Senses working overtime #89

1 Carrie Fisher

In a year made up of a mounting celebrity death toll (and since Christmas - Rick Parfitt and George Michael!) comes this - Princess Leia is dead. This celebratory obituary gets the tone right. Rest in peace Carrie.

2 V&A

I love the Victoria and Albert Museum! Saw this exhibition and LOVED it even more!

3 Marty
Great look at all of Martin Scorsese's films. Yes, all of them! You up for this?

4 Star Wars women
More on Carrie but also Daisy and Felicity. Written before Carrie Fisher died - and better for it! Check it out.

5 Debbie Reynolds
What a week - remember her this way.

Overtime - Song of the week returns:
Anderson/ Stolt enjoy their place in this coveted spot. I wondered whether or not to buy the album so I took a listen to this track and within 30 seconds I was a believer!

Senses working overtime #88

1 That's no moon...

Rogue One continues the focus on the awesome ultra baddy that is the Death Star! Saw Rogue One this week in San Francisco's West Portal cinema. It's gooooood!

2 Rogue One reviews
Pretty balanced look, this one. And this one delves into the film's themes really well.

3 Medium stats
My Medium readership is examined! Good to know. Plus there's a cool link to the year's top stories on Medium.

4 Pocket
Clearly, it's time for the year's best of collections. Here's the really cool stuff from Pocket.

5 Chatbots explained
I think I get it, thanks to this article.

Overtime
Patti Smith's words and singing are a constant joy.

This deconstruction of Time magazine's cover image of Trump is fun.

Senses working overtime #87

This week's jewels are coming to you from San Francisco's Ocean Park Motel.  

1 Rogue One

Only one place to start  - Rogue One is out REALLY SOON. Hoping I can see this in SF or after Christmas at The Screen on the Green in Upper Street. Ex-cit-ing!!

2 OMG Vol 1



3 OMG Vol 2

 

4 Bill Gates
reviews an interesting looking book about what makes a great leader.

5 John Glenn
God speed, John Glenn.

Overtime
Spiderman, spiderman...I'm a fan of the comic, less so of the movies. Maybe this time...?

Senses working overtime #86

1Trumpism

This is all fairly depressing on a multitude of levels but it is the way of the world. Great look at the changing profile of the President. But, like I said, depressing.

2 Best films of 2016
The New York Times has created a cool run down of this year's best films for everyone to argue with. Wahoo!

3 Trump - person of the year
Time magazine name Trump their person of the year. No one else came close really.

4 Larry Kim
Always has interesting things to say - here he is about the things we can't change, so stop trying!

5 What I wished I learned at school
This is a pretty cool list of skills that Geoff Pilkington wished he'd learned at school.

Overtime
Seth Godin continues an amazing run of posts - this one has his reading recommendations. I'm intending on tracking these all down.

Senses working overtime #85

1 At Jackie's side

A pretty remarkable piece - an excerpt from a book - Clint Hill's Five Days In November - this brought back memories. In November 1963 I was 6 years old - old enough to remember the shocking front page of the New Zealand Herald.

2 Sci-Fi films of 2016
I missed these but now I have a few films to catch up with during 2017!

3 Songs reimagined as infographics.

More here!

4 Culture
The best culture writing of 2016 is right here! You're welcome!

5 Cinema as weapon

Five films that mirror our rage (or - five ways to put the Trump win in perspective).

Overtime: Dance moves for the office Christmas party.

Tis the season - check out Sarah Cooper's great tips!

Senses working overtime #84

It's been an exhausting week of changes in many ways - which I'll explain next week. I haven't had much time to keep abreast of my various feeds and things while the hectic stuff went on so these are things that I opened a while ago and then shelved for a bit. I came back to them during the week and finally enjoyed their content around some travel and decision making conundrums. Enjoy!!

1 Jack Bauer

We are huge 24 fans in our house - loved this article about Jack and the new show - Designated Survivor!

2 Leading men
Now, time for this interesting posit - are we post 'leading men' films? Go read it, it's gooood.

3 Why did white women vote for Trump?
If, like me, you've mystified, read this article from the wonderful people at The Guardian.

4 Want a sober assessment of Trump?
Noam Chomsky is your man. He's normally a clear headed voice on this stuff. No exception here.

5 Rogue One and more
Interesting developments at Lucasfilm explained. 

Overtime
Want to overcome paralysing fear? Okay then!

Senses working overtime #83

1 Arrival

Amy Adams in Arrival

Reading these articles about SciFi films  and the linguistics theme behind the plot has got me wanting to see this film. The trailer hooked me as well.

