Berlin, May 2018

This week’s Five Things…

1. Nature is so weird and amazing

2. I’ve watched this far too many times. Very funny

3. This episode of The Listening Service on Tricky Timing was great. I’d never heard of the podcast but I’m now a fan! — “Two, three and four beats in a bar are pretty standard in music. But what happens when a composer decides to go with 7 or 5 or 13 as the underlying structure? And why would they do that?“

4. Olafur Arnalds on NPR’s Tiny Desk

5. I think this has broken my brain a little bit. Despite reading several explainers of “Superior Mirages” I can’t bridge the gap between what I’m seeing and being told. Very cool though!

That's all for this week. If you enjoyed it, sign up to get the next one delivered straight to your inbox.

Edinburgh, April 2019

This week’s Five Things…

1. “A woodpecker’s tongue contains bone and cartilage, and it wraps around the brain to absorb shock when the bird is slamming its face against trees”

2. Disney used to reuse animations in different movies. I didn’t know this was a thing!

3. Oliver Burkeman on the provisional life: “Are you still under the illusion that you’ll one day reach a point in your life where you no longer have any problems?”

4. A Winged Victory For The Sullen have a new album.

5. The Switched On Pop podcast on the death of the chorus.

That's all for this week. If you enjoyed it, sign up to get the next one delivered straight to your inbox.

Holywells Park, Ipswich - 2016

This week’s Five Things…

1. There’s moving house, then there’s moving house.

2. Draw an iceberg and see how it floats. I really like this.

3. For Christmas I got a beautiful hardback of my favourite book, A Gentleman In Moscow. In this post the designer explains how she came up with the cover.

4. Who’d have guessed a video about frying eggs would be so entertaining.

5. Great advice from jazz legend Chick Corea, who died earlier this month: Cheap But Good Advice For Playing Music In A Group

That's all for this week. If you enjoyed it, sign up to get the next one delivered straight to your inbox.

Harkstead, 2017

This week’s Five Things…

1. An amazing collection of photos: Underwater photographer of the year 2021 winners

2. Explore cities of the world with Drive and Listen . Select a city from the list and you become a passenger in someone’s car as they drive around the city. You can even listen to local radio as you drive!

3. We watched The Dig the other day. Excellent film. Very strange seeing Ipswich and Suffolk in a Netflix film!

4. An interesting thread on UK postcodes. Makes sense that they were designed to be memorable. I can recall a lot of the postcodes of places I’ve lived.

5. A fascinating profile of David Eagleman from 2011. It’s a long one but worth your time. Particularly the bit about drummers towards the end!

That's all for this week. If you enjoyed it, sign up to get the next one delivered straight to your inbox.

Snowy Ipswich, Feb 2021

This week’s Five Things…

1. How to draw a water droplet

2. I’m reading A Gentleman In Moscow by Amor Towles for the second time. It’s my favourite book and you should definitely read it!

3. Just keep on zooming! A 10-gigapixel scan of Girl With a Pearl Earring. This behind the scenes video explains the process of capturing the image.

4. Now that’s a lockdown project!

5. The Science Museum Group has a cool tool for viewing pieces in their online collection that have never been viewed before. Very clever!

That's all for this week. If you enjoyed it, sign up to get the next one delivered straight to your inbox.