Yo!

So you don’t gimme any grief we’ll keep this brief; there’s a lot going on today:

NBA Finals- Game 1 is tonight (9pm / ABC)

The NBA Finals defy easy routes, microwave popcorn shortcuts and all the other pious nonsensical platitudes. We accept so much mediocrity from teachers, co-workers, pastors and politicians so the NBA Finals is a rare opportunity to (literally) court greatness, cultivate hope and treasure excellence. This is how good you hafta be. It’s super refreshing. I adore this time of year. (And: Warriors in 6!)

The Orville: New Horizons

I happily grew up watching Star Treks (Original, Next Gen and Voyager) however all I’ve seen lately is Picard. I refuse to do any pre-Kirk Star Trek from Discovery to Strange New Worlds: stop wasting my time and taking my attention for granted. We waste time “reckoning with history” when we should be spending time writing the future.

So today’s appreciated return of The Orville is also a classic return to weekly strange space adventures. On Hulu for Americans, Disney+ for Canadians (and UK etc.)

The season trailer sparked this Toni Morrison quote; she concluded a poem with these lines:

“I am not complete here; there is much more, but there is no more time and no more space . . . and I have journeys to take, ships to name, and crews.”

Yes. Behold The Orville Season 3 trailer:

Brother Marvin is Right: Let’s Get It On.

Thank you for reading My Pal Sammy. Wanna share it with the nearest nefarious nerds?

Lately I’ve been visiting downtown Toronto like a tourist. Eyes wide; taking it all in…almost like seeing for the first time.It’s June now: I haven’t been downtown 10 times this year which is radical and surreal. What was once a daily playground of possibilities: I was going downtown everyday for work and film festivals and concerts and patios and people has totally ceased.

The pandemic lockdowns meant I quit my downtown habit cold turkey.

I miss the excitement.I miss the noise.I miss the action.I miss the propositions.I miss the vibe.

Only…that missing is ongoing.

Post-pandemic downtown Toronto is going through a phase. A kind of gentrification survival of the fittest kind of thing. The lockdowns while initially beneficial for public health proved detrimental to many downtown businesses.

It’s truly shocking to see a Tim Horton’s closed or a 7-Eleven shuttered. Like you couldn’t hang on and make it??

If you turned downtown Toronto into a drinking game and had to swig for every For Lease sign brandishing empty storefront windows; you’ll be drunk before you finish the first block.

So here we are; forced to endure this phase without many stores that ironically could not endure.

(Thankfully it’s a phase…in time you hope things will be all good, for now: this sucks. And it sucks for so many from post-secondary students who seek jobs, immigrants and creators who must hustle…the city itself etc.)

Culture is capitalism and capitalism is culture.

You can have whatever style you want, but generally you’re buying those shoes. You’re buying those branded shirts. You pay for movie tickets. And concerts. Capitalism and culture is a beautiful ecosystem: your can fund and support The Work you want.

Which in turn fashions the city we live in.

Lots of Torontonians were upset when the iconic Honest Ed’s closed yet…when you ask em when was the last time they went and like you know bought something…they would mumble something about years.

Honest Ed’s is a store. No matter how special it may be…as a galvanizing local city symbol it competes with the CN Tower…it is a business. Not a museum. We can’t shop at Walmart or enjoy Prime Shipping and be upset Honest Ed’s closed.

That impact goes both ways as we use commerce to determine the quality of the city we want to live in.

As I walk downtown streets I see what is left. I notice what is gone.

A few years back I wrote the following in my My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic! diary. (Errr it was a pick up from a closing bookstore: everything must go sale! They didn’t have any Spider-Man manly journals so my options were…look; it doesn’t matter…focus on the following. And really you’re just as weird. When everybody’s weird that means everybody is normal.)

I share it now because though clearly written pre-pandemic the sentiments are timeless.

Cut Off From Culture: A Street Smart Storyby Sammy Younan

One of the unspoken perks working at Ryerson University is the attractive Yonge and Dundas address; a Canadian humble Times Square: the corporate requisite blitz of screens, damnation preachers, live music hustlers, pop culture icons like a skateboarding Spider-Man...it’s all there.

It’s all happening.

The illustrious tapestry downtown Toronto fuels and openly markets as a defining characteristic.

When I first began working at Ryerson in 2001 I was surrounded by culture.

