Friday Cocktails - Hurricane Season Edition

City Link Magazine: Rock You Like a Hurricane
One of the Local weekly entertainment zines posted a list of 13 drinks "to help you weather the storms, power outages, gas lines, cold showers, television withdrawals, price gougers and every other aggravation hurricanes bring." All of them have a dry wit about them and some sound tasty. Click on the link to the photo gallery to scroll through each drink recipe. Picture is of the Category 5


Speaking of pictures, I actually made last Friday's Pop Rocks Martini and took a photo:

That's our friend Lenore in the background. I didn't find any Mango Fruja Liqueur, so I used Xtreme, which is one of those oddly colored French fruit Cognacs (like Hypnotiq). The Xtreme gives it the pink color and I chose it because it did list mango as a prominent flavor. I added a couple of raspberries and blueberries to the glass. The cocktail was very good overall. The pop rocks were fun, but not necessary. I did manage to make the first round in the kitchen by myself, so everyone was surprised. The clean up wasn't as bad as I feared.

Cheers!

Tags: cocktail, cocktails, humor, hurricane, category 5, experiment33, exp33

DailySixer.com Videos: Casual Sex Fridays

DailySixer.com Videos: Casual Sex Fridays
Anyone looking forward to Friday?

Via YesButNobutYes

Tags: humor, video, experiment33, exp33

TagLines

TagLines
Amazing river style visualization of flickr tags over time. The date is displayed at the top of the page, and scrolls from left to right starting at June 4, 2004 to September 16, 2005. Popular photo tags stream by from right to left with the size indicating popularity. Thumbnails appear. Clicking on a tag stops it momentarily and adds a few pictures with the tag, more clicks yield more pictures. Overall the tag sizes grow over time with the expansion of flickr overall (or at least that's what I think is going on). You can see special events popping up like holidays, and lots of geekfests, as well as different memes over time. Notice the controls at the bottom. You can pause, jump by months, change the speed, and change the visualization to something more static and easier to follow (but not as mesmerizing).

Via Information Aesthetics

Tags: flickr, visualization, experiment33, exp33

Panasonic Online Video Fest

Panasonic Online Video Fest
Easy to enter, focus on humourous flicks under 5 minutes, which is burried in the rules, it's ok to enter older videos as long as they are yours.

Via Alfie's Blog, though his slant is more about the impications of YouTube partnering with Panasonic

Tags: video, youtube, panasonic, contest, experiment33, exp33

Collaborations Art Show Opening Sunday June 11

Collaborations Art Show Opening Sunday June 11
"Fifteen artist groups will gatehr to create a series fo individual and collaborative works including ceramic, video, wood, jewelry, painting, and drawing. Each group will create and display one collaborative piece; in addition, each member of the group will display an individual piece." We'll see how strict the curator is about the one collaborative piece, as I know LuRu and Kathryn Hunter sent several. Lots of friends in the list of artists.

Reception 4-6:30 Sunday June 11
Exhibition June 11-July 19
Irvine Fine Arts Center
14321 Yale Avenue (Heritage Park)
Irvine, CA 92604
Open Mon-Thurs 9 to 9
Fri-Sat 9 to 5
Closed Sun

Unfortunately, we can't make it. If any friends do, please take pics and send them our way.

Tags: art, collaborations, irvine, LuRu, experiment33, exp33

productdose.com: Cool Jewels Ice Tray

productdose.com: Cool Jewels Ice Tray

About $9 from Z-Gallery

New Orleans Craft Mafia

New Orleans Craft Mafia
I found this awesome messenger bag at the New Orleans Craft Mafia site:

Here's the link to buy.
"The thirteen unique craft women that make up the New Orleans Craft Mafia are all committed to the economic reconstruction of their great city in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina"

Tags: art, new orleans, craft, blue tarp, experiment33, exp33

The Friday Cocktail - Le Pops Rocks Martini

Cocktails: Le Pops Rocks Martini
I wish there was a picture to share:

3/4 ounce Skyy berry vodka
3/4 ounce Skyy citrus vodka
1 ounce Mango Fruja liqueur
1/4 ounce cranberry juice
1/4 ounce fresh lemon juice
Shake and strain into a chilled martini glass rimmed with honey and Pop Rocks.

Adapted from a recipe by Payman Khania, Bistro 110, Chicago. First spotted in Cheers magazine, October, 2003.

Cheers!

Tags: cocktail, cocktails, pop rocks, experiment33, exp33

Florida Keys first Cadillac stretch limosine on the water

Florida Keys first Cadillac stretch limosine on the water

We were thinking about heading to the keys for part of the holliday weekend, but it looks like there will be scattered thunderstorms so we'll probably stick around. When we do get to the keys, maybe we'll check this limo boat out.

I think we've got the blogger problem solved. Apparently blogger started trying to catch sploggers (spam bloggers) using an algorithm. No algorithm is perfect, so for some reason they flagged me as a potential splogger. I didn't figure this out until Wednesday morning. As long as this post goes up, it's fixed and I'll be back on my regular irregular posting schedule.

Tags: humor, boat, florida, florida keys, experiment33, exp33

Friday Cocktail - Orange Cinntini

Blogger's been acting wierd for me lately. I've had several posts that never went through. I'm using a different method for this post, but it's not as convenient for link posts.

A couple of weekends ago, we stopped in a martini bar for happy hour. It was a little early for the place, so the bartender had time to visit with us. She said she liked making things up and would be happy to do so for us if we'd give her a little direction. LuRu recalled having an orange and cinnamon martini in Cincinnati many moons ago that she loved, so our bartender tried to replicate it. The Cincinnati version used Stoli Zinnamon vodka, but it doesn't look like they make it anymore. So the bartender worked with a little orange vodka, hot damn, and a little orange juice. Take it easy on the hot damn, it can overpower the drink quickly. It was a pretty good facsimile for what we could remember and a damn fine drink. We also added a little vanilla liquer to smooth it out a bit.