2 Paul is live!
This story never goes away - Paul died in 1966 and was part of a Beatle conspiracy. LOL.

3 Kindness
Great commencement address (not sure why they call them that because it's basically their 'well done - goodbye - go and fly now you've finished school' speech) by George Saunders about kindness.

4 Trump compared to Hitler?
Free speech is under attack in the home of free speech. Not sure what this Principal is thinking. I assume not much. Scary story!

5 Then and now photos

I love this kind of of photographic comparison. These are by Chris Porsz and are well worth a look. Amazing to see how people have changed (or not).

Overtime
Interesting video that you should take three minutes to watch and reflect upon.

Senses working overtime #82

1 Holy homework Batman! What a week!

Perspective is required: read this!

And then check out these tweets from Scotland.

2 Bizarro world

Welcome to Bizarro World. Here's how a New Zealand paper reacted to Donald Trump's ascension:

3 WTF part 2
Here's how the world's newspapers reacted.


4 Civil disobedience anyone?

This essay by Henry David Thoreau is a very timely read!

4 This too...

The election in the US has led to an outpouring of words - some nah nah nah toldjaso; many angry; but also some considered like this piece.

5 Hollywood depressed
Carl Reiner had the best tweet!

Overtime
Finally, my award for the best piece on the Trump win goes The New Yorker. Partisan and passionate. But I can't argue with them!

Senses working overtime #81

1 Oddvertising

Hey, this is what happens when the advertising gets weird! Love it!

2 Steve Jobs
Great learning here! Wise words to live by.

3 Seth Godin
Not to be outdone - wise words from Seth that I try to share with my students - it's all about the moment!

4 A Swift debut
Lovely piece revisiting Tay Tay's first album.

5 To cross street, press button
Great story about the futility of pressing buttons.

Overtime - Song of the week:
Bruce Springsteen's autobiography (a fabulous read) comes with a great CD compilation - Chapter and Verse, containing stuff by his pre E Street band groups Steel Mill and The Castiles.

 

Senses working overtime #80

1 Less is more

Three's a crowd

Apparently, having less friends is  a good thing. A worthwhile p.o.v. if you ask me. This article looks at the correlation between Facebook use and loneliness.

2 Wild life

A great spread - the top wild life photos of 2016.

3 Mara Wilson

Who? The star of Matilda! That's who. This is about her, and it's great!

4 Jimi
In Moebius (s)trip style. Whoa!!




5 Apple

I'll need to find this book somewhere. In the meantime - this excerpt gets the apple juices flowing nicely.

Overtime
Please please please...fanvid to one of my favourite Smiths' songs

Senses working overtime #79

1 In Arsene we trust

My happy place!

Great piece about Arsenal and Arsene Wenger, the man.

2 Google map treks
Been exploring this during the week. Some wonderful technology, great sights and use is only limited by your imagination.

3 Burj Khalifa

While exploring the Google maps trek I came across this one on the Burj Khalifa, a.k.a. the world's tallest building. Amazing scenes!

4 Time travel photos
This is a great photo essay looking at some urban locations over time.

5 Bill
More reasons to love and appreciate Bill Murray.

Overtime

So sue me, I'm a sucker for photos of old buildings.

Senses working overtime #78

1 And...ACTION!

As part of his rundown on the best action movies of every year since 1986, Tom Breihan looks at Aliens. 

2 The education divide
Great Guardian piece on...well - everything that is important. The move against 'experts' and the educated. Sobering! Shocking!

3 Train wrecks...
...are endlessly fascinating. I'm particularly fascinated by the self-immolation going on in the Republican Party (the GOP) in the great U.S.A.

4 Alternative universe
Great infographic maps the alt rock history universe.

5  Aleppo

Drone footage of Aleppo. The operation was a success but unfortunately the patient died.

Overtime
Excellent parody of Trump/Clinton debate as they 'sing' together.

Senses working overtime #77

1 Susan Cooper...

...is a genius. She's like a better Scott Adams without all the personal baggage. I love her and you will too when you read this!

2 SF vs LA
I'm a huge fan of SF, but one of my close friends is equally enthusiastic about LA. This article provides some back up...for LA. Doh!

3 Impromptu heroism

Cool look via some iconic movies at how to be an impromptu hero!

4 Calendar girl
Enjoyed this article about the adoption of our Gregorian calendar.

5 Distractions

Nice (long) read on why we get distracted and how to resist it.

