DVD of the week - Celebration by Madonna

Madonna has recently released yet another greatest hits compilation. Celebration is the last album she's supposed to release under her current contract with Warner Bros. I saw the DVD compilation was on sale last week and purchased it. Containing 42 clips, it's an excellent record of how she's used the music vid medium to her advantage, looking back at the evolution of her music and changes in image to suit. It's not an exhaustive back catalogue and in fact is missing some key songs, most notably Holiday, but still has pretty much all the biggies.

I prefer disc one which contains all the "Classics" where she was more playful.

as well as containing the more controversial Jusify My Love and Erotica clips.

Disc 2 sees her leaving lyric pop and going into her current electronic dance phase.

If you're a fan, you probably already have this DVD. If you're not a fan, it might just convert you.

Movie review - Moon

In Moon, Sam Bell (Rockwell) is coming to the end of his 3 year contract to collect Helium3 on the Dark Side of the moon. Since a solar flare disrupted communication to Earth, Sam has had no one to interact with other than GERTY, the computer/machine that is there to help him out. The isolation is beginning to get to him and one day on a routine check around the moon, he hallucinates and crashes his vehicle. He next wakes up after the accident to GERTY running various tests on him to check that he's okay. Or does he....?!?!?!

Sam Rockwell is an interesting actor. Not a supastar but definitely a cut above your ordinary actor and capable of carrying a film. It's a good thing Rockwell is such an excellent and quirky actor because he's pretty much the only person we see onscreen for about 95% of the movie. We see him going through the procedures of his work, completing various activities to stave off the boredom, and complaining to GERTY about the conditions, followed by the things that happen post-crash. His performance is an excellent and believable study of someone possibly going stir-crazy in isolation.

One of the good things about Moon is that it so easily could have followed various sci-fi movie conventions. I can't really say too much about what happens but aspects of the following COULD be in there - isolation madness, clones, evil clones, aliens, ghosts, split personalities, evil machines, friendly machines, practical corporations, evil corporations, cheating spouses, patiently waiting spouses, everything is lie, everything is true...yeah. Actually come to think of it, some of the issues aren't fully resolved and we're left with a vague and ambiguous ending!

The explanation of what's going one is possibly the weakness of the movie because sometimes when something was explained, I mentally went *Oh, is that it?! I expected something more convoluted!* Also, the pacing was pretty uneven. There are moments where nothing was happening (kinda like when you're all alone in space), and then suddenly there was a heap of activity and I was left with a *what?!* moment.

When I walked out, I immediately thought it was a '6' movie - passably enjoyable but I'm not sure I could watch it a second time. On further thought, it is a very interesting movie and I'd like to encourage people to watch it because it is challenging when you're trying to figure out what's going on. But I still think I wouldn't watch it a second time.
6-7/10

The Hike v2.0

The last time I was in c-town, I somewhat notoriously went on The Hike v1.0. I swear, I have never had so many people laugh in my face before whenever I told them

1. That I was actually going /went on a hike. Me! Hiking!?! And of course
2. The story of what actually happened on the hike.

When people found out I was going to c-town again, I got a lot of people sniggering and asking if H was going to make me go on another hike. In fact, some people wished me a happy hike rather than a happy trip (Pom, I'm looking at you!).

Because he values his life, H promised me that this time we wouldn't go off the track. Yay! Also, because I am a sun-hater, he decided we should go in the late afternoon-early evening. Double yay! And so, more mentally prepared, we went off to walk the track around Mt. Majura. I had my ipod and happily sang along to 80s movie soundtrack classic - a bit to H's and to the general public's bemusement that I was disturbing the birds. We made it to a clearing part way up the mountain and watched some planes fly in and out of the c-town airport while enjoying some fruit and muesli bars.

H admires some trees.
(EDIT - and vanillabear admires H's ass)

This wallaby came quite close!

Come back, Mr. Wallaby!

