Tag / Corona Virus

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FB10: Week 32

A small decline thanks to what may have been my first infection with COVID.  The week got off to a good start on Sunday, finishing with 5100 steps thanks to a trip to Guaranteed Rate Field.  Things fell off a bit on Monday, coming in with 4300 steps.  Despite a positive test on Tuesday night, I managed to increase my total, needing 35 more steps to reach 4400.  An inconclusive test on Wednesday morning convinced me it was ok to head out for a team lunch, but I finished with only 3000 steps and another positive test at night.  A slight improvement on Thursday pushed me up to 3600 steps.  Despite a negative test on Friday, I managed only 2700 steps.  A second negative test on Saturday led to another trip to the ballpark, gathering 5400 steps as I watched the White Sox tie their franchise record for losses in a season.

Total steps: 28,597

Daily average: 4085.3

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Post Mortem – Perry Mason

HBO started developing a new version of Perry Mason, based on the character from the series of novels written by Erle Stanley Gardner, moving the setting from the 1950s of the classic Raymond Burr-led series back to the Great Depression-era of the earliest books.  With Matthew Rhys on board to play the title character, the show premiered in June of 2020, in the middle of a global pandemic.

A much grittier presentation than the classic show, it was quickly renewed for a second season.  Delays, due to behind-the-scenes reshuffling and the ongoing pandemic, pushed the second season to March of 2023.  Despite mostly positive reviews, the delay may have taken away any steam the show had built up in its first season and, in June of 2023, HBO pulled the plug.

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Ever Grateful Ever True

On May 18, 1997, I graduated from Purdue University.  Today, nearly 27 years later, Danny will do the same.  It has been a quick four years, with a freshman year impacted by COVID, three years of football games, a trip to Florida for a bowl game, two trips to watch men’s NCAA tournament games, women’s basketball games in Mackey, and the ever-present band concerts both on and off campus.  I could not be prouder of him and look forward to seeing what comes next.

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End Of The Road?

Five years ago, expectations were high as the fruits of the White Sox rebuild were starting to pay dividends and the team, looking to contend for years to come, inked third baseman Yoan Moncada to a five-year extension.  Through an interpreter, Moncada said, “With all this happening, I can say I’m going to play alongside (left fielder) Eloy (Jimenez) and (center fielder) Luis Robert for a very long time, and that’s going to be a key for the success of this team.”  Since that time, the White Sox have played 557 games.  Jimenez, Robert, and Moncada have played together in just 161 of them.

Eloy Jimenez and Luis Robert were already on the IL with leg injuries when Yoan Moncada came up lame while running to first base during the second inning of Tuesday’s contest against the Guardians.  He was diagnosed with a left abductor strain, which is expected to keep him on the shelf for 3-6 months, likely ending his White Sox career.  That contract extension, signed days before the global pandemic shut down spring training in 2020, is up after this season and the White Sox seem unlikely to exercise the $25 million option for 2025.

Moncada, who was part of the haul received from the Red Sox in the Chris Sale deal that kicked off the last rebuild, was ranked as the #1 prospect in all of baseball.  After some initial struggles, he seemed to turn the corner in 2019, hitting .315 with 25 home runs and 79 RBIs, but that has been the high point of his career.  A bout with COVID knocked his 2020 season off course, and injuries have been a constant concern ever since.  Will he ever take the field in a White Sox uniform again?  If he does, it will be to play out the string in what was going to be a long, arduous season even if everything went right.

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Book 2 (of 52) – Holly

Holly – Stephen King

Fresh off of her mother’s death from COVID, Holly Gibney is hired to find a missing young woman by her hysterical mother.  The trail leads her to a string of missing people going back years, all last seen in the same area.  With the rest of her team either incapacitated or distracted by their own lives, Holly goes it alone, tracking the trail of the missing to the home of a retired couple.  Could they be protecting a serial killer?  Or is the truth much more disturbing?  Holly intends to find out before telling anyone what she’s found, which could be her final mistake.

