Tag: 5things

Things of note for the week ending Friday 8th January, 2016.

1. AVATAR & CULTURE

This article has been doing the rounds this week.

Obviously driven by the fact that AVATAR has just been knocked from its ‘highest grossing movie in US history’ status (by that STAR WARS film you might’ve heard about) the piece takes a look at the history of the film and explores some of the other perhaps not immediately noticeable impacts it left on movie-goers…

But that’s not why I’m sharing.

When I saw the link (originally posted on a friend’s Facebook wall) it immediately got my head racing to a million different places.

For example: I wondered if you could perhaps construct quite a decent analysis about the lack of branding in AVATAR.

When you think about the cultural impact/footprints of other major films, in our recent (and not so recent) history, the sociological science behind what makes a ‘pop culture footprint’ would no doubt include the art of branding.

My immediate frame of reference for this is Tim Burton’s 1989 BATMAN (no surprise there). The branding of that is ripe for pop cultural footprintery (and arguably set the marketing approach of all superhero movies since).

When compared to the greats, AVATAR is bereft of [this kind of] branding. However the author of the piece referenced above should’ve probably gone into more about his definition of what constitutes a cultural footprint.

I’m just kicking stuff around here so not really sure where I’m taking this but I just wanted to explore the thought/thinking about what actually contributes to leaving a cultural footprint.

For what it’s worth, I think it’s unfair/completely wrong to say that AVATAR left NO cultural impact – that’s wholly untrue. Can you walk into a fancy dress store and buy a N’avi outfit? Yup. Are there huge Avatar parties every weekend? I don’t know. BUT THERE MIGHT BE.

However, aside from an unbelievable realisation of a whole other planet through the use of computers, there are no major stand out points that could impact culture [as significantly as say, I don’t know… STAR WARS].

And that contributes to it too.

Anyway, it’s a good piece and it got me thinking. It might get you thinking too.

Go read it.

***********

2. GET RICH OR DIE VLOGGING

It was all so painfully awkward. That night, Brittany Ashley, a lesbian stoner in red lipstick, was at Eveleigh, a popular farm-to-table spot in West Hollywood. The restaurant was hosting Buzzfeed’s Golden Globes party. For the past two years, Ashley has been one of the most visible actresses on the company’s four YouTube channels, which altogether have about 17 million subscribers. She stars in bawdy videos with titles like “How To Win The Breakup” or “Masturbation: Guys Vs. Girls,” many of which rack up millions of views.

The awkward part was that Ashley wasn’t there to celebrate with Buzzfeed. She was there to serve them.

Being super rich with theoretical dollars ain’t all it’s cracked up to be. A tough read but so telling of the world we created for ourselves now live in, this story, from Fusion, talks about how difficult it can be when you’re trying to make it as an up-and-coming Internet superstar. Even if you only have a passing interest in digital influencers and the whole premise of internet-celebrity in general, then you should absolutely read this article.

***********

3. ’52 things I learnt in 2015′

As written by Tom Whitwell. There are a great bunch of random facts in this cheeky [and easily digestible] Medium post. Go read it.

***********

4. SUPERHERO AND SURVIVOR

I don’t know if you have or have not made/found the time to take in Netflix’s second Marvel series (DAREDEVIL was the first – and it was awesome – S2 coming soon) JESSICA JONES yet however if you have, I would recommend reading this really quite excellent praise piece, via The F Word, entitled ‘Superhero and survivor‘.

Jessica Jones is just that – a superhero and a survivor; and nothing I’ve read on the subject nails it better than this.

Off you pop.

Ps. If you’ve not watched JJ yet a) go do so and b) don’t read the above yet, it’s kinda spoilery.

5. DISAPPEAR

Got an iPhone? Really dislike the default iOS apps that you just can’t get rid of? Well, here’s a tip to make them just… disappear!

Oh and btw: no jail-breaking required.

***********

_____________

Bonuses this week are as follows –

• Goodbye Motorola (I do not think this is a superb idea)
• I’ve been sick this week and have caught up on a TON of stuff. For one: Comedians In Cars Getting Coffee. I think I’ve talked about it before. It’s great. It really is!
• No offence (which my brain tells me I’ve shared already but I can’t figure out if it’s just my drafts playing up this week -which they have been. A lot)

Have a great weekend y’all.

This one’s for Theo.

Whatley out, x.

 

 

 

Things of note for the week ending Friday December 25th, 2015.

IT’S CHRIIIIIIIIIIIIIISTMAAAAAAAAS!!!!

Yes, I know it’s Christmas and yes, I know the last thing you’ll be doing is looking at email/the Internet. I was going to write some lark about how you shouldn’t worry about me as I wrote this several days ago etc…. but it wouldn’t be true. I am, as I type to you now, hurtling up the A505 to Norfolk for to see some extended family in a BARN of all things.

Quite fitting when you think about it.

