Sunday, May 11, 2008
Pizza Cut Five
No, this isn't a typo, but the name of a clothes brand in Taipei. They've taken a visual cue from Pizzicato Five's styling (as well as a sizeable chunk of their name!), and morphed it into a pizza-delivery style clothes shop, with clothes in chiller cabinets and pizza boxes, and even a scooter delivery service .... See the following:
Main Page:
http://www.pizzacutfive.com/
Pizzicato Five designs:
http://www.pizzacutfive.com/web/index.php?target=series.php&c_sn=1&s_sn=1
Taipei Times newspaper article (in English):
http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/feat/archives/2008/01/31/2003399704
Main Page:
http://www.pizzacutfive.com/
Pizzicato Five designs:
http://www.pizzacutfive.com/web/index.php?target=series.php&c_sn=1&s_sn=1
Taipei Times newspaper article (in English):
http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/feat/archives/2008/01/31/2003399704
Sunday, April 27, 2008
Domestic goddess
Well, I'm trying to be a bit better with food these days .... when Y cooks he always makes stuff from scratch, whereas I've historically been quite a consumer of pre-prepared food. Nowadays I'm trying to eat a bit healthier, eg: organic food, no E-numbers, etc etc, so I thought that if I'm going to start getting fussy in my old age I should really try making the stuff myself sometimes.
One of my first attempts is to make muffins at home rather than buying them in the supermarket, as even the more expensive 'quality' muffins have preservatives and stuff in them. So, here is a picture of my first attempt, some choc-chip vanilla muffins I made a couple of weeks ago. They were slightly over-cooked, so they were a bit harder than I would I have liked, but they were still tasty, and I'm about to try another recipe this evening. Fingers crossed!
One of my first attempts is to make muffins at home rather than buying them in the supermarket, as even the more expensive 'quality' muffins have preservatives and stuff in them. So, here is a picture of my first attempt, some choc-chip vanilla muffins I made a couple of weeks ago. They were slightly over-cooked, so they were a bit harder than I would I have liked, but they were still tasty, and I'm about to try another recipe this evening. Fingers crossed!
Tuesday, April 22, 2008
Another year ....
Gosh. 31. Doesn't time fly?! I know I'm getting older because I'm getting fatter. I'm hoping that a Wii Fit will miraculously solve that, and return me to my previous slender form .... We shall see!
Friday, March 28, 2008
Suga suga ...
The Sugababes are on a bit of a roll at the moment, I think - their last few singles have all been pretty fab, and their videos have all been quite pretty too .... Here's the most recent:
Monday, March 24, 2008
Meigui, megui, wo ai ni
I've been obsessed with a song recently. Anyone who's watched the Peter Greenaway film The Pillow Book should remember this song, as it recurs several times throughout the film. It's 'Rose Rose, I Love You' (Or 'Meigui, Meigui, Wo Ai Ni' to give it its correct title), by Yao Lee from 1940.I first downloaded this song years ago on the original Napster (RIP), but unfortunately I lost the file when my housemate's PC crashed. For years I intended to re-downloaded it but never got round to it - until now!
I don't know why exactly I'm so hooked on it ... I'm a sucker for a simple but catchy melody, and I guess the association with the film probably helps. Interestingly, I was talking to Y about this song, and just from me humming one line of it (with no words, because I didn't know what they were at the time) he guessed it straight away - apparently it's a very famous song if you're Chinese, and I did a bit of research and there were even a few Western versions of it apparently, notably by Frankie Lane and Petula Clark.
Anyway, here is the song, in all its mono glory: Rose, Rose, I Love You [M4A, 2.4MB]. Enjoy!
(PS: If it downloads as a .txt file, just delete the .txt part, which should leave the filename as rose.m4a. I'm not sure why it does this, it's a bit annoying ...)
Sunday, February 10, 2008
Addicted!
Yes, it's true, I do have an addiction: Special K! It's not because I'm trying to be healthy or anything, I just love it! My parents used to eat it when I was young, and I remember liking it as a boy, but then they stopped eating it and for some reason I never decided to try it again when I was older - until now, at the age of 30! .... My favourite flavour is the Purple Berries I think. It's just yummy!!
