1. Welcome to the many, many new subscribers who signed up after Substack included me as one of their Featured Publications for 2022.
I’ve been enjoying Substack more and more this year, both as an outlet for my podcasts and writing; and also as a brilliant space for the burgeoning Looking Sideways community.
If you’ve recently signed up and are wondering what all this is about, Looking Sideways is a podcast, a community, and a place to share knowledge and ideas, using action sports and the outdoors as a lens.
Then again, as a listener once commented:
“Looking Sideways is ‘just’ about action sports in the same way that Moby Dick is ‘just’ a book about a load of blokes chasing a whale in a boat”.
Anyway, you can find out more (and possibly even introduce yourself) at the Open Thread here.
2. Like everybody else, I enjoyed Oscar Langburne’s new edit, not least because it reminded me of how great that opening Cat Power x Dirty Three track is.
3. Rest in peace Hilaree Nelson, an incalculable loss to the ski mountaineering community. Among the many obituaries and tributes, this one by Caroline Gleich stood out to me. Read it above.
4. Who knew the world of chess was so cutthroat, intrigue-fuelled, influencer-led, and riven with the same debates about style and authenticity that continually exercise the sideways world?
Certainly not me, which is why I enjoyed this piece by friend-of-the-pod Sean Ingle so much.
5. I was really saddened to hear that Skinners Brewery, stalwart supporters of the culture and community, is going into administration. Find out more here.
6. My friend Schoph asked me to write a short piece to accompany the Gallerie he has in the new Snowboarder’s Journal, and it was a total pleasure: both to write a story bigging up an old friend done good; and to be published in the second best snow mag (after Whitelines, natch) in the world.
Thanks to Aaron Schwartz and Jamie Lynn for talking to me for the piece, and thanks as well to Ben and Colin at TSJ for being a pair of total pros and an absolute pleasure to work with 🙏
You should click here to buy a copy, and support independent snowboard media. We’ll miss it when it’s gone. And listen to my conversation with Schoph from a couple of years ago above.
7. A Land For Everybody, the new film by my friends Hannah Bailey, Lyndsay McLaren and Rachel Sarahm, is out this coming week, and they’re hosting a showing and live q&a in London next week. Find out more here.
8. I can’t believe I missed this at the time, but hat tip to friend-of-the-show Shannon Galpin for alerting me to this ongoing story about the UCI’s dubious involvement with the attempts to evacuate Afghan cyclists in the aftermath of last year’s Taliban take-over. Unsettling stuff - listen above.
9. Community organisation Everybody on Boards are hosting an exhibition 'THEN & NOW' - a visual exploration of youth culture from the past and present through the eyes of the skateboarding community of Waltham Forest and are publishing an associated book of incredible portraits '& NOW' by the renowned skate photographer Wig Worland. Find out more here.
10. One of my favourite podcasts of the year was Seamus Carey’s The Reason Why, a lengthy look at the reality of life in Cornwall in the 2020s, far removed from the sanitised travelogue takes you get on the TV these days. Anyway, Seamus just released a couple of bonus episodes which are well worth a listen. Click the embed above to do just that.
Enjoyed this edition of 10 Things? Let me know below:
The chess scandal is ROCKING the Sweeney household.
I mostly tune out though because I have teenaged boys and as soon as...certain accusations...were levied, their teenageness went into overdrive.
Send chocolate and/or alcohol.