Steph Curry!

The Simpsons!

Stephen King! Brew a strong tea: yo!

The First Yo of The Day.

“Down here, it’s just winners and losers and “Don’t get caught on the wrong side of that line”

Well, I’m tired of coming out on the losing end.” ~ Bruce Springsteen // Atlantic City

Plusaversary //Disney+ Day

As for today’s cover image: Shang-Chi and The Legend of The Ten Rings drops on Disney+ on November 12 as well as Plusaversary an original short from The Simpsons. “Springfield hosts a Disney+ Day party, and guests from across the service are invited, except Homer.”

(And as a bonus Canadians on their Disney+ get Hulu’s Dopesick. So that’s dope…)

All of this is the exact same day as Netflix’s Red Notice. Huge day in the streamer wars. #SetTheVCR for all this.

Dave Chappelle’s Jay-Z Speech

Read the full text of Dave Chappelle’s speech at the 2021 Rock & Roll Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony to induct Jay-Z.

The 2021 Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony will be broadcast on HBO on November 20 at 8pm. #SetTheVCR (for true! There’s an LL Cool J performance where’s joined by Eminem. mmm.)

Curry In A Hurry

The Goal Is Soul.

Just because Steph Curry pulls up from 30 feet doesn’t mean it should become fashionable. Or even acceptable.

Talent is not and has never been evenly distributed.

He’s good; that doesn’t mean you are or you can be. Know your limits and play within it.

Who You Gonna Call?

Confirmed! I am 100% Out: Ghostbusters: Afterlife.

The reason this one is called Afterlife is because the last Ghostbusters movie (Chickbusters) was so wretched it rightfully got killed.

This is not an improvement; this is like the latest Terminator movie (also inferior). So Nope. I’m ghosting Ghostbusters.

New Day; New Stephen King Adaptation

The Boogeyman from King’s 1978 collection Night Shift is gonna become a Hulu movie.

This’ll be the third adaptation for this short story…last one was in 2010.

We’re lived long enough to see an era of Stephen King movie remakes now.

#SetTheVCR: The NBA 75th Anniversary Season

The #NBA75 celebrates the Toronto Huskies (awful name!). The first game in NBA history between the Toronto Huskies and New York Knicks was played 75 years ago: November 1, 1946. Woah, yo.

Marty Glickman Marv Albert before Marv Albert was immortalized by Jack Kerouac in On the Road:

“Man, have you dug that mad Marty Glickman announcing basketball games — up-to-midcourt-bounce-fake-set-shot, swish, two points,” Kerouac wrote. “Absolutely the greatest announcer I ever heard.”

Today (November 1) marks the 75th anniversary of the first game in league history, in 1946! The schedule called for the Toronto Huskies to host the New York Knicks to open the season at Maple Leaf Gardens. ??#NBA75 pic.twitter.com/V8aeeDWjAx

— NBA Canada (@NBACanada) November 1, 2021

#TrailerAlert: The Doors – Live At The Bowl ’68

I honestly truly believe with the firm robust certainty of the Pope’s faith that Jim Morrison successfully faked his own death. Many will enter and few will succeed.

Also? The Doors Live At The Bowl has been fully restored. And “The Doors” opens in Toronto this week!

#SetTheVCR…PSA: One of Us Is Lying

For Canadians another Peacock Original: One of Us Is Lying airs tomorrow night on the W Network (about a month after it debuted in the US on October 7, 2021). Which is taking a break from their usual Hunk Month programming?

Based on a popular YA novel this show is a murderous Breakfast Club: 5 high school students enter detention; only 4 of em walk out.

One of Us Is Lying | November 3 |W Network 9 p.m.

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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.

Boba Fett’s Book!

Derrick Henry!

Bing Bong! Brew a strong tea: yo!

The First Yo of The Day.

All the monsters have been slayed. It’s Monday and it’s a Halloween hangover.

Go forth and score that discount candy. Best way to make a Monday taste sweet.

Derrick Henry Injury

As for today’s cover image: I’m not an NFL guy though I’ve been paying more attention the last few seasons.

Derrick Henry is a bulldozer and fantastic to watch. Does adding more games to the NFL season impact injury reports?

A team’s record still matters (because winning will always matter) but is it possible for some players to return in time now that the season is longer?

When The Garden Is Eden Part 2: This Time It’s Personal

It’s not just the return of the Knicks: the NYC story is truly the return of the glorious Garden.

I’ve been to NBA games in Toronto, Cleveland, Memphis, LA etc. and Madison Square Garden is one of the most sacred locations with one of the brightest fanbases.

It’s a joy to go to an MSG game. So yeah: Bing Bong!

Hello My Name Is Morbius

My So-Called Life according to Jared Leto in this Morbius featurette.

You can drop as many trailers as you want I’m 100% Out. There’s just no way this’ll be good. I mean vampires are known to suck…

Mi Batcave es Su Batcave

Long live the giant penny and the T-Rex in the Batcave.

inside the batcave: did you catch all the easter eggs on your first watch? #DCTitans pic.twitter.com/HI1TARlzvs

— DC Titans on Max (@DCTitans) November 1, 2021

Write On!