Mind you, apparently it has a much higher sugar content than it used to, which is a bit naughty, and although it's low in fat it does have a surprisingly high sugar content. I was eating some Coco Pops Mega Munchers earlier, as you do, and I was quite shocked to find that they have approximately 34g of sugar per 100g of product. No wonder kids are so fat these days! But even my beloved Special K isn't amazingly better; admittedly I'm not eating a very healthy variety at the moment - Special K Bliss (Creamy Berry Crunch), which has approx 23g sugar per 100g product. So despite the fact that it advertises itself as "Less than 3% fat," it still loads you up with sugars which will turn to fat unless you exercise like a maniac. Which I don't.Another blast from the past I've been into recently is the first Buggles album, "The Age of Plastic." Yes, they really were more than just a one-hit-wonder with Video Killed The Radio Star; they actually had two whole albums as a group, of which I own the first. I bought it in the online-equivalent of a bargain bin, on the strength of that one song, but also because I'd read some very positive reviews about it, and I was really pleasantly surprised with it. It's by no means the best album ever, but it has some great 'tunes' on it, and it's quite creative. I love the deliberate retro-futurism of some of the tracks (a la Fritz Lang's classic film Metropolis), including one of my favourites, which I offer to you here: Johnny On The Monorail [AAC, 6.4MB]. Enjoy :-)
Tuesday, February 05, 2008
Blogger's block
It's weird, throughout the day I think of tonnes of things that I'd like to blog about, but by the time I get home I don't have the mental energy necessary to blog, which sounds really dumb I know, but I just can't bring myself to do it. And then at weekends I'm normally doing stuff, and it's hard enough to keep on top of my emails sometimes yet alone do anything else on the computer. Sometimes I feel like I'm drowning in email, and it's so tempting to just leave it, but then you end up having to wade through even more emails when you do finally go back to it.
In some ways I'd like to cancel all of my email accounts and create a brand new one, and start again with all the gazillions of subscriptions and memberships and groups etc that one signs up to over the years ..... I kind of used to do this when I changed ISPs, back in the days of dial-up internet connections, but for years now I've have a Yahoo and a Hotmail account which are my joint main email accounts, and they'll never expire ....
I've been trying to have a bit of a purge, and unsubscribe from mailing lists that I don't read, or don't really value that much, but that's only the tip of iceberg ....
In some ways I'd like to cancel all of my email accounts and create a brand new one, and start again with all the gazillions of subscriptions and memberships and groups etc that one signs up to over the years ..... I kind of used to do this when I changed ISPs, back in the days of dial-up internet connections, but for years now I've have a Yahoo and a Hotmail account which are my joint main email accounts, and they'll never expire ....
I've been trying to have a bit of a purge, and unsubscribe from mailing lists that I don't read, or don't really value that much, but that's only the tip of iceberg ....
Sunday, January 06, 2008
Breeders - new album and tour!
Well, I had a surprise today - not only did I discover that The Breeders, the band I credit with getting into 'alternative' rock, are playing a gig in London on 16th April this year (it's already sold out though), but they've got a new album out too, their first album for 6 years!! It's going to be called Mountain Battles, and it's out on 7th April in the UK and 8th April in the US. Arghhhh!! I'm so excited!!!! Apparently a track has been uploaded here, although I haven't been able to listen to it yet, I'll definitely do that soon though.
More details:
www.noaloha.com/breeders/
www.4ad.com/breeders/
See Tickets
Yay!!! I just hope I can get tickets to see them in April .... they rock live!!
More details:
www.noaloha.com/breeders/
www.4ad.com/breeders/
See Tickets
Yay!!! I just hope I can get tickets to see them in April .... they rock live!!
Thursday, January 03, 2008
Happy new year!
Y and I took these photos today, it was quite good fun, although surprisingly tiring waving a torch around in the dark! I've got no resolutions for this year, as I'm fed up with breaking them every year :-( Hope everyone has a good year.
By the way, if anyone missed the Dr Who Christmas special, you can watch it on the BBC iPlayer: http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/page/item/b008lyb2.shtml. It was quite enjoyable actually, although I still think Dr Who has been dumbed down a lot since the good old days. Oh, the iPlayer may be restricted to UK residents though .... sorry.
Monday, December 24, 2007
Merry Christmas!
I know, I haven't posted anything in ages. It's partly because of my recently-arrived Wii .... Although I've only had a working Wii for about a week (my first one was duff, so I had to get a refund and buy a second one), I do love it, although I can see how the novelty will wear off after a while. I've got lots of party games at the moment, so I want to get some games like Zelda and Mario Galaxy so that I've got something to get my teeth stuck into.Anyway, as my Christmas gift to you all, I present a Christmas song from the lovely Raveonettes: The Christmas Song, it's actually quite a beautiful song, and it's become one of my favourite Christmas tunes on my iPod. It's in AAC/M4A format, so apologies to anyone who doesn't like that. [NB: If for some reason it downloads as a text file, just remove the ".txt" part and it should play fine ... I'm not sure why that's happened.]