Anyway, wherever you and whatever you’re doing, I hope you are having / have had a lovely Christmas. I’m scheduling this to go out shortly after Doctor Who (wasn’t it great/awful/brilliant/annoying – delete where applicable / add your own – EDIT: I LOVED IT) so I’m hoping you all will be fairly vino’d up and at the point of bursting by the time you read this (the rule is: if you can reach it, you can eat it).

So if if granny has slipped off into a nap and your rude uncle has gone down the pub with Dad, you’re more than allowed to sit and stare at your phone for a while.

On that note… to the things!

1. THE YEAR IN PICTURES

\

The next edition of FToF will arrive on Jan 1st, 2016 so we may as well get all the year end round ups out of the way now, right? Remember when everyone used to go nuts for the YouTube one? Yeah, how time flies.

For me, the big round up I’d like to share is the admittedly somewhat sombre effort from the New York Times. I looked at this a few days ago and there were definitely a few tears.

Maybe save this one until after Christmas Day.

2. SAD TOPOGRAPHIES

Big love to my dear friend Zsa Zsa for this slice of Instagram fried gold.

Looking for somewhere to go when you’re feeling low? The relatively new Sad Topographies Instagram account is there for your every need.

Featuring such wonders as ‘KILL’, ‘PITY ME’, and ‘CRYING CHILD ISLAND’ (someone was definitely having a bad day that day), Sad Topographies really is quite brilliant.

Go check it out.

And on a kind of related note: aforementioned friend and discoverer of the above has recently kicked off an ambition to write every single day over on Medium. Strong start so far and definitely worth checking out if you fancy something different to read [every day], some of them are in fact that good that I’ve actually installed the Medium app just so I wouldn’t miss an edition. There’s some high praise indeed.

Remember, it is a marathon not a sprint but if y’all go subscribe/read/share/like or whatever, it’ll help drive my dear friend forward (no pressure, Frith). Plus! Did I mention it’s pretty good stuff?

See: quitting vs giving up for example.

3. ANDRE THE GIANT

Some of you know him as a fearsome WWF/E wrestler. Most of you should know him as the friendly giant Fezzik from The Princess Bride. A handful of you might even recognise him from the piece of graffiti / pop culture known simply as ‘OBEY‘.

However you know him, André Roussimoff, aka André the Giant, was a true wonder of the world. Earlier this week I happened across an article that was part of an ongoing serious known as Camera Obscura. The objective of which is to take a deep dive into a famous photograph that is seemingly ‘inexplicable’.

The photo in question for this article?

This one – of Roussimoff’s maw clutching a beer can.

It’s a wonderful photo.

What’s more, the story behind it is truly quite lovely.

It begins:

There are 42 half- or full-page ads in the December 21, 1981 issue of Sports Illustrated, and 29 of them are for alcohol or cigarettes. But that two page photo spread featuring what appears to be a new miniature version of the Molson beer can? It’s not an ad at all. It’s the opening image to an amazing story about one of the largest characters the world has ever known: André Roussimoff, aka André the Giant.

This small glance into the life of one of the world’s largest men is a great read and is probably my favourite thing of the week.

Go read.

4. PENNY FOR YOUR THOUGHTS

On the hunt for a New Year’s Resolution? Try this.

Go on.

I dare you.

5. ZEITGEIST 2015

You can always rely on Hype Machine for an epic end of year round up and their Zeitgeist playlists once more do not disappoint.

___________

Bonuses this week are as follows:

• Support your local girl gang.
• Movies to look forward to in 2016.
• The book about how Dr Sue Black saved Bletchley Park is out now (expect more on this from me, soon).
• I can’t remember if I shared this when it came out and to be honest, the signal is so bad on these roads I can’t actually check (don’t worry, I’m not driving). Point being: check out these stunning unreleased movie posters. The SKYFALL one is just beautiful.
• LCD Sound System gone and done a Christmas song.

And that my friends, is that.

The last Five things on Friday of 2015.

I hope you enjoyed both this edition and the rest of interesting things I threw your way throughout 2015. Feel free to send feedback via the usual channels.

Replying to this, tweeting me, whatever.

Y’know what – just have a nice Christmas and sincerely, the hugest of well wishes for the year ahead.

Great things are coming.

I promise.

. .

Whatley out.

Things of note for the week ending Friday December 18th, 2015.

One week ’til Christmas.

1. DIGITAL TRENDS FOR 2016

The first time we did it, it was so successful that we joked that we were probably already on the hook to do it again the following year.

The second time we did it, we half-joked that we’d probably made a yearly rod for our backs.

This time around, our third in the series, we just got our hands dirty and got the darn thing completed via late night emails, corridor conversations, and the occasional early morning breakfast meeting.

And so, with a decent support team (special thanks to Leo and Ed), Marshall and I cracked it.

