Martin Dupras

I saw this poster on my office building today. Really wish I could go. Likely to be an ace gig.

When I was a kid, supermarkets used paper bags. With all the fuss about plastic carrier bags now, why are supermarkets not reverting to brown paper bags? They’re tough, big and recyclable. So why not?

250 fresh spaghetti
200g kale
100g butter
4 garlic cloves
25g chopped walnut
25g chopped olives

Cook the pasta as per pack instructions.

Blanche the kale, then rinse under cold water.

Melt the butter in a large frying pan, then add the garlic cloves, walnut, and the olives and cook for 1-2 over moderate heat.

Add the blanched kale and the pasta. Heat through for 1-2 minutes,

Serve with parmesan shavings.

One month in and I still love my new iPhone 3G. The interface and the integration of services is great. For instance, if you have the address for a contact in your address book, clicking on the address opens it in google maps.

Beats my old Sony W950i by a very long shot.

iTunes, however, still sucks big time. I’m used to it by now, and I’ve managed to discover the settings that need to be changed for it to stop deleting my tracks. Apple: sort it out.

However, there are a few things I’ve discovered that make life with iTunes easier.

PhoneView allows you to see the files on the iPhone and download back the tracks that iTunes in its stupidity has deleted from the computer.

GimmeSomeTunes automatically downloads lyrics for tracks playing in iTunes.

The headphones that come with the iPhone were really bad. I mean baaaad. And because I have small ears, they didn’t fit properly and hurt my ears.

Solution:

-  the Monster Cable headphone adapter for iPhone. £15 well worth it. That takes care of the microphone portion and allows you to connect:

- a nice pair of Ultimate Ears Triple.Fi 10 Pro in-ear monitors. Very expensive, but worth every last penny. The sound quality is stunning. It’s like a pair or studio monitors in your ears. Well maybe not, but close. And they don’t fall out of my ears either, which is good.

I’ve recently started to learn to scratch. It’s a world onto itself, and the more I learn, the more fun it gets.

It is however not easy to find resources to learn from.

YouTube is a good starting point. I partularly liked DJ Shortee’s lessons, and Q-bert’s.

I found that the people at Chemical Records were particularly helpful, and the store is great, even though they don’t stock that many scratch records.