Monthly Archives: July 2011

More Brie Vicar?

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Sales of French Products soar over British counterparts

Brits are stocking their cupboards high with French produce, tapping into the long-standing view that the French are always one step ahead when it comes to style, according to new sales data from online supermarket Ocado.

Sales of French Saucisson (sausage) have risen by 169 per cent more than its British counterpart Gammon over the past two years.

French Aioli (garlic mayonnaise) has become increasingly popular with sales up 400 per cent, versus a more conservative growth of Hellmann’s Light Mayo, at just 35 per cent.

With over 20 per cent of Brits describing the French as “stylish”, our Gallic neighbours may well be top of the list when it comes to dinner party invitations, but we also want their expertise to hand when it comes to the food being served up from UK kitchens.

Everyday French items such as Brie are also fast becoming UK household essentials. According to a survey by Ocado, just 6 per cent of Brits name the British classic Red Leicester as their favourite cheese, with twice that amount (11 per cent) preferring Brie.

To mark this burgeoning culinary trend, and announce Ocado’s new partnership with French hypermarket Carrefour, a 6ft sculpture of the Eiffel Tower, made from cheese, has taken up temporary residence amongst London landmarks Big Ben and the Houses of Parliament.

Created by renowned sculptor Prudence Staite, the artwork, which took 504 hours to sculpt, is made from a fusion of UK and French cheeses – English Cheddar and Reflets de France Tomme de Savoie, a creamy yet mild cheese.

The sculpture celebrates the fact that UK customers can now fill their baskets with a mouth-watering array of French charcuterie, cheeses, patés, biscuits, jams and confectionery, courtesy of Ocado.

Jason Gissing, co-founder of Ocado said: “We are delighted to announce the launch of the Reflets de France range. With over 350,000 French nationals living in London alone, the sculpture celebrates a major advance in Ocado’s stated long-term strategy of offering the most varied and refined home delivery grocery range available to the UK’s uniquely diverse population and puts us at the forefront of UK food trends. Let’s hope that the introduction of more French goods will keep our customers ahead in the culinary style stakes, whether it’s for dinner parties with friends or rustic home-cooked meals for the family.”

Christmas In July, Why Not? Festive Wine Guide

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Frost magazine took some time out from summer to celebrate Christmas, okay, to do some wine tasting in a winter wonderland. Accolade wine are revamping their wines, and even bringing out a new low alcohol range. Perfect for light weights like me.

I was privileged to try the new Banrock Light range. The Banrock Station Light Rose is only 5.5 per cent alcohol but tastes just as great. I love Rose and this just tastes good. It is only 60 calories per 125ml, so it helps with a calorie heavy Christmas (or any other time) It is reasonably priced at £5.45. It has a touch of sweetness and hints of red berry, jam, strawberry, raspberry and cherry. Yum.

Other in the Banrock Light range are Banrock Station Light Chardonnay-Sauvignon Blanc (a fresh wine with pear and apricot aromas), Banrock Station Pink Moscato (Melon and floral, very sweet, a great aperitif), Banrock Station Moscato (passion fruit, pineapple and tropical fruit. Good with cheese) All the Banrock Light range are £5.45. A bargain.

Banrock station have donated £2.5 million to 97 environmental projects in 13 countries, and £30k to Natural England to help preserve 2100 acres of British wildflowers, an important habitat for bees and butterflies.

Another favourite of mine is something a bit different: Stone’s Ginger Wine Special Reserve. It is a blend of the finest quality raisins and pure ground ginger, it produces a delicious, mellow warming flavour. It is perfect for Christmas, going well with mince pies and Christmas puddings. I, however, will be drinking it all year round. So yummy.

Hardy’s is the UK’s most popular brand of wine, and sponsor of Come Dine With Me. The Nottage Hill range has new packaging that will hit the shelves from September 2011. I love Hardy’s Crest Chardonnay Pinot Noir. It is a lively berry fruit tones and a crispy tangy finish. It is a very good wine for making bucks fizz.

