M and C start their first semester finals today. I’m pretty sure that CHS has changed their finals schedule all four years that M has been there, which she finds annoying. This year the days are split between two morning exams and two afternoon review sessions. So, technically, finals began yesterday with two reviews after lunch. We’ll see what the girls think of this schedule when they wrap up next Tuesday.
We have arrived at one of the most glorious days of my blogging year: the reveal of my favorite songs of the past 12 months. I often attempt to find common threads that wind through my selections. At first I wasn’t detecting any this year. There were a few songs about dead people, but that was a small subset of the bigger list. As I was putting the final touches on my list, I realized that there is a presence of gratitude in quite a few of these tracks.
Border Dud Last year, when Kansas and Missouri played basketball for the first time in nearly ten years, I wrote this: That’s the good news for MU: things change quickly in college hoops these days. They could add some solid transfers and the young guys who were overmatched on Saturday may be much more comfortable and confident next December. KU could be on probation and have lost a ton of talent.
Some brand new songs and one that goes back nearly 50 years for this week’s playlist. (Spotify embedding is cranky this morning, so here’s a link) Friday Playlist 12/9/22 https://open.spotify.com/playlist/6PrFQ6Y0xt5JJnHAB5wx1b?si=a478ce2e928544ab “Peace Blossom Boogy” - Babe Rainbow Not sure how/why it happened, but I just heard this five-year-old song about going to Venice for the first time. Spotify must be tracking my location. If you told me there was a song called “Peace Blossom Boogy” I would expect it to sound exactly like this.
Long Road: Pearl Jam and the Soundtrack of a Generation - Steven Hyden One of two books I loaded onto my Kindle for our Italy trip, and the only one I really read much of, mostly on the train. This is Hyden’s take on the story of Pearl Jam, told through chapters that each center on one song selected from their catalog. It is less an updated comprehensive history of the band - there are plenty of those books already - than an attempt to take elements of that history and use them to explain how PJ carved out such a unique place in music history.
A music-heavy list of interesting pieces this time. Since the Milli Vanilli scandal came in the prime of my music listening years, it will always resonate. While reading this piece, it struck me that a lot of younger people have no idea what it was about, just that it is a cultural punchline. In this review, the author makes some great points about how what was scandalous 30 years ago can be the norm today.
I think I broke my media consumption habits in October and have yet to get them right. A lot of basketball (on TV and in person) and another week away from home didn’t help. Thus, another rather short list of things to share this month. Movies, Series, Shows Halloween Baking Championship I wrapped up the most recent season on November 2. Blayre was a deserving winner in a season filled with super-talented bakers.
A fairly quiet weekend for our family. A couple folks are still trying to get their sleep schedules back to normal. Me? I’ve been sleeping awesome all week. I probably just jinxed myself to a week of insomnia… College Football Bowls and Playoffs I must be getting old. The stupid little “controversy” that took over my Twitter feed Friday about Missouri allegedly not wanting to play Kansas in a bowl game annoyed me to no end.
Since returning home I’ve been super focused on getting my Favorite Songs of the Year playlist put together. I’ve made a lot of progress and expect to post it in about 10 days. In the meantime, the next two weekly playlists will feature some songs that were weeded out as I get the big list down to its final number. Also three songs this week honor artists who have passed recently.
A few things happened either before or while we were traveling that deserve a few words. Youth Sports The Friday before we left, St P’s had an assembly for the two girls basketball teams that made it to the City finals including L’s team. She still refused to hold the trophy. I laughed. It was a nice way to end the season. That was also Semi State Friday for Indiana football, featuring Cathedral’s rematch with Center Grove.
November 2022 Beatles - 48 Gang of Youths - 33 Congotronics International - 31 John Mellencamp - 29 Pearl Jam - 26 Complete stats available at my Last.fm page.
What follows is an epic, old school breakdown of our Thanksgiving week trip to Italy. I spent almost all day Sunday working on it, so I hope it is coherent and interesting. I’ve broken it into sections so you can read in chunks or skip around as you like. Departure/Chicago The trip began a little ominously. I woke up feeling terrible last Saturday morning. All three girls had been sick over the previous few weeks, one with a stomach bug, but it seemed like I had avoided all their germs.
Chart Week: November 20, 1982 Song: “Heartbreaker” - Dionne Warwick Chart Position: #28, 7th week on the chart. Peaked at #10 for two weeks in January 1983. Dionne Warwick has had an amazing career. Hits upon hits, all kinds of notable and interesting personality quirks, a side-career that kept her in the public eye, becoming Twitter famous, and most recently the subject of a bizarre yet endearing Saturday Night Live parody.
Chart Week: November 23, 1985 Song: “Separate Lives” - Phil Collins and Marilyn Martin Chart Position: #3, 8th week on the chart. Peaked at #1 the week of November 30. (Note: To tide you over during our Thanksgiving vacation, I’ve scheduled a couple posts to drop while we are away. I’m hoping all goes well and they appear on time and have the appropriate media files attached. If something goes wrong, please forgive me.
I’ve pretty casually mentioned a couple times that our family had a trip to Italy planned. The time for that trip has arrived. Tomorrow morning we will drive up to Chicago, hop on a flight to Paris, and hopefully end up in Rome by early afternoon Sunday. Over the next seven days we will be exploring Rome, Florence, and Venice. We have lots of cool stuff planned that I will, of course, tell you all about it after our return.
L’s team came up short in the City championship game Thursday. It was a tough, defensive matchup between two teams that knew what their opponent was trying to do. The difference was St O got to the basket more than we did, and hit a couple big threes to stretch out a lead on their way to a 30–20 win. It was 4–4 after one, and we were down 10–8 at halftime.
Five Decembers - James Kestrel I cheaped out when I bought my Kindle and got the one that has “special offers,” a euphemism for constant advertising on its sleep screen. All so I could save $50 or whatever. This book was often featured in those ads late last summer. I’ve found a lot of the books that Amazon pushes are crap, so I discounted it. Until I saw it land on a best mysteries of the year so far list.
Nothing like a (very) late game on a Tuesday night to get the real college hoops season started! First, although I got many texts asking this question, I should clarify that I did not go to the KU-Duke game last night. This is the first non-Covid Champions Classic game played in Indy I have not attended. The first two times friends came up with tickets and went with me.
Two down, one to go. L’s team won their CYO A League City basketball semifinal 35–20 Monday night. It wasn’t as easy as the final score makes it look, though. When she woke up Monday her left knee was still swollen and sore from whatever happened to it Saturday. She had already taped it up and was hobbling around when I came down for breakfast, saying it still hurt and was difficult to move.
FNL Regional Friday in Indiana with teams fighting to make the final four in their respective classes. For the second time this year Cathedral traveled out west to Brownsburg, where they lost their only game of the season, 42–35, back in August. They trailed by 21 much of that game and only a furious, fourth quarter comeback made it close. The wind was blowing again Friday and that had a huge effect on the game.