Charlie sheen cooking show!

Observe the madness of Charlie Sheen.



There’s no doubt about it, you can’t stay away from Charlie Sheen –and he wouldn’t want you to, I mean just look at all the chaos, offers, material and MONEY he’s been making. Jump aboard the train to insanity and enjoy the view! It’s like watching the Truman Show only he wants to be watched. I think the camera’s glare is the only thing keep him alive, it powers him! At first I thought, “leave the poor guy alone” but then I started watching and realized I myself was glued to the Charlie Sheen express headed straight for a wall! But until then, it’s time for some good old self-mocking and a few recipes to go with it…

Reading and Leeds 2011 line-up announced!

Reading & Leeds Festival 2011 Line-Up Confirmed! The likes of Muse, Pulp, The Strokes & My Chemical Romance will headline...

The line-up for this year's Reading And Leeds Festival has been confirmed, with the likes of My Chemical Romance, The Strokes, Pulp and Muse topping the bill.

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My Chemical Romance will headline Reading Festival's Richfield Avenue on Friday 26th August and Leeds on the Saturday, with 30 Seconds To Mars, Deftones and The Offspring offering support.

Saturday night sees The Strokes co-headline the main stage with Pulp, along with The National, Jimmy Eat World and Madness. They will then hit Leeds' Bramham Park on the Sunday.

Muse will then headline Reading on Sunday after hitting the main stage at Leeds on Friday. They will be joined by the likes of Elbow, Friendly Fires and Interpol.


Reading will have a more alternative feel this year with the likes of Bring me the Horizon, Enter Shikari and Architects hitting the bill (I cannot wait for these!)


Tickets are on sale now!

Creative new cocktails

Spinning Hat recently ventured on a cocktail course and wanted to share some of our new favorite cocktail recipes with our loyal followers.

STRAWBERRY SHAG


Fresh basil lends a fun flavor note to the classic combination of strawberries and lemonade. Soda water introduces a lively sparkle.

Makes 1 drink

1 to 2 large sprigs fresh basil
1/4 cup Sugared Strawberries, with juice (recipe follows)
1 1/2 oz vodka
1 oz fresh lemon juice
3 to 4 oz chilled soda water

For garnishing:
Fresh strawberry
Small basil leaf

In a cocktail shaker, press the fresh strawberries and basil together with a muddler to release the basil's flavor. Fill the shaker with ice. Measure in the vodka and lemon juice. Cap and shake vigorously. Pour into a large glass, top with soda water, and stir. Garnish with a strawberry and basil leaf.

Sugared Strawberries
Makes enough for about 6 drinks

1 pint fresh strawberries, stemmed and thinly sliced
1 1/2 cups powdered sugar

Mix the ingredients and let sit for 15 minutes before using.


BISTRO SIDECAR


This new classic is now seen on cocktail menus across the United States.

Makes 1 drink

Superfine sugar for rimming glass (optional)
1 1/2 ounces brandy or Cognac
1/2 ounce Tuaca
1/2 ounce Frangelico
1/4 ounce fresh lemon juice
1/2 ounce fresh tangerine or orange juice

For garnishing
Toasted hazelnut, with skin

Rim a martini glass with superfine sugar, and set aside.

Fill a cocktail shaker with ice. Measure in the brandy, liqueurs, and juices. Cap and shake vigorously. Strain into the sugar-rimmed glass. Float a toasted hazelnut on top of the drink.


SMITTEN


Makes 1 cocktail

1/3 cup fresh ripe watermelon, cut in 1-inch cubes
2 oz Sauza Hornitos Plata Tequila
3/4 oz Monin Organic Agave Syrup
3/4 oz fresh lime juice
2 dashes Tapatio hot sauce

Garnish: half-rim, single “scallop” of kosher salt

Muddle/press watermelon in pint glass with a muddler, being sure to press the melon well to release juices. Measure in tequila, agave syrup and lime juice. Shake in hot sauce—do not over-do it! Fill glass with ice. Cap and shake vigoroulsy. Strain into a martini glass with a partial salt rim.

Become a graffiti artist

A few ways to create your own graffiti either on your computer or in your home!


Recently found a site called graffiti creator which allows you to create your own graffiti in minutes. Choose your font, and loads of characteristics about the colour, background spacing etc.


Or chill with a nice cup of tea and create graffiti a more old fashioned way with one of Spinning Hat's new Graffiti puzzles.