Record stores and bookstores comfortable and predictable third place ambassadors (between home and work) efficiently and effectively connecting myself and many other passionate fans to culture.

I didn’t have this in Scarborough; growing up and living in Scarborough offered me a different cultural education via the sundry characters I’d continually encounter. In the suburbs I eagerly sipped the backs of stop signs; bright potent street stickers yielding a window into a rich underground world.In the suburbs I was used to being cut off from culture. Downtown Toronto, however, is where the action is...or rather was.

An indie movie or a limited appeal documentary won’t screen in the suburbs. Back in the pre-internet world I had to ride the Red Rocket to poetry readings, film and music festivals and other cultural happenings.Living in Scarborough is like astronomy, I can study the stars from afar; even appreciate their beauty but going downtown in a Red Rocket—physically engaging the stars like a cultural astronaut is a far better education.Culture is more satisfying as a participant than as a consumer (and even better as a creator). I was ecstatic my new position at Ryerson put me mere steps from the action.

The action however didn’t last long:Sam the Record Man closed on June 30, 2007.

(Check out this clip from 1998’s Half Baked, the Dave Chappelle movie shot in Toronto. Look at how vibrant downtown Toronto was!)

A few blocks down Yonge Street on September 13, 2010 Edge 102 closed up its street level studio and moved to Sugar Beach...as PJ Harvey would put it: down by the water. I was Lunch Boy at Edge 102...assisting the DJs with research for interviews, freely supplying fun facts for show prep, meeting bands...discovering music. I still have friends from my Edge 102 days.

2014 brought the end of the World’s Biggest Bookstore on March 30th and a few months later the demise of Sunrise Records on November 15.

These closings took their culture with them: World’s Biggest is slowly becoming a condo, Edge 102 is a hair salon. This wasn’t creationism; this was cremation: the end of it all. Now Magazine departed from their building at 189 Church Street; it is currently being demolished.  

Now I’m left with an Indigo bookstore in the Eaton Centre (BMV is alright but too chaotic). HMV which eventually devoted more shelf and store space to nerd knickknacks in case I needed a Doctor Who mug (which sadly does not have a Tardis like interior…an endless tea!) wasn’t long for this world.HMV died on April 30, 2017...another causality: KIA.

I’ve gone full circle: from growing up being cut off from culture; which made sense in the suburbs to now being cut off from culture...only I’m downtown where culture should be happening. And celebrated. And created. And...most importantly: inspired.

And it’s not that our lives were Norman Rockwell perfect when we were surrounded by culture. We’re always given choices to participate or consume...complain or create. It just that we had outlets, platforms...the ability to manifest dreams.Your name in lights will always be more enticing than peddling an e-book. Lining up for author signings connects us in ways that online forums do not.

It’s easy to blame the market, the internet...the standard suspects. And anyways blame is never an effective or helpful solution. To excel in life the common sense approach is to surround yourself with like-minded people: want to run; hang out with runners. Want to write...roll with writers. 

If we continue to be cut off from culture how can we grow?How can we be challenged?What stories do we want our streets to share?

According to Culture Crash: The Killing of the Creative Class (page 49): “But a university shapes the culture produced nearby. It fosters institutions—record stores, art galleries, bars with bandstands, coffee shops with readings or music series, and so on—that would not exist in the same density otherwise.”

Right now this isn’t true; the areas surrounding Ryerson University are barren but perhaps this is only now.Tomorrow has more possibilities than right now. And right now with everything rapidly disappearing; what little culture remains is having a negligible effect. 

So right now is the best time to strike. To build, to create, to plant because an empty field is inspiring. Like taming a blank page or wrestling a white canvas into artful submission. Everything’s been reset for a resurgence.

What stories do we want our streets to share?

Lulu Wei: A My Summer Lair Podcast

Attached is my conversation with Lulu Wei director of the Toronto documentary There’s No Place Like This Place, Anyplace. Which addressed many of these emotions and issues as Honest Ed’s closed. (Remember when Mr. T went to Honest Ed’s?! That special moment this documentary failed to acknowledge.) Anyways the doc is about redevelopment, gentrification and displacement. That Hectic Modern Life. There’s No Place is streaming on CBC Gem.

I miss Mr. T,Sammy Younan-28-

Sammy Younan is the affable host of My Summer Lair podcast: think NPR’s Fresh Air meets Kevin Smith: interviews & impressions on Pop Culture.

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit mypalsammy.substack.com