Looking Sideways: 10 Things
My favourite skate website, a new OUTO site, and a brilliant Skin Phillips documentary
1. There’s been such an interesting response to this week’s Open Letter about AI and creativity. Many thanks to Alex and James for taking part in the debate, and to everybody who shared and commented. Catch up above
2. Big thanks to my friend Al Humphries for giving me the space to share some reflections about The Announcement in his excellent website/newsletter.
Use my code LOOKINGSIDEWAYS for 20% off any purchase from my friends at Goodrays
3. Congratulations to Chris, Demi and Lewis for the brilliant response to The Big Sea during the recent UK tour. This audience reactions video that Yonder put together after the Newcastle show is really interesting.
4. I’m still really proud to have had a (very) minor role in the establishment of Opening Up The Outdoors back in 2020-2021, and it’s brilliant to see how the organisation has flourished. And OUTO just launched a new website - check it here.
5. I want to give a shout once again to Farran Golding’s brilliant Skate Bylines site, just the absolute best example of independent media being executed with love, care and effortless expertise.
There’s so much good stuff on there, but maybe start with his recent collab with Cole Nowicki, another Looking Sideways fave; or this ace interview with Quentin Delille to mark 100 episodes of the brilliant Beyond Boards podcast.
6. UK skate stalwarts Rollersnakes are always up to interesting stuff, and this exhibition celebrating the great Skin Phillips is a case in point.
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7. Strange how some work gains more even more authority and prescience as the years pass. Case in point: Orwell’s seminal Why I Write, as essential and truthful now as it was when he wrote it in 1946.
8. This brilliant Song Exploder episode looking at Everybody Wants To Rule The World made my day.
9. More essential reporting on Trump’s attack on the outdoors from Wes Siler. I’m speaking to Wes next week for a forthcoming Looking Sideways episode, in which we’ll be discussing in details the current administration’s attacks on the outdoors.
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10. Finally - I can’t remember a reading experience like Prophet Song, which is the tensest, eeriest and most physically unsettling reading experience I can remember.
Highly recommended - and a reminder that I just launched the new Looking Sideways book store. Buy anything from here and you’ll be supporting independent UK book stores (ie you won’t be paying for Jeff Bezos’ next rocket), as well as helping finance Looking Sideways (I get a 10% commission) in a really simple way.
Related: want to discuss any of my selections, or share any of your own 2025 reads? Click here.
Farran is crushing it with Skate Bylines!