As faithful My Pal Sammy readers know in June I was in New York City covering the Tribeca Film Festival.
At Tribeca I met half of Milli Vanilli: Fab Morvan. Chatting with the guy who was in Milli Vanilli is a strange experience. Like: do you bring it up?They were an incredibly popular duo that were caught lip-synching. It’s a common fact; it’s on the record.
But now speaking to a human boy with emotions…Fab…do you talk about the music…that they didn’t sing? Or even write? And how do you bring up the lip-synching incident anyways? Honestly? It’s been 20 years why rehash it?
It’s a strange celebrity encounter; the way many people will talk loudly to a blind guy.
The realization directed my thoughts to Louis C.K. I’m not a fan but I’ll watch his specials, I am a comedy nerd and he’s a comedy giant.
But if you met Louis C.K. do you bring up his specials…certain jokes you like? Maybe you discuss Louie his TV show or his TV show writing (i.e. The Chris Rock Show) or his movies (i.e. Pootie Tang).
No matter what you discuss there is an elephant in the room. In late 2017 it was revealed Louis C.K. willingly participated in inappropriate behaviour.
Granted, some people would skip all the comedy and go right to judgement if they encountered Louis C.K. Which doesn’t make sense because people are more than one thing.
The issue is that’s not how we view celebrities.
Celebrities are just one thing. Girl You Know It’s True.
Timmy: “That’s like putting your whole mouth in the dip! Look, when you take a chip, just take one dip and END IT!”
Seinfeld is clearly right; though sadly double-dipping doesn’t just apply to chips at a funeral.
Double-dipping is an odd and silly TV trend.
On Valentine’s Day 2017 (good marketing!) Netflix streamed Ashley Madison: Sex, Lies, and Cyber Attacks. “The shocking story of the Ashley Madison hacking scandal.”
Ashley Madison is a Canadian online dating service and social networking service…for individuals who wish to have an affair. Tinder for married people.
In 2015 it was hacked and the personal information of millions of users was released to the public. Sounds like a fascinating backdrop for a documentary. Currently Netflix’s doc sits at 5.5/10 on IMDB. Not good if you hold ratings like that in high regard.
Then on July 7, 2023 Hulu offered a three-part docuseries The Ashley Madison Affair. This one “follows the hack of an infidelity dating website for married people that shocked the public with a scandalous data breach.” So…same concept? It’s batting 5.8/10 on IMDB. Not good if you hold ratings like that in high regard.
Sure…it’s longer than the Netflix doc. And the data breach was 2015; perhaps the 2023 docuseries had more time to review and catalog the fallout. Sure.
But…really? We Did This Already.
Why do we “need” two documentaries on horny married people?
Why are we Double-Dipping?
Here’s another TV Double-Dip.
Hillsong pastor Carl Lentz helped to lead Hillsong’s first church in the United States, in New York City, starting in 2010.
Hillsong, is a charismatic Christian megachurch based in Australia. Lentz’s (Instagram) popularity and friendships with famous folks like Justin Bieber and Kevin Durant began to slide the church away from authenticity towards a superficial platform focused on fashion rather than faith.
Eventually, criticisms of the church flourished: Hillsong’s finances were questioned, the church’s outdated position towards LGBT people snowballed into What Abouts for other groups, while church enemies were silenced or outright ignored.
And Carl Lentz became the latest disgraced pastor when the news broke of his affairs and moral failures. It’s a story as old as the Bible: Hillsong Church flew too close to the Sun. Though that means there’s a lot to unpack for a documentary.
So: a four-part docuseries Hillsong: A Megachurch Exposed premiered on Discovery+ on March 24. Cool, thanks.
Then The Secrets of Hillsong, a four-part FX documentary series started streaming on Hulu on May 19. What? Again?
We Did This Already.
There’s that much compelling footage and story for 8 hours of TV?
As a viewer how do you know which one is better?
As they’re both documentaries: which one practises sound journalism and manages to avoid cheap tabloid sensationalism? (Do you want the facts or the dirt? Gossip no matter how true is not journalism.)
Do you watch both of them?
Do you watch the one you have access to? Maybe you have Hulu (well Disney+ Canada) but don’t have Discovery+.
The Secrets of Hillsong has an interview with Carl Lentz. Hillsong: A Megachurch Exposed does not.
But! Hillsong: A Megachurch has an interview with Ranin Karim, the woman whose five-month affair with celebrity senior pastor Carl Lentz led to his downfall. The Secrets of Hillsong does not.
So then do you watch both to get the complete picture?
I had a striking pop culture experience two weeks ago.
It dawned on me I was all over the place in terms of how I was consuming music. Like a toddler eating spaghetti I was messy and sloppy.
I still get valuable cultural points for consuming new music at my age and being curious and going down strange sonic roads.
Lotta people we know comfortably settled into Coldplay as their final destination and they’re good with that. That will not be my epitaph:
Back in the day we used to sit down with an album: it was an appointment.
We invested time into an album; leisurely letting it become an essential feature of our emotional soundtrack.
I wasn’t doing that anymore. I’d strayed from that. That was the distressing realization that prompted the striking pop culture experience.
I was consuming music the way that kids today consume music. Just all isolated, no context. I can name maybe 5 Cage The Elephant songs…but I couldn’t tell you which albums they came out on.
Or even which ones came first representing a growth and evolution of the band’s sound. Nothing.
I know Cage The Elephant but I don’t know Cage The Elephant. It’s like reading headlines and thinking you’re well-informed.
I’d hear a dope song at a barbecue or maybe over the radio in my car and I’d be like yo that’s fresh. And that’s the end of the exchange.
It’s like those nerds that collect action figures who keep them sealed in their original packaging. I wasn’t playing with the musical discoveries I’d made. I wasn’t connecting with them or letting them infect my imagination. Oddly by not consistently pushing play I wasn’t allowing for play.
So 2 weeks ago on Monday I fired up Achtung Baby. U2 released a 2018 remaster of the 1991 album. I pushed play on Zoo Station and I went through the whole damn thing right to the final note on Love Is Blindness. For 55 minutes and 27 seconds I lingered like a bad houseguest who won’t leave.
I’m surprised Poetry doesn’t have a bigger affect on our lives. Especially considering the technologically driven way we live. You’d think Poetry would be bigger than it is.
I mean it’s quick, it’s fun and when done well it’s packed with artistic goodness. Like a literary vitamin for those that don’t have the time or the attention span of a novel. Or even a short story.
Poetry can be fun. A strange truth, yeah?
Somewhere along our journey clumsy burnt out English teachers made poetry dry and academic. TV sitcoms ridiculed the spaced out hippie beatnik. There just didn’t seem any space or room in our lives for serious legitimate Poetry.
The best Poetry accurately captures a moment. Frozen in time you can get the luxury of self reflection which granted not many people want. Especially if it’s a regret or a mistake.
No matter what the moment maybe…it happened. We’ve all said words we wish we could take back. We’ve all had moments of pure and utter bliss (some even with our clothes on). The trick is to aim on getting it right more often than not.
I’m glad we have a month to celebrate poetry but really it should become a lifestyle. I wish I brewed some seriously serious tea more often; to sit down with a dog eared copy of a poetry book.
So: won’t you celebrate with me National Poetry Month?
Here’s a poem I wrote…
Not By A Long Chalk
I think I will always
—at least for now—
write in chalk.
I can no longer believe in the permanence of things.
Heavily I realize how often things
fade, rust, disappear, are lost, are forgotten
…die…
And while Chalk may not leave
an adequate mark
the relentless rain and thoughtless hand can
oh so easily erase my thoughtful conclusions:
short summaries of the hurt I’ve endured;
Chalk easily assigns value to my rendered words
for they are not permanent.
The McRib of emotions: {here for a limited time only}.
Words furnished in Chalk are
but vapours on this Earth
a temporary DNA like a ghost free of memories.
And while it may be a shame to lose
what I currently and in public call wisdom
perhaps: it is better this way.
So much goes unsaid and yet often what is said
is hurtful.
Progress is writing in Chalk
an antidote to the vanity of doing the crossword in pen;
unburdened by history my simple Chalk conclusions
freely appear like uncertain apparitions who
fade, rust, disappear, are lost, are forgotten
…die…
just like me; I will shortly follow
having made less than a mark as chalk.
Tis a break from the My Summer Lair podcasts and #SetTheVCR recommendations to offer book recommendations.
A new season means new books. A new season means new perspectives.
I’m currently reading Rick Rubin’s The Creative Act: A Way of Being. (The passage from above is a quote/snapshot.)
It’s a slow read, happily so. Rick’s writing style allows you to languish between the pages. Some serious tea, a couple of lazy rainy days…and it gently opens the mind for fresh creativity. So enjoying it.
For this #NewBookAlert newsletter I present 4 books. Not 5 or 10 or some other cleanly rounded number. Nah man, 4 it is: 2 novels; 2 non-fictions.
And 3 of the books overlap thematically. One is a random surprise. Cue: One Of These Things Is Not Like The Others.
I’ll let you decide which one is not like the others.
Though that’s why I’m presenting these specific books. These 4 books are about fitting in just as they are about thinking outside the box. They’re populated with distinct characters and unique individuals.
Not to get all Mister Rogers You Are Special on you.
Like, the final writer I recommend is W. David O. Taylor who tweeted on May 17, 2022:
“I’m reminding myself today that it’s OK to be un-interesting, unexciting, and un-remarkable and simply be a human who loves his wife in practical ways, makes lunches for the kids, files folders, grades papers, puts laundry away—and that this too is God-blessed good stuff.”
So true. That’s a beautiful simplicity. Most of us can’t be on the wrong side of history because…history is not gonna record us. We’re simple people who…enjoy the simple pleasure of reading.
As such here are 4 recent books for your reading pleasure.
What are you reading?
What recent book kept you up at night past your bedtime…one more chapter, bah!?
Leave a comment
? Sunset Empire (A Morris Baker Novel #2)
by Josh Weiss
In Beat The Devils (Book #1) the Red Scare never ended. Joseph McCarthy became President & the HUAC is a terrifying secret police that crushes rebel activities & punishes disloyalty. Oh boy.
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Grand Central Pub
@GrandCentralPub
BEAT THE DEVILS by @JoshuaHWeiss is out in paperback today, just in time to catch up before SUNSET EMPIRE hits shelves in hardcover next week! Learn more about these alternate-history thrillers in which the Red Scare never ended: bit.ly/3JmuUjb
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4:21 PM ? Mar 21, 2023
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Favourite Line: “Nothing else mattered, except the cause.” Beat The Devils is out in paperback; recently released. Just in time for the dynamic follow up Sunset Empire. It’s December, 1959: The Korean War rages on. And President Joseph McCarthy is determined to rule American with an iron fist.
Favourite Fun Fact: An alternative universe Steven Spielberg shows up in Sunset Empire…working for an underground adult film studio. (McCarthy’s presidency is devoted to overt antisemitism. No surprise there.)
Favourite Gut Punch: Beat The Devils…opens with a murder. Who dies in the first chapter? Why…an up and coming young journalist named Walter Cronkite. I dunno why but Walter Cronkite’s murder was a gut punch. That’s so sad and so rude. Devils follows Detective Morris as he attempts to solve Cronkite’s murder. For more on Book #2 here’s an excerpt.
Favourite Text Excerpt: via The Hollywood Reporter.
? G-Man: J. Edgar Hoover and the Making of the American Century
by Beverly Gage
A bio on the O-G…Man: J. Edgar Hoover.
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Viking Books
@VikingBooks
Congratulations @beverlygage! ??? G-MAN is the WINNER of the 2023 Bancroft Prize in American History and Diplomacy! Start reading the book that @NewYorker calls “crisply written, prodigiously researched, and frequently astonishing” now: bit.ly/3FVeUmV
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5:08 PM ? Mar 9, 2023
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Favourite Line: “We cannot know our own story without understanding his, in all its high aspirations and terrible cruelty, and in its many human contradictions,” writes Gage.
Favourite Fun Fact: Hoover had professional relationships with eight U.S. presidents. That’s a lot of power. Never realized it was that many. He’s like the Billy Graham of law enforcement. (Billy rolled with at least 11 Presidents…)
Favourite Gut Punch: G-Man is a disturbing and definitive work that sheds new light on the man who helped shape the conservative political landscape of America today. This is, in part the story of how we got here.
Favourite Text Excerpt: via The Atlantic.
? Never Sleep
by Fred Van Lente
Meet Kate Warn the first female private detective in American history.
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Blackstone Publishing
@BlackstoneAudio
Happy #pubday to #NEVERSLEEP by @nytimes bestselling author @fredvanlente ??? ?You can order this historical adventure (and @AppleBooks spring pick) right HERE? buff.ly/3vDLBPq
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6:33 PM ? Mar 28, 2023
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Favourite Line: Nothing to do with the historical novel but this is a fun line. Many moons ago I took Fred and his lovely wife Crystal Skillman to Honest Ed’s in downtown Toronto. Looking around at all the crap on the walls, the loud signs…the comforting chaos of the sloppy displays he concluded: “This store is…like a physical manifestation of the internet!” See? Great line.
Favourite Fun Fact: Based on a true story! It’s 1861 and the first female agents of the Pinkerton National Police Agency are racing against time to foil an assassination attempt on the President Abraham Lincoln’s life. Secessionist high society, secret societies…it’s all happening! What’s so civil about war, right?
Favourite Gut Punch: This isn’t the Ford Theatre assassination of Abraham Lincoln! It’s another attempt on his life. Obviously and sadly the Ford Theatre attempt was successful. Single tear…
Favourite Audio Excerpt:
?A Body of Praise: Understanding the Role of Our Physical Bodies in Worship
by W. David O. Taylor
“I dedicate my book to dancers.”
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J.D. Woosley
@JacksonWoosley
It is truly a thing of beauty to hold this one in my hands today. Spent a long time waiting on this one.
Grateful for the brilliant mind and pastoral heart of @wdavidotaylor! Excited to learn from him a bit more about what it means to be human.
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10:06 PM ? Mar 24, 2023
Favourite Line: “I’ve been thinking about this book for 25 years. I’ve been working on this book for 4 years.”
Favourite Fun Fact: “What we do with our postures, gestures, and movements in worship matters. How our senses of sight, scent, sound, taste, and touch are involved in worship matters. How our spontaneous and prescriptive activities form us in worship matters. All of it matters to faithful and fulsome worship for the sake of a body that is fully alive in the praise of God.” Interesting perspective, not sure if I agree. I’ll hafta read this book and get into it. I value books where you can argue with the page.
Favourite Gut Punch: Chapter 8 is why I’m recommending this book. (Well that; and I also enjoy dude’s outstanding writing.) Chapter 8 focuses on “Artistic Perspectives on the Body in Worship.” Super curious about but I gotta read all the way to Chapter 8? Alright then; let’s get started. I’ll put the kettle on.
Favourite Texts: Follow David on Twitter & IG. He posts these wonderful payers and rich cultural insights. It’s a joyful mashup of culture and Christianity. (Sometimes those are the same things…)
March Madness is always a fun distraction. April 1st is the Final Four games while April 3 is the NCAA Championship Game: all of em are on CBS. (I wonder how working from home during March Madness has impacted productivity and the ratings?)
On TV I just wrapped up The Fall. One of those creepy British police procedurals centered around gruesome murders. Kinda like Broadchurch with those Sherlock long episodes (hour and 20 minutes). (I said British to provide a easy shorthand but it’s really an Irish production filmed and set in Northern Ireland.) The Fall ran from 2013-2016. CBC Gem just picked it up; might still be on Netflix? Check.
Gillian Anderson is the face you’ll recognize; she plays Stella Gibson, a senior investigating officer who reviews investigations. Is this accurate? Her role is to assess the progress of a murder investigation that has remained active for longer than 28 days. I’ve never seen 28 Day Reviews in American police TV shows.
Anyways what her 28 Day Review reveals is that a couple of the recent murders could be linked: looks there is a serial killer operating in Belfast. Dum, Dum, Dum!
The third “series” was kinda eh, but the first two were dark and disturbing delights. We tend to view serial killers through the lens of psycho and victims. And yet the impact they have on a community, on families, the stress it puts on cops, the anxiety of women as the bodies pile up: means serial killers are more like a virus.
Yes COVID is a disease but it affected so much. That’s what serial killers do; they’re a virus. We pay a steep price for failing to address broken people in our society.
Our inability to properly and effectively care for the broken people who populate our society creates a widening ripple effect of trauma. A serial killer’s childhood or his busted life are butterfly wings. It’s the Butterfly Effect of hurt.
Anyways with The Fall wrapped up I’ve started The Night Agent. Yo!
I never read Matthew Quirk’s novel but The Night Agent about an FBI agent who gets a Federal Booty Call (U Up?) has been fast fun. Classic heart-pumping action and lots of Kiefer Sutherland can’t trust anybody this goes right to the top shadowy machinations.
The TV series follows the crooked journey of Peter Sutherland a young FBI agent who finds himself caught up in a conspiracy (of course he does!) that threatens to upend the entire nation (of course it does!).
As he navigates a web of lies and deception (oh yes!), Peter must use all of his skills and training to uncover (wait for it!) the truth before it’s too late! (There it is.) A spy thriller meets political drama should be enough to…keep you up at Night. U Up for The Night Agent?
Just finished reading The Fresh Prince Project: How the Fresh Prince of Bel-Air Remixed America by Chris Palmer. A love letter that revisits the beloved sitcom. (Chris does excellent work noting the various Jordans Will Smith rocks on the show.)
On Wednesday Netflix released Waco: American Apocalypse. A 3-part docuseries about the 1993 Waco, Texas combat when cult leader David Koresh faced off against the federal government in a 51-day siege. I wrote about it in late February inDon’t Let The F-U-N in Fundamentalism Fool You!
And we’re gonna kick off today’s proceedings with Charles Barkley’s classic I Am Not A Role Model commercial which came out in 1993. Same year as Waco.
The past is a candy-sticky 4 year old that persistently (and annoyingly) asks “why?”
Rollin With Role Models?
The entire text of this short Nike ad is: “I am not a role model. I’m not paid to be a role model. I’m paid to wreak havoc on the basketball court. Parents should be role models. Just because I dunk a basketball doesn’t mean I should raise your kids.”
Yo…yes! Even as a high school punk in 93 I was like high fives; this makes so much sense. I don’t “need” you to be a nice guy and like help the kids or whatever. You’re here to win basketball games and I’m here to enjoy that. Winning is the only value we agree on. We good! Proceed.
Barely 30 seconds and yet it was an elegant revolution: a rousing rejection of many of our culture’s core values. We’re shrines and shills for famous folks. We have always worship celebrity. Sometimes envied the Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous especially when we see their Cribs.
Lamentably this warped worship leads to betrayal. As much as they’re known for being rich and good looking and enjoying the perks of fame…celebrities mess up. A lot.
Barkley said “I am not a role model” in 1993, 2 years after his dreadful spitting incident.
During an NBA game in 1991, Barkley spit in a fan’s general direction. Only he missed hitting a young girl, a second grader, sitting in the crowd. Fans turned on Barkley and for a while this hot mess refused to go away.
(You know how many dull variations of Spit Happens headlines we hadda endure back then? Barkley was Public Enemy No. 1 but many lazy newspaper copywriters weren’t far behind.)
Later Barkley confessed: “When the spitting incident happened…I remember sitting in a hotel room and I was like dude what the hell is wrong with you? What are you so angry about?”
So he changed how he played and he worked at addressing his untamed anger. An easy line for me to write that doesn’t truly convey the amount of work that takes. And he did change…and thankfully…he kept failing too. Whew.
I’ll tell you as long as you promise not to share this.
Because unfortunately we require people with bad taste so we know what good taste is. If everybody ate with a fork and knife we wouldn’t know it’s poor form to eat with your hands. Or why eating your hands is acceptable as a toddler but the expectations change as you grow older.
Okay…write this down.
The secret to good taste is…search vaguely.
How do you use Google…you search specifically right? You Google the hours of a store; directions to a friend’s new house…an actor’s IMDB.
On Spotify you go right to the new album from Radiohead or Mark Ronson or fire up a workout playlist.
You do the same on Netflix: gimme the new season of Stranger Things. When we’re online we treat these vast high tech resources like a cab driver: I wanna go here…(hear)…now hurry up and get me there. We search specifically.
Try searching vaguely.
Open YouTube and plop in a song name you like + covers. Here’s a sweet Girls Just Wanna Have Fun cover. Fresh, yes?
Covers exist but you gotta find em. So do remixes and mashups and more. Searching vaguely trains the algorithm according to your (good) taste.
Open Google and search for rock music from the 2010s. See what it spits up. Then work through the results and identify what moves your spirit. Is this work? Absolutely.
You can’t shortcut good taste. An NBA player can hit a game winner shot it doesn’t mean he’s a great player. He’s gotta do that consistently and efficiently. It takes time. It all takes time. It all takes work.
This is why many people have Top 40 taste. And that’s fine…if you’re happy and that’s what you want from pop culture: that’s fantastic. Turn up the new Rihanna song and call it a day.
But if you want more because there is more…so much more…remixes, covers and beyond music…foreign TV shows and overlooked movies and sci-fi novels that are not bestsellers. All bounty worthy of a successful pop culture treasure hunt. For more search vaguely.
In most detective TV shows there is a classic line: “What are we looking for? I dunno but we’ll know it when we see it.” That’s the value of searching vaguely. That’s the value of good taste. “What are we looking for? I dunno but we’ll know it when we see it.”
