WATCHING
Bad Education – I really enjoyed this. It’s a bit slow at the beginning, but one to stick with. Hugh Jackman is fantastic, playing a smooth, smiley, too good to be true school superintendent who has been embezzling money along with his colleague, Allison Janney, who’s also great, but definitely doesn’t inspire sympathy in the way Jackman does (for me anyway). It’s also an eye opener if you know nothing about the school system (like me).
The Fall Gillian Anderson is just great. The more it goes on the more it seems like a soap opera though, so maybe not brilliant but very binge-able.
Border – Weird, wonderful, with lots of ‘ick’ bits (including an other-worldly, quite disturbing sex scene) The story focuses on Tina, a woman who looks very different. She’s a customs officer who can literally sniff out the bad-uns. She sniffs out a man, that sort of looks like her, that she has a strong attraction to, and from here the film gets more fantastical, as Tina discovers who she really is. Trolls are part of Nordic folklore, so I imagine it’s not as surprising a story if you’re say, Swedish.
The Peanut Butter Falcon Super sweet and all the feels. Shia Labeouf is great.
Grey Gardens - BATSHIT. Found the story more interesting than the film
Synecdoche, New York – Although Philip Seymour Hoffman is obviously brilliant he still wasn’t enough for me to like this film.
READING
The last Web Curious
Winning the Internet A new newsletter containing most read links from all of the other newsletters… From The Pudding
How Oatly built a brand worth £2 billion – Twitter thread about their ad strategy
Feel Free - essays by Zadie Smith – Lover everything she writes
Women Don’t Owe You Pretty by Florence Given. I feel like this would have been better as a zine, or something that focused more on the illustrations as there was a lot of repetition and not much meat to the bones.
LOOKING
Miniature Calendar by Tatsuya Tanaka – he makes a miniature diorama sculpture every day, and documents how he makes each of them. The website is really sweet.
Art of Social Distancing – Instagram account showcasing art exhibitions affected by the pandemic
Em Cole - Surreal, sort of disturbing bit still sugary imagery <3
Found via https://at-home.club/#london – really nicely designed website showcasing creatives and what they’ve been making at home during the pandemic. Made by Upperquad who also have a very nice website
Saul Bass' rejected designs for The Shining with notes from Kubrick – It’s Nice That
Love Barbara Kruger’s design for the Artists Band Together initiative, which has artists designing bandanas to encourage voter registration in the US.
https://www.instagram.com/babybrannen/ gorgeous photos focusing on light and shadow
Thomas Jackson – artist/photographer, recreates patterns in nature with objects like plastic cups, colourful flags etc making for strange photographs of beautiful landscapes.
LISTENING
Ferris Wheel by Sylvan Esso cool sing-a-long electro
Sparklehorse Gentle, thoughtful soft indie rock. Not my usual but I’m into it. Very much like Ninjarous too a rather unlikely collab? with Dangermouse and MF DOOM
Classic jungle on Band Camp by Joe Muggs
A London dance floor in 1990 (Spotify playlist)
Took lots of old records off my parents hands; lots of Bowie, Roxy Music, Rolling Stones and Neil Young.
OTHER STUFF
Love the New York Times ad from Droga5
Another (sort of) ad – Fortnite takes on Apple
Visual Crosswords - fun Google Experiment
WTF is this! When the brief is ‘just do something on Animal Crossing’ It’s the names that really got me https://www.gillettevenus.com/en-us/animal-crossing
