It’s the biggest World Cup ever — 48 teams; IMHO it’s 16 too many — AND it’s being co-hosted in three countries — 2002 was the first-ever co-hosted tournament, with games in both South Korea and Japan — AND since three countries are hosting — The USA, Canada, and Mexico — all three get automatic berths into the field. So you’re gonna have Canadians and Mexicans and Americans all trash-talking about their home teams.

So, in the spirit of the FIFA World Cup, let’s spin through the world of…well, a few other things that aren’t soccer-related, but are from around the world.

First, the Subscribe button.

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Watching: David Hockney: The Art of Seeing (BBC)

David Hockney died on Friday at the age of 87.

I saw the report on Sky News Friday morning — I’ll admit to only having heard of Hockney and his work — and figured the guy was a big deal when the newsreader said that Hockney “did for British art what The Beatles did for British music.”

Then Sky devoted the first 18 minutes of the A-block to Hockney and his work.

I found, then, this documentary called David Hockney: The Art of Seeing that aired on the BBC a year ago. It’s captivating. Worth spending some time on this weekend.

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Reading: The Brand Positioning Workbook by Ulli Applebaum

I met Ulli Applebaum online last year and had the pleasure of interviewing him for an episode of The Vandy Program this past Wednesday. (A link is below.) Keeping with our global theme for the World Cup, Ulli is German but has lived in the Twin Cities for a long time; he brags about his “Eastern Minnesota accent.”

We actually spent most of our time talking about brand associations, so here’s another angle to explore: brand positioning.

In The Brand Positioning Workbook, Ulli walks you through WHAT that means and HOW to do it at an organization. It’s part art, but mostly science, something Ulli talks about in our interview; the workbook serves as a guide to sorting out the science part through the 26 “success triggers” behind an effectively positioned brand.

And here’s a link to my discussion with Ulli.

Listening to: Two Canadian Bands…The Beaches and Japandroids

In keeping with our global theme, let’s go with two bands from Canada that happen to represent the two Canadian cities hosting World Cup games: The Beaches (from Toronto) and Japandroids (from Vancouver).

I’m a pretty big fan of The Beaches and it’s great to see them getting credit for being pretty darn awesome. Named for a neighborhood in Toronto, the all-female band had a debut album called Late Show and here’s “T-Shirt.”

“Blame Brett,” off of the album Blame My Ex, made Dave’s Top Ten Songs of 2023 list, clocking in at #9. (It went #1 in Canada.)

I’m also a big fan of the song “Edge of the Earth,” also off the Blame My Ex album.

Japandroids were…pretty different. Two guys. One played guitar (that was Brian King) and the other, David Prowse, played drums. Both sang.

No longer touring or releasing albums, the band formed in 2006, developed a cult following, and had a breakthrough with their Celebration Rock album in 2012; that disc was so good that they were named Spin magazine’s Artist of the Year.

Here, then, a concert from the band at Massey Hall in Toronto from a band that I was able to see live. Just once, in Chicago. Memorable show.

Rediscovering: Charlie Brooker’s ‘How to Report the News’

We’ve been international with this edition of The Saturday List, having bounced between a British artist, a German author and strategist, and a couple Canadian bands.

Why not give England another victory — they haven’t won a World Cup since 1970 — by throwing back to Charlie Brooker — yes, the creator of Black Mirror — from his program called Newswipe and an all-time classic: “How to Report the News.”

Me…wishes you a great week ahead.

Dave

Well, we thought we’d start out this newsletter by watching a blow-by-blow of another franchise relocation that rocked the sports world: The Seattle Supersonics leaving for Oklahoma City and becoming the Oklahoma City Thunder. That kicks off this week’s newsletter, our 31st consecutive edition of The Saturday List. (Right after the Subscribe button, of course. See below.)

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Watching: Sonicsgate: Requiem for a Team

So Hammond is in Chicagoland — a broad term coined by Col. Robert McCormick to describe the region; sort of like Greater New York to include city and suburbs — but it’s still across state lines, so this is a blow.

But imagine the blow that Seattle residents felt when their beloved Supersonics departed for… Oklahoma? This is worth a watch in that it explains a lot about human nature.

Note that all hope is not lost for Seattle, which is supposedly on the NBA’s expansion shortlist for the next time the league adds teams. But, after watching this documentary, you can’t be blamed if you’re asking whether you can believe anyone in pro basketball.

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Reading: Fluent Forever by Gabriel Wyner

I’ve got a confession to make: I wish I had picked up another language. There was the 2 1/2 years of high school French, followed by the 2 years of college French; but I never quite mastered that language.

Then there was the fact that my Dad and my Grandma used to speak Flemish to each other when they didn’t want us to know what they were talking about. Did I pick any of that up? NO.

Did I yell when The New York Times started talking about a Flemish singer named Pommelein Thijs and said that she was singing IN DUTCH when I saw that she is from Belgium and is singing in FLEMISH?!?!

I digress. (Here’s a non-NYT article on Flemish singers.)

Enter Gabriel Wyner whose book Fluent Forever might change the way you look at language-learning. (And if the book doesn’t, the app of the same name might.)

To wit, Wyner learned the hard way that there had to be a better way. Through a combination of memorization and understanding how the mind works — plus the power of things like flash cards and, if you use the app, the phone — Wyner has figured out how to learn a language fast.

Listening to: Arctic Monkeys…Including One of the Greatest Live Performances EVER

It’s not hyperbole, what I said above. We’ll get to that in a second, but imagine my surprise as I look back at the chart of all of the editions of The Saturday List and realize I have yet to mention one of the absolute coolest bands in rock history?

DAVE! What are you doing???

First, though, a primer. Arctic Monkeys literally burst onto the scene in 2006 with what was, at the time, the fastest-selling debut album in British music history.

Read that sentence again. Take some time to digest it. Realize what country they hail from.

The album, Whatever People Say I Am, That’s What I’m Not, featured their breakout single, “I Bet You Look Good on the Dancefloor.” If the band looks like they were just kids it’s because they were: Lead singer Alex Turner just turned 40 this year. (Also, the stripped-down video served as foreshadowing of the band’s energy performing live.)

Their second album, Favourite Worst Nightmare, also went #1 on the UK Album chart — all but ONE of the band’s studio albums have gone #1 in the UK; the most-recent, The Car, only went to #2 — and here’s a live performance from one of the singles off of that disc, “Fluorescent Adolescent,” on Late Show with David Letterman.

It’s from that disc, Favourite Worst Nightmare, that we get the song “505.” Before setting up the live performance that may go down on the Mt. Rushmore of Live Performances, allow me to share the studio version.

The song, which is completely ambiguous about what or where “505” is, leaves no doubt that it is a love song.

“But I crumble completely when you cry

It seems like once again you have to greet me with goodbye.”

It took off on TikTok, a decade-plus later, and, while it only made it to #74 on the UK Singles chart when released in 2007, it reemerged on UK, US, and global charts in 2022; this was due in part to lines like the one above.

Bringing us to the live performance. Reading, 2022, closing out the concert, and the night. Audience knowing every single word. Alex Turner giving Frank Sinatra vibes — yes, I said it; The Chairman of The Board had impeccable timing and breath control and Alex has a similar jazz-singer sound here — and the crowd has been captured.

Rediscovering: The 1986 FIFA World Cup

Yes, the World Cup is coming back to (North) America. It’s the first time Canada will play (co-)host. It’s the second time the USA will host; the last World Cup in the USA was the first time it came to North America, in 1994.

BUT Mexico is also a co-host this year, and Mexico did host the tournament in 1986.

And 15-year-old Dave ate the whole thing up.

55-year-old Dave is waxing nostalgic about the 1986 World Cup, including the “Hand of God” and the insane performance by Argentina and its Diego Maradona — who will defend its 2022 title starting in just a few DAYS — so why not look at a BBC documentary on the 1986 World Cup?

Friends, it continues to be a pleasure to deliver this newsletter to you. Thanks for reading, and please don’t hesitate to share and subscribe.

Dave

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Watching: The Vandy Program Presents The News Of The Day with Andrew Donaldson

Andrew Donaldson is a friend of the show, works for the website Ordinary Times, and is quite the media darling, appearing on television shows and podcasts throughout North America.

We sat down for a wide-ranging discussion for The Vandy Program, which is my podcast, doing a semi-regular segment I call The News Of The Day. Lots here, and, given the 24-hour news cycle, it’s surprising that some of it isn’t old news by now (we recorded on Wednesday, March 27).

Here are a couple guys talking about Iran, Paxton vs. Talarico, UFC on the White House Lawn, and a bunch more. Big fun.

Reading: Experience Is Everything by Jeannie Walters

This can ALSO serve as a BONUS “Watching” segment of the newsletter, as Jeannie Walters was also my guest on The Vandy Program this past week (Tuesday).

She’s an expert on Customer Experience; and she’ll tell you that it is different from Customer Service. We chatted about that and some of the other concepts in her book, Experience Is Everything. Video link below the book cover photo.

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SIDEBAR: Jeannie and I were able to reminisce about early social media days in Chicago…I was able to keep up my commitment that, if you and I are friends and you wrote a book, I’ll buy it, read it, and have you on my show.

Listening to: Black Thought Freestyles

“Black Thought is here!” That’s a phrase that lives rent-free in my head; in 2017, the rapper and co-founder of The Roots joined Hot 97 in New York to provide freestyle rap unlike anything you’ve ever heard.

Yes, it’s freestyle. As in, if you asked him to do it again, it wouldn’t sound the same.

Apologies for any NSFW language. But this is downright amazing; even those who don’t like rap can appreciate the sheer brilliance.

Rediscovering: Gizmo! (1977)

This film, which I first saw in high school, is rather…bonkers. And must be seen to be believed. Gizmo! is the brainchild of Howard Smith and succeeded in hoding the attention of Young Dave back then. It should do the same for you now. Please enjoy.

