THE PANDA MADE ME DO IT

It really did - 

2012-09-27-0793

I LOVE THIS TEE.

Last week, whilst in attendance at the Social@Ogilvy Spin event over in Shoreditch, I ran into Ade Cockle, Digital Innovation Manager for the World Wildlife Fund.

He and I have chatted over Twitter a fair bit and we’ve also shared a table at various IAB Social Media Council meetings together too but the other night was the first time we’d actually met and spoken properly.

The first words out of my mouth?

“Ade! What do I have to do to get my hands on one of those awesome Panda shirts?!”

How did I know about them? I saw this video –

Lovely, right?

Anyway, the next thing I know Ade magics the above t-shirt out of his bag and thrusts it into my hands! Amazing.

What did I do in response? I gave him a massive hug, and then I GOT INVOLVED.

You should too.

 

 

 

Review: LOOPER

No spoilers…

Via

These days it’s nigh-on impossible to go to the cinema without at least some awareness of what it is you’re about to sit down and experience. When it came to LOOPER, I did my utmost to achieve that.

It wasn’t easy.

After reading the first synopsis and then seeing the first trailer, I decided: no more. And OPERATION: AVOID ALL INFORMATION ABOUT LOOPER was in full effect.

So if, like me, you’re out to keep as much detail about this film out of and away from your film-going psyche before going to see it*, then this simplistic review is just for you.

Ready? Here we go –

What LOOPER is:

– A brilliant vision of the future
– A masterclass in character study and story-telling
– A modern classic that’ll be studied and revered for years to come

What LOOPER isn’t:

– The film you’re expecting
– An easy watch
– Predictable

———

To say anymore would be to ruin it beyond all recognition. Even if I told you what films it echoed, for me at least, I think that would take something away from it too.

Book your tickets.

See this film.

 

Big love to Stella Artois and Little White Lies for organising last night’s preview

*WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING HERE?

 

Five things on Friday #39

Things of note for the week ending September 28th

1. Tree Music
This is quite beautiful, and just in time for autumn too. Just below a giant chestnut tree in Berlin’s Montbijoupark, these green polymer membranes have been set out to create music whenever a chestnut falls on them.

Stunning.

The meaning behind this work is worth looking into… so’s the video (at the same link).

2. You’re Doing it Wrong
I lost about half an hour reading this page on metafilter last weekend. It’s amazing – and you’ll lose time too.

Trust me, you’ve been doing it wrong.

3. Ella Henderson
This, from last weekend’s X-Factor, is breathtaking.

It’s my blog, I’ll do what I want –
I mean, it could’ve been worse, I could’ve blogged about this.

4. New MySpace
It’s coming and it looks a bit gorge –

5. Resident Evil 6 Review of win
This is quite possibly one of the best video game reviews I’ve ever seen.

A fairly video heavy episode this week, but hey – who cares?

I’m out…

 

 

On Facebook? I can see your private messages UPDATED: No I can’t.

But it’s probably worth hiding those old posts anyway…

———————–  UPDATE ———————–

So it’s looking like these posts weren’t Private Messages after all. Back in the old days of Facebook, say between 2007 and 2009, the layout was quite different and, instead of sending each other messages and having to deal with Timelines et al, we used to have the option to write wall-to-wall.

We weren’t all as social-media-savvy back then and believe it or not, your Mum, your boss and all your co-workers weren’t as up to speed either…

Hence the openness of all those wall posts. Major panic subsiding, minor panic still worth cleaning up…

———————————————-

This is happening right now…

Here’s a grab I took before hiding the relevant issues.

The best possible fix is to hit the SETTINGS icon at the top right and hit ‘HIDE FROM WALL’

So far, TechCrunch have picked it up with others following.

If you don’t want people to see your private messages on Facebook, do this now.

 

 

 

The Tailor of Gotham City

Ever wondered where Batman’s villains get their outfits?

Spotted this yesterday and it’s just awesome. A chap over on deviantart *drew this on his holiday* after asking himself that very same question.

