The Green Gourmet in Delray.

If you are fortunate enough to be residing in the good ol' state of Florida, and find yourself within jaunting distance of Delray Beach, then go pay The Green Gourmet a visit. Chef Giannuzzi, formly of Henry's, is opening his own organic/eco-friendly restaurant, and it will not disappoint.

Promise.

إياك أعني واسمعي يا جارة

Censorship.

Marilyn Manson. Lots of swearing. But it's not blocked and I like his hat.

Which leads me to censorship. The high hats that review films, etc. for content are currently reviewing Bruno for release. Backstory: Borat was banned. No biggie... ...there are other ways, DVD imports-via-visitors, etc. But it does bring up the case of CDs and the likes of Mr. Manson. His CDs are available, but I've never purchased one in this country. Mostly because of that ol' censorship. I remembering buying a CD once that had radio edits and "blanked out" words in the songs. I'm sure if I bought Manson's current release, I'd have an empty cover...

But then, here is the lol. Lily Allen's "Not Fair" is played on the radio constantly.

Bending Things.

Going around a country proxy is an interesting exercise in trying not to break the law. Where times gone past, I would have either hiked down to Media City, or worked some DNS angle a la Hacker stylee, this time, what with old age setting in, I'm being... (wait for it)... "responsible".

And in my responsible-ness-ity, of trying to bring you this:



(The original is found here but is blocked. The OMV for the tune, is well worth checking out too!)

I had to traverse many many places. Find links that would work Bend the webs into different things. Legal things.

You better appreciate it.

Although in my traversing, I totally forgot whatever point I was going to make, so, well. There ya go.

Beautiful People.

An art initiative sponsored by KLM, Beautiful People features some pretty amazing art work. I'm particularly fond of Johan Geenens' Water from the Ceiling and Zara Kavarana's interpretation of this year's theme, "Water".

TEDxDubai and Fakie. Couple o' Plugs.

How AWESOME is this? TED in Dubai, in October. Well. TEDx, which is the grassroots version of TED. Still all about the talks, and still extremely fabulous. You can read more about all that awesome fabulousness here where updates on local and international speakers, ticket prices and all the rest shall appear.

In other plugs (not sinks)...




Fakie has gone live, and is kickin' it up in various places - like Oman, and Facebook. Should you be partial to a bit of FB, then be sure to join FAKIE for all your backward generation backdoor needs. You can check out the website from the links over ---->

Ahlan wa Asahlan to Life in the Emirates.

Returning to Dubai was always going to pose some rhetorical questions. Mostly: how someone that has a knack for being vocal about, shall we say, "quirks" of the country would manage to keep her head on this time around and not land herself in "quicksand".

Enter: Dubai Myth Series.

It is a work in progress as I dabble with hardware, various editing software and find new angles to display the "quirks" of the country. I figure it's a healthier way (all round) to channel said vocals.

Vimeo, the hosty place for DMS, is a neat little place. There's a lot of creative sorts from videographers, film-makers and animators. The mechanics of the site work fairly well, although if you're not a Plus member, video uploads can end up in a rather long queue. But - your mileage may vary, as has been the case with a couple of uploads. So far though, it is doing the job, and offers far better video quality than YouTube or Dailymotion.


And as a postscript to the Blue Banana story, long-time Dubai blogger Seabee at Life in Dubai, offers up a good read on the intricacies of the situation. I've always enjoyed Seabee's posts about Dubai - defnitely worth a read in your web travels.

Human Before the Place.

Cities in Minutes is a Vimeo Project of time-lapsed captures of cities around the world. So far it highlights mostly America and the Continent, but yours truly is aiming to add one on Dubai soon.

You can check out the Progress Map and links to videos here.

In other news, The National's frontpage had an article about Blue Banana founder, Simon Ford. For those not in the know, Blue Banana is.. or was... a highly successful company that basically took quirky and fun things to do in the UAE, and stuck them under one banner. A consolidator of gift certificates you could say, where people could book things such as deep sea fishing, sky dives and day trips at the autodrome under one banner. Being something new on the scene, the business took off and was well recommended by many local expats to visiting friends and family.

Unfortunately for Blue Banana and more importantly Simon Ford and his family, the way of the world made things a bit ugly, and they ended up fleeing back to the UK. Here in the Emirates, unpaid debts can lead to criminal charges that lead to prison sentences. No ifs ands or buts.

And I bet it is a safe gamble, that there are many more like Simon Ford, who have not been so lucky in their departures.

Incidentally, you can read his open letter here where he explains honestly why he has left, and his promise to repay his debts.