Stephen King’s latest, Holly, brings back the Holly Gibney character I was first introduced to in 2018’s The Outsider.  She’s the lead this time around, in a tale that won the Goodreads Choice Award for horror, chasing down cannibal professors.  This now makes four years straight with a King work, my longest streak, and is my eighth post-college book of his, surpassing my total from high school and college.

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You’ve Gotta Be Bleepin’ Me

Just when you think things can’t get any worse in White Sox Nation, the Tigers announced yesterday that they were poaching play-by-play man Jason Benetti, signing the announcer to a multi-year deal.  Benetti, 40, started with the White Sox in 2016, splitting time with Ken Harrelson until 2019 when he took over full time.

Benetti’s frustration with the White Sox organization has seemingly been growing for some time.  In 2021, he was a loud voice in favor of returning to broadcasting from the road instead of in studio following the pandemic shutdowns of 2020.  Things got testy again this past offseason, when he left ESPN for FOX and took on more national responsibilities, which irked some in the White Sox front office.  To add fuel to that fire, the White Sox refused to negotiate with Benetti’s agent, preferring instead to deal directly with Benetti, which is, frankly, odd behavior.

Whoever replaces Benetti in the broadcast booth will have very large shoes to fill.  They will also need to win over a fan base that has been repeatedly poked in the eye by the ownership and front office of their favorite team for the last two years.

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Fitbit IX – Week 38

Another week, unexpectedly without football, leaves me below 30,000 steps for the second week in a row.  The week got off to a slow start on Sunday, finishing just over 2700 steps.  Things picked up a bit on Monday, jumping up to 4300 steps.  Tuesday was nearly the same, coming in just 45 steps behind Monday’s total.  Wednesday saw a bigger drop, going down to 3800 steps.  Thursday jumped back up again, falling 27 steps shy of 4400.  A case of Covid in the house helped put me up over 4600 steps on Friday as I tracked down food and medicines while trying to keep myself healthy.  Sadly, I missed the trip to the Purdue game on Saturday just in case, which caused me to come 33 steps away from 3300.

Total steps: 27,516

Daily average: 3930.9

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Yet Another Mix Tape Monday – Volume 19

33 years ago, during my sophomore year of high school, I put together the first of what would eventually become a nearly 20 volume collection of mix tapes, containing my favorite songs that I had gathered either from the radio, a cassette tape, or (eventually) CD.  Today, we revisit those mix tapes for the fourth time and see how, or if, the soundtrack of my youth still resonates in today’s digital world and how much has changed over the past four years.

I’ve done some crazy things over the years in an attempt to impress a girl that I liked.  One of the earliest was to buy tickets for a concert I really had no interest in attending just because my crush at the time liked the band’s one hit.  I had a couple things working against me: 1) she already had a boyfriend and 2) they were going to an earlier show on the tour and thus she saw the band the week before.  This is the story of I how I ended up at the Metro on the day after my 21st birthday watching Tripping Daisy with a couple hundred of my closest friends.

One of the upsides of a global pandemic and my subsequent move to remote work is that I don’t come across people  and thus no longer have any crushes to try and impress.  Saves me both time and money.

Volume 19 stretches from late summer 1995 and into the fall semester of the first of my two senior years of college.  Again, it mostly features what was considered alternative music, with Coolio interjecting some street flavor for good measure.

Side A

Tripping Daisy – I Got A Girl
iTunes stats: 14 plays, most recently on 12/10/2021

The one hit for Tripping Daisy, who I saw in concert the day after my 21st birthday, managed to make its way into my rotation a mere three times over the last four years.

Foo Fighters – This Is A Call
iTunes stats: 37 plays, most recently on 6/4/2021

Written a few months after the death of Kurt Cobain, the debut for Dave Grohl’s new venture earned eleven additional plays over these past four years.

Pearl Jam – Whipping
iTunes stats: 14 plays, most recently on 11/10/2022

Six new listens for the final appearance of Pearl Jam on these collections, which received plenty of airplay on Q101 despite not being officially released as a single.

