This Week in Dulture…
Approx 5 minute read:
🏀 Playoff record in playoff shoes
🧊 Watching Ice (Man) melt
🛬 The airport of all airports
🇺🇸 An American staple
Dulture weekly mix
Today’s mix is gonna make you feel like you just drank a Red Bull. Click it, you’ll know exactly what I mean the second it starts lol.
I actually just drank a Red Bull, so maybe there’s a subconscious thing going on.
It’d be cooler if this was a sponsored by Red Bull thing going on instead. If you work for Red Bull, hit me up. And if you don’t work for Red Bull, hit me up anyway and tell me your favourite Red Bull story and I’ll tell you the time I drank Jagger Bombs in Hong Kong with a bunch of Chinese celebrities.
420 came and went faster than you can spell marijuana.
And while the internet was littered with weed promos…depending on your algorithm of course…420 means something different for everyone. I’d argue it probably doesn’t mean a whole lot to a lot of people.
If you’re an MJ fan, all of that changes right now.
The year is 1986.
<Click the photo for Cheech and Chong’s Xmas 1986 message>
April 1986: A young Chicago Bulls team lead by a sophomore Michael Jordan squeaked into the first round of the playoffs against the first seeded Boston Celtics lead by none other than Larry Bird.
(What a frikken pass)
The Bulls had finished the season at 30-52 so on paper this series was already over before it began. Except when game 2 rolled around, where the Bulls pushed the Celtics to double OT.
April 20, 1986 (Double OT): Michael Jordan scores 63 points to set the current playoff scoring record in a loss to the Boston Celtics.
Larry Bird after the game: It was God disguised as Michael Jordan out there
That season MJ missed 64 games because of an almost career ending fracture in his foot. In order to be extra cautious, Nike made him custom AJ1’s for the rest of the season to protect his foot.
Some shoes they made for Jordan to play in consisted of the AJ1 upper on a AJ2 sole, which later would be dubbed the AJ 1.5, officially released in 2015.
But the night of the 63 point performance Jordan was wearing an AJ1 upper with a Dunk sole, which would later go up for auction and sell for over $1M.
For years the question around Air Jordan marketing was, “Is it the shoes??”, which we now know for the most points scored in NBA playoff history, the answer is YES, YES IT WAS THE SHOES.
Who's most likely to break MJ's 63 pt playoff record?
Ironically Toronto is Finally Warming Up
See if Drake was smart, he would’ve brought all those ice blocks out last month when it was still stupid cold in Toronto - there’s no way anyone would be cracking through the ice with the kind of temperatures we’ve had all year up until basically last week.
It was still snowing on Saturday.
With the internet either loving the blocks of ice or complaining (no clue where the headaches were in the city, NYT!), regardless of what side you’re on, this has got to be one of Drake’s more prominent album roll outs.
Most of Drake’s album roll outs have been full of mystery, creativity, and precision planning.
Billboards
Surprise drops
If You’re Reading This It’s Too Late (prob my fav Drake album) came out, out of nowhere. A trend he would continue with What a Time to be Alive, Dark Lane Demo Tapes, and Honestly, Nevermind.
Branding Branding Branding
Views might’ve been one of the most hyped up / anticipated albums from Drake (until Ice Man) From Drake night at Raptors games, his ambassadorship front and center with the Raptors, Virginia Black whiskey drop (remember this??), multiple pop up shops across NYC, LA, London, Toronto, plus OVO Fest
Strategic Delays
Dude kept a heart in his hair for months
While Views was super anticipated, Certified Lover Boy (or whatever everyone thought the album was going to be called) was teased for almost 2 years, delayed partially because of Drake tearing his meniscus. Drake released Scary Hours 2 as a precursor / bridge to CLB, keeping everyone intrigued as to what was going on with all the delays.
Now we wait til May 15th to see what Drake has to say about, well, everything 🤷♂
Fly To Singapore Just For The Airport
I should probably read the room here, because let’s be honest, if gas prices are already making you cringe, don’t look at flight prices.
BUT, when travel is affordable again, you will want to check out Changi Airport in Singapore.
Changi just won best airport in the world according to Skytrax for the 14th time.
And let me tell you, this is legit an airport you could easily travel to just for fun and solely enjoy the airport without actually going into Singapore.
Known for being able to get through immigration and baggage claim within 15 minutes, Changi is one of the cleanest airports you’ll ever go to in your life. I personally think Haneda in Tokyo is on par (their washrooms are immaculate), Changi also has a ton to do within the airport itself.
How about a free attractions to chill out?
The airport has a butterfly garden you can hang out in while you wait for your flight. As well as free movie theatres for when your layover is movie watching long.
Or over 200 dining options
Changi has also won Skytrax World’s Best Dining Airport numerous times - I don’t think I need to say much else, food options are crazy here.
The thing I care most about is the fact that getting through immigration is a breeze - airports around the world should follow Changi’s model…on literally everything.
Gladiators Ready?? Contenders Ready??
Amazon Prime has brought back American Gladiators.
As an avid viewer on Saturday afternoons back in the 90’s, American Gladiators was such a fun show to watch. I have no clue if it was scripted, or how it worked behind the scenes…and yes, I could probably Google this but I’d rather just not know, because it was so much fun to watch.
So as I type this, I’m currently finishing episode 2 of the new series and I gotta say, it’s got such a weird vibe.
So firstly you’ve got a lot of the old games from back in the day including Powerball, Joust, and Hang Tough.
You’ve also got The Eliminator.
But the show feels like every other cheesy reality TV game show. Contestants sound like they’ve been given what to say by the producers. The Gladiators are all juiced up (of course) with not a whole lot of intelligent things to say.
It also takes forever for an event to start.
The pacing in this show is atrocious. Tons of fluffy commentary, filler lines, catch phrases, and quotes before you finally get to the event. The saving grace is it’s American Gladiators so the events are always fun to watch.
However, because of all the fluff commentary and talking, they fit 3 events in and the eliminator in one 40 minute episode. Back in the day they could do a good 6 events within an episode.
If you were a fan of the original show, you’ll probably still like this…once you fast forward through all the dragged on commentary. And if you just want something you can play in the background, this is not a bad option - eventually you’ll look up and something interesting is going on.
