Two of my favourite things….Metal+Coffee=Dethlok

The Ultimate in Competition music while doing your signature drinks

Wicked Cafe mk 2

So lets get things straight

Wicked cafe will be opening a second location somewhere in vancouver,where it is i cannot say….Yet!
So keep your eyes peeled for us opening in a neighbourhood near you.

Spring

What the hell is going on with this weather on the west coast?

I was looking forward to more snow falling here in B.C. during february,but no…

All we get is warm rain now,which is melting the snow,which is quite annoying,this time last year we saw a decent dusting throughout february which kept the runs nice and soft.

Although on the other side of the country its in the minuses,toronto is -25,i think i watch the weather channel toomuch these days and its starting to annoy me when its snowing everywhere else.I guess not riding in the last 2 weeks is getting to me, and the thoughts of being in fernie with all that champagne powder and hardly anyone up on the hills gets me slightly wound up,although i wasnt fortunate enough to experience the waist deep powder they got a few weeks before,i did get to ride knee deep stuff

walking back home from a session,i wish i had someone with a ski doo to tow me round through all this snow as it was all untouched wouldve been a laugh

cedar bowl

hardly anyone on the hill was a plus,being able to do big carves without danger of taking anyone out was one hell of a ride

How to murder a cocktail

Its been so long since the last time i wrote about cocktails.
So ive been surfing for some videos or so of cocktails just to get some inspiration from bartenders,and what i found almost made me sick,bartenders killing classic drinks such as this offering from mojo.com with their version of the irish coffee.doesnt really have that much substance on the drink apart from slapping it all together

Compared to this offering from Angus Winchester,Mixologist extrodanaire and i believe he’s into molecular mixology as well,which is crossing over from food,coffee and now into cocktails which is quite exciting.

Angus’s delivery and short history on this drink (daquiri),is a pleasure to watch,to see a talented bartender deliver this drink well with the step by step guide on technique,a good way to learn if your a budding home mixologist.

A good book for any budding mixologist would be Craft of the Cocktail by Dale De Groff,a great read and a must for any working bartender

Home Coming

So i took a trip back to Australia,and it has been a while since i have been home.
i caught up with an old friend,who inked me a few years back,he has since moved from inner vision in surry hils to tatudharma in chippendale.
so i dropped in on nathan at the studio to say hi and hang out for a while.
after a while chatting nathan asked what i was up to on the weekend and i said i had family things to do in katoomba and he said….
id love to tattoo you before you go back to canada as i havnt seen you in a while and it might be a while before i see you again and that he was booked till march….
so after talking it over with kylie we came to an understanding and i was booked in to get inked.
but that meant driving back to sydney from katoomba early in the morning for an 8:30 am session.
i tell you what,theres nothing better than running on a couple of cans of v and the idea of getting tattoed to get things racing,mind you its been a year since i had my last bit of ink done from zulu tattoo in dublin from justin and sean,and i was amped.
so i decided to get something done on my knee cap and let nathan go at it.and seeing as i was off to tokyo he tattoed a hannya mask on my knee.

and so it begins…..

shading….

halfway mark…..

unfortunately i dont have a finished picture uploaded yet but nathan did a great job,especially tattooing over old skating scars so i will have pick of those soon as i take a pic,so a huge thank you goes out to him on a job well done

Techno Geeks Wet Dream

What a day…..
i spent most of today in akihibara,now this place is totally nuts,if your a tech geek then akihibara is your wet dream.
i went to check it out to see what it was like,seeing as this was my 4th day in tokyo i might as well.
i arrived at the station in akihibara and it was opening times for the shops.9 am and there were line ups at the door and so i decided to join in and it was like the running of the bulls as everyone rushed in,my bet was to escape the heat,but i could be wrong,as there was a huge sale on in town and everything had to go.
so what greets me as i stepped into akiba complex was electricals,you name it this whole building was just that.the ground floor was dedicated to mobile phones,nothing else,and there are so many companies inviting you to check out the phones.
holy shit there were some choices of what phone to buy,ones that pick up tv,movies,music,camera phone,you name it it was there.if you were after a phone it would take you a bloody long time to decide on one and when you do its already out of date.next floor was laptops,next was cameras and so on and so on.
so after all of that i decided to leave that building and grab a drink.
so at the bottom of this building there was a dude rocking it out on air guitar promoting a product which lets you play air guitar,when i get back to vancouver i will post pics of this dude.anyway he was holding this thing which was the head and part of a neck of a guitar,what i didnt know was it was hooked to a lil guitar amp and has a laser thingy that beams where the rest of the guitar should be,and every time he strums the laser it disturbs it and then i creates the sounds.you’ll understand when you see the pics.
so after having lunch with a few locals at a stand up ramen bar i decided to hoof it to roppongi,i spent an hour looking around but got bored quite easily as it was ultra hip and new that it kinda lacked character so of i go to harajuku.
now for people who dont know about harajuku,you need to check out the books fruits to fully understand what its about.its so cool with so many characters,japanese rockabillies,punks,girls who dress like strawberry short cake,mods and so on and so on.as it was getting towards peak hour in the afternoon and im getting quite hungry and tired so i decide to hike it home.when i got home the police were blocking of the streets so people can sit and set up chairs on the road to watch tonights fireworks.our hotel decided to throw a party and get everyone on the roof to watch the show.i have loads of pics to upload when i get home and put it in here for you guys to check out.

air guitar

no its not a vending machine for dirty knickers but…..

you do get some cool toys in there.

and what i really liked was this,my first ever encounter with a square watermelon,only in japan…..

and also this for that special someone…

Sumo

So this is what i found out last night,if you ever want to see anything for free in tokyo get the book tokyo for free….
as i was flicking through the book making notes on places to see round tokyo,one of them was tsukiji fish markets but unfortunately i didnt bring boots to wear with me to walk through the markets but i will try to go there when i have some plastic bags to cover my sneakers and do it ghetto style.
the other thing was sumo,yesterday a young sumo rode by me while i was walking round asakusa checking out places to eat.as so happens that there is a sumo stable close by.if you wanted to visit a sumo stable the best thing to do was ring to get permission to drop by and watch the big boys go throught their training regime and watch how they go about their daily routine,from the apprentices all the way to the champions.and i believe the sumos are pretty fast as well.
i did get a photo of these guys at a traditional communal bath

Tokyo

So im sitting here in a hotel in asakusara,wondering when in hell it will ever drop in temperature.
since i have arrived into tokyo i have consumed a lot of liquids,mostly what i initially thought of as disgusting when i first saw it in a vending machine in takashimadaira station.the machine had a huge sign called pocari sweat.so i was a little intimidated when i looked at it in the vending machine.
what the hell were they selling here?
thoughts of sumo wrestlers harvesting their sweat after a hard days wrestling and manhandling each other in the heat and then bottling the sweat to sell to everyone to drink kinda got me on guard.
but being so parched and dry as a nun,i took the plunge and dropped in 120 yen and the machine quietly dispensed my sumo sweat.
so upon opening the bottle and taking a huge swig,to my surpise all it tasted of was lemon.so i read a little more of the lable and the whole thing was explained to me.
it was like gatorade or any of the other electrolyte drinks on the market which was a huge relief.
i also noticed a lot of canned coffee that all the kids are drinking,mind you i tried it but it wasnt something i liked.

canned coffee….

this is what i loved the most…150 yen for 200mls of sake goodness

and i also liked this….
270 yen for half a litre can of asahi

Art Fusion with Paul Booth and Filip Leu

Paul Booth,Robert Hernandez,Filip Leu,Bob Tyrell