October 2009
31 posts
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Restaurant Review – Penang Coffee House (Hawthorn...
From the fitout, you could be sitting in any monochrome kitchen from the early nineties. The service, however, is very different and reminiscent of Hawkers Café, with staff laying down patter and joking around as they served. The menu is extensive and relatively easy to get your head around, but not being too familiar with Malaysian food, some of the dishes were not quite what I was...
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Game Review – Canabalt (Browser) – 4 Stars
It’s the pixelpocalypse; and, armed with just a snazzy suit, it’s time to run. There are other simple and addictive games out there, but with only one button, it really doesn’t get any simpler (or more addictive) than this. Created for a game development competition with the theme, ‘minimalism’; Canabalt succeeds where ‘Jumper’ failed, and draws you into a story without revealing any...
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Restaurant Review – Café Vamp (Hawthorn VIC) – 4...
Living in Fitzroy, it’s easy to forget that cafés like this exist can outside of Brunswick St. But exist, they do. And they serve some very nice food in a very relaxed manner as well. Sitting in private school central on Glenferrie Rd, the mis-matched chairs and indie-rock concert posters on the wall seem somewhat out of place, but a breakfast with this much bacon (or smoked salmon, if...
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Website Review – Wordle – 2.5 Stars
It might not be art, but some of the visualisations that Wordle creates certainly are interesting to look at. Wordle works by creating a word cloud based off a text input. The more often a word appears, the larger it is in the cloud. The image on the left is a section of the one for the 100 Word Reviews archive, but you can see others I’ve created from Shakespeare’s ‘Hamlet’ and the King...
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Restaurant Review – Undertaker Dining Room...
There’s certainly an audience for Undertaker Dining Room out there, but I’m not sure who it is. They’d need to be the kind of person who’s willing to be served by an emotionless robot, sit in an eclectically decorated dining room, and pay in the high-$30s for an overly complex meal that is quite good – but not as good as you’d expect for the price. It is pleasant, though, and I had a very...
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Bar Review – Misty (Melbourne VIC) – 3.5 Stars
It still manages to surprise me to go to a bar in the city where you can sit around comfortably, and have a conversation without shouting. I guess that’s what happens when your bar becomes a test case for the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal over noise levels. Misty’s got a great drinks menu on offer, with a huge variety of beers, an extensive cocktail list, and a selection of...
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Restaurant Review – Spicy Noodle Café (Melbourne...
Everyone likes a solid feed for under $10, and that’s what you’ll find at Spicy Noodle Café on LaTrobe St. You order based off pictures on the wall, and while they do provide a limited form of table service, your raffle ticket number is what gets you your meal. The food, like the service, is more focussed on speed and size than flavour; so while you will get back to your desk in time to file...
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Movie Review – Puddle Cruiser (1996) – 3.5 Stars
The ‘Broken Lizard’ boys had to start somewhere, and that place is ‘Puddle Cruiser’. While not quite at the standard that its younger brother, ‘Super Troopers’, achieved, it’s still a very funny movie. It centres on the budding relationship between Felix and Suzanne, yet the main source of laughs comes from the judicial process surrounding Kevin Heffernan and Paul Soter’s characters, after...
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Restaurant Review – The Groove Train (Melbourne...
If an extensive menu and a quick meal is what you want, then you could do a lot worse than Groove Train. If you’re looking for quality food, pleasant service, and a nice atmosphere, then try somewhere else. The food is satisfying in the same way that watching a Seinfeld re-run is – it’s reasonably pleasant while you’re watching it, but as soon as you’ve finished, you’ve already forgotten what...
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Movie Review – Capitalism: A Love Story (2009) –...
‘Capitalism’ is a true example of a movie in two parts. For the first hour, Moore jumps between topics never holding a theme longer than it takes to watch a family cry. Here we learn about the seedy side of pay disputes, life insurance, and re-mortgaging your house. The second hour of the movie, however, tells a great story of the cause, effect, and implications of the financial crisis and...
