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. youtu.be/b9Ox-lGm-…
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.
We are officially in the busiest stretch of the year for us. Right in the middle of kickball season. First cross country meet was last Saturday. Soccer practice begins this Wednesday. For the next two weeks we’ll have five teams cranked up and rolling through practices and games/meets. C had a solid sports weekend. Friday night she had a kickball game. They run-ruled their opponents in six innings. She had two singles, a double, and a home run.
The music day I’ve been waiting on since way back in the spring is finally here: The War on Drugs A Deeper Understanding is officially out. Sadly, perhaps because they are now on a major rather than indie label, folks like me who had pre-ordered the album did not get a link to download it a week early as with 2014’s Lost In The Dream. Fortunately, the band has both released five singles - half the damn album!
Wow, a two-post day! I know, right?!?! Actually, I’m trying to get back in the habit of sharing links on a more regular basis, with or without some commentary from me. In this case, I’d like to address the stupidity that was ESPN removing broadcast Robert Lee from next week’s University of Virginia home football game. If you haven’t read about this, ESPN thought that they might get roasted for allowing an Asian-American with a name similar to the most famous Confederate army general call a game in Charlottesville, VA just a few weeks after the recent Nazi protests there.
It’s weird how Monday’s eclipse caught me by surprise. I knew it was coming, don’t get me wrong. I’m sure I heard about it for the first time pretty early in the year. I think, though, when I saw that it would occur during the school day, and thus there wasn’t anything special I could do with the girls for it, I semi-dismissed it. I also read that you need to be careful when photographing an eclipse so that you don’t melt your camera’s sensor.
L has played her first two official kickball games, so I can finally share her exploits. Spoiler alert: she did not fail to live up to the expectations we had for her. Monday was opening night for her team. They started off slow and trailed 25–9 after two innings. But they figured out things both at the plate and in the field, had a couple huge innings, and ended up winning 47–28.
Agent 110 - Scott Miller. This is a fine, brisk look at the activities of Allen Dulles, future CIA director, through his years as an OSS officer in Switzerland during World War II. Residing just across the border from Germany, he quickly put together a network of Germans who, for one reason or another, were plotting against Hitler and his government. The book looks at Dulles’ role in assisting people inside Germany who were looking to assassinate Hitler and his efforts to bring about an early surrender of German forces in Italy to help the western powers beat the Soviets to Berlin.
open.spotify.com/user/224a… “The Possibility” - Worriers. A cool little rave up by a band I would have sworn was from Ireland. Don’t the vocals have a Cranberry-esque sound to them? Turns out they’re from Brooklyn, like 87% of the bands in the indie world. “All There Is” - Guggi Data. Guggi - AKA Gustav Data Andersson - is from the Swedish band Makthaverskan. This is his second solo single, which is beautiful in a wistful kind of way.
A quick kickball update following opening day for C and M. C’s team played in an early game that I kept score for. It was close early, tied 8–8 after three, but C’s team had two big innings to break it open and won 35–17. Our girls looked really good in the last three innings with several girls who struggled at the plate last year getting big kicks in key spots.