Friday Faves 9/13: Golf, Jenny Lewis, Harry Potter the dad, Tim Tams, and The Sinner

Best Activity

Golf: Usually by this time of year, my golf game is sputtering to the end of the season. Weekend golf is catch-as-catch-can; they can take upwards of five hours, and they become more frustrating because playing golf once a week does no one any good. It’s too hard a game to play intermittently. I’m lucky if I play once a week in the fall.

Now, with my fall a bit more flexible, I was fortunate to play a few times this past week. Three different course. Three different groups of players. Last Friday I played Boston Golf Club in Hingham, the 87th ranked course in America (Golf Digest). It’s a 15 year old course that feels like it’s been around for much longer. Each hole feels a bit like an event as we stood on the tee box and talked about the design and where we needed to hit the ball. I was happy the greens weren’t too fast, because the greens are pretty wonky, with big slopes. It was the first time I played in a five-some, I was the fifth wheel and grateful for a splendid walk and to experience a top golf course.

On Tuesday, I got to play in a fundraising event. There are a lot of these events in September, and I’ve always had to say, “No, thanks. I’m working.” Not this year! The great part about this event was we played our own ball (usually the format is a scramble, where you play as a team.). The beneficiary of the event was Crumlin Children’s Hospital in Dublin. It was run by a Holy Cross grad. In other words, I was with my people. I sat next to the 1983 World Champion in 5000 meters, Eamonn Coghlan. He held the world record for the indoor mile at 3:49.78 from 1983-1997 (he broke his own world record twice from 1979-1983). He’s one of the greatest Irish Athletes in history and a very nice man. As we talked at dinner he made the connection that he knew my dad, which was very random. It does not back up the stereotype that all Irish people know each other.

Finally, on Wednesday I got to play Concord CC with two men that work at Drumlin Hospital along with a family friend that invited me to tag along with the three of them. There’s nothing like being around a couple Irish folks. It reminds me of my summers and my family. It makes me think of my dad. It always makes me want to go back, especially when they say to look them up when I’m over there. Just the nicest people in the world.

It was a good week of golf and Irish people. Now I just need to find a way to blend those things over there.

Best Listen

The Sterling Affairs: This ESPN 30for30 podcast chronicles the Donald Sterling tapes that were leaked by his mistress, V. Stiviano. This lead to Sterling selling the LA Clippers and banned for life from the NBA. The recordings showcased an old racist without a clue between what is right and wrong. The podcast dives into racial tensions in the United States, the “plantation mentality” that exists within these franchises, the expectation of pro athletes to take a social stand, and life before the #MeToo movement (note: it was pretty icky…).

If you ever wondered what life would have been like if Donald Trump owned the Buffalo Bills, this might be the portal into that alternate universe (or it might be the portal back to the universe we were in before 2016…) both men are narcissistic, sad, entitled, fame-hungry. They both had their lineage erased by a name change. Sterling sought the comparison to Trump in the 1980s and 90s as he gained notoriety for owning swaths of land in LA, treating his tenants like garbage, and not renting to minorities.

You don’t really have to like basketball to enjoy this pod.

“Red Bull and Hennessy” by Jenny Lewis: I let my Spotify play through it’s algorithm one morning this week while I was working (probably because I was tired of eavesdropping on podcasts…you know, when it’s just on in the background and you’re listening like you would listen to people next to you at a coffee shop). Anyway, this song caught my attention. It’s off Lewis’ new album, On The Line, which is alright. Red Bull and Hennessy is great though.

Best Watch

The Sinner (season 2): The beauty of this show is you don’t need to have watched season 1 to know what’s going on. The one character that remains is Detective Harry Ambrose, played by the excellent Bill Pullman. The first season was good, but the second season is more focused. They cut the fat in their storytelling.

The real star of the show is the kid that plays Julian Walker, who is charged with a double murder. The actor is 14 year-old Elisha Henig. His IMDB profile reads, “Elisha grew up in Portland, OR. His love for acting was sparked at age 8 during a Shakespeare acting class, making his debut performance at the end-of-class demo as Richard III.”

Richard III?!?!?!?!

I’m not sure what’s more crazy, an 8-year-old attending a Shakespeare acting class (CLASSIC Portland, Oregon. Just Classic. He probably went to a coffee roasting class the day before…) or that 8 year-old choosing to perform as Richard III. That’s insane; Elisha steals the show in every scene he’s in. He’s creepy, believable, and dynamic.

The Man in the Red Bandana: I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention 9/11 here in some capacity. I was a senior in high school, about to turn 18, that Tuesday morning. I am now on the cusp of 36. It’s hard to believe I have lived half my life on one side of that day and another half on the other side. This video about the heroics of one man on that day, Welles Crowther, a former BC lacrosse player, is outstanding. Have some kleenex nearby.

Best Read

Hello From Harry Potter (New Yorker): If you read this letter, written by overbearing father, Harry Potter, and don’t get it, then you’ve never been a teacher. And that’s okay. The next goal: don’t be the parent that sends an email like this. It’s the thing that every teacher will talk about for weeks, until the next email like this comes into someone else’s inbox and the cycle begins again.

Caroline Calloway’s Ghost Writer (The Cut): Until yesterday, I was not privy (or cool enough?) to the life and times of Caroline Calloway. You could call her the Icarus of Instagram. She found herself IG famous, with 800,000 followers nearly seven years ago (that’s, like, totally, like, having 2 million followers now…), was awarded a $375,000 advance for her memoir, and then things came crashing down. Her friend, Natalie Beach, was a ghost writer for many of her charming, sophisticated IG posts, which were the inspiration, and skeletons, for the memoir book deal. Beach’s writing is wonderful and the her perspective is captivating. Beach, the ugly duckling, but skilled writer, latches onto Calloway, the “it” girl, only to feel used and abused. Like anything from one person’s perspective, you have to take it with a grain of salt. It’s worth the time to read.

Jane Goodall Interview (NYTimes.com): Jane Goodall is one of the most impressive people in the world. She’s 85, she’s a fighter, and this interview offered me a new perspective on her as a child of World War II (note: kids these days are soft…).

Best Eat

Corn Chowder: As a Stay at Home Husband, I am trying my darnedest to add to my cooking repertoire. I signed up for the NYTimes food section, which has endless recipes, tips, and reviews. I found a corn chowder recipe this weekend. It was incredibly simple, made days worth of soup for us, and it tasted delicious, if I do say so myself.

Tim Tams: On our trips to Wegmans, my wife enjoys scouring the international food aisle, in particular the British/Irish section. Usually some chocolate covered digestive biscuits will make an appearance in our shopping cart. However, this time, Tiff grabbed a new treat: Tim Tams. They are rich and chocolaty. These Aussie treats come in various flavors, we had the mint chocolate ones. Pick ‘em up and have them with a cuppa tea.

Best Drink

Water: The last few years, I have designated September as a dry month (with an exception for a beer or two to celebrate my birthday). It usually helped me transition back into teaching and, in 2017 and 2018, allowed me to train for marathons without feelings like trash on my long runs. I have found myself drinking a lot more water, especially out at social events. Now that I’m not in school, I have found myself in more situations where will power is important. Three rounds of golf this past week, a few dinners out. I have found once make that first non-alcohol order, it’s much easier.

However, I am always shocked (although I know I shouldn’t be) at how my body feels without alcohol. I sleep better, I’m more sound of mind, I’m more productive (yes, I do still need to be productive…), my runs are immeasurably better, and my mornings are more enjoyable. There’s nothing like a clear-minded weekend morning.

Funny story to wrap up: last Friday Tiff and some coworkers went to Black Rose to kick off the weekend. I wandered down to meet them. After my fourth or fifth trip to the bar to ask for a refill on water (which was really bugging the bartender), he looked at me and in his Irish accent yelled over the loud music, “Are ye runnin’ a marathon or somethin’?” Knowing I had a 16 mile run ahead of me in the morning I could honestly look at him and say, “Yes.” He frowned and nodded and said, “Well that’s a good answer.” He didn’t give me a hard time the rest of the night.

Have a great weekend and don’t be afraid to put your favorites from the week in the comments.

Friday Faves 9/5: Zac Brown Band, Nitro Coffee, Chappelle, LeBron's Trademark, and Clemson

Best Activity

Last Friday my friend Roberto texted me to ask if I’d be interested in some tickets to Zac Brown Band at Fenway Park. My wife and I were free, she was excited, so we joined them for the show. While I am not a big country fan, I like a handful of Zac Brown songs, and I was excited to enjoy Fenway on an incredibly lovely Saturday evening.

The concert was a pleasant surprise, mainly because of the number of covers they played. The talent spread throughout the band was undeniable. Over the course of the nearly two and half hour set they covered one of my favorite bands, Kings of Leon (Lose Somebody), along with James Taylor (Sweet Baby James), Van Morrison (Into the Mystic), Korn (Bulls on a Parade), Def Leopard (Pour Some Sugar On Me).

It was a great way to close out the final weekend of summer.

Best Read

LeBron and Taco Tuesday (NYTimes): I am wildly biased when it comes to LeBron James. I can’t stand the guy. He’s a fantastic basketball player (probably the second best of all time) and as a Boston Celtics fan, he had been in my life for a solid decade of playoff games, both triumphant and devastating. Off the court, he’s unbearable. His dancing Instagram posts, his “proud dad” moments this summer, and his Taco Tuesday posts all make me dislike him more and more. Now he’s aiming to trademark Taco Tuesday, which is the most LeBron thing ever.

Clemson and God (SI.com): As I scoured the interwebs for some college football reading before recording my College Football podcast with Mike G., I stumbled upon this piece in Sports Illustrated. It lays out the connection between religion and the Clemson football program. These entities are so interconnected that they have been investigated for violating the First Amendment that outlines the separation of Church and State. I finished the piece wondering why my alma mater Holy Cross can’t tap into the same recruiting tactics…

Best Watch

Sticks and Stones: Dave Chappelle delivers a death blow to society as a whole in his most recent Netflix special. No one is safe during this hour of comedy. I am by no means a comedy historian, but I imagine this stand-up left people feeling the same way they did after watching Richard Pryor. It’s uncomfortable and edgy; Chappelle has never been afraid of the third rail, and it seems as if there are moments when he’s standing on the third rail as he takes on Michael Jackson’s victims, the LGBTQ+ community, and the cultural and racial shift in the war against drugs in the last decade.

It’s worth watching, but like he says, you can’t get too mad, after all, you did click on his face…

Best Listen

Now That’s a Great Story: This is a new podcast that I learned about on Twitter. Paul Kix (no relation to the cereal) is the host. In each episode, Kix breaks down a piece of writing with the author. I am currently listening to Sarah Hepola, who wrote a memoir called Blackout: Remembering the Things I Drank to Forget. I was intrigued early on because she’s discussing a story in her memoir about a trip to Paris to do a story about… Chris Harrison!! Worlds colliding!

Best Eat

Pressed Cafe Breakfast Burrito: On Sunday, we went up to Burlington, near the mall, to hunt for some potential Labor Day deals. We decided to grab some breakfast up in that area. Tiff recognized Pressed Cafe from catered breakfasts she has had at work in the past. We gave it a shot, and it did not disappoint.

I had a turkey sausage and avocado breakfast burrito. It was delicious and Pressed Cafe overall was really impressive. It felt like something that might have been founded in Brooklyn, but no, it originated in Nashua, NH (the Brooklyn of New Hampshire?). The location in Burlington is their third one, and if you live anywhere near there, or find yourself at the Burlington Mall on a Sunday (when Chick-fil-a is closed…), seek out Pressed Cafe.