You could also just make your own cinnamon infused vodka by sticking some cinnamon sticks in a bottle of vodka. Check the taste after a couple of days and take the sticks out when it's to your liking.

Cheers!

Tags: cocktail, cocktails, orange, cinnamon, experiment33, exp33

Friday Cocktail - French 75

FRENCH 75 Recipe at Epicurious.com
Been listening to a lot of Serge Gainsbourg lately:

So, even though the 75 in the French 75 comes from 75 millimeter guns used by the French in WWI, it seemed fitting to make the French 75 the Friday Cocktail.

Place 8 coupe glasses or Champagne flutes in freezer and chill at least 2 hours. Place 1 cup ice, 1/4 cup gin, 2 tablespoons lemon juice, and 3 tablespoons simple syrup in cocktail shaker. Shake well, then strain into 2 chilled glasses or flutes. Repeat 3 more times with remaining ice cubes, gin, lemon juice, and simple syrup to make 6 more drinks. Divide Champagne among glasses and serve.

Cheers!

Tags: cocktail, cocktails, french, recipe, serge gainsbourg, experiment33, exp33

Improv Everywhere Mission: Best Buy

Improv Everywhere Mission: Best Buy
80 agents dressed in blue polos and khaki's descend upon a Best Buy in NYC. As the video says: Everybody's workin for the weekend

Link goes to background and more pics.

Via: Eyebeam reBlog

Tags: funny, bestbuy, video, experiment33, exp33

PingMag - First spring at Isamu Noguchi’s Moerenuma Park

PingMag - First spring at Isamu Noguchi’s Moerenuma Park

Personal tour of the park. Here's the park's website, but I don't see an english version link.

Tags: art, japan, experiment33, exp33

PingMag - Making furniture with love and simplicity

PingMag - Making furniture with love and simplicity
Illustrated interview with SuperRobot. Love the flat packing system steel furniture.

Tags: art, design, japan, furniture, experiment33, exp33

Neatorama : Top 15 Amazingly Ginormous Fat Cats.

Neatorama: Top 15 Amazingly Ginormous Fat Cats.

Some real, some hoaxes, all jawdropping.

Tags: funny, experiment33, exp33

Friday Cocktail - Cinco de Mayo

Blogtender: Margarita

Easy choice this fine Friday. There are so many variations that I'm not going to retype them. The above link discusses some fruit variations and muddling lemon and lime in a traditional Margarita.

A little history from Wikipedia on both Margarita's and Cinco de Mayo.

And some more variations from Mr. Martini, who shares a recipe for Margarita Jello Shots. BTW, clicking on the episode title will open his Tequila podcast where you can learn some history and background on tequila and mezcal.

DrinkoftheWeek.com has a Cinco de Mayo drink as well:

2 1/2 oz. Tequila
1 oz. Grenadine
1 oz. Rose's Lime Juice

Combine with ice in a shaker and mix well. Strain into a chilled cokctail glass. Garnish with a wedge of lime.

and they also have an article about the $1,000 Mint Juleps that will be served tomorrow (Derby Day) to raise money for the Thoroughbred Retirement Foundation. The juleps "will be made with one of the world's best bourbons, produced by Woodford Brands, and served in a gold-plated cup with a silver straw. The mint will be brought in from Morocco, the ice will come from the Arctic Circle and the sugar from the South Pacific..." Zoiks!

I covered Mint Juleps last year at this time.

Cheers!

Tags: cocktail, cocktails, margarita, recipe, mint julep, cinco de mayo, experiment33, exp33

Blender's 50 Worst Things to Happen to Music

Blender's 50 Worst Things to Happen to Music
Mostly amusing time waster.

Mr. Dante Fontana's Visual Guidance LTD

Mr. Dante Fontana's Visual Guidance LTD

New source of great music videos from the best of the recent past:


to foreign oddities:


to this:

Doesn't Hasselhof have a resemblence to Sir Tom Jones?


to great vintage:


and even some of the best newer stuff:


It's heavy on youtube, but there are other sources

from the person behind another favorite source, PCL linkdump

Tags: retro, video, youtube, music, experiment33, exp33

David Smith Ceramics at Palma Gallery

Welcome to Palma Gallery


Lots of pictures from David's fantastic show at Palma Gallery in New Orleans. Wish I could see it in person. Looks like the show is up until June, though it's not clear on the site. Should make for a nice stop during Jammin on Julia this Saturday night. Check out his stellar
review

Tags: art, ceramics, sculpture, new orleans, baton rouge, experiment33, exp33

Soy Cuba!

Amazing sequence from a 1964 Cuban propaganda film shot by Russian filmmakers. It's simply breathtaking when you think about the technology available at the time and if you see it in it's full resolution. Anna tipped us to it a while back and it is available on netflix. This is near the start, when things look pretty good.

This clip is from when things start to take a turn for the worse.


I was reminded of this by the Eye of the Goof who pointed out the youtube clips.

Tags: retro, video, youtube, Cuba, experiment33, exp33

I Dream Of Cake

Welcome To I Dream Of Cake
Apropros my restarting the diet and exercise routine, here are some amazing cakes that I can only dream of for now.



Many more where those came from.

Via Waxy

Tags: cake, sweet, art, experiment33, exp33

Friday Cocktail: Caipirinha

Caipirinha - Learn how to prepare caipirinha.

Just had the best Caipirinha Tuesday evening at Samba Sushi before the Winton Marsalis concernt. So, thought I should share:
1 lime
1 tbsp sugar (or simple syrup)
2oz cachaca (Brazillian Rum)
Cut lime into about 8 wedges, place in rocks or old fashioned glass and muddle with the sugar/simple syrup. Add ice and cachaca and stir. Cachaca is becoming more and more popular, so you shouldn't have trouble finding it. Mr. Martini from behind the bar show (check out his podcast) recommends Agua Luca. Agua Luca had a really nice website with some wonderful sounding recipes and some cool songs you can download.

