The Friday Cocktail - Raspberry Lemon Drop

Drink Recipes - Cocktails and more

I cruise several cocktail sites each Friday to find a new cocktail to try or highlight for the week. I like to post a picture with each post, just to get you watering your mouth and keep the site looking good. So, when I came across this recipe without a picture from drinkoftheweek.com I wanted to find a picture. Here is the drinkoftheweek.com recipe:

• 2 oz. Vodka
  
• 1/2 oz. Chambord Black Raspberry Liqueur
  
• 2 tsp. Lemon Juice
  
• 2 tsp. Sugar
  
• Lemon Slice
  

Moisten the rim of a chilled cocktail glass with a little lemon juice and dip in 1/2 of the sugar to frost. Mix vodka and remaining lemon juice and sugar in a shaker with ice. Shake well and strain into the cocktail glass. Float the Chambord on top. Drop in a fresh raspberry or two to garnish.

Then I googled Raspberry Lemon Drop to see if I could find a picture, and I came across this drink description which I expect would be much less sweet and probably more to my liking. " mix of Bacardi Limon and Bacardi Razz served with a couple of raspberries in a generously sugar-rimmed glass." Could probably also use lemon and raspberry vodka's instead. Will have to tinker with the proportions.

Cheers!

Vienna museum opens to nudes beating the heat - Yahoo! News

Vienna museum opens to nudes beating the heat - Yahoo! News

Combine the heat wave in Europe, an exhibition dedicated to the beauty of nude artwork, and some savy marketer at the museum and you get 300 bikini-clad and 10 nude people looking at art for free. You can check out a more detailed article here.

Famous Impressionist Paintings turned into interactive Sculpture

essays & effluvia: Beyond the Frame
at the Nassau County Museum of Art, by J. Seward Johnson, Jr titled Beyond the Frame: Impressionism Revisited. But there's more, you can interact with the installations like so:

Vincent Van Gogh's The Bedroom

Some of the installations are also on closed caption TV and framed to look like the original painting, however people keep walking into the frame:

Intellext - Watson Silent Research Assistant

Intellext

Kinda spooky, but this free trial download software app will pay attention to what you're working on with your computer and silently run searches for you, anticipating your research needs. Actual cost is a bit pricey (in my opinion) right now at $100/year.

Via Future Feeder

Cool Light on Hot Days: Fiber Optics Bring the Sun Indoors

Cool Light on Hot Days: Fiber Optics Bring the Sun Indoors

A small mirrored disk with a small motor to track the sun can provided light indoors via fiber optics. This could have a large impact on electricity usage. "An estimated 35% of electricity used in the United States is expended on lighting interior spaces in daytime." Also, the indoor lights also generate heat, increasing air conditioning in the summer (though possibly reducing heating in the winter), but on the ac/summer side, it might help reduce risk of black and brownouts.

Movies and Music on the Lawn - French Primitives

The early crowd at last month's movies and music.

Saturday night is time once again for Movies and Music on the Lawn. This month features French Primitive films "La fille de L'’eau" (1925), "“The Impractical Journey"” (1905), "“The Invisibles"” (1907), "“Bewitched Matches"”, and the third installation of the science fiction serial "The Power God"”(1925). Music provided by Cheney Hotard and Bill Kelley.

The show starts at 8, or after dark and the cost is $5 or free for gallery members. Hope to see you at the Baton Rouge Gallery Saturday night.

Free popcorn! Other concessions are available for a small fee.

New Scientist Breaking News - Oil on troubled waters may stop hurricanes

New Scientist Breaking News - Oil on troubled waters may stop hurricanes
There is an old sea tradition of pouring barrels of oil on troubled watters. It was never known why, but now scientists have developed a computer model that shows that this oiling of the ocean might reduce wind speeds by reducing the amount of ocean spray. This could keep tropical storms from developing into hurricanes. No actual testing yet.