Inspiring photography approaches

10 awesome approaches to photography

Point, shoot and … what? From amazing architecture to abandoned places, sometimes the subject is at the center of compelling and creative photography – but at other times take a different route. These fascinating photography techniques take the art of image-making into entire new dimensions.

1) Epic Panoramic and 3D Photography

Some photographers shoot entirely in the round, creating amazing full-circle spiralling panoramas or even fully-mobile three-dimensional shots that can only be viewed via computer.

2) Spectacular High-Speed Photography

While most images capture moments in time that any ordinary human could see some high-speed shots provide us with photographic glimpses of faster-than-sight phenomena invisible to the naked eye, from bullets piercing bottles to aesthetically splendidly water splashes.

3) Fantastic Time-Lapse Photography

At the opposite extreme from high-speed photography lies the vast world of motion-blur imagery. From a single time-lapse shot it can be possible to see many moments collapsed into one and create permanent montage artworks from ephemeral events.

4) Inspiring Infrared and HDR Photography

Employed to the extreme and they can seem like gimmicks but taken to just the right degree and color-altering approaches like infrared and HDR can take ordinary scenes and make them extraordinary, enhancing contrast and rendering some aspects of an image more real than reality.

5) Nuanced Night Photography

Night photography can bring out the best in photographers, playing on subtlties of shadow, shade and contrast not visible during the daytime. These photographers range in their approaches but universally add something new to the art of creating nighttime images.

6) Mold-Breaking Black-and-White Photography

Black and white is, of course, where photography began – but is not at all where it has ended up. However, some contemporary photographers have reclaimed this original art and applied new techniques to the old approaches begun by the original masters of photography.

7) Masterful Monochromatic Color Photography

Monochrome and duotone photography are not, however, limited to black and white. Many photographic artist make marvelous compositions from a single color, shade or tone beyond greyscale. These works can be potently expressive despite their singular colors.

8) Mesmerizing Reflection-and-Mirror Photography

Mirrors are found in many places in nature and architecture – from smooth running streams to finely polished floors. Many photographers continue to experiment with the myriad possibilities of reflection that present themselves in our everyday experience.

9) Head-Twisting Tilt-Shift Photography

Scale are perspective are pervasive issues in the realm of photography – mastering them is one thing, but twisting them to a whole different purpose can be quite another. Tilt-shift photography tweaks our ideas of relative and real sizes and unique and creative ways.

10) Pinhole and Photogram Photography

Who says you need a camera to take pictures? Long before cameras as we know them existed, innovative artists and scientists used these techniques to create images – creative contemporary photographers have returned to them as well.

Mariel Clayton - Doll Photographer With A Subversive Sense of Humor

"I can’t explain how my mind works, or why these ideas come to it. It started out with a camera and a major interest in travel photography, but a sublime encounter in a Tokyo toy shop led me into the surreal world of Japanese miniatures, and ultimately to the stories that could be told with them. Since I started working with dolls, I have grown more and more to appreciate what can be done with them, how the smallest gesture or placement seems to convey volumes. Also, I happen to think it’s a damn funny medium. I’m entirely self-taught in photography. ” – Mariel Clayton.

Urban invasion detected

Invader (born 1969) is a French urban artist who pastes up characters from and inspired by the Space Invaders game, made up of small coloured square tiles that form a mosaic. He does this in cities across the world, then documents this as an "Invasion", with books and maps of where to find each invader.



Invader started this project in 1998 with the invasion of Paris - the city where he lives and the most invaded city to date - and then spread the invasion to 31 other cities in France (such as Montpellier, Marseille, Avignon, Rennes, Bordeaux, Lille, or Bastia...). London, Cologne, Geneva, Newcastle, Rome , Berlin, Lausanne, Barcelona, Bonn, Ljubljana, Vienna, Amsterdam, Bilbao, Manchester, Darlington are among the 22 other European cities which have been invaded.



The mosaics depict characters from Space Invaders and other video games from the late 1970s. The images in these games were made with fairly low-resolution graphics, and are therefore suitable for reproduction as mosaics, with tiles representing the pixels. The tiles are difficult to damage and weather-resistant.In Montpellier, the locations of mosaics were chosen so that, when placed on a map, they form an image of a giant space invader character. Invader also works on another project that he titles "Rubikcubism", which consists making artworks made of Rubik's Cubes.

A little treat for you invaders out there! Presenting - Retro Arcade Cake Mould


Now landing in a kitchen near you these cake moulds are a real blast from the past, inspired by the original arcade games that we all grew up playing.


So put down your muffin trays and get down to making some cosmic carrot cake