Looking Sideways: 10 Things

Krakauer on the election, a Chris Hines workshop, and remembering Quincy Jones

Nov 08, 2024

1. I’m really looking forward to hosting the premiere of the Big Sea at the London Surf Film Festival this evening. And - stop press! I have a couple of tickets to give away to my newsletter gang, so DM me if you’re interested in those.

I also want to draw your attention to ‘Words and Actions' - a Yeti-backed workshop discussion featuring the great Chris Hines MBE, Yvette Curtis, Demi Taylor and Seth Hughes (swoon). This one takes place on Saturday 9th November; the first 25 guests through the door will also receive some Yeti swag. More here.

2. I want to give a shout to The Reason Magazine, last UK snow mag standing, and back for another winter. Support independent publishing and order your copy here.

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3. RIP Quincy Jones, who as well as being perhaps THE most influential American musician of the post-war era, also gave one of the greatest ‘I really have no fooks left to give’ interviews ever a couple of years ago. If you read one link this week, make it this one.

4. 50 years on, the Lord Lucan story still fascinates as one of the great unsolved mysteries, up there with the Mary-Celeste and Shergar in the popular imagination. To mark the anniversary there’s a raft of interesting programming, such as this even-handed BBC podcast series.

Use my code LOOKINGSIDEWAYS for massive ski rental discounts and snowboard rental discounts from my pals at Intersport.

5. More on AI: how Spotify is awash with fake AI bands that are snagging listeners (and revenue) from actual musicians. (They’re probably in your Discover Weekly right now, in fact).

6. Love this: Ed Templeton on NTS choosing his favourite skate soundtracks.

7. An important read: Lucy Small on the WSL’s calamitous Abi Dhabi misfire.

My discount code LOOKINGSIDEWAYS also saves you a whopping 15% on any Db Journey bag.

8. There sure is a lot of anguished, hand-wringing post-US election discourse out there. I liked this piece by Jon Krakauer, which nails something I’ve been incoherently mulling over these last few weeks: what happened to ‘the end of history’, the post-Cold War idea that these arguments were somehow settled, and that the Enlightenment had somehow ‘won’ the battle of social ideas?