"Good luck with your firings."
Oh my gosh, this is such a good read for pretty much everyone our age. Follow the Path of Least Resistance: An Oral History of ‘Office Space’
Title Season
Well, here we are: three games left in the Big 12 season and after pounding Kansas State last night, Kansas is a game out of first place, needing to both sweep through their last three games and get some serious help if they want to extend The Streak to 15. In years past I’d say there was a 75% chance that KU would pull it off. This year, though? I think it is 25% at best.
Friday Playlist
open.spotify.com/user/224a… “Blankets” - Craig Finn. This is the first time I’ve really enjoyed one of Finn’s solo songs. It may make me reconsider his entire solo catalog. But I’ll likely just got back and listen to classic Hold Steady tracks. “Heart Attack Kid” - Ben Kweller. Kweller disappeared for awhile. This is a pretty solid return. “Devil May Care” - Son Volt. Jay Farrar is always gonna Jay Farrar. “F the NRA” - The Coathangers.
Neighborhood Golf Association
This mini-documentary hits a lot of things I like: photography, golf, beautiful eccentrics to name three. It made me both happy and sad as I watched it. Fair warning: plenty of NSFW language in this piece. vimeo.com/317860394 Via Kottke
Reader's Notebook, 2/19/19
I’ve dillied and dallied a bit on these, so some quick recaps of my four most recent books. Beastie Boys Book - Michael Diamond and Adam Horowitz Simply one of the best music memoirs ever published. I’m being 100% honest, not funny at all. This book is equally hilarious, poignant, thoughtful, and moving. Mike D and Ad Rock tell the band’s story from their early days cruising the seedier parts of New York’s hardcore scene, through their transformation into rappers, and then through their massive, international success.
Fun With Utilities
Have I mentioned my issues with our gas, water, and sewer utility before? Well, I’m about to! These people suck. Seriously. Here’s a list of the issues we’ve gone through with them over the past eight months. First, our builder did not drop any grass seed until the week that the water line was supposed to be connected. They had a firm date from the utility - this was the week we reached a deal to buy the house - and leveled the torn up ground and then covered it with seed.
Friday Playlist
It’s been a rough few musical days, another time when we have been reminded that painful music is sometimes a product of truly painful lives. On Wednesday The New York Times ran a story in which several women accused Ryan Adams of abusive behavior. Phoebe Bridgers and Adams’ ex-wife Mandy Moore both went on record about their relationships with Adams and the pain he inflicted upon them. Worst, the article suggested than he engaged in a highly inappropriate, on-line relationship with a musician that began when the girl was only 14.
Some Notes
A couple smaller things smashed into one post today. First, there’s just too much information out there. I know this is, like, a devastatingly deep and original opinion, but that’s why I have a blog, people. Wait, I’m not talking about the general flood of information we swim through each day. I’m talking about the maddening process of trying to buy pretty much anything. Example: our printer is dying. So I go on the webzzz to do some research on what garbage printer we should buy for the next 18–24 months.
Reaching for the Stars, Vol. 21
Chart Week: February 12, 1983 Song: “Down Under” - Men at Work Chart Position: #1, 15th week on the chart. Spent four non-consecutive weeks at #1 in January and February. If you’ve paid very close attention to my music posts over the years, you may recall that I kicked around a project in which I would find the best single weekly top 10 of the 1980s. A couple summers back I spent a few nights scrolling through top 10s and marking down my favorites as I watched Royals games.
An Evening of Hoops
A pretty solid Monday evening of hoops. It began with S and I trekking down to Banker’s Life Fieldhouse to watch the Pacers take on the Charlotte Hornets. We were lucky enough to be invited by the CEO of her hospital, and were sitting in the company suite. We took along one of S’s med school pals and his wife, who are great company but who we sadly do not see often enough.
On the Skiing
This time of year I enjoy rolling through the sports channels and stopping at NBCSN or one of the Fox channels to watch some winter sport for 15–20 minutes. If I find downhill skiing, I’ll watch for an hour. It’s such a badass sport and I’m thrilled I get a chance to see it more than just during the Olympics. Saturday I caught the men’s World Cup race. Sunday I caught the women’s, which just happened to by Lindsey Vonn’s last race before she retires.
