Fast cars, bright lights, and shaken martinis -- not bad for a week's work. Friday Five, Volume 41 sees the return of a couple iconic franchises, some great new musical performances, and another Instagram artist you need to be following. The weather is cooling down, but that doesn't mean we'll stop bringing the heat!
No Time To Die
Nothing else felt appropriate to kick off our Friday Five this week. After almost two years of hype, we finally get to see Daniel Craig’s final appearance as James Bond in No Time to Die. Craig has given us two of the most highly regarded installations in the Bond franchise (Casino Royale and Skyfall), and we can only hope his last turn as 007 is something special. Cary Fukunaga, who is maybe most famous for directing Season One of True Detective, is at the helm, so it is definitely in good hands. Not to mention the fact that Fleabag creator Phoebe Waller-Bridge contributed to the script, along with a number of other writers. Throw in a cast that includes Rami Malek and Ana de Armas, and this movie should be HUGE. We can’t wait to see this one in theaters, and we recommend you do, too. We just have one last question: shaken, or stirred?
SNL Returns
This past weekend marked the season premiere of Saturday Night Live, and it was a fun return for the comedic institution. A lot of familiar faces were back, including Kenan Thompson and Cecily Strong, along with a few new players in a pretty massive cast. They were joined by host Owen Wilson and musical guest Kasey Musgraves in what was all-in-all a pretty solid season debut. Some of the sketch highlights included a fun riff on Cars sequels with Wilson, as well as a great Joe Buck impersonation from newcomer James Austin Johnson. They also did a cool tribute for the late Norm Macdonald to close out Weekend Update, ending the segment with some of Macdonald’s best jokes from his turn as anchor. The show has had its ups and downs in recent years, but it is always fun to see the iconic show return, especially when a talented performer like Owen Wilson steps up as host.
Cold War Kids - New Age Norms 3
As the seasons change, our music listening habits tend to change with it. As we transition out of summer jams, we definitely shift towards a lot more rock and alternative, and the Cold War Kids just gave us a great album to kick off our fall listening. New Age Norms 3 is incredibly short, but that didn’t stop the Cold War Kids from packing a ton of different, unique sounds into the album. There’s the big, upbeat, arena-rocky opener “I Can’t Walk Away.” There’s the funky rhythm that’ll get you out of your chair in “What You Say.” There’s the slow-jam ballad “Nowhere to Be” that feels like it needs to be accompanied with drinks and candlelight. Truly, there’s something for everyone in just 29 minutes of music. Whether you want to listen to this on repeat, or pick and choose for a fall playlist, we’ll bet you can find some great tracks to jam along to from the new CWK.
The Killers on 30 Rock
While we were definitely jamming to some new music this week, we also made time for a great throwback performance from The Killers. The band played a special performance from the Top of The Rock for The Tonight Show, and if the killer view wasn’t enough, they also happened to play one of our favorite tracks, “When You Were Young.” It was a surreal show, with some unreal aerial angles of the band playing with the Empire State Building in the background. There was so much joy and energy from both the band and the crowd, even for a song that’s 15 years old. The big moments in the song played even bigger in a setting like that, especially the breakdown in the middle; it’s just so quiet and dreamy with all of New York City in the distance. Late Night music performances aren’t usually much of a spectacle, but this one from The Killers was definitely an exception.
Ash Thorp
We’ll take any chance we can get to highlight 3D artists or fast cars, and this week, we get a chance to do both. Ash Thorp is a conceptual artist who designs incredible 3D renders of cars and motorcycles, and luckily for us, he posts them all to Instagram. Thorp uses a render engine called Corona Render, and we are blown away by the stuff they manage to turn out. The most recent McLaren F1 render was especially sick, and there was a cool story about how it has inspired some of Thorp’s other projects in the caption. There are really sharp colors and lines across all of Thorp’s work, and there’s always awesome lighting as well. The designs are super realistic and imaginative, and we can only dream of seeing these concepts in real life. We can’t make you do it, but we highly suggest you let out your inner gear-head and give Ash Thorp a follow!