Making Bacon Brownies October 12, 2008

Last week I found an article about making bacon brownies on the wonderful Bacon Today site. I Twittered about it and also sent the link round work, like every good bacon loving girl should do. The response was rather shocking as loads of people emailed back saying how nice they thought they’d be! So of course I had to try and cook them to bring into work on Monday. Nothing like starting the week by managing to give the entire office food poisoning.

You don’t have to do anything more complicated than make brownies and chuck some cooked bacon in, though I diverted a little from the recipe on Bacon Today by making the brownies from scratch rather than using a ready made batter.

The resulting brownies are actually rather good, they don’t taste much different to normal brownies, they’re just a little saltier and have strange chewy bits in them. The bacon doesn’t add much depth to the flavour and it’s certainly not a new experience for the tastebuds, but at least you don’t gag on the first mouthful.

Yum yum.

xx

La Zona – Twitter screening October 10, 2008

Apparently Twitter doesn’t just provide info on your colleagues lunch choices and live updates of which bits of the public transport system your friends are stuck on. Last night it got Chris and I to a free film screening at the swanky Hospital Club, a place with doors so heavy I pretty much fell over when I attempted to open any of them.

The film was La Zona, a Mexican thriller about a gated community who suffer the misfortune of having to deal with some ruffians from outside their posh suburbs. The ruffians get up to some pretty horrid criminal affairs and the residents of the gated community have to work out how to deal with it – should they follow their own laws or involve the help of the corrupt cops from outside the walls? Or maybe they should just carry on playing golf.

At least that’s what I think happens, I’m only about 85% sure. For the first half an hour I had no idea what was going on, though I do get confused by James Bond films so I was probably the only one who didn’t follow it. Once I’d got a basic grasp on the plot I thoroughly enjoyed it, it’s incredibly dark and if you ignore about 6 of the characters and concentrate on just a few it’s actually incredibly moving.

I don’t know if gated communities like this actually exist in Mexico, the situation was fairly extreme – with giant walls, CCTV and security guards, so I’m guessing not but the concept is fascinating. A lot of the film happens within cars as they move in and out of the zone within their own little bubbles and make decisions within the walls of the car. How fun. Though I did get freaked out by the sight of a 16 yr old boy driving a BMW 4×4.

Here’s the trailer, it’s in Spanish as I couldn’t find a subtitled one. Oops.

Doesn’t the young boy look just like Adam Green?

OK, maybe not that much. Anyway…

Video Games Live Orchestra – I’m jealous October 9, 2008

The military band play with have just started performing the music from Tetris in concerts. I totally adore playing it, even if the old ladies in the audience have no idea what significance the music has. It sticks in your head for ages too, so I spend all my hours whistling it and sounding like a lost Russian girl looking for someone to folk dance with. We wanted to record the tune at the album recording we did a few weeks ago, but alas ran out of time. Am gutted.

Anyway… i’ve just found this, the Calgary Philharmonic Orchestra doing a whole load of game songs. 8 minutes of pure joy. I’m totally jealous though, I want to be in this orchestra. I wonder whether a UK based orchestra who only play games music would be a good idea. I can’t see it making much money. Oh well.

Johnny X finale this week October 7, 2008

After three weeks of watching the amazingly hot Johnny X run about Bangkok trying to discover his identity we reach the series finale this Friday. The reaction to this campaign has been brilliant, I’m so thrilled that so many people have enjoyed it. Alas there isn’t any full frontal nudity in the series finale, but I promise you’ll love it anyway. All the previous episodes are on the YouTube channel, and here is episode 7 for your perving pleasure…

ITV Comedy Cuts October 7, 2008

Last night nearly every Dare employee went down to the Comedy Store for ITV2′s Comedy Cuts stand up evening to watch some sweaty men and to marvel at the joys of each other’s silly laughs.

The whole night was bloody brilliant, even the really sweaty man who sung David Gray songs was enjoyable.

Carl Donnelly ruled the evening. He’s a sexy thing…

The next ITV2 Comedy Cuts is 3rd November. Go along, it’ll be brilliant.

x

Britannia High October 3, 2008

I’m obsessed with ITV’s new show, Britannia High. I have been since I started working on it back at the start of the year. A musical drama with well-dressed hotties singing perfect pop songs? How could I resist?

It’s a proper digital extravaganza; the first episode premieres a week ahead online, we’ve got awesome stuff going on on Bebo, there’ll be dance classes on red button, an online radio station, behind the scenes documentaries… basically everything you could ever want.

I’ve been listening to the soundtrack non-stop and driving the office mad with it. Apparently grumpy tech coders don’t like pop songs at 9am. WTF? Anyway, here’s the first trailer in all its pop wonderfulness…

It hits our screens towards the end of October. Wooh!