Wednesday, May 25, 2016

"Thunder Road"























SI - "Thunder Road: How long before Kevin Durant and Oklahoma City reign?"
Lee Jenkins


" “I think of myself as a small-town kid,” Durant says. “I liked the small-town vibe. But it was a ghost town. The downtown wasn’t really a downtown. I don’t remember a single tall building. Now I look at that building and it’s a beacon, reminding me what we came from.”

...

KD and Russ, rocking leather backpacks and then lensless frames, showed brand managers from L.A. to New York that talent sparkles anywhere. A global celebrity can rise from the bottom of the Dust Bowl.

...

Our world revolves around championships,” Durant says. “Who won the championship? Who will win the championship? If you’re not the champion, you’re a loser. If you’re not first, you’re last. Don’t get me wrong, I want to win a championship more than anybody, but if you go through the journey we’ve gone through, you can also appreciate other things.” Like the skyscraper, completed nearly four years ago, towering outside his window.

...

“But it’s not just that,” Durant continues. “I drive through downtown, through midtown, through the Asian district and see so many different businesses, so many different people. It’s a big, diverse city that’s grown with the team.” The impact of sports franchises on urban renewal is often overstated, but in Oklahoma City it’s obvious. “The Thunder has given us a worldwide brand we’ve never had before,” says the mayor, Mick Cornett, citing the area’s strong corporate recruitment and staggering influx of millennials. “The exposure has been immeasurable. You tell somebody in another country you’re from Oklahoma City, and they say, ‘Kevin Durant.’”"

Saturday, May 21, 2016

Sneaker Shopping with Action Bronson



On the Adidas Ultra Boost (1:10): "I jump from high things and land perfectly."

The 4-Point Shot






















New Yorker - "Two of the World's Greatest Shooters Consider the Four-Point Shot"

"Larry Bird is nearly sixty years old now, having spent most of those years in or around professional basketball. He is ready for whatever awaits the game. “When I played, I never did practice three-point shots,” Bird said. “But these kids here, that’s all they do. The game has changed, no question about it. Every ten, twelve, fifteen years, there’s something new coming in. You put that four-point line in there and people will start practicing. And once they start practicing, they get better at it. Maybe five or ten years down the road, fours are what everybody will be shooting. The game evolves.”"

...

"Larry Bird is nearly sixty years old now, having spent most of those years in or around professional basketball. He is ready for whatever awaits the game. “When I played, I never did practice three-point shots,” Bird said. “But these kids here, that’s all they do. The game has changed, no question about it. Every ten, twelve, fifteen years, there’s something new coming in. You put that four-point line in there and people will start practicing. And once they start practicing, they get better at it. Maybe five or ten years down the road, fours are what everybody will be shooting. The game evolves.”"

The Founder



August 5, 2016
Written by Robert Siegel (The Wrestler)
Directed by John Lee Hancock
Starring Michael Keaton, Laura Dern, Nick Offerman

New York Times - "The Founder,’ Like Ray Kroc, Feasts on McDonald’s Imagery"

Monday, May 16, 2016

Mr. Robot Season 2




GQ - "Robert Downey Jr. on Iron Man's "Second-Tier Superhero" Status and One Crazy-Ass Weekend Bender"

Zach Baron: What do you watch on them?

Robert Downey Jr.: Well, last night, I watched the conclusion of The People v. O.J. Simpson. Previous to that, I doubled back and finished up season four of House of Cards. Maybe the best season yet. I am frothing at the thumb controls for the second season of Mr. Robot, which is probably the best thing that's been on TV or theater for five years. I am hopelessly strung out on what used to be the Military History channel—and then they changed channel 287 on DirecTV to the American Heroes channel—because I love military history.

ZB: Do you have a favorite performance by an actress?

RDJ: When Noomi Rapace did Girl with the Dragon Tattoo—what I like are performances that, without reinventing the wheel, they create another color in the spectrum. I could refer to my mom's work in these kind of more experimental associative films that she did with my dad. Pretty much anything that Shirley MacLaine has ever done. She's the person whose gift has least diminished over generations.

ZB: What about actors?

RDJ: Um…Rami Malek. He's the one right now. Everybody else should be studying this guy.

Sunday, May 15, 2016

The Shallows Trailer



June 29, 2016
Written by Anthony Jaswinski
Directed by Jaume Collet-Serra (Orphan, Non-Stop)
Starring Blake Lively

Friday, May 6, 2016

"ESPN’s Eight-Hour O.J. Documentary Is a Masterpiece"


























Will Leitch on ESPN's forthcoming O.J. Simpson documentary.

"... I guarantee you right now, [O.J.: Made in America] is going to blow your mind. The documentary, which screened at Sundance this winter and last month at Tribeca, runs seven hours and 43 minutes. It was made under ESPN’s 30 for 30 banner and, after a brief theatrical run (probably to qualify it for an Oscar), will air in prime time, on ABC and ESPN, starting June 11. It will be the only thing this country’s going to be talking about that whole week.

Directed by Ezra Edelman, O.J. is massive but never sprawling, passionate but never unfair, informative but never anything but compulsively entertaining. By devoting nearly eight hours to the trial and all that surrounded it, Edelman is able to give a true, and truly operatic, 360-degree treatment of a story that basically nobody has ever before been able to process except in pieces."

New Music Friday



Chance the Rapper's new mixtape, Chance 3, is set to release next Friday, May 13.




Radiohead's ninth studio album on the way?








Anti, TLOP, Lemonade, Views, new music from Chance the Rapper, Radiohead, Justin Timberlake, James Blake. Jay Z too? The loss of David Bowie, Phife Dawg and Prince. Alex Pappademas can't take it.