Features » Show & Tell » Ornery: “Monocle…It’s Always A Great Read’

Ornery: “Monocle…It’s Always A Great Read’

As 2023 draws to a close, we asked a few artists to summarise their year via their favourite YouTube videos for a special run of Show and Tell year-end roundups. Next up is Berlin-based Ornery.

Marques Brownlee

I love tech and new gadgets, and Marques Brownlee, aka MKBHD, is my favorite tech YouTuber.

Besides the countless, very detailed video reviews about “ordinary” tech, he’s also got a few interesting ones about electric vehicles, 3D printing for dogs, and … the design process of his own sneaker (!), which are very entertaining.

One of his secondary channels, “The Studio”, is also worth checking out for more vlogs or behind-the-scenes-type content.

Triathlon

As in, the 2023 Women’s Ironman World Championship in Kona, Hawaii. I’m a recreational triathlete, but I do enjoy watching the pros battle it out when I can. This year’s edition was particularly epic, with a women’s field that was as strong as ever.

I know it’s a niche sport, and it’s not exactly easy to cover and follow, but here are some of the best athletes on the planet. Outstanding race.

Mark Normand

This was the year I really discovered Mark Normand, now one of my favorite stand-up comedians.

His pieces of crowd work scattered around YouTube are hilarious, as was his Netflix special. His podcast with fellow comedian Sam Morril, “We Might Be Drunk”, is also worth checking out if you’re a fan of the genre.

Definitely NSFW, though!

Slow Horses

There were many standouts on Apple+ this year (“Hijack” is another one I could recommend), but this has been my favorite.

A band of MI5 misfits, “led” by the craziest of all, Jackson Lamb, (interpreted by Gary Oldman) fights major conspiracies with … extremely unorthodox methods and strategies. Brilliant.

All The Smoke

Former NBA players Matt Barnes & Stephen Jackson conduct “All The Smoke”, one of my favorite podcasts, and not only this year.

In-depth conversations with guests mostly from the sports world, but also crossing entertainment, entrepreneurial and tech worlds.

Here’s a recent episode with billionaire/NBA owner/investor Mark Cuban; always very interesting.

Monocle

Monocle is a global magazine on life, design, entrepreneurship, urbanism, travel and culture. I had randomly read a few issues in the past, but this year I truly kept up with it, and started to really savor the monthly appointment with the paper magazine.

It’s very fancy and always a great read. The editorial team also publishes a number of audio podcasts on different topics.

Football Manager

I got back into it a couple of years ago, and it hasn’t left my computer since.

You’re a fictional (soccer) football manager in control of all team decisions, from the transfer market to tactics to training and the like.

You can also choose how much you want to control, and how much you want to delegate.

No matter your level, every single decision you make influences something else. Staring at a glorified spreadsheet really is a lot of fun!

Matter

By far, it is my new favorite app this year.

It’s essentially a reader that lets you save anything from pretty much any source to read it later on a clean interface.

For someone who reads quite a bit and from many sources, it is definitely worth trying! It can even turn the articles/newsletters/quotes you saved into a playlist and read them for you.