Cheesedog

Bye Bye Cheesedog

This site is going to be killed off in the next few days. You'll find me (and all the old stuff) at www.teaonesugar.com,  my new blog

Dirt

I was looking for something new to watch after 30 Rock, all of Entourage, waiting for the new series of The Wire and of course, the demise of the Sopranos. Ladies and Gentlemen, this is Dirt - a story of tabloid competition and the sleazy side of Hollywood with Courtney Cox (and great support from Ian Hart). It's fast, thrashy fun and will do until something else comes along. Thanks bittorrent!

How we work: Bill Murray, actor

Link: rodcorp: How we work: Bill Murray, actor.

"Murray’s only contact with the film business is through a freephone number. If people need to talk to him - perhaps producers who want him to star in a film - they have to call the number and leave a message. (Of course, they have to find the number first.) If he feels like it, he will call back. Often, he doesn’t. Sometimes, he’ll go for weeks without even listening to the messages. It took Sofia Coppola hundreds of phone calls and seven months to get him to look at the script for Lost in Translation. Even then, she wasn’t sure he was going to make the film until he appeared on the set on the first day of the shoot in Tokyo."

Our yearly Risk game

The red (Garret) invasion
Originally uploaded by racheldonovan

I won!

Christmas Dinner by D

Christmas Dinner
Originally uploaded by racheldonovan

Roasted Pheasant and Partridge.
Pork and Sage Stuffing Balls.
Roasted potatoes, carrots and parsnips seasoned with rosemary, garlic, clementine zest, salt and pepper.
Mixed Greens - Kale, Red Cabbage, Savoy blanched then stir fried with flavoured butter (chilli, garlic, rosemary and anchovy).
Brussel Sprouts lightly blanched then quickly fried with a dash of the flavoured butter, balsamic vinegar and bacon.

Topped off with gravy made with the juices from the birds..

Made by D - best Christmas Dinner yet!

Movie: I Am Legend

Quite enjoyed this apocolyptic movie starring Will Smith as the last man on Earth after a virus wiped out humanity. The depection of an overgrown and uninhabited New York is well done, the rest fairly standard Zombie-type fare.

Xmas 2007

Xmas 2007
Originally uploaded by garretkeogh

Entertainers of the Year: Daft Punk

Link: SPIN.com: Entertainers of the Year: Daft Punk.

"It's not just performing and creating music and images that makes the show," says Bangalter. "It's God, in the middle of 30,000 people."

TED | TEDBlog: Why design? Philippe Starck on TED.com

Link: TED | TEDBlog: Why design? Philippe Starck on TED.com.

" in perhaps fifty years, sixty years, we can finish completely this civilization, and offer to our children the possibility to invent a new story, a new poetry, a new romanticism. With billions of people who have been born, worked, lived, and died before us, these people who have worked so much, we have now bring beautiful things, beautiful gifts, we know so many things. We can say to our children, OK, done, that was our story. That passed. Now you have a duty. Invent a new story. Invent a new poetry. The only rule is, we have not to have any idea about the next story. We give you white pages. Invent. We give you the best tools, the best tools, and now, do it. That's why I continue to work, even if it's for toilet brush."

Erik Nitsche - General Dynamics annual report 1958

Erik Nitsche - General Dynamics annual report 1958
Originally uploaded by Grain Edit

Michelle Kaufmann

Flickr and Picnik together at last

Nice to see Flickr and Picnik integration rolled out.

Link: Edit your photos! On Flickr! « Flickr Blog.

Children's Awards 2007 Winners and Nominees - Children's - Awards - The BAFTA site

Earlier this year, I was asked to judge a BAFTA for Interactive projects at the BAFTA Children's awards. The winners have just been announced and I am really pleased with the list, and the winner. Nominees and Winner below:

CBEEBIES (website) - Olivia Dickinson, Leigh Jenkinson, Ian Hamilton (CBeebies/BBC)
CBBC ME AND MY MOVIE (website) - Rosie Allimonos, Siobhan Mulholland, Rick Palmer (CBBC/BBC Learning/Bloc Media)
IN THE NIGHT GARDEN (website) - Carl Draper, Drew Wilkins, Justin Eames (CBeebies/Fish In A Bottle)
Winner: THE SECRET SHOW (website) - Glynn Hayward, Dylan James, Tony Collingwood (Complete Control/BBC Worldwide/Collingwood O'Hare Entertainment)

Link: The BAFTA site.

Cakedog

Am going to try blogging over at Tumblr for a while.

Link: Cakedog.

November Playlist - MP3 Music Streams on IMEEM

Radio Lab: Musical Language (April 21, 2006)

Listened to this on the way to work this morning. Great description of how we hear sounds.

Democratic Debate - The New York Times

Text book stuff from the New York Times and their coverage of the Democratic debate. You can watch the viideo, follow in the transcript and jump to sections in the transcript (which play the relevant sections of video). You can also analyse the transcript by speaker, topic or via free search. Great stuff. (BTW Hilary looked like she slayed it!)
Link: Democratic Debate: Analyzing the Details - The New York Times.

The Nerd Handbook

It's scary how much of this article I connect with - but not as scary as how much I think my girlfriend is going to relate to it. Worth reading the whole thing.

Link: Rands In Repose: The Nerd Handbook.

