We Recommend: Your Friday Freebies
Each Friday, our contributors send in a bunch of (legally) free stuff they’ve come across this week to help you waste your weekend. You’re welcome.
Each Friday, our contributors send in a bunch of (legally) free stuff they’ve come across this week to help you waste your weekend. You’re welcome.
YouTube — Skate Witches
Recommended by: Elmo Keep
Welcome to America.
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Website — Clickbait Dissertations
Recommended by: Koren Helbig (‘”And Then Who Do We Have Left To Publish?”: The Grim Future Of Writing In Australia“)
If you’re busy studying your little brain into mush over a thesis that you’re pretty sure no one is ever gone to read, let’s just say I’ve got your back this week. Announcing Clickbait Dissertations, the Tumblr that turns achingly boring, long-winded and borderline incomprehensible thesis titles into Upworthy-worthy linkbait headlines.
Take this totally tedious example: “Anthologising modernism: New verse anthologies 1913–53.” I think I just died of boredom. But who could resist its flash new title: “Meet the bad-ass bards who changed the way you experience the written word.” (Yes, I’m a mega nerd.)
There’s even a Twitter account for those of you who only have 140-character attention spans. Or you can choose to sum up years of work in just one sentence via the equally fabulous LOL My Thesis. Their awesomeness makes me wonder: why the obsession with stuffy academic titles in the first place?
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Photo Essay — The Stark Difference Between North And South Korea In 10 Stunning Photos
Recommended by: Michelle See-Tho (‘In Appreciation Of Spot The Dog: Soft, Cuddly, Smiles A Lot‘)
We all know North Korea is, well, North Korea. But these photos demonstrate very clearly the cultural and societal differences between North and South Korea. They’re like siamese twins in that they’re similar, but also very different — from each other. And they’re joined together. Here’s a picture.
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Article — ‘An Oral History Of A Surprise Blockbuster‘
Recommended by: Katie Booth (‘The Creepy Paddington Bear Meme Will Destroy Your Childhood‘)
This week marked the 20th anniversary of the ‘surprise blockbuster’ that predated Keanu’s sadness and Sandra Bullock’s Oscar win. The guys at Hitflix hunted down the extras of the ill-fated #2525 bus in Speed and collated an oral history of the film. The article features a few good insights from the extras: Hawthorne James, who played the bus driver, said upon a fix reading of the script, “This is kind of corny.”
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Poems — Every Episode of Game of Thrones Season 4 Reviewed in Limerick Poem!
Recommended by: Chris Bright
Before the Game of Thrones series finale next week, you probably want to jog your memory on what else has happened during the course of the season. Luckily, now you don’t need to spend your entire weekend re-watching episodes and sifting through essay-size recaps… The Limerick Review has reviewed each week in a witty 5-line rhyme. We’ve only posted the first episode below, as it’s the least spoiler-filled for those who aren’t up to date. See the rest on the Limerick Review website.
Episode 1 – Two Swords
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Article — ‘Is She Mariah, The ‘Elusive’ Chanteuse?‘, by Julia Tullah for Kill Your Darlings
It’s not often that you read some intelligent comment on Mariah, so this article is definitely a stand-out.
Tullah analyses the creation and construction of Mariah Carey’s persona — a thorough and in-depth examination not just of the “elusive chanteuse”, but of celebrity identity as a whole.
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