A lot of really good music this week, including TWO videos!
[open.spotify.com/playlist/...](https://open.spotify.com/playlist/4QFMOnnfVrZRmDROeqGzsq?si=b574a327800f49cb) “w-w-w-w-w” - hemlocke springs
This is the latest in a new year I’ve ever gone without creating my working list of favorite songs released since January 1. This is the remarkable song that finally prompted it. I knew nothing about hemlocke springs before I heard this jam, but apparently she’s been getting buzz for some time and has already opened for Chappell Roan.
Chart Week: February 4, 1984
Song: “Break My Stride” - Matthew Wilder
Chart Position: #5, 21st week on the chart. Peaked at #5 for three weeks.
Nearly five weeks into the new year without any RFTS entries. Trust me, it’s been keeping me awake at night. Fortunately, during the countdown I listened to last week, Matthew Wilder’s biggest (but not only!)[1] hit was spending its final week in the top five.
An eventful first two nights of the week on the hardcourt. Let’s run through some notes from each.
Jayhawk Talk The Jayhawks went to Lubbock, refused to take over a game that was there for the taking in the first half, let a couple of rotation players scorch them for about five minutes, and found themselves down by 10 with eight minutes left. The home crowd was roaring, JT Toppin was finally getting loose, and KU had nothing going on offense.
The Pitt, season one If you haven’t watched, believe the hype. One of the best TV shows I’ve watched in some time. Completely engrossing, never a moment that felt wasted, incredible performances. A well deserved first Golden Globe for Noah Wylie. We will be watching season two as soon as we can binge them all over a couple nights.
A+
The Chair Company I’m not sure what the best way to describe this show is.
We’ve reached the part of the year when our weekends get kind of boring. Weather is terrible. No football. Still, A LOT of basketball to get caught up on, at least from the past week.
HS Hoops L remained out for the past week. It seems like she’s getting better but we’ll see how school goes today and then her follow up with sports medicine goes tomorrow. Because of the weather we fluctuated last week between having three games and none.
The new music is really starting to stack up, which is nice. Also some stuff going on in the world which inspired the inclusion of several other songs.
[open.spotify.com/playlist/...](https://open.spotify.com/playlist/7n62MlP6Q2zACiliJt1X51?si=dc5b7c0a82b345b2) “Slumber Party” - Brigitte Calls Me Baby
Pretentious new band alert! A lot going on here. This band gets its name from lead singer Wes Leavins being pen pals with the late Brigitte Bardot (RIP) when he was young and the film legend allegedly addressed him as “Baby.
A couple links about where technology is headed.
Joanna Stern does such great work with tech-focused multimedia for the Wall Street Journal. Here she shows how her team “broke” an AI agent that was tasked with running a vending machine. I found this both incredibly funny and creative, and another sign that folks need to pump the brakes on the “AI revolution.”
There is no doubt that there are tremendous opportunities for AI to change our lives, the economy, etc, but we have a long, long way to go before it can safely deliver on those promises.
A few more randoms to clear out of the notebook and brain.
Weather Well, we got through the snow. The roads here in Indy were still anywhere from fair to terrible yesterday when I was out and about. CHS did eLearning the first two days of the week then began on a two-hour delay today. I drove L in partially because I wasn’t sure of the roads but mostly because they have a game tonight and this way she can ride home with us rather than take the bus back to school to get her car.
The Devils - Joe Abercrombie
Another book that appeared on multiple Best Of lists I scrolled through at the end of 2025. With good reason: it was one of the best books I’ve read in the past year or so.
At its core this is your classic quest novel. A teenager is identified as the presumptive heir to a throne that could reunite two churches that have been split for ages.
A cold, snowy weekend that was pretty lazy when we weren’t braving the weather to clear our driveway.
Weather The big event of the weekend was the massive winter storm that blew through the eastern half of the US. The snow started at our house around 4:00 Saturday afternoon and didn’t stop until nearly 6:00 Sunday night. Based on the maps I looked at, we were in the 11–12” range.
A different week around our house, leaving less time for music, but I still managed to put a little something together for you to listen to.