The deck is available on Slideshare [for viewing, sharing, and downloading] and comprises of three main sections:

Section 1: a review of our trend predictions from the previous year (eg: did we actually get anything right last time)
Section 2: our key digital trend predictions for 2016 (the good stuff)
Section 3: a few bonus things (that we’re still noodling on and may have more throughout 2016)

It’s about 80 slides (but that’s mainly because of the slide builds) and it’s fairly digestable. 12,000 people have read it since it went live on Wednesday, so why not go make it 12,001 and see what you’re missing out on.

—

2. MOVIES
It’s Christmas for movie people – not least of all because OH MY ACTUAL GOD I’M GOING TO SEE ACTUAL NEW STAR WARS TONIGHT WAAAAAAGH (sorry / not sorry) – but also because all the trailers came out this week.

Ready for this? 

• Bryan Singer is completing the ‘First Class Trilogy’ with X-MEN: APOCALYPSE. Trailer makes it look a bit silly but screw it, the rest of [these versions] have been awesome, so I am IN LIKE FLYNN.
  [watch the trailer]
• Haters gonna hate but the new trailer for STAR TREK BEYOND looks IMMENSE and I will be seeing this one big and loud at the IMAX when it hits later next year.
  [watch the trailer]
• Missing the world of Harry Potter? It’s barely a teaser but we’ve had a first glimpse at FANTASTIC BEASTS AND WHERE TO FIND THEM this week and, it has to be said, I got shivers.
  [watch the trailer]
• This one came out of nowhere. HIGH-RISE. I will say no more. Just watch the stunning trailer and then count the days until March.
  [watch the trailer]
• What else? Well, howsabout HOUSE OF CARDS S4: #FU2016. Love it.
  [watch the trailer (if you can call it that)]
• And finally, INDEPENDENCE DAY: RESURGENCE is one you should all look at too. Yeah, it’s been ages since the original but what the hell, I’m a sucker for a good switch-your-brain-off actioner.
  [watch the trailer]

Much to look forward for next year (and tonight too – did I mention I’m seeing STAR WARS later?) – YES.

Right, where were we?

3. FEMINISM IN 2015

God this makes some sombre reading. One could argue that we’ve come so far in the realms of equality but when you read this, you’d be forgiven for thinking we’d been going in reverse.

Read this and remind yourselves just how many times people just GOT IT WRONG on so many levels throughout 2015. Go on, I dare you.

Oh, and if you ever see something resembling anything even barely close to any of this: CALL. IT. OUT.

Thanks.

PS. Who you gonna call?

4. TRANSPORT IN MESSENGER

Game changer? Possibly the start of one.

So this is only in testing phase in some parts of the United States but the whole FACEBOOK MESSENGER WILL EAT YOUR LIVES thing (see Thing 4, here) is slowly coming to pass (and do please expect more of this in 2016).

In short: if you’re in the test group, you can type an address in Messenger, tap that address to see an Uber quote, then book said Uber to that address, and then track /travel etc… all without leaving Messenger.

Astonishing.

We live in interesting times, my friends.

Ps. There’s a video too.

5. GETTING A CONSOLE THIS CHRISTMAS?

If you’re buying one for yourself or for someone else this Christmas, of if you know someone buying one for themselves or for someone else then please do pay attention to what I’m about to tell you:

If you’re gifting or getting any of the big three consoles this Christmas – aka: a PS4, an Xbox One, or a Wii U – I would 100% recommend OPENING THE BOX and installing all updates before wrapping it up / opening it on Christmas Day.

Here’s why:

1. A LOT of people will be getting consoles at Christmas – the servers, for all of them, will be overloaded and it will take a LONG time to download 30GB+ of updates across each one.
2. Servers could even go down (last year, both Sony and Microsoft suffered attacks from hackers throughout the holiday period).
3. You will want your console to work RIGHT AWAY and not have to wait for many, many hours/days to get it up and running.

So please – if you’ve got a console under that tree, do this.

You’ll thank me on Christmas Day.

H/T Lifehacker.

Bonuses this week are:

• Christmas Party pain kicking in? Maybe you need a visit to the hangover clinic. And yes, if any of you have spent enough time with me you would’ve heard my pitch for a similar idea. This kind of gets most of the way but not completely in line with my overall vision for a hangover shop but hey, there’s still time.
• The first annual ‘Comedy Wildlife Awards’ came out this week and they are ALL amazing. Go, laugh, and enjoy.
• JackFA80 is new to Instagram but he’s one of the most respected mens’ style voices in the agency. Do me a favour and go follow him – he’s going places.

___________________________

And that, ladies and gents, is that. My hangover from last night’s Christmas party is kicking in so, for now at least…

Whatley out, x

PS. Got feedback? Reply, tweet, or comment. I’d love to hear from you.

Things of note for the week ending December 11th, 2015.

Today, at the time of writing, is Friday.

Aren’t Fridays are amazing?

1. [PUT IT IN YOUR] POCKET.

OK, so I don’t actually use this product* but after reading about this latest update, I’m kinda tempted to start. If you’ve not used it before, the iOS and Android app known as Pocket is a read it later service that lets you save stuff for reading… you guessed it… later.

