Every Monday morning. Music so good… it must be shared.
This week: “Morning Thought” — Dale Earnhardt Jr. Jr., off the album, “It’s a Corporate World”
Honorable mention: “Before You Cry” — Camera Obscura
The Brew House
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Unsolicited Endorsements: II
Because sometimes you just want friends to tell you about cool things… the Brew House team offers up its (new) weekly mix of author-supported goodness.
Song: “My Best Friend”, by Annie
I’m clearly not breaking ground with this endorsement, maybe stirring up something from the dirt that we might have forgotten about. A couple years before Pitchfork, rightfully so, hailed Robyn as the queen of pop, a fellow European made her mark when Annie released 2004’s Anniemal, an album recorded shortly after the death of her producer and boyfriend, Tore Korknes. Continue reading
#basketballneverstops
#basketballneverstops is a hashtag, 21 characters of clever marketing meant to sell expensive shoes in the absence of the nightly shoe commercial that is the NBA season. It’s easy to filter and dismiss marketing messages: They’re often insincere or cloying or made up of more noise than necessity.
Nike’s newest ad is clever, well-produced and slick and will undoubtedly sell expensive shoes.
It’s also true. Continue reading
Buck O’Neil and Old Friends
Late last week, I spent a morning at the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum at 18th and Vine in Kansas City.
I was there for work, but it didn’t feel like it. I was there to interview Bob Kendrick*, the president of the NLBM and an old friend of Buck O’Neil. And I knew this would be a morning about Buck and baseball and raw, authentic emotions. Continue reading
Diary of a Bad Movie: “The Roommate”
I like to watch bad movies, that is, I like to watch bad movies if I know the movie will be bad. Such knowledge allows me to laugh at the low moments, the unintentional comedy. I think this goes back to the classic, “Spring Break Shark Attack.” It came out during, get this, spring break, of my senior year of high school. The made-for-TV movie dealt with four subject matters: sharks, chicks, booze and date rape drugs. I laughed til’ I decided to turn off the TV and go to sleep. It was wonderful. 
But not all bad movies are equal. A bad movie can drag. It can just be boring. Think “Locusts,” which was on TV about two weeks after Shark Attack. These bad movies suck. I want ridiculous dialogue, subplots that are forgotten or given up and really, anything by M. Night Shyamalan.
On Sunday night, I decided to watch “The Roommate,” a genuine bomb, sitting at four percent on Rotten Tomatoes, and zero percent from the top critics. I wanted to indulge in my guilty pleasure. But I also wanted to be productive. So I settled for this, live blogging during the movie. Continue reading
#MusicMonday: II
Every Monday morning. Music so good… it must be shared.
This week: “Why Do You Let Me Stay Here? — She and Him, off the album, “Volume One”
Honorable mention: “White Cliffs of Dover” — The Checkers; “Jack Wilson Said (I’m In Heaven When You Smile)” — Van Morrison
Marathon
At Mile 7, an older woman read the shirts as they sped past.
“Go Juan! Go Michael! Go David! Go Julio! Go…Peru!”
***
Two blocks south, a stout policewoman stood atop the raised median of Fourth Avenue, her uniform a blue-black silhouette against a brown Best Western wall.
Her hands swayed from waist- to chest-level as she issued a slow and steady clap for the droves streaming past on either side.
Unsolicited Endorsements: I
Because sometimes you just want friends to tell you about cool things… the Brew House team offers up its (new) weekly mix of author-supported goodness.
Music: Radiohead’s Dead Air Space playlists
For all the hubbub Radiohead has generated over the past two decades, I feel like the band’s own online footprint is relatively small. But Radiohead’s blog, Dead Air Space, is a veritable treasure trove of information, not much of it actually about the band. Every few weeks, a member of the band posts a playlist, usually approximately 10 songs long. The playlists are routinely fantastic. You might not like every song, but you’ll assuredly be exposed to new genres, sounds and textures with every new list.
Continue reading
On Tim Tebow
As a shameless atheist, proud supporter of LGBT equality and women’s rights, and general advocate of stances deemed unholy, I respect Tim Tebow.
The Brew House 