Looking Sideways: 10 Things
Alternative skate history, the World Cup's heart of darkness, and a BoC primer.
1. “For most of my life, the Southbank Centre has been the villain: casting stones, turning out the lights, building barriers, incrementally taking the space away, attempting to relocate it entirely, and then taking money off the community in order to ‘give’ the space back to them.”
When Wig Worland - one UK skateboarding’s most influential figures - posted recently about this decision to have nothing to do with the Southbank Centre’s Skate 50 exhibition, I was intrigued. Especially in the questions it raised about who was telling that version of the story, and why.
His full account is my latest Looking Sideways Opinion piece, and the issues he raises are important and prompt consideration of a wider question, especially when it comes to a subcultures like skateboarding, surfing and snowboarding: who gets to tell the stories that shape our history?
This question really has been at the heart of my entire career - read it above.
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2. I was 50 this week, and my family and friends clubbed together to buy me a new surfboard. Lovely, right?
More simple ways to support Looking Sideways - use any of these codes and I’ll get a small commission 🫡
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3. My book stack also went through the roof - here’s the latest. What’s on yours?
4. Barney Ronay, as ever, absolutely nails the World Cup’s ghastly sweet spot at the nexus of brutal global geopolitical reality, end-stage capitalism on steroids, and the hijacking of sporting spectacle as the ultimate expression of nation-state soft power. (Yes, I will still be watching it.)
5. Rutger Bregman’s contribution to the ‘AI is the new industrial revolution’ debate has been ruffling feathers on here.
6. For some reason (well, I am 50 now) the algorithm keeps serving me clips of Glen Campbell playing this Jerry Reed song on various UK chat shows. I guess it’s the 80s version of guests repeating the same anecdotes on various podcasts. But when it sounds this good, frankly, who cares?
7. Ok this is definitely my final contribution to Pattie Gonia/Patagonia debate. (You can have a listen to our 2020 conversation below, and draw your own conclusions)
8. Willa Cather’s My Antonia is the most beautiful short novel I can remember reading. It brought to mind A Month in the Country if it was set on a turn-of-the-nineteenth-century prairie farm. Highly recommended if you’re looking for a gentle way back into the joys of reading
9. The release of Inferno has seen Boards of Canada hype at fever pitch. If you don’t know this most influential of groups, this DJ Mag guide is your starting point.
10. And here’s what I’ve had on repeat since the record came out.
Finding Willa Cather in this list was an unexpected joy. Going to find a copy of My Antonia and give it a long-overdue re-read.
The Inconvenient Truth essay was certainly interesting with a lot of great points, especially about how AI will concentrate power and ruin democracy, but the author does come across as a bit gullible too, breathlessly believing all the bullshit spewed by the AI companies. The whole Mythos incident was transparently a publicity stunt by Anthropic (a company I view as cynical and opportunistic, not one with a conscience, although it's undoubtedly convenient for them to present this image). Still, I do broadly agree with some of the conclusions in the essay. International cooperation is vital.
As always, I think sci-fi has the answers, because most of these problems have already been worked out; just pick your canon. Asimov's stories about the rise of robotics have much to teach us.