Best Drink

King’s Brew Nitro Coffee: I’m a sucker for BOGO deals in grocery stores. I’ll gladly buy two items, even if I don’t need them right away, just for the rush of finding a sale. The single drink section of Whole Foods is as close to Tinder as I will ever get. There’s plenty of beverages that get a swipe right on that massive refrigerated shelf. The King’s Brew nitro coffee is the latest drink that had that delightful yellow “2 for …” tag underneath it (note, the chocolate section is the other place that always has good deals). I grabbed two cans; I highly recommend them. The can instructs the drinker to “shake well” and “pour hard.” No ice necessary; when you pour it into the glass it has that Guinness quality to it where the waves rush vertically towards the top, it’s beautiful.

What did you like from your week. Add it in the comments section!

Friday Faves 8/30: Craigie on Main, Taylor Swift, Serial Killers, and Street Corn Pizza

Best Activity

This past Friday we did something we had been threatening to do for years. We went to Craigie on Main for their burger. It is consistently ranked as one of the best burgers in Boston. The tricky part to acquiring this burger for your belly is you have to get to Craigie on Main at opening, or even before opening, and hustle to the bar once the award winning restaurant opens. We showed up a little after 5PM for a 5:30 opening. We were third and fourth in line, and by the time 5:30 rolled around and they opened the doors I’d say 15 people were on the sidewalk.

Craigie only serves 18 of their burgers a night. Once they’re gone, they’re gone. It is served medium-rare next to some of the best wedges potatoes I’d had in my life. The burger was massive and we had a great little corner of the bar. The bartender was happy and chatty, the couple to our left was visiting from out of town and were curious about some other places to eat in Boston. The bartender was glad to offer his thoughts (Toro, Shojo, Brewer’s Fork for Pizza, and Monica’s in the North End for their Italian sandwich).

When we were done with the meal, it was still early given our 5:30 dining time, so we decided to walk home from Central Square to Charlestown. The Longfellow Bridge offers one of the best views of Boston (pictured above), so we took that route home and stopped at the Liberty Hotel on the way home as a pit stop.

An ideal end of summer evening, for sure.

Best Watch

Hard Knocks: As the NFL season sneaks up on us next weekend (and the college football season in full swing this Labor Day Weekend), if you have HBO this is always a well done show. This year they’re following the Oakland Raiders training camp. There’s plenty of interesting storylines, and John Gruden doesn’t disappoint. And Antonio Brown is a basket case. Catch up this weekend and be ready for the final episode next week.

Mindhunter: If you’re someone that has been sucked into the vortex of true crime TV shows or podcasts, I highly recommend Mindhunter on Netflix. It’s one of the best things on Netflix because it doesn’t feel like a Netflix show. It’s scary and smart and directed by David Fincher, who has a penchant for 8-10 minute scenes with serial killer interviews, just crushes this entire series. The show follows the development of the behavior science department of the FBI.

Watch it, but make sure you have some sort of “palate cleanser” after so you don’t stay up all night.

Best Read

Phone Addiction: This piece in The Guardian is really well done. This is a topic I am very interested in having worked with children and seen the effect social media and technology has had on how kids treat each other and the comfort they feel in using abhorrent language towards one another. It’s way worse than being called a bedbug, I’ll tell you that much.

Best Listen

Taylor Swifts Lover: I wrote about the album earlier this week. Check it out here…. I scored each song as a “0” or “1.” It’s a solid album.

Best Eat

The Craigie Burger: See Best Activity. A delicious burger, a cool experience. Glad I can check it off the list.

Mexican Street Corn Pizza: Brewers Fork opened in Charlestown a few years ago now. It was the first of a few new spots to eat in our neighborhood. It appears on a lot of best pizza lists, after the bartender at Craigie offered it as a pizza recommendation, I decided to head back for the first time in a while this week. This pizza was delicious.

Shameless Plug(s)

The Random Division is new this week with our thoughts on the latest 18 hours of Bachelor in Paradise that aired this week.

You can follow our Random Division Instagram here. You can email us with BiP observations or requests of other things you’d like us to pod about because we’re heading towards the Bachelor offseason and we’d like to keep up our weekly momentum.

Email: TheRandomDivisionPod@Gmail.com

I wrote about Taylor Swift’s album here… and I wrote about my Strange August Restlessness here.

Have a great Labor Day Weekend!

A Binary Song By Song Review of Taylor Swift's New Album

Taylor Swift has been back in our life all summer. She dropped a few singles, some were good, some were “meh.” This past Friday, she shared the rest of her album, “Lover” with us. Taylor Swift is one of the few artists that I will go out of my way to listen to when a new album is released. I have given it a few listens, both as background music and while I’ve been focused; I decided to sit and listen to each song again and write about each song and rank it on the binary scale.

If I like the song, it gets a “1.” If I don’t like it, it gets a big fat “0.”

Here goes:

“I Forgot That You Existed”

Well, we’re right out of the gates with a quick-hitting, short, to the point, bitter sounding Taylor song. Kind of on brand for T. Swift. Someone pissed her off and now she has moved on so swimmingly that she forgot that this person existed. Given the title of the entire album, this is an appropriate song. It sounds like she is really just reading a letter that she wrote to someone. She sprinkles in her trademark giggle at the ridiculousness of this entire situation.

I actually don’t mind the beat of the song, it’s catchy and summer’y, which is nice with all this Pumpkin Spice Latte nonsense that has invaded our lives this past week. However, the beat doesn’t help me get past that these are the types of songs that I don’t like from T. Swift.

Rating: 0

“Cruel Summer”

I thought this might be a cover of the incredible 80’s song by Bananarama, which made me very excited. It also forced me to have to like this song a bit more than I think I would have if it had a different title.

There are multiple moments when I am not sure if Swift does stuff in her songs (or writes entire songs) with her tongue firmly placed in her cheek. One of those moments is in this song when she delivers some lines with an intonation that mimics Cardi B where her voice goes way up in order to make lines rhyme. It happens at the 20 second mark with, “Devils roll the dice/Angels roll their eyes” which isn’t a bad set of lines.

This song has grown on me with multiple listens.

Rating: 1

“Lover”

My wife and I have talked about when Swift might go back to the country side of things. This song feels like the closest she has come in the last few albums. It’s loaded with cliches, as country songs tend to be. As I type this, the song is playing and I just don’t like it. I was underwhelmed when I heard it the first time as a single, maybe because it didn’t fit the sound of a summer single from Swift.

I just don’t really like the sound and I think after the first two songs on the album it feels a bit out of place.

Rating: 0

“The Man”

This song feels like a third rail for any man to write about… I rolled my eyes on my first listen to “The Man”, but I did get a kick out of the Leo DiCaprio dig she slips in. However, it’s very much on the nose without any nuance in the writing (“I’m so sick of running as fast as I can/Wondering if I’d get there quicker if I was a man” “If I was a man/then I’d be the man”). Maybe that’s what she was going for, to make guys feel uncomfortable or roll their eyes. I

The one saving grace for this song, is that it has a little bit of Haim in the sound. If you don’t know Haim, you should.

Rating: 0

“The Archer”

Now we’re at the point of the album where it’s starting to feel like it doesn’t have a steady, stable sound. Nothing to really grab onto and feel grounded. “The Archer” builds slowly and solidly but then never fully crescendos into a final climax. I like the message of the the song, Swift is dealing with being “the archer and the prey” a fair point that no one could argue. I appreciate the honestly of the song.

Rating: 1’

“I Think He Knows”

If “The Archer” left me wondering what this album is all about, I Think He Knows opens the door to a new section of Lover.

This is the first song that really made me stop and pay attention. From the line, “He’s got that boyish look I like in a man” delivered very quickly, to the chorus that comes out of nowhere and is super fun and upbeat, “He’s got my heartbeat skipping down 16th avenue” this song belongs on summer playlists this Labor Day Weekend.

Rating: 1

“Miss Americana and the Heartbreak Prince”

Here’s our “Taylor Swift goes for the Lorde sound” song. It’s bit gritty, with a haunting harmony; lines like “It’s you and me that’s my whole world/ they whisper in the hallway she’s a bad bad girl” feels like a grab at the younger audience that she might be losing to Lorde and Billie Eilish.

Rating: 0

“Paper Rings”

If “Miss Americana and the Heartbreak Price” was a grab at Lorde, “Paper Rings” is a grab at the old Taylor Swift, the one from Fearless, particularly the chorus, “I love shining things/but I’d marry you with paper rings.” Swift might admit to us that she is rapping in the verses of this tune, and I think it works.

This song grew on me. It’s fun and a small homage to the old Taylor Swift, who can’t love that?

Rating: 1

“Cornelia Street”

Good golly this is a great song. Another one that grabbed me the first time I listened to it. Before I did any research on the song I would have thought that Ed Sheeran wrote this one or at least had his hand in some of the lyrics, but it turns out Swift wrote this one all on her own (“Lover” and “Daylight” are the other two with that distinction).

I’m a sucker for songs that drip nostalgia, and this one does that for me. Lines like, “I get mystified by how this city screams your name” and “I hope I never lose you/I’d never walk Cornelia Street again.” I also really like the beat, a constant synth sound. It’s also one of those songs that makes Swift sound like herself.

Rating: 1

“Death by a Thousand Cuts”

Starting with “I Think He Knows” we are treated to some very solid songs. “Death by a Thousand Cuts” is one of the ones that I’m not crazy about in this stretch. I mean, it’s fine but it doesn’t hold up against “Paper Rings” and “Cornelia Street” and it also is followed by another fun song in “London Boy.”

Rating: 0

“London Boy”

Swift dips into the mid-2000s song ploy of referencing places in a city to connect with the listeners. In “London Boy” she sings about Camden Market, Highgate, West End, Brixton, Shoreditch, and tosses around the word “fancy” with reckless abandon. It’s a catchy tune and worthy of the Summer BBQ playlist.

Rating: 1

“Soon You’ll Get Better (feat. Dixie Chicks)”

The Dixie Chicks are back! Leave it to Swift to give them a shot; I love it. This is a sad, sad song. Given the content and context, I can relate to it having had both parents battle cancer and losing my dad five years ago to the damned disease.

Here’s what Swift had to say on YouTube about it (credit Elle.com):

"There’s a song called 'Soon You’ll Get Better' that was really, really hard to write. and it was a family decision to even put on the album, and I think songs like that that are really hard for you to write emotionally, maybe they’re hard to write and hard to sing because they’re really true. We as a family decided to put this on the album. It’s something I’m so proud of. I can’t sing it. It’s hard to emotionally deal with that song. You’ll understand what I mean in a couple of hours."

Rating: 1

“False God”

A super chill song that I like, but I don’t know why. it’s got a little Drake sprinkled in, both in the delivery and the music.

We’re also at the point where we have to realize that this album has 18 songs; we’re in the home stretch…

Rating 1:

“You Need to Calm Down”

The single that gained the most attention by a mile. I like this one, the video is fun, even though there are some issues with the messaging; Swift’s effort to come across as an ally is a tad too much on the nose, especially while she is also unpacking her beef with Katy Perry.

Rating: 1

“Afterglow”

An apology song? From T. Swift?

Whoa… okay. “Hey, it’s on me, just don’t go/meet me in the afterglow.”

I’m on the fence with this one. I think the chorus puts it over the top, though. Another moment where it just feels like Swift gets to sing without anything being contrived.

Rating: 1

“ME”

Another tongue in cheek moment with a sprinkle of the Fearless album in there. The drum line brings us all to high school football games, the duet with Brendon Urie from Panic! at the Disco gives this one a different sound.

I find it curious that Swift buried some of her singles deep in the album. This was her first single from “Lover” and I didn’t like it much as a stand alone song. I think it’s a bit better within the album after listening to fifteen songs before it. Sadly, it’s just not a song I really like. This time as I sit on the fence, I fall on the zero side…

Rating: 0

“It’s Nice to Have a Friend”

Taylor’s making a friend at school to the sound of steel drums and maybe some sort of marimba and a horn tossed in for good measure. This song is clever, as it is written and performed like something a group of first graders might sing at a recital. The lines are choppy, the music is simple, and I can picture a music teacher at the front of the stage mouthing the words to the kids. Obviously, the words are a tad too mature, which also makes the song interesting to a degree. It’s a quick one, only 2:30 on the clock.

