Surprise! I got the night off work, so Jeska and I are going to Fuel. Tasting menu! Woo! It will be neat for me to see how another chef chooses his progression. I've created far more tasting menus than I have ever tried. Actually, the only other tasting menu I can think of that I've been to was at Tojo's last summer. I'm pretty excited.

Oh, and since nobody else seems to have mentioned it on my flist yet:
Michael Jackson? Well, I guess I would have cared a lot more about this like 20 years ago.

Today,

I made the best gnocchi i've ever made. It was almost as good as claudio's. Gnocchi is such a touchy-feely kind of thing. I make it almost every day, and it turns out different almost every time. Today's was freaking amazing though. The dough felt like a young woman's breast. Just... awesome.

I've told work that I want to work day and night. Rather than look for a second job, I'll be working around 60ish hours per week at Al Porto, taking charge of pasta. So if you want me, come eat some pasta and visit the kitchen.

Who knows maybe I will even be able to blog about it a bit. Sometimes when I work a lot, I have trouble sleeping.

Hey, on the topic of work, a few things. I got to work with ramps for the first time ever last week. (or was it the week before?) Bourdain loves these things, but I'd never seen them available. The flavour is like a very strong garlic mixed with green onion. Very cool. I made Claudio's gorgonzola cream sauce, only I used the ramps instead of leeks.

Claudio's Gorgonzola Cream Sauce:
2 Leeks, Julienned
Gorgonzola, about 1 cup
About 2 cups cream
Olive oil, Butter, S+P

Sweat the leeks in the butter and olive oil. When they are translucent, add the gorgonzola and push it into the bottom of the pot with a wooden spoon. Season with a tiny bit of salt, and a generous pinch of black pepper. Keep working the gorgonzola, pushing and stirring until it is melted. Now add the cream. Stir occasionally on low heat until it thickens slightly. Careful not to let it boil over.

Anyway, this sauce is really good with ramps instead of leeks. Unfortunately we couldn't seem to sell any. :(

Tonight I will probably be making some kind of morel mushroom sauce. Drool...

Here's a culinary inspiration for you! Chicken skin... ON PIZZA! :EVIL LAUGH: Now that is crazy CRAZY delicious.

Musically, I am really really digging this pop stream album that stephanie sent me. Epic psytrance ftw. I don't think I've heard an album this epic since Infected's Classical Mushroom back in 2000. Very good.

I've purchased(!) CATraxx for organizing my music collection. It is super awesome. So customizable. I've pretty easily integrated harmonic mixing support, as well as adding a custom field for BPM decimal, since not every track is an integer beats per minute. Now I just need ink for the printer so I can print out my new, standardized labels for my CD wallet.

OMG, this pop stream track is SO GOOD. EPIC PSY WOO!

oh. my.. goodness...
words fail me.



http://www.flickr.com/photos/mcabain/sets/72157619866619545/

There are more... go look! oh man...

Although, i guess I've been having a lot of best weekends ever lately. This one started out with pasta domination on Friday night. Always good to leave work on a positive note, and banging out 100+ pastas in a few hours and getting lots of a compliments from the dining room is definitely what I call a positive note.

After that, I brought about 10 coworkers to Organix, where another 10-20 friends were there to meet me. It was there that I played these songs:
( Set list from Friday )

It really really was my best ever set at Organix. You can download a recording of the mix from sunkid.ca. By about the 4th track, people were pretty much just screaming for every new twist, every new sample. It was really really gratifying. Almost 100% of that music is brand new too, stuff I've never tried out on a crowd before. A few people in attendance had gotten a sneak preview if they had been at Andrew Haan's house the weekend previous, where I tried some of the tracks out at the afterparty from Stephanie's set. BTW, the recording on sunkid.ca isn't a live recording, it is a reconstruction after the fact. That's why the encore starts right away, instead of having half a minute of silence while everybody cheers before I put on the last track.

Anyway, to say it was a success would be a huge understatement.

On Saturday I got up early (11AM) and headed for Wreck beach. It always takes longer to get ready for the beach than you expect. I can't really understand why but it took from 11AM until after 3PM to hit the sand. I met up with Nick, Aurora, Jules, Saf, Via, Adam and a bunch more people there and proceeded to have (slightly) too much to drink. Jeska arrived too. Getting wrecked on wreck is great. :)

Once the sun started to dip, we headed out and rora and nick invited us over to hang out for a bit. On the way we got more wine, and then they took us to a fantastic vegetarian restaurant on Main called The Foundation (or Foundry or something).

At Aurora and Nick's we watched Carl Sagan's Cosmos. Is it too feminine to say that I swoon for Carl? So good. Jeska and I crashed for a bit there then went home for more sleep.

