Preserved Moroccan style lemons.

This recipe is for a basic Moroccan style preserved lemon. The actual recipe is very easy but the technique for stuffing the lemons can be fiddly and potentially wasteful so I'd like to visually share my technique with you to help you get the best result and prettiest jars!

The finished product goes beautifully with meat and fish. Most Morrocan recipes call for only the rinsed and finely choped rind but if you like things extra lemony you can try using the pulp as well in your cooking.

You will need:
1 wide mouthed 1L jar, sterilised*
up to 12 or so, small, thin skinned lemons
1/2 tsp peppercorns
1 bay leaf
1/2 cup rock salt

Some of the lemons will be preserved in the jar/s others will be juiced only. Start with your preserving lemons first which the instructions will refer to.

Gently wash lemons in warm water with a soft bristled brush. This is to remove the natural waxes on the skin.

Hold lemon, stalk end down and use a small knife cut into lengthwise quarters but ensure quarters are still joined at the base like the petals of a flower.

Over your chopping board, put a small amount of rock salt into the lemon quarters to seperate them from each other like this:


Hold the lemon on its side and prise the quarters apart to fill. Use the side of the spoon to fill and push in the salt. Give it a squeeze to hold in place as you continue to repeat between the other sections.


This isn't full yet! I have found it's best to gradually stuff them with salt rather than try to get it all in at once.


A fully stuffed lemon.


Put the filled lemons into the jar one by one. You should squish them in to truly fill the jar and release some of the juice. When the jar is half full add the peppercorns and bayleaf. Once it's full of lemons you can juice the remaining lemons. Add the remaining salt, including any salt spilling from the stuffing process, to the jar. Cover lemons with lemon juice. Close and gently shake. Store in a cool, dark place for 6 weeks, shaking the jar once a week. The liquid should eventually clear up and the lemon pith will turn yellow. Then, it's ready to cook with! Store in refridgerator for around 6 months.



You can divide the ingredients between more than one jar so there's one for you and one for a gift. I've used a 500ml, La Parfait jar and an old olive jar. The tall jar should fit another lemon to really cram it full but I wanted it to be pretty :P




*STERILISING JARS must be done to ensure the shelf life and food safety of your preserve.
There are a few ways to do it, but never use a towel to dry! Also note that this is only part of what you need to do when making jam or other hot mixtures, in which case the boiling water bath method is necessary.
Anyhoo:
1 You can wash them in hot soapy water then dry them upside down on a clean tray, in a cool oven (100-130C) for 15 minutes. OR
2 My manager who has made prize winning jellies and preserves recommends the microwave technique because it's quick and easy. Fill jars with hot water and microwave for a couple of minutes. Then dry in the oven as above or for this recipe, empty and allow to cool a little. OR
3 Putting jars through the dishwasher on a hot cycle will also sterilise them. Immerse the rubber seals and metal parts in boiling water for a few minutes until you're ready to use them. OR
4 Fully immerse in boiling water for 10 minutes then oven dry.

Metal lids and rubber seals can be immersed in boiling water for 5 minutes.

Ricky Swallow: Field Recordings, by Justin Paton.

Ricky Swallow: Field Recordings
By Justin Paton
Published by Craftsman House

One of the reasons I haven't read many art books is because I feel that art is for looking at not writing about. As an artist I am loath to write too much about my own artwork because I’d like the artwork to speak for itself regardless of the inspiration and backstory of it. The other reason I have an aversion to reading and writing such statements - and some art criticism - is that it’s often gibberish infused wankery and I want no part of that. Galleries, critics and educational institutions seem to insist that words about art must contain a higher than average percentage of polysyllabic words within a set artistic vernacular. Artists are encouraged to talk up works without it being evident of having put quite as much thought into their execution, perhaps to make up for lack of technique or complexity in the final work.

The reality is that artists do need words to convey the depth of their ideas and allow their audience to get the most out of their art appreciation. Perhaps if artists were allowed to say exactly what they believe their artwork is about or what they were inspired by, instead of what is expected of them the whole process would be simplified. For an artist a skull is a really interesting shape ... which happens to be a universal symbol of our mortality and commonality as humans. By saying little about his work, and leaving it up to the viewer to interpret, Ricky Swallow allows his work to be appreciated in its own right.

