I've got a new Mac for work stuff so that I can work from home. It's a lot bigger and whizzier than my own Acer Aspire One which is fine for 'home' stuff but not really oomphy enough to handle what I need to interact with the website at work and make changes to it (Dreamweaver plus a VPN to UCL which is where the files are located, even though I work at Queen Mary).
Here's what I've discovered in the couple of hours of playing around on it.
Because I'm used to working on a PC I tend to spot all the things doesn't have (just took me 20 seconds to work out how to make italics!) rather than focus on the positives but don't get me wrong, I am quite taken with this thing.
Forward delete
There's no forward-delete button only a backspace delete one, but the option is available as Fn+backspace.
Hashtag key is Alt3 #
The # hash symbol is Alt3 - it may be possible for me to 'remap' my keyboard so that I can select a key and sacrifice it to the hash. It would be great if all keys were just customisable in this way.
Lifehacker on remapping Mac keyboards: http://lifehacker.com/5882684/the-best-keyboard-remapper-for-mac-os-x
Screenshot - taking a pic of what's on screen
I regularly (daily) take a screenshot of something on my PC's screen and whiz it into Paint for some mild pruning - often a map, or something else I want to edit. It's a bit more faffy on a Mac. First of all I downloaded a Mac version of Paintbrush from sourceforge and then I had to discover how to capture a screenshot - that's Ctrl+Cmd+Shift+3 (until I've worked out how to shush the Mac from sonifing every little thing I do this also makes the 'camera aperture shutter' sound of taking a photograph), then Cmd+V to get it into the Paintbrush window for tweaking.
To avoid tweaking I can use Ctrl+Command-Shift-4 to bring up crosshairs which I can then click and drag to enlarge over the area (and only that area) that I want to capture. The Ctrl bit means it's copied to clipboard, without that it's saved as an image file on the desktop.
Screenshot info: http://graphicssoft.about.com/od/screencapturemac/ht/macscreenshot.htm
Paintbrush info: http://paintbrush.sourceforge.net/downloads/
Numlock and fancy characters, umlauts and whatnot
Not spotted the Numlock keys so not sure how much fun I'll be able to have with the Alt+numbers which normally bring up a wide variety of strange symols on a PC. Undoubtedly these things will work fine on a Mac, I just need to find out how to do that. I think my favourites are Alt+175 » to make little chevrons (alt 174 makes the reverse type «) and Alt+0254 to make a little tongue sticking out (it's similar to the runic 'thorn' symbol) รพ
Alt codes info: http://www.spike-jamie.com/alt-codes.html - copying and pasting these works OK but it would be nice to be able to make them directly from the keyboard.
Basic editors - notepad and paint >> TextEdit and Paintbrush (see above)
Having just copied those symbols directly into this blog post I've also just realised that normally I'd paste it first into Notepad to get rid of formatting, and then copy /paste it into the blog so that it would be the same font type / size as the text around it. So I think that means tomorrow's jobs include finding out where Notepad is or downloading a 'fix' version from somewhere. Unusually I just started typing this blog post straight into Blogger.
Either I downloaded TextEdit or it was already in my Applications window but it seems to do fine for unformatted basic text. I confess I've also been pasting stuff I've copied from various websites or PDFs into the comment windows on my own blog just to de-format stuff (or if I'm typing a new post I briefly switch to HTML view to paste unformatted before reformatting somewhere else).
Effing scrollbars
Goodness knows why anyone wouldn't want scrollbars to persist on pages but apparently it's not a default. Fortunately it's solvable in the grey button that's system tools (looks like gear wheels) as there's an option to have scrolling always available.
More at http://www.itworld.com/software/217351/turn-persistent-scroll-bars-lion
How to switch it off
Hilariously I've no idea how to stop my Mac. I just close the lid and it seems to leap back into action when I open it again. I suppose I ought to let it run through a proper shut down sequence at least once a week...?
------ Six weeks later: 29 November 2012 -----
Well I'm still using the Mac and am fairly familiar with most of its quirks. Still finding it immensely annoying that there's (seemingly) no easy way to take a screenshot of something and tinker with it - this is something that I do so frequently on a PC that I've found it a real irritation. The Paint thing I downloaded doesn't seem to let you add text, or draw (you can add rectangles and lines) - also you can't get rid of white space and have to decide how many pixels you want before you open a new editing window. Inexplicable ;)
I've just discovered how to view the desktop - this has been annoying me for ages and just got onto the cusp of 'having to take action' by asking on Twitter and Googling for more info. It's fn F11. The system torments you if you do the three-finger upwards swipe on the mousepad - there's an option for 'desktop' but that just takes you back to whatever you were doing. No good at all, I was after the equivalent of Win+D which, on a PC, will auto-minimise all open windows and let you see what's on the desktop.
Also I am still daily / hourly irritated by the crapness of the scrollbars which have no top arrow or bottom arrow that would let you move through the page in a finely-grained way. Clicking and dragging my finger up and down the mousepad is rather blunt, although the up and down arrow buttons aren't bad. I've also found that if I click and drag slightly, then use another finger on the mousepad I get much finer control.
I still find myself deferring certain tasks so that I can do them better on my PC at work.
Saturday, 13 October 2012
Friday, 12 October 2012
Has Twitter killed RSS feeds yet? Possibly not, but not working awfully well
Edit: 12 June 2013
Just spotted that these feeds no longer work. No more Twitter RSS feeds at all, unless you know a way of reproducing them through coding cleverness and / or have access to a server.
