Practice vs Process: Respect The Odds

I always believed it was possible: this strange yet wonderful creative life.

Many will enter and few will win.

(During Jordan’s era how many great NBA players played their heart and their guts out to repeatedly taste setbacks? Making it to the NBA is a good accomplishment: those are long odds. Yet that’s a goal; not the goal. There’s way more to do after you arrive. So much more. Making it is great but it’s not the end and only goal.)

I know the odds though I do not respect the odds. Which I suppose makes me odd.

Be odd and ignore the odds.


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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.

Welcome to Haddonfield, Illinois: Halloween

So yeah SiriusXM has this horror channel Scream Radio whose programming includes popular mainstream hits (Thriller!), beloved sound effects and of course scary score music like the iconic Halloween theme song.

I drop by the channel every so often because tis the season. Today though I caught the beginning of Carpenter’s Halloween theme song. At first I was like oh hell no and I reached out to the dial but I paused before switching away.

Then I pulled my hand away.

Partly to face my fears: tis the season right?

But really I was driving and I’ve never heard that song while driving. Driving defines a lot of popular music: there’s something about that action of getting in your car even if you’re just driving to the dentist that makes a song truly pop. Especially in the Summer…windows down system up.

Sometimes when I hear a brand new song I think it’s fun but I wanna hear it while I’m driving. Driving is like melted cheese. I dunno why but it just makes it taste better. And road trips are of course synonymous with playlists.

So feeling as dumb as the big breasted chick in a tight white tank top going down to investigate that strange sound from the basement I left the Halloween theme song on.

Only I was driving through suburban neighborhoods. Through 2 school zones which meant slowing down. This chilled wind sailed through the trees plucking Fall tinted leaves so they swirled in the air in large sweeping circles like a drunk Superman. A young lady was out for a walk with her dog…it was all normal and yet so eerie…cruising. Driving slowly through the hood.

It felt way too menacing.

Fun Fact? “John Carpenter showed Halloween to an executive before it was finished. He showed the movie without the music. The executive didn’t find it to be scary at all. After the film was released, and she saw it, she changed her mind, an indication of how much Carpenter’s score adds to the film’s atmosphere.”

Nah man that was unsettling like eating slightly spoiled Subway. I now understand why a tagline for the 78 original was: “everyone is entitled to one good scare.” Indeed. Never doing that again even if it’s tis the season.

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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.

Morning Tea: Captain Kirk Takes Up Social Media Space…

Mission Captain Kirk In Space!

Dave Chappelle!

The Black Phone! Brew a strong tea: yo!


The First Yo of The Day.

“We’re leaving together

But still it’s farewell

And maybe we’ll come back

To earth, who can tell?

I guess there is no one to blame

We’re leaving ground

Will things ever be the same again?

It’s The Final Countdown!”


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Library People

The city is is opening so slooowly.

We need to pick this up. Let’s Go!

It doesn’t matter what people’s comfort levels are: let em stay home and grumble on Twitter.

Keep opening up especially for dynamic services such as the Toronto Public Library.

Let’s get this back on track. Starting this coming Sunday, October 17, many library branches will be open on Sundays from 1:30-5:00 pm.


Don’t Deny Others Pop Culture…Life?

Netflix trans employees plan to stage a walkout next week as per the Verge and Bloomberg (the company will also host activist Alok Vaid-Menon next week. I dunno what that is but I am not gonna Google it.) Why? Of course Dave Chappelle’s comedy (I’ll say it for those in the back: COMEDY) special The Closer.

(What happened to the 80s stance of shut up and change the channel?! Change the channel was a simple recognition that this TV show…comedy special was not made for me. Move along…nothing to see here.)

We did all this before: on March 6, 2020 Hachette workers walked out in protest of Woody Allen’s excellent memoir. (It still got published. Highly Recommended Reading.) That was wrong; this is no different.

Always stand by The Creators.

They’re the ones who endlessly bless us with pop culture and with life and happiness!


Captain Kirk Went To Space

William Shatner attempting to explain seeing Earth from space is called The Overview Effect.

“The overview effect is a cognitive shift in awareness reported by some astronauts during spaceflight, often while viewing the Earth from outer space.”

The more we all go to space the more we shift; the more we shift the more than that benefits environmental causes and dilutes the poison of Twitter. So grateful for the billionaire space race: fresh hope for humanity.

Shout out and much thanks to everyone who purchased something from Amazon to fund Jeff Bezos’ wealth and give us this freshtastic moment. Well Done; Well Won. Hope, yo! #SpaceIsThePlace

And yes I know it’s only 9 minutes but dude’s 90! We still don’t know the impact of seniors in space. Even if Space Cowboys came out 21 years ago. This is a good test; build on this data.

Plus you wanna hear a senior complain for hours: “I’m cold!”

“Are we there yet?”

“Where? I can’t see it where is the Earth?!”

That’s gotta be fun to go to space. Even briefly. William Shatner has led an incredible life. Even if you acknowledge T.J. Hooker.


Canada VS UBI

Canada needs to catch up on a lot of things.

UBI is just a good logical start.

What a waste of a recent election.


Is Clickbait All We’re Gonna Net from Kyrie Irving?!

We went through all of this with Kaepernick.

Many elaborate bloggers posing as journalists cranked out shallow referendums, lukewarm POVs, clickbait and utterly inferior writing. Kaepernick generated a pop culture hot mess that was loud on personality; short on facts an overwhelming obnoxious experience.

