?!?! I jumped over to ESPN and got the details.
I admit I was dreading Monday’s KU-Texas game. Normally, coming off a terrible loss like Iowa State’s destruction of the Jayhawks Saturday, I would be fired up for a Big Monday home game. It would be a chance to wash away the bad taste of the loss with a big, loud crowd and a W. But I also watched a big chunk of the second half of the Longhorns’ come-from-behind win at Kansas State over the weekend.