Welcome back to “I’m Curious!”

It has been a joyous stretch lately for me, and I am wishing you the same.

I had the chance to hit the road for the first time in a while, heading down to North Carolina for some soccer coverage.

It was also a weekend full of community, with an estimated eight million Americans taking to the streets for the latest round of No Kings protests in the largest single-day demonstration in American history. Even those fit into my weekend, as I found possibly the smallest No Kings protest in the country.

Plus, baseball is back! And we go on a musical journey to honor Opening Day and one of the best things in baseball today.

Let’s jump in, but feel free to either read through or flip around as you see fit!

Here’s the Table of Contents.

Table of Contents

• The Most Curious Thing This Week: Alberta, VA And The Smallest "No Kings" Rally?

• My Reporting

  • NWSL: Goals in the Gloaming Carry Bay Past Carolina

• The Photo Bay

  • "Sunny" Shinomi Koyama

  • Courage Coach Mak Lind's Feelings

  • Maycee Bell's Mascot High-Five

  • Natalia Staude Steps Up

  • Cristiana Girelli Gives Her All

  • Keira Barry's First NWSL Goal

  • Ally Schlegel Signs A Croc

• Other Sports Takes and Things of Note

  • Seeing Double: Same Story Sequels

  • Opening Day: Closer Music Goes From Belgium to The Bullpen

• Something Good I Ate: Late-Night Bojangles

And here’s Peach!

The Most Curious Thing This Week

It’s the No Kings protests!

We’re breaking from sports for a moment to highlight a massive moment of community in America: the largest single-day protest in American history.

Eight million people gathered for over 3,000 “No Kings” protests led by progressive organizing groups including Indivisible and 50501.

People marched in cities and small towns and everywhere in between, holding hands to stretch for miles down roads or covering highway overpasses with people and signs.

In Minneapolis, celebrities like Bruce Springsteen, Joan Baez and Jane Fonda rallied a crowd of hundreds of thousands, while in Memphis and Los Angeles, protesters faced an aggressive police effort to try to clear the peaceful demonstrators, which included tear gas and several arrests.

But not every protest was big or dealt with police unleashing gas on them. The protests reached small-town America. In fact, in one case, it came right to somebody’s front porch.

One of the over 3,000 dots on the official No Kings protest map was in Alberta, Virginia, population 302. It’s a town near the North Carolina border, about halfway between Richmond, VA and Durham, NC, near Interstate 85. A lot of the town center consists of abandoned buildings. At one corner, a Jeep Wrangler sat parked, its rear windshield painted with “U.S. MAIL” on it.

Despite Alberta’s rural location, its county, Brunswick County, actually leans Democratic in its voting, due to a large Black population. But Alberta is a majority-white town and a very conservative place.

That didn’t matter, as it still found itself the site of a protest. Organizers described the location on the site as “Garden Party” followed by an address.

Google Maps did not know of an establishment called “Garden Party.” I was expecting a shop or a venue or a park… nope! It was just somebody’s house. Specifically, it was theirs.

I pulled into the driveway to find three people congregated on the steps of the house. As it turns out, it was the owners, Jo Walthall and Stuart “Sluggo” Kramer, the couple who organized this protest. They were joined by Ann Williams, a local activist who told me that while she lives nearby now, she grew up in Reston, VA, and was the first Black student at Georgetown Visitation, the all-girls Catholic prep school in Washington, DC.

I spent about an hour and a half with Jo, Sluggo and Ann, shooting the breeze, asking them about the issues they cared about the most and answering questions about my job.

The three of them, as you might expect, did not like the job that President Donald Trump has been doing. Living in rural America, they told me that they felt Trump, politicians, and the media have ignored the struggles of farmers. And how everything from climate change to unchecked pollution from multinational ag companies doing business nearby have made life hard for people in Brunswick County and Southside Virginia.

While it had just been the three of them when I got there a little after 3 pm, they started at 11 and said five other people had come by. They marched a few hundred feet to the center of town, carrying a couple of signs. Then they came back and sang “We Shall Overcome,” and dug into some king cake that Jo ordered. “Straight from New Orleans,” she told me.

I guess there’s an exception to the “No Kings” rule for king cake. Understandable.

Jo is the one of the group who was born and raised in Alberta. She spends most of her time in a power wheelchair but can walk short distances. Sluggo calls her Jo Ann still, although Jo says she dropped the “Ann” from her name after surviving cancer and feeling she needed a new start. A search reveals that many moons ago, she even threw her hat into the ring for public office, with a bid for the Democratic nomination in a special House election a quarter-century ago.

She went to William & Mary and then to Columbia and pulled in Sluggo, a native New Yorker, to move here. “79^th & Riverside,” he says in a thick New York accent that has survived the move down to Dixie.

