A Song a Fay: Lent 2025

March Madness NCAA Theme Song (CBS College Sports March Madness Theme Song)

I mean….cmonnnn do I even need to say anything else?!

Happy March Madness day, everyone. One of the best sporting events of the year, riddled with Cinderella and powerhouses going blow for blow while attending the big dance.

Before we even know it we’ll see the next Robert Mason, Jack Gohlke, Gordon Heyward, Norfolk State. We’ll cling onto it for dear life while we watch in amazement. Everyone loves a good underdog story.

This song and time of year screams nostalgia ultra (shoutout Frank).

Being in middle school in the computer lab doing my best impersonation of James Bond trying to override the WiFi code so we could watch ball instead of working on inquiry. One of my friends actually watched one of our teachers enter in the password. I still remember it to this day.

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Luckily the march madness website came out when I was in 7th grade and we didn’t have to worry about that. As long as you had a TV provider and a lookout for the teacher coming your way, we’d watch ball all day without a care in the world.

Those middle school relationships were special. I’ll have to write a tribute to the boys soon.

Flash forward to freshman year of college, March Madness always landed on the beginning of spring break. The coaches would have us complete a brutal workout the Friday morning before spring break every year, almost as if it was a get out of jail free card.

We called it “the trail of tears”.

To put in perspective, our strongest player ended up in the fetal position by the end. If you have ever met me, you know I am certainly not the biggest or strongest. You can only imagine what kind of condition I was in.

I was supposed to go home right after. Instead, me and my PC all went to tequillaville and watched the games all day.

Enjoy the day, family. Get those games on the other monitor and soak in the madness.

Willie Burke Sherwood by Killer Mike

I’ve been in a rut. This weather hasn’t helped either.

Sometimes I catch myself going through the motions. Others I find myself thriving. I guess sometimes it’s hard to find that consistency.

Luckily, I’m fortunate enough to have friends who tell me what I need to hear.

I was playing pickleball with one of my best friends. We’ve been 10-0 since we joined the league. He’s the better of the bunch, that said we really haven’t faced anyone worth a try.

But sometimes that’s the most dangerous place to be in life – the tallest midget. Thinking you’re good enough until someone punches you in the mouth. Everyone’s due for a wake up call.

We played a few exhibition games before heading home. Next thing we knew we were down 10-2.

My friend said “I’m going to say this as nice as possible…stop hitting the ball like a F****** P****.”

Boom – just like that I was up. A little rattled, sure, but I snapped out of it. I played this song on the way home.

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I’ve been a killer mike fan for a while. To me this is one of his deepest cuts. Rapping to his intelligent yet insecure young self about the rap path he will choose and what he will overcome. It’s a strong exercise to write a letter to your younger or future self. Like you’re writing in the mirror.

Sometimes you just gotta be the main character, play some killer mike and get back in a groove.

Bad Habit by Steve Lacy

My older brother hates admitting he’s wrong. I think he just has a hard time giving credit where credit is due.

There are a lot of things I look up to my older brother for, practically everything really. He’s really good at a lot of things. Very smart as well.

We cross paths on our taste in music from time to time, however it’s rare. He likes Dave Matthews, I like Mac Miller, we both like Jack Johnson which is a story for another time.

There’s a science to having the power of the aux cord. You need to have an eye and an ear alert at all times. One eye is on the road while the other is looking around catching the vibe from the passengers. When you get the “what song is this?” you know you’ve made it big.

I had that power when Steve dropped his most famous song, however this was before the TikTokers got their hands on it. I played it for my brother and I could tell this was the one he would finally add to his playlist.

A few weeks later, we all went to Starved Rock State Park which a trail about an hour out of the city. I took my old pup brad, he took his dog coco.

We had a beautiful sunset on the ride home. Joey had aux (rightfully so – his car) and had some oldies on. Out of nowhere, out came Steve Lacy.

Neither of us said a word. The music said everything that needed to be said on that ride home.

Pre by Earl Sweatshirt

Ahhhh…good old freshman year of high school lore.

This album is so important, man. At least to me. “Doris” came out my freshman year of high school. I’m fortunate enough that one of my absolute best friends is a wizard when it comes to music. He just loves it and loves all aspects of it. He’s blessed me with some great music and we’ve had great conversations that come with it.

He made me feel bad that I thought about downloading the album illegally because it wouldn’t give earl his well earned coin. I waited patiently for it to drop. I remember going up to my attic in my house and seeing that it had finally come.