Yesterday was Car Free Vancouver day, and we heard that there were 40 blocks closed off from car traffic in Kitsilano. Nick and Aurora and I decided to investigate. Super-silly adventures ensued. It turns out that those 40 blocks were scattered randomly throughout kits. We ambled all around, making fun of yuppies and yelling at cars and managed to find 11 of the 40 blocks. Oh and some absolutely AMAZING Okanagan strawberries. Yes! Strawberries so good, you can be admiring the visual beauty of one and then find yourself surprised to be eating it before consciously deciding to nom.

Anyway, after 4 or 5 hours of walking around kits, we get word from Julie that she's at the commercial drive car free day, so we decide to head over there. One crowded and uncomfortable bus ride later, we arrived at the huge street party. Commercial drive day is awesome. There was a dance party playing pretty decent electro and breaks. Hanging out there, we ran into Jules and some other friends. Jeska decided to take a break from her homework and come have supper with us.

We TRIED to go to a really REALLY cool seeming restaurant that I discovered on the drive called Lime. Lime is a Japanese-Spanish fusion restaurant. DO WANT! Unfortunately they were closing up early, so we'll have to go there another time. Instead we went to the Memphis Blues BBQ house on the drive for BBQ poutine. French fries with cheese, pulled bbq pork, and bbq sauce. :drool: I'm actually salivating right now just writing about it. Oh man, it was even better than it sounds.

Anyway yeah, so that was pretty much the weekend.

How was your weekend? :)

Am I EVER excited for my set tomorrow at Organix. This will be one to remember, I predict.

Art of Noize and Psionic Riot are two CD compilations that are kicking my head in lately. If you come to Organix tomorrow night, I'll show you why. I'll show you ALL why. muahaahhahahahahaha! (evil laugh)

... is the best worst movie I think i've ever seen.
EDIT:
or is it the worst best movie i've ever seen?
...
no wait- it's just the worst movie i've ever seen. it crosses the terrible line twice. so bad it's good.... then worse to truely awful.... then even WORSE to what is truly a masterpiece in ver cinema

What do you all think of the logo I just made for irken kitties? IK is the DJ affiliation that Safiire made up for himself, and then I asked if I could join.


Also, check out my new DJ photo:


Ooh, and if you're really into cyber-stalking me (or you just want some killer tunes), you can download an edit of the set that I played on the weekend: sunkid - Sunrise at Valacirca, May 2009

In any case, you definitely should come out to Organix on the 12th! I got booked on Monday, and am filled with excitement. Hence the new demo/dj pic/irken kitties logo, etc.

What a fantastic weekend. I wish I could pepper my post with images so as to better convey the awesomeness of Valacirca. Julie and I rented a 15 passenger van to take people to the party and we got underway around 7 on Friday night. Critical Mass definitely made the process of picking people up downtown very tricky. Note to critical mass participators: You're not making many friends when you screw over rush hour traffic. Just sayin'...

It was all good once we got underway though. In the end we left with eight happy party goers. We popped in raliyn's new demo CD that he made specially for Valacirca and headed over the beautiful Lion's Gate Bridge. Fantastic soundtrack for a journey like this. He and I talked about DJing a bit. His first demo got recorded like my first few. Practicing the same mix, over and over until the best possible timing is found. I told him that he needs to check out MixMeister, which is perfect for finding those platonic ideal mixes that you want for your demo.

We stopped in Squamish to get some supplies, and met up with a couple of travellers who were very obviously on their way to Valacirca. "You guys need a ride to Valacirca?" "Really? That would be amazing!" "Hop in!"
Oh it was a good omen for the weekend, to be sure.

We finally arrived just as it got dark, which made setting up our camp a bit more difficult, but no problem. The tent that glapaloopscap and I borrowed from Lisa is SO awesome. Super cozy and nice in the night (especially with the tent lamp that she also lent us) and it converts into such an airy wonderful little comfy bug shelter during the day- almost like a veranda or gazebo or something.

Meanwhile we are right next to Julie and her camping set up is EPIC. Camping TABLE FTW. Not to mention food and stove and chairs and Space Tribe Banner:

Yes, mandelbrots in the forest. By nightfall on Saturday we had two up, because railyn has one too. I want one SO bad!

Where to begin with the party though? I mean some highlights:

Sitting on the couch(!) and watching as tattiana_mai first arrives, like a princess from a fairytale.

Visiting with my new coworker at his campsite and getting some chorizo. Every time I saw him I think he gave me another beer. Woo!