He shared his gripes with how repetitive the news can be, something exacerbated by Jo leaving MS NOW on pretty much the entire day. (As an employee of said network, I admire the dedication!)

The hour and a half I spent on the front porch included plenty of ribbing and jokes, plus thoughtful discussions on everything from housing policy to hockey history. And it included some delicious king cake (although I did not end up getting the plastic baby.) 

350,000 people protested across New York City. At least 100,000 protested in Minneapolis. And nine (technically eight, since I wasn’t protesting, just covering it. They counted me anyway.) came over the course of the afternoon to a front porch in Alberta, VA. Even fewer cars passed by to see it in a town this quiet.

But those few folks found just as much community as the throngs in the big cities. We shot the breeze, but it was a small part of some much bigger winds of change.

My Reporting

NWSL: Goals in the Gloaming Carry Bay in Carolina

In a tussle between two teams with new coaches and new identities, Bay FC emerged with three points in the standings, by scoring three goals on the road to put away the North Carolina Courage in a 3-1 win.

As the sun set over Wakemed Soccer Park, Bay sparkled in the twilight. In the 20^th minute, Alex Pfeiffer found a spot on the right side to launch a shot with a vapor trail on it to beat Courage goalkeeper Kailen Sheridan to the near post.

Ten minutes later, in almost the exact same spot, Bay’s new striker Cristiana Girelli opted not to go for goal, instead crossing it leftward to a streaking Keira Barry. The attacking midfielder slid forward, tumbling as the ball redirected straight toward goal and past Sheridan for another goal.

Not even five minutes later, Bay leveraged the hot streak to pot a third goal in the gloaming. Several yards behind where she scored from, Pfeiffer lofted a ball toward the heart of the 18-yard box. It found the head of midfielder Dorian Bailey, who leapt up to head the ball to the right, past Sheridan.

35 minutes in, the lights had come on in Cary. But it looked as though the lights went out for the Courage.

It was an astounding opening stanza for Bay, who got the absolute most out of their chances. In the first 35 minutes, they had assembled shots totaling less than 0.5 expected goals. But they turned that into a big “3” on the scoreboard.

“I think we got a hold of the game really early and took control really early,” Bay FC head coach Emma Coates said.

She said that so much of the success in the game came down to players with styles that fit with each other.

“Intentionally, we want to have forwards with different profiles. You look at Keira, and the speed, and her directness, that’s a real threat. The way that Alex gets the ball, faces up, and obviously, some of Cristiana’s back-to-goal play, it’s just more about understanding each other as a team and understanding what each player needs, and I think we did that really well tonight. And I thought in particular some of Cristiana’s back-to-goal play, I thought was outstanding.” 

For her part, Girelli, the 35-year-old on loan from Italian club Juventus who made her debut last week against Angel City, said it’s something that has helped smooth the transition.

“Playing with Alex and Keira, Karlie [Lema] makes it easier because they are fast players and also technical,” Girelli said.

The Courage, meanwhile, did their level best to rally back in the second half. Their star attacker Manaka Matsukubo, who was substituted on in her return after helping the Japanese national team win the Women’s Asian Cup, had her own sliding finish in the 65^th minute, with winger Ryan Williams crossing a ball from near the endline through a lot of traffic. Manaka slid in well to the left of Bay keeper Jordan Silkowitz, who had no chance of making it back from the right post to save what became the Japanese star’s first goal of the NWSL season.

The nerd stats don’t always translate to results, but the Courage racked up 1.47 expected goals across 13 shots, meaning they didn’t completely fail to get the ball forward and into potentially dangerous locations. But with just two shots on target, finishing will be key. Having Manaka back and playing a full 90 minutes each week is sure to help, however.

“We had a very tough start. Tried to chase the whole game. Didn’t succeed with scoring goals early. It came too late,” Courage head coach Mak Lind said.

Lind said Manaka was not ready to play the entire game, but that substituting her in before halftime gave him a chance to shift the team’s formation.

“She made an impact for us, and she was good in the game, Manaka. She is a skilled player.”

Manaka’s only struggle was briefly trying to keep a “serious” face postgame when looking into the camera at the start of the press conference.

“I’m really happy to be back,” Manaka said. “And then today’s game, you know, was sad, but I think we need to be better.”

Williams, who assisted on the goal, said postgame that it helped to know Manaka was there.

“I knew Manaka was going to be there. I felt like I was at a point where I could get the cut back in, and I knew she’d be there to finish it.”

Williams looked over at Manaka, who smiled.

“So, really good finish, really good ball,” Williams said.

Manaka lifted her hand up and gave Williams a high-five.