I hope it’s a wonderful weekend, and a great week ahead.

Dave

First up, the “Subscribe” button…thanks as always for your support, as I keep this newsletter free.

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Now, before I get to what I’m Watching, here’s a little background, in the form of a screenshot of a viral tweet.

Now, the meat of the newsletter.

Watching: Allrecipes Presents Lazy One-Pan Dinners and Depression-Era Recipes

I gave some thought to shifting the order of things this week — DID I MENTION I WENT VIRAL on X??? — because of all of the discussion about cooking, meal-prep, and saving money by doing it yourself.

TL;DR: lots of people weighing in on whether or not Gen Z should be buying $28 lunches, and that gave rise to whether or not Gen Z has been taught to cook at all. (My viral tweet above was adjacent to the subject; some of the responses were in the “Stay In Your Lane, Boomer” category.

But if you’re struggling with where your food money goes, you may not have a handle on some of the basics — and you may think you don’t have (1) time or (2) the ingredients or (3) the skills — to whip something up for lunch or dinner.

Enter Allrecipes and the delightful Nicole McLaughlin, who is the culinary director for the site and it turns out she has a metric crapton of content on YouTube.

I share a couple of her videos here, because they’re great and timely.

First up, Lazy One-Pan Dinners for When You’re Too Tired to Cook. (That was one of the threads permeating the online commentary this week: I can’t cook because I’m too tired and also it’s easier to just do DoorDash.) I get it.

BUT…I happen to like cooking. Even if I don’t totally feel like making something complex with multiple steps, there IS something about homemade that works for me.

(And the Chicken and Dumplings recipe? Instant add to the rotation.)

The next video was quite a bit of fun, actually. 10 Depression-Era Recipes That Still Taste Amazing Today is the video. My favorites were Egg Drop Soup and something called “Water Pie.” Huh? It seriously looked awesome.

Reading: The Day After Tomorrow by Allan Folsom

You may be thinking “I saw that movie!”

Well, you are thinking of a different version of The Day After Tomorrow. This one, by Allan Folsom, a screenwriter who had worked on shows like Hart to Hart in the 80s, set a record before it was even published: Warner Books purchased the novel for $2 Million, which was the highest amount at the time (1994) for a first-time novelist.

Speaking of movies, I’ve often wondered why this story didn’t get turned into a movie. I bought it when it came out and just bumped into my copy again; so time for a reread of a really fun novel.

(Another fun read from Folsom: Day of Confession. Vatican intrigue. Better than Conclave.)

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Listening to: In-Studio Performances on KEXP

If you are into music like I am — and that means…eclectic tastes punctuated by serious obscurity — you’ve possibly bumped into Seattle’s KEXP, which is a stalwart of the indie rock scene.

And…they get really good guests.

First, and thanks to Canadian Steve for this one, here’s Band of Horses performing “The Funeral.” (This is a song that always gives me chills.)

Broken Bells is a combination of Brian Burton — you know him as DJ Danger Mouse — and James Mercer, the lead vocalist for The Shins. Their song “The High Road” got the KEXP treatment eleven years back.

And, to round out the performances, why not nearly 30 minutes of… The Pixies?

(BTW, KEXP is “listener-supported,” and you can find them at KEXP.org.

Rediscovering: Art — Not Propaganda — From the Soviet Union

There’s a real sense of mystery to the Soviet era; Gen-Xers like me were taught to fear the evil empire — and we’ve since learned that Communism actually really sucks and we should underscore the fact that it actually really sucks when talking about the scourge of Communism — but we were less-inclined to understand the people that tried to live within its constraints and actually produce something of value.

Artists, however, sallied forth and some of the work is rather exceptional.

Socialist realism was a thing. There was a fine line between art and propaganda, and some of the pieces had no choice but to cross that line and then try to cross back.

Jordan Peterson — yes, I’m a fan; he’s also had some continuing health challenges so here’s hoping he’s on the mend — semi-famously collected hundreds of Soviet paintings after the end of the Cold War.

The channel Museum Fatigue on YouTube does a great job of breaking down the why behind both Peterson’s interest in the genre and the art itself. (The channel is great and you should consider subscribing.)

The website Russia Beyond also has some examples of Soviet Art that’s pretty interesting. My favorite is below, Yuri Pimenov’s “New Moscow” (1937).

I pulled the screenshot with the caption of “Tretyakov gallery” from the Russia Beyond website, but then I realized that the Tretyakov Gallery has its own Google page. Woah!

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Anyway, that’s this week’s Saturday List. Thanks a bunch for reading.

Have a wonderful Memorial Day Weekend.

And remember those brave souls who fought and died for the freedoms we hold dear.

Dave

If you’re new to this newsletter, here’s the Subscribe button, in all its glory.

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Watching: Network TV is a Parallel Universe, A YouTube Video from Wade Stotts

If you don’t watch a ton of traditional network TV, you aren’t alone. And you might wonder why some of these shows are still on TV?

I mean, we’ve all heard about the big drop in ratings, and how the only monoculture moments anymore are things like the Super Bowl. But there’s a steady diet of shows like NCIS and its ilk (CBS), or Chicago Fire and its brethren (NBC), or ABC’s offerings that are connected to emergency services (more on that one below). Someone needs to study this phenomenon, and needs to do so with a heavy dose of snark.

That someone is Wade Stotts, who hosts programs on Canon Press, which is a Christian publishing house that also does some rather interesting pop-culture stuff. In this video, Stotts studies those shows and zeroes in on the formula. Specifically, we’ll hear about Marshals and Tracker on CBS, and then he’ll do a deeper dive on 9-1-1 on ABC.

Stotts is absolutely hilarious in his 24-minute breakdown. And you might find it especially funny if you do ask yourself: “Who watches this?” (Unless the answer to that question is…you.)

Reading: Why Did LLMs Steal Our Em-Dashes?, An Essay by Lia Erisson, An Undergraduate at McGill University

This was the deepest dive I’ve seen yet into the reasons why the “em-dash” (“—”) became a sign of AI use.

And it makes total sense, as Lia Erisson, who is an Undergraduate at McGill University in Montreal, writes:

The whole essay is great and actually gives me hope — I grew up reading the writing of Sports Illustrated, whose writers seemed to adore the em-dash; I’ve probably used it for 40 years — that I will someday be able to sprinkle them throughout my writing without worrying about being called a “bot.”

N.B. If you want a writing tip AND you have a number pad on your keyboard, you can insert an em-dash by doing as follows:

1. Hold down the “Alt” button on your keyboard;

2. While holding it down, use the number pad to type the following four-number sequence: “0-1-5-1.”

3. — is the result. It’s still glorious. I’ll keep using ‘em. (Ha.)

Listening to: The Twilight Sad

Something about a band from Scotland called The Twilight Sad just hits right these days. Maybe it’s the “Scottish-forward” voice of lead singer James Graham or maybe it’s the fact that I have always liked “post-punk” even though I have struggled for a definition of the genre.

In any event, Messrs Graham and guitarist Andy MacFarlane are a recent discovery of mine, and it turns out they’ve been around for a while. Here are a couple songs to introduce you to the band — or re-introduce you, if they’re someone you’ve heard of but have forgotten about — and there’s something new, and something from what seems like ages ago.

First, here’s “Designed to Lose,” off of 2026’s It’s the Long Goodbye:

Off of 2009’s Forget the Night Ahead, here’s “Made to Disappear” — performed live on Seattle’s KEXP (with thanks to the SiriusXMU crowd for putting this on the other day):

Finally, from the band’s first album, Fourteen Autumns and Fifteen Winters, here’s “That Summer, At Home I Had Become The Invisible Boy”:

Rediscovering: Bruno Mars, Super Bowl XLVIII Halftime Show (2014)

In honor of Bruno Mars arriving in Chicago for a couple nights where he’s playing Soldier Field — and in anticipation of a day when the Chicago Bears will eventually leave Soldier Field for a Chicago suburb that may or may not be in Illinois — let’s throw back to his performance at Super Bowl XLVIII.

It doesn’t get mentioned in the same vein as Prince, nor is it as notable as the Janet Jackson and Justin Timberlake “Wardrobe Malfunction,” but it was pretty darn good.

You want 13 minutes of energy like Bruno provided, and you want a surprise guest appearance from Red Hot Chili Peppers. So 9/10 for Bruno.

If you’re seeing him on his tour, here’s hoping it’s excellent; the list of solo artists that can sell out Soldier Field and its ilked is pretty limited, so he’s likely to deliver.

Thanks for reading; I’ll give you another “Subscribe” button below, and here’s hoping it’s an impeccable week.

Dave

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What I’m Watching, since we’re one year plus one day after the announcement of a native Chicagoan being installed as Pope, might not be surprising. (First, though, the button…)

Watching: All Things Pope Leo XIV, One Year Later

This, for me, can be summed up with the phrase: “Into. My. Veins.”

If you went to Catholic School, as I did, and you’re Gen-X like me, you may have had your share of nuns who told you “We’ll never have an American Pope.”

So imagine the surprise when the white smoke came up from The Vatican on May 8, 2025, and then the announcement of a guy FROM CHICAGO???

Anyway, here are a few pieces that are worth your time if you’re interested in All Things Pope Leo XIV.

NBC Chicago’s Mary Ann Ahern has been covering Rome and the Catholic Church for the station for years; she was one of the few Chicago-based reporters who were in the right place at the right time a year ago.

Ahern also sat down with Chicago’s Cardinal Blaise Cupich to discuss the Pope’s impact one-year later.

Here’s a different take and one that’s less Chicago-focused, from Currents News.

