Tag Archives: Rustin Dodd

Apr 23 2012
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Essay, Sports

Brew House Classic: Tillman’s Red Glare

Sunday was the eighth anniversary of the death of Pat Tillman, a former NFL defensive back who was killed by friendly fire in Afghanistan. The following is re-published from a post about Tillman in Nov. 2009.

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“Whoso would be a man, must be a nonconformist. He who would gather palms must not be hindered by the name of goodness. … Nothing is at last sacred but the integrity of your own mind….” — Ralph Waldo Emerson

Let’s start with this: This essay isn’t intended to have any real political meaning.

We live in interesting times, and it seems everything is political these days. Everything is argued, and every argument is molded into two differing viewpoints. And only two. Every argument is black and white. And there is often little room for shades of gray.

Left vs. Right. Blue vs. Red. Yes vs. No. The NFL vs. Rush, and so on.

To often, Complexity is ignored. OK, we had to put that out there. Unfortunately. And it’s unfortunate because this post really isn’t about politics.

This is a post about Pat Tillman.

See, I’ve been thinking about Pat Tillman a lot lately. Thinking about his life. Thinking about his death. Thinking about football and Emerson and Afghanistan.

This will all make sense in minute. Probably.

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Apr 13 2012
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Art, Endorsements, Humor, Music

Unsolicited Endorsements: XXI

Because sometimes you just want friends to tell you about cool things… the Brew House team offers up its weekly mix of author-supported goodness.

Painting: “The Twist” — Thomas Hart Benton

Thomas Hart Benton’s roots are in Missouri. He was born in Neosho; once worked as a cartoonist at the Joplin American newspaper in Joplin, Mo., and finally settled in Kansas City, teaching at the Kansas City Art Institute (where he’d cross paths with a rebellious young student named Dennis Hopper).* Along the way, he would become famous for his depiction of life in the U.S. — often in the form of conflict (old traditions vs. industrialization, the settling of the old west, etc.)

Here’s “The Wreck of the Ole ’97”

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Apr 09 2012
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Music, Uncategorized

#MusicMonday: Alabama Shakes

Every Monday morning. Music so good… it must be shared.

This week: “Hold On” — Alabama Shakes, off the album, “Boys & Girls”

 
Debut album. Soulful sound. And lead singer Brittany Howard is three levels of badass. Here’s a full first listen from NPR Music and a solid review from the Chicago Tribune.

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Mar 16 2012
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Endorsements, Music

Unsolicited Endorsements: XIX

Because sometimes you just want friends to tell you about cool things… the Brew House team offers up its weekly mix of author-supported goodness.

Endorsement: Joe Posnanski’s commenters

A few months ago, Joe Posnanski disallowed comments on his blog, one of the few blogs I consistently frequent. Normally, I don’t read too many comments, aside from perhaps the first five or six after a story on most website, and I rarely comment on any piece of work. Posnanski’s website is different. I always read the comments, and I’ve commented a few times as well.

But, yes, a few months ago, Posnanski removed the comments section from his blog. He was justified for doing so.  In a post, he wrote about a particularly malicious comment he had to delete, which the commenter then just rewrote no more than a few minutes later. He decided to suspend the comments section because he wouldn’t have time to moderate.  A blog without comments is like an SNL episode without “Weekend Update.” It just doesn’t happen.

His readers realized this. A few apparently VOLUNTEERED to monitor the comments for him so the section could return.

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Feb 17 2012
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Endorsements, Movies, Music

Unsolicited Endorsements: XV

Because sometimes you just want friends to tell you about cool things… the Brew House team offers up its weekly mix of author-supported goodness.

Grammy Performance: Taylor Swift

Am I endorsing Taylor Swift? Well, sort of. Is this a tepid recommendation of someone who already gets way too much pub? Probably. Did I still enjoy Taylor’s live rendition of her hit song “Mean” at the Grammys? Well, yes. I couldn’t help it. And my Twitter feed seemed to agree.

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Feb 07 2012
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Essay, Music

Country Music

It was a dark Friday night, a long drive home from a high school basketball game on the outskirts of Kansas City, and I began to fiddle with the radio. It’s strange. In Kansas City, the radio formats change so often, with so much predictability (and yet, no creativity), that sometimes it’s hard to figure out what station is playing what.

Wait? Is that a top-40 station now? Wait, classic rock? Another one? Aren’t there like six of those? And must they all have “Bad to the Bone” in rotation at all times?

One of the latest to change — a station called 99.7 The Point — purports to play “Today’s Best Music.” This is, of course, a pretty vague description. And considering the station was playing “Girls Just Want to Have Fun” a few minutes ago, it’s not even really all that accurate. And yet, there’s one thing that doesn’t change in Kansas City radio: the country stations.

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Feb 06 2012
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Music

#MusicMonday: The Shins

Every Monday morning. Music so good… it must be shared.

This week: “Simple Song” — The Shins, from the album, Port of Morrow.

Somewhere along the line, as the years stacked up, the Shins became one of those bands that “just went away.” The Shins’ last album — Wincing the Night Away — came out in January of 2007 (really, five years ago), with the first single (“Phantom Limb”) finding its way online two months before that. James Mercer, bearded frontman of the Portland outfit, has stayed busy, of course. He collaborated with Danger Mouse on the side project, “Broken Bells”, and you may have seen him pop up for a predictable cameo on the first season of Portlandia.

But finally, on Jan. 9, the band released “Simple Song,” the first single off its new album, Port of Morrow, to be released in March. The band has been idle for five years. And the lineup, save Mercer, has totally turned over. But “Simple Song” still sounds like what you’d expect a Shins single to sound like. And this, I think, is a good thing.

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Jan 30 2012
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Music, Nostalgia

#MusicMonday: Harvey Danger

Every Monday morning. Music so good… it must be shared.

This week: “The Show Must Not Go On” — Harvey Danger 

So I remember this one time, freshman year of high school, I was riding shotgun in a senior’s car, feeling old and cool, and the song “Flagpole Sitta” started blaring out of the CD player. “I wanna publish ‘zines… And rage against machines…” I can’t ever remember listening to another Harvey Danger song. Don’t think I even searched for any. But that song, to me at least, still says high school, those couple years when Napster was just firing up — and the kids in my neighborhood still cruised 103rd street, from Nall to Nieman. (Maybe they still do.) I thought of this story the other day when I found out Harvey Danger had broken up. But first, the band, apparently, released this song on their website for free — a sort-of final goodbye for a group that most had forgotten. Pretty cool way to go.

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Jan 22 2012
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Culture

The Theory of Moderation (Or how I learned to rip things): Volume II

Back a couple months ago, I mentioned this story. It’s about this old maxim my brother used to say. I’m pretty sure he didn’t come up with it. At least, I don’t think he did. But I always think about it whenever I feel guilty about doing something.

The quote, in and of itself, is about moderation. But really, it’s about everything else.

“I live my life by the theory of everything in moderation,” he would say. “But to truly live out this creed, you also have to exercise moderation in moderation. So, every once and a while, you have to embrace extreme debauchery.”

I always liked these words. 

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Jan 16 2012
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Music

#MusicMonday: The Big Wu

Every Monday morning. Music so good… it must be shared.

This week: “Kangaroo” — The Big Wu, from the album, “Tracking Buffalo Through the Bathtub”

According to Wikipedia, these guys haven’t toured for about five years — just occasional shows in their home state of Minnesota. But they’ll always have “Kangaroo”, one of the underrated classics from that jam-band saturated era known as the late 90s. Yes, this song — String Cheese’s “Texas” — is also in the pantheon.

Thanks for stopping by The Brew House.

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