christopher-hill.com

Spotify Playlist 19

2011-01-16T17:55:00.002Z

It's been a while since my last playlist. How remiss of me.

Chill's 19th Spotify Playlist

Pull In Emergency – In Silence
Local Natives – Shape Shifter
Darwin Deez – Constellations
Tune-Yards – Sunlight
Low Motion Disco – Things Are Gonna Get Easier
!!! – Jamie, My Intentions Are Bass
Foals – Blue Blood
Lykke Li – Dance, Dance, Dance
Surfer Blood – Take It Easy
The Drums – Me And The Moon
Field Music – Measure
Sleigh Bells – Infinity Guitars
James Blake – Footnotes

Basil Martini

2010-11-23T19:43:00.002Z

A few weeks ago, inspired by this blog, which in turn took its inspiration from this idea for infusing flavours in liquid, I tried making a Basil Martini. Basically a standard Gin Martini, but with basil infused gin. It was extremely easy, really delicious, very moreish, leading me to get trashed. It had a vanilla note for some reason. Not sure where that came from, something to do with the sweetness from the gas perhaps?

Recipe

First make the Basil Gin:

Pack an isi whipper with fresh basil (I use a 25g pack from Waitrose) that has been lightly crushed (I just rubbed the bunch in my hands a few times then twisted in half). Half-fill the canister with gin (I used around 300-350ml).

Cover and charge with 1 N2O cartridge. Shake slowly for 1 minute. Rapidly discharge gas. Uncover and allow to stand for 3 minutes before straining.

Then proceed as per a standard Gin Martini recipe:

Fill a glass with 3 ounces gin, add a dash of vermouth, and stir. You can tell when it's cold enough from the outside of the glass, you shouldn't need to stir for more than a minute.

Basil Gin Martini: Done.

By the way, some people get confused by the term "Martini". I think this is because there's a well known Italian brand of vermouth called "Martini". However, the cocktail Martini is a drink comprised of Gin and vermouth (vermouth is a fortified wine flavoured with herbs). It can also be made with vodka instead of gin, if so it tends to be shaken rather than stirred.

Spotify Playlist 18

2010-10-27T19:33:00.000+01:00

Enjoy, please

Tracklisting:
Pulled Apart By Horses – I Punched A Lion In The Throat
Adebisi Shank – Shunk
Everything Everything – Suffragette Suffragette
Janelle Monae – Faster
Sleigh Bells – A/B Machines
The Books – Enjoy Your Worries, You May Never Have Them Again
Rose Elinor Dougall – Find Me Out
Tame Impala – Half Full Glass Of Wine
The Black Angels – True Believers
Jamie Cullum and Clint Eastwood – Gran Torino - feat. Clint Eastwood as Walt Kowalski

Playlist 17

2010-09-05T13:36:00.003+01:00

Here you go.
Play it loud, please.

Tracklisting...

Passion Pit – I've Got Your Number
Everything Everything – Schoolin’
Fun. – Be Calm
Cloud Cult – Take Your Medicine
Countdown Quartet – The Capuchin
Glen Hansard & Marketa Irglova – When Your Mind's Made Up
Shining – In The Kingdom Of Kitsch You Will Be A Monster
Gaggle – I Hear Flies
Local Natives – Sun Hands - Aquarium Drunkard Session
Fools Gold – Nadine

Spotify Playlist 16

2010-08-22T09:55:00.000+01:00

I've created a new playlist.

Tracklisting:

Errors – A Rumour In Africa
The Rapture – Whoo! Alright - Yeah...Uh Huh.
Titus Andronicus – Four Score and Seven
Kos – Crabbuckit
Passion Pit – Sleepyhead
Elbow – One Day Like This
Okkervil River – Our Life Is Not A Movie Or Maybe
Xiu Xiu – Dear God, I Hate Myself
16pac – Letters From L.A.
Massive Attack – Saturday Come Slow
Soul Coughing – Screenwriter's Blues
Hockey – Too Fake
Sachal Vasandani – Naked As We Came