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Restaurant Review – The Baths (Sorrento VIC) – 4...
It’d be tough for another restaurant too have a more relaxed feel than The Baths. The chairs are comfortable, the fit out’s clean, and the whole place literally sits right on the beach, so as you can imagine, the view is beautiful. It doesn’t stop there – the food is brilliant, too. Our lunch provided us with a spectacular duck and mushroom gnocchi, featuring tender shreds of confit duck...
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Music Review – Hey Young Believer ‘Invisible By...
Listening to ‘Invisible By Day’, the debut LP from San Francisco three piece Hey Young Believer, made me feel like I knew the band; or more to the point, that they knew me. The album followed me through my day – ‘Tidal Waves’ bounced me out of bed, ‘Waking Up On The Floor’ forebode my day at work, ‘The Funeral Shuffle’ got me through the paper pushing, ‘Walking Over You’ accompanied my...
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Website Review – Google Wave – 2 Stars
I recently got my hands on a Google Wave invite, and I have to admit that I’m not that impressed. Don’t get me wrong, I think the technology is great, it’s a bit of fun, and I do subscribe to their idea that Wave is “what email would be like if it were invented toady”. Unfortunately, I can’t see it garnering the broad use that they’re looking for. As a development experiment it’s a good...
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Restaurant Review – World Restaurant and Bar...
World Bar has changed its look a couple of times, but still manages to provide a nice casual dining experience for a reasonable price. As the name would suggest, menu variety is the name of the game, with lamb burgers next to lentils and steaks next to souvlakis. It can get busy at times, with menus, drinks and meals being misplaced, but these issues are all handled with a smile and quick...
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Event Review – St George Melbourne Marathon 2009 –...
This was my first half marathon, and only my second competitive run, so I don’t have much to compare it to. I really enjoyed the run itself, and was great culmination to my training. It did seem, though, that corners had been cut with the race organisation. On the run, the distance markers were few, far between, and placed as to be very difficult to see; and distance-wise, the fact that the...
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Restaurant Review – Stax (Melbourne VIC) – 3 Stars
If it hadn’t been for YourRestaurants (but more on that another time), I’d have never known about Stax, hidden at the top of the city, just behind Swanston St. I’m glad I did find out about it though. A wide variety of cheap and tasty food, and brilliant coffee make it a nice option for lunch. My creamy chicken and bacon pasta was solid lunch, even if the sauce seemed a little watered down. ...
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Event Review – A Day In Pompeii (Melbourne Museum)...
Everyone’s heard the story of Mount Vesuvius erupting over Pompeii, but it takes an exhibition like this to truly understand what it meant. The exhibition is spread out nicely, with the first area dedicated to how the inhabitants of Pompeii used to live (with some amazingly preserved displays of household and garden items, and even carbonised food), while the second area described the eruption...
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TV Review – Freaks and Geeks – 4 Stars
As a cultural study, ‘Freaks and Geeks’ is a success on two levels. On the surface, it’s a great view of the tough world of high school in Carter/Regan era Michigan. Under that surface, however, is a snapshot of actors and filmmakers who would become powerhouses on the late 00s. There’s James Franco, Seth Rogan, and Jason Segal (to name a few), under the production of Judd Apatow. The...
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Restaurant Review – Hawker’s Café 2 (Hawthorn VIC)...
Some restaurants draw you in with flavours and aromas, others with talk and service. Hawker’s Café is an example of the latter. It was somewhat of a surprise to have such a friendly face taking our orders and offering suggestions without feeling like we were being up-sold. After that, it was little things: a glass of water whilst waiting for our take-away order, and descriptions of other...
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Movie Review – G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra (2009)...
Much like ‘Transformers II’, ‘G.I. Joe’ is a movie that is much more entertaining than critics would lead you to believe. Sure it makes little to no sense to a rational viewer, with sinking icebergs, spontaneous underwater fires, and nanobots that previously only destroyed cancer cells but have been specifically engineered to destroy everything instead. But that’s not the point – there are...
