This is an amazing project! Quakebook: 2:46: Aftershocks: Stories from the Japan Earthquake. In just over a week, a group of unpaid professional and citizen journalists who met on Twitter created a book to raise money for Japanese Red Cross earthquake and tsunami relief efforts. In addition to essays, artwork and photographs submitted by people around the world. Completely crowdsourced (writing/editing/design & layout) thru Twitter and then pitched to Amazon, who agreed to waive their usual cut so that all of the money made by the book & eBook/kindle version goes straight to Japan Red Cross. Countless people worked on it – completely volunteer. [MORE] (more…)
Month: April 2011
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Quakebook – Stories from the Japan Earthquake
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The Love Letter – Our Hearts Are A Wilderness
I don’t rock climb. It’s not that I am trying to say that I couldn’t climb, just that my current body configuration isn’t conducive to climbing. Although this movie is based in the idea of climbing, it really is only one tiny bit of what the film is about. It’s a glorious movie about the outdoors, and life, and love.
It captures how I feel about the outdoors, and wraps it up in a digestible nugget. It’s a really well done adventure film that lacks all of the typical pieces you’d usual find in one. It’s free of the usual million fast paced cuts, and the overly loud musical interludes. It’s a story, and a great one. An excellent, exhilarating feel good piece that is well worth your next 12 minutes.
Funded by Outdoor Research [whom I now love EVEN more] & Osprey Packs.
From the description on the OR site:
Still clinging to young man’s dreams, a 30-something professional revives his youthful vision of summits and faint trails and abandons work and the city. The Love Letter follows a pair of climbers in search of new and classic climbing routes across the spine of the Sierra, into difficult to reach stretches of the range. In the clutter of the modern world, can wilderness restore the human spirit?
Follow Fitz and Becca Cahall on their 300mile journey through the Sierra.
It’s been making the rounds in the climber circles, but I think that it has tons of storytelling and cinematic merit as well. OR is even running a contest giving away gear and such over on a The Love Letter Project Facebook Page. What’s even better that getting free gear, is reading all of the stories that are being posted over there. Really hope filled, awe inspiring stuff. Enjoy. Now go outside.
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OpenBuildings – The Wikipedia of World’s Built Enviroment
OpenBuildings aims to become the Wikipedia for architecture, and buildings and is well on the way. The site is brimming over with information. It’s up to about 40,000 entries which sounds like it might be overwhelming, but when you first get to the site [or through the iPhone App] it all laid out very visually. Find something that tickles your fancy and you can move into more details including its architects, photos, media, floor plans, maps and more.
It becomes even more of an attractive time suck once you get to the suggestions area where you can explore more unique buildings that share similarities with what you were looking at. [MORE] (more…)