I went to a thing called the Little Big Voice lectures a while ago, organised by the Howies folks, and handed out some always in beta badges. They decided to make them into t-shirts for their splendid t-shirt of the week thing, so if you'd like one you can get one. And, since 'always in beta' isn't really an idea anyone should own or make money off if you buy one £3 will go to the Open Rights Group.
Finally, something useful on the internet. This utter work of genius looks at your Last profile, works out which songs are easiest to play on the ukulele and presents them to you. With the chords. Brilliant. Obviously it struggles to help you play much Harry Partch, and there's way too much Beck in my profile for my liking (I think my mac's been listening to him while I was out) but it's official, this is the best thing on the internet, ever.
Richard Wilson did a fantastic talk about making television at interesting. And for a while he had a funny blog about making television too, but then it petered out. I think he ran out of things to say.
But he's now started another excellent thing called The Optimist's Almanac which shouldn't peter out for at least 366 entries. He's looking at some of the dark things that occurred 'this day in history' and then pointing at something more cheering that we might want to remember instead. It's very funny and very good. Go.
Walkit have added a few new features recently. There are air-pollution aware walking routes for inner London boroughs. And they've added coverage of Newcastle/Gateshead to London, Edinburgh and Birmingham. And, if you're in one of those cities, and you've got a website with one of those how to find us by car / plane / ornithopter pages you could add a walkit link so people can walk to you instead (as Mr Jones has suggested to the Pokesters here.)
Someone said to me the other day that what I did on here was discover* things and then mention them. That seems fair.
In that spirit, can I mention Shadowplay - 'David Cairns' wilfully eccentric film blog'? I haven't been so startled, amused and informed by a blog for ages. Really smart and enthused writing, splendidly off-centre and lots of YouTube treasure. This isn't film writing like you get in proper media. It's much, much better.
(Bearing in mind that 'discover' in this context is used in the same sense as in Columbus discovering America. ie discover = bumping into something loads of people already knew was there)
One of the things that's still delightful about scouring the bloggiverse is the way it gives you a glimpse inside other professional lives. The things people think about, care about, pay attention to. It's good to see the world through other people's eyes, especially if they're enthusiastic eyes (I think I stretched that image too far.) One of my favourite recent finds has been The Year In Pictures (found, I think, via The Sartorialist); the thoughts and discoveries of James Danziger, who has his own art photography gallery. He writes about photography in a way that makes you want to know more. And he picks some really choice pieces out of YouTube.
There was a lot of talk of people giving up blogging last year, probably a combination of Facebook, Twitter and generally running out of words. But I'm excited to see that lots of people who haven't posted for ages have started again. (I'm not adding any links in case I spook them.)
But I also suspect we're gradually working out what this kind of short-form, periodic writing is good for.
One thing it's clearly brilliant at is diaries, not writing your own, but reading historical ones. I find reading a diary all at once a bit dense. But reading it at the same pace it was written, relating it to the rhythms and coincidences of your own life, is perfect.
The daddy is still Phil Gyford's Pepys' Diary. A joyous thing, a work of love, a gift to the internet. It's more than a diary, it's a daily portal to Pepys' whole world. Just look here at all the things Phil has done to enhance the basic diary. If you've not looked before the Story So Far section will get you going. You should subscribe.
And I recently discovered (via a mention on the radio I think) WW1: Experiences Of An English Soldier, which is a fantastic thing; transcripts of the letters received from a WW1 soldier, posted 90 years after they were written. With all sorts of additional commentary and scans and context. Again, it seems to make the thing more meaningful, to read it at the pace it was written.
Slightly different, but equally useful and captivating is Matt Webb's RSSification of The Notebooks Or Leonardo Da Vinci. I'd never read this any other way. It's too big, too daunting, too abstract. But, as a little slice of thought in my bloglines reader everyday it's brilliant, a welcome alternative to all the wittering about brand utility and GPS. And, very often, there's something in there that makes you stop and think and want to explore more.
I wonder what else could/should be dismantled and delivered like this.
Pepys's Diary is one of those lovely ideas you wish you'd had yourself. But it's a good job you didn't, because you wouldn't have done anything about it. ('You' here, meaning 'me'.) But fortunately we didn't have this idea, Phil Gyford did and he's actually done something about it and created something fantastic; the sort of thing the web is great at and should be more full of. Now, this isn't exactly new news, it's been around for a while, but I mention it because it's been nominated as one of the best literature blogs and you should vote for it. If you want to.
Thoughtful are doing another, er, thoughtful thing which means that if you're a student in the creative industries you could win yourself a free D&AD annual. Or other D&AD goodies. You should have a look.
