Today's Battle: Simon and Garfunkel vs. The Cyrkle

"Our manager got us a great deal on jawlines!"

VS.

"Don't we look pensive and brooding..."

OK...maybe not so much a battle as a pummeling.

Cool vintage video: how to use a rotary phone

Even today, I can still remember where the telephone was in the house I grew up in:  on the wall, in the kitchen, right next to the hallway that led to the dining room.  It was a Trimline...big, pink, weighed a ton.

I also remember when we replaced it with a push-button model.  Oddly enough, the best thing about the push-button model (white, no pink this time) was that I was able to dial radio stations faster to try to win contests.  (Don't laugh...I won a couple of Rush albums from "The Loop" that way!)

In a way, the push-button model was the poor man's speed dial!

But for those who REALLY remember old phones, here's a cool video snippet for you to watch.  It comes from a time when phones were being converted from "pick up the phone and talk to the operator" to "pick up the phone and dial".  Yes, phones didn't always have dials on them.

Retro Auto Museum: Russian Style

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From the man who brought you the video on the Russian Museum Of Video Games comes this rather interesting viddy.

This is a tour of the Retro Auto Museum in Russia. Some of the cars are really interesting...they weren't all rip-offs of American or UK cars.Some were pretty unique and highly original.

If you have a few moments, take a look. If you have any interest in vintage autos, you'll like this viddy:



The coolest parts:  the limos.  And...making your own car.  Yeah.  Make your own car.

Of course, the baking pan steering wheel is pretty cool, too.

My new Bodum French Press coffee maker

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I'm not a French Press neophyte.

I owned a French Press many, many years ago. But I then purchased a nice (and rather expensive) Cuisinart coffee maker. I figured "Heck, it's a good name, it works great. I'll love it much more than my dinky French Press."

Wrong. Wrong, wrong, wrong.

I used that coffee maker for about 6 months then gave up on it. It worked fine, but the coffee never tasted the same.

So last week, I converted back. I got a new French Press.

I just made my first cup about 10 minutes ago.  It's about 90% gone and I'm ready to make my second.

From the moment before I even took my first sip and just got a whiff of that cup of coffee, I thought: "God, this is how coffee should be."

So you can keep your expensive coffee brewers with their fancy timers and gold filters and promises of brewing a pot in 3 minutes (YIKES!).  I've got my press back, and I love it.

The one I got, though, is considerably smaller than my first (a sensible purchase, since I am really the only coffee drinker in the house) and at 12 ounces it's perfect for a decent-sized cup of coffee.  But I had no idea how much grounds to use.

So I, of course, went to that bottomless source of all information, help and guidance:  YouTube.

Not the Food Network, not Cooking.com, not even the venerable wikipedia.  Yeah, YouTube.

Just search "french press coffee" and you will be amazed...no, astounded...no...positively shocked and awed by how many people did videos on using the simple French Press.

But...that's the trick.  It's not really that simple.  The mechanism itself is a model of simplicity.  Everything else, though, has its requirements and guidelines:

• The water temp should be between 195 and 200 degrees.  Water boils that 212, so a rolling boil is way too hot.  A serious simmer, probably not hot enough.
• You want to use 1/4 cup of coffee for about every 10 ounces of water.
• The coffee must be allowed to brew for 2-4 minutes.  Any less, you get coffee-flavored water; any more and you might as well chew on the wet grounds.
• Once brewed, your cup of coffee is good for about 20 minutes.
• The coffee must be "coarse ground", otherwise they'll clog the plunger's filter.  If you go to a coffee house, don't ask for "coarse ground", tell them it's for a French Press and they'll understand. Pre-ground coffee is asking for trouble and disappointment.

The best viddy I found for using the French Press was from Alton Brown:



The best part is that he cut through the conversion stuff (I don't do "grams"..."3 ounces", "1/4 cup", "3 pinches"...that I can understand).  He also explained how not to push the plunger down...very important.

So, what coffee did I use on my latest French Press maiden voyage?

Yum...just yum...