I purchased this publication at the most recent, major retrospective of Swallow’s art , 'The Bricoleur' at the National Gallery of Victoria, at Federation Square aka NGV Fed Square. There were a number of tethered books in a little reading room that viewers could peruse at their leisure. I spent a few minutes with this one before deciding I’d like to own and read it in full.

I’ve been an admirer of Swallow’s sculptures since seeing a series of his turntables on a window sill back in 1999, following his career ever since. As an artist his skill, use of small scale, craftsmanship and discipline has been an inspiration to me. It was good to hear some of his artistic philosophy, which I strongly identify with. Swallow believes that if you want your audience to spend time looking at your art, then you need to spend a certain amount of time creating it.

The focus of this book is Swallow’s technically refined, unforgettable, world class sculptures, while skimming over his watercolours which are unremarkable by comparison. For some works I can’t help but feel that Swallow savoured the artistic challenge and time needed to carve in wood - particularly something complex in form - or the paradox of recreating something soft in a hard material. There has been a consistent, underlying irony, in his choice of materials.

Without quotes from the artist to confirm, I am unconvinced the bulk of meaningful descriptions of the artworks featured are what the artist intended - rather than a writer’s interpretation of what they could mean. Some of this is the expected dietary art wank fibre but nonetheless, fairly digestible from beginning to end offering further insight into Swallow’s art than may be gleaned by simply viewing it. The writer's interpretations provide food for thought, and that is where the value of reading about art comes into play, and why this is a worthy book.

Amazing Rare Things.

Amazing Rare Things: The Art of Natural History in the Age of Discovery
by Martin Clayton, Susan Owens, Rea Alexandratos, David Attenborough, soft cover edition

Prior to this I read Eaten by a Giant Clam by Joseph Cummings, which proved to be quite a good companion text.

In some ways you can judge this book by its cover; there are some equally gorgeous illustrations inside; David Attenborough's contributions are insightful; it's too small in format to be an art book. Visually it's an appetiser rather than the meal its title promises to be. The text makes up the bulk of the book providing background to some illustrations whilst directly referring to others. It's the referencing that is let down by the format size. Smaller pages means more pages of text between illustrations. Being the diligent reader I am, I endeavoured to view each referenced illustration to give it context which made my progress through the book slow and something of an effort. I strongly feel this book would be a better read if the pages were bigger so that not only could you get more text to a page but the highly detailed illustrations could be better appreciated.

An interesting read and beautifully illustrated but any subsequent editions should be in a larger format.

Chilli sauce as a weapon

At work today a man walked in holding a large squeeze bottle of what looked like chilli sauce which he must have just bought. He was otherwise unremarkable. As I stood near the register I thought "He could hold up the shop with that! Has anyone ever staged a hold/stick up armed with the threat of chilli sauce squirted in the eye?"
DISCLAIMER: Don't try anything like this, I am not endorsing that at all. That would be a really horrible thing to do.

However maybe the airline security people should be onto this?

[edit]

I asked a friend of mine who works in the field of Aviation Security about this. She said in her personal opinion that

'On international flights it would be a LAG* and therefore confiscated (over 100mls). On a domestic flight it's feasible but the fear factor wouldn't be there like a knife or gun which can be fatal, plus the reaction time to squeeze it out is longer compared to capsicum spray. If you attacked someone with it, you'd have plenty of other crew and passengers reacting and getting the bottle off the assailant. I'd deem it low risk on its own, but it could be used with other weapons.'

*Liquid, aerosol, gel.

Neverending Doggy

Seeing a spritely, white, little, dog running to its owner with its ears flapping in the breeze I thought "It's a little Falcor! Okay I want a dog called Falcor. Yep, I'll call my next dog Falcor if he's fair ... or Artax. Maybe Atreyu if he's dark. How awesome to have a such a dog or three and to call in the park 'Faaalcoooor! Artaaaax!!! Atreyu!' Yeah that would be cool."

Noooodles

Overheard in a Vietnamese grocery shop in Little Saigon, Footscray
[sing song female voice] "Noooodles, noooodles where could you be?"
Followed by a young woman in gumboots, to a small boy
"No udon for you. Go back."

Perfect Pyjamas

Larry "What, are those?"
Balki "My spiderman pyjamas."
Larry "Let me rephrase that. Why are you wearing those?"
Balki "My He-Man pyjamas are in the wash."

