Yesterday L marched into her classroom and immediately proclaimed that it was the last day she would be attending school as an eight-year-old.
Girl is not afraid of attention.
Yep, nine years ago today we became parents for the third time. And, as I say every year, L is the ultimate third child. She can size up a room quickly and know how to entertain everyone in it. She can sense when her sisters are fucking up, do the exact opposite thing, and make sure we are aware that her behavior is different.
A mix of old and new this week.
open.spotify.com/user/224a…
“The Others” - The Jezabels. The proverbial “Between Albums" single from this very fine Aussie group. The song is very fine, too.
“Continental Breakfast” - Courtney Barnett and Kurt Vile. There are plenty of one-off duets. Not so common are two artists coming together to make an album together. Barnett and Vile are so perfectly matched with their easy, mellow, guitar-based vibes, that this seemed inevitable.
It’s over.
Sure, there are five games left in the 2017 season, but the run for the championship core of the Royals is officially finished.
Although the standings kept showing them just out of the Wild Card spots, they’ve effectively been done for about a month. But it became official Tuesday when Minnesota beat Cleveland leaving the Royals too far behind with too few games remaining.
What a frustrating season. The death of Yordano Ventura in the off-season was by far the worst thing that happened to this organization over the past year.
Duuuuuuuuude! What a freaking couple of days for college basketball! And we haven’t even started fall practice yet, let alone any games that matter.
A couple hours ago one of the 20 greatest coaches in the history of the game got fired. (Correction: he’s officially been placed on leave, although apparently his contract calls for a 10-day grace period before he can be fired for cause.) Yesterday assistants at four other schools were arrested.
Steven Hyden has to be one of the three or four writers I’ve linked to most over the years. I think he’s the best music writer going these days, and have followed him across Pitchfork, the AV Club, Grantland, and now Uproxx. I appreciate both his musical sensibilities and his writing style. I’d say eight times out of ten when he is enthusiastic about an artist, I end up loving them too.
Our September heatwave continues. This weekend would have been a great weekend to sneak in a weekend at the lake. Naturally we had sports both days, so had to just stand/sit and roast in the heat.
It was a doubleheader weekend for L in soccer. Her team played at 4:00 Saturday, which was probably the hottest moment of the last 4–5 days: mid–90s, humid, no clouds or breeze to help out.
Just a video today, as we have a variety of contractors in-and-out of the house today.
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“I Melt With You” - Modern English. Fall begins just after 4:00 today here in Indy. So of course we’re in the midst of the hottest, driest stretch of the year. Cross country practice was cancelled last night and Sunday’s meet as been moved up two hours to keep the kids out of the heat.
Well this checks a few boxes for me.
General 80s nostalgia 80s pop culture and political sub-categories Nuclear obliteration And Kansas City/Kansas references
Yep, The Day After was a pretty big deal. And, perhaps, as relevant today as it has been for nearly 30 years.
The Day After traumatized a generation with the horrors of nuclear war
My favorite family story about The Day After was of some college friends of my parents who lived in Lawrence when the movie was being filmed.
Kickball is done.
As you should recall from last week, L’s team had to finish a game that was mysteriously cut short by their opponents, then play that team again in a full game. Sweep the game and they would go onto the City championship. A split meant a tie-breaker playoff game to settle matters.
In the suspended game Friday, we got a run in our half of the sixth to push our lead to 13, then got out of the bottom of the inning unscathed to secure the first win.
I’ve been listening to The War on Drug’s A Deeper Understanding nearly non-stop for almost a month now. Yet, I’ve been struggling to put some thoughts about it together to share here. I love the album, so it should be easy to write about, right?
Turns out I’m running into the same problem that I think Adam Granduciel faced when he began recording this album: how to deal with the legacy of the LP that came before it.
open.spotify.com/user/224a…
“Plimsoul Punks” - Alvvays.
Man, this song is just so good. Power, jangle pop with just a hint of shoegaze in the background. Perfect.
“Strangers Kiss” - Alex Cameron and Angel Olsen.
Something about this song feels straight out of 1981.
“Rained On” - Frightened Rabbit.
A surprise three-song EP dropped today from my co-favorite band. The entire thing feels perfect for fall, more restrained and folky than most of their music.
I had hoped to wrap up the kickball regular season today. But Irma’s remnants turned yesterday into a drizzly mess, and our biggest game of the year was postponed. More on that in a bit.
M ended her season last week. Her team finished up 5–1 and claimed second place in their division. Just that opening game loss to their arch-rivals, who will no doubt crush someone in the City title game next week.
I wrote this yesterday, but forgot to post it before heading out for an afternoon of kickball.
I believe M is coming home with an assignment tonight to ask S and I what our memories of September 11, 2001 are. Her social studies teacher wrote her memories of that day on her whiteboard and shared a pic of it on Twitter, along with the warning our kids would be asking questions tonight.
A very special playlist this week. I don’t listen to a ton of 70s music - there’s some OG punk and very early new wave that sneaks in, along with a pinch of classic rock - as I generally skew towards 80s music when listening to the old stuff. But my love of music came from my parents always having music on when I was young. And their parents, too, for that matter.
Oh boy. Football season is here.
“Do I detect a certain ‘Meh’ in that statement?” many of you might ask.
I will confirm, there is plenty of ‘Meh’ in that statement.
For a variety of reasons, I get a little more disengaged from the NFL every year.
Likely the biggest factor is how L plays soccer on Sundays,[1] something she’s been doing for four or five falls now. I just don’t sit down and watch football on Sunday the way I used to.
The last real weekend of the summer is in the books. And, if you judge only by how tired I was last night, it was a good one. Fortunately by nearly every other measure it was indeed a fine way to wrap up the summer.
It’s become a tradition that our KC friends the Belfords come into town this weekend. They stay with our local friends the Heberts, and on Friday night we go to the local high school football game.
open.spotify.com/user/224a…
“September” - Earth, Wind & Fire. This is a god damn great song. How this peaked at only #8 on the Billboard Hot 100 is another indictment of the 1970s.
“September Gurls” - Big Star. One of the greatest power-pop songs of all time.
“Wake Me Up When September Ends” - Green Day. Since we’re sticking with a theme this week, this one is kind of an obligation.
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A Divided Spy - Charles Cumming. I hate it when I realize, a decent stretch into a book that is part of a series, that I missed the previous entry in the set. I had read book one of Cumming’s Thomas Kell series and then picked this one up. Problem is this is book three. And as the books all build upon each other, that caused some problems when reading this one.
We’re out of the fish business.
Our last betta, Harry Potter, died an unfortunate death today. He was on his last legs already - L was sure he was dead last weekend - but then I accidentally wacked the side of his bowl with a lid to some Corningware while I made my lunch. Water and gravel went everywhere. By the time I rounded up enough towels to start cleaning up the mess, there was no sign of poor Harry.
Well, shit.
August wasn’t supposed to be like this.
After a scorching hot June and (most of) July, the Royals were supposed to roar into August and battle Cleveland for the AL Central lead, all while solidifying the lead they had built up in the Wild Card race. Worst case, they were going to play New York or Boston in the Wild Card game. Best case, they would be guaranteed at least three playoff games in the ALDS.