There's a new service http://www.twitter-rss.com/ which works for people (not hashtags or anything else). See also http://siftlinks.com/ which does the same with tweets but only for those with links. Thanks to Mark Braggins who commented here http://brodiesnotes.blogspot.co.uk/2013/06/twitter-has-killed-off-rss-feeds-thats.html
Edit: 17 Jan 2013
For nerdy folk with a server / web host and techy skills, have a look at this page where someone has outlined a method of creating their own RSS from Twitter output
http://blog.fogcat.co.uk/2013/01/17/creating-an-rss-feed-for-your-twitter-home-page/
If you are using RSS feeds and have found that they've stopped working you'll need to make sure your feed URL is of the second type not the first, just swap my name for the screen name you want:
http://twitter.com/statuses/user_timeline/jobrodie.rss <-- not working
https://api.twitter.com/1/statuses/user_timeline.rss?screen_name=jobrodie <-- correct
There's a petition to see if we can persuade Twitter to have a bit of a rethink on this.
Many people use Twitter widgets to ping their tweets into their website but some people use RSS feeds from Twitter to send their tweets to a variety of places (including FriendFeed). Up until recently people could do this with just the direct output from Twitter (not the RSS) using IFTTT but a couple of weeks ago Twitter asked IFTTT to drop that functionality. They weren't being mean, although it seems a bit like it, but IFTTT were using Twitter's system in a way that Twitter had already asked people not to use.
So some of us who used this sort of thing figured that the RSS feeds would work as a workaround, until Twitter stops support for RSS (due to happen in March 2013).
Yesterday a few people noticed that their RSS feeds had stopped working. For example a friend noticed that their corporate tweets were no longer showing up on the company intranet, having previously imported the RSS feed from there. An account I'd set up on Twitter which reposted Twitter RSS content also stopped working and my own favorites (saved as Opera mail in the Opera browser) have stopped updating.
We (people commenting on Twitter) wondered if Twitter had killed RSS a bit earlier than intended. I'm checking through my list of RSS feed options but have crossed out the ones that have definitely stopped working, and have asked Twitter if they can supply alternatives. I googled Twitter RSS but used the mildly advanced tools to select only new information published in the last 24 hours and found this https://dev.twitter.com/discussions/11582 which suggests that the RSS feeds haven't actually been killed yet, although they seem a bit fragile.
All these show up as a readable web page if you paste the URL into the Opera browser (doesn't work in Chrome at all) and some other browsers. 'Working' means it shows up as a page, not necessarily that it's capable of sending a feed somewhere else.
Twitter's confirmed that these RSS feed URLswill work until March 2013 - they did work up until 12 June 2013 following a series of blackout tests where Twitter switched them off and on again, now off entirely. Alas.
Recap - this is a separate problem from IFTTT stopping Twitter triggers. When that stopped working we simply swapped our Twitter triggers for Twitter RSS triggers and everything carried on fine until yesterday - if the RSS feeds don't work at all then I'm afraid I don't know how to get around that yet.
If you have RSS feeds coming from somewhere else and going to Twitter that will continue to work fine, this is only about taking RSS data from Twitter and putting it somewhere else. Twitter doesn't like that.
Further reading
New Twitter API drops support for RSS, puts limits on third-party clients
Mashable.com (5 September 2012)
A Directory of RSS Feeds of Popular Social Sites
Labnol.org (3 September 2012)
Case studies - examples of using RSS feeds from Twitter to send somewhere else
Just spotted that these feeds no longer work. No more Twitter RSS feeds at all, unless you know a way of reproducing them through coding cleverness and / or have access to a server.
There's a new service http://www.twitter-rss.com/ which works for people (not hashtags or anything else). See also http://siftlinks.com/ which does the same with tweets but only for those with links. Thanks to Mark Braggins who commented here http://brodiesnotes.blogspot.co.uk/2013/06/twitter-has-killed-off-rss-feeds-thats.html
Edit: 17 Jan 2013
For nerdy folk with a server / web host and techy skills, have a look at this page where someone has outlined a method of creating their own RSS from Twitter output
http://blog.fogcat.co.uk/2013/01/17/creating-an-rss-feed-for-your-twitter-home-page/
If you are using RSS feeds and have found that they've stopped working you'll need to make sure your feed URL is of the second type not the first, just swap my name for the screen name you want:
http://twitter.com/statuses/user_timeline/jobrodie.rss <-- not working
https://api.twitter.com/1/statuses/user_timeline.rss?screen_name=jobrodie <-- correct
There's a petition to see if we can persuade Twitter to have a bit of a rethink on this.
Many people use Twitter widgets to ping their tweets into their website but some people use RSS feeds from Twitter to send their tweets to a variety of places (including FriendFeed). Up until recently people could do this with just the direct output from Twitter (not the RSS) using IFTTT but a couple of weeks ago Twitter asked IFTTT to drop that functionality. They weren't being mean, although it seems a bit like it, but IFTTT were using Twitter's system in a way that Twitter had already asked people not to use.
So some of us who used this sort of thing figured that the RSS feeds would work as a workaround, until Twitter stops support for RSS (due to happen in March 2013).
Yesterday a few people noticed that their RSS feeds had stopped working. For example a friend noticed that their corporate tweets were no longer showing up on the company intranet, having previously imported the RSS feed from there. An account I'd set up on Twitter which reposted Twitter RSS content also stopped working and my own favorites (saved as Opera mail in the Opera browser) have stopped updating.
We (people commenting on Twitter) wondered if Twitter had killed RSS a bit earlier than intended. I'm checking through my list of RSS feed options but have crossed out the ones that have definitely stopped working, and have asked Twitter if they can supply alternatives. I googled Twitter RSS but used the mildly advanced tools to select only new information published in the last 24 hours and found this https://dev.twitter.com/discussions/11582 which suggests that the RSS feeds haven't actually been killed yet, although they seem a bit fragile.
All these show up as a readable web page if you paste the URL into the Opera browser (doesn't work in Chrome at all) and some other browsers. 'Working' means it shows up as a page, not necessarily that it's capable of sending a feed somewhere else.
