Wednesday
(2)Real ale and champagne will be in full flow next week on Wednesday 16 April when bloggers Guido Fawkes, Tim Worstall and Samizdata's Perry de Havilland give short speeches at an event on "Curbing the crap artists". Guido will be speaking - from a blogger's perspective - on "curbing the bad politicians", Tim on "curbing the crap journalists" (Polly?), and Perry on "curbing the crap businesses". Beg an invite from here.
Tuesday
My life has been fairly busy for the last couple of months, and as a consequence, I have not managed to report on this blog the results of my "Anyone in Singapore want to meet up?" request, from December. This is a shame, because thanks have been order to a Samizdata reader and commenter whose response ensured that things turned out very well. However, better late than never.
What happened was that long time Samizdata commenter The Wobbly Guy offered to take me out for crab at Mellben seafood restaurant in Ang Mo Kio, which, as he put it, "is noted for its crab". Australians such as myself are also fond of crab, but we tend to eat it more simply than the Singaporeans. Australians tend to eat crab boiled with relatively few embelishments. Singaporeans tend to eat it with more spices and chilis. However, when we talk about past visits to one another's countries, people of both nationalities will tend to say things like "Mmmmmm. Great seafood".
As it happened though, on my last day in Singapore I made something close to a terrible mistake. Wandering along Geylang road at about 2pm I discovered that I was hungry, and I therefore walked into one of many street restaurants in that area that offer an "unlimited Steamboat buffet" for about $S15. (About £5 or US$10). The restaurant was full of local people having long lunches, and in such a restaurant (in which you cook meat, seafood, vegetables, and goodness knows what else in a bowl of boiling soup in the middle of your table) it is possible to have a very long lunch.
When I walked through the door, the very kind lady running the restaurant thoughtfully enquired as to just how spicy I like my soup, got me a large bottle of Tiger beer, gave me one of those "Go for it" expressions and gestured towards the buffet. I got myself a modest selection of seafood and meats, and sat down to cook and eat it. It was good. Repeat until fade.
On about my third trip to the buffet, the kind lady saw me tentatively placing a modest portion of crab on my plate, and decided it was time to put me to rights. She gave me one of those "You poor, pathetic westerner. You truly have no idea, do you?" looks, and proceeded to pile my plate high with crab for me. Chastened by this, I took the seafood back to my table and my soup, and got myself another bottle of beer. I was slowly getting there, but the guys at the next table clearly were not having any such problems.
Thus, after intending to have a quick lunch, I stumbled back out onto the street two and a half hours later after engorging vast amounts of food.
So thus, when The Wobbly Guy very kindly picked me up from my hotel after I had rushed off to the centre of town topick up the custom suits I had ordered a couple of days earlier, I was perhaps not ideally prepared. It wasn't quite as bad as attempting a six star day in Donostia, but it was perhaps heading that way.
Somewhat to my relief I had a further opportunity to digest my lunch before moving onto dinner, as the combination of a public holiday and a very popular restaurant meant that we had to queue. Several restaurants nearby lacked such queues - presumably they cater to the "people who are willing to eat less good food but are in a hurry" crowd. In addition, this gave us a chance both to chat and to watch another of these kind but formidable Singaporean restaurant women removing the alive and active crabs from the large styrofoam boxes marked "Singapore Airlines" in which the crabs had apparently just been flown in from Sri Lanka.
As she did this, she watched by some cute as a button children, some of who were probably determined to grow up to be kind but formidable Singaporean restaurant women themselves.
As we waited, The Wobbly Guy and I were able to compare our national culinary cultures. I am still not sure if either the "sand crabs" and "mud crabs" we get in Australia are the same species to those eaten in Singapore. Clearly more research is in order.
I did explain that the two culinary things in Australia that Singapore is known for are chili crab and "Singapore Noodles". The Wobbly Guy was slightly perplexed by the second of these dishes. Yellow Hokkien noodles known as "Singapore Noddles" are available in just every Chinese or Malaysian or Thai restaurant in Australia under this name, but nobody in Singapore has ever heard of them. In the midst of this, a butter crab was ordered and I took a peek at the kitchen. This was clearly a serious crab restaurant.
