Kirien Sangha

A major change is happening in our TV viewing habits and Netflix knows it.

Netflix, the subscription based company that for a minimal fee of £5.99 a month lets you stream as many movies and TV shows as you like, has gotten even better. Noting how we love to binge watch TV shows rather than waiting for a week between episodes, they’re now producing their own original TV series and releasing all the episodes at once. Such was the case with House of Cards, a political thriller starring Kevin Spacey.

I have to admit, for me, this is heaven. The idea that I can get hooked on a new TV show and watch it all at once, just makes me love Netflix even more.

But ­­Dustin Rowles sees it differently and in his article here, he explains why he’s staunchly against this strategy. His principal argument is that TV has now become so much a communal experience and this ruins it.

And TV has become communal, we Tweet and post messages on Facebook when our favourite shows are on. The cast of Scandal, an American TV show written by Shonda Rhimes, responds to viewers by live tweeting as they watch the show.

Between each weekly episode they use their Facebook page to flirt with viewers about the upcoming episode, asking questions and encouraging viewers to play games. We all know what role social media plays during big sporting events too, like the Olympics, just look here.

Rowles further points out that the biggest problem is spoilers. We haven’t yet managed to work out how we can communicate with just those who are on the same episode as us. Rowles makes a solid point and he’s right; I'm someone who regularly tweets about the shows I'm watching and I discuss the plots, as do my friends. But still, the idea that I can everything at once outweighs everything else. It doesn't mean that I'm against shows that are pushed out every week, I just appreciate that with this latest series, there's no waiting.

More interestingly however, was how Netflix knew that House of Cards would be a hit.
Based on the viewing habits of its 33 million users, it knew how many users watch movies starring Kevin Spacey and the Director David Fincher and how many people sat through other political dramas. And so we are starting to see the role big data has and the benefits of it.

Sources
/http://scandalabc.tumblr.com/post/34324920252/join-the-cast-of-scandal-for-a-live-tweet
http://www.technologyreview.com/view/511771/house-of-cards-and-our-future-of-algorithmic-programming/

The greatest thing about London, apart from the endless things happening in the city, from art exhibits to innovative yoga classes and quirky markets, is for me, the food.

I’ve even got a Pinterest board dedicated to the places I want to eat at in London. This is for two reasons: because I’m greedy, and for the people who visit London and say “Your food is awful.” 

A friend recommended going to Dishoom, a Bombay style café. They have two locations, one in Covent Garden (where we went) and they also have a place set up in Shoreditch. The interior has a modern vibe to it – big airy spaces, an open kitchen and lots of noise, but as you begin to look more, you see how they have sneaked in the Indian aesthetics.Think neon lights and plastic cups. It’s all done very tastefully which makes it ever more charming.

We arrived on Saturday at about 6pm and as expected, it was extremely busy. However, after a half-an-hour wait – whilst enjoying India’s 1977 answer to a coke, “Thumbs Up”, which is now owned by Coca-Cola – we were seated at our table by a cool American waitress.

I was very hungry so didn’t take pictures of my starter – lamb samosas, or my mains – the Chicken Ruby. Both were delicious by the way.

Desserts is where it got really interesting, my chocolate chai (yes, really!) and the Dishoom Basmati Pudding were both rich, indulgent, and creamy. I finished both of them and was tempted to go for a second dessert but thankfully I managed to restrain myself.

Dishoom is definitely worth a visit, here is the link to the website.

Dessert

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Food has become an even bigger subject in my life this year – I've gotten greedier. In January I turned 24 and decided I should try and switch my diet up a little by having more vegetarian and fish dishes. I’m a meat fiend and love nothing more than ordering a KFC on a Friday so I thought this challenge would be interesting.  

Thankfully, the food god brought me Anjum Anand. Some say she’s India’s answer to Nigella Lawson. I say her food is great; it’s both simple and easy to follow. Even though my dad is Indian, I shamefully know nothing about how to cook Indian food. And as we mainly have meat dishes, sometimes lentils, I decided to make Anjum’s Fish curry.  I left out the chilli just because we didn’t have any – bad Indians! – but it tasted just fine without them. In all, the dish proved to me at least, that you can easily cook lovely fish curries.
                              

For an extra treat we got this lovely dish at Cardiff’s Vegetarian Food Studio. A shop come restaurant that serves delicious vegetarian food and they let you bring your own alcohol. You can get a feast for less than £10, so is well worth a visit if you’re in town. 

