They are compiled here mainly so I can easily recommend them as a collection to others.

If noisy and beat-oriented is what you are after then this one from Icasea should do the trick. It features folks like Luke Vibert, Autechre, Team Doyobi, DJ Stingray, Neil Landstrumm, Dibiase spread over nearly 80 tracks.

Kanshin was pulled together by Jonathan Lees who runs Hibernate and Daniel Crossley from Fluid Radio. Focussing on the modern classical and drone end of things you get Yellow6, Kyle Bobby Dunn, Library Tapes, Aaron Martin, Machinefabriek over 31 tracks.

For Nihon is a predominantly modern classical and ambient compilation pulled together by Keith Kenniff (aka Goldmund/Helios). Available both as a download and a CD pack you get tracks from Ryuchi Sakamoto, Biosphere, Olafur Arnalds, Alva Noto, Ryan Teague.

Thrill Jockey pulled together a great 64 track compilaiton with everything from drone and noise to delicate ambient and strange psychedelia on their Benefit Compilation. Expect tracks from Mountains, Oren Ambarchi, Zelienople, Ben Frost, Keith Fullerton Whitman, Lawrence English. When I first bought this one there was such a high demand for it that the Thrill Jockey servers crashed!

I remember buying Cabaret Voltaire’s Groovy, Laidback & Nasty album for her on import from a dance import store in Wynyard Station Arcade (whose name eludes me). Earlier I’d picked up their 1987 album ‘Code’ from Metropolis Records in the basement of the Mid City Centre and of course their ‘far better earlier stuff’ – Sensoria etc, probably from Red Eye’s second hand store beneath the Amex Tower.

I was a surprised by the direction that GLN took – not having a clue about Chicago house or Marshall Jefferson back then.

But of course it was 1990 and it made sense in amongst everything else of that era. That year we’d head off to see The Beloved at the Phoenecian Club and wonder why they came on so late. But I’ve written about that before.

Watching Nick Cope’s video for Keep On from that album takes me right back.

Keep On (1990/96) from Nick Cope on Vimeo.

Later that year I’d start doing my first bout of community radio on Radio Skid Row, walking from Leichhardt to the studios in the Addison Road Community Centre in the dead of night.

And it wasn’t until the following year that I found that the Cabs’ Richard Kirk had also done the Sweet Exorcist 12″s for Warp (1989/1990). I still play some of those tracks in sets.

Well, there have been several, how do I say, ‘new developments’ on Teh Internets that renders many of my tips irrelevant. So rather than bore you with my tips, here’s what I now recommend to those about to head to Tokyo, perhaps for the first time.

A long time ago when nerds thought that WAP was cool (yes, they really did), there was this great website called Superfuture which managed to contain the very best subcultural shopping guides to Tokyo. Superfuture never went away, it just got bigger and better and expanded to many other world cities.

And just recently they releases – finally – a Superfuture Tokyo iPhone app.

Yes, it costs more than most iPhone apps do – but, seriously, just get it. It will save you printing out their PDFs like I have done on every trip. With it you will find most of the craziest, hippest, and often most spartan shopping experiences in Tokyo – the concept shops for micro-brands that aren’t big enough to even register on hipster radars beyond a 1km radius of their ‘concept store’.

K has been hunting for interesting Tokyo stuff too and came across two other nice resources recently too.

The first is Claska’s Tokyo by Tokyo assembled by the Claska Hotel. Grab it in Australia from Upon A Fold. What is nice about Tokyo by Tokyo is that it is basically a series of recommendations by locals from the cool to the very uncool and organised by theme. I’m looking forward to checking out Emiko Oki’s ‘Three most splendidly lavish toilets in Tokyo’ on my next trip . . .

The other is a lo-fi and supercute Hello Sandwich guide from the blog of the same name. You can get a hard copy or an immediate PDF version.

Basically the Hello Sandwich guide is what you’d get from a personalised blogger tour of Tokyo. There’s some pretty standard recommendations but where it shines is when it covers the suburbs and areas you might not consider off the JR Yamanote line.

