Geekery

This year's theme for Christmas is Geekery.  We have had a year of lots of geeky things with me becoming oh so techie with my studying as well as some fabulous shows.

Tonight is a wonderful celebration of the food and music of the world of geek.  I couldn't choose a sensible three courses, there's so much inspiration out there and mad thoughts of my own.  So there's sort of endless courses.  It's also our fake Christmas Eve tonight (we are away for real Christmas) so eating and drinking and relaxing will be very high up the agenda for days.  Yippee!

That's our Christmas tree in the picture.  It's very geeky.  It has a tardis plushie, some iPhone ornaments (you can see the Facebook one, there's also Pinterest, Twitter, Google+ and a cute Instagram one).  A family of robots. A teenage mutant ninga turtle (crocheted) and some Mario mushrooms.  A felt stuffed pacman chases some ghosts around the bottom of the tree; the minx.  A lego bauble.  A pantone bauble.  And some comic characters (Wolverine pictured) including the Green Arrow who I keep calling the Green Lantern as they're the 'same thing' because it's very funny to annoy my hubbie.

My favourite is the most obscure: a mini version of Jayne's hat from Firefly.

Fairy stories

The theme tonight is fairytales.  We shall search the bands out there who have been influenced by that childhood bedtime ritual of a story before going to sleep.

One thing that is clear about fairy stories is that there are some that are really quite twisted.  This is a good read from the Guardian.

Recently both Grimm and Once Upon a Time have surfaced in TV land.  The latter being our favourite, and because of who's making it, there's Lost and Buffy alumni throughout, which makes it more fun.

The Hand-Me-Downs (fictional band)

I am doing a Design module at the moment as part of my degree.  My assignment I sent in today was to design a t-shirt, a really interesting and involved process.  My final design ended up being a t-shirt for a fictional pop punk girl band called The Hand-Me-Downs!  I spent a bit too much time deciding the names of the band members and what they might play, so tonight I have put together a playlist of what they might rock out to at their gigs.

He is gonna love this theme, he loves these types of bands.  I am cooking as well (I know!) as he is getting drunken at a racing day up at Newbury Racecourse.

What the heck do a bunch of girls in a band eat??  This will be challenging.

Four Seasons

As we hit the cold of the Winter season this week (Winter began on the 21st November, I believe), time to reflect back on the seasons of the year through the medium of food.  He gets Spring and Autumn and I am Summer and Winter, so let's see if the meals we choose reflect the season well.

The music will, naturally, include Vivaldi's Four Seasons and anything else that crops up.  I wonder if the music will reflect how the season feels?

This is a really quite cheery theme I think.

Music Game

My friend Piia introduced me some time ago to the Music Game concept.  A group of people bring n songs each to a gathering - the songs should be something new, interesting and unlikely to have been listened to before by the others.  Each one is played in full, and the others write down what they think, who the artist might be and a score out of ten, then discuss, then onto the next person.  Yes, a way to make listening to music feel like work :-)

The reason why this is great fun, is because you're doing a blind tasting, um listening, so if you think you love or hate such and such a band you would have a prejudice before the song starts.  This gives it a frisson of unknown and you're more likely to follow up the artist and see what else you might like by them.

An extra rule is that we try to add things in that are a bit out there, or that we're not even sure we like ourselves.  And we definitely don't pander to the other person even though it might be their fave song ever.

So we'll do the same with the food - things we haven't made before (two courses each) eaten in absolute silence as per the rules so as not to give away enjoyment levels. Well, heh, not really.  But we get to grade everything tonight, so red pens at the ready.

Iceland Airwaves 2012 (in absentia)

We didn't go to our fave music festival this year.  Partly because we had blown a million dollars on Texas earlier in the year, partly because last year it hadn't hit the same spots it had before and partly (mainly) cos I am poor as a poor, poor income less gal.

So tonight, we will visit Icelandic festival virtually.  The  Reykjavik Grapevine (an awesome english language fun free newspaper that's a must have if you're visiting) has this songlist from the festival.

For food, he's cooking up a couple classic Icelandic foodstuffs.  So if he is doing food and the music is done, what am I doing again?  Just sitting here drinking Reyka vodka huh?  Hard life.

Lady Luck

Tonight the subject matter is good fortune.  I left my laptop on the tube this week – I was super over tired after Secret Cinema and had been a dozy bint all day.  The horrifying realization and the angst… it’s like my laptop is an integral part of my life, and of course it is.  And certainly more so since I turned Apple.