Atari founder plans playground for adults | CNET News.com

Atari founder plans playground for adults | CNET News.com
Sounded like Dave and Buster's to me at first, but there seem to be some new ideas at work here. The uWink Media Bistro, will be based around tabletop games where friends can compete with each other, or other partrons. Some of the Atari founder's history is also interesting, moving from Atari and Pong, to Chuck E. Cheese.

American Idol meets Art?

Guardian Unlimited | Arts news | Broad canvas
In yet another reality TV show, BBC4 is searching for Britain's favorite painting. On the morning news show, they will ask viewers to submit suggestions for "their favourite painting from any currently hanging in a UK gallery or museum, regardless of the nationality of the artist or the period in which they worked." After that , they will have celebrities provide nominations and comments and start to whittle the list down. It's silly, and will probably yield some very bland painting, but putting art in the popular culture with discussion from non-experts might be a pretty decent thing.

Maggot Treatment Saves Mich. Woman's Foot - Yahoo! News

Maggot Treatment Saves Mich. Woman's Foot - Yahoo! News
She had already lost a leg to diabetes, now with an infection repeatedly coming back on her remaining foot, she allowed the doctors to try the maggot treatment.

"The maggots do more than just clean a wound. They also dissolve the infected tissue, kill bacteria and leave an enzyme behind that stimulates healing. They will only eat the infected tissue, leaving healthy tissue alone."

It worked.

Correction - Art Sale 9am

Not 9pm. I thought it was a sale/party. It's just a sale. My bad.

The Friday Cocktail - Stardust

Better late than never, a favorite from the Atomic Cocktail book from home:

• 2 oz vodka
  
• .5 oz white creme de cacao
  
• .5 oz Goldschlager
  

Shake vodka and creme de cacao in shaker over ice. Strain into cocktail glass. Float Goldschlager on top and watch the gold stars dance into the cocktail.

Virtual Street Reality

Virtual Street Reality

Julian Beever does amazing ultra-realistic street art with a 3-D effect. This is not the best illusion, though it's great. It is the only one where he shows you what it looks like from the other side:

Barcode-cover '80s album selling for a song - Yahoo! News

Barcode-cover '80s album selling for a song - Yahoo! News: "Electric 80s"

An 80's compilation cd on sale in the UK used a bar code as it's cover art. At certain stores, clerks have been scanning the art instead of the actual barcode on the back. The price difference is about 5 pounds.

It's All Under The Hat!

It's All Under The Hat!

Wild album cover art archive. I partially blogged this so I can check out the "Sexy" album covers this weekend when I'm not at work.

The site also has a neat interface and amusing commentary on the cover art.

One more to convince you to go there yourself

The Straight Dope: Are there alligators living in the sewers of New York?

The Straight Dope: Are there alligators living in the sewers of New York?
I've been getting weekly mailings from the Straight Dope website for quite a while now. Every Friday a new set of three reader submitted questions and well researched answers are shared with the mailing list. This week they get to the bottom of the New York sewer gators. Apparently, there were alligators in the sewers in the 30s. They probably got there because there was a brief fad of giving children genuine Florida alligators as pets. And just like the nutria in the bayou, when they were no longer wanted as pets, they were released into the sewers. Once discovered by the superintendent of the sewer, the gators were all exterminated.

Many other interesting legends and scientific questions (a lot of what ifs) are there for the browsing.

Good Weekend for Buying Art

Not one, but two mega starving artist sales this Saturday:

Pottery Sale Saturday Morning/Afternoon 10a-3p (ish) early birds will be decapitated.
At Don & Janet's 1901 Magnolia Dr. Baton Rouge, LA
The sale will have work from most of the grad students, special students, and graduate ceramacists from LSU. Especially one's who are moving and don't want to take the stuff with them.

Art Sale and probably Party Saturday Night 9p-?
Art by Chris Hutson, Ryan O'Malley, Matty B, and Mark Cannariato
3251 Carlotta St.

