The Overflow

This is the first time I’ve seen Malcolm X since its original release. Constantly evolving, relentlessly compelling, this is a masterpiece of modern cinema.

History is going to hit all those corrupt cowards incredibly hard. They aren’t power brokers, they are chicken shit scared little men.

Look. A lot has gone down in the past couple of decades. The world is a weird place. Not at all what we expected or hoped for.

Doug’s annual roundup is always essential viewing. It goes well beyond the usual mural compilations, weaving between illegal interventions, political actions, and the genuinely absurd.

Anil Dash’s article on Markdown’s origins is a reminder that the internet was built by generous people who made good things and gave them away.

It’s always about this time of year that I start to yearn for long summer days. Here in Aberdeen we have about 7.5 hours of daylight mid January – and that doesn’t take account of the dark cloudy days. If you were to offer me tickets a few days somewhere warm in the southern hemisphere, I’d take your arm off. So, what do I do to counter the effects of SAD?

I’ve been tinkering with micro.blog again, which feels like the right move. After bouncing between platforms over the years, there’s something refreshing about landing somewhere that just gets out of the way and lets you write. The technical migration was straightforward enough. Moving from Ghost to micro.blog with the Bayou theme, sorting out the feeds from Letterboxd and Bluesky, tweaking the dark mode styling. All the usual fiddling. But that’s the easy part.

A few years ago, I made a wee film with a friend that, to my surprise, Aberdeen Art Gallery selected to go on display. While I should have been pleased, I hated the whole thing. I felt like a fraud. I was taking up space that a ‘proper artist’ could have filled. What made it worse was that my face was on show for half of the damned run time. On the opening night, I didn’t even look in its direction.

This thing looks ridiculously fun. Pop on the goggles, squeeze the grip, and the sky’s literally the limit. Forget lining up perfect shots; you just fly, swoop and chase whatever catches your eye. The A1 will record everything in 360, so you can stay in the moment and worry about framing later. That freedom leaves you to be braver, more playful, more curious. Jesse Driftwood ends this (sponsored) video by nailing the benefits of 360 drone cameras.