Now in 2021 Look how much utter junk Kyrie Irving has created: junk hashtags, junk posts, junk lies etc.

“Multiple sources with direct knowledge of Kyrie Irving’s decision have told The Athletic that Irving is not anti-vaccine and that his stance is that he is upset that people are losing their jobs due to vaccine mandates.”

So here we are. Kyrie Irving’s only responsibility is to his team: End of Story. Case Closed.


#SetTheVCR: The NHL??

The burgeoning Americana of the NHL makes it oddly compelling.

Why would anyone sit through a Calgary Flames game after this?!

Sports fans don’t pay for an #NHL game or an NBA game.


#TrailerAlert: The Black Phone

Scott Derrickson and C. Robert Cargill who gave us Sinister (and Doctor Strange!) have returned with The Black Phone.

This trailer looks good like food. It’s Joe Hill story adaptation…he’s a hack writer so hopefully Cargill improved the writing.

February 4, 2022 and I’m 100% IN.

(Ethan Hawke has had a strange career. A great one for sure but man the movies that dude decides to make are always worth a look. Brad Pitt has cranked out some strange movies (12 Monkeys etc.) but for the most part nobody is this good, this weird and this consistent as Ethan Hawke.) #FearPee


#SetTheVCR Meets New Book Alert: Welcome Netflix Book Club

I dunno who Uzo Aduba is so it’s hard to have any hope she’ll do a good job with Netflix Book Club.

Oprah’s totally obnoxious but at least she spoon feeds books to people. “Open Wide!”

If this gets more people reading and benefits good writers then this marketing propaganda is worth it.

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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.

#CouchWorthy: Paranormal – Season 1

Paranormal – Season 1 (Anytime / Netflix) – Paranormal Egyptians! That’s the premise of Netflix’s latest TV show: Paranormal.

This trailer is a bit creepy but not Doctor Who terrifying…you should be ok. (The Haunting of Hill House also on Netflix had me buried under my snuggie. So of course I went back and rewatched the entire season again. Really good. But yes I slept with my Spider-Man night light for about a week.)

Paranormal: Season 1 is…ready for this?

“Six-episode series from Egypt, about a scientist (Ahmed Amin) who finds himself investigating a series of highly un-scientific paranormal occurrences. Based on a popular series of novels by the late Ahmed Khaled Tawfik.”

The series is based on the series of novels by the Egyptian writer Ahmed Khaled Tawfiq which are like Harry Potter successful (ok maybe not that successful but they’ve solid millions…translated in I dunno many languages: the standard metrics of success. He’s the Arabic Stephen King basically.)

I’m curious how they translate for the subtitles…I suppose that’s for every foreign show but there’s an Arabic sarcasm that doesn’t neatly translate to English. (My mom is so upset with Netflix…this is clearly a Sammy Show; she’s like where are my shows! I shrugged…I dunno.)

(Also? as an Egyptian slash horror nerd I’m embarrassed I don’t know this: if you’re bitten by a snake you have what…15 to 30 minutes to get medical help? What’s the window for a mummy’s curse? Do you get a window of time before your body is found: your throat taxidermied with sand??)

Question: is this a trend? Maybe? Hopefully? On Shahid VIP one of their original programs is Bloodline. Middle Eastern Vampires…Egypt seems to be really cashing in on their ancient folklore; I wonder where this trend (such as it is…) is going.

What can I do to help? I’ll share this; still be great to actually work on these things: bring em up to a higher quality.

November 5 for Paranormal (why not on Halloween?! This seems like bad marketing…) .

Netflix | November 5, 2020

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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.

175 | Carolyn Mauricette (Blood In The Snow Film Festival)

My Summer Lair Chapter #175: What Makes A Horror Classic A…Classic?

Carolyn Mauricette is a once a year friend: I see her every year at the annual Blood in the Snow Film Festival which is incredible: Toronto has an outstanding horror community.

As for Carolyn, she is an accomplished horror film writer. She’s written for Rue Morgue, Hollywood Suite, Graveyard Shift Sisters and she is a Rotten Tomatoes Tomatometer-approved critic. View From The Dark is her deep dive into race and representation of people of color in genre film.

As for Blood in the Snow, she is one of 5 programmers for the Canadian film festival which broadcasts horror, sci-fi, and underground cinema. BITS was founded by Kelly Micheal Stewart in 2012. He was on My Summer Lair last year. Blood in The Snow is one of our best film festivals as you’re about to hear it has so much goodness, gore, and ghouls to offer. And this year it’s on TV via the Super Channel. For more details on that here’s a handy video.

Among this year’s films, we discuss Hall, Come True, Hail to the Deadites, and For The Sake of Vicious. Though stick around for our Doctor Who debate as well as the astonishing number of horror movies we get into from Blacula to The Planters.


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Blood In The Snow @ WT F

Photography by Sammy Younan

Recorded: Monday October 26, 2020 at 12:30pm EST

Amityville: Get Out Part 2

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.

Until you get to this part…

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Calling Stranger Things

Yo…anybody call the Stranger Things phone number?

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Your TK Is Not OK

TMN (The Movie Network) is running Carrie ads, that new remake…meh, might just ff to the prom mayhem.

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We All Scream For Ice Cream!

Generally we enter and exit 2 phases of modern life:

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