Rating: 1

“Daylight”

The final song of the album, written by Swift on her own, doesn’t actually sound like her. It’s kind of strange, but we are reminded that it is indeed a Taylor Swift song when it finishes with a recorded quote from the singer.

The song fits with the end of an album, hopeful and reflective: “You gotta step into the daylight and let it go.” I also appreciated the little callback to her album “Red” when she sings, “I always thought that love would burn red.”

The album finishes with Swift saying, “You are what you love.”

This has always been the uncomfortable juxtaposition for me with Swift. She spends a lot of time on the album writing about the haters and the things she doesn’t like or the things she feels powerless to change, but then kind of shoehorns that last quote in there, almost to make herself feel better. She’s a complicated person, which makes her interesting and enticing and frustrating and confusing.

It’s also why I find myself listening to her songs and albums because it feels like she is at least trying to say something, which is not the case with a lot of pop-music right now. At times it falls flat, at other times people take her too seriously, and other times she misses the mark.

That’s why Taylor Swift is Taylor Swift.

Rating: 1

OVERALL ALBUM SCORE: 12/18

FINAL THOUGHTS:

I’d say Lover is a tad too long as an entire album. The middle of the album is really solid, particularly the six song stretch from “I Think He Knows” to “London Boy.” Those were the songs on my first listen that took hold for me and will be in my rotation of songs I listen to this fall. Some of the songs feel out of place or like they could be part of their own album.

Toss your thoughts in the comment section and feel free to suggest another album I can give a binary score to!

My Strange August Restlessness

The past few weeks have been a little bit strange, admittedly August is always a little bit strange. I’ve been on the school carousel for 31 years, either as a student or teacher. The specter of school starting was always there waiting in September. With the anxiety/sadness that comes with the end of summer, there was always something new waiting. There was something there, for better and worse. There was the excitement of seeing friends and colleagues. There was the sense of a fresh start, the glossiness of September.

On the other hand, there’s the sadness of losing all that wonderful free time at the end of summer. The extra thirty minutes laying in bed with nothing pressing on the day’s schedule. The promise of a trip somewhere far away or just down the road. The temptation to just sit and read without feeling like it was “for school.” The rush of deleting your school email from your phone or just simply setting an “out of office” reply.

Typically, those were the emotions I’d feel leading up to this very, exact morning. You see, as I am writing this, my former colleagues are gathering for opening faculty meetings.

Over the course of my life, I have always been a pretty solid sleeper. At some points, I’d be worried that I slept too well before or after a really tough day professionally or personally (is there something wrong with me?). During the last 2-3 weeks, this has not been the case. I have found myself laying in bed in the middle of the night wide awake, wondering if I should just get up and read or watch TV. Even at the end of the day, getting my brain to settle down has been more of a struggle than I can remember. It’s weird because it’s summer.

But as I thought about it, I started to realize where some of the restlessness was coming from: the void of an upcoming day was daunting. In the past, I’d go to bed in August knowing that I was running out of days to fill, so I’d be anxious to fill them. Predictably, a few school dreams (nightmares?) would weasel their way into my subconscious. No matter what, I’d also have the September finish line (or starting line, however you want to look at it) ahead of me. Nine months of structured, busy, fulfilling, challenging, fun days from September to June.

As of today, I have no finish line or starting line. I have nothing dragging me out of bed in the morning other than my own motivation to fill my day so I can go to bed knowing I didn’t waste it.

At the end of the day, I have to go to bed feeling assured that I can fill the day ahead of me. The last few weeks, this has been my fear, “how am I going thoughtfully and creatively fill my day.” It’s a mental dynamic I have never experienced before.

I know, I know. This is an insane thing to worry about when so many people have bigger things keeping them up at night, but it’s where I am right now.

This particular day as I write this is one that I knew would feel strange (along with the first day of school next week). I was right; it does feel strange. I didn’t expect that the weeks leading up to the start of school would feel as restless as they have.

All of a sudden, I’m in the position of the students I had over the years. I preached about trusting the process about patience about believing in themselves about taking lumps in stride and about reflecting.

As I left school last June, a sagely colleague said to me, “So you’re going to wake up and write everyday.” It’s a statement that has stuck with me and echoes in my mind frequently.

That’s been my goal all summer: Wake up and write.

I’m going to make that my September Gloss. Wake up and write.

No new clothes. No trapper keepers.

And hopefully some better nights of sleep.

Friday Faves 8/23: Beer Garden, Basketball books, Caamp, Water Taxis

Best Activity

It was a pretty great week of activities with the summer winding down. Last weekend we hosted some friends who live in Hoboken. We realized during this particular visit that they had not really been in Boston during the summertime when the weather is nice. On Saturday afternoon, we walked from Charlestown to the Charles River and had a couple beers at the Owl’s Nest, the Night Shift beer garden next to the Esplanade. The area was bustling with people and dogs, but not too busy where one might feel overwhelmed. The river was packed with sail boats. It was a quintessential Boston day. We capped off the night with a water taxi ride from Boston Harbor Hotel to Charlestown with a quick stop at Logan Airport.

Best Read

My Losing Season - I am about a third through this Pat Conroy book. It’s a memoir covering his senior year at The Citadel on the basketball team. It is excellent and goes way beyond basketball. Conroy grew up an army brat, moving all over the country on a whim. His father was emotionally and physically abusive, even heckling Pat from the stands during his high school games, even though basketball was Conroy’s mealticket to college. His father emerges as a horrible figure, a villain even. I am looking forward to finishing the book, as it seems like his disappointing senior year at the Citadel shaped the rest of his life as a person and a writer.

Best Listen

Caamp - My buddy Dean, who was one of our visitors this weekend, told me about Caamp on Saturday morning. We put them on and they played us through the whole morning. While I don’t always like making band comparisons, I’m going to continue to do it for the rest of my life. These guys sound like the Lumineers and/or Mumford and Sons (banjo!!) with tunes likes “All the Debts I Owe”, but also have some upbeat tunes like Peach Fuzz (which sounds a littttttle like “Brim Full of Asha”).

Best Watch

Roll Red Roll - You can find this documentary on Netflix. It covers a rape case in Steubenville, Ohio involving the high school football team. It digs into the culture of the town and rape culture among high school boys. Adults go out of their way to protect the two football players, while a Columbus blogger discovered a sea of bothersome tweets, Instagrams, and Youtube videos to put this story on the front burner. It stirred up protests in the town led by anonymous; a wave of other victims also came forward following years of silence.

Best Eat

Fish Tacos at The Barking Crab - After exploring the city on Saturday, we made our way to The Barking Crab. It’s always packed and we waited an hour for a table, but it was worth the wait. Their fish tacos are delicious. I used to think fish tacos were a strange combination, clearly the younger version of myself was way, way off. Fish tacos are one of my go-to orders at this point. I am not always a fan of fried fish in my taco; I’d rather have grilled fish. Barking Crab’s fish tacos are fried, and I’m glad I made the exception; if you’re in Boston go to The Barking Crab and get the fish tacos, and then just have a few bites of your dining partner’s lobster roll.

Best Drink

Bell’s Official Hazy IPA - Bell’s was not a brewery on my radar until I met my wife. It’s a Michigan based brewery (maybe the only thing she’ll admit is good from “That state up north”). Their most popular draft is Two Hearted, which is now available in Boston pretty much everywhere, including at liquor stores. I had a few sips of Official this weekend and it was really good. It doesn’t taste like they were trying to jam millions of hops into a 16oz can. This one has a good balance. Keep your eyes out for Official by Bells.

Friday Faves 8/16: Veronica Mars, Ciders, and A Sign of Aging

Best Activity

This week’s activity could be tagged as a Sign of Aging, but hey, I’m getting older, so screw it, it was my favorite activity of the week.

Ready? Here goes…

I went to the chiropractor this week. Over the winter, after logging more miles on a treadmill than in past winters, my body was a tad messed up. At the behest of my wife, I visited our local chiropractor who fixed her up as she trained for the 2018 NYC Marathon. This was not a new venture for me, as I would tag along with my mom or dad when they would go see their chiropractor when I was younger. I would get a quick re-alignment (some satisfying cracks) and be on my way.

Now, I try to make an appointment every two months or so. I’ve been playing a lot of golf and adding miles to my runs because I’ve got a marathon on the horizon. The weeks following each visit are typically the best feeling weeks I have. I feel better on my runs and I feel better in the mornings. I’d like to think it helps my golf game, too.

Best Read

1619 Project - Slavery in America started 400 years ago this week, and the NYTimes has a massive section with stories, essays, and articles. It’s visually interesting and emotionally stirring. It’s worth your time.

Best Watch

The Family - This new Netflix series is captivating, strange, and confounding. Don’t let the first episode, a clunky combination of dramatization and documentary, turn you off. Once the first episode delivers the backstory, through the eyes author Jeff Sharlet, who wrote The Family back in 2008, it gets much more interesting as the dramatization is eliminated and it’s just a documentary. If you enjoy conspiracy theories and borderline cultish leaders, then you should giveThe Family a spin. Here’s a good read in The Atlantic about the show.

Veronica Mars - The impetus of Tiff and I deciding to watch this is unclear. If I were forced to come up with an answer, I’d say that the recent reboot of the series put the original season on our radar. The show came out in 2004, it stars Kristin Bell and a bunch of hack actors who end up in nothing else, ever. The show has the same feel as the O.C., which came out at the same time, but the tough, gritty Veronica Mars is on the case, showing up the Neptune sheriff, along with the rich, cool kids in high school. She takes down drug dealers and super-secret societies; infiltrates a supposed cult and uncovers a baby swap. The over-arching, season-long plot is Veronica’s mission to find the true killer of her best friend. She does all this while having time to narrate the show (one of the laziest story-telling crutches that exists and it drives me crazy.).

With all that being said (and I say it A LOT when we watch), the show is entertaining and contains some great, era specific references. There are also some hilarious pre-fame credits by Max Greenfield (Schmidt in New Girl) and Aaron Paul (Jesse Pinkman in Breaking Bad).

If you need any more convincing, Kareem Abdul-Jabaar is a writer for the reboot and had this to say in The Hollywood Reporter about the first season and the chance to join the reboot:

But the original Veronica Mars is one of my favorites. It expanded the boundaries of both the mystery genre and the high school drama genre by combining them in such a clever, witty and intelligent way that the whole exceeded the sum of its parts. Raymond was a superfan: He teaches the Veronica Mars pilot in his English lit courses at Orange Coast College. No way we weren't doing this. Our only fear: screwing up a series we loved.

Best Listen

The Clearing - This podcast dives into the life of Ed Edwards, a convicted killer (due to his daughter turning him years after the case went cold). Following his conviction for murder, Ed Edwards to tied to a rash of internet conspiracy theories. Edwards became the scapegoat for some of the most famous unsolved murders in the country: the Black Dahlia and Zodiac to name two. Over the course of the podcast, the host along with Ed’s daughter, April, begin trying to debunk these connections to other murders, but it is harder than it seems.

Best Drink

Downeast Cider Aloha Friday - I enjoy a good cider, and as the English Soccer season kicks off, I doubly enjoy a Saturday or Sunday morning cider as I watch a match or two. I have been on the lookout for the Aloha Friday for a while and finally found it in cans this week (maybe I wasn’t looking hard enough?). In an effort to stave off this insane invasion of pumpkin beers, I am trying to find as many summer-y beers as I can. Aloha Friday is one of them. And it’s aptly named or this blog.

Best Shameless Plug

The Random Division - Tiff and I are gluttons for punishment. The last two weeks we have consumed far too much Bachelor in Paradise (four episodes that are all two hours each…). If you love the Bachelor franchise or know someone that does, please send this to them! We plan on recording every week, and once the show ends this fall, we will dive into more random topics (if you have an idea for a topic you’d like to hear Tiff and I talk about, add it in the comments!)

