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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 –

Household screen average: 10 to every four people
By 2013 Red Bull will make a profit from their own advertising
Why would bloggers ever help out with a brand campaign? Answer
Content as a strategy (as opposed to a tactic)
How to assess content

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‘

—

Whatley out.

Five things on Friday #25

Things of note for the week ending June 22nd, 2012

1. Awesome girlfriend is awesome
I have a new Moleskine. It has Lego on it. It’s amazing. That is all.

2. Hakkasan
OH MY GOD OH MY GOD OH MY GOD. I ate at Hakkasan for the first time EVER this week and… OH. MY. GOD. the food is AMAZING. Melt in your mouth, gifted from heaven, purest of all Asian greatness – I literally can’t stop thinking about it.

Eat at Hakkasan. At once.

I could go into massive details about certain dishes, and what was so good about each one, or why one thing might be better than the other – but I won’t, as I am fairly sure everything on the menu is awesome. We didn’t have one bad dish (and we ate a lot). It’s not cheap. But dudes, spoil yourselves.

Best meal I’ve had all year. Fact.

(and how’s this for amazing service? The girl bought me a present – see item 1 – and, because I unwrapped it like an excited child over dinner – the staff thought it was my birthday AND THEN MADE ME A BIRTHDAY DESSERT. Just, fantastic).

3. Legoland Windsor

We went to Legoland last weekend (more girlfriend-based awesomeness) and hadÂ such a good time! From wet-rides to rollercoasters, to taking arty shots of awesome Lego displays (see above) and back again. Legoland is a proper giggle. Alright we had a small person with us, who we got to spoil with bricks and who kept us all smiling the whole day there, but still. It was a LOT of fun.

Oh, and there’s a Lego submarine too. Amazing.

4. Friends
The past seven days really have been so good. I’ve caught up with a lot of people whom I’ve missed a fair bit recently and this week, be it over email, drinks or dinner, my friends have made me roar with laughter, smile with joy and generally warm all the way through with stupid happiness.

Thanks guys, you know who you are – and you rock.

5. The Girl Who Would Be King
One of my newest blog finds, 1979 semi-finalist – aka, comic book geek, Kelly Thomson – is giving away the first part of her book ‘The Girl Who Would Be King‘.

Chapters one and two are available already and I’m ~~fairly sure three and four won’t be far behind~~ now reading parts three and four. It’s good. So read it.

–

Outdoorsy bonuses this week: work commitments meant I had to sell my Isle of Wight Festival ticket (booo!), but the washout looks mental, so there’s one upside. No Isle of Wight means I’m free to go to Royal Ascot this weekend. I’ve not been before, so it should be ace! Festival-wise, I’ve still got Nova to look forward which, weather depending, is looking like it’s going to be great too.

Different theme to this week’s five things.
There’ll be more cool stuff next week.

Whatley out.

For Trey

Do not go gentle into that good night,
Old age should burn and rave at close of day;
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

Though wise men at their end know dark is right,
Because their words had forked no lightning they
Do not go gentle into that good night.

Good men, the last wave by, crying how bright
Their frail deeds might have danced in a green bay,
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

Wild men who caught and sang the sun in flight,
And learn, too late, they grieved it on its way,
Do not go gentle into that good night.

Grave men, near death, who see with blinding sight
Blind eyes could blaze like meteors and be gay,
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

And you, my father, there on the sad height,
Curse, bless, me now with your fierce tears, I pray.
Do not go gentle into that good night.
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

– Dylan Thomas, 1951

RIP Trey Pennington. We miss you terribly.

Six months of travel

Not me. A chap named Jonathan.

[that’s Jonathan, over my left shoulder – don’t ask about the hats]

I met Jonathan first in Russia on my first night in Moscow back in April. He was halfway through a six month trip and had big plans. We ran into each other again in Mongolia and (along with a few others in our group) we discovered we pretty much had the same schedule ahead of us for the seven days or so [taking in camping out in the desert, catching the train to China and then hanging out in Beijing].

Anyway, I got back from my trip in May, Jonathan got back yesterday.
This post, entitled ‘HOME’ (and reposted with his permission) is what he’s just published and I actually love it.

Enjoy.

“Just finished unpacking my backpack for the last f***ing time because I am finally home in good old London. If ever there was a moment for a clichÃ©/gay/philosophical/Disney/boring (whichever) shout, surely now is the one time I can get away with one. So here goes (and then I promise I will shut up about all this and go back to drinking K and listening to s*** music).

