Grand Prix 'burns' Palais Theatre restoration funds
Another Grand Prix brings another multi-million dollar loss of public funds that could have been better used, for example, to restore the publicly owned Palais Theatre and thus avoid the costly St Kilda Triangle crown land saga.
Does it make sense for our taxes to line Bernie Eccleston's pockets while our public assets are degraded and crown land privatised?
This year the Grand Prix losses may hit $55million. The Palais refurbishment is estimated at $20million. If the race continues until 2015, it could be losing taxpayers hundreds of millions of dollars.
But the dollar guzzling event has other problems - not the least being its environmental footprint, destruction of public parkland and, now, falling patronage.
Mayor Frank O'Connor told the Port Phillip Leader last week the race was 'unsustainable' and did "not belong in an era when climate change and global warming are a major issue."
Please join our Port Phillip Councillors, the Save Albert Park group and other concerned citizens to protest the State Government’s support for this dinosaur event.
When: Sunday, 29 March, 2pm to 4pm
Where: Underpass at Middle Park light rail stop
(off Canterbury Road, opposite Armstrong St)
From UnChain St Kilda
10/15/2008
The reality (Albert Park on Fitzroy Street)
The elm trees in this park on St Kilda's Fitzroy Street were cut down years ago and nothing has been done to replace them. There are no park benches or trees and therefore no people.
7/11/2007
3/29/2007
A St Kilda Kitchen
Ever wonder about the things that grace the shelves and draws of a St Kilda kitchen? Ever think about your relationship with said items? Wonder no more. A rough guide from the ordinary to over-the-top.
equipment: potato peeler
risk: moderate
reward: moderate
analysis: The humble potato peeler is the mousetrap of the kitchen world. No, it will never snap down on your fingers, but it may take the skin from one of your knuckles. A very good example of clever and simple engineering designed to to do but one thing, rid vegetables of their unpalatable outer skins. Unfortunately, what is a great engineering idea is often let down by manufacture. Made to be cheap, the swiveling blade is very often its downfall, sometimes cutting in one direction only, maddeningly sometimes not cutting at all. When you find a good one, a thing to be treasured and hidden when your friends come over, for they will pocket it. There is a wonderful model made by the ever efficient Swiss. Big and chunky, it always peels in both directions, takes just the right amount of peel, and no, you are not invited over.
equipment: mandoline
risk: extremely high
reward: high
analysis: What can you say about a piece of equipment that has a single, large, horizontal, razor sharp blade and many smaller upright blades that are designed to take slices of food whilst you hold that food with your bare and vulnerable hands against the blades and pull it through? If this was workplace equipment, the relevant authority would have banned it for being so dangerous, even professional chefs have been known to slice a sliver of flesh. However the payoff is twofold, what you get are perfect slices of uniform thickness that could never be achieved with a knife alone and there is a certain cheffiness that attaches to using one, it's not your everyday piece of equipment. Other pluses include the ability to shred a cabbage into perfect coleslaw in seconds, perfect julienne without raising a sweat and chips so uniform that you might be bored eating them. These days some models do come with food holding devices, but you still have to clean it when finished...
equipment: copper cookware
risk: low
reward: very high
analysis: So why do people pay three or four hundred dollars a piece when they could have an equivalent pan a quarter the price? Prestige, baby, prestige. Owning a few pieces of copperware says something about you like no other piece of equipment does. If it were a car, it would be a Mercedes Benz. Timeless, uncluttered lines and does exactly what you bought it for, cooks perfectly, thanks to copper's unique ability with heat transference. Copper, tin-lined saute pans, however, are not such a great idea to actually use. The melting point of tin is around 230 C (450 f), which is a temperature your oven can easily reach. These days there are stainless steel lined pans which are less stressful to use, but if you have tin lined, leave them hanging from butcher hooks on a kitchen display rack, that way you will also never have to keep polishing the copper after each use, but then again, if you can afford copperware, you probably have servants.
