Friday Fives, Vol.45
Every week The Working Assembly shares inspiration that intersects art, music, fashion, and culture — five stories that we have on our radar and think should be on yours, too.
Here’s this week’s Friday Fives!


Amazon plans a “Landmark” decision
Nearly one year after their shocking $13.7 billion acquisition of Whole Foods, Amazon is shaking up another industry with a potential foray into the brick-and-mortar movie theater business. The retail giant is currently in the running to acquire Landmark Theaters, a high end movie theater chain based in California. Considering the current contract between Landmark and MoviePass, does this mean we’ll soon be seeing some sort of Amazon/MoviePass merger? If it means getting free movie tickets as an Amazon Prime perk, we’re here for it. — CB


These future plants take care of humans
First there were smartphones, now we have smart homes. What’s next? Smart plants. A team of scientists at The University of Tennessee is currently working to engineer plants with biosensors that will function as home health detectors. These high-tech plants will react to harmful materials such as toxic gases, molds, or emissions, and alert residents by changing the color of their leaves. Let’s hope these futuristic plants are harder to kill than my current, low-tech versions or they definitely won’t live long enough to alert me to anything (aside from my poor plant-mom skills). — CB


Knowledge (and dope tees) for all
This week, the worlds of internet nerds and hypebeasts collided as Wikipedia launched their new streetwear collection encouraging free knowledge for all. A collaboration with the brand Advisory Board Crystals, sales of the clothing line will help raise money for the donation-fueled Wikimedia Foundation. For years we’ve all known that Wikipedia is the best thing on the internet, and now we can finally show our support *in style*. — DF


This app literally just gives away burritos
FREE BURRITOS ALERT. This week Dos Toros Taqueria launched a new app called “Burrito Time” that exists for the sole purpose of giving away free food. Each day the app will send a randomly-timed push notification announcing that it is — you guessed it — “Burrito Time!” The notification initiates a race against the clock that dishes out free digital gift cards to the first 10 burrito fans to open the app. What a time to be alive. — CB


Paying tribute to Aretha Franklin
Yesterday the music world lost a legend with the death of Aretha Franklin, the Queen of Soul. As an individual, she shaped the American experience with her music. As former President Obama stated: “In her voice, we could feel our history, all of it and in every shade — our power and our pain, our darkness and our light, our quest for redemption and our hard-won respect.” Aretha’s powerful voice and legendary stage presence are not the only things about her that will be remembered — since the news of her death, an outpouring of tributes have been payed to her memorable style (that hat!), her confidence, her ability to throw shade, and, most importantly, her empowering message for us all. — CS
Originally published at eepurl.com.