Dave Regos

The Wire
Set in gritty Baltimore, this HBO series is one of those shows where the greater the investment, the greater the reward. The complexity of the characters unfolds slowly and the plot is revealed seductively like a striptease. Like the crack addicts it portrays, it leaves you wanting more at the end of every episode.

Lookout Mountain, Lookout Sea by the Silver Jews
You know how you get excited when you hear that one of your favourite bands is releasing an album and then the album comes out and you listen to the album and the album is no good or it's just a cheap rehash of their other albums and it's disappointing? Sigh.

But then other times one of your favourite bands releases an album and you listen to it and you think it's pretty good but you need to listen to it again. And then you listen to it again and you remember all the reasons you love that band and then you listen to that new album almost every day henceforth and become a little bit obsessed with that album and want everyone else around you to be obssessed with that album too. Because deep down you know how great the album is and not just because the album has samples of seagulls and foghorns and songs about jails made out of lollies and has a cover version of a song by an obscure Japanese artist you thought hardly anyone has ever heard of, but that it also contains monumental truths and is funny and musically varied and you realised that this is probably going to be the best album of the year.

That's what happened here.

Texas Hold'Em Poker
All in on pocket 7s. Twice that has led to my undoing. On Wednesday it was a heart on the river. She had two overs with my suited Ace and Three in the hole. Flush beat my Ace high. Loss permeated around me as I left the RSL. Still, I wait once more for the day when I go heads up, re-raise before the flop, and on the turn hit my full house boat to take out the tournament. My day in the sun will come. Then we'll see who's the short stack, won't we?! WON'T WE???!!!!

If you have a gambling problem, please call 1800 633 635.

Sharp knives and a Scanpan
I never knew how much a good frying pan could affect one's cooking. From the country that brought us the building blocks of society, Lego, comes the titanium pan that turns frying into a joyful experience. Mushrooms sauteed to perfection. Omelettes golden brown all over. Butter glides across gracefully like an oiled up synchronised swimmer down a bowling alley. This baby distributes the heat evenly across the full nonstick surface. Metal or plastic stirrer. Doesn't matter - it's titanium. Somehow everything looks and tastes way better then it ever did before.

Good knives make cutting the things you put in the pan easier. And they make everything look and taste better too.

Pistachios
A great anytime snack. To open one with a shell that is mostly closed, take a half discarded shell from the shrapnel of the eaten pistachios, wedge it in the small gap of the shell of the stubborn sheltered nut, twist and voila. Behold your green, and hopefully salted, prize.

Dave Regos has many cards up his sleeve - even when his poker habit is shaken. He hosts the reliably awesome radio show, In The Pines, which sits high on my list of must-listen shows on FBI 94.5FM. He's filmed M.I.A. on the road and has made a retro-cute clip for Cloud Control. He also writes, makes a mean breakfast burrito and is working on a magical documentary (literally).