After deciding that we didn't have enough time to make it to the summit, we went on down back towards the start. Now, I suffer from quite bad hayfever. You probably all know where this story is about to go. I had popped a 24-hour antihistamine a few hours earlier thinking it would keep me sane and sniffle-free. Not so. I'm not sure when I started sniffling, but by the time we made it back to the carpark, I was full on blowing my nose.

Excluding the summit, the track was only about 3.5km long - peasy. Peasy enough that H decided we should take a walk around the neighbourhood while it was still light for extra exercise. Figuring it couldn't hurt that much, I acquiesced with what I hope was minimal fuss. Bad mistake on both our parts. By the end, hayfever had made my face and especially my eyes feel so painful that...I stopped talking.

Poor H noted afterwards that the ensuing silence made my misery readily apparent and he finally realised that nature just isn't my friend. No comment on whether he'd make me do it again yet.

Song of the week - Thriller by Michael Jackson

No time to think of a art piece of the week! Enjoy this footage!

Things that are alright about C-town

After the stress and bad dreams of the last months (stupid defence!), I decided the best way to relax would be to go somewhere that offers little in terms of entertainment. That's right, I'm back in our nation's capital.

Okay, okay, C-town is not that bad now that I know a number of people who are here and Borders is open relatively late at night (for C-town, anyway). Also, because it's largely a student (and public service) town, there are some interesting experiences to be had!

Thursday night is Student night, so I met up with dancinghula and some of her buddies for $10 cocktails!

The cool light fixtures.

I couldn't hold still enough to make them look really nice.

I was warned that getting drinks can take quite a while so I kicked off by ordering 2 - the Apple and Passionfruit martini (which tasted like lollies and was foolishly very quickly downed). The pinker one was Patience is a Virtue. I can't remember what was in it but it was yum!

This was followed by us stumbling to get $6.50 steaks! Okay, we had to cook it ourselves, but that was actually part of the appeal! H warned me that this was not a great place. I say nuts to him! Apparently it's *Oktoberfest* at ANU so the place wasn't full as it was supposed to be. I'm disappointed I didn't take photos of the communal grill where I managed to cook my steak to medium-rare perfection. It was also downed with a lot of salad. I ate a lot of baby beetroot.

Then we all stumbled back for more $10 cocktails! Can't beat alcoholic value :D And H came along to essentially drive me home. Kekekeke

ZOMG!!! ONE THOUSANDTH POST!!! (for reals this time)

After the premature celebration that was my other 1000th post, I am happy to say that I have finally reached my ACTUAL 1000th post!!!!

Welcome to the party!

So, to celebrate, here's some cake for everyone.






A party soundtrack consisting of classics

And hotties for everyone!!!

Here's to another 1000!!! *cough*

Things I learned when wearing my school uniform in a club

• My parents might have bought it for me when I was 11, but I finally did grow into it!

• We all know where I put the weight on and it's not the hips!
• Even with a full face of make up and busting out, I still look like the Good Nerd Girl.
• School uniforms are surprisingly REALLY comfortable for clubbing! Trust me and suboo on this - they're designed to keep you cool in the hot Aussie summer, and to handle a lot of different movements!
• Being someone who is clearly too old to be wearing a school uniform does not stop you being ID checked at the door.

Painting of the week - Antoine-Laurent Lavoisier and his Wife by David

Jacques-Louis David, Antoine-Laurent Lavoisier and his Wife, 1788

Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York City
(Source)

Walking up the staircase of the Met and entering into the rooms displaying European Art, I'll admit I'm a big enough of a nerd to have gasped when I saw this painting. One of the great scientists of the Enlightenmnent, Lavoisier was involved in the development of stoichiometry and metric system, disproved phlogiston theory, and probably most famously determined that water consisted of hydrogen and oxygen. The inclusion of his wife in this portrait is also significant. A trained painter and student of David, she also assisted in his experiments, made drawings of his equipment, and most importantly kept strict records which validated a lot of the work.