It’s special because I have so many vivid memories associated with it.

I chose this song specifically because my friend was upset that Earl didn’t actually open on his own album. I actually can’t believe I remember that conversation, but it’s one that I cherish to this day.

I remember playing this while playing Pac Man World 2 (great game btw) with my brothers in my room. The new IOS update had just come out when the blue texts were invented. What a time.

I actually had sent my HS girlfriend one of the songs on this album (Chum) as an attempt to look trendy as if I didn’t listen to whatever everyone else was listening too. She actually ended up really liking it. Pro tip – if you ever send your girl an earl song and she likes it, you gotta keep her.

This, through and through, is a fantastic album IMO. I love looking back on this moment in time. It reminds me how lucky I am to have a friend like I do, and all the memories I carry alongside with it.

Pool House by Willis

I would imagine there was a big audience (in this case a small audience…I don’t actually know how many people read this) that partook in the Chicago festivities this weekend.

If you’re anything like me, you’re in dyer need of a pick me up song. Or a yellow gatorade.

I discovered WILLIS a few summers back. They have a great vibe – also a great sort of jam sesh/interview on youtube you should check out.

I usually put on WILLIS during my Monday afternoon walks, but today they were much needed. I like the overall reminiscent theme of this song. Murphy Billings looking back on fun times in a pool house while coming to the grips of the fact that live continues, and we must too.

Action follows inspiration. It was a brutal Sunday weather wise after an immaculate Saturday. I went back to the suburbs to be around good company. It was another window of time where all of my siblings were together. Were on much different paths now – my oldest had a kid, older brother having a kid, older(ish) in wisconsin, and my younger brother in college. As you could imagine, those windows become more narrow to get through.

We enjoyed way too much corned beef and shared some laughs. I turned on a few hours of House to close out the night.

The sun eventually came out after snow. Just comes to show that this too shall pass, so we might as well enjoy it.

Find Your Love by Drake

I was going to write a Saint Patrick’s themed blog in honor of the festivities here in Chicago.

However, I was watching the B1G tournament last night and I got a Facebook facetime call from my mom (she’s an android user, I know).

She never does this – only calls. When I answered she said “oh, you don’t want to see me?” and then I realized I had to open the Facebook app on my phone to activate my camera.

When she was able to see my face, her expression was as if she was the first caveman to see fire. She was so happy to see me, let alone have a conversation.

And so, today, I’m going to shout out my mom real quick.

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My mom used to drive a Honda Odyssey to haul her five kids. Lots and lots of memories in that van. Actually, one of my first times actually driving a car happened to be that van. I had just got my permit and I asked my mom if we could get lunch. She let me drive all the way to Chipotle and back. My freshman year self made an odyssey feel like a Maybach.

I remember this because my ex girlfriend was having a big party that same night. We had just broken up, I was rattled there was a party I would attend that night. However, in that blip in time I was able to enjoy a nice ride with my mom.

I was in middle school when Drake had dropped Thank Me Later. It’s an album he doesn’t praise much despite its hits. That 2009 Drake was special. I’d argue way more versatile then. There’s always something to admire about a hungry artist who hasn’t made it big quite yet and they find their big brake. For Drake, in my opinion, it was this album.

My mom was riding her Odyssey, I was sitting in the front seat. For whatever reason, she asked for this song to be louder so she could dance along to it. She never dances, I never dance with her. We drove down Willow Road and got to share a moment together with some God awful dance moves without a care in the world.

My mom is one of the kindest souls you’ll meet. She always knows when something is wrong no matter how hard you hide it. She apologizes way too much. She calls all the time. I always answer.

Have a fantastic patty’s day!

Grown Up by Danny Brown

I mean, are you kidding? 70 degrees in Chicago on a Friday, college basketball on all day, St. Patrick’s day celebrations tomorrow. Stop it.

I don’t have much to write today other than a song I think fits today’s vibe perfectly.

We used to go bowling back in college during football camp. I had a teammate that drove a truck we all used to pile in back in the day. I would blare this song in the car on the way over.

As Mr. Brown said, we were rushing out of kids just to be grown up. Now that I’m somewhat grown (?) I look back on this song with a ton of great memories.

Since this song reminds me of college, on a day like this you’d be silly to even think about going to class in the afternoon. Grab some boys and go hit the links, go find a patio, go on a walk, do something. Enjoy some good music while you do it.

Tabula Rasa by Earl Sweatshirt

My first job out of college was selling HR software to car dealerships.

