Sesame street electronica mash up

Dont ask me how I did this but play this

and then after 15-20 seconds play this

enjoy

The Blend Show November Oddcast #003

The Blend Oddcast #003  by  Ivan Varian

Tracklisting

1. Orla Dell Graham – Shortnin bread
2. Gillian Welch, Alison Krauss & Emmylou Harris - Didn't Leave Nobody But the Baby
3. Fleetwood Mac – The Chain
4. Edward Sharp and the Magnetic Zeros – 40 day dream
5. The Apples – Killing in the name of
6. Elektrons – Get up (GW edit)
7. LCD Soundsystem – Bye Bye Bayou
8. Fourtet – Love Cry
9. The Beatles – Tomorrow never knows (Leftside wobble edit)
10. Tim Baker – Reckless
11. Mala – Left leg out
12. Fuck Buttons – Space Mountain
13. Shackleton – Blood on my hands
14. Radiohead – Reckoner (Off World edit)

The Blend Show October Oddcast #002

The Blend Oddcast #002  by  Ivan Varian


Tracklisting...


Olive – You’re not alone (Kill Light remix)
Florence and the Machine – You’ve got the Love (the XX remix)
Greg Wilson – Sacrificial Soul
Hot 8 Brass Band – Sexual Healing
Pretty Lights – More important than Michael Jordan
Pollyn – Gave it up (Peter Visti Remix)
Joubert Singers – Stand on the Word (Unabombers Remix)
Hot Chip – Over and over (Maurice Fulton remix)
M – Pop music (Todd Terje Remix)
See Cape, Get Cape, Fly – D.A.N.C.E
Tensnake – In the end (I want you to cry)
22-20s – I’m such a fool
AmpLive – Video Tapez (feat Del the Funky Homosapien)
Massive Attack – Splitting the Atom

Soundtrack for my daughter

I have a maggot. When she's in my company, she spends most of her time reconstructing my face with the sharp talons and biting my nose.
I made this video of her and did a bit with the soundtrack, hope you like

Roast Butternut squash and courgette Risotto

Ok so,

I'm going to get on my soapbox here. Although I have no culinary training, no experience in farming, I did luckily grow up in a house where we grew a lot of our fruit and vegetables, and am concerned about the way we eat and choose our food today.

Many chefs go on about seasonality in food, how it's best to pick the food when it's in the prime of its growing season and tasting the best. This is so very true however along with this no-one highlights the carbon footprint of vegetables when consumed out of season.

Let me paint you a picture, fruit and vegetables that are grown out of season in foreign countries are usually picked when un-ripe, shipped in zero oxygen dark containers, and then given a blast of air for a day or so to ripen the produce up and sell it on the market. Now apart from, zero amount of nutritional value, think of the carbon footprint needed for this style of shipping.

The produce grown out of Ireland’s natural growing season needs to be flown from far off fields, where intensive methods of farming are killing off fragile ecosystems and harmful insecticides are used where local corrupt beau racy will turn a blind eye to massive fish kills from the polluted run off.

Unlike meat, which can be frozen with no major ill effects. This produce needs to be flown over to stack our shelves of our local supermarket. Flown, in a jet plane, that we, as consumers, are told that we cannot use as we kill the planet because of our extravagance. This method of travel that supports our local economy through tourism that our government now will place a carbon tax on and further deter people away from this ailing state.

So if you have a hankering for French beans or strawberries in January, don't. Go to your local greengrocer, they'll know everything there is to know about seasonality and what stuff they have in at the moment that is good. If you have to go to your local supermarket, check the label on where it's grown and make the moral choice.

Now that I'm off my soapbox, here's a recipe for two cracking veggies that are bang in season at the moment and are really really tasty.

Butternut Squash and Courgette Risotto

Ingredients

2 stalks of celery

One medium Onion

Half a medium sized Butternut squash.

A medium sized courgette

300g of Risotto rice

Chicken stock (about 1200 ml)

150ml of white wine.

