Hello, hello. While Twitter continues to flail around like a maniac, I’m really getting into the whole Substack thing. It’s just a lot more civilised; basically it’s blogging like we used to do back in the old country… but better! The mobile app is particularly nice, and I’ve discovered a few great writers on there: John Bleasdale Writes On Film, TEXT!, FlakPhoto Digest and OMGLORD are all worth a look.
1 — Not sure how to spend that spare couple of grand just sitting there unloved in your bank account? Clear some festive shelf space for the Teenage Engineering Choir! Or, you know, just visit their website and have a play for free.
2 — We’ve just finished watching The Bear on Disney+. Perfect. An absolutely perfect show from beginning to end. The intensity, heart and humor of it (not to mention the location) reminds me of early E.R.— which is quite something for a show that is essentially about people making sandwiches. And the soundtrack! Wilco, Pearl Jam, REM, Radiohead, Genesis, LCD Soundsystem, and a goosebump-inducing montage set to Sufjan Stevens’s “Chicago.”
3 — Oh you’re something of an architecture enthusiast? Do you know your ahoy there from your lawyer foyer? I woke up my slumbering child by loudly snort-laughing to Kate Wagner’s McMansion Hell review of bonkers facades from the DC suburbs.
4 — Can’t resist a good institutional archive, and MoMA’s Exhibition Spelunker is a rather nice place to lose a couple of hours. Discover curators, arrangers, designers, artists and others who’ve created exhibitions since the gallery opened in 1929.
5 — After the damp double-squib of The Book of Boba Fett and Obi Wan Kenobi (plus an unshakeable ambivalence towards Rogue One), I’m joyfully surprised by how fantastic Andor is turning out to be. This thread by Aaron Stewart-Ahn hits on some of the great things about it: “I break into a cold sweat wondering how Tony Gilroy grifted $100 million from Disney to make a Star Wars about like the New Left in 1959 & corporate fascism with playwright dialogue”. Also worth checking out, this Script interview with Gilroy.
6 — Got chatting to James Perou recently about his ongoing Polaroids Of Folk That Make Music series, a fantastic document of the British gigging scene. Loving how he embraces the unpredictable alchemical potential of old, degrading packs of film.
7 — If anyone fancies filling my stocking, let it be known that I’m a huge fan of Hoxton Mini Press’ scrumptious photography books, exquisitely designed by Friederike Huber. The Vintage Britain series is particularly nice. I’m a sucker for black and white photos paired with colourful quarter binding.
This was originally posted on Meanwhile, a Substack dedicated to inspiration, fascination, and procrastination from the desk of designer Daniel Benneworth-Gray.
Header image by Josh Wilburne.