Twitter's confirmed that these RSS feed URLs
User: https://api.twitter.com/1/statuses/user_timeline.rss?screen_name=jobrodie <-- workingUser: http://search.twitter.com/search.atom?q=jobrodie <-- workingUser: http://api.twitter.com/1/statuses/user_timeline.rss?user_id=15209730 <-- working (that's my Twitter ID, you'll need to use your own)Mentions: http://search.twitter.com/search.atom?q=@jobrodie <-- workingFavourites: http://api.twitter.com/1/favorites.rss?screen_name=jobrodie <-- appears to be working when pasted into Opera as a URL but my automated reader (Opera mail) stopped recording them on 4 October so I've reset itSearch: http://search.twitter.com/search.atom?q=fluffy%20bunnies (%20 acts as 'space') <-- workingHashtag search: http://search.twitter.com/search.atom?q=%23scicomm (%23 acts as '#')- List: there is no working RSS feed for lists - I tweeted with one of the Twitter API people and confirmed this.
Recap - this is a separate problem from IFTTT stopping Twitter triggers. When that stopped working we simply swapped our Twitter triggers for Twitter RSS triggers and everything carried on fine until yesterday - if the RSS feeds don't work at all then I'm afraid I don't know how to get around that yet.
If you have RSS feeds coming from somewhere else and going to Twitter that will continue to work fine, this is only about taking RSS data from Twitter and putting it somewhere else. Twitter doesn't like that.
Further reading
New Twitter API drops support for RSS, puts limits on third-party clients
Mashable.com (5 September 2012)
A Directory of RSS Feeds of Popular Social Sites
Labnol.org (3 September 2012)
Case studies - examples of using RSS feeds from Twitter to send somewhere else
- I use the Opera browser to open my favorites feed as a web page at which point it asks me if I want to subscribe - I say yes and am able to save my faves using Opera Mail.
- Your story here :)
Thursday, 11 October 2012
Why should computer scientists talk to the public?
Here's some computery music to get you in the mood
I shall be co-teaching on a 'professional and research themes' skills course for undergraduates and postgraduates who are studying computer science or electronic engineering (and various modular degrees).
The course has several strands including making a short video and learning about how to find and make sense of published research (library skills, especially online).
The bit I'm involved with is writing about science for non-specialist audiences as well as audiences who might specialise in other fields and jargon. Your basic science communication.
My background is a bit more medical science communication so I'm looking for examples of computer science communication and public engagement* as well as reasons why people do it or think it's a good idea (or think it's a bad idea).
The course the students are doing is particularly interesting because they are being encouraged to think of ethical dimensions to CS / EE - I'm actually attending most of the lectures myself, learning is a pleasant side effect to working here (at QM).
Over the next few weeks as I find out more about it my thinking will probably change but off the top of my head some of the things I want to think about getting across incluce:
- jargon that isn't jargon (words like protein, model or theory) which have a meaning to one group of people that's quite different from its meaning within another group
- the idea that people who spend a lot of time writing in programming languages might need to explain what they do in order to get funding (also all of the other reasons for doing public engagement, or even just plain old PR / talking to the media)
- cs4fn which my boss Paul writes, a magazine for school pupils learning about computer science, see also ee4fn and audio4fn
- Examples of public engagement success stories that featured different groups of scientists such as Science is Vital, Bletchley Park campaigns, The National Museum of Computing, I'm a Scientist Get Me Out of Here. Plus policy things like the NHS IT programme.
- Also perhaps the role of tech-literate people helping others make sense of important changes in the law - the Open Rights Group do this very well - eg on internet censorship.
I don't actually get that much time to share all this wonderful information but thankfully there seems to be some sort of intranet thing where I can post up snippets of info and 'further reading'.
What sort of computer science blogs are there? I've probably read tech blogs from tech magazines but not sure if I've read academic researchy ones - I must investigate.
All suggestions gratefully received, @JoBrodie or my email's above.
Thanks :)
I shall put links in later, I'm off to some strange evening in Dalston... not sure what I'm letting myself in for.
*my bit of the course focuses mostly on writing as an output activity, less on input activities beyond thinking a little bit about who your audience is so I'm not really covering PE with them but I do want to raise it as an important thing to be aware of.
Below the fold - suggestions that have come in since writing this post.
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@DrTomCrick suggests@profserious,@alan_winfield and@j2bryson as people who do CS public engagement - My colleague Chrystie suggested Reena Pau
Monday, 8 October 2012
Easy ways to see the tweets of someone who's blocked you on Twitter
Edit - 1 July 2016: This post is now out of date and superseded by this one from 15 June after Twitter updated its block function Twitter's new update - blocked people can still see your tweets, but it is harder.
Briefly, official Twitter apps are much better at stopping you from seeing the tweets of someone who has blocked you, or stopping them from seeing yours. But of course you / they can still log out (or use a private browser tab) and Echofon for iPhone and (I hear) Twicca for Android still let you / them see blocked tweets in search results. Incidentally the subject of the original post below, from whom I initially learned quite a lot about the way the block works on Twitter was fined £19,000 under the Cancer Act 1939 and now has a criminal conviction. Whoops.
Original post
Errol Denton, who has had numerous Advertising Standards Authority adjudications upheld against claims made about his products and services (see below) has blocked me on Twitter for asking him not to tweet about curing cancer and other conditions. I don't think I was particularly rude about this, but sometimes people don't like it when other people point out that they're doing something wrong. A few other people also suggested he might want to ease up on that style of tweeting and he's blocked them too.
There are several easy ways of reading the tweets of someone who's blocked you, here are some suggestions.
1. Log out. Once logged out Twitter doesn't know you're you and will show you the person's tweets if you go to their profile. This is also the simplest strategy to find out if someone's blocked you: if you can't see when logged in but can see when logged out you're probably blocked.