AC without Freeon

deseretnews.com | Teens win a cool $50,000 at international science fair

Two high school students took their physics class assignment and turned it into an award winning Freeon free car air conditioner. It uses the Peltier effect. "That's when current passes through dissimilar conductors connected to each other at two junctions, and one side heats up while the other stays cool." (uh, yea, that's the ticket). They bought the Peltier chips on Ebay for less than $10. The ac runs off electricity, which would increase gas mileage and increase horsepower. Another article on the topic says this about the cost and energy benefits:

Today, the young inventors say, U.S. drivers use about 7.9 billion gallons of fuel each year to run their air-conditioners, which draw power from the engine. By adopting their contraption - which taps into the electrical system, using fans to blow hot air through five Peltier chips and then releasing cold air - they say the country stands to save 3.9 billion gallons of fuel annually, or about $10 billion based on current gas prices.

Incredible

Via Innovation Blog

SatireWire | Feature: Interview with the Search Engine

SatireWire | Feature: Interview with the Search Engine
Complete interview with Jeeves of Ask Jeeves fame with exact screen captures like this one:

Sorry about the picture quality. It didn't take to resizing to fit my column very well. It's readable at the SatireWire site.

Via Future Feeder

Teddy: Pictures of Matt's Giant Gummy Bear

Teddy: Pictures of Matt's Giant Gummy Bear

No instructions, but pictures from every angle.

Via Waxy

Julian Po

Julian Po
We enjoyed this odd indie film last night courtesy of the Independent Film Channel and Tivo. Christian Slater plays a bookkeeper on his way to see the ocean for the first time before he takes his own life. Doesn't sound like a comedy, but it is, and it's not that dark really. Car troubles land Julian (Slater) in a small town, whose curiousity gets the better of them and they all get involved in his life. But, no one really wants to stop him. I think this curious little film will stick with me for a long time.

How to fry an egg on an XP

How to fry an egg on an XP

It took 11 minutes cooking time, but this guy fried an egg in his pc.

Best.Phone.Sex.Ever.

Wired 13.07: POSTS
What happens when a smart young female computer geek gets exposed to the sex industry early on. In the case of Friday Goldman, you get probably the most successful phone sex operator ever. So successful, that at 23 she's co-owner of a phone sex company and she's written a guide to share her secrets. They keys appear to be variety and synonyms. Currently she's taking a break from getting her women's studies degree at Cleveland State, to get the guide online, so operators from around the world can log in and get the tips they need around the clock.

Friday Cocktail - Adkov Telmig

This may be semi-common knowledge, but I just learned that Ed Wood, of Plan 9 From Outer Space infamy, often used Adkov Telmig as a pseudonym. If you haven't yet noticed, Adkov Telmig is Vodka Gimlet backwards and that is our Friday Cocktail.

There appears to be lots of minor variations on the recipe. All start with vodka 1.5 to 2 oz. Then Rose's Lime Juice, or real lime juice .5 to 1oz. If using real lime juice some variations use powdered sugar, regular sugar, or simple syrup teaspoon or splash. I doubt you can go wrong, so try enough variations until you can't remember which was best and you have to try again next weekend.

The classic gimlet would use gin instead of vodka and there's no need to call it a Gin Gimlet, it's just a Gimlet.

Cheers

Art Melt and Fresh Greens this Friday

Most of the Baton Rouge readers probably already know that the Art Melt juried show takes place this Friday from 7-10 in the Brunner Gallery in the Shaw Center. I just found out that the LSU School of Art Gallery in the Shaw Center is going to have special hours Friday from 6-8 for anyone who missed the Fresh Greens show last weekend, or if you want to actually be able to hear Janet's video.