Well, Merry Christmas everyone, and a prosperous new year :-) Finally, here's a picture of me in a subway in Elephant & Castle in London to leave you with:
Monday, December 10, 2007
Wii !!
I am hopefully soon to be the proud owner of a Nintendo Wii!! It's in the post .... I'm VERY excited :-)
Friday, November 23, 2007
Old skool ....
If anyone enjoysa bit of history, you can have a bit of fun with this interactive 3D map of London from approx 1550! It's fascinating if you know modern London as you can recognise a suprising amount of it on this almost 500-year-old map. Even if you don't it's still a very well-illustrated glimpse into historical London:
Map of Early Modern London
The 'experimental' version of the map is the best, as you can drag it around and zoom in etc like on Google Maps (and others).
Map of Early Modern London
The 'experimental' version of the map is the best, as you can drag it around and zoom in etc like on Google Maps (and others).
Monday, November 12, 2007
"Mon bel ami, I'm in love with you"
Oh man, I LOVE Stereo Total so much ..... I saw them play on Wednesday, in a small club on Oxford Street, and had a fab time, although I was stood behind some quite large men so couldn't always see everything that was happening!!
Stereo Total are one of those bands that just really excite me, for so many reasons:
Unfortunately, I can't share any tracks with you, because I don't have my own internet connection; however, you can listen to some of their tracks on their MySpace page, or on YouTube.
Also, if like me you're a fan, then you should definitely check out the official Stereo Total website, as it has loads of interesting stuff, including insights into all their albums and pretty much every single track, and full lyrics, including many translations into English. They haven't got Paris/Berlin lyrics yet, but I can wait! Enjoy :-)
Stereo Total are one of those bands that just really excite me, for so many reasons:
- I love anything international, especially European, and so they tick several boxes there - French, German, English, with a few other languages and influences thrown in for good measure.
- I've said this before, but I love lo-fi DIY stuff, although not anything lo-fi - it has to be a bit good!!
- I love stuff that comes across as disposable chewing-gum music, but actually has a hidden depth or multiple layers that only become apparent after repeated listening.
- I love a good musical hook, and although some Stereo Total songs do lack this, many have some great hooks which I could happily listen to for hours on end.
Unfortunately, I can't share any tracks with you, because I don't have my own internet connection; however, you can listen to some of their tracks on their MySpace page, or on YouTube.
Also, if like me you're a fan, then you should definitely check out the official Stereo Total website, as it has loads of interesting stuff, including insights into all their albums and pretty much every single track, and full lyrics, including many translations into English. They haven't got Paris/Berlin lyrics yet, but I can wait! Enjoy :-)
Saturday, November 10, 2007
Moved!
Aiya, we moved a couple of weeks ago and I've had no internet access since then :-( I don't have internet access at work, so I've been relying on the local library, so I don't have much time for blogging unfortunately.
We're now south of the river, in the lovely environs of Elephant and Castle .... hmm. It's quite rough around the edges, but so far we haven't had any problems. The flat is great, I can walk to work in less than half an hour and central London is minutes away. Hooray!
Anyway, I will hopefully be able to blog properly again soon. Hope everyone is well :-)
We're now south of the river, in the lovely environs of Elephant and Castle .... hmm. It's quite rough around the edges, but so far we haven't had any problems. The flat is great, I can walk to work in less than half an hour and central London is minutes away. Hooray!
Anyway, I will hopefully be able to blog properly again soon. Hope everyone is well :-)
Sunday, October 14, 2007
Beached
I little while back, Y and I went to a beach near Weston-Super-Mare, on the coast of Somerset, with my Mum and sister. It was quite bizarre, because almost as soon as we stepped foot on the beach, this fog started to roll in, and completely enveloped us; it was pretty eery, it came in so fast. Whenever I see fog on a beach I always think of the Dr Who episode The Curse Of Fenric. But anyway, before that point, we managed to get a few pics in. Here's a small sample:
That last picture is pretty much a rip-off of Matty's patented pose, so I'm guessing there might be some royalty payments due unless he's feeling lenient today!! By the way, in case you're wondering where I got the super-cool shades from, they're these weird sunglasses that my Mum uses when she's driving - they fit over your normal glasses, so you can take them on and off whenever needed without having to change glasses. So they're practical, cheap, and also very attractive! Bargain!!
That last picture is pretty much a rip-off of Matty's patented pose, so I'm guessing there might be some royalty payments due unless he's feeling lenient today!! By the way, in case you're wondering where I got the super-cool shades from, they're these weird sunglasses that my Mum uses when she's driving - they fit over your normal glasses, so you can take them on and off whenever needed without having to change glasses. So they're practical, cheap, and also very attractive! Bargain!!
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