The Magic Otter

Eaten by a Giant Clam

'The English naturalist Charles Waterton would often startle guests to his Yorkshire manor, Walton Hall, by hiding behind the front door and biting them as they entered. (His pretentions to being a dog were no idle fancy - he was perfectly capable, even when well past sixty, of scratching the back of an ear with his big toe). '
From Eaten by a Giant Clam by Joseph Cummings

Attenborough's Madagascar

Brush-tailed Possums

[edited 16/02/2011]
Here's some snaps I took of a gorgeous brush tail possum mother and another cute, smaller individual while on holiday at Broulee, NSW, Australia. While the brushie - as they are affectionately known - is commonplace Australiawide including in the city, it's only here that I've taken the opportunity to snap some shots of them. They are Australia's equivalent to an opossum or small monkey in terms of size, habitat, adaptability to developed environments, being nocturnal and diet.


A little curious.


Very curious. A particularly large and bold individual not unlike a tom cat in both respects.


Ready for her close up, she is the picture of health.
That moist pink nosicle is too much! ;)


Brushies are very cuddly looking. Note to overseas readers: Do not cuddle a brushie! They've got claws as sharp as a cat and they never retract.


We only noticed she was a mum after seeing her bulging pouch. After getting aquainted with us we gave her a bit of space to do her thing.


Mama Possum sat and her pouch slowly dilated.


She allowed the joey to emerge, gave it a solid grooming before popping back it in and going on her way.



[edit]

Mama Possum and bub. Taken about a week later when she returned and the joey was on her back for a while.

Young 'Snaggletooth' out and about. This one is much smaller than Mama Possum. He was first discovered by J, sleeping on a blanket in the downstairs bedroom cupboard on our arrival. His presence has since been confirmed by myself, as temporary resident of said cupboard. It was part of my daily ritual to quietly slide open the cupboard door to check on him. He must have an alternative sleeping spot because he wasn't there everytime I checked on him. It's just as well because we had to block his entry into the cupboard!

He's a very gentle, shy, sweet possum. I know this from having fed him some fruit scraps. He was very careful not to scratch me with his claws, daintily taking the food in his mouth and gently holding onto my finger for balance. Mama Possum did scratch me slightly and grabbed onto my fingers very firmly even though with both possums I didn't offer my fingers to be held! He is at the bottom of the pecking order as far as other local possums go. Mama Possum hissed him off, while the another chased him off. He's had a hard life, and that little bit of missing lip revealing his teeth was probably the result of a close encounter with another possum's sharp claws.

Not sure what to title this one!

'Having spent the first five years of my academic life studying great ape social cognition, I’ve seen more simian penises than I care to mention. I once spent a summer with a 450-pound silverback gorilla that was hung like a wasp (great guy, though) and baby-sat a lascivious young orangutan that liked to insert his penis in just about anything with a hole, which unfortunately one day included my ear.'

Jesse Bering, Secrets of the Phallus: Why Is the Penis Shaped Like That?, Scientific American, April 2009

Adel Rootstein mannequins of the 1980s

I was chucking out my unused resource files when I came across these old Adel Rootstein mannequin promotional sheets. They were too funny not to share before condemning to recycling. Enjoy!


Ah, the 1980s: when men were effeminate and women were drag queens.


Ms Tracy Leigh is actually modelled on Ms Tracy Leigh. Adel Rootstein have a history of modelling their mannequins on real people, in particular famous people.


The very model of chillaxment apparently. I reckon he's frowning too much to be considered laid back but maybe that's just me.


We are the goon squad and we're coming to town.

Beep, beep!

Posing! Posing like a swan. Posing! Posing for a portrait ... Posing a threat!
Some rather contrived poses on the reverse page of the Runway ladies. I put some modesty patches over their 'bits' so it should be safe for work!

Smoked Salmon and Mushroom Salad

I came up with this recipe while on my evening walk. I had a packet of salmon close to its use by date, and was brainstorming a lean, healthy way to use it. I had all of the other ingredients.

This was so delicious I thought I'd better write it down and share it :) Keep in mind that sambal oelek is a crushed chilli paste so those of the faint palette may wish to reduce the quantity of it. Chilli is good for speeding up your metabolism.