Hurricane Dennis fixes botched reef

Hurricane Dennis fixes botched reef - Yahoo! News
Something good actually came of the latest hurricane. In 2002 Key Largo scuba divers and tourism promoters purposely sunk a 6,880-tonhulk, 510 foot, Navy ship to create an artificial reef. Unfortunately, the ship sank too fast and landed upside-down creating a navigational hazard. Efforts to fix it using air bags and cables were only partially successful. Hurricane Dennis has now finished the job, placing the ship in the intended position due to its 20 foot waves and currents.

rubymatt's Roller Girls slideshow on Flickr

rubymatt's Roller Girls slideshow on Flickr

Following up on the recent Big Easy Rollergirls post, here's a slide show of pics from a recent derby in NYC. A few black eye's and big bare-bellied male cheerleaders await.


Via Signal vs. Noise

Google Answers: Laugh Tracks on TV

Google Answers: Laugh Tracks on TV
The laugh tracks we hear on TV today were believed to be recorded in the 50s and 60s from "The Red Skelton Show." That show was perfect for recording laughter due to the extensive use of pantomime, so the only sounds in the studio would be laughter.

Via Waxy

Experimental Gallery / exp33.jpg

Experimental Gallery / exp33.jpg

Speaking of searches, I was checking my site traffic stats and one of the things it tells me is the link you used to get here, if you come to this site via a link (not by typing in the address or via a bookmark). Someone got here via a google search for exp33, so I tried the same search and found this cool photo. Here's a link to the photographer's entire experimental gallery.

That also reminds me I'd like to say hey to the regular visitor from Sweden. Glad you're checking this out.

How Americans Search

How Americans Search
New survey about web searching reveals that most people use a search engine every time they go online. It also shows that most people "say" they search for information about hobbies (88%). Makes me wonder if they consider porn a hobby? The other most common searches are directions/maps (75%), News (64%), Shopping (51%), and Entertainment (47%). Also interesting, is that 45% of news searchers are seeking differing viewpoints (though again, this is self report).

Welcome to Canstruction!

Welcome to Canstruction!

A national competition to make sculpture from canned foods. After the exhibitions, all food was donated to charity. I love the octopus, even if it only garnered an honorable mention.

Via BoingBoing

The Costco Challenge: An Alternative to Wal-Martization?

The Costco Challenge: An Alternative to Wal-Martization?
I've never been to a Costco, so I don't know how it stacks up as a shopping experience, but this article clearly makes the case that they outshine Wal-Mart in terms of employee relations. Interesting numbers comparing the wages paid, employee turnover, and profit per employee expense. On all counts Costco appears to have the edge. They just need to continue to grow and compete with the Wal-Mart.

"While Wal-Mart pays an average of $9.68 an hour, the average hourly wage of employees of the Issaquah, Wash.-based warehouse club operator is $16. After three years a typical full-time Costco worker makes about $42,000, and the company foots 92% of its workers'’ health insurance tab."

"The study also revealed that Costco's labor costs are actually lower than Wal-Mart'’s as a percentage of sales. Its labor and overhead costs (classed as SG&A, or selling, general and administrative expenses) are 9.8% of revenues, compared to Wal-Mart's 17%.

Jumping the Great Wall on a Skateboard

Danny Way Mega X Event

Not just once, but 5 times. You've got to see the video. By the third jump, he's adding tricks. Unbelieveable!

Granny grows tired of prostitution at age 63 - Yahoo! News

Granny grows tired of prostitution at age 63 - Yahoo! News
No comment

Researchers explore whether parrot has concept of zero

Researchers explore whether parrot has concept of zero

Alex the parrot recently surprised researchers by beginning to use the concept of zero in a counting game. The game consisted of the researchers presenting a group of objects of different colors and asking Alex what color has a particular number of objects (e.g. if there were 9 objects and 2 were blue and 3 were red and 6 were yellow, the researchers might ask what color 2 and Alex would respond blue). Alex was very good at this task and eventually became bored, not responding or doing other ornery parrot things. One of the ornery parrot things Alex did was instead of responding with a color he repeatedly responded with another number (using the above example it might be 5). Eventually the researcher gave up and asked what color five and Alex replied none.

This might not seem like a big deal, but western humans only began widespread use of zero in the 1600s (Indians had used it much earlier). The unprompted nature of the discovery is also very interesting. This might have implications for understanding human development and autism.

