Looking Sideways: 10 Things
This week's ten attention-snatchers, curated from over here in Normandy
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1. I finally got my shit together to put my book Looking Sideways Vol. 1 on Amazon! Turns out Amazon Seller Central is even less intuitive to use than the Meta advertising platform. And that it had been rejected for months because I’d had the temerity to put a review quote in the description. I’m now convinced Bezos and Zuckerberg are doing it for a laugh, just because they can.
Anyway, click here to buy the book, and if you’ve already bought a copy, I’d be hugely grateful if you could leave me a (hopefully positive) review by clicking here.
2. I’ve been in France for the last ten days, which has been a good spot from which to dimly view the coronation. Munya’s take (above) was really the only one I needed. This man is playing a different game from everybody else right now.
3. When my pal Ben Powell picks up the quill and places a thoughtful hand on chin, I’m grabbing the popcorn. Especially when it has the subheading ‘musings on the intersection of skateboarding and education’. Click here to read a typically brilliant piece by one of the sharpest minds in skateboarding.
4. Jamie Mitchell conducted a really compelling interview with Tom Lowe about his recent accident at Teahupoʻo. Highly recommended; watch it above.
5 Moves are afoot to make surfing with a leash compulsory in Bryon Bay. Friend-of-the-show Lauren Hill on why it won’t make the line-up any safer.
6. I really enjoyed this smart, snappy, 12-part series by Earthrise Studios. Watch episode 12 above, and find the rest at their YT channel.
7. When Vice and Buzzfeed, surely the biggest alternative media success stories of the 2000s, go down the pan, you know we’re in new territory.
8. My pal Chris makes the best mountain bike podcast out there - hats off to him for expanding the Downtime universe with this new mini-series - Downtime goes Downhill. Watch the first episode above.
9. ‘How will AI impact the creative arts?’ is the one ethical question that seems to be freaking everybody out right out. So big up Grimes for answering that question in a typically progressive and forward-thinking way - by offering fans 50% of royalties on any AI generated song that uses her voice. 15,000 people used the platform in two days. More here.
10. I’m pretty keen to see this new Netflix documentary about the Austrian Oak which is coming this summer.
Love that article by Ben Powell