New Orleans and New York

2010-07-27T20:04:00.000+01:00

Knackered I am. Jet lagged and worn out, so I won't bother writing a long post about everything we did on holiday. The TL;DR version, I guess, is as follows: We ate a lot, we drank a lot, we walked a lot, and then we'd get up the next day and do it all again. Occassionally we'd just pause and try and soak up the experience in the knowledge that no camera could capture it, moments that could only exist in our memories.
So there's no photo of us sitting by the Mississippi in the evening, with Peanut and Ozzy the bulldogs lolling about us. No photo of us being prepared amazing cocktails by Chris McMillan as he regailed us with his wide knowledge on any subject including his extraordinary knowledge on drinks (though there's loads of videos on You Tube that may give you an idea of what it's like to prop up the bar with him the other side). There's no way a camera could have captured my intense ride on the Cyclone at Coney Island. The thing is over 80 years old and looks it, and I've been on newer, taller, faster roller coasters, but none as cool (or as violent) as this.
And the food. My ten day break from not eating dead animals freed my to try any of the cuisine on offer; Gumbo, Jambalaya, Fried Chicken in New Orleans, Street food from the Kwik Meal cart, the Biryani cart and the Big Gay Ice Cream truck in New York, a great meal at the "Anglo Style" gastro pub in Greenwich Village called The Spotted Pig which was better than any pub meal I've had in the UK, the best pizza I've ever had at Grimaldi's in Brooklyn, a hot dog at Nathan's on Coney Island, and we topped it all with the tasting menu at Le Bernardin. In fact if I listed all the great food we ate, this post would be ridiculous in length.
And it would also be too long if I listed every great moment we had so I'll just leave you with the few mentioned above, and let the photos and few videos fill in some of the other gaps as best as they are able to.

Music! Music! Music! Clams! Music!

2010-07-08T22:08:00.000+01:00

It's been a while since I posted a new playlist, and even longer since I posted anything other than a playlist here, ain't it. Well I guess I've been extremely busy recently in and out of work and there's no point posting something just for the sake of posting something. Plus you know I'm more into the micro-blogging these days. But a lovingly crafted Spotify playlist, that's always worth publishing, isn't it? Yes. Yes it is. So here we go...

Chill's 15th Spotify Playlist
Field Music – The Rest Noise
Rush – Tom Sawyer
Emika – Drop The Other
Sufjan Stevens – The Predatory Wasp of the Palisades is out to get us
Vienna Teng – Stray Italian Greyhound
Beach House – Zebra
Tegan And Sara – On Directing
Subtle – The Mercury Craze
Hot Chip – One Life Stand
White Hinterland – Icarus
Porcupine Tree – Anesthetize

Confit Tuna & Cucumber Coulis

2010-07-04T14:19:00.000+01:00

I've done a new recipe: Confit Tuna with Cucumber Coulis - aka Tuna & Cucumber sandwich a la Jason Atherton. Perfect for summer, innit.

Spotify Playlist 14

2010-05-18T20:02:00.000+01:00

It's all I post here these days ain't it. Nought wrong with that though I say. Here y'are then. Tracklisting:

Shirley Bassey – Light My Fire
Jaga Jazzist – One-Armed Bandit
Oh No Ono – Icicles
Charlotte Gainsbourg – Le Chat du Café des Artistes
Modeselektor – Silikon
Gorillaz – Stylo (Album Version) (Feat. Mos Def and Bobby Womack)
Local Natives – Airplanes
Spoon – Nobody Gets Me But You
Yeasayer – Ambling Alp
Lindstrøm & Christabelle – Baby Can't Stop
Delphic – Submission
Tunng – It Breaks

A new Spotify Playlist

2010-04-25T21:21:00.002+01:00

Playlist 13

Tracklisting:

The Decemberists – The Hazards Of Love 1 (The Prettiest Whistles Won’t Wrestle The Thistles Undone)
The Maccabees – No Kind Words - Single Version
Cursive – From the Hips
Mastodon – Quintessence
Gil Scott-Heron – The Crutch
Liars – Scissor
Shearwater – Landscape At Speed
Midlake – Rulers, Ruling All Things
Smokey Robinson & The Miracles – The Tears Of A Clown
The Strange Boys – Be Brave
Los Campesinos! – The Sea Is A Good Place To Think Of The Future
Scott Walker – If You Go Away

Spotify Playlist 12

2010-04-12T20:09:00.000+01:00

Spotify Playlist 12

Track List:

Chew Lips – Solo
Little Boots – Click
Phoenix – Love Like A Sunset Part I
Emmy The Great – City Song
Wilco – Bull Black Nova
Regina Spektor – Human Of The Year
Patrick Wolf – The Bachelor
Jeffrey Lewis & The Junkyard – The Upside-down Cross
Future Of The Left – Arming Eritrea
Soap&Skin – Spiracle
God Help The Girl – Funny Little Frog
Staff Benda Bilili – Avramandole
Willie Isz – Georgiavania
The Mars Volta – Halo of Nembutals

Chill's Spotify Playlist 11

2010-03-27T13:53:00.000Z

Chill's Spotify Playlist 11

The Who – Love Reign O'er Me - 1996 Remastered Version
Florence + The Machine – Girl With One Eye
Bronski Beat – Smalltown Boy
RJD2 – Reality (Instrumental)
Dizzee Rascal – Sirens
Lord Creator – Kingston Town
Depeche Mode – Peace
Jimi Hendrix Experience – Bleeding Heart
Blue States – Season Song
Alex Chilton – Hook Me Up

Spotify: Moments in Opera

2010-03-01T21:09:00.003Z

Here's a quick playlist of some of my favourite moments in opera (that stand alone):

