Strange things you're not used to

[Jeraly 4]

a GREAT hot weather dish is cous cous - doesn't need to be boiled, just to be covered in boiling water for five minutes

and of course you can flavour the water with anything from chicken stock to garlic...

some noodles are the same...

I love couscous Thing is, Jeremy hates it Very annoying - I love how you can eat it hot or cold as well - in fact we have some in our cupboard Mmmm I want couscous now... maybe it will go well with fish...

I've been streaming Triple J over the internet, from Australia

pretty weird to be going about my business in a house in the Houston 'burbs, while hearing the time in Aus, and the temperatures around the country (it's a national station), and Aussie news... it's great

and the music is the best EVER

of course, that only works for home... still haven't found anything half way decent for the car

I would like to point out to them that U2, the Police, Alanis Morrisette, et al, ALL RECORDED MORE THAN TWO SONGS :angry:

Ok - call me naive, but then I never really thought about it - I never realised that Australia had a national station - I assumed that it being such a large country would be the same as the US and have regional ones with crappy coverage I used to listed to Radio 1 in the UK because it had no adverts. Some of the shows were a bit ropey but you can't have it all Here it is amazing - we have a good old dance in the car when we are travelling to AZ because we get very little other than Mexican stations Here we listen to KCal - lots of poodle-perm inspiring soft rock... hmmm

Can't wait til I get some speakers for my puter

[StillThePrettiest 4]

cous cous goes REALLY well with fish

when I make it, I cook the fish in foil, in the oven, with lemon juice, olive oil, a bit of soy sauce and loads of garlic... and then make the cous cous with chicken stock, a tiny bit of butter, and garlic, and stir in fresh chopped parsley right before serving it up

Triple J is a bit of an anomaly - it's the 'youth' branch of the ABC, which is the Aus equivalent to the BBC, and should by rights be a lot more staid and restricted than it is... but it's just ace; they play loads of Australian music, but also just a healthy dose of good stuff, wherever it's from; they remember that there are loads of small towns and isolated areas across the country, and try to do things that include them... virtually all the new music I've gotten into over the last ten years I've first heard of through JJJ

[Jeraly 4]

Like Lovers Electric? (Who are touring Aus right now - or were at least )

[Reba 2]

I think every American radio station shares programming directors, and shares their records and then just FedExs them out every other day or so.

I have the same problem with the stations I can get here, they all suck, and I'm in my car for a grand total of maybe 20 minutes per day, and believe it or not, I have on more than one occasion heard the same song 3 times in one day. And most of the time, its not even a recent song ugh...I need a satelite radio, but we're waiting to buy one until the FCC makes up its mind about Serius and XM, or until one goes bankrupt, whichever comes first

[Trompe le Monde 1,107]

Commercial radio in this country has pretty much sucked since the early 90s. The radio stations I grew up with in Detroit in the 70s and 80s was amazing but they've been completely homogenized into bland formats now. LA radio is currently pretty good though.

[StillThePrettiest 4]

Like Lovers Electric? (Who are touring Aus right now - or were at least )

do you get their email updates?

I tried to see them playing live while I was in Aus... unfortunately they were stiffed by the pub where they were supposed to be on, so moved the gig to another location - and I and my friends arrived about five minutes after they all left

oh well... David and Eden were both at our pre-wedding party, the night before we left Aus, so I saw them then... and I sat them at the same table as an ex-student of mine - the only one I've kept up with, who is GORGEOUS in every single way, and an actor - and now they're all great friends and hang out together

their album is being launched in Aus this week, by the way... I HOPE it does well; it deserves to

[Jeraly 4]

Like Lovers Electric? (Who are touring Aus right now - or were at least )

do you get their email updates?

I tried to see them playing live while I was in Aus... unfortunately they were stiffed by the pub where they were supposed to be on, so moved the gig to another location - and I and my friends arrived about five minutes after they all left

oh well... David and Eden were both at our pre-wedding party, the night before we left Aus, so I saw them then... and I sat them at the same table as an ex-student of mine - the only one I've kept up with, who is GORGEOUS in every single way, and an actor - and now they're all great friends and hang out together

their album is being launched in Aus this week, by the way... I HOPE it does well; it deserves to

Oh you name dropper you!! They have a facebook group that I have joined AND I managed to get the album for 5 quid (stupid no pound sign ) download ages ago so know all the words to all the songs - now they just need to do a gig out here in Palm Springs or nearby

And yeah - I get their e-mail updates I like that they don't hammer you with a ton of useless information every day

[TBoneTX 48,087]

Hmmmph. My inestimable wit is being ignored. The solution to such is to stuff one's face until one is about to be sick. Being out of mooseburgers, I will seek some fried pollo. Hmmmph.

