richardirvine.com

Category: links

  • Napster ‘99 all over again

    Remember when Napster was a free for all? It was bloody magic, I was working in Dublin at the time downloading CRAPLOADS of music on a Celtic Tiger-provided high speed connection. The best bit was thinking “what about that one song I liked back in ’86?” – a quick search and there it was, you could go get those memories back.Now YouTube is doing the same with video, so get in there before killjoys with talk of ‘copyright’ and the like get it shut down. You’ll find all your own crap in no time, but here’s a selection of mine:Ricky Gervais’ band.
    The oft-mentioned, never seen Seona Dancing. Paul Merton’s Room 101 show forces Rick to sit through his bad 80s haircut nightmare, he’s not all that amused by the look.Atari Ad. (nicked from Boing Boing)
    All Ads should be like this. The usual disparity between promises made on the ad and / or box for old video games and what it actually LOOKED LIKE holds true here.

    Sigmund the Seamonster
    Here’s one of those ‘Do I really remember that, or was I that jacked up on sugar as a child I just hallucinated it?” questions answered. Yes, Sigmund exists.

    1-2-3-FOUR-FIVE-6-7-8-NINE-TEN
    The numbers / pinball song from Sesame Street – you know what I’m talking about.

    Swearing Hamster
    This is just really rude. And funny. (NSFW audio).

    Go nuts – it won’t be like this forever, there’s endless music videos on there, as well as your favorite bits from your favorite films. Just don’t expect to get much done in the near future, you’ve been warned.

  • Anthony Bourdain’s Lebanon perspective

    Shee-yit, I’ve got a blog!Anthony Bourdain is the anti-celebrity chef with a taste for Steak and The Ramones – that alone makes him my kind of guy, but he also does deadly keyboard. I pilfered copies of “Kitchen Confidential‘ and ‘A Cook’s Tour‘ last Thursday, and have read the first and am halfway through the second. The former is his trip through the many kitchens he’s worked in and celebrates the merry bunch of rogues he’s worked with in his career, showing you what happens through the kitchen doors – the pressure chefs are under and the extremes they go to when it’s time to unwind.

    It’s heady stuff, interspersed with simple hints for cooking better at home for hacks like you – and you DO feel like a hack after reading of his pursuit of not just excellence, but consistent excellence in the midst of a mad rush of customers when you’ve just sliced your hand open. Borudain’s a big believer in the team ethic, from his ‘never call in sick’ motto to loving passages on the language chefs use to rip piss out of each other. He’s so cool it hurts, and his books make you feel hungry, which is good food writing in my book.

    Bourdain went to Lebanon to cover the city’s rejuvenation, walking right in the middle of that fucked up situation – this report (shitty registration required) is light on food, but high on the frustration of the Lebanese, and his own with his President more interested in bread rolls than a Middle East solution. I think I’ve got a new hero.