I really must try the chili crab next time.
The butter crab was a good choice, though. By the time we sat down I was just about able to eat again, and the crab was succulent, in a lovely soup, and delicately spiced. I did properly discover what "noted for its crab" meant. As we ate, The Wobbly Guy told me a few things about Singapore: about compulsory military service. (All adult males in Singapore are required to be reserve members of the armed forces. All members of the armed forces are required to be fighting fit. Hence, in Singapore it is an offence on pain of court-martial for an adult male to be unfit); about language (which dialects of Chinese are taught and spoken in Singapore, and how use of Chinese in Singapore compares with use of English); and such things as road pricing and properfy development. But good as the conversation was, it was overshadowed by the food, which was wonderful. Food in Singapore is just about invariably wonderful. But even by the standards of the country, this was good
After a while, I reached one of those states of holiday contentment that one gets too occasionally. It had been a good day. It was my last day in Singapore. The Wobbly Guy refused to let me pay for dinner, and then insisted on driving me to the airport for me to catch my flight to Sydney. The hospitality was most kind. Thanks JT. The chili crab is on me next time.
Friday
Tomorrow evening we are doing a blogger bash and one of the Samizdatistas, Michael Jennings in a bout of generosity is bringing a whole leg of Serrano ham to share. Another blogging groupie is kindly bringing a ham stand and a knife. So the video below is particularly relevant and wonderfully silly:
via dropsafe
cross-posted from Media Influencer
Tuesday
All the best from Samizdata HQ and wishing all of liberty's friends success and prosperity in the New Year! Champagne for our real friends, real pain for our sham friends.
In the networked world in which we live, right after New Years struck the ladies started a frenzy of sending greetings to all and sundry friends via...
...IM...
...and SMS...
...stopping only to ponder the moral issues involved in sending a compromising picture of a Tory MP to Guido Fawkes...
...resulting in David Carr giving us all his Serious Lawyer Look™ before eating the aforesaid image for the good of the team...
...whilst Adriana recorded everything with her new toy...
...and I went back to plotting
...before everyone else drank the house dry.
Monday
The reason for light blogging tonight and probably tomorrow is...
Before...
Dinner was prepared by Adriana Lukas with assistance from her tiny elf-like helper Alec Muffet...
Where mah fudz?
During...
Potentially explosive desert
and after...
Thaddeus crashed and burned, causing much hilarity
To all our readers, have a great Christmas... we certainly are!
Monday
... too busy with politically incorrect activities...
Tuesday
In case you are worried that all has been quiet on the party front, I am here to reassure you. The sad fact is that some of these parties require so much in the way of recovery - in the form of Sunday brunches, vast quantities of water, and time spent lying in a darkened room - that it can take a while to get to reporting on them.
Such was the case on a recent weekend, when our most fierce and lovely editor, Miss Adriana, celebrated her birthday with a few of her favorite 'freedom fighters'.
Elena demonstrated the proper form for bum handling on an invisible model, despite no shortage of live volunteers
Perry always believed that two tarts were better than one
While Nick held the other blokes rapt with his best collectivist joke, Hugh Googled furiously to find out the punchline
You do NOT want to know what Elena spotted crawling out of my nose
Oh, you know those Samizdata parties: It is always hard to tell who you will end up sleeping with at the end of the night
More photos are here.
Friday
Okay, that's quite enough seriousness. My question for the weekend is, if you were organising a dinner party and could invite six famous people around, alive or deceased, who would you pick? Mine are:
My wife, obviously (she will be famous, some day)
David Niven.
Joan Collins
PJ O'Rourke
Diana Rigg
Groucho Marx
Choices are not based on trivia such as looks - Mrs P being very good-looking, however - but on style, wit and elegance.
I'd naturally ask Stephen Fry to work as the butler for the evening.
Wednesday
...definitely the time to be in the USA, watching fireworks on a lake whilst drinking far too much Yuengling beer.