equipment: sugar thermometer
risk: moderate
reward: moderate
analysis: More useful than you think. Can double up as a deep frying thermometer as well as an easy way to check on the progress of jams. The risk comes from the situations where you use one, rather than any inherent dangers. Interestingly, a hot oil burn seems less worse than a molten sugar burn, which can feel like a drop of lava suddenly attaching itself to your skin even though most stages of sugar cooking are cooler than frying temperatures, ladies who wax would understand why this is so. The only downside is that every time you pull it out to use, you find yourself humming the song from Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory, Candy Man.
equipment: box grater
risk: high
reward: low
analysis: A very basic piece of equipment that does a wholly unremarkable job, for which no-one will ever thank you. It is simply folded metal with various sized grooves for reducing food to shreds, the grooves are not really sharp but it is possible to get a cut. The real danger lies in the side where tiny holes have been punched through producing small metallic shards that will reduce food to a pulp and take the skin straight from your knuckles, staining your food pink, which is amazingly unappetising. It is a bastard to clean as food gets caught up in the tiny holes meaning you are at risk of grating yourself twice. Designed by the devil.
equipment: chinois sieve
risk: very low
reward: moderate
analysis: a piece of equipment that allows you to feel very cheffy if you know how to use it properly, if you don't, you would probably throw it in the bin after a single use. Its principal use is to strain sauces rather than blending which introduces air, so you probably won't find one of these at El Bulli. The problem is that the tiny holes clog up straight away and its conical shape means you can't leave it suspended over a bowl to drain, your stuck holding the stupid thing if you don't know to plunge a small ladle quickly up and down, releasing all the liquid. If you own and use one of these, you are one step away from working in a restaurant. Throw it in the bin. Now!
equipment: truffle slicer
risk: very high
reward: very high
analysis: very similar to a mandoline but without the shredding ability. A little screw enables one to control the thickness of the slices so that for instance if you were showing off to friends that mattered little, you would produce the thinnest possible slices and they would still be very impressed and your stocks would still skyrocket. If it was for you and your partner, you would cut a little thicker being very careful not to cut yourself. There is nothing like emergency medical treatment of any sort for destroying a mood and believe me, truffles for your loved one will produce a mood you won't forget in a hurry.
equipment: KitchenAid stand mixer
risk: low
reward: high
analysis: I don't think there isn't anyone who doesn't want to own a KitchenAid. It is the finest piece of kitchen equipment that America has ever produced. If you could teach it to do your shopping and take out the rubbish, there wouldn't be a single thing it couldn't do. Mixes, whisks, kneads, grinds, blends, juices, opens cans, sausage maker, pasta maker, the list goes on and on. At the heart of it is a motor that is the equivalent of a thumpin' V8, it just never stops or gets tired. You've got one of these babies and you feel like a pro, no matter how your food turns out. Welcome to the dream, risk free.
equipment: wire whisk
risk: low
reward: low
analysis: the wire whisk is probably the first piece of kitchen equipment ever invented. Simple and efficient at what it does, it has largely been superseded by KitchenAid and others. If you were about losing weight, it might be an idea to whisk everything by hand as it does require a fair effort, but whipping cream for instance is just sheer torture, for the moment you start to get tired and cramping the cream actually thickens up making it even harder to whisk. No-one will ever say "Oh, you whisked that by hand, I really noticed the difference." Of course, you will have a very strong arm from all that whisking, meaning you now have a crushing handshake, but why bother? Whisking by hand was the reason electricity was invented.
equipment: wooden spoon
risk: low
reward: moderate
analysis: the wooden spoon is the most elemental piece of kitchen equipment you will ever use. There is something comforting about using one, knowing that our caveman ancestors probably fashioned wooden spoons out of tree branches for stirring mastodon stew and even though mankind has passed through all the metal ages with their possibilities for spoons, the wooden spoon has stood the test of time. Pretty much all of us have happy memories of our parents and grandparents using one and we are continuing a long line of cooks when we first purchase one. Wooden spoons are easy to use and do their job with a complete lack of drama, which makes them quite soothing. Very inexpensive, its easy to build up a collection. There is one teensy problem with them, if you leave one in a pot on a gas stove, there will always be a black, burnt spot on the handle, some think it's not really a proper wooden spoon until it has this particular badge of honour.
