The Saturday List — March 28, 2026

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

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.

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.

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.