Endurance Campaign Demonstrates the Cruelty of Human Trafficking

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In Aid of Emma Thompson’s Helen Bamber Foundation

Launching on July 2011 at 5pm, campaigner and musician Phil Knight will undertake one of the most challenging anti-human cruelty campaigns ever carried out. In aid of Emma Thompson’s Helen Bamber Foundation the campaign, known as ‘The Everyday Project’, will aim to firmly expose human trafficking in the UK and see Knight endure two weeks of solitary confinement outside of Euston Station in Euston Square Gardens. Knight’s fundraising single ‘Everyday’ will also be released the same day to coincide with the launch of the campaign.

From 5pm Monday 25th July until 5pm Monday 8th August, The Everyday Project will see the Helen Bamber Foundation’s most prominent ambassador hidden and locked inside a 10’ x 8’ iron clad shipping container, located in Euston Square Gardens. Suffering two weeks of solitary confinement and captured via live video streaming on www.justenoughfortherealworld.com, Knight will face extreme isolation and deprivation, having only a portaloo, journal and a pair of his trusty drumsticks for company, with some basic provisions provided for his survival. Illustrating only a small part of what those being trafficked and tortured endure every day, the campaign aims to fully expose this modern-day form of slavery. Already familiar with undertaking extreme challenges in a bid to stop human trafficking, Knight broke a world record in 2009 by drumming for four and a half consecutive days in Leicester Square, raising over £4000 for the Foundation.

Knight’s fundraising single ‘Everyday’ will be simultaneously released on Monday 25th July to mark the launch of The Everyday Project. Written & co-produced also by Knight and sung by one of London’s most talented and rising stars, Chris Kalli, Everyday is an upbeat and lively retro blues track. Taken from the critically acclaimed charity album ‘Just Enough For The Real World’, the track is available through download at www.iTunes.co.uk.

‘This is great music by great writer-performers who were inspired by great suffering. Weirdly, it is full of humour and hope and breathes life into its listeners, not sadness. Joyful and timely, it reminds us what ARTISTS can do when they’re in the right place at the right time.’ Emma Thompson, Chairperson of The Helen Bamber Foundation.

‘My mission in life is to stop human trafficking and I will do whatever it takes to make this happen.’ Campaigner and Music Producer, Phil Knight.

‘Isolation like solitary confinement is a form of torture and Phil is setting himself a serious challenge in solidarity with the victims. Like the shipping container, Phil will be locked in at Euston Station, just as trafficked victims remain hidden often in plain sight of the public.’ Dr Michael Korsinski, Helen Bamber Foundation.

Human trafficking is the fastest growing criminal industry in the world, second only to the illegal arms trade. The Freedom of Information Act revealed that 957 children were trafficked in just eight months in 2008, whilst there has been a 90% increase in the number of victims between 2006 and 2009. The Council of Europe states,

‘People trafficking has reached epidemic proportions over the past decade, with a global annual market of about £27.7 billion.’

Betting on Snake Oil By Matt Harwood

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The sinking of my stomach and the pure shame can be felt just as hard-hitting as it will do the day my grand-children ask the question.

“You mean your generation based a majority of their economy, transport infrastructure, and manufacturing on a natural resource you knew was finite and running out? And you did nothing? Are you insane?”

The idea is insanity. To bet such critical parts of our society as transport and energy on an increasingly scarce resource as oil, goes against every human survival instinct. The financial “free market” has over-ridden sensible action.

Petrol prices are only going to go up, as the slick stuff becomes extinct. Anyone waiting for them to subside is fooling themselves.

The “free market” favours oil because you need to keep buying it, so it makes profits. Very nice profits, at that.

You know what doesn’t make such nice profits? Solar energy. After all, you don’t need to keep paying the piper for sun rays. This is the fundamental reason that I worry our switch to renewable sources of energy will fall too late.

I am personally ashamed of fellow humans that put profit before people. Somewhere along the way, the priorities got mixed about.

Now this isn’t a rant against capitalism, nor a cry for help against climate change. This is a statement of common sense – right now we are betting our future on something we know, for a fact, won’t be around in a few decades.

Would you buy a house in an area you knew is going to be knocked to the ground in 5 years time? Would you sign up for an 18 month phone contract with a company that has announced their shutting up shop in a few weeks?