“…of the decade” - It’s 2019, which means we’ll be turning the page on this decade in December. I will be doing a little mini-series of podcasts where people come on a rank things from the past decade. The first guest was Paul Burke, we ranked the top five golf majors from the decade. Here’s the link.

I’d love a bunch of guests to join me on this series. There are no rules or requirements. Your list could come from any category you would like. It could be personal, pop-cultural, or super-niche. It doesn’t have to be the “best” either. Pick your superlative: the worst, the scariest, the saddest, the most petty. Whatever you’re passionate about, make your list and tell me about it on Skype or in person.

If you have an idea for an episode send it along to theimperfectgamepod@gmail.com.

What were your favorites this week? Stick them in the comment section.

Friday Faves 8/9: Open Mics, The Town, Turkey Burgers, and Nuclear Explosions

Best Activity

On Tuesday night my wife and I attended an open mic night at the TCAN (The Center for Arts Natick). This was a special, but sad night, as my friend Rob was supposed to be the feature act. Rob was a close friend of my dad; Rob’s son Eliot is one of my closest friends. Some of my greatest memories occurred among the four of us, usually on a golf course but not always. Rob passed away suddenly in May, but because of his love for open mics and the TCAN (and the reciprocated love the TCAN had for him) the TCAN held a tribute to Rob on Tuesday.

The feature performer of the night gets to play a 6-7 song set. On this evening, in Rob’s stead, Eliot, his sister Meryl, and Meryl’s friend Catherine took to the stage to play some Rob originals along with a selection of his favorites by the likes of Dylan, James Taylor, and Neil Young.

It was a great evening capped off with news that the donations in the room helped Rob break through his own 6-year goal to raise $90,000 for the PanMass Challenge. This past weekend would have been his sixth straight ride.

Best Listen

The Rewatchables - This podcast on The Ringer podcast network is solid. Bill Simmons has various guests on to do deep dives into different movies. Each episode is about a specific movie, so you can pick and choose what you want to listen to. This week they released an episode about The Town. I thoroughly enjoyed it because, well, I live in Charlestown and Simmons lived here for eight years, so there are some deep cuts about the neighborhood and Boston in general. Here’s the link to the episode.

Best Read

Washington Black - This book is incredible. It’s rare that I pick up a book and plow through it without having another book going on the back-burner. It’s even rarer that I finish a book in a week.

This is one of those books you want to bring with you when you leave the house just in case you can steal a few moments and read a page or two. The book follows Washington Black, a young slave in Barbados, who is befriended by the slave master’s brother. Adventure ensues, along with the challenges of survival, fear, regret, guilt, and loss. The book is stunningly written, capturing the relationships between characters along with the time period it is set in (1830s).

Best Watch

Chernobyl - Yes, it’s the summer time and I’m reading books and watching shows that leave me with a tight feeling in my gut. I know I am late to this party, but I actually had a hard time pressing play on this one for a while. I knew I needed to be in the right mindset and have enough time to actually give it the attention it deserves.

I have to admit, I did not know much about Chernobyl outside of the general knowledge that it was a nuclear power plant that exploded and destroyed a city. I did not know the depth of danger that existed for a large swath of Eastern Europe or the length of time the nuclear core was able to burn or the lives lost for the greater good and the bravery exhibited by many, both loyally and blindly. The invisible nature of the dangerous radiation and the lack of understanding that people had (even those involved in the explosion and clean-up) is shocking and unnerving.

One little thing I appreciated about the show is the fact that they did not have the actors use Russian accents. Many of the actors are actually British and simply speak in their normal voice. This did force me to remind myself that these characters were all Russian and the story was indeed real.

Best Eats

Blackmoor Turkey Burger - I’ve hit a weird, and delicious, streak of eating burgers. Monument last week, a few burgers during a weekend golf tournament, a Sunday BBQ with some friends, and on Wednesday night I wandered down to Blackmoor in Charlestown for a solo dinner at the bar (another trend these past weeks as Tiff goes to summer networking events).

Honorable mention is the reuben at Morse Tavern in Natick. I need to order more reubens.

What were your favorites from the week? Add them in the comments.

My Experience Processing Mass Shootings at Schools

When I think back to some of the toughest days I had as a teacher, violence seems to be a thread. Not violence at my school, but instead the challenge of debriefing and processing the world we live in with children.

My first year as a TA was the year of the Virginia Tech shooting. I worked in a third grade classroom, so it wasn’t something that registered with those specific kids, but I do recall the third grade teachers trying to figure out how to handle a potential question from a scared or informed 9-year-old. That was 2007. I was 23 and had just graduated college 10 months beforehand and was rather shaken at the idea that a school could experience that type of violence.

Flash forward to the December 2012 Sandy Hook shooting. I was teaching fourth grade and knew that I would have to start that Monday with a morning meeting to simply reiterate to 10 year olds that they are safe in school (Over the course of the weekend, teachers and admin tried to figure out the best way to handle the shooting). This is not a conversation I ever imagined I’d need to have with my students. Some kids had no idea what had happened, some kids were held out of school to avoid being part of the conversation, and others had a sense of what happened. All of them were a cocktail of curious and anxious and worried.

Amazingly, five months later I had to gather the exact same kids on a Tuesday morning to talk to them about the Boston bombing. Suddenly, in the span of half a year an elementary school in Connecticut and a marathon in our capitol city was attacked. The bombing was obviously closer to home for my students, some of whom had family running the marathon. I was at the top of Boylston St. when those bombs went off. Some of my students were down at the finish line before the bombs went off. That entire week had an unprecedented buzz around it in Boston due to the manhunt and the Thursday night gunfight and car chase that evolved into a a lockdown in the city to track down the bomber.

I remember opening that Boston Bombing conversation with a line like, “It’s really sad that we’ve had to sit down and start our day twice this year and talk about some sad and scary stuff.” I also remember the kids knowingly nodding their heads in agreement.

Some parents did not like the fact that these conversations were happening at school because they didn’t want to burst the protective bubble they live in. I didn’t really care because I think these are important conversations that kids want to have. If we were asking kids to go through Secure Campus drills, gathering in the corner of the room silently while the teacher locks the doors and pulls the blinds, then I believed they lived in a world where anxiety around violence existed, sadly. I was told by a teacher once that you can talk to any age kid about any topic, you just have to package it correctly and give it context.

In 1999 after the Columbine attack, my freshman English teacher took an entire class to stop everything and let a group of 18 boys process the violence. We talked about outcasts and unkindness and parenting and friendships and scapegoats (video games and the internet).

Now, in 2019 if we did stop and try to process mass shootings in America, we might not get much else done in the classroom. In my more recent years of teaching I found that after events like the The Tree of Life shooting last fall we simply put the flag at half-mast and kept our ears and eyes open for students that might be talking about what happened and seeking inroads to help particular kids process the event (having a counselor on campus helped, too. That role didn’t exist in 2012).

While violence feels like it’s reached its height with two shootings in 13 hours this past weekend (and a shooting in Gilroy last weekend), I also think that it’s becoming more difficult to speak about it with kids because a big part of it has been politicized; the narratives that go along with the shootings are now connected to our President and immigration and gun-control and mental health. It’s a quagmire of topics that all sit on the third rail. Teachers don’t want to be accused of spreading their own political agenda to their impressionable students.

Those fourth grade students that I sat down with to discuss Sandy Hook and the Boston Bombing are about to start their junior year of high school. They are getting ready to head into a world where they have read about shootings at an outdoor concert, a garlic festival, a movie theater, a night club, a school. a place of worship, a bar. Those are just the places I could come up with off the top of my head.

It’s saddening because I think that this current batch of high school age kids have this violence as a part of life and the immediate reaction on TV and the internet is for people to press their political views instead of trying figure out what is really going on in our country and the wider world where so many of these acts of violence are occurring.

I don’t even really know how to wrap all this up, to be honest. It’s just such a mess. These conversations were the most challenging parts of working at a school and they’ll stay with me long past my time in those classrooms, I hope that my students took something away from them just like I did in my freshman year class following Columbine.

Friday Faves 8/2: Thompson Point, Caste Island, and Caroline Rose

Best Activity

Nothing says summertime more than an outdoor concert. Last Friday I drove up to Portland with my wife and some friends to see Maggie Rogers at Thompson Point. It was a quick trip, as the drive up to Maine was three hours (90 minutes on a normal day) and we returned to Boston the next morning.

However, I cannot stress this enough. If you live near Portland, you have to go see a concert at Thompson Point. Admittedly, it’s in a strange spot. It sits just below the highway on one side, but on the other side is the water and the sunset. It’s in a revived area of the city, there is a brewery (Bissell Brothers), distillery, winery, and BBQ joint 200 yards from the entrance to the venue. Once you get inside the venue the outer edge is lined with food trucks and beer vendors.

We had perfect weather to be outside listening to music and drinking beers.

Best Listen

Man in the Window: The Golden State Killer - Maybe all the true crime podcasts my wife listens have planted a seed in my brain, but between Confronting OJ and Man in the Window, I have been hooked to this podcast format lately. I know, I know, I’m not the only one. This just makes me Basic. The Man in the Window is riveting and well told. It’s scary as hell (on Monday night Tiff was away in New York and I locked by bedroom door); however, it also tackles a lot of the issues with sexual assault and rape that existed in the 1970s within our justice system and socially.

Caroline Rose - On the heels of the Maggie Rogers show, my friend, Colleen, who also attended the show, sent along a new singer who she believes is better than Maggie Rogers. Her name is Caroline Rose, and I’ve been listening to her for the last week pretty regularly. Start with “Jeannie Becomes a Mom” “Getting To Me” and “To Die Today.” Those three songs are in that order on her album; they show her wide range of talents as each one is very distinct.

Also, check out her Tiny Desk below:

Best Reads

Wonder - This was a reread for me. I tore through it because it’s written for upper elementary school kids and I can read waaay faster than they can… I was reading it for my new job. It’s just a really good book. If you’ve got kids or friends with kids who are anywhere from 7-12, it should be required reading. It’s touching and clever and thoughtful and thought provoking. So much to learn from Auggie, Jack, Via, Julian, Summer, et al.

Best Watches

Olivia Colman - Olivia Colman is my favorite actress right now. She has been in my life for quite a while at this point. I first met Olivia Colman as D.S. Ellie Miller in Broadchurch as a hum-drum detective in a small English coastal town. If you haven’t seen Broadchurch yet, add it to your watch list and then watch it all (I am very jealous of people that have not watched Broachchurch yet, because it is so so good).

Then I watched Colman in The Favourite, where she plays the insane Queen Anne. The movie wasn’t my favorite, but Colman is amazing.

Finally, Colman plays the Godmother in Fleabag. I have not watched all of yet, but the show is awesome.

In short, watch Colman in anything. I don’t watch The Crown, but maybe I’ll start…

Best Eats

Monument Smash Burger - When I’m out on my runs I think about a lot of things. The main thoughts, however, have to do with food. I run to eat. I make no bones about it. This Monday I headed down to Monument in Charlestown for a solo dinner. I had decided during my morning run that I was going to have their burger, which is one of my favorites in Boston. I enjoy a good burger, particularly in the summer. Monument’s will be in the Battle of the Burger later on in August. I’d recommend it, get the 1/2 salad and 1/2 fries on the side.

Best Drinks

Castle Island - On Saturday evening, Tiff and I headed down to see a friend in Norwood. His fiance serves beer at Castle Island Brewery, which is down in NOrwood, too (even though Caste Island is in South Boston…). Anyway, it’s a cool little spot (they also have a beer garden in Charlestown); they have some solid beers. I tried one called Suit Parade, which I recommend. I also enjoy their Hi-Def, which is a double IPA. You can find it in most liquor stores in Boston.

What did you like from the week? Toss them in the comments section.

