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.
Chart Week: August 31, 1985 Song: “Invincible (Theme from The Legend of Billy Jean)” - Pat Benatar Chart Position: #12, 15th week on the chart. Peaked at #10 the week of September 14. I’m cheating a little for this entry. Although I’m sure if I listened to the iHeart Radio classic AT40 station long enough I’d hear a countdown from around this period, I decided to pick a week on my own.
Days are getting marked off the calendar, this meeting or that passes, and we keep getting closer and closer to M’s first day of high school. Last week she took part in a three-day study skills workshop. I must share that this was not her choice. But it was the better end of a bargain she struck with us for making up for slacking off in her final quarter of 8th grade.
August has arrived. There’s been a lull in good music lately, but there are some promising albums on the horizon. I still managed to cobble together five new songs and a classic video for your Friday enjoyment. open.spotify.com/playlist/… “Rocket Fuel” - DJ Shadow feat. De La Soul. This song is a bit of a throwback. Not necessarily to the second-wave hip hop of De La Soul’s first act. But rather to some of the genre-bending music that was around at the turn of the millennium.
Chart Week: July 24, 1976 Song: “Don’t Go Breaking My Heart” - Elton John and Kiki Dee Chart Position: #8, 4th week on the chart. Peaked at #1 for four weeks in August. What a song. I could stop right there, throw up the video, and that would be enough. A quarter-century after its release it was a Saturday night staple at a bar many of my friends and I frequented, a song that brought a smile to the face of everyone in the house as people sang along with those “OHHH-OH!
I Love You, Michael Collins - Lauren Baratz-Logsted This is the second book that L has read for her book club that I’ve gotten sucked into. It is a wonderful book. It is written as a series of letters from 10-year-old Mamie in Connecticut to the sometimes forgotten member of the Apollo 11 crew. Her letters begin in the school year and stretch through the first moon landing, sharing progressively more about her life and her family’s slow and somewhat shocking unraveling.
Sometimes it takes visitors to shake you out of your routine. Our good friends the Nesbitts - who many of you know - were in town over the weekend and we hit a few spots we either don’t hit enough or had never checked out before. They drove in Friday, so we met them at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, thinking their kids would enjoy touring the museum and then taking the bus ride around the track.
open.spotify.com/playlist/… “I Need a Teacher” - Hiss Golden Messenger. I’m never sure how to pronounce this band’s name. Is it hiss like a cat? Or just his with an extra S? Good thing I’m not podcasting anymore and don’t have to worry about it. This is right in their sweet spot. “Forever Half Mast” - Lucy Dacus. Dacus put out a special track for Mother’s Day and then followed it up with this for the Fourth of July.
We are in weird times. I’m talking about our family and the point in the calendar we’re at, not more globally. Summer’s end is coming up quick and we’re beginning to squeeze in as much as we can. But we also just came out of the hottest stretch of weather in nearly seven years here in Indy, which made it tough to want to get out of the house. Or use the pool, which was a rather disgusting 98 degrees much of the weekend.
youtu.be/1CAzwewVj… “Long Hot Summer” - The Style Council ’Tis time for this annual vid. It has been a long, hot week. One of those weeks that makes you, for a moment, look forward to fall. Then you’re shaken and realize that you don’t really want summer to be over quite yet. Fortunately the forecast looks much more reasonable beginning Monday. BTW, this is a weird-ass video. A clear sign that it is from the heart of the 1980s.