WTF it’s September now?? Where did the summer go? It always feels this way doesn’t it? One moment you’re sitting in your house trying to cool down and the next you’re figuring out what to wear in the chilly morning knowing that it will be blazing hot in the afternoon. Welcome to the weird time of the year where you have to dress for two climates per day.

With school starting next week it has reminded me that as much as we’ve seen a nice lil revisit of Y2K fashion and style, film and television hasn’t really reflected those days. Will we ever see another Eurotrip? Do you remember watching American Pie in theatres? And how hard did you laugh after your confusion faded away watching Napoleon Dynamite? I had a friend in high school who was OBSESSED with Bring It On - obviously it was for the cheerleaders but he walked around school quoting the movie every chance he got.

I still pray that one day we see another movie as brilliantly funny as Superbad was. I still laugh at…the entire movie.

This week's issue is a 5 minute read:

🎾 Nighttime tennis season

🏎️ From gamer to racer

🥑 AI powered food app thing

Who’s ready for some tennis?

If you’re a fan of tennis then you must love the end of the summer given arguably the most popular of the four grand slams begins in the final week of August. The US open started this week signalling the end of the tennis grand slam season and reminding us why we should stay up just a bit later given the tournament has been known for all kinds of classic night matches.

Last year the big story was the US Open was Serena Williams’ final tournament as she got knocked out in the 3rd round. This year Venus lost in straight sets in the first round - frankly I didn’t even know she was still playing at 43? That all said, the big story so far this year is whether or not Novak Djokovic and Carlos Alcarez will see each other in a second straight grand slam final. That said, there isn’t a heck of a lot of other mainstream news-making stories going on so allow me to give you some fun ones from years past.

In 2011 Novak Djokovic faced 2 match points against the great Roger Federer in the Semi-Finals. He not only was able to save both of them but he went on to win the match winning four straight games.

You can’t talk about the US Open without mentioning Pete Sampras and Andre Agassi. In the 2001 quarter-finals, the two Americans had a CLASSIC match that ended well past Midnight in New York. Every set went to a tie-breaker. Truly when I think of the US Open I think of night matches like this one.

You also can’t talk about the US Open without mentioning the Williams sisters. Venus and Serena played each other a total of 6 times at the US Open, with the two trading finals wins in 2001 and 2002. The 2002 final marked the beginning of Serena’s dominance in women’s tennis as her win catapulted her to #1 in the world for the first time ever, moving her sister down to #2. King Richard definitely was proud!

Lastly you simply cannot talk about the US Open without mentioning Mr. Uniqlo himself, Roger Federer. From 2004 to 2008 Roger won 5 consecutive US Open titles - something no one else has ever done and quite possibly will ever do. Although he really didn’t have a classic US Open match, the dude was so dominant, winning 15 of 17 sets throughout the streak (INSANE) and making the likes of Andy Rodick, a younger Novak Djokovic, Lleyton Hewitt, and Andy Murray all look like babies. Even poor 35 yr old Andre Agassi, who had his last run at the US Open in 2005, was halted by Federer dominance.

So good at gaming that you play it in real life

Let’s face it - if you grew up playing video games you now wish you got paid to play them. Heck, if you still play video games I’m sure you’d be more than happy with getting paid to play. Here’s a scenario for you - imagine you’re playing NBA2K and you’re so good that the LA Lakers notice your “skills” and reach out to you asking to come in for a tryout with the team in real life. Now let’s burst that fantasy bubble.

HOWEVER, if you play racing games, there is actual precedence set for making that fantasy a reality

This is because In 2011 it did for a Gran Tourismo player. Jann Mardenborough was an avid racing game player and so when Gran Tourismo did a call out for time trials in their GT Academy, he not only jumped all over the opportunity to compete but he won and received an actual racing contract from Nissan - to RACE IN REAL LIFE.

Last week the film about Jann’s experience and how he became a professional race car driver came out. Overall it was fairly well received in theatres and so if you’re looking for inspiration on how you too can live out your video game dreams, you should check it out.

A foodie’s digital paradise

What do you wanna eat for dinner??? The most commonly asked question in my house may have just become a bit easier to answer. This week Samsung announced “Samsung Food”, a meal planning and suggestion platform with a sprinkling of AI to make all your meal choices a cake walk.

Touting over 160,000 recipes, the platform is based on Whisk, which Samsung acquired back in 2019. You can translate recipes into eight languages, create shopping lists, create meal plans, follow creators posting recipes, and take selfies while you burn your kitchen down. Okay okay, the last one isn’t real, you can just use your own phone’s camera to take a selfie of the fire instead.

I remember being in AWE when friends of ours bought a Samsung “smart fridge”, which basically had a giant iPad on the door that gave you the time and the weather outside. I somehow became obsessed with checking the time and the weather in their kitchen 🤷‍♂️. But Samsung means business with their whole connected appliance, powered by AI, ecosystem. The goal of the platform is to be able to leverage Samsung’s appliance ecosystem so you could go from idea to recipe to preheating your oven all within the app.

HEY GOOGLE PREHEAT MY OVEN TO COOK MY PIZZA BAGELS TO PERFECTION
- my dream

Is this is really a game changer in the kitchen? I mean, it definitely sounds like a cool Black Mirror episode if the recipes started to remind the characters of a past love or something they did wrong in life where the food comes back to haunt them - mmm tastes like regret. That all said it remains to be seen if consumers will be flocking to their nearest Best Buy to trade in their appliances for something like this $400 “smart” toaster (which my wife threatened a divorce over if I bought it) 🙃