Looking Sideways: 10 Things
A Kendal agenda, high-stakes cheese thievery, and a brilliant Jackson Pollock doc.
1. It’s Kendal Mountain Festival next weekend and, if you’re attending, there are lots of interesting-sounding events to draw your attention to.
On the Friday: I’m conducting a live Creative Exchange interview with Chris Burkard, and hosting a special showing of The Big Sea. My All Conditions Media pals are also curating a really interesting looking programme at the Yeti yurt, including a surf film showdown with Chris and Demi from The Big Sea, a session on the joy of soundtracks with composer CJ Mirra, and a special live performance from Colin Macleod.
On the Saturday: my pals at the newly formed Aline are hosting a Kendal Fringe event ‘around the topic of transparency in the outdoor industry’. I’m looking forward to that one.
On the Sunday: it’s back to the Yeti yurt for a conversation around the nature of community activism helmed by my pal and ACM colleague Lyndsay McLaren, before rounding everything off with a live Looking Sideways podcast recording.
This is a special one, hosted by Kendal’s Steve Scott, in which he’s quizzing me about my forthcoming documentary The Announcement, alongside a panel including Phil Young and Lauren MacCallum.
Phew. Gonna be a busy one. Hoping to see some friendly faces there.
2. A lovely conversation between Jamie, Lauren and Dave on the ever-excellent Waterpeople Podcast.
3. I absolutely loved this documentary about Jackson Pollock and Lee Krasner, his wife and the woman who made him posthumously famous, and changed the landscape of modern art while she was at it. Highly recommended.
4. Regulars will know that people hubristically blundering into conversations they’re ill-equipped to participate in is something I find perennially fascinating.
The latest example of this timeless human pursuit are the remarks made by Marek Żydowicz, who runs the Cameraimage International Film Festival in Poland, and who responded to a petition advocating for better representation of female cinematographers by implying that doing so would be to promote ‘mediocrity’, and then doubling, nay, tripling down when challenged.
The backlash has been global, with this year’s guest of honour Steve McQueen now boycotting the event in protest.
Use my code LOOKINGSIDEWAYS for massive ski rental discounts and snowboard rental discounts from my pals at Intersport.
5. Really looking forward to Lucuma, Luke Pilbeam’s new film with and about Noah Lane and James Bowden
6. Say Nothing is probably the best book ever written about the Troubles. This trailer makes the TV adaptation look like a jaunty, comedic action series. I’ll watch it anyway, but here’s hoping they’ve just hammed it up to draw more viewers in, because tonally this looks pretty awry.
7. Now this is my type of story: why are criminals stealing luxury cheese?
My discount code LOOKINGSIDEWAYS also saves you a whopping 15% on any Db Journey bag.
8. Adam Bennetts elegantly foiling on this hectic-looking tidal bore is really quite something.
9. As we move ever-closer to ‘buy more shit or we’re all fooked’ season (aka Christmas), may I humbly draw your attention to a couple of ways of stoking out your Looking Sideways-loving pals while also supporting me in my little independent media quest.
The first - Looking Sideways merch! I’ve just updated my shop with new lines including mugs, notebooks, water bottles and some brilliant over-sized jumpers, as well as the usual clobber. Find out more here.
Second - you can also gift a paid subscription to my Insights community, using the handy button below:
10. It is no exaggeration to say that Greg Stump’s classic Blizzard of Aaahhs changed my life. My first viewing of Blizzard as a Mancunian teenager in 1990 introduced me to a new world, where dirtbag skiers and snowboarders chased the snow in beguiling sounding-locations such as Telluride and Chamonix.
To me, the whole thing was as exotic as the smooth Californian pavements I wished I could skate, and it put me on the path I am still following to this day, decades later.
All of which goes some way to explain why, when I sat down to speak with Greg for my Looking Sideways podcast back in autumn 2020, excitement levels were high - on both sides of the call.
After all, it isn’t often you get to chat to a legit hero and tell them what an impact their work had on your life.
The resulting conversation was a riot - funny, warm, extravagant and shamelessly vain - a little like those films that changed so many lives.
One of the odd things about podcasting (at least the way I do it, anyway) is when an episode you’re convinced is one of the best, most enjoyable conversations you’ve ever participated in doesn’t get the pick up it deserves.
That was very definitely the case with my chat with Greg. Which is why, four years later, I am re-running it so that recent subscribers to Looking Sideways can listen to my conversation with one of the most quietly influential figures in action sports.
Enjoyed this week’s list? Anything you’ve seen we should know about?
The Greg Stump podcast is one of my all time favorites
Mister Bennetts carving is sublime.