As the day of oil extinction nears, serious investment and intelligence is needed in to alternative energy and ways to replace plastic. The “free market” stops those seeking profits spending too much time on it, so we need a philanthropic, non-profit market to take the slack.

Oil companies know that one day, they won’t have a business. They know that, eventually, they’ll have no product and the energy market won’t be worth what it is today. But they continue on, with almost the same excuse I have used for smoking – “I’ll stop by the time it does me damage. I can’t imagine that far in the future”. Short-term thinking, when so much is at stake, is a mug’s game.

We need a group of smart people to come together in a real initiative to solve this problem once and for all. Any takers?

Charlie Sheen's Winning Week

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Charlie Sheen’s Winning Week: After Winning a New Sitcom, Sheen Steps in to Help Children’s Charity

Charlie Sheen is having a good week. With a new show, a Comedy Central roast and becoming an overnight hero to 1000’s of families of sick babies born with a mysterious birth defect, it seems Charlie Sheen’s star is back on the rise.

On Tuesday, the LA Times announced Charlie Sheen has landed the lead role of the new television series, “Anger Management” based on the movie starring Adam Sandler. “I chose ‘Anger Management’ because, while it might be a big stretch for me to play a guy with serious anger management issues, I think it is a great concept,” Sheen said.

That’s not all Charlie Sheen has been up to.

Last Wednesday, Dawn Williamson, founder of CHERUBS, challenged Mr. Sheen via Twitter to get his millions of fans to throw her charity 25,000 votes in a Facebook contest. Her efforts paid off and Mr. Sheen accepted the challenge. Tweeting and re-tweeting for the charity this week, Mr. Sheen has made it a personal quest to help CHERUBS; “I’m down with Dawn!! @ncdawn RT @cherubs Help critically ill babies with CDH. Take Charlie’s challenge to vote! www.voteforcdh.org”

Currently at 3rd place, CHERUBS is a regional finalist in the 2011 Vivint Gives Back Project. CHERUBS and 1000’s of families of children born with Congenital Diaphragmatic Hernia (CDH) are counting on a miracle from the former “Two and a Half Men” star. “CDH families in 38 countries are cheering him on and so very grateful for his support and the awareness he is raising for our cause,” says Williamson.

A child is born is born with CDH every 10 minutes. With a 50% mortality rate, this means 3 babies die from CDH every hour. Winning the contest will help fund research to find the cause of CDH. “50% of money won will go towards genetic research of CDH through Mass General’s CDH Research Study. The other 50% will go towards family support services and awareness,” says Williamson. Information about the contest and where funds will go can be found at www.voteforcherubs.org

"Naked Girl with Egg" by Lucian Freud in Oporto

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“Naked Girl with Egg” by Lucian Freud in Oporto
until 23 october

“Naked Girl with Egg” by Lucian Freud is on the centre stage of My Choice, an exhibition founded on the now known and tried concept of the artist-curator, with Paula Rego.

Mostly comprised of drawings and etchings, but also photography and painting, the 87 works mirror their creators’ identity. Always individualized, each work seems to have been observed and selected as a unique piece, her selection being unconcerned with the building of a body of related works. What unites each piece is Paula Rego’s way of seeing, which is almost always drawn to works with an intrinsic narrative that becomes manifest in extreme situations, of great tension and drama, and others that develop more universal themes, such as life, death, love and sex.

“I really only chose what I liked. I didn’t choose pictures because of the name of the artist, or because they were considered historically significant. Very often I didn’t know who had done them. Some I had seen before, but others not. I loved the freedom to like by looking”, stated Paula Rego.

“The sadness in the
the woman’s expression” of ” Naked Girl with Egg” was the reason why Paula Rego choose this painting, she explained in the opening of the exhibition, 14 th july, in Oporto, Portugal.

The selection of this work has less to do with plastic expression or empathy with the extraordinary harshness of the painting than with the strong emotions it stirs.