Rebecca, the EPIC hula girl. I think that it wouldn't be too much to sell tickets for $25 just to watch her play, never mind the rest of the show. Just wow. (She actually reminds me quite a bit of durdaana. Maggie, do you hula? Maybe you should!)

Musical highlights- LSG - Train of Thought 1.2, Black and White - Retro Active (thinking of you, Elfinity), a track called We Want More that Chris played, and of course my entire sunrise set.

Giving away watermelon slices and blowing people's minds. "How did you know that I NEEDED watermelon just then???" :)

Sneaking away with jeska for some hanky panky. FUN! :D

"Nice talking with you Laurent, I've got to go. There is a mango with my name on it" "Alright man, go nuts." "... :groan:" I love puns. :)

Meeting a comicbook super hero, Protoflash! (or was it metaflash?) His battles against his arch nemesis Scary Tooth Man were entertainment all weekend.

So many amazingly hot hippy chicks. :drool:

Jumping Pics! I saw so many of these before, but never knew that it is Julie's hobby. I got a great one of me. I will have to remember to post it here when I get a copy from her.

Going for Vera burgers with our new friend (and neighbor, as it turns out) Wendy as soon as we got back in town.

The real highlight of the weekend for me though was my set. I played at 5:30AM just as things were starting to get light, and the sun's rise was imminent. This timeslot is, to me, absolutely crucial to the success of a party. Actually, not really the success, but if a party is going to be memorable- if people are going to think about it 5, 10, 20 years later, then the music that is playing for sunrise has to be precisely right. And so with this onerous responsibility upon me, I procrastinated and just sort of listened to music for the last few months, and didn't really work on my set. I really am bad when it comes to that.

Finally I got around to it last week. Unfortunately, I ended up working doubles most days, and then all my free time organizing the party bus. By the time we arrived on Friday night I knew approximately a third of my set, maybe less. But I brought my laptop, and I spent about 2 hours on Saturday afternoon, hiding in the van, working on my plans. It was during that 2 hour session that my set took shape. Allow me to present to you my list from yesterday morning:
( Click for tracklisting )

To say that it was successful would be an understatement. I am THRILLED that straight-up goa trance can still rock the hell out of crowds of people. The two tracks I played from ektoplasm's Pyramidal Transcendence compilation really gave a fantastic mystical uplifting feel, and that was extremely well recieved, and I got mad props from several of the other DJs in attendence for dropping Astral Projection's classic Mahadeva. Not the 1996, nor the 98 remix, the original classic from 1994. Truly the best version of that track, IMO.

The real measure of my success though, in my book, was how many people were asking my DJ name after my set. To me, when somebody asks my DJ name, it says "You were good enough that I would come out to a show if I saw your name on a flyer." That is a huge compliment, and I usually get a few people each time I play out, and I love it. Yesterday though I had TONS of people ask me. Awesome.

OK, enough bragging. The bottom line was, I love Laurent's parties, and I can't wait for Between Worlds II. I hope even more people come out for that one. :)

My job as pasta chef just keeps making me happier and happier. I really feel like I've found the perfect fit. I actually asked to work a double-shift yesterday because they're making me so happy.

What an amazing way to spend a Saturday night. We went out to a park in Burnaby with some friends who just bought a brand new generator and some 800W monitors, and rocked the hell out!

From new sound system

I can't express how lucky I feel right about now. I'm so glad to have been included on this project. I'm so excited to have been there right at the start, at day one. I am sure that we are going to have some absolutely epic renegade outdoor parties. It really is the stuff that history is made of.

OK, i love this time too. We are living in the future, my friends. I just took a bunch of pictures of Jessica with my PHONE:

From Sakura 09

Go check out those pics! No really! How in the heck do we have this technology? Even better, right after we took these pictures, we went to London Drugs and had them printed for us. I have that picture hanging in my locker at work. It makes me happy every day. :)

---

Aside from the sakura, and future technology, there is a radio station that doesn't suck. more specifically, a commercial radio station that doesn't suck. I wrote about this earlier and they actually got back to me!

Here's their reply:

Thank you for your amazing letter.
I too had completely given up on commercial radio when I was given the enviable job of helping this Broadcast Group
with an application to the CRTC for a new radio station with a brand new format.
It's called Adult Album Alternative. The beauty of this format, is that it is designed to be elastic, and changing
and adapting to the technical changes and advances happening at the speed of sound.

So, that's the technical part. The reality is that we get to play music that we love for people who really love music.
FUN! I love radio again. Unfortunately, there are always people who want to come in and make a formula for it.
I will resist that for all of our sakes.

There is a team of people making the music decisions, because after all, the music is for everyone.

We do meet and discuss and fight about it always. But, we are all passionate about what we are doing.