A lot of people have asked me recently what Iâ€™ve learnt or found in the last 6 months living like a gypsy â€˜on the roadâ€™. Well, I havenâ€™t discovered the meaning of life, I havenâ€™t realised that the world is a beautiful place, I still donâ€™t understand religion and I still donâ€™t get the appeal of a tan. What I have found is a restored faith in the human race, pieced together by every individual that has gone out of their way to help me get so far. The couch-surfers around the world who put me up for a night or few, the drivers who gave me a ride when I was stood with my thumb up on the side of the road in the rain, the families that invited me to live with them and those that fed me despite being too poor to get a solid roof above their heads. The people that turned my map the right way round, the people who patiently tried to teach me a part of their language and culture, those that put up with my constant complaining everywhere I went, and everyone else who smiled at the pasty tourist far too far from home. Sure, there are a lot of dickheads in the world, but they are greatly outnumbered by amazing people.

The Cambodians have a saying â€˜when glass floatsâ€™ which means when evil prevails over good. Glass will never float. Thatâ€™s what Iâ€™ve learnt.

PEACE OUT YO.”

Peace out yo, have a great Monday.

Birthday Blog

Today is November 21st. My birthday.

Last year my other half laid on the best birthday experience ever; including all my friends, all my geekiness and nearly all of London’s Soho district.

It was fantastic.

This year has been – amazingly – even better. Friday night I was out with work for a huge, multi-celebratory knees up. Three birthdays, two leavers and one awesome award win meant that it was the perfect combination for getting the whole company out together. It’s a rarity for all of us to unwind like that and it was definitely well overdue for some of us. I guess I got home about 4ish maybe? But even then didn’t get to sleep until the very early hours (what with deciding to carry on partying with everyone at home way back in the vale). Brilliant.

Last night was my actual birthday party; friends old and new, a few work colleagues, best mates from home, some family (it’s my sister’s birthday today too) and it was one of the best nights out I’ve had this year.

A night of music from the 80s, filthy fairy cakes, beetlejuice-based hilarity, Marmite-flavoured chocolate… the list goes on.

Looking through my phone this morning there’s only a few photos to show off what a great night we all had (I’m sure others took many, many more), however I did find one video. One very special video.

Big love and thanks to Bryce & Camilla for today’s #vlomo10 entry. You guys rock… X

Serendipity

Running into friends always makes me smile…

My friend Will

This is William Rowe.

At the time of writing Will is somewhere near Kendal en route from John O’Groats all the way down to Lands End. If you’re not from the UK then you need to know that the route looks a little something like this –

According to Google Maps, this is just shy of 840miles. Say it with me: EIGHT HUNDRED AND FORTY MILES! Why is he doing this? For charity, of course (actually, knowing Will, he’s probably doing it for the sheer challenge of the thing too I’d imagine – he’s like that).

Believe it or not, it’s not his first time. Madness.

CLIC Sargent, the charity in question, supports and cares for young children with cancer. Will, along with around eight other equally mentally unbalanced cyclists, is hitting the road RIGHT NOW to help try and raise Â£20,000. You can read the full story (as well as keep up with their progress) on their dedicated Twycle website.

I’ve just sponsored them and you can too. If you’re not in the mood for giving, then perhaps you might want to follow their progress via the medium of Twitter – they are at the rather auspiciously named @twyclebritain.

Go on, go check them out and – if you want – why not sponsor them too?

Best of luck Will. To you and your fellow riders.

We’re cheering you on from afar! 🙂

For Rob

One key thing that was an amazing constant throughout the Lucozade Challenges was that no matter what far flung corner of the world we found ourselves in, we always had an awesome, local guide to train us and look after us.

For the last challenge, yacht-racing in the Caribbean, we had this guy, Rob Brinkworth.

An Englishman through and through, Rob took great pride in telling us about the Stars and Stripes yacht we were to race, he’d been looking after the boats themselves for years. In the short time we spent on St Maarten, Rob educated us all in the ways of the 12-metre challenge, he made us feel confident enough to handle this multi-million dollar winner of a vessel and at the same time made sure that we respected his word and his skill as a fine seafaring yachtsman.

