My first ever youtube post also happens to be a good one. Battles playing Leyendecker / Race In live at The Gaelic theatre in Surry Hills September 26th, 2007. It’s one thing to listen to their LP on headphones and another to see them live.
The band in full force.
It took all of one song for drummer John Stanier to remove his shirt and the guy was at the center of all the intensity. Beat perfect, metronome-like and hard-hitting, he was all over his kit, with the super high cymbal creating great dramatic effect. In stark contrast was Tyondai Braxton, all kitted out with a blazer throughout the entire show and seemingly hardly breaking a sweat. It was pretty interesting to see how the band performed, blending the real instruments and constantly looping, adjusting and fiddling to get the sounds you hear on the record. Tyondai would speak/sing into the mic and that would then be looped back into the track. Guitarist Ian Williams was also constantly at the keyboard, playing the more delicate parts to the music. I had a hard time seeing what bassist Dave Konopka was up to due to my position but I saw him constantly scrambling around, from one pedal to the next mixer or computer and back to his guitar. Chaotic.
Tyondai twiddling some knobs before the show started.
If my hands were a little more steady, I’d have more pictures of the band. I actually managed to film quite a few tracks, albeit sloppily and at really low quality. Its kinda hard to do the do-wop whilst recording.
If anything, the band well exceeded my expectations and left me in a state of reflection. This is definitely a band to watch out for. Thank you Sydney.
Bellata Gold is a brand of Australian sourced/made/owned premium pasta. Its available in quite a few of the better delis and they have a great range of pastas made with quality ingredients. Having actually tasted and cooked it, I can say its pretty much top notch. Though that’s what you expect, if you pay top dollar. They use top quality durum, with 14% protein, which is a lot since most baker’s flours are at about 12-13%. Interestingly, they are also proud to claim the traceability of their product which goes to show that they care.
It may be a good or bad thing, but their pastas cook really fast. A lot of pastas you can get at supermarkets tend to take around the 10 minute mark or so. Bellata’s pastas take less than 5 in comparison. In some cases, 2-3 minutes, pretty much instant pasta on top of being premium quality. They also do a range of flavoured pastas, including real squid ink pasta, saffron and lemon myrtle to name a few. My female friends are also really taken in by the Kangaroo and Koala shaped pastas that come in multi-color packs.
Definitely one pasta company I have to rep.
It’s rather wonderful to be able to spend an entire morning and afternoon sampling food from all over the world, which was what I did yesterday at Fine Food ‘07. Well, ok I spent the afternoon at Wines & Spirits ‘07 having a bit (lot) of a tipple but you get the idea. The fair itself was pretty interesting, with all sorts of exhibitors, from kitchen and manufacturing equipment to importers and a good amount of local product. At times, it was a little strange to see quite a bit of frozen and pre-packed foods, which didn’t really gel with the “Fine” bit of things but all that was forgiven by the Oztastic vibe.
A bottled water company caught my eye in particular. Brashly named, Another Bloody Water is just about as Aussie as it gets. There were also quite a few interesting products. Like I tried a butter and sea salt ice cream (quite butterscotchy, sweet and slightly salty) and a choc chip chilli ice cream (the heat hits at the end, after the cold dissipates). I also had the pleasure of sampling some wonderful jamon from Spain, chocs from everywhere, dips, sauces, oils, vinegars, cakes, drinks, meats, hams… well the list goes on.
Its just brilliant how you get to try so much stuff and also get a ton of contacts related to the industry and in my case, absolutely free. All you need to do is register early, and smile at everyone, compliment their food and talk about prospective futures. ;)
If you’ve got a chance, go catch Ratatouille. Virtually every single flick Pixar has had a hand in has been successful and this one is no different. The film is about a wannabe-chef rat finding its way to Paris where it joins forces with a bumbling garbage boy to create the latest buzz in Parisien haute cuisine. It takes its name from the vegetable stew dish, something really common and staple. (So staple, I recently had to cook a couple batches of it. The film is truely close to my heart.) Along the way, we see hilarity, love and drama ensue as rat and boy conspire together in the most wondrous, heart-warming way possible.
For an animation, it does its best to portray the inner workings of a real world kitchen. You can tell the crew definitely did their homework and it really shows in the film. At its heart lies a pretty simple message, “Anyone can cook!”. I suppose you could actually substitute in any verb right there and run with it. Rat-a-too-ee.
Today till Thursday is time for Fine Food Australia 2007 @ the Sydney Convention & Exhibition Centre. Located conveniently nearby is Wines & Spirits 2007 @ Wharf 8 on Darling Harbour. You probably can’t see the saliva but yes I am well chuffed about this especially as I’m going with something like 10 or 15 people to sample my way to heaven. News reports and photos to follow.
Filed under: Music
Going crazy for this song by The Rakes but I much prefer the almost 18 minute extended version made specially for Dior Homme’s S/S ‘06 runway collection. Its just so much cleaner and slicker in execution.
http://www.diorhomme.com/2006/medias/music/musics06.mp3
Right click and save the link above.
My 2nd favouritest band has to be New Order and by that extension, Joy Division, even if they are rather different entities. I have to admit that I took a really long time to get into them though. I was always entranced by that photo of Ian Curtis on the Joy Division boxset. Something just kept putting me off buying it even though every single major music publication then and now trumps the band to no end. That’s the thing you immediately associate with the band. It’s the graphics, the cover art. Obviously, if you’ve got a genius like Peter Saville on hand to do stuff like this for you, then you know its going to be good. Yet, I still cannot think of any other band where the imagery used has such a symbiotic association with the music itself, almost as if the pictures were the sound.
Central to this is the cover for Unknown Pleasures, which is a computer generated image of a dying star. The simplicity and intent all mashed into a single image, so inherently subtle and profound, yet it draws you in, lured by its mystery.
Obviously, I can’t be the only person so enamoured by a single graphic and the proof is right here. Check out this tee off Threadless (they’ve opened a brick and mortar store in Chi-town by the by) and also this shoe by Dylan Adair re-imagining New Balance (as yet unofficial). Adair has also done up these unreleased Blazers. I quite enjoy the little “Step Inside” on the inside of one of the tongues.
