Best protest sign I've ever seen

Sure, that's a big claim, but check it out:

This lady is Rad with a capital 'R'.


Found and re-tweeted through Twitter.

Swirl Sniff Spit: Clare Valley wine tasting

Last night I had the pleasure of attending the first Swirl Sniff Spit event of 2013. 

Swirl Sniff Spit is a monthly wine-appreciation evening put together by a group of Brisbane wine lovers who know that a pleasure shared is a pleasure doubled. These monthly themed events seem to be rapidly becoming a must-do on the Brisbane wine calendar, with places booking out within minutes.
 

Assembled wine lovers at Era Bistro.

I have now been to a Chardonnay night, a McLaren Vale night and a Grampions Shiraz night. Last night it was Clare Valley, a part of the country I have not yet visited but whose wines I hugely enjoy. The host for the evening was Kate Giles, a Clare Valley wine maker who had some delicious drops in the line up. You can follow Kate on Twitter or on her blog.

Swirl Sniff Spit is a bit unique in being a twitter-based event. The general invitation to attend is issued on twitter one week before the event and all updates and RSVPs go through the same channel. The tasting is free of charge on the understanding that you live-tweet the event and tag the wine-makers, and order your dinner from Era Bistro, who kindly provide the space for the tastings free of charge.

 The evening's line up, complete with twitter tags and a map of the region we were 'exploring'.

Exploring the Clare Valley meant a lot of Riesling tasting and a real mixed bag of reds. What I would say it was an ideal tasting night. For my tastebuds at least.

Tastings are divided into 'brackets' for comparison between winemakers, vintages and varietals. By the end of the night my sheet is scribbled on and wine-stained with my notes and the suggestions of others. Seated next to Two Glass Taste, his first suggestion for the O'Leary Walker Riesling was 'lemon cheesecake'.

Bracket two: Watervale Rieslings. Delicious.

I greatly enjoyed the  full-mouth taste of the clos Claire Watervale 2012.

Books from your childhood

Yesterday on Twitter the Sydney Writers Centre posed the question: What were 5 books you grew up with? What 5 books – or series – defined your childhood?

This is a topic of conversation that comes up with my friends quite regularly; books from our childhoods, television shows, movies we grew up with.  We’re all of the same generation, I barely have a close friend who wasn’t born with 18 months of myself. Interestingly though, there are certain books / shows / movies we ALL were exposed to but for the most part we had very different defining experiences. 

What is almost certain is that when one of us discovered that the other has not read a certain book or watched a certain movie, we will be shocked and appalled at their deprived childhood and rave about how they MUST see it, you’ll LOVE it, it’s ESSENTIAL to life itself to have read The Railway Children or seen E.T.. 

For my part, I know that my choice of favourite books was influenced very heavily by my parents. Bookworms themselves, I grew up in a house lined with bookshelves but lacking in films. When I watched a movie, it was one I got out of the video store not out of the family collection. Books, however, were everywhere.

So, my answer to the Sydney Writers Festival question ran as follows:

Five for Friday no. 24

Paramount Pictures' epic 100th anniversary photo as featured in Vanity Fair.

25 things you didn't know about Mad Men.

This post in A Pair and a Spare makes me feel better about my long-term secret desire to own sequined shorts.

Photo courtesy of A Pair and a Spare.

Geolocated tweets mapped in real time.

Grilled pineapple guacamole. I want it now!

So, I'm a Twitter fan. Not an obsessive fan, just a fan. I got into it for work and then socially,now I tweet most days ... this is starting to sound like an addication but really, it's not. As a social platform Twitter is fun and useful and revolutionising communication while being the new ultimate time-waster. It can be an interesting place to 'hang out' and a lot of the cool things I talk about on this blog I find directly or indirectly through Twitter. I have even posted an info-graphic on Twitter [I love info-graphics].

What I am posting about today is the yearly round-up of Twitter. The twitter-powers-that-be are slowly releasing their year in review, with lists of the most trending topics, which note-able people joined and also interesting news stories that have a basis or tie with Twitter. My favourite was this story of a guy in Portland, Oregon who saved his Mum's bookstore with one tweet. It's kind of amazing story and you can either watch it just below or read about it and other Twitterworld stories online. There are also cool facts like the most tweets sent in one second - which wasn't for the moment Brasil were eliminated from the Copa America, though at 7,166 tweets it came close - or that #Eygpt was the most used hastag all year, and that Charlie Sheen, who only joined Twitter in March 2011 was the most talked about actor. Twitter - it's not just about meaningless drivel.

An infographic on Twitter

I suspect most people who look at this blog - and thank you to all of you who do - don't use twitter. But for those of you who do here's a nifty long info-graphic representing a visual history of twitter.

I love info-graphics on a Monday morning.

Zombie Belle

The internet is a strange zone of a space and it causes one to make strange bedfellows and discover penchants one never thought one had.

I confessed a while ago to my shameful Tumblr addiction of Disney Princess. Last week I started being followed on Twitter by Design Taxi. There is seemingly no connection between these two – except there is.

Months ago I saw these illustrations on Disney Princess and I thought they were just so damn cool, It wasn't until I checked out Design Taxi today that I could put a name to them. They're the gorgeous work of Jeffrey Thomas.

Disney Princesses as you've never seen them, by Jeffrey Thomas, featured on Design Taxi.

Conde Elevator

This twitter feed posts genuine snippets of conversations overheard in the Conde Nast elevator. It's my new favourite. On twitter? Follow it.

Our amazing world

This is just a really cool info graphic. I can’t post the image itself in this blog because it’s just too damn long. This charts the Earth’s highest to lowest point with various human-made and natural markers in between. Some of them really surprised me; like just how high up some cities are, how deep a sperm whale swims and how deep the Deepwater Horizon drill penetrates. All sounds obvious, but somehow the graphic really hit it home.