Friday Reading S14E01

Friday Reading is a weekly series of recommended reads from the Guardian’s Martin Belam, covering journalism, media and technology, and other interesting nerdy things he found on the internet this week. It is now in its fourteenth season. Sign up here.

There hasn’t been an edition of Friday Reading since July 2022. However, in my temporary role as a writer for First Edition every day for work I am foraging around the internet. That is because I am looking for things to go in the “What else we’ve been reading” section of the newsletter. I thought I might as well start gathering them here alongside the things I liked but which didn’t quite fit into the issue. Enjoy!

Daniel Dylan Wray opens the pages of a new compendium dedicated to the golden age of crisp packet design. Packet of Space Raiders, anyone? How about Hedgehog flavour?

Amy Hawkins takes a long look at the morbid sounding Are You Dead? app which has become a sensation in China among lonely and isolated people.

For The Face, Phin Jennings profiles Jack Anderton, the 25-year-old behind Nigel Farage’s social media efforts to reach young voters as a “straight-talking, cigs-and-pints aficionado uncle”.

My Thursday news quiz at the Guardian has had a visual makeover, thanks to some lovely whimsical illustrations from Anaïs Mims. Here is this week’s: Thursday news quiz – Farage breaking rules and a cow that uses tools.

I also had some fun with this: Who said it – the Robert Jenrick memo or David Brent?

If you are baffled by the existence of Arc Raiders, which swiftly become one of the most successful online shooters in the world since its October launch, Keith Stuart has you covered.

I cannot agree more strongly with Picturehouse boss Clare Binns – Bafta recipient for outstanding British contribution to cinema – who argues films should shorten to get bums on seats.

Paula Cocozza correctly identifies Minecraft – where I first encountered them – as a factor in the axolotl craze sweeping the globe. They are so, so cute.

I genuinely will never ever tire of hearing my colleague Robyn Vinter tell of the time she went out to do a bit of reporting and got snowed in at a pub for four days.

The Pill have split up, citing the pressure of touring. I saw them a couple of times last year and they were great fun.

Alex Peters reports for Dazed on the extraordinary sounding performance art by Tilda Mace in which she appears to cut someone open live on stage via prosthetics and SFX, recalling for me the transgressive acts of Leigh Bowery.

A lovely in-depth view of the undersung art of prop-making for the movie business, which includes a fantastic anecdote about accidentally setting off a nuclear missile crisis.

The Guardian’s picture desk has gathered together the 20 winning photographs from the Portrait of Britain photography awards.

My phone updated last night to that fugly new iOS ‘liquid glass’ look. Thanks, Apple. I hate it.

My contributions to First Edition this week were:
· What is it like living in Greenland and being threatened by Trump?
· Can we afford to be optimistic about grassroots music venues?
· What the mood at Davos can tell us about a changing world order

Friday Reading is a weekly series of recommended reads from the Guardian’s Martin Belam, covering journalism, media and technology, and other interesting nerdy things he found on the internet this week. It is now in its fourteenth season. Sign up here.