Monday
One of my lesser vices is that I take a certain childish delight in unexpectedly arriving at a party when all the other guests think I am on a different continent, or unexpectedly posting to Samizdata from Maputo. In truth, I am thinking that the "blogging from unexpected places" technique is getting a little tired. In addition, it often leads to my getting messages three days later from people who I might have wanted to meet, saying that if they had known I was in town they might have liked to have bought me a drink or shown me some interesting part of town I was not aware of. Therefore, let me do something a little different.
I will be in Paris from the 6th to the 10th of April - the Easter weekend from Friday morning to Monday evening. Does anybody want to get together for a Samizdata drinks session, or perhaps we could go out for dinner? The evening of Saturday April 7 might be good for it.
Secondly, does anybody know of a bar or pub in Paris that is showing the matches of the cricket World Cup live? In particular, I would like to watch at least some of the Australia v England game this is being played on April 8, Easter Sunday. Help on this matter would be appreciated.
In the "really long term planning" stakes, I will be in Singapore on Thursday December 20. If anyone wants to do an Asian Samizdata dinner that evening, that would also be a splendid thing.
And of course I shall be in many other places at various times in between.
Sunday
The continuing story of Samizdata people meeting in the USA in order to conspire, drink, shoot and eat...
The poison of the evening was both delicious and lethal in equal measure, which eventually necessitated...
...the development of some innovative instant sober-up techniques...
... which proved surprisingly popular
The following day, we took out our hangovers on the surrounding environment...
...and scared local wildlife by creeping around and pointing basters at them...
...large quantities of .40 were expended at metal objects...
...although we did not end up eating a local turkey, we had a sublime lamb dinner
I am not a believer but if there is indeed a 'happy hunting ground' in the hereafter, I think it will look something going shooting with your close friends followed by a meal of epic quality.
Monday
Photoed outside Parliament this afternoon:
Monday
Another year starts... and we shall be there to blog the bits we find interesting (once we get over the effects of tonight)...
Some more strange outfits were observed...
Our lawyer demonstrated he was as quick with a six-gun as he was with a legal writ...
Adriana selects the Target For Tonight...
Quick! Pour it now or we're going to miss Big Ben chiming!
Wassail! Happy New Year...
...from all at Samizdata HQ
Champaign for our real friends, real pain for our sham friends. Good health to those who love liberty.
Monday
Although I am in a tryptophan (or more likely, just gluttony) induced haze, let me quickly file an after-action report from the front...
The menu was sort of 'Anglo-Slavic'... sauerkraut soup followed by pheasant,
parsnips, carrots, 'tats and red cabbage... followed by a Slovak chocolate-coffee-sour cream layered cake...
Some bizarre items of clothing were encountered...
An excellent Lebanese wine was discovered...
...examined...
...and consumed in considerable quantity. And then...
strange Christmas presents were exchanged
As Dale has already added his greetings from Ulster, Adriana and I would like to wish all our readers and contributing Samizdatistas a hearty Christmas, well provisioned with all the goodies capitalism doth provide.
Saturday
Thirty one stalwart samizdatistas plus assorted friends and allies descended on Samizdata HQ last night/early this morning for our celebration of five years on the front line of the blogosphere.
Two of Samizdata's editors presided over the festivities
The damn paparazzi were everywhere
People tended to congregate around the alcohol
As the hordes started to pack into Samizdata HQ, others took up defensive positions on the stairs
Our fearless editor seemed strangely surprised that her spray-on
leather pants caused people to have an irresistible urge to touch...
...or spank...
... or smack
Yet people seemed quite uninterested in Brian's rear-end
Kamal demonstrated how to do anatomically improbable things with corks,
yielding gasps of admiration from enraptured onlookers
The food from Penni Black was excellent and greatly improved the ability of
the assembled samizdatistas to absorb the waves of high quality alcohol
Guido Fawkes reminded us all why we blog (however there
was some debate as to whether he meant 'freedom' or 'beer')...