In other words, I would call on Doug Dimmadomes and try to pitch them on this software that would give them quality hires. I couldn’t speak the car language, it wasn’t really a great fit.

But I learned a lot. I had to make a ton of cold calls a day and got pretty solid at it. The best part of that job was the people.

I had an awesome manager and great colleagues with me in the pit. I remember us cold callers had to work the Saturday of St. Patricks day. I convinced a few of them to go in the office since our office overlooked the river getting dyed. We had a few daddy sodas well before noon as we ripped some coldies watching the swarm of green underneath us. A great memory with some old colleagues I don’t talk to anymore, but happy I share the memory.

I eventually got promoted a few months later. However at that time I got moved into a role I really wasn’t prepared for. Not only that, but we weren’t doing so hot either.

I remember in my last final weeks with the company I was so flustered – I couldn’t make a sale. I couldn’t hit water even if I fell out of a boat.

The day was ending and I played this song accidentally out of my computer when I thought my headphones were connected. One of my coworkers jokingly asked “setting the mood?” with the jazzy beat slipping through the speakers.

This is one of those beats where it doesn’t really make sense why it works, but it does. It’s kind of like a scary movie – you know it’s scary but want to keep watching for whatever reason.

Earl has been a favorite of mine for a while. He’s so profound with his lyricism, to a point where I can’t even dissect it. All I know is he’s been through hell and back and has rapped through it all, and I’ll appreciate him for that always.

Bounce by Flatbush Zombies

I just saw that this album came out yesterday 9 years ago today…

Man…

What a TIME. If you were around for the Flatbush wave, you get it. If not, you just had to be there. Sometimes I would watch this laced odyssey tour on youtube instead of coffee in the morning – both had the same affect.

There was a meme circulating around on twitter recently that was something along the lines of “name a song where you’d ask the producer how tf they made this beat”. Anytime this circles back to me, I always think of this song. I’d pay good money to see how Mr. Erik the Architect made this beautiful beat.

This song screams junior year of high school. It’s still in the rotation to this day.

I remember vividly we had Friday circuits in the off season for football workouts – the hardest day of the week. We just wrapped up a hard lift and headed for my friends car, Lana (a red volxwagen my friend named inspired by Lana Del Ray).

We hadn’t even left the parking lot when this song came on full blast and my friends all started blaring “YSL pants with the zippers…YIKES!!!” as we headed into the weekend.

If you need a little motivation to get over the hump on humpday, blast some bounce and lock in.

Birthday by Katy Perry

I saw an old friend/teammate of mine get engaged a few days ago. I wanted to give him a quick shoutout.

I was fortunate enough to be brought up to the varsity football team as a sophomore when I was in high school. At the time it was a big deal.

I’ll never forget my first team meeting with the big boys in the summer. I wore a grey nike long sleeve, nike elite basketball shorts, and some white long tights. I had to get something from the front of the classroom when one of the special teams coaches called out “hey, tights guy!” and it got some laughs from the seniors.

When you’re the youngest on the team you tend to get a lot of attention. Not only was I one of the youngest, but smallest too. The bell curve of nerves to excitement then down to fear was very real and fast in those first initial weeks.

My most humbling moment came when I was lifting with the team during my first week. If you’ve seen whiplash, I felt like I was Andrew when he got set up by Terence Fletcher at the end before going on his epic solo. A step too slow with weight way too heavy desperate to just fit in so no one realized how out of place I was. One of the seniors (who is now one of my closest friends) pulled me aside and said ~nicely~ I need to step it up.

I grew up fast – I didn’t really have a choice unless I wanted to be brought back down to JV.

I went back to what I knew best – just playing. I soon gained some respect from the seniors and started to fit in. They started to invite me to things, opened up a world for a kid who couldn’t even drive.

I knew I had made it when the seniors would start to offer me rides. When you’re a sophomore hanging out with seniors in high school, it’s the equivalent of knowing the guy that owns the nightclub, getting to skip the line and be apart of the show. It’s arguably one of the coolest things you could do at the time.

We were on our way to a 7on7 tournament – I rode in the back with two seniors. One was arguing how you need to listen to rap on the way to a game and country on the way back. There was a lot of back and fourth, and finally my teammate had had enough and played this Katy Perry song with no shame whatsoever.

It might be Katy Perry’s most underrated song arguably ever. Whenever I hear this, I’m brought back to the back of a beat up honda having to move a sea of spit cans with my legs with some super cool seniors just happy to be along for the ride.