Five Things #103

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

  1. If you find yourself in London with some time to kill I recommend visiting the Hope To Nope exhibition at the Design Museum. It's one of the best I've been to in ages. (The photo above is one I took at the exhibition).

  2. A great video from Vox on Why More Pop Songs Should End With A Fade Out. I was initially a fade out skeptic, but I think I've now been convinced of their merit.

  3. What do you hear, Yanny or Laurel? I'm firmly in the "Laurel" camp and the fact that others are hearing "Yanny" is leaving me questioning reality. 🤨

  4. Boston Public Library have put high resolution scans of their collection of Escher prints online. The quality of the scans is really something. You can zoom and zoom and zoom.

  5. Watching the video for Childish Gambino's new song This Is America left me a little speechless. It's powerful and dark — you've been warned! There is a lot going on in the video so it's worth watching a few times.

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Five Things #102

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

  1. It seems like everyone I overhear playing music is listening to The Middle. Here's a great little video explaining how the hit was made.

  2. "The most important skill you can develop is an innate sense of curiosity about yourself"Daniel Gross (his blog is great)

  3. It all comes down to luck.

  4. Fame, what is it good for?

  5. A tonne of new music by Sigur Rós just landed on Spotify 🎶

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Five Things #101

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

  1. A great piece on learning. Aim for fluency, not just understanding.

  2. Useful (short) video: This is how (not) to calm your nerves

  3. I'm definitely guilty of this at times: "We tend to grossly overestimate the pleasure brought forth by new experiences and underestimate the power of finding meaning in current ones." The quote is from this excellent piece: Travel Is No Cure for the Mind.

  4. Cool interactive website: www.populationspast.org. Explore demographic and social change using maps of the UK between 1851-1911. How far we've come in the last 100 years or so!

  5. What I was listening to in April 🎶

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My jams | April 2018

Note: the number to the right of the album name isn't the total plays for the album as a whole, but the number of tracks played from that album — I'm not totally obsessed

I thought I might share some of the music I've been listening to recently. So courtesy of last.fm, the list above is my most played albums from April. Here's an extended list (I listened to tracks from 268 albums in total).

I recently purchased a pair of Sonos Ones (one for the kitchen and another for the living room). As a result, I've been listening to a lot more music than in previous months — which is saying something as pre-Sonos I listened to a lot of music anyway!

I only just discovered Jean-Michel Blais and his album II. It's become a new favourite for playing in the background whilst I'm working or reading, which explains the number one spot on the list.

Kendrick Lamar is the other notable artist on the list (his music is a little different from Jean-Michel's). I hadn't listened to Kendrick Lamar in quite a while, but as he just won a Pulitzer for his album DAMN. I thought I should probably give it a listen — it's a great album, well worth the hype!

If you are so inclined, follow me on last.fm or Spotify, and if you have any album recommendations please send them my way. Happy listening! 👋

Five Things #100

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

  1. Nabi Tajima has died at the grand old age of 117. Imagining how the world changed over the course of her lifetime is rather mind blowing! — The last living human link to the 19th century is gone

  2. A collection of aerial images of Britain from the last 100 years. Here's my hometown, Ipswich.

  3. Stephen Fry has a podcast! His episode on the Guttenberg press was fascinating.

  4. I'm really looking forward to watching the new series of Westworld (the last one was great). Food for thought in this piece by Sam Harris and Paul Bloom: It’s Westworld. What’s Wrong With Cruelty to Robots?

  5. I've just discovered Jean-Michel Blais' music. I love this performance of his song Nostos. Oh how I wish I could play piano like that!

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