5 Things for the Week Ahead: 4 Mar
Think Shape App
This is a brilliant app - but also somewhat limiting unless you pay. Which is honestly fair enough - it has value without paying and I’m sure delivers even more if you pay. I was interested to try it out and kept within the free area of the app. The Think Shape app is designed to help you understand your body shape which in turn will help you to know what size you are when buying clothes online. Super helpful. It achieves this by asking you to input all your measurements - all of them! From the length of your neck, to the width of your lower hips vs your natural waist etc. I loved the measuring process and it took no time at all - and was strangely satisfying. There are helpful videos for each body part and how to accurately measure it. Once all your measurements are added, the app gives you an overview of your body type and specifics around size (I apparently have long arms compared to my torso - who would have known!) That’s as far as you can get on the free side of the app - beyond this it looks like you can get style and clothing advice which I’m sure would be useful. Once done I kind of thought, well that was fun and interesting but that’s it. However, earlier this week I was interested in buying a piece of clothing online and wasn’t sure which size I would be - the website size guide was in cms / inches which ordinarily annoys me because who knows their waist measurement?! and then I remembered…the Think Shape App! I opened it up - and there were all my measurements. Very handy! thinkshapeapp
American Nightmare
I watched this true crime docu-series last week and was kind of gripped by it. It’s an easy watch over a couple of nights. The story follows a couple who claim that one night their home was broken into and the woman kidnapped. A police investigation is mounted and the boyfriend questioned - when the woman eventually resurfaces and returns to their home, suspicion is cast on whether the whole episode was a hoax similar to the story line in the fictional story ‘Gone Girl’. I won’t spoil for you the outcome - needless to say it was quite a gripping story - but I have to say I found the crime really uncomfortable to witness so if you are a bit of a scaredy cat like me, I just want to give you some warning that you might find it distressing.
Who Trolled Amber Heard
I chanced upon this podcast through my subscription of Tortoise Media. I didn’t know anything about it and wasn’t particularly interested in the Heard v Depp mess of a story - I had watched the Netflix documentary which dissected the trial last year so for someone with limited interest in either Heard or Depp, I felt like I’d participated enough already in their story. But, this podcast is not really about Amber Heard. Well, it is, but it’s so much more than that and the investigation has me questioning everything about disinformation and the power that an individual or group can have in shaping our points of view. I am half way through the series and I am really engrossed in it. It feels alarming and really worth understanding the lengths that we can be manipulated online without us really knowing. I highly recommend you give it a listen. It can also open conversations with kids about online content and manipulation.
the greatest night in pop
A thoroughly enjoyable one-part documentary that tells the story of how the single We Are the World was made. If you are my age, this documentary will totally take you back and there is such a nostalgic joy in tapping back into that time when this single was top of the charts. Lionel Richie narrates the story and the behind the scenes footage of all the stars navigating this exceptional night is lovely to see. However, what I think is even better, is the story of Band Aid - which came before the American version of We Are the World. Band Aid was the British version of We Are the World and was spearheaded by Bob Geldof. More than the American ‘We Are the World’, I really connect with the Band Aid single and British pop stars. The relaxed, slightly chaotic footage of how Band Aid was brought together and seeing how unfiltered and authentic pop stars were back in the 1980s provides such a contrast to today’s over marketed, made up and polished pop stars. It’s hard to see how Band Aid would happen with today’s cadre of pop stars - which makes watching it almost more of a joy. A reminder of my youth and an important part of my growing up and for the first time understanding hunger and poverty and charitable giving. You can find The Greatest Night in Pop on Netflix and here is a link for one of the documentaries on Band Aid (you can find another two part documentary on how Live Aid came together on You Tube too - this link will get you into the Band Aid universe of content). The Band Aid Story.
Can I tell you a secret?
I just watched this two-part real crime docu-series at the end of last week. OK…caveat, I’m recommending this as a good one to watch despite the fact that it’s not the highest quality and the story could have been told in one 45 min documentary - as interesting as the story is, it didn’t deserve two hour long episodes - to stretch it out the documentary is peppered with superfluous filler footage and unnecessary time spent going over the same narratives. But anyway, put that to one side. The overarching story of Can I Tell You A Secret is a warning for how publicising our lives online can be used against us to terrorise, ruin relationships and life in general. I felt exceptionally sorry for the victims - but also somewhat perplexed that they didn’t remove themselves from being on social media to avoid the man who was terrorising them. It made me think about how we should keep a lot of our lives private and be very careful about what we share online. But then I’m not a digital native so perhaps that’s easy for me to say. For the women in this documentary, being on social media was woven inherently into their lives and it didn’t seem like they could conceive of life without a social media presence. I feel like this docu-series kind of links back in with the Amber Heard podcast I’m recommending above. It has similar and overlapping themes of the pitfalls of being online.