equipment: chef's knife
risk: high
reward: high
analysis: there is no more serious stating of intentions that you want and like to cook than buying your first chef's knife, every other piece of equipment you buy is just adornment. Nothing says cooking like a proper knife. The risk here is obvious, you have an instrument that is razor sharp, slicing through food whilst your trembling fingers are millimetres away. The danger strangely lies in inverse proportion to how sharp your knife actually is, the duller the blade the more likely you are to cut yourself. This is because of the greater effort it takes to push the knife when blunt, making it more likely to slip sideways with catastrophic results; the more you grunt and groan when cutting, the deeper the cut. Just as there are fake Rolex's, there are also imitation chef's knives. The real ones come from Germany and Japan and cost a bomb, there is no such thing as a cheap, quality chef's knife. Get your hands on a good one, properly sharpened, and you will feel like a chef, the only problem is, some knife manufactures have more models than car companies. The only function you need to consider is does the knife cut well and hold its edge, 'nuff said.
equipment: potato peeler
risk: moderate
reward: moderate
analysis: The humble potato peeler is the mousetrap of the kitchen world. No, it will never snap down on your fingers, but it may take the skin from one of your knuckles. A very good example of clever and simple engineering designed to to do but one thing, rid vegetables of their unpalatable outer skins. Unfortunately, what is a great engineering idea is often let down by manufacture. Made to be cheap, the swiveling blade is very often its downfall, sometimes cutting in one direction only, maddeningly sometimes not cutting at all. When you find a good one, a thing to be treasured and hidden when your friends come over, for they will pocket it. There is a wonderful model made by the ever efficient Swiss. Big and chunky, it always peels in both directions, takes just the right amount of peel, and no, you are not invited over.
equipment: mandoline
risk: extremely high
reward: high
analysis: What can you say about a piece of equipment that has a single, large, horizontal, razor sharp blade and many smaller upright blades that are designed to take slices of food whilst you hold that food with your bare and vulnerable hands against the blades and pull it through? If this was workplace equipment, the relevant authority would have banned it for being so dangerous, even professional chefs have been known to slice a sliver of flesh. However the payoff is twofold, what you get are perfect slices of uniform thickness that could never be achieved with a knife alone and there is a certain cheffiness that attaches to using one, it's not your everyday piece of equipment. Other pluses include the ability to shred a cabbage into perfect coleslaw in seconds, perfect julienne without raising a sweat and chips so uniform that you might be bored eating them. These days some models do come with food holding devices, but you still have to clean it when finished...
equipment: copper cookware
risk: low
reward: very high
analysis: So why do people pay three or four hundred dollars a piece when they could have an equivalent pan a quarter the price? Prestige, baby, prestige. Owning a few pieces of copperware says something about you like no other piece of equipment does. If it were a car, it would be a Mercedes Benz. Timeless, uncluttered lines and does exactly what you bought it for, cooks perfectly, thanks to copper's unique ability with heat transference. Copper, tin-lined saute pans, however, are not such a great idea to actually use. The melting point of tin is around 230 C (450 f), which is a temperature your oven can easily reach. These days there are stainless steel lined pans which are less stressful to use, but if you have tin lined, leave them hanging from butcher hooks on a kitchen display rack, that way you will also never have to keep polishing the copper after each use, but then again, if you can afford copperware, you probably have servants.
