The Weekend Recommendation
One thing we’ll try to do this weekend is catch Becoming Warren Buffett, a documentary from HBO. The New Yorker’s James Surowiecki says the documentary, made with the cooperation of Buffett and his family, “deals with Buffett the businessman and investor, but it’s Buffett the man and his complicated, and often difficult, relationships with the people he loved most that are the film’s real subject. We are still treated to the greatest hits of Buffett’s business career… But what makes ‘Becoming Warren Buffett’ far more interesting than a simple hagiography is the exploration of Buffett’s personal life… Buffett was born to be great at investing. He had to work really hard to be good at living.” You can catch the promo here (runtime 01:02).
In the mood for something less true-to-life? Season six of Suits is back from its mid-season break — we’ve seen promos on OSN, but we’re watching on iTunes. It’s a very solid pickup from the mid-season cliffhanger that saw one of the lead characters leave the series. And if you’re not bothered by trans-anything or same-[redacted] love, Sense8 on Netflix from the Watchowskis (who brought you the Matrix trilogy) is simply stunning. One season is out now, as is a special double-length Christmas episode that sets up season two, which is set to drop in early May.
Also, rugby’s Six Nations championship starts on Saturday, with the first match between Scotland and Ireland kicking off at 4:25pm and England versus France to follow at 6:50pm.
Looking for a book? We started NYT correspondent Steven Lee Myers’ The New Tsar: The rise and reign of Vladimir Putinon the flight back to Cairo this week, and it is so far entirely engaging — and neither hagiography nor hack job.
We’re also delighted that Aly Shalakany’s biweekly Beyond the Rubicon column returns this week with a fascinating look at one cash-based nation’s decision to suddenly make two banknotes worthless overnight. There are plenty of lessons for Egypt there, and a bonus link to a mini-episode of Planet Money that we had missed.
Until then, we’ll keep our football hats on and enjoy this video of the Egyptian national team celebrating in the locker room after the Afcon semifinal win over Burkina Faso.