Cheers!

Tags: cocktail, cocktails, caipirinha, recipe, experiment33, exp33

YouTube - "STOP THE MADNESS" (1985, 1986) anti-drug music video

YouTube - "STOP THE MADNESS" (1985, 1986) anti-drug music video
While looking for something appropriately fun for Leanimal's birthday, I stumbled across this. Well, it was on boingboing, but at any rate check it out. Starts slow, but wait for the Aaaahnold cameo

Tags: funny, drugs, 80s, experiment33, exp33

Rolling Stone : The Worst President in History?

Rolling Stone : The Worst President in History?

The poll of 415 historians was taken "before the debacles over Hurricane Katrina, Bush's role in the Valerie Plame leak affair and the deterioration of the situation in Iraq." Of course, people don't listen to historians when voting.

Via Waxy

Tags: politics, experiment33, exp33

Friday Cocktail - French Martini

ATOMIC Magazine: The Essential Guide to the Retro Revival

Work is picking up which is great, but seriously cutting into blogging time ;-) We've had guests on and off for the last 3 weeks, so home blogging has been out of the question. I'll find a new groove soon. I did want to share the French martini because we had them Wednesday night at Jazis, Jazz bar and they were fantastic, not too sweet, very tasty. Not sure if this is the exact recipe, might have to tinker a little.
1.25oz vodka
.5oz Chambord
1oz Pineapple Juice
Shake vigorously with Ice and strain into a chilled martini glass. Garnish with a lemon twist. The finished cocktail should have a nice froth to the top.

Cheers!

Tags: cocktail, cocktails, french, recipe, experiment33, exp33

Cocktail of the Week - Sunburn

Sunburn Cocktail Recipe | In The Spirit

In honor of my first south Florida sunburn. This is bound to be more pleasant:
1oz tequila
1oz triple sec
2.5oz cranberry juice

Shake with ice and strain into a cocktail glass. I'll probably cut back on the triple sec and vary the cranberry juice to taste.

Tags: cocktail, cocktails, sunburn, recipe, experiment33, exp33

Processing 1.0 (BETA): Data driven Art

Processing 1.0 (BETA)

Processing is an open source programming language and environment for people who want to program images, animation, and sound. It is used by students, artists, designers, architects, researchers, and hobbyists for learning, prototyping, and production. It is created to teach fundamentals of computer programming within a visual context and to serve as a software sketchbook and professional production tool. Processing is developed by artists and designers as an alternative to proprietary software tools in the same domain.

I'll have to play around with this sometime. PingMag has an interview with the head of the group.

Tags: art, technology, science, opensource, software, experiment33, exp33

I'll be a little homesick tomorrow

2theadvocate.com | The Arts | Crazy 'art car' collection goes on parade downtown

Just noticed there will be little pieces of LuRu on this float. Go to the article and click the picture to enlarge. Two heads from "Gossip" have been wonderfully cannibalized and reused.

Tags: art, artcar, car, baton rouge, culturecandy, experiment33, exp33

Cocktail of the Week - Monkeys!

Monkey Day Recipes
I've got monkey's on my mind this friday afternoon and as it turns out, there are a ton of Monkey Themed cocktail and food recipes to be found. Most of them are pulled together at monkeyday.com
a site dedicated to making December 14 a day to celebrate all things simian.

The most common Monkey Drink is the Brass Monkey:
1/2 oz Dark Rum
1/2 oz Vodka
4 oz Orange juice

Serve over ice in a highball glass.


A couple of Drunk Monkey Robots

One tasty sounding drink, not found at the monkey day site is the Funky Monkey:
1 oz Banana
2 oz Coconut
1 oz Rum
3/5 oz Dark Creme de Cacao
1 oz Creme de Bananes
3 oz Coconut Milk

Blend with ice.


A couple more drunk robomonkeys.

Cheers!

Tags: cocktail, cocktails, monkey, recipe, experiment33, exp33

Man flogs wife's box on eBay

Man flogs wife's box on eBay | The Register
Tee Hee

Tags: funny, ebay, experiment33, exp33

Ocean-Grown Homes

Popular Mechanics - Ocean-Grown Homes: Wolf Hibertz Wants To Build Low-Cost Housing From The Sea

Autopia Ampere will begin as a series of wire-mesh armatures anchored atop a sea mountain. Once in place, they will be connected to a supply of low-voltage direct current produced by solar panels. Over time, electrochemical reactions will draw minerals from the sea to the armatures, creating walls of calcium carbonate, which is what us landlubbers commonly call limestone

The process also removes carbon compounds from the ocean which could reduce carbon dioxide. The process has already been demonstrated off the coasts of Texas, Louisiana, and California.

Via The Proceedings fo the Athanasius Kircher Society

Tags: science, architecture, sea, ocean, experiment33, exp33

Car thief drove evidence to court

MiamiHerald.com | 03/31/2006 | Car thief drove evidence to court
Subtitle - "Crack Played Part"

The thief must have forgotten his appointment, because when he remembered he was "half-way cracked up." So he jacks a nice Mercedes to arrive in style. Unfortunately for him, it's got a gps in it that the Mercedes folks can track and they tracked him right to the courthouse. They still had to tase (taze?) him. And, an onlooker went into labor at the same time.

Tags: funny, news, experiment33, exp33

Fake Chicago university scored Final Four tickets

ABC7Chicago.com: Fake Chicago university scored Final Four tickets

Some guys at a bar fooled the NCAA into thinking they were a legitimate school so they could score tickets to the final 4 men's basketball tournament. It worked for 2 years before they were caught. A few real colleges called to try to set-up games against them.

