My Summer Lair Chapter #199: What Old School Video Game Could You Play For 100 Hours?

One of the most iconic Superman images and you’ll see it often recreated every Halloween is Clark Kent ripping his shirt open to reveal the super duper S logo underneath. It neatly feeds into the myth that heroes are all around us: at our work, in our coffee shops, in our churches but every so often they suddenly see a dare to be great situation and they’re inspired to rip open their shirt and go off and be a superhero.

As depicted in the documentary Kim Cannon Arm is mostly Clark Kent. An unassuming member of Copenhagen society. However he’s going to attempt something super human: he’s going to play the old school video game Gyruss for 100 hours.

Hence the title of Cannon Arm and the Arcade Quest currently playing at Hot Docs Film Festival. The doc’s director Mads Hedegaard who hails from Copenhagen in Denmark visited My Summer Lair to discuss the “Arcade Quest,” who Kim Cannon Arm is and how video games are perceived in Denmark. Oh and we talk about Nolan movies. No need for a quarter this is a free play.

Cannon Arm And The Arcade Quest @ W • T • F

Host Sammy Younan

Recorded: Wednesday April 27, 2021 at 12:30pm EST

It’s May if you can believe it. But thankfully here’s a whole pile of TV recommendations so you don’t hafta yell out “May Day!” when you can’t find anything.

Monday, April 26

Sesame Street: 50 Years of Sunny Days (8 p.m. / ABC)

ABC presents SESAME STREE: 50 YEARS OF SUNNY DAYS, a two-hour special on the legacy and impact of the beloved global phenomenon
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Sammy Suggestion: In Search of Darkness: Part II (Anytime / Shudder)

The follow-up to IN SEARCH OF DARKNESS, dives deeper into the practical-effects decade of ’80s horror movies with all-new interviews from genre icons and industry experts alongside the original cast.
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Big deep breath: Ready??! It’s All Happening: “Part II dives deeper into the fabled practical-effects decade of iconic and eclectic ‘80s horror movies that changed the course of film history. Packed with over four hours of brand-new interviews, including such legendary horror icons as Robert Englund (A Nightmare on Elm Street), Nancy Allen (Dressed to Kill), Linnea Quigley (The Return of the Living Dead), and special-effects wizard Tom Savini (Friday the 13th), Part II features 15 new faces alongside 40-plus returning members of the original In Search of Darkness cast to delve into more fan-favorite titles of ‘80s horror, year-by-year, expanding its scope to cover more international releases and spotlighting horror-career retrospectives.” If you’re an 80s horror fan this is not to be missed: this documentary will have you leaving wanting gore!

Tuesday, April 27

Sammy Suggestion: Jiu Jitsu (Anytime / Netflix (Canada))

After the defeat of a celebrated war hero, an ancient order of fighters battles powerful space invaders as the fate of humanity hangs in the balance.
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Ruckus! Mayhem! Violence! And: Nicolas Cage with a sword. Jiu Jitsu also threw in a race of alien invaders as the flimsy 80s action movie plot: “Every six years, an ancient order of jiu-jitsu fighters joins forces to battle a vicious race of alien invaders. But when a celebrated war hero goes down in defeat, the fate of the planet and mankind hangs in the balance.” Whatever. This looks so dumb it’s gotta be fun: I’m 100% IN!

Wednesday, April 28

The Handmaid’s Tale: Season 4 (Anytime / Hulu)

Offred, one of the few fertile women known as Handmaids in the oppressive Republic of Gilead, struggles to survive as a reproductive surrogate for a powerful Commander and his resentful wife.
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Sammy Suggestion: Headspace Guide To Sleep (Anytime / Netflix)

Learn how to sleep better with Headspace. Each episode unpacks misconceptions, offers friendly tips and concludes with a guided wind-down.
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Netflix and Chill! Headspace Guide To Sleep because babies don’t have insomnia. “Headspace Guide To Sleep offers a new facts and tips about sleep, backed by science.” Somewhere along the way people started doing this natural activity badly? Should be super helpful…well unless you live on Elm St.: One, Two, Freddy’s Coming For You.