Finally, if you’ve not watched the Amazon Prime movie Conclave, you can just skip that and watch an inside report on last year’s actual conclave. It’s called Inside the Conclave from Vatican Access and the Catholic News Service.

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Reading: David Oglivy’s How To Write and Writing That Works by Kenneth Roman and Joel Raphaelson

Looking back at the chart that keeps track of what I recommend here, and it dawned on me that I have yet to mention David Ogilvy’s advice on writing. So I’ve pasted it below.

The book he recommends, Writing That Works, is quick to read and the advice is…still relevant. Even though it’s 45 years old! Authors Kenneth Roman and Joel Raphaelson talk about writing for things like “decks,” presentations that were common in business — but might have been slide shows as opposed to PowerPoint documents — as if they saw the future.

Here’s a link to the book on Amazon; funny, I purchased my copy in 2014. Still refer to it for advice.

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Listening To: A Couple Older Songs That Got Airplay Thanks to TV Shows

Maybe this could be in the “Rediscovering” section, but we’ll shoehorn them in here.

First up, The English Beat. “Save It For Later” remains an absolute classic. Might have been buried in the memory bank for a while, but, thanks to The Bear, it enjoyed a renaissance. (And a cover version by Eddie Vedder.) Here are both tunes.

Here’s Eddie.

Here’s another song from The Bear, “Let Down” by Radiohead. First, as seen in Season 1’s finale.

And here’s the official audio from the band.

Some pretty good music can also be found in the Canadian television show Heated Rivarly, including the re-emergence of Montreal band Wolf Parade, whose “I’ll Believe in Anything” features prominently in the show about a hockey romance.

The song is 19 years old! Here it is and it’s big fun.

Less ancient, Harrison released “All the Things She Said” 3 years ago. It’s now becoming popular thanks to Heated Rivalry, so if you dig a trance-dance-techno thing, here you go.

Rediscovering: The Tragically Hip

I just returned from a few days in Toronto, so I figure why not share the group that has been called “Canada’s Band,” The Tragically Hip.

My favorite song of theirs is “Nautical Disaster,” which might be the second-best song about a nautical disaster — Gordon Lightfoot’s “Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald” has to check in at number one, eh? — and here’s a live version from the band’s “That Night in Toronto” concert film.

“Natuical Disaster” is off the album Day for Night, which also produced this gem of a song — the band performed both tunes on SNL in 1995 — called “Grace, Too.”

The band’s second-highest charting song in Canada was “Bobcaygeon,” which made it all the way to #3; the line “That Night in Toronto” led to the title of the concert film from which we get this video.

When lead singer Gord Downie was diagnosed with glioblastoma in late 2015, the band decided to go out with an absolute bang. Here’s “Ahead by a Century” from the band’s farewell show on August 20, 2016 in their hometown of Hamilton, Ontario; this was the band’s only number one song in Canada.

The concert, which was carried live on CBC, was watched by an estimated 11 million people. Downie died on October 17, 2017.

But oh, what a farewell!

Final Thoughts

Whether you’re facing a life-threatening diagnosis or a minor health-blip; whether you’ve got too much on your shoulders or, perhaps, feel like you don’t have enough; and if you feel a little lost or untethered: here’s to you, to the power of faith and of human potential, to friendships, to family, and to making the most of the hand you’re dealt.

Make it a great week, everyone!

Dave

If you’re new here, welcome! I curate a combination of current events, pop culture, music, sports, and…well, whatever else I think you might dig.

Sometimes it’s heavily researched, and other times things pop up from random conversations with friends — see Rediscovering below, thanks, Jeffrey! — but, for 26 consecutive weeks now — and 36 Saturdays overall — we’ve shared The Saturday List.

Here, then, after a word from the “Subscribe” button, this week’s list.

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Watching: My Chat with Sportswriter Lauren Beasley on The Vandy Program

This was a really fun interview for me, as the past few interviews were more focused on current events and less on sports and the intersection of sports and pop culture.

Lauren Beasley has covered sports for a long time, is based in Columbia, South Carolina, and actually grew up in Augusta, Georgia. So she has been around professional golf since high school.

Here’s more on who she is and what she covers for College Sports Wire at USA Today.

Reading: The Electric Typewriter (Or, A Whole Bunch of Essays on Just About Everything)

Surprised that I have only recently stumbled into this website. In some ways, I’m glad I did; in other ways, not so much, as it’s possible a site like that could put a little curator/blogger guy like me out of business.

But here are a couple pieces that will do what any great essay should do: get you thinking.

Josh Dzieza has a piece on The Verge called “AI Is a Lot of Work” from 2023 and it might give you hope that we’re not all going to turn everything over to machines.

From Asterisk Magazine, Oliver Kim talks about the global economy in a fascinating essay titled: “GDP: We Really Don’t Know How Good We Have It.”

Maybe, maybe, some of these essays might give you a much-needed dose of positivity heading into your weekend.

Listening to: Young the Giant

Young the Giant was formed in California in 2004, went through a couple lineup changes and a name change, then they got their break: playing at South by Southwest in 2009. (Yes, it’s time to feel old!)

From there, the band put out a self-titled debut album in 2010 and the biggest hit off of that disc was the single “Cough Syrup,” which got airplay on World Famous KROQ in Los Angeles and made it all the way to #2 on the US Alternative chart.

The next disc was called Mind Over Matter and had two solid singles that rose up the US Alternative chart. First, here’s “It’s About Time.”

One of my all-time favorite songs is the title track from that album; here’s “Mind Over Matter.”

Let’s flash forward to 2026: the band has a new album (!) called Victory Garden, so sure, why not! Here’s “God As Witness,” which dropped…on Friday, May 1.

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Rediscovering: Ad Campaigns for the Television Set You May Have Had in the 1980s

Our first television set, and for a while our only set, was a Quasar. It was great and we grew up in UHF country, so we had even more dials to turn than those of you big-city folks with your 12 main choices.

Yes, pre-cable, pre-clicker in our house, it was the Quasar that did the trick. (They also had a very cool logo.)

My guess, from watching this ad, is that ours was pretty close to this model. (And TIL that Motorola was behind it.)

That ad was from 1972, so let’s move ahead in the 70s, and switch brands to what was possibly the best TV you could buy, at least if you believe this ad campaign from Sylvania.

We never had a Sylvania, but that didn’t stop their 1984 ad campaign from living rent-free in my head for 40 years. Nondishka!

The ne plus ultra of 1980s television brands, though? Curtis Mathes, who was actually a guy — George Curtis Mathes Jr., more on him below — that put his name behind some really high-quality televisions. Before we get to his ads, though, let’s take a look at one of the secrets behind their TV’s success; this particular element may have led to my family’s purchase of one of these sets.

That particular “VIR Circuit?” It also got you free HBO. Don’t tell the cable company.

Anyway, time to mainline some Curtis Mathes commercials. This reel comes from the ad agency itself, so enjoy 5:27 of a bunch of ads — They Had A Movie Club! — and the “I’m Curtis Mathes, our home entertainment products may be a little more expensive, but they’re worth it!” tagline — and think back to the glory days of the 1980s.

The second half of the above reel gives us a little bit of a lesson in brand management, as the ads that don’t feature the eponymous pitchman would come in handy; Curtis Mathes would die in a 1983 airline accident.

Finally, though, there’s Sony. I remember the Trinitron brand name. But we never had one in the house.

Alas, here’s an ad with a narrator that sounds like Jeremy Irons.

I can’t confirm who the narrator was…but I can wish you a wonderful week ahead!

All the best,

Dave

Don’t know, but…here’s what I’m tracking as we round out the month of April.

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Watching: How Ben Sasse Is Living Now That He Is Dying

Ben Sasse was a US Senator from Nebraska who left the Senate to become president of the University of Florida. Known for his desire for healthy debate, and his ability to buck the system — he was a Republican but reached across the aisle, so to speak, pretty often — Sasse got tired of Washington’s gridlock and wanted to fix higher education.

Then cancer struck, and struck in a serious way: Sasse was diagnosed with Stage IV pancreatic cancer in December.

This interview, with Ross Douthat of The New York Times, will stop you cold, perhaps a few times.

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Reading: Moneyball by Michael Lewis

“Billy, this is Michael Lewis. He’s a prolific writer, has written tons of books that sell a lot of copies. The only downside is that his books often get turned into movies that take quite a few liberties and ignore all of the little idiosyncracies that make his books great.”

Moneyball: The Art of Winning an Unfair Game falls into that category: the amazing luck that Lewis had following Billy Beane and the Oakland A’s in the early part of the 2000s got dramatized to maximum cinematic effect in the movie — called, simply, Moneyball — that launched a thousand memes. (Like the “Billy” one above.)

But the book itself is dynamite — here’s an Amazon link — and worth revisiting when you want to read something that is kinda tough to put down, as most of Lewis’s work is. (Bonus points if you’ve got a dog-eared version like the one in the photo.)

Listening to: Three Amazing Rock Songs from Way Back When (1979-ish)

“Way Back When” is subjective. But I like these songs a lot so here goes.

The Knack caught lightning in a bottle with “My Sharona.” 1979 was the release year for this one. If this were to drop in 2026 as a brand-new song, it would likely catch fire again. It’s that good, IMHO.

I grew up in Indiana and listening to John (Cougar) Mellencamp was the law.

For my money, though, “I Need a Lover” is his best work. It was part of his 1978 album A Biography and, since that album didn’t do very well, was also part of his 1979 album John Cougar. (Thus the 1979-ish in the subhead.)

Two minutes, thirty seconds of instrumental at the outset. Magic.

Speaking of musical acts with name changes — and lineup changes, it appears — Jefferson Starship presents this song from the mid-point of the band’s evolution. First, Jefferson Airplane, eventually Starship, Jefferson Starship brought together some but not all of Jefferson Airplane. And they dropped the “Jefferson” just in time to attack our ears with “We Built This City.”