Hope that answers some of your questions regarding our programming.

Thanks again for the kind words.

Tamara Stanners
Asst. program Director
100.5 The PEAK

so yeah, i'm pretty much in love with the peak. and this city. oh, and jessica too, for good measure.

TO: The Peak, CKPK-FM 100.5 in Vancouver
SUBJECT: I love your playlist!

Bob Marley, Portishead, Moby, Massive Attack- I even heard Fatboy Slim! All in amongst great contemporary rock, and rock favourites from the last three decades.

I am very very curious to know how much of your playlist is pre-scripted, focus-grouped, or otherwise the result of a business plan... and how much do the hosts actually contribute?

I'm so skeptical of commercial radio. I come from a background in community radio, for years I used to host a show on CKDU-FM in Halifax as a hobby, and I dreaded having to listen to commercial radio. Now I've relocated to Vancouver, and my workplace plays The Peak, and I'm really enjoying it.

It actually sounds like they are really playing the music that they want to hear, on their own terms. Even if I'm just fooling myself, it is amazing to hear what sounds like actual DJs playing music for commercial radio. Am I being naive?

You dropped Cat Empire - Chariot last Friday night at exactly the right time. If there wasn't a human responsible for that selection, then thank the algorythm that chose it. If, as I would rather believe, one of your hosts thought it would be a good idea to play Chariot just then, then HUGE kudos. It was the perfect song to give me just the energy that I needed at that exact moment.

I really don't understand how most commercial stations choose their music - I sort of guess that the selection comes down from on high - record labels decree that this or that artist is now to be played X number of times per hour, and according to some formula they will sell Y number of albums and recieve Z number of awards. Never mind that the music is crap.

With The Peak, I guess I feel like drinking the kool-aid again. It really seems like you guys are playing music on its own merits. And actually listening to your listeners feedback.

Somehow, because the music is interesting, the ads seem less bothersome than most commercial radio. Yes, I'd like it if they weren't QUITE so repeditive, but some stations in this city seem to play more ads than music. Having to listen to that at work has got to be some kind of violation. I like how you guys seem to have the formula figured out: Keep the ad breaks short and sweet. You'll get all the listeners. Then you can charge more for less airtime.

Anyway, I hope you continue to surprise me. I hope one night I'll be at work and I'll hear an old Metalica song on The Peak, or The Dead Kennedys.

Until then, keep rocking it out.

My requests: Radiohead - Paranoid Android, Nirvana - Breed, Metallica - Master of Puppets, One, or Unforgiven, Dead Kennedys - Holiday In Cambodia or California Uber Alles.

Oh, further request- cut down on the "Come on baby, say your first word" ad. It's pretty worn out now.

I got high from pasta tonight.

As some of you may know, I have been working at a gastropub for the past month and a half or so. I loved my coworkers, and I think that place is very excellent in its category. I had a good time while I was working there, at least in the sense of socially I felt like I fit in pretty well, and I felt like I was able to excel at my job.

It was really busy there. We would be full-throttle from 5pm until midnight every weekend, and just put out enormous amounts of food. As you may recall, the thrill of a busy service is compelling to me. When I worked at Il Giardino, it was SO hard core, and I so loved it.

But I learned at the pub that simply being busy, just serving large numbers of people isn't enough. If you are putting out 100s of orders of curry chips, bangers and mash, meat pies and fish and chips, the THRILL just isn't there.

Tonight, I got the THRILL back. OK, maybe it wasn't all THAT busy, but it was a pretty good start. Maybe 10 or 15 pastas at once. Not too bad, considering I was still consulting the menu for half of them. What goes in the Fettucine Buongustaio again? (Oh right, chicken, cream and peas)

Despite my n00biosity, I didn't slow the kitchen down. I gave myself the pressure, slapped down the pans 4 and 5 at a time, and made it all happen. After the rush, I got this incredible feeling of euphoria. Like, hells yes I can do this. Just gotta keep learning the new kitchen, the new set of moves. But the basic moves (ie: How To Cook on Line), carry over. I can, and will do this.

Such happiness and joy.

So far, it seems to be a success. I didn't change jobs to find something easier. I changed for something harder... and so much more satisfying.

What a killer weekend. I want to tell the story about so many friends at Organix on Friday, then on Sunday at Science World and then here. But I need to sleep because my new job starts in the morning.

That's right, I am now the proud owner of sunkid.ca!

Now the question is, how do I make it super awesome?

