#50 I'm cooked!

Imcooked (cook it, film, share it) is a web community for sharing recipes. But it isn't just about sharing recipes: you videotape yourself cooking the recipe and share it on the site! It's like Youtube for cooks, they say. There are the usual social networking elements as well as other elements: groups (not too many yet), friends, information on how to make and upload a video, a range of channels (we would call them subject groupings perhaps?) e.g. cakes/pies, desserts, bread.

I did a search for some favourites: taramasalata (no luck), plum sauce (no luck - I'll have to stick with Maggie Beer and Stephanie Alexander), moussaka (no luck) and then pushed my luck with pavlova (not surprisingly, no luck). So as instructed, I clicked the Video tab and explored the Top Favorites. There I found "Cheap and evil guacamole" which I fancied would be good for Tapsister, but I thought "why would one bother?" and she would prefer to shop. Guacamole is readily obtainable in a variety of very good brands (guacamole with lime is to die for). I used to make my tzatziki from scratch, starting out with straining the yoghurt. But I haven't done that for years, i.e. since really good tzatziki has become readily available.

I also saw there was a video of How to clone a Big Mac. ROFL. Why, why, why? Paul McCartney, Sir to you, making mashed potatoes had its amusement value. I was interested that he peels his potatoes with a knife.

Well, what of the site? It's a creative idea and takes the sharing of recipes into the social networking realms of Web 2.0. But is it for me? I love cooking and I love reading recipe books. I love creating recipes and find that Stephanie's bible is so good for reminding one of what goes well with what. I always like the fact that Stephanie is both a trained and experienced librarian and also a local Boroondara (even Hawthorn) author. But do I want to emulate Geraldine Dillon (that's dating me but her programme was really important in stimulating my love of cooking) or Maggie Beer or Jamie? I don't think so. I don't even want to be a new librarian/cook, like Stephanie. I actually don't really even want to watch someone cooking most of these recipes; the site seems very American, ie US, based, and I guess that the type of cooking covered here is not what I am interested in.

And the library application? Well, I didn't find an historical section so I guess it is about knowing that the site exists if library users are interested in this sort of thing.

#49 So many great music sites, so little time!

What an absolutely amazing site is Soundsnap!



I know there is music on it, but I was more interested in some of the other categories like a hissing cat or a baaing sheep or a roaring lion! I am glad that creator Tasos Frantzolas decided to create the site as he needed it himself! Again,it's a good one for tarting up presentations or adding to your slideshow or video click or wiki. These sounds are certainly not just for musicians to use!

#48 Is there any free AND legal music out there?

It looks like there is free and legal music out there, though it is rather limited in scope on this site for the types of music I am interested in. There were 111,052 free MP3s here on music.download today: that's quite a few since January 16 when Jennifer posted that there were 110,462. The Thing #48 instructions warned that it was mainly top 40 stuff, but, ever perverse, I hunted around through some other categories like Folk which has 2790 items.

I had been to a Peggy Seeger concert during the week and hunted unsuccessfully for her, not minding as I know there are some songs on her MySpace profile. There were quite a few subheadings in Folk but a lot of them with rather sparse entries. This was also the case for World music where I got excited by the headings Dimotiko and Nissiotiko only to find them empty.

I uploaded an MP3 of an early mediaeval Georgian Alleluia which will be topical next week. The file was easy to upload to my PC and then to play. Use for the library? Well, I can't see much use for my avowed aim of usefulness for local and family history, but the site could be used to provide music for a slide show or video clip. And it would also be useful generally in case library users ask for such a site.

#47 For the musically inclined or Not!

I signed up to Jamstudio and using first the 1,2,3 demonstration and then Help I played with creating chords, adding instruments, changing tempo and changing type of music. I created a song called "What!" but I have not managed to get any sounds out of Jamstudio yet! I also went to Tapsister's post on Thing 47 and linked in through that connection. Voila! Still no sound when you press play! I saved the song and tried emailing it to a couple of addresses: I got the link to the song there and pasted it above. Maybe I am just not letting it have enough time to load? Maybe it's jammed?

I am not into musical composition, nor particularly into the type of music featured here, but I can see that it could be fun to play with. We could use it to create background music for podcasts or other such things. But why can't I get any sound?