Five things on Friday #77

Things of note for the week ending June 20th, 2014.

Bat bites. Like Whatley bits. But battier.

1. Burberry Twitter Cards
I’ve written about Twitter cards before and this year we’ll be seeing more and more of them appear in our collective streams. Further evidence of that is brought to us by a brand continually at the nexus of fashion and technology innovation, Burberry.

Imagine you’re Burberry and you want your oh-so-loyal and avid Twitter followers to absolutely tune into your next runway show. Got that far? OK. Now imagine you create a tweet with a calendar invite embedded in it.

Calendar Invite Card!

Ta da! Amazing.

Now, I want you to continue imagining you’re Burberry. But this time I want you to feel a pang of regret for the 98.98% of your followers that didn’t see your calendar event tweet (fact) and instead have to try and catch up somehow.

Well, that’s easy! You’re about to imagine a tweet with an embedded image gallery that your fans can easily browse, all without leaving Twitter.

Amazing Gallery Card!

Aren’t you fantastic, Burberry. Well done.

Via.

2. Good Music

MOOOOSIC

I’m a Spotify fiend. This Spotlight on new music playlist is the best new one I’ve listened to in a while. You should listen to it too.

Oh and for bonus sunshine action, subscribe to this beauty – Welcome to Summer folks x

If you don’t use Spotify well…

Sorry.

Maybe I’ll link you to something next week.

3. Hannibal
Last night, I finished season two of Hannibal.

Hannibal

Mads Mikkelson stars an the eponymous anit-hero/villain/cannibal and the show is loosely based on the events before and during those of Red Dragon. Telling the story of Will Graham and his first dealings with Hannibal Lector, Hannibal it is a stunning show.

Some of you may have heard of this show, some of you may have already finished it. But if you haven’t, or if you’re looking for something new in a post-Breaking-Bad, post-Game-of-Thrones-Season-4 world, Hannibal is it.

The season two finale is one of the best pieces of television I have ever seen.

I am still gushing about it.

Just watch it.

Now.

4. Ghostbusters 3

ghostbusters

It is happening. Bill Murry will return. It’s based on the video game. It’s based on Hell invading New York. Bill Murray won’t be back. It’ll feature new, younger ‘busters. It isn’t happening.

Much has been said about this long-gestating non-project but ever since Harold Ramis passed away, I’ve been firmly in the camp of IT ISN’T HAPPENING, but Max Landis (son of that awesome director guy I met once) has a hella wicked idea for the opening scene.

WHY NOT READ IT?

5. DERMAPHORIA
Last weekend I was extremely lucky to be invited along to the opening night of the East End Film Festival.

DERMAPHORIA

The opening film? DERMAPHORIA.

Described as ‘An inspired experimental chemist, wakes up in a New Orleans jail, accused of arson that’s linked to an illegal drug-manufacturing ring. Suffering from amnesia, he’s unexpectedly released on bail, determined to find his missing girlfriend.’ DERMAPHORIA is an unforgiving trip into the mind of a drug-addled way of life and is a non-stop back and forth between the worlds of the way up high and the deep come down.

It is JAGGED.
It is grimy.
It is a horror show of what it’s like to be under the illusion of being touched by God and it does not give its audience an easy ride at all. So go in ready. DERMAPHORIA requires concentration. You, like the film’s protagonist, will feel lost, frustrated, and at times utterly beaten.

I can’t recommend it enough and, without the East End Film Festival, I doubt I would’ve seen it at all. Good work, EEFF. Keep it up.

Find it and see it, as soon as you can.

Here’s the trailer.

Sidenote: Ron Perlman’s in it. I met him afterwards. That wasn’t as cool as I hoped it’d be. Ah well.

Until next week,

Whatley out.

_____________________

Bonus items this week

 

Listen to this rare DJ set from The Avalanches

This baby has been hidden away for 12 years.

the avalanches

A friend of mine just dropped these two mixes just onto Soundcloud. Recorded at the Concord in Brighton back in August 2001, this an utter find. To quote:

A rare DJ set by The Avalanches, recreating their popular album Since I Left You but with many additions.

