I don’t trust the Spotify algorithm to suggest music to me very often. I make a quick pass through my Discovery Weekly and Release Radar playlists each week, but I will generally only find a song or two that are new to me and fit my tastes. Last week, though, the Discovery playlist spit out a different version of an artist I really like (Julia Jacklin). After listening to her side project’s entire album, I let Spotify suggest music to me for about an hour.
A delayed edition of Jayhawk Talk because Monday’s game against Texas Tech was far too stressful. I would complain about the rest of the season being as exhausting as the past week was for KU, but I prefer winning to losing. If that means 12 more games like the last three and a Big 12 title as reward, I guess I’m on board. I did not watch the game live. Well, 99% of it.
Chart Week: January 12, 1985 Song: “The Boys of Summer” - Don Henley Chart Position: #16, 10th week on the chart. Peaked at #5 the week of February 9. You might wonder why I spend a few hours each week listening to re-broadcasts of a 40-ish year-old radio show that features songs I can listen to literally whenever I want. The biggest reason is for the times I hear a piece of music trivia that had eluded me all of these years.
Some weekend of televised sports action! KU Hoops For the first time all year, I bailed on a game. Well, partially. After a truly atrocious first half in Manhattan, which saw them trailing Kansas State by 16, I moved the KU game over to the laptop, sat it on the coffee table, and put the Bengals-Titans game on the TV.[1] I had zero interest in the football game, but I couldn’t stand watching KU continue to play the wretched basketball they played through the first 20 minutes.
This week features a song that choked me up and an oldie I’m guessing most of you won’t remember. open.spotify.com/playlist/… “Wishbone” - Husbands A cool post-post-post-post punk track by a duo from Oklahoma. With guest vocals from a third Sooner State artist. Doing my best to push emerging artists from Big 12 country! “Everything Is Simple” - Widowspeak “Everything is simple ‘til it’s not.” Damn, that kind of sums up the whole world, doesn’t it?
I guess I have to start getting used to this. Tuesday brought another ugly-ass road game for KU, this time in their visit to Oklahoma. The Jayhawks pissed away a 12-point lead in the second half, gave up a 20–2 run, saw their best player get injured early and go 34 minutes without scoring a point, made countless unforced errors while trying to come back, but, thanks to Christian Braun’s biggest shot of the year, escaped with a win.
A few good reads to jumpstart your short week. These are pretty funny. Although are we sure Pearl Jam is a sad dad band? I do shake my head at the word “crypto,” though, so they may be onto something. What Your Favorite Sad Dad Band Says About You Kevin Clark’s summary of the CFP National Title game was terrific. I loved this section, in particular, about Kelee Ringo’s pick-six that iced the game and title for Georgia.
A lot of sports notes from the weekend. I should probably split this into a couple different posts. But it is a holiday and we all have a little extra time. So one extra-large post it is! Kid Hoops L played in her first-ever AAU tournament over the weekend. Or rather it was a “shootout”: a one-day, round-robin event focused more on getting teams games than declaring a champion. Her coach told us that this was just a chance to get the girls together for the first time and get a feel for the roster.
Some terrific new songs and RIP to one of the biggest names in the history of popular music. open.spotify.com/playlist/… “Wild” - Spoon Spoon never, ever release a bad single. That doesn’t mean every single is great, but they always hold my attention for a week or two. This, however, is a great single, as good as anything they’ve done in quite awhile. This is also the song that reminded me to start my Favorites of ‘22 playlist.
Chart Week: January 10, 1981 Song: “More Than I Can Say” - Leo Sayer Chart Position: #10, 16th week on the chart. Peaked at #2 for five weeks. (I will be adding an element to these posts moving forward. I’m going to copy my man Tom Breihan and rate each song using his 10-point scale.) One of the only bummers for my holiday break was that the iHeart Radio Classic American Top 40 station did not air its annual marathon of year-end countdowns.