Smoked Salmon and Mushroom Salad
4 or 5 leaves of red oak leaf lettuce (to cover a dinner plate), whole or sliced as you prefer
4 or 5 button mushrooms (about a handful), sliced
2 or 3 slices of smoked salmon
2 tsp capers, rinsed
1 tsp sambal oelek
1 clove of garlic, crushed
a splash of olive oil
a splash of lemon juice

Spread the lettuce over a dinner plate.
Chop or rip up the smoked salmon. Distribute it over the lettuce. Keep plate in fridge until ready to serve.
Warm the oil in a small frying pan, saute the garlic.
Add capers and crush them with a wooden spoon. Heat through.
Add sambal oelek and stir through.
Add mushrooms. Stir through then cover. Fry until soft.
Stir through a splash of lemon juice to moisten, then allow to evaporate a little.
Distribute over the salmon and lettuce.
Serve immediately.

Serves 1.

Serving suggestions

Has anyone EVER eaten the serving size quoted in the nutritional contents panel on the packet of anything that comes in more than a single serve?
eg on a packet of water cracker dipping biscuits: serving size 15g, 6 biscuits.

I do feel a bit devil-may-care, naughty for always eating more than the nutritionally described serving size. Sometimes I'll eat the whole packet in one go!

How do they decide how much a serving is? Perhaps the manufacturer is legally obliged to recommend moderate consumption of what is often a processed and therefore unhealthy snack food. For me it always seems a unrealistically small serving and not very useful as dietary information. That's why, if I want to understand and compare the nutritional content I look at the per 100g information and think of that in percentages.

MasterChef...

At work, two middle aged ladies are looking for a gift for a bloke they know.
"Ah MasterChef aprons! They have MasterChef aprons. You could get him a MasterChef apron. Do you think he would like that?"
"I think he would be insulted [low chuckle]!".

The first moving images of the new life forms from NASA!!!

The first moving images of the new life forms from NASA!!!*













* aka Shipoids in the Night from Malcolm Sutherland on Vimeo.

Gold

On the train from Footscray into the city we pass a temple under construction. It features a golden statue almost as tall as the temple itself. There is a group of jovial Maoris behind me.
On seeing the statue one bloke says "Whoah... What is that - gold?"
His mate "Cheese."

An analogy about veganism

'Vegans are to meat what Christians are to sex. The best way to control people is through shame, and attaching shame to a natural part of being human is hugely powerful.'

'Wolter' commenting on this article.

2 @ Wunderkammer

Flight of the Crayfish
print from a paper collage
21 x 29

2 @ Wunderkammer is the second exhibition of art by Patricia Denis
at Wunderkammer featuring her latest two dimensional works in collage.
An array of unique, full colour paper butterflies will flutter up the wall while the Spam Tales collage series continues.

2

@

Wunderkammer
by Patricia Denis
Wunderkammer
Nov 25 - Dec 9, 2010
Open: Mon to Fri 10-6, Sat 10-4
439 Lonsdale Street,
Melbourne, 3000 Victoria, Australia
info@wunderkammer.com.au
Phone: +61 3 9642 4694

Join the Facebook group,
Art by Patricia Denis
to keep up to date with events and news.

Egalitarian cuisine or disrespectful to the fish?

I learnt today that having a taste for salmon doesn't mean you know how to pronounce the word. I'm not sure if this makes salmon sushi handrolls an egalitarian cuisine or disrespectful to the very tasty fish. If it were a foreign word it would be less of a thought curio.
At a sushi shop in Melbourne CBD,
"Yeah we want two sushi rolls. One of them sal-mon..."

The windmills of your pink paté.

'But how you get a rainbow activity map, or any other useful figure, out of a 2.2 lb lump of pink paté -- that's a part of the story they rarely tell. The truth is, brain tissue looks blah. It's boring. Sliced brain is about as pretty as a thinly chopped white mushroom; you can see only a few obvious structures, and those structures only grossly correlate with brain function. '
Jessica Palmer @ Bioephemera.

Pushed too far, one fine day: RIP James Freud

RIP James Freud

Freerange eggs and pork.