PS: Here is the set list:
(at 00:00) 01 - Vibe Tribe - Lphobia (Cosmic Tone Rmx) (8:23)
(at 08:23) 02 - Tryambaka - Catastrofe (5:05)
(at 13:28) 03 - Transwave - Cycles of Life (GMS 2003 rmx) (6:24)
(at 19:52) 04 - Shagma - Geoglyphe (3:31)
(at 23:23) 05 - Digital Talk - Acid Test(5:50)
(at 29:13) 06 - 220V - Triple-X(6:22)
(at 35:35) 07 - Protoculture - Driven (Atomic Pulse Rmx) (4:24)
(at 35:59) 08 - Psywalker - Inverted Vertigo (6:47)
(at 46:46) 09 - Electrypnose - Make or Quake (4:11)
(at 50:57) 10 - Exaile - One of the Tribe (6:46)
(at 57:43) 11 - Beyond - Cave Rave (5:43)
(at 63:26) 12 - Sick Addiction - Today's Madness (4:16)
(at 67:43) 13 - Kernel Panic - Mental Core Waves (6:29)
(at 74:11) 14 - Audiosex - A Reiki Mester Megbetegedett, S Meghalt (5:05)

OK, who has computer hacking skills?

I thought up a new class of anagram! Maybe it should be called a QWERTYgram?

OK, so the basic idea is what if, typing a word, you shifted one or both of your hands to the left or right by one key, became another word? It is really hard to find examples, but I bet one could write a computer program to search for them.

I looked for 10 minutes and all I could find were:

IT is a qwertygram of OR (left hand moves right one key, right hand moves left one key)
BORED is a qwertygram of VIEWS (both hands move left one key)
IN is a qwertygram of OM (right hand moves left one key)
SIN DIN FIN and I guess even GIN are all qwertygrams, if you only the right hand.
BASE is a qwertygram of VASE (right hand moves left one key)

I wonder how many more there are?

Presented without comment. End to end, 4:49:21 almost 5 hours, mixed together into 3:21:27 almost 3 and a half:

1. Joti Sidhu - Distorted Reality (Live Mix) (6:16)
2. Transwave - Cycles of Life (GMS 2003 rmx) (8:07)
3. Shagma - Geoglyphe (7:27)
4. 220 V - Damage Procedure (8:47)
5. Psyfactor - Bad Mojo (7:41)
6. Mexican Trance Mafia Vs Audiophatik - Sell Your Soul (8:38)
7. Xerox & Illumination vs. Chakra - 7 Days (Tokyo Live Mix) (6:36)
8. Olli Chang - techno chicken (zen zero remix) (2:55)
9. 220V - Triple-X (7:47)
10. Exaile - One of the Tribe (8:20)
11. Digital Talk - Acid Test (8:12)
12. Protoculture - Driven(Atomic Pulse Rmx) (9:26)
13. Bliss - Who Let The Pigs In (8:10)
14. Psywalker - Inverted Vertigo (8:00)
15. Limp Bizkit - Break Stuff (Ultratec Remix) (6:55)
16. Chakra & Edi Mis - The X-File (Species Rmx) (6:37)
17. Killer Buds - Superman (7:46)
18. Audiosex - A Reiki Mester Megbetegedett, S Meghalt (5:29)
19. Kernel Panic - Mental Core Waves (8:03)
20. Artifakt - Ntagathi (5:52)
21. Slug - How High (7:39)
22. Zorba Vs Father And Son - Karma Police (7:39)
23. Eskimo - Residents (8:49)
24. Bizzare Contact Vs Electro Sun - Ive Got The Power (Cosmic Tone Remix)(7:44)
25. Team 18 - Illusion of Control (9:00)
26. Baphomet Engine Vs Electrypnose - Cocacoize (7:06)
27. Push Me Up - Time Lock vs. Quantum (7:02)
28. Gataka - The Mind Twister (Safi Connection remix) (6:15)
29. Shift - Absolution (Rmx) (8:19)
30. Marylin Manson - Tainted Love (40% Remix) (8:02)
31. Rumble Pack - The Silph (7:20)
32. Slug - Bad Boy (7:11)
33. Beyond - Cave Rave (7:49)
34. Sick Addiction - Todays Madness (10:33)
35. Slug - On the Run (7:27)
36. Visitors - Tiny Little Engines (8:28)
37. Zybex - Purple Waves (8:48)
38. Ital - Free Like The Earth (7:07)

It was fun, and i'm really impressed at how well mixmeister 6 did. Now if it were easier to Scrobble those, that'd be awesome.

oh great, now my headphones break. At least they're coming to fix the window tomorrow... finally.

In other news we're using some of the insurance money to pay rent. :( This makes me really sad. We were HOPING to get a digital camera. I even found an identical one to the one we lost in a pawn shop for a really good deal. (No it's not ours, it has the original box)