Hootie and the Blowfish – Only Wanna Be With You
iTunes stats: 15 plays, most recently on 3/23/2022

Hootie’s ode to, among other things, the Miami Dolphins added seven new listens in the past four years.

Elastica – Stutter
iTunes stats: 12 plays, most recently on 5/20/2022

Originally released in November 1993, it was re-released the following year, made its way to radio in 1995, and doubled its listens over the past four years.

Cranberries – Ridiculous Thoughts
iTunes stats: 13 plays, most recently on 11/19/2019

Four listens for the latest from the Cranberries, though none since the world stopped thanks to COVID.

Green Day – J.A.R.
iTunes stats: 17 plays, most recently on 7/9/2022

Green Day’s contribution to the Angus soundtrack picked up a mere four listens over the past four years.

Alanis Morissette – Hand In My Pocket
iTunes stats: 21 plays, most recently on 11/20/2021

Hitting #4 on the Billboard charts, the second release from the juggernaut that was Jagged Little Pill added seven listens in the past four years.

Side B

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Yet Another Mix Tape Monday – Volume 17

33 years ago, during my sophomore year of high school, I put together the first of what would eventually become a nearly 20 volume collection of mix tapes, containing my favorite songs that I had gathered either from the radio, a cassette tape, or (eventually) CD.  Today, we revisit those mix tapes for the fourth time and see how, or if, the soundtrack of my youth still resonates in today’s digital world and how much has changed over the past four years.

Courtney Love is certainly one of the more interesting characters to come out of the 90s.  She moved to LA in the 80s, hoping for an acting career, but managed just a few bit parts before forming Hole with guitarist Eric Erlandson in 1989.  Following the release of their first album, Pretty on the Inside, in 1991, Love briefly dated Billy Corgan and Kurt Cobain.  By late 1991, Love and Cobain had re-united and, in February of 1992, the pair were married.

In October of 1993, Hole recorded their second album, Live Through This, which, according to rumors, was heavily ghost-written by Cobain.  The album was released on April 12, 1994, just one week following Cobain’s suicide.  The album was both a critical, and commercial, success, opening more doors for Love.  When not touring, she returned back to Hollywood, getting small roles in Basquiat and Feeling Minnesota before scoring a starring role in The People vs. Larry Flynt.

1998 saw the release of Celebrity Skin, the band’s last album before disbanding in 2002.  Love’s former boyfriend Billy Corgan, by now a huge star in his own right, officially has co-writer credit on five of the album’s twelve tracks, including the first two singles.  Rumors, again, say he had a much larger part in defining the sound of the album.

Thirty years later, YouTube videos have started calling into question Love’s musical talents.  Isolated tracks of her voice and guitar playing during live performances show a dramatic difference from the album versions.  How much of Hole’s success was due to Love and how much was due to her romantic relationships?  We probably will never know.

What we do know is the Hole appears twice on Volume 17, which picks up in early 1995 and the second semester of my junior year and takes us into early summer.  At this point, it is nearly all alternative, with just one hip-hop breakthrough.

Side A

Hole – Asking For It
iTunes stats: 21 plays, most recently on 4/22/2021

One of three Hole songs to officially feature a contribution from Kurt Cobain, the latest from Courtney Love and company increased its play total by four after and hasn’t been heard in well over a year.

Cranberries – Twenty One
iTunes stats: 13 plays, most recently on 6/6/2021

The minor hit from the band’s second album more than doubled its number of plays in the last four years.

Veruca Salt – Number One Blind
iTunes stats: 25 plays, most recently on 11/11/2021

The follow up single to Seether added eight new listens, despite not being heard in over a year.

Stone Temple Pilots – Unglued
iTunes stats: 33 plays, most recently on 10/21/2022

Peaking at #16 on Billboard’s Modern Rock Tracks chart, the track added ten new plays in the last four years.