equipment: sugar thermometer
risk: moderate
reward: moderate
analysis: More useful than you think. Can double up as a deep frying thermometer as well as an easy way to check on the progress of jams. The risk comes from the situations where you use one, rather than any inherent dangers. Interestingly, a hot oil burn seems less worse than a molten sugar burn, which can feel like a drop of lava suddenly attaching itself to your skin even though most stages of sugar cooking are cooler than frying temperatures, ladies who wax would understand why this is so. The only downside is that every time you pull it out to use, you find yourself humming the song from Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory, Candy Man.
equipment: box grater
risk: high
reward: low
analysis: A very basic piece of equipment that does a wholly unremarkable job, for which no-one will ever thank you. It is simply folded metal with various sized grooves for reducing food to shreds, the grooves are not really sharp but it is possible to get a cut. The real danger lies in the side where tiny holes have been punched through producing small metallic shards that will reduce food to a pulp and take the skin straight from your knuckles, staining your food pink, which is amazingly unappetising. It is a bastard to clean as food gets caught up in the tiny holes meaning you are at risk of grating yourself twice. Designed by the devil.
equipment: chinois sieve
risk: very low
reward: moderate
analysis: a piece of equipment that allows you to feel very cheffy if you know how to use it properly, if you don't, you would probably throw it in the bin after a single use. Its principal use is to strain sauces rather than blending which introduces air, so you probably won't find one of these at El Bulli. The problem is that the tiny holes clog up straight away and its conical shape means you can't leave it suspended over a bowl to drain, your stuck holding the stupid thing if you don't know to plunge a small ladle quickly up and down, releasing all the liquid. If you own and use one of these, you are one step away from working in a restaurant. Throw it in the bin. Now!
equipment: truffle slicer
risk: very high
reward: very high
analysis: very similar to a mandoline but without the shredding ability. A little screw enables one to control the thickness of the slices so that for instance if you were showing off to friends that mattered little, you would produce the thinnest possible slices and they would still be very impressed and your stocks would still skyrocket. If it was for you and your partner, you would cut a little thicker being very careful not to cut yourself. There is nothing like emergency medical treatment of any sort for destroying a mood and believe me, truffles for your loved one will produce a mood you won't forget in a hurry.
equipment: KitchenAid stand mixer
risk: low
reward: high
analysis: I don't think there isn't anyone who doesn't want to own a KitchenAid. It is the finest piece of kitchen equipment that America has ever produced. If you could teach it to do your shopping and take out the rubbish, there wouldn't be a single thing it couldn't do. Mixes, whisks, kneads, grinds, blends, juices, opens cans, sausage maker, pasta maker, the list goes on and on. At the heart of it is a motor that is the equivalent of a thumpin' V8, it just never stops or gets tired. You've got one of these babies and you feel like a pro, no matter how your food turns out. Welcome to the dream, risk free.
equipment: wire whisk
risk: low
reward: low
analysis: the wire whisk is probably the first piece of kitchen equipment ever invented. Simple and efficient at what it does, it has largely been superseded by KitchenAid and others. If you were about losing weight, it might be an idea to whisk everything by hand as it does require a fair effort, but whipping cream for instance is just sheer torture, for the moment you start to get tired and cramping the cream actually thickens up making it even harder to whisk. No-one will ever say "Oh, you whisked that by hand, I really noticed the difference." Of course, you will have a very strong arm from all that whisking, meaning you now have a crushing handshake, but why bother? Whisking by hand was the reason electricity was invented.
equipment: wooden spoon
risk: low
reward: moderate
analysis: the wooden spoon is the most elemental piece of kitchen equipment you will ever use. There is something comforting about using one, knowing that our caveman ancestors probably fashioned wooden spoons out of tree branches for stirring mastodon stew and even though mankind has passed through all the metal ages with their possibilities for spoons, the wooden spoon has stood the test of time. Pretty much all of us have happy memories of our parents and grandparents using one and we are continuing a long line of cooks when we first purchase one. Wooden spoons are easy to use and do their job with a complete lack of drama, which makes them quite soothing. Very inexpensive, its easy to build up a collection. There is one teensy problem with them, if you leave one in a pot on a gas stove, there will always be a black, burnt spot on the handle, some think it's not really a proper wooden spoon until it has this particular badge of honour.