Alas, this song, “Jane,” is a really solid 1979 earworm.

Rediscovering: The If It’s Out There, It’s In Here! NYNEX Ad Campaign

Every region had its version of Ma Bell back in the 70s and 80s. It was a confusing patchwork of companies, some large, some regional, some small and state-by-state — I remember having Indiana Bell growing up, and our neighbors just a few miles north of me had Michigan Bell — and, until the 1982 Breakup of the Bell System, you were mostly stuck with your state’s telephone system for local calling. (Long distance? Oh, that’s a subject for another day.)

After the breakup, some of the regions took their time with branding — Indiana Bell was the brand name for the Ameritech Hoosier State telco until 1993 — but New York Telephone and New England Telephone went full bore into making NYNEX — an acronym for “New York New England Exchange” — a powerful brand name.

Part of the brand’s power? Well, if you’re anywhere near Madison Avenue and the ad industry, you might as well create a really cool ad campaign.

Enter If It’s Out There, It’s In Here. The ad campaign that just kept the puns coming.

They launched in 1988, just in time for my arrival in Upstate New York and my NYNEX dorm phone. Created by Chiat/Day, the legendary ad firm behind Apple’s 1984-themed ad campaign, the ads were quick, clever, and just enough of a gag to get the point across: if you were looking for something in the Yellow Pages, you were bound to find it in the NYNEX Yellow Pages.

Here’s “Civil Engineers.”

What if you’re looking for “Herbs”?

How about “Furniture Stripping”?

“Fishing Tackle” anyone?

There’s a whole playlist of these ads. Great trip down memory lane.

Have a wonderful week. Maybe go catch some fish?

Hey there! Hope your weekend is off to a dynamite start. Before we dive in, here’s that button…

Watching: My Interview with Stephen Barrigar on The Vandy Program

Stephen Barrigar has been a friend for several years now — we first worked together for a Canadian marketing and communications agency in 2019; we bonded over music and sports and pop culture, of course — and he, too, has a Substack. (You can check out his Velcro Staircase music site here.)

Our 90-minute chat reminded me of what society seems to be missing: conversations where a couple buddies obviously don’t agree, are willing to debate, and would part as friends. We talked about…

• Canadian politics

• Pope Leo XIV vs President Trump

• Iran, Israel, Lebanon

• ALSO Coachella.

Reading: Fast Food My Way by Jacques Pepin

Yup, we’re cooking at home.

We picked this up ages ago — might have won it in a package at a pre-school raffle or something — and the theme from Jacques Pepin is that you can make food at home rather quickly and it can taste good and you can be proud of your own accomplishments. Fast Food My Way is the companion cookbook to a Public TV show from the mid-2000s.

There’s a recipe for Ham Steaks with Apricot-Mustard Glaze that’s a definite winner; been making it for years now (and the cookbook came out in 2004). And there’s a Chicken Breasts with Garlic and Parsley recipe that introduced me to Wondra Flour.

Wondering what the 90-year-old Pepin is up to these days? Surprise: he’s still in the kitchen. Here’s a Croque Monsieur recipe.

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Listening to: A Whole Bunch of Chicago Live Music from Three Decades (?)(!)

Aadam Jacobs appears to have been obsessed with Chicago’s live music scene. So he has curated tapes of shows. Lots of shows. And they’re all on the Internet.

When news of this collection broke, I was skeptical; I’ve watched the first 30 seconds of way too many YouTube videos where the concert footage audio just isn’t quite right and the crowd noise drowns out the lead singer.

But this collection: it’s the real deal.

You can read more about how it came about here, on this unofficial recap of the Aadam Jacobs Collection.

Suffice it to say, for the live-music obsessed, it’s amazing.

The full thing is at this link, and you can search by year, or by venue, or alphabetize the columns and search by band.

I have spent way too much time on this site in the past week; as a result, I have discovered that the most popular shows in both 1994 and 1995 were from this band: Guided by Voices.

Rediscovering: The Work of Robert Plant

A week or so ago, Stephen Colbert decided to have Robert Plant on his show — with accompaniment from a band called Saving Grace — to perform a Led Zeppelin classic called “Ramble On.” It’s a must-watch, so here it is…

BUT we can’t stop our Plant-based Musical Diet there, eh?

In 1988, Plant released a solo album called Now and Zen. It’s outstanding, and, to me, “Heaven Knows” still sounds amazing.

And let’s close things out with “Ship of Fools,” also from Now and Zen and also still sounds like it just dropped yesterday.

May your week be filled with the sights, sounds, and tastes that delight you. Cheers!

It’s certainly, definitely, absolutely Spring! (At least where I live in suburban Chicagoland; YMMV.)

Let’s dive in with a list of what’s going on in my world through a few pop culture-ish things that I’m Watching, Reading, Listening to, and Rediscovering.

First, though, the all-important button:

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Watching: ‘Vagabond Awake’ with Advice for Living (and Retiring) Abroad

This was a real dynamite find, thanks to my rather eccentric YouTube watching habits: He calls himself Vagabond Buddha and his channel is “Vagabond Awake” and two of his videos caught my eye.

First, here’s his general advice for someone who (1) wants to become an expat and (2) has Argentina on their radar screen. (To quote Liz Lemon, “I want to go to there.”)

Also, below is a screenshot from the above video and, if you buy two bottles of Trapiche — that’s probably the first name in Agrentine Malbec — you get the third free; 7321 Argentine pesos translates right now to about $5.25 US. So definitely affordable on the wine front, eh?

Okay, all well and good for someone who is thinking about Argentina, but what about another part of the world? The Buddha talks with a chap called Ed in…Vietnam. Ed may strike you as exactly the kind of American who would travel the world and decide to settle in Vietnam. This video goes into the specifics of how Ed lives — and does so astonishgly cheaply — in Da Nang. (Ed also talks about his dating life; feel free to fast-forward past that.)

Reading: Up, Up, & Away by Jonah Keri*

(I’ll explain the asterisk in a moment.)

I’ve decided to re-read this book for a couple reasons. One: The Cubs are playing at Wrigley this weekend and the Friday uniform choice has a real Montreal Expos feel to it.

Two: there’s a real need for nostalgia these days — at least I’m feeling the need for nostalgia — and the Montreal Expos are the ultimate nostalgia trip.

The book is excellent. A fun throwback to an era of baseball that was an absolute hoot — see below for evidence of a mascot being thrown out of a ballgame; something that could only have happened in Stade Olympique — and can make one pine for a franchise that decamped for Washington, D.C. in 2005.

Now, let’s talk about the asterisk. Jonah Keri, the author, did, in fact pen a great book in 2014.

He would also be arrested for domestic violence stemming from events in 2018, and he was found guilty and was jailed for his crimes in 2022. The Los Angeles Times wrote a really powerful article about his ex-wife, who was the victim of Keri’s abuse and is now a domestic-violence counselor in Montreal. A link to the article is here: Amy Kaufman’s story.

The LA Times article closes the article with this:

The National Domestic Violence Hotline is available 24 hours a day by phone, (800) 799-7233; chat, at thehotline.com; or text message, by texting “START” to 88788.

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Listening to: 3 Really Fun 90s Songs…From Mazzy Star, Portishead, and Letters to Cleo

This video, of Mazzy Star singing “Fade Into You,” has 122 MILLION VIEWS. What’s a few more? The lead singer is Hope Sandoval and you may sense a theme with this song and the next two.

But, I’ll be honest with you, while Mazzy Star is excellent, there’s something about Portishead and its song “Sour Times” that…speaks to me. It’s so 90s. Lead singer Beth Gibbons is downright enchanting.

Remember when Parks and Recreation had Letters to Cleo as an act that performed at a festival on the show? Dang, “Here and Now” was such a glorious little tune. And I’m never gonna memorize the chorus, so here it is:

The comfort of a knowledge of a rise above the sky
But could never parallel the challenge of an acquisition in the
Here and now, here and now.

Vintage video performance here from lead singer Kay Hanley and the band.

Rediscovering: WKRP in Cincinnati, Opening and Closing Sequences

I’ll take “Underrated TV for 1000, Alex.”

WKRP in Cincinnati is more than just the show that gave us the “Turkey Drop” episode. Both the opening sequence — with a theme song performed by Steve Carlisle — and the closing credits were awesome; the closing credits may sound like gibberish because, well, it actually was gibberish, sung by Jim Ellis in a demo tape made for show creator Hugh Wilson.

And the ending; note that this particular YouTube video splices the song together three times, giving us a taste of some of the guest stars in the show’s history. (It’s…not exactly a Who’s Who, but hello Edie McClurg!

And we’ll see you next week!

Hope it’s been a great weekend so far, and that it will be a great week ahead.

Here’s the 22nd straight edition of The Saturday List.

Watching: Highlights from The Vandy Program

Since the last edition of this here newsletter, I’ve launched three — THREE!!! — new episodes of The Vandy Program, which is my interview-meets-podcast program. You can find it on YouTube, where the full episodes get posted first.

First, there was my friend John Puccio, whose Substack article on The Perpetual Present really got my attention.

In this 4-minute-ish excerpt, John and I discuss the aesthetics of The Cybertruck.

Next, Jerry Beach, who is a Long Island-based sportswriter and author — he wrote the definitive account of the 2000 Subway Series — and he has thoughts on whether we might see a tenuous offseason in 2026; baseball’s owners and players seem to be far apart on a few issues.

Finally, I caught up with former WAER-FM colleague Matt Dery, who has carved out success for himself in two industries: sportscasting — Matt is the host of the Locked On Lions podcast — and marketing, where he manages marketing and business development for Financial Architects, a financial firm in Detroit (where Matt has lived for going on 30 years).

