Author: Matthew Groff

  • ODDS and ENDS: Coffee Mugs in Cars, Nothing But Ads, and the Last Weekend

    “Odds and Ends” is my continuing series of random thoughts and follow ups…

    There are many things that I don’t get about this world. One of them is people who take coffee mugs, full of coffee into their cars. I’m not talking a thermos, or a travel mug. No, what I am talking about are people who take a normal, regular coffee mug with them in their car. How do they stop it from spilling? Is there a secret to this? It just seems like uncovered vessels that contain liquid in a car is a recipe for a disaster.

    Not that I spend a bunch of time on FaceBook anymore, but I was scrolling through this morning, and I noticed that about half of the postings on my feed were sponsored posts. I have one from NEWSMAX, which if the algorithm was working correctly, should know that type of post would find not purchase in my feed. I am sure this has to do with my lack of interaction with the site. So, if I keep up this level of inactivity, in like two years, my feed with be nothing but sponsored posts?

    So, not that this is a big deal, but this is the last weekend of Summer Vacation. Eleven weeks went flying by, and we are ready for school to start on Monday. We got the school shopping done, talked to the kid about have to wear a mask all day. The wife and I talked about what the morning routine will need to be, because we haven’t had to do this since March 2020. It also means the end of Dad teaching school, and playing board games, and Barbies. No more pirate ship and puppet shows. It needs to come to an end, as the kid needs to be back in school and around her friends. This was a special time together, and I don’t know if I will even get this much father/daughter time again. But the other side of this is that she will get that spark of excitement of learning, and the daily victories and defeats that come with friendships. She’ll start becoming her own person, independent of her parents, as it should be.

  • Personal Review: McCartney 3,2,1

    I’m a huge Beatle fan. I have listened to every album, bootleg, and out take that I could get my hands on. I have read books on the band, on their recording techniques, and individual biographies. Once in college, I spent a day in the library reading old magazine articles from the 60’s about them. I even played George Harrison in a play, not that that has anything to do with this, but I thought I would just add it.

    I had known about the HULU McCartney 3,2,1 for some time, but I just never got around to it. Not that I wasn’t interested in it, but Summer was Summer, and things got away from me. But, now that life is calmer, I was able to dedicate some time, and I wanted to dedicate time and focus on this.

    The show is just Rick Rubin asking Paul McCartney questions about his songs – Beatles and solo work – and then listen to the songs as the two guys break down the different tracks on each song. This didn’t strike me as a show for casual Beatles fans, but more like a deep dive for those of us who know about the Beatles process of using a four-track, and how they were excited to get an eight-track at Abbey Road, and all the crazy wizardry they, and the engineers like Geoff Emerick, and producer George Martin, could come up with. So, on that level, it was pretty in-depth. Also, Rubin’s producer’s ear, as well as clearly being a huge fan, helped in bringing up question about the dualistic sound the Beatles loved to play with.

    I enjoyed it greatly, but I was reminded about one very clear fact; the last guy standing gets to tell the story. (I am aware that Ringo could chime in, but what I get from him is that he’s happy with his version of the story. Nothing to add.) I’m not saying Paul was lying in the show, but I think he was clearly smoothing over some edges. No stories of disagreements, or late-night sessions that ended in frustration, only to be picked up again the next day with new and different ideas. But on the flip side of that, I do think Paul was the most complementary and honest in saying that many of his songs were influenced and made better by the other three.

    And in the end, isn’t that what happens to everyone as they age and look back; We remember the good parts and start to forget about the bad stuff. Luckily, there are tons of good songs to remember.

  • Labor Day is Political Now?

    I found it odd over the past couple of days that Labor Day, a day set up to celebrate the US labor movement and unions, seems to have been co-opted by Conservative and Republicans, a very anti-union group, to assail people who are out of work. I saw many postings that were to the effect of, “If you aren’t working, you don’t get the celebrate.”

    I mean, I’m surprised but not surprised at this development. I mean, it’s just Labor Day, and normally a nice end to Summer Vacation. But on the other hand, why wouldn’t people try to make this divisive? It’s an old Conservative/Republican thing to blame poor people for not being wealthy. I have heard the trope all my life from people saying, “Just go get a job,” as if that will solve everything. Usually the people yelling that are college educated, and make way over minimum wage.

    I remember my grandfathers, both who worked through the Depression. One was college educated and management, and the other had a high school education, worked at a factory, and was a member of a union. Both of them respected work, and the fact that a person had a job, no matter what that job was, was to honored. “Always respect a man with a job,” they both would say. And, being that both of them started working during The Depression, they also respected that sometimes people get knocked down through no fault of their own. And they also taught me that kicking someone when they’re down is never heroic.

    I guess what I felt was the loss of decency. There are people out there that don’t want to work and take advantage of the system, but there are more people out there that want a job, to be responsible and take care of their families. The fact that people of one political persuasion don’t have the decency to see and understand that is disappointing. Depressing actually.

  • Planning for Fall?

    Summer’s over. It was a fast ten weeks for us, as that’s what the wife and I were saying to each other last night. We do have one final week until the kid starts school on Monday, but let’s be honest, it’s not much of a Summer week, being that we will be spending our time preparing for the start of classes.

    And it wasn’t that great of a Summer. I give it two and a half stars. And I will blame it all on the Delta Variant, and the half of the country that didn’t get vaccinated, for whatever reason that I don’t agree with, but here we are. The ability to return back to normal never materialized. Having normal fun with people? Not so much. A return to unobstructed travel wasn’t really possible either.. And now we are left with an Autumn that looks like it will be filled with anxiety and stress.

    But still, last night on the sofa, as we mourned our lost Summer, we still found ourselves falling into our old positive ways. We talked about our plans for the rest of the year; patching and painting the apartment, hanging new shelves in the kid’s room to free up floor space, getting tickets for the Great Jack O’Lantern Blaze in October, making the kid’s Halloween costume, Thanksgiving, and the Granddaddy of all planning, Christmas! We even kidded about going back to Maine next Summer.

    With everything happening, and it is STILL HAPPENING, we find ourselves being optimistic, and trying to plan for a better tomorrow.

    I don’t think we are being delusional, just hopeful.

  • ODDS and ENDS: Doc McStuffins, Tottenham Again, and Ann Richards’ Texas

    “Odds and Ends” is my continuing series of random thoughts and follow ups…

    So, the kid loves watching Doc McStuffins. If you don’t know it, don’t worry about it. I will say this, every episode they sing a song called, “Time for Your Checkup.” I’m telling you that if that song was available to do at karaoke, dude, I would knock that song out of the park. I mean, just nail it.

    Tottenham is undefeated in the Premier League. They have nine points and are sitting on top of the table. Just saying…

    There is a reason why I left Texas, and there is a reason why I will not be raising my daughter in Texas either. And it’s pretty sad, because I do like the state, and some of the best people I know are from there. But the Texas I grew up in just doesn’t exist anymore. The super-Christians and the crazy conservatives took over, and it just got coo-coo there. In my memory, Texas used to be like Ann Richards; middle of the road Democrat, fiercely independent, but looking out for each other. I just don’t recognize that state.