I saw this ad appealing for free range pigs on the tram to work recently. 'You are Our Hope' is a campaign funded by Animals Australia*. You would need a heart of stone not to be at least a little moved and think a bit more about the welfare of your food sources. Bred freerange pork products are currently so hard to find. Chicken and eggs on the other hand is fairly easy. Hopefully this campaign will raise enough awareness to create demand and lead to happier Aussie piggies. Coles has committed to making its fresh pork products sow stall free. Use this link to appeal to the other major food retailers to do the same.

Admittedly you do have to be selective/educated about which freerange eggs you buy. I owe it to the Epicure section from The Age earlier this year for my knowledge:

Some are actually barn laid with access to outdoors through an opening too small to allow but a few chooks through in a day. Others have their beaks trimmed whether they need it or not, and in some cases this is done so severely that other farmers have described it as debeaking. Beak trimming is only acceptable where other measures to deal with pecking order issues are unsuccessful, and even then it must be professionally done.

Further reading:
http://www.greenwashreport.org/node/74

I hadn't previously been successful finding them, because the Epicure print article didn't have the logo included but now I know what to look for:
http://www.freerangefarmers.com.au/

*yes they are a vegan promoting bunch but listen to what they have to say in this campaign, if nothing else.

Tiramisu

I made this :)



Recipe from here. Dusted with Dutch cocoa powder.
To create strawberry garnish:

1. Wash and dry fresh strawberries, preferably more than what you think you will need so you can practice. For best results, select berries of a uniform size and shape.
2. Use a sharp paring (small, smooth blade, pointed) knife to carefully slice strawberry from tip to hull into four or five slices, but not all the way through. You need the hull to hold the slices together.
3. Gently fan out the slices.

'The Art of Tidying', for girls in 1886,

A room that needs tidying.

‘One of the few anecdotes intended to prove a warning to my heedless youth, which I can now remember, related to the homely subject of tidying up. It was to this effect, and was short and sour. Miss Smith had long been engaged to be married to Mr Jones. That gentleman was invited to sleep a night at Mr Smith’s house, and coming down to breakfast he passed his intended wife’s bed-room, from which she had gone down, leaving the door wide open. There he saw such a scene of confusion that he felt sure his home would not be a comfortable one under Miss Smith’s management, and so he broke off the match.
“Mean man!” all you girls cry in chorus; and I am not the least commending Mr Jones’s behavior; I am merely telling you what effect on his conduct the sight of that untidy bed-room had.
My own view of untidiness is that it is an indication of a very inferior mind – a mind lacking in imagination, lacking in the sense of the appropriate, lacking in will-power.
…
It sees that the armchair cannot be used to sit on because a skirt lies across it; the floor cannot conveniently be trodden on because a wrap would trip up the feet; the sunshade must be removed before the smaller chair can be taken from the wall; and the children may catch their heedless little heads against the corners of the open drawers.
…
By acting thus the untidy girl shows herself lacking in the sense of the appropriate. I strongly suspect she is the kind of girl I meet with a fur cape on her shoulders in July, and thin summer shoes on her feet in December. In common language, she never knows “what’s what”.
…
Let it be every woman’s ambition to lead a perfectly beautiful life, and to do that she must try to cultivate a very beautiful mind; for surely we know that the outward is only a picture of the inward, and that a little drop of water can contain a miniature picture of the world; therefore all great results can be accomplished in a very small space, and every little life, in any humble sphere, be so exquisitely lived that it would be a fit subject for a poet’s verse, a painter’s picture of home-life, or a heart-refreshing biography from the pen of a loving friend.’

Image and extract from: Power, Helen, ‘The Art of Tidying’, Cassell’s Family Magazine (annual), 1886, p172-173

Old Spice | Questions

The La Choy dragon.

Via Laughing Squid

Swan dive!

The sequel to that Old Spice commerical:


Comments on You Tube about this :
'Holy beans, this is so manly it makes my mustache tingle.'
'Would 299 OldSpice men plus yourself, wearing manly armor made of the freshest scents, muscle and a towel be able to take on the power of an army of Narwhal riding tigers?'

How did they make it? Click here.

