Monday, February 21, 2005

Haflway between Barstow and the desert



Hunter S Thompson apparently killed himself some time today or yesterday. You can read the official report by clicking on: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/4282865.stm

I always wanted to write like HST. The idea that the journalist, or writer of the news could be more important than the very news he was reporting on struck me as a groovy thing. Of course, the case of Hunter S Thompson's case he invariably WAS the news. His antics usually eclipsed the event he was writing about, and the articles became sort of surreal autobiographical review of what was going on at the time. One almost got the impression that the events wouldn't actually even have been newsworthy were it not for his participation in them.

This is the essence of the so-called Gonzo Journalism - a term I think Tom Wolfe coined; alhtough I satnd to be corrected.

My favourite was always, and I suppoose will always be, Fear and Loathing in Las vegas (although I have read others). Who can restis a book that starts, "We were halway between Barstow and the desert when the drugs took hold."

So long Hunter. See you there...

Finally, here's one from ralph Steadman.

Friday, February 18, 2005

I eat sharks

Had shark fin soup again for lunch today. I know, I know. But the fuckers eat us at the slightest opportunity, don't they. Greenpeace, if you're reading this, it was like that when I got there - promise.

Anyway, I thought I'd do some research in the mysteries of this culinary delight - you never know what shit you'll dig on the web (this blog for example).

So here's a recipe taken from a website called Utopian Online: http://www.yutopian.com/cooking/soup/CSF.html for those curious souls who would like to view the pictures.


Stuff:

300g Shark’s fin (lucky number 888, heh heh)
50 g mushroom - soaked in hot water
20 g dried scallop (Ithink this is becasue shark fins are very expensive and one fills it out with otehr stuff - I've even heard of crab meat being used)
300 g chicken breast
20 diced ham
1500g chicken broth (don't know what that is in ml)

30g ginger
30g green onions (failing which, throw in your old Booker T and the MGs records)
salt
MSG [AAAAAAAAARGH!]
cooking wine (personally I recommend an expensive bottle, but that's just me)
ginger wine (mince ginger and soak in wine)
white pepper
oil

Now light a fire under it:

1. Put dried scallop, ham, one slice of ginger, one green onion in a container with 250 grams of water. Steam contents for one hour. Drain fluid in a bowl.

2. Cook shark’s fin in water until soft and drain. Cook shark’s fin in 1000 grams of broth and ginger wine. Drain broth.

3. Cut chicken breast into pieces and broil in boiling water. Drain water and wash chicken breast under cold water.

4. Heat up wok and add about three tablespoonful of oil. Add chicken breast, ginger, green onion, ginger wine and stir-fry. Add broth from 2) and cook until chicken breast is done. Drain.

5. Arrange chicken, ham, scallop, mushroom and shark’s fin in a container. Add fluid from 1), cooking wine, ginger, green onion, and pepper powder. Cover container with a lid and steam for 2 hours and serve.

Thursday, February 17, 2005

McStuff McLinks

For more on the McLibel case follow these links (I don't know how long they will be valid, but they are part of BBC's news archive, so, maybe forever):

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/4266209.stm
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/4266741.stm
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/film/4269913.stm

Wednesday, February 16, 2005

McStuff

I seem to have a lot on my mind today; thereare a few things that I feel need mentioning:

The first thing is the McLibal suit which has been languishing in English and Eurpoean courts for the past 10 years. I remember Mikki once saying to me that she thought McDonalds food should come with a health warniung. I wasn't so sure then, and I'm not so sure now. However, the anti-McD s sentiment does seem to have some merit. Just take at a gander at the doccie entitled "Supesize me," in which a brave (stupid) guy eats only McFood for a month. Apperantly his liver and other organs began to shut down, his skin broke out and his doctor told him he only had 17 lunchtimes left to live.

(more on this when I can find the detail)

Second, the syrian occupation of Lebanon feels to me much like the South African Government's occupation of places like SWA (Namibia) and Angola back in the day. It had and has nothing to do with the internal stability of the occupied country. The real point is that all evil governments need a springboard from which to launch their nafarious deeds. And so much the betetr if it is outsie the normal politico-geographical area of the occupier.



We all had them...

Sentosa Island

Sentosa is an Island the size of a small car, about 3 minutes south of Singapore. It is essentially a tourist resort with white beaches (imported from Thailand), Corona (imported from Mexico) and plam trees (imported from fuck knows where).

Check it out :: Sentosa
[Achtung! image is 83k]

Interestingly, I didn't see any monkey harrassing the touristicos. Must be because the Singapore government has shot them all and sold them to restrateurs in Chinatown. Or possibly because they have not issued the monkeys with the papers needed to appear in public.

$$$$ingapore Slingshot



Let it be said that I liked Singapore. Perhaps it has something to do with my own control-freak nature, but I see something beautiful in a police state where even the plants are fined if they grow outside the lines.

It is as clean as you hear about in the stories. But everything works. The subway, for example comes and goes as smoothely a very smooth coming and going thing. And the poeple seem to be far more orderly than in Malayasia (if less friendly). There are rules for the escalators, for exmaple (like in London); standing on the left, walking on the right. The lines on the road are things that serve agreater purpose than simply looking pretty and making groovy patterns as you weave in and out of them (like in Malaysia).

The only thing that I didn't like was the expense. It is roughly 4 times as expensive as KL - doing the math as follows: Sing dollar = 2 Ringgit. Then on top of that stuff is roughly twice the price in nominal terms.

Also, there is a sort of subversive "friendly" propoganda engine being held at full throttle by the SingGov. For example, everytime there are road works, the thank you for playing nice message is accompanied by a smiley face. That's just weird, man.

Anyway, here are a few of the things that you would expect to see on a tube train.



Lastly, I have found that this blog interface doesn't like tables much. So I have had to create one image for the above picture instead of putting them separately into three table cells. Go figure.