A near disaster in the Fieldhouse last night should have most KU fans very concerned this morning. Iowa State has proven that their 12–0 start was no fluke, and new coach TJ O (I refuse to learn how to spell his last name; this is a blog not a newspaper) deserves an enormous amount of credit for turning the program around so quickly. They guard your ass off, and not a single KU player handled the pressure well.
This weekend was another reminder that sports are dumb. At least they were to the people - well me - in our house. KU You all know that I’m superstitious. So I got a bad feeling as news broke that Tech’s two best players, Terrence Shannon Jr and Kevin McCullar, would miss Saturday’s game against KU. It just seems like anytime people get excited about an opponent missing key player(s) against KU, the Jayhawks decide to lay a big, fat egg that day.
There is an unintentional theme to this week’s playlist. open.spotify.com/playlist/… “Tunnels” - Weakened Friends A huge, crunchy very 90s song about getting your heart broken. It’s awesome. “Lo Lo Lonely” - Young Guv YG returns in March with a double album filled with his take on power pop. I know Matthew Sweet put out an album last year. I didn’t listen to it, but this reminds me of his work back in the 1990s.
I knocked out season four of Cobra Kai over the weekend. Six episodes Saturday, four Sunday. Solid work. I liked it, although I thought it took a long time to find a good rhythm and flow. I hoped there would be a payoff for a rather slow start, and, thank goodness, there was. In fact, the last three episodes were as good as any in the total run of Cobra Kai.
What the hell was that? In the building named for Henry Iba, KU and Oklahoma State took turns sending basketball back to the Stone Age Tuesday. OSU was awful in the first 10 minutes. KU was even worse in the next 10, at one point missing 19 straight shots. And both teams looked like fifth graders in the closing minutes of the contest. In the final 2:24 there were seven turnovers, five fouls, four missed field goals, two missed free throws, and zero points scored by either team.
Holiday Stuff The Office, Christmas episodes I wrote about them last year; they get a collective A Christmas Vacation, A Elf, A Office Christmas Party, B+ Die Hard, A Community, “Abed’s Uncontrollable Christmas” This was the Community entry on a list of best Christmas TV episodes I found. I hadn’t seen it since probably its initial airing. It should be a classic for everyone. It is to me now. A
Happy New Year, everybody! Let’s kick off another calendar year of discussing random shit, shall we? Our New Year’s Eve was rather quiet, as usual. M went to a party, which was a first. That meant we had to stay up until we were sure she was safely at the home of the friend she was spending the night with. What did our parents do before the Find My app?
My listening stats for 2021: The War on Drugs - 417 Middle Kids - 303 Pearl Jam - 199 Manchester Orchestra - 115 Wild Pink - 112 Sam Fender - 110 Crowded House - 102 Hatchie - 102 Julien Baker - 98 Eliza Shaddad - 88 And since I began using Last.fm in February, 2005: Frightened Rabbit - 3532 Pearl Jam - 3494 The War on Drugs - 2850 The Beatles - 2286 Ryan Adams - 2268 The Clash - 1904 Radiohead - 1613 Crowded House - 1557 Bruce Springsteen - 1367 The White Stripes - 1272 Complete stats available at my Last.
It’s been awhile since we’ve had a normal Friday playlist. Might as well wrap up 2020 by getting back into the routine of sharing good music with friends on Fridays. open.spotify.com/playlist/… “Maelstrom” - Melts I’ve been sitting on this one for awhile. Turns out it is perfect to save for New Year’s Eve, as it is about a getting caught in times of turmoil and being powerless to resist. I can’t think of a better analogy for the past few years.
KU has entered the silly season. Three-straight scheduled games either cancelled or postponed because of Covid issues with their opponent. The next regularly scheduled game is in jeopardy, too, although the new quarantine rules may save it. Odds are at least the first half of January will continue to be crazy, and perhaps only a quickly declining Omicron wave will keep the entire conference season from being a mess. In place of two of those games, KU scrambled to get new opponents.