Filed under: Fashion, Retail, Sydney | Tags: robert geller, sydney shopping
ZOMG Our Spot Iz R Clozez! Iz now online stores onri. Can still kop Geller. Phew!
This post marks the inauguration of a collaboration between Boxstr and WordPress aka I found a file hosting site that works for putting up mp3s. All of them have been slummed into a playlist that I call ~.
Gonzales’ Gentle Threat off his 2005 LP Solo Piano, where he ditches his pseudo hip-pop stylings for some Erik Satie-esque tinkling of the ivories. Probably my favorite piano song ever.
Lions & Tigers is a track from shoegazers Asobi Seksu, which actually means casual sex in Japanspeak. You can find more hair sweeping, ting tinging tracks off their ‘06 effort, Citrus.
Deerhunter’s Spring Hall Convert, from the album Cryptograms, keeps popping into my head when I’m working. Its that bit with the oooh waaa ohhh waaa or whatever is being mumbled to similar effect. In fact, I think the whole song is just ohh waaas.
Takeo Toyama is a guy that I really like, mostly whenever I used to step into a Muji store and they’d play his music on occasion. Gauche, off Etudes is particularly wonderful and moody, building up progressively in tension until it whimsically melts into a jazzy piece.
Blockhead happens to be one of my favorite electronic/hip-hop artists out there. His latest album, Uncle Tony’s Coloring Book, contains this gem, The Strain. Sooooo chilllllll.
Filed under: Music
Oh hey, it was Valentine’s day a few days back! I had the pleasure of working my nuts off to set up a buffet!
Here’s a semi related Moz song in anticipation of his new LP, Years Of Refusal.
Filed under: Food
Farfalle Arrabbiata w Mushrooms, Figs, Bocconcini & Pancetta. Sweet + Salty + Spicy = No longer hungry. I haven’t cooked in days, just working, travelling and sleeping. This is the first decent homemade meal I’ve had in whenever. And it still cost less than eating out. There was a second plate which I mopped up soon after. I’m actually still drooling now an hour later. One thing that sucks about cooking for one is how constrained you are in terms of ingredients and variety. It gets pretty expensive to cook for just one especially because I haven’t got a workable freezer. My freezer at the moment works more like a fridge. And my fridge just doesn’t.
When I do cook, invariably, its always just some form of noodle and an assortment of protein and veg. I hardly cook rice because a.) It takes twice to thrice as long as pasta/soba and b.) I can’t keep any rice or I’ll die from listeria given my shitty fridge. The other thing is if I ever want to cook, its best if I have 2 days off in a row so I can actually just shop once for 3 or 4 meals. Otherwise, I shop every time I want to cook. Going to the fishmonger, getting a weird look when I ask for 3 prawns or 1 squid or from the butcher when I want 1 chicken thigh or 100g of mince.
Cooking is definitely a communal thing. I realised some of the best meals I’ve had were cooking with friends when we had huge pots of chilli crab/chicken rice/korean beef stew/etc/etc. You get a the quantity, quality and variety and the work is split. Someone cooks someone washes up. There’s also that bit called conversation and sharing that makes everything just taste better.
The Fridge.
The fridge is caked with ice in the freezer compartment. I resolve to take my axe and hack away at it but remain fearful of my housemates, whom I hardly see due to time differences. I am nocturnal whilst they live amongst the scorching sun’s rays. Their semi frozen beer and a bag of sugar are terrifying to me, like a rosary draped around garlic. It torments the hell out of me why anyone would drink Toohey’s New frozen or otherwise and keep a bag of crystallizing sugar next to it. Below the freezer, is an empty space. devoid of the object I call cold. In fact, its actually cooler in my room today than the fridge is. Which scares me even more since it is summer. Fear is rampant in my life.
There was a bottle of Korean black bean sauce lying on the second shelf, leftovers from the last time I had friends over. Those were the good days, when the fridge actually worked and I was able to store my supply of coagulated blood, chilled. Nowadays, I have to get it fresh, which can be a hassle. In any case, at least the endless beeping has ceased. There was a time when it drove me insane going beep beep in the day, when I needed my sleep. I swear it bears a grudge because I stick things like sambal and prawn paste in it which stink it up. I miss kangkong. I will cook some on friday.
