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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
It should be national championship night. Maybe KU would be playing tonight in the school’s ninth title game seeking their fourth NCAA title. The Chicago Tribune ran a simulation and had the Jayhawks beating Michigan State tonight to indeed grab the 2020 nets. USA Today had KU beating Dayton on a buzzer-beating shot. Alas, there was no tournament this year so we’ll never know if Dot, Dok, Marcus and company could have won four to six games to hang another banner in Allen Fieldhouse.
open.spotify.com/playlist/… “I Know That Much” - The Lathums This band is from England, but there is a distinctly 80s, Australian vibe to their music. To be fair, there is also a strong early 90s jangle pop feel to it as well. I also hear REM and Johnny Marr. This is turning into a wine description: “Oaky, but with a hint of vanilla, burnt caramel, and a touch of burnt hay in the finish.
The latest in America’s favorite new blog series! Last night I had my first Zoom meeting with friends. Most of those buddies check in here on the blog occasionally - Nez, E$, Sir Dave, The Piddler - and we’ve been texting often. But it was still great to see their faces, have a conversation, and make a human connection. Yesterday the Indianapolis mayor extended our city’s shelter in place order through May 1.
Obviously a busier month than normal. Let’s get to it. Narcos, season three Maybe not quite as excellent as the first two seasons, largely due to the end of Wagner Moura’s epic run as Pablo Escobar which carried the first two seasons. The move from Medellín to Calí still made for compelling TV. Despite that move, there was still a revelatory performance, this one by Matias Varela as cartel head of security Jorge Salcedo.
First off, in my last entry I mentioned that I had forgotten to include a book in my December updates. But I had also forgotten the book’s title, so I could not mention it at all. Fortunately the author of the book blurbed one of this entry’s books which jogged my memory. This is my official recognition that I read and enjoyed Blake Crouch’s Dark Matter. It’s a terrific, mind-fucky novel.
Happy spring break, everyone! So excited to leave dreary, cold Indiana behind for a week in sunny, warm… Well shit. We weren’t even supposed to go someplace warm, but it is still crappy to remain stuck at home rather than on day two of skiing in Colorado. Who knows, maybe staying home means one of us didn’t break a leg or blow out an ACL on the slopes. Regardless of what is going on here, we are glad the resorts shut down as the Keystone-Vail corridor is apparently a hotspot thanks to at least one person who traveled from Italy to that area in early March.
youtu.be/6i-fiRgbp… “The Rising” - Bruce Springsteen and the E. Street Band It’s a big new music week. I’m a few songs into my first pass at the new Pearl Jam album. There are at least four more new albums that require my attention today. So just a video today, and something to hopefully give a little hope that things will get better.
I find myself bouncing between hope and despair quite often these days. The numbers from Italy and Spain are so staggering, and our country’s reaction so inept, that it is difficult not to live in great fear of what comes next. But I also know that despite all the issues we have had in preparing for this, America tends to do pretty well at crisis once we can get moving in the right direction.
Chart Week: March 24, 1984 Song: “They Don’t Know” - Tracey Ullman Chart Position: #30, 5th week on the chart. Peaked at #8 for two weeks in April/May. It’s been a minute or two since I’ve done one of these. Part of that is because my AT40 workflow has changed. My normal, weekday routine is to turn on the iHeart Radio Classic American Top 40 station while making breakfast, eating lunch, and other moments during the day when I am in the kitchen alone.
Kudos to ESPN and CBS for dropping some classic college basketball games on us to help pass time. I’ve recorded every KU game that has been on so far. I’ve watched a few minutes of the triple overtime Oklahoma game from 2016 and the 2007 Big 12 tournament championship game. In anticipation of Sunday’s airing of the 2008 national championship game, I fired up the YouTubes Saturday and watched that year’s national semifinal against North Carolina.
Our first week of home schooling/working is in the books. The girls all did about as well as we could have hoped. They’re bored, bummed they are not seeing their friends, and it can be a struggle to get them out of their rooms. But so far, so good, for the most part. M was scheduled to have her first in-car driving lesson today. We were a little surprised the company didn’t cancel appointments, so we went ahead and cancelled it on our own.
There is so much information about Covid–19 out there right now it is easy to get overwhelmed. Especially when the news is bad, as was the case earlier this week with the release of a British study that suggested the strategies the national governments of both the UK and US were taking would simply push the flood of sick people out until late this year or early next year. The situation is fluid, though, as everyone seems to be saying.
Shit was real this week. Let’s go ahead and call it the worst week ever and hope that next week doesn’t immediately grab that title away. The only bright spot is my new music playlist is absolutely bursting with great tracks right now. So another extra large edition for today. Take a few moments to chill out and listen to some good tunes. open.spotify.com/playlist/… “The Garden” - Briston Maroney I shared this with a brother-in-music earlier this week and his summation was, “That slaps.
I’m not sure if these posts are useful or interesting. But I feel like I need both an outlet and a way to document this bleak moment in history. I’ve probably read too many post-apocalyptic novels where some artifact of an earlier age is discovered and helps explain how the new world came to be and am angling to leave my own artifact. If you’re reading this from a Covid-free future, hello!