I was so excited about getting this thing, the first (and only) coffee I could think of was Mocha Java, and I remembered that Caribou had a pretty nice one.  So I got a pound, and it was...well...blissful.  Tasty, nice chocolately undertones, full-bodied, rich, high-octane flavor.


OK, enough typing.  Time to make another cup.

Anti Dennis Kucinich Yard Sign

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While on my semi-regular bike ride this morning, I came across this rather interesting sign on someone's front lawn.

It doesn't take a poli-sci major to figure out the person who put up this sign is not a big Kucinich fan.  But for those who don't know much about Dennis Kucinich, you can read up on him here and I'll let you decide how accurate this sign is.

Now, I'm going on record as stating that I am ecstatic that this sign is up...primarily because of what it represents:  free speech.  And if you can't espouse your political views on your front lawn, then this country is getting into serious trouble.


But anyway....here's a viddy of the sign (narrated by yours truly):

Today's battle: Julie Andrews vs. John Coltrane

vs.      

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Huh?

OK, the title actually does make sense.

But this isn't some weird Celebrity Death Match, although I think I can assume from the look on Julie's face that she's thinking she's gonna get a serious whooping.

But...it's more a musical contest.


Julie Andrews (as I pray you all already know) was in "The Sound Of Music" and sang "My Favorite Things".

But...I'm guessing there are a few people who don't know that John Coltrane covered the song, too!

If you don't know who Coltrane is...I'm sorry...but...but...I can't even begin to cover the man's music. If the names Miles or Monk don't mean much to you, start here for a quick lesson.

I'm really posting these to see the incredible contrast these two versions have with each other.  Having said that, I can listen to either one all day.

Which do you prefer?  I hope you at least like one of them!







And after listening to the Coltrane cover, all I can think of is how absolutely horrible, un-listenable and formulaic most of today's popular music is (unless you want part of your brain to die, DON'T click on the last link).

Life before cable? Was there such a thing?

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Long before cable, and I mean LONG before cable, there was something called...."ON TV".

I grew up in Chicago and when a company called "ON TV" showed up, man, it was big news.

Imagine:  new movies, specials, concerts and more brought directly to your TV with nothing but a piece of coax and a box on your TV set.

So it was cable...but not cable.  You could either watch ON TV or your regular stations (you just had to flip a switch and change the station on your TV).  And as far as I remember, you got ONE station on ON TV.  So imagine buying cable today and all you had were your local stations and TBS...not so funny, is it?

But it was cable, since it pioneered coax in your home, and of course the big bucks it cost to get it installed plus the monthly fee.

I also remember the absolute nightmare if you also wanted to hook up a video game console to your TV.  You'd get a migraine trying to keep track of all the jacks and wiring just so you could play Asteroids on your Zenith.

I remember it impressing just about everyone in my family, and it was impressive.  We got to see all sorts of movies and special events that "the common folk" didn't get to see.

Here's a video of an ON TV commercial to see a Rolling Stones pre-taped concert (OK, on this point, I guess ON TV is like cable nowadays, commercials and all):



...and another for the "adults only" stuff....



The weird part about this is that the "Adults only" stuff they show has an "R" rating, but it seems a bit more X-like (at least the last few frames are...WOWSERS!!!) than I would have thought.

I don't remember how much it cost, but I am pretty sure it was maybe $20 a month, which in today's dollars would be about $51.  And, remember, that was for ONE station.  Today, you spend a bit more than that for hundreds of channels, high-speed internet and maybe even web-based phone service.

The sad part is, there's still nothing on TV to watch.

OLD old school video games: Russian style

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Yet another odd thing I stumbled upon recently.

This is a tour of a museum of video games in Russia.  Seems they too had an audience that was hankering to drop a few quarters to play the latest video games.

Some of the games may seem familiar...check out this video.  The games are just plain cool, no matter what language you speak:





Funny...even the Russian versions of these games bring back memories.

William Shatner for Commodore Computer

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Ages before the laptop, desktop or smartphone you're using even existed...there was Commodore.

Check out this ancient (by computer standards, anyway) commercial featuring William Shatner (post-Klingon pre-Priceline era) hawking the Commodore VIC-20:



Oh, and if you miss your old Amiga or C64, don't worry...Commodore's coming back!!