Regarding radio stations, some of the rap/hip-hop stations actually aren't bad. Some of what's played is screaming or wailing, but some of the rest can be pretty good (for that musical genre).

Two sentences without a punchline... I must be sick.

[StillThePrettiest 4]

I must be sick.

si, man

I have been listening to the radio all morning, and I SWEAR I have not heard a single track that I haven't heard every other friggen day

it's really and truly dire... if I had even a tiny bit of money I would start a new radio station and blow all the rest out of the water

as it is, I think I shall have to get some seven day playlists happening on my nice brandy-new MP3 player (birfday present ) and set them going through the house speakers, and thus forget the pain

[TBoneTX 48,087]

I must be sick.

si, man

We are the chorus, and we agree. We agree, we agree, we agree, si man. Actually, I've been badly abusing my day-pass from the asylum.

Regarding radio stations, perhaps Web-search "radio stations in [your town]" and narrow from there to see what you can learn about formats or playlists throughout the day. Or, surf the frequencies, jot down the call-letters of each station that may or may not hold promise, and Web-search each station individually. This sounds very tedious, but people who are extremely frustrated might stumble onto something.

During the week, while driving, I listen exclusively to AM talk-radio, but I can't stand it on the weekends, so I'll listen to either a hip-hop or a Mexicano/Tejano station. I couldn't abide the latter every day of the week, because I don't like all (up to half) of the offerings, but there's enough for me to dabble in. (Ahem) DIVERSITY (ahem) in TEXAS (si man) makes the world go 'round, si man.

And, if you still come up with zero after all that, turn the radio off. "Silence, like the retriever, is golden," si man.

[Reba 2]

I got a Zune for Christmas last year and i've loaded it up (its got 30G and I haven't even got 4G of music on it yet!) and I plug it in to my computer speakers at work, and drown out the country radio station that the lady who sits next to me listens to on her radio. I used to listen to one of the radio stations from backhome over the internet, but then I got in trouble for that because it sucked up all their bandwidth They need a faster connection, they're stuck like back in 1993 as far as technology goes They really don't know what to think of the MP3 player, it just boggles them for some reason.

Sometimes I wonder if when I moved here I crossed thru the Twighlight Zone

[TBoneTX 48,087]

OK... diversity lesson needed (from a USC!).

I went down the "international foods" aisle at the supermarket tonight. There were selections for several nationalities, including (drum roll, please) the British. (See? We Colonists are gracious in victory, even 200+ years later, and in Texas, too, si man.)

While humming "God Save the Queen" under my breath (the truth), I saw two canned products. One was "treacle" and the other -- God save the Queen and help me -- was... uh, "spotted #######."

What the bloody deuce are these, and what is their purpose or benefit? Si, man?

I'm hoping that there is some reasonable explanation of why these are in the food aisle. "Treacle" sounds like something that an elderly chap with prostate problems would experience several times nightly, and... uh... the other very seriously sounds like the effects of a raging venereal disease.

I was quite shaken by the experience, and I rushed back to the Mexican section, where at least I recognized what most of their stuff was, si man.

Si, man?

Edited August 23, 2008 by TBoneTX

[Gemmie 142]

I think treacle is like syrup.

Don't know about Spotted #######... never had it!

[Big Papa Zone 93]

You don't know what spotted ####### is, Gemmie!!!????????????

Well, for the benefit of you and our American friends:

"Spotted ####### is a traditional English steamed suet pudding containing dried fruit (usually currants), commonly served with either custard or butter and brown sugar. Spotted refers to the dried fruit (which resemble spots) and ####### may be a contraction/corruption of the word pudding (from the last syllable) or possibly a corruption of the word dough.[1] It is possibly conjugated originally from sticky pudding to dicky pudding to dicky to ####### and finally spotted ####### as in pudding with raisins.[citation needed] It is also known as spotted dog, plum duff, steamed dicky, figgy dowdy, dotted lloyd, packphour's lament, dicky widmark as well as plum bolster, ####### in a box, Spotted Richard and, occasionally, Dickie Burton after the famous actor."

[Saffyre 0]

mmmmmm treacle sponge.......with ambrosia custard......YUM