Tender and succulent pork loin braised in Perdo Ximénez with a side of juicy grapes braised in Drambuie and sweet apple purée. The chef: Marcelo Soria. The occasion: nothing in particular, just good friends sharing good food one Friday afternoon. Thank you sir.

Bought this yuminess at Mallorca Market near Colón.

Happy Birthday, Ric!

We’d like to thank our clients and Riot Cinema for this video.

Seafood, mostly prawns, crayfish and spidercrab, to celebrate a little bit.

Some japanese gyozas, yakitori and makis from an average japanese restaurant.

Today it was Spaghetti with fresh sea urchins (Salvatore showed me the urchins alive before boiling them) and Sicilian cannolo for desert. Yumm!

Today we had Red Pesto with Mascarpone at Sicilia in Bocca. Yum, yum? try it yourself at Paseo de Yeserías 7 (Madrid).

Today we had Watermelon and Pancetta Risotto for lunch. Yum yum? here’s the recipe.

Yes, it’s a beautifully framed first edition of his 1972 NYC Subway Map at the Vostok studio. It has been here since day 1.

Check the video of Mr. Vignelli talking about it, for those who lack a bit of context.

(original at Homeowners Insurance)

… and the file (links to the one you have to use, 1024×1024 px.):

Enjoy it.

Gabriela Lendo majored in International Relations, and her command of English and French are top-notch. She has worked in Madrid for Notisistema, and has headed the communications teams of cinema related projects in London (Portobello Festival) and Madrid (The Cosmonaut).

To sample her work, just take a look at the latest videos we’ve posted.

Gabriela is also an awesome cook, after sampling her banana bread we called the cops on the suspicion of, ahem ilegal flavor enhancements, but it turned out regular banana pancake can be addictive. And she would beat the crap out of Julia Roberts at a smiling contest.

Timo Taglieber majored in Computer Science and Computational Linguistics at the University of Heidelberg, Germany. Timo programmed MetaMan, a MediaWiki plug-in that suggests categories and properties based on similar pages. Take a look at his portfolio to view his work.

Timo is very eager to enjoy Madrid’s nightlife. According to the authoritative Xenophobe’s Guide to the Spanish:

The Spanish never go to bed at night if they can possibly help it, because they might be missing out on something more exciting than sleep. On the other hand they never fail to have a siesta.

We are hoping German discipline prevails over Spanish hedonism.

For the meal to be complete, we invited filmmaker Nicolás Alcalá from Riot Cinema Collective. We talked about the film industry, the difficult times it’s going through (both in Spain and outside), the democratization of film, how now anyone can do a short but not everyone can do a good short, the limits (or lack of) and differences between cinema and narrative branded content, the problems with distribution and monetization. It’s tough out there. Lots of questions, very few answers.

Check out Álvaro’s vimeo: the man’s an artist. Special mention to his work with GQ Spain and the first two minutes of his short Marrakech.

We have the impression that there are very few filmmakers with daring and innovative ideas of using web tools to sustain profitable business models around their movies. Would you agree?

Why do you think this is? Or even better: What do you think innovation in films should look like?

yuuuuhuuuuuu… Where are you filmmakers? We need you. Films need you.

The idea behind open data is that of accountability, enabling a system to work for it’s people and not the other way around. In the U.S. the wheel has already began to turn, initiatives such as the Obama’s administration Data.gov or a society that finds concepts such as democratizing data and e-government more and more familiar, are all important steps towards the right direction.

In Spain the wheel is turning a bit more slowly, but turning nevertheless.  The people behind AbreDatos and all of those who’ve participated are leading the way.

Well.. Being a telecommunications engineer as he is, he’ll obviously add more WARP’s to our programming and systems engines. He is already taking care of all the stuff related to thecosmonaut.org (Riot Cinema’s movie) and will soon start doing other übercool and experimental stuff that’s not been disclosed yet.

Welcome on board, Hunter S. Tyler!

And now DANCE with us!!

He’s holding a copy of The Illuminatus Trilogy, a weird hybrid of sci-fi, conspiracy theories and parody. He assures us it has nothing to do with Tom Hanks (absolutely not).