One question I asked is, basically, how did the Lions become THE LIONS? What’s behind their recent return to relevance?

Well, I had a guess. Matt tells us more here.

The full interviews are on the channel. All three were big fun for me, and I hope you, too, will enjoy.

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Reading: Building Great Sentences, by Brooks Landon

It’s amazing — to me, at least — that I have only recently heard of this book; seeing as I write for a living and try to digest as many books on the craft as I can find. But this just caught my eye and Brooks Landon seems to know a thing or two (or more) about writing. And, specifically, writing sentences.

Building Great Sentences is on the way to my home and will greet me when I return from various travels.

Here’s the blurb on Amazon.

(Note to self: this being the second reference I’ve heard to Absalom! Absalom! this week, should probably check THAT out, too.)

Listening to: Ratboys

Okay, Ratboys. You win. I’m now a fan. The band originally formed in South Bend, Indiana, when two University of Notre Dame freshmen, Julia Steiner and Dave Sagan, first met. They are now romantically linked; e.g. they are “partners” according to the band’s Wikipedia page. She sings, he plays lead guitar.

Here’s “Light Night Mountains All That,” which is right now getting airplay on Sirius XMU.

Here’s a song called “Anywhere” from a few months back.

Here’s “It’s Alive!”

Rediscovering: Bert Kreischer Drinks Kool-Aid

Bert Kreischer is a comedian. He hosts a show with Tom Segura. Bert is the one on the right with…a daily…Kool-Aid habit. It’s stupid-silly.

If you haven’t seen it, please watch.

If you have seen it, watch again.

Have a great weekend, and a wonderful Easter Sunday.

(There’s a lot to celebrate; be sure to hug those you love.)

Hey there! This is my weekly compilation of what I’m Watching, Reading, Listening to, and Rediscovering.

Before we dive in for our — checks notes; something done immediately after manually creating an em-dash — 21st Consecutive Saturday, here’s the “Share” button. Send this along to a friend and get your weekend off to a great start.

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Watching: How to Build a Victory Garden

Things are…interesting in the world.

So let’s do a bit of a modern-meets-throwback study of the “Victory Garden,” which is a term that dates back to 1917 and World War I. The goal was food security: if people could grow more fruits and vegetables themselves, there would be less of a need to rely on farmers. They became more popular during World War II; Farmers were being pressed into service and all manufacturing and machinery was focused on war efforts.

So growing your own food became more important, and people didn’t have a lot of space.

Two pieces below: One is from a YouTuber called Wild Floridian, who gives you a crash course in Victory Gardens. The other is an original US Government Victory Garden piece, from the Ball State University archives.

Reading: Business Model Generation by Alexander Osterwalder and Yves Pigneur

I have a first edition of this book, which was released in 2010, and it’s one of those business tomes that doesn’t just get you thinking: it forces you to think creatively about your business.

Especially in this AI-driven age, where we seem to be a subscription, a prompt, or a line of code away from creating something, Business Model Generation asks that you take a step (or two or three) back and figure why you’re doing what you’re doing, and how exactly to go about doing it. In other words, can you create value? Can you find customers and partners? How will you do that? And…can you make any money at it?

It’s well-worth picking up; pretty sure that you’ll refer to it quite often, like I do.

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Listening to: Some Really Good Cover Songs

I’m about to provide a trio of tunes. Two are covers of 80s songs and one is a cover of a 2000s tune by a band that became popular in the 80s. I apologize for nothing.

Here’s a group called EZ Band sharing a cover of “This Charming Man” by The Smiths in the “Norteno” style. (EDITOR’S NOTE: Can someone help me add a “tilde” over that “n”?)

I love Wang Chung. (More on them below in the “Rediscovering” section.) They’re crazy talented and visited AV Club — which is now independent from The Onion but is still a pretty good outlet for pop culture — five years ago and recorded a cover of Modest Mouse’s “3rd Planet.”

One of the greatest covers ever is by Gary Jules, who took a Tears for Fears song called “Mad World” and completely reinvented it for the Donnie Darko soundtrack. (In case you think I’m kidding about a song’s reinvention, I’ve also included the original below.)

And the original (Curt Smith on lead vocals here).

Rediscovering: To Live and Die in L.A.

There’s so much about this movie to love. To Live and Die in L.A. was the brainchild of William Friedkin — the same guy who won Best Actor and Best Picture Oscars for The French Connection — and, to borrow from SNL’s Stefon, “This Movie Has Everything:”

• Willem Dafoe, who doesn’t even get top billing;

• William Peterson, the guy who was on CSI: (who does get top billing);

• A soundtrack completely composed and performed by Wang Chung;

• John Turturro!;

• And maybe the greatest car chase scene since…Oh, I don’t know, but it’s an awesome car chase.

Here’s the trailer — “When I was a kid, movie trailers were crazy!” — followed by the theme song from the show, and then “City of the Angels,” from the film’s score.

(I won’t share the car chase here. You have to watch the movie (and it’s available on a ton of streaming services).)

Make it a dynamite week, friends!

One last button for ya. See you next week.

We’ve returned for another week…it’s our (checks notes) 20TH CONSECUTIVE EDITION OF THE SATURDAY LIST. It’s also our 30th since we started last July. Let’s get rolling!

Watching: Sam the Cooking Guy and Sip and Feast

We like to root for the good guys over here. And two of them are Sam Zien, who is known on YouTube as “Sam the Cooking Guy,” and James Delmage, whose foodie empire is called “Sip and Feast.”

First, there’s Sam. He’s based in San Diego and what’s fun about his approach is that it is both bougie AND accessible.

One of my favorite videos of his is his take on Birria Tacos. Yes, I’ve made it multiple times. Yes, it was delicious. Yes it required a slight step out of my comfort zone — that would be the packaged chili peppers in the Mexican food aisle — but I felt semi-invincible after the first time making it. And I may have overeaten.

Most-recent video that popped up on Sam’s YouTube Channel: how to use your air fryer correctly.

Next, James. He works with his wife, Tara Boerum, on a channel that is mostly Italian-focused and does a great job of making the complex simple.

But…and I said “mostly” Italian…one of my favorite videos was his Beef Bourguignon from a couple years ago.

His most-recent video: Watch as he makes a chicken dish that is sorta like shrimp scampi, but with chicken.

Both gentlemen have channels with 7-figure subscriber numbers on YouTube, but they have both put in the sweat equity to get there. And you’re bound to be inspired to try something new in the kitchen.

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Reading: The Prize, by Daniel Yergin

The full title is The Prize: The Epic Quest for Oil, Money & Power; seems tremendously a propos as there’s a war in the Middle East and we’re all looking at gas prices and trying — most often, unsuccessfully — to time the market. Originally released in 1992, then rereleased in 2009, Daniel Yergin studies the history of Big Oil like no one else.

He’s written a couple more recent books, too: The Quest: Energy, Security and the Remaking of the Modern World (2011) and The New Map: Energy, Climate and the Clash of Nations (2020).

The Prize was my introduction to Yergin’s work, and it served me well as I was just beginning a communications stint in the Oil & Gas industry.

The photos within the book are a fun throwback, too…Hey, there’s Gamel Abdel Nasser! There’s George H.W. Bush, an oilman!

Worth reading any of Yergin’s books to understand how we got where we are.

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Listening to: Three Dynamite Alternative Rock Songs from the 90s

The 1990s hit different. “A vibe.” No wonder Gen Z seems to be discovering all the things that made Gen X great.

Like the music. Alternative rock was especially amazing, as bands that used to be relegated to college radio ended up going mainstream.

I could share some of those songs here, but I’m going to go with Three Deep Cuts.

Brother Cane. “And Fools Shine On.” It was number one on the rock charts for six straight weeks in 1995.

BONUS NEWS FLASH: Brother Cane is releasing new music in April.

Next up, Dovetail Joint. In 1998, this Chicago band got picked up on a local compilation by the radio station Q101; they ended up with a decent amount of Chicago airplay — though not enough to break through nationally, it seems — and have remained on this reporter’s playlist since.

Finally, Salt. Not Veruca Salt. Not Sault. Not even the French brand with the same name.

This version of Salt is Swedish. “Bluster” didn’t totally put the band on the map, though it did hit #21 on the US Modern Rock charts in 1996.

The entire album, “Ausculate,” is quite good.

Rediscovering: No Country for Old Men

Okay, let’s get this out of the way right now: No Country for Old Men is the Greatest Movie of the 21st Century (So Far).

Based on the novel of the same name by Cormac McCarthy, adapted by Joel and Ethan Coen, it’s also on the short list of quite a few Movie Mt. Rushmores. And it’s definitely on the Mt. Rushmore of Coen Brothers Movies.

Released at the Cannes Film Festival in 2007, it instantly got rave reviews; the Coens would win three Oscars — Best Picture, Best Director, Best Adapted Screenplay — and Javier Bardem won Best Actor for his chilling performance as lead character Anton Chigurh.

How chilling? Here’s a clip of the famous “Coin Toss” scene.

It appears to be available on Paramount+, Netflix, and Amazon Prime. (I say “appears” because these things change all the time and YMMV and all that.)

But as we lament the current State of Hollywood, it serves as a reminder of when movies were movies…not that long ago.

Have a wonderful Saturday and try to get outside…It’s Spring!

Hello again! It’s time for the 19th consecutive edition of The Saturday List — 29th overall; we started last July and plan to keep going — and it’s a quick synopsis of What I’m Watching, Reading, Listening go, and Rediscovering. Let’s begin (after a word from our Subscribe button):

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Watching: Two Interviews on The Vandy Program

Allow me to toot my own horn here: I sat down with two of my friends for my podcast — which is called The Vandy Program and is available on YouTube and you should totally subscribe over there — and both were great and thought-provoking discussions.

