toddcarruth.com

Someone turned me on to this site the other day at work.  It’s some sort of the conference that deals with Technology, Entertainment, Design. It started out (in 1984) as a conference bringing together people from those three worlds. Since then its scope has become ever broader.

The video that caught my attention deals with a gentleman named Benjamin Zander….”Benjamin Zander has two infectious passions: classical music, and helping us all realize our untapped love for it — and by extension, our untapped love for all new possibilities, new experiences, new connections.”

I like most classical music and the fact that the Chopin song he plays in this presentation is one that I learned oh-so-long ago helped make this short video absolutely brilliant (in my opinion).

If you have a few minutes, I strongly encourage you to check it out.

TED and Benjamin Zander on music and passion (opens to a new window)

So, I was updating my Core Talent resume because I have an audition for a beer commercial on Tuesday when I decided to google my last two jobs and see if any pics that they took might have shown up on their website or in an ad.   What I didn’t expect is that I would be on the freakin’ front ????????page.

How funny is that?  I remember it being a fun shoot inside a real office building where we had to wait for real traders to finish working before we could start taking pictures. Notice that nobody is smiling because we are serious stock traders. I means business!

All that stuff you see on the computer screens was done in post.  We were either staring at black or just generic screens full of gobbledy gook.  I have a pencil in my hand and I remember drawing a snoopy cartoon saying “Sell! Sell!” on the real trader’s notebooks about 20 pages deep. He or she should have a nice surprise in about a month.

This one is my favorite.

More here

First off, I want to say thanks to everyone who has wished me luck on my new job. I am very excited about the direction that I am going although I fully expect to keep a finger or two in broadcasting in some way. At least a big toe. Seriously, being on the air is like a drug and EXTREMELY hard to stay away from so don’t be surprised if you see (more likely hear me) pop up somewhere.

On a different note, I went to my first heavy metal concert on Saturday night. I saw local band Sling at the Curtain Club and even met some of the band members who were friends with my buddy, Joe.  Now speed metal is not my type of music, but I could tell these guys were talented musicians plus they had some hot groupies.  Curse you ten years of piano lessons! Why didn’t I ever learn to play the guitar?

It was actually kind of fun watching the band from the upstairs bar and seeing 4 guys try to create a mosh pit. I was going to dive in and start thrashing but I had my good shirt on and I didn’t want hurt anybody.

Whatever.

ROCK ON!

I am not a coffee snob. But I’m well on my way!

Look what I bought two weeks ago. Ah, oui , oui, it is zee french press! If you’ve never heard of a “French Press” don’t worry, I had no idea how this contraption worked before a month ago. Quite a few years ago, I remember my much older brother-in-law saying that he had made coffee in a French Press and all I could imagine was some large contraption that had a pull handle and a flat plate where you put the raw coffee beans and “pressed” the coffee juice out. (I have issues with my brain). About 6 months ago, I saw a Good Eats featuring coffee and Alton said that the closest way to get to good “espresso” type coffee without using an espresso machine was through using a french press.

And finally, every time I watch the fantastic intro to Dexter, I see him using this infernal machine and I say to myself, “I gotta get one of those.” And I did. Finally.

So, here’s how it works.

1. You put 3 or 4 cups of water on stove in a small saucepan set on high
2. Grind the coffee beans for about 15 seconds. You don’t want to get them as fine as you would for your drip machine.
3. Depending on the size of your press, put the amount of scoops of coffee you want into the bottom of the french press container.
4. Just before the water boils, take it off the stove and carefully pour into the press container almost to the top. Allow about an inch and a half.
5. Stir the water and coffee grounds up for about 5 or 6 seconds.
6. Cover the press container with lid/strainer combo BUT do not strain yet.
7. Allow 4 minutes for mixture to “brew.”
8. Slowly push down strainer all the way to the bottom. (Just like Dexter does! See pic above)
9. Pour into your favorite cup and be prepared for one of the smoothest cups of coffee that you have ever tasted.
10. Drawback is that if you add really cold cream, the coffee will get too cool too fast.
11. Should it really take me 11 items of an ordered list to explain a French Press.
12. Probably not but I can’t stop now.
13. It sounds like a lot of trouble to go through for coffee, but it’s kind of fun and elitist all at the same time. “Look at me, you swine swilling drips! I am the master of the French Press. Now go away or I shall taunt you a second time!”
14. Can’t end on 13. That would not be good.