Prelude from Lohengrin
Sea Interlude IV from Peter Grimes - Storm
Wozzeck - Act III Scene 4 - Scene Change (Invention On A Key)
Prelude and Liebestod (concert version) from Tristan und Isolde
Sea Interlude III from Peter Grimes - Moonlight
Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk - Act 2 - Scene 4 Interlude
Tosca, Act 1: Tre sbirri, una carrozza

Spotify Playlist 10

2010-03-01T09:25:00.000Z

A new Spotify playlist

Track list:

Stornoway – Unfaithful
Eliza Doolittle – Rollerblades
Plastiscines – Barcelona [Album Version]
Mimo – Running Out (Fenech-Soler Remix)
The Avett Brothers – Will You Return?
Codeine Velvet Club – Vanity Kills
Rogues – Not So Pretty
Ezra Furman And The Harpoons – We Should Fight
Marina And The Diamonds – Mowgli's Road - Single
Department Of Eagles – Teenagers
Two Door Cinema Club – Something Good Can Work
TV on the Radio – I Was A Lover
Grizzly Bear – Slow Life [with Victoria Legrand] - Soundtrack Album Version

Dinner

2010-02-28T11:00:00.001Z

I cooked and ate beef last night. Don't get too excited, I won't make a habit out of it, but it was basically part of a birthday present to Liv. I was cooking a fillet of beef as part of an extravagant birthday meal, and thought sod it, I'll try some myself too, it's been ten years.
Here's the thing - it was nice enough, but it wasn't a revelation making me want to return to my meat eating days. In fact it seemed to reinforce a lot of what I've been saying over the years about eating meat, that a lot of the pleasure comes from what you're pairing the meat with (be it the sides and sauce, the company, the occasion or whatever). And my life, 500g of free range fillet of beef is bloody expensive!
So there you go, I liked it but probably not enough to set aside the concerns over the farming practises, the environmental impact, the cost. Oh, and you know, the killing of an animal!
The rest of the meal: Chilled Tomato Consomme from Ramsay's 3 Star Chef book. Seared Scallops with Cauliflower Puree, Cumin Veloute and Ras El Hanout Caramel from David Everitt Matthias's Essence, Fillet of Beef (Ramsay's 3 Star Chef) with sous vide vegetables (Charlie Trotter in The Cook's Book), pomme puree (Heston Blumenthal's Big Fat Duck Cookbook) and Red Wine Jus (Thomas Keller's Bouchon), Tarte Tatin (Ramsay's 3 Star Chef), Home Made Goat's Cheese with home made Salt Crackers (Dan Lepard's The Handmade Loaf).

New Spotify Playlist

2010-02-10T21:31:00.000Z

Click here for my latest Spotify playlist.

Track Listing:

Luke Haines – Lenny Valentino
Cymbals Eat Guitars – ... And The Hazy Sea
Wilco – You Are My Face
Fanfarlo – I'm A Pilot
Sunset Rubdown – Idiot Heart
Tune-Yards – Sunlight
Wild Beasts – Cheerio Chaps, Cheerio Goodbye
Hello Saferide – Travelling with HS
Sin Fang Bous – A Fire To Sleep In
Cass McCombs – You Saved My Life

Website Reboot

2010-02-07T16:35:00.002Z

This website now looks a different.
Why?
Because I've had to move it to a new address. If you have this blog bookmarked, you may want to update your bookmarks because from the 2nd March, the redirects to the new address will no longer work and you'll probably just get a page not found error. The same goes if you follow this blog through an RSS reader, as I'm not sure whether or not the redirection to the new address gets taken permanent notice of by RSS Readers.
Tell me more...
Google announced a few weeks back that they'll shortly end FTP support in Blogger. FTP is the means by which my blog posts get published to christopher-hill.com, meaning that I've had to change things about a bit. I decided to take this as an opportunity to consolidate a few bits a pieces, and save myself $60 a year by ditching my web host. Instead, everything will be hosted by Google for free. That has a few disadvantages, but nothing I can't live without or find a decent enough workaround for should I need to.
Because I'm letting my hosting package expire in a few weeks time, I decided not to wait for Google's promised migration tool to carry out this change and sort it out manually now while I have the chance. Not having used a migration tool, combined with my web hosting space becoming unavailable means there'll no doubt be a number of dead links and what have you. But the main pages should redirect fine - I'm pretty sure most people reading this will either have it bookmarked in their browser, of subscribe to a feed in a reader. And I don't care about Page Rank or ought, so the fact that it will be all messed up in Google ain't no thing.
The migration is far from complete (there's microsites and stuff that I need to find a home for) but in terms of the blog, it's all here. You know, because I blog a lot!