First up, David Eckstein. He’s a PR professional living and working in Los Angeles, and his perspective on agencies and how they’re doing a disservice to staff and clients by not focusing on mentorship is notable. It’s one of the “PR Truisms” he has posted about on LinkedIn and he and I discussed those during the interview.

That was Tuesday…Wednesday, I hopped on a call with Jennifer Brown, who has a website and X account that are both named “Redhead Ranting.”

Our chat was more about bringing back the old ways: not homesteading and growing your own food, but opening the door for others and making sure you always use your blinker. And putting the phone down!

She makes it her mission to stay positive, and it was a fun discussion about just that. (And then the wifi died and it was just me…so I brought the hour-long interview to a close.)

Reading: Visual Capitalist’s Top 25 Visualizations of 2025

Behold the humble infographic: from its beginnings as a PowerPoint slide on steroids to today’s need to compete for eyeballs in the attention economy, they’ve gotten better and better over the years.

Visual Capitalist has an economics spin to its one-pagers, and these are really good.

That’s #20, and did you know that California by itself is the 4th largest economy in the world? It’s true. (Just ask Gavin Newsom.)

Here’s a link to the entire list and you might find a little inspiration here.

Listening to: Three Outstanding Rap Songs (That May Be Older Than You)

Here we go — this is like the complete opposite of just about every “Listening to” I’ve included since this newsletter started in July; all of the others have trended in the direction of Alternative, Indie, or Classic Rock — as the list provides you with a public service: three outstanding rap songs, at least according to me.

First, Eric B. & Rakim. Eric B. is the guy with the beats. Rakim is the rapper. (Ofra Haza is the singer sampled in the video version below; her “Im Nin’alu” is still a bop. Her musical history is a fun rabbit hole, but…well, back to the rap below.) “Paid In Full” is the title track off of the duo’s 1987 release.

Next, something from Geto Boys. I still maintain that this is The Greatest Rap Song Ever. NSFW. RIP Bushwick Bill (one of the three members of the group; the other two were Willie D. and Scarface).

Song peaked at #23 on the Hot 100 in 1991. That’s the regular chart, not the Rap or R&B chart. Heavy rotation on MTV. We Stan. Here’s “Mind Playing Tricks on Me.”

Aww, man…this is giving me ALL THE FEELS today. First the late great Bushwick Bill, now we’ve got our third in the troika: A Tribe Called Quest, whose “Award Tour” is guaranteed to pack the dance floor.

A Tribe Called Quest brought their A-Game each and every time; this particular song was released in 1993. Phife Dawg founded the group with childhood buddy Q-Tip in 1985 (!!!). Phife Dawg died in 2016 and this song features Trugoy the Dove from De La Soul, who passed away in 2023.

Again, ALL THE FEELS.

Here’s “Award Tour.” Please dance.

Rediscovering: Inglourious Basterds

Okay, I know: Pulp Fiction is Quentin Tarantino’s opus. I don’t care, and I’m about to do the meme:

My unpopular opinion that would put me in the above situation: Inglourious Basterds is Tarantino’s best work.

Sure, Pulp Fiction is great. But Inglourious Basterds followed it 15 years later (2009) and was beyond brilliant; part of its brilliance was in its alternative history “Let’s Kill Hitler” catharsis.

The rest of the brilliance was probably its casting; for instance, Aldo Raine is one of Brad Pitt’s best roles. The film introduced us to Christoph Waltz — who would win two Best Supporting Actor Oscars, one for this movie and another for Django Unchained (2012) — whose Hans Landa character remains etched in my brain.

With each rewatch it gets better. So it’s time to watch it again.

Bonus: Here’s Charlie Rose interviewing Waltz about his role in the movie.

Find the movie on Netflix, among other places.

And we’ll see you next week!

Hi there! Much to enjoy in the world, and here’s a little slice of mine. Stay positive, people!

Watching: The World Baseball Classic

Seriously. Right now. As I write this. There is baseball on, it is baseball’s answer to the FIFA World Cup — which the USA is co-hosting with Canada and Mexico — or Olympic Hockey — and we know how that turned out — and I am 1000% on board.

Japan and Korea? Sure, I’ll take it. From the Tokyo Dome? Why not. Live baseball as I drink my Saturday morning coffee? Konichiwa. (Japan just won, 8-6. The game finished at 7:14 Chicago time.)

This is the sixth edition of the WBC, and Japan won the first event in 2006. For a variety of reasons involving scheduling, player contracts, and the lack of muscle of an organization like FIFA or the IOC helming the event — you can read into that sentence any way you’d like but let’s get real, I’m not even aware of the NAME of baseball’s international governing body — there doesn’t appear to be a consistent schedule. Japan won again in 2009, the Dominican Republic won in 2013, the USA in 2017, and the most-recent event was 2023, also won by Japan.

2023 gave us this moment, possibly the greatest non-MLB moment in baseball history.

Flash forward to 2026.

Did you hear about Greatest Player in the World Shohei Ohtani’s Grand Slam on Friday, March 6? If not, enjoy THREE LANGUAGES of sportscasting excellence, English, Japanese, and Spanish, calling the amazing Tokyo moment.

Into. My. Veins.

Games are on FOX and its FS1 and FS2 networks in the USA. In the mission to make this as big and cool as the World Cup, baseball is doing its best.

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Reading: The War on the West by Douglas Murray

Douglas Murray is a brilliant man, however controversial his views may be. Perhaps a less-polarizing political thinker than some others in the “Conservative” camp, the British author and speaker wrote a really thought-provoking book called The War on the West in 2022 and the book became a best-seller almost overnight.

The gist: Western ideals are, indeed, under attack.

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Listening to: Talk Talk and Placebo (And Their Connection)

If you ask me to discribe a song that is 10/10, impeccably crafted, and absolutely pitch-perfect, one offering would be “Life’s What You Make It” by the band Talk Talk. It’s not their most popular song — don’t worry, I’ll feature that one below — but, IMHO, it’s their absolute best.

Lead singer Mark Hollis died a few years back, and this is his opus.

Their other more popular song is “It’s My Life,” which was co-opted by animal rights groups, thanks in part to its really cool video. Shown here:

Meanwhile, the band Placebo is…interesting. They’re connected to Talk Talk only in that they enjoy covering songs; Placebo is also British and has quite the random backstory.

Here’s Placebo’s cover of “Life’s What You Make It.” With a heck of a video that tells us A LOT about consumption, and the ways of the world. (Upshot: count your blessings.)

Placebo, to me, is best known for its “Pure Morning,” which follows below. “A friend in need is a friend in deed,” and so on…

(I’ve shared the official audio since the video itself comes with a warning.)

Rediscovering: Three Kings

We all have one of those movies. The ones we absolutely loved but that the rest of the world just didn’t seem to get.

For me, Three Kings was one of those. Released in 1999, I remember attending an advanced screening of the film — Connections? No. Chicago’s NATAS had a really good film-screening membership thing — and I left stunned. Same feeling I had after The Matrix and The Sixth Sense.

I thought it was brilliant: post-Gulf War 1, so set in the early 1990s, the premise is that three soldiers try to search for gold that was supposedly stolen. It’s part black comedy and part war movie — I remember an interview with one of the stars, George Clooney, who said, in effect, “If this works, it’s M*A*S*H.” I have long maintained that Ice Cube should have gotten an Oscar nomination. Mark Wahlberg is the other one of the three main characters.

The movie received critical acclaim and did well at the box office; but it was never got to the point where it was part of the regular rotation on the cable channels, so maybe it was just…the right movie at the wrong time?

Looks like it’s only available to rent on a whole bunch of platforms, but worth the $5.

Thanks, as always, for reading. Don’t forget to switch your clocks if you’re in the USA. And don’t forget to hit that Subscribe button.

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With this morning’s news of American and Israeli strikes on targets in Iran, it’s challenging to come up with a Saturday List this week. BUT I’ll do my best. Prayers from here for our troops and the Israeli troops and all of those in harm’s way.

So here’s the list, and a reminder to enter your email and hit the subscribe button if you haven’t already.

Watching: The Jinx

This could go into the “Rediscovering” category, but I tend to reserve that for nostalgia, so let’s keep it under “Watching.” (Plus, “Rediscovering” this week is really good, and from the 1970s.)

If you have never seen it, you’re in for a treat. There’s never been a documentary quite like it; watching it unfold was absolutely amazing.

I’ve watched it a few times, and figured this weekend might be the time to dig in again.

Here’s the trailer. The full series is available on HBO.

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Reading: The Physics of Baseball by Robert K. Adair

Ever wonder why a curveball curves? Or how hard it is to hit a Bo Jackson-esque 480-foot home run?

The late Robert Adair wondered these things; he passed away in 2020 and actually wrote this book in 1990. He was the official Physicist to the National League, appointed to the post by a fellow Yale professor named A. Bartlett Giamatti.

The book, a first edition of which I have, is…amazing. (I never took physics, got mostly average grades in science classes, but somehow decided to pick this thing up at a bookstore when I was in college.)

It was a simpler time. No pitch clock in this book. Get off my lawn. (But you probably have to order the book from Amazon.)

Listening to: Shudder to Think (Or…One of the Most Unique 90s Bands)

The 90s were…different. Case in point: Shudder to Think. To call these guys unique in the alternative music world is an understatement.

Describing them was like nailing jello to a tree while attempting to plug your umbilical cord into a light socket.

Lovers of alternative music will talk about pockets of brilliance that existed just beyond the mainstream, and STT certainly was that. And there were a few stations in the US that ACTUALLY PLAYED THEM ON THE AIR. Bostonians had WFNX. Californians had KROQ.

Chicago? We had Q101, whose 1990s iteration actually played this song on the air.

Here’s “X-French Tee Shirt.”

N.B. MTV had 120 Minutes and they had the band on, so why not share the version of their biggest hit from that show?

