Google helped me find a recipe from the book, from none other than Elton John.

Elton John’s Favorite Shrimp Curry
¼ cup butter
4 large onions, chopped
3 cloves garlic, chopped
3 cups water or coconut milk
3 large tomatoes, peeled and chopped
2 large apples, peeled and chopped
1 cup chopped celery
1 Tbsp. shredded coconut
1 small piece ginger root (or ¾ tsp. powdered ginger)
1 Tbsp. sugar
1½ Tbsp. curry powder (or more)
1½ Tbsp. flour
1½ tsp. salt
¼ tsp. freshly ground black pepper
3½ pounds raw shrimp, shelled and deveined

Heat the butter in a large skillet; add the onions and garlic and cook until lightly browned. Add the water or coconut milk and bring to a boil. Add the tomatoes, apples, celery, shredded coconut, and ginger and bring back to a boil. Blend the sugar, curry powder, flour salt and pepper together. Add enough cold water to make a paste and gradually stir into the boiling mixture. Partially cover and simmer, stirring occasionally until the vegetables are very tender, about 40 minutes. Add the shrimp and cook 5 more minutes or until shrimp are done. Serve over rice, for 8 people.

Send us feedback if anyone dares make it.

Roberta Ashley also published Singers & Swingers back in 1967: They’re hip, mod, delicious recipes from today’s top scene-makers – and guaranteed to turn taste buds everywhere! For barbecues, parties, soul sessions, double dates or happenings, here are dozens of easy-to-prepare, easy-on-the-bread, satr-studded dishes that will keep you grooving with the greatest.

Guest contributors include The Animals, The Rolling Stones, The Byrds, The Animals, Sonny & Cher and Barbara Streisand.
But wait, there’s more… The book includes fan photos, personality lowdowns, Party ideas, Menus, Kitchen Quickies and Snaknik Delights (whatever they are!)

And so to our picks for 2011…
International album: Tom Waits, Bad As Me
Local: Fabulous Arabia, Unlimited Buffet
International Gig: The National
Best Local Gig: Unknown Mortal Orchestra
Drink of the Year: Lighthouse Gin
Magazine of the Year: Dazed & Confused
Movie of the Year: Melancholia
DVD of the Year: Senna
Best TV Show: Treme
Guilty Pleasure TV Show: America’s Next Top Model (the series when Ann Ward won)
Disappointment of the Year: Elbow, Build a Rocket Boys, Tricky at The Powerstation

The image of the Roller Disco was taken with our new Holga Plastic Camera, the ones that the Hipstamatic App imitates, only this is shot on colour negative film, oh so analogue.

And finally we’ll be working on a new b>side in 2012. It is taking a bit of a turn in both content and form, but more on that later…

Download the full story as a PDF (12.4MB) Q&A Matthew Straker

Listening Post
What we are listening to right now…

The Pains of Being Pure at Heart Belong An enjoyable album, that can only be imagined as The Smashing Pumpkins (with James Iha on vocals) channeling The Cure during their classic Pop period, only with the lyrics being less grandiose. (Tony)

Still Life Adventures in Taxidermy Melissa Milgrom
A resurgence in taxidermy – seen everywhere these days from restaurants to fashion stores to home interiors – has piqued my interest in this subject. Milgrom’s book takes you from the workshop of the last chief taxidermist for the American Museum of Natural History, to a long-standing family run business in New Jersey, to the studio where Damien Hirst’s most famous artworks were created. Combining art, hunting and science this Darwinian craft is both strange and beautiful, and the book’s elegant descriptions of the characters portrayed and their obsession to creating lifelike illusions I find strangely intriguing. (Fiona)

Click on any image to open in a gallery

Great poster design Even in the digital era there is still room for good poster design. This from the Chicago 2010 Poster Biennial:

There are Poster makers represented in this show that were given the task of capturing the various facets of an opera, the emotional promise of a musical performance, or the gravity of a socially charged issue. In the face of these challenges, they did not run to the easy solution. They did not default to the expected. They did not show concern for our comfort. They worked hard to enlighten us. They dug deep to surprise us. They succeeded in provoking us. Within the confinement of a two-dimensional frame and a limited toolbox of visual devices, they wrestled with complexity and rendered it palatable, emotional and memorable. Their solutions are without question, elegant.