It’s a fantastic premise and a brilliant execution.

I’ve snapped a few of the images, but you must must must read the whole thing.

Amazing work.

 

 

Five things on Friday #38

Things of note for the week ending September 21st

1. Genetic Portraits
Photographer Ulric Collette has been shooting a range of ‘genetic portraits’ taking two members of the same family and splicing them back together for some quite staggering results. This one above is one of my favourites, but the full set is worth a look too. It’s weird as hell, but awesome at the same time. YES!

2. Assassin’s Creed
I’m still hooked (about two hours into Brotherhood now, FYI) and now the girl is going away for a week (boo!) and I’m going to dive into AC like there’s no tomorrow (yay!) and mission it until there is literally nothing left in my sights but Revelations. Oh, and then AC:III obviously.

Why is this important? Well, it’s a nice pre-amble to this wicked little Assassin’s Creed Parkour video that was kickin’ around a while back.

Any excuse.

On that note…

3. Death by Gaming
There’s a great article over on Eurogamer about there being something in the air at game/internet cafés in Taiwan –

At 10pm the previous day Chen had taken a seat in the farthest corner of an internet café in New Taipei City, Taiwan. He lit a cigarette and began to play League of Legends. Chen played the online game for close to 23 hours, occasionally sleeping for a short while at his monitor before picking up where he’d left off.

While the popular café was half-full that night, the moment of the 23 year-old’s death passed unobserved. No one noticed the melted ice-cubes in his overflowing cup, the ghostly pallor of his cheeks, the idling of his on-screen avatar. It was only when the girl on the front desk went to inform Chen his time was up that, with a gentle nudge of the shoulder, he toppled stiffly.

And –

But I’m not really worried that something like that might ever happen here. We have a system to prevent customers from sitting in front of the computer for too long… We don’t allow any customers to play for more than three days at a time.

More.

Perhaps I’ll just play for a couple of hours after all…

4. Imagine
I’m getting back into books again (having spent most mornings these past few months reading my GReader) and my current book of choice is ‘Imagine: How Creativity Works’ by Jonah Lehrer.

The chapter I’ve just finished deals with the much-documented link between depression and creativity. A few choice quotes for you –

‘If you’re at the cutting edge, then you’re going to bleed’, – Nancy Andreasen

‘The bad post is usually unconscious where he ought be conscious, and conscious where he ought to be unconscious’, – T. S. Eliot.

And this, from the author –

‘There is nothing romantic about this kind of creativity, which consists mostly of sweat, sadness, and failure. It’s the red pen on the page and the discarded sketch, the trashed prototype and the failed first draft. It’s ruminating in the backs of taxis and popping pills until the poem is finished.’

The next chapter is about losing yourself in the moment, using Yo Yo Ma as a case study.
Love.

Get this book.

5. Kids are mental – aka the best Star Wars story you’ve never heard
I spotted this on Super Punch the other morning and then not soon after, it appeared on Kotaku – so I’m fairly sure this has been ’round the world twice already but still – it’s totally worth (re)sharing.

One guy, talking about the The Empire Strikes Back reenactments he was involved with back when he was at summer camp –

The second year I was there, we planned the best (and arguably the most dangerous) game that camp has ever seen. We wanted to do our best to re-create the Battle of Hoth, in The Empire Strikes Back. We built plywood AT-AT shells with handles on the inside and a slot cut in the front, that two guys could get in. We tied ropes to bicycles and milk crates to the ropes to make snowspeeders with the tether cannons, just like in the movie. We even got stilts to re-create the AT-STs…

Read it all.

It’s amazing.

Bonuses this week; Fast Company says that ‘Experimentation is the new Planning‘, iO9 has found a quite frankly awesome set of Heath Ledger / Joker promo photos that were never used; and on this week’s episode of The Voicemail Stefan and I have a proper good moan about exactly how bad the maps are on iOS6.

Whatley out.

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