Looking Sideways: 10 Things
This week's ten things I thought were worth sharing
1. This story by Annette McGivney about climber Charles Barrett, who is going to trail for multiple accusations of sexual assault, is a troubling but very important read.
TW: it contains multiple descriptions of violence and sexual abuse, but also shines an important light on how abusers, especially seemingly respected and successful ones, are enabled by others.
2. If you’re a British user of Instagram, you’ll know Glenn Kitson because of his very funny and ongoing celebrity lookalike gag. His latest for Berghaus is a typically imaginative cut-up of rave/hike culture. Have a gander above.
3. Another week, another Cody Townsend link. This time Ski Magazine ask: should he pack it in before he gets himself killed? More here.
4. “The entire measure of someone’s commitment is how much they post about their commitment” - my thanks to friend-of-the-show Jen Sherowski for sharing this Rebecca Solent piece on the vapidity of internet comment/sharing culture.
5. This clunky old Moncler post has been doing the rounds. Back in the day I used to be outraged by stuff like this. It’s one reason why I set up
with my pals - because we were so sick of seeing our beloved cultures appropriated by clueless interlopers.These days, I’m more just baffled - how on earth, in 2024, given this will have gone through endless rounds of feedback, did this slip through the net? (And no, I don’t buy for one second that it was some dastardly plan to get eyes on the campaign).
6. Ski Sunday presenter Chemmy Alcott’s piece on climate change’s impact on skiing is worth a read. I remain unconvinced that ‘we should save the planet because if not we won’t be able to go skiing’ is an effective way of gathering none-skiers to the cause, but it’s good to see this being debated either way.
7. I’m reading Werner Herzog’s autobiography at the moment and it’s so refreshing to read an artist so completely comfortable in their own skin, who feels absolutely zero compulsion to be anything other than true to their creative self (and you can imagine my delight to see he is this week’s Adam Buxton guest).
Anyway, I’d also put Jeanette Winterson in that camp, which is one reason I enjoyed her piece about fasting, which you can read here.
8. Close-friend-of-the-show Chris Hines is hosting a talk on ‘Intelligent Activism’ next week - something that is more important than ever I would say. More here.
9. Regulars will know I’m as much of a geek about football as I am about ye olde sideways life, so I loved this Jenkem short about Chinatown Soccer Club, which has strong roots in skateboarding, and features friend-of-the-show Gerhard Stochl.
10. It’s been a busy month for my pals over at Wandering Workshops - following watch their new piece Wandering, above.
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Glad you liked the Solnit piece! Also have you read Savage Dreams? She's an amazing thinker. That Ski Magazine on Cody Townsend, I just cannot understand why it exists, and cannot get into the mindset of a writer putting that out there. It's so just like, who asked you, and who is this for?
Haha, that Berghaus/Glenn Kitson piece takes me back to the early nineties working in Blacks Camping in Liverpool. We sold literally hundreds of Mera Peak jackets (and others) at around £300 a piece!
We even got raided once on a late night Thursday shopping night by a gang of kids who ran out with a whole rail of them😳