Weekly Rewind - Week of 01/18/2026: Symphony, Pal Check In, Unrivaled Basketball, Reality TV

Jamie works on a puzzle while Emmylou watches over us both

Jamie is working on a puzzle I got her months ago - a 1000 piece picture of Wrigley Field from the press booth, I believe.  Emmylou has been less than thrilled that it means Jamie is not on the sofa with her.  She has made a nest on a different sofa to keep an eye on the world.

A Night at the Symphony

We don't go super often, but I like a trip to see the Austin Symphony Orchestra.  

Tonight it struck me that they really can fill up the Long Center's Dell Hall.  2400+ seats.  For classical music!  Two nights!  That's kooky.  It wasn't sold out, but it was very nearly so.  I'd say 90+%.  

Last year we went to go hear Dvorak, and I'll be honest, I signed up for tonight because it was Holst's The Planets, and who doesn't want to hear Mars live?  And, for the record - the ASO delivered.  Absolutely nuts.  

The first half was listed as "Pasos", and I was of the opinion that "how bad could it be?"   What I did not think was "but how awesome could it be?"  And, buddies, it was pretty awesome.  

They started with a Copeland piece I'd never heard, Danzón Cubano.  (By the way, I know nothing about classical music, so I pick the super familiar, thus going in for The Planets.)   Then, Miguel Espinoza Fusion - a world music/ flamenco quartet - came out, and played a few pieces with the ASO, and - man, it was cool.  And had to have been a blast for the symphony.  Anyway, it was treated a bit more like a standard concert than the rules that govern watching a symphony (no applause between numbers, etc...)

Post intermission, they leaped straight into Holst's Opus 32, The Planets.  And, yes, of course, several selections have shown up in movies, been used in trailers, on television, etc...  Heck, one of my all time favorite films, The Right Stuff, uses three of the seven movements.  

I guess my recommendation is - if The Planets is playing locally, go.  It was genuinely moving.  Something like 2300 people sat, rapt, listening.  No shuffling, coughing, nothing.  I couldn't tell you the last time I was in a play of movie and you couldn't sense some general shifting around.  

It's nights like this that make me happy Jamie loves doing this stuff, too.

Speaking of:

last row, mezzanine, baby!

Anyway, we had a grand time.

And on the way home, on S. Lamar I was at the light at Oltorf and saw in a store front a dude in some sort of horned head dress just staring out at the street, so he and I waved at each other and he seemed pumped I'd seen him.  

Every once in a while, Austin is still Austin.

Howard and Rita came to town

Howard and Rita, pals from the League City area, came to town this weekend.  We missed them Saturday night as we were at the symphony, but we did catch up with them for lunch Sunday.

Anyway - good seeing them!  We rarely leave town these days, so we appreciate catching up!

Unrivaled Basketball is in Full Swing

So, in addition to College Basketball and WNBA, now there's Unrivaled.  

This will sound weird, and sports people don't like differences, so bear with me.  It's a pro-league for women basketball players, but it's 3-on-3 ball on a reduced-size court (72 feet long versus 94).  It's fast, aggressive basketball, with some of the WNBA's best on the roster.  

Unrivaled is basically also designed for TV.  All games are played on the same court in Miami, and seating is very limited.  But that means teams don't play at the same time, stealing eyes from each other.  

Now, all games being in Miami and with teams made up of a Yahtzee of WNBA players makes it hard to pick a team in particular.  I'm kind of leaning toward Rose BC, as it has Lexie Hull and Chelsea Gray, two favorites, but I can say that about a lot of clubs.  I dunno.  I'll just keep watching.

Things Unrivaled needs:  Something goofy, like mascots or dancers.  The announcers are actually really solid, and kind of fun.  But I miss the local folks on WNBA throwing it to the half-time crew and watching local dance troops, that insane elephant in New York, stuff like that.

I Don't Get Reality Shows

This information is 26-30 years old now, but I don't understand "reality" shows or long form game shows.  

I've tried with reality shows in the early 00's, where people would "win" getting married - something so absurd, it was like going to the state fair and NOT paying to see "the world's largest horse" or whatever.*  I watched some of The Osborne's, and even Flavor of Love.  But eventually my interest waned, in a "okay, I get it.  More of the same is coming." 

But, aside from an early-COVID dive into Love Is Blind, I've basically missed cultural touchstones like Survivor, the Kardashians, any and all Real Housewives.  I watched one episode of The Bachelor in its first season because Jamie was in the hospital and her nurse snuck into the room and asked to watch it on her TV.  

I get the freak-show aspect of modern reality shows.  I, too, like pointing and laughing at d people, too.  But I don't get the devotion to any of these shows.  I guess if I'm going to spend time with unpleasant people, I at least want to care about what they're being unpleasant about.

I figured that Traitors, a show on Peacock, would be as close as I'd get to liking a reality show.  I find host Alan Cumming a charming fellow, and I actually knew who three of the contestants were - Donna Kelce, mother of the Kelce brothers of NFL fame - and then Tara Lipinski and Johnny Weir, two commentators for ice skating on NBC and both former medalists on the ice.  I know who Lisa Renna is from watching a David Hasselhoff Nick Fury movie back in college and her marriage to Harry Hamlin. 

The set-up is that we have way too many contestants, and some are tapped to be "traitors".  The "traitors" will pick someone to "kill" every night, and the next day - after some dumb game where money is on the line - the group will shower, get dressed up again and then, while drinking, get each other fired up about who *could* be a Traitor, and kick them one person out of the kinda cool Scottish castle - hoping they picked a Traitor.  

What I didn't know is that these shows just cycle through contestants from other reality shows.  So the "celebrities" are former Real Housewives, Survivor and other game show contestants.  Plus a smattering of Johnny Weirs, and, to my surprise, c-lister and walking problem, Michael Rapport.**

I guess if you asked me if I knew these shows now basically pull from a weird pool of possible contestants who were on *other* reality shows, I would be very surprised indeed.  But that appears to be a whole industry.

Anyway, I made it through one whole episode and two I watched in ffwd.  It turns out the people who make a living as reality TV people are boors and it makes the show tedious to watch the Dunning-Kruger effect play out all episode, every episode.

But Alan Cumming is dressed to the 9's, and that's fun.

* I have paid good money to see large animals at the Arizona State Fair.  Worth every damn penny.

** an actor who has followed the predictable path of not seeing his career pan out and become your angry drunk uncle, most recently declaring his intentiont o run for Mayor of NYC as soon as possible