Tags: sports, basketball, ncaa, funny, experiment33, exp33

Neatorama: The Real Life Magneto.

Neatorama: The Real Life Magneto.

It's real, but it's not exactly magnetism, rather it's suction.

Tags: wierd, body, science, experiment33, exp33

ZoomClouds

ZoomClouds
Fun way to add tags to your blog. Check out my 2 clouds to in the sidebar. After a quick, free, sign-up you simply tell zoomclouds where your blogs rss feed is and personalize the look. It analyzes your feed and selects the tags and weights for you. I've got two clouds that look exactly the same right now, but I hope that as time goes by, the current cloud will change based on what's currently on the page and the historical cloud will include everything from today forward. We'll see. You can set up clouds for other feeds as well, so if I wanted to show a cloud for boingboing in my sidebar I could. Check it out.

LiveScience.com - Brain Cells Fused with Computer Chip

LiveScience.com - Brain Cells Fused with Computer Chip
Although still a long way from treating neurological disorders, this is a big step allowing communication directly between brain cells and the neuro-chip. The near-term use will likely be in drug testing.

YouTube - Heat Vision and Jack

YouTube - Heat Vision and Jack

Heat Vision and Jack was created as a 1999 pilot for Fox. Written by Dan Harmon and Rob Schrab, directed by Ben Stiller, this series was passed over by Fox despite critical acclaim from those who've been lucky enough to see it.

The 30 minute pilot is about an astronaut (played by Jack Black) with a medical secret who is on the run from the evil Ron Silver and the rest of NASA, with the help of a talking motorcycle called Heat Vision (voiced by Owen Wilson).

Better late than never

2Spare - 10 Science stuff you got wrong at School

2Spare - 10 Science stuff you got wrong at School
Some interesting "facts" you might have learned in school. No citations, and a very poorly worded title, but probably real myths. I don't know much about any of these topics myself.

Over 1,000 arrested for flying kites in Pakistan

The Peninsula On-line: Qatar's leading English Daily

The kites were banned due to injuries and deaths caused by coating the kite string with metal and/or glass. It's more of a kite fight than a flying. The majority of those arrested were released after brief apparences before magistrates and discharged.

Priscilla Bernikowicz: Connection Glass

Priscilla Bernikowicz Design Portfolio

Like myspace in meatspace with an added cocktail database to help you choose your next drink.

Via Gearlog

Richard Cheese - iloverichardcheese.com

Richard Cheese - iloverichardcheese.com
<
Get this video and more at MySpace.com
Listened to the RetroCRUSH podcast on my way to work this morning and was introduced to the talented lounge singer, Richard Cheese. He does fantastic covers of current hits, such as the video for Gin and Juice above. The podcast is filled with short clips and a pretty funny interview. Richard's website is quite funny. Maybe the Jetsetter will book him someday.

Friday Cocktail - Zombie

Zombie Cocktail Recipe | In The Spirit

My personal favorite traditional tiki cocktail. Mix 1 shot each of dark rum, light rum, and spiced rum with half shots of apricot brandy, pineapple juice and lime juice, and add a splash of simple syrup or grenadine. Include a sprig of mint in the garnish. Several other variations add papaya juice and or 151 proof rum. Another variation, believed to be very close to the original, includes: grapefruit juice, pernod, and other exotic ingredients.
Last week's trip to the Mai Kai was fantastic. We made it just in time for the last round of happy hour. Next time we'll have to catch the show.

Cheers!

The Station Myth

The Station Myth

I've been slowly, very slowly, going through the sxsw mp3s looking for something new and interesting. So much indie rock sounds the same to me. So it was a nice surprise to stumble on to this away from the sxsw stuff. You can download their whole album in mp3 or aac format.

Brain Teaser

TravelFurther - Fun & Games
Shorter and simpler than the one I posted a while back, but it stumped me. I suppose I gave up too soon. Maybe you will have better luck.

Product placement in the DVR era

Product placement in the DVR era
Thorough review of the rise of product placement over the past several years. The broadcast networks had 100,000 product placements and raked in over $2 billion last year. To some extent it's driven by the coveted demographic consumers being most likely to use dvrs and skip commercials. But, don't think that it's new. It goes all the way back to the Lumiere brothers in the 1890s.

Bartender's St. Patrick Drinks - cocktail.com

Bartender's St. Patrick Drinks - cocktail.com
Happy St. Patrick's day everyone. I did a mega St. Patrick's day cocktail of the week post last year, with a bunch of recipes and irish toasts. So if you missed it, check it out. So, this year I'm taking the lazy way out and posting the link above that's basically a book review for "The Spirits of Ireland." It does have 8 recipes. I might also be going lazy due to the early St. Patrick's day party last night. I've had enough green cocktails for now. I'll be switching to pinks and reds tonight as we're making our maiden voyage to the Mai Kai. So, a tiki-centrick cocktail will most likely be on the way next week.

As you slide down the banister of life, may the splinters never point in the wrong direction.

Sláinte!

B a r M o n k e y . n e t -

B a r M o n k e y . n e t -

That's putting geekery to good use. Site devoted to a surprising number of folks who are trying to automate their drinking. Pictures of several projects, and a forum for discussion. This group is probably going to go commercial with their barmonkey eventually. Which brings me to my personal mixed feelings on these projects. First, I love em. I love the obsessive nature of doing it. I love the ingenuity. I love the drinks. But, I've been drawn to cocktails by the allure of the cocktail making experience, the slight variations from bartender to bartender. And of course the retro barware. I guess, I'd like to know some folks who did this. I might even help (though the tech is way above my head), but I'll stick to my giraffe bar (when it can come back out of storage).

Here's another site The Automated Bar, that sent me to barmonkey. I found this site first via Engadget.