We did this for everything in real life back in the day…we vaguely searched bookstores; video rental stores and of course vinyl shops.
We were pop culture detectives, searching for clues…putting it all together…grasping at connections.
Pop culture was a mystery filled with wonder and surprise. Going into stores like a record shop were surprise parties. We didn’t always know what to expect. Search vaguely sparks surprise.
When the Melody Record Shop in Washington, DC closed in 2012 cultural critic Leon Wieseltier wrote in The New Republic…about comparing online/Google searches with like physically browsing in the stacks…he concluded:
“Browsing is the opposite of “search.” Search is precise, browsing is imprecise. When you search, you find what you were looking for; when you browse, you find what you were not looking for. Search corrects your knowledge, browsing corrects your ignorance. Search narrows, browsing enlarges.”
THAT’S IT. That articulates so much: Search corrects your knowledge, browsing corrects your ignorance.
And that’s what we used to gain from digging into the stacks. But that’s a skill that has been lost. Or has it?
You don’t always hafta search specifically. Yes, to find the locations of a store you want to visit…search specifically. Bam! Done. That’s what Google is good at.
But you always (thankfully!) have the option to search vaguely.
And…it gets easier.
Because the most important part isn’t discovery, it’s sharing. Share eagerly, share often.
On December 31, 2016 a Toronto institution Honest Ed’s permanently closed. For many Torontonians it was a difficult death. One of the reasons for Ed’s demise was fans treated the institution like a museum not as a store.
You can’t adore Honest Ed’s but shop at Wal-Mart or online via Amazon Prime. You hafta buy something; literally invest in it…in your community for it to survive.
Just months before Honest Ed’s closed up shop another Toronto institution relocated from its noble home: Play De Record left Yonge St. for a new location on Spadina (411 Spadina Ave).
In the 1990s, the Yonge Street strip between Gould and Elm was Record Store Central: Play De Record, Sam the Record Man with those iconic neon records, A&A, Sunrise Records and so much more.
Downtown Toronto had a vibrancy, a third world energy that now is mostly past tense. You can see elements of what I’m describing in Dave Chappelle’s 1998 movie Half Baked…shot in Toronto.
The Sam The Record man records are lit up in this scene: you can feel the electric current of the city. (And that clearly Pizza Pizza where Kenny is scoring his munchies is also gone now. Sigh.)
Later The Incredible Hulk an Edward Norton Marvel movie, also shot in downtown Toronto in 2007, features a final appearances of Big Slice. A delicious pizza joint. (We’re rapidly losing pizza outlets as much as we are vinyl shops in the city.)
(A lot of the Yonge Street depicted in this Hulk battle scene is now…gone. Which is a rageful irony since the Hulk scene is supposed to be set in Harlem and how many New Yorkers recognize Harlem anymore? Gentrification blurs identification.)
And now you can add another film that literally documents that long ago downtown Toronto vibrancy: Drop The Needle a Play De Record documentary.
A record shop Play De Record was located at 357A Yonge St. right at Yonge-Dundas our Canadian Times Square. Bright Lights, eh?
June 5, 62: #StanLee & #SteveDitko debuted #PeterParker in Amazing Fantasy #15.
5 years later on Sept 9, 67 nerds first heard “#SpiderMan” theme song of the 67 cartoon, composed by Paul Francis Webster & Bob Harris recorded at RCA Studios in #Toronto.
It’s a miracle having been raised on shlock like this…Rocket Robin Hood it didn’t damage my taste.
You punk kids raised on glossy Disney+ TV shows don’t recognize how much work we all put in.
How much cheeze we had to consume that comprised our values to get Spider-Man to 60.
There truly should be a Veterans Day for older nerds who witnessed unspeakable horrors. I paid for “#SpiderMan” 3 where he danced.
There’s no amount of nostalgia or drink that’ll make that Crap Carnival palatable.
His dancing is his Bat-Nipples, his pod-race.
Kids in 1966 picked up “Amazing” #SpiderMan #38 and read how the Webhead battled…Joe Smith.
He’s an angry boxer: “Just A Guy Named Joe!” Seriously?
You hope and pray that’s not somebody’s first issue.
Thankfully Spidey’s quality has offset a lot of the cheeze…Gwen’s death is a seminal;
Amazing Spider-Man #96 hastened the dismantling of the gutless Comics Code Authority. In your face #FredricWertham!
And Kraven’s Last Hunt is stunning; present tense.
It remains The Gold Standard, one of the greatest comics of all time. #SpiderMan has gotten soft in his old age; I doubt we’ll ever see anything that harrowing or dark from him again. Ya gotta think of the children.
Ann Nocenti trapped Parker in Kingpin’s insane asylum. Super dark…I miss those tales.
I wish Marvel would drop one of those Dark Night of the Soul epics every couple of years: snuff out all hope; have darkness consume him whole like a hungry python.
Obviously I haven’t around for all 60 #SpiderMan years but it’s been an incredible run.
I’m thankful I put in the time and the money to help get him to 60. For the most part it made pop culture better.
Leave pop culture in better shape than when you first found it right?
In John Carpenter’s 82 classic The Thing the Antarctica snow concealed a hideous alien which when freed from its icy tomb spelled doom for humanity. Read on…
As I write this it’s currently minus 20. Toronto has a naturally built in lockdown season; it’s called January.
Ain’t no need for vapid political machinations to shut down pop culture as an attempt to look they’re doing something. Politically something is always better than nothing, right? That’s like hitting the side of a TV to make it work. Read on…
This trailer for the National Championship is breathtaking.
“So for the glory of old Georgia; let the Bulldog nation rise and believe…believe in the names on the back.” #GoDawgs (Shout out to Ernie Johnson Jr.!) Read on…
This is a fascinating perspective; obviously freedom is far more valuable than acceptance.
Getting upset because someone is “abusing” free speech is silly; that’s like freaking out over self-driving car accidents. That’s naturally going to happen: that’s the uncomfortable process. (It’s also extreme thinking…like buying a gun to protect your loved ones from a home invasion. You can just get dog or set up an alarm system if protection was the legit issue.)
In April 2021 Paul Pierce was fired from ESPN; he would no longer be a regular on The Jump. He talked to SI about his frustrating TV experience revealing:
“There’s a lot of stuff over there that you can’t say. And you have to talk about LeBron all the time.” (Ugh I know…some of them on ESPN even refer to him as King. I understand how rating economics work especially for ESPN I just don’t agree with it.)
I get it. I can understand his frustration or similarly a journalist’s frustration with an arduous institution like the CBC which echoes Paul Pierce’s comments.
(How do you balance the classic “that’s not what we do?” with the shifting standards of the internet? I’m not even talking about clickbait; just integrity which is rooted in knowing who you are and what your strengths are.)
So Tara Henley like many other journalists has identified a benefiting outlet that facilitates her freedom; she’s now “free” to pursue different stories; elevate unique voices and have fun. Okay then. Let’s see where all this goes. Without the backing of a large organization her work will rise and fall on timeless principles such as quality and sound journalism.
If you find Tara’s response inspiring then know she isn’t alone…3 fresh folks worth following who mirror her journey are: Ethan Strauss left The Athletic, Bari Weiss left the NY Times and “after a decade as a Forbes senior editor, Zack O’Malley Greenburg now writes exclusively at Substack, where he’s serializing his fifth book We Are All Musicians Now.”
This is an encouraging trend. How will the institutions and news organizations respond? Will they evolve or pimp out clickbait? It’s possible some institutions don’t view any of these defections as feedback.
There’s always the goofy white guy who thinks this isn’t an issue; that it’s all overblown hype (thankfully he’s not as terrible as the goofy white guy who believes people only advocate for free speech so individuals can be politically incorrect. “You just want to be racist!” That guy often makes me laugh…his world like his thinking is so insular.).
Bottom Line? This trend is fantastic. The writers flourish with intellectual freedom and we get quality writing.
Be Free.
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Sammy Younan is the affable host of My Summer Lair: think NPR’s Fresh Air meets Kevin Smith: interviews & impressions on Pop Culture.
I’m slowly working through Dave Chappelle’s The Closer. His latest Netflix comedy special.
Made a strong tea and sat down with the special: as expected dude is one of the smartest people in room. I appreciate his willingness to push his audience around; in that sense he’s Bowie-like in that he demands his audience go down these strange roads with him.
But…how come he’s not smoking?! Does he eventually smoke?! Not smoking…throws his comedy off rhythm.
Woody Allen was one of the best stand ups for that consistent comedy cue. He’d always adjust his glasses on a particular word: you could reverse engineer the joke. Really clever.
So I find Chappelle’s lack of smoking disconcerting. I’m a bit lost.
Every so often the universe aligns with perfect timing. Yesterday I’d started the day firing up Zack Snyder’s Justice League. Only I had no intention of sitting there for 4 hours. Read on…
My Dad and I watched the recent Kamala Harris and Joe Biden victory speeches.
People will cheer wildly cheer for the usual stuff: I’m the first woman: YEAH! We won!: YEAH! (The whole thing was like a victory parade for a sports team: we’re gonna repeat! We’re #1!!)
But whenever either one of them says we have work to do…nobody cheers for the work. Kamala Harris said work 7 times: “…because now is when the real work begins, the hard work, the necessary work, the good work…”
While Biden contributed: “Let this grim era of demonization in America begin to end — here and now. The refusal of Democrats and Republicans to cooperate with one another is not due to some mysterious force beyond our control. It’s a decision. It’s a choice we make. And if we can decide not to cooperate, then we can decide to cooperate. And I believe that this is part of the mandate from the American people. They want us to cooperate.”
There’s still a deep seated hypocrisy that all Trump voters are racist and liberals will continue to reject em as deplorables. As per the the narcissistic image popular on social media I’ve attached here. (Those comments doesn’t even make sense and have little to do with justice. More like just ice.)
Sure some voters are racist but we’re in the social media era this isn’t the 70s or 80s so the proliferation of online misinformation coupled with a crumbling education system where critical thinking is not taught creates enfeebled voters…so I don’t fully blame em. Neither side is particularly well-informed, well-read or righteous.
Just because you know smoking causes cancer doesn’t mean you just stop. And it doesn’t mean that non-smokers won’t start.
In a way, President Biden has to lead the charge to combat that pervasive and insidious hypocrisy. And I hope he can be a successful leader. Though in the end, the president cannot dictate any moral positions because all too often the White House gig has no moral authority. You’re the President of the United State of America you ain’t the Pope.
So it’s great if Biden as President starts but like a wedding DJ it doesn’t matter what song he plays it’s up to us if we want to dance…or not. We gotta do the work.
It won’t be easy: all too often we say the right things but our actions…eek!
Literally anytime Keanu or Alex or Chris or Ed would say anything about Bill and Ted 3 there would just be this little explosion of interest on the internet, kind of culminating to the point where finally Orion and MGM decided, ‘Yeah we’re gonna do this’. We announced that it was possible and there was a huge explosion of interest, and I have to say that made [the studios] feel like, ‘Well, I guess we made a good decision here.’
In a separate interview, producer Scott Kroopf – who’s been a producer on all three movies – said fan interest also went a long way towards convincing the studio that Bill and Ted 3 was worth making.
Whenever a fool opens their dumb mouth to say Zack Snyder’s Justice League was unprecedented to giving in to the fan boys. It’s how it’s always been done.
I’ve been thinking about advertising since the NBA restarted.
To attend an NBA game is to accept a bombarded of logos from insecure corporations. Thankfully with the Orlando Restart most of that has been stripped away.
However and this is from March 2019 is there any…metric…any proof of any kind the NBA patches work?!
Because a large chunk of nerd shindig is so movie-centric (Wonder Woman! The Flash! The Batman! The Suicide Squad! Black Adam!) this feels like a full-court press.
MCU is (literally) on pause so this is the best window for DC Films to strike. Will this work?
What does success look like for DC Films (and no not in comparison to Marvel Movies.).
Let’s do this thing! Attached is some of the schedule; here’s the rest.
Amazon release this trailer for this documentary on voting and voter suppression in America this afternoon.
Americans are addicted to “vote!!” as an effective solution but voting has no value if the candidates are lousy. When the system forces voters to choose between Trump or Hillary it’s not clearly not good; it’s clearly not working.
You’re really honestly telling me those are the 2 best choices to represent 300 million people?!
The way the candidates are selected (in America and in Canada); the way we present them…the media all of that needs to be overhauled. In everything else we can research reviews…from cities we’re flying to; to a washer…to a book…there are reviews and opinions and recommendations and suggestions so people can avoid mistakes or bad choices. We don’t really do that properly with political candidates.
The debate used to be can you do more good outside the system or should you get elected and attempt to change the system from within. Now it’s obvious no good comes from within the system.
So yeah voter suppression is a major issue and yes it is racist but if the choices suck that’s not good either. So I hope this doc addresses some/all of that.
All In: The Fight For Democracy is on Amazon Prime on September 18. I’m In! I’ll make some tea and chill with this.
People think it’s the census or something…who cares? Funny is the world that I live in. You’re funny – I’m interested. You’re not funny – I’m not interested. I have no interest in gender or race or anything like that, but everyone else is kind of with their little calculating – ‘Is this the exact right mix?’ – to me, it’s anti-comedy, it’s more about PC nonsense than ‘Are you making us laugh or not?
Trailer Alert: December 25, 2018 This is Us means Peele will whip up that minority on twitter that’ll write thousand of words on Us except if it’s any good or not.
Should make for a cheaper marketing budget. If he is indeed the new M Night well than M Night is posed to complete his comeback with Glass. A parking lot rumble it is then.
People have been eagerly documenting all the things they want to do when the Pandemic is over.
To those lists add a trip to Gideon Falls! (That needed the sarcasm font: there’s no way I’d ever visit Gideon Falls. No way “in hell.”)
What Jeff Lemire and Andrea Sorrentino have achieved with this fantastic horror comic book is stunning.
So this the end is nigh news is sad yet a hopefully satisfying end to a highly recommended story.
Horror and comics fit so well: they’re peanut butter and chocolate. I wish we had more quality horror comics.
The Immortal Hulk, the Archie Horror comic books and Gideon Falls being current and excellent examples. (Long Live EC Comics!)
Bonus Recommendation: I generally believe that people who dig Gideon Falls will dig Dark on Netflix.
Gideon Falls
is more horror while Dark is more sci-fi but it’s same jumbled non-linear something bad happened in the past (but which past and whose past) epic tale. It’s a whole thing.
This sounds like a problem but it really isn’t: it’s a non-issue. The numbers doesn’t matter. If 100 books comes out which sounds more manageable and they don’t fit the bookstore or the bookstore’s readers: it’s an easy call.
Books like all of pop culture should be heavily curated: let readers, bookstores and anybody else involved choose. Marketing for books is always gonna be hard because they require the hardest audience commitment.
It’s easy to listen to a 3 minute pop song…a movie is 2 hours tops and knowing the actors/directors makes it easy. Most people got time for music and can make time for movies…books start to thin out the herd.
Are lots of quality books and hard working authors gonna fall through the cracks? Yeah. But that happens all the time.
Which goes back to curators. May the best ones have a large platform and an influential distinct voice.
Colin Kaepernick’s Nike ad is decent but not as powerfully potent as 2016’s Come Out of Nowhere NBA campaign: MAKE HISTORY NOT APOLOGIES.
Yo so good; soul good.
Kaepernick’s Nike ad means sneaker culture goes full circle: in 1968 Tommy Smith and John Carlos protested during the anthem police brutality (they held up a Puma shoe.) Exact same template as Colin: ostracized from sports, abused…death threats etc.
We wanted to really wind it back to the things that inspired the original Star Wars and really get it small in scale and tell simple stories, because part of what you inherit when you’re going to see Star Wars now is this whole history, because the stories have been told for decades, and it was nice, with the new medium, to be able to start with a new set of characters to introduce a new audience,” Favreau, a dedicated fan himself since he was a kid, said of the blueprint for the series. “But we always knew…and this is something I learned from…over at Marvel and working with Kevin Feige, is you always want to keep the core fans in mind, because they have been the ones that’ve been keeping the torch lit for many, many years, but these are also stories for young people and for new audiences. These are myths, and so you always want to have an outstretched hand to people who might not have that background. And so you’re really telling two stories at once. You’re telling the story for the people who are fresh eyes, and you’re telling the story for the people who’ve been there with the property and with the stories and the characters for so many years, and make sure that you’re honoring them, as well.
Jon Favreau
The priority is always the old fans: service them because as Favreau said they’ve “been keeping the torch lit for many, many years.”
I like my comic book stories dark…not grim but dark. It’s a subtle distinction. And writers sometimes err or veer into grim.
So DC Through the ’80s: The End of Eras sounds wonderfully dark…I mean this decade prompted Crisis on Infinite Earths which was wonderfully dark not grim (suck it
And bonus! The book “features the complete text of Alan Moore’s legendary, never-before-published Twilight proposal!” The best way to become a comic writer is to study the greats. Though poor Alan Moore DC continues to cash in on him; proving his low-opinion of them is indeed correct.
Thankfully there’s lots in this hardcover including essays J.M. DeMatteis and Andy Kubert and so much more. This should be a fascinating read as much as it’s a time machine back to a “simpler time.”
DC Through the ’80s: The End of Eras is on sale December 15, 2020. I’m in!
During ESPN’s/Netflix’s broadcast of The Last Dance many people were “offended” by Jordan’s aggressive nature and embarrassingly called him a “bully.”
Which ah…spoke volumes about themselves; those comments had little to do with Jordan. They’re communicating to the world (especially on social media) who they are and…it wasn’t good.
In The Bird Revelation Dave Chappelle spoke about that calling it a brittle spirit. And those are the people you do not want in your life.
Who you want in your life are players and people like Jordan and Jimmy Butler: when people talk about NBA teams and culture: this is exactly what they should be discussing and sharing and encouraging.
Jimmy Butler’s smile when Rachel Nichols points out the Heat are not favoured is fantastic. Yes!!
He and the team are not defined by somebody else’s narrative; it doesn’t matter what somebody with a “brittle-ass spirit” thinks they know about Miami or the players: it only matters what they think and they choose to believe. That’s dope.
I mean why would they accept somebody else’s uninformed narrative about themselves? Just because somebody calls you stupid doesn’t mean you are…stupid. You know?
And really? There’s potential for any team to come out of the East? To win it all? I dunno about that but every East team has a chance to battle. NBA Playoffs start on Monday.
An alien invasion (tell me more!) while transporting a crime boss to a new detention center (yes!). Swat team; guns and…then Richard Grieco and Tara Reid.
What no Bruce Willis?!
So #AttackofTheUnknown is a lie: we “know” Tara Reid is incapable of quality. And Grieco “jumped” the shark not the Street.
I’ll watch this on airplane; second movie on a long flight. Comes out (where and why I dunno) on August 28.
How?! How is this at all an inspiring or even effective response?
This is exactly why the truly “United” States has the highest incarceration rate of any country in the world: America firmly believes in laws and punishment.
This is not justice; we’re clearly not good at it or even willing to try. When Sheryl Swoopes says: “It’s amazing how people will smile in your face but eventually their true colors will show.” Yeah…she’s right because it goes both ways. We’re not vampires: every action is a mirror that broadcasts our reflections. Or in this case…lack of reflection.
The only consistent response we employ is a smug snark laced moral superiority aggressively battering guilty culprits with a job firing the way we use prison time as a social deterrent. Stay In Line Or Else.
We hafta be better than this; we hafta want to be better than this.
“Sales have been strong, particularly considering how much smaller the store is compared to our [Union Square] location.” The pandemic has taught us to be humble and to deepen our appreciation for our institutions.
This is an encouraging sign…a long as people continue to invest in books and just as importantly continue to read books we have a fighting chance. To survive; to build; to dream and to hope.
If you’re Canadian…eh you can enjoy The Booksellers on CBC Gem.
It’s a documentary all “about” New York’s rare book world.
If ya can’t go to bookstores then bring bookstores to you via CBC Docs!
My fav moment is the Library of the History of Human Imagination! I mean look at this place…give me a strong cup of tea and a gloomy rainy day please and thank you!
DC Comics handled their recent layoffs badly as they failed to explain their vision: what’s the direction of their compass? What does leadership look like for them?
And so the media just published rumours: “How do rumors get started? They’re started by the jealous people And they get mad Seeing something they had And somebody else is holding…”
Here’s clarification. Facts Before Feelings. Now…now we can have a better informed discussion. Like I wanted to grasp the DC Comics business to better understand their current round of layoffs. This is a business not a tree house club of friendships. So my Batman feelings don’t count. This Motley Fool article was early March so pre-coronavirus but still current. This is a good start.
Layoffs are like NBA trades…it sucks to be on a winning team and then suddenly not…be.It takes time to know if it was a good move: for the people and for the org.
It’s not always a bad thing.
(We’ve all had moments we initially thought were devastating but looking back on them we see it was the start of something amazing.)
Netflix’s layoffs few years back seemed to have worked well (for more on check on that check out Marc Randolph’s book That Will Never Work: The Birth of Netflix and the Amazing Life of an Idea).
On average, creative geniuses aren’t qualitatively better in their fields than their peers, they simply produce a greater volume of work which gives them more variation and a higher chance of originality.
The Amityville horror franchise’s 11th (11th!!) movie is The Amityville Harvest.
Although by now all they’re “harvesting” is utter crap. We’ve come a long way since 1977’s Fake News haunting.
On “Demand” October 20. I’m 100% GET OUT.
