The pot of gold at the end of your rainbow? Nah, it's just the Weekender

Date
23 January 2015

If you’ve been waiting all week for Friday evening like a shipwrecked sailor eagerly watches the horizon for the first sign of a rescue mission, then the Weekender is that hazy pink flare in the distance – the sign that you’re almost there! This week we’ve got an animation about our dependence on technology; a deluge of interviews with super talented artists, designers, photographers and printmakers; a smattering of erotica; a collection of photographs of people who want to be mermaids and a round-up of what’s happened in the world this week, from a certain newspaper’s fascination with the humble nip to TLC’s hotly-anticipated comeback. Delve in!

– This week we learnt a thing or two about the importance of real human interaction from this beautiful little animation by Kingston grad Doug Hindson. Put that phone down, pronto.

– While m23 founder Fons Hickmann showed us a few of the best books he owns. We’re huge fans of whoever came up with the bright idea of hiding a selection of vintage erotica inside a book about the History of Cinema.

– We’re now three quarters of the way into our collaboration with Squarespace, which runs you through every element of creating an online portfolio. This week we’re tackling copywriting. Because spelling is important!

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Arthur Drooker: Merfest

– There’s a magical place in Carolina where, three times a week, mermaid enthusiasts meet to don their tails and splash about a bit. Photographer Arthur Drooker documented it, for our viewing pleasure.

– It all went off this week when James Blunt got on his high horse over the shadow culture MP’s comments on inequality in arts opportunities. We had Jonathan Wakeham of Arts Emergency explain exactly why James is wrong.

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Workhorse Press: Untitled

– We spoke to Orlando and Dominic, the young co-founders of Edinburgh-based Workhorse Press, about the challenges of making new opportunities in Scotland and the precarious nature of working with Risograph machines.

– Following new designs for auction houses Christie’s and Sotheby’s, Bonhams had to step up to the mark, and sharpish. We had a chat with in-house designer Victor Seaward, who worked on the design of the Founded 1793 catalogue.

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Chris Burnett: Odd Future T-Shirt

Odd Future enthusiasts, roll up! Chris Burnett has worked on designs for the hip-hop troupe’s graphics, apparel and website, so it seemed appropriate to ask him about the weirdest and best of his work.

– Our online editor Emily Gosling popped down to Somerset House this week to watch musician PJ Harvey recording her new album behind a pane of one-way glass. A strange experience, but an unexpectedly compelling one, too. She wrote about it here.

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Stephen Shames: Bronx Boys, 13-year-old Rafael jumps from one building to the next, eight stories up. 1977

– Photographer Stephen Shames has devoted his life to publicising social issues, from racial inequality to poverty. We asked him about the stories behind his powerful series about young men growing up in the Bronx, NYC, in the 1970s and 80s.

– David Batchelor’s cheeky and colourful new project saw him doodle over every page of October, an esteemed and decidedly monochrome art journal. “In the 40 years since it was first published, there has not been a single colour image in any issue of October,” he told us. “Mine is a small act of Technicolor revenge.”

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Joe Dator: Earangel © Joe Dator/The New Yorker

– He’s quick-witted, concise, and he has plenty of advice to give! New Yorker cartoonist Joe Dator talks us through his illustrative choices and the beauty of single frame comics in this funny and insightful interview.

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Faig Ahmed: Oiling

– Azerbaijani artist Faig Ahmed has made a practice of unweaving traditional carpets and reworking them into something distinctly modern. He told us the touching story behind one particularly tricky one, here.

– And if you didn’t catch Christoph Niemann’s Reddit AMA this week, we’re giving you a run-down of what the illustrator had to say.

– This week will go down in history as the one in which The Sun newspaper brought an end to their archaic tradition of featuring a bare-breasted woman on page three … And then changed its mind and started back up again, calling the U-turn a “mammary lapse.” Good one.

– February 5 would have been the late William Burroughs’ 100th birthday, and to celebrate this occasion London’s October Gallery is holding an exhibition including work by Cerith Wyn Evans, Shezad Dawood and Genesis Breyer P-Orridge, entitled Can You All Hear me? Check out the gallery website for more information.

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Henri Matisse

– The Design Observer posted a magical lost interview with Henri Matisse from his cut-out days this week. “Before working I used to take a walk in my garden,” he explains in it. “Before working in my studio I look at the flowers, a tree, a form of branch. I am enchanted by flowers, by a combination of lines. When I return, I am [well] nourished by that and I make something else, something completely different.”

– It’s mens’ fashion week in Paris, and this time around the boys are getting as much attention as the girls, not least because the inimitable Rick Owens sent out a collection featuring fabric portholes carefully placed over the models’ penises. i-D is providing the puns.

Billie Muraben

It’s neither big or clever to laugh at other people’s misfortune, but sometimes it just is funny. It can also impart valuable life lessons – that the nightmares of tripping up during pivotal life moments aren’t unfounded. Good luck out there!

Maisie Skidmore

This week 90s girl band TLC announced that they’ll be crowdfunding their final album on Kickstarter (with rewards including a sleepover with T-Boz (!!!) and in doing so sent me into a YouTube hole of their old videos. This one is my favourite, for its combination of futuristic accessories, red eye shadow and synchronised choreography. Bliss.

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Sewell Sampler

Emily Gosling

I can’t believe I’ve been here for three months now and haven’t included the Sewell Soundboard in my Weekender musings yet. As its name suggests, it’s a soundboard where you can hear art expert Brian Sewell saying brilliantly baffling things. “Piss in the water,” perhaps. “Highly erotic pillow talk,” for the saucier amongst you. Or maybe that useful command, "put your hand on..on…on the goat.” For me, and my aunty (who has no small crush on Mr Sewell), this is hands down one of the best things on the internet.

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Jemaine Clement

James Cartwright

Jemaine Clement from Flight of the Conchords wants money to help release his new film in the US. It’s about vampires so I’m sold. Plus his promo video is funny. Win win.

Liv Siddall

It’s been a long week. Whenever I get stressy and tired I listen to Mazzy Star and pretend I’m a teenage girl in the 90s who’s just broken up with her boyfriend and has found out she’s moving house, like, next week. With that in mind, this rendition of Fade Into You by The Cookie Monster is both melancholic and hilarious: A cheer-you-upper and a bring-you-downer: perfect. Enjoy!

Rob Alderson

We’ve all been there – you try to be funny and end up confusing and/or annoying people and often having to commit to your “joke” far longer than you intended. Ok, I’ve been there, but maybe not the extent of the guy in this Reddit thread who pretended to his girlfriend’s parents that he didn’t know what a potato was. There’s some question as to the veracity of this, but even so it’s told beautifully and we’re with him every step of the way as the lie spools out of control.

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About the Author

Maisie Skidmore

Maisie joined It’s Nice That fresh out of university in the summer of 2013 as an intern before joining full time as an Assistant Editor. Maisie left It’s Nice That in July 2015.

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