Bay head back home for a Sunday afternoon tilt in San Jose against the Washington Spirit, who are still looking for their first win after earning their third draw in four games in front of a record-setting crowd in the first home game in the history of Denver Summit FC.

The Courage get to stay home and host a Saturday night showdown against the Portland Thorns, who have won three out of four in a hot start, including wins over the Spirit and reigning NWSL shield winners the Kansas City Current.

The Photo Bay

This week’s photo bay includes (fittingly) some Bay photos, but also some Courage photos as well!

Sunny Shinomi

There isn’t a ton to this warmup shot of Shinomi Koyama taking a shot, but the Courage midfielder stepped right into the golden spot during golden hour, and has an almost heavenly shine around her in this shot.

Mak Lind Shows His Feelings

Courage head coach Mak Lind may be opening himself up to usage in some memes with this pair of photos taken in quick succession.

In the first shot, he has a bit of a sour look on his face, as he appears a bit skeptical of what he sees.

But then, a moment later, he is smiling, hands clapped together in excitement, grateful for good wishes from the home crowd.

Maycee Bell’s Mascot High-Five

Players aren’t the only ones to join in the pregame high-fives. Sometimes a mascot (the kind in the suit, not the little kids who join the players) can also become part of it. Courage defender Maycee Bell ended up high-fiving with Roary, the Courage mascot.

Staude Steps Up

Headers are hard to time right, but just a couple of moments into the match, I was able to time it just right for this shot of Courage defender Natalia Staude winning a header in a clash with Bay FC forward Cristiana Girelli.

Girelli Giving Her All

Girelli is known for a playing style where she leaves it all on the pitch. It shone right through in the pictures I got of her, where she is throwing her body for the ball and has an almost cinematic angst while getting ready to defend a corner kick.

Keira Barry’s First NWSL Goal

Keira Barry’s first-half goal was also her first in the NWSL, and she was quite excited in the moment. Her teammate, fellow Bay FC newcomer midfielder Claire Hutton, was quick to come over and celebrate.

Ally Schlegel Signs a Croc

Fans, especially kids, can bring some truly unique items for players to autograph after the game. In the case of Courage forward Ally Schlegel, she ended up autographing a Croc!

Other Sports Takes and Things of Note

Seeing Double

This is a strange one, because in both of my realms, things repeated themselves pretty perfectly in the past week.

In late March of 2025, I wrote in Edition 23 of the newsletter about two stories: one, from work, was about our interview earlier in the week at work with Jeffrey Goldberg, the editor-in-chief of The Atlantic, about how he inadvertently was added to a text chain on the messaging app Signal, where Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth unknowingly texted Goldberg plans for a U.S. strike in Yemen.

Exactly one year and 23 more editions of this newsletter later, the names of the show and the network have changed, but Jeffrey Goldberg is on the show again and I am producing an interview with him about the one-year anniversary of that story and what has changed. 

We read from Goldberg’s piece, where he says that it’s odd that relatively little has changed, particularly in terms of Pete Hegseth’s job.

“The Department of Defense employs nearly 3 million people, uniformed and civilian,” Goldberg wrote. “All are subject to rules and regulations governing many aspects of their behavior. Any one of them would have faced serious consequences for announcing, on an insecure messaging app, that the U.S. was about to send its pilots over enemy territory.

All except one.”

Another feature in Edition 23 from that weekend highlighted Bay FC goalkeeper Jordan Silkowitz working her way into the starting role and the support she received from her family.

I spoke with her parents Robert and Joni that night, as their daughter played just a few miles from her hometown of Fairfax, VA. They had brought a crowd of people, including various friends and family members, to cheer their daughter on.

Exactly one year later, fresh off producing an interview with Jeffrey Goldberg about Pete Hegseth’s Signal chains, I spent a weekend covering soccer and… the location changed, but Jordan Silkowitz is in goal again and I run into her parents again.

In this case, a lot had changed.

Despite some growing pains and struggles in her first year-plus in net, the 26-year-old has gone from brand-new keeper to a fan favorite in San Jose, going on a handful of hot streaks and making some dramatic saves. Plus she earned her first international call-ups, first a call to the U.S. U-23 national team in the spring as one of a handful of overage players, and then two calls over the winter to the big club, the U.S. women’s national team. 

But a few hundred miles further from home, her parents were the full extent of the family and friends contingent for their daughter this time around.

Opening Day

Last week also included an all-important occasion: Opening Day!

Major League Baseball is back, 150 years after the establishment of the National League and 125 years after the American League started up.

Opening Day is a stirring reminder of baseball’s role in Americana. Even as the game has folded in more and more international stars, it allows some of the best aspects of American life to shine. 

I want to tell you about one of baseball’s best new traditions and how it showed up this week. 

So where am I gonna start? Belgian folk music!

