My sports weekend was a little more compressed than normal. We hosted several of M’s friends and their families Sunday evening, so we spent a lot of time prepping for them and then enjoying their company. Friday night was CHS’ homecoming. We went to dinner with a couple other families and by the time we walked in, the Irish were already up 16–0 midway through the first quarter. It didn’t get any better.
No long essays about how old music makes me feel this week. I do write a little more about most of these songs than I usually do, though. open.spotify.com/playlist/… “Waste Your Time” - Jackson+Sellers Jade Jackson says this song is about those final moments of a toxic relationship, when you are reevaluating everything you’ve been through and realize it wasn’t worth it. Me? When I hear the phrase “waste your time,” I think of the conversation S and I had in May 2002.
Finally worked through my Instapaper account to find some things I’ve saved to share with you. Dave Holmes Visits 1988 to Pay Respect to Casey Kasem’s Last True American Top 40 Countdown Someone posted this piece to the AT40 Facebook group I’m a member of. It comes from right after Casey Kasem died back in 2014, but I still enjoyed reading it. Maybe some week I should do a commentary for all 40 tracks in a countdown.
There are constant reminders that we live in crazy-ass times. Times where simple differences of opinion aren’t allowed and every debate has to be A Whole Thing. Times where civility has disappeared from discourse and it rapidly transitions into vitriol. Some of you know my wife has a second job, taken to support my blogging career. Not really. Taken, truthfully, because she’s good at making decisions and would rather help to form and implement policy than be told what the new policies are going to be.
…Happy Holiday youtu.be/Qfi9JpgMc…
Well piss. I swear that I’ve posted this about three different times over the past two days. Obviously I’m losing it. Chart Week: August 25, 1984 Song: “Breakin’…There’s No Stopping Us” - Ollie and Jerry Chart Position: #34, 13th week on the chart. Peaked at #9 the week of August 4. I love musical origin stories. Especially ones where a lucky break launched an otherwise anonymous performer towards success. For every artist like Michael Jackson, Prince, Whitney Houston, or Mariah Carey, who each possessed talent that made stardom seem inevitable, the charts are loaded with dozens of artists and bands that required a perfect combination of factors to have their moment.
I need to run through my Instapaper account and collect some more good reads to share. To tide you over, here is one that made me laugh out loud from McSweeney’s. Wake Up Sailors, Scurvy is a Hoax
open.spotify.com/playlist/… “I Don’t Live Here Anymore” - The War on Drugs with Lucius The title track from the upcoming TWOD LP. It is the brightest, shiniest, poppiest track the band has ever done. Naturally I love it. Lucius provides a very nice vocal assist. “This Enchanted” - Hatchie Harriet Pilbeam recently signed with Indiana label Secretly Canadian, and this is her first single on that imprint. Like just about everything else she’s done, it’s pure magic.
Another kickball season is complete. L’s team was supposed to make up three games that had been rained out. One school never responded to multiple messages from our coach about a reschedule date. It’s the team L kicked six homers in one game against a year ago, and we’ve generally beaten them like rented mules since third grade. So I don’t blame them for avoiding the game. Monday we played on a crazy field that has a fence in short left field.
My goodness, I am so far behind in sharing my recent completed reads. I imagine a few of these will be crappier than normal since I’ve put them off so long. A Spy In The Struggle - Aya de León I’ve been working through a list of good, recent espionage novels that this and the next book both were on. The list featured books that take a non-traditional view of espionage.
A busy Monday kept me from getting this out yesterday, but allow me to share some brief sports notes from the weekend. Friday we took the entire family to the 5A #1 Cathedral matchup with arch rival and defending 3A state champs BCHS. Well, L rode with S and I and then ran off with her friends the entire game. And M and C both rode to the game with friends.
I think you’re going to like this group of songs, but I bet you enjoy my essay about this week’s video more. It’s not often I dive into my romantic past here, so prepare to laugh at/mock me. open.spotify.com/playlist/… “Long Way” - Eddie Vedder WHOA! When I heard Eddie had a solo album coming out I was not enthused. His first solo album was all folkish songs played on ukulele. Not necessarily my bag.
This has to be the latest in the school year I’ve ever gone before sharing a kid sports update. Good reason for that: we only have one kid playing any sports at the moment! I should be writing a wrap-up of L’s kickball regular season. Her final game was supposed to be yesterday. “So,” attentive readers may be wondering, “does that mean her team is going back to the City playoffs?
It was the first weekend jam-packed with sports in a long time. Good thing we had a fourish-day weekend to squeeze it all in![^1] Friday night I took C and three friends to the Cathedral football game (M was also there with her own friend group). The 2–0, class 5A #1 Irish played a perennial 6A power from up north that has fallen off a bit in the past couple seasons.
Movies and Shows Patriot “John Lakeman,” his professional name, is dealing with a lot of stuff. He’s trying to sway an election in Iran to prevent the country from gaining nuclear weapons. He’s attempting to pose as an expert in industrial piping as his cover, something he is woefully unprepared for. His boss at the piping firm hates him. Just about every one of his coworkers is on his ass for one thing or another.
It’s the last weekend of the summer of 2021. My new music folder seems a bit light at the moment, so we’re going to get a little nutty this week. I hope you find the nuttiness pleasing to your ears. open.spotify.com/playlist/… “Red Hill Mining Town” - U2 Through hands of steel And heart of stone Our labor day Has come and gone Not about our American Labor Day, but still seems appropriate for the weekend.
Tom Breihan passed a notable milestone this week in his The Number Ones series: he finished the 1980s. Most days I just glance at the comments. But Monday, as Phil Collins’ “Another Day in Paradise” closed out the decade, I read deep into them, enjoying commenters’ various picks of favorites, most hated, most overlooked, etc tracks. I don’t participate in the comments section, so I’ll share some of my picks here.
August 2021 Pearl Jam - 51 The War on Drugs - 32 Alien Boys - 27 The Rolling Stones - 25 Torres - 25 Complete stats available at my Last.fm page.
We’ll do some links today since I can’t seem to get my latest Reader’s Notebook entry finished, nor come to any thoughts worth sharing on other subjects. Guess I haven’t posted any links in a few weeks because the first is a few weeks old. Hell, it was old when I talked about it with friends in KC two weeks ago. My bad. The intro to this piece made me laugh out loud, because it is very true.
This episode...hmmm. I thought about it a lot between my two viewings, the first on Saturday morning, the second Sunday evening. The idea kept occurring to me that every season has a lull episode, one where not much happens but the pieces are all getting sorted into the right places to build towards bigger developments in the future. That made a lot more sense back in the day when a full season included 20+ episodes and you had to work in some breaks.