Tom’s Best of 2012 Indie Mix

Diamond Rings Live San Francisco 2012

I’ve been sitting on this one for too long. Well not so much sitting, as bopping in my chair. The dog’s been looking at me funny. You will be too. I mean the bopping, more than the looking funny. You are beautiful. I swear.

So much good music this year. And I just have to keep the tradition alive (search this blog for music mixes going back to 2006). I know you guys need you fix of the yearly music mix. enjoy!

01.    Edward Sharpe & The Magnetic Zeros     Man on Fire
02.    The Lumineers     Ho Hey
03.    Electric Guest     This Head I Hold
04.    Miike Snow     Bavarian #1 (Say You Will)
05.    Passion Pit     Take A Walk
06.    Stealing Sheep     Shut Eye
07.    Crystal Castles     Plague
08.    alt-J     Matilda
09.    Grimes     Oblivion
10.    The XX     Angels
11.    Tycho     A Walk
12.    Washed Out     Amor Fati
13.    Yppah     R. Mullen
14.    Now, Now     Dead Oaks
15.    Islands     This is Not A Song
17.    Bat For Lashes     Laura
18.    Beach House     Myth
20.    Diamond Rings     I’m Just Me
21.    Hot Chip     Look At Where We Are
22.    Sea Wolf     Old Friend
23.    Joel Plaskett Emergency     Harbour Boys
24.    Skinny Lister     If The Gaff Don’t Let Us Down
25.    Chromatics     Kill for Love

Two good options, download the whole thing as a big-ass-zip-file here: Tom’s best of 2012 zip file
Or if you Rdio, you can follow me and stream [almost all] the playlist here: Tom’s best of 2012 Rdio Playlist

pictured: Diamond Rings, San Francisco 2012

Posted in Archive, media, music, podcast | 6 Comments

Gluten-free, Spicy Dark & Stormy Oatmeal Cookies

Delicious cookies

First I hired a gastroenterologist to help figure it out. This disagreement I was having. His name was Dr Man, very nice guy. Though secretly I wished his name was Magnum. Then I could say that Magnum GI was on the case.

It at last came to this because my own belly and I of late have come to certain difference of opinion on the relative merits of wheat gluten. Obviously wheat gluten is delicious. This is the argument my brain and mouth try and tell my other organs. But another faction within body is convinced gluten is some kind of murderous toxin, that it must tie my innards in knots to get rid of it. And so I’ve been trying to go gluten free. Going gluten free is hard. I find myself creating a lot more of my food. I find myself buying oats by the bushel to get that carb fix. Damn I miss [real] croissants. Meanwhile I find myself learning how to bake, owning mysterious ingredients like xantham gum or sourgum flour.

But there are upsides to having to DIY your own baked goods. This awesomeness is one of them. Perfected over the last few weekends for your enjoyment.

    1/4 Cup brown sugar (seriously cut down from other cookie recipes)
    1 Cup butter (mmm butter)
    2 eggs
    1 tsp Vanilla (better: 1tblsp ground Tahitian Vanilla)
    1 tbsp spiced rum (Kraken, Sailor Jerry or Goslings)
    1 tsp Baking Soda
    1 tsp Baking Powder
    Pinch salt
    1 tsp Xantham Gum
    1 tsp Guar Gum (in a pinch, 2tsp of either)
    1/2 cup Sorghum flour
    1/2 cup white rice flour
    2.5 cup Gluten-free oats ( on Amazon)
    1 tsp ground ginger
    1 tsp cinnamon
    1 fistful Candied/Crystallized Ginger

If solid, nuke the butter for 30s or so til mushy or half melted. Then cream it with sugar. Stir in eggs, rum, vanilla. Fold in the dry ingredients and spices (feeling fancy, you can sift together the dry ingredients first in another bowl). Now stir in oats. Rinse or soak the ginger for couple minutes to remove excess sugar. Dry and shop into bit-sized bits. Stir ginger into mix. Spoon cookie dough onto cookie sheets. Makes about 2 baking sheets worth of cookies. 350, 11 min, will do the rest. Allow to cool on the baking sheet before removing.

Serve with a tot of your darkest rum. For dipping. Zomg.

There you have it, awesome super-gingery oatmeal cookies. For my non-gluten-free friends, just call these Oatmeal Dark and Stormies… and thank me later

Posted in Archive, flavour, food | Leave a comment

Toronto: Get Wired, Get Hydrated, Get Your Robot On

Some of my dearest Toronto friends Leila Boujnane and the crew at Mozilla Toronto are putting on an event combining two of all of our favourite things: robots and hackathons. I wish I could go! But alas the west coast is a little out of the way. So I need your help to help me help them. First you need to vicariously go for me. Build fantastic bots! Second, Leila needs sponsors.

Sez Leila:

Help us make this robotics hacakthon happen http://www.getyourboton.com/. We need to raise $5,000 in 10 days to acquire all the hardware required! That’s 200 people donating $25. Do I have 200 friends who could help? or perhaps just 100 friends with $50 to donate? I am organizing a robotics weekend hackathon at the end of November and would really appreciate your help to give people a chance to build a robot in a single weekend with support of mentors, volunteers and hardware fans! I believe in our generous community! Can you friends help?

Robots are always a good cause. I chipped in, you should too. Myself I’ll next be back in Toronto in early December, I’ll expect to shake hands with your robot.

When: Friday, November 23 at 6:00 pm
Where: Mozilla Offices – MozSpace
366 Adelaide Street West, Suite 500
Toronto, Canada
Go to Google Maps

LINK: tickets and sponsorship via GuestListApp

Posted in Archive, events | 3 Comments