Just Some Stuff for Sunday

Stuff I liked the week of July 7, 2025

Jul 13, 2025

Good morning, Sunday Stuffers! It’s time for me to share the stuff I read, listened to, or watched this week that brought me a little joy or comfort. Today is the 40th anniversary of Live Aid. Today! July 13tth!

The summer of ‘85 was pretty amazing. I turned 16, and I remember feeling like such a grown up driving around with my friends listening to all kinds of music. Every artist from Live Aid was probably blaring through that car stereo at some point.

Live Aid organizer Bob Geldof says there couldn’t be a Live Aid-type event in 2025. In his view, social media and algorithmic fracturing have made it impossible to create monolithic musical and activistic moments. And he’s not wrong. I vividly remember watching the concert on regular ol’ free TV, and all my friends did too. You couldn’t really NOT see it. It was can’t miss television. That just doesn’t happen any longer.

“Live Aid: When Rock ‘n’ Roll Took on the World,” is a four-part documentary that dives into the history of the gargantuan benefit show. The series premieres at 9 p.m. (ET/PT) tonight (July 13th) on CNN.

But now let’s get to the other stuff:

The Comeback on HBO. When I heard that Lisa Kudrow was getting a shot at playing sitcom actress Valerie Cherish in a third season of her mockumentary series The Comeback I just had to watch seasons one and two, which came out in 2005 and 2014 respectively. The HBO series is a little dark and cringey at times, but my lord is it funny. I’m only sad that Robert Micheal Morris won’t return as her hairdresser/BFF Mickey Dean, because Morris died in 2017. Mickey had some of my favorite moments from the show. Season three is expected to come out in 2026.
PBS is Punk! That is all.
We Might Just Make it After All: My Best Friendship with Kate Spade by Elyce Arons. A look back at the wonderful friendship that started the billion dollar fashion company. More to say on this one later, but it was a good read.
Esquire Magazine: Summer 2025 issue. Thanks to my BFF Terry, I’ve been getting a real paper copy of Esquire in my mailbox for many years. It’s the only magazine I regularly read in print, and I still enjoy it. Esquire only comes out six times a year now, and each issue is really thin — it feels like I’m reading one of my old Highlights magazines from grade school. This summer issue had two good interviews with Bono and Nate Bargatze (I was a Bargatze fan WAY early, thank you very much), a cool summer reading list, and a nice little “What I’ve Learned” feature from Bob Odenkirk. You know, along with copious photos of men’s watches and recipes for expensive cocktails.
Do Bono, Ozzy, and Geddy Lee all have to wear the same glasses? It’s getting hard to tell them apart. 🧐
Here’s yet another installment in my effort to revisit songs, bands, or music videos from the ‘80s and early ‘90s that merit a closer look. Speaking of Bono, he said in his book that he is really bummed he had such a bad hair day at Live Aid. I don’t know, his hair seems pretty epically ‘80s to me. I had a similar bi-level (we did not call them mullets then) in the summer of ‘85 for a hot second before I cut my hair short. Here’s U2 at Live Aid performing “Bad,” still one of my all-time favorite songs.