So when it was released a few days ago I was quick to download it and give it a go.

Sadly it isn’t quite up to scratch yet. And here’s why.

Ignoring the common problems that plague first release apps on the iPhone, especially when we are still in the early days of iOS4 – the random crashes and load issues – there are some fundamental flaws.

First, there is no importing of tasks from, say your existing calendar. Now that wouldn’t be such a problem if I could publish them out the opposite way. But the way it works not, I have to enter the tasks manually as I go. No doubt this will be fixed in future versions as I expect everyone who has downloaded the app is clamouring about this. (There’s also the rather annoying but minor issue of the inability to see the ‘day of the week’ when setting a date for a task). This leads to the next core problem.

Most importantly though, I can’t share tasks with my friends. This is a critical flaw, especially as I’d love to use it with my teams at work. I should be able to set hierarchical tasks and then share with others who have to complete them with me – then we can collectively benefit form the encouragement of the Epic Win game engine.

Now taking these two problems together, we get to the need for an ‘ecosystem’ – a way of importing and exporting tasks from a range of calendaring platforms, and then sharing/inviting others to take part in and accept tasks. No doubt then we’d need a way of logging tasks via a standard web interface on other devices too. Sound familiar? Hmmm . . . . see any generic calendaring/task platform.

Still I think that the general idea of combining a task manager and calendaring app with the leveling up and quest-focus of a RPG is genius and I’m willing to hold out for improvements in future versions.

At the moment Epic Win is a lot of nice cartoon-y graphics and some interesting game elements with a very very rudimentary calendar tool underneath it. If the developers spend a fair bit of time working on the feature-set of the calendaring app it might become an indispensable app.

Imagine if they partnered with Remember The Milk . . .

Now, like many parents, I’d love to be able to support my local public school in this way. In fact the public schools need this sort of support.

So, can my donations to the P&C be tax-deductible? Apparently not.

According to the NSW Federation of P&C (whose hands are tied) –

Tax Deductibility – Contributions to P&C

Federation has been advised that:

“The allowance of deductions for gifts is governed by the provisions of Section 78 (1) (a) of the Income Tax Assessment Act. Under these provisions deductions may be allowed only for gifts to funds and institutions in Australia of the particular classes specified in the section. The main classes of funds and institutions so specified include public and private hospitals, public benevolent institutions, public funds for the relief of persons in necessitous circumstances, public funds to finance the acquisition, construction and maintenance of school buildings, public libraries, public museums and art galleries.”

As the P&C Association does not fall within any of these classes of funds and institutions mentioned in the section, gifts to school parent bodies do not qualify as allowable deductions. Neither registration as a charity nor authority to fundraise confers the right to offer tax deductions on cash donations unless such donations are made to Australian Taxation Office approved building or library funds. (emphasis mine)

You’d think that in times where public education funding is being stripped back and is tighter than ever, and technological, pedagogical, let alone curriculum changes are coming ever faster, that this might provide a more equal footing with the fundraising opportunities available to private education?

So, has any community in Australia set up a charitable foundation for their local public school to get around this?

Suggestions?

One of the absolute classic tracks from that era, and possibly the best Richie Hawtin record ever, is F.U.S.E’s Substance Abuse. It featured heavily on the doco’s soundtrack. Released initially on Hawtin’s Plus8 in 1991 and appearing on countless compilations thereafter, Substance Abuse is the definitive second wave acid track. Sporting a bassline the equal of Joey Beltram’s Energy Flash, it is still as devastating as it was nearly 20 years ago – and those squealing/duelling 303s . . . well.

Bonus trivia. I remember listening to this on one of the first proper techno compilations I bought back at Central Station Records in 1992 – Force Inc’s Post Acid Crash. Full of early German techno – Alec Empire, Jorg Burger, Speedy J, Thomas Heckmann – as well, it was a hard hitting introduction to sounds of the then underground. Unsurprisingly there were very few events or DJs in Sydney that played anything like this sort of stuff back then, and it took me a fair while to track down the rare parties by Biz E, Tony Colour and James Bond to hear these on big systems.