After a frenzied couple of days, a guy called Sam called me, he had found it and tracked me down, and I picked it up tonight in Brixton.  LOVE HIM.

I had been thinking humanity was evil and horrible and imagining some moral-less douche backward cap wearing wannabe criminal wiping my mac and selling it on.  But, the reality was a guy who also had a mac and knew what it would feel like if he were in the same situation.  I tried to give the guy money, whiskey, but he was just doing it all out of the kindness of his heart.  I gave him a hug though – a connection from one human to another for doing a kindness.  Plus he was cute ;-)  Haha, sorry hubbie xxx

So the theme this evening is good fortune.

London Underground

I like order and I love colour, especially if it's bringing the order, by categorising. So things I love: the London Underground, Monopoly, playing cards, chess, traffic lights...

I went to the London Transport museum recently as there is an exhibit Mind the Map spending some time looking at the tube map, which is a beautifully designed item.

I could take the theme this evening all sorts of ways (and maybe I will revisit with a spin for an encore if popular) but have decided to take each tube line and do a tasting menu style of many small dishes representing them.  Yes, there are twelve lines (although I forgot one in the end, whatevs it was blue).  I also was so faffy I tried to make each dish look like the Underground roundel symbol.

On the music front, he is going to find out how many musicians are influenced travelling around London enough to write songs about it.  Hmmm....

Teeday

An evening dedicated to moi?  I couldn't possibly!  Lovely hubbie is cooking my fave things and I am playing my autobiography via the medium of music.  This will literally only be interesting to me, and even I am a tad embarrassed with the attention.  I am shy rilly, you know that, right?

Today I had a photography lesson and walk down to the Thames in Pangbourne to try out the theory.  Was great fun.  I like this pic; shows the beautiful Autumn colours.

Lovely hubbie bought me this camera two birthdays ago and it's been a mystery to me since then.  However, now I know about macro lenses, apertures and the law of thirds and I have been having great fun playing.

Random

Tonight has the theme of random.

He decided to just be influenced by whatever recipes call to him.  He googled "amazing things to cook" or somesuch, and trawled until he was inspired.

I am being very organised in my randomness.  I have a D20 (20 sided dice to you normal people) and I am going to count to that number I roll on the recipe text, look that word up on Spotify, and then choose that number song in the list.  Yes, random.  Yes, organised randomness.

This week has felt random.  It started of a bit strangely, but by today it's been quite nice.  Some week's evolve and wind all around.

Remakes

Tonight we're going to go for a theme of making over an original and (hopefully) making it better.

On the music front this means covers of originals which have maybe improved on the original artists' and on food, for some insane reason, we are making over the fish finger sandwich.  Which I don't think I have ever actually had.

For comparison, on music we will have the original tune and then the remake, and for our grub, the original Bird's Eye fish fingers with common or garden white bread and then the fancy do over.

Huzzah!

Fabulous!

My friend Neil died month and the funeral and wake was today.  I definitely don't want today's FridayDateNight to be a downer though, he was very fabulous and wonderfully gay.  So a lovely gay theme tonight!

I was out all day drinking Pinot with people who used to work with Neil on a contract and talking about the wonderful things he used to get up to.  Trish read out the fantastic text messages he would send; his mock horror at Primark, disaster of needing to go on the Northern line and, his classic - always turn left when boarding an aeroplane.

People were asked not to wear black and to wear yellow or something cheerful, as that was who he was.  Really incredible celebration and an amazing turn out.

Tonight, Neil, we have some food and music for you.

FONTastic Dinner Party

Sometimes we allow gatecrashers for our FridayDateNight - and tonight we have five!

Fonts are awesome - people who don't get fonts don't realise how much is altered by an inappropriate font (think CERN and their announcement in comic sans).  It's the voice of text.  I find typography a fascinating subject and yes, yes, I may be one of a select few who own font top trumps, a font game for the iPhone and the Helvetica film.

Combining fonts with food and music was challenging, but eventually really fun once I got my pun on.  I may have gone overboard because this is such an interesting subject for me, but I do have some guests to persuade so it's all for the greater good.

Inspector Spacetime

For those of you who haven't watched Community, you should, it's awesome.  As part of its many pop culture references it has a show within the show called Inspector Spacetime - a wonderful spoof of Doctor Who.

