The Saturday List - Labor Day Weekend 2025

What I'm Watching, Reading, Listening To, and Rediscovering

(Let’s be honest…ChatGPT sorta nailed the “Make a Logo with a 70s aesthetic” instructions.)

Watching: Dept. Q and Capitani

One new, one old. Both Netflix shows, and both crime thrillers.

Dept. Q can best be described as Slow Horses but with replacement-level actors that are British and more affordable than Gary Oldman. I enjoyed it; didn’t turn cartwheels over it but maybe that’s me and my Netflix Fatigue. But those who liked Slow Horses will like this, as it’s different enough in premise (less-spycraft, more crime-solving).

And it has that guy from Downton Abbey. No, not that guy. The other one. Him.

Capitani is completely different but it is the most memorable of all the crime shows I watched during COVID. Not just because of the plot and character development but because IT WAS SET IN LUXEMBOURG.

Yes, that’s actual text from the Luxembourg website, it appears to be something about a Luxembourg vacation.

Fascinating country and language — Luxembourgish! — and fun to watch if you’ve studied any languages from neighboring countries, as it sounds a lot like French and German and Dutch and…

Reading: On Gender Differences, Being Dispassionate, and Meeting The Steel Man

Yeah, it’s my own post from my own website but this is my own Substack and I’ll share this on LinkedIn, too. But that’s not the point.

The point is that the article suggests you can start thinking better if you learn how to “Steel Man” an argument.

Simply put, if a “Straw Man” is when you misrepresent the other side’s argument, the Steel Man is the opposite: look at the other’s point of view and try to figure out the best parts of their argument.

You can learn more at the post on my Area 224 website; note that it’s from August 2024 and it’s still a contentious issue, but one that I got about 95% correct.

Listening To: AFI, Chevelle, Deftones

Oh yeah, here’s some ACTUAL ROCK AND ROLL.

This isn’t to say that the other tunes I normally listen to aren’t rock and roll, but they do tend to be categorized as “Alternative,” “Alternapop,” “Indie,” “Post-Punk,” or “Alt-Country.” (I could probably go on with the categorization…What exactly IS Post-Punk?)

In any event, none of these bands, AFI, Chevelle, or Deftones, would be considered any of those categories. Here are three songs, one from each:

AFI Is Back! If you look at their past work, there’s a definite look to lead singer Davey Havok. If you look at this video there’s…a change.

Chevelle, Also Back. I have dug this band since forever and could probably toss five different excellent singles up here. But I’ll go with the new “AI Phobias” and I’m really enjoying the Muse-meets-Nine Inch Nails-meets…Chevelle sound. They’re distinctive as heck. Enjoy.

Deftones Have Staying Power, Too. I think lead singer Chino Moreno would be a hoot to hang out with. He just seems like a chill dude. Here’s “Infinite Source.”

Rediscovering: 506 Sports

Managed by a chap called John Kirby, who is in New Brunswick — which I’m told is in Canada, need to check on that — 506 Sports posts information about which football games can be seen on which network and who the announcers are.

Charts look like the one below for College Football Saturdays — you are more than likely not seeing this til later, so you may have missed out! — and I cannot even begin to tell you how much I tend to geek out over these.

But wait, there’s more!

The college football grid is great, but the NFL maps are wonderful to behold.

Here’s one from October 20, 2024.

Lots of detail, but you can quickly see which game is being aired in your market — ideal for those of us who root for an out-of-market team (I’m in Chicagoland and am a die-hard Bengals fan) — and who the announcers are.

The Week One map is coming September 3 — again, if you’re reading this on LinkedIn then you can find out a few weeks later what TV coverage looked like — and decisions will likely be made involving sports bars and NFL Sunday Ticket base in part on this excellent site.

Here’s to your Labor Day Weekend!