In this week's P.O. Box:

I spent the first part of this week sick as a dog, but finally back to full strength.

Here’s a roundup of what I’ve been watching/reading/listening to lately…

🎥 A Complete Unknown. I had a tough time with this one. It didn’t even really feel like a movie, more like a string of vignettes. The music is great, as are the performances, but I found myself wanting more from the story and the Dylan character. He’s so disaffected and apathetic about everyone in his orbit that it made everything outside of the music a bit of a letdown. I can certainly appreciate how Dylan diehards (and Chalamet fans) would love it, though. I think The Brutalist is next, as I slowly work my way through the 2024 standouts.

🎸 Sharp Pins - Radio DDR. I’m obsessed with this new indie rock album. Kai Slater wears his influences directly on his sleeve with many familiar touchpoints. “You Have A Way”—my current song of the year—sounds like it could have been plucked off a Beatles record.

📕 A Dead Wake. This ended up being a tweener book for me after Empire of Pain and before starting The Fish That Ate the Whale. I plan on continuing to work my way through Erik Larson’s fall back catalog. There’s no one better at foreshadowing and building up drama to a catastrophic event. This one tracks the last crossing of the Lusitania—a huge British liner that was later torpedoed by a German U-boat.

🦎 White Lotus. My earlier enthusiasm for this season of White Lotus has waned a bit. It definitely feels like we had 6 episodes worth of story that were stretched into 8. Most of the character arcs have stalled out in a way that has killed any momentum. There’s a lot of the pressure on the finale for me because most of these episodes are not strong enough to stand alone.

💎 Righteous Gemstones. I binged the first four eps of the new season on Monday when I was sick and this show remains a complete delight. For all the star power in this cast, it’s Edi Patterson as Judy Gemstone who steals every scene.

🤓 FANTASY LIFE: The 5 Best Cheap Stacks. Shared my five favorite backdoor stacks in Underdog drafts.

☕ BEST BALL BREAKFAST: The Best Cheap Stacks & Safe Backfields. The one where a guy pounded the table for Kenny Pickett in the chat.

💪 THE SWOLECAST: Never Go Full Swolecast. The one where we analyzed Davis’ outfit from a recent photo in the wild.

☣ LOLZ: What It Takes To Make A Living With Content. Spags shares what happened with his sports betting app (Probly) and discusses the content creator economy.

🚢 SHIP CHASING: The Young Superstar Who Is Still Undervalued. Gretch returns to discuss the bleak outlook for the Seahawks and debate the merit of Elite TE in 2025.

🥃 DFS After Dark w/ Matthew Freedman. Freedman shared a spicy Ashton Jeanty taek and some of his favorite NFL bets on last week’s After Dark.

⏰ OFF & ON THE CLOCK: MLB DFS 101 - A Beginner’s Guide To UD Drafts. Everything you need to know to get started with MLB daily contests.

DFS After Dark returns tonight (8pm et) with Fantasy Life’s Thor Nystrom:

You can become a YT member for access or subscribe on Spotify for a private RSS feed (I post the video/audio there directly after the show).

Ok, starting this for real this weekend…

🚂 Book #3 for April: The Fish That Ate the Whale: The Life and Times of America’s Banana King by Rich Cohen

💉 Book #2 for March (FINISHED): Empire of Pain by Patrick Radden Keefe.
🐃 Book #1 for February (FINISHED): The Heart in Winter by Kevin Barry

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