Everything In Its Right Place

Here's how these things go. I happen upon the trailer for the Peacock show "The Day Of The Jackal" a few weeks ago. I don't remember where I saw it (an ad on YouTube, maybe, where I stuck around and didn't hit skip and watched the entire trailer?). Doesn't matter.

I saw this trailer for this show. You don't have to watch the whole thing. Just watch the part where the music hits about 22 seconds in:

The song playing there: Everything In Its Right Place by Radiohead. This song came out 20 years ago. At the time, I had friends who were all "you HAVE to listen to the Radiohead album Kid A." And about 60% of us who listened to that album didn't get it. At the time, I was one of those "why don't they just make more songs like 'Creep'?" guys.

Something about hearing the song again years later made me dig in. Maybe I'm ready for Kid A now? Or maybe it's just that song? Either way, after watching the trailer, I downloaded the song. If you walked by the fire truck after the Michigan State game, you even heard me play it as part of the postgame mix. (Yes, I agree - it's not really a tailgate playlist song.)

The YouTube algorithm then hit me with "he's really into Kid A right now - maybe he'll enjoy this breakdown of the chords in Everything In Its Right Place." Like always, the YouTube algorithm was right. I really enjoyed that video. And it sent me to my piano to work out the opening chords myself. When I dig in on a song, I dig in.

My wife and I then spent Thanksgiving morning watching The Day Of The Jackyl. We watched the trailer first (there's that song again) so my wife could give it the thumbs up. The trailer grabbed her, so it was a green light.

By the way, Thanksgiving morning is a great time to binge if dinner is later in the afternoon. We were getting together with our kids at 5:00 pm, the Illini basketball game wasn't until 3:00, AND we were staying at a friend's house in St. Louis with a smart TV that had Peacock, so.... don't mind if we do. I'll give The Day Of The Jackal 3.8 stars out of 5 so far. Still have three episodes left.

My point with all of this: I have absolutely surrounded myself with this song the last several weeks. The album came out 20 years ago (actually, let me look that up - it came out.... 24 years ago), and here I am, finally getting into Kid A and listening to Everything In Its Right Place on repeat. And learning it on the piano. And watching YouTube videos breaking down the chords.

And it feels like the perfect theme for this game, right? For this month. I nominate Everything In Its Right Place for the song that best describes the Illini fan experience as we enter December in the year of our Lord, 2024. Since I started the blog in 2009 I have not been able to say that it felt like everything was in its right place until right now. We've lived our entire fan existence hoping for Illinois basketball to remain ILLINOIS BASKETBALL and for Illinois football to ascend. And now... it's upon us?