youtu.be/XZ2TpEMR6… “2000 Miles” - KT Tunstall If you make a good Christmas song, eventually it will be covered to death. Somehow I’ve only heard a couple versions of this Pretenders original. Coldplay did a very nice, in-studio version at KROQ in the early 2000s. But KT Tunstall’s version is just wonderful.
It’s Monday. That means some of my patented Weekend Notes are in order! Service Hours M, C, and I went to a local food pantry to volunteer Saturday so they could earn some service hours. They were sent to man the produce table, while I spent the first two hours running the door where people waited to have their eligibility status checked. Upon check-in, people received a paper ticket with a number and then waited in the lobby.
It’s tough to crank out a list this week. I’m coming off the high of putting out my Favorite Songs of the Decade list. I’m working on my Favorite Songs of 2019 list. I’m deep into the Christmas music. And new music pretty much dries up this time of year. So just a video this week. youtu.be/OR07r0ZMF… “Christmas in Hollis” - RUN-DMC. The 1980s were a great time for Christmas music.
I love stuff like this. It is crazy to even begin to consider the vastness of space and the objects that might be out there. We have all these ideas, grounded in physics and math as we know them, of what’s going on across the universe. But we don’t really know what is happening beyond our solar system. If those mysteries fascinate you, too, you might enjoy this little summary of what we think is out there.
A whole mess of books to share. I’ve been putting this off because I was having a hard time writing about a couple of them. I think you’ll be able to guess which ones as you work your way through the list. The Last Stand of Payne Stewart - Kevin Robbins This is an unlikely book for me to both read and enjoy. I never liked Payne Stewart. He seemed like an arrogant prick most of his career.
It was an enjoyable holiday weekend at our house. Some highlights… KU Hoops I’ll break this out later, but the KU-Dayton game on Wednesday was a fine beginning to the holiday break. That game is an argument for why college hoops is better than college football. Two very good teams going toe-to-toe in the season’s earliest weeks and a loss does not kill you for the rest of the year.
Well shit, I’m late. Last week I looked back and saw that I released my Favorite Songs of the 2000s on November 23, 2009. I was aiming to post this decade’s list on December 1 but when I saw that date, I figured I better get my shit together and drop this on your heads. Besides, I haven’t even started on my Favorite songs of 2019 and the Christmas music starts rolling on Friday, so time is a wastin’!
Chart Week: November 6, 1982 Song: “Maneater” - Daryl Hall and John Oates Chart Position: #36, 4th week on the chart. Peaked at #1 for three weeks in December and January. I was hoping to turn on the local AT40 replay last weekend and hear a countdown from a Thanksgiving weekend past that would stir up some holiday-themed memories. Alas the station that plays the countdowns had already switched to Christmas music, and the countdown was one of the special Christmas shows that Casey did late in his life.
open.spotify.com/playlist/… “Love You For A Long Time” - Maggie Rogers. Another utterly delightful song from Maggie. “Motorcade” - Peggy Sue. This is a duo from London who are set to release their debut album in February. I love this first track, with its fun swing and driving tempo. “Champion of the World” - Coldplay. “Los Angeles, Be Kind” - Owl John It’s been a long time since I’ve liked a Coldplay song or album.
We had an interesting Monday when it came to interactions with automobiles, both indirectly and directly. Things started with a bit of a bang. Just before we were heading out of the house to do school drop offs C yelled to us, “There’s a car on fire outside!” I ran to our front door and, sure enough, on the main road our house sits near, about 100 yards from our front door, a car was sitting, hood open, with flames pouring out of the engine block area.
There are moments when the lack of respect I get in my house is unbelievable. Example: yesterday S and I used the relatively warm and dry afternoon to put up some outdoor Christmas lights. Part of our post-pool construction landscaping was adding seven Norwegian spruces to our backyard to provide some privacy. We decided to add them to our holiday decorating by wrapping them in Christmas lights. (We also have five new Norwegian spruces in our front yard, but they are over 250 feet from the nearest power outlet.
open.spotify.com/playlist/… “Lenox Hill” - Thyla. This here shit? This is the shit that is right up my alley these days. Driving, dreamy pop with a female vocalist. Wait until you see my Favorites of 2019 list… “Now I Know” - The Whiffs. This song has a serious late ‘70s/early ‘80s vibe to it. The rock music of that time that bumped up against New Wave but still had a garage rock core.
As if the golf wasn’t enough, I have myself another old-man hobby. Or I nearly had another old man hobby, I should say. Back in July I saw an online ad for a watch sale at some random store. It wasn’t a store I was interested in, but I clicked through just to see what was available. The watch I had been wearing daily for nearly five years - a Citizen Eco-Drive - was starting to get beat up a little bit and I’d had my eyes open to get something new for awhile.
We finally - FINALLY - wrapped up the fall sports season last night. It was a strange and disappointing ending. L’s basketball team’s first opponent in the City tournament was a team that was undefeated. All those wins came in very convincing fashion. We figured it was another team loaded with six graders who play year-round and we’d be lucky to stay in the game for a quarter. Our assessment about their talent was accurate.
Mother Nature takes a lot of grief around here. Occasionally, though, I have to give her props. Yesterday she dropped an absolutely perfect late fall day on us. It was sunny, not much breeze, and although the high was forecast to be in the mid–50s, she kicked her heels off, checked her nails, and gave us a bonus high of 61. I spent most of the day doing yard work, but I did not mind because it was so beautiful out.
open.spotify.com/playlist/…–4bYpMGZlA “For the First Time” - Best Coast. What a glorious day! We have new Best Coast music! I’m deep into my Favorite Songs of the Decade research. Best Coast is on that list. On Monday I did some searching to see if BC was rumored to have any new music on the horizon but came up empty. Less than 24 hours later this dropped, with news of a new album in 2020.
It’s been nearly three months since my last (and first) What I’m Watching post. I haven’t watched much in terms of variety since then, but I have packed in some quantity. So here’s a quick run down. Brooklyn Nine-Nine I was doing some DVR cleanup, mostly deleting crap the girls recorded and never watched over the summer, and realized I had almost half of last season’s Brooklyn Nine-Nine to still get through.
It was a big weekend, as I had my much anticipated visit to a local country club for a round of golf with a friend. But before we get to that, I must share the round I played nine days earlier. That day I was not sure of my goal. It was a cold, dreary day and I had a hard time getting motivated. But, looking at the forecast and my schedule for the next week, I realized this might be my last chance to play before the country club visit.
As has become routine, a quick-ish rundown of what went down over the weekend. Halloween OK, not technically the weekend, but worth a few words about how the girls spent Halloween. M went to a friend’s house to hang out and watch movies. C, along with most of the girls in her grade, dressed as Dalmatians. They didn’t quite make it to 101 but you get the idea. And L dressed as Robin from Stranger Things and joined two friends who were dressed as Dustin and Steve from the show.
open.spotify.com/playlist/… “November Has Come” - Gorrilaz. Hey, look, it’s November 1! “Your Book” - Say Sue Me. Might this be the first time I’ve featured a band from South Korea in these posts? These kids have zero K-Pop to them; this sounds straight out of the early ‘00s indie era. “Downtown Lights” - Frankie Lee. Lee grew up in Stillwater, MN. In the mid–90s actress Jessica Lange moved there with her husband Sam Shepard.