A jam-packed weekend full of events that may be of mild interest to my loyal readers. FNL Cathedral traveled three hours to play a horrible team - they were up 56–0 at halftime and held on to win by that exact score - so I walked across the street with my pal Nicole H to watch The Other CHS play the school our tax dollars support. It was the first, real, fall-weather night of the season, and it was terrific, other than the occasional sprinkles that surprised us.
open.spotify.com/playlist/… “Cold Shoulder” - Peace Ritual Since I first heard this band a month or so ago I’ve been trying to figure out who they remind me of. I know it’s some late ’90s/early ’00s band that I did not like. I think my mind is intentionally blocking those memories since I like Peace Ritual’s songs and it doesn’t want to ruin them by making the connection to the turn-of-the-millennium band I did not like.
Today I unveil a new style of post. Who knows how regular these will be, or how long they will last. But let’s give it a shot. As the title suggests, in these posts I will be Ranking Shit. Five things I will place in an order with just a few words of explanation. To kick us off, I will rank the top five songs on the Saturday Night Fever soundtrack.
Chart Week: September 18, 1982 Song: “Somebody’s Baby” - Jackson Browne Chart Position: #18, 8th week on the chart. Peaked at #7 for three weeks in October. I loved this song when I was 11. It wasn’t because I was a big Jackson Browne fan, or because it was a fantastic song. No, it was solely because it was the lead single off the soundtrack for Fast Times at Ridgemont High, arguably the greatest movie ever made about being in high school.
Some weekend. No Cathedral football Friday. L’s hoops team got blasted on Saturday. The Colts appear to be shitty and have made the wrong selection, yet again, for their quarterback. I could write a lot about two of those three topics. I’m going to save all my writing effort for another topic, though. And I think you know what that is. THE KANSAS FOOTBALL JAYHAWKS ARE THREE-AND-OH!!!!! First 3–0 start since 2009.
open.spotify.com/playlist/… “Shine A Light” - Paolo Nutini Forget where I came across this, either via a Spotify recommendation or somewhere else, but it was a nice surprise. I remember Nutini’s name from somewhere in my musical past, but can’t find where I’ve ever listened to much of his music or shared it with you. Thinking this song might be an opening to something new and interesting, I gave his new album a spin.
I suddenly have a bunch of links to share. Not all of them are fully cooked, but I’ll go ahead and serve up what has been simmering for awhile. As I get older I realize how hard it is to do big lists like those in the next two links. I’m way overdue for updating my Favorite Songs of All Time list but it seems like a much more daunting task than it did two years ago.
I’ve stuck to a pretty brisk reading pace lately. Several of my latest batch of books have some common themes, so I’m going to pair them up to attempt to get through them quicker. Suburban Dicks - Fabian Nicieza The Damage - Caitlin Wahrer Two mysteries from first-time authors that were both very good. In Suburban Dicks a disgraced reporter and a one-time phenom profiler who had her career derailed by normal life stuff team up to not only solve a murder the local police don’t seem to want to solve, but also uncover a deeper conspiracy that has plagued their town for over half a century.
The first full football weekend of the year. I have some notes. Friday We had the big 6A #3 Cathedral at 3A #1 Bishop Chatard game Friday. Or the girls did. S and I knew it was going to be an absolute shit show; BC has a tiny stadium in the middle of a packed neighborhood and it seemed like every Indianpolis Northside Catholic was going to go. So we went to dinner with friends while the girls enjoyed the game.
open.spotify.com/playlist/… “The Queen Is Dead” - The Smiths I’m sorry, but if you think I’m not playing this song today you don’t know me very well. I’m not here to dance on graves but rather shout to the heavens, for the thousandth time, about the genius of Johnny Marr. “Has the world changed or have I changed?” “Be Careful With Yourself” - Julia Jacklin As usual Jacklin’s new album, to my ears, is filled with slow, precious songs that are a little too slow and precious.
Well, it’s over. L’s team went out with a whimper in their final two kickball games, losing 21–7 on Tuesday then getting run-ruled 42–13 on Wednesday, ending the season at 2–5. I believe that was the first time they had a losing record.[1] These two games were more of the same. We couldn’t kick or field, and it killed us. In the Tuesday game, against the team we beat to start the season, we were up 4–0 after one then gave up eight runs in the second and were dead after that.
Chart Week: August 30, 1986 Song: “Heaven In Your Eyes” - Loverboy Chart Position: #33, 5th week on the chart. Peaked at #12 for two weeks in October. A quick entry this time, based on a cultural nugget that shows how much the world has changed since 1986. Casey shared that Loverboy keyboard player Doug Johnson refused to appear in the video for “Heaven In Your Eyes.” Why? Because the song was on the soundtrack for Top Gun, and Johnson was a pacifist.
I’m guessing this was our last ever four-day Labor Day weekend, at least on the academic side of things. St P’s generally (but not always) gives the kids Friday and Monday off, while CHS just takes the actual Monday holiday off. Who knows what M’s schedule will be this time next year, but she won’t be here, so that means the remaining girls will be on the same schedule for the final holiday weekend of summer in 2023.
Movies, Series, Shows Better Call Saul, season six I wrote about this here. A for the season, A+ for the series. The Queen’s Gambit It took me awhile, but I finally got to this. Not sure if it was better or worse to watch it well after its initial buzz had faded. While I enjoyed the story, I felt it had some big holes and ended a little too cutesy. But Anya Taylor-Joy was dazzling and delightful in the lead role.
The new music faucet finally seems to have been turned down a notch. My Latest Songs playlist is as light as it has been in months. Hopefully just a brief respite before things pick back up again for the fall. open.spotify.com/playlist/… “Paradise” - Briston Maroney One of my favorite artists of 2020 is back with his next phase of music. Not sure this matches those ‘20 highs, but this isn’t anything to complain about, either.
This season was supposed to be L and her team’s final run to kickball glory. Even with a tough schedule we figured they would be battling in every game and, because of the strength of their division, remain in the mix for a City championship berth right up until the end of the season. Instead it’s been a bit of a mess. Things started well; they won their first two games.
August 2022 The Beatles - 61 Spielbergs - 52 John Mellencamp - 29 Wilco - 24 Alvvays - 19 Complete stats available at my Last.fm page.
Kind of a weird weekend, or at least it got off to a weird start. L threw up all night Thursday and into Friday morning. I heard her throwing up again around 6:45 and went running into her room only to discover it was M across the hall throwing up in her bathroom. Just like old times! At least they are old enough now not to puke in their beds.
open.spotify.com/playlist/… “Easy On Your Own?” - Alvvays Alvvays went eight years between albums number one and two. So a five-year wait for album number three doesn’t seem so bad! “Desert Snow” - Local Natives With the heat coming back after to Indiana after two very pleasant weeks, thoughts of snow are welcome. “Burning” - Yeah Yeah Yeahs Yeah!!! “River Mountain Love” - Truck Stop Love A couple weeks back Spotify spit out an alternate version of this terrific mid-90s track by the best thing to ever come out of Manhattan, KS.
After finishing nine books in July I didn’t finish my first August book until the 15th. And then I finished two more books in just over a week. I think I’m doing just fine. After the Fall - Ben Rhodes The latest book by former Obama staffer Rhodes, this one is about the current state of the world, how we got here, and where we could be headed. It’s not an uplifting book, nor one that will give you reason to be hopeful that things are going to get better.