This Week in Dulture…
Approx 5 minute read:
📗 Books are to be read, not worn
💰 Easy money in Toronto
🎬 Mr. Nolan doesn’t miss
🍟 Only in China
Dulture weekly mix
This week I have a VIBE for you.
If you’ve got a gathering going on at your house put on this playlist.
If you’ve got a date and it’s that classic late summer night where you drive them home and there’s a vibe, put on this playlist.
If you run a trendy bubble tea spot and you trying to impress them young Gen Z’s / Alphas, put on this damn playlist.
This week I 100% got you with the mix 🤝
I’m convinced that in our life time we either will be part of a book club, start a book club, or at the very least, have the urge to join a book club.
I don’t need to sit here and tell you the benefits of reading.
When you’re a kid and you find the right book, that’s when you realize what all the hype was around seeing the nerds bookworms in class buried in books at recess.
When you’re older, GOD HELP US if we have the time to find a good book and dedicate time to it - or maybe that’s just me. Ironic, I know, given how much I write.
But books have become more than just a thing you pick up to read or to fall asleep to.
hahahaha
They’ve become an accessory...like not just carry them around to look like you’re busy at school or at work type of accessory.
Or before the game accessory.
What I’m really talking about is fashion runway type sh*t.
Attach them on your bag type sh*t.
Dawg what are we even doing??
Yo books are not Labubu’s.
(What ever happened to those things anyway?)
why?
You don’t need them tied to your person to show off your style. I promise you no one cares about what book you’re reading while you’re walking down the street.
I get the whole creating an aesthetic in your room with a book shelf or coffee table book but c’mon man, let books just stay there then.
This is how you accessorize a book:
(With Monica Geller of course)
KD Will End His Career in Toronto
I’ve had a $1000 bet going with a friend of mine since 2016 when Kevin Durant was in the last year of his contract with OKC that KD would play 82 games in a Raptor uniform.
Somewhere around then we all found out Vince Carter was his favourite player growing up and he liked the Raptors. I immediately got to work:
I wish I actually bought these
Because a Nike by You KD6 in Raptors away colourway was going to be the X-factor to a Kevin Durant trade lol. Also this was in 2013, I’ve clearly been manifesting for a while.
In 2014 Drake jumped on the bandwagon I had created, trying to recruit KD to Toronto and getting fined for tampering by the NBA…what ever happened to our Raptors ambassador anyway?
In 2015 I bought these shorts on Nike.com - it felt like Nike was manifesting it too!
You can’t tell me these don’t give Raptors vibes
2016 was the year I thought it was going to happen. It was also the year KD and his manager Rich Kleiman founded 35 Ventures. The writing was on the wall now that KD had a VC fund but KD is my modern day MJ, I didn’t want to believe it - the Warriors were the obvious choice given how close they were to Silicon Valley and SF
And ya ya ya, the Warriors had a championship team, we don’t need to beat that dead horse do we?
Fast forward to 2022 and all of the sudden Brooklyn isn’t what it was supposed to be and the team begins to look to offload KD and the Raptors are an option. I can’t tell you how excited I was - but Toronto wasn’t going to give up Scottie Barnes so the trade fell through.
In 2025 there was another moment but once again Toronto wasn’t willing to give up young players to bring him over, I’d keep Scottie Barnes too.
It’s such a tease because KD is secretly in Toronto for non-basketball reasons more often than anyone would ever know. And it doesn’t help when Yahoo releases stupid articles like this.
I still think KD will play pro ball in Toronto but I actually think he’s going to take the Messi route. Just like how Messi signed with Miami to play out his career in the comfortable MLS, I think KD signs with the Scarborough Shooting Stars for a season just to get final pro ball runs in before he’s done.
Yes, it would be a little odd. At the same time, I would not be surprised if he played for the team OVO partially owns.
The Odyssey Slaps
After I came out of the theatre I paused for a minute to think where The Odyssey ranks for Christopher Nolan movies. But before I did that I had to think through which ones I have actually seen.
Turns out I’ve seen almost all of them.
And now I have a super strong urge to binge Nolan’s Batman trilogy.
I realized I can’t really spoil this movie for you because The Odyssey is something you probably read or heard of while in English class in high school. What I can say is if Christopher Nolan is your favourite director then this is going to be, or is now your favourite film by him.
Nolan takes a super popular Greek mythos, grabs you by the wrist, twists it, and creates this dark world that convinces you it’s all real.
I’ve watched my FAIR SHARE of Percy Jackson now because my kids became obsessed with the show. And although Percy Jackson’s role in Greek mythology is to blur the lines between the world of the Gods and the real world, you still feel like it’s this fantasy land.
Whereas Nolan writes and directs this world like it was an altered world from The Dark Knight - the greys, the dark blue hues, the bright over saturation of colour and light at times - all of which speak to a world where the characters will be dragged to the extreme and you will believe all of it as you watch.
Hahahaha yes I just compared Percy Jackson to a Christopher Nolan film - I’m trying to give you context okay???
Nolan has this uncanny ability to take a world that has no business being anything but fantasy and place you in it alongside the flurry of A-lister actors (Damon, Hathaway, Holland, Pascale, Zendaya, Pattinson, etc etc etc.) - I guess when Nolan puts the bat signal out, everyone comes running.
Even Travis Scott is in this movie lol…no clue that was him 👇
I need to go back and watch this film again, there’s so much that takes place between flashbacks and jump ahead scenes that you play a bit of mental gymnastics in the first act just to set yourself straight.
And it makes sense - Nolan wrote the thing alongside directing it. You could tell he didn’t want this to be another Greek mythology story nor did he want it to be a linear experience for you, which I thought was brilliant because the story has been told so many times now.
Also I didn’t watch it in IMAX - just go to a normal theatre and see it like you would anything else - it’s a great way to spend 2.5 hrs (didn’t feel like it was that long).
I’d be shocked if this film didn’t sweep every award show next year.
China Mcd’s Exclusive
Watch any vlogger or influencer out in Asia order McDonald’s and you find out suuuuuper quick how S Tier Mcd’s really is out there.
Whenever I’m in Asia, we specifically make it a point to go to Mcd’s - it’s an event. The amount of unique menu items, the quality, and even the Happy Meal toys are all next level. Meanwhile in North America our claim to Mcd’s fame is everything being extra salty 🫠
Actually it’s not that bad in Canada, y’all Americans got these massive portion sizes, even for the kids meals.
For the past 10 years or so in China, Mcd’s has run their “Big Fries Day” campaign in honour of 大暑 - Dàshǔ or “Great Heat” which is a mid-summer traditional solar term in China. 大暑 - Dàshǔ also sounds like large portion of fries - hence Mcd’s jumping all over this cultural nuance.
This year in China a craft blogger named Daomeidan inspired Mcd’s latest creation, the oversized Big Fries Backpack.
Complete with fry holders on both sides plus the arm strap, you have no excuse now to keep tater tots in your cargo pants.
The bag came out last week, sold out immediately, and now is online being resold. You’ll probably pay more for shipping than the actual bag itself but ngl, it’s mad cool - doesn’t that receipt attached remind you of the Lost and Found AJ1’s?
You can put our fries in the pockets on the side because why not
Find the bag here … some of these could be fake but like f*ck it, it’s a Mcd’s bag lol