But this is not news.

(if it is – yay! I’ve just changed your life for the better! (But for reals, this app/service has been around for time))

The NEWsworthy part of why I’m telling you about this is that Pocket has just rolled out a brand new feature that everso reminds me of the halcyon days of GOOGLE READER (remember those?) – check it:

Millions of people – including your friends, tastemakers, and the writers and editors behind the stories you love – have already been using Pocket to curate the best, most interesting stories on the Web. And starting today, you can follow them to see what they’re publicly recommending as being worthy of your time and attention.

WHICH IS ACE.

If you’ll recall, the best thing about Google Reader was the fact that you could follow and subsequently be recommended articles from people you know/love/enjoy and basically swim in the amazing and curated content recommendations from the smart people in your life.

And now Pocket does that too.

I might give it a whirl.

You should too.

2. NASA: APOLLO

Oh my God this is so achingly beautiful is probably my most favourite this week.

This short film (3mins) is made up entirely from photographs taken the Project Apollo Archive and is worth your time right now.

Just watch it.

3. IAN MCKELLAN BEING AWESOME

This thing was found via the rather wonderful Mental Floss (check it out – if you fancy losing HOURS of your life). Basically, it’s Sir Ian McKellan being fantastic (in the year I was born, no less) and giving an ‘in studio masterclass’ on how brought one of Macbeth’s soliloquies most famous to life.

Got 12mins? Go watch.

Honestly, it’s wonderful.

4. SPOTIFY YEAR IN REVIEW

Your year in review.

Done it yet? YOU SHOULD.

Wanna know mine? YOU DO? OK!

Track one for 2015?

Great song.

Speaking of great songs.

Most streamed track

Such a good album.

Also, these are my most listened to genres this year –

Like what? INDIETRONICA?! How is that a even a thing?!

Well, it is.

And there’s a cracking playlist too!

Now go do yours.

Off you pop.

5. DARK STAR LOVE

The wonderful people at Dark Star sent me a box of alcohol yesterday (just in time for the [first] Ogilvy Christmas part – amazing). You’ve all learnt this by now, right? Send me FREE STUFF and the chances are it’ll appear on this newsletter/mailshot/post thing.

LOOK!

A lovely pale ale and yes, that’s right, a CRÈME BRÛLÉE flavoured beer as well. It’s insanely good. Admittedly the feedback was varied but still – I liked it.

THANKS DARK STAR.

(all of you must now go buy / drink some – etc)

Abi Titmuss everybody!

_________________

Bonuses this week are thus:

• Ode to the death of the video store.
• Trumpets
• This video of skydivers surviving a plane collision is old but still incredible.
• Pablo is useful.
• I’m reading this right now.

OK, and we’re done.

But for real guys – IT’S THE WEEKEND!

YES!

Until next time,

Whatley out.

Things of note for the week ending Friday December 4th, 2015.

Oh, hi December.

Shall we?

1. DEATH BY HYPERBOLE

I am – would you believe – a fan of the understatement. That said, I am also achingly guilty of a number of things laid out in this wonderfully on point article from the NYT.

It begins –

“The text exchange was unspectacular: a friend explaining a video that had been posted by a classmate to his Snapchat feed. Jordana Narin, my 20-year-old research assistant, was half paying attention, sitting in my living room working on a project, texting between breaks.

“Omg literally dying,” she typed back, not missing a beat. She turned back to her computer.

But Jordana wasn’t literally dying. She wasn’t figuratively dying, either. In fact, she didn’t even crack a smile.

“I don’t even know what she’s talking about,” she told me when I asked. “I want to be like, ‘I don’t care.’”

But instead, she typed what to some may seem like the most dramatic response imaginable. Except that it wasn’t.”

The whole thing is so good, I can’t even.

Read it.

2. BIGGEST NEWS THIS WEEK?

This is up there with NASA saying they found water on Mars. In a week where the Zuck announces a 99% giveaway of his really-actually-quite-well-hard-earned wonga to [mainly] charitable organisations – ‘philanthropic, public advocacy, and other activities for the public good’ – you could almost be forgiven for missing this other huge and potentially world-changing investment…

From this guy (and his pals).

3. WINTER IS COMING HERE

No, this isn’t about Game of Thrones (but hey, six months to go [oh, and if you know where to look – the first trailer just dropped – woop! – but this isn’t about that]!) this is for those of you suffering with a blocked up nose or cold right now (like me, last weekend).

Here’s a one minute video featuring two handy tips on how to clear a blocked up nose INSTANTLY.

The first one is super weird and makes you feel like a nincompoop but it 100% works – legit.

It’s actual magic.

4. BATMAN V SUPERMAN

The first full trailer for this quasi-sequel to Man of Steel dropped a couple of days ago. It pretty much gives away almost the entire plot and also the big bad (which hitherto had only been rumoured).

So if you’re up for and want to know nothing: avoid it.

But if you don’t care and fancy it, it’s here.