Overtime: The Beatles!!!!
I enjoyed this article about Ed Sullivan and The Beatles and why this couldn't ever happen again - written by someone born after Lennon died!

Senses working overtime #76

1 This photo

Great deconstruction of a troubling image.

2 Zach meats Hilary (sick)
This interview by Zach Galifianakis is hilarious!!!

3 Alex
Six year old Alex wrote a letter to President Obama. Look and learn.



4 Indiana wants me
Great animation from a fan celebrates Indiana Jones.



5 Open letter to John Mayer
Ok yes, I'm a fan. But this tickled my fancy.

Overtime
Thirtysomething was a show I loved in the eighties when I was...uh...thirtysomething. Recently I bought the box sets and started at Season One (durr), which I don't believe I ever saw - I'm pretty sure I got on board at season 2 or 3.

And you know what - now that I'm Fiftysomething, I still love it (even looking back at eighties fashions and hair styles was great).

Senses working overtime #75

1 Shock and awe

We can all remember where we were and how we reacted on 9/11. We couldn't believe our eyes. These photos show New Yorker's reaction to the planes hitting the World Trade Center. Very sobering.

2 Earth

I don't know why but this infographic (?) of planet Earth and its wind movements is quite haunting and beautiful.

3 Seth Myers
Great video as Seth analyses Donald Trump's lies lies and more lies.

4 Stephen Colbert
Great bit on the idiotic Donald Trump Jnr tweet,

5 Hipsters
I like the way Hipsters are reviving some old timey things!

Overtime
For a measly $5 I managed to grab my own old timey piece of nostalgia during the week. After listening to their Anthology collection, The Hamilton County Bluegrass Band have the honour of two songs of the week - Hey Boys and Orange Blossom Special.


Amazing! If you loved these two - you're ready for this little bewty...and you're right - Colleen Trenwith is rocking the same hair style!

Senses working overtime #74

1 We're going to miss President Obama

More stunning photos from the White House photobugs here!

2 More great seventies vibes...

...in these photos.

3 Zuni
I'm a fan, and you will be too - it's just a matter of time! Check out Build - she aces it!




4 Walls
Great read on Donald Trump's wall and how it compares to others built throughout history. The stuff about Hadrian's Wall is fascinating.

5 The Wright Brothers fly!
Great article about what happens when you change the world but no one listens or cares!

Overtime
The return of 'song of the week' is David Bowie's radical reimagining of the Who's Pictures of Lily!

 

Senses working overtime #73

1 Oh baby, baby
This is so well written, it's scary! Humans are really smart, so why are human babies so utterly vulnerable? Huh? Answer me that!!

...oh - you have!

2 Ageism
Hmmm - I'm about to turn 59 in a few weeks time and I seem to be suffering a little from this. Although I'm 19 inside I'm starting to feel like I'm fighting perceptions of what 59 year olds are supposed to be like.

3 Tina Fey in WTF
I love Tina Fey! And although this movie does not look like it'll trouble Mulholland Drive as the best film of the century so far, erm, I'll still wanna see it!



4 Comic book font
Why do they all look the same?

Here's the answer!




5 Trump time line
Great infographic from the New York Times shows when Republicans wisely started ditching Trump.

It's a wonder the list isn't longer!! Shame upon shame.

Overtime - The Avengers as a sit-com

Senses working overtime #72

1 Ranking the Star Wars episodes

This is fun, F.U.N!!!! What an awesome image too.

2 Dataists and Planet of the Apps.

Friend of mine sent me a link to this article:

Just as free-market capitalists believe in the invisible hand of the market, so Dataists believe in the invisible hand of the dataflow. As the global data-processing system becomes all-knowing and all-powerful, so connecting to the system becomes the source of all meaning. The new motto says: “If you experience something — record it. If you record something — upload it. If you upload something — share it.”

It's a great read!

3 Visual analytics 

Uber have people creating this stuff. AMAZING!! And somehow, beautiful. Go figure.

4 Movies still matter
(In case you were wondering). I love reading about movies vs so called 'quality' TV. The New Yorker had this to say.

5 I wish my teacher knew...

Wow! These answers are sobering. I'm a teacher and I don't tend to allow educational matters to creep into this blog (I have another blog for that) but this one deserves a wider reach.

Overtime: Vision mixer extraordinaire. Whatters mentioned this on his blog and he's right - it's an awesome behind the scenes look at a vision mix of Cuba Gooding Jnr's Academy Award acceptance speech in 1996. Great stuff!!

(Sidebar - I also found Tom Cruise's body language VERY interesting)