But Jax was in no doubt that the answer was indeed 'beer'
Guido demonstrated his patented "grab 'em by the googlies an' squeeze" tactic to
Peter Briffa but Jonathan Pearce seemed more interested in communing with
his Martini (shaken, not stirred)
As the evening wore on, Paul Coulam shared his technique for remaining upright
(i.e. frequently look to see which direction the floor is)
The 'sitting down' method of avoiding unexpected non-verticalness was also widely adopted towards the end
Friday
On November 2nd, 2001, I rounded up a posse of disgruntled hyphenated libertarian types on three continents and an island, telling them they were henceforth 'samizdatistas' and offered them a way to get their 'gruntles' back that was far more effective than cursing at the television every time the news came on.
We started off initially on blogger.com along with many other so-called warblogs, before eventually migrating to Moveable Type.
We drew our initial inspiration from Glenn of Instapundit fame (and duly got Instapundited quite a few times) as we raged anti-idiotarian fury against the mainstream media's editorial absurdities.
We coined a few terms which seem to have gained wider currency, such as Moonbat and Tranzi. We learned the fine art of fisking, slew some trolls, stomped on a lot of blogroaches, fact-checked a few asses and we wrote more than a few blogapotamus postings.
Putting one in the eye of The Man yields many benefits and millions of page views, a couple crashed servers, 8,651 articles and 129,117 comments later, Samizdata.net once again proves that not only is blogging far more fun than gainful employment, it is a great excuse for throwing parties... and thus tonight at 7:00pm London time we hold our Five Year Blogger Bash, therefore expect light blogging from the UK contingent and possible heavy casualties by tomorrow morning.
Saturday
Friday night saw yet another party at Samizdata HQ; it has indeed been a busy summer for such gatherings. This one was in honour of Tracy Sheridan, CEO of podcasting company Waxxi. I was fortunate to meet Tracy at the inaugural Techdirt Greenhouse event in Silicon Valley earlier this year, and since then have had the pleasure of her company twice more in the Bay Area. I promised her that if she came to town, we would throw her a party, and - what do you know? - she took me up on it. We are glad she did!
Yes, it's a living manga character/Samizdata editor.
The Algonquin Roundtable crowd had nothing on this bunch.
Someone had just told me that Ken Livingstone was hanging from a light pole outside; seconds later, the truth emerged and my smile disappeared.
The Three Blogateers: JP Rangaswami, Adriana Lukas, and guest of honour Tracy Sheridan
See more pictures of the festivities on Flickr.
Sunday
When Silicon Valley's youngest dot-com dynamo (and all around delightful guy), Ben Casnocha, told me that he was coming to Europe for his gap year travels, I knew he could not leave London without the full Samizdata experience.
Of course, first an offering to the Hippo God had to be made...
Elena and Perry performed their synchronised hand-jive performance to an adoring crowd
PooterGeek found something else to applaud - guesses on a postcard, please...
I tried not to show how revolted I was by the unsightly growth that had suddenly sprouted from Elena's head
What could possibly have these capitalists so rapt with attention?
But of course...
There are more photos at Flickr.
Monday
Yesterday, the skies over London were often dark and threatening torrential downpour. These were particularly ominous as I and fellow Samizdatistas Antoine Clarke, Perry, and Adriana had received our innoculations and taken our passports to suburbia for a barbecue at the home of our friend Scott Norvell, European bureau chief of Fox News.
You know you are at a higher class of barbecue when the host leads guests in chugging fine wine instead of beer.
Recently acquired Samizdata party fixture (and Huffington Post blogger) Greg Gutfeld is laughing now, but has no idea that an assassin lurks.
Sadly for we overextended Samizdata party throwers, Scott's cooking sets a new, much more elevated standard for barbecue fare.
Adriana collects evidence to support Perry's future 'not guilty by reason of insanity' pleas.
It was a splendid evening with delicious food, lots of laughs, and the usual plans for world domination. (Don't worry - you are in safe hands!) More photos at Flickr.
Wednesday
Or, rather, Independence Evening, which brought a motley crew of celebrants to Chelsea for some of Adriana's salad, Nancy's pasta, and some rather scandalous conversation. What is said at Samizdata HQ stays at Samizdata HQ, but a few of the photos can - as ever - be shared...
Three authors, an editor, an engineer, an actress, a Cambridge student, and a Brian
The author of London Gazetteer and Hidden London dressed in theme, making his t-shirt especially for the party!