[open.spotify.com/playlist/...](https://open.spotify.com/playlist/3lWGQVRW1K3jR7dKPyaCNb?si=1a6fda3437564d34) “Long Live Love” - Sugar
The second new song from Sugar dropped this week, along with the reveal of a full tour later this year. They come as close to me as Cincinnati. So if any of my brothers (or sisters) in music want to spend a Tuesday evening in October in the Queen City, let me know.
We are three weeks into the New Year and I’ve still not written about an important development that took place over the holidays.
I mentioned last fall that we were looking to convert part of our unfinished basement into a workout room. S had an appropriately bougie plan that would fit the rest of our home’s design. We brought in a contractor that had done good work for some friends. It took a few weeks but eventually we got a quote that was reasonable.
We moved to Indiana in the summer of 2003. IU basketball was one year past an unexpected run to the national title game, where they lost to Maryland. It seemed like they were coming out of a lean period and would reclaim their place amongst the game’s elite. While not inevitable, it felt like the 2000s could bring another national title banner to Assembly Hall.
Nearly 23 years later the Hoosiers haven’t sniffed a Final Four and are on their seventh coach over that span.
I was thinking about putting off the Weekend Notes until tomorrow, given that today is a holiday. Since tonight is kind of a big night for the state of Indiana, I figured it’s better to clear everything out so I can focus on another topic tomorrow.
HS Hoops City champs again! For the third straight year we faced arch rivals BCHS in the City tournament championship game. Once again it was a tense, tight affair.
The new music really started flowing again this week. At one point my folder of songs to review was crammed with more than 40 tracks. Trying to work through those means a lot of songs got only one play instead of several. As I type this nothing is really planned out for where this playlist will go, so I guess we’ll find out together.
[open.spotify.com/playlist/...](https://open.spotify.com/playlist/55jdcLEh1oq83kKaV6Ne1u?si=d0209574cc7e496e) “DESIGNED TO LOSE” - The Twilight Sad
I started 2026 with two books that were recommended from a couple sources I trust. With mixed results.
American Sky - James Grady This novel landed on the best non-fiction list of Steve Donoghue, a poster of tremendous and voluminous year end lists. Thus I was really excited to get to it, described as a muscular, coming-of-age story. It left me wanting.
The story follows Luc, a young man growing up in Montana, from roughly 1963 to 1970.
A very good Tuesday night in our house. First, the Irish began the City tournament with an expectedly easy, 33-point win. Next, as a nice surprise, KU pounded previously unbeaten Iowa State. Can’t ask for a better evening than that.
Rather than dive into those games, I’ll instead share a post I’ve been sitting on for nearly two weeks. I really should have posted it on a weekend, as most of it is rather out-of-date.
CFP My goodness! I expected IU to beat Oregon. But like that? A complete ass kicking, the type you expect Alabama or Georgia or Ohio State to put on some feel-good-story team that got a bunch of breaks and stumbled into the playoffs? No, no way could the Hoosiers do that to the Ducks, a team loaded with five star recruits and future NFL players. Yet they did. Without much effort, it seemed.
Every four weeks for the past four months I’ve shared some brief thoughts about the NFL season. The common theme was I had no idea what was going on, as teams took turns looking good for 2–3 games then looking terrible.
Following that trend, as I look at the playoff bracket, I am befuddled. How the hell am I supposed to have confidence in anyone from this group of teams? There isn’t a single one that doesn’t have at least one major question.
[open.spotify.com/playlist/...](https://open.spotify.com/playlist/1khaUmcFyoxiQgYpkKT6w2?si=e785712237c44101) “Gold Paint For Blue Skies” - Peter Matthew Bauer
Former Walkmen lead singer Hamilton Leithauser released an excellent album almost exactly a year ago. Here his former bandmate’s latest sounds like it easily could have been a Walkmen song. I can’t help but wonder what it would sound like with Leithauser on vocals.
“Rule 31” - Radio Free Alice
I love this band’s name, harkening to clandestine shortwave stations of ages past.