That makes this the 38th consecutive edition of The Saturday List.

Let’s celebrate — after the Subscribe button, of course — with what I’m Watching, Reading, Listening to, and Rediscovering.

AND, as we continue tweaking the format of this here newsletter, we’re starting to add a section called “Finally” at the end; something that serves as the nightcap. So you’ll see that below.

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Watching: My Interview with Sean McGinnis from The Manager Vault

Sean McGinnis and I go back…a few years. He is an executive, currently working in the Cleveland area, and he — along with co-founder Ashley Walton — has created a site called The Manager Vault.

Let’s face it, managing people is one thing, but leading people is entirely another.

We talk about this, and the type of advice he and Ashley share twice a week on their site, in an hour-long interview in a recent episode of my podcast, The Vandy Program.

Reading: Magnificent Humanity by His Holiness Pope Leo XIV

One of the sites I subscribe to is Word on Fire, which offers Catholic programming in video and in print. They were one of several groups that reprinted Pope Leo XIV’s Magnificent Humanity, which was his first “Papal Encylcical,” published in the Spring.

It features a foreword from Word on Fire founder Bishop Richard Barron and will certainly make you think about the role of technology in our lives now and in the future.

I’ve begun diving into the book, but the subtitle is On Safeguarding the Human Person in the Time of Artificial Intelligence. An excerpt from very early in the book — and again I’ve just begun reading — brings up the “Tower of Babel” in the Book of Genesis:

“We must, then, avoid the ‘Babel syndrome,’ namely the idolatry of profit that sacrifices the weak, a uniformity that neutralizes differences, and the pretense that a single language — even a digital one — can translate everything, including the mystery of the person, into data and performance.”

Listening to: Ned’s Atomic Dustbin

What? Who? What kind of name is that?

Ah, if you’re uninitiated, here’s a really underrated band from that dates back to 1987 (!) and continued to produce bangers into the 90s. From the United Kingdom, I present Ned’s Atomic Dustbin.

First up, one of their biggest hits — but released only in the US and Australia — is “Grey Cell Green,” off of the album God’s Fodder (1991).

The band’s biggest alternative hit, reaching #1 on Billboard’s US Alternative chart, was “Not Sleeping Around,” off of the band’s album Are You Normal? (1992).

I’m sure you’re wondering: hey, Dave, what’s your favorite Ned’s song? I’ll answer that this way: off of the 1995 album Brainbloodvolume, here’s “Stuck.”

Rediscovering: Dawn of Def Jam: Rick Rubin Returns to His NYU Dorm Room (a Rolling Stone Film)

This is a 10-minute joyride. Life was…different back in the 1980s.

Rick Rubin is a legend, and you can see where it all started.

Finally… Ryan Fox — Winner of Golf’s Open Championship — And His Origin Story

This video popped up on Facebook this week, and it was created six years ago. Note that the DP World Tour of golf changed the headline of the video, as Ryan Fox won the (British) Open Championship golf tournament last Sunday.

It’s a neat 13-minute look at Fox as a golfer who grew up in a family of New Zealand sports royalty; It’s also a fun snapshot of Kiwi life, too.

Make it a great weekend, and a great week ahead!

Dave

New here? Glad to have you! I’ve curated this list from the internet and beyond for (checks notes) 37 straight Saturdays, and next week we’ll celebrate one full year of TSL. (Well, minus one day, as the first Saturday of The Saturday List was July 26, 2025.)

Alas, time to dig in — after the button, of course — on what I’m Watching, Reading, Listening to, and Rediscovering this week.

Watching: The Sandlot

Did you see the tribute to America at the MLB All-Star Game with Ray Charles singing “America The Beautiful”? The throwback to The Sandlot was a sweet touch.

The Sandlot was more than just a movie that spawned a whole bunch of memes and the “You’re Killing Me, Smalls” phrase. It’s probably one of the best baseball films of all time. Trailer below, and you can watch now on Disney+ or Hulu.

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Reading: The Age of Extremes: A History of the World, 1914-1991 by Eric Hobsbawm

Warning: This is not going to be for everyone.

The Age of Extremes: A History of the World, 1914-1991 reads like a World History textbook, probably because it’s…pretty much a World History textbook. (So if, like me, you were a US History minor in college, you might dig this quite a bit.)

Eric Hobsbawm passed away in 2012, but not until after he had become one of the pre-eminent historians of late 19th Century and 20th Century world history. (He wrote two other historical tomes: The Age of Capital (1848-1875) and The Age of Empire (1875-1914).

