Brewtown Newtown, Newtown

Brewtown Newtown

Brewtown coffee (they roast their own coffee on site). 6-8 O’Connell St, Sydney.

I never made it to Berkelouw Books in Newtown, though often meant to make the journey. Alas, I’ve left it too late, as it’s been replaced by a cafe. Around a six-week fit out to remove the shelves, bring in the fixtures and fittings as you see them.

Part of the wider trend in Sydney towards larger cafe hubs, like the grounds, kitchen by mike, and the Fountain St compound where Campos has its flagship store, this is a cafe on a grand scale.

Brewtown Newtown - interior

Sadly, if you want to see the place this empty, you’ll need to visit at opening time on a weekday somewhere near New Year’s Day – this is a very popular place, and deservedly so.

Brewtown Newtown - coffee cup

Here’s a decaf long black, which arrives at the table with even more crema. You’ll notice the branded cups – lending a sense of uniformity to the whole experience.

Brewtown Newtown - long black and syphon

The star of the show is the syphon bar – computer (Android tablet) controlled syphons that can be programmed in terms of water temperature and agitation. With all the decaf I drink, I haven’t had a lot of syphon coffee, but it’s a very clean way to drink coffee – there’s not much in the way of oil, and it’s delivered at a drinkable temperature.

Brewtown Newtown - corn beef hash

The food is really good. I’m a bit partial to corn beef hash, so I try it out. The eggs are really well poached, but I do prefer my corn beef to be melting apart a little more.

Brewtown Newtown - polenta

It’s the baked polenta that really shines. I don’t particularly like polenta, and yet this is irresistible.

Brewtown Newtown is doing great work. If you can head over there, you should make time to visit.

clearing all the inboxes

First day back at work, trying to handle all the messages that have come my way since Christmas. I spent the day working my way through two email inboxes, a series of Feedly feeds, tweets, Facebook messages and wall posts, and a series of other sites to check.

Working in social media is becoming more and more noisy. One conference presentation I heard last year highlighted the way that everyone is jumping on the same bandwagon – the same calendar events are being flooded by brand pages. “Happy Christmas”, they say. “Happy New Year”, they say.

Where once facebook was an occasion to see photos of family members and updates from friends, it has become increasingly crowded with different kinds of noise. Advertising, targeted in increasingly creepy ways, shared news stories (now with additional, tailored recommendations), meme images (think cat pictures with captions), inspirational quotes on unrelated photo backgrounds, viral videos and other content from sites that are deliberately writing their headlines to maximise clicks.

It’s not possible for a massive, multinational, publicly listed company to retain a lounge room feeling. People accept that. The challenge with running a brand or company page, or one for an organisation, is to keep the content engaging with your audience, distinct from the rest of the content that they’re seeing, and adding value for them in some way.

People are spending time on facebook partly to feel connected with the people in their lives, partly to hear from brands or causes they’re interested in, partly out of a fear of missing out on the latest information, and partly out of a compulsion that facebook itself works hard to make irresistible.

For myself, I fight with a desire to keep all my inboxes clear. The constant facebook updates are the toughest inbox to keep clear – every connection adds more updates to try and process, and the signal to noise ratio gets lower and lower. Occasionally I see a post where I have the urge to correct something I know is incorrect – this is rarely a worthwhile exercise. Sometimes I’ll have a conversation with someone that would not have happened without facebook facilitating the connection: this is why I put up with the rest of the intrusions in my facebook “inbox”.

I suspect a time is coming where that value equation will tip, and it will be easier to go elsewhere than facebook for these kinds of interactions. I already use instagram for photo updates and photo sharing in a way I never used facebook.

In a simplified view, if all my online interactions can be thought of as a giant inbox, it’s my goal to work through everything in that inbox and get back to zero. If there’s a source of content that is too much noise and not enough value, then I have to unsubscribe.

aeropress

First coffee of 2014 from cafedave on Vimeo.

One of my favourite Christmas presents was a surprise. I’d talked for a while with Kel about getting an aeropress, but thought we’d agreed that it was a needless expense, and a way of making coffee that requires a filter each time you use it.

In fact, a colleague had talked me through the whole process a number of years ago, before they were trendy, and I’d thought “that’s great for camping, but I’ll stay with espresso / plunger coffee when I have access to modern conveniences”.

I was wrong. This is a really easy way to make coffee, the setup is very fast, making the coffee is faster than plunger, and it’s easier to clean than plunger. I’m hooked. For home coffee making, unless you’re wanting to play around with espresso extraction and latte art, it’s hard to imagine something better.

I would highly recommend trying it out. (The cheapest I’ve found them is over in Marickville at West Juliett – review forthcoming someday – closed until January 13, but you can find them at Grind for $40.)

movie: The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug

Movie: The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug

Neither there nor back again. This movie could easily be compressed into just a few scenes, and adds little to the overall telling of the story of the Hobbit.

But who cares? It’s worth the price of admission to be transported back to Middle Earth for another two hours and forty minutes, even as much of the film is spent building anticipation and dread for the titular dragon we meet, at last, in the final reel.

There are a number of horror flourishes at play here, lots of jump moments – it’s not a movie for kids to watch: darker than the original LOTR trilogy, but it’s an enjoyable ride. Freeman is excellent at playing Bilbo Baggins, showing a level of nuance I’ve never seen from him before.

Looking forward to the final instalment: spending the extra couple of hours in Middle Earth this time around made me realise why director Peter Jackson made the decision to take the title of a short, well-known book, and stretch it out so far.

If you’re a fan of Peter Jackson or of Tolkien, you know you’re going to see it.

movie: hunger games: catching fire

Movie: Hunger Games: Catching Fire (Hunger Games 2: Hungrier Games

I’d appreciated the first movie on Blue Ray (though as it turns out I haven’t blogged about it), and thought the second was worth experiencing on the big screen. The reviews had been positive, and my hopes were high.

Overall, they were met. It’s a movie on a larger scale than the previous one – the dystopia is better defined, the hopelessness of living under a totalitarian government is more strongly evoked. Overall, it’s a satisfying emotional journey, albeit one that ends too abruptly and leaves you waiting for the sequel(s) in subsequent years.

Jennifer Lawrence for the most part disappears into her role as the protagonist, the gender roles are – for the most part – reversed from what we’ve come to expect from Hollywood, and Woody Harrelson is in the cast: an argument in itself to see the film.

Patricia Coffee Brewers, Melbourne CBD

Patricia's, Melbourne CBD

Seven Seeds Coffee. Corner Little Bourke St and Little William Street. When I was last at Circa, I mentioned the trip to Melbourne and was told that this is their favourite cafe when they’re in Melbourne. It’s indeed an impressive creation. The doorway reminded me a little of Batteries not included.

Patricia's, Melbourne CBD

The phrase “standing room only” is the only warning you have that there are no chairs inside. It’s a tiny space, with the space behind the counter filling about half the floor plan. 

Patricia's, Melbourne

Order a coffee, and you’ll be given a glass of sparkling water as a palette cleanser.  

Patricia's, Melbourne CBD

 Coffee (there’s no decaf) is exceedingly well-made. Even the babycinos (straight milk, no chocolate) are well-crafted.

 Website: patriciacoffee.com.au


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dvd: the artist

DVD: The Artist

Watch this 2010 silent, black and white film about the end of silent film and you’ll see why it won Best Picture for 2010. While telling a classic Hollywood love story, it celebrates what made silent cinema so effective, juxtaposed against the relentless desire for the latest kind of technology. Great performance from lead Jean Dujardin, and his dog. An enjoyable watch.