Be Kind To Teachers in August (aka July 2.0)

There’s an old joke that the three best things about teaching are June, July, and August. Summer is a delightful time of year for everyone, and many teachers are afforded the luxury of having a bunch of time off. I spent some of my summers working at camp until I realized a break from kids was actually necessary. I got my Masters over a few summers, too. Some summers I just did nothing, and spent my time recharging my batteries and chipping away at school projects so September wasn’t a kick in the teeth. Make hay and all that.

But August was often one of my least favorite months of the year.

Is it as bad as those long cold days in February? Impossible.

Is it as sad as January when all the holiday fun is over and the spring days are a mere speckle at the end of the tunnel? Of course not. Those months truly suck.

However, August represents the opposite feeling of January and February. The tunnel is coming. That long, dark tunnel. In order to extend my July mindset, I began calling August “July 2.0” and just kept the days going. August 1 is actually July 32.

This year, now that I am not fearing my re-entry into the school year, I feel different. The month isn’t an enemy, but I am sure that other emotions will come later on when school kicks back up and I don’t have a school to go to for the first time since I was 4-years-old.

So today, I thought I’d write a primer on how to help a teacher friend deal with the month of August.

Avoid Back to School Commercials

The NYTimes just posted a bougie Back to School shopping list. Walmart and Target and everyone else are trying to sell parents on the nostalgia that an awesome binder, amazing pencil box, or a cute outfit will make their kid like school more this September. When these commercials come on the TV, it’s your duty to change the channel. No matter how catchy the song is or how good the kids are at dancing. These commercials can ruin an entire day in August for some teachers.

Don’t Ask if They’re Excited to Get Back into the Routine

Teachers often lie to themselves that by the middle of August they’re ready to get back into the swing of things. The loss of routine has left them feeling helpless and ready to get back into the classroom (ask them how they feel about their “routine” when it’s late September and they have to stay late for Back to School Night).

There were some years when I would tell myself on the last week of summer that I was going to set my alarm clock for my workday wake-up so I can “reset my body clock.” This is another routine crock of crap. My alarm would go off, I’d snooze, and then I’d turn it off and I’d still be in bed until a bit later than I should have been. That might be an issue with my own source of will power to pull myself out of bed, but just go with me, okay?

The truth is, having no routine is wonderful and any teacher that tells you otherwise is lying to you. How should you handle this lie? Just smile and nod, because they’re lying to themselves, too. It’s a defense mechanism. They’ll be okay. Just be support and let them talk it through with you. But don’t bring it up yourself and don’t believe them because if you told them school isn’t opening until October 1, not a single teacher would say, “Um, I think’d I’d rather get started on the Wednesday after Labor Day. I’m just feeling like I’m ready to get back into the swing of things.” Instead, they’d let out a joyous scream and give you a massive hug.

Don’t “Summer Shame” in August

I know, I know. Everyone else in the world would kill a litter of puppies for an entire month off from work, especially when that month is after a month of not working. “Summer Shaming” is fine in June and July. Teachers know how lucky they are to get time off to do whatever it is they would like. The freedom is glorious, but the”Summer Shame” window shuts on August 1. It’s too late and the emotional scarring can be quite damaging.

Steal and change their work email

I’m not kidding about this one. At my old school, August 1 is the date that class rosters are sent out to families and faculty. Faculty also receive the schedule for Opening Meetings on August 1, which are held the week before Labor Day (see, August is shrinking. It’s not a whole month off…). Those mailings are the cue to a lot of people that school is open for business. Maybe that nervous parent wants to schedule a meeting to discuss their child’s transition into a new grade. Maybe a coworker has a question about that new book you’re adding to the curriculum. That stuff can wait a couple more weeks, but the surefire way to make sure the teacher in your life enjoys August is to take away their email privileges.

Soak up those Sundays

A few of my teacher friends and I often text on Sundays during vacations to remind ourselves how lucky we are. Sunday Scaries are real, and making sure that you enjoy the Sundays that don’t have the scaries is important because they are running out. Fast. Go have that boozy brunch. Sleep-in and make pancakes at home. Binge a TV show. Read an entire GD book. Take a day trip to that place you read about on that Trillist list that you always forget immediately after reading it. (“Best day trips spots if you live in fill in the blank city…).

August is a month of Sundays for teachers. The school year is looming over the horizon like the Mind Flayer in Stranger Things. Be kind to your teacher friends, their time is running out.

Friday Faves 7/26: Routines, PigPen Theatre Co., Last Chance U, and Half-Pints.

Best Activity

This week was a rather quiet one as far as activities go. I woke up every morning and had time to write. A couple of the mornings I walked down to the local Starbucks for a couple hours. It was so nice to have the time and space to write each and every day. It made me excited for the calmer days of the fall when life isn’t as crazy, and I can take advantage of the time I am trying to carve out for myself in the next few months.

There’s also something incredible about a Starbucks in the morning. I would love to see footage of a Starbucks from ten years ago, because it feels to me like the coffee powerhouse has wiggled its way into the lives of more and more young people. I feel for any adult that has to work with a kid riding the high of the tie-dye frappuccino.

Best Listens

Jurassic 5 - I defy you to put this rap group on and not smile. I’ve been listening to these guys since college when my friend Chris introduced them to our playlist. They’ve been the backdrop of many parties and hangs. Start with the album Quality Control, which came out in 2000.

PigPen Theatre Company - Full disclosure… this is my brother’s band, but they are incredible. They are also a theater group that is currently in San Diego performing in the musical version Tales of Despereaux (which they wrote the music, book, and lyrics for).

Here’s a video of PigPen playing some of their tunes….

Best Reads

The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*uk - I picked this book up in the spring when I was giving far too many fucks and trying to figure out how to disconnect from some of the things that were driving me crazy (note: the way I stopped giving a fuck was by leaving my job). It’s a good book to have around to just pick up and read a bunch of pages. Mark Manson writes well, and honestly, about his own struggles while also giving some fantastic anecdotes from history.

Social Effect of TV (NYTimes) - An interesting article on how TV, and mainly cable TV, is altering our society. Not really an earth-shattering take, but some of the numbers are striking, especially when they talk about Norway’s IQ drop in kids born in the late 1980s compared to kids born in the late 1970s.

Best Watches

Last Chance U - This show never really disappoints. It’s a football documentary that highlights the struggle of trying to make it out of small time football. It’s heartbreaking, annoying, and inspiring. I wrote a post about Bobby Bruce, the saddest story of the show. Put it on and buckle up. I’m six episodes in and it’s clear that this season is going to end badly.

Best Eats

Chicken Parm - A couple friends came and visited me in Boston this week. We have been having a monthly dinner for the last four to five years and this was the first one we had in Boston in quite a while. We went to the North End and ate at, you guessed it, an Italian spot called Cantina Italiana. I had not eaten chicken parm in quite a while and this one was delicious. Thin, crispy chicken which didn’t even require a knife, just the edge of my fork. However, I wasn’t crazy about the use of ziti noodles instead of angel hair or some other stringy pasta (man, that is the most Irish way of trying to talk about pasta).

Best Drinks

Maine Beer Co. - Our local watering hole, Monument, has a great rotating draft list. One of the staples at Monument is Maine Beer Co. One of my favorites from Maine Beer is called Lunch. It’s very hard to track down in bottles around here. Last month I was in Maine and picked up a few bottles of Lunch and last night I cracked one open and split the 24 ounces with my wife. If you’re an IPA fan and you haven’t checked Lunch off the list, make sure you do. They also make a Dinner, which will knock you on your ass.

One of the best glasses we have in our apartment is an 8 ounce Guinness glass. When we were visiting my family in Ireland during our honeymoon two summers ago, we were closing out a local bar after a family gathering at my aunt’s house. The half-pint turned into the perfect final beer order, my wife was enamored with the cute glass and now it’s in our cupboard. My wife remembered her grandmother, a proper Irish lady, telling her that a lady cannot drink a pint of beer. It’s unsightly; however, a lady may drink as many half-pints as she’d like. We also have a favorite bar in New York City that is called Half Pint.

In the world of heavy IPAs, the half-pint is an excellent glass to share the big bottle or the tall boy. Especially on a work night.

What were your favorites of the week? Toss them in the comments section!

The Sad Story of Bobby Bruce

The second episode of the latest season of Last Chance U opens in a Greyhound bus station. The saddest version imaginable: empty parking lot, glowing vending machines against the outer wall. There’s a dimly lit lone figure standing with his bags. The stringy dreads give away his identity quickly if you’ve been watching the show. It’s Bobby Bruce, the forlorn, confused, misguided Independence Community College football player. Finally, a bus pulls up and “Six Days Earlier” flashes up on the screen.

This is going to be a Tarantino episode. We know how it ends, now we learn how and why Bobby Bruce is at a Greyhound station with his bags packed after one week of the football season.

Watching Last Chance U always puts me in this strange headspace. I am a white male who grew up in New England and suburban San Francisco. I attended private schools growing up and then worked at a private school for 13 years, serving elite, competitive, driven, privileged families. This show provides endless windows for me to see into a world that I don’t understand but also frustrates me and breaks my heart at the same time.

In my opinion, Bobby Bruce is the most gut-wrenching character of the entire show. He’s a kid from Titusville, Florida, which is due east of Orlando on the Atlantic Coast. Judging by the anecdotes about the town, it was not an easy place to grow up. Gangs and violence were prevalent and for Bobby Bruce, football was his only chance to get out.

The culture shock of arriving in Independence, Kansas at the local Community College has to be sky-high for the majority of the recruits. Many of them are former Division 1 flame-outs looking for a chance to get some reps and film as they search for a new route to life in DI football. Some make it. Some don’t.

Over the course of the 2017 football season, Bobby Bruce experienced many ups and downs. His size put him at a disadvantage, as the coaches couldn’t find a real position for him (this bled into the issues on the field in 2018). Bruce’s self-worth was directly tied to his success on the football field. He needed snaps and he needed to make big plays. Nothing else mattered because nothing else ever matter. Once the going got tough, Bobby Bruce shut down.

He missed home. He missed succeeding on the football field. And, in my unprofessional opinion, it made him depressed.

The title of the show drives home the point that this is the last chance for a lot of these players to make it to the next level. They still have a slim chance at getting to the NFL, they just need the right Division 1 program to come calling.

However, (and this isn’t ground breaking) it’s also just their last chance at any sort of education and a place where people give a shit about them as they try to instill a sense of self-worth and self-esteem into these young men that most likely are not going to make it to the NFL.

During this particular episode, we spend a lot of time with Bobby Bruce. He is struggling with his lack of playing time and practice participation. We watch him bonding with teammate, Kailon Davis. Davis took on a role of big brother for Bruce, introducing him to the Bible and helping him remain upbeat when things become tough. Bruce was arrested over the summer for armed robbery, which put his attendance at Independence CC in jeopardy, but he was allowed back for is Really Really Last Chance. Kailon Davis was trying to be a guiding light for Bruce and keep him on the straight and narrow.

Sadly, Bruce, and two teammates, are caught on security video enter another student’s dorm room empty-handed and leave with a plastic bag. The video surfaced because the student who lived in the room complained that $250 was taken from his room. Bobby was blamed for the theft, as he was the only one that left the room with something in his hands. He claimed it was food, but he also didn’t put up much of a fight when he was accused.

Here’s where we get a really interesting look into the machine that is Independence CC and how players are used up and disposed of when their chance is over. Coach Brown, a lump of a man who drinks on screen, swears and yells at his players, and generally gives zero fucks about anybody, called a meeting and told the team that Bobby Bruce was cut for what he did (Bruce took the fall for his two teammates, too). Bruce had no idea he was cut; he was just told by Coach Brown to skip the meeting.

Before Brown delivers the news face-to-face to Bobby Bruce, word gets back to him, as he’s haphazardly playing pool alone, that he’s cut. Coach Brown loves to say how much he loves his players and how much he loves Bobby Bruce. Sadly, we never get to see that final moment between coach and player. Maybe it happened. Maybe it didn’t.