equipment: chef's knife
risk: high
reward: high
analysis: there is no more serious stating of intentions that you want and like to cook than buying your first chef's knife, every other piece of equipment you buy is just adornment. Nothing says cooking like a proper knife. The risk here is obvious, you have an instrument that is razor sharp, slicing through food whilst your trembling fingers are millimetres away. The danger strangely lies in inverse proportion to how sharp your knife actually is, the duller the blade the more likely you are to cut yourself. This is because of the greater effort it takes to push the knife when blunt, making it more likely to slip sideways with catastrophic results; the more you grunt and groan when cutting, the deeper the cut. Just as there are fake Rolex's, there are also imitation chef's knives. The real ones come from Germany and Japan and cost a bomb, there is no such thing as a cheap, quality chef's knife. Get your hands on a good one, properly sharpened, and you will feel like a chef, the only problem is, some knife manufactures have more models than car companies. The only function you need to consider is does the knife cut well and hold its edge, 'nuff said.
3/06/2007
The Dark Side
Picture by Michael BlameyThere is a terrible secret about someone who has been a resident of St Kilda for ninety-five years. You can see his face just to the left, waiting for his meal to come walking by. He is St Kilda's dark secret. You see, Mr Moon is not only the hungriest person in town, he is also a cannibal. Every week he devours thousands of men, women and children, alive.
Yes, that's right, children too! Shocking!
Picture by Michael BlameyHere is a shot of a local resident being eaten alive! His hunger for humans knows no bounds.
Photo courtesy Tourism VictoriaHere is Mr Moon on a feast day, gorging himself sick. Is there no end to his gluttony? Well fortunately, Mr Moon in common with most St Kilda residents prides himself on his looks. Even though he will gobble up every last person he sees, Mr Moon suffers bulimia. Every person eaten is usually disgorged by the end of the day, none the worse for it.
Unless they had lunch before going on the Spider.
2/08/2007
2/06/2007
Early To Bed, Early To...
Umm, err, hi.
I kinda asked if I could join the boys several months ago and promptly forgot about it. But they didn't forget about me, oh no.
A couple of weeks ago an invitation to join this site arrived. So I did, then forgot about it...again. It was sent by Lawrence who plainly is disappointed that no posts have been forthcoming and has left the building.
Lawrence, I didn't mean not to post, honestly.
I mean I wanted to write this really neat post about the St Kilda Farmer's Market that was held this last weekend. I went to the trouble of turning up and everything, but clearly that impressed no one, for apart from a plant stall, everyone had tired of waiting for me and went home. I actually saw the trucks leaving before I got there and silly me thought they must have been having a good day and sold out early.
Nope, it was closing time.
So I did the next best thing and went to the St Kilda community gardens, which if you think about it is just like a farmers market only the food hasn't been picked yet. Man, there are some really good gardeners in our little 'burb. There was corn ten feet high (I'm old , okay), there was corn three feet high - clearly someone had worked out the watering thing a whole lot better. Now I should be putting a nice photo here somewhere, but only I don't do photos. Yep, you heard, you only have to suffer my crap writing. There are only two food bloggers I know that don't do photos and I'm one of them.
So I'll tell you what I saw next that made me wish I'd been wearing looser pants. At the back of the gardens are a series of sheds, quite open. In amongst all the paraphernalia was the most beautiful thing I have ever seen in St Kilda, something that had me lusting and panting and checking my pockets for a box of matches. There in all its glory stood a wood fired oven. I was practically moaning with pleasure and anticipation. Oh, the things I could do with this beauty, the roasts, stews, pizzas, breads, vegetables...
I walked away, the pain was too great. I'm not a member, not allowed to use it. Why didn't the farmers wait for me?
I kinda asked if I could join the boys several months ago and promptly forgot about it. But they didn't forget about me, oh no.