Via Eyebeam Reblog

Friday Cocktail - Connie's Summer Slush

Drink Recipe - Connie's Summer Slush
I think I made this or something very similar a couple of summers ago for a tubing trip down the bouge chitto river. I'm sure I used bourbon as the base liquor though.

• 1 cup Brandy or Vodka
  
• 9 cups Water
  
• 4 Liptons Tea Bags
  
• 2 cups Sugar
  
• 1 can Frozen Orange Juice (thawed)
  
• 1 can Frozen Lemonade (thawed)
  
• 12 cans 7up
  

Boil tea bags with two cups of the water. Set aside and let cool. Boil the remaining 7 cups of water with 2 cups of sugar. Bring to boil and remove from heat. Set aside and let cool to room temperature. Once sugar mixture is cool add the Orange Juice and the Lemonade. Add water from the tea and squeeze tea bags. Add Vodka or Gin. Stir together and Freeze over night. Serve in a highball and top with about 2 oz. of 7up.

You can also freeze it without the liquor and add it yourself along with the 7up.

r u n n i n g w i t h s c i s s o r s presents...

Nancy Drew & the Hardy Boys: The Wax Museum Mystery

July 15 - August 6, 2005
Friday's & Saturdays at 8pm
One Eyed Jacks, 615 Toulouse St.

More spooftacular antics from the Running With Scissors krewe. Let's pick a weekend to go down and enjoy the show. The last one (The Gulls) was a blast.

From the press release:

"NANCY DREW & THE HARDY BOYS IN 'THE WAX MUSEUM MYSTERY'” is an original work that follows world-famous Nancy Drew (Elizabeth Pearce), Frank and Joe Hardy (Rod Lemaire and Flynn De Marco), and their respective sidekicks, Chet and Bess (Brian Peterson), on a globetrotting voyage to London, Morocco, and beyond. The comic misadventures begin when our young heroes obtain a mysterious trunk full of curious old costumes. After finding a calling card among the clothes, they decide to return their booty to the rightful owner, —a spooky old scatterbrain (Jim Jeske), who runs a wax museum in London with his creepy henchman, Og (Jack Long). Will our young sleuths survive a night in Professor Jared's waxworks? Will they recover the Countess de Lave's (Dorian Rush) precious family jewels? Will Bess escape her bumbling kidnappers before she's sold into slavery? Will Chet ever stop eating? Tune in this summer for answers to these and other pressing questions!"

bigeasyrollergirls-dot-muthafuckin-com

bigeasyrollergirls-dot-muthafuckin-com

Currently recruiting tough skaters for their upcoming, inaugural season. Luckily Janet can't make it to the practices (Monday and Thursday nights in New Orleans). They are also currently fundraising, with events like tonight at the R-Bar, where the girls will be hanging out with DJ Soul Sister, and a concert July 23, at One Eyed Jacks. I'll be looking forward to their season whenever they get it off the ground.

CHANK Fonts on Sale

CHANK COMPANY: Cool Fonts, Custom Fonts, Free Fonts
$4 through July 8, get em while they're hot. Here's a few of my faves:

Fresh Greens - Reception Saturday Night

Fresh Greens is the theme for the summer invitational show at the LSU School of Art Gallery at the Shaw Center. The reception is Saturday from 6-8pm. Janet's got a brand new video that reminds me a litle of "The Local Sky Enlarger" for those of you fortunate enough to have seen that masterpiece during flatscape this winter. When we were dropping Janet's piece off, I noticed a Clark Derbes car door and I know Katheryn Hunter and Edie Tsong submitted work as well. Should be a good one.

blagg blogg: No Admitted Hipsters Found at 'Total Hipster Party'

blagg blogg: No Admitted Hipsters Found at 'Total Hipster Party'
I've been watching this blog for a while now. He's consistently funny. This is not a particularly funny excerpt from this post, but it sets the table for the later descriptions.