An alternative is to view the profile in a different browser (saves logging out!) or log into a different unblocked account. Errol's tweets are at http://twitter.com/ErrolDenton
2. Search for their name, either ErrolDenton or @ErrolDenton and you'll see most of the tweets easily.
The addresses in full (if you want to swap for the name of someone else who's blocked you):
ErrolDenton https://twitter.com/i/#!/search/realtime/erroldenton
@ErrolDenton https://twitter.com/i/#!/search/realtime/%40erroldenton
3. View the RSS of the tweets - this will work until Twitter ends support for RSS on 5 March 2013 (Twitter announced this itself on its developers' blog).
http://twitter.com/statuses/user_timeline/erroldenton.rss Twitter's just killed off this old-style RSS feed URL
https://api.twitter.com/1/statuses/user_timeline.rss?screen_name=erroldenton
The RSS means you can do other things though - you can capture them in an RSS reader (I've found the inbuilt "Opera mail" RSS reader in the Opera browser is brilliant for this) if you need to refer to them.
You can also set up an alternative Twitter account and 're-import' the RSS feed of the person's tweets into the newly created account with the IFTTT service (RSS trigger >> Twitter action). The chances are high that Twitter will shut down the fake account but it's an option to keep in reserve.
I could also add a new javascript / html widget to my blog and import his tweets into my blog, but I don't think I'll rush to do that!
Errol's simplest option is to make his account private - that solves the problem completely. He's presumably no longer breaking the law by making public claims about curing cancer. I (and the ASA etc) would no longer be able to see his tweets so wouldn't be able to complain about them.
The difficulty is that no-one else (unless they're following him) would be able to see his tweets which doesn't do much for his advertising. And of course it's possible that the people following him drop him in it either by manually retweeting one of his tweets or replying to them (and giving something away in their reply).
Twitter doesn't do 'blocks' very well. I actually think it's a big problem that they've just not solved very well and I'm not sure that they can solve it (short of making no tweet visible to anyone unless you're logged in to the system - this may well happen when they've killed off RSS, although that would be a bad idea for different reasons). Of course the alternative then would be to follow someone using a spare account.
Errol's adjudications were for:
Further reading
Josephine Jones' blog - she has reported on Errol several times and we 'met' each other by discovering through blog searches that we'd both put in complaints to the ASA. Here are her posts tagged with Errol Denton.
My more detailed blog post on What happens if you block someone on Twitter? What happens if they block you? - I wrote this in June 2012 and it's had nearly 18,000 views almost all from Google searches. My blog isn't really used to such interest, most of my posts only get 100 reads in their lifetime, but everyone seems to be terribly interested in blocking and evading blocks.
Briefly, official Twitter apps are much better at stopping you from seeing the tweets of someone who has blocked you, or stopping them from seeing yours. But of course you / they can still log out (or use a private browser tab) and Echofon for iPhone and (I hear) Twicca for Android still let you / them see blocked tweets in search results. Incidentally the subject of the original post below, from whom I initially learned quite a lot about the way the block works on Twitter was fined £19,000 under the Cancer Act 1939 and now has a criminal conviction. Whoops.
Original post
Errol Denton, who has had numerous Advertising Standards Authority adjudications upheld against claims made about his products and services (see below) has blocked me on Twitter for asking him not to tweet about curing cancer and other conditions. I don't think I was particularly rude about this, but sometimes people don't like it when other people point out that they're doing something wrong. A few other people also suggested he might want to ease up on that style of tweeting and he's blocked them too.
There are several easy ways of reading the tweets of someone who's blocked you, here are some suggestions.
1. Log out. Once logged out Twitter doesn't know you're you and will show you the person's tweets if you go to their profile. This is also the simplest strategy to find out if someone's blocked you: if you can't see when logged in but can see when logged out you're probably blocked.
An alternative is to view the profile in a different browser (saves logging out!) or log into a different unblocked account. Errol's tweets are at http://twitter.com/ErrolDenton
2. Search for their name, either ErrolDenton or @ErrolDenton and you'll see most of the tweets easily.
The addresses in full (if you want to swap for the name of someone else who's blocked you):
ErrolDenton https://twitter.com/i/#!/search/realtime/erroldenton
@ErrolDenton https://twitter.com/i/#!/search/realtime/%40erroldenton
3. View the RSS of the tweets - this will work until Twitter ends support for RSS on 5 March 2013 (Twitter announced this itself on its developers' blog).
https://api.twitter.com/1/statuses/user_timeline.rss?screen_name=erroldenton
The RSS means you can do other things though - you can capture them in an RSS reader (I've found the inbuilt "Opera mail" RSS reader in the Opera browser is brilliant for this) if you need to refer to them.
You can also set up an alternative Twitter account and 're-import' the RSS feed of the person's tweets into the newly created account with the IFTTT service (RSS trigger >> Twitter action). The chances are high that Twitter will shut down the fake account but it's an option to keep in reserve.
I could also add a new javascript / html widget to my blog and import his tweets into my blog, but I don't think I'll rush to do that!
Errol's simplest option is to make his account private - that solves the problem completely. He's presumably no longer breaking the law by making public claims about curing cancer. I (and the ASA etc) would no longer be able to see his tweets so wouldn't be able to complain about them.
The difficulty is that no-one else (unless they're following him) would be able to see his tweets which doesn't do much for his advertising. And of course it's possible that the people following him drop him in it either by manually retweeting one of his tweets or replying to them (and giving something away in their reply).
Twitter doesn't do 'blocks' very well. I actually think it's a big problem that they've just not solved very well and I'm not sure that they can solve it (short of making no tweet visible to anyone unless you're logged in to the system - this may well happen when they've killed off RSS, although that would be a bad idea for different reasons). Of course the alternative then would be to follow someone using a spare account.
Errol's adjudications were for:
- Claims made on a leaflet advertising his website and Harley Street services. I later discovered, from a Radio 4 investigation into his activities, that you can book Harley Street rooms by the hour.
- Claims made for a product called liquid chlorophyll, available via one of his websites (SeeMyCells.co.uk)
- Claims made by Groupon on behalf of Errol for a reduced price session of nutritional microscopy.
- Claims made on another of his websites (LiveBloodTest.com).
