Tag: 5things

Five things on Friday #44

Things of note for the week ending November 2nd, 2012

Wolverine Poster

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.

If you want to know more about The Wolverine, I’d suggest you go and watch this video (featuring my friend Ryan, and posted by my friend Rob – the guys I mentioned I last week), which features an interview with both the film’s lead and director.

2. Taste the rain

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.

via

3. Halloween!

Beetlejuice + Grandmama

Any excuse for dress up, right?

Two parties, one costume.

Epic times.

4. Muse are hilarious
This is old, but I don’t care. I liked it. Apparently, Muse don’t like to mime.

Brilliant.

5. Rob’s THINGS
This week I (re)discovered the blog of Rob Hinchcliffe. He does a similar thing to my Five Things but his is called ‘Inspiring and Interesting Things This Week‘ or ‘I.I.T.T.W.‘ (catchy, I know). If you’re after a source of interestingness (hey, that might a reason you’re reading this post right now), then I recommend you go have a look.

Seriously, without it I wouldn’t have discovered the by far away best thing I’ve read all week which was this fantastic three page long interview with the master magician Teller (one half of Penn & Teller).

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Bonuses this week; apparently psychopaths are more attractive than the rest of us (this explains a LOT); all the 2screen reports you’ll ever need (big love to The Guardian for that one); and this piece from Warren Ellis is a damn good read too. 

 

Whatley out.

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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!

Five things on Friday #43

Things of note for the week ending October 26th, 2012

1. Worlds above the clouds
The above image is taken from a gorgeous photoset entitled ‘Magical Worlds Exist Just Above the Clouds’. And the whole set made me smile. So I hope you like it.

2. Batman 16
I’m behind a bit on Batman at the moment, but it has to be said – this latest cover is CREEPY AS HELL, and hella awesome for it.

via

3. Piano
Bonus friend action this week with a surprise visit by two buddies from overseas, Rob Keyes from Screenrant and Ryan Penagos from Marvel. They were over doing some TOP SECRET reporting on [REDACTED] and I went and met them (and Ryan’s awesome colleague Marc) for a good few beers at the end of their day.

Our destination? Piano.

Man I forgot how good that place is. You should go.

4. The Lumia 920 on AT&T
I really really like this ad. Not because it’s AT&T and not really because it’s the first TVC for the Nokia 920 either. I just think, for a 30 second spot, it tells a story of our time in an excellent fashion. So, yeah –

5. The London Transmedia Fest 2012
Anyone following me on Twitter on Friday would’ve seen a whole bunch of tweets using the #LTF2012 hashtag. Well, the London Transmedia Fest 2012 was the reason why. Some highlights –

And finally, my favourite speaker of the day was Pat Cadigan. Pat told a wonderful story about how the times in her life when she had nearly died. It was brilliant, captivating and just… delightful.

Favourite quote?

“Children are magical… Where do all the mediocre adults come from?”

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Bonuses this week comes in the form of just a bunch of other stuff I’m reading –

– I really enjoyed this Louis CK / SNL article

– The wrong election date is on some Spanish-language voting forms

– Ghostbusters 3 has finally been given the green light, here’s the timeline

– Italy’s most famous drowned town (is there a top ten?)

– What is Drop 7?

– a breathtaking poem, ‘Sheep‘

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Whatley out.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Five things on Friday #42

Things of note for the week ending October 19th, 2012

1. Antartica like you’ve never seen it before
This is the story of a LocalWiki project named ‘Open Antarctica‘. Yes that’s right, not only is there internet in Antarctica but there’s also a LocalWiki project too! It’s a great story and some of the photography is just stunning. Go check it out.

2. I share my body with 20 personalities
This is incredible.

‘The meetings came and went very quickly, like so much of my life. I was sure Valerie said she worked in fifty-minute blocks, but I barely seemed to arrive before I was home again. The conversations while I was there seemed the weird end of bizarre, as well. I didn’t really know what the therapists’ agenda was, but I quickly got the feeling they were trying to nudge me down a particular path. I couldn’t put my finger on it, so one day Valerie came out and said it.

According to her I shared my body with dozens of other people.’

AND

“No, it’s not like that,” Dr Hale said. “You are not here all the time. Other people take control of your body. They have their own separate lives, just as you do.”
–
Ridiculous as it all sounded, I couldn’t help asking questions.
–
“So where do I go then?”
–
He shrugged. “It’s as if you go to sleep.”
–
“Why don’t I fall over then?”
–
“Because someone else is awake and keeping the body going.”

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The above is taken from an excerpt from ‘All of Me‘ published on The Atlantic earlier this week. I read it, cried a little, then I bought the book.

I reckon you’ll do the same.

3. Best Skyfall tie up yet?
This, from Coke Zero, is kind of awesome

Nice.

4. New Global Pages on Facebook
This is a bit work-based, so if you’re not in the industry you might want to skip straight to number five. However, if you are and you want to know what Facebook are doing to help brands with global and local presences, then AnalogFolk have a decent breakdown.

5. Bodyform
You’ve probably been on some kind of media blackout if you haven’t seen the Bodyform Responds video yet, and while the content is quite brilliant, the conversations that have spun out afterward are considerably much more interesting. From the creative minds of Carat and Rubber Republic it’s been seen as brilliance by some, unauthentic by others and – in some corners – the first proof of the fallacy of social media.

