blogonhoy: Balloon festival, or balloon glow | pauline orendain

17.1.07

Balloon festival, or balloon glow

pauloy on flickr

After dark, originally uploaded by pauloy.

Braving cold weather, we simply had to go see the Red White & Blue Balloon Festival (or something like that). I've been close to a hot air balloon before, but nothing compared to a giant mass of them all together in one grassy field, bobbing up and down and loudly spewing hot air and flames every now and then to keep them afloat. The balloons were tethered and when it got darker, they all fired up and thus, the balloon glow came to be.

speak!

off the shelf

02.10.07

Harney & Sons Earl Grey

Earl Grey
by Harney & Sons

After polishing off my Betjeman and Barton Eden Rose blend a month back and not having gotten around to re-ordering it from nowhere but France (somehow I can't yet make myself pay whatever it is they're asking for shipping, so I'll have to wait for the next person to go to France and have them buy it for me, 2 kilos please this time, as the 1 kg. was gone too soon), I've been relegated to remaining teas on the shelf of lesser quality with diminished flavor. There was the 2-year old Mariage Frères Earl Grey Silver Tips that had a deadened flavor, falling flat and tasting more like wood chips off a wood shop floor (OK, it was probably expired and Mariage is normally just lovely). And the Upton Tea Fragrant Cloud Jasmine. Which, I normally love, but somehow this cooler weather just calls for something black, rich, chocolatey and bergamot-citrus infused. Harney & Sons' Earl Grey looked like it would do, sitting on the shelf, all it's loose leaves calling out to me in some weird vibrating dance of shredded tips and branches. So, I responded by plopping some $12 for the tin which might have been the shipping alone for a bag of Eden Rose. Well, fortunately for my taste buds, this Earl Grey is a loose replica of Eden Rose, minus the vanilla-rose infusion. But it'll do, and it does very well I might add; almost chocolatey and strongly bergamot-citrus. No shipping charges involved.

27.09.07

Vampire Weekend EP

4 Songs
by Vampire Weekend

I LOVE IT! It's like quiet "punk" meets South African sensibilities. But 4 measly tracks are all I can get my ears around at the moment, so I eagerly anticipate the LP due out early 2008. There's no mistaking that indie sound, but so nicely infused with the Afrobeat rhythms – it's like a perfect fusion of distant cuisines that meld on your taste buds and do a quiet dance of joy in honor of wonderful flavors coming together so seamlessly. I await with eager ears – at last something to look forward to that doesn't sound like everything else I've been listening to of late. Hurrah!

24.09.07

Kate Nash Made of Bricks

Made of Bricks
by Kate Nash

Is this Lily Allen's second album? Oh, what? It's someone else? OK, so they don't sound exactly alike, accents and myspace accounts aside, but they do sing of similar things so that you could conjure up on your own that they might just possibly live on the same side of the pond. It's been called Chavtronica – I tend to agree. Although the poppy, soppy derivatives are quite infectious after a few listens, I wouldn't exactly call it to the top ten of my list. I'm not sure if I would pick Lily Allen over Kate Nash, although I'm sure I'd definitely rather listen to Amy Winehouse on most days.

good to read:

additional reading

reading list<
mcsweeney's
neil gaiman
jonathan carroll
read yourself raw
alan moore fansite
phil lit portal
ninotchka rosca
GABRIELA Network
magazines<
layers magazine
wired
food<
jamie oliver
la tartine gourmande
nordljus
orangette
schtuff<
gizmodo
engadget
boingboing

gallery

Salamanca

Salamanca

NOW AVAILABLE
at Fully Booked
GET YOURS NOW!

Philippine Speculative Fiction Volume I

Philippine Speculative Fiction Vol. I

NOW AVAILABLE
at Fully Booked
GET YOURS NOW!

profile

This work is licensed under
a Creative Commons License.

This site displays best on Firefox and is wonky
on anything else.