The Jamjar

Misty, Hosier Lane

Right brain left brain

This is all very well but what if you, like me, can see it going clockwise or anti-clockwise, at will?

What does *that* mean??

Kent Street, Smith Street

Look: Kent Street is home.

This little grungy bar on Smith around the corner from the street where I live is my heart and soul right now. It feels like your old student flat: borrowed furniture and smoke wafting in from the smokers outside.

Hot in the summer, even hotter in the winter. It's the place to go for a schooner of Coopers and a jaffle (cheese toasted sandwich) sat right between the tram stop and the Westpac ATM. The bar staff all seem high on a little something something; the vinyl is spinning on the turntable and all your troubles get washed away until it hardly feels like Tuesday anymore.

If you're really lucky the warm and delightful owner will be hosting, but if he's not, he leaves the bar in the capable hands of his dreamy girls.

I love to hear the "Fuck this, I'm going to Kent Street."
Don't come and visit - I like that it's a bar for regulars.

MelbournePubs.com Review

Note to Self

I am boring
and I can't get up

Gazebonic

Today was Bart's* birthday. He invited a bunch of friends to a gazebo picnic in North Melbourne. It was a beautiful day - not least of which because I got to meet some of his nearest and dearest including his girlfriend - she's an International Woman of Mystery, so it was nice to finally put her lovely face to some of Bart's stories.

Oh and PS: don't be fooled by those cupcakes, they were (cos I bet there are none left now) delicious, yet manly.

I hope you had a happy birthday Bart!

*Jamjar Reader - Australian Division

Favourite on-the-spot reporters

Les Nessman, Buckeye Newshawk Award winning reporter in one of my favourite episodes from WKRP in Cincinnati.

The late Kermit the Frog: consummate professional.

The Softcovers

So Fox and I were talking - chewing the fat and spitting the balls and such.. and both admitted that we hankered after a book club. You know the kind of thing? where someone nominates a book, a bunch of people read it, then get together for a few drinks and analyse discuss talk ahh drink about it.

Of course, the very first step along this journey is to make a Facebook page for an unrestricted (until I change my mind) group.

So I did - and I even picked a book - but now what?

UPDATE: Fox just gave me two bookmarks (two small blank cardboard offcuts) - so that was useless useful (stay positive people) that's another step along the way to Book Groupiness *go team*!

Fast hands and talkin' cats

1. Daft hands - music video for a daft punk song - be patient it's worth it
2. Daft bodies - another cool take on it
3. Two talking cats
4. Two talking cats, translation

These weren't so much "via" Fox, as completely stolen-from-an-email-she-sent-at-work. But she has a good nose for stuff - so she's a sure source of good stolen fun.

Pew!

E-books re-Kindle'd

So.. Amazon has launched an ebook reader and called it Kindle.

Kindle.

Yeh, I'm not sure about that - I kinda want to chase a one-armed man - but even more so, watching the video (scroll down the page a ways) makes me want to try this puppy out.

What do you think of it?

Orchids can be okay, afterall

Sunday Gardener

Ted Talks

Carolyn Porco: Fly me to the moons of Saturn.

Richard Dawkins: An atheist's call to arms and The universe is queerer than we can suppose

Tierney Thys: Swim with giant sunfish in the open ocean

I also enjoyed Jennifer Lin: Magical improv from 14-year-old pianist (esp. the "improvisation" section), Julia Sweeney: "Letting Go of God", Rives: "If I controlled the Internet", and an extremely interesting Jonathan Harris: The Web's secret stories for those of us who love gorgeous interfaces/ideas/presentations.

Take a look at TED - it's a good way to spend some of your time.

Added Nov 9th: Larry Lessig: How creativity is being strangled by the law

Rue Babelon: baguette