Thursday, April 29

NFL Draft 2021 (8/7c PM / ESPN, NFL Network & ABC)

For the third consecutive year, ESPN and ABC will provide distinct prime-time presentations on days 1 and 2. ESPN will again offer the traditional draft telecast—a combination of X’s and O’s analysis, player highlights and storytelling—while ABC, featuring the eleven-time Sports Emmy Award-winning “College GameDay Built by The Home Depot” crew, will cover the event with an emphasis on the individual journeys of NFL Draft prospects.
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Let’s Be Real (8:30/7:30c PM / Fox)

Election-themed puppet special covering politics, pop culture and the 2020 election.
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Sammy Suggestion: Hot Docs 2021 (Anytime)

HOT DOCS Canadian International Documentary Festival is North America’s largest documentary festival, conference and market. Each year, the Festival presents a selection of approximately 200 cutting-edge documentaries from Canada and around the globe.
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Like SXSW before it and like Tribeca Film Festival after it; Hot Docs 2021 is all online: no in person screenings. This year Hot Docs runs from Thursday, April 29 and ends on Sunday, May 9. And unfortunately for Americans: “All films participating in Hot Docs Festival are geo-blocked to Canada.” So…what do we have from the giant selection? You got Edgar Wright’s doc on The Sparks Brothers (think Queen before Queen if you don’t know em), Street Gang: How We Got to Sesame Street (which reflects on the children’s tv show origins and legacy), Cannon Arm and the Arcade Quest (“Kim Cannon Arm attempts a world record by playing the 80s arcade game Gyruss for 100 hours straight”) and so much more. There’s international docs and docs from Toronto; you want it they got it. Prices, packages and the full selection are of course on their site. Doc it up this week.

Friday, April 30

The Mitchells vs. The Machines (Anytime / Netflix)

A robot apocalypse put the brakes on their cross-country road trip. Now it’s up to the Mitchells — the world’s weirdest family — to save the human race.
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Sammy Suggestion: Without Remorse (Anytime / Prime Video)

An elite Navy SEAL (Michael B. Jordan) uncovers an international conspiracy while seeking justice for the murder of his pregnant wife in Without Remorse, the explosive origin story of action hero John Clark – one of the most popular characters in author Tom Clancy’s Jack Ryan universe.
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Michael B. Jordan is yet again settling scores though this time his beef isn’t with Wakanda. Someone murdered his wife! I suspect it’s probably one of his rabid female fans; though the trailer suggests a large government conspiracy. Without Remorse was scheduled for a February 2021 theatrical release however Without Remorse it’s been dumped onto Prime Video. This is set in Tom Clancy’s Jack Ryan universe which is known as Ryanverse (a TV show I haven’t watched.) so yes it’s entirely possible for a Tom Clancy 48 Hrs version down the road. Rather than show the classic trailer I’ma go with Amazon’s Super Bowl ad which sorta kinda promoted Without Remorse.

Saturday, May 01

Sammy Suggestion: Tenet (8/7c PM HBO)

Armed with only one word, Tenet, and fighting for the survival of the entire world, a Protagonist journeys through a twilight world of international espionage on a mission that will unfold in something beyond real time.
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I saw Tenet on September 20, 2020. I didn’t expect that’d be my last movie for such a long time. Tenet requires more than 1 viewing so this is most helpful: it’ll be on Crave on May 7. With Inception Nolan clearly established the physics of that world (well dream world) so viewers knew what was possible (if they didn’t always know what was real.) With Tenet I don’t feel Nolan fully firmly established the physics or rather it was too complex so viewers end up doing calculus instead of enjoying a movie. In Star Trek I dunno what dilithium crystals are but I know when the ship is in trouble: you know? And at the end of the day it’s Nolan: you’re in or you’re out.

Sunday, May 02

The Nevers (9/8c PM / HBO & Crave)

Joss Whedon’s Nevers is described as “a science fiction drama about a gang of Victorian women who find themselves with unusual abilities, relentless enemies, and a mission that might change the world.” August, 1896. Victorian London is rocked to its foundations by a supernatural event which gives certain people — mostly women — abnormal abilities, from the wondrous to the disturbing. But no matter their particular “turns,” all who belong to this new underclass are in grave danger.
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Sammy Suggestion: Things Heard & Seen (Anytime / Netflix)

A young woman discovers that both her husband and their new home harbor sinister secrets after they leave Manhattan for small-town life.
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Amanda Seyfried is the latest blonde chick to move into an Amityville Haunted House. That always goes well. To quote Elaine from Seinfeld and the basement: “Get Out!” F. Murray Abraham handles the exposition which is kinda what you want from a horror movie (him or Tony Todd!). And the big sister from Stanger Things shows up without pants so I can’t believe she got paid to work without pants. And those are the Things I’ve Heard And Seen in the trailer.

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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.

My Summer Lair Chapter #159: When I Say Honest Ed’s What’s The First Thing You Think Of?

Honest Ed’s is physically gone but it’ll always be in our Scott Pilgrim comics and movies.

There’s No Place Like This Place, Anyplace is a documentary about the demise of Honest Ed’s. It turns out we want museums rather than stores: people adore Honest Ed’s but shop at Walmart. So…that doesn’t make sense. Even if you’re not familiar with the Toronto retail institution, then know this documentary is about gentrification, displacement, redevelopment: significant issues that affect all of us as stores close due the pandemic.

