Looking Sideways: 10 Things
A must-listen new podcast, Gilly's book, and 50% off for a year.
1. Congratulations to my wonderful and inspirational friend Gilly McArthur on the forthcoming release of her new book The Beauty of Cold, which is due for release this summer, and which you can now pre-order here. Iāve been lucky enough to have a sneak preview, and itās a beauty.
If you want to find out more about Gilly and why sheās such a legend, check out our Looking Sideways conversation from a few years back. (Warning: contains multiple references to The Smiths, including the title).
2. Iāve just finished Capital, the third āstate of London as state of the nationā novel Iāve read in the last year (the others were Caledonian Road and Bleak House, which is of course the OG when it comes to this type of thing).
Iād love a recommendation for something along the same lines. Or any other āmajor city as state of the nationā metaphor novels, come to think of it.
Got any ideas?
3. I thought Clive Martinās (surely wilfully) shonky thesis on how the grubbier end of British rave culture crosses over with the even grubbier āOperation Raise The Coloursā stuff (āAcid Patriotismā, as he refers to it) was a great piece of writing.
10 Things will always be free, but it takes a lot of effort, love and curiosity to pull this thing together each week.
So if you want to support Looking Sideways without taking out a paid sub - you can! Click right here.
4. Ditto this beautiful paean to a lifelong friendship: Jamie Brisick on Derek Hynd. A must-read, as most things that Jamie writes are.
5. Brighton surf gang - Iām hosting the q&a at a showing of Hotpipe Hillbillies, the ace looking new Brighton surf film, on February 4th. Tickets here!
6. Congratulations to Liam Gallagher (no, not that one) and Forrest Shearer on the launch of their excellent new On Knowing On Going podcast. Check the latest episode with the great Marie-France Roy, above.
7. Are people really so overwhelmed by life that theyāre throwing āadmin nightā parties with their friends? And would you attend? Got to be honest, at this stage in my life it sounds like my idea of a good time.
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8. My close pal Phil Young has made a really important film about Deo Katoās 13500km run from Cape Town to London. The film was one of the standouts at this yearās KMF, and I asked Phil to give me his take on the film:
āOn paper, itās an extraordinary physical feat. In reality the run becomes a framework for something deeper; questions of migration, belonging, identity, and what it means to try and carry a story with your body.
The film resists the usual endurance narrative. Thereās no classic arc of triumph, no simple lesson about resilience. Instead, the run is treated as versions of movement, physical, historical and emotional, harking back to older patterns of human migration, particularly from Africa shaped by colonialism, displacement, and survival.
What emerges isnāt an heroic portrait so much as an unresolved one. The film asks whether extreme challenges are a way of making sense of trauma or of simply avoiding it. Whether movement can create belonging, or merely exposes its absence.
STEPS sits somewhere between adventure film, social essay, and a personal reckoning. Itās interested in why people move, what it costs them, and what happens when the search for meaning becomes physicalā.
Thereās a free showing in London on Thursday January 29th - tickets here.
9. This clip of the last ever shift in one of the last coal pits in the Rhondda valley was filmed in 1983, just before the Miners Strike, and is a rather lovely and poignant look at a lost world. The comments demonstrate quite what a chord it has struck.
10. The art of leadership, knowing when to quit, the importance of not letting your dream job become your self-identity; Finisterre CMO Bronwen Foster-Butler shared some hard-earned wisdom from her time working with Finisterre, lululemon, Burberry and PANGAIA in this weekās Insights instalment.
This one is free to read, so click the link above to have a gander.
Plus! For this week only - get full Insights access for only Ā£32. Itās usually Ā£65! Signing up as a paid subscriber gets you access to the full Insights archive, and is also just a great way if supporting what I do here in this weird little corner of the internet.
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Which of these stories did you enjoy this week? Let me know āļø
A brilliant 10 Things this week Matt, thank you.
Regards the short mining film, thereās a terrific documentary called The Last Miners, a BBC film, but I think available in full on YouTube.
Story of the last knockings of āThe Big Kā in Yorkshire and deeply poignant at moments.