David was one of the pioneers of Neoclassicism in Pre- and Post-Revolutionary France, and you can see that his style differs greatly from the Rococo, profiled in last week's painting. David and his work are intricately linked with the French Revolution. As a friend of Robespierre, he acted as an official artist, producing pictorial propaganda such as the portrait of a Marat dead in his bath and completed a sketch of Marie-Antoinette on her way to the guillotine. One of the great ironies of this painting is that while David was a supporter of the Revolution, Lavoisier was one of its famous victims - he was guillotined in 1794 for being a tax collector.

YEAH!!!!

Defence = over!
Nightmare-free dreams for a while!

In the last one I had, I slept right through the time I was supposed to give the talk - no one rang me to wake me up. And then I was stressing about having to 'fess up to The Boss about how I missed it and organising a new time to defend...but I was using an iPhone and I couldn't type on the stupid keyboard properly. *grrrr

And then I woke up and had the terrible thought that I HAD slept through the day...then I realised I hadn't and I still had to give the talk! Augh!

But it's done now and I'm off to sleepytown!

'Name Me'/'iSnack2.0'/'TBC'

I was at the supermarket today when I saw a jar of the new formulation of Vegemite, the previously un-named combination of cream cheese and Vegemite, that was then-named iSnack2.0 to universal disdain (including my own), and now currently un-named again due to copyright issues.

I decided to purchase a jar that had the iSnack label, partly because I figure they won't be around for much longer (kinda like cans of New Coke), but also because I still hadn't actually tasted this new formula. I then decided to buy a smaller jar labelled 'Name Me' because I figured I wouldn't want to open the iSnack jar. Also, the un-named jars are smaller and if I hated it, it wouldn't take me so long to eat.

But you know what? I actually quite liked it. One of the things I don't like about Vegemite is the very strong flavour. As such I usually eat it very thinly spread with a creamier option on top such as avocado or cheese (natch) to soften the blow. Marene and I ate this new spread thinking it was a bit of a tease - a small taste of the Vegemite and then the glorious taste of my bread (four seed rye, toasted). We then decided to spread it on more thickly and lo and behold!

We found it to be a creamier, sweeter, less salty concoction. Despite the differences, it did retain the *Vegemitey* flavour. However we oddly found that the new flavour slightly resembed fermented bean paste, or a little bit like miso. Would I buy it again? Probably, if I were living on my own in a country without continuous avocados and no one to help me eat a complete jar. But then, if that were the case, I probably wouldn't be able to buy Vegemite anyway.

So....

You might be wondering why I haven't written anything in a while, although you're probably not :P. Nothing much is going on. I'm pretty much buckled down to work, to the extent that I was home all weekend! :O I know.

But once the defence is over on Friday, I'll probably be in a better mood to speak :D.

Hummingbird Bakery Hazelnut and Chocolate Cupcakes

So I'm supposed to be making the figures for my thesis this weekend but poor Toshi chucked a spazz and crashed Photoshop :( I decided to give the machine a break, and since I ruv Pooey, I decided to do what she wanted and make more Hummingbird products for her to eat. Even though she lives on the other side of the planet. Kekeke.

I decided to make the hazelnut cupcakes because none of the shops in my local shopping centre sold stem ginger in syrup.

So this is what the cake looks like in the book.

I also figured this would be a test run because I have my doubts about their methods. Namely, am I not supposed to cream butter and sugar together as the base for cakes? I decided to follow their directions as closely as possible. What I've put here is the one printed in the book with my changes in purple, just in case anyone wants to try it themselves.

Cupcake - makes 12
100g plain flour
20g cocoa powder
140g caster sugar
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
pinch of salt
40g unsalted butter at room temp (I lazily combined the butter/salt thing by using low-salt butter)
120ml (1/2 cup is close enough) whole milk
1 egg
Nutella
hazelnuts (to decorate)

• Pre-heat the oven to 170C/325F
• Put the flour, cocoa, sugar, baking powder, and butter together in a freestanding electric mixer with paddle attachment (or use a handheld electric whisk) and beat on slow speed until you get a sandy consistency and everything is combined. (I did this even though the baker in me was revolting at it. I did however start the mixing by hand with a wooden spoon to break up the butter into smaller chunks before using the mixer.)
• Slowly pour the milk into the mixture, beating until all the ingredients are well mixed. Add the egg and beat well, scraping any unmixed ingredients from the side with a spatula
• Spoon the mixture into the paper cases until 2/3 full and bake for 20 minutes. Cakes are ready when a skewer comes out clean. Cool slightly in tray, before turning out onto a wire rack.

