Things of note for the week ending April 25th, 2014.
1. The Dalai Lama’s Ski Trip
This, via Slate, is quite wonderful and easily the best thing I’ve read on the internet this month.
Just then, an expert skier entered from a higher slope, whipping along. The Dalai Lama saw him and said, “Look—too fast! He going to hit post!†He cupped his hands, shouting down to the oblivious skier, “Look out for post!†He waved frantically. “Look out for post!†–
The skier, who had no idea that the 14th incarnation of the Bodhisattva of Compassion was crying out to save his life, made a crisp little check as he approached the pylon, altering his line of descent, and continued expertly down the hill. –
With an expostulation of wonder, the Dalai Lama sat back and clasped his hands together. “You see? Ah! Ah! This skiing is wonderful sport!â€
The image above, from a piece over at The Monkey Cage, is just one chart from a very interesting piece of research. Turns out, the further respondents were from getting it right, the more likely they were to want the US to intervene.
4. Minimalist Film Posters
James Whatley in ‘blogging about pretty cool film posters’ shocker, I know. This bunch are alright but not spectacular. The only one worth sharing is this rather cool take on Reservoir Dogs.
5. The Bradley Timepiece
This watch, designed for blind people and named after a Paralympian gold medallist who lost his sight in Afghanistan, is up for design of the year at London’s Design Museum.
It’s rather awesome, but it’s mostly being bought by sighted people.
Things of note for the week ending November 9th, 2012
1.Heard of Vlad Rodriguez?
Up until earlier this past week, I hadn’t heard the name before either. But loving a bit of pop-culture/movie-driven art as I do, I found him over at So Bad So Good and his work is incredible. The Bladerunner one above is a fave, but his takes on both The Shining and Fight Club have to be worth a look too.
2. Bat for Lashes, covering Rhianna ‘We Found Love’
Blissful.
3. The Girl Who Would Be King
I’ve been following the progress of this book (and Kickstarter project) ever since I first discovered the first part back in June (see item 5) and I must’ve taken my off the ball a little bit because the whole thing is now available for just a few quid over on Amazon.
Blurb:
‘A novel about two teenage girls with superpowers and radically different agendas, destined for a collision that will rock the world:
Separated by thousands of miles, two young women are about to realize their extraordinary powers which will bind their lives together in ways they can’t begin to understand.
Protecting others. Maintaining order. Being good. These are all important things for Bonnie Braverman, even if she doesn’t understand why. Confined to a group home since she survived the car accident that killed both her parents, Bonnie has lived her life until now in self-imposed isolation and silence; but when an opportunity presents itself to help another girl in need, Bonnie has to decide whether to actually use the power she has long suspected she has. Power that frightens her.
Across the country, Lola LeFever is inheriting her own power by sending her mother over a cliff…literally. For Lola the only thing that matters is power; getting it, taking it, and eliminating anyone who would get in the way of her pursuit of it. With her mother dead and nothing to hold her back from the world any longer, Lola sets off to test her own powers on anyone unfortunate enough to cross her. And Lola’s not afraid of anything.
One girl driven to rescue, save, and heal; the other driven to punish, destroy, and kill.
And now they’re about to meet.’
My copy is sat on my Kindle waiting for me as I type.
I’d recommend you go take a look too.
4. Music + Social
I’ve read a couple of really good music posts this week. This first this one from Songkick talks about how they worked with Hot Chip using their ‘Detour‘ product to help book some new (and off-the-beaten-track) destinations for their upcoming tour –
We picked 3 towns they hadn’t headlined before and created a Detour where each of those cities had a chance to create a show on that spare night. We emailed all of the Songkick users in those cities tracking Hot Chip and things started to take off. We wanted to raise 200 pledges to be confident of demand and rapidly all 3 started to get momentum. What happened next though was incredibly exciting. A bunch of superfans in Folkestone decided that they were going to make it happen. As one fan said, “Most bands don’t come to this part of Kent, they tend to stop at London.†They got super proactive and started to email all their friends and even petitioned the local radio station and newspaper. It exploded and went completely viral in a matter of hours through fan to fan word of mouth marketing, Hot Chip sold out.
The post has more (as well as a pretty awesome chart comparing the fans in Folkestone to the rest of the competition) and is well worth a read. It’s a great case study on how activating fans can yield phenomenal results too.
This second post, this time picked up from the guys over at Fresh Networks, talks about how Lady Gaga’s team use the listening data from Spotify to help choose her music set in each different country that she plays.
Things of note for the week ending November 2nd, 2012
1. New poster for The Wolverine
This dropped earlier this week and it is gorgeous. Bold, stark and perfectly reminiscent of the 1982 mini-series that the film is based upon. It’s a little less controversial than the first teaser poster (apparently the locals weren’t happy with the apparent destruction of their flag) and alright we’re going to have wait until July to see if James Mangold‘s version will be anywhere near as good as I hoped Aronofsky’s version would be but still, it bodes well.
I have a love/hate affair with autumn at the moment, but this piece of art speaks to me on so many levels. I just, I just can’t stop looking at it. It’s crying out for breath. There’s so much going on. I adore it.
EDIT: Apologies to those of you that subscribe by email and received an unfinished article in your inboxes early this morning. God knows how I managed to hit the publish button by mistake, but I did. And hey, if you don’t subscribe by email, why don’t you give it a go? You’ll never miss a post and it’s easy too – you just have to pop your email address in one of the boxes on the right and you’re away!
Things of note for the week ending September 14th, 2012
1. Removie Posters
Removie Posters are basically movie posters re-imagined with one letter from the original title removed. The above is a quite striking Jurassic Ark (see what they did there), but I think The Men That Stare at Oats is my favourite…
2. How To See The Future
The first of two keynote transcripts this week. This one – ‘How To See The Future‘ is from Warren Ellis and is probably one of the best things I’ve read this year, if not – ever.
3. Fight, Fight, Fight Amando Ianucci is next with this, quite frankly, excellent speech from the annual BAFTA television lecture. Entitled ‘Fight, Fight, Fight‘, it is a wonderful celebration of that is great about UK TV creativity; littered with history and filled with inspiration. Read it.
4. Transformers On Your Street
This kind of activity has been done before*, but I really like the execution: to celebrate the launch of the new Transformers video game ‘Fall of Cybertron’ you can actually have Transformers on your street. Great use of the Google Maps / Streetview API.
This gorgeous set of photos remind me of my travels with Lucozade several years ago. The multitude of locations, the sparse surroundings – Gustav Willeit has struck a deep nerve in me: I miss the air up high.
The jury is still well and truly out for me on this one. No John Williams score, no reference to the originals (per the underrated Superman Returns); they’re starting from scratch and there’s only one of two ways this can go –
.
that the film is based upon. It’s a little less controversial than the first teaser poster (apparently the locals weren’t happy with the apparent destruction of their flag) and alright we’re going to have wait until July to see if 
