This Week In Sports

Yes, I admit it's a bit pathetic, but can't get this week's sports events out of my mind. On Sunday our mish-mash softball team wins 16-15. With 2 outs in the last inning, I score the winning run, capping a 4-5 performance at the plate and another solid game at second base, a position I never played before. (Still reliving my DP from the previous game).

Then there's my week coaching my 6 year old son's soccer team. After losing a hear-breaker 3-2 on Monday to cheap-shot team. (Down 3 - 0, we score 2 goals late in the game, and after the second goal their wimpy coach, blows his whistle and calls the game. ( Usually the 2 coaches agree to a last minute in play, giving everyone a last chance. Understand these are 6 and 7 year olds).

But on Wednesday our guys were pumped up, played their best game of the season, as we trounced the opposing team 4 - 0. (Nice because they had some obnoxious screaming parents). Feel like Vince Lombardi. Never underestimate life's little pleasures, they can pack a wallop...

Amazing band: The Mynabirds

http://www.npr.org/templates/player/mediaPlayer.html?action=1&t=1&islist=false&id=127915408&m=127983710

According to singer-songwriter Laura Burhenn, she'd long imagined a band that sounded like Neil Young playing Motown. After recording some songs with friends from Omaha, Neb., she named her new group The Mynabirds — only later, she says, did Burhenn discover that Neil Young had made music with Rick James in 1960s Motown. The name of that band: The Mynah Birds.

Here at NPR Music, we remember Burhenn from her previous group,Georgie James. She and then-partner John Davis came to NPR to participate in Project Song, for which they wrote and recorded a terrific song in two days. You can watch that video here.

Burhenn's singing with Georgie James was more pop-oriented, but in The Mynabirds, her voice has more soul and a bit more grit on the group's debut, What We Lose in the Fire We Gain in the Flood. With the aid of her full band — including some glorious backing vocals — Burhenn performs three of the album's songs in this, her return to the NPR Music offices.

To watch the most recent Tiny Desk Concert, featuring Zuill Bailey, click here.

Be Gone Goofs

In many ways this has been Year of the Goofs, dealing with them at all levels. Easy to handle on the personal side, zone out, ignore or listen to a podcast. Harder to deal with on the business side though, the unanswered calls, e-mails and fly-by-night instructions. Business goofs also never take responsibility for their actions and always leave behind a messy wake. Then just as I was stalled in goof-zone, I work my way out of rut by a couple of stellar business people. Isn't it amazing how the stellar always find the time to promptly answer back, set up an appointment, explain and cooperate? Inspiring to see those quality people thriving at the top. Bye bye goofs...

The New Networks

The more I listen to my podcasts and the more I discover new ones, the more I see television networks on the road to erosion. Podcasting has people like Leo Laporte (TWIT TV), Jason Calacanis, and the Kevins (Smith, Rose and Pollak) who have their (growing) audiences. These guys are producing shows with great, relevant content. More important, their shows let you in on our evolving world and they are not bound by silly censors. Podcasts kick complete ass in the talk show format, the question remains whether they will ever be able to deliver episodic (drama or comedy) programming.

Who's Reading Novels?

Not me these days, that's for sure. This is coming from someone who made lists every year of every book read (and unfinished) and took notes in every book. This year I haven't finished one book, close on a couple, but they're both non-fiction. Here's why:

iPod - Kindle - iPad

First thing is that podcasts have taken a huge bite into my reading time. I've discovered so many great podcasts and learn so much that by comparison, reading seems inefficient. I used to feel that it was a waste of time reading anything that wasn't a worthy work of literary fiction, now I'm beginning to think that fiction is irrelevant. We need to acquire so much knowledge just keeping up with the seismic changes happening in our world, that it seems like an unnecessary indulgence reading fiction when you could be listening to the latest Leo Laporte, This week In Technology podcast.

Don't get me wrong, I'm still reading, just differently. Since I got my Kindle I started downloading book samples and have yet to buy a book in 7 months. It's like having free reign in a Baskin Robbins store; there are so many flavors you want to taste, that you don't want to get filled up on just one. Then there's my iPod Touch and Kobo which also lets you download samples as well as thousands of free classics. Got caught up again sampling, found myself checking out some old classics like The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock and reread it every night for a week.

My iPad then slammed the door on anything paper. More free books and samples and on a back-lit screen that I can read in bed before I go to sleep or when I wake up in the wee hours of the morn. Technology has allowed me to bring the bookstore to my lap, to browse at my own comfort, to sample more than just a back cover...and I'm loving it.