No edition last week + a metric ton of stuff and nonsense to catch up on; this week’s episode of THINGS is going to be one chunky monkey. You have been warned.
Additional note: as promised earlier in the week, FToF readers can get 15% off tickets for the next One Question conference by using the following discount count ‘OQJamesW2017‘ (add the code at check out etc).
Right then, shall we?
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Things of note for the week ending Sunday March 26th, 2017.
1. THE SXSW UPDATE
Right, as promised two weeks ago, here’s a bunch of stuff I picked up at the annual film/interactive/music festival in Austin Texas.
- Here are all the slides from the SXSW Webinar we did from the final day of the trip.
- Here’s the recording of said Webinar (it’s about an hour long and the audio kicks in a few minutes in), the slides in bullet one work so much better with a v/o – honest.
- Here’s a Twitter Moment featuring all the notes made from the 14 different sessions I managed to attend while I was there.
Other things of note: the best iPhone cover I ever saw, picked up a pair of Snapchat Spectacles, I had a maple syrup & bacon doughnut and it changed my life.
Questions on the notes are probably best
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2. A FIST FULL OF TRAILERS
- AMERICAN GODS. TV show. Based upon the Neil Gaiman novel. Coming soon.
- JUSTICE LEAGUE. Film. The next part in the DC Cinematic Universe (following on specifically from Batman v Superman however set in the same universe as everything from MAN OF STEEL, WONDER WOMAN (incoming), and even [the abominable] SUICIDE SQUAD). And it looks bloody awful.
- WONDER WOMAN. Film. The back story of the supporting character from BvS. Could be good. Could be terrible. I do hope it’s the former. We could do with a decent female superhero lead.
- GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY 2. Film. The sequel to outstanding Marvel space adventure and the first of three Marvel movies this year (with SPIDER-MAN: HOMECOMING and THOR: RAGNAROK to follow). Looks good.
I feel like I should add a fifth but I can’t think of one right now. Maybe I’ll come back to it later.
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3. ALEXA: PROJECT YORICK
File this one under ‘R’ for ‘Reasons why I love the internet, #22134’.
Mike McGurrin has done something very, very dark to his Amazon Echo.
And I love it.
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4. DOODLES TO ANIME
This is ridiculously cute.
I think this has been kicking around the web for a while but I’m not sure. However, these pictures of a dad’s anime characters inspired by his son’s doodles made me grin from ear to ear.
From Bored Panda:
‘Thomas Romain is a French anime artist who lives in Tokyo. He’s worked on various series including Space Dandy, Basquash!, and Aria, but his best ideas actually come from his sons. Working together in what he calls the Father And Sons Design Workshop, Thomas and his kids come up with all sorts of weird and wonderful characters. Well, his kids actually come up with them, and then Thomas adds his professional touch to turn them into everything from steampunk doctors and snake fighters to cloud dwellers and sand golems.’
Brilliant.
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5. INTERESTING READING
You may not have followed, or even seen, the Jack Monroe v Katie Hopkins libel case (Spoiler: the latter lost (hurrah)). However, if one wanted to not only get familiar with the matter but also get really into the detail, then you could do a lot worse than read the final judgement papers (PDF download) from the hearing.
Social media is still so very new and reading about how a libel case works in the age of Twitter is something I find just plain super interesting.
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Bonuses this week are many:
- In the US? Google’s ‘Project Sunroof’ now covers every state and, if you’re looking to invest in Solar Power, Sunroof will help.
- I’ve been doing a lot of reading into the ‘Connected Home’ and, among other things, I found this neat website from McKinsey covering off the key areas you should know about.
- Will.I.Am can SEE THE FUTURE (amazing).
- Superhero origin stories as IKEA instruction manuals. Excellent.
- Future Islands have a new song out.
- It was Adweek Europe last week and, for reasons I won’t go into, a few of us advertising people were asked to make a playlist for one of the events. Go get.
Finally, expect to read a lot about Google Home this week (although, saying that, in light of the amount of guff the UK press has in store for Google at the moment I wouldn’t be surprised if they rescheduled, however), the UK announcement for its release is scheduled for Tuesday and there’s another event shortly after that I’ve been invited to which I’m fairly sure is the same thing. We’ll see.
Here’s hoping it gets better than this.
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And that is about it for this week.
So you know, each and every one of you that made it this far:
Until next time.
Wonder Woman is going to be awesome. Hey, Ems and I have worked on it 🙂