Bonus trivia #2. The person who sold me the compilation at Central Station? None other than @b3rn!

Anyway she had this really simple recipe for a chocolate cake that just required putting everything into the one bowl in one go and mixing. It tastes great and is a very easy one for little kids.

1 cup raw sugar
1 cup self raising wholemeal flour
1/2 cup milk
2 eggs
2 tablespoons cocoa
6ozs melted butter
pinch of salt
pinch of baking powder

Heat the oven to 180C. Grease a tin.
Then simply mix all together, bake at 180C for 40-50 minutes.

Ice with melted dark chocolate, serve with double cream and fresh raspberries or strawberries.

Ingredients:
6 egg whites
12 tablespoons sugar
2 teaspoons of brown vinegar
Pinch of salt

Preheat oven (see below for gas vs electric) and grease a baking tray.

Mix egg whites in a bowl until fluffy. Add pinch of salt and then sugar two tablespoons at a time, mixing thoroughgly between each addition. Finally, add the vinegar and give one last mix.

Heap mixture onto baking tray. Don’t flatten it out or spread it thinly. It will naturally form into the right shape.

Gas oven: heat oven to 230C. Once heated, place pavlova in the oven. Close door and turn the oven immediately to lowest heat. Leave for 90 minutes. Whatever you do, do not open the door.

Electric oven: heat oven to 180C. Once heated, place pavlova in oven. Close door and keep at 180C for 45 minutes. Turn off oven after 45 minutes but do not open the door! Leave for 45 minutes more.

Let cool.

Garnish with whipped cream, and fruit. Recommended combination being passionfruit, kiwifruit, and raspberries. Under no circumstances go for the bogan pineapple and mango.

If you want to make a larger one just upscale the ingredients. I’ve managed to get a 10 egg one to work, but past that it just gets too ‘eggy’.

There is a desk here. On the desk is a computer with two monitors and a telephone. There are a lot of messy papers nearby.

To the east is an alcove. To the west is a room from which emanates a faint waft of French pop music. To the north is a door.

> Turn on computer

The computer splutters into life and the familiar burble of the “Windows loading” sound comes from a small speaker.

> Wait

After ten minutes the computer is operational.

> Open browser

I’m sorry I don’t understand. Try rephrasing that.

> Start work

I’m sorry I don’t understand. Try rephrasing that.

> Use computer

On the left monitor there is an error message.

> Read message

The message says “You do not have authorisation to perform that function”.

> Use telephone

There is a dial tone on the telephone.

> Dial helpdesk

I’m sorry I don’t understand. Try rephrasing that.

> Pick up computer

The computer is heavy but you struggle and are able to lift it high above your head.

> Throw computer

The computer hurtles across the room before crashing into the south wall. It breaks into a thousand small pieces with an enormous bang.

In the small hole created by the impact of the computer you can see the outline of a keyhole.

> Examine keyhole

There seems to be a secret door here. You peel back the wallpaper to expose the rest of the door.

Drawn by the noise, an IT guy in an ill-fitting suit appears. He looks uncomfortable and stares at his pair of unpolished shoes.

> Open door

The door creaks open revealing a damp passage with uneven steps carved into the stone leading downwards.

The IT guy opens his mouth and says a strange phrase “dev null pipe qwerty syntax error”. He closes his mouth.

> Say Windows

The IT guy shudders.

> Say Ubuntu

The IT guy starts talking at a furious pace and looks distracted, caught up in his own world. This might provide an opportunity to escape without being noticed.

> Down

You go down the stairs and close the door quietly behind you.

It is dark and you cannot see. The dampness is cloying.

> Inventory

You are carrying: an iPhone, a backpack, an oil lamp, a box of matches, and a silver key.

> Use matches

You light a match. Shadows flicker on the damp walls.

> Light lamp

The lamp lights and the shadows recede.

The stairs descend further into the darkness.

> Down