Here’s another tune called “Hit Liquor.”

I could go on about this band, but enjoy the rabbit hole; they actually performed live last year at a few places, including Riot Fest in Chicago. Bummed that I missed that.

Rediscovering: Network (And Ned Beatty’s Speech)

You have to dance around various streaming platforms to find this movie, and you will probably have to pay for it. Recommendation: give up on that and buy a DVD player and just score the disc.

[Sidebar: If pressed on a Mount Rushmore of Greatest Movies Ever, Network, Citizen Kane, No Country for Old Men, and Gone with the Wind would be mine, but that’s if I’m under duress and trying to finalize a newsletter on a Saturday morning.]

While you search for the movie, here’s one of the best scenes in movie history.

They rarely make movies like these anymore.

Have a great and safe week.

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On Sunday, February 22, 2026, 60 Minutes aired a story on the plight of South African farmers. I was curious — I’ve actually followed this issue since the late 2010s; more on that below — and I consider myself on the right end of the bell curve.

So I watched.

If you haven’t seen it, here it is. Give it a watch and then let’s walk through it.

The Setup: It’s Happening, But It’s Not a Big Problem

I first learned of the 60 Minutes piece on X — where, let’s face it, the February 22, 2026 traffic has been a glorious combination of Gold Medal USA memes and bloody, toothless hockey heroes — and the X excerpt — “Xcerpt” I guess; boy I’m clever — was from the first few minutes of the piece.

Cooper wastes no time in framing the story as “not that big of a deal;” and the tweet accompanying the Xcerpt is akin to the first play from scrimmage being a 60-yard pass from the QB to the top receiver.

“In May, Pres. Trump said ‘over a thousand’ White farmers have been murdered in South Africa.” Trump claimed the crosses were “marking their burial sites.” The white crosses, the tweet tells us, “were gone.”

The story opens with some interesting foreshadowing, as they tell us that the interview subject, Daryl Brown, is a “seventh-generation rancher and farmer.” This is foreshadowing because we see that Brown’s family has tended the land since the Apartheid days. Stay tuned for that part of the story.

An Introduction to Being ‘Directionally Correct’

Trump’s mission with his use of the phrase “burial sites” was what the late Scott Adams would call “anchoring.” Get people to pay attention to an issue by exaggerating the claim; then, when the exaggerated claim is proved false, you have begun to get people to pay attention to the issue.

It’s from that where I get the concept of being “Directionally Correct.” If you claim “Thing One Is Everywhere,” and the other side says “Thing One Isn’t Everywhere, Here Are A Couple Examples, But It’s Not Everywhere,” you have been shown to be Directionally Correct. You’re not completely accurate, but you’ve now gotten me to pay attention to an issue that, while perhaps minor, is indeed happening.

The mission of 60 Minutes appears to be getting the issue to be framed as a combination of deep-seated scars from Apartheid — what we would call “systemic racism” in the USA — and also the fact that —Oddly? Coincidentally? Ironically? — “All Lives Matter!” But they acquiesce to the fact that Trump and others who have been talking about South African Farm Murders are at least Directionally Correct.

Cooper sets out to disprove point the first point: “They’re Not Burial Sites!” He succeeds in the first couple minutes, and can declare victory. The end zone is near, time to maybe establish the run game for a couple plays, or just throw over the middle for a nine-yard gain to the tight end.

‘I’m Just Asking Questions’

Journalists, YouTubers, X Power Users, Comedians: they all use the “I’m Just Asking Questions” excuse to ask, frankly, stupid questions.

It’s done for the camera, or for clicks, and some of it will elicit the typical eye rolls. But Anderson Cooper’s question to the South African farmer at roughly the 4-minute mark of the video was bonkers.

The setup (with apologies for any misspellings; I’ve taken the spelling of each name from the closed captions on YouTube) is that Daryl Brown’s friend Toli Nell was murdered on his farm. Toli’s wife, Renee, witnessed the murder and still lives on the farm. (Her son, Tiennes, tends the farm and we learn that he carries a firearm with him everywhere, he tells Cooper, but in the shower.)

Having debunked the “burial sites” argument, Cooper can move down the scale from “It’s not happening” to “It’s happening, but it’s not that big a deal.” He does so in the stupidest way, with the question at 4:00 of the video. “When you heard President Trump talk about a genocide, what did you think?”

I won’t blame Renee Nell, the widow, for her response here. (I’m not here to dogpile on grieving widows, that’s the domain of Candace Owens.) She told Cooper that she thought Trump was using the wrong word, then she said that the attackers were being “opportunistic.”

I don’t know the other questions that were asked here, so I will give Cooper the benefit of the doubt on that. HOWEVER, using the response of one grieving widow to paint a broad brush stroke over something that is happening, and has been reported on for going on ten years now, but is being swept under the rug as “not a big deal” is beyond the pale.

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Time to Pivot to Journalistic Malpractice

No matter what she said, actually, Cooper was ready to pivot to the most-plausible narrative from anyone to the Left on any issue such as this.

I’ll call it the “Short Skirt” argument, which is the one usually thrown out to try to defend an indefensible sexual assault charge with the “well, she shouldn’t have been wearing a ‘short skirt’” defense. E.g. “They were asking for it.” Ridiculous, blames the victim, should never be used to justify a crime. Ever.

Fade from Renee Nell to what eerily reminded me of Charlie Brooker’s Newswipe “How to Report the News” piece (link below).

We see average Afrikaners at a table, followed by an establishing shot of a farm, followed by people working on said farm.

But it’s the line that accompanies these shots that will stop you in your tracks. It’s the Short Skirt Argument:

Yes, it is directionally correct to say that if only 7 percent of the population owns 72 percent of its farms that is an example of inequality. (It’s also a fact that Price’s Law is a thing and the square root of the number of people in an organization will be responsible for 50 percent of its productivity.)

Cue the (Black) South African “leading agricultural economist,” a chap called Wandeli Salobo, to tell us that, yes, the Whites own 72 percent of the farms but, quoting Cooper here, “the overwhelming number of farmers and those working on farms are Black.”

Quoting Salobo now:

What follows is as formulaic as Brooker’s Newswipe piece — though not at all funny — in that Cooper and his CBS producers show us a Black farmer who was forced to sell his 9-acre farm because he was shot at (by whom, we aren’t told), then we’re shown footage of a presumed murder victim, behind police tape, and we’re told by Cooper that the murder rate in South Africa is “seven times that of the United States.” And that 25,000 murders took place in 2024 but an “estimated 37 of them were killed on farms.”

‘Crime, Boy I Don’t Know’

There’s a memorable scene from The West Wing that comes to mind. The TL;DR version of it is that the President is running for re-election, he has an off-the-record discussion with his opponent, his opponent says a really stupid line, and the President throws the line back in his face.

Cooper next interviews an individual named Johan Kotza (again, apologies for the spelling errors; the CC machine also calls them “Africoners” so that’s not correct either), who heads up “South Africa’s largest agricultural organization.” Kotza says it’s not about White genocide but “it’s about criminality in South Africa.”

Cooper’s inelegant response/question would have caused the fictitious President Bartlet to light up another cigarette:

CBS then tells us that published statistics only began giving the race of those murdered on farms beginning in 2025, and the first quarter of 2025 found 6 murders on farms, with only 1 of those six being White.

(Hold on, let me brew some more coffee. My brain hurts from the amounts of circular logic necessary to understand where Cooper et al are going with this. And we’re only halfway through. Subscribe button follows.)

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Why Is Any of it Happening?

Having been told by Kotza that poverty drives crime, we next see more establishing shots of South Africa’s inequality, followed by a few more stats and info-nuggets that fit the narrative:

• 44 percent of Blacks live in poverty

• only 1 percent of Whites live in poverty

• 2.7 million residents of South Africa are “Afrikaners,” who settled 400 years ago

• 1948 was when Apartheid was instituted, stripping Blacks of any rights whatsoever

• 1994 is when Blacks were at long last able to vote

• Nelson Mandela was elected, ushering in a new system of democratic rule.

Cooper next tells us of the progress that has been made, with a growing Black middle class, and a reduction in poverty among all Blacks in the country.

Next, the all-too-predictable one-two punch of (1) using the fact that American “white supremacists” talked about South Africa at rallies and (2) Fox News talked about it when Tucker Carlson worked there to paint the people pointing out the problem as racists.

It was 2018, during the first Trump Administration, when the “Farm Murders” argument — according to 60 Minutes — first took off. Cooper next asked a journalist named Max du Preez whether this was happening; the confusing nature of the questioning and the framing made it seem that du Preez was waving off everything, as the exchange was…well…here’s the exchange:

[D]u Preez having successfully dismissed the issue, it’s time to move on to the other ideas, right? That’s what 60 Minutes proceeded to do; the rest of the story continued in a similar formulaic way:

• Cooper talks about “Expropriation Without Compensation”

• It’s not happening yet, though, and if it does it’s going to wind its way through the courts

• Cooper interviews Kallie Kriel, a White farmer and head of the group Afriforum, asks him if there’s a “White genocide”

• White farmer says “we don’t use that term” but there are farm murders and “we’re seeing a call to genocide.”

Cooper plays video of the chant “Kill the Boer, Kill the Farmer” being played at an rally of the Economic Freedom Fighters party — the video that is widely used as evidence of, at the least, anti-White sentiment — and Cooper does NOT note that the party owns 39 of the 400 seats in South Africa’s National Assembly. (To be fair, Cooper does call Julius Malema a “race-baiting, opposition politician.”)

A back-and-forth ensues, where Kriel is asked whether expropriation without compensation has actually taken place; Kriel responds by saying no, but adding “because the old legislation did not allow it. The new legislation allows it.”