Tonight we are going to take a trip with the Inspector, and the question isn't where... it's when.

Food and music will be from across time and space.  Space may be a bit limited to the planet I am most familiar with though, but that's what the good Doctor went for too.

Once again she is cooking and I'm doing the music and filling in some blanks in the blog.

The Beautiful Game

I have just finished a short project at the Football League.  I, who have less than no interest in football have been chatting to many of the 86 clubs, helping them put together their new websites.  Websites, fun.  Football, a strange thing people get passionate about that I just don't get.

But I went in open minded and ended up enjoying the banter with the different clubs and their sport.  I know what a Gaffer is, two teams who are nicknamed "the Cherries" and I know the name of the Dagenham & Redbridge mascot.  This is all useful information.

I am even kinda proud of my pic with the cup, even though it's importance is a little beyond me.  I do, however, realise it's the most priceless thing I have been anywhere near (and touched, though I did get told off for that).

And I really do want to go and see a game, I guess I am supporting Reading for the usefulness of locality.  Plus their colours of blue and white suit me if I were to dress for the occasion, which I am sure I would ;-)

I am doing the food today as I have the whole day to myself and have been gagging to get my cooking vibe on.  I have even been slightly ambitious as I have a bunch of time to get it all together.  Let's just see how that pans out, haha.  It's not like I get totally stressed in the kitchen with new recipes.  And it's like one of them needs me to open a bottle of wine...

So with me cooking, that means he has to do the music, which is amusing as he likes football even less than me.

Olympic Flame

Tonight is the opening ceremony for the London 2012 Olympics.  To say the Olympics have been everywhere, even if you don't have TV or interest in sport, is an understatement.  It's been exhausting.  Boris Johnson has been spouting from tube station tannoys, the newspapers bang on about it and everyone on Facebook is chatting about it, positively and negatively.  And now it's here.

Not sure what to expect for the opening ceremony, so a bit excited.

On the food front, he has run with "olympic flame" and gone with the theme of fiery foodstuffs.  Eeek!

The Chap

Are you a chap?  Or are you a lady with a parasol who swoons?  This week we will take a journey back to a better time.  An English time of chaps.

We attended the Chap Olympiad recently.  After a weekend of staying at the East India Club (ra!) and spending many hours pottering around Fortnums (double ra!), we went to the Sunday of this marvellous event.  In a private square (natch), we sampled Pimms and G&Ts (with a bite) whilst watching ridiculous games.

Tonight we will be harking back to that fun day, bringing some tunes together and nibbling on appropriate bits and pieces.  Pip pip.

We are shortly hoping to join the New Sheridan Club so that we can hang out with these awesome people born in the wrong decade.  It's also become very, very clear I need a wardrobe of beautiful 40s dresses.

Friday the 13th

Since it's Friday the Thirteenth, we thought we would look at superstitions.

Not sure it's been a day fraught with disasters particularly.  I could say the painfully slow servers on a rollout were causing headaches, but that's what they could do on any ol' day of the week - it's their raison d'etre.  Ah technology, how we shake our heads gently and roll our eyes.

Not sure what he will be cooking up on the food side, I can only think of a rabbit foot pie, which isn't totally appealing.  But then. how well will I do on the music side?  What genre will dominate the world of superstition?

Picnic

The weather has been so lovely recently a picnic seemed the ideal way to spend hubbie's birthday FridayDateNight.

Of COURSE this would mean it would be raining on the day.  But, as if a little something like that would deter us.  Picnic blanket on the kitchen floor was perfect.  As I'm not working at the mo, it was awesome to not have to cook at the same time as lounging on the floor, once you're lounging on a picnic blanket there should be nothing that makes you move.  Except bees I suppose.

Vodafone

Awww I liked working for Vodafone, it was a fun time.  This week's FridayDateNight will be an homage to this telecomms giant.  You may think this isn't a romantic night in for a couple... but you'd be wrong.

Okay, you'd be right, but who says it's wrong to use a goodbye gesture to a contract as a basis for an evening of food and music.

Okay, everyone.

Shush now.

Carnival!

Tonight we will embrace the fun and crazy of carnival.  We wanted something pizazzy and fabulous.

I had imagined a circus style evening, but he has researched a whole Venetian Carnival.