Literati tweeted: “Happy National Author’s Day to the wordsmiths, the alchemists, the magicians with a pen. You’ve transported us to our wildest dreams and written us whole again in our weakest moments. Thank you.”

Especially since it’s November 1st and NaNoWriMo has sorta kinda just started.

A blank page is so inspiring it can instantly be transformed into anything…a poem, a screenplay…a novel and so much more.

That’s fresh.

#SetTheVCR: The NBA 75th Anniversary Season

Today the #NBA75 celebrates the Toronto Huskies (awful name!). The first game in NBA history between the Toronto Huskies and New York Knicks was played 75 years ago: November 1, 1946. Woah, yo.

But don’t forget about this Toronto-ish NBA moment: In the early 80s the Cavs owner was that era’s James Dolan.

He was so hated in Cleveland he almost…so close almost moved the Cavs to Toronto. Crazy. All those Jordan battles. History is wild.

#TrailerAlert: Black Friday

God Bless America. Black Friday the Movie.

This trailer made me laugh…this is exactly how the rest of the world sees America.

I’ll see this.

#SetTheVCR: The Book of Boba Fett

Boba Fett didn’t have his helmet on for half that trailer. Yo, man. I ain’t paying for Telly Savalas when it’s called Boba Fett.

Nobody goes to Spider-Man movies excited to see Peter Parker. Like W-T-Fett is going on…

The Book of Boba Fett | December 29 |Disney+

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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.

How to open a bookstore during a pandemic: Prepare for delays and lots of cleaning.

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!

~ Sammy Younan

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.

My Summer Lair Chapter #121: As In Photography As In Life…Follow The Light. So What’s It Like To Follow The Light?

Listening to legendary photographer Jamel Shabazz speak it’s clear he deftly fulfills Jenny Holzer profoundly popular truism: “Use what is dominant in a culture to change it quickly.”

By picking up his camera daily and, in his words, “documenting the world around him”, Jamel is known for the culture he created and influenced as much as that culture influenced him.

Whenever a celebrity perishes there’s a lazy reduction by the media and (worse) by the fans that naturally occurs. We endured this when Prince passed away: it’s difficult to articulate in a meaningful way what Prince contributed to music and ultimately what his legacy is and will continue to be as time slowly unfolds.

Similarly Jamel Shabazz’s legacy is unique because it is divided into two significant works.

There’s the photographs he’s known for…the photographs have effectively established his platform while simultaneously functioning as icebreakers for him to start significant conversations with his subjects.

Those conversations are his additional legacy…and probably his greatest work. When that sad day comes and he’s no longer with us we’ll have the photos: we’ll always have the photos. But we’ll also always have the ripple effects of those conversations that he initiated because they’ve changed people. What was destroyed in the dark has been restored in the light.

Jamel has heavily invested in people and the ROI for those potent conversations is the changes love has sown. Like Prince’s musical legacy it is difficult to articulate in a meaningful way just it’s so obvious.

We just don’t have artists like this anymore. Conscientious and meticulous with a deep intentionality. As much as it inspiring it’s also distressing because this is how we used to be. Perhaps some time when the pendulum swings back as it often always does this is who we can become again.

As always we are faced with two roads and its remains up to us to take the Robert Frost less traveled road. Because as Jamel Shabazz can testify it makes all the difference.

Jamel Shabazz @ W • T • F

Host Sammy Younan

Photography by Henry VanderSpek aka Culture Snap Photography

Recorded: Thursday, July 18, 2019 at 11:30am (EST) in his Long Island Studio

My Summer Lair Chapter #120: Who Are The WingaDoos?

This stimulating interview was set up by Brian Meece.

I met Brian when he was repping RocketHub, a crowdfunding site…we had a passion for music and entrepreneurship so we quickly became friends.

Fast forward to 2019 and I’m in New York City; we’re out for dinner in Chelsea Market at a Japanese-Mexican fusion joint…we’re catching up and he tells me some of his new projects including WingaDoos.

WingaDoos offers online interactive lessons to teach kids (kindergarten to grade 3) financial literacy. Fresh!

Set it up Brian: we cheers drinks. And that’s the short version of how I found myself talking to Sam Wils Cofounder and WingaDoos CEO.

In this current climate student debt forgiveness is popular, basic income is another issue that we really didn’t touch (my bad!) all these mad money ideas floating in the air but the idea of equipping children with financial literacy is powerful. That type of education opens so many doors while cultivating confidence.

More than just talking about money (which doesn’t talk it swears!) Sam and I discuss his Haymakers for Hope experience which lead to boxing at Madison Square Garden and working with FlickerLab, who are responsible for the dynamic WingaDoos animation.

I feel like this conversation is at the beginning of the WingaDoos story; it’ll be fascinating to check in on em later…to hear how they’re doing and where they have gone. After all that’s their…bread and butter!

WingaDoos @ W • T • F

Host Sammy Younan

Photography by Henry VanderSpek aka Culture Snap Photography

Recorded: Wednesday, July 17, 2019 at Noon (EST) at WingaDoos HQ in Brooklyn

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.

So…

In the 90s the New York Knicks were a good team…not a great team but a good team.