Proposed close time for seals, 1873

Click image to see bigger version.
Proposed close time for seals
S.E. Waller
from the editorial by Frank Buckland in The Animal World, A Monthly Advocate of Humanity, Issued by the R.S.P.C.A, No. 43 - Vol. IV, April 1873

This was on the cover, illustrating an article proposing the creation of a hunting season of baby seals to allow them to reach a bigger size. Regulating this would offer the seals as a species a better rate of survival since the babies would not be quite so helpless when the time came. One would expect the later hunting season would require a swifter killing method than what was happening - leaving the younger seal pups to starve to death after killing their mothers. It would appear to ease a collective conscience albeit temporarily. He went into some gory detail about the inhumanity of the then current 'slaughter of the innocents' method. He did not call for an outright cease to hunting nor change in technique, acknowledging the economic value of the animals.

Epp's Cocoa, and Condy's Water adverts.

JellyCat

Box received in a kitchenware store. If it were a toystore perhaps the JellyCat wouldn't seem so random. Cool logo and interesting product description. I recommend the Truffle Collection.

You can find inspiration in everything

'Smith's fondness for tin robots of all shapes and sizes and antique bakelite radios is well known; some of these gizmos have even been known to spill into his shops. His prediliction for velvet Elvis paintings and rubber chickens is something he generally keeps to himself, however.'
Jim Davies on Paul Smith from 'You can find inspiration in everything*... *and if you can't, look again' by Paul Smith.

Hine Mizushima soft sculptural works

I love Hine Mizushima's work! I haven't looked through all of it yet. What I have seen so far is beautifully detailed, lovingly well crafted, with a gentle dash of sometimes black humour here and there.

Mizushima's site is here. You must check it out. You will not be disappointed :)

Found via The MochiMochi blog.

Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea by Jules Verne

In a nutshell: STFU about the fish and get on with the adventure.

The plot when there was plot was rivetting, and Verne's occasional comic relief through both Conseil and Ned Land was entertaining as well. I'm told that comprehensive detailing of the science in SF is characteristic of the period. If it were published today it would probably be half as long because as a modern reader that is tiresome and we like to be entertained by the non-fiction aspect don't we? The modern reader has access to books, journals like New Scientist, the internet if he/she desires to learn more. We don't need that level of detail. There is extensive discussion of maritime history, geography, specifics of longtitude and latitude, physics and waaay too much coverage of every single fish and lifeform encountered.

This reader understands that the narrator is a marine biologist but is this text written for the benefit of fellow scientists? The use of scientific names only in some cases was particularly annoying! The text would be at least a quarter if not a third as long if these piscine descriptions were pared back to the essentials.

Ramalama Gaga Gogo

Listening to: Ramalama Gaga Gogo*, on my i-Pod

Ramalama (Bang Bang) by Roisin Murphy
Enjoy the Silence 04(Mike Shinoda Remix) by Depeche Mode
Strict Machine by Goldfrapp
Silent Shout by The Knife
Are You the One? by The Presets
This Must be It by Röyksopp
Destroy Everything You Touch by Ladytron
Anarchy by KMFDM
Fascination Street by The Cure
Coloured Bedspread by Annie Lennox
Paninaro by The Pet Shop Boys
Girls and Boys by Blur
Oh La La by Goldfrapp
Mr Brightside (Jacques Lu Cont’s Thin White Duke Remix) by The Killers
Zero by The Yeah Yeah Yeahs
Hey Boy. Hey Girl. by The Chemical Brothers
World in My Eyes (Cicada Remix) by Depeche Mode
Bad Ego (Michael Jackson vs. Alter Ego) DJ Earworm mashup
The Men by Covenant
Nirgaga (Nirvana vs. Lady Gaga) DJ Lobsterdust mashup
Rush by Depeche Mode
Precious by Depeche Mode
Shine by Cyndi Lauper
Always by Erasure
Telephone by Lady Gaga
Ladykiller by Alice in Videoland
All I ever Wanted by The Human League
Damned don’t Cry by Visage
Dance in the Dark by Lady Gaga
Here Comes the Rain by The Eurythmics
Pitbull Dream by What's
Wrong by Depeche Mode
Bad Romance by Lady Gaga
Love is a Fool by Primary
Night on Fire by VHS or Beta
To Cut a Long Story Short by Spandau Ballet
The Way I Are by Timbaland
Neutraface by DD40
It’s a Sin by The Pet Shop Boys

*i-Tunes playlist I composed using two of my most recent On the Go lists. Click on the titles in italic for the best clips out of those found.

