Cultrface – a blog dedicated to culture and how it enriches our lives.

A documentary on Sammy Stephens, the Flea Market Montgomery meme guy

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The Flea Market Montgomery Story (Sammy Stephens Documentary)

I loved the Flea Market Montgomery meme back in the day, and still revisit it when I need a laugh. But I knew very little about the man behind it. Well, the above documentary is all about him and his name is Sammy Stephens. He started his career as a radio DJ before working at Flea Market Montgomery. One day, he was asked to sing in a commercial for the store. However, he wasn’t keen on the stylistic direction and switched it up into a rap… and the rest is Internet history.

Jim and his handcrafted US Burgers

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Secrets of Japan's TOP Hamburger Joint: American Handcrafted Burgers

Jim is the owner of US Burger, an American hamburger restaurant in Fukuoka, Japan. The video above shows how he makes those burgers, build the authentic ambience, and why he chooses not to deliver. It’s all about the freshness and experience and seeing how he does things, I think that’s a great idea. Everything is made from scratch and despite the fear of seeming gimmicky, it never comes across that way in the video.

According to Reddit, he also makes Thanksgiving turkey and breakfast burritos. Arigato, Jim-san!

Follow him on Instagram and check out his reviews on Tripadvisor.

What are you looking at, Jack?

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Overlooked! A detail in The Shining that you’ve never seen

Jason Kottke blogged about a Twitter thread examining a weird quirk in The Shining: Jack Nicholson constantly breaking the fourth wall for brief moments. Then he posted a video essay (above) by the thread’s author, Stanley Kubrick expert Filippo Ulivieri, which looks at this in more detail.

There’s something odd happening in Stanley Kubrick’s The Shining, a detail you probably didn’t notice. But it’s there, and it’s puzzling, and most of all creepy. What does it mean?

I’ve only seen the film once so I, too, overlooked this recurring detail. It definitely adds to the fear and suspense when you clock it.

The Shining related: What if Jim Carrey was in The Shining?

(via Kottke.org)

Some thoughts and links on Spider-Man: Across The Spider-Verse

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So I went to see Spider-Man: Across The Spider-Verse on Sunday and it was DOPE, and also Black AF (I wanted to emphasise that because it meant a lot to me). It was easily the best looking animated movie I’ve ever seen and therefore the best. Apparently, it took 4 years to make one of the chase scenes and I’m not surprised. I enjoyed the story and how things were twisted and augmented across the Spider-Verse (as to be expected) and all the voice actors were stellar, including Daniel Kaluuya as Spider-Punk (how is he that effortlessly good?) I need to screenshot like every second of that movie for desktop backgrounds when I get a copy. The only let down was how the film ended on a cliffhanger, without enough of a build-up for it not to disappoint me. But I can wait—not like I have a choice—and I can revisit Across The Spider-Verse and take in the visual majesty of it all.

In terms of other people’s links, Dom Griffin made a video review of the film which is worth your time (as always) and here’s the Chinese poster for the movie, which is stunning.

Spider-Man related: a trailer for ‘Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse’ and why Spider-Man is one of my favourite superheroes.

Hiking and climbing mountains in Slovakia

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A friend of mine works for Much Better Adventures and recently went on a trip to Slovakia to climb mountains, ladders, and gorges. Her colleague Dani Redd chronicled the journey:

The first ladder we encountered was a horizontal one, spanning the river that ran through the gorge. My head swam slightly as I looked down at the water flowing underneath me.

“Don’t look down – just look at the next rung. Always look at the next rung,” our guide Patrik advised from behind me.

I did what he advised, concentrating on where I needed to place my feet. But even so, I felt slightly dizzy when I stepped back onto the path. A body is at its most vulnerable when there’s nothing to hold onto.

We were in Slovakia, traversing Suchá Belá Gorge in Slovak Paradise National Park – a landscape which was, so far, living up to its name. Trees bedecked with the tender leaves of spring rustled gently on either side of the path. The river running alongside the path was crystal clear, gleaming gently in the dappled light. Sometimes the path even crossed the river, meaning we had to hop from one boulder or fallen log to another. Let’s just say it’s a good thing my hiking boots were waterproof.

(This wasn’t sponsored btw!)

Hiking related: Liam Brown hiking 156 miles in the Outer Hebrides in Scotland and backpacking through Britain, from John O’Groats to Land’s End

The B1M on the Flatiron Building's chequered past—and present

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The Shocking Story of New York’s Strangest Tower

The Flatiron Building is a 22-story building in the Flatiron District of Manhattan, New York. It is best known for its triangular shape, which is where its name came from, and was designed by Daniel Burnham and Frederick P. Dinkelberg. The building was completed in 1902 but has had a difficult history in terms of ownership and periods where it has remained empty.

The B1M chronicled its past and its uncertain future, involving a very controversial auction. You’ll have to watch to find out what happened and what could happen with the “winning” bid.

“In 1990, a Canadian man named Peter Lalonde released a VHS tape about the dangers of sorcery in fiction. It was embarrassing. Not in hindsight, but very much at the time […] Peter was only 29 when he filmed this, but he had the media literacy and misplaced resentment of a man four times his age.”

This Cool Link was published 11 months ago. (#)

JSTOR Daily on 'segregation by eminent domain'

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I’m not up on my US constitution so I had no idea about the Takings Clause in the Fifth Amendment, which “allows the federal government to take private property for public use if the government provides ‘just compensation'”. That sounds nice in theory but the reality is much darker (pun intended?):

Residential segregation isn’t just the work of homeowners, real estate agents, and bankers. Local, state, and federal government governments have also played a major roles in enforcing segregated housing. This history was documented on an intimate scale by scholar Mara Cherkasky and family descendant Athena V. Scott, who detail how the Scotts of Washington, DC, lost five homes to eminent domain between 1912 and 1948 while the government enabled white gentrification and maintained segregated schools in the nation’s capital.

The ending of the article is saddening but not surprising and definitely not a rarity. I implore you to read the full JSTOR Daily article and then read “They Want Us Out of This Place”: How One DC Family Lost Five Homes to Eminent Domain, the journal article that spawned it.

Related: JSTOR’s Black History Month article picks and the gentrification of Black Lives Matter

How to Be in Your Villain Era Without Offending Anyone: If you feel disrespected by somebody, then you should absolutely clap back by disrespecting them too. Just make sure that you’re not making fun of their appearance, or their intelligence, or anything that they could lie in bed at night thinking about. Also, remember to treat everyone how you’d like to be treated, but in a bitchy way!

This Cool Link was published 11 months ago. (#)

In Norway, hot dogs are universally great […] on May 17, Norway’s national day, the country’s 5.4 million people celebrated by eating an estimated 13 million hot dogs. (via)

This Cool Link was published 11 months ago. (#)