Breaking Packs

It is so sad what has happened to Sports Illustrated over the past decade. SI was required reading for people my age who were into sports for most of our young lives. When I was a kid, Thursdays were the best day of the year because that’s when the new issue of SI would usually land in the mailbox. The magazine was full of great game stories, features on the most interesting athletes in the world, and usually one long-form piece that you would want to read again as soon as you finished it.

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Reaching for the Stars, Vol. 42

Chart Week: April 23, 1983 Song: “One On One” - Daryl Hall & John Oates Chart Position: #7, 13th week on the chart. Peaked at #7 for three weeks. Sometimes I come across anecdotes on AT40 that make me giddy. For example, I first heard this episode a few years back while in the car one Sunday morning. I heard the story I’m about to share and started hooting in excitement.

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Covid Chronicles, 5/5

It feels typical for this stage in life here on earth that anytime there is good news, it is heavily balanced by awful news. The worst, early hot spots are all calming down. Italy and Spain are taking steps to return to normal. The New York City/State area are trending in a positive direction. Across the US, many restrictions are being relaxed. All that is countered by the brutal reality that we are likely moving back toward normal too early and too quickly.

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What I'm Watching: April

A full month of being locked in had the expected effect on what I’ve been watching on TV: I consumed a shit-load of content! I thought about breaking this list into multiple entries. Instead I’m going to put on my editing hat and pare these down as much as I can. I will put the items I write most about at top, and share progressively less as we move through the list.

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Friday Playlist

It’s going to be a beautiful weekend here in Indianapolis. I hope wherever you are the weather will allow you to get outside and enjoy a nice day or three as well. Here is a soundtrack for your weekend activities. open.spotify.com/playlist/… “Sun Baby” - The High Violets I loved this band in the mid–00s and thought they had disappeared. I was just reading up on them and saw they released a highly regarded album just four years ago.

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Reading Assignments: The Challenge Ahead

I shared earlier this week that I’m paying less direct attention to the news over the past couple weeks. I am, though, still reading plenty of deeper pieces on where we are at and where we are headed. I still have several articles in the queue but I thought these two pieces were very good and worth sharing. They take a look at the structural issues in our country, largely political, that the Coronavirus crisis has highlighted.

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Covid Chronicles, 4/28

A big step back toward normalcy today: S went back to work. She’s on a limited schedule, just two days a week and only seeing two patients per hour, all of whom are age two and under. She’s also not back in her office as it remains closed for the time being. This will be the plan for six weeks or so and then there is a phase 2 and 3 in the works before her practice is completely open again.

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Let's Go Crazy

Last Tuesday CBS aired a very important program. Officially titled Let’s Go Crazy: The Grammy Salute to Prince, the show as a tribute to the late Prince, who died exactly four years ago from its initial air date. The show got such a great reaction that CBS re-aired it Saturday night. I recorded the Tuesday broadcast and watched it Thursday afternoon. It was outstanding! These tribute shows can often go off the rails, become mawkish, or serve more as vehicles for the performers than the honoree.

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Friday Playlist

open.spotify.com/playlist/… “Runaway Dog” - Retirement Party Seems like there have been several songs I’ve shared lately that have a strong, mid–90s vibe. Not sure if that means the grunge years are coming back. Add this one to the list. Especially in the rhythm section this has the feel of a Belly song. “Wash it Away” - Black Lab This wasn’t really grunge era - it was released in 1997 - but it is a forgotten gem from the ’90s alt-rock scene.

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Reader's Notebook, 4/23

I worked my way through my stack of library books a few weeks ago, so it’s down to the Kindle and re-reading a few books I have around until the physical library opens again. Let the Northern Lights Erase Your Name - Vendela Vida With the transition to Kindle books, I’m finding recommendations in odd places. Someone on Twitter recommended this book about a month ago, when it just happened to be on sale.