These are a few of my favourite things.

Today my bliss out time was:
wearing stripey tights and Mary Janes,
while sitting on a large, high backed, fancy street bench crowned at each corner with metal sunflowers,
eating a choc mint cupcake,
and being an island of tranquil bliss while everyone rushed to the station to get home.

Pork wonton peaks

Listening to: Running Up that Hill by Placebo

Pork wontons prepared this afternoon. As I was making them I couldn't help but notice the pleasing pattern they made, complemented by the soft natural light. My cooking experiments are providing me with a great opportunity to practise my food styling skills and photography.


Aerial view


Playing with depth of field.


Grayscale with slight levels tweak to bump up contrast.
I've made this one my desktop wallpaper, I like it that much - plus it's well suited to it.

Here Comes the Hook Again

Telephone call for Lady Gaga:
[Hello, hello baby you called I can't here a thing]*
It's Dave Stewart and Annie Lennox.
[I have got no service at the club you say, say]
They want their hook back from Here Comes the Rain Again.
[Wha, wha, what did you say? Huh? You're breaking up on me]
You used it in Dance in the Dark, yeah?
[Sorry I can not hear you. I'm kinda busy]
Cheers!


*All small print, lyrics from Telephone by Lady Gaga, The Fame Monster.

Spaceman to Victorian diver customization

Customization in progress.
20th century spaceman, 1 1/2" tall, plastic figure bought to accompany my Sea Monkeys on Mars tank.


Victorian diver
In order to make this convincing, I did a bit of google image researching.
The front window is a brass eyelet and a plastic disk. The side and top windows are googly eyes with the lens cut back to just a rim. I used a scalpel. emery board and carving tools to cut off the space paraphernalia, define the helmet, and 'depuff' the suit.


I also did a mini steampunk style customization on the base of the tank.

Happy Bug sayz "Hai!" ;)

Listening to: It's My Life, by Talk Talk, from The Collection.


Unidentified* cute bug on my bedroom window this afternoon. He hung around long enough for one photograph.

Enhance!

"Oh hai and welcum to de naiborhud."


*I tried to but there doesn't seem to be an easily accessed online resource for local bug identification. There is for spiders and butterflies. He was about 8mm long.

Sunny day, cool sky.

Actually read 'STAY COOL LIPTON ICE TEA'.
From my new backyard this afternoon.

The Hippo Jar

Listening to: Shining Light by Annie Lennox from the Annie Lennox Collection


The weird, ceramic Japanese hippopotamus pot/jar/vessel I got from the Salvos a few years ago. I had eyed it off for a few weeks before sucumbing to its odd charm.


Open hippo.


Hippo on mah belleh. Looks even funnier on a bare belly because it looks like he is emerging from it like water!

Sir David Mellifluous Attenborough

Listening to : Telephone by Lady Gaga from The Fame Monster

Quote of the Day
'I have just received the televisual equivalent of a Sunday comfort shag from David Attenborough spooning sweet nothings about sand dunes into my gaping, ravenous ear. Is this what heroin feels like?'
Stephen Collins @ Coelacanth Diaries

Plastics are killing marine life.

via Bioephemera

Get the gist?

The soft 'g' in gist is pronounced in the same way as the 'g' is in giraffe or ginger,
not
like the hard 'g' in girder or get.

Get it?
Got it?
Good!

c. 1933* HMV record sleeve

Australian, HMV generic, LP record sleeve c.1933*


Detail


Detail showing HMV's portable record player


From the reverse of this sleeve.

*As surmised from the copyright notice on the reverse of sleeve.

Franz Ferdinand and moshing

Franz Ferdinand at The Forum wasn't as exciting as I hoped. Perhaps I built them up too much.

A while back I read that Franz Ferdinand got together to create music to make girls dance and not have just have a bunch of guys moshing. The area closest to the stage was not a lady friendly zone - it was a mosh pit. I saw other women with slightly anxious looks on their faces as the guy/s closest to them bounced fiercely up and down like demented Masai warriors. I saw women back away and others try to make their partners stop moshing.

I don't mosh. It's intimidating being in the middle of it. Guys think it's alright to keep bumping into you. When I told one guy "Get off me!" because he sort of leaned and draped over me, he told me "Relax, it's a concert". His friends were pushy pricks too.

