Looking Sideways: 10 Things

I’ve been away in Normandy for the past two weeks with minimal internet, so this week’s ten things selection is particularly podcast and Substack heavy.

May 19, 2023

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1. The first thing we noticed about being at our new place was…the silence. We’re in the sticks in rural Normandy, which means no lights, no cars, no … anything, really, other than endless birdsong and wildlife chatter.

And obviously, there’s an app for that: in this case the miraculous Merlin Bird ID app, which records the local birdsong and tells you who’s in the hood. In our case: storks (these lads above are our neighbours), woodpeckers, thrush, robins, chiff-chaffs, blackbirds, chaffinches, tawny owls, cuckoos, great tits, sedge warblers, jackdaws, blackcaps, wood pigeons and wrens. And that was just in our garden 😍

2. Tom Hanks on Adam Buxton is just lovely, a proper warm bath of a conversation.

3. In contrast, George Osborne on Leading is … enraging, particularly on austerity.

4. When he’s good, he’s really great, and on this occasion Marc Maron got the proper goods from Ice Cube. Loved the story of how John Singleton chased him down for his role in Boyz N The Hood

All Conditions Media

Time To Do Your Community Service

An apology. In last week’s email, we wrote that twenty percent of Millenials report they have no friends. This was incorrect. It’s twenty-two percent. This is a statistic that’s really stuck with us. Whether or not this seems like a big surprise is for another time. But what it does tell us is that the concept of community is more important now than ever…

4 months ago · 3 likes · All Conditions Media

5 When we hired ACM Senior Copywriter Chris Sayer last year, the challenge was simple: ‘make writing about marketing less cliched and rubbish’. Job done.

Enjoying my stuff but hesitating on the old paid sub plunge? Fear not: sharing a favourite post or podcast episode is THE simplest (and freest) way to help spread the word about Looking Sideways. It really helps and takes about ten seconds. Thanks in advance 🙏

6. A zinger of a Note from

The Unpublishable

about what Martha Stewart’s Sports Illustrated cover says about beauty culture.

Simple Magic

Street League Skateboarding airs to the right

4 months ago · 15 likes · Cole Nowicki

7. Why has Street League Skateboarding teamed up with ‘right-wing online video platform’ Rumble? Great stuff from

Simple Magic

, my favourite skate blogger on Substack

The Orwell Foundation

Orwell and the Toads

4 months ago · 5 likes · The Orwell Foundation

8. I loved this extract from DJ Taylor’s forthcoming biography of Orwell, on the writer’s relationship with the natural world. From the brilliant

The Orwell Foundation

Substack.

Freddie Fryer

Freddie Fryer on Instagram: ”#outsidephotocomp”

May 13, 2023

9. My pals at Outside ran a skate jam last week - and myself, Owen Tozer, Leo Sharp, Outside, Goodrays, Yeti and Db teamed up to run a photo comp! If you were there and took some snaps, post them on Instagram and and use the hashtag #outsidephotocomp to enter. Owen and Leo Sharp are judging, there are some great swag up for grabs, and we’ll post the winners next week.

10. Finally - Surfers Against Sewage are organising a national day of action in protest at the ongoing state of our waterways. Find out more about the SAS Paddle Out here.