Something interesting for the summer

Here's an interesting tour that is about to start all across the USA.  If you want to learn about the best way to tell a story visually, perhaps you may like to book in for this:

visualstorytellingtour.com

Alex Buono, cinematographer for SNL, will be featured explaining this concept and teaching the skills needed to make your film or production narrative and beautiful.

Check out the site!

3D TV at home?

We bought a 3D TV a couple of years back - you know how it is, Black Friday sales, great price and a desire to (for once in our lives) buy technology when it was still sparkling.  So travel through the time machine till the present day.  At last, this weekend, we co-ordinated the glasses with the home theatre setup, gathered the cushions, got out the instruction books with that 'old person's feeling of dread' and then realised that all we needed to do was put the DVD in the machine.  It worked!  We watched 'Avatar' and found the whole experience pretty amazing. After all, we both worked in TV when
B & W were all that were offered and thought that was quite grand for the time.  Watched colour come in and were even more impressed, then widescreen, HD and now 3D.  Oh, if only the programmes were better! Sadly, as the quality of the technology has skyrocketed, the programme quality sank below sea-level.  Mind you, 'Mad Men' and 'Breaking Bad' are exceptional.

Instead of staying home last Saturday evening, we went to see the Alvin Ailey Dance Theatre, preceded by the pre-concert talk.  The entire experience (at the fabulous Dorothy Chandler Pavilion which is now bounded by the stunning Grand Avenue Park) was exhilarating.  We had great seats and the dancing was phenomenal.  Brought back memories of when my godmother took me to one of their performances in 1962 and you won't believe it, the show we saw on Saturday evening featured 'Revelations' the Ailey choreographed Spirituals ballet.  Moving, wonderful dancing and music.  And the audience was also to be commended by the sheer joy they radiated throughout the night.

So now back to work perhaps!

Doug Danielson's latest book looks interesting

If you are a yachtie,you will love this series of 'Jake Mortensen' adventures.

Read about them here:
http://bethgroundwater.blogspot.com/2013/04/todays-mystery-author-guest-doug.html

Boston Explosions mourned worldwide.

The tragedy of the Boston explosions and the loss of life, injuries and ghastly feeling of insecurity that has ended what should have been a day of joy are far more frightening than any horror story or film I have recently read.  Sadly, we live in the true cliché of 'troubled times'.  It is interesting to listen to the newscasts and how quickly the reporters dip into their bag of phrases that paint the scene.  There's a sort of shorthand and I remember that my Executive Producer was a master of this.  It was simply dreadful to listen to - clunky, bad speech, descriptions as worn as a homeless person's tennis shoes.  Words used such as 'redolent' when really, it was just plain inappropriate, linguistically.  But perhaps audiences have grown to expect this 'reporter-speak'.  Lazy audiences breed lazy writing.  This is why the world has willingly allowed itself to be swamped by badly written books!

Just count the clichés over the next few days!  (Yes, there are many 'questions unanswered' and only 'time will tell' ....arghhhh!)

Music, food and writing ...

What have these three got in common?  For me, they go hand in hand.  When I write, I MUST have music playing in the background.  When I procrastinate from the writing, I cook.  So it came about that I wrote my little book about ice-cream: Fabulicious! Ice-cream sandwiches home-made.

I hope that people will put this book on their Kindles and have a go at making this pricey dessert at home instead of paying a heap for them in boutiques, trucks and restaurants.  They are easy!  My book outlines the method. You can use your own recipes, but I have included some of my favourites and also cookie recipes to get you started.

The book is at:
'Fabulicious!' http://tinyurl.com/cqlg4au

Check out my new book!

http://tinyurl.com/cqlg4au

Don't throw out those fresh radishes!

I often have a dilemma where radishes are concerned.  A bunch is way too much to eat.  So I decided to try pickling the leftovers the way they do in Paris.  Mmmmmmm.  That worked a treat.  All I did was this:
a bunch of radishes
1 cup of water (OR olive brine leftover from your olive jar)
1 tablespoon salt
1 tablespoon honey or brown sugar (I actually used coconut sugar)
1 cup mirin - rice vinegar 
a few cloves of garlic
All spice/peppercorns/ a few slices of fresh ginger or whatever you like
Sterilised jars and lids. (around 1 1/2 Ball screw top jars, small Fowlers Vacola jars or 4 of the size pictured).

No need to peel. Just slice thinly and trim off the tops and pointy bits and neatly pack into jars.
Boil the other liquid ingredients together, dissolve the sugar and salt in that mixture.  Add the rest to the mixture at the end.  Pour that over each jar of radishes, put the lid on and when it cools down, put in the fridge for 3 days. The liquid will go pink and pretty.  It tastes something like the ginger you get on sushi.  Yummm!
Eat with cheese or fish or add to your hors d'oeuvres platter.