A lot of sports to get through, so let’s tackle the biggest issues of the day in no particular order. CFP Alabama crushing Notre Dame was no surprise. As an Indiana Catholic school parent I don’t hate Notre Dame nearly as much as I used to. I don’t mind them winning, but still take some pleasure in their losses. One day that fan base will wake and realize it isn’t 1977 anymore.
I watched a shit-load of TV in December and have an extra-heavy post coming up soon to cover all of that. First, however, something that would normally go into my January list requires immediate attention. Netflix did the world a solid by releasing season three of Cobra Kai on Friday. I watched the first two episodes in the gap between the CFP semifinals games that night. Then I crammed the remaining eight into my Saturday.
Families in Indianapolis got an early Christmas present about two weeks ago when the county health commissioner said that schools could return to in-person classes beginning today, rather than waiting until Jan. 19. St P’s normally starts the Tuesday after New Year’s Day, so today is a mini-virtual day with the kids having a few light assignments but no actual classes. Then they will be back the classroom tomorrow. CHS will begin virtual classes tomorrow and return in person next Tuesday.
It’s not every year that Jan. 1 falls on a Friday. I better commemorate the day properly. open.spotify.com/playlist/… “The New Year” - Death Cab for Cutie “New Years Morning” - JarJarBeatz “New Year’s Day” - U2 “New Year” - Beach House “Happy New Year” - ABBA “This Year” - The Mountain Goats
I’ll dispense with the monthly stats, since December is dominated by Bing and Frank and other seasonal fare. Instead here are my totals for the year. I believe they reflect the oddness of 2020 appropriately. I would not have guessed Pearl Jam, Springsteen, the Beatles, or Prince would be in my top ten one year ago. Pearl Jam - 347 Bruce Springsteen - 301 Rolling Blackouts Coastal Fever - 228 The Beatles - 205 Phoebe Bridgers - 165 Doves - 156 Prince - 134 Ratboy - 126 Waxahatchee - 125 cartalk - 123 And an annual refresh of my total Last.
Welp, it’s almost over. The worst year ever has but a few hours left. And then everything will magically get better at midnight, right? If only… 2021 has to be better. Vaccines are being administered and research continues to find more ways to fight Covid–19. It may take months, but the tide is turning. While Covid is our biggest issue, there are plenty of other issues for which there are no vaccines.
Chart Week: December 22, 1984 Song: “Bruce” - Rick Springfield Chart Position: #33, 6th week on the chart. Peaked at #27 for a week in January. As artists move through their careers they often jump from one record company to another. This can lead to uncomfortable situations when the artists break through and their previous employers attempt to capitalize. Rick Springfield was about as big of a second-tier pop star as there was in the early 1980s.
“Favorite Songs by Artist X” lists are a dime a dozen when it comes to certain bands. They are click-baity and unnecessary, as they’ve been done and done and done again. Still, as a music fan I will almost always read them and listen to the songs they cover if it is a band I care about. I think that is why it took Steven Hyden so long to get to the Beatles.
Christmas, 2020. Like most folks, we were trying to have a semi-normal Christmas in the safest manner possible. Most years we end up having several big family gatherings of varying sizes. Last year was a banner year: four get-togethers greatly aided by temperatures in the 60s most of the week. Two days we were in the front yard hitting golf balls. We could have used that weather this year. Christmas Eve, the windchill was down in the low teens.
We’ve lost so much this year, but proving that there is some light in the world, Darlene Love is still with us. For years and years she appeared on David Letterman’s program to sing her signature song just before Christmas. I did not know she moved that over to The View after The Late Show ended. Even Covid couldn’t keep Ms. Love from sharing a little Christmas cheer with the world.
I was digging through the blog archives last night and came across this post, from December 2004. It is an accounting of the best Christmas gifts I received as a kid, which was about as “typical 2004 personal blog post” as you could get. I had two thoughts as I read it: 1 - If I re-did the list today I would add one adult gift: when S got me the first iPhone in 2007.
Christmas vacation, or what counts for it in 2020, is nigh. My in-laws have arrived, the girls have about four more hours of class, and by early afternoon we will be in the final countdown for Christmas. For this year’s Blog Christmas Playlist, I’ve chosen to focus on songs you probably won’t hear on your local Christmas music station. Use them as a break from the normal holiday fare. open.spotify.com/playlist/…
My Wednesday activity, other than preparing for my in-laws to arrive tonight, was watching all of The Office Christmas episodes. As you can imagine, this was an extremely good way to spend time, especially on a very cold, snowy night. As I watched I thought, “I should put together some kind of rudimentary list, ranking them in order of my preference.” Then I looked and saw there are approximately 8000 of these lists.
Pretty good run of books. Lucky Supreme - Jeff Johnson The trick to writing a good crime novel, when approximately eight billion of them have been written, is to find a new angle and/or place the story in an unusual situation. Johnson did that quite well with this book. Darby Holland owns a tattoo parlor in Portland. He’s kind of the CEO of his little neighborhood, a grimy street in the old industrial part of town that is filled with clubs, ethnic restaurants, and prostitutes.
My pre-list State of Music comments are pretty simple this year: 2020 felt like a weak musical year. I don’t know whether to blame that on Covid, me getting older and having to fight changing tastes harder, or that it was just a rough year for good tunes. There are some high quality tracks in this list, but I’m not sure there are many that I will go back to over-and-over in the future.
My Christmas spirit is at an all-time low. I don’t think I’m alone in that this year, nor do I need to explain why. I’ve only watched a couple Christmas movies, I’m not reveling in Christmas music every waking hour, and we’ve had a couple hard discussions about what our family Christmas gathering plans should be. But one thing has made me happy this season, and that is the life of a local radio DJ.
Chart Week: December 3, 1983 Song: “Love Is A Battlefield” - Pat Benatar Chart Position: #6, 11th week on the chart. Peaked at #5 the week of December 10. There’s no great story behind the song this week. Nope, this entry is simply an excuse to share one of the iconic videos of the 1980s. Pat Benatar enlisted director Bob Giraldi to help mold the images for her final single of 1983.
One of the greatest things about the Internet is the ability to dive into your past, to try to clarify memories that have become hazy over time or reconnect with people who were once an integral part of your life. I don’t do a whole lot of biographical scrolling these days. It’s been years since I’ve looked up an ex-girlfriend or classmate. The closest I’ve come is a couple years back when I spent a few winter nights in Google maps working to find the various houses of my youth.
I’ve been a little slower than normal slapping together my Favorite Songs of the Year list. I can just #Blame2020 and leave it at that. I will also add that I’m having a devil of a time picking my favorite song of 2020, which I kind of need to do in order to complete the list. But I’m working on it, and in hopes of ensuring I complete this year’s list over the next week, I’ll go ahead and share my standard prelude.
Some things never change. Those glamorous, early November college basketball matchups that ESPN creates to fill the air in the opening weeks of the season almost always disappoint. Oh, you might get a close game, but rarely are these games ones where, afterward, viewers say, “That might be the game of the year!” The Champions Classic is the ultimate example. It has been college hoops’ de facto kickoff event the last several years, with Duke, Kansas, Kentucky, and Michigan State assembling at a neutral site to play a double header and show off their shiny new toys.