If you care… 1979: The Amityville Horror 1982: Amityville II: The Possession 1983: Amityville 3-D 1989: Amityville 4: The Evil Escapes (TV Movie) 1990: The Amityville Curse (Direct-to-video; Canadian production.) 1992: Amityville: It’s About Time (Direct-to-video) 1993: Amityville: A New Generation (Direct-to-video) 1996: Amityville Dollhouse (Direct-to-video) 2005: The Amityville Horror (Remake of The Amityville Horror (1979 film)) 2017: Amityville: The Awakening (Limited theatrical release.) 2020: The Amityville Harvest (direct-to-video)
I saw the 79 one…maybe the second or third one? The 2005 remake was disappointing but made bank. Why does this series keep on trucking? Are there Amityville fans? Maybe in Germany?! (There’s also Amityville Vibrator which changed GET OUT to GET OFF. lol!!)
“Once upon a time there was a little boy named Gus. He had antlers and lived with his father in a little cabin in the woods,” reads DC’s description of the original Vertigo series. “Then his father died, and the big man with cold eyes took Gus away. Gus went on many great adventures, found friends, love, happiness, family, and acceptance.”
It sounds like Forrest Gump however Sweet Tooth is classic Lemire. (And I cannot articulate why or how but it is incredibly Canadian.) Highly Recommended Reading and I’m glad it’s coming back.
Netflix’s latest tv show…is a #LostInSpace remake. I dunno…hard to tell if this is Sci-fi for Suburbs or we’re gonna get down to business. I suspect it’ll be as muted as a Jurassic Park movie: we’ll get “excitement” not violence. Maybe In.
“But, having examined Peterson’s work closely, I think the “misinterpretation” of Peterson is only partially a result of leftists reading him through an ideological prism. A more important reason why Peterson is “misinterpreted” is that he is so consistently vague and vacillating that it’s impossible to tell what he is “actually saying.” People can have such angry arguments about Peterson, seeing him as everything from a fascist apologist to an Enlightenment liberal, because his vacuous words are a kind of Rorschach test onto which countless interpretations can be projected.”
Yeah. Just because you interpreted writing one way doesn’t mean it’s automatically universal. That’s personal not universial.
“Bela Lugosi, who was best known for his iconic take on Count Dracula in the 1931 film, will posthumously reprise his role as the vampire for the upcoming graphic novel, Dracula, from Legendary Comics.
Unfortunately “the comic will be an adaptation of Bram Stoker’s original 1897 Gothic horror novel Dracula, with art by El Garing.” Would be cool if it was a whole new story you know?
Dracula goes on sale on Oct. 6 from Legendary Comics.
And now…a German superhero film! And…it’s about a fry cook named Wendy who discovers she has super strength who finds other super #Freaks. These Germans believe they’re the next evolution. Oh Oh…
Should be exciting if you’re currently reading Hickman’s X-Men run.
“The third book in the publisher’s Graphic Lives series, which delves into the lives of some of the world’s most celebrated artists, and follows graphic novels on Jean-Michel Basquiat and Jackson Pollock. A visual treatment on the life of Katsushika Hokusai of The Great Wave off Kanagawa fame is poised to arrive in 2021.”
I did not check out Yayoi Kusama’s AGO exhibition like 2 years ago? Still I’m curious…her art neatly extends into graphic novel. Plus we’ve quietly been enjoying a graphic novel biography trend from David Bowie to Rod Serling. I appreciate this trend. Please sir can I have more!
Kusama: The Graphic Novel the first-ever graphic novel on Kusama will retail for US$19.99 and released on September 15, 2020.
As a firm believer in comic book continuity I’m curious about The Other History of the DC Universe.
While I’m not sold on Black Lightning as the primary character I wanna see where this story goes; especially after I enjoyed the densely plotted Doomsday Clock.
“Until recently, the story of English was broadly similar to that of other global languages: it spread through a combination of conquest, trade and colonisation. But then, at some point between the end of the second world war and the start of the new millenium, English made a jump in primacy that no amount of talk about it as a “lingua franca” or “global language” truly captures. It transformed from a dominant language to what the Dutch sociologist Abram de Swaan calls a “hypercentral” one.”
The cult of self explored in new film Generation Wealth
Photographer and filmmaker, Lauren Greenfield, discusses the cult of self and its destructive qualities shown in her new film – Generation Wealth – with journalist Chris Hedges.
Research: “Inside the DC Universe Experience at Comic-Con International in San Diego. DC Entertainment used the interactive experience to promote its upcoming streaming service. Dark Horse Comics announced its service, Dark Horse Direct, which will focus on high-end products like statues. Image Comics, the publisher of popular titles like The Walking Dead and Saga, started a direct-to-consumer platform in 2015 to sell comic book subscriptions and apparel.
“Writer and director Spencer F. Lee wants to help you celebrate the incredible impact the Science Fiction series Star Trek has had on popular culture. Of course, the movie From the Bridge goes much deeper than simply a love-letter to the famed television and movie series. The documentary film, which includes interviews with legends like Stan Lee and Nichelle Nichols, is a celebration of how richly fandom influences all of our lives.”
I loathe this “trend.” It’s easily one of our dumbest online habits: I’m supposed to get all hyper-hulk-angry over some shaky video with no context
I’d be an idiot if I took this at face value. The article didn’t interview witnesses, no statement from the ferry etc.
I’d be a moron to not recognize that racism exists and that events happen daily.
I’d be an asshole to judge Hawaiian shirt as a racist without knowing anything about him…where he volunteers, how he votes…money donations…reads. Or worse dox him and call that bullshit justice.
I’d be a fool to overlook the narcissism. Tape the incident…give a copy to the police office, maybe even file a corporate complaint. But the second it goes online that’s narcissism.
I’d be embarrassed if I sacrificed any of my values for representation, I told you so! Or acceptance of any kind based on my pious and righteous indignation. Thanks but no thanks.
I’d be deluded if I thought any of this was effective or combating racism.
“There exists right now in our culture perhaps the most pronounced generation gap since the 1960s, as boomers and millennials begin transitioning into new phases of life. And according to population projections based on the U.S. census, a massive cultural milestone is slated to take place next year: In 2019, millennials will likely surpass baby boomers and officially become America’s largest living generation. Emphasis on “living.” The baby boomers will remain the largest generation in American history—78 million strong at its height—and will probably hold that record for some time to come. (As of 2016, millennials numbered 74 million in America.)”
Hey kids…when you grow up you can now become a Hollywood Checkbox! If you’re concerned with who I am rather than how I am you are peddling mediocrity instead of championing quality.
Diversity: thanks but no thanks; I’m good. #BeFree & #BeGood
“Reminder as Trump is set to meet today with video game makers to discuss gun violence: “Roughly two decades of research has repeatedly failed to uncover any such link.”
I am surprised President Trump is going after video games…it totally doesn’t support the he’s a racist narrative when rap is an easy and far more effective target. He’d get way more support going after rappers: remember when Marilyn Manson was the Columbine culprit? That’s the standard M.O. for gun shootings…pick a type of media and throw em under the bus. It works too.
Now: Disney can make more money with James Gunn on Galaxy 3 than with anybody else. So they made a bad business decision.
They also made a bad creative decision: i.e. Gunn’s amazing soundtracks.
So how much backlash would Disney need to silence the idiots and restore the order? And that’s where we’re at…in 2018.
We’ve reached the point where we gently hafta explain that a comedian just makes jokes…they’re not always real. You know…like a rapper can rap about doing certain things.
he furious energy of this big bang emanated, in large part, from a brilliant and simple insight. Humans are social animals. But the internet is a cesspool. That scares people away from identifying themselves and putting personal details online. Solve that problem—make people feel safe to post—and they will share obsessively. Make the resulting database of privately shared information and personal connections available to advertisers, and that platform will become one of the most important media technologies of the early 21st century.”
“We found that Republicans with high social status were 9.8% more likely than high-status Democrats to buy a luxury car.“
"The researchers hypothesized that these patterns in consumption behavior stemmed from an urge to assert a sense of social hierarchy and socioeconomic order.”
“DJ, author, filmmaker, TV/radio personality, B-ball player, card-carrying Rock Steady Crew member, and all-around apostle for NYC street culture, Bobbito García aka Kool Bob Love draws in this film on the whole of his life experience.”
Spike Lee wrote in his journal: “Yesterday I began work on the script. Well, actually, I began the last work before the actual writing of the script. I put down all the ideas or scenes and dialogue on three-by-five index cards. TOMORROW, I’ll begin to write this motherfucker.”
“I pray on things, I get a lot of opinions, and then I try — and this is the most difficult part — to hone in on my voice. Once I make a decision, I don’t believe in looking back — and I have no regrets in my career.“
Pretty much. You can doubt your path; you can doubt your choices but never ever doubt your skills. Social media sharing of anxiety is boring.
“There’s also the question of land use. Because libraries have proved so successful in the virtual realm, some people question the value of using up so much real estate. With high land prices in major cities, libraries – like any other bricks-and-mortar establishments disrupted by technology – need to justify the square footage.”
That’s like saying digital books are better than paper books. No. That’s never gonna happen. We just lived through months of our beloved access to culture cut-off so if anything movies and libraries and museums have totally justified their value and their presence. Their foundational which means building up from them to make a better; intelligent society.
Since it’s Comic Con (at Home) and I know many people here have attended that or similar cons in person; especially the panels. But ah: not all panels are created equally; some crash and burn huh Mav. Read on…
On July 8, 2010 ESPN handed LeBron an hour of prime time television. You don’t need a crystal ball to know where this is going…but it helps.
10 years later LeBron James’ Decision has been durably prophetic. He came into Jordan’s NBA house wearing 23 throwing chalk dust into the air and asked to be recognized as a king…in the absence of any significant championship achievements. Umm, yeah not gonna happen.
If an NBA player wants to leave one team for another team that’s great. Free agency has only been around since 1988; this isn’t some ABA afros era CBA clause. Free agency is a modern condition and fans and franchises are used to this turbulent process. And I mean it’s in the name agency means action or intervention, especially such as to produce a particular effect. Athlete empowerment via free agency is good for the NBA and for players and sometimes it’s good for the fans and franchises.
While a cozy narrative The Decision wasn’t athlete empowerment. This was narcissism and selfishness: a Twitter trailer of who we’d all become. Like the way, we justify douchebag Twitter behaviour in the name of justice or a taking moral stance. It’s never been about those things.
As a franchise player from Ohio LeBron could have overhauled the Cavs into a storied franchise on par with the Celtics, Lakers, and the Bulls. He could. He did not. The Last Dance opened and closed with young “hair Jordan” shortly after being drafted—expressing his vision to transform the moribund Bulls into a prime NBA destination. Six championships later Jordan succeeded; he fulfilled his goal and delivered on his destiny.
Michael Jordan did The Work. He could. He did.
Back then LeBron James overestimated his value and his contributions to the NBA and to pop culture. It’s the equivalent of Hanson thinking they’re on par with Prince or Bowie.
Currently, The Decision stands as an ancient media hieroglyph depicting unfulfilled promise; a rejection of potential; arrogance, and ultimately cowardice. It is a systematic failure on par with Apollo 13 (in spite of these failures like those undaunted astronauts LeBron was also able to “go home”).
Look when a president leaves the White House his reputation begins an earnest renovation and ultimately a restoration. He’s slowly classified as “he wasn’t that bad.” A lot of the bad is completely overlooked in favour of emphasizing the good. (W. Bush is currently going through this process and it’s so disturbing: dude started 2 endless wars. 2! There’s not a lot of good to rebut that.)
However no amount of time; no reputation renovation can salvage The Decision’s ongoing fallout. Universal criticism is warranted for LeBron James (and ESPN): past tense and present tense because that’s where we’re at and why we’re forced to acknowledge it 10 years later. We’ve seen what it has become.
The ultimate legacy of The Decision is that it helped LeBron perfect his infomercial executions cleverly deflecting away from his legion of failures on the basketball court. The Decision is LeBron’s version of Jordan’s “getting cut from his high school basketball team” mythology. The failure of that tv special made him better.
LeBron learned how to control his narrative; unable to win he instead learned how to spin. The primary problem with LeBron controlling the narrative is that he cannot (and should not) be trusted. The spectacle should solely be on the court not off the court: after all, it is called a court for a significant reason: you will be judged by how you play.
And leading up to The Decision LeBron James was found wanting; he was considered a failure. He had seven years in Cleveland yet he failed to deliver championships (plural) how could they be considered great years?
This isn’t even about being compared to Michael Jordan rather it is appreciating the one universal standard for all NBA franchise players. That standard is the same for Kobe Bryant, Kevin Durant, Steph Curry, etc. the onus and pressure is completely on them to deliver consistent greatness.
It’s no different than when Brad Pitt or Tom Hanks is signed to a movie…are there other actors in the film: sure. If the film becomes a box office failure is it those other actors’ fault? No, it’s the responsibility of Tom Hanks or Brad Pitt to deliver a box office hit. LeBron James had no hits when he left Cleveland to go to Miami. We’re not handing out cookies for self-esteem encouragement or valuing participation awards. One simple wonderful NBA standard—deliver consistent greatness—and it does not deviate from era to era.
The Decision’s cataclysmic failures include shifting narrative production from the mainstream media to the player.
(In the old days the mainstream media shaped the American agenda. The editors and producers dictated the issues. Having grown up with that—recognizing the valid potential for control—I have to say that’s a far better system than social media where there is no accountability or trust of any kind.)
Anytime somebody parrots the benign talking points “LeBron has never been in a scandal” or “he opened up I Promise a school for at risk kids” they’ve bought into the narrative that he has craftily been able to sell. We’ve deviated from on court success which is what should be driving marketing and fashioning the ultimate player narrative. NBA mythology is based on what you’re done, not who you are.
That’d be like memorializing Curry as a great NBA player because post-Warriors championship he refused to go to the White House as long as Trump is President. That’s not a thing. It’s not even cool.
Because it was so poorly executed; clearly not well thought-out or well-organized The Decision remains a cautionary tale in this era of outspoken athletes and having a platform. Having a platform is good; what is not good is issuing a terrible product no matter the stance.
Mediocrity is not inspiring. You gotta be good if not great at the gig. The best narrative is winning. Winning is timeless.
And so here we are 10 years later.
Photo Credit: The Cleveland Plain Dealer. (And if you can’t read the fine print above, it states, “Gone. 7 years in Cleveland. No rings.”)
Shifting a few things around in my garage…I took a break by stretching and walking to the end of the driveway. This older gentleman walking his doggy shouted something at me. What? We were literally the only 2 people around so I’m pretty sure he was talking to me. Read on…
As I watch The Last Dance I find the parallels between Arnold’s T-800 struggle to be “human” in Terminator 2 (Modern Jordan) vs the deliciously vicious T-1000 (90s Jordan and his baller body count) are fascinating. Read on…
Aw man. Minding my own business and lazily evaluating tv channels hoping for a slot machine jackpot! movie when I came across Before Sunset. And not just any scene…right before the final scene. Read on…
Yo sat down with a rum and Coke (actually it was barely Coke…I’m not driving or wearing pants but it’s Saturday night and I’m young, single and armed with disposable income so let’s get down a bit…) to watch the Beastie Boys Story. Read on…
It’s dope and uplifting to witness all the different personal projects people are tackling in some cases even delayed and getting to work during this rare window. Read on…
For lunch I decided to get cultured (it happens occasionally…don’t tell anybody or else my street rep will be ruined…) and went to the Art Gallery of Ontario. They’re currently hosting Illusions: The Art Of Magic so I’m brown and down with that. Read on…
William Gibson a fantastic sci-fi writer was on Q: he’s a bit old man-ish now; some senior qualities as you’ll hear. However his writing remains razor sharp. Read on…
Chilling at home today and during lunch came across the Next Gen episode where Captain Picard was abducted by the Borg. (The Best of Both Worlds, Part I originally aired on June 18, 1990.) Read on…
Strolled into the ghetto dollar store still shaking off my nap. (There are classy dollar stores and ghetto dollar stores…what you think all strip clubs are top shelf?! Same principles people.) After I picked up a few things I got in line behind this senior citizen. Read on…
This is hard. I wish my mouth was like a ventriloquist dummy and my heart was the puppetmaster and I could articulate all the things without tripping over my thoughts. Read on…
Ok. Are we gonna discuss last night’s Picard debut??! Barely 3 minutes into the first episode Jean-Luc Picard says in that forceful Patrick Stewart way:
The first part of this article is so inspiring: “A family bought a 20,000-square-foot Freemason temple in Indiana for $89,000, and they’re now turning it into their home. Take a look inside.” I’m like yo that’s fresh.
As promised! I cameoed in Featurette’s latest video: You Do You. All decked out in my finest adidas tracksuit jacket (Sorry…I was bad, wearing a brand label to a video shoot). Read on…
Darwin is not surprised Cory Booker has dropped outta the 2020 Race: “It is not the strongest or the most intelligent who will survive but those who can best manage change.”
“The law of evolution is that the strongest survives!” Word. Read on…
A couple of years ago I was so fortunate to get a NASA JPL tour from Krys Blackwood! Just Wow: it was an incredible experience. (is…present tense) Read on…
Virtual Insanity is Starbucks’ attempt at atmosphere; it’s not a mid-day invitation for you to suddenly get up and mimic the MC Escher moves of the music video. Read on…
“Saad, a Muslim married man, gets over his depression after a space Alien is introduced into his life.”
What?!
Yeah it’s a sci-fi film (I think) from…Saudi Arabia. For all the years I’ve been a nerd I’ve never said that before.
Check out this extremely odd trailer…
They’ve got a gmail address…currently debating if I should reach out for a My Summer Lair interview or just let this go.
I…dunno how to categorize “Saudi Arabia Sci-Fi.” Sundance clearly does; it’s screening at the end of January. So curious to see this; I’ve never seen a sci movie from the middle east before. Yo…
Prince in Beautiful Ones says: “If I want this book to be about one overarching thing, it’s freedom. And the freedom to create autonomously. Without anyone telling you what to do or how or why. Our consciousness is programmed. We see things a certain way from a young age—we’re programmed to keep doing them that way. Then you have to spend adulthood learning how to overcome it, to read out the programs. Try to create. I want to tell people to create. Just start by creating your day. Then create your life.” Read on…
To quote Joe Pesci in Lethal Weapons okay-okay-okay. I’ve been saying this since the year 2000 but this year I really mean it: 2020 really does sound like some sort of sci-fi dystopian thriller humans versus Skynet future date.
One of my favourite journalists Matt Taibbi finally articulated a core concept I’ve been circling but haven’t fully been able to express. He’s writing about journalism…in newspapers and on tv and he says in his book Hate Inc.: Why Today’s Media Makes Us Despise One Another (on page 137): Read on…
Searching my email for something else and this raw email from 2002 was included in the search results. On Monday December 23, 2002 I learned about Joe Strummer’s so I reached out to a fellow Clash fan. Read on…
Is this good?
Will this be good?
Every movie trailer answers or challenges those 2 questions. The ham-fisted rebuttal comes swiftly, however: no you don’t need to always see a movie to know it’s tank.
Do you really need to sit through a Michael Bay Transformers movie to know for sure? Tank is Tank. And Fresh…well Fresh is always Fresh. I’m down like I’m Brown for that. Read on…
Is this good?
Will this be good?
Every movie trailer answers or challenges those 2 questions. The ham-fisted rebuttal comes swiftly, however: no you don’t need to always see a movie to know it’s tank.
Do you really need to sit through a Michael Bay Transformers movie to know for sure? Tank is Tank. And Fresh…well Fresh is always Fresh. I’m down like I’m Brown for that. Read on…
Is this good?
Will this be good?
Every movie trailer answers or challenges those 2 questions. The ham-fisted rebuttal comes swiftly, however: no you don’t need to always see a movie to know it’s tank.
Do you really need to sit through a Michael Bay Transformers movie to know for sure? Tank is Tank. And Fresh…well Fresh is always Fresh. I’m down like I’m Brown for that. Read on…
Is this good?
Will this be good?
Every movie trailer answers or challenges those 2 questions. The ham-fisted rebuttal comes swiftly, however: no you don’t need to always see a movie to know it’s tank.
Do you really need to sit through a Michael Bay Transformers movie to know for sure? Tank is Tank. And Fresh…well Fresh is always Fresh. I’m down like I’m Brown for that. Read on…
Is this good?
Will this be good?
Every movie trailer answers or challenges those 2 questions. The ham-fisted rebuttal comes swiftly however: no you don’t need to always see a movie to know it’s tank.
Do you really need to sit through a Michael Bay Transformers movie to know for sure? Tank is Tank. And Fresh…well Fresh is always Fresh. I’m down like I’m Brown for that. Read on…
Is this good?
Will this be good?
Every movie trailer answers or challenges those 2 questions. The ham-fisted rebuttal comes swiftly however: no you don’t need to always see a movie to know it’s tank.
Do you really need to sit through a Michael Bay Transformers movie to know for sure? Tank is Tank. And Fresh…well Fresh is always Fresh. I’m down like I’m Brown for that. Read on…
Is this good?
Will this be good?
Every movie trailer answers or challenges those 2 questions. The ham-fisted rebuttal comes swiftly, however: no you don’t need to always see a movie to know it’s tank.
Do you really need to sit through a Michael Bay Transformers movie to know for sure? Tank is Tank. And Fresh…well Fresh is always Fresh. I’m down like I’m Brown for that. Read on…
All the inspirational fodder we blithely post and share to deeply support and encourage others for the common stressful and successful moments that make up our fantastic Western lives like going in for a job interview; having recently published a novel celebrations or attempting to plant nuclear bombs on a gigantic asteroid hurtling toward Earth: Read on…
Is this good?