50g of parmesan

One teaspoon of fresh ground Nutmeg

One teaspoon of Chinese 5 spice

Butter

One tablespoon of chopped thyme

Prep time: 10 mins

Cooking time: 30 minutes

Method

Pre-heat the oven to 180 C

Peel the butternut squash with a potato peeler, top and tail, and then de-core. Chop into bite sized chunks and spread on a roasting tray. Drizzle with olive oil, season well and sprinkle with nutmeg and Chinese 5 spice. Put into the oven for 30 mins.

Run a potato peeler over the outside of the celery to get rid of the stringy bits, and then chop along with the onion finely.

Put a heavy based wide pan over a medium flame and add 2 tablespoons of olive oil. Add the celery and onion and cover for 2 minutes, shake the pan to prevent caramelising or burning. When the celery and onion is translucent, then you’re ready to go.

Turn the heat up and add the rice. Stir constantly until the rice has taken a translucent edge and then add the wine. When that has cooked off, then slowly add the stock bit by bit. Stir to allow the rice to take on the stock, if you think it’s cooking too fast then adjust the heat down. Continue to add the stock bit by bit, stirring constantly.

Whilst the rice is on the go, take a frying pan and add a tablespoon of olive oil over a medium heat. Add the diced courgette and cook till lightly browned and soft. Season well and add the thyme.

By this stage you rice should be nearly done. Have a taste and the rice should retain just a little bite. Take it off the heat.

Take the squash out of the oven; it should be soft and browned at the edges. Add it and the courgette to the rice along with half the parmesan grated and a couple of knobs of butter. Stir, then cover and leave for 5 minutes.

Serve with the rest of the parmesan shaved and plenty of fresh ground black pepper.

Music music music

Dear Blogger.com

I'm aware I've neglected you in the past and for that I am truly sorry. It's not me it's you. I've been wooed by your attractive slimmer cousin, twitter. She doesn't let me talk as much but at least she's fast, effective, and all my friends like her. Whereas you only get on with a couple of my friends. She also lets me do stuff with her with my phone that you wouldn't dream of doing.
But now I see the error of my ways and I think we're ready to move forward with our relationship. I believe our relationship is strong enough that we could try new things, perhaps some three way action.

I know you'll understand as I've done a couple of mixtapes and written you a few tunes for you.

Ivan

It's not a mix - Sep 09 by Ivan Varian

Ivan Varian-3 thrust wonder by Ivan Varian

Ivan Varian- Dark Chocolate and fennel tea-Aug 09 by Ivan Varian

rambleaholic

Ok ok, so I've been a bit lax on posting for the blog but I've been smothering myself in all the things one cannot do when one becomes a father. Namely dressing up as Ziggy Stardust, staying up til 5am playing Guitar Hero, and imbibing enough poteen to kill everything down to a micro cellular level. Or all of the above on the same night (pictures to be added soon) as was done last Saturday.
But have been doing other things to get down with the Kids, namely exploring the world of Twitter. Which for the moment is a perfect tool for the guise of Web 2.0, the guise being stalking various people of a famous or non-famous nature. Not too sure what to make of it really other than having a little window into people's mundane lives, although Stephen Fry's entries are quite funny.
Have put the Radio show on Powerfm.org on hiatus for the next few months as my co-presenter has actually got himself a job in the evenings which has left my in a bit of creative doldrum and am toying with the idea of doing a podcast.
Did a 4 and a half hour mix the other day, how hard can it be?
The club and pub gigs also have to go on hold for the while as I was painted a glorius picture on sunday by my lovely other half of being stuck in a delivery ward with "screwed up eyes and screwed down hairdo like some cat from Japan"...

So for the moment that is all, be at ease...

Battles vs MIA

Just some music for you

TUNE!

Carragher Fail

I, like most people, take humour when someone or thing fails miserably at what they're determined to do. Try and deny it but it is human nature and the basis of most comedy.
One of the greatest exponents of this nature is Failblog.org with its brilliant library of everything that is comically terrible, or terribly comic. It was hence with great glee and pleasure when travelling through my local airport I spotted this at the obligatory departures bookshop.
It is particularly prophetic considering the standard at which these football autobiographies are spewed out.

The Economy

we're all safe lads, not to worry

Genesis

This is my first post.......think I should say something profound.

em......

Spelunking!