Beginning with “A Bird’s Eye View” of the century, Hobsbawm does a deep dive into just about everything from Franz Ferdinand to The Fall of the Soviet Union. You can’t digest this in a weekend — I’ve tried; it’s one of those books that takes a lot of time to get through — but it’s worth it for Hobsbawm’s analysis.

Listening to: Depeche Mode

On my personal list of favorite bands, Depeche Mode makes the Top 10. Why not throw back to some of their past hits, and share a couple recent songs, too? It’s Saturday, this may help put you in a good mood.

The band formed in 1980, with Dave Gahan singing lead and Martin Gore as guitarist and Andy Fletcher on keyboards and bass; those three were stalwarts of the band after original co-founder Vince Clarke left the band in 1981.

Gore took over as the songwriter and is one of the masters of the craft, IMHO. Fletcher died in 2022, and the band honored him with their most-recent album, Memento Mori. (More on that below…)

Violator, released in 1990, is one of the band’s best albums, and the track that put the band on the map is “Enjoy the Silence.” The song got as high as #8 on the Billboard Hot 100, and was #1 on the US Alternative chart.

My personal favorite song of DM’s is this one, “Precious,” written by Gore to his children after his divorce.

The 2023 album Memento Mori was a tribute to Andy Fletcher, and the song “Ghosts Again” is stirring as heck. And it showed that the band could still…produce a powerful tune.

Rediscovering: Victory

Sunday is the FIFA World Cup Final, featuring Argentina against Spain. May as well suggest checking out one of the most iconic soccer movies of all time: Victory. Released in 1981 under the title of Escape to Victory in some non-USA markets, Victory seemed to be a staple of early 1980s HBO.

Featuring Sylvester Stallone, Michael Caine, and Pele (YES, Pele), the movie was directed by the legendary John Huston and told the story of a group of POWs in World War II who were (1) good at soccer and (2) aimed to use an exhibition soccer game as a ruse to escape their camp.

The late Pele did all of the soccer “choreography” in the movie, including this crazy bicycle kick goal toward the end of the game — this doesn’t give away any plot points, so you can enjoy it even if you haven’t seen the movie — and I sorta forgot that Pele died in 2022.

Victory can be found on Sling as part of a subscription, or can be rented for $3.99 from a whole host of services.

Finally…

Yeah, the World Cup has been amazing, so we’ll leave you with a compilation of visitors sharing their stories about what makes this country so great.

We’ll see you next week…have a wonderful weekend!

Dave

Well, whether you have or you haven’t…time for the weekly debrief. Here’s what I’m Watching, Reading, Listening to, and Rediscovering this week.

Watching: An Interview with Matt Sieger on The Vandy Program

As I’m not one to shy away from controversial topics on my podcast, The Vandy Program, I recently connected with Matt Sieger, an expert on the intersection of sports, religion, and culture in San Francisco.

Matt is a retired sportswriter who has written a couple of books, and one of them served as the backdrop for our discussion: The God Squad: The Born-Again San Francisco Giants of 1978.

If you’ve been following the story of the 2026 San Francisco Giants, you might wonder about the connection between the 1978 team and this year’s squad; as we dug in on the parallels, it became pretty apparent that the clash of ideals was between the religious members of the team and the city’s liberal culture. (And, believe it or not, winning fixes a lot.)

It’s a fascinating issue that’s about more than just religion and homosexuality; should players be forced to support something that they believe is not in line with their religious beliefs?

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Reading: ‘The End of Reading Is Here,’ Rose Horowitch in The Atlantic

The whole article…is something to behold. Rose Horowitch studies the fact that we — as a society; she focuses on Americans here — are not reading. “The End of Reading Is Here” is the name of the article. And it’s pretty crazy. Two excerpts follow and the above link is a “Gift Article.”

(I guess I’m trying to do my part with this newsletter on a weekly basis; but still, this is a sobering article.)

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Listening to: Bonnie Tyler (1951-2026)

We lost Bonnie Tyler this week. Consider the staying power of her music: three songs are still culturally relevant today. Here they are. Rest easy, Bonnie. And thank you.

Here’s “Total Eclipse of the Heart”…

And “Holding Out for a Hero”…

Finally, “It’s a Heartache”…

Rediscovering: A 1995 BBC Documentary on Currency Traders

This pulled me in instantly. It’s a combination of nostalgia, the energy of an actual trading desk, and the fact that the BBC followed three traders, on three continents, for an entire day — and the blind luck that that day turned out to be rather crazy — that made this one of those videos that can’t be explained.

Plus, there’s ubiquitous cigarette smoking and Reuters terminals and pagers. And bad music.

It continues to be a pleasure to deliver this newsletter to you; this was our 36th consecutive edition of The Saturday List. Make it a great week, will ya? We’ll see you next Saturday.