Will this be good?
Every movie trailer answers or challenges those 2 questions. The ham-fisted rebuttal comes swiftly, however: no you don’t need to always see a movie to know it’s tank.
Do you really need to sit through a Michael Bay Transformers movie to know for sure? Tank is Tank. And Fresh…well Fresh is always Fresh. I’m down like I’m Brown for that. Read on…
Is this good?
Will this be good?
Every movie trailer answers or challenges those 2 questions. The ham-fisted rebuttal comes swiftly, however: no you don’t need to always see a movie to know it’s tank.
Do you really need to sit through a Michael Bay Transformers movie to know for sure? Tank is Tank. And Fresh…well Fresh is always Fresh. I’m down like I’m Brown for that. Read on…
Is this good?
Will this be good?
Every movie trailer answers or challenges those 2 questions. The ham-fisted rebuttal comes swiftly however: no you don’t need to always see a movie to know it’s tank.
Do you really need to sit through a Michael Bay Transformers movie to know for sure? Tank is Tank. And Fresh…well Fresh is always Fresh. I’m down like I’m Brown for that. Read on…
Is this good?
Will this be good?
Every movie trailer answers or challenges those 2 questions. The ham-fisted rebuttal comes swiftly however: no you don’t need to always see a movie to know it’s tank.
Do you really need to sit through a Michael Bay Transformers movie to know for sure? Tank is Tank. And Fresh…well Fresh is always Fresh. I’m down like I’m Brown for that. Read on…
Is this good?
Will this be good?
Every movie trailer answers or challenges those 2 questions. The ham-fisted rebuttal comes swiftly however: no you don’t need to always see a movie to know it’s tank.
Do you really need to sit through a Michael Bay Transformers movie to know for sure? Tank is Tank. And Fresh…well Fresh is always Fresh. I’m down like I’m Brown for that. Read on…
Is this good?
Will this be good?
Every movie trailer answers or challenges those 2 questions. The ham-fisted rebuttal comes swiftly, however: no you don’t need to always see a movie to know it’s tank.
Do you really need to sit through a Michael Bay Transformers movie to know for sure? Tank is Tank. And Fresh…well Fresh is always Fresh. I’m down like I’m Brown for that. Read on…
Is this good?
Will this be good?
Every movie trailer answers or challenges those 2 questions. The ham-fisted rebuttal comes swiftly, however: no you don’t need to always see a movie to know it’s tank.
Do you really need to sit through a Michael Bay Transformers movie to know for sure? Tank is Tank. And Fresh…well Fresh is always Fresh. I’m down like I’m Brown for that. Read on…
Is this good?
Will this be good?
Every movie trailer answers or challenges those 2 questions. The ham-fisted rebuttal comes swiftly, however: no you don’t need to always see a movie to know it’s tank.
Do you really need to sit through a Michael Bay Transformers movie to know for sure? Tank is Tank. And Fresh…well Fresh is always Fresh. I’m down like I’m Brown for that. Read on…
Alright…another alternative movie casting. I find these astonishing as casting is what makes or breaks a movie. The better a script is written; the better you should (in theory) be able to cast. So over lunch I was reading about the Matrix…it’s currently on Netflix. Read on…
Is this good?
Will this be good?
Every movie trailer answers or challenges those 2 questions. The ham-fisted rebuttal comes swiftly, however: no you don’t need to always see a movie to know it’s tank.
Do you really need to sit through a Michael Bay Transformers movie to know for sure? Tank is Tank. And Fresh…well Fresh is always Fresh. I’m down like I’m Brown for that. Read on…
Is this good?
Will this be good?
Every movie trailer answers or challenges those 2 questions. The ham-fisted rebuttal comes swiftly however: no you don’t need to always see a movie to know it’s tank.
Do you really need to sit through a Michael Bay Transformers movie to know for sure? Tank is Tank. And Fresh…well Fresh is always Fresh. I’m down like I’m Brown for that. Read on…
Is this good?
Will this be good?
Every movie trailer answers or challenges those 2 questions. The ham-fisted rebuttal comes swiftly however: no you don’t need to always see a movie to know it’s tank.
Do you really need to sit through a Michael Bay Transformers movie to know for sure? Tank is Tank. And Fresh…well Fresh is always Fresh. I’m down like I’m Brown for that. Read on…
Following the success of the Raptors a Facebook Friend Marko Orlic in his words “was going through old Raptors rosters after our championship win, and man…it was a trip. Remember all these legends?” Read on…
Is this good?
Will this be good?
Every movie trailer answers or challenges those 2 questions. The ham-fisted rebuttal comes swiftly however: no you don’t need to always see a movie to know it’s tank.
Do you really need to sit through a Michael Bay Transformers movie to know for sure? Tank is Tank. And Fresh…well Fresh is always Fresh. I’m down like I’m Brown for that. Read on…
Is this good?
Will this be good?
Every movie trailer answers or challenges those 2 questions. The ham-fisted rebuttal comes swiftly however: no you don’t need to always see a movie to know it’s tank.
Do you really need to sit through a Michael Bay Transformers movie to know for sure? Tank is Tank. And Fresh…well Fresh is always Fresh. I’m down like I’m Brown for that. Read on…
Is this good?
Will this be good?
Every movie trailer answers or challenges those 2 questions. The ham-fisted rebuttal comes swiftly, however: no you don’t need to always see a movie to know it’s tank.
Do you really need to sit through a Michael Bay Transformers movie to know for sure? Tank is Tank. And Fresh…well Fresh is always Fresh. I’m down like I’m Brown for that. Read on…
Is this good?
Will this be good?
Every movie trailer answers or challenges those 2 questions. The ham-fisted rebuttal comes swiftly however: no you don’t need to always see a movie to know it’s tank.
Do you really need to sit through a Michael Bay Transformers movie to know for sure? Tank is Tank. And Fresh…well Fresh is always Fresh. I’m down like I’m Brown for that. Read on…
Recently finished a Mel Brooks biography (Funny Man: Mel Brooks). Biographies (slash memoirs) make up a large portion of my reading…before Mel Brooks I finished a bio on Dr. Seuss (Becoming Dr. Seuss)…the next one on my desk is Norma Lear’s autobiography published in 2014. Read on…
Management emailed us detailed instructions and responses to active attackers/shooters. First response is of course GET OUT. While I may not be a D cup jammed into a tight white tank top I’ve seen enough horror movies to sensibly make a mad dash for the front door. Shout out to the Scream movies! Read on…
Is this good?
Will this be good?
Every movie trailer answers or challenges those 2 questions. The ham-fisted rebuttal comes swiftly however: no you don’t need to always see a movie to know it’s tank.
Do you really need to sit through a Michael Bay Transformers movie to know for sure? Tank is Tank. And Fresh…well Fresh is always Fresh. I’m down like I’m Brown for that. Read on…
Is this good?
Will this be good?
Every movie trailer answers or challenges those 2 questions. The ham-fisted rebuttal comes swiftly however: no you don’t need to always see a movie to know it’s tank.
Do you really need to sit through a Michael Bay Transformers movie to know for sure? Tank is Tank. And Fresh…well Fresh is always Fresh. I’m down like I’m Brown for that. Read on…
Is this good?
Will this be good?
Every movie trailer answers or challenges those 2 questions. The ham-fisted rebuttal comes swiftly however: no you don’t need to always see a movie to know it’s tank.
Do you really need to sit through a Michael Bay Transformers movie to know for sure? Tank is Tank. And Fresh…well Fresh is always Fresh. I’m down like I’m Brown for that. Read on…
Is this good?
Will this be good?
Every movie trailer answers or challenges those 2 questions. The ham-fisted rebuttal comes swiftly however: no you don’t need to always see a movie to know it’s tank.
Do you really need to sit through a Michael Bay Transformers movie to know for sure? Tank is Tank. And Fresh…well Fresh is always Fresh. I’m down like I’m Brown for that. Read on…
Is this good?
Will this be good?
Every movie trailer answers or challenges those 2 questions. The ham-fisted rebuttal comes swiftly however: no you don’t need to always see a movie to know it’s tank.
Do you really need to sit through a Michael Bay Transformers movie to know for sure? Tank is Tank. And Fresh…well Fresh is always Fresh. I’m down like I’m Brown for that. Read on…
Today’s Adventure: I spoke to Steve Earle. Both on the record and off the record he regaled me with stories about the piano he had growing up, Nashville, hanging out with Willie Nelson, Guy Clark and so many old school cats. Read on…
Is this good?
Will this be good?
Every movie trailer answers or challenges those 2 questions. The ham-fisted rebuttal comes swiftly however: no you don’t need to always see a movie to know it’s tank.
Do you really need to sit through a Michael Bay Transformers movie to know for sure? Tank is Tank. And Fresh…well Fresh is always Fresh. I’m down like I’m Brown for that. Read on…
Mad shout out to the inspiring senior in a bright purple scooter: an open bag of regular Lays chips in his front basket carefully angled to face him and…an open tub of onion dip precariously balancing on the scooter’s control console as he powers down Yonge Street cruising with one hand; the other steadily dipping chips: fully enjoying his life. Read on…
Is this good?
Will this be good?
Every movie trailer answers or challenges those 2 questions. The ham-fisted rebuttal comes swiftly, however: no you don’t need to always see a movie to know it’s tank.
Do you really need to sit through a Michael Bay Transformers movie to know for sure? Tank is Tank. And Fresh…well Fresh is always Fresh. I’m down like I’m Brown for that. Read on…
Just had the most Toronto experience: got off at Bathurst Station where instantly that warm beef patty smell hits me (one of the best smells in the city!) but…I can’t have any. Read on…
Is this good?
Will this be good?
Every movie trailer answers or challenges those 2 questions. The ham-fisted rebuttal comes swiftly, however: no you don’t need to always see a movie to know it’s tank.
Do you really need to sit through a Michael Bay Transformers movie to know for sure? Tank is Tank. And Fresh…well Fresh is always Fresh. I’m down like I’m Brown for that. Read on…
There needs to be a word for that devastating moment when you’re out with your girl maybe it’s Friday night; maybe at a party and a song comes on…THAT song comes on and you use your most upbeat sky punching tone to telegram “yes! oh this song yes!” Read on…
Over drinks a friend shares she started seeing a boy. Oh? How is that going? She tells me a bit…seems like it’s going well: the boy is no laughing stock. Read on…
Easily the highlight of my Toronto Comicon experience was my conversations with Denny O’Neil. Who if you don’t know is the creator credited with coining the name Optimus Prime (he’s known as Convoy in other parts of the world) and restoring Batman following the comical 66 tv show…in the late 60s/early 70s Denny along with other his DC Comics collaborators basically established a Batman by nerds for nerds. Read on…
Is this good?
Will this be good?
Every movie trailer answers or challenges those 2 questions. The ham-fisted rebuttal comes swiftly, however: no you don’t need to always see a movie to know it’s tank.
Do you really need to sit through a Michael Bay Transformers movie to know for sure? Tank is Tank. And Fresh…well Fresh is always Fresh. I’m down like I’m Brown for that. Read on…
Earlier tonight I was talking to this cute girl (not like that unfortunately but I enjoyed making her laugh…I was getting better at it which is an encouraging sign the first time you start doing something) and in between laughs we were talking about The Ocean. Read on…
Is this good?
Will this be good?
Every movie trailer answers or challenges those 2 questions. The ham-fisted rebuttal comes swiftly, however: no you don’t need to always see a movie to know it’s tank.
Do you really need to sit through a Michael Bay Transformers movie to know for sure? Tank is Tank. And Fresh…well Fresh is always Fresh. I’m down like I’m Brown for that. Read on…
Gimme some time this weekend…I’ve been writing for years long before #MeToo and subpar Michael Jackson documentaries…about that tenuous link between pop culture and morality. I came outta the church where playing cards and rock n roll were evil…so I spent that time writing and sorting out my thinking because what the church was saying wasn’t aligning with my experiences. Read on…
Is this good?
Will this be good?
Every movie trailer answers or challenges those 2 questions. The ham-fisted rebuttal comes swiftly, however: no you don’t need to always see a movie to know it’s tank.
Do you really need to sit through a Michael Bay Transformers movie to know for sure? Tank is Tank. And Fresh…well Fresh is always Fresh. I’m down like I’m Brown for that. Read on…
So…tonight I sat down with a large lasagne brick and watched I Survived I Kissed Dating Goodbye the apology documentary to the Christian bestseller I Kissed Dating Goodbye. I’ve got an upcoming My Summer Lair interview with the documentary subject and author of the vexing book: Joshua Harris. Read on…
Is this good?
Will this be good?
Every movie trailer answers or challenges those 2 questions. The ham-fisted rebuttal comes swiftly, however: no you don’t need to always see a movie to know it’s tank.
Do you really need to sit through a Michael Bay Transformers movie to know for sure? Tank is Tank. And Fresh…well Fresh is always Fresh. I’m down like I’m Brown for that. Read on…
Is this good?
Will this be good?
Every movie trailer answers or challenges those 2 questions. The ham-fisted rebuttal comes swiftly, however: no you don’t need to always see a movie to know it’s tank.
Do you really need to sit through a Michael Bay Transformers movie to know for sure? Tank is Tank. And Fresh…well Fresh is always Fresh. I’m down like I’m Brown for that. Read on…
Nothing like a snowy winter Friday night to reflect on what you’ve lost…and what you’ve gained; with the closing of Pacific Junction Hotel bar and Girth Radio.
I know I give a lot of credit to the bar and it was indeed our secret weapon; it was how I was able to have fish and chips with Maestro Fresh Wes…which was cool and fun. I never thought I’d get to do stuff like that. How could I? Read on…
Is this good?
Will this be good?
Every movie trailer answers or challenges those 2 questions. The ham-fisted rebuttal comes swiftly, however: no you don’t need to always see a movie to know it’s tank.
Do you really need to sit through a Michael Bay Transformers movie to know for sure? Tank is Tank. And Fresh…well Fresh is always Fresh. I’m down like I’m Brown for that. Read on…
Watching Project Blue Book (it’s like a light-beer X-Files you know?) and it’s got all the good stuff…aliens and unexplained phenomena and government conspiracies and men in trench coats and fedoras “cleaning up messes” like patriotic janitors except reality keeps intruding…President Trump’s so bad you know nothing’s getting covered up. Read on…
Is this good?
Will this be good?
Every movie trailer answers or challenges those 2 questions. The ham-fisted rebuttal comes swiftly, however: no you don’t need to always see a movie to know it’s tank.
Do you really need to sit through a Michael Bay Transformers movie to know for sure? Tank is Tank. And Fresh…well Fresh is always Fresh. I’m down like I’m Brown for that. Read on…
Yo…I’m digging Project Blue Book. The writing could be tighter and the atmosphere creepier (the characters never feel like they’re in danger and even Batman gets licks you know?) but here’s something I’ve been thinking about. Read on…
There’s a polar bear outside my office window and they ain’t shooting Coke Christmas commercials: Hit-Girl’s cold assessment of the weather is accurate…
(Art by Eduardo Risso from (ironically) Hit-Girl In Canada)
Is this good?
Will this be good?
Every movie trailer answers or challenges those 2 questions. The ham-fisted rebuttal comes swiftly, however: no you don’t need to always see a movie to know it’s tank.
Do you really need to sit through a Michael Bay Transformers movie to know for sure? Tank is Tank. And Fresh…well Fresh is always Fresh. I’m down like I’m Brown for that. Read on…
Checking in as a new year prompts reflection…life adjustments and wholesome goals. Here’s where I’m at after an 80s decade consuming movies, tv shows and comics…what I’ve left to achieve and a sweet humblebrag! Read on…
Is this good?
Will this be good?
Every movie trailer answers or challenges those 2 questions. The ham-fisted rebuttal comes swiftly, however: no you don’t need to always see a movie to know it’s tank.
Do you really need to sit through a Michael Bay Transformers movie to know for sure? Tank is Tank. And Fresh…well Fresh is always Fresh. I’m down like I’m Brown for that. Read on…
Woah! According to EW, We’re getting another Final Destination?! In some ways, I’m good…in other ways…I guess so?
Like Star Trek’s Odd/Even Movie Law the Odd Final Destination movies (1, 3 and 5) are the strongest ones. 2 was weaker than the top of a newborn’s head. Read on…
I recently finished reading Hater: On the Virtues of Utter Disagreeability by John Semley you can plop that into Amazon…Toronto writer actually so it should be in the Toronto library. (Our library is extrodinary!!)
I’m debating if I should email him and like getting into it for an upcoming My Summer Lair episode. Sigh. Read on…
Yo I am wrapping up the Mr. Rogers bio…The Good Neighbor: The Life and Work of Fred Rogers by Maxwell King. Almost 500 pages hardcover and I get 400 pages in when dude drops that Mr. Rogers had a long standing friendship with…Henri Nouwen!! What?! Did we know this? Read on…
Is this good?
Will this be good?
Every movie trailer answers or challenges those 2 questions. The ham-fisted rebuttal comes swiftly, however: no you don’t need to always see a movie to know it’s tank.
Do you really need to sit through a Michael Bay Transformers movie to know for sure? Tank is Tank. And Fresh…well Fresh is always Fresh. I’m down like I’m Brown for that. Read on…
Yo…on History Channel have you started watching Project Blue Book? I watched the first episode last night…I really dug it. Fills the X-Files hole in my heart. Read on…
Is this good?
Will this be good?
Every movie trailer answers or challenges those 2 questions. The ham-fisted rebuttal comes swiftly, however: no you don’t need to always see a movie to know it’s tank.
Do you really need to sit through a Michael Bay Transformers movie to know for sure? Tank is Tank. And Fresh…well Fresh is always Fresh. I’m down like I’m Brown for that. Read on…
So January 1st I continued my avid pop culture consumption and fired up the first episode of…The First.
Absolutely nobody is watching this…this is another tv show they made just for me. Thanks. (The show has 1,500 twitter followers! A Raptors game is 20K!! Their IMBD rating is based on less than five thousand votes. And they spent $60 million on the first season…it’s so not getting a second season. $60 million so some dumb kid in Scarborough not wearing pants can watch something while he eats Lucky Charms on his Christmas Break is lousy economics.) Read on…
Sad to hear via email my friend’s little monkey is not feeling well. That sucks. I can sympathize with the ailing child as my tummy hurts a bit too…today I made 20 chicken nuggets and sat down with them to watch HBO’s 4 hour Elvis documentary: The Searcher. Read on…
THANK YOU for taking the time to listen to My Pal Sammy Episode 1. This is a short podcast mini-series to keep me occupied during the Christmas break. An experiment if you will.
The second episode is up. Wanted to get the 3rd up before 2018 expired but it doesn’t appear like that’ll happen. Emphasis on break…as in Christmas break. The series is meant to capture some of my thoughts about what I’ve been consuming since this is my prime TV watching time.
What will not make the cut, however, is the following observation… Read on…
As I didn’t enjoy Kelly Sue DeConnick’s Captain Marvel run and I don’t consider Captain Marvel as a character all that engaging…there’s at least some solid space ruckus…I can get into that and Skrulls are always good for a Freaky Friday laugh or two. Still not opening weekend PantsWorthy though.
(Speaking of pants…at the risk of getting your knickers in a bunch: I’d much rather a Captain Britain Marvel movie than a Captain Marvel movie: never mind her bullocks.)
Ant-Man as an analogy is apt…both Marvel movies Ant and Captain operate at about the same level of expectation. Low stakes for Marvel after the intense pressure of Avengers (the budget and the ROI on Avenger movies alone!). Or I guess one could include the intense pressure we saw recently with Black Panther.
According to the Hollywood Reporter Disney wisely and effectively spent $200 million marketing Black Panther as a “cultural touchstone” even though it was just another Marvel movie.
Granted Marvel’s Captain Marvel is better than DC Comics’ Captain Marvel still cue the hype/predictable tweets and social media white noise…like all our pop culture this’ll be a “referendum” on diversity (which so far has been effective marketing). Thankfully there’s no CONsensus on that. So it’ll be interesting to see the track Disney takes with Captain Marvel…maybe follow up Black Panther with yet another “Momentous Event In Pop Culture History!” jam. Look a woman superhero! (How many times can you play that card?)
Look my issue isn’t with the cheezy marketing or the Captain Marvel movie per say it’s the character…I’m not a fan of Captain Marvel. 2 more hours with her when we don’t get along is like scoring that dude on the airplane who talks the whole flight missing all the valid leave me alone cues. Sigh…I guess we gotta do this.
In comics it’s much easier to skip the tie-ins (they often don’t count or move the story forward). In this space case Captain Marvel is connected in some way to the upcoming Avengers 4 movie that’s why I used the analogy of being stuck with her on a flight. I kinda hafta do this.
Doesn’t help the screenplay credits 4 people which is not always a good sign…still it is a Marvel movie. So…
I better get a pad and a paper and make 2 columns…not sure how this’ll internal debate turn out.
Captain Marvel is out March 8, 2019, far more importantly Avengers 4 is out on May 3, 2019.
