This Week in Dulture…

Approx 5 minute read:

💟 Vday for bots

🏀 My most favourite time of year

🌴 The Gulf actually changed

👟 If you like sneakers, this is your week

Dulture weekly mix

Introducing the resident DJ for Dulture…

NBA All-Star Weekend

If you’ve been reading this for a minute then you already know I love NBA All-Star Weekend.

Like, I really enjoy watching as much as I can…minus whatever they do on the Friday night with the celebrity game - no one likes the celebrity game.

Like, no matter how many years it leaves me asking, that was it? I still come back the next year just as excited.

This is gonna be the year it gets good!

All-Star weekend has basically turned into the bad haircut you got because you got a good haircut. Let me explain: there was this place near my parents house that offered $8 haircuts - I’m talking a giant sign in the window with a big red “$8”. So I dare myself to try it one day and it turns out to be a pretty decent haircut for $8!

So I go back again and it ends up being the worst haircut of my life.

The All-Star game used to be really good - 90% filled with fun plays and dunks, and then 10% was real competition if the game was close enough at the end - AKA the 2020 game in Chicago when everyone wanted the Kobe Bryant MVP award and Kyle Lowry kept taking charges.

This year you can expect basically the same as usual when it comes to the Saturday night skills competition, 3-pt shootout, and dunk competition.

Since the whole league basically shoots 3’s now, I’m sure the 3 pt comp will be more exciting than the dunk competition. Heck, I KNOW it will be more exciting. Ugh - why won’t they just let non-NBA guys dunk or put up a better prize to encourage guys to compete that we actually want to see.

The All-Star game format has changed once again.

So instead of it being one game, the All-Star game is divided into 3 games where Shaq, Kenny, and Chuck’s teams, as well as the winner of the Rising Stars game (another game on Friday night that’s not a whole lot of fun to watch) will play each other in a single elimination tournament.

This is the closest we’ve gotten to gym class with the All-Star game so perhaps it’ll finally be competitive again? Also did they just let Shaq pick 10 times in a row?

TIL What Review Bombing Was

So it actually happened, Google changed the name of the Gulf of Mexico to the Gulf of America…at least this is what you see when you’re in Canada.

On Wednesday Google officially changed the name and was immediately faced with a barrage of negative reviews, so much so that they turned off the ability to review the Gulf of Mexico/America.

People took to social media to complain about the amount of 1 star reviews that were removed but Google stood by its stance on ensuring reviews were legit, essentially anyone trying to review bomb that body of water you swim in when you go to Cancun.

It got me thinking though, what else has been review bombed?

Well it turns out it’s a HUGE thing in the video game world. Video games get review bombed all the time for all kinds of reasons. Like Madden NFL 21, which was review bombed for having very minimal updates to the game.

So was Animal Crossing for having a crappy multiplayer and co-op experience. I agree though, if you’re player 2 you’re basically forced to just follow player 1 around and do whatever they do.

The Google Classroom app was review bombed back in 2020 for obvious reasons by what was probably a ton of frustrated students at the time.

Heck, even Star Wars: The Last Jedi was review bombed for all kinds of nonsense, from the protagonist being a female to Finn being black, lots of people were just annoyed with the film itself, outside of what actually happens within the film.

All I know is I get my food reviews from this guy:

A Dream Week For Sneaker Lovers

There’s nothing particularly special about this week for sneakerheads but damn, a ton of fire was/is released this week.

Adidas ultraBOOST 1.0 “10th Anniversary”

Release date: February 11th
Price: $180 USD

These first came out in 2015 and were next to impossible to find anywhere. One of the most comfortable shoes Adidas (or anyone for that matter) has ever made.

Nike Kobe 6 Protro “All-Star 2.0”

Release date: February 13
Price: $190 USD

This is one of the few Kobe silhouettes I actually like. And they’re lightweight AF as well. I almost purchased these but in a different colourway years ago. Then I bought KD8’s instead.

Air Jordan 1 hi “85 Bred”

Release date: February 14
Price $250 USD

These are supposed to be the closest retros of this shoe to the original 1985 versions. Supposedly the same materials that were used back in the 80’s were used for this shoe. Nike has made these ones ultra exclusive to find, allowing only 23 select retailers to sell the shoe in North America. Good luck either finding it or affording it!

Nike basketball “Black Label” collection

Release date: February 14th
Price: ranges all over the place

If you can’t rely on the actual game to be good, All-Star weekend at least previews fire shoes every year. This all black collection from Nike is interesting but I think I’d have to see them in person to figure out which ones actually look decent and which ones look like you’re wearing chef shoes.