Dave

250 years ago today, July 4, 1776, Philadelphia. The Declaration of Independence was ratified, and a new nation was born.

Sure, the process of getting the signatures might have taken awhile — copies had to be printed the old-fashioned way; can you imagine life without email? — but the fact is that this date is cemented on the calendar.

Happy Birthday, America! Now, onto this week’s list.

Watching: The Patriot

Not to be confused with the TV show Patriot, about which I wrote last year, this is The Patriot, which was the revolutionary war film that starred Mel Gibson.

(My suggestion for a title was The Passion of The George, but this movie was not written or directed by Gibson, so that joke falls flat. Also, it’s not about George Washington.)

While the film is historical fiction, it does a really good job of painting the human cost of the revolution. The scene below serves as a little foreshadowing of what was to come later in the film; and it includes the late Heath Ledger, fellow Oscar winner Chris Cooper, and Gibson as the lead character, Benjamin Martin.

Worth a watch on a day like today.

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Reading: All About The Declaration of Independence

How about a patriotic rabbit hole?

The National Archives website provides just that opportunity, and one thing I’ve been digging into all week is the list of the signers of The Declaration of Independence.

There are some expected names: John Adams, John’s second cousin Samuel Adams, Ben Franklin; and there are some fun names, like Charles Carroll of Carrollton, or William Williams. And George Washington’s name ISN’T there (he was busy, in New York, leading an army).

Realize this, though: it took…a while…to get all the signatures, and the last of the 56 was secured on August 2.

On the site you can play around quite a bit, even adding your own John Hancock to the document. And you can spin through the other big documents from our nation’s founding, including the Constitution of The United States and the Bill of Rights.

Listening to: SiriusXMU’s ‘All-American Indie 250 Countdown’

SiriusXMU is one of my presets, and it’s the station I’m most likely to have on in the car. (There’s a Yacht Rock channel, though, that also gets fired up on longer trips.) All weekend, they’re ranking their take on the best songs from American artists in Indie rock history.

Anyway, I figure that, since the music I share here is probably more “Indie” than anything, why not share three songs that I’ll bet you’ll hear on the list; or at least that I’d put on this list.

The Strokes, “Juicebox.”

Sure, “Last Nite” is likely the song that put them on the map — and I bet it’s pretty high up on the XMU list — but I’m a big fan of this song.

Built to Spill, “Carry the Zero.”

Just a fun, kinda-trippy, late 90s Indie rock anthem.

Sufjan Stevens, “Chicago.” Uber-talented, puts on a tremendous live show, clever as heck — “Come on, feel the Illinoise!” — and “Chicago” is still amazing.

Rediscovering: The Greatest Performance of The Star-Spangled Banner…Ever

I will accept no debate on this subject.

Wayne Messmer, Chicago Stadium, NHL All-Star Game, 1991. During the Gulf War.

Wherever your celebrations take you this year, make them safe and extra-special. Thanks for hanging out with us each and every Saturday.

Dave

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Watching: The Changing Face of the Entertainment Industry, An Interview with Anthony Palomba, Ph.D.

I had the pleasure of sitting down for an interview with Anthony Palomba, a Ph.D. and professor at the University of Virginia’s Darden School of Business, to talk about what exactly is happening with media. Fun interview for me, and there’s a lot here:

• The success of movies like Obsession and Backrooms;

• The changing landscape at CBS;

• How advertising has gotten granular, and if it can go farther in that direction;

• The future of late night programming;

• And what he sees coming down the pike.

It’s the latest edition of The Vandy Program and you can check it out below:

Reading: When Money Destroys Nations by Philip Haslam (with Russell Lamberti)

Avid readers of this newsletter are familiar with this concept, as I suggested a similar book, When Money Dies by Adam Fergusson, and I seem to be drawn to books about hyperinflation. When Money Destroys Nations by Philip Haslam (with Russell Lamberti) is another such book; though it is from a more recent phenomenon.

This book studies Zimbabwe’s hyperinflation, the seeds of which were sown perhaps when the country became Zimbabwe in 1980 — the book, rather eerily, does not even mention that the country was known as Rhodesia and declared its independence from the United Kingdom in 1965 — and certainly beginning in 1999, when inflation was a mere 57%.

It got so bad that the country printed what was the largest denomination of any note ever: the $100 Trillion bill.

It’s a sobering read about what really happens in a country when there is zero confidence in the government and its finances.

Listening to: Three Songs I Heard on Taco Bell Radio’s 80s Station (PLUS BONUS MATERIAL!)

I realize that sounds like it could be the title of a Coen Brothers movie. Alas, in celebration of just how good the Taco Bell Radio 80s station is, here are three songs I heard back-to-back-to-back on my recent burrito run. (And there’s a bonus song following each.)