Further reading
Josephine Jones' blog - she has reported on Errol several times and we 'met' each other by discovering through blog searches that we'd both put in complaints to the ASA. Here are her posts tagged with Errol Denton.
My more detailed blog post on What happens if you block someone on Twitter? What happens if they block you? - I wrote this in June 2012 and it's had nearly 18,000 views almost all from Google searches. My blog isn't really used to such interest, most of my posts only get 100 reads in their lifetime, but everyone seems to be terribly interested in blocking and evading blocks.
Knowled.co.uk stole my blog post so I'm pinching it back again
This morning my pal @popupscreens tweeted to tell me that someone had copied and pasted my blog post on open air cinema and posted it on their own site. This has happened a handful of time before and eventually the post has been taken down. But I thought this time I'd just repost it here, for laughs.
Open air cinema screens in London · Knowled
-->
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Shortened link for this post is http://is.gd/cDTFo
2012 information will be placed on this new Google site when I have it.
Sundance Festival took place at O2 in April
Pop Up Screens has announced its 2012 schedule (1 May 2012)
January-May 2012 - having realised that this great long blog post is only going to get longer and longer as I add new stuff (I am loath to throw away the old information) I decided not to add any more to this page but instead to create a whole new Google Site devoted to Open Air Cinema Screens and to which I am gradually migrating this information. I'll keep this page as a fossil, hopefully someone will find something useful here anyway, and find their way to the new site.
June 2011 - see also Time Out's listings http://www.timeout.com/london/feature/1120/open-air-movies-in-london-2011 - they have some venues that I haven't got here, but I want to capture all of those and the individual films / dates.
April 2010 (blog updated in June 2011)It's about this time of year that I start to get anticipatory excitement for the prospect of open air cinema in London, which actually happens in late summer but I get enthusiastic about it now.
I've seen memorable performances of Ferris Bueller's Day Off in Greenwich Park, The Night of the Hunter (or watch embedded video below) at Somerset House and The Wicker Man and Rebecca at Scoop: More London. Some screens show not films but live feeds from theatre and opera.
A while back I created a Facebook group in the hope of shepherding the information into one place "Open Air Cinema london" and I'm always on the lookout for more venues. Press 'play' and enjoy the eerie soundtrack while you browse our film selections :-)
1. 2011 (current screenings)
2. What to pack
3. Locations which host (or have hosted) outdoor screens
4. 2010 (historical)
5. 2009 and previous (historical)
6. Indoor Cinemas (including mainstream / multiplexes)
7. Independent cinemas
8. Edits and acknowledgements
0. London 2012Obviously we're not there yet but best to think ahead, eh :)
News of special London 2012 film screenings coming nearer the time...
1. 2011 :: 2011 :: 2011
(to be filled with lots of lovely screening information when I hear about it)
By locationTo be added to the list, and their films listed (taken from Time Out)- Drive-In Movie Experience - North Weald Airfield
- Floating Cinema
- Midsummer Night Screen - Dalston Roof Park
- Rooftop Film Club
- Queen of Hoxton
- Picnic Film
- Blackheath - not open air but in a tent at Zippo's Circus
- Dulwich Park - Screen on the Green
Possibly not happening in the same format as in previous years because Screen on the Green has become The Nomad, in partnership with the Lexi Cinema. They are showing Casablanca though - see below in the 'by company' section. - Eltham Park - Well Hall Pleasaunce / Tudor Barn - see comments :-)
- Folly for a Flyover - built from wooden bricks, under A12 flyover in Hackney (Hackney Wick). Series of films and shorts, more information here on their events page and see below. This is from the same people (Assemble CIC) who brought us Cineroleum.
- Great British Summer 2011 at Victoria, Bankside and Holborn (see below). They're on Twitter too https://twitter.com/GreatBritSummer
- Hackney see Folly for a Flyover
- Hammersmith (Ravenscourt Park) with PopUp Screens - 7pm
- Friday 27 May 2011 - Anchorman
- Saturday 28 May 2011 - The Big Lebowski
- Sunday 29 May 2011 - Ghostbusters
- Hyde Park and Trafalgar Square - large screens will be showing the Royal Wedding on 29 April 2011 at 11am (I'd have picked 3pm myself).
- Holborn, New Street Square, Chancery Lane - see Great British Summer 2011
- Scoop, More London (between Tower Bridge and London Bridge)
Enjoy open air free film screenings every Wednesday – Friday from 14 – 30 September. The Scoop at More London, the riverside amphitheatre, will screen an eclectic mix of classic, cult and contemporary films rarely shown elsewhere. Screenings will start at 7.30pm. - Alice in Wonderland, Wednesday 14 September
- The Kings Speech, Thursday 15 September
- Dirty Dancing, Friday 16 September
- The Illusionist, Wednesday 21 September
- The Social Network "– can't guarantee availability. List as "Surprise film"" (they don't sound too confident!), Thursday 22 September
- The African Queen, Friday 23 September
- The Manchurian Candidate, Wednesday 28 September
- Grease, Thursday 29 September
- True Grit, Friday 30 September
- Somerset House - see below
- Southbank, Bankside Mix - see Great British Summer 2011
- Syon Park: Cinema under the stars (18-21 August 2011) More details to follow.
- Trafalgar Square and Hyde Park - Royal Wedding on 29 April 2011 at 11am.
- Walthamstow (& UK locations): 12 April 2011 - 7.07am and 12 noon BBC Screens are showing ‘First Orbit’ is a feature length film by Chris Riley that weaves historic audio recordings of the first Cosmonaut, Yuri Gagarin, with new footage of his orbital route. The film will be shown at 07.07 BST, the exact time of Gagarin’s launch in 1961, and again at 12:30 on the Big Screens in Birmingham, Bradford, Bristol, Cardiff, Derby, Dover, Edinburgh, Leeds, Leicester, Manchester, Middlesbrough, Norwich, Plymouth, Portsmouth, Swansea, Swindon and Walthamstow.