Olympic Games

We decided to celebrate the upcoming Olympics Games with our evening of food and tunes.  We are thinking we should get a bit into it - once in a lifetime etc etc.  So, let's embrace!

What food can he come up with?  What music goes?!  How good to challenge ourselves in such a way.

In this evening we answer the question: how many of the games have a ball.  It's been something I know you have wanted to know forever.

Zombies! Run!

A marvellous phone app has come out where you can complement your runs with a zombie apocalypse. 

Along with an immersive story narrated between your songs (and it is immersive, I did look right to see the abandoned hospital I was being told was there), in Zombies! Run! you pick up items as you run (to build up your camp and open more missions) and you are occasionally chased by zombies.  Yes, I have to actually speed up for a minute to outrun the buggers (it's tracked by GPS so it knows if you're dawdling!).

Tonight is an hommage to zombies.  God rest their long gone souls.

Leap Day William

Today we are celebrating Leap Day.  Yes, you know how we all celebrate our hearts out on this wonderful day that comes only every four years?  Oh, yeah, we don't.

This week, 30 Rock had an episode dedicated to this idea; creating their own idea of what celebrating Leap Day could be.  It involved Leap Day William (a Santa Claus type tradition) and everyone of blue and yellow.  What a great idea to wear these two colours together that would look hideous!  I was gutted I was ill on Leap Day as I woulda totally worn blue and yellow and gone with the ridiculous.

The theme tonight is around this subject matter.

Food vs Music

We have been FridayDateNight-ing for a few years now (wow!) and it's always been about our twin loves of music and food (and booze, woop!).  So tonight we shall have our food pay homage to music and our music pay homage to food.

I know, we're wacky, right?!

What I'm thinking is eating some Black Eyed Peas and listening to Fish.  It's pretty sophisticated.

I have also introduced a Challenge.  If he didn't already find it complex enough to find food that fitted my ridiculous themes, I am going to give him a food item that he can try to get in to the evening's meal.  In however a tenuous way.  Maybe the more tenuous the better.  In the spirit of fairness, I will have him choose a band/artist and I will endeavour to find a song of theirs that fits the theme.

Computer club

As I begin on my journey to being a proper geek - I started My Digital Life for my Computer degree with the OU this month - I have started to spout all sorts of actual techie facts.  Ones that maybe I should have known already.  Like what voltage is, or talking about valves in Colossus.  I still don't actually really know anything at all, but hey, I am on my way.  Let's forget the first assignment is already due next week!

Tonight we're at computer club; embracing the technical and geek aspirations of our household.

Traffic light fantastic

Where on earth does the inspiration for these evenings come from?  Sometimes I just have no idea.  Maybe all day looking at RAG statii (red, amber or green status of an item on a project I'm on) has permeated my brain and I dream of these colours every night without realising.

I like the simplisitic nature of this theme.  He is going for a red starter, amber main and green dessert.  I am going to use the colours as keyword searches as well as some songs that came to me immediately.

It's a primary colour fantasia of an evening.  Join usssssssss.

Steampunk'd

This evening we will be entertaining the genre of Steampunk.  Since my colleagues sneered at my 'everyone knows what that is' I shall elaborate: it's an alternative future based on technology from the Victorian era.  It's sci fi, a bit like Philip Pullman's worlds.  Airships - yes.  Cogs, goggles, clockwork, steam operated equipment - yes.  Where might we may have gone directionwise?

We are spending the weekend with friends where the theme will continue, onto Saturday night where we are going to the Retrofuturist Ball.  Professor Elemental is playing.  We like him.

G'day mate

This week was Australia Day.  Since we were hungover-ed out from Burn's Night, and the juxtaposition of two quite different nations two days in a row was too much (even for us), today our FridayDateNight is for our friend's down under.

Always odd on Facebook when my Australian mates post how warm it is and how they're eating dinner at breakfast time.  They're so crazy.

I would like to visit sometime, but it's so far and you'd have to go for a couple of weeks to make the most of the getting used to time zone thang.  It's on the list though.

In the Summertime

Bored of this endless dark and gloom and wind and rain.  If it was snowing it would at least be a bit more interesting.  Tonight, we're going to zip quickly into the future and imagine it's glorious sun and light and those cotton wool type clouds.

On the food front we'll be inspired by tropical places and holiday destinations and a season of sunkissed produce.  On the music front it'll be cheery, summery songs that make you feel like the sun is beating down on you.