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Covid Chronicles, 4/22

This is more of a random tidbits post. Nothing real earth-shattering in it. More mundane details of life in April 2020. I think we’ve reached the point in our house where we are all a little pissy with each other. Last week did not help. Damp, dreary, cool. We were stuck inside all last week due to the chilly, wet weather. My mind kept reaching for something that would get us out of the house: a practice or game, a birthday party, a sleepover, a dinner with friends.

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Reaching for the Stars, Vol 41

Chart Week: April 10, 1982 Song: “Genius of Love” - Tom Tom Club Chart Position: #37, 12th week on the chart. Peaked at #31 for two weeks. (Administrative note: this is the second RFTS entry from this chart week. The first is here.) This entry is both about the song and about the radio station on which I heard it the most as a kid. Tom Tom Club was a side project of married couple Chris Frantz and Tina Weymouth, members of Talking Heads.

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Friday Playlist

I’m going to try to mix these up a little more than I have been lately. The focus will still be on sharing new(-ish) music. But I’m also going to throw in a few more older songs each week, just to stretch this out a little and make it feel a little more like my old podcast. If I could figure out a way to put my own vocal commentary between Spotify tracks, I would re-launch that podcast.

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Covid Chronicles, 4/16

First, some great news. I have not shared here that a good high school friend of S has been in the hospital with Covid–19 for over three weeks. He was in the ICU on a ventilator for over two of those weeks. Based on the updates we were getting, we think he was very close to death on at least two occasions. We know the hospital chaplain paid him a visit three Saturdays ago and believed that would be his final visit.

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Reader's Notebook + The Masters Rewinds

The Second Life of Tiger Woods - Michael Bamberger There was a hole in Easter weekend: there was no live coverage of the Masters. Even in that long stretch when I didn’t have much interest in golf, the Masters was still must-watch TV. It was a sign that spring was close, the carefully manicured lushness of Augusta National giving hope that the earth tones of winter would soon depart from your home as well.

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Reaching for the Stars, Vol. 40

Chart Week: March 30, 1985 Songs: “Missing You” - Diana Ross, “Nightshift” - The Commodores Chart Positions: #15, 18th week on the chart. Peaked at #10 for two weeks in April. #10, 10th week on the chart. Peaked at #3 the week of April 20. Music fans know where I’m going with this entry. These two songs were both tributes to one of the greatest singers in American history. Marvin Gaye was murdered by his father on April 1, 1984 following an argument between the two men.

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Covid Chronicles, 4/13

Well, it is April 13, Easter is behind us, and after a week-plus of fine-to-perfect weather, suddenly it feels like winter again. Currently the winds are roaring, the sky is filled with thick, angry clouds, and the windchill is a nippy 26 degrees. Ah, life in the Midwest! These last gasps of winter this time of year always suck. Over the past week the trees have all budded out; flowers and ornamental grasses are emerging; and the yard is that almost painful shade of green that comes after some rain, some warm weather, and its first cutting of the year.

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Friday Playlist

I think of myself as pretty knowledgable about tech things, or at least tech things that I use regularly. For months, years maybe, I’ve been lamenting how I have to delete my Friday Playlists out of Spotify after a month so my local library doesn’t get too unwieldy to scroll through. “If only you could do nesting folders like in old iTunes,” I thought. But I never, you know, looked to see if that was possible.

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Covid Chronicles, 4/8

One of my memories of April 4, 1988, was what a glorious day it was. Sunny, in the 80s, and perfect. At least in Kansas City. I remember going to Dairy Queen with friends after school and then mowing the lawn in the lead up to the national championship game. It was one of those early spring days in the Midwest that fools you into thinking summer is closer than it actually is.

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Reader's Notebook, 4/7/20

Well, I did it. I finished my pile of books I checked out from the library last night. I have a couple books on my Kindle that I’ve purchased to get through the next week or so. After that I guess I’ll start checking out ebooks from the library, which I kind of hate to do after learning about how difficult the ebook system is for libraries. (Long story short: publishers screw libraries on ebooks.

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