New Year's Eve Menu

2010-01-10T18:19:00.003Z

I was staying in a cottage over New Year with friends, and we took in turns to cook, Come Dine With Me style. I decided to make a Christmassy menu:
Mini Bangers & Mash
Mulled Lentils & Spiced Monkfish
Sage & Onion Risotto
Lemon Tart a la Gordon Ramsay

Cheese & Mini Smarties

The risotto is the dish I came up with for Christmas dinner last year (where we had the Lemon Tart too). The first two dishes are new inventions. The mulled lentils was an idea I came up with after having braised lentils once to which I'd added Curry powder, which gave a Christmassy note somewhere. The Spiced Monkfish part is stolen from a Gordon Ramsay F Word recipe. The Sausage & Mash was inspired by Ferran Adrian's deconstructed Spanish Tortilla, in that it uses the same recipe for potato foam, but uses it in a very British way. Sadly, being a vegetarian, I didn't get to eat it myself, but I might try a fish pie version some day.

I've posted the exact recipes I used here in case anyone is interested. Note with the Mulled Lentils - if you fancy making it, leave out the clementine peel, I think it gave a slight astringency to the dish which was unwelcome and added nothing.

Bangers & Mash

Tools Required
• Thermal cream whipper and accessories, N20 cartridges, Small Saucepan, Measuring Jug, Hand blender, Probe Thermometer, Sieve, Funnel

Ingredients
• 250g Maris Piper Potato
• 125ml Single Cream
• 35ml Olive Oil

• A splash of red wine

• 3 organic pork sausages

-60 minutes (or earlier)

• Peel potato and cut into 250g of large chunks
• Turn oven to temperature required for sausages
• Put potato in cold water
• Bring to boil and cook potatoes until soft (should be no more than 20 minutes)
• Drain reserving 100ml of the water
• Place the potato and the 100ml of cooking water in saucepan.
• While keeping at 70 degrees Celsius, puree, adding the cream little by little.
• While keeping at 70 degrees Celsius, puree, adding the olive oil little by little.
• Season well with salt.
• Fill whipper with boiling water to heat it up, then drain.
• Pour potato mixture into whipper and charge with 2 N20 cartridges

-35 minutes
• Put sausage in oven.

-5 minutes
• Warm espresso cups
• Remove sausage from oven.
• Place sausage on chopping board and add a little red wine to deglaze pan.
• Chop the potato into small chunks
• Place chunks of potato in an espresso mug or similar receptacle.
• Spoon over a little of the red wine from the pan.

SERVE
Cover with potato foam, and sprinkle a little black pepper on top

Mulled Lentils & Monkfish (Serves 9 as a starter)

Tools

Requires little pot for making season, large sauce pan or stock pot, Measuring Jug, Spice Bags or muslin and string, Slotted Spoon, Roasting Pan

Ingredients

• 1 tsp 5 spice

• 1 tsp paprika

• 1 tsp ground black pepper plus more for seasoning

• 1 tsp salt plus more for seasoning

• 9 monkfish tail fillets - 75 - 100g each?

• 3 (or 4 small) clementines

• 4 cloves

• 2 cinnamon sticks

• 5 all spice berries

• 3 star anise

• 2 carrots

• 1 onion

• 2 garlic cloves

• 350g lentils

• 2 tsp curry powder

• 2 tsp bouillon powder

• 1 bottle claret

• 350ml water

• 60 g butter

Prepare in advance

• Prepare seasoning (1 part 5 spice, 1 part paprika, 1 part black pepper, 1 part salt)

• Put 3 (or 4 small) clementine skins, 4 cloves, 2 cinnamon sticks, 5 all spice and 3 star anise in spice bags

• Remove any membrane from the monkfish tail

• Sprinkle seasoning onto monkfish

• Drizzle monkfish in olive oil in roasting pan

-70 mins

• Dice the carrots, onion and garlic

-60 mins

• Slow fry the carrots, onion and garlic in Olive Oil

-45 mins

• Add the following:

• 350g Lentils

• Spice bag

• 2 tsp curry powder

• 2 tsp bouillon powder

• Bottle of red wine

• 350 ml water

• Salt & Pepper

• Bring to boil, then simmer, adding more water if required

• Pre-heat oven to 180 degrees

-17 minutes

• Put Monkfish in oven for 12 minutes

-5 minutes

• Warm plates

• Remove monkfish from oven and set aside

• Add 60g butter to lentils and stir through until melted

• Slice monkfish into medallions

SERVE

• Spoon lentils onto plates with slotted spoon into centre of each plate.