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Restaurant Review – Dante’s (Fitzroy VIC) – 3.5...
It’s an interesting feeling to eat your dinner with Sophia Loren and Charlton Heston looking over your shoulder from a wall full of 50s movie posters. But Dante’s is an interesting place, and full of interesting flavours. Feel free to ignore the standard mains and pizzas and jump straight to the tapas, making sure you stop for a side of parmesan crusted eggplant chips on the way. The...
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Movie Review – Nick and Norah’s Infinite Playlist...
With a killer indie rock backing track, ‘Nick and Norah’s Infinite Playlist’ tells the story of awkward teenage sexual attraction on a New York City night. Michael Cera and Kat Dennings play their roles well, and the main issue with the movie seems to be how they’ve cut and re-arranged the sub-stories within Rachel Cohn and David Levithan’s novel of the same name. As a result, the film...
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Service Review – Chime – 4 Stars
Admit it. You’re jealous of the people who post FaceBook status updates from their phones. You’ve seen the phone icon and thought, “I wish I had a fancy phone that could do that.” Now you don’t need one. With Chime, you simply create a link between your mobile number and your FaceBook (or Twitter) profile, and you can update your status via SMS. It’s not free, but it’s a standard mobile...
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Restaurant Review – White Tomato (Melbourne VIC) –...
There are quite a few of the style of Korean BBQ places around Melbourne, so it’s hard not to compare them. And while this place does score highly for their understated, yet charming décor (from the flags, to the posters, to the indoor plants, to the Korean movies playing on the big screen over the dining room), it’s let down by the food. We went with the safe option of the beef bibimbap,...
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Product Review – Jade Tiger Abalone (Vacuum...
Please don’t take this as a one star rating for abalone in general, as I’m not pretending to be any sort of expert – just sharing my disappointment. I’m sure when it’s good quality, fresh, and cooked by a master of the ingredient it’d be something special; but maybe this isn’t something to cook at home, unless you’re sure you know what you’re doing. I was expecting the gourmet flavour to...
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TV Review – How I Met Your Mother (Season 4) – 3...
So much for just keeping getting better. Now that we’ve hit the fourth season of ‘How I Met Your Mother’ you can really feel momentum slow down. The episodes start to drag in a manner than they’ve never done in previous seasons, and a couple of episodes have so little substance that they could have been a subplot in another episode. Sure, it must have been difficult dealing with pregnancies...
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Restaurant Review – Rinaldo’s (Wangaratta VIC) – 3...
While they do have the very best of intentions, the main problem with Rinaldo’s is that they need to train their staff. When queried as to the variety of dips on the antipasto entrée, we were informed they were “a bit of everything”; and whilst charming, I’m happy for you to tell me which part of the duck the dish uses, rather than pointing it out on your own body. Other issues, such as mains...
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Software Review – Radio? Sure! – 3.5 Stars
Anyone who listens to the radio over the internet knows that while it’s certainly possible, it’s not a particularly smooth and user-friendly experience. ‘Radio? Sure!’ (that name should give you an idea of the goals of this program) creates a nice little portable interface (no installation necessary, meaning that it can easily be used on a public or work computer) that catalogues over 12,000...
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Bar Review – The Black Pearl (Fitzroy VIC) – 2.5...
I know they thought they were improving The Black Pearl with the new couches, redecoration, and changed menu; but unfortunately, they got rid of the spirit of the place with the patched leather armchairs. The new fit-out would look more at home on Chapel St than Brunswick St, and the overly pretentious menu spends more of its time trying to make you look stupid than provide you with beverage...
September 2009
31 posts
2 tags
Product Review – Premax Safety Razor – 3 Stars
The selection of double-edge safety razors available in Australia isn’t huge, with the Premax being the best quality available at Shaver Shop. From what I’ve heard, it’s not great for beginners, and although I don’t have much to compare it to, I can certainly feel that it’s rather aggressive. It feels nice in the hands, though, and the weighting is great. The grip on the tip of the handle...