The Friday Thing #682

Well, 2021 got off to an interesting start.

The Friday Thing #682 is back to the now regular format of a collection of things I saw this week that piqued my interest enough that I actually took the time to read them. It’s hard not to start with something related to the events in Washington DC this week and of course there are many stories that has been written from many angles. What I’d like to shine a light on are the photojournalists who did such important work on Wednesday. Visual storytelling is one of the most impactful forms of storytelling – even more so in the digital, mobile, social age in which we live. It can be easy to take for granted the images we saw this week as well as forget that we saw them almost instantaneously. Being in the middle of a moment like this and capturing it with clarity and sharing it from a DSLR almost instantly takes real skill – and immense bravery. The Washington Post created a slideshow on January 6th, titled Scenes from U.S. Capitol as rioters storm building. I’d encourage you to take a look and pause on each photograph. Try to step behind it and imagine what it took to get each shot. Those photographers were documenting history while putting their lives in peril. For that they have my enduring admiration. 

Next up is a gem from the New York Times. Earlier this week, the Times published a collection of “late notes” that tell the story of 2020. These notes are written by Steve Kenny, The Times’s senior editor for nights who keeps the newsroom (including the Morning team) informed of what happened while most people are asleep. Five nights a week, Kenny sends an email to many editors and reporters in New York and all over the world that recaps the news and prepares the ‘dayside’ for the day ahead. The subject line of the email reads: “Late note” and apart from the occasional holiday flourish, it opens in nearly identical fashion each night: “Good morning, all.”

I love this so much – they’re like mini dispatches from the future and even when read in the here and now, it feels like you’re being let in to a secret room. Enjoy….

In a complete left turn, how about a story charting the impact of the Yamaha DX7 synthesiser? I didn’t expect to find such a tale in The Economist and probably would have missed it had it not for the image below of Phil Collins. Little did I know that this single, $2000 dollar instrument was so….instrumental in the creation of the music of my youth. And, it’s now back in the shape of the DX7 V – a virtual, software version of the original. Read on to find out how Yamaha’s DX7 synthesiser changed modern music and almost certainly played a part in one of your favorite songs. 

I’ll close with a little bit of fun that I look out for every year – the colour of the year from the team at Pantone. This year two colours were selected - Ultimate Gray and Illuminating. Apparently the combo of the two shades is meant to help people "fortify themselves with energy, clarity, and hope." I’ll take it. Expect lots of yellow and gray from me this year. 

That’s it for this week. Until next Friday!

-Steve