Saying that it reads like other fans spoiled FF for me doesn't it? Well they did. It went against what I had expected from such a gig. I think I would have had 100% fun if I could have gotten closer without being jumped on.

Cocktail Recipe: The Polar Bear

Listening to: Happiness by Goldfrapp from Seventh Tree

Ah vodka how I love thee. Let me count the ways. 1, 2, 3, 4...

I came up with this new way, earlier this evening.

The Polar Bear

In a high ball glass build in the following order;

two or three scoops of lemon/lime sorbet,

a two or three fingers of vodka,

fill with soda water.

Stir with preferably with a metal straw-spoon -it is the biz and maximises ya fizz!.

The First Men in the Moon by H.G. Wells

Despite Wells' modesty about glossing over the science with fiction (namely Cavorite) in The First Men in The Moon, I found it to be one of his most scientific pieces so far. His explanation of defying Earth's gravity, how life forms might evolve in the absence of earthly gravity, and how humans might find moving about on the moon then returning to earth were all scientifically plausible if not accurate. Well's background in natural science is highly evident in his descriptions of lunar vegetation, its habits, and in particular its growth cycle.

None of this is to say that the science overwhelms the story for indeed it does not. True to form this is as rollicking a Victorian adventure as any Wells has written. Woven throughout the book is a philosophic pondering on the often exploitative and violent nature of humans. Allowing the audience to read the story from the two characters' viewpoints in two, carefully spliced sections of the book adds a clever twist to what could otherwise have been an anti-climatic ending.

Childhood favourite Sesame Street segments

Still my favourites as well :)


The Yip Yip Martians meet a telephone (blue Martian puppeteered by Jim Henson)


Grover's Health Minute - Teeth


Grover the Waiter - Big Hamburger


Born to Add


The Beetles, Letter B

Most memorable animations:


Me and My M.


The Ladybugs' Picnic


Number 12 from the Pinball counting song, sung by The Pointer Sisters

I could go surfing You tube all day looking for more but I'll leave it at that!

Nurdles aka mermaid tears

Nurdles are tiny plastic pellets from the plastic moulding industry. Raw plastic is formed into pre-production plastic pellets or plastic resin pellets less than 5mm in size. Their size and shape make them easy to feed into the hopper of a plastic moulding machine. Not every nurdle makes it into the hopper. Some may be spilt or blown away on the wind. These usually end up in waterways.

Nurdles are also known as mermaid tears because they make up a large portion of marine debris. Scientists have been aware of the danger of marine plastic debris for some years now*. However it is only the recent set of images of dead albatross chicks that have made a wave in the sea of public consciousness.

*So have I (see blog entry here) though not as long as they have obviously.

Rant about marine plastic debris

Never mind chaos theory's flapping butterfly: one carelessly disposed of plastic item inland, could end up in the gut of an albatross chick on a remote inland thousands of kilometres away. That object could be one of many plastic fragments and particles that will fill this bird's belly thus starving the animal to death.

Hundreds of seemingly insignificant nurdles are swallowed by other animals such as fish, leaching toxins into their bodies.

What can anyone do about any of this? We can all learn to be responsible. We can tell others about it. We can share articles and images with our friends and family to help them understand no piece of plastic is insignificant. It means life or death for the animal that eats it. That animal could indirectly be us. As the dominant species on this planet we have the capacity and therefore the responsibility for our collective actions.

Hail to the train driver

'Train driver: "Sorry about the late running of this train ... we had been held up by bunyips that have escaped from the zoo ... on crack."'
Overheard, MX, December 15, 2009

Santa meeting Uncle Sam

GREETINGS!
Inside card: 'NOW AND FOREVER _ _ Merry Christmas AND A HAPPY NEW YEAR. Corp. and Mrs Jake de Hartog.'
Circa early1940s, USA made greeting card featuring a map of USA inside

The artful swan dodger

Chateau de Chillon et la Dent du Midi*

I understand that white swans have grumpy temperaments. With that in mind I would give these giant swans a very wide berth.

*Vintage postcard circa 1910/20.

Ellen is generous

Clint Eastwood on the Ellen show
"I'm just here for my stuff."

Cookie sings Rammstein

This reduced me to helpless laughter! How fortunate that Cookie had that row of numbers and not one of the others.