Tuesday 29 January 2013
Reet Petite
Never seen the video for this before. Most peculiar. I like it though! And the song is great! So cheerful and catchy.
Monday 28 January 2013
Coconut meringue cake
This is one I'd been wanting to try for a little while. I used:
125g butter
225g white sugar
3 eggs
125g self raising flour
125g dessicated coconut (plus some extra)
80ml milk
I softened the butter, beat in 125g sugar, separated the eggs and beat in the egg yolks. I added the milk, flour and...a certain amount of coconut. The recipe I found didn't have any coconut in the cake mix itself, but I wanted some in there too.
So, that was the cake mix. For the meringue topping I whipped the egg whites until stiff, and folded in the remaining 100g sugar. I then added 125g dessicated coconut. I thought it looked like quite a lot of coconut for so little meringue and I was right. The meringue went completely flat and I was worried about whether it was going to come out ok. But I spooned the cake mix into a cake tin, and carefully put the meringue mix on top of it and baked at 180 degrees.
The cake came out pretty well. It was very moist and tasty, and the meringue layer held together ok.
However, I felt I'd like it better if the meringue on top was more of a meringue and less of a thin coconut crust, so I made a second attempt. This time, I added the whole 125g coconut to the cake mix and just put a handful on coconut into the meringue mix. I feel the second attempt worked a lot better! Tasty, moist coconut cake with a light meringue topping. Delicious! Sadly, however, I seem to have failed to take a picture of cake number two. Sad face. You'll just have to take my word for it!
125g butter
225g white sugar
3 eggs
125g self raising flour
125g dessicated coconut (plus some extra)
80ml milk
I softened the butter, beat in 125g sugar, separated the eggs and beat in the egg yolks. I added the milk, flour and...a certain amount of coconut. The recipe I found didn't have any coconut in the cake mix itself, but I wanted some in there too.
So, that was the cake mix. For the meringue topping I whipped the egg whites until stiff, and folded in the remaining 100g sugar. I then added 125g dessicated coconut. I thought it looked like quite a lot of coconut for so little meringue and I was right. The meringue went completely flat and I was worried about whether it was going to come out ok. But I spooned the cake mix into a cake tin, and carefully put the meringue mix on top of it and baked at 180 degrees.
The cake came out pretty well. It was very moist and tasty, and the meringue layer held together ok.
However, I felt I'd like it better if the meringue on top was more of a meringue and less of a thin coconut crust, so I made a second attempt. This time, I added the whole 125g coconut to the cake mix and just put a handful on coconut into the meringue mix. I feel the second attempt worked a lot better! Tasty, moist coconut cake with a light meringue topping. Delicious! Sadly, however, I seem to have failed to take a picture of cake number two. Sad face. You'll just have to take my word for it!
Saturday 26 January 2013
Friday 25 January 2013
Films
Another film review post. I'm going to start off with The English Patient. As previously mentioned, this is one I'd seen before. I just wanted to rewatch it now that I'd read the book. I have to say that being able to compare them now I like the changes the film makers made. They gave the story a proper ending and took out some of the silly bits. I love most of the casting as well! Juliette Binoche was perfect for Hana, and Ralph Fiennes was perfect for the Count (though he ought to be careful; what with this part and Lord Voldemort he's getting to be quite type cast as people with no faces). I loved Kristin Scott Thomas as Catherine Clifton too. The only character I thought could have been cast better was Caravaggio. Willem Dafoe was just a bit too sinister I thought. But yes, I feel I can now definitively say that The English Patient is both a great film and a great adaptation.
Next, Lost in Tanslation. One I'd never got round to watching before. It's pretty good! It's about an aging movie star, played by Bill Murray,who's in Japan filming adverts and lonely. He's having problems with his wife and doesn't know anyone in Tokyo. That's when he meets a lonely young wife (Scarlett Johansson) who's accompanying her husband on a business trip, but he's neglecting her and having fun with his friends. The two of them strike up a friendship and go around Tokyo together. It's quite an artsy film. One you don't watch for the story or the dialogue, but for the shots. A lot of the time it just seems to be show-casing Tokyo, especially Tokyo night life, and there are long periods with no dialogue at all. It's very atmospheric and quite melancholy. I imagine it to be a good film to stick on at the end of a night out, when there are lots of people crowded together in a dark room and it's very late and everyone is quite sleepy and perhaps a little intoxicated. And they must have worked pretty hard to get Scarlett Johansson to look like a Plain Jane.