Check out the slideshow on http://observatory.designobserver.com/feature/chicago-2010-poster-biennial/29028/

Queens Of The Stoneage, Rated R
This album was originally out in 2000 with a 10 year re-release anniversary edition last year. Awaited with great anticipation from fans and critics, it never disappointed. There are no compromises as the band blaze their way through the album with plenty of heavy, tuneful riffs and solid backbeats. According to the ‘critics’, its labelled as ‘progressive, psychedelic, desert stoner rock’. Whatever! Its just a great hard rock album from a great hard working band. (Clyde)

The 100 Club
Our friend Meng Koach flew the coup recently. His goal was to move over to Sydney with only 100 items or less. When the challenge was set early this year I had my doubts of achieving it. But surprisingly my final count came to 82 items. I was brutal with my culling. Gifting items to friends and spent way to much time on Trademe. It turns out I’m not semimetal at all. I binned my old visual diaries, photos and birthday cards etc. The challenge now is to stay under 100 items.

The 100 Club is a grassroots movement to declutter their lives by paring down possessions to just 100 personal items. This trend has come out of a time of when excessive consumption threatens to over-burden our lives, when the things that we accumulate can become oppressive, stuff just becomes overwhelming. Read more at http://guynameddave.com/100-thing-challenge/

Funeral Song for July
A seriously good way to go, if needs must…  Eilen Jewell performing Where They Never Say Your Name. The song is from the album Letters from Sinners and Strangers (Kate)

Image of the Month
While accumulating other people’s family photos from TradeMe and ebay for an upcoming project, I came across this image and took a double-take. Is it an example of a readymade that sits within the context of art photography or simply the record of a person’s grave misfortune etched forever on film? Whatever, it has that car-crash appeal and well, I had to buy it!!! Decide for yourself… (Fiona)

Listening Post b>side collaborators share their current album playlist…

Pleased to Meet You With winter rapidly approaching, it’s time to pack away those good-times summer albums and dig out the warm memories of your past. James’ ninth studio album, Pleased To Meet You is the pick for me. Not making the UK Top Ten at the time of it’s release in 2001, yet still critically acclaimed, this is an album full of great slow-building songs; you’ll be sure to find a favourite. The perfect tonic for the winter chills. (Shane)

Shepard Fairey American contemporary artist, graphic designer, and illustrator. Widely known during the 2008 U.S. presidential election for his Barack Obama “Hope” poster. He is currently fighting a copyright infringement for the image he used to base the artwork on. Check out the video made for Gestalten TV.

May 05.11 Funeral Song Number 3 Another Man’s Done Gone… Oh the pain and agony…

Ladytron, Best of 00-10 Perfect pop, retro electro, call them what you will, Ladytron can be as addictive as crack cocaine and now there’s a compilation for those who missed out first time around. There are two new songs: the lovely original ‘Ace of of Hz’ and a chirpy cover of Death in June’s ‘Little Black Angel’. Both good enough in themselves, but I suggest not enough reason to buy this album if you already have the others. And why leave out ‘I’m Not Scared’?. The greatest hits selection – whether in the 17 or 33-track version – is a wonderful retrospective of all their stand-out numbers and just makes you wish they had come over here when they toured Australia. Can’t wait for the new studio album in September! (Nigel)

Musicans and cooking There seems to be an increasing trend to connect musicians with cooking. Recent publications include Mosh Potatoes – The Heavy Metal Cook Book by Steve ‘Buckshot’ Seabury; a book featuring anecdotes and recipes from some of the biggest hard rock and heavy metal bands from around the world. Includes members from Pantera, Lamb Of God, Anthrax, Megadeth, Overkill, Type O Negative, Guns n’ Roses, Life of Agony, Black Label Society and Motorhead.

And then there is the recent release from singer Alex Kapranos of Franz Ferdinand fame and sometimes columnist for the Guardian. Sound Bites is a collection of musings about his many food encounters on the band’s frequent world tours; the donut shop in a Polish-speaking part of Brooklyn, New York, and the less than mouth-watering experience of eating bull’s testicles in Buenos Aires are just a taste.

This trend has recently run into TV shows, possibly taking its cue from the early 2000s online sensation, Cooking With Rock Stars http://cookingwithrockstars.com/
Currently screening is The Rock n Roll Cooking Show, broadcasting out of Brisbane. A reality-style show, the camera goes into musicians homes, filming them at work in the kitchen. This show has quite raw production values; the show tells it like it is, in true Ocker style.