Time for more from du Preez, and a discussion of the fact that 59 Afrikans were allowed asylum into the USA by an executive order from President Trump; and a predictable quote from du Preez, when talking about the USA’s approach to the issue:

An Exhausting Watch

The story closes with a return to Daryl Brown, the White farmer and the guy whose crosses started this whole thing, right? I mean, had he never even planted all the crosses on the roadside, then Trump wouldn’t have called them “burial sites,” and would have never…

If You Give a Pig a Pancake, amirite?

The upshot appears to be that 60 Minutes is trying to tell us, in effect, some combination of the following:

1. Yes, violence against White farmers is a problem, but a small one;

2. South Africa is a violent country;

3. Inequality is everywhere in South Africa;

4. People are being murdered on farms but most of them are White;

5. Apartheid started all this;

6. Don’t tell us that “White Farmer Lives Matter” because that’s racist and wrong;

7. The government hasn’t taken farms yet, so maybe you Americans should focus on your own issues.

Two Videos to Wrap Up

One is an excerpt from an interview I conducted with Marc Moschetto of The Rational Workforce; Marc turned the tables on me and asked how to navigate through various social media storms. My point (it’s a 2 minute, 45 second excerpt) is that seeking out opposing arguments and different viewpoints is healthy. Here’s the video:

I share that here because I fear that 60 Minutes doesn’t really do that. I’m also wondering if the agenda under new CBS News chief Bari Weiss is to push the envelope just enough to make it look like you’re sharing both sides, but to mislead in the process.

Which brings me to the second video, Lauren Southern’s 2018 documentary Farmlands.

I first watched it when it came out. I was floored; I did more research and it appeared to be more than a tempest in a teapot. Granted, it’s a documentary; documentaries are almost always one-sided.

But if you get the chance and want to know more about the other side of the issue, here’s the video.

Wrapping Up

This is probably one of the longest articles I’ve ever written. And I realize that even touching some of these third rails will get me in trouble.

But I have to ask CBS News, 60 Minutes, the producers, and Anderson Cooper what…exactly…they’re trying to accomplish with this piece? Debunk rumors? Make Trump look bad? Paint White farmers as racist?

It’s tilted, stilted, and doesn’t do the complete story of modern South Africa any justice at all.

Well, not a throwdown, just a summary of some of the stuff I’m paying attention to. Don’t forget to subscribe using the button below. Here goes:

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Watching: The Big Short

Never has a movie about a Global Financial Crisis been so much fun.

It could be jealousy — I mean, some of these folks made the absolute right call at the absolute right time — or just a well-crafted story that makes this so compelling.

Based on the book by Michael Lewis, The Big Short takes you inside the implosion of Mortgage Backed Securities, but from the point of view of a few who made unconventional bets. (It’s part of a troika of movies about the GFC; Margin Call is one of my all-time favorite movies — and one I’ve written about on these pages before — and Too Big To Fail is also really good.)

Here’s a clip — which has been lightly edited, as it blurs a semi-legendary scene involving an exotic dancer; but not edited enough to take out the film’s also-semi-legendary blue language — that features a group of investors doing “discovery” in Florida and learning about “NINJA” loans.

You can watch the movie itself on Netflix and Paramount+, among other places.

Reading: 12 Rules for Life, by Jordan B. Peterson

If his appearances on Joe Rogan’s podcast him on the map, this book is the one that cemented his role as a global thinker.

For me, 12 Rules for Life had to be re-read almost immediately.

He’s also become synonymous with lobsters — Rule 1, “Stand Up Straight with Your Shoulders Back” — discusses what humans have in common with lobsters. It’s explained here:

Listening to: Three Solid Songs That Dropped in 2026

If you’re interested in a some new music, here are three songs that have caught my eye already in 2026:

First up, a band from Chicago (!) called Brigitte Calls Me Baby. Their song, “Slumber Party,” continues to channel The Smiths in a pretty 2026 kind of way. (Whatever that means, Dave.)

Next up, a song that hit me upside the head this week, from a band called Deadletter with a song called “Songless Bird.” I had to listen to it twice in a row, then again this morning, then again as I wrote this. It’s that good.

But…if I had to handicap “Dave’s Song of the Year 2026” predictions, Bleech 9:3 seems to be the (very early) frontrunner with its “Cannonball.”

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Rediscovering: Barry Bonds Without A Bat

In honor of Pitchers and Catchers reporting…And with apologies for those who don’t consider themselves to be baseball nerds.

The brilliant sports numbers guy named Jon Bois created this experiment several years ago, and…well, it has to be seen to be believed.

Theory: Barry Bonds had a phenomenal 2004 season — his on-base percentage set a record at .609 — but what if he spent his season without using a bat?

Watch for the beauty of…all of this. Even if you’re not a baseball fan, it’s a really cool video.

See you all next week!

For the 15th consecutive Saturday, here’s what I’m paying attention to; reminder that you can subscribe for free below. Here goes!

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Watching: Triggernometry Podcast Interview with Eric Weinstein

Okay, I will give you the fact that the sensational title of this episode is a little clickbaity. (Is that a word?)

But Eric has an “I will drop everything and watch” effect on me. (And I’ve mentioned before how much I love Konstantin and Francis, the Triggernometry hosts.) So I rearranged my afternoon when this dropped earlier this week; and it still has me…thinking. A lot.

It’s deep. A bunch of it is way over my head. But there’s a geopolitical element to it that I find really fascinating — especially given the wildcards running governments in places like Iran, North Korea, Russia, and the United States — as they discuss nuclear weapons and their potential use.

Reading: All Things Edward Tufte

At least twenty years ago (!?!) I attended what was, hands down, the best training seminar I have ever attended.

In addition to watching Edward Tufte present for several hours, attendees got three books to keep as part of the training. He has since written a couple more; but The Visual Display of Quantitative Information, Envisioning Information, and Visual Explanations were the ones I got and still refer to pretty often.

Modern infographics owe Tufte a debt of gratitude. “Sparklines” wouldn’t exist without his introduction of the concept. (See below for the first known example of a sparkline from 1762, written by author Laurence Sterne in his The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman; Tufte coined the term in 2006, they’re now everywhere.)

His website, too, is a treasure trove of “ET Notebooks” in two categories: “Art” and “Science.” And I’ve yet to see someone who melds both together so brilliantly.

Listening To: A Couple More Choir! Choir! Choir! Tunes

Whoever came up with the idea of singalongs in a Toronto bar that took pop songs and backed them with an amateur choir that sounds anything but amateur deserves a medal.

I especially dig their collaborations — in last week’s edition I shared theirs with Rick Astley — and…why not? Here are a couple more.

David Byrne, backed by Choir! Choir! Choir!, singing David Bowie’s “Heroes.”

And here’s MY favorite Men At Work song, “Overkill,” where Colin Hay sings and plays guitar with the choir.

Rediscovering: Some Memorable Music Videos from the Early Days of MTV

I loved Herbie Hancock’s “Rockit” so much that I had the cassette as a kid. The video was awesome, and scared the crap out of my eldest.

I still maintain that Wall of Voodoo is an underrated band that should have been known for more than just one song. But that one song had a video where someone’s face emerged from a pot of beans. (The song, “Mexican Radio,” is a nod to the “Border Blasters” from way back when.)

And finally, here’s the song that (IMHO) put Run DMC on the map. It featured Larry “Bud” Melman before he was outed as an actual guy named Calvert DeForrest.

Enjoy “King of Rock,” don’t forget to subscribe, and have a great week ahead!

(Before we dive in, here’s the Subscribe button…)

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Watching: Maybe Just About Every Olympic Documentary Ever?

Well, that’s a bit of a reach; but, on the Official Olympic Games website, you can stream a crazy number of documentaries about past Olympics.

So, as the 2026 Winter Olympic Games begin in Milan(o) and Cortina, Italy, why not throw it back to…say 1984? It was another world, another time — and held in a country that was a few years away from a horrible war — but Sarajevo held a pretty successful Olympics. This one is also available on YouTube.

Another documentary from ten years later, 1994, with one of (for me) the most memorable Winter Games. Lillehammer, Norway. Also on YouTube.

Note that you can sign up on the Olympics website for free to access…well, just about every Olympic film possible.

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Reading: Designing Gotham (A Story About A Font)

I guess Gotham is not just ANY font.

You’ve no doubt seen it — Barack Obama may be most responsible for launching its fame — but there’s a heck of a story behind it.

Story told, in part, here: on the Frere-Jones website. (Tobias Frere-Jones being its designer.)

Listening To: Rick Astley (Who Turned 60 (?!) Yesterday)

Yes, Father Time is unbeaten.

Rick Astley is 60?

Yes. And nobody has embraced his role in meme culture like Rick.

Here are a couple of my favorite Rick Astley moments. First, he sings with Choir! Choir! Choir! in Toronto. Pure joy.

I love The Smiths, so hearing Rick with a band (Blossoms) covering “There Is A Light That Never Goes Out” (off of the unbelievable The Queen Is Dead) was a treat. Glastonbury, 2023.

The whole audio from Glastonbury, which, as it turns out, was a Smiths tribute show, follows here. I’m in awe.

Oh, he has a new song?!?! You can stream it here: Rick Astley’s website.

Rediscovering: That Time, During the Pandemic, When I Interviewed Jim Rogers

He remains a legend in investing, and when he responded to my email with a “let’s do it,” I couldn’t believe my luck. It was a fun conversation and, maybe, a little prescient.

Yeah, my home studio needed some improvement, and the lighting was bad on my end, etc. But, with everything going on in the precious metals markets, now’s a good time to share an excerpt that some Redditors caught wind of.

(Note to self: reach back out to Jim, see what he thinks about…everything.)

Thanks for reading. The streak continues…14 straight Saturdays! Share with the button below. We’ll talk again next week.

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