The Weekender

Date
30 March 2012

“Where does the Weekender come from?” a child asks. “Sol Invictus,” his father replies. In the time it takes the child to arrange his face in confusion and lose all interest in the answer to his question, dad’s already on his iPhone 4, the Wikipedia app, reciting to the child’s horror from a really long entry. The child cries. The Weekender continues…

Best of the site

A few great films emerged this week: the perfectly synchronised animation for Simian Mobile Disco’s new track Cerulean; the trailer for Knock for Knock, a trip through Japan scored by Scottish band Mogwai; and the wonderful Jean-Luc Godard-inspired trio of films for Opening Ceremony.

Best of the rest

A brilliantly engaging graphic representation all about the one percent over on the Opinion pages of the New York Times, Mashable explain why magazines look terrible on the iPad, and Creative Review deliver a nice piece on the Yayoi Kusama-inspired Hello Cube at Tate Modern.

Accidental penis of the week

Does what it says on the tin: www.accidentalpenis.com

The last email-checking-free-zone to be conquered of the week

Depending on your side of the fence, the threats/promises are soon to realised: Internet on the underground. We’re not sure how we feel about this so a quick pro/con breakdown is as follows. Pro: You’ll be able to read the Weekender on the tube. Con: You’ll be able to read the Weekender on the tube when you should be reading an intensely intelligent novel and ignoring the people around you. More…

Tweet of the week

“You’re 14 and quitting smoking? How Inspiring.”
The mellifluous voice of a condescending @WilllyWonka

Cash for access pledge campaigns of the week

A scandal emerged from Downing Street this week (yes, another one). The punchline goes: Cash for access to the Prime Minister! A number of novel pledge campaigns have cropped up to help endorse this hilarity. See here and here.

Condescending support from the people that should love you most of the week

Fans of German football team, FC Magdeburg (who had failed to score for their four previous matches) thought they’d give their team a helping, albeit enthusiastically patronising hand by directing countless fluro-arrows towards the oppositions goal. It sort of worked, they lost 2-1.

Technology that’s still surprising of the week

Alexander Graham Bell, inventor of that dreadful Lady Gaga song, made numerous audio recordings during his time. A selection of these 130-year-old wax-disc records have only been digitised by some clever museum archivists and their contents have opened up an important insight into 19th Century life. One recording announces “It’s the 11th day of March 1885.” Cool!

Translate this of the week

If you learn just one word of another language, better make it a good one. Here’s a list of the top 20 untranslatable words. “Tartle!”

Tumblr of the week

Cataloguing despair-inducing online messages, cannily named Screenshots of Despair.

Now we drink beer.

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Further Info

About the Author

Bryony Quinn

Bryony was It’s Nice That’s first ever intern and worked her way up to assistant online editor before moving on to pursue other interests in the summer of 2012.

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