Friday Playlist
Our era of good music continues. open.spotify.com/user/224a… “Cosmic Cave” - Ex Hex. This is a hell of a fun rave-up that really should make everyone who hears it jump around like a maniac. “Harmony Hall” - Vampire Weekend. Everything has a backlash, especially in music. If you’re too smart, too clever, or too-anything, there will be a backlash. VW’s last two albums have been two of the best reviewed disks of their respective years.
Some of That Jayhawk Talk
It is the first kid sick day of the calendar year; C is home with a stomach issue. Adding to the fun is my back continues to trouble me. It’s not all the way out the way it was on New Year’s Day, but something I’ve done to it has got me on a heavy regimen of ibuprofen and heating pads. Getting old sucks. With that out of the way, let’s talk about the Jayhawks…
Poop
Good grief that was a garbage Super Bowl. The game sucked. The result sucked. Most of the commercials sucked. The halftime show sucked.[1] Just a garbage night all around. It made me feel bad for being so neutral in the AFC title game. Then again, rooting hard for the Chiefs two weeks ago just would have pissed me off when they blew it then. And surely Sean Payton and Drew Brees could have handled the Patriots bullshit better than Sean McVay and Jared Goff did.
Friday Playlist
This was our winteriest week of the season. Two days with sub-zero temperatures and windchills 20-30 degrees colder than that. Today is supposed to be the beginning of a major warm-up, but we woke to 4” of snow and a two-hour school delay. (Update: School was cancelled for the day about five minutes after I posted this.) So I thought the Spotify tunes should stick to a weather theme, with two new songs and two classics.
A Not Snow Day
Like the rest of my readers who live in the Midwest, we’ve been hammered by Arctic temperatures for the last 36 hours. Which has led to some controversy. On Monday our school principal sent out an email stating that assuming the roads were in good shape and the school’s furnace, water, and electricity were functioning normally, he would plan on having school on Wednesday and Thursday. Which made sense: we’re a no-bus school and kids get dropped off within 50 feet of the front door.
Reader's Notebook, 1/29/19
November Road - Lou Berney As with Tana French, I returned to another author that I read last November who gave me immense reading pleasure. Expectations for this one were cranked up a little, not just because I enjoyed his The Long and Faraway Gone so much but because of the historical event this book is anchored to: the assassination of John F. Kennedy. It would be wrong to say this book is about the Kennedy assassination.
Reaching for the Stars, Vol. 20
I’m on nephew duty the next couple days so I’ll go ahead and post this late on a Sunday to kick off the week. Chart Week: January 28, 1984 Song: “Let the Music Play” - Shannon Chart Position: #18, 12th week on the chart. Peaked at #8 the week of February 25. Reached #1 on the US Dance Club Songs chart. It’s been over a month without a Reaching for the Stars entry.
Friday Playlist
The music continues to flow. It’s been a really good stretch of both single and full length releases. So I’m going to pump the list up a little this week to make sure I’m sharing the new stuff in a timely matter. Hopefully the extra tunes will warm your day a little. open.spotify.com/user/224a… “Jeremy” - Muncie Girls. Two curveballs on this song: first, the band isn’t a bunch of Ball State alums and it is not a Pearl Jam cover.
Hoops Chat
Let’s talk hoops for a few minutes. Yeah, I know I said I was drastically reducing my expectations for KU after Udoka Azubuike was lost for the season. But, still, that loss to West Virginia last Saturday was fucking stupid. It put me in a bad mood for the rest of the day. Seriously, it’s been awhile since I’ve been that angry after a loss. Why the change in attitude? Because West Virginia only showed the mildest of interest in winning that game for the first 37 minutes, because slightly smarter play over that stretch would have put the game out of reach, and because KU had a complete meltdown in the closing three minutes to hand the game to the Mountaineers.