Bananarama, “Cruel Summer.” They may be better known for their only US #1 hit, “Venus” — which is a cover of a song originally done by a Dutch band called “Shocking Blue” — but this, to me, is peak Bananarama. Nothing says “it’s really hot out, plus I’m eating Taco Bell by myself” more than the song “Cruel Summer.”

BONUS: Here’s Shocking Blue with “Venus.”

The next song actually SHOCKED me, because I just shared it on socials within the last month.

The band Boys Don’t Cry named itself (we think) after a song by The Cure of the same name. (The Cure’s “Boys Don’t Cry” came around in 1979, so it’s a likely story for a band to be formed four years later; the movie Boys Don’t Cry came around in 1999.)

In any event, “I Wanna Be A Cowboy” was kitchsy and fun and an immediate earworm for me; alas, most of the world forgot about it.

But not Taco Bell.

Here’s “I Wanna Be A Cowboy.”

BONUS: Here’s The Cure with the above-mentioned song.

What came after “I Wanna Be a Cowboy?”

38 Special, of course. Co-founder Donnie Van Zant is the younger brother of Ronnie Van Zant — the founder of the band Lynyrd Skynyrd — and 38 Special had a couple hits in the early 80s before catching fire with the next song on the Taco Bell playlist.

“Second Chance” was the band’s biggest hit in the US, going to #6 on the Billboard Hot 100 and all the way to #1 on the Billboard Adult Contemporary chart.

BONUS: Here’s “Simple Kind of Man” by Lynyrd Skynyrd.

Rediscovering: How ABC News Covered July 4, 1776

This should get you ready for next week’s party!

Part 1 is a setup, with coverage from across the country; Part 2 features the tall ships.

In Parts 3-5, we hear from President Gerald Ford and then it’s back to some tall ships.

Sprinkled throughout, the coverage is anchored by Harry Reasoner and you’ll see ads for ABC’s coverage of the 1976 Summer Olympics.

There’s nothing political about this coverage, no whining about whether or not the correct kinds of people are present. Just full-throated patriotism.

Thanks, as always for reading. We’ll see you on July 4, 2026.

Dave

Let’s get rolling…right after the Subscribe button…

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Watching: She Spent a Year Renovating an Abandoned General Store

I am now asking myself…how did I miss this?

No worries, as vlogger Emma Shaye catches us up on her progress taking an abandoned general store and turning it into a home and homestead.

The video below is a 40-minute recap on Year One; and, if you subscribe, you can catch up on what she’s done since.

It’s darn impressive.

Reading: The 4-Hour Body by Timothy Ferriss

This may have been the book that brought us the concept of “biohacking.” Timothy Ferriss entered the American psyche with his first book, The 4-Hour Workweek, in 2006 and followed it up in 2010 with The 4-Hour Body. Both were bestsellers.

The subtitle of The 4-Hour Body reads as follows: An Uncommon Guide to Rapid Fat-Loss, Incredible Sex, and Becoming Superhuman. I’ll leave the last two pieces up to you to review on your own, but I can certainly vouch for the “Rapid Fat-Loss” element.

Ferriss led the charge with what’s called the “Slow-Carb Diet,” which can work — YMMV, talk to your doctor before trying any new diet and all that — by zeroing in on low carbohydrates, high fiber, and giving your body one “cheat day” each week.

The book is chock full of other advice; for example, certain exercises have much more return on time invested than others. (Squats, for instance, are the kind of compound-exercise that, if done correctly, can really pay off.)

Listening to: Oliver Tree (1993-2026)

Singer, songwriter, rapper, artist, producer; Oliver Tree was a man of one bowl cut and many talents.

Oliver Tree died in a helicopter crash in Rio de Janeiro on Sunday, June 14, 2026.

I had not heard any of his music before he died, so, like many others, I am just now discovering his work. I figure his two most popular songs would be worth sharing here.

Here’s “Life Goes On.”

And here’s “Miss You,” which he performed with Robin Schulz.

RIP Oliver.

Rediscovering: Glengarry Glen Ross…And the Legendary Alec Baldwin Scene

I recall seeing this movie for the first time when it arrived in a Netflix envelope. Released in 1992, Glengarry Glen Ross is the movie adaptation of David Mamet’s 1984 play of the same name. It’s profane, raw, and brilliant.

You can find it on quite a few streaming services; here, we’re sharing Alec Baldwin’s scene. That one. “Put that coffee down!”

For some of us, it’s been…a week. For others, maybe the official start of Summer will kick things into a positive gear.

In any event, thanks so much for reading. We’ll talk to y’all next week.

Dave

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!