• Place the medallions on top of the lentils

• Drizzle with remaining sauce in pan

Sage & Onion Risotto (Serves 9)

Tools required

• Risotto pan, Baking trays for cooling risotto in advance, Sauce pan, Ladle, Parmesan Grater

Ingredients

• 550g risotto rice

• 175ml dry white wine

• 2 litres veg stock

• Sage Leaves

• Chopped hazelnuts

• 50g butter

• 25g parmesan

• 5 banana shallots

• 4 cloves garlic

• Olive Oil

• Pancetta

Prepare in advance (night before perhaps)

• Finely dice the shallots

• Finely slice the garlic

• Slow fry the shallots and garlic in olive oil for 10-15 minutes

• Add the rice and fry for a few minutes

• Start adding the wine, then stock

• After 15 minutes, remove from heat, and spread the risotto on the baking trays and cover with cling film

• Take the stock off the heat and put the rice in the fridge

-15

• Crisp up the pancetta in the oven between greaseproof paper.

• Finely shop the sage

• Reheat the stock

• Place the risotto rice back in the pan with the chopped sage leaves and hazelnuts

• When just al dente, season to taste, stir in the butter and parmesan

• Cover and leave to rest for 5 minutes or until ready to serve.

• Warm the plates

SERVE

• Place the risotto in the centre of the plate, and top with pancetta

Lemon Tart a la Gordon Ramsay

Tools

• Food Processor, Rolling pin, Tart tin, Baking parchment, Baking beans, Pastry brush, Mixing bowl, Sieve, Blow torch

Ingredients

• 50g dark chocolate , melted

• 6 eggs (2 whole, 4 yolks only)

• 180g caster sugar

• 200ml double cream

• 2 lemons , juiced

• icing sugar to dust

For Sweet Pastry

• 125g unsalted butter

• 90g caster sugar

• 1 egg

• 250g plain flour

1. To make the pastry put the butter and sugar in a food processor and whizz until just combined. Add the egg and whizz for 30 seconds. Add the flour and process for a few seconds until the dough just comes together, (add 1 tbsp cold water if the dough seems too dry). Knead lightly on a surface dusted with flour then shape into a flat disc and chill for 30 minutes.

2. Heat the oven to 190C/fan 170C/gas 5. Roll the pastry out and use it to line a 20cm loose-based tart in or tart ring. Leave the excess pastry hanging over the edge. Rest for 20 minutes in the fridge. Line the pastry with foil or baking parchment and baking beans. bake blind for 15 minutes, until the sides just begin to colour. Remove the beans and foil and bake for another 5 minutes or until the base is cooked and lightly golden.

3. Brush the base with the melted chocolate and cool. Lower oven to 110C/fan 90/gas 1/2.

4. Whisk the eggs, yolks and sugar together in a bowl and stir in the cream. Finally, add the lemon juice - this will thicken the cream.

5. Strain the filling through a fine sieve into a jug. Pour half of the filling into the pastry case and put the pastry case onto the bottom oven shelf, pull the shelf half out and, keeping the tin level, pour in the remaining filling. Carefully push the shelf back and bake for 50-60 minutes until the filling is almost set. It should have a slight wobble in the centre. Trim the pastry level with the top of the tin and leave it to cool completely.

6. Dust with icing sugar and run a cook's blowtorch over the surface to give a brûlée effect.

7. To serve, sprinkle some passion fruit over the tart.

Suffolk

2009-11-28T11:37:00.002Z

Southwold
Originally uploaded by chill.

We got married in July but 24th (ish) November is our official anniversary weekend which we celebrate by going for a short break somewhere. It's a nice time of year, there's still some autumn leaves in the trees, it's not too cold yet and Christmas is just round around the corner.
This year we rented a little cottage in Halesworth Suffolk, ten miles from the coast. It is a lovely little town that seems to have resisted well the homoginised high street that has infected much of the rest of Britain.
Chilling out was the order of the day, with plenty of food & drink. We also had a nice day trip to Aldeburgh, a lovely fishing town where Benjamin Britten made his home. We tried to visit his house but it was closed so really we just wandered around, had fish & chips on the beach, with music from Peter Grimes playing in our heads.
Pictures here.

Listening to Music

2009-10-30T12:43:00.038Z

It used to be easy. Switch on the hi-fi... stick in a CD (or tape or record)... hit play. If you want to listen in a different room, use the portable stereo. Yet somehow "progress" has made (for me at least) the act of listening music harder in 2009 than it was in 1989.

Warning - this post is quite boring unless you do gadgets. In fact even if you do gadgets it's quite boring. This is not my problem, it's your problem.