5. #DANCEMBER

This is my favourite thing this week.

Lee and Luke are back. What was once known as ‘The Art of Dancing’ has mutated into #Dancember. It’s still two amazing men dancing in the best possible way to some of the greatest music ever made but this time it’s for charity.

It is the best advent calendar I’ve ever seen.

And it will be your favourite too.

Go see.

______

 

Bonuses this week are a variety of articles that have been open in my tabs as the days ticked by; here they are for your enjoyment –

• The Decay of Twitter – one of the better ‘This is why Twitter might not be growing anymore’ articles I’ve read of late. H/T to Mike Butcher for that one – W_W
• The Last Message Received collects last messages received ex-friends, lovely, deceased relatives… and is the saddest / most poignant Tumblr I’ve read in a while.
• Thanks, Advertising – brilliantly written and expertly put; on point
• Heavy but powerful use of Twitter Moments – via Matt Muir
• Fairly big Facebook news.
• The prettiest US National Parks this Winter – 20 of them

And that’s this week’s Five things on Friday.

Y’all have a good weekend.

Whatley out.

 

Things of note for the week ending Friday November 27th, 2015.

1. INTERESTING SOCIAL MEDIA THINGS

May as well get this out of the way first. Nothing major / particularly newsworthy but a few interesting developments across a couple of the main platforms nonetheless.

Instant articles launched on Facebook last month and you may have already seen them appear in-feed. You can tell them apart from standard articles because they have a little lightning symbol on the top right of the image.

Like this:

If you see that little icon, that article will load SUPER QUICKLY (one might say ‘lightning fast’ – you can see what they did there, right?) – so yeah, keep an eye out for those, friends.

While we’re on the Facebook thing, something else it did last month was open up its search functionality to all TWO TRILLION posts.

And that’s kinda awesome. What’s also awesome is that Facebook has also decided to push this on you to let you know it’s there. Like this:

So that’s cool, right?

I mentioned a while ago that Facebook would need to start taking search seriously and, by the looks of things, it finally is. Next stop: indexing the web, right? Oh wait.

While we’re on the subject of social platforms doing new and exciting things – I spotted this on Twitter this past week and thought it too was worth sharing.

I’ve edited out the potential #WalkingDead spoiler but the key thing you’re looking at is the part in the blue circle:

‘Well hello there algorithmic content-serving suggestion, how the hell are you doing? I say old bean, someone’s used a jolly popular hashtag and wouldn’t be it just be super of us if we directed the people out there to other similar content related to aforementioned conversation anchor? Then let’s!’

You click on that button and you get this:

Pretty snazzy.

As Twitter continues to try and prove its waning relevance, media partnerships (?) and content curation in this manner will only increase.

Something to keep an eye on.

Shall we move on?

2. HERE ARE SOME BATMAN THINGS

James Whatley in ‘writing about Batman’ shocker. Yes, yes – I know. Back in your box. Anyway. Two things of note here – both around the same subject.

Frank Miller, much loved/maligned comic book author, returned to the series that perhaps he is best known for: Batman: The Dark Knight Returns (if you haven’t read it, please fix that – immediately) with the third book in the [now] trilogy: The Dark Knight III: Master Race (Dark Knight II: the Dark Knight strikes again is a sore point, we don’t talk about it).

Master Race came out this week and as a result there is much lovely Batmanny things out there for me to share with you.

First off, let’s look at some art shall we?

Those lovely folk at iO9 collected the best of the variant covers for TDK:MR #1 and published them all in one place. Here’s a selection of my faves –

That first one is just beautiful.

There are more at the source so yeah, go check ’em out.

Oh, the other Batman thing I wanted to share with you was, if you’re that way inclined, a brief history Frank Miller’s Dark Knight. Worth a read.

3. FILM STUFF FOR YOU

Three things here. Two trailers and one film recommendation. If you’ve been living under a rock you may well have missed the release of the next big MARVEL feature: CAPTAIN AMERICA: CIVIL WAR.

Yes, of course I am excited.

Watch the Trailer.

The other trailer that you should watch this week is for a film called The Big Short.

From the author behind The Blind Side and Moneyball, and starring Christian Bale, Ryan Gosling, Steve Carrell, and Brad Pitt – this looks really good.

Watch the trailer.

Finally, watching that last trailer reminded me of another, similar film covering the bank scandal – Margin Call. Kevin Spacey, Demi Moore, Stanley Tucci… ach, it’s such a good film.

Seek it out this weekend.

4. A TUMBLR OF CINEMAGRAPHS

Where you can find such beauties such as:

And…

Wonderful!

Off you pop then.

5. POSTURE

It’s important. If you’re worried about your own, then maybe you should fix that.

____________________

Bonuses this week are as follows

• Did you see the Breathless Choir? (you might cry)
• Sia has a new song out.
• Tyler Cowan has listed his films of 2015.
• Best stocking filler I’ve seen yet.

Thanks for reading and have a great weekend.