5 months ago, it was still winter. I bought a bottle of milk for a spot of hot chocolate. I kept the remainder in the fridge. I didn’t touch it for three days and came back to it wanting more hot chocolate. The expiry date wasn’t going to pass yet for another 4 more days. Yet, I felt the stirrings of oddity when the carton lifted a touch odd. The sides buckled ever so slightly then remained firm to the touch. I tipped it over into my cup of chocolate and received a mild splash of whey in the face along with a small clump of curds. I put down both the carton and cup and proceed to dissect the carton for answers. Lo and behold, I had achieved what any aspiring fetta producer might have fawned over. Only I am no aspiring fetta producer. Also, it stank like hell. A tall, off-white, rectangular block riddled with holes, yellowish grey liquid oozing from the pores stood in my sink. I picked it up, threw it in the bin and decided henceforth that the fridge would no longer contain anything. It was with some regret that I did not leave it longer. On friday, I will buy a carton of milk and break that 5 month old vow. Does anyone have any blue veined bacteria I could borrow?
The launch of the old Sony Playstation 2 brought a lot of things with it, including a game called Crash Bandicoot, which had a bandicoot character wearing blue pants jumping around smashing stuff. In terms of its appearance, it actually looked very little, if at all, like a real bandicoot apart from the nose slightly. In terms of its character, its probably about as completely opposite as you can get given how shy the real ones are. They really don’t go around smashing stuff in real life, only ever coming out at night and completely oblivious to the built up human world around them.
I saw this first hand thrice. The first was a corpse lying outside the front gate to work being pecked to crap by crows a few months back. The second was one we slowed down and barely avoided 2 days ago. The third was roadkill (from another car, not the one I was in!) a minute after the second. We stopped for a second to confirm it and it was indeed a bandicoot lying on the road, until the next 2 cars came along and lets just say things got a touch ugly what with the blood and guts and stuff.
The long nosed bandicoot is native to the eastern side of Australia and I happen to work right where there’s an endangered population of them in Manly’s North Head. They’re not an endangered species but the bunch of them that live in North Head, they can’t actually get anywhere and their numbers keep dwindling mostly due to cars running them over and the hamlet of Manly with its surfers, fish and chips and chicks. The only way out of North Head is a single long, winding road that I trudge up and down on a daily basis. There’s actually a board up on the roadside that tells motorists how many bandicoots died. It was 7 in ‘07 and 7 in ‘08. Right now, its 1 in ‘09. Pity then, that most motorists are still speeding up and down the road, unaware of the possibility that they could be spilling blood in the night. C’mon mateys. Give the cute little fellas a fighting chance.
Imagine that, with the nose intact and the rest a smodged pool of dark red. Bit like tomato paste after you cook it out slightly, lathered over some pizza dough. Only the pizza dough was grey and furry.
I’ve always had a thing for Volkswagen, after all, I spent a good coupla years driving a Golf all around Singapore. Memories of balsa & foam models, girlfriends, pizza, sleeping on the wheel, knocking into curbs and the like surface in abundance and not always together. One thing that does stick out beside the trivialities is the fact that the Golf was a really great and fun car to drive. I could really throw it around and it managed to handle it rather comfortably. Including that one time I went 160km/h on a 80km/h road. This is not a confession. I only truly realised how awesome Europe’s best selling car for eons was, when we swapped over to a Mitsubishi Pajero Mini, with a pathetic, less than a litre engine and loose rear wheel drive steering.
In any case, I was on the bus today and I managed to catch a glimpse of not one but two VW Eos on the road, stuck in traffic. One was classic silver and the other champagne gold. One had two skinhead chumpy dudes whilst the other a rather more elegant lady. What really caught my eye was the styling of the car itself. In either permutation, it managed to look quite classy, drawing a distinction from everything else around it. Granted everything else included a lot of Toyotas but still. Its not the flashiest one around nor quite the most expensive but it looks good. Plus, its a bloody convertible so its always gonna be awesome. Heck, even the skinhead chumps didn’t look that chumpy.
I’m not the only one getting hot under the collar. It was actually awarded the best exterior design award by a local car mag right here in Oz. The pictures don’t truly justify the understated beauty of this gentle fawn. Your eyes would do well to feast upon one in all its clanging metal flesh.
Q: Why isn’t Didier Drogba, performing as well for Chelsea this season as he has previously?
A: That’s because he’s been busy down under, popping up in Melbourne to win the Australian Open whilst wearing a Tutu. He defeated former footballer Ole Gunnar Solsjkaer (who has since converted his curls into a ponytail) 6-0 6-3.
Chelsea fans will be lining up in droves to kop that new kit.
