Journal

I’ve just read 1984 by George Orwell. I know, I know… I should have done this a long time ago. Anyway, here’s what I thought.

When watching presentations recently I’ve noticed that a few speakers use this tool to generate animated images for their slides.

Gifox is a menu bar app that records your screen into animated GIFs – a great compromise between static images and full-size videos.

I was introduced to this smile-inducing website by Val Head’s An Event Apart Talk “Building more expressive projects”.

I just made a first visit to Chicago. It was primarily to attend An Event Apart but I was lucky enough to have a little time to check out the city, too.

Firstly I want to thank all the friends who provided tips for things to do and see in The Windy City – Aleks, Susan, Jenny, Lucy, Alan and Karen, Collette etc – cheers!

Thanks also to Davie for jetting in from NYC to join me and Liam for a couple of days. I doff my cap to your knowledge of beautifully designed restaurants with really expensive menus 😉.

I also got the chance to catch up with old friend Nick Calingaert AKA Common Factor, a lovely guy and talented producer who DJed for me and my friends at a couple of our club nights back in the early 00s.

We only had a few days, but I felt we managed to cram in some good stuff. Here’s a summary of the highlights.

Eating out #

• Swift & Sons
• Momataro
• Chicago Athletic Club (with its appropriately posh tag-line “Dine and Libate”…)

Bars #

• Danny’s Bar
• Rainbo Bar

Record Shopping #

• Gramaphone Records
• Dusty Groove
• Shuga Records, 1272 N. Milwaukee Ave
• Reckless Records

Cool Neighbourhoods #

• Wicker Park area

Culture / History #

• Architecture Boat Tour
• The Art Institute of Chicago

Things to do #

• Millenium Park
• Cloud Gate (AKA The Bean)

And if we’d had more time… #

• Go see the Cubs playing baseball at Wrigley Field
• Green Mill Jazz Club

Magical sounds in the mix, from Auld Reekie’s finest.

I’ve heard a couple of people mention that when they buy domain names, they use Namecheap because they are cheap and trustworthy.

When in Chicago, buy #house

Rubadub have a new mobile app that delivers the RaD crew’s top vinyl recommendations (the best around) direct to your phone.

I've just finished reading Stasiland by Anna Funder, having received the recommendation from a friend.

It tells a series of extraordinary and often heart-wrenching stories from the underbelly of the former East Germany. I thought it was fantastic and highly recommend it.