Now that she had cleaned her plate, Jo hoped to be granted a refill of vino
Thanks to all who braved the heat to come along, and do not worry - your secrets are safe with Samizdata...
Saturday
Last night in Chelsea, Samizdatistas from around the globe gathered at Samizdata HQ for some of Perry's famous chilli con Chelsea, his 'secret recipe' cheesecake, and plenty of wine from Stormhoek and other fine producers.
The hostess with the mostess
Funny, I always imagined that Perry was completely oblivious to any sport which did not involve firearms
The newest Samizdatista, Hillary Johnson (visiting London from Los Angeles), was the guest of honour
So this is what a group of bloodthirsty free marketeers looks like...
Take me drunk, I'm home!
A fantastic time was had by all, and there are more photos from the party on Flickr.
Sunday
Wednesday
Instapundit Glenn Reynolds has been out promoting his new book. In order to demonstrate how well connected to the world ordinary people now are, how much choice they have, and much information they have easy and inexpensive access to, he has repeatedly brought up the example of the bar he likes to work " with 27 kinds of beer on tap, a nice patio and... a free wireless Internet hookup,"
It sounds reasonably good.
As it happens though, Jonathan Pearce and I went to Porto in Portugal last weekend in order to get pissed have a stimulating weekend. On saturday night, we ended up in a bar with a choice of over 200 kinds of port. There was something work related that I had to get done reasonably promptly, so I got out of my laptop and joy of joys, the bar was providing free wireless there too. I was able to get my work done. It certainly beat spending time in the office. It beat a mere 27 kinds of beer too.
So what can I say? Samizdata 200 - Instapundit 27. We win.
For what it's worth, in front of me I have a dry white port, a fruitier white port, a reserve, an unfiltered L.B.V, two tawnies, and a 21 year old colheita. (The colheita in particular was just divine).
Tuesday
I am organising a NYC Geek Dinner on 23rd March as the last one was fun (at least for me!). The venue is the Sly Bar in SoHo.
This is what Gothamist has to say about it:
The blue lights above the outside door continue inside and flicker throughout the space - everyone looks good in this light, remember that. Our favorite part, though, might be the the back smoking patio, it's a lovely view that often gets neglected being so far from the subways and it proves that not everyone in New York hates smokers.
Also, the blogosphere-famous Stormhoek wine will supply wine for the evening as part of their US launch and the meme 100 dinners, 100 conversations...
The festivities start at 7.30pm - all bloggers, geeks and Samizdata.net groupies are welcome. You can sign up here or email me at samizdata at gmail dot com.
Sunday
The Dissident Frogman has infiltrated Samizdata.net HQ, snuck into the wine cellar and photographed the target for tonight...
Sunday
Some of the Samizdatistas have been in the USA for Thanksgiving, much to the consternation of the turkey population, given that we are all members of PETA (People for Eating Tasty Animals).
As for much of the time we have been in the wilds of Pennsylvania without an internet connection (the horror, the horror), we have been unable to post about our various jolly japes in the Land of the Free.
We were releaved to have made it out of the People's Republic to the relative safety of the Keystone State
I could hear the turkey's crying "The British are coming! The British are coming!"
An Armalite toaster? Is this country great or what!
The womenfolk in these here parts are made of stern stuff
Getting ready for Thanksgiving Dinner with twenty friends: the quintessential American experience
Celebrating dangerous (thankfully) right wing extremists
Vast mounts of turkey washed down with red wine: tryptophan overdose!
A local family tradition: eat the turkey and then take the young ones out and show them how the turkey ends up on the plate
One of the Samizdata editors goes looking for those turkeys who ratted us out earlier. The British are coming and this time they are armed and pissed off.
Good food, great people and things that go boom. Damn I love this place.
We will be back in London soon. Bugger.
Sunday
Prior to my trip to New York a couple of weeks ago, I did not publicise my impending arrival. I had a (non blogging related) friend I wanted to catch up with, and my thoughts beyond that were to just largely potter around the city for a few days and enjoy myself, before perhaps driving up the Hudson valley to do some sightseeing and then across to Connecticut to catch up with my friend before spending a couple more days in New York at the end of the trip.
