I haven’t updated here in a while. I worked long hours throughout January and also moved house. I’ve also now officially deferred my course until next year. I missed too much of the school year when I was ill. I’ll have a little while off, and then look for some work to tide me over. In between all that I turned 31. Ancient, really. I’ll have a bit more time on my hands over the next couple of weeks, so I’d better make use of it. Here’s some links of interesting bits and bobs to tide you over.
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- Here’s a great BBC documentary about 80s synthpop, now available in its entirety on YouTube. There’s a full playlist of all the songs used in the show here.
- Laura from Behind the Hedgerow blog makes some beautiful clothes for her children.
- Atlas Obscura is one of my favourite websites both for finding interesting places to visit, and just for casual browsing. It’s full of photos and descriptions of unusual places like this town in Alaska that’s one giant building, or closer to home, the Embassy of the Republic of Texas in London.
- The BFI presents their selection of top Icelandic films. For a country with such a small population (around 250,000- about the same as my not so exciting hometown), Iceland certainly punches above its weight in the creative fields. Noí Albinoí is one of my favourite films. I haven’t seen all of the others, so I should check them out.
- The Salvage Project discusses sexual violence in activist communities in the UK. Communities which need fewer of these guys.
- Links to watch a large selection of films by Andrei Tarkovsky, my favourite director for free online.
- My favourite Wednesday treat- Rhik Samadder writing about kitchen gadgets. Start with the shivering horrors of the Egg Master.
- My friend Alex Wrekk has made her zine about being in an abusive relationship and getting out of it free to read online. I’ve got the paper edition from when she officially released it, and it’s well worth the read. In her own words “What if your private life in your relationship is vastly different than what other people see? When do you know you are in an emotionally abusive relationship? How to you gain the strength to get out of it? What do you do when you know you can’t handle the burden alone? What do you do when you feel so alone and terrified of the consequences of leaving, when if it means losing friends, a home, a job and a way life that you love? These are just some of the ideas explored in this zine through a three year personal narrative that also challenges you to examine your relationships with power, to identify how you express the power you have, and also how you relate to the power that of others possess”
- Angelyne is a pop-culture fixture in Hollywood, known for the huge billboards she hires with just her photo and name and for driving her pink sports car around town. I never realised she made a try at a pop music career in the 80s. It’s pretty good, as a trashy new wave song with slightly disturbing lyrics goes. I found it because there were two articles recently about what an all-round unpleasant person she is to spend time with, and I wondered what the irritating Barbie speaking voice the writers described sounded like, so I went hunting on YouTube.
- Mallory Ortberg on the poetry of the Beaufort Scale.