Happy Summer Solstice! Dance like a hippy around the Weekender

Date
20 June 2014

If I could, I’d don a sparkly, silver cape and a severe black bob wig while gazing into a crystal ball à la Mystic Meg to envision what all of you lot are going to get up to this weekend. I like to think I’d spot all manner of illicit affairs, summer solstice-inspired weirdness and wild, finger-forsaking parties.

As it stands though I have neither the required items nor the inclination to do a “Mystic Meg”, and the likelihood is you’ll be doing the same sort of things we will be – drinking beers in pubs, sitting on grass in parks and laughing until you think you might wee yourselves – so I’ll make do with doling you out this portion of ridiculous entertainment instead. Happy midsummer!

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Andrew Lyman: Alone Together

– Tom Bunker and Nicos Livesey revealed their favourite music video, and it’s this beaut from Dire Straits.
– We gazed open-mouthed at the bookshelf of Leon St-Amour, the creative director of Mr Porter.
– Our online editor Liv Siddall revealed how she really feels about outdoor cinema cinema.
– We talked about Björk, ELCAF, our creative symposium Here and the return of old school children’s programmes on this week’s Studio Audience.
– Head of A&R at Warp Records, Stephen Christian, made us a cool and trendy Friday mixtape.

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George R.R. Martin fan letter to Stan Lee and Jack Kirby

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A song of Ice and Fire, Issue #17

Madeleine Morley

This is a fan letter from a 15-year-old George R. R. Martin, and what makes it even better is that the letter is to Stan Lee and Jack Kirby, the legendary minds behind Spiderman, the Hulk and the Fantastic Four! It’s right up there with Morrissey’s fan letters to the NME from before he became famous and I love George’s elaborate enthusiasm and his passion for great narrative, a trait which definitely seeps into A Song of Ice and Fire, a.k.a HBO’s Game of Thrones. We’ve also got the much praised cover of Issue #17, just in case you were wondering what “THE WORLD’S GREATEST COMIC MAGAZINE” looks like.

Rob Alderson

I was shown this during the week and have been alternately playing it and singing it pretty much non-stop ever since. It’s not new, and 20 million people have already watched it on YouTube, but if you are one of the uninitiated as I was then allow me to change your life. Ylvis is a Norwegian comedy duo and this song is about a TV personality who can’t find happiness because of the mysteries surrounding Stonehenge. Every time I think it’s peaked, it goes and reaches a new level of weird, weird brilliance. All together now…

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Periodicult

Rebecca Fulleylove

Chronicling the gloriously hideous (but secretly wonderful) fashions of the 80s is Periodicult from writer and photographer Pamela Klaffke whose vast catalogue of movie stills, fashion shoots and adverts from the decade is seriously impressive. I LOVE how moody and pensive all the sharp-collared models are and how neat and put together everything is, even a slouchy jumper has been placed strategically.

Despite only experiencing one year of the 80s myself, it’s blogs like these that make me feel like I can indulgently reminisce about a time when power-dressing was the only kind of dressing.

Maisie Skidmore

Here’s a video of a screech owl named Kuu taking a bath and then being dried with a hairdryer. Why? Because it’s Friday, everybody’s brains are fried, and we shouldn’t need a reason to watch clips as cute as this one. That’s all.

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