And finally, Ladies in Lavender. This was an interesting one. It's about two elderly sisters played by Maggie Smith and Judi Dench who find a shipwrecked boy washed up on the beach in the 1930s. They don't have a language in common, but they take care of him and grow to love him. In fact one of them actually falls in love with him, despite the massive age gap. In the end he leaves for London without saying anything where he becomes a famous violinist. This one was also pretty and atmospheric, showing off the English countryside, though I'm not sure about the colour palette they used. It made the sea look quite odd and unnatural. And Maggie Smith was brilliant, as always.
Next, Lost in Tanslation. One I'd never got round to watching before. It's pretty good! It's about an aging movie star, played by Bill Murray,who's in Japan filming adverts and lonely. He's having problems with his wife and doesn't know anyone in Tokyo. That's when he meets a lonely young wife (Scarlett Johansson) who's accompanying her husband on a business trip, but he's neglecting her and having fun with his friends. The two of them strike up a friendship and go around Tokyo together. It's quite an artsy film. One you don't watch for the story or the dialogue, but for the shots. A lot of the time it just seems to be show-casing Tokyo, especially Tokyo night life, and there are long periods with no dialogue at all. It's very atmospheric and quite melancholy. I imagine it to be a good film to stick on at the end of a night out, when there are lots of people crowded together in a dark room and it's very late and everyone is quite sleepy and perhaps a little intoxicated. And they must have worked pretty hard to get Scarlett Johansson to look like a Plain Jane.
And finally, Ladies in Lavender. This was an interesting one. It's about two elderly sisters played by Maggie Smith and Judi Dench who find a shipwrecked boy washed up on the beach in the 1930s. They don't have a language in common, but they take care of him and grow to love him. In fact one of them actually falls in love with him, despite the massive age gap. In the end he leaves for London without saying anything where he becomes a famous violinist. This one was also pretty and atmospheric, showing off the English countryside, though I'm not sure about the colour palette they used. It made the sea look quite odd and unnatural. And Maggie Smith was brilliant, as always.
Wednesday 23 January 2013
The Big Rock Candy Mountain
Got this on loop:
Again, perhaps something that's not quite my usual sort of thing, but I love it!
Again, perhaps something that's not quite my usual sort of thing, but I love it!
Tuesday 22 January 2013
Shameless Self-Promotion
Tonight's blog post is brought to you by shameless self-promotion! A little while ago I helped to write a photography workshop for the Education department at work. For one of the adverts for it they used one of my photos. I reckon that gives me grounds to say I'm a published photographer. Huzzah! Here is the advert:
The top half is the front of the flier and the bottom half is the back. They're actually bright Spring leaves, not Autumn leaves, but nevermind. One of my photos got used for an advert (even if it's not a particularly good photo), hurrah!
Whilst we're on the subject of shameless self-promotion, I don't think I've previously included a link to my photos before.
This is my DeviantArt profile, and here is my 123RF (stock photography) profile. So far I've made about 13 US dollars from it. Better than nothing! I did a roaring trade in these pictures during the Christmas period, which was nice.
The top half is the front of the flier and the bottom half is the back. They're actually bright Spring leaves, not Autumn leaves, but nevermind. One of my photos got used for an advert (even if it's not a particularly good photo), hurrah!
Whilst we're on the subject of shameless self-promotion, I don't think I've previously included a link to my photos before.
This is my DeviantArt profile, and here is my 123RF (stock photography) profile. So far I've made about 13 US dollars from it. Better than nothing! I did a roaring trade in these pictures during the Christmas period, which was nice.
Tuesday 15 January 2013
Hello
I'm not really sure why I like this song. It's not normally the sort of thing I like. Much more poppy than my usual taste. Maybe it's because I can relate to the lyrics. Or maybe it's just because it's catchy and gets stuck in my head.
Monday 14 January 2013
Films
Time for a review of some of the films I've watched lately. First up, Letter to Brezhnev. It's a 1985 film about two young working class women on a night out who meet two Russian sailors. One of them falls in love, and is determined to see her sailor again after he sails away. But it's the middle of the Cold War, so she faces lots of obstacles to going to Russia to find him. The movie ends with her getting on a plane to Russia. I quite enjoyed this. I liked the beginning with the two sassy young woman having fun and running wild in Liverpool. I quite liked how the ending was uncertain, and not a smoochy happily ever after. The middle was so horrifically cheesy though! With the two young lovers banging on about stars and destiny. Ugh. And the stars looked awful too! Bad special effects! But if you don't watch the middle section it's an alright film. A bit different.
