It really bothers me when they take film, made for widescreen, and pan-and-scan it down to the more squarish television screen. It’s just wrong, damnit!
Much to my surprise, I learnt today that pan-and-scan is not limited to film! Paintings by great artists have also suffered the ignominy of being edited for their formats. Perhaps they didn’t fit in galleries of the day. I’m happy to bring you, gentle reader, the original unedited versions of this art. Enjoy.
My office has two Internet connections. One of them went down in the early hours of the morning. Now, here’s a quote from the fault report
Our remote hands are unable to access the room within the Telstra Windsor exchange which holds the affected equipment, as the card reader on this door is broken, and the Telstra facilities manager on site is unable to access this room.
Aside from a couple of minor interruptions from my brilliant programmers and lovely drinking partners co-managerial staff, it’s been a work-free five days. First time in quite a while. Mica had the same time off, so we basically hung out together, not doing much at all. Aside from minor car dramas (it wouldn’t start, so we had to cancel our trip down to the Mornington Peninsula for lunch at a little café thing), really shitty weather, and car dramas (after getting it fixed, it wouldn’t start again) and and and… well, okay, it wasn’t exactly a great vacation, but at least I didn’t have to go to the office.
Because there was no car around, and because there was a fantastic foodie festival on, I was able to put my feet up and get some tasty wine (and beer, see previous entry) past my taste buds. I spent $60 on one bottle of one of the best wines I’ve had in a long time, Peter Althaus’s Domaine A Cabernet Sauvignon 2000 from Tasmania’s Coal River valley. Yummy. That’s going into the cellar for a while (thanks heaps to Diz, who introduced me to that excellent drop while I was living in Hobart). I also got to taste a pint of Mountain Goat stunning (and award-winning) Surefoot Stout. I’m generally a fan of their beers (their signature Hightail Ale kicks real butt), and Surefoot Stout does not disappoint.
All that alcohol-talk was a preamble to this link to an article in Modern Drunkard Magazine – they’re talking about benders there. Funny article. This holiday wasn’t about drinking a lot – it was about drinking well, and relaxing that silly rule about not having any before noon. Because, as you know gentle reader, it’s always afternoon somewhere.
Some of the best beer in the world is made by Québec-based Unibroue. Two of my favourites are Maudite and La Fin Du Monde (French-speaking people will notice a pattern to their names…). I’ve not been able to find them here in Melbourne. Even a bar with a fantastic beer selection didn’t stock it, even though they used to. I was resigned to the fact that I wouldn’t be able to drink it here.
Until Thursday. On Thursday, we went to see a film at the Classic Theatre. Much to my shock, there were several varieties of Unibroue beer displayed behind the counter. I was stunned. To find this beer in a theatre, of all places, made it all the more surprising. I bought two bottles to go.
A happy beer drinker
A big thankyou to David Gratton for introducing me to the stuff in the first place.
I remember watching a music video a few years back that really blew me away at just how cool and inventive it was. I saw it once. Only once. I remember it pretty well, it was for Lucas with the Lid Off, by a one-hit-wonder from France called Lucas. He wasn’t bad, kind of a worldish pop rap thing. I rather liked it. Anyway. I’ve been looking for this video on and off ever since I first saw it.