My third Raptors game this season…freshtastic opportunity to check out the Denver Nuggets who are one of the top teams in the West. (Yes it’s weird to say that out loud during the Steph Curry Warriors era! Even more strange is the LA Clippers are also up there with Denver. What…yo?!) Read on…
We’ve added snark to the cycle of reaction to shootings. The horrible event would unfold; a nation expresses grief and shock; eventually we’d demand better “common sense laws” and then…when nothings happens we’d move on. Read on…
Shoutout to all the hard working children who worked last night’s night shift using their small hands to collect all the candy while I sat on the couch watching NBA games. Read on…
The Toronto municipal election is (mercifully) over while the American midterm elections on November 6 are upcoming. This is the political eye of the storm. Read on…
I see every experience through a pop culture lens: as September 11, 2001 unfolded I expected a fierce album from Bruce Springsteen…maybe Bob Dylan would get back in the ring and put em up. That dark day demanded our best. Read on…
Sometimes you inhabit that magical universe where you eat a spicy pulled pork burrito the size of your head and when all the good stuff splurts outta the burrito’s butt it wonderfully lands on the wax paper wrapper. Bonus? Read on…
In 1939 on August 31st the first issue of Marvel Comics (cover date October) was published by Timely Comics (which would eventually become Marvel). Read on…
The One I’ve been waiting for!! The Man in the High Castle Season 3!
The other sci-fi alternative universe show I watch Counterpart (oddly also set in Berlin…) also pulls in no viewers…less than 1 million. We could literally all gather at a con to discuss the episodes. Read on…
Reading a Robin Williams biography by Dave Itzkoff (it’s so-so…really it’s hard to capture Robin’s dynamic energy on a still page) and I’m at Dead Poets Society casting. For the role of John Keating the teacher… Read on…
Crossed paths with a young lady on her mobile. As she walked past all I caught was: “Oh I know! So many people in my department have been bitten.” Read on…
While today is capitalism’s official Day of Atonement it is important to remember not everybody is celebrating love much less has any in their lives. Read on…
Leaving high school makes it difficult to pass notes to a girl you fancy. You can’t approach a cute lass in the supermarket with a note that says: WANNA GO TO THE SPRING FLING? above a Yes checkbox and a No checkbox. It…doesn’t work. Read on…
Nothing provokes a rehash of criticisms I’ve received from women quite like waving my hand under a sensor tap and failing to generate water: maybe I am cold and indifferent. Read on…
Last night I attended for the first time ever a WWE home show. Maybe it was a house show? Something like that…there was wrestlers none of whom were either Hulk Hogan or Mr. T and a ring and all these Simpsons style catchphrases the crowd is deeply knowledgeable about. Surreal. Read on…
Today’s Helpful PSA: While the 17th Annual No Pants Subway Ride takes place on Sunday, January 7, 2018 National No Pants Day is always on the first Friday in May…May 4, 2018. Read on…
Yesterday I finished reading Jason Lloyd’s The Blueprint: LeBron James, Cleveland’s Deliverance, and the Making of the Modern NBA which offers fascinating insights into the salary cap, contract clauses and how trades work. However one Fun Fact was world altering crazy. Read on…
This time of year it’s fashionable to use an advent calendar. I? I have a No Pants Countdown…I only have to wear pants 3 more times over the next 2 weeks. Read on…
So this is a slightly odd post; just file it away under The More You Know. As epic events unfold…the Vegas shooting, the recent hurricanes…pick any gut-punch from the past 5 years one element they all have in common is they produce lots of social media documents typically videos and photos. Read on…
Steve Trevor is one of the lamest most worthless comic book characters (anyone who saw the recent Wonder Woman can attest to this fact; and Steve impressively sucks in a DC world filled with losers like Jimmy Olsen, Cyborg, Lois Lane…Spoiler etc.).
75 years and he’s accomplished…well nothing. Read on…
Today…today we have a moment of silence to reflect on the brave souls who perished in the service of exploration. Often we do not know their names but we can celebrate their curiosity which propelled them; fueling their seemingly endless journeys across the stars. Read on…
Just had the oddest experience: I stood in line at…the bookstore. It’s 2017 they keep pimping the ease and convince of online books; save space is the same marketing promise as drink this beer and you’ll bed hot girls and yet here we all are in a bookstore line up. The Usual Suspects. Read on…
So…Joel Schumacher apologized for Batman and Robin. Which is nice I guess but ultimately it doesn’t erase them from history. Joel’s Batman movies continue to exist in life and worse in my head…where’s that handy Men In Back eraser thingie: Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Bat-Mind. Read on…
Tonight. Tonight we “witnessed” the epilogue of LeBron James. He was never a goat but he was always an ass. It is done…there is no highlight, no stat, NO THING that permits any comparison to Michael Jordan. Or Kobe. Or Magic. Or Kareem. Or Bird. On and on and on it goes… Read on…
I answered the following question honestly but now I’m having second doubts. A Dad asked me if Sausage Party was appropriate viewing for his 7 year old. Think he and the kid were confusing it with various Pixar movies: talking fruit and all that.
(It’s an odd service I provide…recent questions from diligent parents include: Can I take my kids to Guardians of the Galaxy 2? and is there a lot of talking/exposition in Wonder Woman?)
In a brazen display of brute strength I’ll Hulk roar tearing apart 2 shopping carts only minutes later I break into a cold Bruce Banner sweat struggling to successfully get my case of Coke onto the cashier’s conveyor belt. Read on…
My immigrant parents from Egypt…they understand the harsh social conditions that facilitate horror scenarios like the Manchester Arena bombing. Read on…
Ran into a friend who had spent some time with Chris Cornell. Rather than the traditional and exuberant Yo! all I could issue was a sorrowful Yo you know with an ellipsis: Yo… Read on…
Yo…listening to NPR News before Fresh Air and they’re prattling on about Trump before finally revealing Chris Cornell passed on. Like it was a P.S. of some sort. Man: first things first. Read on…
Last day of CMW. (The hint is in the festival name…Canadian Music Week! Man I’d so clean up on a American game shows). But before you rip off your wristband and expose the pale skin underneath to the light there are 3 final #Pantsworthy shows that you should check out: Read on…
Because last night’s CMW activities required mucho rolling in the deep (don’t feel like I am using that phrase correctly) tonight is just 1 show recommendation. Read on…
This is the Biggest Day at CMW!! So much amazing is happening; as it’s 2017 if you can use a home cloning kit to make party-duplicates of yourself, I strong advise it. Even at Girth Radio we’re hosting 2 bands. Visit Pacific Junction Hotel bar (234 King St E) and bring your single friends!
At 6pm Sean Sirianni takes over In Session… and hosts Cat Clyde for an acoustic performance and interview.
At 7pm I’m hanging out with Hillsburn for an acoustic performance and interview.
After my work is done I’m gonna check out what the Bucks-Raptors score is at (Game 3 starts at 8pm!) then I’m off to see what the evening has for me and my posse.
Today’s #HumbleBrag: Getting retweeted by Revenge Of The Nerds’ Booger. Another excellent Fun Fact to pad the ol eulogy. (Well really you can say whatever you want; I’m dead: nothing defines me.) Read on…
Oh man…you hafta, you must, you really should see The Balconies live. If I had their dense sonic energy oh the things I could accomplish. Good Gravy! Also on tonight’s CMW 2017 bill is Ivory Hours: yo a fantastic double bill. If that’s not your cup of tea there is also Look Vibrant. CMW is always about choices. Read on…
Every now and then one of your parents will say something that’s horrifying; you can’t help but wonder how they were entrusted with your own well-being and assisted your growth. Read on…
Yo…yesterday my sister and I called in sick jumped into her car and hit up March Madness games in Buffalo. (I’m comfortable with regular racism at the border; s’part of life so be it still I wasn’t sure what to expect…it was painless. Pleasant surprise.)
I’ve attended NBA games for over 20 years in a variety of buildings. I’ve never been to an NCAA game let alone a March Madness game. Read on…
Is there such a thing as an interactive-digital-urinal? Like you could download an app connected to those urinals and it would translate your pee…like a Fitbit for your bladder. Read on…
Some science on why and what we share online…gotta tweet something:
“People’s brains appeared to be gauging the headlines and abstracts of each article to determine how sharing them might create positive personal and social outcomes for them. In other words, when a story more effectively tapped into people’s desire for others to see them favorably, and presented an opportunity to relate to others positively, they were more likely to share it — and possibly make it go viral.”
Terrence Ross is GONE!! I repeat and celebrate…Terrence Ross is dealt.
I don’t care about scoring, rebounds, assists…if you’re an NBA playa without the Will To Kill you’re useless: Jordan has 6 Rings; Kobe has 5 they’re excellent murderers.
I’m a Chris Rock fan…that is when it comes to comedy. His interview skills always leave the viewer wanting. Remember The Chris Rock Show…which wrapped in 2000. (Man time is flying faster than Superman saving Lois!).
And as for J.J. I’ve issues with him. I refer to his Star Trek as Star Wrecked because it was silly and guilty of being unnecessary. Super 8 doesn’t even come up in this talk and the first Cloverfield was an utter piece of crap. So no love lost between me and J.J. So Be It. Read on…
Last night love was in the air!! At Pacific Junction Hotel bar sitting down with supa dupa Girth Radio host Sean to talk half business half chillin. To our right I spy a pretty girl: auburn hair, sweet sweater…alone at a table sipping a beer.
I remark to Sean that’s strange…for such a frigid evening why would she put on pants and come here to sip a beer by herself? We shrug at the unsolved mystery and go back to our conversation. But! Read on…
Walking through College Park food court when I happily witness a senior citizen walk out of the grocery store with a full bbq chicken…you know those hot ones you bring home for dinner to feed your family? Read on…
It’s hard to convey but the racism the media typically reports on isn’t the universal racism visual minorities experience.
A number of my visual minority friends have experienced funny racist encounters. I have a couple. It’s typically somebody so determined to be racist but doesn’t have enough “knowledge” to be properly racist. Talk about ignorance. I understand racism is rooted in ignorance but man be racist properly.
Like put some time and effort into your hate! Have some pride…watch a doc, read a book, brush up on your stereotypes…just don’t go through the motions. Read on…
On January 10, 2016 David Bowie passed away… “I’m feeling very still And I think my spaceship knows which way to go Tell my wife I love her very much she knows Ground Control to Major Tom Your circuit’s dead, there’s something wrong Can you hear me, Major Tom? Can you hear me, Major Tom? Can you hear me, Major Tom?”
The sheer brilliance of David Bowie: “Tell my wife I love her very much she knows” as the final utterance of Major Tom.
All in a pop song no less…there are entire movies not as eloquent or as memorable.
No wonder the papers want to know whose shirts he wears…
Well now…so far 2017 smells like 2016. Still…New Year, New Hope and most important: New Work! When it comes to work Jack White is an ideal source of inspiration.
From the documentary Under Great White Northern Lights this is how hard Jack works:
Which of course prompts the question: How Hard Are You Working?
2017…let’s do this thing!!
Gonna start Nick Hasted’s bio Jack White: How He Built an Empire From the Blues soon.
Been approached by a few friends (always better to be approached by friends instead of Jehovah’s Witnesses!) who want to write more…journal more; some listen to music more. Basically they want to more more. Read on…
It’s 2016…practically 2017 so how do you drop an album now? Run The Jewels visits Portlandia for some “helpful” album drop suggestions…let the LOL commence: Read on…
Over Christmas break I checked out Ascension a 2014 Syfy mini-series on Netflix.
Back in the 60s JFK launched an inter-generational space shuttle…it was going to take 100 years for it to reach its destination: Proxima Centauri. (The show was inspired by the real-life concept of Project Orion which Kennedy ultimately killed). Of course…things don’t go well and it’s all sparked by a murder.
Some of the writing is a bit cheezy, typical tv writing…but there are some fresh moments too. Only lasted 6 episodes then died (don’t ponder the ending too much as Syfy confirmed: “We were very happy with Ascension as an event series, but with so much high profile development in the works, we have decided not to pursue a full series.”).
Last night at Girth Radioa couple of lovely ladies who record a sex-in-the-city type show had asked if I knew any sexperts.
Successfully refraining from making the obvious me! joke I brought in a sexpert I’d met recently. I didn’t know her well but she seems knowledgeable. Read on…
So??! Do the Rebels successfully steal the Death Star schematics?! Yes Rogue One…The Titanic, the Apollo 13 etc. of Star Wars opens today with its expected ending. (Doctor Who calls em fixed points in time). Read on…
It’s that time of year when the jolly man returns. Philistine I ain’t talking about Santa!
I’m talking about Grant Cermak. He and his “elves” release a horror trailer every Christmas. (Horrible trailer? Yeah that too…check out the last year’s winner: The Xmas-Men Trailer! Read on…
Canada’s currency is getting a face-lift. Best pun I can do under the circumstances.
Viola Desmond will grace Canada’s $10 bill starting in late-2018.
(And that’s not all. According to the Globe and Mail: “Sir John A. Macdonald, Canada’s first prime minister, will move from the $10 to a higher denomination, as will Sir Wilfrid Laurier, who is currently on the $5. Another Canadian will be chosen for the $5 note in a similar manner to Ms. Desmond. Former prime ministers Sir Robert Borden and William Lyon Mackenzie King will be dropped from the $100 and the $50. The $20 bill, which has long featured the Queen, will remain unchanged.)
That’s great, right? Wait who is Viola Desmond?
Historica Canada’s 82nd Heritage Minute depicts Viola Desmond’s spark that ignited an effective civil rights struggle:
Bonus: If you dug that here is the Behind The Scenes of that Hertiage Minute:
One of the primary storylines from the past week is how the mainstream media sucks (truthfully media never recovered going online…the news wasn’t gonna slow down long enough for them to figure out an online business strategy. Anybody who has madcap dashed through a busy airport to catch their departing flight understands that stress.) Read on…
So the red team that everybody (especially online types) thinks is racist was defeated by the blue team who haven’t had a significant victory in over 100 years. That sums up the World Series as much as it does this craptacular current election. Read on…
One of the funniest aspects of hanging out in NYC this past week has been Americans apologizing for the election. Even if I don’t bring it up…soon as they find out I ain’t a local. They’re so embarrassed…lotta we’re not really like this hand wringing. Read on…
Early September I saw Lights Out (couple of sweet moments…check it out). However the body count was low…2 cops (who were collateral damage and not related to the horror at hand and 1 proper killing from the horror-monster (well…and 1 suicide but again mainly collateral damage)).
All the new horrors (the James Wan horrors…Insidious’, Conjurings etc.) low body counts; that seems to be the latest horror trend. It’s like they make you invest in the characters or like the plot. Read on…
One sure sign we’re in a rescission is the lack of discarded underwear in 7-11 parking lots…in this economy ain’t nobody leavin underwear behind. Read on…
Heard this last night on Sirius…dude does a good breakdown on where Dark Tower movie is at…includes interviews with Stephen King, Elba and others. Read on…
According to science your astrology signs are now incorrect. If that’s upsetting to you in this age of enlightenment and era of reason clearly you’re a witch and should be tossed into the river to see if you float. Read on…
Neal Brennan has that fantastic line/observation: “The main reason black people like Hillary is because she dresses like Steve Harvey.” Hah! Amazing. I find some of her outfits are also Doctor Evil-ish. Kinda fitting I suppose…tonight Neal and I were right. Read on…
Sammy Fun Fact: I’ve until September 28 (my birthday) to read 5 books (like with no pictures). If I can do that I’ll have read 80 books (all with no pictures) in a birth-year. I’m currently at 75…mostly non-fiction with some novels tossed into the mix for spice. You can see the whole list via Birth Year Readings V. Read on…
Back in 2011 HBO aired a Ricky Gervais produced comedy special: 49 minutes of Jerry Seinfeld, Chris Rock, Ricky Gervais and Louis C.K. analyzing comedy and breaking down stand up. If you’ve seen Seinfeld’s Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee it’s sorta like that only stationary. (You know…Comedians in Cars aired in 2012 and I can’t help but wonder if Talking Funny sparked or even influenced Seinfeld’s new show). Read on…
Today!!! I finally witnessed one of the last great American superheroes…I saw Tony Hawk live. And it was spectacular; sweeter than Mountain Dew if that’s possible.
To see a man soar, defying gravity and all that threatens to keep us down. I hope the kids who were watching took notice…they’ll be starting school soon and it’s back to colouring in the lines…whatever that’s all about. Read on…
Considering the dearth in leadership and the ongoing lack of integrity dominating this current US election…it’s a hard sell to suggest the candidates are different…I’m reminded of this stark moment in Star Trek Voyager: Read on…
On August 8, 1986 The Transformers: The Movie opened.
Man just how good was The Transformers: The Movie? Leonard Nimoy, Judd Nelson, Casey Kasem, Robert Stack and Orson Welles. All that glorious Ruckus. Read on…
The New 52 DC’s big bang began on August 31, 2011 following the conclusion of Flashpoint and commencing with Justice League #1 (at the time helmed by Geoff Johns and Jim Lee a fantastic one-two punch that like a Summer romance didn’t last long). On May 25, 2016 the Rebirth one-shot was released signalling the end of The New 52 and the, well rebirth of DC’s universe. Again. Read on…
Short and sweet: “I think by now, in our space, meaning the space of design, it sort of took on the mantle of bullshit…now everyone’s a storyteller.” Hah! Yes…I’m not familiar with Stefan Sagmeister’s work (am I…the name rings a bell…) but I dig his sentiment:
Though I don’t agree with his fallacy: “There is this fallacy out there. I don’t think I fell for it, but somehow maybe unconsciously I did, you know I’ve seen a number of films so I must be able to do one. Of course this is the most stupidest thought ever.”
You can make a film; you can write a novel but you can’t do it…the way somebody else did it.
Asking Gary Vaynerchuk how he did it and then following his step by step process that’s where people get lost. I decide if something can be done and then I do it…the odds for success or even achievement are crazy intimidating. That’s fine…as long as I’m not following a formula: magic is more fun.
“You find money all the time!” I protest my friend’s observation: that is not true. I mean…doesn’t everybody find money? How much do I find? How much money do you find? Read on…
All set to slip into clean Jordans and hit the town. Warm Saturday night…let’s go swimming among the skirts and the flirts when I just found out the 22nd anniversary of OJ’s Bronco chase is coming up: Friday, June 17. 22 years. Damn. When did I decide to get old? Read on…
She’s clearly a meticulous researcher…she had all kinds of impressive dirt on the band I was interviewing later that night. Then she mentions she’d researched me. Read on…
On May 3, 2008 I performed at Compelled 2008…a AIDS benefit at Convocation Hall. One of the largest crowds I’d ever spoken in front of…I performed a poem called Mother&Son.
Last night I had the sublime opportunity to hang out with a number of prominent magicians!! (One of em was Johnny Carson’s favourite magician…I’d never met anybody who met Carson so that was fascinating). Read on…
You endure the awkward silence on a date so you can get in a relationship with a girl who when she’s upset with you will give you the silent treatment. #ModernRomance Read on…
Has this song been in a movie? One of those Jason Sudeikis indies where he seduces a pretty girl who doesn’t have it all together (but thinks she does) with his good hair and refined beard:
Whenever a girl says she needs “space and time” she sounds like she’s going to board the Starship Enterprise for a 5 year mission to explore strange new worlds, to seek out new life and new civilizations.
How is Black Panther an icon? Same thing with Wonder Woman…iconic without any storytelling substance. I can’t grasp that flimsy and ultimately foolish premise.
Black Panther has been around since the 60s and done (to quote Stupid Flanders) diddly-squat. Black Panther debuted in 1966; Spider-Man in 1962. Who’s had more impact on the culture? Read on…
I’m only working this hard so that one day…one special day I’ll be famous enough to dress up in my best 80s pastel coloured outfit and be forever immortalized in a Reading is FUNdamental poster. Read on…
This 2009 Levi’s commercial stays with me…I’m always on the hunt for creative and visual ways to communicate poetry. I’m a poet as much as I am a prophet…the free verse poem is my weapon of choice to confront a cold calculating culture. Yet in this modern society of guns and rough violence it’s almost like I am walking around with a sword. En Garde isn’t Avant-garde. Or is it? Read on…
So excited I can wet myself…may have to wear astronaut diapers. Tonight I’m going to see Darcy Oake a real life Magician performing in real life! Read on…
All this technological progress, human advancements in science, the radical evolution of medicine and psychology…it’s 2016 and yet that all goes out the window soon as you get hiccups: you just get bombarded with old wives’ tales. Read on…
Just in time for Black History Month…Sam Cooke’s estate released a lyric video for the powerful and prophetic civil rights anthem A Change Is Gonna Come. If you ah…don’t know much about history this video should catch you up:
Bonus Background: This New Yorker article describes The Unlikely Story of A Change Is Gonna Come.
Just in time for Black History Month…Sam Cooke’s estate released a lyric video for the powerful and prophetic civil rights anthem A Change Is Gonna Come. If you ah…don’t know much about history this video should catch you up: Read on…
Like the way you increase/decrease your security settings with a pop up blocker Netflix should allow viewers to increase their movie recommending algorithm up to video store clerk snobbery status…just like having The Simpson’s Comic Book Guy in your ipad:
from
Mild Disgust Setting: “Really?” when you select a “guilty pleasure”
to…
Belligerent Contempt Setting: “Did your mother drop you a lot as a small child? You idiot: if you watch this they’ll think it’s popular and make a sequel. Is that what you want? You want to ruin society because you have lousy taste?” Read on…
Bit meh, we’ll see how the rest of the album is; hope they tour too…they put on a freshtastic live show. Course as an 80s child it’s expected I get amped when I hear synth beats. Read on…
Last night at the Raptors game…in the line up for the post-game pee a dude covered head to toe in Celtics gear (hat, jacket, t-shirt etc.) is exiting the bathroom when a Raptors fan gloats: “Sorry about your loss tonight!” Read on…
Following the success of Batman in 1990 Tim Burton began working on Edward Scissorhands…I’m reading Last Night at the Viper Room: River Phoenix and the Hollywood He Left Behind (no spoilers I don’t wanna know how the book ends) by Gavin Edwards. Read on…
It’s that time of year again…well, Christmas I suppose but also for Grant Cermak and friends to release their annual Christmas trailer. You know how every Halloween the Simpsons do that Treehouse of Horror special? Read on…
Cleaning up my Evernote files and I found this…did I write this or did I cut and paste it from a comedian or something? Maybe a tv show? No idea: Read on…
The return of a fresh NBA season brings with it the fist pumping joy of…commercials.
