First off, obviously there are some changes here. I finally got everything moved over to my new site host and, hopefully, functioning properly. There’s still work to do: I need to pick a new theme that I like, I’m having some trouble getting footnotes to work, and the Markdown text language I’ve been writing in for years doesn’t seem to be converting properly, which is messing with my head. Ten years ago when I was constantly messing around with how the site looked and worked, those fixes were easy.
Let’s see if we can get everything working this week.
open.spotify.com/playlist/…
“The Borders” - Sam Fender. Fender’s debut album finally hit the shelves last week. It’s pretty solid, although no songs match the lead single, “Hypersonic Missiles.” Still, there are several really solid songs. A few of them make it clear he’s been listening to the War on Drugs. This song is the best example of that, filled with Granduciel-esque guitars.
Prince and the Purple Rain Era Studio Sessions, 1983 and 1984 - Duane Tudahl
This book has been on my list since it first came out a couple years back. At some point I got the Kindle sample and loved the chapter that I read. I just kept putting off diving into it because it seemed like such a big ask, spending a couple weeks reading about every day that Prince spent in the recording studio over 1983 and 1984.
Some belated weekend notes.
HS Football Friday was M’s first football rivalry game, as Cathedral took on Bishop Chatard. St. P’s is usually evenly split between those high schools, so it is always an emotional matchup. CHS was ranked #4 in 5A, BCHS #1 in 3A.
CHS won by 10 thanks to a big fourth quarter. They were down 21-17 going into the fourth but got an 88-yard TD pass and a 76-yard TD run with consecutive interceptions on defense after each TD.
Few things in the world are more enjoyable to non-golfers than stories about golf. Below are 1300 and change words about my trip to the course yesterday. Feel free to skip if that’s not your bag.
After weeks of hemming and hawing, of hitting the driving range and the pitch and putt course but only thinking about playing real golf, I finally bucked up and hit the course yesterday.
Chart Week: April 10, 1982 Songs: “We Got the Beat” - The Go-Go’s; “I Love Rock ’n Roll” - Joan Jett and the Blackhearts Chart Positions: #2, 11th week on the chart. Would spend three weeks at #2. /#1, 10th week on the chart, fourth week at #1. Would spend seven weeks at #1.
A two-fer, as a tidbit I heard on this countdown connected with some trivia I had heard awhile back and was hoping to eventually write about.
Crap. Once again I’ve fallen behind on accounting for my books. It’s not like I’ve been blowing through them, either. I’m still on, roughly, book/week pace. But it’s been taking more more like 10-12 days to knock out most of these. The bigger problem is I had four straight books I had on hold at the library come in, so I’ve been trying to bear down and get them all knocked out in my window of opportunity.
Last week kind of sucked. I had the worst cold I’ve had in years, and it totally wiped me out. I think I slept most of the day Wednesday and spent the next four days coughing constantly. Friday and Saturday I had a headache that no amount of ibuprofen or sinus medication would knock back. My night time attempts at sleep were interrupted by coughing, a sore throat, or general discomfort that kept me from sleeping for more than an hour at a time.
It was a good holiday weekend for the family and I.
It started with, as I mentioned in my Friday Vid post, 36 holes of pitch and putt golf. Later I met our friends the B’s from KC, along with Mrs. Coach Hebs, for lunch at a spot I had never been to before. Friday night we watched Coach Hebs’ team win their home opener in a rout over the team Cathedral beat in week one.
What is the oldest piece of clothing you own? Before you throw out a Christening dress, First Communion dress, or some other thing from your childhood that you’ve saved to pass down to a future generation, allow me to narrow it down a little more. What is the oldest piece of clothing you own that you can still wear?
For me that’s easy. I still own two items that I bought in my first weeks as a student at the University of Kansas in August, 1989.
A couple other firsts I need to share.
Friday was M’s first high school football game as a student. I think the night may have set an unreasonable expectation for the next four years.
CHS played Noblesville, a large, suburban school that generally isn’t very good at football. It was an utterly perfect night, in the low-70s at kickoff with a steady breeze, into the mid-60s by the time we left.
I have lived in Indianapolis for 16 years. Saturday night was the third biggest sports night in the city over that span.
1: Colts beat Patriots to win the AFC title in 2007
2: Colts beat the Bears to win the Super Bowl
3: Andrew Luck announces his retirement
This may seem like weird ordering to outsiders, but the vibe in this city after that AFC title game win was way beyond the mood two weeks later.
Fall sports have begun. Right now we are actively involved in five sports, with another to begin tomorrow. Joyous times.
The fall kickball season started last Monday. We have nine teams at St. P’s this year, and got off to a great 7-2 start on opening day. The two teams to lose? My girls’ teams. C’s team, which I’m helping to coach, gave up four runs in the 7th to lose by one.
Chart Week: August 21, 1982 Song: “Love Is In Control (Finger on the Trigger)” - Donna Summer Chart Position: #12, 9th week on the chart. Peaked at #10 the week of September 25.
My goodness this was a great week! As I was listening to parts of this countdown, song-after-song jumped out at me. I would waver about a song to write about and, five minutes later, here came another one that sparked more memories and made me want to write about it.
A busy start to the week, but hopefully things will begin to slow down during the day and I can transition some of the thoughts in my head to the screen.
Speaking of this site, I’m about to undertake some fairly major, behind-the-scenes changes. I’ve been having issues for months with my hosting service. There were lots of little issues, some you may have noticed, others you may have not. Those were bugging me a little but I figured they weren’t really worth fixing.
open.spotify.com/playlist/…
“Just for Once” - The Building. This song fits right in with the music I’ve been digging the most in recent years. Especially that guitar solo in the middle, which sounds like a combination of Wilco and The War on Drugs. I had no idea until about three minutes ago that the main creative force in this band is Anthony LaMarca, who just happens to be in The War on Drugs.
Whew! It has been a very busy couple of days.
Wednesday was the first day at St. P’s, C starting 7th grade and L starting 5th. Which meant it was also our first day dropping off at two schools. The morning went about as good as possible. C was already awake when I got up, everyone was ready to get out the door at 7:00, and we encountered no slowdowns on the way to CHS.
As usual, I’m late in starting what I want to be a new, regular feature of the blog. I already let you know what I’m reading and listening to. Stealing from Jason Kottke, I want to start sharing the other media that I consume each month.
This was meant to be shared at the beginning of August, but I wanted to finish one thing on the list before I posted.
Too busy of a week to build up a list of songs to share. So, once again I’ll cop out and share/write about a song that was featured this week on The Number Ones.
youtu.be/8kAU3B9Pi…
”Rhinestone Cowboy” - Glen Campbell Bet you didn’t expect this! But I have a good story about this song that makes it worth sharing.
I loved this song when it was first out. I remember having a whole routine in which I sang and danced along to it that seemed to delight my grandparents.
The first morning of high school went as well as we could have hoped. M woke up on her own, on time, got ready, and was pretty cheerful once she came downstairs. She was pleasant during the obligatory photo session and was chatty on the way to school. She admitted she was nervous but equally excited to get things started.
The first day of the school year is always a big deal at CHS, as the seniors teepee the trees on the long hill that leads to campus, and then line the street to cheer the other students as they drive in.