Cool Music Video Blog - videos.antville.org

videos.antville.org
Music Videos are all over the web, which is just the problem. This blog allows anyone to become a contributor and post links and information about the hottest music videos. A nice range of artists from Boards of Canada, to Jon Spencer Blues Explosion, to Daft Punk, and The Streets are currently on the front page.

Cool Hunting Video: Whitney Biennial 2006

Cool Hunting Video: Whitney Biennial 2006
Title says it all. I wanted to make sure to check this out when I get home.

Pepper component hot enough to trigger suicide in prostate cancer cells

Pepper component hot enough to trigger suicide in prostate cancer cells

Lehmann estimated that the dose of pepper extract fed orally to the mice was equivalent to giving 400 milligrams of capsaicin three times a week to a 200 pound man, roughly equivalent to between three and eight fresh habañera peppers – depending on the pepper's capsaicin content. Habañeras are the highest rated pepper for capsaicin content according to the Scoville heat index. Habañero peppers, which are native to the Yucatan, typically contain up to 300,000 Scoville units. The more popular Jalapeño variety from Oaxaca, Mexico, and the southwest United States, contains 2,500 to 5,000 Scoville units.

I like the spicy, but that might be a bit much.

RedOrbit - Oddities - Woman Gets Beer From Her Kitchen Faucet

RedOrbit - Oddities - Woman Gets Beer From Her Kitchen Faucet

It almost seemed like a miracle to Haldis Gundersen when she turned on her kitchen faucet this weekend and found the water had turned into beer.

Two flights down, employees and customers at the Big Tower Bar were horrified when water poured out of the beer taps.

Cool Google Maps - Who knew maps could be fun?

Cool Google Maps - Who knew maps could be fun?
Lots of fun Google Maps to check out. Where I found the real estate mapper, below, and the blogflux mapstats new tool I posted at the bottom of the sidebar. It shows you where the last 25 visitors to this blog are located (city/state/country).

Via Neatorama

Real Estate Search at Propsmart.com | Homes for Sale | MLS Search

Real Estate Search at Propsmart.com | Homes for Sale | MLS Search
Very Cool Google Maps of real estat. Search by City, State, Zip, or MLS number. Really nice pop-up info with pics of the property (if available).

Pleix films

Pleix films

Fantastic art videos and music videos. Check out Beauty Kit, Plaid, Simone, really they're all great.

Thanks Rod

Should Kara have Won Project Runway?

WireImage: Listings
LuRu, got sucked into Project Runway this week and I know she'd want to see this. If you don't know, Project Runway is a fashion design "reality" show contest thing. The final 3 contestants were in the finale this week and they got to show during New York’s Olympus Fashion Week. Except, the 4th contestant also showed in a smokescreen due to taping the show before it aired. And, according to many, the 4th contestant's work was the best. Here you can see for yourself.

Via Popwatch

Cocktail of the Week - Martini

The Drying of the American Martini

In looking for this week's cocktail, I stumbled upon not 1 but 2 podcasts dedicated to cocktails. These will be poping my podcasting cherry and I'm quite excited. The first podcast is from Soused, the Society for the Orderly Uptake of Spiritously Enhanced Drinks. I look forward to hearing the discussion of the Molecular Mixology Movement. Unfortunately, the blog part of their site didn't move me toward a cocktail for this week. They did point me toward Martiniplace, where I learned 2 new things about martinis. First, I learned how to flame a twist:

Before you drop a lemon or orange twist in a cocktail as a garnish, take an extremely fresh twist and hold it about 2 to 3 inches above the glass. Light a match. Then crisply and quickly twist the twist across the flame toward the drink. If done correctly, there will be a brief but spectacular "poof" of flame and a little smoke. Immediately drop the twist into the cocktail. This adds a very subtle yet distinctive smoky aroma to the drink.

I prefer twists to olives and have seen a bartender heat the lemon rind before dropping it into one of the most memorable martinis I've had the pleasure to sip. Now, I'll have to see if I can add this little trick. Seems like I'd need 3 hands though.

The second thing I learned is that you should keep your vermouth in the fridge. I never thought about it before, but vermouth is a wine and leaving wine out for extended periods is not a good thing. In the blog post, linked above, the folks at Martiniplace suggest that the American Martini has gotten drier over time because we leave our vermouth out in the bar and it goes bad, making our martinis bad, so we keep putting less and less vermouth in to make them taste better. Hmm....

Whether that's true or not, it's an interesting theory, and I'll be putting my vermouth in the fridge from now on. I'll trust that you already know how to make a martini and forgo the recipe, but I suggest you buy some fresh vermouth, put it in the fridge when you're done, and try to flame your twist.

Cheers!

Experiment 33.1 beta

Notice anything different around here? If not, hit refresh. Thought it was time for a redesign, but since I don't really know what I'm doing, I'll roll it out in stages. Here's the beta version. In the near future I'll: remake the banner to span the whole page content, work on the margins/padding, find new list icons, and change the footer image. I might change the link lists around more, adding more categories, or something. Any of you have a site you'd like me to add to the list? Any feedback is welcome. I'd hoped to redesign for the anniversary/my birthday, but instead I've managed to launch it with my 500th post.

Find Similar Sites

Find Similar Sites
Neat way to find similar sites to any site you want, as long as it's been posted to del.icio.us.

It answers the question "people who tagged this site also tagged what other sites".

Kids Build Soybean-Fueled Car - CBS News

Kids Build Soybean-Fueled Car - CBS News

The five kids, along with a handful of schoolmates, built the soybean-fueled car as an after-school project. It took them more than a year — rummaging for parts, configuring wires and learning as they went. As teacher Simon Hauger notes, these kids weren't exactly the cream of the academic crop.

Via Neatorama

A Couple of Car satellite Stories

Courtesy of WastedBlog:

Fla. Man Showing Off OnStar Arrested - He contacts the service but can't hear that they are asking if he's alright. The service contacts the police. When the cops arrive, he's fine, but the visible coke was a little bit of a problem.

