This post is part of Kool Stuff, a companion book to Long Live Mortal Kombat: Round 1 (now on Kickstarter!) that contains interviews I was unable to do before hitting Long Live MK’s deadline. Subscribe to Episodic Content to keep up with news on Long Live MK, and to follow along with Kool Stuff as new chapters are published. Take a stroll down memory lane with me. It's September 13, 1993.

We are nearing a half century since the Milwaukee Bucks last hosted an NBA All-Star Game, and based on reporting that surfaced Wednesday, it’s hard to imagine that wait will come to an end anytime soon. Joe Massutto of The Oklahoman, in writing about Oklahoma City’s own pursuit of landing an All-Star Game as they ready for a new arena, relayed the specific requirements the NBA is looking in host cities for future All-Star Games:

I. I was yearning before I understood what it meant, before covid-19, before the meme concretely normalized the distant dissatisfaction that I was trying very hard to suppress. I think, in a way, we all were. So in early February, when my friend replied to my Instagram story that she was “yearning to be in my arms once again” followed by several pleading face emojis, I wasn’t very taken aback.

View most updated version of this post on SubstackSearch our full archivesShare William Powell was one of the founding members of the O’Jays and sang with the group from 1958 until 1976, shortly before his premature death from cancer in 1977. See our exclusive 2023 interview with O’Jays founding member Walter Williams and our earlier posts on lead singer Eddie Levert and producers Kenny Gamble and Leon Huff for more on the group’s legendary musical history.

Christmas Eve morning, the sky breaks open. For a long time, it stays this way, the colors painted on the pale heavens will remain for quite some time. In the haze of winter, crystalized air acts like tiny prisms, shaping a kind of unlikely silence. The creak of my car’s tires on snow-covered streets, and the usual hum and grunt of street traffic falls to zero. The visual overtakes the audible.