Cooling on the rack

• When the cupcakes are cold, hollow out a small section in the centre of each and fill each one with a dollop of nutella. I used about 1/2 tsp of Nutella depending on how large I made the holes. It varied :P

Holey cupcakes
Filled cupcakes

Frosting mixture
250g icing sugar, sifted
80g unsalted butter at room temp (again, I cheated with the low salt)
25ml whole milk
80g (2 tbs) Nutella

• Beat the icing sugar and butter together in a freestanding electric mixer with paddle attachment (or use a handheld electric whisk) on medium/slow until everything is well mixed (Again, I started by hand with a wooden spoon to breat the butter and mix it in before using the mixer.)
• Turn to mixer to slower speed and slowly pour int he milk. Whenthe milk is completely incorporated, turn to higher speed and beat until frosting is light and fluffy (approx 5 mins).
  
• Stir in the nutella by hand until evenly mixed into the frosting. Spoon on top and finish with hazelnuts to garnish.
  

The finished products.

Firstly, I don't think this mixture makes 12 cupcakes. Unless I overfilled my first batch of 6 (entirely possible but you can judge for yourself from the ones in the pics), I think it makes closer to 10 because the second batch of 6 weren't that full. Anyway, to try and emulate the pic in the book, I cut one open and shared it with Spuey.
I think Spuey liked it and he said even though it didn't dribble out like the one in the picture, he could sure taste the Nutella in the cupcake. I therefore think this recipe passed, and I may make it again when Pooey gets back or if anyone requests*!

*Donations would aid the fulfilling of any requests :P

Painting of the Week - The Swing by Fragonard

Jean-Honore Fragonard, L'Escarpolette, c. 1767
Wallace Collection, London
(Source)

Following the drama of the Baroque, the more playful Rococo style is a bit of a shock to the point that until relatively recently, the style was disregarded as a degeneration of Baroque ideals into decadence. In particular associated with the French aristocracy, all those scenes of shepherdesses dressed in silks looking after fluffy, beribboned sheep pretty much embodied all the powdered and perfumed artifice hated by the masses in pre-Revolution France. Originally developing as a style of decoration, Rococo art is characterised by curving lines and pastel colours. Subjects were usually pastoral genre scenes, or commentaries on love, often with a hint of impropriety.

A young girl pushed on a swing, playfully kicks off her slipper towards her secret lover hidden in the bushes. For all her extravagantly frilled bodice, full sleeves, and voluminous skirts, you've got to remember that people of that age didn't wear underpants, implying that the she's allowing her lover to take a look at her vaj-yayay. Subtle allusions to the subtext are Cupid holding his finger up in a shushing gesture, and the cherubs, one who watches the scene and another who looks away.

Hummingbird Cafe Lemon Loaf

Having been called slack for not posting enough this week (:O - the nerve!) I'm writing about something Pooey wants me to write about.

The Hummingbird Cafe is apparently a famous bakery in London that sells US-style cupcakes, cookies and other sweet goodies. She bought their cookbook and sent it back to me via Smeemail so that I, being the better baker of the two of us, could practice making the goodies in anticipation of her return.

I finally decided to make the lemon loaf because it seemed pretty easy but also because I had a loaf pan that I'd purchased by never used (family are fans of cup cakes rather than loaves). After taking note of the corrections that had been inserted in the form of an A4 sheet, I made the loaf (which was pretty easy), but I'll admit to being a bit disappointed when it came out.

I was expecting something more like the lemon loaf me and Pooey had from Peyton and Byrne when we had afternoon tea at the National Gallery :(. Even though I was expecting it to be like a lemon-flavoured loaf of bread, it was quite dense and the crust was bordering on burned. Ma liked it a lot though. My faith was further shaken when I looked for some online reviews and found a lot of people said the recipes were incorrect and unworkable unless you were an experienced baker :( (although others were sparkling).