Here's the thing: most of the music I listen to isn't on a CD. It's in iTunes or these days more likely streamed directly off the internets via Spotify. In other words, my Mac is my primary playback device. What's more, I have what I've come to realise is a "non-standard" setup. My Mac is actually a laptop and the hard drive isn't large enough to store all my iTunes music. I therefore have to hold my iTunes library in a seperate location (in my case a NetGear ReadyNAS). This is fine - it sits upstairs in the spare room because of the fan noise, and is only on when I need it (so as not to waste electrickery).
The fact that it is often switched off is handled quite nicely in iTunes. If you load in new audio onto iTunes and it can't access your library it just stores it on your local hard drive. This means I can't play back my iTunes library from another audio device such as a Squeezebox or my NetGear EVA8000, because although the ReadyNAS has an iTunes server (which both those devices support) the iTunes library doesn't have the latest audio until I sync it up. Both these devices operate by scanning the library, they don't work in real time.
So, if I want to listen to a podcast I'd downloaded to my hard drive, I'd have to first sync my local iTunes library to the main library, then re-scan that library in the Squeezebox. Yeah, like that's going to happen. If I want to listen to podcast I want to listen to a podcast. I want the equivalent of putting the CD in and hitting play.
Prior to the Squeezebox, a simple solution for listening to Podcasts and music in the kitchen was to spend the vouchers work gave me for being there 10 years on a rather nice iPod/iPhone dock (an Altec Lansing T612 if you're interested - it's excellent). Given that nearly all my music is on my iPod, and syncing new podcasts to it is quick and easy, this is actually a reasonable solution. What's more, when the Spotify iPhone app came out I could also use it to transmit Spotify too, though sadly without the Radio feature, because it's missing from the iPhone app.
But this doesn't solve the issue of listening back on my main hi-fi in the lounge. This is the point at which I decided to investigate the Squeezebox. What attracted me to this option was reading about Nicecast for the Mac, which can stream whatever audio is playing on your mac, which the Squeezebox can tune in to. This is required because Squeezebox doesn't support Spotify, and because of the aforementioned point about my iTunes library being split across two locations.
So I bought a Squeezebox radio for the kitchen to try it out. It was a bastard to get working with Nicecast. But eventually I did, and yet I never use it. Why? Primarily it's because I hate the sound quality, my iPhone dock is vastly superior. And the thing is, when trying to debug the problems with getting it to tune into my Nicecast stream I bought a nifty little app for the iPhone (called "Tuner") which allows you to tune into any stream of your choice (as opposed to most streaming apps which are tied to particular networks). So what I actually do now when I want to listen to music in the kitchen is to put the iPhone in the dock, and stream Nicecast to that instead of the Squeezebox. It gives me excellent sound quality and I can listen to any audio source, Spotify, iTunes, iPlayer, LastFM. I could listen to the Radio too, but I still have an old fashioned DAB Pure for that.

******
FOR SALE - one brand new barely used Squeezebox Radio.
******

So. Kitchen completely sorted to my satisfaction. This still hasn't sorted the lounge issue here. As I see it, I have two options:
1) Buy an iPod Dock that will hook into my hi-fi system and go with the same solution as in the kitchen.
2) Buy a different type of Squeezebox - one that hooks directly into the hi-fi, this getting around the sound quality problem.

I suspect I will go with option 2. Any other ideas though?

Spotify

2009-10-25T20:37:00.000Z

I feel like I have something to say about it, but I don't know what yet. I do know this though: I love Spotify. I mean, I kind of got sick of modern music. 6 Music was once my salvation, an island for those seeking asylum from Radio 1 but whose tastes haven't yet degenerated sufficiently for them to want to listen to Radio 2. But slowly 6 Music's vision seemed to change; they no longer saw their remit as to provide good music to the masses abandoned by the main stream, but instead saw themselves as a feeder station for DJs heading towards Radio 1. Or "twats" as I prefer to call them. Or in the case of George Lamb "Irritating ball sacks".
So as the station ostracized DJs like Phil Jupitus and Tom Robinson I was left bereft of a way of finding new artists that I liked. I mean, if there's no radio station you like, how can you find new music without having to fork out your hard earned cash? LastFM have had a good "If you like that you might like this" model for years, but the problem is when it first hit the internet it was kind of immature and the scrobbling support in my playback devices was erratic at best, so I soon lost interest. And the kicker was this: Sure I might like this, but how will I know without listening to it, and to listen to it I have to either buy it or steal it (and I'm generally not averse to "borrowing it off the internet" but generally can't be arsed to)?
Enter Spotify, an on demand music service for streaming (nearly all) the music I could feasibly want to listen to. Or, if I don't know what I want to listen to, I could either load up someone else's playlist or set the "radio" feature going with the genres and decades I'm interested in. Jazz from the 40s/50s, pop from the 60s, whatever from the whenevers, it will be served up to me for free without me having to really think very hard about it.
And that's just fucking beautiful. It's liberating and exciting. I've probably heard music from more new artists in the few months I've been hooked into Spotify than I have in the preceeding few years. What's more, if I suddenly suffer from a bout of nostalgia and want to listen to, oh I don't know, how about the musical Barnum that my parents took me to when I was four, it's there on Spotify for me to listen to. I wouldn't buy it on CD or from iTunes because I wouldn't listen to it more than once so couldn't justify the expense, but it's great that it's there for me should I want it. Or perhaps there's a different version of Wagner's Tristan und Isolde I want to listen to - it's there. Or maybe I want to track down that Paul McCartney track - it's there, or Lily Shitting Allan - it's there. In fact, so much of it's there that generally these days if I want to listen to something I don't go looking for the CD or sift through iTunes; it's easier to just enter the artist in the Spotify search box, click on the results and hit Play.
Here's a good example of why I love Spotify: as I type this, a Jarvis Cocker track has come on called "Running the world" and it gave me an inexplicable desire to listen to the Tears for Fears track "Everybody Wants to Rule the World". And that's what I'm now listening to. I would never buy that track, but it's playing none the less. And now I'm thrust back to the 80s watching Tears for Fears on telly with Adam Keating, who has just said "I don't. I don't want to rule the world, it would be a lot of hassle. It's just not worth it." and I said "You would so want to rule the world. Everyone does." and I'm a bit annoyed at him for trying to be contrary and aloof.
Back in the year 2009 (god, just the though of living in the year 2009 would have seemed impossibly futuristic back then, let alone the concept of "the internet" and "wireless laptops") and I'm listening to Roots Manuva and all I know is this: I love Spotify and there's something I want to say about it but I'm not sure what that is yet. I will wait until I'm sober and try again.