- Victoria, Cardinal Place, Victoria Street- see Great British Summer 2011. Hosting screenings of Wimbledon (the actual tennis, not the film) and films (movies) throughout July including Notting Hill and Grease.
- By the way if you're reading this on a website that says anything other than brodiesnotes in the URL then there's a very high chance that the content has been stolen from this blog and I'd certainly appreciate hearing about it. The most likely candidate is an American site with various different websites under the banner Open Air Cinema - I've had to ask them four times to remove copy/pasted versions of this text. I will be delighted and amused if this text makes it into any future content pinchings :)
By company- Friday 24th June ONCE UPON A TIME, IN A FOLLY FAR FAR AWAY...feat. SNOW WHITE AND THE SEVEN DWARFS (1937
- Saturday 25th June THE ADVENTURES OF PRINCE ACHMED with LIVE SOUNDTRACK BY SAWCHESTRA
- Sunday 26th June THE ADVENTURES OF BARON MUNCHAUSEN
- Friday 1st July MIDDLE OF THE ROAD feat. LIVE PERFORMANCE FROM PEGGY SUE
- Saturday 2nd July THE BEAST FROM 20,000 FATHOMS
- Sunday 3rd July REQUIEM FOR DETROIT
- Friday 8th July TRON + LIVE SCORE
- Saturday 9th July TRIP TO THE MOON AND OTHER SHORTS + Live Score
- Sunday 10th July SECRET SCREENING
- Friday 15th July FLASH GORDON
- Saturday 16th July MINNIE THE MOOCHER + GERTIE AND HER GAIETY
- Sunday 17th July TOY STORY + BICYCLE THIEVES
- Friday 22nd July AKIRA
- Saturday 23rd July 2001 : A SPACE ODYSSEY
- Sunday 24th July WIZARD OF OZ
- Friday 29th July HACKNEY WICKED PRESENTS VIDEO AND SHORT FILMS
- Saturday 30th July THE WILD ONE
- Sunday 31st July A FEW DOLLARS
Great British Summer 2011 happening over three venues- end of June - early July - tennis will be screened, then
- Monday, July 4, 2011 - 7PM: Notting Hill
- Tuesday, July 5, 2011 - 7PM: The Social Network
- Wednesday, July 6, 2011 - 7PM: Grease
- Thursday, July 7, 2011 - 7PM: Winning comedy film as voted for by you!
The choices are: Step Brothers, Meet the Fockers, Anchorman, Dumb and Dumber, Arthur
Bankside Mix, Southbank, Southwark- end of June, early July - tennis
- Monday, July 4, 2011 - 7PM: Grease
- Tuesday, July 5, 2011 - 7PM: Notting Hill
- Wednesday, July 6, 2011 - 7PM: The Social Network
- Thursday, July 7, 2011 - 7PM: Comedy Night: Winning comedy film as voted for by you! (choices as before)
New Street Square, Chancery Lane, Holborn- end of June, early July - tennis
- Monday, July 4, 2011 - 7PM: The Social Network
- Tuesday, July 5, 2011 - 7PM: Grease
- Wednesday, July 6, 2011 - 7PM: Notting Hill
- Thursday, July 7, 2011 - 7PM: Comedy Night: Winning comedy film as voted for by you! (choices as before)
2. What to pack- The Wizard of Oz - Zippos Circus - Stevenage - 13 March 2011
- The Lost Boys - Zippos Circus - Oxford - 27 March 2011
- Strictly Ballroom (Finsbury Park) - 3 April 2011 - tent
- Lost Boys (Blackheath, Zippo's Circus) - 26 April 2011 - tent
- Fight Club - Bethnal Green - 20 May 2011 - tent
- The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert - Mile End - Zippo's Circus - 22 May 2011
- Casablanca - Dulwich Park - 28 May 2011 - open air
- Mamma Mia! - Lympne Castle - Kent - 3 August 2011 - open air
- Little Miss Sunshine - Battersea Park - London - 3 August 2011, 8.45pm
- Mamma Mia! - Hall Place - Bexley - 4 August 2011 - open air
- The Third Man - Battersea Park - London - 10 August 2011, 8.45pm
- Jurassic Park - Hall Place - Bexley - 11 August 2011 - open air - h/t @popupscreens
- Labyrinth - Battersea Park - London - 17 August 2011, 8.30pm
- Some Like it Hot - Opera Holland Park - 19 August 2011 - open air I think
- The Empire Strikes Back - Opera Holland Park - 20 August 2011 - open air I think
- Cinema Paradiso - Opera Holland Park - 21 August 2011 - open air I think
- North by Northwest - Gatton Park - Reigate - 22 August 2011
- Sense and Sensibility - Gatton Park - Reigate - 23 August 2011
- Some Like it Hot - Leeds Castle - Kent, 26 Aug
- Raiders of the Lost Ark - Lympne Castle - Kent - 31 August 2011 - open air
- Dangerous Liaisons - Fulham Palace - London - 9 September 2011
- The Omen - Fulham Palace - London - 16 September 201
- Some Like it Hot - Fulham Palace - London - 23 September 2011
- Sound of Music - Danson House - Bexleyheath - 18 September 2011 - open air
- Pride and Prejudice - Danson House - Bexleyheath - 25 September 2011 - open air
Pop Up Screens - @popupscreens - showing at Ravenscourt Park, Hammersmith
- Anchorman - Friday 27 May 2011
- The Big Lebowski - Saturday 28 May 2011
- Ghostbusters - Sunday 29 May 2011
So irked am I by being kept on hold (in the hope that I can buy tickets for more than one event and combine booking fees and arrange to collect rather than pay to have them posted...) that I've decided to promote a rival card. The event is being sponsored by AmericanExpress but in a fit of retaliatory mean-ness I'm giving the free advert to Visa cards.