He’s a funny and imaginative person, and sometimes he resembles a late-night stand-up comedian with a red brick wall and a mic as backdrop. We had a good laugh at his prediction concerning the Microsoft’s Surface: its future awaits on the streets, with a goat dancing on it while playing the multitouch piano.

Check out his photoblog, we are all big fans of his photos.

Four beautiful timepieces (just three on the picture) have arrived at the office, each for one of the cosmonauts. They all are the same: the classic SEIKO 6139-7100 Helmet (a.k.a. Darth Vader) a collectors item (Spanish) and a very reliable wristwatch.

These watches were released to the market around 1972 and after more than thirty years they work just nice. Here is a good picture where you can see its beauty. And errr… yes, they also have the “vostok palette”:

Image courtesy of Jay IntrenUK

Go ahead, ask us for the time!

A pastry filled with white cream and covered with soft, sweet, pink chocolate. You can’t find something like that anywhere else in nature. In fact, Panteras Rosas make worth 400 years of advancements in chemistry. Pink ecstasy!

For those who are not familiar with it, the pastry is obviously based on the Pink Panther cartoon and was introduced in Spain 40 years ago (the pastry, not the character). It is indeed the oldest licensed food product in the shelves of Spanish stores and supermarkets.

• Reviewing and improving the usability of cool software application
• Designing a website for a BIG client which will be seen around the world
• Improving some crucial pages for a real state big player in Spain
• Redesigning a retail store with one of the coolest subscription services around

I am satisfied for the work done but it’s been intense and exhausting. We deserve a few days of rest. Cosmonauts will be released of their duties and will travel around a little bit (Madrid, Coruña, Granada…). I will leave the spaceship and get into one of these pods at hotel Aire de Bárdenas:

Enjoy the holidays!

Mr. Calavera told us about his recent trip to the US, where he spoke at Google’s Test Automation Conference 08 in Seattle (you can find Calavera’s presentation here), and then the ApacheCon in New Orleans, where he spoke about Abdera in the Fast Feather track.

Tomorrow Mr. Calavera is invading Edinburgh with Vostok’s own Sam Lown and the rest of Madrid’s RoR Gang. Make us proud at the Scotland on Rails Conference guys!

Maki is—without a doubt—the person who carries the coolest gadgets around, casually pulling out an iRex iLiad (an Amazon Kindle-like device) and an ultra-portable Dell projector.

We enjoyed chatting about infodesign and other stuff, some highlights to linkable content:

• Hans Rosling’s spectacular presentation at TED, whoever says statistics are boring deserves a punch in the face.
• Paul Mijksenaar’s great work at Schiphol, Amsterdam; and his short but tasty book, “An Introduction to Information Design”.
• What the heck happened to Second Life? And why people still keep trying to replicate reality in 3D environments? It has all the cons and none of the benefits. At least WoW allows you to run around slashing innocent creatures.
• The difference between the “showing all the data” approach by Edward Tufte, and R.S. Wurman’s “selecting a presenting only what is important to the reader”.
• Myth debunked: Nasa spent millions developing a pen that would work in space
• We also debunked the mentos myth, however, after reading the article, I withdraw my offer to atempt it. Hey, stop calling me chicken!

Thanks for visiting our headquarters Maki!

Today was Alberto ‘denegro‘ Romero’s turn. He’s an interaction designer at dnx, one of unvlog.com‘s founders, and a huge Sopranos‘ fan. Lunch seemed almost thematic: we ended up at our favorite Sicilian restaurant sipping mirto (cranberry liquor) and Alberto took home some great cannoli to enjoy while watching the fourth season tonight (departing on a Italian Vespa bike, as if it was not enough).

Past guests to Vostok’s spaceship:

• Jacobo ‘The Robot’ García
• Marcela Machuca
• Agustín Jiménez

Nagaraya barbecue cracker nuts, or as Mark calls them, Japanese peanuts. They seem to be regular peanuts covered with a crisp layer of wadus that’s both sweet and spicy. As they say:

Heat up the fun with hot & spicy flavor and have a ssssizzling great time! It’s like having fireworks with your snack or party.

They are imported from Philippines (globalization rules) and they have 0% tansfat and cholesterol. Science at its best!