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.
The first full week of school is now underway. the girls were a little grumpier the last two mornings than they were on Thursday and Friday. I admit so was I. I’d love to get into some kind of daytime routine, but we also started a bathroom remodel yesterday. It should be pretty quick - knock on wood - but it also means I have to hang around during the day to let people in, answer questions I don’t know the answers to,[1] etc.
A busy day for me, as it’s kickball jersey distribution day. So a slightly different playlist, with the Spotify tunes focusing on three of the greatest pop songs ever made. Seriously, if you put these on an endless loop, most of the world’s problems will drift away. open.spotify.com/user/224a… “There She Goes” - The La’s “Into Your Arms” - The Lemonheads “Someday, Someway” - Marshall Crenshaw youtu.be/gmhT2EqGm… “Pain” - The War on Drugs.
First day of school! Summer is over!1 The girls and I closed out the summer with a pretty fun day yesterday. I took them to a wall climbing place. We got there right after they opened and they had the walls to themselves for about 45 minutes. There was a combination of both automatic belays and ropes that I had to belay2 for them, so I could get two girls started on the auto lines and then help a third on a standard line.
People right at my age grew up at the very tail-end of the Space Age. In the late 70s we weren’t too far removed from the glory days of the Apollo program. I remember our school library being stocked with cool books about both the missions to the moon, and others that focused on theoretical trips beyond the moon that seemed imminently possible in 1978. With the Space Shuttle program in full gear in the early 80s, it was a fairly regular occurrence for the big TVs to be wheeled into our classrooms so we could watch the latest launch or landing.
We got our final lake weekend of summer vacation in the books. Like our last visit, two weeks ago, this was a split weekend. Saturday was gorgeous: upper 70s, no humidity, warm sunshine, and a fairly open lake as a lot of the locals were already back in school. Then clouds moved in and Sunday was cool and rainy, which caused an early return home. We still have a Labor Day weekend trip planned, but with school and sports starting, it’s unlikely we’ll make another trip down before then.
It seems like pretty much every week brings along some 30th or 40th anniversary of some event that makes us children of the 80s feel awfully old. This week’s anniversary was the 30th of the release of Def Leppard’s Hysteria. Over at The Ringer, Rob Harvilla gives the album its proper due. Def Leppard’s ‘Hysteria’ Is Still the Greatest Hair-Metal Album Ever Made Man, was that album unescapable. And seemingly forever, as it really wasn’t until nearly a year later, in the summer of ’88, when the album really took off and “Pour Some Sugar On Me” was played approximately every 15 seconds.
open.spotify.com/user/224a… “Valley Boy” - Wolf Parade. Wolf Parade’s absence hasn’t been quite as long as some other bands that have returned this year; their last album was just seven years ago. And in the interim, its members were still active in other groups, most notably Dan Boeckner in the Handsome Furs and Divine Fits. Based on this song, it’s like they never went away. “Living On the 110” - Prophets of Rage.
Walking the Himalayas - Levison Wood. I didn’t know anything about Levison Wood before I saw this book at the library. I didn’t know he is fairly famous for his on-foot treks, which have been turned both into multiple books and TV shows. I just liked the idea this book is based upon: him walking the length of the Himalayas, from Afghanistan to the Bhutan-Tibet border. Now, this walk was not all at altitude.
I intentionally held off writing about the Royals activity at the trade deadline because I didn’t want to be responsible for jinxing their hot streak. Fortunately, after winning 10 of 11, they’ve now lost 3 of 4, so any bad stretch is not on me. First off, what a great run! Right after I said they needed to go 6–3 in the nine games leading up to their trip to Boston, they went 8–1.
M had a great time at camp. We picked her up Friday afternoon and, just like last year, she shared every detail of her week for the next 90 minutes as we drove home. Well, this year was a little different since C had been at camp two weeks before and would occasionally interrupt to ask a question or share something from her experience. But, mostly, it was M talking.
open.spotify.com/user/224a… “Dog” - Widowspeak. I swear I already shared this but don’t see it in past posts. Just in case, it’s good enough to share twice. Moody, gorgeous dream pop. “Covered Wagon” - Lo Tom. Heavy summertime music. “Motion Sickness” - Phoebe Bridgers. Ryan Adams has called her the next Dylan. He’s not totally unbiased; Bridgers records on his label. But this song is certainly a stunner. “Everybody Knows” - Partner.
Going back to the Friday Links method for one week, as I have three baseball-related links to share and bundling them seemed like a good idea. First, Will Leitch has been one of the national writers who most appreciated the Royals’ recent run of success. Perhaps that’s because, although he is a lifelong Cardinals fan, he is also a child of the Midwest and understands what the last 32 years have been like for Royals fans.