A couple of weeks ago an invitation to join this site arrived. So I did, then forgot about it...again. It was sent by Lawrence who plainly is disappointed that no posts have been forthcoming and has left the building.
Lawrence, I didn't mean not to post, honestly.
I mean I wanted to write this really neat post about the St Kilda Farmer's Market that was held this last weekend. I went to the trouble of turning up and everything, but clearly that impressed no one, for apart from a plant stall, everyone had tired of waiting for me and went home. I actually saw the trucks leaving before I got there and silly me thought they must have been having a good day and sold out early.
Nope, it was closing time.
So I did the next best thing and went to the St Kilda community gardens, which if you think about it is just like a farmers market only the food hasn't been picked yet. Man, there are some really good gardeners in our little 'burb. There was corn ten feet high (I'm old , okay), there was corn three feet high - clearly someone had worked out the watering thing a whole lot better. Now I should be putting a nice photo here somewhere, but only I don't do photos. Yep, you heard, you only have to suffer my crap writing. There are only two food bloggers I know that don't do photos and I'm one of them.
So I'll tell you what I saw next that made me wish I'd been wearing looser pants. At the back of the gardens are a series of sheds, quite open. In amongst all the paraphernalia was the most beautiful thing I have ever seen in St Kilda, something that had me lusting and panting and checking my pockets for a box of matches. There in all its glory stood a wood fired oven. I was practically moaning with pleasure and anticipation. Oh, the things I could do with this beauty, the roasts, stews, pizzas, breads, vegetables...
I walked away, the pain was too great. I'm not a member, not allowed to use it. Why didn't the farmers wait for me?
2/05/2007
1/23/2007
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1/22/2007
1/10/2007
12/24/2006
11/13/2006
11/09/2006
10/08/2006
I built my boss a new office inside of his old office
Last night, in my spare time, I built my boss an office.
For weeks now, or even months, my boss has been complaining about how cramped it can get in our small office. Sometimes there can be 3 people in the office at a time. On top of this, my boss is 6'4" and take up most of the space.
He has been pushing upper management for an office of his own but they are not listening. So, last night I built him an office out of white plastic cardboard and drew on the extra bits.
For weeks now, or even months, my boss has been complaining about how cramped it can get in our small office. Sometimes there can be 3 people in the office at a time. On top of this, my boss is 6'4" and take up most of the space.
He has been pushing upper management for an office of his own but they are not listening. So, last night I built him an office out of white plastic cardboard and drew on the extra bits.
Then I thought that it only made sense to provide adequate security for my bosses new office. So I installed a new state of the art, CCTV surveillance camera make out of an old T2 tea sampler box and some plastic piping
He loves his new office!!
10/07/2006
8/09/2006
8/05/2006
4/21/2006
Local punk band Amphetish, Friday Doubleheader (April 21)
Amphetish are playing a Huge Friday Double Header (HFDH). The night kicks off at the Espy (St.Kilda) where we open up for the guys from Platform Orange at 9.15pm. After our set, we're jumping in our private jet and heading across the Westgate Bridage to headline a gig at The Nic Hotel, Footisgray (ex House of fools ex Belgravia) with the likes of Governmental, October Powder and Jack Rabbit Slim. We believe there should be a courtsey bus running between the venues hence there's no excuse not to be at both.
Hope to see you there :)
4/12/2006
4/06/2006
Local punk band Amphetish, play the arthouse April 12
If you missed our last show, which was featured on Channel 7's Today Tonight with the foul mouthed Miss Robson, because our guitarist (Mik Destar) stole $750,000 in home loan deposits from elderly pensioners, don't fear because you may just see it re-run on Channel 9's "A Current Affair".Naomi's comments after the show were:
"Well f**k me those c**ts know how to rip sh*t up on stage. Awesome f**kin' gig!"
Come check us out next Wednesday 12th April at the Arthouse with supports Donnie Dureau from Blue-line medic, Platform Orange and Days of Red. Should be an awesome night out
4/03/2006
4/02/2006
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