And then we have the Brooklyn-based, Dinner With The Band, (currently showing on the U Channel) a slightly slicker affair, where New York chef Sam Mason invites indie musicians to his kitchen for a meal and music.
A music lover as well as a foodie, Mason believes that music and food are similar in the sense that they both “start in the same place and end in the same place. They’re this creative idea …They go through the same motions.”
Mason and the artists converse on food, music and life while cooking together. After eating, each act takes to the loft’s living room to play a rockin’ musical set. Guests have included: The Mountain Goats, Sharon and The Dap-Kings and Rufus Wainwright.
http://www.ifc.com/dinner-with-the-band/

And well, if none of that appeals, there is always the Grinderman souvenir tea towel! (Fiona)

She’s Not There Nick Cave and Neko Case have recorded a cover of The Zombies ‘She’s Not There’ for the debut episode of Season 4 of True Blood. If there is only one reason to tune in to this show, then this is it.
Here’s the original on YouTube. Enjoy…

Simon Ingram, Radio Painting
Gow Langsford, 27 April – 14 May 2011
Simon Ingram is a collaborator, not with humans, but machines. He uses the machines as a paint application technique and with this latest show the paintings are made by a machine plugged into a radio telescope.

‘This device is built to receive radio signal that propagate in the Earth’s upper atmosphere. The particular type of radio spectrum Ingram is interested in is known as very low frequency radio or VLF. The VLF radio spectrum is used by submarines to communicate over great distances back to base. It is known that changes in the amplitude of VLF signal corresponds to activity from the sun, such as solar flares. Radio Painting relates to rendering these changes across the VLF spectrum as painting’. (Gow Langsford)

Even without this knowledge, these graph-like paintings have a mechanised quality. The sequential paint strokes have an over-riding cohesiveness to them, suggestive of robotics at work. While beauty continues to abound, these paintings cross the barriers of traditional painting. Distanced from the actual acts of painting – and that of abstract painting – through the act of mechanising the painting act, brings into play the relationship of the works to electronic art and new media. An interesting union.

Blue-blooded splendour With the impending royal nuptials in many people’s minds, it seemed only right that Esquire magazine, in all it’s sartorial wisdom, would offer dressing solutions for grooms around the globe. Not the groom? Well maybe these style cues could at least turn the eye of the bridesmaid at your best friend’s wedding… (Image: Esquire, March 2011)

Music Videos in the Museum Pop videos are a familiar sight on music TV stations across the globe. Now, a special exhibition at the Museum of Applied Art in Cologne is displaying videos by Björk, Madonna, Rammstein and A-Ha as works of art in their own right. Watch the video on German Channel Arts.21 for the feature. http://mediacenter.dw-world.de/english/video/#!/124241/Museum_Material_The_First_Exhibition_About_Pop_Videos_as_Art/Program=7885

Space Couture A new book out, Fashioning Apollo by Nicolas de Monchaux tells the story of the design of the Apollo spacesuit which was produced by undergarment manufacturer Playtex. Not having viewed the actual book deems a review premature, so instead here’s a collection of 60s designs from French fashion designer Pierre Cardin, who was fascinated with the Space Age and was inspired by the clothing of these early space adventurers.

For more information on the book go to http://fashioningapollo.com/

Growing trend Maybe it’s the glamour of Madison Ave’s television series Mad Men, or maybe it’s another attempt to search for the authentic in the digital age of distraction. But there is now a growing global movement to tap away at a vintage typewriter rather than a computer.

According to a recent article in the New York Times, groups of converts are participating in ‘type-ins’ at local cafes and bars, showing off both their typing skills and newly acquired and cherished machines.

Reasons given for this shift have included an appreciation for the sturdiness of the typewriter, unlike a computer who’s life expectancy is drastically shortened as soon as it is removed from it’s packaging. Another reason is their simplicity. They offer no other distractions, they don’t tweet or ping on the arrival of another influx of spam. Converts also mention an adverse reaction to technology’s business heads pushing their charge of efficiency being the only real way forward for the human race.

The graphics on this discarded box of typewriter paper found recently on West End Road, in Auckland’s Cox’s Bay are certainly an authentic reminder of Joan Holloway’s secretarial pool at Sterling Cooper. (Photo: Tony Nyberg)