In watching a re-run of the original Iron Chef ("Tomato Battle") I watched the challenger Franco Canzoniere battle Kobe. The most fascinating aspect of these shows is the manual dexterity of the chefs. Certainly, they are gifted with creativity and spectacular palettes, but they are equally skilled in all of the fine techniques used in food preparation. If you only have an hour to cook a five course meal, the ability to chop onions quickly, efficiently, and with style becomes rather important. Here's a small video snippet illustrating the point:
Link to video
I'm okay with a knife, but nowhere near this level of dexterity
Microsoft has made the November CTP of Avalon available to the general public. Previously it was only available to MSDN subscribers. Download the newest version here. It's exciting to see XAML and Avalon get a wider audience and Microsoft is actively encouraging public feedback to help shape future versions of the framework.
In order to avoid confusion, this version only works on Windows XP and Windows Server 2003, not Longhorn. More information on any installation issues can be found on the Avalon newsgroups.
Podcasting is cool. If for no other reason than it's very difficult to be introduced to new music via text. And I was just convinced of how well it works.
By way of Adam Curry's podcast, I heard about the Lascivious Biddies. I was doubly estatic when I heard that they would be performing at the Middle East in Cambridge. Last night I saw them with an old friend from college, Andrew Hughes. Self-described as a combination of jazz, swing and cabaret, they have a fantastic ability to make “old songs sound new and new songs sound old.” Whichever the direction, all of their songs sound very uniquely their own, and Lee Ann Westover has a great voice accompanied by some wonderful musicians in Amanda Monaco, Diedre Rodman and Saskia Lane. You can hear samples of their songs here:
http://www.biddies4ever.com/hear.html
Some favorites are Ask, You Don't Own Me, Famous and the Truck Song. According to Lee Ann, they'll be back in Boston in a few months. I highly recommend them.