Pearl Jam – Better Man
iTunes stats: 14 plays, most recently on 11/9/2019

Last heard prior to the global shutdown thanks to the corona virus, the biggest hit from the grunge superstars’ third album, which spent eight weeks at the top of Mainstream Rock chart, added a paltry three listens.

Nirvana – Where Did You Sleep Last Night
iTunes stats: 12 plays, most recently on 6/8/2022

The traditional American folk song, recorded for MTV Unplugged and released following the death of lead singer Kurt Cobain, picked up a mere five new listens.

Weezer – No One Else
iTunes stats: 23 plays, most recently on 3/19/2021

Never released as a single but with plenty of radio airplay, Weezer’s latest picked up six new listens over the past four years.

Offspring – What Happened To You?
iTunes stats: 20 plays, most recently on 10/14/2018

Not a single listen for the final offering from Offspring’s debut album, which was never officially released as a single.

Side B

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Yet Another Mix Tape Monday – Volume 16

33 years ago, during my sophomore year of high school, I put together the first of what would eventually become a nearly 20 volume collection of mix tapes, containing my favorite songs that I had gathered either from the radio, a cassette tape, or (eventually) CD.  Today, we revisit those mix tapes for the fourth time and see how, or if, the soundtrack of my youth still resonates in today’s digital world and how much has changed over the past four years.

On October 14, 1994, I hopped in the car with some friends, crossed the Wabash River into Lafayette, and pulled into the local movie theater.  I hadn’t heard of the movie before, but I was up for an entertaining time.  Over the next 154 minutes, a tour de force was unleashed upon the screen, thanks to John Travolta, Samuel L. Jackson, Bruce Willis, Tim Roth, Ving Rhames, and Uma Thurman, among others.  That’s right, I had somehow managed to see Pulp Fiction on its opening night.

Over the coming weeks, it was everywhere: quotes flying around campus, songs from the soundtrack on the radio, and its stars all over late-night television.  The movie was inescapable.  Nearly 30 years later, it still is, in some ways.  I can’t tell you the last time I watched it, though I have a special edition DVD sitting on the shelf behind me.  But it has permeated pop-culture so thoroughly that it feels like I’ve just seen it all over again.

Volume 16 takes us from the early fall of 1994 towards the end of the year and the first semester of my junior year of college. The song selection is nearly completely alternative, with just one or two hip-hop and pop hits to go along with it.

Side A

Hole – Doll Parts
iTunes stats: 34 plays, most recently on 11/4/2021

The band’s first release after the death of bassist Kristen Pfaff in June 1994 picked up an additional six listens over the last four years.

Live – I Alone
iTunes stats: 21 plays, most recently on 11/23/2022

Ranked as the 62nd best song of the 90s by VH1, the band’s second single added five listens over the last four years.

Deadeye Dick – New Age Girl
iTunes stats: 16 plays, most recently on 12/31/2022

The one hit wonder, featured on the Dumb and Dumber soundtrack, doubled its listens.

Nirvana – About A Girl
iTunes stats: 31 plays, most recently on 10/10/2022

An additional eight listens for this performance from MTV Unplugged, which reached #1 on Billboard’s Modern Rock Tracks chart.

Aerosmith – Blind Man
iTunes stats: 17 plays, most recently on 8/21/2020

The extra B-side thrown onto Aerosmith’s then-current greatest hits package picked up five new listens, despite not being heard in over two years.

Real McCoy – Another Night
iTunes stats: 15 plays, most recently on 10/5/2019

Last heard a good four months before anyone had heard of the corona virus, the international dance hit, ranked as both the 63rd best single of 1994 and the sixth best of 1995, added five new plays to its total since last we checked.

Warren G – Do You See
iTunes stats: 10 plays, most recently on 10/4/2021

A 250% increase in plays for this Warren G release, which failed to make the Top 40 in the US and hasn’t been heard over a year.

Urge Overkill – Girl, You’ll Be A Woman Soon
iTunes stats: 30 plays, most recently on 11/5/2021

The Neil Diamond cover, featured on the Pulp Fiction soundtrack, added seven additional plays over these last four years.

Side B

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