What we did get to see was his teammates and a teacher come to say goodbye. His English teacher, Latonya Pinkard, a star of the show, came to Bruce’s dorm room as he was packing up. She put a lot of time and energy building up Bobby Bruce when he was in one of his funks. They exchanged a teary good-bye, which was capped off with the teacher asking to read Psalm 23 with him. Bruce opens his newfound Bible and begins reading. He can barely get through the first two sentences before the teacher offers to read. It’s heartbreaking, this 20 year-old kid that can barely read is losing his last chance at some sort of education. At some sort of normalcy. At some stability.

It feels like it’s already slipped through his fingertips. And it sucks.

Before we return to the Greyhound bus station, an assistant coach walks into Coach Brown’s office with Bobby Bruce’s bus tickets to get home. It’s a four leg trip. First he gets to St. Louis. Then St. Louis to Atlanta. Then Atlanta to Orlando. Then Orlando to Titusville. It’s a horribly callus moment. One where I was stewing to myself, they couldn’t even just spring for a GD plane ticket for this poor kid.

If Coach Brown really loved Bobby Bruce, we would have seen some human moment between the two, or he would have tried to help get the kid home more easily.

We return to the Greyhound bus station, knowing that Bruce is taking a very long trip home. He’s going to be with his pregnant girlfriend back in his hometown. Bruce is an incredibly sympathetic figure. He grew up as a football star in Florida, who couldn’t quite find his way to the next level. His happiness and future depended on something that ultimately wasn’t going to shake out in his favor.

At the end of the episode, I was left saddened for Bruce. He’s got a good heart with a bent for self-destruction. I sure hope everything turns out okay for him.

Friday Faves 7/19: Caddying, Stand-up Comedy, Top Gun returns, Seltzer, and snacks

Best Activity

The Country Club in Brookline, Massachusetts is one of the most famous golf courses in the world. It is home to a miracle 1999 Ryder Cup victory for the United States of America. More than 100 years ago it was the site of an historic US Open where an 18 year-old Francis Ouimet looked Ted Ray and Harry Vardon in the face and beat them both. That win inspired a book and then a movie starring Shia LeBeouf.

On Monday and Tuesday of this week I got to walk in the footsteps of some of the greatest golfers in the world while carrying the bag of my friend Matt, who was competing in the Massachusetts Amateur Championship. I had a blast helping out a buddy and watching some excellent golf.

(I wrote about more the experience and what I learned from the two days of caddying: “Natural Feedback For Kids Will Help Them Cope As Adults”)

Best Listens

Confronting OJ - Good lord this is a riveting podcast. It’s produced by Kim Glass and features Kim Goldman, the brother of Ron Goldman. Each episode has Kim interviewing people involved in the case, in essence they are all confronting OJ.

I had not listened to a single episode of this podcast until last Friday. Then on Saturday as I cleaned out my closet (literally), I listened to three episodes on the trot and finished the sixth as I drove my cloths to a donation box (which are IMPOSSIBLE to find in Boston…). The sixth episode was shocking as Kim Glass calls Malcolm LaVergne, OJ Simpson’s lawyer, to ask him to come on the podcast. His response is amazing, in a horrifying way (which led to a Las Vegas radio show confrontation between Kim Goldman and LaVergne this past Tuesday).

The seventh episode is cued up on my phone. Kim Goldman interviews two of the jurors on the trial. I can’t wait to listen, but need to be in the right head space.

“Always Golden” by Iration - This is not the type of music I typically enjoy, but this song came to me through the No Laying Up golf show. The song is used as the intro music to their latest golf travel series in California. I gave the rest of the album a try this week. It’s fine. It’s basically reggae with a California tilt. But I’d encourage everyone to add the song “Always Golden” to their summer beach playlist.

Best Reads

Chuck Klosterman interview: This is all I’ve got this week for you. Klosterman is one of my favorites. He has a new book coming out. I have enjoyed his podcast appearances with Bill Simmons. This interview offers some good reading recommendations and some snarky commentary.

Best Watches

Stranger Things - Tiff and I got sucked right into the binge vortex on Sunday night. It was classic. We had rationed out the first four episodes like normal adults and watched two at a time. When we sat down on Sunday we were in the same headspace, we decided to watch two episodes and save the last two for later in the week. Then that thing happens… we watched two, were left with a big cliffhanger, and were stuck in binge mode limbo. If we watch the penultimate episode there’s no way we save the final episode for later in the week (and Monday was out because we had to pod about the Bachelorette. We HAD to, okay! Rate, Review, and subscribe! to The Random Division, please…).

So we finished the whole damn thing. The season was great, entertaining, scary, and fun. If I could make one complaint it would be that the season could have been an episode or two longer, mainly because it felt like there were a lot of expository scenes where characters are rushing to tell someone something important while the world is fucking ending. A bit more time would have made things happen more organically within the storytelling. But what do I know (answer: nothing)?

Aziz Ansari Netflix Special - I have to admit this one snuck up on me. I had no idea Aziz was back in the public spotlight. Just a couple weeks ago, Tiff mentioned him on our podcast, and I wasn’t sure if he was someone we could, or should, mention (he’s not Voldamort, it’s just me being overly sensitive).

The special was solid. I find Ansari very funny, partly because we’re close in age and many of his observations hit home. I love his delivery and his ability to include audience members. He bookended the special with two serious moments. First he addressed the sexual misconduct that came to light last year and he finished with a mindful moment where he paused and asked everyone to pause with him to take in their moment together. The mindful moment was intense but thoughtful. I’m not sure what I think about how he handled the sexual misconduct, he didn’t apologize and instead said he took it as a learning experience; he was grateful that others in his life had also opened up told him that his mistake made them evaluate their dating past (I wonder what they uncovered… eeeeesh…). Anyway, I think it’s worth watching and it’s also worth reading this NYTimes piece about it.

Top Gun - The movie is back… I’m not even linking to the trailer, I’m just putting it right in your face… this is going to be awesome.

Best Drinks

Wegmans Blackberry Tangerine Seltzer - Firstly, Wegmans is amazing. We live within walking distance of a very mediocre Whole Foods (a renovated Johnnies Foodmaster) that we avoid doing any real shopping at. It’s too expensive and too hard to find the things we really like (and it doesn’t allow me to wander down the cereal aisle feeling like a 10-year-old fighting the urge to grab Cinnamon Toast Crunch or Golden Grahams).

Wegmans is my favorite grocery store. It is massive, so it has anything you would want. The produce is great and the bakery and prepped foods are delicious and varied. The website is also outstanding, and it will organize the items on your list so you just walk up and down the aisles , no wandering aimlessly.

The Wegmans brand seltzer is a collection of different flavors; some haven’t been great (mint lime…) but others are solid. Typically you can get four 12-packs for $10. I took a flyer on the Blackberry Tangerine this week and I highly recommend it. It’s also not a bad drink to add a splash of tequila and a lime.

Best Eats

Nature Valley Biscuits w/ peanut butter- I stumbled upon these delightful little treats while caddying this week. I grabbed one at the first tee and stuck it in my pocket for later. Good golly was I glad I did. If you like nutter butters there is no way you won’t like these biscuits. They were so good, I picked some up at Wegmans and plan to make it a staple in my snack arsenal. I also noticed an almond butter version and plan of giving those a try too.

What were your favorites last week? Have a great weekend and stay cool out there. Summer is coming…

Natural Feedback For Kids Will Help Them Cope As Adults

I spent two days this week caddying in the Massachusetts Amateur championship for my friend Matt. It was an enjoyable two days at one of the most famous courses in American golf, The Country Club, surrounded by the best amateur players in the state. Matt played in the same threesome with two other competitors for both rounds, one on Monday and one on Tuesday.

Matt and I are college friends, so we’re both in our 30’s (although he likes to remind me I graduated a couple years ahead of him…). The two kids (yes, kids) Matt was playing with are college golfers. Matt and I also played college golf (Matt played much better college golf than I did… he doesn’t remind me of this, but the fact that I was carrying his golf clubs was enough of a reminder…).

Over the course of two rounds, the teacher in me couldn’t help but observe these two 20-year-olds as they navigated the golf course. The two of them were incredibly impressive, both when they were playing great and when things went pear-shaped. it’s so easy to blame outside forces for a bad shot or an unlucky bounce.

36 holes of tournament golf is challenging. It becomes more challenging when the course is hard and the stakes are high. Over the course of two rounds most players in this tournament hit about 155 shots. That leaves plenty of room for great, good, bad, and horrible shots. It leaves room for lucky bounces and unlucky bounces. It leaves room for high emotions and low emotions. It leaves room for our minds to have laser-focus and to wander.

One of the kids played the third hole, a par 4, in 14 shots total over two days. He made a score of seven, twice. He got stuck in some incredibly gnarly, high rough the first round and physically couldn’t hit the ball out of it. The second time playing the hole he hit his tee shot in the same long grass and we couldn’t even find the ball. He had to run back to the tee box and start the hole over with a two-shot penalty. Just devastating. He didn’t flinch. He didn’t moan. He just played, and he finished the round incredibly strong. I think he might have played the final 12 holes in 2-under par, which is quite impressive.

This experience got me thinking about the different types of feedback and learning experiences kids have as they grow up. There’s the social feedback, which is often out of our control when we are growing up. There’s the academic feedback, which feels objective when it’s bad (Mr. so-and-so HATES me, that’s why he gave be a B-) but in our control when it’s good (I worked so hard on that project and I earned that A…).

Those two types of feedback exist for every single child. How that feedback effects each child, the weight of the feedback, is different depending on each kid. For some, the social aspect matters more. For others, academic feedback is the end-all be-all.

I believe there’s a third type of feedback that exists. It’s the feedback that children seek out themselves. The feedback that exists through sports or musical instruments or youth group or other extracurricular activities/hobbies. If a child (or even an adult) puts too much value in academic (professional) or social feedback, it will create an imbalance that can leave out the third form of feedback. Likewise, if a person overvalues their extracurriculars, the other two items can suffer.

During our childhood, most of our our parents sign us up for stuff. They put us in positions to try things or offer us the freedom to choose for ourselves. We like some things. We hate others. We quit some activities. We stick with some of them. I realized this week during the MassAm how grateful I was that my mom signed me and my dad up for golf lessons when I was 7. This one small Christmas gift that I couldn’t hold in my hand while we were sitting around the Christmas tree has been the gift that has kept on giving. It allowed me the opportunity to pursue something I really liked. I cannot remember one day where I was forced to go to lessons. I asked for rides to the driving range. I asked for rides to the golf course. I asked to be picked up at sundown.

I loved the feedback. I loved the chase. I loved the challenge. I loved the hours spent with my dad, they are some of my fondest memories I have of him.

Sports and instruments are unbiased in their feedback. Coaches are not. Judges are not. But the sport itself lets you know where you stand rather quickly and fiercely. The natural feedback, sometimes fair and sometimes unfair, is more powerful than any other feedback. It forces you to take a breath, evaluate, calm down, and move on. Getting mad, blaming others, or wallowing in the past will get you nowhere (or, worse, it will send you spiraling downwards).

The two college kids I watched play on Monday and Tuesday won’t be professional golfers, they’ll have to find jobs just like nearly every other kid that plays golf growing up. But the experience that golf gave them, the ability to accept results and move on, will serve them well.

All kids should have the same experience, no matter what activity they choose. They should find something they love to do, pursue it, and receive as much feedback (both positive and negative) to help them learn and grow as they mature into adults.

Friday Faves 7/12: Nantucket bites, a hole-in-one, and podcast hate-listening

Best Activity

This past week, my wife and I went to Nantucket for the first time. We spent three nights down there and really enjoyed it. Yes, it’s a pretentious place. Which can be exhausting. Yes, it’s expensive. Which can be daunting. And yes, it can feel rather crowded. Which can be annoying. But overall, three nights was the perfect length of time to stay in a hotel in town and explore the island.