How do you feel about it? Is it just a bit of fun and a fairly tongue-in-cheek response to a comedy video?
Or is it just another salty mess in the never-ending daisy chain of advertising?

You tell me.

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Bonuses this week are a bunch of videos that people have sent me; James Cordon, being funny for Sight Savers; the Duracell bunny made out of recycled batteries and LEDs, made out of LEDs; and Coffee, made the small way.

Til next time.

 

Five things on Friday #41

Things of note for the week ending October 12th, 2012

Untitled

1. Awesome birdhouses
From the stylish to the down right scary, these incredible birdhouses have been made specifically to raise money for charity (which is doubly awesome). The whole set is quite fantastic and the one I’ve used above does nothing to illustrate how artistic the creators get…  it just really makes me laugh.

via

2. Blogger Engagement
A good piece of blogger engagement goes a long way. This is not news admittedly and there’s probably enough in this to warrant another blog post for another day (note to self: start this draft). But for now, let’s talk about some great pieces that have happened lately.

First, from the lovely chaps looking after social media for Tsingtao Beer. I’m not a huge Tsingtao drinker but, after some great banter with the aforementioned digital team – I know I’m going to order it next time I’m out for Chinese, certainly. I’m also going to vote* in the Tsingtao Beer ‘Legacy of Taste‘ competition, which is the search to find Britain’s favourite Chinese restaurant. You should vote too.

Second, Motorola announced their brand new Motorola RAZR i the other week and, in all fairness, I rarely take notice of anything Motorola do as I’ve never used any of their devices and it’s not a brand that’s ever interested me. However, after a delightful email from their representatives here in Europe, not only have I LIKED THEIR FACEBOOK PAGE but I’ve also mentioned the phone a couple of times on the podcast AND I’m also looking forward to actually getting my hands on one and having a play.

That’s all down to decent blogger engagement.

Look, I know this all sounds incredibly pompous but I collect blogger engagement. When I was engagement director at the ‘heads I made it my job to constantly review with the way we engaged with different communities; I have given entire presentations (internally, of course) based around bad engagement copy. It’s a habit I’ve kept since leaving and well, blogger engagement done well should be applauded more often.

So, Christine at Edelman and Tom/Robbie at McCann, if you’re reading this – good work.

3. BMX Boy
This is four year old Malcolm, out BMX-ing/Mountain-biking with his dad. It’s nine minutes of smiling from ear to ear.

My dad and I used to go scrambling around tracks like that. I miss it.

4. The Mayor of Mars
The Mars Curiosity Rover is using Foursquare to track its progress across that reddest of planets and, just last week, it became the Mayor of the Gale Crater.

I love love love the way that the team at NASA are using social media tor drive interest around this most awesome of human exploratory missions. And big up to the Foursquare team who are helping them do just that. Well done.

5. Stupid stuff
My girlfriend sent me this during the week and for some reason it makes me crack up just looking at it/him –

I’m laughing right now. Hahahaha… the artist behind this masterpiece is one Natalie Dee.

Go seek her out.

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Bonuses this week: a 15min speech from the Australian Prime Minister labelling the leader of the opposition a hyprocritcal misogynist is absolutely fantastic (seriously, watch it); a blog post entitled ‘the most interesting underpants in London‘ really does live up to its name; and finally, this is probably the best volcano video you’ve ever seen – hit HD, make it full screen and ENJOY.

 

*If you’re interested, Royal China got my vote. 

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.

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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 #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…

 

 

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.

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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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Five things on Friday #37

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.

Go and give it a go –

*See Arcade Fire and British Airways

5. Solitary Peace

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.

‘Til next time…

 

Five things on Friday #36

Things of note for the week ending September 7th, 2012

1. Naked Beer
The above packaging design is a response to a stunningly simple question: why hide what good beer looks like? Well, Timur Salikhov decided that ‘Naked Beer’ should be the answer. I love this.

2. What’s up with The Avengers Boxset?

I had a proper moan about this last week —

//platform.twitter.com/widgets.jsHowever, all is not what it seems. While the UK does quite often get short shrift when it comes to the repackaging of DVD/Blu-Ray releases, this time around it seems that Marvel/Disney have come a cropper by not actually getting the case’s reproduction rights.

Turns out while Disney had permission to use the case in The Avengers, they do not have permission to create replicas. Damn. If you’ve pre-ordered this particular boxset, you may be waiting some time…

Update: Screenrant is reporting that this set is is going to be released next year but with a slightly different (and lawyer friendly) design.

3. Les Twins

4. Hansel & Gretel
It looks like B-Movie popcorn fodder of the highest caliber, but I don’t care. The pitch is quite cool and, as a result, I’m surprisingly up for this. Bring it on.

5. Skateboarding in the 60s
This set of photographs, capturing the pick up of the skateboard in the 60s, had me beaming from ear to ear.
Go check ’em out.

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Bonuses this week: Iain has a great idea on how to launch the new Nokia Lumia 920 PureView (inspired by yours truly); Jonathan MacDonald’s ‘Notes from the left field‘ really is quite the remarkable read; and The Next Web’s insight on how Samsung treats the bloggers on its blogger program is one hell of an eye-opener.

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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…