Few Small Posts

Grab bag blog

Softball

Softball took over my mind this summer. Despite our 3-17 record last year (we play two games a week), my ragtag group of guys I mostly found on the “Free Agent List” was placed in the upper division of the Wednesday night league; a bit of rookie hazing, I guess—the older teams having earned their preference of playing easier competition. The adversity started early: in the second game of the year, I was pitching and took a hard-hit grounder straight to the kneecap, fracturing the bone. I didn’t realize that was possible. We were playing a team named, fittingly, Killshot. Eight weeks of no running. (I already had an overuse injury, so it could have been worse, technically.)

For most of the summer, our team was not looking like winners. Bad defense and no offense. We looked like the early section of an underdog sports movie: dropped pop-ups, errant throws that end up in the dugout, giving up bases-loaded walks. For the second year in a row, someone pulled a hamstring in their first game. Despite the fact that the ball should be easy to hit, we couldn’t manage to score more than two or three runs a game. We were in our heads and just couldn’t make solid contact. It wasn’t always fun out there.

In the second half of the summer, we switched to one big league—instead of upper and lower divisions—and I was healed enough to start playing outfield, which is where I belong. But even as I started to thrive in the field, I was pretty terrible at the plate. I bought a tee (and eventually a net) and started hitting the local fields by myself. And watching a lot of YouTube videos. All I could control was my own performance and I wanted to get better.

Since I’ve continued to run competitively as my primary/only physical activity post-college, I haven’t experienced the typical millennial adult phenomenon of getting into a new hobby. You always hear about so-and-so obsessing over surfing or hiking (ugh) or biking or pickleball or skiing. Now I had softball. For the first time in forever, I felt like I was working toward a new goal. After my penultimate game, I even took to Reddit with videos of my swing to source advice. And it worked: I had my best hitting game of the season in the final week and we won both games of the doubleheader for the first time. Putting in the work and seeing results: what a great feeling! I have six months to continue fixing my swing before the next season and I will be dedicated to my craft.

(I also played in a coed league but I can’t get into that. I’m already self-conscious about how much I’m talking to everyone in my life about softball.)

One Battle After Another

Electric entertainment, if missing some of the mystery and deep character work that color PTA’s top-tier best-movies-of-all-time masterpieces. Leo is hilarious back in Rick Dalton mode (his best performance) with a healthy dash of The Dude, but it’s Sean Penn who has the most interesting character to play. He’s incredible and disgusting.

Craft is as impeccable as we’ve come to expect; Greenwood’s score is so effective in building tension and I’m sure I’m not the only one who heard The Wizard of Oz in there. Felt the length—just a little—by the third act. But maybe that’s just comedown from the Leo/Benicio middle section that’s the film’s high point. I’ll be curious if I see more depth on rewatch, but a funny thrill ride from our greatest current director is nothing to take for granted.

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My top movies of 2025 before we enter the good part of the year:

1. One Battle After Another

2. Sorry, Baby

3. Weapons

4. Black Bag

5. Eephus

6. Sinners

7. The Phoenician Scheme

House

We bought a house. Portland for life! There’s a lot to do… I’m learning so much about trees.

Reading / Inherent Vice / My New Year’s resolution

I was on a solid reading streak in the first part of the year, well on pace to hit my humble goal of 13 books, and then I picked up Inherent Vice. Despite getting decently far in (~160 pages), I completely stalled out on reading, although I can partially blame our big move. I have no idea if it was a good choice for a first Pynchon, but I had found it in a free box in Brooklyn years ago and I thought it would help me appreciate the film more, this being another PTA-Pynchon year. I didn’t bail on the book, but I did pause to read something normal (God of the Woods) which was the right type of pop mystery to get me back on track. I will finish Inherent Vice, which I think is pretty funny—but it makes me feel stupid, my eyes falling off the page at elaborate descriptions of Southern California zaniness. At some point I will just need to accept that I’m a bad reader and stay in my lane. I never managed to finish the assigned books for my high school English classes; there’s a reason I became an engineer.