I’d say the best activity we did was take the shuttle bus way out to the eastern coast of the island and check out ‘Sconset (short for Siasconset). This little village is exactly that, little. Its main draw is Sankaty Head Lighthouse, which is about a mile outside of town. After hopping off the shuttle, we walked the mile to the lighthouse. The lighthouse was cool, and offered a great view from the cliff of the ocean and the island. However, the walk to the lighthouse was probably my favorite activity. It was a warm day and after walking through a bit of town that had these charming, small cottages, we ended up Baxter Road. Baxter Road leads all the way up to the lighthouse; the houses and scenery along the road are stunning. These wonderful cape style houses line both sides of the road. I’d imagine the houses on the ocean side get some beautiful sunrises. Most houses were adorned with massive white roses guided by trellises on the roofs and walls. Tall hedges offered some privacy but not enough to stop us from gawking.

The walk up to Sankaty and back was wonderful and it was capped off with an hour or so on ‘Sconset beach to rest our legs. The beach is not known for swimming due to heavy year-round seaweed, but we were pleased to see that a handful of seals decided to visit the beach for the afternoon. They were pretty darn cute, just popping their heads up to look around and then diving under in search of lunch. Once we had our fill of the sun and sand, we swung by Claudette’s, a dynamite sandwich shop near the beach and enjoyed two sandwiches before heading home.

Best Bit of Luck

On Saturday I dragged my ass out of bed for a 7:00am tee time. On the 6th hole, one of the guys in my group stepped up to the par 3 and striped a five-iron right at the flag. The ball slammed into the back of the cup, popped up, hit the flagstick and dropped into the hole. It was his first hole-in-one, and it was the second one I had witnessed. It was pretty cool. A funny complication was that the guy promised his wife he wasn’t playing golf over the weekend and he was just going to practice for a couple hours. The only way he’d get caught in the lie was if he got a hole-in-one and had to share the story with her.

Best Listens

This is one of those posts where I have to be honest with you, which means I have to be honest with myself first. There’s a podcast that was recently started on Barstool Sports that I have been listening to (I might even call it “Hate Listening”) the past few weeks. It’s called the Kirk Minihane Show. Minihane is a former sports talk radio host in Boston on WEEI. He left unceremoniously last fall and was left without a job for eight months.

When I texted my friend Paul that I liked the show, in hopes of some emotional support, he called Minihane a professional troll. It’s probably the best description of him. He is bombastic and rude and outspoken. He fits right into the Barstool ethos; I consume Barstool lightly, like that last beer your friend orders before last call. You know you’ll regret it, but you slowly, carefully drink it. He posts a roughly two hour episode Monday through Friday. He records them early in the morning and they’re ready by 11am. It’s a pretty genius way to do, as his stuff is relevant. He makes an effort to drum up fake drama and craps on former colleagues in the spirit of Howard Stern. However, he does some thoughtful stuff, banters with his producer, and interviews guests well.

It’s not a show I listen to in it’s entirety, but I appreciate that there is always something to listen to if I have exhausted my regular podcast options.

Not into crazy, weird podcasts? Here are some music suggestions for you:

Tedeschi Trucks Band - Just a really great, fun band, especially for this time of year. You can crack a beer out by the grill with this group on the speakers. Led by Susan Tedeschi, who sounds like Reba McEntire, they have ten musicians backing her up. A lot of horn instruments and some fantastic harmonizing. If you live near Marshfield, MA and read this before it’s too late, they are playing on Friday, July 12 at the Levitate Festival. I’m just gonna give you “Midnight in Harlem” and “Part of Me” as my two recommendations. They are their most popular songs on Spotify, but they also offer a good variance of their sound.

Dawes - I love these guys. I’ve been to two of their concerts in Boston. They’re an LA band that teeters on the edge of yacht rock at times (“Roll with the Punches” and “For No Good Reason”) and anthem rock at others (“When the Tequlia Runs Outs” and “When My Time Comes”). I’d recommend just starting with their first album “North Hills”. Fun fact about Dawes: the lead singer is married to Mandy Moore.

Best Reads

I’m a book hopper. Always have been. Always will be. I’ve been working through “A Tree Grows in Brooklyn” the past month or so. It’s excellent. The writing is beautiful, the time period has always interested me, it’s got Irish roots, and I think I’ve realized that I’m a sucker for a great, well-drawn, female character. Having Hermione Granger and Francie Nolan both in my life right now is pretty great.

Best Watches

The best watch this week is one you can’t binge and if you missed it, it’s too late. The US Women’s National Team won the World Cup for a second time in a row and fourth time overall this past Sunday.

The USWNT is a joy to watch. Powerful and clinical and badass. If you missed it. You missed out. Just a great past month of games.

Stranger Things is back and while I haven’t plowed through all of it, I have enjoyed the first few episodes. It feels like they upped their scare level this season. My one complaint is they are really hitting us over the head with the 80’s nostalgia.

One of my favorite things on the internet is created by a group of friends that call themselves No Laying Up. If you enjoy travel shows, I’d recommend watching their “Tourist Sauce” series on YouTube (they also have a website and a podcast). These guys travel the world and play golf. It’s full of history about the areas they visit, they have fun, and they find eclectic locals to interview. Start with their Scotland trip. It’ll make you want to be their friends.

Best Drinks

On Sunday, while taking in the World Cup Final, I enjoyed a delicious Bloody Mary. I have just recently come around on the Bloody Mary, mainly because tomato juice was a non-starter for me. This particular Bloody Mary was a BBQ Bloody Mary from B-Ack Yard BBQ in Nantucket. It had bacon in it, along with a BBQ sauce based tomato juice. It was the best drink I had all week.

Best Eats

A few days of vacation will often lead to eating a lot of delicious things. Toss in a wedding anniversary and things go up another notch.

Here are the 5 best things I ate this week on Nantucket:

1) Blue Crab Fried Rice - The Nautilus

2) Lobster Tostada - The Nautilus

3) Giovanni pizza (potato and rosemary) - Gemelle

4) Taquitos - Straight Wharf

5) Oyster Tacos - The Nautilus

6) Green Monster Ice Cream (mint ice cream and cookie dough) in a waffle cup - The Juice Bar

7) Smoked Turkey sandwich - Claudette’s

A quick note on The Nautilus. It was one of the best restaurants I’ve been to in a while. We arrived at 5:20 and were about 10th in line for a spot at the bar. When it opened at 5:30, we nabbed two seats at the bar. The bartenders were great and the food was delicious. It was a special dinner for us, but even with the mindset of “splurging” a bit, it wasn’t too bad a bill at the end of the meal, especially considering how good everything was.

What were your favorites from the past week? Toss them in the comments section!

Friday Faves 7/5: Free concert, rooftops, G&Ts, and a College Dropout

I hope everyone enjoyed their Fourth of July! We are lucky to have a friend with a roof deck in the city. We took in the fireworks there last night. It was cool to see the shows from other towns speckling the sky throughout the evening!

Here are some of my favorites from the week!

Best Activity

On Wednesday evening, a friend of mine, Tim, let me know about a concert at the New England Conservatory. It was a free concert in Jordan Hall (which is a beautiful space). The musician’s name was Becca Stevens, who is an American Folk singer; most of the audience was high school jazz musicians who were at NEC for the weeklong Jazz Lab program. Tim runs Jazz Lab, and Becca Stevens was one of the faculty members for the week.

The concert was great. When Becca came out she introduced herself and then asked for all the lights to be turned off. She played in complete darkness for most of the show, for a few songs she’d click on a little lamp that was stuck to her mic stand. She finished with Stevie Wonder and Joni Mitchell covers.

It was one of those evenings that made me grateful to live in a city where these types of shows are accessible, and it also reminded me that I need to seek out more shows like this (by “like this” I mean “cheap and entertaining”).

Below is the music video to her song “Regina” and you can check her out work on Spotify, too.

Best Listens

This week I made an effort to listen to entire albums while making dinner. I thoroughly enjoyed it.

I listened to College Dropout by Kanye West and WHEN WE FALL ASLEEP, WHERE DO WE GO? by Billie Eilish.

College Dropout brought me back to the days of sticky floors, Busch Lights, and beer pong on Caro St. in Worcester. Just a fabulous album created by a complete and utter maniac. I had no desire to skip any song. The hits kept coming and I had forgotten how many excellent, catchy songs were on that album.

Billie Eilish’s work is superb. It’s strange and creepy and wonderful all at the same time. Her songs throw off the listener and don’t always hit on the conventional pop themes and sounds. This NYTimes article about Eilish and Ariana Grande is great and so is this podcast called "Switched on Pop” that dissects songs. They interview Eilish’s brother on this particular episode; a worthwhile listen.

Best Reads

My wife sent me this funny post on FlownAndGrown.com titled, “Seven Signs of the Aging Apocalypse.” It hit close to home…

The US Women’s National Soccer Team is in the World Cup Final on Sunday against The Netherlands. If you missed the semi-final games, you missed some good stuff. The Final should be excellent. Megan Rapinoe has been a lightning rod for the last week or so (and Alex Morgan’s Tea Cup Celebration has her in the crosshairs too…). Her girlfriend, WNBA star Sue Bird, wrote a blog for The Players’ Tribune. It’s worth a read.

The Netherlands are soccer royalty and have some of the best fans in the world. They always bring such fun and joy to whatever tournament they are in. The reigning European champs will be a tough challenge for the US. Here’s a good read on rise of the Orange Lionesses.

(NOTE: The center of the soccer world is a little corner of Europe. In last year’s World Cup the final four teams were France, Belgium, England, and Croatia. This year’s Women’s World Cup had The Netherlands, England, Sweden, and the US. That’s an incredible concentration of talent in the northern section of Europe. Add in the fact that two English teams competed in the Champions League final in May, and it makes it even more clear how good the soccer is in that part of the world right now).

Best Watches

We’ve all been there. You just ate dinner. It’s a weeknight. You’re on the couch and not leaving. Now, you have to figure out what you might want to watch. It’s a massive streaming world out there with endless options. Many times, my wife and I will spend more time deciding and perusing than actually watching anything.

However, on one particular evening this week we made a quick and correct choice. We picked the animated Spiderman: Into the Spider-Verse . It was a delight. The animation was very cool, the fight scenes were spot-on, and the voices were well chosen (John Mullaney as “Spider Pig” was our particular favorite and reeled us right back into the storyline. Mullaney is the best.). The soundtrack is a lot of fun, with a bunch of different songs. They don’t lean into one specific genre, which I appreciated. All you really have to do is watch the first five minutes of the movie and you’ll be hooked.

If you like language and dialects, this short video on “Hoi Toiders” (translation: High TIders) in North Carolina’s Outer Banks is fantastic and informative and a bit sad.

Best Eats

Before going to the Becca Stevens concert on Wednesday night, I had picked out a spot to grab a bite to eat. I made two mistakes in this venture: first, when I was trying find places close to Jordan Hall I had driving directions NOT walking directions set on my phone (an 8 minute drive is not the same as an 8 minute walk…).. Second, I did not check to see if the restaurant I picked out was open ( It’s called Shore Leave… a perfect name for a restaurant if you know where I used to work..). Sadly, Shore Leave was closed on July 3. Therefore we had to find somewhere else to eat, luckily we ended up in Lion’s Tail down in the Ink Block section of Boston.

Lion’s Tail had some delicious crispy Thai chicken wings. I love chicken wings and have started to try and order them more often. These wings were indeed crispy, a necessity in my wing experience. They were sweet and just the right temperature. As a whole, Lion’s Tail was pretty delicious and a good place to stumble upon.

Best Drinks

It’s summertime, which means there is always an excuse for a drink. There’s the “I had to actually work on a beautiful day” drink. There’s the '“I’m grilling on the deck” drink or the “I’m playing golf” drink or the “I just mowed the lawn drink". Whatever your excuse, I wanted to share one of my summertime favorites: the Gin and Tonic. Not all Gin and Tonics are created equal, and if I’m being honest, I didn’t particularly like G&Ts until recently. I learned to appreciate them much more when we went to London two years ago.