Surprisingly it’s not all about the Superbowl; throughout the NBA season viewers will chuckle, marvel and even gasp at some of the marvelous ads. The commercials are as much a fun part of the entertainment package as the actual games and household name players. Read on…
I can’t remember how Portland’s XOXO Festival came into my life…it’s only a couple of years old. Maybe twitter? I wanna go one year…SXSW in many ways has jumped the shark. And we don’t have anything like this in Toronto (maybe start one? Complain or Create can’t do both…). The conference feels like Portland, s’what I’d expect that city to be like: bit like Seattle with more Nike. Read on…
Cutting through the Eaton Centre I witness a retail clerk manhandling a mannequin. Roughly jerking her clothes down, gripping her swimsuit areas…the clerk is neither efficient or gentle. Read on…
Small child talking to me when they got stuck trying to communicate…
“My-my-my-my…”
Trying to be helpful I instantly finished their thought: “music makes me so hard makes me say oh my Lord thank you for blessing me with a mind to rhyme and 2 hype feet!” Read on…
Is there an accurate and helpful infographic between smoothly turning on channel 175 “The Fireplace Channel” for when she comes over and getting some? Read on…
One of the fascinating aspects of hanging out with kids is recognizing what they’ll be missing. No kid will ever declare “I’m bored!” unless they’re dragged to grandma’s Luddite home. Netflix, the internet, mobile devices…look at video games! Read on…
If you grew up in the earth was flat paradigm era…you get to the edge of the sea and fall off or worse face monsters transitioning to the the earth is actually round is not easy much less smooth. That the day started out Sunny and now it is raining and requires an umbrella; that’s easy to adapt too. Unpacking/rejecting paradigms, spitting up kool-aid, facts from fiction…so much emotional and intellectual work. Yet I cannot continue to carry earth is flat ideas into my future. This is my mental spring cleaning…
***
Growing up——pre-internet, pre-social media——The Plan was to make an excellent living writing. Yes: despite the odds, maybe in spite of the odds.
Books at first then work my way into Hollywood and later Marvel Comics: The Plan was simple and fun. The ongoing fuel of this powerful trajectory was of course bestsellers: that’s how you make Big Money. The Stephen King way to fame, fortune, storytelling, Hollywood and comics. This was a viable plan with built in naps!
The Old School method to publish a book was to secure an agent who would then peddle your books and pimp your talents to publishers.
I didn’t like this system: I didn’t agree with it nor did it make sense.
You’re adding a middleman who is going to take a cut of your small pie. Financially this makes no sense. Even if you factor in how well an effective agent executes and is the reason I have a pie in the first place.
But first you had to work to get to an agent, some sort of nebulous qualifications of being published, marketable and I dunno what else. Same silly paradox as you can’t get a job without experience and you can’t get experience if you don’t get a job. Remember that one? So annoying!
Hustle to secure an agent or hustle for myself and spend that time marketing myself, writing, making contacts etc. I can’t do both; not well. It’s not easy to be drafted by the NBA but at least the path is clear as is the work and sacrifice involved.
Then finally when your agent gets you into a publisher the publisher may not be keen on supporting your book; you may be on the guest list and you can pass the velvet rope but don’t expect bottle service!
I’ve no issue marketing my book but a little help would be…well; helpful considering I’m marketing a book that’s the exact size and format of every other book in Borders/Chapters. What an idiotic system.
Why would I subject myself to that…to all that frustration and failure? And it’s not that I am special or I believe I am Steven Above The Law Seagal. Rather like high school calculus I wasn’t presented with a compelling reason to justify committing to this system. This all felt and came across like a “Because I said so!” parental command. (Also acceptable: “As long as you’re under my roof you’ll live by my rules!”)
12 publishers passed on Harry Potter. 12. 12 publishers who failed to spot talent…maybe they had a bad day or perhaps a wise editor recognized the value and pushed for it but was unsuccessful. These stories don’t inspire or deepen my confidence in The Old System.
It doesn’t matter how successful or rich Harry Potter became after finding a proper home it still had to endure The 12. I’m frustrated and I’m not submitting the book!
Today I’m using a blogging platform with a Publish button…how utterly cool is that! The desperation, the frustration of attracting attention…that made The Old System feel like a beauty pageant while not entirely eliminated is much reduced. Happily so. Uber hasn’t totally replaced cabs…it’s just another option along with public transportation. To have that many options now…to reach the destination is freshtastic.
It’s like clicking on Google maps…do you want to reach your destination by public transportation, walking, car? How do you want to get there. The Old System remains; even if the gatekeepers have far less influence and status.
I recognized I couldn’t embrace the future until I’d released the old way I was brought up. I had to let go of the earth is flat, there is only one way to get published. That freedom of thought, of business makes me so nimble. It’s incredible and intoxicating. This new perspective presents the future as a wide open expanse…like when you move into a brand new home and the future isn’t in the rooms. The rooms can feel so large yet full of potential: you can do anything, paint the walls any colour, arrange the furniture. Amazing.
Walked outta my front door and into…a spider web. What kind of dumb-stupid-spider builds a web by the front door? You idiot-spider I use the front door all the time! Yo butthead that’s why it’s called the front door. You did all that overnight work for nothing. I hope Bob Seger finds you and ridicules your Night Moves. Read on…
Yes! From page 41 of Cognitive Surplus by Clay Shirky:
“Trentway-Wagar was arguing that because carpooling used to be inconvenient, it should always be inconvenient…Curiously, an organization that commits to helping society manage a problem also commits itself to the preservation of that same problem, as its institutional existence hinges on society’s continued need for its management. Bus companies provide a critical service—public transportation—but they also commit themselves, as Trentway-Wagar did, to fending off competition from alternative ways of moving people from one place to another.” Read on…
From their About page on their YouTube channel:
“Artist Unknown premiered May 15th, 2014 turning the spotlight on the emerging Artists of Toronto.” Nice like rice!
This episode of Artist Unknown is special to us at Girth Radio as it features Mr. Hydde! Read on…
We had our big nerdfest over the weekend…nerd b.o. and hot girls in cosplay. I’m sharing because this occurred during the Mr. Robot panel: Q&A moderator Jonathan Dekel brought up a text message he received from Pump Up the Volume director Allan Moyle asking Christian Slater if he’d be willing to play Hard Harry again. Read on…
Spent the day dozing, reading comics and consuming Sinatra: All Or Nothing At All a 4 hour HBO retrospective on the man and the legend.
What a life. Dude needed a 4 hour doc because he defied the typical celebrity reduction. Whenever a celebrity passes away they get reduced to this one movie or these handful of songs. Not Frank Sinatra.
As a musician and Artist he basically issued concept albums. He recognized the contributions blacks had made to popular music.
Sinatra rejected the status quo…he believed bigotry was a disease. Try speaking out against that in the 50s. And didn’t just hang out with Sammy…Miles Davis, Belenfote and others. That’s like Entourage history!
He created Reprise records where Artists could keep their own masters: astonishing business idea.
He mashed Lauren Bacall, Ava Gardner etc. (granted some of that was while he was married so he loses some points for being a crappy husband still you gotta admire his taste).
Yet the aspect I find the most utterly fascinating…he was on his own! Sinatra became popular in the late 40s, as the depression and World War II were ending. Who was popular at the time…Glen Miller? You think kids had Glen Miller posters on their wall?!
Youth culture didn’t properly flourish until the 1950s that post-war boom where suddenly everybody had money and Happy Days. So Sinatra basically had nobody on his walls, he had no guides no idea how this would all turn out or what his fame would be like.
He got famous…without a Sherpa. Now that is inspirational.
Greatest Of All Time. We don’t have celebrities like Frank Sinatra anymore…overflowing with talent; thoroughly uncompromising: fashioning a legacy not just a career and some worthless tweets. Just because the times change doesn’t mean we hafta as well.
(Note: This was written before Gary Taxali visited My Summer Lair)
Two of the best words in the English language: Road Trip!
My friend and I hoped into my laser blue Dart and road tripped to…Cambridge, Ontario. Ours was a cultural mission, our prime directive to enjoy a day trip into the fabulous world of Gary Taxali and later in Stratford a play.
I know…a gallery exhibition and a Stratford play all in one arty day…classy! (Not to worry I kept the class at bay with my Spider-Man seatbelt belt).
My Dad and I went to visit Chef in the hospital. We walk into his room just in time to witness a classic senior moment unfolding…his hand shaking like a booty in a rap video struggling to bring his cup of tea to his lips. Read on…
Half of Seal 6 Radio Jaren Hayman stepped out of the Girth Radio booth to write and produce a clever Walking Dead spoof. Only this time instead of zombies it’s…alpacas.
When you play the following ballads in this order I Want To Know What Love Is, Waiting for a Girl Like You, Hello, Lady In Red, Careless Whisper, Keep On Lovin’ You they actually form 1 connected 80s love story like the Marvel movies. Read on…
Back in the show’s original run (which wrapped in 2002 a delightfully stone age era with dial up internet, black and white Game Boys) I left when the show moved to LA aka Season 6. In 2014 my restless heart desired to finish the series…watch all 202 episodes and the 2 movies. What a marvelous and flawed run. Read on…
There’s a great irony in rap music. The lyrics in rap are supposed to spring forth as a kind of rough street poetry. Poetry by any standard demands proficient articulation, profound thought and pleasurable connection.
Yet despite the surge of rappers and rap music many of these specific elements are missing, either in action or just RSVPed but didn’t bother to show up.
You can clearly understand what I mean when you hear a rapper being interviewed, often times, he’s not articulate. The cohesion of thought just isn’t there. And it’s understandable, rap is driven by the beat, the sample is destiny.
A solid infectious 808 beat can instantly triumph where lyrics falter. (And to be fair this happens in rock music, though not on the same level, a rock song can unfold many different ways, if a rap song has found a fresh beat it sticks with it, all the way to the top of the charts).
That irony of making a living off poetry and not being articulate ends with Rakim. He remains a lyrical grandmaster, deftly wielding words with the reverence a samurai saves for his sword. Like Chuck D, he needs no introduction, the work is that quality, only sometimes, we foolishly forget.
Director Matt Bieler offers this short yet insightful documentary on Rakim.
Not sure what I ate right before bed…skipped my customary cereal (currently Honeycomb) still I had a dream Julia Roberts and I went on a road trip. I dunno how to interpret something like that…I ain’t a fan: it’s Closer and Notting Hill from her and that’s that…not even Pretty Woman.
On the streetcar is a girl (kinda) standing in front of a boy, asking him to love her.
Behind me she says on the phone: “Chris I just saw somebody wearing a Keith Richards t-shirt and it just got me even more excited for the Stones concert. I can’t wait to experience this moment with you…will you come with me?”
Confession: I haven’t watched the final Letterman episode. I will just…when I am ready. Had the same issue with R.E.M.’s final album…took months to finally get into it.
Not sure what I ate right before bed…skipped my customary cereal still I had a dream Julia Roberts and I went on a road trip. I dunno how to interpret something like that…I ain’t a fan: it’s Closer and Notting Hill from her and that’s that…not even Pretty Woman. Read on…
Still trying to figure out how to build Girth Radio and engage corporations…the companies who can hand over money in a dollar sign sack. I’ll even take a pillowcase really…
It is surreal but the classic love ballad Rump Shaker Wreckx-N-Effect’s 1992 hit gave the world a significant ode to booty and birthed Pharrell Williams. It’s Heating Up… Read on…
We’ve all been there, slapping, slamming, cursing our tech. And the results…are often effective. Take that IT department. Duncan Robson plundered tv shows and movies to find dozens of effective tech slaps, cuffs, beats all tightly edited into the hypnotic Percussive Maintenance. Outstanding!
Special bonus points for including Small Wonder, crazy deep reference. Well played sir.
Last night at Field Trip checking out Interpol, Darcys and other good time bands. Ran into Shad and we got to talk about NBA Playoffs and his upcoming “hobo tour.” Think I came up with that expression; I tend to employ the word hobo more often than Shad. Read on…
And to think all this time most movies were about characters just falling in love. Turns out they’re often jumping, leaping off buildings, falling, escaping and more. Gravity shows up in the movies more often that we realize. All the classic leaps are here: Die Hard (YES GUY!), Aliens, Verigo…Iron Man and more. Enjoy this, I found the video deeply hypnotic. Read on…
As children our journey imitates human evolution: we start out drawing on walls.
It’s one of our first artistic risks crushed by an ardent no. If we can successfully maintain our Artistic impulses through the limited faculties of education and many more nos we arrive to eventually professionally begin…writing on walls.
Only this time wall writing is consider advertising. As the Font Men in this documentary short confirm a font isn’t alive until it “joins the culture.”
In 6 minutes this sublime documentary short explores Hoefler & Frere-Jones a distinguished type foundry with classy clients including The New York Times and Nike. Like a magician on Fox they reveal several font designing secrets.
Save yourself the Art School tuition, make tea and relish this short.
“Typography is the craft of endowing human language with a durable visual form.”
Robert Bringhurst, The Elements of Typographic Style
As per my custom this morning I got off the subway a few stops earlier: I emerged outside to absorb some delicious Sunshine before being trapped indoors all day. Read on…
So April is National Poetry Month! The goal of course is to increase awareness and deepen appreciate of poetry. As such here is visualing poetry with 1960s computer graphics…yup. Read on…
Levi’s has released the third and final installment of their Skateboarding In India series, for which they linked up with the local Holystoked skateboarding team in Bangalore to help the build the first free public skate park in the country. You can view Episode 1 and Episode 2.
In this episode we view the finished concrete park, which professional skate park builder Daryl Nobbs says is better than most parks available in the UK (burn!).
Skateboarders Chet Childress, Al Partanen, Stefan Janoski, Omar Salazar, Lennie Burmeister, and Rob Smith skate the finished project to prove just how well it rides which is about as smooth as this video:
Prologue:
This tale occurred in June 2006 while I was working at a University. You see every graduation, would be held on immaculate grass, with ice cream sandwiches for the happy educated families following the diploma ceremony. Not one to let a sweet Summer day pass–especially with free ice cream, yo–I’d leave my desk to join the festivities. Hey your company has perks these were my perks.
First of all I didn’t know Levi’s did this whole skateboarding thing. Did you? If so you are wiser and cooler than I.
Directed and filmed by Simon Weyhe & Mathias Nyholm…this is inspirational work. I found myself fist pumping often! Everybody involved from the filmmakers to the skaters to Levi’s should get a high five.
To inject a diverse and infectious culture like skateboarding into the rich Indian civilization is powerful. A whole group of youth will discover a unique voice equipped with a liberating perspective. These are the humble building blocks to dissent…not careless teenagers rebel without a cause that anger is fleeting. Rather a genuine and authentic questioning of the dominate culture’s values. Read on…
Drake’s short film, Jungle, is now online…directed by Swiss newcomer Karim Huu Do and scored by Drake’s regular producer, 40. Clearly the best way to influence your mythology is clearly to create it: Read on…
My latest (and greatest?) adventure? What kind of adventure you ask? Driving around in a van solving mysteries perhaps? (I wish! Does anybody do that anymore…)
Busy hip hop day…we got the Straight Outta Compton trailer…the N.W.A biopic and news that 2 Live Crew have reunited. Wonder if the tour is called as Old as They Wanna Be. #RimShot Read on…
Lately I’ve been noticing in movies/tv shows actors sleep on their backs. Is that a cinematic thing so the audience can see the actor’s face or is that how “normal” people sleep? Read on…
How does Mike Carey & Peter Gross’ Unwritten keep the quality so high and yet delightfully complex with every trade? Magic? Voodoo? Talent?
Unwritten is the Scotch of comic books…it’ll just improve with age. Crazy how good and smart this series is, panel for panel. I dunno how people read Unwritten monthly. I “need” the trades to absorb all the depth of the story, it’s so dense. (Morning Glories another excellent dense comic book series is the same…way too dense for monthlys!) Read on…
So Strange: on Facebook I have 2 dead friends. And every so often somebody will write on their walls and they’ll appear in my feed.
It’s startling. It’s like you’re back…and I just got used to our silence. In between all this Facebook life of babies, relationships beginning and ending, memes and cutting edge sarcasm creeps this unsettling subtle death.
Friend of mine recently became a Canadian citizen. He had to master that whole thing…learn about the history, how a bill becomes a law, the divinity of maple syrup etc. All useful information required to be an effective Canadian. Read on…
At the radio station bar. I’m putting quarters into the jukebox when this brother comes up to me…dressed like a rap video. I know you’re not supposed to judge a book by the cover but there it is. Read on…
Happy Turkey Day: I’m grateful for all the conventional jazz: my health, family, that I don’t live in a refrigerator box etc. Those don’t need a special day, s’kinda like Valentine’s Day nonsense: if you ain’t putting in daily time at the gym you ain’t gonna be healthy. Read on…
At the nerdfest…trying to figure out the map so I can visit a friend’s booth. This little girl totally decked out as Batgirl slides next to me…”Hi! I’m Batgirl.” Read on…
On a dark and cold January evening, the 10th…I started re-watching X-Files. And I just finished. 9 Seasons or 202 episodes. Plus 1 feature film. Whew. What a long ruckus filled journey. Read on…
Let’s celebrate our endless invincible youth by camping at Crystal Lake with big boobed blondes while enjoying unwieldy premarital sex in the woods and smoking copious amounts of weed. What’s the worst that can happen…right guys?
Oh. Wow! I’d only read about them in magazines, seen some things on tv but I’d never encountered one in real life. I finally got to meet a real life, 100% genuine American tea partier! Read on…
In our society where fear is the daily diet, where we shallowly use the Internet for Gotcha! games for celebrities with minor transgressions, I am deeply encouraged by the bright light of hope illuminated by teasers at the end of superhero movies. Read on…
PSA: For any of my Facebook friends who enjoy the darker Darth Vader side of the internet…you know nude midget wrestling (Mexican or traditional…), would you rather lick it or smell it and other assorted seedy sites that require a history deletion please be aware that the Facebook app will pick up the sounds of those sites and broadcast it to us, your Facebook friends. Read on…
So this is exciting…my company NewMusic Ten is growing and I get to hire some new faces. Only…I’ve never hired anybody before. The talented people I work with are all Super Friends. So this is the first time I have to like, post the job, read resumes and do, like job interviews. And so far, this entire process is utter bullshit. Read on…
According to Rihanna the parking lot is a metaphor for friendship. It’s in the parking lot that we search for our car and where we yearn for love and friendship. Knowing what you want is only the first step–of many–towards achievement. In the parking lot of life Rihanna has your back: Read on…
Considering Google’s penchant for April Fools jokes, I’m disappointed that today of all days Google Maps won’t divulge the location of Paradise City where, I’m told, the grass is green and the girls are pretty. Read on…
In business, as in life, it’s better to be pessimistic when planning and optimistic when working. No matter how intimidating the odds are, Ice Cube’s Hip Hop Proverb reminds us that gumption and elbow grease are always free: Read on…
Challenges can be intimidating but it’s only because we don’t have perspective. Climbing a hill isn’t a big deal when it’s next to a mountain, right? Next time you’re faced with a challenge, never no worries, today’s Hip Hop Proverb offers you the inspiring perspective to get’er done. Read on…
Eating with a friend who remarked: “This is the first time I’ve made this. So I only used a bit of salt. If you need some” pointing “salt and pepper are here.” Read on…
Who knew Vanilla Ice could be so inspirational? This Hip Hop Proverb is like after-school-special gold! In the school of life…not everyone deserves a participation award: Read on…
I know, it’s Monday. Last thing you’re thinking is Carpe Diem. Well MC Hammer disagrees, with all the fervor of a “stay in school special” he offers this rousing Hip Hop Proverb: Read on…
On January 22, 2014 I witnessed a fateful television vision:
I am gonna bite the bullet and start X-Files soon. 9 seasons! And 2 movies. Whew. I’m wrapping up Star Trek: Next Gen soon. (Next Gen is dated, for sure but still lots of fun. I wish they’d done more with Lore and his army of unhived Borgs.) Read on…
Over tea this morning I was reading how the US Military (DARPA) is experimenting with eliminating sleep from its solders but not like sleeplessness where you mentally breakdown and start seeing things. Their goal is to eliminate the need for sleep while keeping solders awake and fully alert, with all their faculties intact for 7 full days.
Ah yes, this is it! Page 36 of Gladwell’s David and Goliath he writes:
“We spend a lot of time thinking about the ways that prestige and resources and belonging to elite institutions make us better off. We don’t spend enough time thinking about the ways in which those kinds of material advantages limit our options.”