A fantastic teacher, I remember Rob expressing to us at the end of the week how much he had really enjoyed coaching us all in the science behind sailing and reminisced about his days as an instructor educating school teachers on how to sail, preparing them for a Summer of PGL (a UK institution set up for children to take part in activity courses, such as sailing). He had rediscovered his love of sharing knowledge and, as we left St Maarten at the end of the week, I sensed that maybe there might be change in his future.

Sadly, Rob died last week.

Struck down by an aggressive illness, his life was cut short before he could put any such plans into action.

I heard the news late yesterday afternoon. Al, one of the winners from the challenge, had stayed in touch with Rob after we left. After he told me I immediately started trawling through my files… The following video is put together from all the footage I took while under his tutelage.

Rob, this is for you mate:

While waiting for the video to export, I checked through my notes to clarify a few dates and I found this entry, the last one I made before we left the Caribbean –

Moleskine entry: September 16th, 2009

Race Day

“Later at the bar that evening, Rob tells us that today’s race was kind of a big deal for him. The night before he had called a meeting between our crew, the opposing crew and the race judge. They all agreed that the race today would be ‘for real’.
You see they race these boats day in and day out and could’ve quite easily made some decisions (that wouldn’t have been obvious to us), that meant they would’ve handed us the race. Rob, having trained us all week and seen how we respected the skill and the effort that went into it, insisted that this would be the case.

He told the rest of the staff that the race was to be exactly that.
No fudging it for anyone.

“Throw everything you’ve got at us.” he told them “Try and thrash us. If you do, it’ll be their fault. If you don’t, well then.. they’re awesome. Either way, these guys will not appreciate being handed the race and will know if you do…”

Wow. What a guy. I for one am very glad he called it like that because, come the finish line, yes we came second – a very close second in fact. But boy did we earn it.”

Good luck Rob, wherever you are.
Your friends, old and new, remember you well.

Inspired by Spider Jerusalem

As most of you know, it was my birthday a couple of weeks ago and – amongst a whole host of other things – these arrived from my good friend Tarek…

– The first two books of Transmetropolitan, Woo! –

I started book one yesterday morning and had finished book two by the afternoon… There’s ten books in total, (eleven if you count Vol. Zero), and I am a fan.

There’s more to come on this – just as there’s more to come about my birthday – but I just wanted to share something with you that I read a few pages into ‘Lust for Life’…
(Transmetropolitan: Vol. 2).

In the image to the right, Spider – the er… ‘hero’ of said work, is talking to his new assistant. The reason he’s making this request of her?

Well, she wants to be a Journalist. Spider’s response to the question asked is:

“If you’re going to be a real journalist, you’re going to need to learn how to look.”

Upon the assistant’s return, Spider elaborates on this further…

This exchange, as I mentioned, comes quite early into book two… but upon reading it, I closed the pages together and stopped reading.

“You need to learn how to look…”

Over and over these words reverberated around my head and, as I was scheduled to be leaving the house within the minutes that followed, I decided that I would try and capture and/or record whatever I could. Observing that around me that I’d normally idly pass by.

Thing is, I thoroughly enjoy taking in the world around me most of the time and yet I’ve never really felt the urge to try and capture it, live and as it happens…

I walked out of my house this afternoon and set off to the train station. As soon as I stepped outside I started walking and I started talking… and – thanks to the wonders of SpinVox Memo*…

(*I speak in one end and an email pops out the other… and Yeah, I know I work there Dudes, but the service is actually bloody handy and the Memo part is FREE!)

This what I said/saw:

Walking out of my front door. The light is blinding, the air is cold and the trees are dark. The Sun is setting and yet still so bright. The ground is muddy. I can hear hammering in the distance and yet there is not a soul in sight. Two cars sprinkle the road like forgotten toys while a plane soars through the sky leaving a trail like a scar across deep blue skin. No clouds, not a single one. A couple of people appear but nothing to report. Life in constant transit. This is what I do…

It must be noted at this point that it’s not that I ever didn’t know how to look… it was more, as I said, never having the urge to capture it in actual words. The words spoken above aren’t about to win me any awards, nor are they ever going to. The point is; just reading one snippet from a comic book that a friend bought me for my birthday has changed how I now look at the world… if only slightly.

I’m going to start capturing more of what I see around me… and no doubt use whatever I end up with in future blog posts.

In the mean time however, I need to locate Transmetropolitan: Book 3.

ASAP.

🙂