Oh, and thanks for all the lovely birthday messages too.

You’re a lovely lot.

Whatley out.

Things of note for the week ending Friday November 20th, 2015.

1. STALE NEWS WARNING

In this rather volatile news climate that we live in it can be quite commonplace to see an old (read: out of date) ‘news’ article doing the rounds on the old Book of Faces / Twitterz.

There you are, thumbing your feed on a Saturday morning and some numbskull is tattling on about how issue X shouldn’t be blamed on minority Z and you’re getting all irate about it but then you realise that the article is over nine years old.

And you feel like a fool.

…

..

.

Well, feel foolish no more my friend!

The Stale News Warning Chrome Plug-in is here!

Currently supporting BBC News, CNN, Daily Mail, The Guardian, HuffPo, The Independent and MANY MORE, this plug-in saves you from tomorrow’s social media embarrassment, today.

Go get it!

Oh and it was built by my friend Denny.

Altogether now…

Next!

2. FACEBOOK IMMERSIVE ADS
The news is of their existence is not news (well, it won’t be for many of you) as it was first reported back in September. They look (and work) a little bit like this:

So while isn’t THE LATEST THING EVER (oh hello there, clever call back to Thing Number One), what is news is that these ad units will [probably] roll out formally in early Q1 next year.

OoooooOooooo…

So if you’re looking for a shiny/innovation thing to wave at your client/boss over the coming weeks, wave this and lay back and let the plaudits wash all over your your lovely face.

Mmmmm.

3. MY NEW FAVOURITE BLOG

For reasons that I shan’t go in to here, I spent my Monday night (11pm – 7am) at St Mary’s Hospital. While awaiting for one of many AMAZING AND BRILLIANT NHS employees to attend to the matter at hand, I happened across THIS outstanding weblog.

Entitled simply: ‘David Fincher Doesn’t Give A F***’ this tumblr, amongst other things, has pulled in myriad examples of when famous film director, David Fincher, has expressed the very small (read zero) amount of F***s he gives.

It is a thing of wonder.

Exhibit a)

(and this is one of the poorer ones)

If, like me, you’re a fan of Fincher, you will love this blog. It is by far and away my Five Things Find of the Week.

4. MARK ZUCKERBERG’S FACEBOOK PROFILE

No, not that one (although that was an amazing joke, right) THIS one, in Fast Company.

Covering Mr Zuckerberg and his vision for Facebook and its future, this is an excellent profile piece. Go read it. Even for killer stuff like this:

The Facebook of today—and tomorrow—is far more expansive than it was just a few years ago. It’s easy to forget that when the company filed to go public on February 1, 2012, it was just a single website and an app that the experts weren’t sure could ever be profitable. Now, “a billion and a half people use the main, core Facebook service, and that’s growing. But 900 million people use WhatsApp, and that’s an important part of the whole ecosystem now,” Zuckerberg says. “Four hundred million people useInstagram, 700 million people use Messen­ger, and 700 million people use Groups. Increasingly, we’re just going to go more and more in this direction.”

Staggering.

5. INTERESTING FRIENDS

Terence Eden is an interesting man. His blog is recommended reading generally but this latest post form him captures what he’s been getting up to throughout 2015.

Alright I get a name-check, but it’s a mere nod – I assure you. If you like interesting things and you like interesting people well then, you’ll probably like this interesting write up of Terence’s interesting year.

Try it.

_______

Bonuses this week are all interesting reads in their own right.

Go swim.

• Demographic cleansing.
• Creative Director and a mother?! NO WAY.
• Have Mad Men lost the plot?
• The New Intimacy Economy.
• Belgium is a failed state.

Bonus bonus thing: getting a cab this weekend and have never used Uber? Here’s a tenner off your first ride.

Ps. It’s my birthday tomorrow and, aside from showering me in champers and chocolate, it’d make me super happy if you shared this latest edition of FTOF all over the place.

Whatley out, x

__

Things of note for the week ending Friday November 13th, 2015.

It’s me! There I am! Writing Five Things!

Holy bananas, it’s Five things on Friday issue #150.

That’s 150 times I’ve pulled together five of the most interesting things I’ve seen/found online (and off )over the past few years. Every week (not always on a Friday), but every week nonetheless.

Not bad!

Hurrah for arbitrary numbers and celebrations therein.

Enough silliness, shall we dive in?

BUMPER 150th EDITION SPECIAL!

1. NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC PHOTO CONTEST
No edition of Five things on Friday (which, by the way, go through a minor change/facelift in the New Year – I’ve literally just decided so, y’know, expect more on that… next year) would be complete without a link to a fairly awesome/substantial photo album now would it?

Which is handy, because National Geographic is currently underway (entries must be in by Monday, in case you’re considering entering) and the submissions thus far are, of course, outstanding.

Have a squizz at these few…

And then please do go and check out the rest, they are stunning – all of them.