And to think this whole time you were taking fashion cues from Vogue and GQ, turns out all you required was this honest Hip Hop Proverb (sing the rest if you know it and I know you know it):
On January 2nd, 2014…a proper way to embrace a new year with a time travelling tv show from from the early 90s! Channel 293 Dejaview TV started their Quantum Leap marathon. I fired up the VCR. And the kettle for a spot of tea. Read on…
Traditionally I’m not an anniversary type of guy, I’d much rather face the future then dwell in the past. Still milestones like birthdays and the end of a tv series do provide a pause and prompt reflection. What just happened? And where are my pants?
One Room, My Room: In my office I’ve recorded podcasts, had meetings, ate Wendy’s, daydreamed which lead to dozing, designed t-shirts, read comics which lead to dozing, listened to music, did lots of writing…which lead to dozing, muttered out loud and yes…even worked…whatever that means to you.
Said: “Come—Closer so you may see,
Prepare yourselves for The Sight:
It’ll affect how you’ll be,
And will give you quite a fright!
We are proud to present this
Hush now—Silence!—no more din.
The Sight is removed from bliss:
Get ready to see the Sin!
For the image prepare zeal:
Physically it will express
—quickly like a flashing eel—
Mentally, try to depress
What’s inside your mind pent:
Dread & terror of the scene
Forever from the moment.
Brace for the gross & obscene! Incline & consume The Sight
That repeals & attracts…fright!”
The faded purple Curtain is raised—
the public gasps in shock and dismay:
The scene unfolding before them is too much—
for some to grasp—to comprehend.
The poet lay naked, huddled
and humiliated in the corner of his cage.
Gripped in a blaze of inspiration
his pen scrawls across the page
leaving behind moving poetic notions.
His hair is wild and the chains on
his wrists and ankles, rub him raw, drawing fresh blood.
He endures the suffering—only—by
knowing there will be a pause soon—soon
in another minute—a second more:
The Curtain will drop and it will
be over for the audience. But
the poet’s tale remains without end.
Forced in the grip of some unseen muse to write—
The Curtain hangs one final moment…
The poet retreats into himself further.
The Curtain drops—pause for the poet,
the spectators shudder as they recall
The Sight. As they are ushered to the
Next Exhibit they compare notes and
once again their attention is gained:
The audience leans in with eager
expectations for yet another
Exhibit on this strange and odd tour.
Today in 2008 a plucky writer decided to have a room of one’s own and signed a lease for an office near College Park.
I know, Hallmark doesn’t make cards for office anniversaries. And we’re all grateful for that, one less thing to celebrate. Still I figured I should pause and hip hop hooray my office: part Man Cave, part Bat Cave, All Room.
So then here are 6 utterly useless Fun Facts about my office:
It’s been a month since I started sharing my 10:55 am pop culture amusings. Clearly I don’t have the Mother Teresa touch: I haven’t made the world a better place. Undaunted I press on, everyday at 10:55am via @mypalsammy: Read on…
Hope Santa was good to all you beautiful people (even though let’s be honest, being on the naughty list is way more fun, better stories! Coal be damned). I’m pantslessly enjoying a John Hughes marathon (not really sure why, just kinda happened). Read on…
You know how right before you drift into dreams this one profound definitive conclusion will suddenly reveal itself, kinda like the Invisible Man who as it turns out was there the whole time? Sometimes it feels like the Wonder Years Narrator only this time, you can hear his insights! (That sure would have saved Kevin and Winnie lots of heartache while also developing any number of fascinating paradoxes in the space–time continuum). That’s…an embarrassing amount of nerd references in just a couple of lines. Right, moving on then…
With alarming frequency I can’t buy anything without being asked about that store’s loyalty program/card thingie or being offered some random way to collect points to redeem for more crap. Look…I’ma say this once to every single store: I cheat on all of you. Regularly and out in the open.
Remember that infamous book from years back All I Really Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten? Yeah well the truth is if we could all write a book together, Wikipedia style it’d be All I Really Need to Know I Learned in Gym Class. It’s Gym Class where you get saddled with inferior paradigms like Shirts vs Skins (really us vs them…I coulda gone for this had it been no pants vs pants, though), winners and losers etc. That’s great for sports because there are clearly defined rules and somebody’s keeping score…in the real world, it’s far to messy for such naive simplicity.
It’s that time of year where JFK shows up in all kinds of tv specials. I’m always struck by the Space Race…the quest for the Moon. Out of that whole race we got all kinds of technology and a Tom Hanks movie with pithy inspirations. Read on…
When my startup makes embarrassing gobs of money-take that GNP of small African nations–every Monday morning, over the entire office’s PA I’ll bring in famous drummers to tap their sticks and count off a beat “1-2-3-4!” Ramones style like we’re all gonna launch into an epic tune brimming with seriously serious shredding and explosive pyro: this…this is the fun and only way to not only start the work week but it effectively banishes any case of the Mondays. Read on…
How are your adventures? Mine are beyond fantastical.
It’s been one whole week into my Day Job sabbatical. And it’s just amazing. Freedom to think and tea and listen to music and not wear pants and nap and meet cool people and of course…work. Whatever that means.
One of the first joys of being a freelancer after working so long for a company is…the ability to erase the alarm clock. Good-bye 6:30am. Snooze button you’re outta commission. Read on…
Traditionally somebody leaving the office with a bankers box is not a positive sign (which I never fully understood…ok sure you can’t pay your bills, least you don’t have to wear pants anymore, don’t focus on what you’re losing unless it’s your pants).
This morning I was reading a Hellboy trade and the intro was written by Guacamole del Toro. He talked about shooting Mimic in Toronto and when the set was rough going to Silver Snail comics and buying Hellboy. I fist pumped even though it was on the subway, that’s what I do too! Read on…
“By 2008, annual ties sales in the U.S. had dropped to $677.7 million dollars from a record high of $1.3 billion in 1995, according to market research firm NPD Group. And since 2009, the number of men who acquire more than one tie a year has slowly but steadily dropped, reported research group Packaged Facts.” {Source: Wall Street Journal}
Bloody hell can’t we just kill the tie already? Thanks to the tech industry the t-shirt won.
Easily at that. Read on…
From the man who penned “we can be heroes,” prophecy more profound than an Amazing Kreskin clairvoyance comes this staggering insight:
“After a couple of false starts, he launched his first brand called…David Bowie.
Some time later, in a BBC interview, he rationalised what had been instinctive: “I thought, well here I am. I’m a bit sort of mixed up creatively.
“I’ve got all sorts of things going on, that I’m doing on stage or whatever. I’m not quite sure if I’m a mime or a songwriter or a singer – or do I want to go back to painting again. Why am I doing these things anyway? And I realised it was because I wanted to be well known, basically.
“And that I wanted to be thought of as someone who was very much a trendy person, rather than a trend. I didn’t want to be a trend, I wanted to be the instigator of new ideas. I wanted to turn people on to new ideas and new perspectives. And so I had to govern everything around that.
“So I pulled myself in, and decided to use the easiest medium to start off with – which was rock and roll – and to add bits and pieces to it over the years, so that by the end of it, I was my own medium. That’s why I do it, to become a medium.”
“What our generation failed to learn was the nobility of work. An honest day’s labor. Instead of working, we figured we could be hustlers and salesmen and gamblers and partiers. Work was for suckers. If anybody had told us such a thing existed, we probably would have tired to become New York bankers and stockbrokers. And I have no doubt we would have been good at it too.” ~Charlie LeDuff {Detroit: An American Autopsy pages 32-33} Read on…
Gravity is ridiculous. The force but especially the movie. I mean, come on man, Sandra Bullock as an astronaut? Really? NASA astronauts go through twenty months of training, if not more at Starfleet Academy. Read on…
The following statement can be attributed to Michael Petricone, senior vice president, government and regulatory affairs, Consumer Electronics Association, regarding a study released by the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) purporting search engines aid in consumer infringement of online content:
“This is a Hollywood formula as familiar as a rom-com: Blame the technology instead of providing your customers with the experiences and products they want. Yesterday, it was the VCR and the MP3 player. Today, it’s search engines, Aereo and the Dish Hopper.
“Search engines don’t ‘introduce’ consumers to infringing content – most consumers simply want legal, conveniently accessed digital content at a reasonable price. Indeed, studies show that unauthorized downloading decreases as legal alternatives proliferate.
“Commercial piracy is wrong and illegal. Violators should be prosecuted under existing laws. But the answer is not restrictions on search engines or the ability of Internet users to access information.
“The fact is that today, due to the Internet, artists can create, distribute, and monetize more content more easily than ever before. Rather than assailing innovators, we urge the content community to work with the tech industry to provide new, exciting and authorized distribution platforms to consumers.”
The copywriter for Body Rock a 1984 Lorenzo Lamas movie about break dancing is outstanding:
“Chilly is just a guy from the streets with a talent for break-dancing. When his wicked moves catch the eye of an industry pro, Chilly finds his dreams of fame and fortune coming true, for better or for worse.” Read on…
On May 4, 2012 we lost Adam Yauch AKA MCA. That’s cold: Death taking one of the Beastie Boys. A significant loss to hip hop, music, movies and most importantly shenanigans. Happily horseplay was quickly restored on May 3, 2013 when Palmetto Playground in Brooklyn was renamed the Adam Yauch Park.
We get together on Friday to plot, plan and to scheme.
It’s fascinating when people are on the same page, when it’s working, when we’ve all collectively and individually decided to move forward.
To recognize and give permission to move forward, to let and give others the freedom to do so as well.
Grow, not just in stature but in vision in desire and in hunger. Spark that fire deep in your bones, especially with the dawn of winter.
Choose now to not be satisfied but to long and reach for what could be quite unattainable. No more: the ol is it the destination or the journey quandary. Now it’s both!
Why not this time, with this group of people, why can’t we decide to make it both? Let’s make this road trip exciting right to the end. S’why road trip movies are so anticlimactic, once you get there, well that’s that. Now what? The momentum of the journey has been halted, the planing the scheming, the overcoming all and every obstacle to get here ceases almost immediately. Like when a band stops after a long hard tour and just…goes home.
This time…let’s keep going! Journey and Destination, we want both, let’s reach for both, we’re due. We’re owed. Right? Right…
This weekend’s plans include going HAM on my To Read Pile…I still haven’t touched Joseph Anton Salman Rushdie’s on-the-run memoir or…and I’m so fired…Morning Glories Volume 4 which has been sitting on my desk for weeks now. No pants time badly needed.
(Similarly I can’t stand that forever-time between new comics and pants removal to begin reading. Proclivities aside I’m keeping this short, want to get my nose back into Unwritten Volume 7).
I’ve about 2 more issues to go in this equally impressive Unwritten trade. Previously I thought Ho Lee Chow…Unwritten Volume 6 was a phenomenal way to kick off 2013. So much delicious and nutritious ruckus. Now as I’ve gone deeper into Volume 7 my 2013 is flourishing and I’m convinced #MikeCareyIsBoss should be trending on twitter.
Stories…that’s the one of the thickest most common threads expertly connecting humanity across time and history. When we used to gather round the campfire now we huddle around the glow of a warm monitor.
Unwritten celebrates stories…an inspired exploration of what it means to be well read. There’s also vampires, an evil cabal, bizarre Harry Potter references, magic, comic books and more.
This is an incredibly astonishing series, a perpetual magic act that has me scratching my head trying to figure out how Mike Carey & Peter Gross pulled it off.
Want to treat yourself today? Alright have a pants-off napbut before you do…buy Unwritten Volume 1 (yes you need this in your life and on your bookshelf) and start on the sweetest part of every single story: Page 1.
Keys in hand, left shoelace undone like so many previous schemes, gripping my jacket at the shoulders trying to get it properly on my thin frame, gotta go, gotta go, rush out lest I be late. Places to be people to see false purpose.
Alright so…in New York City there are these fantastic Brooklyn house parties hosted by Mr. Saturday Night. The dude is an Artist and rather than pay apartment rent and studio rent he got one large place and throws parties to make ends meet. Every Saturday he moves all the furniture to one side of the apartment and everybody shows up and has a good time. Read on…
In a diner not far from Times Square. Couple beside me wrapping up their meal/date. Dude pays and says he has to take off. Girl says thanks! That was fun let’s do this again. Sweet smile. Dude jets. Read on…
Flying to New York City later today. And like most brown people it’s a pain to deal with ignorant TSA agents. That they’re often racist compounds general annoyance. Thus I’m going to the airport with my tried and true passive aggressive response (patent pending) when crossing the border: Read on…
I am visual minority, granted a man but still not white. And I take my browness into creative industries typically dominated by white men. And I could care less. Read on…
Game 7 of the NBA Finals is a sobering and humble reminder that everything in this life is the byproduct of several million seemingly insignificant small decisions: Read on…
So went to this gaming Toshiba Pop Up shop event tonight; over on Queen Street and got to meet…Bruce Wayne. Yup, his name is actually Bruce Wayne. Read on…
On Friday June 14, 2013 the newest Superman movie opens: Man of Steel. At the risk of losing my nerd street cred I will not be viewing Man of Steel during its theatrical run. Here are my whys and my confessions. Read on…
Is there a way to convert all the data the NSA has collected spying on each of us into a helpful personalized app? If so that app should be called Thanks NSA. Read on…
Feels like we start out, over Coke and other sweet pop believing in soul mates…The One. Course all the FM pop songs, happily ever after movie endings all help enforce that notion. Read on…
Feels like we start out, over Coke and other sweet pop believing in soul mates…The One. Course all the FM pop songs, happily ever after movie endings all help enforce that notion. Read on…
The caffeine withdrawal is the worst part…why didn’t anybody say anything! It’s called an addiction because it’s so automatic, I’m aware of my vices. I’m at stage 5 acceptance. I’m comfortably numb, you know? I probably could use a Fight Club lecture, really who couldn’t use a Fight Club lecture?
(Is it ok to talk about movies you’re not in?).
With no tea and no Coke I’m getting headaches and nausea. It’s like being seasick on land. It’s not as impressive as it sounds.
How are you holding up?
Matt Damon giving you a hard time…that guy always seems surly. Ever seen him on Entourage or House of Lies…surly. Course that could all be acting. In which case I am sorry Matt. It’s not me, it’s the hunger…please don’t Bourne me.
What’s harder living for $1.50 a day for 5 days or getting Good Will Hunting made?
Sammy
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Support my Live Below The Line profile.
So today’s the first day of Live Below The Line. How is your story so far? I am doing alright, bit hungry, otherwise I’m all good, business as it should.
Thanks for spending your celebrity currency on this campaign. That’s one element of suck associated with your 15…soon as you get famous there’s all kinds of demands on your time and your Daredevil money to support all kinds of causes. Think you choose wisely, sure warrants a high five.
Is Kevin Smith hasslin you? Yet? That guy should totally join us, invite him to the party. We can gang up and recycle Uncle Phil fat jokes from the Fresh Prince. (Better to go with the obvious when cracking sass, if we bring up Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back he’ll come back with Gigli jokes and it’ll get ugly quick, especially with everybody so hungry).
Should be a fascinating week, trying to live on $1.75 a day. (Well for you it’s a $1.50 a day…which is kinda of a rip, since American McDonald’s offers a dollar menu…4 nuggets for the win, yo!).
Though the limits are food I wonder if comic books, novels and movies count in my daily allowance. You know, soul nourishment. Trying to live on $1.75 a day on pop culture couldn’t get you far. Thank the Big Dude for the library (and free comic book day). In many ways there’s lot of things I can give up or do without, daily nourishment from movies and comic books and music is not one of them.
I don’t require a fast to be grateful for all the hardworking people who make my pop culture. I do wish it was easier to high five and fist bump em as a way to say thanks.
By the way, I am sorry I haven’t seen Argo. I’m on it.
Sammy
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Support my Live Below The Line profile.
So check this out: April 29-May 3, I (Sammy) will be participating in a campaign called Live Below the Line where I will only eat and drink on $1.75 for 5 days, the Canadian equivalent of the extreme poverty line.
Madness. (Although just in time for swimsuit season, so that’s a handy plus).
I’m reaching out to you, the fabulous and fresh music community because I know you enjoy supporting worthy causes.
With the money raised, Raising The Village (RTV), a Canadian organization, will partner with the village of Murole in southwest Uganda to end their daily struggle with extreme poverty.
Using sustainable and innovative projects committed to community empowerment, leadership, and ownership, RTV partners with the most remote villages in sub-Saharan Africa to eliminate extreme poverty. In Murole, this will include projects such as mountain gorilla deterrence, agricultural training, a goat cooperative and school construction in order to improve food production and security, access to education and income generation opportunities.
With an average household income of less than 10 cents a day and a 98% illiteracy rate, Murole is RTV’s most challenging project yet but the passion and dedication of the villagers affirm that they’re affirm that they’re on the road to recovery.
That’s the pitch! How can you not be inspired to help? Don’t you want to see significant change happen? I do so that’s why I am doing this. It’s debatable if one man can make a difference, collectively however there’s no limit to what we can accomplish.
Enjoy this fascinating video on Murole and RTV HERE.
Question for music fans/music nerds…you discover an amazing new band, some utterly freshtastic music, it blows your mind and you wonder how on earth you’ve lived up till now without said music in your life…what’s your go to expression when you joyfully discover incredible new music? Read on…
Watching the Game Show Network last night (look it was Monday night, my choices were slimmer than Kate Moss). As a strange study not based on any sort of science or theory I wonder if you could chart the evolution of risk through game show contests.
At this Fancy Pants event…this 3 year old tugged on my pants asking for french fries. Do I look like a French Fry Pimp? I asked her if she wanted one fry, 272.6 fries or 1001 fries. Without hesitating she demanded 1001 fries. Sigh: Women. Read on…
In 2011 a long awaited (well long awaited for me…) Evel Knievel bio arrived in book stores. Yes! Evel: The High-Flying Life of Evel Knievel: American Showman, Daredevil, and Legend by Leigh Montville.
My Honest Truth: whenever I board an airplane I suvey it’s length identifying all the emergency exits locations measured in distance from my seat. Then I evaluate the people sitting next to those emergency exits.
Can I trust that person? Will they panic? Or react swiftly and smartly? Hmmm he’s got breakfast burrito stains on his shirt, if the wings fall off this sucker I’m on my own. So Be It. See…I am Boy Scout prepared.
Look: we live in a world of impending doom. And the only way to successfully avoid succumbing to the fear and paranoia is to armed a game plan.
So in the event of the following Apocalypses I’ve devised a game plan.
At ye olde cinema next to my office I have a coupon expiring January 9 2013. Pressure’s on…I gotta see something tomorrow night (I can’t go tonight). None of them justify putting on pants so I need help…your help! (Clearly I’m desperate).
Chaos and mayhem, that’s what I provide now and at 10:55 am via @mypalsammy.
Actually…
Not entirely sure why…I tend to slow down during Christmas so maybe I started to see things “clearly.” Pop culture is funnier when you ignore the wizard and focus on the old man. If Toto could pull the curtain back on my pop culture thoughts as posted @mypalsammy at 10:55 am this is what’d he see:
Thanks to everyone who dropped by the bar known as my Facebook status box/visited this site…you beautiful people pulled up a chair, liked something, shared something, debated something and yes even thanks to the people who disagreed with me and throat punched me. Moral Courage, yo! Read on…
So…magic. I don’t often talk about magic but I’m a huge magic nerd…I watch all kinds of specials on tv, youtube, I go to as many shows as I can…it’s magic! (One of the reasons I adore NYC is they constantly have magic shows on…I don’t have to go to Vegas, you know? We have no magic in Toronto). Read on…
Today I got to be a model for a photo shoot with Product Magazine. (Turns out they’re interviewing me for NewMusic Ten and my writing…time to dust off the A-Material).
Tonight I’m going to my first game of the season, yeah! In my city the home team Raptors suck so I don’t expect greatness. Tonight’s game is against the Pacers, who I do expect big things.
(And…ack! I am going to the game even though, sigh George Romero is presenting a Night of the Living Dead screening. Had to make a choice!). Read on…
Ok my pal Stephanie and I were chatting (well, I was probably rambling like a hype alien abductee, meh semantics) about movies that should be on late night tv but are not. What do you got? Read on…
Overheard last night during Indie Week ruckus:
Dude on the phone: “So what happened with that emotionally unstable chick…you make out with her?” Pause…listening to his friend. “Oh. Well, did she cry the whole night?” Read on…
Walking by the Carrie (remake) set. Like most people I don’t see the value in making this movie (or the Carrie musical). (Are they doing a remake of a remake or the original movie or just adapting the book…again?)
Not to be outdone by TSA’s inept (and racist) airport security efforts the U.S. Customs has decided to join the game, in a valiant effort to keep small American children safe! Read on…
In our society where fear is part of a complete daily diet, where we shallowly use the Internet for Gotcha! games for celebrities with minor transgressions, I am deeply encouraged by the bright light of hope illuminated by teasers at the end of superhero movies. Read on…
The NBA Finals have barely concluded and yet we continue to promote this archaic notion of experience. It’s 2012. Twenty-twelve. Not only have the rules of the game changed but the game itself have changed. Read on…
The current NBA Finals are tied at 1. I, of course…are cheering for OKC. However I was curious about NBA Finals ticket prices…I’ve never been to a playoff game let alone a Finals game. Read on…
I encouraged my Mom to watch Hereafter the Matt Damon movie. 15 or 20 minutes in she remarked Matt’s “superpowers are kinda like Dead Zone.” Woah, that’s a really astute reference. Brought a tear to me eye you know? Read on…
DC and myself return for another engaging S’up Cuz podcast. The topic is 2012’s Summer Movies.