(Author’s note: this story will be most effective if you’re able to listen along with it, but I’ll do my best to make it understandable even if you’re in a place where you can’t put the sound on.) 

In 1979, a Belgian folk band called Katastroof released a song entitled “Zuipe.” The song, in the Dutch-adjacent language of Flemish, includes an almost medieval-sounding flute riff.

There’s a repeating set of notes, and at the end of each set, the highest notes of the bunch get higher. It sounds like the sort of score you’d hear in a movie about some knight in King Arthur’s time.

Listen for about 15 seconds to the hook from “Zuipe” and you’ll get what I mean.

A couple decades later, a DJ known as Gek-O-Man remixed it and turned it into a jaunty electronic Eurodance song. It’s the sort of thing you can picture a bunch of Belgians bouncing and/or fist-pumping to in the club.

This time around, the flute had been tossed out and replaced by an electronic version of the same sequence of notes.

Now this next part gets a bit controversial. There is no official connection here. No lawsuit has been filed, although Katastroof members have rumbled that a bit of musical theft may have occurred in this next bit.

In 2017, the Dutch electronic DJ duo Blasterjaxx came up with a song that originally had a very similar flute part built into the song. Don’t forget, the Belgians we have been talking about were Flemish, which is basically the same language as Dutch. 

But Blasterjaxx had an interest in collaborating with an Australian musician named Timmy Trumpet. Because Timmy Trumpet played, well, the trumpet, he suggested that they should take out the flute part and replace it with—shocker—a trumpet.

With that, their song Narco was born. And from almost the top, there is that trumpet riff, sounding awfully similar to that Belgian flute riff from nearly 40 years before, but arguably perfected and made to be even more of an earworm.

All of this is detailed in a fascinating story by The Athletic in 2022, but hold off on reading that for a sec.

Because in 2018, the Seattle Mariners gave their new closer Edwin Diaz several options for music they could play as he entered the game, one of which was Narco. 

MLB.com interviewed Diaz, who said that he picked it because of the trumpets, which he said added “something different from what everybody uses.”

Diaz briefly switched things up in 2019, but returned to using Narco in 2020. He kept it after being traded to the New York Mets, where it really began to take off.

In 2022, as COVID restrictions were lifted, crowds came back, and Diaz shined on the Mets, it became a phenomenon. Timmy Trumpet came from Australia and performed it live for one of Diaz’s bullpen entrances at Citi Field. The makers of MLB The Show 23 added Narco to the soundtrack so it would play during Diaz’s entrances.

As time went on, it became a highly-produced phenomenon, complete with a light show, graphics, Mr. Met pantomiming a trumpet performance. Even at routine games, fans in Flushing would go crazy for an iconic closer entrance.

Diaz, the Mets and the trumpets came together as a modern baseball institution.

But this offseason, Diaz entered free agency, and when the dust settled, he had agreed to a deal to join the Los Angeles Dodgers.

On Friday, he capped the Dodgers’ win with a scoreless inning. “Narco” made it across the country with him. 

And to honor the occasion, the Dodgers brought in another live trumpet, this time from trumpeter and Long Beach native Tatiana Tate.

It went so well that they had Tate come in and do it again Saturday night! Diaz retired the side in order for his second consecutive save.

Closer entrances have become an increasingly common part of baseball in recent decades, from Mariano Rivera’s legendary entrances to “Enter Sandman” by Metallica to Trevor Hoffman’s imposing use of “Hells Bells” by AC/DC to Kenley Jansen’s locally-flavored choice of “California Love” by 2Pac when he was on the Dodgers.

Or you can start with Belgian folk music and work your way from there. Hey, it’s worked out before!

Something Good I Ate

Just a quick one this week. I had virtually nothing to eat most of Saturday, other than a bagel and coffee on the way out of DC and that delicious slice of king cake. So postgame in North Carolina, I opted for one of a few local fast food icons: Bojangles.

Their chicken tenders, seasoned fries and honey mustard sauce so good that I had to knock on the closed dining room door and beg for it after they forgot to put it in the bag served as the truly perfect cap on a joyous day. 

Washing it down with some Starry and capping it off with a Bo-Berry Biscuit with sweet vanilla frosting, I could feel my arteries clogging, but I could also feel my body coming back online.

Bojangles is good in normal conditions, but after a day of basically not eating? It’s otherworldly.

Just a note: Any opinions I express here are solely mine, and do not reflect the views of my employer, my coworkers, or anybody else affiliated with me. The newsletter is not monetized in any way and everything in here is written and reported with my own resources on my own time outside of my working hours unless specifically noted otherwise. “I’m Curious” is just for me, the author, and for you, the reader. Thank you for reading. I’m glad you’re here.