"Unloved"

Every Wednesday I share five things I liked and think you might like too. Here are this week’s Five Things…

1. Interesting work by Sugata Mitra on bringing teaching into the 21st Century. —  "How one man revolutionized teaching by trusting kids to teach themselves."
    
2. "The photo shows the 14-story-tall first stage of the company’s Falcon 9 rocket moments before it landed on a barge at sea this past weekend" — If you hadn't gathered already it's a pretty cool photo!
    
3. Nerdwriter recently did a fascinating breakdown of one of Louis CK's jokes. I'd never really considered how much work goes into the writing and delivery of one joke.
    
4. The inspiring story of scientific marvel, Ed Whitlock — "In October, at 85, he set his latest distance-running record, completing the Toronto Waterfront Marathon in 3 hours 56 minutes 34 seconds and becoming the oldest person to run 26.2 miles in under four hours."
    
5. In the latest episode of the Song Exploder podcast, Solange explains how she wrote and recorded her song "Cranes In The Sky". I love learning how different musicians approach songwriting and this was a really great episode. Recommended listening for anyone studying or making music!

That’s all for this week. If you enjoyed it, sign up to receive the next Five Things in your inbox.

Adventurer

Every Wednesday I share five things I liked and think you might like too. Here are this week’s Five Things…

1. "If you spin these sculptures by artist John Edmark at a certain speed and light them with a strobe, they appear to animate in slowly trippy ways." — Surreal and more than a little trippy!
    
2. The owner of this record store and label won't take your credit card, doesn't use a computer and unplugs the phone if it rings too many times. The fascinating story of Mississippi Records.
    
3. One of my students sent me this video of a Romanian Monk playing the semantron, which (according to wikipedia) is "a percussion instrument used in monasteries to summon monastics to prayer". The monk's playing is really beautiful and hypnotic. As a musician, there is so much to learn from different cultures and their use of percussion and rhythm!
    
4. A great article on pop music's not-so-secret secret — "The songs are written industrially. . . often by committee and in bulk. Anything short of a likely hit is discarded. The constant iteration of tracks, all produced by the same formula, can result in accidental imitation—or, depending on the jury, purposeful replication."
    
5. Food scientists at Impossible Foods are on a mission to help the environment by winning over meat eaters and reducing our consumption of meat. The Impossible Burger is one of their attempts to do this. As a meat eater I'd be curious to give it a try!

That’s all for this week. If you enjoyed it, sign up to receive the next Five Things in your inbox.

Colours

Every Wednesday I share five things I liked and think you might like too. Here are this week’s Five Things…

1. Since the passing of David Bowie a year ago, there have been many great articles written about him. This might just be my favourite. I particularly love this quote: "How starstruck, after all, can anybody feel after the object of one’s veneration says, early on, without a trace of irony, that he was excited to start a new project because: 'Now I get to do one of my favourite things. Go to a stationery store and get Sharpies and Post-its!'" Rock star, musical genius and stationary fan.
    
2. I recently stumbled on a BBC series from 1972 called "Ways Of Seeing". So far, I've only watched the first episode, but highly recommend it. You can watch the whole series here on Youtube.
    
3. An interesting piece on the importance of music in our lives.
    
4. A long and moving read on B.J Miller and his "Quest to Change the Way We Die". He's a fascinating guy. A doctor, triple amputee... and the proud owner of a motorbike. 
    
5. I've just discovered the music of Julia Holter... I have no idea how or why it's taken me so long to hear of her music! Here she is performing her song In The Green Wild on KEXP. 

That's all for this week. If you enjoyed it, sign up to receive future posts or check out my previous Five Things posts.

Martham Ferry Boatyard

Every Wednesday I share five things I liked and think you might like too. Here are this week’s Five Things…

1. We all have those days when we struggle to get out of bed in the morning. The Roman emperor and Stoic philsopher Marcus Aurelius has some words of motivation for you.
    
2. Katy Ann Gilmore might just be my new favourite artist — Where Math and Nature Meet Art
    
3. A fun, animated video by The School of Life on Ludwig Wittgenstein and how to avoid some of the muddles we get into with words.
    
4. Musician Ólafur Arnalds on five things he learnt in his twenties. I particularly relate to his thoughts on live performance, which I embellished on in a blog post titled "The Beauty of Live Performance".
    
5. You might have heard of the acronym "FOMO" (the Fear Of Missing Out). It's a problem for many people that's exacerbated by our constant exposure to everyone else's "perfect lives" via social media. There might be a solution, JOMO, the Joy Of Missing Out. The excellent Note to Self podcast did an episode on this that they rebroadcast last week.

That's all for this week. If you enjoyed it, sign up to receive future posts or check out my previous Five Things posts.

Photo by Marino Thorlacius

I totally agree with Ólafur Arnalds on this: 

The beauty of live performance lies in its imperfections. Otherwise you can just be listening to a CD. The live situation is not the same as a studio situation so you shouldn't play like you're in a studio. . . . It needs to be human. That's why people come to concerts. That's why mistakes are okay, that's why surprises are okay and imperfection is super important live.

The energy and intimacy of a live performance is so far removed from that of listening to a CD or Spotify. It's strange that bands and artists choose to just replicate their studio recordings live on stage without making changes to reflect the new environment and undistracted attention of an audience. It's probably why I haven't been to a pop or rock gig in so long!

Ólafur is a fascinating guy, you can check out the full interview below.

Read: Ólafur Arnalds: Five Things I Learnt in my Twenties