27 July 2011, Wednesday
Pedro Almodovar's the Skin I Live In Uk Premiere (Cert TBC)
21.15 pm28 July 2011, Thursday
Behind the Screen - John Barry's Golden Touch
19:00pm28 July 2011, Thursday
The Spy Who Loved Me (PG)
21:15 pm29 July 2011, Friday
Behind the Screen - BAFTA Shorts
19:00 pm29 July 2011, Friday
The Big Blue (15)
21:15 pm30 July 2011, Saturday
Behind the Screen - Joe Cornish in Conversation
19:00 pm30 July 2011, Saturday
Die Hard (18)/ Attack the Block (15)
21:15 pm31 July 2011, Sunday
Behind the Screen - Wild about Wilder
19:00 pm31 July 2011, Sunday
The Apartment (PG)
21:15 pm1 August 2011, Monday
Behind the Screen - Kick Ass Women on Screen
19:00 pm1 August 2011, Monday
Thelma and Louise (15)
21:15 pm2 August 2011, Tuesday
Behind the Screen - Polanski and the Writers
19:00 pm2 August 2011, Tuesday
Chinatown (15)
21:15 pm3 August 2011, Wednesday
Behind the Screen - Dressed by Design
19:00 pm3 August 2011, Wednesday
In the Mood for Love (PG)
21:15 pm4 August 2011, Thursday
Behind the Screen - Playing Games with Cinema
19:00 pm4 August 2011, Thursday
Scott Pilgrim vs. The World (12A)
21:15 pm5 August 2011, Friday
Behind the Screen - The Influence of The Actors Studio
19:00 pm5 August 2011, Friday
Serpico (18)/ Shaft (15)
21:15 pm6 August 2011, Saturday
Behind the Screen - Creature Features
19:00 pm6 August 2011, Saturday
Gremlins (15)/ Troll Hunter (TBC)/ Tremors (15)
21:15 pm7 August 2011, Sunday
The Princess Bride (PG)
21:15
- Something warm to wear (even if it's boiling hot in the day it can be cool sitting outside at 10pm)
- Something to sit on (plastic bag as a minimum, blanket or cushion better)
- Something to avoid rain (umbrellas are generally a bit of a no-no, recommend rain hat or one of those 'pac a mac' things)
- Something to eat and drink and something to eat it off / drink it out of (most films are in public spaces so you can bring your own picnic, check though as Syon Park mightn't)
- A plastic bag to take away rubbish / sitting on grass.
- Loo roll (public toilets being as they are...)
3. Locations which host (or have hosted) outdoor screens
- Alexandra Palace - RAC Drive-in Movies (bit daft, encourages ppl to drive to venue!)
- BBC London's Big Screens (Walthamstow and Woolwich)
- BP Summer Screen (Twitter) - these have been found at various sites, such as Canary Wharf, beaming live theatre and opera from the Royal Opera House.
- Brixton - Grand Union Bar, Thursday screenings in beer garden
- Canary Wharf: BP Summer Screen (Twitter) - usually opera
- Greenwich Park: Stella Screen - seems to have been a 2006 one off
- Cineroleum - 100 Clerkenwell Road
- Chelmsford Borough
- Dulwich Park, SE21, Screen on the Green
- Floating Cinema, Thames / canals (Olympic area 2011)
- Dulwich Picture House
- Hammersmith, Ravenscourt Park - see 2011 listings for Pop Up Screens.
- Harrow, Film on the Hill - looks like it was a 2009 one-off
- Horniman Museum, SE23, Screen on the Green
- Lady in Red Productions: Cinema under the stars (Syon Park, Brentford)
- The Old Truman Brewery
- Portobello Pop Up - digital microplex (?) cinema. More deets from Londonist (2010).
- Queens Park, NW6, Screen on the Green in association with The Lexi Cinema
- Regent's Street: Sky Classic Film Nights
- Roundwood Park, NW10, Screen on the Green in association with The Lexi Cinema
- Royal Opera House - in association with BP Big Screens (see aboveoperatic shriekings are screened in various locations around London including Canary Wharf and Trafalgar Square.
- Scoop (amphitheatre): More London
- Serpentine Gallery: Moon and stars park night (2008)
- Shoreditch Festival
- Somerset House
- Starlite Urban Drive in at The Truman Brewery
- Syon Park
- Trafalgar Square: BFI festival, BP Summer Screen (Twitter)
- Walthamstow Town Square (in Waltham Forest) and General Gordon Square (in Woolwich): London Big Screens, BBC - these seem to show only opera and ballet rather than films.
- Wapping Project - Moonshine Cinema (2010)
- Watch this Space - something to do with BFI and National Theatre, details murky (see below)
- Victoria: Britannia, pub garden at Victoria Park (2009)
4. 2010 :: 2010 :: 2010
- Scoop: More London: http://www.morelondon.co.uk/events_details.asp?ID=73
- Up in the Air (Wednesday 15 September)
- The Kite runner (Thursday 16 September)
- The Bourne Ultimatum (Friday 17 September)
- The Hurt Locker (Wednesday 22 September)
- North by Northwest (Thursday 23 September)
- Pretty Woman (Friday 24 September)
- Invictus (Wednesday 29 September)
- Up (Thursday 30 September)
- Dirty Dancing (Friday 1 October)
- Shoreditch Festival: http://www.shoreditchfestival.org.uk/
- 17 July Saturday: Big Screen - 1pm Shoreditch shorts JNR 3pm Shoreditch Shorts 5pm 'Playing House' with Buster Keaton
- Somerset House: http://www.somersethouse.org.uk/film/default.asp
- Knight and Day (29 July Thur)
- Kill Bill vol 1 / Enter the Dragon (30 July Fri)
- Team America: World Police / A Town Called Panic (31 July Sat)
- Manhattan (1 August Sun)
- Goldfinger (2 August Mon)
- Black Narcissus (3 August Tue)
- Kubrick's Paths of Glory (4 August Wed)
- Cabaret (5 August Thursday)
- Mulholland Drive (6 August Fri)
- Let the Right One In / The Lost boys (7 August Sat)
- Master and Commander (8 August Sun) There are also some 'behind the screen' discussion events.