"The party, located on top of a converted live-work space in San Francisco's Mission District, attracted a crowd of approximately 50 guests during it's busiest hours. While most of the attendants identified themselves as artists, DJs, writers, musicians and performers, there were no reports of anyone introducing themself as "a hipster". A strange phenomenon, considering the amount of conversation dedicated to the observation that it was a "total hipster party"."

It ends with:

"There were also no visual confirmations of hipsters, likely because most of the partygoers couldn't see very well through their bangs."

Hipster zombies versus knights of the nerd table!!!

the scourge :: Hipster zombies versus knights of the nerd table!!! :: July :: 2005

There's a park in Montreal where D&D players gather on Sunday afternoons and wail on each other with duct tape weapons. Some costume elaborately. This weekend the medieval games were interrupted by a group of hipster zombies.

It's not clear whether the D&Ders were good sports and enjoyed the unexpected battle, or if they were pissed that their geekery was interrupted. Looks like it was a huge group. There are more pictures at this flickr gallery.


Via BoingBoing couldn't pass this one up.

Disk and Chair

Cleaning out some files I came across these pictures of my cousin using the disc and chair. I know I've told several friends about this family water skiing trick, but I haven't had any pictures to show it. Now you can see what it looks like. The disc is just a round piece of plywood with no fins or footholds. The chair is a wooden folding chair. You start with the chair laying flat on top of the disc. You hold the chair between your feet and hold the rope and the top of the disc in your hands. After you're out of the water, you pick up the chair and unfold it leading to other tricks.

Looks like my cousin just completed a spin. Without rudders on the disc spins are fairly easy tricks.

Activists strip to thongs to oppose Spain bull run - Yahoo! News

Activists strip to thongs to oppose Spain bull run - Yahoo! News

Not much to add here, the headline says it all. We tried to go to the running of the bulls once. Unfortunately, the trains were very late getting into Pamplona and we missed it. It felt like we arrived just in time for siesta and had to leave before things picked back up.

More 4th of July Fun: sparkler fun - a photoset on Flickr

sparkler fun - a photoset on Flickr

A bunch of really neat sparkler photos.

Via Waxy

Cocktail of the Week: Red White and Blue Cocktail

Red White and Blue Cocktail : UK > Drink Recipes > Red White and Blue (shooter recipe).

I never make shots, but I probably should have a few in my repertoire. I really couldn't pass this up due to the picture, the pending holliday, and the irony of finding this at a UK based cocktail site.

• 1 part grenadine
  
• 1 part peach schnappes
  
• 1 part blue curacao
  

Pour each slowly and carfully into the shotglass in order (red, white, then blue). I might experiment with something stronger and less sweet than the schnappes in the center, but I don't know if the curacao will float on vodka, tequila, or rum (don't think gin would be right). On the other hand, if I were to find some UV blue raspberry vodka, I could swap out the curacao and still get the effect.

Here are a couple more patriotic looking drinks from Cocktail Times

"Yankee Doodle
- 1 part UV Blue Raspberry-flavored vodka
- 2 parts sour
- 1 part tonic

Pour vodka, sour and tonic into a rocks glass over ice. Stir and serve.

Patriotic Punch
- 1 part UV Red Cherry-flavored vodka
- 3 parts lemonade

Pour the ingredients into a rocks glass over ice. Stir and serve. "

Backyard Gallery Show this Sunday

One night only, a couple of grad students are transforming their backyard into a gallery and having a group show. The theme is Americana. The place is 870 Violet Street. Time is 8pm. Hope to see you there.

Cool Hunting: The Diorama Show

Cool Hunting: The Diorama Show
Don't normally reblog things from Coolhunting (and other sites from the no no list), but I think this is a neat idea for a group show and I wanted to remember to tell my artist friends. Maybe this would go well in the new backyard gallery which has a one-night show Sunday. Janet plans to have a piece in that show, but I don't have any more info at this time.

Via Coolhunting via SFGate