It’s been awhile since I’ve done a random notes post. As I’m kind of between longer posts, right now feels like the perfect moment to revisit that favorite of blog readers worldwide. Hoops A shame KU got blown out at Oklahoma State Saturday. But I A) wasn’t super surprised and B) didn’t really care. My blood pressure rose only slightly because so many of the KU players seemed utterly uninterested in competing.
I love stuff like this: deep explanations into everyday things that are amazingly complex. We all know that it’s a logistical miracle how fast products can get shipped from one side of the globe to the other. Or even, say, some warehouse in Utah to your front door. This video breaks down how the major shipping companies in the US manage getting products from point A to B so quickly. So simple yet equally complex.
open.spotify.com/user/224a… “Blue Rose” - Amen Dunes. Amen Dunes is the project of New Yorker Damon McMahon. I knew nothing about him before I heard this song. I love it’s trippy, atmospheric, nostalgic vibe. “6&5” - Jesse Marchant. I was so looking forward to Marchant’s Illusion of Love album after hearing the first two singles. Unfortunately the rest of the album did not match the quality of those two tracks. The first, “Frame for One,” is one of the best songs of the year.
And now for the not-so-fun stuff surrounding college basketball. That’s right, no more Big Mondays this year. That’s sad. I’m kidding, of course. The real thing we need to discuss regarding college hoops is why in the hell the Big 10 is playing their tournament this week. Getting bumped by the lowly Big East and having to adjust your entire schedule by a week, then letting all your teams sit around for nearly two weeks before they play an NCAA tournament game?
Lots of college hoops news to discuss. I’ll begin today with the good stuff. Just like I have been predicting all year, KU won the Big 12 for the fourteenth straight year. There was no way West Virginia or Oklahoma or Texas Tech or Kansas State was going to be good enough to take the crown away. There was no way the rest of the league was to steal a win or two throughout the season that might give one of those other contenders a boost.
I feel bad. As a loyal Olympics viewer and long-time blogger, I’ve shirked my responsibilities waiting until after this year’s Winter Olympics wrapped up to share any thoughts. Yeah, we were watching the games pretty much every evening. But with the oddness of this year’s time difference, there was usually one thing on a night that I was interested in. I think this could be a problem going forward, as this is the first of three-straight Olympics to be hosted in Asia.
Chart Week: February 18, 1984 Song: “I Guess That’s Why They Call It the Blues” - Elton John Chart Position: #18, 17th week on the chart. Peaked at #4 the week of January 28, 1984. A countdown from 1984, my favorite musical year! So many fantastic songs to pick from. “Thriller” had just hit the top 10 in its second week in the top 40, the fastest rising song since 1972.
All of a sudden I have a glut of new music. Which is a good thing, of course. Sadly, it’s still all singles; no good album releases today, at least that I’ve seen so far. I did add two more exciting releases to April and May this week, so spring promises to be a beast. open.spotify.com/user/224a… “Always Ascending” - Franz Ferdinand. Not crazy about their new album, but this song, after its slow build, hits all the right FF spots: ass-shakin’ indie rock.
After you have a parent die, you think of them in odd moments and ways. Example: one day last fall I was shaving. As I stood there, scraping metal against skin and stubble, for some reason my brain jumped back 31 years to the night my stepdad taught me how to shave. I remembered him showing me the proper amount of pressure to use, how to avoid nicking the edges of my lips but still get the area around them cleaned up, and his amazement at my ability to shave with either hand.
I’m working on a couple longer, more personal writing pieces to share over the next couple days. Thus, rather than writing about the Olympics or college hoops, I’ll share another link from my Instapaper stash. I had planned on doing a What I’m Watching post before the holidays. That, obviously, kind of went to shit and is tough to recreate now since most of the shows I was watching then have wrapped up their seasons or are on hiatus.
I tried writing several introductory paragraphs for this piece. But they all felt wrong, probably because this is such a wonderfully written essay. So just go read it and enjoy it like I did. Unpacking Forty Years of Fandom For a Losing Team
I found myself watching the entire NBA All Star Game last night. That was kind of a surprise because that’s not something I’ve done very often in, oh, 20 years or so. Plus the Olympics were on, with some decent live coverage that didn’t revolve around four hours of figure skating for once. But L was excited to see Steph and Victor Oladipo, so we started watching and then I kept it on after she went to bed.
Chart Week: Feb. 7, 1981 Songs/Chart Positions: “Killin’ Time” - Fred Knoblock and Susan Anton, #28 “Smoky Mountain Rain” - Ronnie Millsap, #27 “I Made It Through the Rain” - Barry Manilow, #26 My normal Sunday routine is to get up sometime between 8:00 and 8:30, watch the local news long enough to check the weather, and then move into the kitchen to have breakfast. While eating I flip on the radio to check the week’s American Top 40.
open.spotify.com/user/224a… “Lovesick on a Hotel Wildfire” - Korey Dane. This is a song Spotify sent my way, and I’m glad it did. Apparently I’ve heard a couple of Dane’s songs before, although I did not recall his name. He’s been called a “stoner Springsteen,” and this song certainly fits that vibe. “Name For You - Flipped” - The Shins. A few weeks back Strand of Oaks released his Harder Love album, which featured both different versions of songs from last year’s Hard Love and songs that had been recorded in its sessions but did not make the final album.
I have a few more books to share, but this time I will do something a little different: write about a book I have not finished yet. I looked into the site’s archives and couldn’t find a direct reference, but I’m pretty sure one of the reasons I started writing about the books I read here is because of the influence of Nick Hornby’s “Stuff I’ve Been Reading” column in The Believer magazine.
This Big 12 basketball season is exhausting. Every time I look at the schedule, checking the next 2–3 games, there is never a break. Every game comes with a series of questions and perils. There have been years when the top has been better, when you could look at the top 2–4 teams and think they all have a shot to get to the Final Four, but those years also often featured a couple teams at the bottom that everyone could pencil in for wins.
This is has nothing to do with the Olympics but is a must-watch. It is equally amazing and creepy. The best parts are about halfway through this piece, when you see the ice surface flexing and then cracking after Marten Ajne skates across it. I can’t ice skate, so I’ve never been tempting to go out on our lake when it freezes over in the winter. And even if I could, I would always be nervous about how thick the ice is, especially since our lake gets very deep very quickly.
It was a big week for L. Last Thursday was St. P’s annual leadership day, where they invite other schools to come in and take a look at several of the leadership programs they run for the students. Last year L got to give a brief speech about her experiences in the program.[1] This year she took a big step up and got to be one of the two student hosts of the sessions.
open.spotify.com/user/224a… “Get Out” - CHVRCHES. First single off their next album, and it sounds as shiny and glorious as their songs from the past. “The Louder I Call, The Faster It Runs” - Wye Oak. Another first single from an up-coming album. It looks like Wye Oak will be sticking with the more electronic sound they adopted for their last album, and which Jenn Wasner uses in her side project Flock of Dimes.
I’ve been kicking around an idea for awhile about using the 1980s American Top 40s[1] I listen to most weekends as a jumping off point for writing about old songs. Every weekend, whether I listen to an entire countdown or just catch a few minutes here and there, I’m bombarded with memories from 30+ years ago when all those songs were new. Might as well put those memories to use and use them to create some Blog Content, right?