2. A HUG MACHINE – WHAT?
Thanks to Sizemore for this late entry in at Thing Number Two this week. Some bright spark in Finland has made this wooden hug machine:

According to my very poor Finnish:

“The viewer must trust the construction and lean on it, then he/she is able to reach the handles. The viewer can turn these handles as if he/she would be hugging someone. The mechanism will in turn hug the viewer in the same way with the mechanical arms which have three turning points. Instructional video is included. In the video people try the work for the first time.”

Suitably bonkers.

More.

3. NO, YOU’RE A FALL STREAK HOLE
I had no idea these things existed.

This, ladies and gents, is a fall streak hole.

Check it:

Right?!

This one appeared over Australia just last week.

Wanna know how?

Of course you do.

4. MOBILES ARE PCS
The super smart Ben Evans is back again, this time talking about how mobiles and ecosystems have effectively ‘killed’ the era of the PC.

This chart is somewhat meaningless without the context (you can read Ben’s post here) and one could argue (as my podcasting colleague Stefan Constantinescu did on last week’s episode) that Ben is just trundling out the same old ‘mobile is eating the universe’ stuff as per, however, whatever your opinion aside, it is utterly compelling and expertly written.

This is my recommended read of the week.

5. THE IMPORTANCE OF [PRACTICING] HEARTBREAK
This is a beautiful read.

Carsie Blanton, author of the weblog ‘thoughts on love, sex, music and ferocity’ (love that), put together some words on the importance of practicing heartbreak.

And I adore it.

The whole thing is endlessly quotable but…

This:

When we love somebody, even casually or briefly, we give them the power to hurt us. Falling in love with someone means looking them in the eye, handing over your guileless, muffiny heart, and saying, “do your worst”. We do this because some part of us, despite our best attempts at logic, trusts them. I’d argue that we don’t trust our beloved notto hurt us; we trust them to hurt us in a way that we need to be hurt. Our hearts may strike us as foolish, illogical, and idiotic (heck, I dedicated a whole album to the subject), but they are geniuses at one thing: they know exactly what will make us grow, and they have no qualms about yanking us towards it.

And this?

When we practice heartbreak, we get better at it. We gain confidence in our own ability to hurt and heal, which gives us the courage to stride into the world, with all its disappointment and cruelty and unsavory characters, and embrace it joyfully. We broaden our emotional horizons – venturing a little further into the dark, cobwebby corners of our souls, feeling things we’ve never felt before, expanding our understanding of ourselves and other people. When our hearts break, they break us open.

All utterly mesmerising.

I doubt there are many of you out there who have gone without some form of heartbreak in your lives. I myself have been through the gut-wrenching heart-smashing, soul-crumpling numbness of heartbreak more times than I care to mention.

It is everything.

It is endless.

But you grow.

And above all, at the end, you realise it was worth it.

Shalom.

_______________

Bonuses this week are many:

• The best ‘overheard on a plane’ story this week.
• Do you [secretly] like porn on Instagram? Yeah, we can see (I mean, there’s no problem with that just, y’know, be aware that people can you see you doing it).
• #SquadGoals? No thanks.  
• Phone dead on your commute? Try this.
• Interesting (but not really legal – yet).

AND FINALLY…

I know I bang on about Shaken Cocktails from time to time (transparency: I am a minor investor) but I thought it’d be worth pointing out to you lovely lot that, if you missed out the first time, there is another investment round open right now.

Not heard of Shaken Cocktails?

Go read!

(also: £5 off your first box thanks to yours truly)

Anyway, now you’re all read up: with an abundance of success stories already behind them (and many more ahead) this investment round is definitely something to check out.

AND [actually] FINALLY.

 

Thank you all so much for reading.

150 editions is pretty darn awesome.

Which means, by association, you are too.

I love you, all of you.

James, x

 

Things of note for the week ending November 6th, 2015.

Hey there everybody and HAPPY FRIDAY to you. It’s been a lovely old week, hasn’t it? The weather turned, the fires burned, and the Internet (and Canada) learned some more.

But that’s not why you’re here. You’re here for FIVE THINGS ON FRIDAY.

So… here they are then.

1. PREACHER, WHAT?!

PREACHER is an incredible series. Those of you who have read it will know exactly what I’m talking about. Those of you who haven’t, well, either borrow it from someone or go out and buy book one immediately – you won’t regret it.

The reason this is a thing this week however is not just a simple book recommendation, oh no. AMC – the American cable channel behind amazing TV such as The Walking Dead – has commissioned a series based upon PREACHER and the first trailer for the show dropped this week.

(click image to view trailer, yo)

And it looks ACE.

Bring it.

2. WAIT, THEY KILLED GRANTLAND?!
The ‘they’ in this context is ESPN and Grantland, if you’re unaware, is/was a phenomenal sports and culture website that featured some of my favourite articles of recent history – many of which ended up in an edition of Five Things or three.

From Fincher, to Hartman, to the America’s Cup – Grantland was an EXCELLENT publication. To read about its demise, I suggest you head over to Deadspin for the 411.