However, after a post from me, and information generally going along the grapevine, word got around that I was in town, and I suddenly found myself with invitations to catch up with a variety of interesting people. As I have reported already, it turned out that Samizdata co-editor Dale Amon was in town, and he immediately offered to show me around some of the indie music clubs and pubs on the lower east side.
Before that though, journalist Taylor Dinerman of The Space Review, often of the Wall Street Journal, and occasional Samizdata contributer, invited Dale and myself (and various other interesting acquantances of his) to join him for dinner at the North West Restaurant at 79th and Columbus, just opposite the Museum of Natural History on the West Side.
Of course, when I received this invitation I was up in Connecticut somewhere, and it was something of an effort to drive frantically down the Merritt Parkway in my rented SUV (which I received from the rental car agency upon ordering a "small car" - I love America) , but I made it. And it was a civilized occasion. Over some excellent seafood, conversation ranged from favourite countries (I shocked the people present by admitting that I prefer France to Italy) to what I should do in New York City to whether Pluto is a planet or not, to more discussion about space. And space some more. The question of whether the restaurant should be declared the official United States Samizdata Headquarters was discussed. (I am for it. After a hearty meal we can all go over to the Hayden Planetarium for a show. Great). And somre more space discussion after that. Plans to visit Florida in January to watch the launch of the New Horizons (ake Pluto Express aka Pluto Fast Flyby) probe were discussed. And then the conversation moved on to wine.
As it happens, Taylor enjoys a glass of good red almost as much as I do. He had brought a bottle of aged Bordeaux from his collection to the restaurant, which Taylor had asked the staff of the restaurant (who clearly knew Taylor well) to decant for him earlier in the evening. Taylor's timing was perfect. The wine had aged beautifully, and it gave me a wonderfully pleasant buzz. Hopefully Taylor can be lured to London sometime and I can serve him something interesting from my collection.
A good thing about going to a restaurant with such people in such a place was that I remembered a mental note of mine. When the Hayden Planetarium at the Museum of Natural History installed its new specially modified Zeiss Mark IX projector in 1999, I told myself that I must go and see a program when in New York. So on my last day in New York I did. The visualisation of the heavens is indeed wonderful, and the way the projector makes it possible to zoom in and out of the solar system, the galaxy, or even vast numbers of galaxies is stunning, although the show was much too short. (Do they think modern people have tiny attention spans, or is it just a matter of trying to fit as many shows as possible into the day?) I have visions of sitting in the control room and being able to use the system to fly around a model of the whole unvierse - sort of a much better version of Google Earth but with the whole universe - but I suspect it is not like this. The computer power is probably not there to calculate such a model in real time. Or is it? (Certainly it is not needed for the programs shown to the public, which are the same every time).
And the displays in the Rose Centre for Earth and Space outside seem to have made a decision about Pluto. It is not listed as a planet in any of the exhibits, although there is something of a disclaimer pretending that they are not taking a position. Although as far as I can see they are.
Saturday
Which of the people in this photo is the Samizdata editor?
Ed: The woman is Tayla, a very fine heavy metal guitarist. She lives guitar. The band is The Pink Meat.
Saturday
On Thursday a group of London-based individualists, libertarians, and other similar intellectual subversives will descend on the Great British Beer Festival in London Olympia. We will be celebrating the diversity of 450 British real ales - plus foreign beer, cider, and perry - which are able to thrive in the age of globalization because they give consumers what they want.
So come along from noon onwards, bring your digital camera if you are a blogger, and enjoy the cornucopia of delightful products the market provides!
Sunday
Sorry about the lack of new bloggage but a great many Samizdatistas are nursing serious hangovers in the aftermath of Saturday's Close Encounter of the Third Kind with Vodkapundit, Jane Galt and twenty five other fine bloggy type folks...
The smokers lurked outback
Yankee bloggers invade London!
The conversations ranged from artificial intelligence to real stupidity
Epicurian Samizdata editor
Who the hell invited this guy?
Saturday
As tonight Samizdata.net HQ will be playing host to the Anglosphere Blogger Bash, featuring such A-list blogg