Finkel's Fast Five #155

BOOK: I’m Your Huckleberry by Val Kilmer

Full disclosure: I did not read this whole book. I’ve been taking my kids to the library once a week for an hour or so… and instead of bringing a current book I’m reading, I’ve just kind of drifted through the aisles and picked up whatever caught my eye… And the title of Kilmer’s book, taken from one of my favorite movies, Tombstone, caught my eye for sure. I wouldn’t read this front-to-back, but if you’re a movie lover and you’re killing time in a local book shop or library or Barnes & Noble, flip through to the Kilmer movies you enjoy. He’s candid and funny and surprisingly relatable about the roles he took and why. For instance, he was filming Batman Forever when he got offered his awesome role in Heat. His agent begged him to turn it down, saying, “Val, the pay is less than your per diem for Batman.” Kilmer’s response: “But it’s Michael Mann directing. And it’s Pacino and De Niro. If I do this movie, I’ll get to to call them Al and Bob for the rest of my life.” Here’s the book.

ARTICLE: “Jootsing”: The Key to Creativity by Farnam Street

What the hell is “jootsing"? Glad you asked. It is short for “jumping out of the system” and it was coined by philosopher Daniel Dennett and it’s a really interesting concept that tries to explain how you can kickstart creativity - or at least understand it more. I don’t want to muddle the theories in this article for you because I think everyone will get something different out of it, but if you’re in a creative field and you want to break the process down to tame it a little, I’d highly recommend this piece.

MEATHEAD FOOD: Outright Protein Pancake Mix

Outright Bars are my favorite protein bars. I even recommended their peanut butter s’mores flavor in this newsletter last summer. I recently discovered that the company, founded by my old colleague Mark from Muscle & Fitness, also makes a protein pancake batter mix and I just bought it. Each serving of pancakes has 20 grams of protein and I gotta say, they’re pretty awesome. We’ve been eating the Kodiak Protein pancakes for a while now, and those are okay…but these chocolate peanut butter ones are better. Much better.

SPORTS SHOTS: Dominique Wilkins, Stephen A & the ‘93 Nets

I’m starting a new project on Twitter telling a mini sports-story every day in a thread I’m tentatively calling Sports Shots… or Bullet Bios… or something… I don’t know yet. But I like the format and how you can add a string of photos and copy to tell a cool story in about 250 words. I’d love it if you’d check them out.

• Here’s the one on Dominique and his 57 point game against Jordan.

• Here’s another one on the first time Stephen A. Smith called out a basketball coach (his own, in college).

• This one’s on Spud Webb’s best game ever.

• Last one on Drazen Petrovic, Derrick Coleman, Kenny Anderson and the Nets first Big 3 in the early 90s.

QUOTE OF THE WEEK

“I demand more of myself than anyone else could ever expect.” - “Dr. J” Julius Irving

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PS - Did you buy Hoops Heist yet? Buy it today and send me a screen shot on Twitter and I’ll send you a signed, awesome bookmark ASAP. Here’s the link to BUY.