However, if you’d rather not make yourself sad about the loss of such amazing writing, why not head over to The Grantland Archive where all of the goodness linked above (and more) is there ready and waiting for your consumption.

I can’t believe it’s over.

Gutted.

3. MICROSERF
For reasons I shan’t go into, this passage speaks to me…

The image itself I nabbed from the Instagram channel of one Rishi Dastidar – aka, Betarish. A talented and kind individual who, where asked when said quote was taken, not only updated the post with the title but then also sought out, purchased, and subsequently sent me a copy to read myself.

Sir, you are a gent.

Friends, the book is known as ‘Microserfs‘, it is beside me as I type – and I recommend it to all of you.

Go get.

4. SOME FILM STUFF
Every time I thought I had the fourth thing cracked this week something else came along and nudged it over. So here, in thing four of this week’s five things, I present to you several things that all come under the fairly rough banner of ‘film stuff’.

First up is a trailer for Charlie Kaufman’s latest ‘Anomalisa‘ – aka ‘The most human film of the year that doesn’t star a single human’.

(click image to view trailer, yo)

Next up, we have this rather snazzy compilation from those wonderful folk at Screenrant regarding MOVIES THAT STOLE FOOTAGE FROM OTHER FILMS.

For example:

Amazing, right? I mean, it’s just so blatant.

Full video available here [4mins].

And finally, while not strictly a film thing it is an interesting film. This next video is of two daredevils (read: crazies with balls of steel) flying jet wings next to and around an Emirates A380 airliner.

That’s right, the smallest human flight and the largest – next to each other.

I mean, it’s not like that plane has got jet intakes or anything, right?

Oh.

Wait.

Fine.

Whatever.

This one is definitely this week’s must watch.

And now, after all that, we come to…

5. BIGGER ISSUES
CALM, in partnership with LYNX, launched its ‘BIGGER ISSUES’ campaign this week and you can get help raise awareness to this cause quite easily by simply going to the BIGGER ISSUES website and signing up to the impending Thunderclap…

But wait, what is CALM and what are BIGGER ISSUES?

Take a look:

As the website says, people are talking about the wrong things. There are BIGGER ISSUES at play here.

You can help.

Bonuses this week are things that you should know by now but if not here it is anyway just in case:

• Stars are now Hearts on Twitter. Don’t like it? There’s a plug in for that.
• Facebook had its earnings call (big numbers here).
• I’d love to go to MARS one day but I’ve heard it’s rubbish as there’s just no atmosphere. Turns out there used to be. Who knew?!

Whatley out.

 

Ps. FTOF #150 next week. EXCITING.

Things of note for the week ending Friday October 30th, 2015.

Halloween tomorrow, innit.

1. 35 BEST REUTERS PHOTOS SO FAR THIS YEAR
Reuters is amazing. Full stop. Business Insider thinks so too. That’s why they’ve pulled together a list of the 35 best photos from Reuters so far this year.

Here’s one to get you in –

The rest are simply breathtaking.

Powerful.

Arresting.

Moving.

Go.

2. UNDER PRESSURE
A few things here. First off, UNDER PRESSURE is an amazing song. AMAZING. Go and listen to it right now in fact.

Second off, I had no idea of how this whole thing came together.

In the summer of 1981, the British band Queen was recording tracks for their tenth studio album, Hot Space, at Mountain Studios in Montreux, Switzerland. As it happened, David Bowie had scheduled time at the same studio to record the title song for the movie Cat People. Before long, Bowie stopped by the Queen sessions and joined in. The original idea was that he would add backup vocals on the song “Cool Cat.” “David came in one night and we were playing other people’s songs for fun, just jamming,” says Queen drummer Roger Taylor in Mark Blake’s book Is This the Real Life?: The Untold Story of Freddie Mercury and Queen. “In the end, David said, ‘This is stupid, why don’t we just write one?’”

Amazing.

More (including a stripped down isolated vocal track from both Bowie and Mercury) here.

(there’s a lot to see/read and it’s probably the best thing on the list this week)

3. SOME RANDOM DARK KNIGHT STUFF
This is potentially quite old but I only found it recently and just really, really liked it. If you’ve ever read any interviews with Tom Hardy about his experiences on TDKR then you’ll know how true this whole thing sounds…

4. NEED A FRIDAY MIXTAPE?

Friday Mixtape has the [often very awesome] solution.

5. HAPPY HALLOWEEN

Yes, this is all my own work (studied a year in stage make up in my teens). It’s relatively simple to do BUT if you’re yet to sort your costume, get yourself to Charles H. Fox in London’s Covent Garden. If you’re need of a make up job, they’ll sort you right out.

WOOP WOOP

________

Bonuses this week are as follows:

• Leaves.
• 3D Touch on Android (kinda).
• The best EMA write up you’ll read.

—

Oh, and sorry it’s late, I genuinely had publishing issues.

Enjoy the weekend, wherever you are in the world.

Whatley out x