- Syon Park: http://www.lady-in-red.co.uk/syonpark.aspx
- Dirty Dancing (18 August Wednesday)
- Wolfman (19 August Thursday)
- Top Gun (20 August Friday)
- Up (21 August Saturday)
- Pretty Woman (22 August Sunday)
- Watch this Space: http://www.nationaltheatre.org.uk/wts
- Look for 'download brochure' in the left hand menu. "The BFI looks after the world’s largest and most significant collection of film and TV. As the Archive celebrates its 75th anniversary this summer, we are delighted to present films from the collection, projected onto the Flytower each Friday in July. For details of the extensive programme of films from the Archive at BFI Southbank in July and August visit http://bfi.org.uk/"
- BP Summer Screen - http://www.bp.com/sectiongenericarticle.do?categoryId=9026066&contentId=7048077
- Carmen, The Royal Opera (Tuesday 8 June) - Trafalgar Square, London; Duthie Park, Aberdeen; Millennium Square, Bristol; Market Place, Derby; Market Square, Dover; Clayton Square, Liverpool; Exchange Square, Manchester; Centre Square, Middlesbrough; Chapelfield Plain, Norwich; The Piazza, Plymouth; BP ICBT, Sunbury; Castle Square, Swansea; Wharf Green, Swindon; Walthamstow Town Square, Waltham Forest
- Chroma, Tryst, Symphony in C, The Royal Ballet (Thursday 10 June) - Trafalgar Square, London; Exchange Square, Manchester; General Gordon Place, Woolwich; Stratford Park, Newham.
- Simon Boccanegro, The Royal Opera (Tuesday 13 July, 7.30pm) - Trafalgar Square, London; Canary Wharf, London; Millennium Square, Bristol; Christchurch Park, Ipswich; Centenary Square, Bradford; Humberstone Gate, Leicester; Exchange Square, Manchester; The Piazza, Plymouth; Guildhall Square, Portsmouth
- Dulwich Picture House - Hairspray in the garden (30 August 2010, 6.30pm) - programme includes free hairstyling and an opportunity to learn the dances (!)
- Starlite Urban Drive in at The Truman Brewery
- Dirty Dancing (was Twilight) - Friday 2 July, doors 7pm, screening @ sunset, 9.20pm
- Grease - Saturday 3 July, doors 7pm, screening @ sunset, 9.20pm
- Cineroleum - 100 Clerkenwell Road - films
- Friday 20th August: Rebel Without a Cause (SOLD OUT)
- Saturday 21st August: Barbarella (SOLD OUT)
- Sunday 22nd August: D.O.A. (SOLD OUT)
- Thursday 26th August: Buster Keaton Shorts
- Friday 27th August: Duel
- Saturday 28th August: Alphaville
- Sunday 29th August: The Long Goodbye
- Thursday 2nd September: The Band Wagon (Tickets on sale 26th August)
- Friday 3rd September: Night of The Living Dead (Tickets on sale 26th August)
- Saturday 4th September: B Movie Night (Tickets on sale 26th August)
- Sunday 5th September: M (Tickets on sale 26th August)
- Thursday 9th September: Delicatessen (Tickets on sale 2nd September)
- Friday 10th September: Badlands (Tickets on sale 2nd September)
- Saturday 11th September: Metropolis (Tickets on sale 2nd September)
- Sunday 12th September: The Third Man (Tickets on sale 2nd September)
- Chelmsford Borough is showing Dirty Dancing (17 September 2010) and War of the Worlds (18 September 2o10)
5. 2009 :: 2009 :: 2009 and before
I only started collecting info in 2010 so this is a bit retrospective.
- Amelie - screened on Rugby Street, WC1 27 August 2009. Bit gutted I missed this - pics.
- A blog post with a range of open air screening highlights - last updated in 2010, from the people behind now-defunct Pyjama Pictures
- Blow Up - screened in Maryon Park, Charlton 25 July 2009, 10pm - Greenwich Film Festival 2009
- Railway Children - screened in Well Hall Pleasaunce 24 July 2009, 9.30pm - Greenwich Film Festival 2009
- Kill Bill - screened at Stella Screen, in Greenwich Park 2006
- Ferris Bueller's Day Off - screened at Stella Screen, in Greenwich Park 2006
- Spirited Away - FilmFour & Somerset House, 18 August 2005
6. Indoor (including mainstream / multiplexes)
Section added on 12 September 2010
The outdoor season at Scoop More London is just about to start but the nights are drawing in and soon a cinema indoors might seem like a good idea.
LondonNet has good listing for A-Z cinema screens in London A-Z of films showing in London.
7. Independent cinemas
- Birkbeck Cinema has its own film society - I saw The Conversation there. The society's March 2011 listings are here.
- The Horse Hospital occasionally has film showings, and other oddities Secret Cinema...
8. Edits and acknowledgements
EDIT: 21 August 2010 Saturday
Minor edit, addition of 'Cineroleum' following a tip off from @steinsky
EDIT: 12 September 2010 Sunday
Minor edit, addition of Chelmsford's showing of Dirty Dancing & War of the Worlds after a tweet from @moogyboobles, also addition of an indoor section for cinemas at the end.
@marthasadie has suggested The Screen on the Green for screen hire if you want to 'make your own' (which I do, as it happens - who'd love to see Jurassic Park on Blackheath?!). EDIT: Jurassic Park is being shown in 2011 by Nomad cinemas, see above.
If you know of an open air, or other quirky cinema screens - mostly in London - let me know, ta @JoBrodie or jo.brodie @@ gmail.com
Useful resources
- Moonlight Movies from Visit London Blog
- Useful information from ViewLondon on outdoor film events, from which some of the links posted here were pinched.
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