Right now, the gin we use for our G&Ts is Barr Hill. My brother introduced it to me a while back. It’s from Vermont and it doesn’t have that heavy piney taste that turned me off from gin in the first place. Instead, it has a nice hint of honey. Mix it up with a Fever Tree Tonic (or any tonic, really) and enjoy!

As always, toss your faves in the comment section below!

An Open Thank You Letter to Al Horford

Dear Al,

Two years ago I was sitting in row 14 in the TDGarden. Sitting behind me were four dudes, it was a Friday night, and they were letting loose after a week at work. To further paint the picture, they were each wearing an authentic Tune Squad jersey including the names of the actual Looney Tunes on the back. They had the physiques to pull this off; they each rounded out their look with a Red Sox hat and a thick Southie accent.

As the game wore on they became louder, but they were a positive, fun bunch. At one point in the game you made a few big plays in a row and these guys went nuts.

One of them screamed, “Hey, Al. Yah home, kid! Yah loved.”

My wife and I looked at each other and knew that the phrase was gold, and we adopted it as our own. You were indeed home, and you were loved.

In the spring of 2016 when the Celtics were lined up to play your Atlanta Hawks in the first round of the playoffs, I bought a playoff package in order to get season tickets the following year. A big part of why I wanted season tickets was because you were a free agent the upcoming summer and were considering the Celtics.

Then July 2016 rolled around and you picked us over the Washington Wizards (a GREAT choice) and the next three years were a blast. You are a huge reason why the Celtics landed Gordon Hayward, Kyrie Irving, and Kemba Walker in three consecutive summers. You took a chance on Boston as a free agency destination, a city many ignored in the past. The Celtics teams of the past were built through trades and draft picks. In the summer of 2016 you sped-up the Celtics’ timeline and led the Celtics to two straight Eastern Conference Finals.

You patiently played with roughly 1,325 different players as Danny Ainge searched for the right chemistry.

You never missed a beat. Never complained.

You were called “Average Al” by the media.

You never missed a beat. Never complained.

Your knees bothered you as the team was slipping down the Eastern standings.

You never missed a beat. Never complained.

Thank you, Al for running a Pick and Pop with IT, Kyrie, Rozier, Gordon, Marcus, Shane Larkin, and Avery Bradley.

Thank you for teaching Jaylen and Jayson Tatum what it looks like to be a pro.

Thanks for doing the little things on both ends of the court.

Thanks for making Boston a free agency destination.

Thanks for playing great defense.

Thanks for playing hurt.

You’ll always have a home in Boston. And you’ll always be loved, kid.

Sincerely,

Sean

Friday Faves 6/28: Portland eats, Irish murder mysteries, con-men podcasts

Happy Friday, everyone! It’s time for another Friday Faves. Thanks to Brandon (Terra Whack music video, Miley Cyrus EP, and Jenny Lewis), Kaitlin (Beartown), and Dean (affirming Vampire Weekend selection) for adding their thoughts in last week’s comments. If you came across something awesome during the week and want to share, feel free to stick it in the comments section!

Best Activity

This past week was pretty action packed. On Saturday I ran a half-marathon in Portland, ME. My wife and I, along with some friends, made a weekend of it and spent two nights in a very cool AirBnB. On Tuesday, I wrote about the different types of runners and people you see at a road race. Read it here.

I also played in a golf qualifier for the Massachusetts Amateur Championship (if you read last week’s Friday Faves, I caddied for my friend Matt who shot a 71 and qualified). Unfortunately I did not play well enough to qualify, shooting a 77. It was the first time in probably 10 years that I played in this qualifier. There is nothing like playing golf on your own when every single shot counts. No “gimmies” from 3-feet away. No teammates to bail you out. I was proud of how I played and kept my composure, and I look forward to giving it a try again in the future.

Best Listens

This week was podcast heavy for me. I spent a lot of time in the car driving up and down from Maine (twice) and I have fallen into the rhythm of listening to podcasts more than music while I drive.

I listen to a lot of sports podcasts, but I polished off two series I had been listening to this week: The Shrink Next Door and Who the Hell is Hamish. Both are podcast series investigating two very different types of con-men.

The Shrink Next Door is about a therapist who basically brainwashes a patient. The patient, Marty Markowitz, is a wealthy man who shuns his family and friends at the suggestion of his doctor. For nearly 30 years Marty is at the mercy financially, emotionally, and spiritually of his therapist.

In Who the Hell is Hamish, an Australian man takes advantage of multiple families, taking their money and leaving a wake of confused women behind. Hamish disappears and so does all the money he stole.

My last listen is an audiobook. The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman is an awesome audiobook with a cast of readers, including Gaiman (who has a wonderful, hypnotic voice). The story is about a boy named Nobody (“Bod” for short) who lives in a graveyard and can see and interact with ghosts. I am looking forward to finishing it.

Best Reads

I’m going to dip into a n old reading favorite, because my reading ADD has me balancing A Tree Grows in Brooklyn and Harry Potter right now.

Tana French is an Irish mystery writer. She wrote a fictional series about the Dublin Murder Squad, and each book focuses on a different detective on the force. Each book’s lead detective plays a small role in the preceding book. You don’t really need to read them in order. I did, and I loved them all.

Didn’t have a lot of time to read an articles this week, but this travel piece in the NYTimes on Camden, Maine made we want to visit for a weekend.

Best Watches

If you’re reading this before 3:00pm on Friday, make sure you find a TV to watch the US Women’s Soccer team take on France in the World Cup Quarterfinal. France is the host nation and the game is sure to be a doozy. I’m not sure who Donald Trump will be rooting for after his Twitter beef with US star Megan Rapinoe.

In the last couple of weeks I rediscovered Silicon Valley. It had fallen off my radar, so I had about a season and a half to watch. It’s stupendous. Thomas Middleditch was always funny, but it feels like he has settled into the role of Richard Hendricks (a Mark Zuckerberg knock-off) and there’s more opportunities for him to flex his improve muscles (which are quite strong). The absurdity of the show and the jokes made at the expense of Silicon Valley are great. It’s a laugh out loud show. Go watch it.

I stumbled across the movie trailer for “Good Boys” this week. I am conflicted about the movie. As a 35 year old, it looks hilarious. As someone who has worked with kids, I wonder how many middle schoolers will watch this and think it’s normal. It looks hilarious and I’m glad I won’t have to deal with any potential fall out when school is back in session.

Best Eats

Portland, Maine is a food paradise. Over the weekend, we visited a bunch of spots and ate a ton of delicious foods. Here are some quick hits (restaurant name and one delicious thing I ate). Next week, I’ll have a deep dive into each restaurant because they deserve more attention.

Local 188: Confit Chicken Risotto

Pai Men Miyaki: Steamed Pork Buns

Little Giant: Steamed Mussels

Also a big shoutout to my friend Peter for hosting me in Maine for a night so we could play golf. He cooked me a delightful dinner and introduced me to a Romaine wedge salad that was grilled with a little hit of salt and finished off with a mustard vinaigrette. Toss in a few Bissell Brothers brews, pork tenderloin, a baked potato, and a view of the Maine mountains. Not too shabby.

Shameless Plugs - Two Podcasts

My wife, Tiffany, and I had my sister on our podcast this week. We watched the latest episode of the Bachelorette together and had a grand old time. Here’s the Spotify link.

I also have a sports podcast called The Imperfect Game. Mike Giblin joined me on Thursday night to talk about the NBA free agency frenzy that’s about to start on Sunday. Here’s that link.

A List of Runners You See at a Road Race

This weekend my wife and I were in Portland, Maine running the Old Port Half Marathon. It’s a great race and a lot of fun. Portland in the summer is amazing, we ate delicious food (gonna be a lot of food on Friday Faves this week…) and ended up in this really great AirBnB with some friends.

Every time I run a race it seems like I see a lot of the same people, or types of people. Runners can be an odd bunch (I include myself in that generalization), so here are the types of people you might see at a road race (usually, these types get more extreme with the length of race.).

The Super Fast Runner

Not someone I see much of. Usually you can find them before the race at the starting line running up and down the course to get warmed up. They’re the only ones allowed to warm up this way, while the average runners are corralled behind them, shoulder to shoulder shaking out our legs and jumping up and down in an effort to avoid pulling a muscle in the first mile.

These runners are sinuous and often look like they might need a few extra bagels at the end of the run.

Short Shorts Runner

I have memories of my dad heading out for runs in very short shorts. You know the ones, they have a high cut on the sides, nearly up to the waistband. He was also a Super Fast Runner. There is a cross section of runners with short shorts that are also very fast; however, it isn’t a requirement (some might argue it should be).

The Political Runner

I was running next to a guy this weekend for the first seven miles or so who made me think of this category. He was the best at it I’d ever seen. He was thanking everyone along the route for coming out. I could some people tell were thrown off by his praise because they hadn’t come out for the race, it was clearly impeding their usual Saturday morning Portland stroll for coffee with their dog.

He even went as far as to joke around with one group who had giant heads printed of their friend and said, “That’s not my picture” as he ran by.

I must say, thanking people as I run a road race often does offer me a little boost. Maybe it’s the distraction, maybe it’s the fact that they cheer a little bit harder, I don’t know. But it does help.

The My Music is Good So Everyone Should Hear it Runner

We all know this person, they don’t run with headphones, so instead they strap their phone to their arm and just blast their playlist for everyone to hear. This is one of the types of people that is also just found on the streets of Boston, particularly on the T. A person walks onto the T with a backpack on and a blue tooth speaker blasting some tunes for everyone to enjoy.

I am not a huge fan of this experience in races or in public spaces.

The Old Former Super Fast Runner Who is Still Pretty Fast

This is one of my favorite types of runner to seek out. They are unassuming, but have run a million races in their life, and if they were 35 years younger they’d be up front warming up with the Super Fast Runners. They might dabble in short shorts and running tanks. They usually have wild hair and just radiate individuality. Their running form is sometimes awkward because, you know, they’re old and have logged many miles over the years. They still kick a lot of ass, though.

The I Arrived a Little Late Runner (Or The I Don’t Have Patience For a Crowded Start Runner)

This weekend might have had the most runners in this category. At about the 7 minute mile I had six or seven runners fly past me. They were smooth and fast and comfortable. They were most likely late to the race and trying to make up time. Sometimes I think these runners don’t want to be bothered with the corrals at the start of the race and the maneuvering for space that first mile or so. Instead, they wait for the crowds to thin out and start at their leisure.

The Cheerleading Runners

This is a cousin of the Political Runner. They will cheer on the other runners, especially toward the end of the race as people might slow up, start walking, and look hurt. “C’mon, you can do it" or “You Got This!” are common refrains.

The Sign Holder

There is a whole list of road race spectator types, too. But I wanted to just do this one because I think we need some better signs, and I wanted to share one great, original sign I saw this weekend.

First on the bad signs. We all know that a road race is the “Worst. Parade. Ever” and that “There’s Beer at the End” and that yes, we paid for this torture.

We need better signs. An older women, who I will venture is a grandmother, brought the heat on Saturday for her granddaughter named Ginny. This particular sign, which I saw a few times because this woman was on the move, was neon green with black font that read: “Run fast, Ginny! A Nice Looking Man is Ahead.” It was the perfect sign considering the old lady holding it. If Ginny’s friend make the same sign, it probably says, “Hot Guy ahead” or “Keep Chasing those cute butts” (Note: Am I tapped into how woman think or what?!).

This sign, while personal, also made me laugh each time I saw it. Which makes it the perfect sign. If I was more of a Political Runner I might have made a point to compliment her on it. But I was too busy trying to be a Super Fast Runner while avoiding the runner with his Journey’s “Don’t Stop Believing” blasting through his phone.