However, the next day I decided to take half of the loaf and test it on my lab (heheh, lab testing :P). Mischka, Dr. V., DG, Jan, the Histo chicas and IT chicos all gave it the thumbs up. So how? Well I think I'll fiddle with the timing and temperature to stop the loaf from reaching that just a touch of burn level, but I suppose it was okay. I have a feeling though that if I were to know what the loaf is like when it comes out of the shop, I might be painfully unimpressed.

Anyway, since it was given approval, I'll try some more recipes before giving the book the yay or nay status *thumbs up*.

When Love Hurts

I have a sweet tooth which is almost painful. Seriously, it's a good thing I enjoy exercise otherwise I'd be far more deliciously round than I am now. Although I do love them, it is for the best that Tim Tams are not one of my favourite biscuits, probably due to the overload of chocolate without contrasting flavour. I have previously described Tim Tams to non-Aussie friends as *two chocolate biscuits, separated by a layer of chocolate cream, covered in milk chocolate!

To try and tempt me back to buying them, the evil people in charge of Tim Tams decided to branch out into new flavours like kahlua and white chocolate. I was unconvinced, and they failed to bring back into the fold. They even tried mint crush! I adored them (mmm, mint and chocolate combination!) but the exorbitant price to biscuit ratio stopped me from investing heavily. Time passed and I didn't think much more about it.

Well imagine my horror and delight when I discovered Tim Tams (and a number of other Arnotts biscuits) are currently on sale right now at my local supermarket, and it was much to my delight and horror that I saw flavours I hadn't seen before! Sale or no sale, I decided to be disciplined and limit myself to just one flavour. I chose *Chewy Caramel*.

Oooh yeah!

Even though I counselled myself not to be fooled by the artistic interpretation of what it should be like, I bit into the biscuit, seeking the gooey gooey caramel. I was hurt to not find it!

I was about to feel bitterly, bitterly disappointed until I delved further into the sweetness and found the small reservoir of caramel about halfway in!!

Towards the end, I did find strings of caramel forming where my voracious teeth tore it apart.

So what's the assessment? After having eaten another two in short order, I think I could love these very easily. BUT I also think that if I keep biting into the end that has *less* caramel than the other, I would be hurt over and over again. I figure I have until the end of the packet to decide if I should take a joyous running jump into love or turn my back on the possibility and walk away from potential hurt. Decisions, decisions *sigh*.

Hygiene Poll

The Scenario - You have a boyfriend. He likes to ring you up for a chats. One day he lets slip that he's talking to you while on the toilet. You point out that might be considered somewhat unhygienic and not to do it again. He says he's done it before and the lack of knowledge never bothered you, so why freak out now?

Just in case anyone is wondering, the gf of the pair in question is not me. This poll ends in a fortnight!

Sculpture of the week - The Kiss by Rodin

Auguste Rodin, Le Baiser, 1889

Musee Rodin, Paris

This famous piece of work by Rodin was based on the story from Dante's Inferno, relating the story of Francesca da Rimini and her (almost) affair with her brother-in-law, Paolo Malatesta. The two fell in love while reading about Guinevere and Lancelot, were discovered, and then murdered by her husband Giovanni. The two (almost) lovers were then condemned to the second circle of hell. Believe it or not, this event (not the hell bit) is actually based on a true story!

As with many other figures that were originally part of his Gates of Hell doors, the Kiss component was removed and both sculpted and cast in bronze many times. There are lots of copies of floating around various places in the world, including Bendigo!

I VERY highly recommend the Musee Rodin (Hôtel Biron, 79, rue de Varenne, 75007) if anyone is going to Paris anytime soon. Not only is it chock-full of Rodin's sexy works (duh) but you can see little details in his work that are not readily apparent in photographs of his works. For example, the two figures in The Kiss, are not actually kissing! I can't remember how separate they were, but they are! You can also see the shiny bald spot Rodin left in the bronze bust of his father or teacher, I can't remember. Clearly I need to return!