Five things on Friday #88

Things of note for the week ending September 5th, 2014.

Things of note for the week ending September 5th, 2014.

shuttle

1. Disappearing Drive-Ins

Drive In

Photographer, Stephanie Klavens, has been documenting the fading world of US-based drive-in cinemas in a series of photos called ‘Vanishing Drive-Ins‘.

Strangely beautiful and, for me at least, a little poignant – these snapshots of disappearing Americana make me long for a UK revival.

drivein

via

2. Become Legend

Destiny: Live Action

Destiny arrives in less than a week from now (advance warning: Five Things might be late next week BECAUSE PLAYSTATION) and this newly released live action trailer is so much better than it should be and could’ve been OH so much worse.

Well done.

3. Interesting London Talks
I’ve been following the Talk London Twitter account for some time now and I still get such joy from it. The premise? A Twitter account specifically for keeping track of interesting talks, debates, and seminars in and around London.

Awesome and dead useful too.

Not in London but want a new Twitter account to follow? Try Saved You A Verge. It’s like Saved You A Click, but for The Verge. Brilliant.

4. UK Cinema Release Dates for your Calendar
I made this thing the other day. I was going to just throw it in as a list item on this week’s Five Things but then I figured it was so good, it deserved its own post.

Basically, I’ve made a calendar-based RSS feed for the UK film releases that I think are going to be good/worth seeing and you can add it to your calendar (iCal, Outlook, or Google) with this handy guide.

That’s all.

Next thing?

5. Inside the ISS
It’s Friday afternoon as you read this (probably). The weekend is around the corner and you’re feeling on top of the world (maybe). But now imagine being above it, looking down, and seeing the whole planet flow by beneath you.

Well, if you were sat in the Cupola section of the ISS, that’s exactly what you’d be able to do.

Like this –

Looking down

Wouldn’t be lovely if you had an awesome camera? With a telescopic lens? Something with which you could get a proper look at everything down there?

Like this –

ISS photo shoot

Now what if you were to take a video with that camera? One that came in at around 3mins and 40secs long, something that was just wonderful and allowed people to get lost in the wonder that is the planet we live upon?

Wouldn’t that be lovely?

Like this

via.

Happy Friday everyone.

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Bonuses this week are all massively self-obsessed:

 

Until next week.

 

Rankin Live

Moleskine entry: August 23rd, 2009

“Hair and make-up sir?”

“Um… Oh… Er..”

“Is the anything in particular you want doing?”

“Um… A photo?”

“Ok well some boys want their hair and make-up done, some don’t. Some just want to walk on… eau natural.”

What do you think?

Am I a hair and make-up kind of guy or not? You know me, right?

No crazy exploits this time ’round.

No bonkers make-up or dodgy eyeliner, just some good old fashioned basic foundation, a friendly photographer and of course, a smattering of James Whatley.

They said what?

In this quite frankly, awesome industry that I find myself working in – I get to meet some really, really interesting folk. People from all over the world who share a zest for life, a passion for creativity and more often than not, a love of technology too.

Parking the latter of the three for a moment, let me tell you about something cool that’s been on my radar
recently.

Y’see a while back a good friend of mine pointed me in the direction of a website called ‘Someone Once Told Me‘. Along with a note along the lines of “Dude, you have to get involved with this!”

SOTM

The gem of a human being behind this site is a man named Mario Cacciottolo who, as well as being an all round lovely chap, is an excellent photogrpaher. His idea for the site is simple:

…an attempt to gather and chronicle some of the things that people have heard in their lives, the messages and expressions that have stuck in people’s head, for reasons both obvious and odd.

What SOTM actually means is that people are asked, sometimes by appointment and sometimes randomly, to hold up a large piece of paper, upon which they write something that someone once told them. Or emailed. Or texted. Basically something that’s been communicated to them. But told, preferably.

A black and white photograph is then taken of them, and one new picture goes on the site every day…

You with me yet?
Got it?
No?

Well how about I show you the one that Mario took of me at the London Social Media Cafe recently?

– Yes, fairies do live at the bottom of my Mum’s garden –

Lovely huh?
The idea – not the picture of me… well, that ain’t bad either 😉

All of the photos are different in each way and every time Mario posts ones up he accompanies it with a small story detailing the context of the SOTM.

I’ve lost a good couple of hours going back through that site and there really is so much stuff in there, it’s quite astounding. The site itself, is now over a year old with a back catalogue of nearly 400 photographs that cross Continents, Languages and Religions. Happy, Sad, Sexy and Fun – SOTM really is an amazing project.

As I mentioned at the top of this post, I was pointed towards this site ages ago but only met Mario in person very recently at London’s Social Media Cafe, aka The Tuttle Club. It was the last event to be held at the Coach & Horses on Greek St and there was a real buzz in the air and everyone was smiling.

Mario chose a good day to visit! 🙂

One of the best things about the project is that it’s not exclusive to Mario to taking your photo. Literally, ANYONE can get involved, there is a page on the website that explains how you can send in your own SOTM images and mark your place on the site for all eternity.

I’m yet to properly sit down and talk to Mario about the future hopes for SOTM, but I know he’s recently started collecting audio clips from his participants to further enrich the pages of the site. One hopes that all of this creative output will one day lead to an exhibition of some sort and, having just spent the best part of two hours putting this post together (I got lost in the site – AGAIN), you can count that I’ll be first in line for a ticket when if and when it opens.

So come on, what did someone once tell you?