Straight 8

Super 8 film

This good old kind of reel film is nothing less but amazing. The feeling of a film camera running, the buzzing sound of the mechanics at work. Just opening up and mounting a brand new cardridge of film, putting into the camera, recording it, putting it into the yellow Kodak envelope and mailing it away for development. It´s expensive, 50 ft of film costs on average $50. You cannot rewind the tape, you can just film it the one time. Therefore you need to have a plan while shooting. The texture of the film on screen is miles away from that dull quality you gain from video. There´s a warmth to the image that is priceless, and it can only be caught on film. No sensors at play.
There´s even a film festival celebrating NEW productions on Super 8 film. You are not allowed to even edit the film, and the worst part is that you aren´t even allowed to watch your film prior to the screening. Check out the Straight8 festival. Get that camera out and start shooting. This embedded film I made on unedited Super 8, I only added the music.

Things to do in Sidcup when it´s raining

Second home

Turn your garden tree into a nice weekend home.

My kids would love it if I was to build a fancy house in our garden tree. It´d be a perfect place to hide from the parents, or if you wanted a curious hideaway. You could make it a rather comfy and solid construction. In my neighbourhood it wouldn´t be a hideaway, rather the oposite. Nevertheless, it´d be a nice project for for a guest house for example you could leave your in-laws there when you were tired of listening to their whining...
Check out the Treehouse Workshop if you need some help on how to build it.

The Earthship

It is my firm belief that we will need to provide for a more sustainable living in the years to come. The more energy we can accumulate by using natural sources only will have to be one of the important things getting used to. Therefore you might as well start early, and begin on a smaller scale. However, there is nothing that should prevent you from building a perfect autonomous house like the ones that is presented at Earthship.

This is their own blurb:
Earthship Biotecture creates buildings that...
heat and cool themselves naturally via solar/thermal dynamics
collect their own power from the sun and wind
harvest their own water from rain and snow melt
contain and treat their own sewage on site
produce food in significant quantities
utilize materials that
are byproducts of modern society
like cans, bottles and tires

Amazing quotations!

It must be hard to be a celebrity and being expected to have an opinion about everything, just because you are famous, or infamous in some cases, hence the former US president. I don´t blame Jennifer Anniston for not being a a specialist in environmental issues, but Bush should have known better.

Link to the best celebrity quotes about the environment: treehugger.com