Next, the 1933 black and white live action version of Alice of Wonderland. I have to say this was almost as bizarre a trip as reading the original book. Very very odd. There was a surprising amount of content in it. As well as using the whole Alice's Adventures in Wonderland "story", they also do Through the Looking Glass, and some other Lewis Carroll elements that had nothing to do with either book, like The Walrus and the Carpenter. I wonder if this is where Disney got the idea to include it in their version as well. There are quite a few famous people in this, like Cary Grant, W. C. Fields and Gary Cooper, though sadly none of their perfomances are really note worthy. I was reasonably impressed by the actress of Alice though. The special effects, such as Alice growing and shrinking are also pretty good for the time, and I think that on the whole the film captured the madness of Alice in Wonderland pretty well.
And finally, To Rome With Love. It's another one of those films by Woody Allen set in a European city. It also has Woody Allen himself in it. It has several sets of characters and several stories, some in English and some in Italian. There's a young American tourist who falls in love with an Italian, whose parents are meeting for the first time. The bride's father (Woody Allen) discovers that the groom's father is an excellent opera singer and is determined to make him a star, however the groom's father and his family are very reluctant. There's a young newly wed couple arriving in Rome for the first time. The wife goes to get a haircut, gets lost, and has an adventure. Meanwhile the husband gets sent a prostitute by mistake and has to spend the day pretending to his family that she's his wife. The prostitute is played by Penelope Cruz, whose Italian is excellent. Her performance impressed me. Then Roberto Benigni plays a nobody who one day wakes up to find he's famous for no reason at all. Everywhere he goes he has journalists following him and women throwing themselves at him. At the end of the film everyone forgets about him overnight and his life goes back to normal. There's no explanation at all given for any of this. It's a nonsensical little story, but I really liked it. Whimsical and silly. And I love Roberto Benigni! He's so funny. The last story concerns an American couple studying in Rome. A friend of the girlfriend's comes to stay and the boyfriend ends up having an affair with her. In the end the friend leaves him and goes back to America for a film role. She's played by Ellen Page and the boyfriend is played by Jesse Eisenberg. Alec Baldwin also plays a role in this story, as a famous architect, the boyfriend's hero. He spends the story looking over the boyfriend's shoulder and giving him advice. But I have to say that it's not very clear about whether they ever did meet in real life or not, or whether the boyfriend just imagines him being there from the start. Bit odd. I really enjoyed the film though. It's very funny, and seeing as I love Rome, it's really nice to see it on screen like that. I thoroughly enjoyed Woody Allen's performance too. The film is quirky and charming. Recommended.
Next, the 1933 black and white live action version of Alice of Wonderland. I have to say this was almost as bizarre a trip as reading the original book. Very very odd. There was a surprising amount of content in it. As well as using the whole Alice's Adventures in Wonderland "story", they also do Through the Looking Glass, and some other Lewis Carroll elements that had nothing to do with either book, like The Walrus and the Carpenter. I wonder if this is where Disney got the idea to include it in their version as well. There are quite a few famous people in this, like Cary Grant, W. C. Fields and Gary Cooper, though sadly none of their perfomances are really note worthy. I was reasonably impressed by the actress of Alice though. The special effects, such as Alice growing and shrinking are also pretty good for the time, and I think that on the whole the film captured the madness of Alice in Wonderland pretty well.
And finally, To Rome With Love. It's another one of those films by Woody Allen set in a European city. It also has Woody Allen himself in it. It has several sets of characters and several stories, some in English and some in Italian. There's a young American tourist who falls in love with an Italian, whose parents are meeting for the first time. The bride's father (Woody Allen) discovers that the groom's father is an excellent opera singer and is determined to make him a star, however the groom's father and his family are very reluctant. There's a young newly wed couple arriving in Rome for the first time. The wife goes to get a haircut, gets lost, and has an adventure. Meanwhile the husband gets sent a prostitute by mistake and has to spend the day pretending to his family that she's his wife. The prostitute is played by Penelope Cruz, whose Italian is excellent. Her performance impressed me. Then Roberto Benigni plays a nobody who one day wakes up to find he's famous for no reason at all. Everywhere he goes he has journalists following him and women throwing themselves at him. At the end of the film everyone forgets about him overnight and his life goes back to normal. There's no explanation at all given for any of this. It's a nonsensical little story, but I really liked it. Whimsical and silly. And I love Roberto Benigni! He's so funny. The last story concerns an American couple studying in Rome. A friend of the girlfriend's comes to stay and the boyfriend ends up having an affair with her. In the end the friend leaves him and goes back to America for a film role. She's played by Ellen Page and the boyfriend is played by Jesse Eisenberg. Alec Baldwin also plays a role in this story, as a famous architect, the boyfriend's hero. He spends the story looking over the boyfriend's shoulder and giving him advice. But I have to say that it's not very clear about whether they ever did meet in real life or not, or whether the boyfriend just imagines him being there from the start. Bit odd. I really enjoyed the film though. It's very funny, and seeing as I love Rome, it's really nice to see it on screen like that. I thoroughly enjoyed Woody Allen's performance too. The film is quirky and charming. Recommended.
