That’s the river.

That’s my river.

Oct 03, 2022

It’s a rare star that can outshine LeBron James’. But on a recent episode of ‘The Shop,’ actor Daniel Kaluuya did just that.

His description here of how he got into the zone to shoot the speech scene in Judas and the Black Messiah is mesmerising.

Kaluuya narrated the most recent series of All Or Nothing - Arsenal, a look back on Arsenal’s 2021-22 season.

Mikel Arteta's Emotional Dressing Room Team Talk | All or Nothing: Arsenal

This is the third instalment of an extraordinary coaching triptych, giving viewers an insight into the coaching styles of Arsenal’s Mikel Arteta, Manchester City’s Pep Guardiola, and Jose Mourinho during his stint at Tottenham.

You really have to pinch yourself as a sports fan to get this kind of access.

Pep v Jose's Team Talk Styles! | Who Comes Out on Top?

I know nothing about video games but our seven year old got a Nintendo Switch for his birthday, and now he and I are making our way through Zelda Breath of the Wild and it, is, amazing.

We are both relatively low on skill, and so we play to each others’ strengths - he’s does the hand-to-hand combat, I shoot arrows and throw bombs, and each Shrine is a shared effort of ~skill and logic.

We’re still early (currently at the beginning of Chapter 2 – Dueling Peaks) but we’re going to spend maybe 100 hours getting to the end of the game together and my mind is just blown at the whole experience.

I know “Zelda is a good video game” is not a super original take. But I don’t think either of us will ever forget the weeks of of immersion in Zelda’s epic Bierstadt scenery.

Rocky Mountain Landscape - Albert Bierstadt, 1870

If you watch just one thing after reading this edition of Branches - make it Derek Delgaudio’s ‘In & Of Itself’. Breathtaking.

And if you listen to just one thing, Fred Again… just dropped an all-time Boiler Room mix.

Fred again… | Boiler Room: London

I was going down the rabbit-hole of this clickbait-y article: ‘No one is safe from Melbourne’s brutally honest and fearless meme-makers’, when I came across Ocray44 the brand behind Melbourne’s ubiquitous bleached floral caps.

The YouTube algo must have been listening intently as it served me up a Boiler Room set in Belfast with the thumbnail showing a DJ (who turned out to be Skin on Skin from Melbourne) in one of said caps… thus introducing me his relentless Boiler Room set at the AVA Festival.

It’s a set that will be too hard for most, except if you’re trying to hit a deadlift PB.

Recommended Reading Pt. II:

If the response time between two people in conversation is under a quarter second (faster than conscious control allows), two people have clicked.

If you’re a leader in your organisation, I highly recommend subscribing to the Admired Leadership Substack.

Poor writing, not specialized concepts, drives processing difficulty in legal language

People underestimate how enjoyable and engaging just waiting is.

Could ‘Ferris Bueller’s Day Off’ really be done? We found out.

Why aren’t medical breakthroughs in obesity a bigger deal?

Elvis - Unchained Melody e All Shook Up

Australian exceptionalism is a long-time obsession, the evolution of which I previously tried to distill in two parts here, and here.

In the canon of Australian exceptionalism is our remarkable come-from-behind victory in the 1983 America’s Cup. I have reread many times this version of the story - Australia 2.0.

So you can imagine the thrill of seeing The Race Of The Century broadcast to the world as part of Netflix’s Untold documentary series.

“We were all crazy. It was part of the deal.”

Foo Fighters drummer Taylor Hawkins died in March this year.

At his tribute concert, Hawkins’ son Shane took his Dad’s place on the drums to perform ‘My Hero’.

Foo Fighters ft. Shane Hawkins Perform "My Hero" | MTV

“And once the storm is over, you won’t remember how you made it through, how you managed to survive. You won’t even be sure, whether the storm is really over. But one thing is certain. When you come out of the storm, you won’t be the same person who walked in. That’s what this storm’s all about.”

- Haruki Murakami, ‘Kafka on the Shore’.

“If the world could remain within a frame like a painting on a wall,
I think we'd see the beauty then and stand staring in awe"
– Bright Eyes, ‘Bowl of Oranges’

There is a moment in Nolan - the documentary exploring the life of legendary Australian artist Sidney Nolan - recounting the many, long years his father didn’t talk to him because of his disappointment in Nolan’s choice of art for a career.

Nolan’s ‘Riverbend’ paintings are about that relationship.

You say you painted [Riverbend] as you were thinking of your father. Did your father see it?
I painted it for my father. I thought, when he sees it, he won’t say - why don’t you get your haircut… why did you take up art?
He’ll say, oh, that’s alright, that’s the river. That’s my river.
But I just missed out because … he died … a month before the exhibition.

Branches 🌿

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