Strike

2009-10-18T10:11:00.004+01:00

One morning, back in 1996, I made a vow to myself that I would always support postal worker's right to strike. I had just spent the night earning precious little money being treated like scum by a jumped up little prick of a manager at a Royal Mail sorting office. All I could think when I left was "No wonder these guys go on strike.". I was asked back the next night. I refused. I needed the money, but not that much.
That talentless idiotic prick of a manager is probably still there. In fact he's probably been promoted higher up the organisation to allow his ineptitude to really shine, and play a vital part in the grinding down of the hard working postal worker. You can't help wondering if he played a key part in the Royal Mail's decision to provide the customer (who are let's not forget the owners of the company) with an increasingly terrible and erratic service for which we pay an increasingly high price.
And who do the (obscenely rich talentless) pricks that run the company blame for the Royal Mails current wows? The worker. The people on the bottom rung of the ladder that have been at the receiving end of ever increasing shit and maltreatment. They must pay the price while Crozier takes his vast salary and Mandleson bleats on about "Modernisation".
What's does he mean by modernisation anyway? Is he going to issue the workers with jet packs to speed up the delivery? Is he arguing for the development of an army of robots to deliver the mail? Perhaps the Royal Mail has developed a way of teleporting letters direct to your doormat? I mean, modernisation, yeah?Modernisation us good and only a prick would think otherwise, right?
What he really means is more job losses. Less pay for those on the bottom rung. Poorer working conditions. And a poorer service for us. How about the modernisation that's taken place so far? Never ever having the same delivery guy, what so we think of that modernisation? What about getting rid of the second post, did you like that modernisation? What about the erratic times at which your post is delivered, is that modernisation you can get behind? Well if Mandy gets his way, there's more of this shit to come. And who's paying or it? The hard working postal workers. The customers.
So, if I have to wait a day or so extra for a letter this week I will simply remind myself of how I felt after spening just one night in this ridiculous organisation.

The Real Time Web

2009-10-14T12:43:00.005+01:00

The Guardian yesterday declared a victory for the real time web against the oil firm "Trafigura". Trafigura, if you don't know, are the thundercunts who in order to increase their profits dumped a load of toxic waste on a poor African nation. Following this action, 15 people died (that have been attributed to the toxic waste) and tens of thousands were maimed. Trafigura always maintained that there was no link between their dumping of toxic waste and the illness that ensued. When the BBC and The Guardian reported about the case, Trafigura attempted to sue them for libel. In September, they failed in a bid to gag The Guardian from publishing damning evidence of their attempt to cover up their actions and following this they finally agreed to pay a small amount of compensation, though still admitted no liability.
So far so sickening. It's the kind of story that reminds you that the real enemy aren't kids hanging out on street corners, or the fools who have fallen into a life of drug addiction, but the obscenely rich disgusting filth that run the country's larger corporations and hedge funds and the morally bankrupt polticians that are funded by them such as Tory Leader in the Lords Lord Stratchlyde (who following the bad publicity has severed links with the company) and Tory minister Peter Fraser QC, who Stratchclyde recommended to Trafigura to come up with an "independant" report on the affair. I'm not sure how a report that Trafigura are funding is independant, but there you go.