On the subject of books, my New Year’s resolution was short and fun: read Lonesome Dove and watch all the Saw movies. Everyone is reading Lonesome Dove these days and I envisioned sinking into it over the summer. But the aforementioned reading rut caused by Inherent Vice has pushed this resolution into Q4. I guess I just gotta start. I hope I like it! I have read one McMurtry before (All My Friends Are Going to Be Strangers) so at least I know I’m physically capable.

As for the Saw half of the equation, nothing (conceptually) scared me more than those movies growing up. Even as I’ve watched more and more horror, I held the body torture subgenre at arm’s length. But now I’m sufficiently dead inside and diving into a new series sounded fun. Hanako and I watched the first one way back in February and it was a fun experience; turns out Saw is just a normal movie. And then I got Saw II from the library and it sat there for months before I had to return it. Hanako claims that she wants to watch the series with me but whenever I bring it up as an option, she acts like I’m holding her hostage.

Now that it’s almost October, it’s time to get serious about Saw. I just rented Saw II from Movie Madness, so within three days we’ll have to watch it. I predict that I will be watching Saws III to X by myself

Mystery Train poster

There’s one piece of movie memorabilia I’ve had my eye on for years and finally bought: a Japanese poster for Jim Jarmusch’s Mystery Train. Because it’s a nonstandard size in America, it was tricky to find a frame, but now it’s finally hung in our newly painted basement. Looks great.

The Pitt

I’m realizing that I haven’t done a “check-in” post since April, when I expressed skepticism about The Pitt. We gave it another try and really loved it. It feels good to watch a show that lets you love the characters. Favorite moment of the season: Mel taking a break to watch a lava lamp on her phone.

Geese – Getting Killed

I love “Taxes,” but I don’t know, man. Waiting for it to click. The Cameron Winter record is First Three Songs Only for me.

Wicca Phase Springs Eternal – Mossy Oak Shadow

Buying tickets to see Golden Apples in Portland was a no-brainer—Bananasugarfire was one of my favorite albums of 2023—even if they weren’t the headliner. That would be Wicca Phase Springs Eternal, an embarrassing name I’ve known for years—maybe only through Colin Joyce’s Twitter account?—but whose music I’ve never really explored. GothBoiClique is none of my business.

I would’ve had no problem leaving after Golden Apples’ set if I didn’t vibe with Wicca Phase’s music, but it turns out his newest output, Mossy Oak Shadow, isn’t white boy emo rap but rather straight-up folk rock. And I think it’s pretty great. Adam Andrzejewski’s deep monotone—extremely forward in the mix—can feel a little like Will Oldham or Johnny Cash cosplay, but maybe that’s just baggage from knowing he’s a genre-hopper. (To throw another wrench in the biography: he also co-founded Tigers Jaw. Wild.) Is it cultural appropriation for a guy from Scranton, PA, to make yeehaw-adjacent music? If the songs are good it’s fine by me. Not a ton of variety across the album, but the melodies are well-written in a way that each song is distinct. “I Get It” has an amazing “hell yeah.” And there’s a nice driving rhythm section that brings the songs to life; I’d cite Trace Mountains’ heartland indie rock as a contemporary analog. I wouldn’t be surprised if the album ends up in my top ten this year. What a turn of events.

Some of my favorite 2025 songs of the last few months:

Water From Your Eyes –“Playing Classics”

Nourished By Time – “When The War Is Over”

My Wonderful Boyfriend – “I’m Your Man”

Greg Freeman – “Burnover”

Wednesday – “Townies”

Slayyyter – “Beat Up Chanel$”

Some of my favorite older songs of the last few months:

Robert Pollard – “Subspace Biographies”

Spider Bags – “Waking Up Drunk”

Manic Street Preachers – “Motorcycle Emptiness”

Anna Domino – “Land Of My Dreams”