Did I come back home with an urge to eat only vegetarian food? No, not quite. All I needed was a Dominoes Meat Feast pizza and that's what I ordered. It did however, make me realise the range of vegetarian food available and how easy it was to make. 

I have really - like really, REALLY - gotten into Vietnamese food lately.

When I was New York last November during one horribly windy day when me and my friends were hungover, by chance we fell into Saigon Shack - if you're ever New York, you should definitely go here. Each of us ordered a bowl of Pho and it was exactly what we wanted; the hot spicy broth was full of different meats and vegetables. Since coming back to the UK I've been determined to make it, and despite what I had thought, it's quite easy to make. It takes about two hours in total, but well worth the effort. 

This is a great video I found on YouTube explaining how to make this Vietnamese thing of beauty....
 
The List
For the broth
16 cups of water
3 inch piece of giner
1 small peeled onion
2.5 tablespoons of salt
3 tablespoons of sugar
3.5 pounds of chicken

The Spices
1 tablespoon of corainder seeds
5 star anise
1 whole cinnamon stick
7 cloves
1/3 tea spoon of cumin seeds
1 tea spoon of black pepper corns

Noodles
Pho noodles or any of your choice

To serve 
Thai basil
Bean sprouts
Fresh coriander
Lime wedges
Sliced red union
Spring onions
2 tablespoons of fish sauce
Chilli sauce

Chopping boards out

Toasting the spices

The result

The first thing I do when I'm planning to go abroad is to decide which museums I have to see. Whether it's the MoMA in NYC , The Jewish Museum in Berlin, or the Louvre in Paris. This year however, I've decided to make an effort to see more of the Museums in England.

The BMAG is a free museum in Birmingham and was showcasing the "Love and Death: Victorian Paintings from Tate" exhibition. It's an exciting display of iconic paintings from the Tate. The most famous piece was the Lady of Shalott (1888), one of the Tate's most famous and popular works. The exhibition also featured other classical paintings by other great 18th century artists such as Frederic Leighton and Lawrence Alma-Tedema.

The exhibition is small - two rooms, but it's free and both rooms have enough seats that allow you to sit down and ponder over the art. If you're like me, that is you like to know the context behind the picture as well as the history, a guided talk is a must. Unfortunately, I missed the talk on that day but still, it was well worth the visit and I'm glad that I went. 

I had been meaning to write about some of my favourite adverts of 2012, well, back in 2012. But I've only managed to get around to doing it now; here they are any way. It's fair to say that most of the commercials I selected are charged with emotion, and I am sure you'll recognise them all. It's unsurprising that adverts from both Anomaly and W+K popped up, they're two of my favourite agencies. But here are selection any way. 

This Olympic ad had everyone talking, it was a great piece from P&G. Oh - and thanks Mum! 

This great piece by DDB New York took a look at the #First WorldProblems hashtag that was trending on Twitter. It showed people from Haiti say the problems we tweet about and it definitely made us all stop and think, which is what advertising is meant to do. 

Of course a Nike advert had to be mentioned, how it could it not be? Nike took over the Olympics, but that's a different post. Here W+K and Nike did a great ad about, greatness. 

This Paralympic commercial was phenomenal and so were the athletes who took part. 2012 was such a great sporting year for Britain. 

Just my favourite advert of 2012. 

So I had always wanted to go away for New Years. Like always. Whenever I stay in Britain and go out, it's forever a disappointment. You know: paying a ridiculous amount to get into a club, waiting a ridiculous amount of time to actually get into a club, and then paying a ridiculous amount for drinks. I'm also too old for that now, my patience is very minimal. 

And so, this year me and some friends decided to go away. Barcelona seemed like the ideal place and so we quickly booked it. 

Barcelona is a great place to go and visit. Here are some quick facts: 
1) The Aerobus from the airport to the city centre is excellent; it's frequent, cheap and quick. 
2) For an apartment, we of course, used Airbnb. 
3) As a rough guide, breakfast is about 5 euro, lunch is about 10-15euro and dinner is about 20-25euro, of course this depends hugely on where you eat. 
4) You must try Tapas, but search for some good ones before you go. 
5) Make sure you head over to Hotel Miramar for the best views of Barcelona 
6) Beware, pick pockets are rampant in Barcelona 
7) I went with RyanAir, who despite popular belief, are actually okay. Just read their small print, pay for your baggage before you arrive at the airport.  

                                     

Morning time in Barcelona

On New Years Eve we were luckily enough to be invited to a Spaniard's home - which was gorgeous - for dinner. These three Italians took the kitchen though to make main course and it was delicious.