*** INTERLUDE ***
Speaking of corrput corporations, I highly recommend this entertaining episode of the fantastic podcast "This American Life": The Fix Is In which has just been made into a film by Steven Soderbergh starring Matt Damon.
*** END OF INTERLUDE ***

On Monday evening, The Guardian published a cryptic article on how it had been gagged from reporting on parlimentary proceedings. The only information it could divulge was that the law firm involved was Carter-Ruck. Anyone who read the September story about Trafigura will recall them as the lawyers who gagged The Guardian the first time round, and it didn't take long before blogs had uncovered the question that had been asked (indeed about Trafigura). The web (and Commons) errupted in debate about the situation and Trafigura became one of the most talked about topics in Twitter, thus deceminating to the world the information Carter-Ruck had tried to hide. It was a spectacular own goal.

The purpose of this post is to equip you with an answer to the following question which you hear over and over again. "What's the point of Twitter, isn't it just a way for narcissists to tell you what they had for breakfast?". No it isn't (I had a boiled egg by the way). The true power of Twitter and why it's so important is that if millions of individuals are writing snippets of what they're thinking about on the web, then this enables you to instantly take the pulse of the world's population (or at least the demographic that is likely to use Twitter). The Trafigura case was a classic example, but it is far from a lone one. The speed with which information is desceminated on the platform far exceeds that of the traditional news media.

Of course, on a personal level the answer to the "Twitter" question is simply that in an age of long distance friendships and dispersed families it's another way of keeping in touch, which helps relationships from drifting apart. It's not a substitute for the phone or for email, it's just another platform for information. If you don't want to use it that's fine but to disregard it as a tool for narcissists is *really* missing the point. And despite what the Daily Mail says, it probably won't give you cancer!

UPDATE - Shortly after posting this, I discovered (via Twitter or course) that The Minton Report, which appears to expose the fact that despite their denials Trafigura knew at an early stage that their waste was toxic, has been leaked online. Trafigura is heading back up the Twitter Trends chart. Twitter 2 - Trafigura 0.

Copenhagen

2009-10-10T11:30:00.001+01:00

Nyhaven
Originally uploaded by chill.

We decided to book a short break somewhere nice at the tail end of the summer, so we had something big to look forward to after the honeymoon and not have the period bookended by Liv returning to Cambridge. The criteria were as follows:
1) It had to be somewhere that was a long train journey away as we both really like travelling by train for reasons that have probably been expounded elsewhere on this blog.
2) It had to be somewhere with great food, because we both think with our stomachs and taste buds first.
Eventually after a lot of trawing through Seat61.com we settled on Copenhagen, a place with a multitude of culinary options. We got the train to London where we had breakfast, then the train to Brussels where we had lunch (moulles frites obviously), then the train to Cologne where we had dinner and finally the overnight train to Copenhagen.
Despite the high prices in Copenhagen (a bottle of beer will set you back at least £5 in the cheapest of bars) and despite me being ill the whole time, it was a fabulous weekend. No need for an itinerary as the photos speak for themselves. Noma was a highlight, no doubt. I've been hearing about this restaurant for some time, and this year it was ranked the 3rd best restaurant in the world with only El Bulli and The Fact Duck ahead of it. The meal (we had one of the tasting menus with matching wines), the whole experience, was perfect. I wish I'd taken photos of the dishes we had, but I did find some on the internet and post them to my Friend Feed.
One of the great things of travelling by train is that when you come to leave your holiday destination, your holiday isn't over. In fact we had booked the trains to leave us with the best part whole day in Brussells. Just enough time to find some more Moulles Frites and Belgian Beer and just enough of the latter to give me a raging headache on the train back to Sheffield.

Other Summer Highlights

2009-10-08T13:04:00.001+01:00

Outside the pub
Originally uploaded by chill.

What else did we get up to this summer? This and that. All lot of this, an equal amount of that.
London
We decided to have a weekend break in London because I wanted to go the Bethnal Green Local History library to carry out some family history research. Despite the hours of scrolling through baptism records and not finding what I was looking for, it was a really nice weekend. We stayed in The Zetter Hotel in Clerkenwell which I can highly recommend for a weekend away. It's next door to The Modern Pantry where we had a fantastic breakfast on the Sunday morning. Sunday we hung out in the Spitalfields area as we wanted to visit Dennis Severs House which is an old silk weavers house off Brick Lane which was "restored" to its past state by some crazy artist that lived there (I descend from Huguenot Silk Weavers that lived off Brick Lane so that's how I knew about the place). It's a great experience, if you've an hour to spare in London on one of the few days it's open, go along. Apart from that we just hung around Spitalfields. It's a great place to hang out on a Sunday and there's a brilliant market on Brick Lane selling lots of great good.
No pictures from London for some reason.
Ludlow
Another weekend we went to Ludlow to visit the food festival. Nice place is Ludlow. Very nice. A bit middle class, but then so am I. Jim & Charlotte organised it all, and shared a little house with them, Tim and Adam. We had a lovely meal in La Becasse in the evening.
There are a few photos here.
What else? A family barbecue in Soham to celebrate our wedding and Tony & Suzy's own wedding on the bank holiday, and then Copenhagen, which I'll save for my next post...