Ozzy Osbourne tells you where to go - If you purchase his add on to a particular satellite navigation system. Maybe they can understand him in the UK. The service comes in censored and uncensored versions.

Strange New Products

Strange New Products
Highlighting products such as:

Anti-snoring pinky ring.

Chocolate filled diaper gag gift (and I do mean gag).

and, my favorite:

Diamond filtered vodka.

I'll be keeping my eye on this site.

South by Southwest Just Around the Corner

south by southwest just around the corner
Songs from many of the acts available for download again, as a torrent, or as individual mp3s. You can also use the sxsw player to sample songs. When it plays a song you like, click to go to the band page. Sixeyes has a sampler list of 25 mp3s that I'm streaming right now via webjay. So far, Persephone's Bees - Nice Day, and The Capes - Tightly Wound have stood out.

I found sixeyes via the top 10 sources blogged previously.

Top 10 Sources

Top 10 Sources
Top 10 lists of websources on a wide range of topics. Currently exploring the top 10 mp3 blogs. Soon to be explored: Cocktails, Indian Food, Controversial Science, and Fine Art.

Via Geek News Central

Getting Started With RFID

Getting Started With RFID
Introductory excerpt from a new book about how to use RFID inexpensively for home-based projects. The excerpt is all background on the technology and leads you up to the first project, entering your home through RFID instead of old fashioned keys. This might be a good way to get into this for art project purposes.

YouTube - Vintage Girl Fight

YouTube - Vintage Girl Fight
Just saw "The Notorious Bettie Page" at the Miami International Film Festival last night and it reminded me to search YouTube for vintage. Here is a result:


Speaking of the film fest, also saw Kinky Boots Sunday night. Kinky Boots is very Full Montyesque in story and feel. This time the set-up is about a men's shoe factory that saves itself from going out of business by finding their niche market in making kinky boots for drag queens. Very enjoyable with many laugh out loud moments. Some of the heavy parts of the story are a little overdone, and apparently people from the area didn't think it adequately addressed the problems of the area, but I don't think it's about the area overall. The Bettie Page flick was very authentic from what I know of the story. It looked great. There was a nice gimmick with black and white vs color photography based on where the film was shot. Also enjoyable, but not special.

YouTube - Snow Monkey Fight Scene from "Kiss Meets the Phantom of the Park"

YouTube - Excerpt from "Kiss Meets the Phantom of the Park"

Tons of other Kiss clips catalogued at PCL Linkdump

YouTube - Real Life Simpsons Intro

YouTube - Real Life Simpsons Intro


Via Waxy

Can Anyone Explain This?

YouTube - Kimi wa Petto 8 (4/4)
It's Friday night, we're waiting for dinner to be done, so we're cruising Youtube highest rated videos and we find this. It seems to be a segment of a Japanese drama, but it's on the humor channel (and others). The start seems like a funny set-up about a guy and his dog (think Best in Show), but then switches to Avant Guarde dancing. Get past that. Then, there's a dramatic? scene with a jpop song overlayed and all this crazy text all over the screen. Is it advertising? Is it "Everything Bad is Good For You" hyper-rewatchability factor? Did someone add it to "f" with me?

Friday Cocktail - Coconut Mojito

Last week, I had a couple wonderful Coconut Mojito's at Spice while celebrating LuRu's birthday. She was enjoying pineapple cosmopolitans, which seemed like regular cosmos with pineapple in place of cranberry juice, possibly pineapple vodka. She didn't like this version as much as the pineapple cosmo she had at the mARTini bar on Young Circle (I hope that's the name). That one used pineapple vodka, but kept the cranberry juice and was much better and more interesting. On the other hand the Manhattan I had was attrocious, owing to the use of Seagram's 7 instead of bourbon or even rye. Apparently, the incredible amount of Candian tourists have retrained the bartender that candian whiskey is the normal base of a Manhattan.

Of course, that's all tangential to the star for the day, the Coconut Mojito. I searched for a recipe and found 3 different varieties:

Version 1 from NYMosaico Loca Bartender of the Moment:
Crush mint leaves, 3 lime wedges, and a sprinkle of sugar then shake with ice, Coconut Rum, Lime Juice, and a splash of club soda. Garnish with a lime wedge
This seems most similar to what I had, though maybe a little better. Mine was great, but on the verge of too sweet, so maybe they used more sugar, or syrup, or sprite. I'll start here when I try to recreate the cocktail.

Version 2 From StarCheffs.com:

• 1 bunch mint (approximately 5 stems)
• 1 ounce lime juice
• 1 teaspoon sugar
• 3 ounces Coconut Rum
  
• Shredded coconut

Method:

Muddle mint in lime juice and sugar in a mixing glass. Add ice and pour Bacardi Coco over ice. Dip the rim of an iced martini glass in shredded coconut. Shake and strain cocktail into glass.

A more martiniesque version, and probably very tasty.

Version 3: from Martha Stewart:
4 sprigs of mint
1.5oz coconut milk
.5oz rock candy syrup
juice of 1 lime
2oz light rum
club soda
coconut rum
Muddle mint, coconut milk, syrup and lime juice. Fill glass with ice, add rum. Top with soda and stir. Float a little coconut rum on the top. Unbelievably, she doesn't mention anything about garnish.
This doesn't sound as good to me, but could be better for the real coconut freaks.

Cheers!

Dorsch Gallery

Dorsch Gallery
Tonight's entertainment: Closing reception for the 18th Experimental Music & Sound Arts Festival

[weAREtheIMAGEmakers]

[weAREtheIMAGEmakers]
Hot Art Magazine
I tried posting a few pictures, but they have them set-up so that they are huge and have text from the article with them, so just trust me and check it out.