"Your nerd has built an annoyingly efficient relevancy engine in his head. It’s the end of the day and you and your nerd are hanging out on the couch. The TV is off. There isn’t a computer anywhere nearby and you’re giving your nerd the daily debrief. “Spent an hour at the post office trying to ship that package to your mom, and then I went down to that bistro — you know — the one next the flower shop, and it’s closed. Can you believe that?”

And your nerd says, “Cool”.

Cool? What’s cool? The business closing? The package? How is any of it cool? None of it’s cool. Actually, all of it might be cool, but your nerd doesn’t believe any of what you’re saying is relevant. This is what he heard, “Spent an hour at the post office blah blah blah…”

Hello St Pancras

St Pancras
Originally uploaded by garretkeogh

Last night I left work a bit early to go and have a look around the new St Pancras International station. It's definitely worth a visit if you haven’t already been there. I walked up from the Metropolitan and District line bit of Kings Cross underground, through the new entrance to St Pancras which took me to the ground floor. You can then take the steps or escalator up to the main floor where the trains are, as well as the big statue and the new Champagne Bar. It's a staggering building and there's the whole other big glass building at the back - which is actually the main entrance. Most of the retail space is still not opened but the size of the whole station is impressive. A great addition to London's rapidly improving transport infrastructure. I can’t wait to actually get on a train now!

Kurt Wagner Live

On Sunday, Dermot and I went to see Kurt Wagner from Lambchop do a solo gig at Union Chapel in Islington. I didnt take any pictures as it was really dark. In fact, Wagner was lit by a single bulb for the first few songs. He came onto stage in complete darkness shouting the words to Give It, his song with X-Press2 and one of my favourites of the last few years. The rest of the gig was great. He did lots of rare and new songs and for most of the gig you could have heard a pin drop. A breathtaking way to spend a Sunday evening.

A conversation with Jay-Z - Charlie Rose

Tagging The News

  Massive Fire, East London 
  Originally uploaded by finkangel

It was interesting to watch the story break today about the fire in East London. I first picked up a twitter message from jovike  which was then quickly followed by Twitter messages from Farringdon and East London. Meanwhile nothing on BBC, Londonist, ITV Local or other websites. The best place to see the story unfolding was via the 'fire' tag on Flickr, THEN on BBC News 24 video stream (via Zatoo) then slowly everywhere else. Microblogging rules for breaking news!

Chaos theory

Link: Chaos theory: advertising cash will soon decrease | Media | The Guardian.

"The Advertising Age media critic Bob Garfield dubs this the "chaos scenario", arguing that total advertising spending - which long stayed stable and merely shifted among media - will now decrease. Blogger Doc Searls contends that on the internet, "supply and demand will find each other . . . Advertising will still be part of that picture, but it won't fund the whole thing." Beth Comstock, a digital exec at NBC Universal, complains that every business pitch she hears is ad-supported. "It's just not going to be possible," she said recently. "There are not going to be enough advertising dollars in the marketplace - no matter how clever we are, no matter what the format is." There won't be enough to support us in media in the manner to which we've become accustomed. And it's hard to imagine what other business models will come along to fund us. So we're left with the need to live within our means. To become smaller and more efficient, to find ways to serve advertisers better with more relevance and data, to fight like hell for the ad dollars that are there - and to do all this before advertisers break their media habit by doing what they should have been doing all along: building collaborative relationships with their customers."

Stuff

Sunday evening and am at home doing usual online things - uploading, mapping and sorting photos; checking links; reading; planning and generally happily messing about. Seem to find myself with a lot to read at the moment. Here's the current pile of books following me around from bedroom to sofa to work to shelf:

John Gray's Straw Dogs
John Updike's Terrorist
Wikinomics: How Mass Collaboration Changes Everything
Everyware: The Dawning Age of Ubiquitous Computing
Jane Jacob's Death and Life of Great American Cities (Modern Library Edition)
Steven Hall's Raw Shark Texts
J.G. Ballard's Kingdom Come

Good job it's the right time of year for hibernation!

BBC - Later...

Nice clip from the BBC from the Later... page. A good example of a programme support site that actually works.

The Daily Star's unique approach to promoting RSS feeds

Link: currybetdotnet .

speechification

I've been emailing the odd link to Steve and Russell over at Speechification for their excellent Radio 4 blog. I had to point them in the direction of the This American Life show about Maps. One of my favourites. Link: speechification.

Banksy, Pollard Street

  Latest Banksy Pollard Street 
  Originally uploaded by eddiedangerous

Update: Londonist has some great photos of the man himself caught in the act

Chicken & Biscuit Bowl - KFC.com

I like fast food as much as the next person but this makes me feel ill:

"Our new bowl is a blend of mouth-watering KFC flavors and textures all layered together. We start with our signature mashed potatoes layered with sweet kernel corn and loaded with bite-size pieces of crispy chicken. Then we top with our homestyle white pepper gravy and sprinkle with our shredded three cheese blend. For the final touch, we tuck a buttermilk biscuit in the side."

Yuck!
Link: Chicken & Biscuit Bowl - KFC.com.

Block Party

I watched the DVD of Block Party over the weekend and really loved it. The music was great, Michel Gondry's direction made it all seem so intimate and I can't recommend this DVD enough. Best music DVD I've seen in ages