The CYO basketball season got back to action last week, and L’s team had two games. It was their best week of the year. Tuesday we played St E, the church where all three of our girls went to preschool. Games against teams like St E are always tricky. They don’t have a grade/middle school, so are reliant on word-of-mouth within the parish to get enough girls to come out for a team.
I swear October is the fastest month. It seems like just yesterday we were celebrating L’s birthday and now here we are on November 1 bracing for the onslaught of Christmas commercials. Hell, they started Saturday, from what I could tell so we’re already in it. Fall break, a trip, and lots of basketball helped to make the month speed by. Two weeks ago we were in the midst of one of the warmest Octobers in Indianapolis history.
October 2021 Someone put out a new album last week. The War on Drugs - 122 Trace Mountains - 52 Sam Fender - 40 Middle Kids - 31 The Cranberries - 23 Complete stats available at my Last.fm page.
Well, folks, we made it! Today is War on Drugs release day! By the time you’ve read this I’m sure I’ve listened to I Don’t Live Here Anymore at least twice. My plan is to stay up late Thursday and listen as soon as it hits Spotify. We’ll see if that worked or not. I’ve read three reviews, and I’m not sure my expectations could be any higher. Two of the reviews say it’s the band’s best album of their career.
Good grief am I behind on these. That makes total sense, though, because my reading pace has slowed to a level not seen in years. I’ve finished just one book in the past four weeks. I went nearly three weeks without starting my next reading project. Normally I break out in hives if I don’t immediately start a new book. I guess I needed a break. Open - Andre Agassi I don’t know why I never read this.
A couple links to share as I continue my rebound from fall break and attempt to ease back into a routine. One last Bond link, this one about how John F. Kennedy both helped the Bond series become popular and used that popularity to further his fame. John F. Kennedy was a vocal Bond fan, and the media loved to draw parallels between the fictional spy and the real-life president—so much so that their personas became intertwined in America’s cultural subconscious.
It was a very good weekend with some very good friends in Nashville. This was our first-ever trip to Music City, USA, and we had a great time. The four couples caravanned down on Thursday afternoon. We had a rental in the very cool area known as 12 South, not too far from downtown. Our house was fantastic. Very stylish, lots of room, and it served as a good home base for our adventures.
A strange week for scheduling around our house. The girls began their fall break yesterday, so we had some social activities Tuesday night plus an impromptu sleepover for C and some of her friends. We did our annual “flu shots and lunch somewhere that has ice cream” outing yesterday. S and I will leave later today for a little jaunt away without kids; the girls will leave with an aunt and cousins tomorrow for a couple days in Cincinnati.
Another busy weekend filled with sports of various sorts. Friday night was the biggest high school football game in Indiana this year: 6A #1 Center Grove at 5A #1 Cathedral. Center Grove was ranked in the top ten nationally in every one of those “polls.” Cathedral was ranked as high as 14th but more often down in the 30s nationally. Both teams were undefeated. Neither team had really been challenged all season.
open.spotify.com/playlist/… “Brothers Gonna Work It Out” - Public Enemy This popped up on my workout playlist this week. Peak PE. “Crystal Bullets” - White Denim I can dig what these cats are laying down. “Knead” - illuminati hotties ih’s album Let Me Do One More has received almost universal acclaim. I don’t love Sarah Tudzin’s voice, so I can’t get into the album as much as the consensus does. This one works for me, though, with it’s heavy ’90s influence.
I saw my first movie in a theater since late 2019 last night. The reviews were decent enough and the Covid numbers here falling fast enough that I felt comfortable going to see No Time To Die with my brother-in-law. Four other people had the same idea, so we had plenty of room to ourselves and felt perfectly safe. I don’t think I’ve seen a James Bond movie in a theater since some time in the Pierce Brosnan days.
Although L’s basketball team is in week one of their three-week stoppage of play for fall breaks, there were still hoops to be played last weekend. St P’s normally hosts a Cadet (7th/8th grade) A team tournament over fall break. We had some logistical issues and weren’t able to host this year, but a neighboring parish took it over so that four teams could still get together and play a few games.
A few items to add to your reading queue for the weekend. I’ve always bought into the myth that minor league baseball was somehow purer than big league ball, and the connection between minor league clubs and their communities was deeper than that between big cities and MLB clubs. That’s probably all Bull Durham-fueled garbage, but baseball is largely built on myths anyway MLB is doing its best to fuck all that up by squeezing out much of what was local and unique about the minors.
open.spotify.com/playlist/… “Silk Chiffon” - MUNA featuring Phoebe Bridgers MUNA is doing it right. They landed a gig opening for Phoebe Bridgers on her fall tour. Then they parlayed that into her taking a guest vocal spot on their latest single. In a different time, this song would be a huge radio hit. And making a large chunk of the country clutch their pearls that a song about being gay was so popular.
I’m a little shocked that I am upright and able to walk today. You see, L’s coaches cancelled their practice last night and decided to have a loose shoot-around/scrimmage. I took L then hung around in case they wrapped up early. The coach, who I’ve coached with four different times, roped me into the fun. We started with a game of knockout that included everyone in the gym: our team, a girl from the B team who was there, a younger brother, plus three parents and one grandparent.
Mother Nature can’t figure out what she wants to do. For the past few days, if you’ve looked through a window to see what’s going on outside, you would assume fall has taken over. It’s been cloudy most of the times, flat out dreary a few times, so you would think you would need to bundle up a bit when you set outside. Yet it’s still been close to 80 most days, and it looks like it’s going to be warmer than that for the next several days.
Somehow I did not watch a single movie last month. I think that was mostly due to paralysis by too many choices. There were plenty of nights when I scrolled through the various streaming services we pay for, searching for a movie that jumped out at me for 30–45 minutes then gave up and watched a show. Movies and Shows The Office I got into a little Office jag in late August and it continued into last month.
September 2021 The Cranberries - 30 Matt Pond PA - 27 The War on Drugs - 27 We Were Promised Jetpacks - 24 Beastie Boys - 23 Complete stats available at my Last.fm page.
Welcome to the fourth quarter of 2021. My late year itch to build my favorite songs of the year list has already started to make its presence known. Holiday music is eight weeks away. Let’s kick it off with a pretty standard Friday Playlist. open.spotify.com/playlist/… “Weights” - Bartees Strange A bonus track from the updated, deluxe version of Strange’s debut album, I love how this just goes from the first beat.
After a six-week-ish lull, my pace of knocking out books has picked back up. I’ll likely finish another book later today, but wanted to go ahead and get this out. Missionaries - Phil Klay Klay’s second work about modern warfare is his first true novel; Redeployment was a series of short stories based loosely on his service as a Marine public affairs officer in Iraq. Here he takes a broader view of war.