Rolling R’s: Free Spanish Lessons in Video Podcast Form

Rolling R’s: Free Spanish Lessons in Video Podcast Form
If I can combine learning with my new iPod, it just might have a chance to stick.

San Francisco Board of Supervisors Resolution to Impeach Bush and Cheney

San Francisco Examiner: News
Dare to dream

Via Eyebeam Reblog

YouTube - Jason McElwain Autistic Basketball Player

YouTube - Jason McElwain Autistic Basketball Player

I know many of you are not sports fans, but this really isn't a sports story. Trust me.

7 Steps to a Better Artist Statement

7 Steps to a Better Artist Statement

Who actually reads artist statements? Art students (first year), middle aged housewives taking Art Appreciation classes, and your parents. In other words, no-one who counts. So, relax.

It's funny and short, so I didn't want to sample any more of it here.

Via No Media Kings

TechEBlog � Top 10 Strangest iPod Accessories

TechEBlog � Top 10 Strangest iPod Accessories
I got an iPod for my birthday! Thanks honey! I don't think I'll get the iLounge Toilet Paper Dispenser

or iBuzz

though.

Endymion, Bacchus Draw Huge Crowds - Yahoo! News

Endymion, Bacchus Draw Huge Crowds - Yahoo! News
maybe record breaking?

Found KOC in Spanish Town

The vp even made it into the parade,
originally uploaded by dental ben.

Gotta love flickr, looked up spanishtown as a tag and found our beloved Krewe of Clay. We totally missed you guys.

BTW, there are 4 more pics of the float in the set.

Cocktail of the Week - Mardi Gras Edition

Mardi Gras Cocktail #1


I've featured several New Orleans drinks in this space over the past year. I've never had a cocktail named Mardi Gras, but I've found 2 that might be pretty good and one more called the Mardi Gras Flasher. Here's the first:

3 oz Lemon Vodka
Chambord
Lemon or Lime Twist

Coat a cocktail glass with Chambord (dump any extra), shake the lemon vodka with ice until chilled and pour. Garnish with a twist.

Mardi Gras #2

.25 oz Southern Comfort
1.5oz Light Rum
.25oz Creme de Bananes
.5oz Lime Juice

Shake ingredients with ice and serve in a cocktail glass. Garnish with lime.

Mardi Gras Flasher
2oz Dark Rum
1 tsp Grenadine
Ginger Ale

Fill highball glass with ice, fill with Rum and Grenadine, top with Ginger Ale.

Laissez Les Bon Temps Roulez

Experiment 33.1

Hello everyone, today Experiment 33 has it's first anniversary. Doesn't make any sense to change to Experiment 34, so we'll go software style and call it Experiment 33.1 not that there are any changes (yet). It has been one hell of a memorable year. Here are a few memories from this blog:

Something New: Introductory post, "Why should you care? I don't know. That's part of the experiment, figuring out if anyone will find this, and if anyone will care. The other part is to see if I can really find something interesting every day that doesn't come from my usual sources." Well, tracking software has shown that I've had visitors from around the world with a regular visitor from Italy and Sweden. I've had a post linked from We Make Money Not Art and something I didn't post, but submitted to boingboing got a lot of traffic coming this way. So some have found this. As far as anyone caring, at least a few asked when I'd start up again during my hiatus. As for, finding something interesting to post from outside the usual sources, I did keep it up all year minus the moving hiatus and anytime I posted something from one of my no no list, I also posted something else. So, I feel it's been a success.

Stanford Prison Experiment: First real post

The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou: Third post. I promise not to repost everything in one long post really. This one is interesting because I still get traffic from people searching for the Ping Island Lightning Strike song. The link to the song still works. Unfortunately the ringtone is no longer available.

Manhattan Cocktail: First Friday Cocktail

Call Now! Citizens Against Killer Robots: First of several posts about culture jamming and graffiti

Eurobad '74: It's still there

transmissionII:airborne: Indirectly inspiring of the Solid Ground Overhead video project that we will be finishing after Mardi Gras.

Art of Science Competition/Gallery: "The quintessential Experiment 33 blog post." I stand by that statement.

Kinky shopper KOed by vibrating knickers | The Register: I loved this post

ScrapHouse: Several posts about energy, housing, and design throughout the year and this one stands out to me.

Threadbared: Perfect reason for a retrospective. I forgot about this link. Now it's bookmarked/rssed again.

Baton Rouge Art Car Parade is Coming: Well, Katrina and Rita had something to say about that, but it's been rescheduled for April 1.

Hipster Zombies vs Nights of the Nerd Table: Ha Ha Ha

bigeasyrollergirls-dot-muthafuckin-com: This post almost led to the establishment of a Baton Rouge Rollergirls. A quick check on the rollergirls website shows practices are scheduled and they've received support from Rollergirls from around the country. I wear my NO Rollergirls t-shirt with pride to the beach.

BILLYHARVEY.COM: Probably the neatest website I saw all year in terms of design and interaction. I bought the cd based on the website and enjoyed it.

MyOpenBar: When I first posted this it was a listing of open bars in NYC only, but they had plans for LA, Chicago, and Miami. They've added LA so far, so maybe I'll get to use this eventually.


And then there were the Katrina Posts: If you're interested just go to the August and September Archives.

Greetings from New Orleans: An Experiment in Found Art: The weird coincidence of my grad school advisor's son taking my picture at Mardi Gras and making it part of his art project. I have never met my advisor's son.

Friday Cocktail - Back with a Bang: Didn't feel right posting cocktails during Katrina, but then I found TikiBarTV. Just checked and they have new vids up.

The Internet Museum of Flexi / Cardboard / Oddity Records: The post that sent tons of traffic this way via We Make Money not Art

Cocktail of the Week: Amore Dolce: One of the best Cocktails of the Week that I had never tried before, but tested after posting. I did edit the recipe to 1 shot campari, 2 shots raspberry vodka, 1 lime, sugar (optional) and soda. Use a highball glass, muddle the lime with or without sugar, mix campari and vodka, top with crushed ice in highball glass, top with soda (or tonic, or sprite, or ginger ale).