With such an extravaganza of spectacle there’s lots to debate, cross arms, count down the days to opening screening and more. Plus: female celebrities, who is accessible? Who you think you could successfully close? Things that make you go hmmmm….
Fear the wrath of an angry nerd! Now with even more bad puns…comes the Nerd Rage Rage Podcast. Hosted by myself (Sammy) and a fellow nerd Brian, we’re 2 nerds who hulk out! (Purple pants not required. Especially because all pants are unnecessary. But I digress…)
S’up Cuz is a t-shirt company featuring over 20 freshtastic designs by myself and DC. It’s basically another creative playground we frolic in, truly a t-shirt is a limitless canvas. So to celebrate all matters Summer…for 2012 we’re offering a free S’up Cuz podcast.
It’s amazing to be young and out downtown until the early morning. It’s amazing to hang out with bands, met some beautiful people doing beautiful things. It’s amazing to yam something greasy…a midnight snack that sort of becomes a meal. Read on…
So we have an app that identifies constellations in the night sky but we don’t have an app that searches nearby stores for the cheapest and best post-Easter chocolate deals? What? Read on…
You know online dating sites would greatly benefit if they offered movie style blurbs from ex’s; like the kind you see splashed in big font on movie posters: Read on…
So I’ve decided to “understand” Spielberg. Checked out a bunch of books from the library: interviews, quotes, methods, whole deal.
And now? I sort of have a better handle on him; I kinda get it. I didn’t before, just didn’t make sense. I couldn’t comprehend why his movies are successful: what was the appeal? What was I missing?
Last night Kanye West went OFF on twitter…for 3 hours. I was online when it started…kept up with him for the first hour then I had to stop and go back to my work. (You could tell something special was about to go down–I instantly scrambled my brown butt upstairs to hastily make some tea, I didn’t even let it brew properly I wanted to get back to the scene. It’s like being a Gotham citizen and looking up one dark night…cloudy sky…and seeing the Bat Signal blazing the darkness: awww yeah! you just want to fist pump). Read on…
It’s a maze this digital world we currently inhabit. I didn’t get my first email address until I hit University. And even then most of my friends didn’t have one either. I had to…like call them, all the while hoping they were home. So I know I’m too old for these kid games. Tonight I brewed a pot of Red Rocket Tea and am attempting to finalize/understand The SampleBank’s Social Media Strategy. Less than 30 minutes in I already have a headache and it’s debatable how much more smarter on the topic I am. I do have a question however:
So much fun to watch the opening (finally!!!) of the 2011 NBA campaign last night. Think everybody wanted to put the lockout behind them and get down to business. And it was business as usual…the start of the season brings the standard debates of who will win it all this year.
Ever been to Clinton’s Tavern? It’s a vital Toronto intersection as sooner or later your creative path will draw you there. I’ve performed there a couple of times as a spoken artist. Black turtlenecks and all. (No bongo drums).
Considering how well the Sign Guy is doing during the Zombie Apocalypse of The Walking Dead Keira Knightley was clearly not wise in rejecting his love. Damn Girl.
What you don’t know is more important than your opinion on what you think you know.
Hindsight is always so bright it makes me squint. Read on…
Been reading a lot about Jordan and watching what clips I can find during his Tar Heels days since I have to make some key business decisions in the next few months. (Jordan just makes sense to me). Read on…
Normally I’m not comfortable expressing vulnerability. Which admittedly is odd for a writer who makes a living slinging emotions.
Still…here goes:
My Dad’s in Egypt caring for his ill sister; my aunt. Sadly she passed away. Which in a way is a blessing, as she’s no longer suffering. On the phone she didn’t sound good at all. Still sad: she was a cool and classy lady. Read on…
Happily had the opportunity to attend the Design Thinkers conference today: I went to 2 sessions by guys who did work at Nike. (Eh, don’t ask for names…I focused on the work not the Artist).
One designer went on to work with big time companies like Starbucks and Lego and yet you can still hear the utter awe in his voice from what Nike demanded. That’s Fresh. That’s How You Do It. Read on…
Yo I’ll have to save this memory/moment for a music video or maybe a French Film: it was a totally French Film moment.
Last night, still in NYC and I put aside my differences with Cameron Crowe and saw Pearl Jam 20. (I actually have beef with the band so this was a real growth moment in terms of maturity. Another story for another day).
Anyways I came out of the cinema, it was like 11:30 or midnight…the evening had this strange energy, Sunday night of a long weekend coupled with a full moon. Read on…
Not a particular milestone, just watching my youth flee like a prison break. I got curious, wondering if I listed everything I read in a birth year how much I actually consumed. I was going to list articles but thanks to twitter and google I…can’t. I go through tons of articles and it’d just be too much, compounded by my avid laziness. So here is what I’ve been reading since Wednesday September 28 2011 (with occasional commentary) to Thursday September 27, 2012. {Special thanks to Brian E for facilitating my crack like connection to comic books.}
I didn’t enjoy school. Yeah I was one of those kids, left many a crying or frustrated teacher. So Be It. I didn’t enjoy the structure, the time demands, the lessons…everything sucked about school. Work is not much better. It’s 2011 we’re way past the Industrial Revolution and a farming society. So why hasn’t everything else changed? We may party like it’s 1999 but we work like it’s 1799.
Couple of years back I had the notion to celebrate the 80s in poetry. Occasionally in this space I’ll post a poem celebrating something or someone gloriously 80s.
Today is Madonna’s 53rd birthday, crazy I know. Take that Lady Gaga!
When Big Money comes rolling in it’s important to keep it in the family.
It’s why growing up we play Monopoly with family members. You learn which members are ruthless, which ones handle their money well and which ones just flame out. S’the way the dice rolls sometimes.
Rock music has the 27 Club a fateful sad collection of typically talented musicians who only got to 27 felled by drugs or alcohol, meh just name any vice really. Hollywood doesn’t have a club but it does offer its share of cautionary tales.
Couple of years back I had the notion to celebrate the 80s in poetry. Occasionally in this space I’ll post a poem celebrating something or someone gloriously 80s.
Today is MTV’s 30th Birthday, crazy I know. We’ve come a long way from those “I Want My MTV” ads.
Am I the only one who thought the entire notion of going to school at 8:30am every single morning ridiculous? I’m a night owl…I only get to work, real work by 11pm or so. I suppose the logic was to prepare you for “the real world” and yet many businesses allow employees to work from home, flexhours and other similar perks. So: school is out of touch with reality. No matter. What school did get right was Summer. Yes Guy!
Ok because everybody keeps asking, here it is for the record: In Cowboys & Aliens yes Daniel Craig is shirtless for 1 scene and Olivia Wilde is buck naked but there’s no nudity. Read on…
Few years back sociologist and speaker Richard Florida wrote a book called Who’s Your City? One of the book’s central tenants was the concept of finding the ideal location carefully balancing notions of work, play and other similar social activities.
Stronger Than Me is the first Amy Winehouse song I “discovered.”
And with that song: I was sold. I instantly picked up Frank, at the time her only album out.
That voice…that jazzy fresh style. It was like a sonic time machine back to 60s girl groups. That sound…it was like generations were packed between each note…from the 50s all the way to our current hip hop head bopping.
We all listen to a lot of music. Lots of bands and artists will come and go, on a playlist one day…gone a few weeks later. Every now and then you’re given an artist, a genuine talent that is utterly remarkable. Michael Jackson was like that…more of a force than a pop singer.
Amy renewed my interest and devotion to music…all kinds of music. She inflamed passions that had simmered down to orange coals. We’ve gone from the gatekeepers who controlled music to busting the dam wide open (thank you Napster), able to consume, sample and listen to any music we want. Open buffets sound like a good idea but really, if we’re being honest…the kind of honest when it’s the middle of the night, you’re tossing and turning…excess is never a good thing. Sadly Amy confirmed that as well.
Back To Black came out and had I been a cartoon my jaw would have hit the ground. That’s what I hear in my head. I am not a musician. I subscribe so wholly to music that at times I’ll wake up with melodies in my head. Sometimes I’ll dismiss them, probably from some random song I heard in a club or something. Certainly not a Sammy original. Other times, when the Sun is bright and life feels good, I’ll bop my head to the sounds only I can hear. And life does feel good.
Back To Black was it. That’s the sounds I hear. My friend Lana in Van City would smile when talking about Amy and her music. Lana was the one who turned me onto Mark Ronson’s astonishing album Version.
Later that day in Vancouver–I was there on tour with a rock band–another story for another day–I purchased the album from HMV and we piled into the car and put on Version utterly struck down by Amy’s version of Valerie. So good; soul good. We turned it up as we drove around Sunny Vancouver.
(During the tour Rehab became an ongoing joke…not for drug or alcohol consumption but rather lines like “no, no, no.” You’d ask something ridiculous to set it up and the response would be an echo of Amy’s “no, no, no.” Alright, whatever…you had to be there).
Rock sucks sometimes. As much music as it’s given me–us–it’s a supreme sacrifice for the artists. You pay a heavy toll to be successful. I’m not angry at Rock…or Amy. I’m resigned: some stars shine last longer than others. That’s an old school fact, hard to grapple with like life isn’t fair. They’re both true and ultimatly have to accepted.
Amy was an addict. As much as success opened many doors for her…it couldn’t sooth or even ease the pain that pushed her down those dark roads. I never met her so I can’t say much more…we all have our secrets and our hurts and our secret hurts. We all cope with them in ways we foolishly believe are unique.
The hardest part about love isn’t loving somebody. That’ll always be hard. No. The hardest part of love is fully, completely, totally admitting you are lovable. You are worth the love you receive. Accepting love is hard: when you say I love you which of the 3 words has more emphasis?
Could love have saved Amy? I’m too old, seen too many things to be so flippant. And yet, if I’m forced to accept the notion life isn’t fair then I want to hold onto the belief that love can save. But it’ll be a bigger love…not the cheeze peddled in romantic comedies and FM pop songs. A genuine life affirming love.
The saddest part of Amy’s death is not the death itself but that it was expected. It was avoidable. Like starving children in Africa, homelessness here…these tragedies are avoidable. Amy reminds me of that now…she stirs my compassion, prompts my understanding almost asking I funnel my energy into something of true value.
Amy’s death is a reminder to hold tight onto the music that stirs my heart while also reaching out to those in my life with hurt. Who could use a bit more love and less solutions.
Ok let’s talk about last night’s film The Art of Getting By. I was the only person in the cinema…50 seats all to myself. Normally I go to the movies every Sunday on my own but until I got to my friend’s place following the screening for tea I didn’t fully realize how tender I’d been the last few days. Sitting by myself in a dark room was both great and sad.
Picked up Barry Windsor Smith: Opus Volume 1 from the library on Saturday. A more detailed examination of his work that heavily reminds me of William Blake’s works…particularly Blake’s Songs of Innocence and Songs of Experience. Read on…
Osama bin Laden is dead, by actions the US government are calling justice. Violent execution passes for justice from a country that has intricate laws and a multi-tiered court system all flowing from a rich constitution.
“For everyone else, I’ll try to tell you as best I can how movies are made. It’s a complex technical and emotional process. It’s art. It’s commerce. It’s heartbreaking and it’s fun. It’s a great way to live.”
Sometime today a treacherous teacher or a monotony manager will conclude to Somebody: “you’ll never amount to anything.” And that Somebody…Just. Got. Stronger.
Somebody somewhere is starting fresh, not starting over. And this time it will stick. Not out of sheer will or the stress must brings but because it’s time & it’s right. Those timid first steps will eventually evolve into a run. Go. Go. Go.
I finally sat down to watch Black Swan. What a train wreck, that was a horrible movie. I ended up having to fast forward huge chunks just to move what little plot was there and shut it off after an hour and a half. Read on…
Ran into a friend on the subway…well he saw me. I’m usually gone on the subway when I’m reading: I’m in that world not this world. I’ve gotten in trouble from old people and 1 pregnant lady for not giving up my seat but when I read I’m “not here.”
This is a eulogy for a fictional comic book character Johnny Storm: The Human Torch, a member of the Fantastic Four. In Issue 587 he passed away and those events prompted the following. Yes I know he’s a fictional character. Yes I can tell the difference between real life and comic book world. But as any avid reader will tell you a death of a major character, one you’ve emotionally invested in is devastating. Good writing does that.
OnYourNose.com is slowly growing, with all the Christmas/holiday stuff out of the way we’re going to start doing media, forums etc. so hopefully it’ll take off. Sites of this type like fmylife, texts from last night etc. all hit critical mass in about 4 months or so…which puts at basically April. By then (if not sooner) we’ll know if we’re DOA or number 1 with a bullet. This might take a bit longer since On Your Nose is not a common phrase in the population. Read on…
This week the American IFC (the good version really…the Canadian version always leave something to be desired) is going to be airing The Ben Stiller show. Read on…
Thank you for always making sure I don’t take any freedoms for granted, for pushing me to never stay silent and how to add up the costs of a good fight. Read on…
It’s the magical time of year. Snow on the ground, garish Christmas crap strung up on the walls of malls and peeing in your pants watching a friend wipe out on ice. Read on…
The Dark Side:
Got mashed over by busy city streets and craptacular drivers. I need some new driving swears, does anybody have some favourites that can help embolden my road rage? Read on…
S’Great To Be Me!
Time to ignite cigars and brew some seriously serious tea: just got Decoded Jay-Z’s new book. Phone is off the hook, pants off my legs and all due respect to my employers, but, yo I’m off the grind till this tome is done. Read on…
Over orange juice my senior lady friend tells me about her “boyfriend” who is 86 years old. During lunch he leaned forward and whispered: “My Dear: your presence fills a void in my life.” Read on…
Just finished watching the second episode of The Walking Dead. Rest assured if you get bit I will put you down. Immediately. No hesitation no compassion. Read on…
Yo…I’m in Los Angeles. Great trip so far…I got to go a Lakers game, sat not too far from Jack too. I’ve never seen anything like that…I’ve been to Madison Square, Cavs (before LeBron) and a good handful of Pistons games (saw Jordan play) and I never ever could imagine half the things I saw. It went beyond entertainment; far beyond a simple NBA contest between millionaires. It was Man Walking On The Moon spectacle. Crazy. And transcendent. LA man. LA. Read on…
Oh speaking of Uncanny the current X-Men issues (X-Men Legacy 238-241) are taking place in Mumbai. One of the X-Men is Indian, Indra and has to honour an arranged marriage. Course it’s a comic book so nothing unfolds smoothly and they’ve run into The Children of the Vault. Read on…
The Social Network is a modern parable and a flawed tragedy, easily Fincher’s most mainstream film. Yet in many ways a sequel to Fight Club…think what would happen if you took Project Mayhem online.
So I’m at this TIFF party right, fantastic party too, beautiful people having a beautiful time when I spot a well know radio host (not Strombo). Read on…
Poetry is in everyday life. Just like beauty it’s in the eye of the beholder. Every now and then in this space I’ll celebrate pop poetry in all its wonderful, ridiculous bright colours and profound power. If you have any suggestions please email away.
These are the days of our youth, loaded with boldness blessed with fortune. Celebrate all these endless days of Summer in peace, wonderment and ruckus! Never look back, surge forward.
Welcome. With the recent antagonistic actions prompted by the G20 being hosted in Toronto I felt enough was enough. This is beyond adolescent us vs them concepts. We’ve all grown past that: I hope.
A recently purchased lottery ticket prompted the discussion which tv or movie car from childhood I’d purchase. After some tea and no pants time here’s my list:
Originally published on 4/28/2006 11:01 AM:
Josie Dye asked I write some words to describe the 228 Yonge Street shenanigans. Which makes sense since this isn’t my day job, always a bridesmaid never…yeah I’ll stop there. I’m Lunch Boy—obviously not the name my parents selected but rather the moniker I received simply by showing up and having…lunch. And being a boy.
It’s a strange comfort to think of someone else other than yourself all the time. People in Love do it all the time, people who aren’t probably should do it more often.
This is from my book Red Letter Nights. I’m not posting this to say I’m on the same level as everyone else I posted this month. Rather the take away is that poetry is for everybody…go, write, create, sing…whatever form you want, whatever topic you want. This isn’t school, you don’t have to get an A or worry about an F. Take the words and mold them, mangle them…they belong to you. Sing and speak loudly as only your voice allows.
85 years young and still she embodies beauty, strength, resilience and a fierce determination for change. Her and husband Ossie Davis were friends to MLK and Malcolm X. She is civil rights. She is a link to our past and a clue to our future. There’s an old cliche that they don’t make them like they used to…Ms. Ruby Dee is evidence of that.
If you’ve seen the Simpsons Pinksy is great on it! This is the dynamic poem he read. It’s long but rewarding. Brew some tea and work your way to the bottom. Please not he dedicated it to those folks listed below.
If you’ve seen Dead Poets Society you’re familiar with this poem. Robin Williams aside it’s got guts and heart, boldness and bravery. Though not with a truly happy ending.
Maya Angelou is a fantastic writer. Despite our gender barrier (that she is a beautiful woman proudly permeates every word she writes) her writing is sharp, strong, confident. In fact another great poem is Phenomenal Woman (I thought it was about Eva Mendes but no…). Though I’ve only pasted one below, both poems are dedicated to my friend LG whose has helped me to see Maya’s beauty in her spirit and in her words.
Keats’ work is impressive in its scope and in its ability to bravely confront Death. This astonishing sonnet was written in 1818, Keats would be dead just 2 years later. This tragic loss is still felt today, I think he could’ve come up with ever greater works, had God seen fit to delay his Deadline.
I’ve flown to Paris and visited what is supposed to be Jim Morrison’s resting spot. While I did not make that pilgrimage with friends I did not go in alone. Others traipsed through the graveyard to find this iconic rock n roll destination. When we finally found Jim…silence descended upon us. This is it…this is what it all comes down to.
2+2=5…nice! Did you catch the literary reference? I totally dig how an alternative title to this song is The Lukewarm. This one is all ruckus, elevated beyond the ordinary to anthem status. Ruckus and Rawkus.
This is the most magical time of the year. The NBA playoffs are the Bar Mitzvahs for players transforming boys into men. (And in some cases as with some players it’s a Bat Mitzvah). I know all kinds of “professional” people have offered their opinions on what will occur. I’m not a professional sports guy but I am people so here my predictions be:
Smith has never been shy, she’s strong and her opinions are fierce and bold like tigers. Think most of us want to live with that type of courage and conviction. Wouldn’t that just change everything? Piss Factory is probably one of her best works but I’m a big fan of Rock N Roll Nigger.
Bono’s Truisms take partly inspired by Jenny Holzer’s phenomenal work Truisms. Oh and yeah I coulda gone with One but I dunno…there’s something strong going on here. So Be It.
Yes…that Michael Madsen, from Kill Bill and Reservoir Dogs. He’s quite good, dunno what me and so many others being surprised about his quality says about him but hey, love is love. Check it out and see for yourself…this do anything for you?
Auden’s poems fit the fabric of our lives, so often bits of his work end up in wedding toasts, graduation speeches and other similar gatherings of friends and family…community.
I do not possess the intellectual capability to understand or even fully engage this work but I sense sewn into every line is a latent greatness. T.S. Eliot is the Jordan of poets.
Look I can’t explain in any way that’ll make sense why the following poem is important to me but there it is. It’s out in the open and on the record. Read on…
Rimbuad though often under the radar to the mainstream public to many poets he is a genius, a madman and tons and tons of other appropriate labels, that all successfully stick. He is truly a character.
Bruce is New Jersey poet for true. This guy has soul and heart and grit…to continue would mean eventually sliding into cliché. I can’t do the brother justice so I’ll just get out of the way. (And yes this may not be the best example but it’s a fun dancey example so that works for me!)
Ok so I went to the Alicia Keys concert not as a fan but as a curious person. She’s one of those artists who, as they police label is “a person of interest.” I’m not sure if I like her. Or if I don’t. So…only one way to find out.
So this year I’ve entered into an oscar pool. Its run by a local safe house so I got all excited…since I thought safe house meant a place where federal witness’ could chill while the older cops who guard them insist they’re too old for this…
In Mexico sipping the Sunset with a “Summer breeze” so luscious I could live forever as I coax Lucky Man outta my player when before I could spark my cigar the song proves prophecy as a small girl squeals with mad delight as her strong daddy chases her—his affection as evident as the setting Sun—the only thing to do was send the song out to him: Lucky Man for true as I leaned back & lit the cigar with cool smoke. Read on…
Friday night at Green Mangos delicious Thai food joint. Small kid bucking a super fresh Spider-Man t-shirt leaping out of his seat and making his way to the bathroom passes my table exactly at the same moment he half concludes half announces: “I Love my chicken breath!”
I can admit without shame I cried during Conan’s final Tonight Show episode.
Just like when Johnny Carson retired back in the day. And I won’t return to The Tonight Show until Leno’s gone. I dunno if this is a break or a break-up. Read on…
I dunno why…this photo reminds me of Bowie’s The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars album cover. Think it’s the light…I dunno. Read on…
So these “new” airport security measures are juvenile jokes, byproducts of a grade 4 education: especially considering the same government administration can’t even stop gatecrashers at its own party! Read on…
Begin Quote:
“Before you move ahead on your venture, establish some concrete goals. Over and over, it has been proven that those who take the time to think through and write down the desired results in terms of specific steps are the people who achieve success. Experts tell us that we can program our subconscious to help bring about something we genuinely want.
Said: “Come—Closer so you may see,
From the man who penned “
