It is Fall. Is that a good thing? IDK, let’s ask Humpty Dumpty.
Anyway, let’s get to it: Here’s what I’m Watching, Reading, Listening to, and Rediscovering this week. (First, though, the Button. Tell a friend, subscribe for free, and keep the mojo going. Or something.)
Watching: Gleason
We’re at the 20-year anniversary of one of the most memorable moments in NFL history: September 25, 2006, Steve Gleason blocking a punt in the Superdome.
Well, this was not just any blocked punt: It was the first game for the New Orleans Saints in the Superdome after Hurricane Katrina. In a building that had served as a shelter for thousands displaced by the storm; a building that hadn’t hosted a football game in more than a year.
We’ll let this story unfold in two parts: first, the buildup, and the blocked punt itself. That’s the first video, a series called Rewinder by a YouTube channel called Secret Base.
Our second video follows the man behind the blocked punt: Steve Gleason. Gleason would become a hero in New Orleans, and still continues to be treated like one; when he announced his ALS diagnosis in 2011, New Orleans rallied around him. For the next five years, his decision to fight through the disease for as long as possible would be documented on film.
Gleason tells that story. (Available on Amazon Prime.)
Steve Gleason remains an inspiration at the age of 49; still battling ALS to this day.
Reading: The Press Break by Kyle Kensing
I’ve been subscribing to this for a little while now, and it’s always a fun read.
Kyle Kensing writes about sports but does so in a way that is up my alley: college sports, and sometimes obscure little history lessons thrown in.
What makes this current edition of the newsletter interesting is that it lines up rather nicely with the weekend’s big college football matchup: Texas vs. Tennessee. And there’s other fun stuff there, too; the Texas vs. Tennessee Cotton Bowl matchup might have paved the way for an eventual College Football Playoff. It just…took a while. January 1, 1951 was one of the first steps in that progression.
Listening to: Run The Jewels
Imagine my surprise when I went through the Excel spreadsheet where I track everything on this newsletter and I did a search for Run The Jewels and it came up…BLANK?
Must. Rectify.
Maybe one of the best rap duos…ever? Killer Mike and El-P bring their “A Game” to every engagement; the pair’s chemistry is off the charts.
Let’s start with an NPR Tiny Desk Concert, this was in support of RTJ3, which I consider to be one of the Ten Best Rap Albums ever produced.
(Also, this entire “Listening to” section is…NSFW.)
My personal favorite from RTJ3 is this song, featuring Danny Brown, called “Hey Kids (Bumaye).”
Enjoy this line:
I’m the man, bitch
Got big ideas
Got plans to rob
Every Rothschild livin’
And Bill Gates
And the ghost of Jobs.
“Call Ticketron” is a bunch of fun.
And, from a collaboration with DJ Shadow, here’s the band’s most-popular YouTube video to date: “Nobody Speak.”
Rediscovering: A Really Weird Animated Soviet Propaganda Film from 1924
Great find from the folks at OpenCulture. Apparently, fighting Capitalism on Earth wasn’t enough for the Soviets; in this film, they went…TO MARS…to defeat Capitalism.
Finally: The Killers and Pet Shop Boys performing ‘Always on my Mind’
Why…not? The Killers revisited the Willie Nelson tune that Pet Shop Boys covered in the 1980s.
Make it a great weekend, and a great week ahead!
Dave
so is HD like DJT? Apt analogy, eh?