Picks, no tricks.
A selection from the last many months.
Greetings! ‘tis the last few days of the year, and I hope everyone is enjoying some sort of break or is on the brink of one. An inevitably good time for me to look back on some of my pieces from these last many months of Coffee & Conversations. Thanks for reading as much as you might have, its wonderful to have you enjoy bits & pieces of my missives. Some pieces got me more responses or feedback or joy. These are from the ‘main’ pieces; though some of the small nuggets resonated too, I resisted from adding those in!
Here we go, in no particular order. Have a read of one of those you might have missed! (click on the titles).
The Rise, Fall (& Rise?) of Flappy Bird
The story of a viral sensation- a game which had us tapping frantically in 2014- only to vanish at the height of its popularity.
The Duke, the Baron, the Thief
An Olympic story spanning three centuries and a theft.
Really, TV?
The year is 1998. One show takes its ambition a bit further, its ripples felt to this day. A baffling tale from reality TV.
A Prince from a foreign land
"All the princess's hopes now rest on the brave youth she loves." The 1989 game Prince of Persia, and its sequels, went on to become quite the franchise, including a flashy Hollywood adaptation, but it will always be PoP the game for many. This is how it all came back on my radar after all these years.
A Beep for The Beatles
Sonic gags: an amusing intersection of technology, legal & music.
Of Craft, Art & a Tuscan Summer
Ffern releases four fragrances a year, at the equinox and solstice, working with “the rhythms of the seasons”. Scents blended in nature, wrapped in creative expressions.
An AI pinch of salt
In our relationship with new technologies, we have become habituated into being either starry-eyed cheerleaders or disdainful denouncers. As with so much, the real truths, the real narratives, the real progress lies somewhere in the middle.
Hand Made
We sometimes bump into creative work that has a physical, organic, hand-made texture to it. This can be refreshing, or curious, or beautiful, or a little bit of all. I share two that have delighted in recent months, and one that's unexpected.
Is This The Real Life?
or is this just fantasy. My dive into the world of AI-generated influencers.
One of the most shiny uses of generative AI is when AI replicates the most human of things- our appearance. Eye-catching, sure, but this is also the space where we could see the most apparent, noisy and insidious of disruptions. Much of it is well underway.
Selfishly Speaking
“I don’t respect you”. There was a *lot* of chatter around Nike’s summer campaign leading up to the Olympics- "Winning Isn’t For Everyone". Sharply written. Visually stunning. With the brilliance of Willem Dafoe's singular, intense, provocative narration.
And, per se
A distant memory of mine is discovering what the ampersand symbol actually was. Amper-wha, you say? That’s ‘&’, the symbol for the word ‘and’.
The Oblivious Pioneer
One of my favourite rabbit holes- an unlikely music story; tugging at a musical chord which threads through four decades, pulsating across Bombay, Chicago, Bollywood, Europe, acid house and Indian classical.
Off for a much-needed cup!