May 9, 2026
What I'm Watching, Reading, Listening to, and Rediscovering This Week
As we head towards Mother’s Day on Sunday, and we might finally have actual Spring weather here in the Middle-West, time to take a spin through what I’m Watching, Reading, Listening to, and Rediscovering…
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.
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.
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