Clearly I don’t own the rights to either this mix or the original music, but it’s been over 10 years since I was given these mp3s as a treat by the sound team at one of their live performances, and thought it time to share this awesome mix and to remind you all of The Avalanches.

Put this in your ears.

Got a question about this recording? Ask Josh.

Have a great Monday y’all.

 

Five things on Friday #51

Things of note for the week ending December 21st, 2012

1. One helluva tree house
The above image is, believe it or not, one of the primary residences of the Korowai tribe. Living over a hundred feet in the air is second nature to this isolate people as the area they call home is somewhat dangerous nearer the ground (thanks to killer insects, flooding etc). Some people would move out. The Korowai, it would seem, move up.

via

2. The Web We Lost
This, from Anil Dash, is one of the best things I’ve read this month –

When you see interesting data mash-ups today, they are often still using Flickr photos because Instagram’s meager metadata sucks, and the app is only reluctantly on the web at all. We get excuses about why we can’t search for old tweets or our own relevant Facebook content, though we got more comprehensive results from a Technorati search that was cobbled together on the feeble software platforms of its era. We get bullshit turf battles like Tumblr not being able to find your Twitter friends or Facebook not letting Instagram photos show up on Twitter because of giant companies pursuing their agendas instead of collaborating in a way that would serve users. And we get a generation of entrepreneurs encouraged to make more narrow-minded, web-hostile products like these because it continues to make a small number of wealthy people even more wealthy, instead of letting lots of people build innovative new opportunities for themselves on top of the web itself.

We’ll fix these things; I don’t worry about that. The technology industry, like all industries, follows cycles, and the pendulum is swinging back to the broad, empowering philosophies that underpinned the early social web. But we’re going to face a big challenge with re-educating a billion people about what the web means, akin to the years we spent as everyone moved off of AOL a decade ago, teaching them that there was so much more to the experience of the Internet than what they know.

Read the whole thing, won’t you?

3. The XX doing LAST CHRISTMAS

There is no need to say anything else.

4. Under Cover: Erotica and Sexism
I first met Zoe Margolis way back in 2008, I think it may’ve been at Tuttle – all those many moons ago. Delightful, warm, and fiercely intelligent, we had a fantastic stroll around Soho discussing all sorts. I follow Zoe on Twitter and recently I saw her tweet a link to her Lost Lecture on ‘Erotica and Sexism‘. I’ve only just got ’round to watching it – this morning in fact – and it’s a damn good watch. Enlightening and engaging, you’ll never look at an erotic book cover in the same way ever again.

And quite right too.

5. In Praise of [PR] Student Bloggers
Stephen Waddington, author of Brand Anarchy (book) and Two-Way Street (blog), is not only [still] taking offers of guest blog posts for his [highly-read] website, but also rounding up the best ones he’s had to date.

Looking for a break? Go talk to Steve.

———

Bonuses this week are super random; first, this East/West College Bowl piece made me laugh more than it probably should; second, this Google Hangout with the chaps from Unleash the Phones was quite fun to be a part of; and third, Happy Birthday for yesterday Jane Fonda.

VonStroke / Zeitgeist / National

aka – Three Track Thursday #3 

Screen shot 2012-12-16 at 10.46.32

Three(ish) music recommendations for you!

1. My dear friend (and idea-sparring partner), Sarah, pointed me in the direction of this wonderful collection of music that is Hype Machine’s Zeitgeist. I’ve been listening to Hypem since, I dunno, maybe around 2006, but I always catch myself forgetting about it.

2. Joe tweeted this, earlier this week and my oh my, dese choons are so good yeah –

Reebok Classics Live from The Manchester Warehouse Project 30th Nov 2012 (Part 2 – Claude VonStroke) by Reebok Classics on Mixcloud

3. And thanks to Pretty Much Amazing, I’ve got a couple of new tracks from The National to share with you too. This is ‘Sullivan’.