Weight Watchers recipe cards, circa 1974: Shiver

This is where the blogging got sporadic and the hiatus for travel, selling the house, and moving happened. All of January's posts were move related.

And you can see all the current posts still. I expect there will be more youtube in the future since we didn't get DirecTV hooked up here in South Florida. I'd like to do a redesign soon, but no promises. I've decided not to care about reposting from my main sources, but I promise not to get lazy. Also, I don't promise a post a day at work anymore, but things are still slow as I start the new job.

Thanks for checking in, and of course...

Cheers!

Vintage modern retro design 50s, 60s, 70s

Vintage modern retro design 50s, 60s, 70s
Yummy

I/O Brush from MIT Media Lab

Bikers roll to military funerals to oppose anti-gay protests

CNN.com - Bikers roll to military funerals to oppose anti-gay protests - Feb 21, 2006
This is just so wrong and bizarre. Some wack job reverend "believes American deaths in Iraq are divine punishment for a country that he says harbors homosexuals. His protesters carry signs thanking God for so-called IEDs -- explosives that are a major killer of soldiers in Iraq." So a group of over 5,000 who call themselves the Patriot Guard Riders ride around and try to shield the families from the protests. I've thought about a dozen different ways to rant about this, but I trust my readers intelligence and will just let it drop at that.

YouTube - Brokeback to the Future

Big decision time? Best to sleep on it

Big decision time? Best to sleep on it - More Health News - MSNBC.com
Study finds that individuals who gather information about complex decisions, then are distracted for a period of time before making the decision, tend to be more satisfied with their final decision. The theory is that the unconscious mind has a greater capacity to integrate more information. Based on this news article they are saying that leads to better decisions. However, being more satisfied does not necessarily equate with it being a better decision.

Could You Bear Listening To Karoke without Alcohol?

Vietnam Bans Alcohol in Karaoke Bars - Yahoo! News
I guarantee I couldn't perform without.

Sicko Marriage Contract One For The Ages - February 17, 2006

Sicko Marriage Contract One For The Ages - February 17, 2006
Some guy actually put this on paper and expected his wife to sign it. She didn't and it's not clear why she married him. Quite a bit of detail and algebra for earning "Good Behavior Days". Unbelievable.

Deborah Putnoi

Deborah Putnoi

YouTube - Myspace - THE MOVIE!

YouTube - Myspace - THE MOVIE!
Tee Hee

Friday Cocktail: Miami Beach

CocktailDB: The Internet Cocktail Database | Miami Beach Variation
There are several variations, but this seemed the best to me:

• 1 1/2 oz Light Rum
  
• 3/4 oz Cointreau
  
• 1/4 oz fresh lemon or fresh lime juice

Shake in iced cocktail shaker and strain into a martini glass.

Cheers!

Welcome to the Jetsetter Lounge!

Welcome to the Jetsetter Lounge!
On my to do list.

BREITBART.COM - Artist Binds Feet in Desert, Loses Key

BREITBART.COM - Artist Binds Feet in Desert, Loses Key

An artist who chained his legs together to draw a picture of the image hopped 12 hours through the desert after realizing he lost the key and couldn't unlock the restraints

Heather Loves Bill

Heather Loves Bill
Don't know how I haven't posted this in the past.

HousingZone.com - Lingering Myths about Generation X - 2/1/2005 - CA503868

HousingZone.com - Lingering Myths about Generation X - 2/1/2005 - CA503868
4 Myths Refuted with census data such as:
1. Generation Xers are, and always will be, outnumbered by other generations

depends on definition of when the generation starts and ends (least interesting part of article)

2. Gen X is overeducated and underemployed (a.k.a. "slackers")

We are more educated, but even adjusted for inflation, we are doing better. There is some discussion of attitudes toward work, money and stability.

3. Generation Xers will live with their parents longer

Refuted with data that shows us to be more likely to own homes at a young age than boomers were. Doesn't really speak directly to living at home though. Not that there's anything wrong with that.

4. Generation Xers favor intangibles over possessions

Weak data statistically (just not very compelling, it is accurate), but we all know we buy plenty of stuff.

1 Myth not refuted:
Gen X is cynical

duh.

Spray-On Solar-Power Cells Are True Breakthrough

Spray-On Solar-Power Cells Are True Breakthrough

A sweater coated in the material could power a cell phone or other wireless devices. A hydrogen-powered car painted with the film could potentially convert enough energy into electricity to continually recharge the car's battery.

Via Eyebeam reBlog

Friday Cocktail - Tantric Shock

A valentine's cocktail from my new local paper, the Miami Herald

Yogi Tea is available in natural foods stores and some supermarkets.

FOR THE TEA:

• 1 red apple, washed well

• 2 bags Celestial Seasonings' Red Zinger tea

• 1 bag Yogi Tea Classic India Spice

• 1 tablespoon brown sugar

FOR EACH DRINK:

• 1 ounce vodka

Slice and core the apple. Place it in a pot with 2 cups water and bring to a boil. Add tea bags and sugar. Set aside, covered, to steep for at least 30 minutes. Strain and chill. For each cocktail, combine 2 ounces ( ¼ cup) tea and 1 ounce vodka in a chilled martini glass. Makes enough tea for 8 cocktails.

Cheers!

Unbelieveable!

Some of you know my secret blogging wish was always to have something picked up by boingboing. Well, they finally picked up and credited me with a suggestion, and I haven't blogged in forever. Oh well, for the regulars and any newcomers who read this far, I should have home net service back up next week. The new job's going too well to blog from work as often as I used to. I plan to shoot for twice a week once I get set up at home. I will look for a Friday Cocktail this afternoon though.