MY Choice is being held on Espaço Fundação EDP, in Oporto, until 23 october, as well as “The Poacher”, an original project, between Fundação EDP and Fundação Paula Rego/Casa das Histórias Paula Rego, with works by Paula Rego – paintings and drawings – produced in 1990, when the artist received the invitation to inaugurate the residency programme of contemporary artists at London’s National Gallery.

Mostly comprised of drawings and etchings, but also photography and painting, the 87 works mirror their creators’ identity. Always individualized, each work seems to have been observed and selected as a unique piece, her selection being unconcerned with the building of a body of related works. What unites each piece is Paula Rego’s way of seeing, which is almost always drawn to works with an intrinsic narrative that becomes manifest in extreme situations, of great tension and drama, and others that develop more universal themes, such as life, death, love and sex.

“I really only chose what I liked. I didn’t choose pictures because of the name of the artist, or because they were considered historically significant. Very often I didn’t know who had done them. Some I had seen before, but others not. I loved the freedom to like by looking”,

stated Paula Rego.

“The sadness in the
the woman’s expression” of ” Naked Girl with Egg” was the reason why Paula Rego choose this painting, she explained in the opening of the exhibition, 14 th july, in Oporto.

The selection of this work has less to do with plastic expression or empathy with the extraordinary harshness of the painting than with the strong emotions it stirs.

MY Choice is being held on Espaço Fundação EDP, in Oporto, until 23 october, as well as The Poacher an original project, between Fundação EDP and Fundação Paula Rego/Casa das Histórias Paula Rego, with works by Paula Rego – paintings and drawings – produced in 1990, when the artist received the invitation to inaugurate the residency programme of contemporary artists at London’s National Gallery.

Espaço Fundação EDP Porto
Rua Ofélia Diogo da Costa, nº 39
4050-009 Porto
Tuesday to Sunday
12 pm – 7 pm
Free entrance

Memorial Service For Lucian Freud As Art World Mourns

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It was the end of an era in the art world when Lucian Freud died aged 88 on the 22nd of July. Freud was art’s greatest living painter, he made such an impression on me that I was incredibly sad when he died, even though I never met him. I remember reading about where he hung out in a magazine and wishing I had the courage to go to the Wolseley and ‘bump’ into him.

He worked obsessively at his studio in London’s Holland Park and fathered many children. He hung out with Kate Moss and when he died, his regular table at the Wolseley was draped in a black cloth. He borrowed money from Jacob Rothschild on the condition that he would never ask again and never pay it back, he also got in trouble with the Krays after racking up gambling debts, and got into a fight when he was in his 80’s.

A memorial service has been set. Freud’s lawyer Diana Rawstron said his funeral would be held in private but a public memorial service would be held at another date.

She told The Daily Telegraph: ‘The funeral will be private and for the family only. There will be a memorial service at a date to be announced.’

He was the grandson of psychoanalyst Sigmund Freud

Freud’s become incredibly expensive and his Benefits Supervisor Sleeping, that sold in 2008 for $33.6 million – a record for a living artist. The women in the Picture, Sue Tilley, said she cried when she heard he had died.

‘He certainly is considered one of the most important painters of the 20th and 21st centuries,’ added Brett Gorvy, deputy chairman of the postwar art department at Christie’s auction house in New York.

July Cultural Highlights: Amanda Eliasch has it As She Like It.

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Frost’s favourite theatre production in July was Amanda Eliasch’s semi-autobiographical play As I Like it. Amanda wrote the play and Nicky Haslam did the set, a dream combination if ever there was one. It was directed by Lyall Watson, who Amanda knew from RADA. The set was opulent and glamorous, much like the play itself. Amanda is a socialite, photographer, fashion editor, blogger and poet. You can read the review in my theatre column here:
http://www.lastminutetheatretickets.com/blog/index.php/5908/as-i-like-it-review/

Frost enjoyed the Kanaloa & Gallo Summer Red Party.

As did Jo Wood, Henry Holland (who was also DJ), Pixie Lott, Jo Wood, Alice Dellal, Henry Holland, Francesca Hull, Gabriella Ellis, Natt Weller, Leah Weller and Diana Vickers and her boyfriend George Craig

Summer, wine, interesting people, what more could you want?