Though sadly for all of the Honest Ed’s memories that fill this documentary absent is the Mr. T book signing in 1984. For reasons lost to time he was at the time touring Toys R Us and yet he came to Honest Eds for his Toronto stop.

And. I. Never. Went. Single Tear.

Homer Simpson: “You’re right, Marge. Just like the time I could have met Mr. T at the mall. The entire day, I kept saying, “I’ll go a little later, I’ll go a little later…” And when I got there, they told me he just left. And when I asked the mall guy if he’ll ever come back again, he said he didn’t know. Well, I’m never going to let something like that happen again!

There’s No Place Like This Place @ W • T • F

Host Sammy Younan

Recorded: Saturday May 30, 2020 at 2pm EST

Sammy Younan

Girth Radio Presents…

Originally Hot Docs was to have run from April 30 to May 10. Thankfully Toronto’s excellent documentary film festival is still running in May just in a different format.

My Summer Lair Chapter #153: What Are You Reading?

I’m surprised…it takes about 35 minutes for somebody to mention the smell. 35 minutes into The Booksellers a behind-the-scenes documentary set in New York City’s rare book scene and the fascinating people who inhabit that world. And the smell, of course, is that distinct bookstore smell.

That smell of papers and books and hope: it smells like home. Visiting a bookstore involves all the senses. That distinct smell.

I enjoy eavesdropping on the conversations……hearing the book debates and book recommendations between friends and lovers. Former lovers.

The organized sights shelf after shelf: the colours and covers. So much eye candy my eyes open wide trying to take it all in one giant gulp like a python.

The fragile books inviting a soft revered touch.

The fifth and final sense I haven’t acknowledged is taste. But ah when it comes to taste it’s up to you what you read. If you ever need book recommendations hit me up.

As you are about to hear this charming documentary is not a vintage-book hunt rather it is filled with dynamic characters as only New York City can offer. This is a documentary about the city as much as it is about readers and collectors and books. And science fiction and old school hip hop and that time Fran Lebowitz lent David Bowie a book. Now that…that is Modern Love.

To watch the documentary it depends on where ya are: are you a Canadian or an American? No matter where you live or who you are you can enjoy this trailer.

The Booksellers @ W • T • F

Host Sammy Younan

Recorded: Monday April 27, 2020 at Noon EST

My Summer Lair Chapter #116: Is It Too Late Or Is Change Still Possible?

“America is now too dumb for TV news. It’s our fault. We in the media have spent decades turning the news into a consumer business that’s basically indistinguishable from selling cheeseburgers or video games. You want bigger margins, you just cram the product full of more fat and sugar and violence and wait for your obese, over-stimulated customer to come waddling forth.”

That’s a Matt Taibbi quote from his 2017 book Insane Clown President: Dispatches from the 2016 Circus (on page 100). That eloquent quote was tumbling about in my head as I watched The Corporate Coup D’Etat the latest documentary from director Fred Peabody.

Corporate Coup is Fred’s follow up (and as he wisely puts it in the interview an extension) of his previous documentary All Governments Lie: Truth, Deception, and the Spirit of I.F. Stone. That doc called for investigative and adversarial journalism because the mainstream media has let us down and is failing to informing us of what the elites are doing (which is described in Corporate Coup). Taken together they form a bleak picture of American life yet sparks of hope remain as do options for change perhaps even progress.

In the middle of the interview I’m joined by Phillip Martin a Senior Investigative Reporter for WGBH News and one of the individuals profiled in Corporate Coup. In the doc Martin grapples with a Donald Trump presidency as he traverses the rapidly fading landscape of Youngstown, Ohio. Youngstown once a shining beacon of American industry is now on death row following the closure of steel mills…the infamous Rust Belt Hillary Rodham Clinton ignored at her peril.

Also joining me and Fred is Corporate Coup’s producer Jeff Cohen who also produced All Governments Lie. Together the 3 gentlemen offer a mix of activism, demand greater accountability for journalism and a passion for change. In life when there is a fire we call 911 and wait for the fire department. Only this time…we’re the fire department. How are we gonna put all these fires?

That remains to be seen.

The Corporate Coup d’État Trailer:

The Corporate Coup D’Etat @ W • T • F

Host & Photography by Sammy Younan

Recorded: Tuesday April 30, 2019 at 1pm EST at University of Toronto

Sammy Younan

Girth Radio Presents…

Final Day of the 2019 Hot Docs festival. What did you see? What did you unlearn? Today ‘s offering two portraits of mental health and…I dunno maybe the suggestion doggies are good for your mental health? One last time…Here we go!

Sammy Younan

Girth Radio Presents…

Day 10 of the 2019 Hot Docs festival. Today’s Pantsworthy recommendations has lots of jerks! From the NFL to assholes to the Pickup Game to those who oppose sanitation? Yup. Jerks! Here we go!