Monday 7 January 2013
More Fringe Shows
Time to review the other two Fringe shows I watched. One of them was Panga, written by my friend Sam Siggs. It had a very interesting concept. It centres around a 20 something year old woman, Lucy, who's a bit of a mess, and her boyfriend. One day her mother sends her a bunch of her old toys, and her cuddly panda, Panga (pronounced like that because she had adenoids) suddenly comes to life, as a full-sized talking, walking panda. At first she's terrified, but very quickly warms to the idea of having her childhood playmate back. The two of them spend their days playing wild games and getting incerasingly drunk. The climax of the play comes when Panga tries to kill Lucy's boyfriend. A fight ensues, and Panga gets his head cut off, whereupon he transforms back into a harmless cuddly toy. I have to say that I have mixed feelings about this play. It was staged very well, with plenty of little creative touches, and the acting was excellent. As I've said before, I thought the concept was very interesting, and it was very funny, but I just feel like the play was missing a message of some kind. A tangible effect Panga's visit had on Lucy. Some sort of point to the play. It just left me a bit confused really. It was actually quite strongly reminiscent of the film Drop Dead Fred. It had the same feeling of chaos and mischief and losing control. Worth seeing, but not Sam's best.
Finally, the Blanks, also known as The Worthless Peons, Ted's band from Scrubs. They're an a capella band. I enjoyed seeing them. The singing was really good, and they did all their famous ones. It was interesting to see that Sam (Ted) was by far the worst singer amongst them. The other three were all really talented. Perhaps I just don't have very much patience, because the filler between songs really pissed me off. It was just so American and tacky, unfunny and unnecessary. They also performed a Hallowe'en song, which was very funny, but just gave me the impression that their repertoire is pretty small. All in all, an enjoyable show, but could have been better.
Finally, the Blanks, also known as The Worthless Peons, Ted's band from Scrubs. They're an a capella band. I enjoyed seeing them. The singing was really good, and they did all their famous ones. It was interesting to see that Sam (Ted) was by far the worst singer amongst them. The other three were all really talented. Perhaps I just don't have very much patience, because the filler between songs really pissed me off. It was just so American and tacky, unfunny and unnecessary. They also performed a Hallowe'en song, which was very funny, but just gave me the impression that their repertoire is pretty small. All in all, an enjoyable show, but could have been better.
Sunday 6 January 2013
Candy
You've just got to admire Robbie. He's been going for so long and just keeps turning out so many great songs. I love this recent one. Catchy tune, quirky lyrics, original. Not enormously keen on the video though...
Saturday 5 January 2013
Enlighten Edinburgh
Sorry about the lack of blog these last while. Christmas, you know. Now on with the entry! Back in March the Edinburgh City of Literature Trust projected quotes from the Scottish Enlightment onto various buildings around the city centre for a few days. Naturally I went out to photograph it, and it was well worth it! Here are a few of my favourite photos from it:
This was a giant globe in Charlotte Sqaure with a Geological and weather type video and a James Hutton quote projected onto it. "A succession of worlds...no vestige of a beginning, no prospect of an end". Being a James Hutton fan, I found it quite exciting.
This is the Royal Society of Edinburgh building on George Street, lit up with an Adam Smith quote: "Science is the great antidote against the poison of superstition and enthusiasm". I have to say this was the best projection for me. It was so big and bold and striking. The use of the features of the building was very clever and the whole thing was just beautiful. The whole project was pretty awesome actually. A great idea, and well executed. There were more projections, but the pictures of those weren't particularly exciting. And so, I shall leave you with this:
Not actaully part of Enlighten Edinburgh. This a shopfront on George Street. They project a live webcam view of a beach in California onto their windows 24 hours a day. Pretty cool, huh?
This was a giant globe in Charlotte Sqaure with a Geological and weather type video and a James Hutton quote projected onto it. "A succession of worlds...no vestige of a beginning, no prospect of an end". Being a James Hutton fan, I found it quite exciting.
This is the Royal Society of Edinburgh building on George Street, lit up with an Adam Smith quote: "Science is the great antidote against the poison of superstition and enthusiasm". I have to say this was the best projection for me. It was so big and bold and striking. The use of the features of the building was very clever and the whole thing was just beautiful. The whole project was pretty awesome actually. A great idea, and well executed. There were more projections, but the pictures of those weren't particularly exciting. And so, I shall leave you with this:
Not actaully part of Enlighten Edinburgh. This a shopfront on George Street. They project a live webcam view of a beach in California onto their windows 24 hours a day. Pretty cool, huh?
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