Merry everyone...

Have fun... back on the 29th

Categories: Fun

Time for tea?

Choi Time is a small company selling small "tea balls" - handmade balls of teas, which are individually wrapped and magically unfurl when infused in hot water.
In London, you can find similar tea being served in Ping Pong on Gt Marlborough St - where you can also find some rather good dim sum or "Little Steamed Parcels of Goodness" as they're alternatively known...
Of course, it's also handy for Liberty's, Regent St and Carnaby St too. Which means you can pop down to G:room too and check out their menswear, including the Marshall Artist and Howies ranges...
Now if only I had the balls to buy (and wear) this shirt or the "I'd rather be wanking" shirt from last season...

Categories: Life

Don't try this at home...

Well, there's more than one way to fix an iPod (apparently), and, although I wasn't willing to try the "hold it at waist height and drop it" technique, I did give it a quick smack as it was mounting. More of a light tap really. Well, actually it was a fair wallop, but there we are.

It's been working for the past 36 hours - so perhaps it doesn't need a new drive.

Categories: Gear

A ceramic birthday

I was recently taken to the Ceramics in the City fair, at the Geffrye Museum in East London. I've been a fan of ceramics for some time now, and have been amassing a small, but carefully crafted collection of largely oriental ceramics for the past two years. The majority of these have been purchased from a shop on Wigmore Street, in central London, called Mint, where I was lucky enough to stumble upon a few Japanese ceramacists working in London - among them Akiko Hirai - whose Plum Blossom bowl adorns the front of the Ceramics in the City press release.
However, although I met Akiko at the Fair, and purchased a few more pieces from her, it was the acheingly beautiful raku pieces of Helen Rondell that caught my eye.
Raku is a form of pottery that began in the 16th century in Japan and is named after the family who "discovered" the process. Chôjirô, the first generation of the Raku family, began to make raku tea ceremony bowls during the Momoyama period (1573-1615), but the process has evolved somewhat and now applies to any piece that is low-fired, and where bisqued work is quickly heated to red hot temperature and then taken out of the kiln and reduced in wood shavings, newspaper or a similar combustible material.
Helen works with newspaper - although I do not understand the alchemy through which she creates such beautiful pieces...

Categories: Art

Usaba: samurai kitchen utensils

Right. Let's get down to some serious knife-talk. I saw these guys (the Japanese Knife Company) at a Food & Drink fair last year, and was lucky enough to be able to try out almost their entire range of usuba bocho (薄刃包丁, thin knives).

According to the incredibly cool people at JKC, the usaba "is shaped liked a narrow cleaver, traditionally used for preparing vegetable with its very slightly curved edge it is also perfect for chopping herbs very finely. The width is useful for scooping. Of course with its razor sharp edge it cut through any fish or meat if needed..."

I immediately fell in love with two knives. The above pictured Kobayashi usaba hocho (at between £306 and £442) and the not-quite-so-pricey Shun Professional (around £127). The former has the most incredible hamon. It's almost like looking at a small samurai blade. Truly a thing of beauty...

I'm planning a trip to their showroom (or rather hamonoya) in the new year...

Categories: Gear, Life

RiPod?

Mmm... I hate it when this happens. As you know, I'm more than a little bit attached to my 4G 40gig iPod. It's been everywhere with me since I picked it up Duty Free in Singapore Airport last September, and had a little over 3,500 songs on it. I even spent a fortune on some gorgeous headphones (first the Sony Noise Cancelling MDR-70s and then a pair of the near perfect Shure e4c's). However, on Saturday afternoon, my iPod died.
So... I spent most of Saturday and Sunday trawling the Apple site for hints / tips, as well as various forums for advice.
The main problems are:

• Whirring / clicking on startup
• Inability to mount the drive / recognise the iPod on the desktop [Volume not recongised when running Disc Repair]
  
• Reset works temporarily, but then I get the "!" folder warning
• Restore worked temporarily, but then the iBook hung twice trying to update
• "Do not Disconnect" warning even when not mounted...

All in all, it was a bad weekend for my 'pod. It sounds as if it will cost £160 to replace the drive (using Apple Support) or £150 from UKiPodRepairs. Not sure what Warranty I get with either of them, but I'm almost tempted to chuck it in and start again... maybe with the Extended Apple Support Warranty this time...

Ho hum...

Categories: Gear, Music

The Teardrop explodes...

I slipped on my headphones this morning as I boarded the little Dornier 328 operated by ScotAir and settled down to listen to some carefully chosen tracks... or at least I tried to.

The first track I played was Teardrop - Massive Attack's beautiful second single from the Mezzanine album... and immediately fell asleep. Well, not quite immediately. I puzzled and puzzled for a few minutes while I desperately tried to remember who provided the vocals...

Of course, it was Liz Fraser from the Cocteau Twins. But buggered if I could remember that this morning...

Oh, and did I mention that you can now download the video for Teardrop for the princely sum of £1.89 from iTunes? Seems a lot, really. But it is a classic track and an awesome video...

Categories: Music

Live music...

I'm forever talking about Bloc Party and Kasabian, two bands whose debut albums made my year. Both have released a slew of singles, EPs and remixes, and have now (finally) released live albums from shows over the summer.

Bloc Party's Live from the Carling Weekend: Reading Festival showcases their great live sound andKele's vocal range and stage presence. While Kasabian's Live at Brixton Academy is just as turbo-charged as I remember (when we saw them at Ally Pally over Easter).

Categories: Music

Flickr Posters

So. We can finally print photos, calendars, books and even posters from Qoop and Flickr. I've just previewed a poster (£9.99) that's based on a couple of my Flickr sets, and the results look pretty good. Might be a good way of preserving photos from birthday / wedding / other significant occasion - without all the fuss...

Might also keep the family off your back this Christmas. Try sending them a book of photos so that they'll always have somethin by which to remember you...

Categories: Life, Art

Ricky Gervais Guardian podcast

Ricky Gervais now has a weekly Podcast hosted by the Guardian.
Download it now.
Or not.

Categories: Life, Fun

Time travel on the Tube

It's always nice to see people taking freely available information and representing it in unusual ways. Oskar Karlin, has done just that, with his "Time Travel" version of London's Tube map.
Oskar is studying Human Geography at Stockholm University (Sweden) and has previously studied graphic design. He's taken the Tube map and reimagined it as a series of timezones, rather than the geographic zones used by London Underground.

Categories: Fun, Life