And this is ‘Prime’

‘Til next time…

Five things on Friday #45

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.

So simple.
So obvious.
So brilliant.
So go read
.

5. The D is silent
Django. Trailer 2. Bring it.

Bonuses this week; Sharp suits – amazing (and actual real life) client feedback, turned into hilarious posters (for charity), great stuff; this interview / battle between Jeremy Paxman and Conrad Black is fantastic watching; and Sarah Silverman does an amazingly filthy thing with a relatively harmless iPhone (be warned: kids will be doing this next week).

’til next time.

 

Five things on Friday #40

Things of note for the week ending October 5th, 2012

1. The Penis Blouse

That’s a penis, on a blouse. Brought to you by those lovely people at ASOS. Spotted it a couple of days ago and within 24 hours it was all over the place. ASOS are clearly onto a winner; everyone loves a penis blouse.

2. Statigram
Statigram is a web interface for Instagram. Given that Instagram is mobile-only, this is actually quite a useful tool. What’s really useful however is the super-cool stats (see what they did there) it pulls out of your Instagram activity.

eg: my most popular pics

Lovely stuff. On Instagram? Go have a play.

3. Dog shirts
Exactly what is says on the tin.

I bought one of these for Robbie last week (it was his birthday, we don’t just buy each other gifts for no reason – well, we do but that’s not for now), AND THEY ARE AMAZING.

4. 4G Networks
At long last, 4G is scheduled to launch here in the UK on October 30th. Well I say networks I mean network (singular, not plural) this is because of a whole bunch of reasons most of which are covered off in this rather informative article on The Register as well as this week’s episode of The Voicemail (I may have had a rant).

In summary: 4G is coming from network this year, but from everyone else in 2013. Rubbish.

5. Choons
This is the best thing I’ve listened to all week.

_____

Bonuses this week: FIFA have somewhat incredibly re-badged and relaunched FIFA 12 as FIFA 13; this article about how Nokia keeps its maps up to date by using UPS and Fedex van delivery data is quite the eye-opener; and finally, Snoop Dogg is voting for Obama. Wanna know why?

– Whatley out.

Five things on Friday #35

Things of note for the week ending August 31st, 2012

1. Dub the Dew
This isn’t that new but I just found another write up on it and well, I realised I just had to share. Mountain Dew decided that they’d ask the internet to help them name their latest apple-flavoured beverage.

The internet, responded.

This was – I KID YOU NOT – the Top 10 right before, some 48hrs after launch, PepsiCo [unsurprisingly] took it down –

  1. Hitler Did Nothing Wrong
  2. Gushing Granny
  3. Fapple
  4. Gushin’ Granny
  5. Diabeetus
  6. Grannies Squirt
  7. Gushing Grannies
  8. Gooshing Granny
  9. Fapulous Apple
  10. Gushing Green Granny

Brilliant.

You could blame the internet. Or you could blame 4Chan. Really, you should blame a naively conceived competition by a brand that should’ve known better.

2. Verified Twitter Accounts
Ever wondered how they work? Lance Ulanoff just had his Twitter account verified and was kind enough to blog the entire process. I thought it was interesting.

3. THIS. IS. EPIC.

4. Las Vegas Lulz
So that thing happened with Price Harry the other week? Yeeaaah, aside from a few red faces inside the palace, it turns out the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority were none too pleased either.

A fairly decent tongue-in-cheek full page ad in USA Today appeared earlier this week –

Love it.

5. The Darkness, covering Radiohead

There are no words.
via

Bonuses this week: this Designing BBC iPlayer for Xbox 360 article from the Beeb is a damn good read; Episode 013 of The Voicemail Podcast is out now and is full of the usual mobile-related banter (but with IFA/Samsung/Sony extras); and this Leo Burnett vs Asylum Films debate is worth ten minutes of your brain [UPDATE: now with illustrative background from LB’s CEO]. 

‘Til next time…