Tag Archives: Catherine Balavage

Tenors Unlimited Viva La Vita | Music Review.

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Calling yourself the ‘Rat Pack of Opera‘ is quite a grand statement, and one you only make if you can back it up. Lord Richard Attenborough certainly thinks they can, calling them “fantastic…a unique and wonderfully entertaining act”. Sting simply says: “Bravi!”. Well, hard to argue with that.

The Trio, Scott Ciscon, Jem Sharples and baritone Paul Martin, who formed in 2002, have made their new album Viva La Vita an album of greatly requested numbers from their live show with two original songs thrown in for good measure; Viva La Vita – the title track, and Fall in Love. These songs were written by the band themselves.

This album is a triumph, it take much loved classics and gives them a fresh, operatic twist. It helps that they also have a few of my favourite songs like ‘Time to Say Goodbye’ and ‘Summertime’.

By including non-operatic songs in the album the band could have been called opera-lite, but they manage to by-pass this. Their voices are divine, their take on the songs sublime. It is a beautiful album. The original songs are good and so is their take on the classics. I thoroughly enjoyed this album. I definitely recommend it. It is rousing music. A good mix of the popular and the grand.

www.tenorsunlimited.com

Viva La Vita

Gear 4 PocketLoops {Tech Review}

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Technology Review.

Every fancied making your own music but can’t afford the technology? Gear 4’s PocketLoop may be the answer, I reviewed it to find out if you can make sweet music with an iPhone application and a small keyboard.

The PocketLoops is light and relatively small. It is really easy to use and you just pop your iPod touch or iPhone into the dock and download the free PocketLoops application from the App Store, and off you go.

It is very easy to use when you get the hang of it ,and you can make some really good music. When you get to the main screen you will see a 4 x 4 grid that has 16 spaces, four for each instrument, to record different parts of your song. The instruments can be changed just by tapping on them. There is a good selection of instruments including pianos, drum kits, synthesisers and some other bass and dubstep sounds. At the bottom are the remix, speed, stop all and volume buttons. Remixing is one of my favourites, you just turn the loops on or off to include them in your song.

You can also add effects like echo, chorus or distortion via the XY Filter Pad

It has a 25 key keyboard and it uses the battery from your iphone/pod. Luckily it has a low power consumption. It is very easy to record the loops, you just hit the keys on the keyboard. You can record up to 16 different loops.

The Gear 4 PocketLoops allows you to record high quality songs and remixes, it has a well designed keyboard and iOS application. At just under £50 it is well worth the money and tons of fun.

It comes with the following adaptors:

    iPhone 3G / 3GS adapter
    iPhone 4 / 4S adapter
    iPod Touch 3G
    iPod Touch 4G

Game of Thrones: New Trailer

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At Frost we are super excited about the new season for Game of Thrones, not least because our favourite actor Forbes KB is in it. There is a new trailer for the second season which will be on in less than a month. The first season was amazing so we have high hopes. Enjoy….

Frost Loves…The Blend Collective

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I am a big fan of natural beauty as I have skin that used to react to everything. I am one of the lucky few that managed to live through teenage acne without any scarring. Add on eczema on childhood, and, yes, you bet I am fussy!

I was invited to the launch of Blend Collective, a new body care range which is truly natural, no parabans or nasty stuff.

It’s two founders are Pippa Bennett and Clive Walker, both lovely people. Pippa was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2001 and decided to live a more natural and organic lifestyle. Pippa became increasingly interested in what is applied to the skin and its impact, Clive has been at the forefront of the natural and organic beauty industry since the early ‘90s, when he held the position of Marketing Director for Tisserand – pioneers in affordable essential oil-based products.

Clive commented:

 “I wanted to create an experience people can really enjoy and cherish. I am passionate about combining natural actives at meaningful levels with pure essential oil blends to create outstanding products.  Excellence and integrity in all aspects of our brand are important to us from the truly natural ingredients that we insist on through to the design and quality of our packaging”

I have tried the range and they smell amazing, the packaging is funky as hell and they really do work. Not something that can be said of all natural beauty products. The only downside is that I kept smelling myself, which probably looked a bit strange.

At the event I also met Alec Lawless. Alec knows everything there is to know about putting a fragrance blend together. There are three different blends in the range and Alec the enlivening one. Read Alec’s blog.

Alec also gave me some great advice on stress: ‘Fix the source of the stress, don’t paper over the cracks’. Sound advice from a wise man.

The Blend Collective is a team of leading, well-known aromatherapy and perfume experts from the UK combing their expertise to produce an exceptional range of truly natural body care products. The range consists of three distinctive luxury fragranced blends – Enlivening, Unwinding and Balancing – and each one contains four different body care products, all of which are a minimum of 99% to 100% natural and are formulated with delicate essential oils as well as other powerful active ingredients.

BLEND collective has been developed and produced in the UK, using the finest blends of 100% pure essential oils that are chosen for their therapeutic benefits as well as their amazing aromas. To achieve the beneficial aromatherapeutic effect, it is ensured each product contains the optimum performance level of essential oils. Try the Enlivening Collection for an energising lift, the Unwinding Collection to help you relax or the Balancing Collection for a more Zen-like experience.

BLEND collective is the brainchild of Clive Walker – ex-Marketing Director of the Tisserand aromatherapy brand who has been credited for making aromatherapy products available to a wider audience – and his business partner Pippa Bennett who is passionate about the use of essential oils in everyday life.

With so many brands falsely claiming to be natural and organic, BLEND collective is committed to set a new standard of integrity and excellence with its own ‘truly natural’ label. All products in the range are at least 99% natural, contain organic ingredients where possible and are free from the following potentially harmful chemical ingredients: petroleum derived chemicals, sulphates, parabens, synthetic fragrances, artificial colouring, glycols, TEA (Triethanolamine), DEA (Diethanolomine), silicons and PEGS (Polyethylene glycol). 

In order to protect the environment, all BLEND collective product containers are recyclable and sourced only from maintained sustainable forests.

The range consists of the following fragranced blends:

1.Enlivening Blend – by Alec Lawless

2.Balancing Blend – by Emma Nash

3.Unwinding Blend – by Glenda Taylor

Products are available from www.blendcollective.co.uk. More stockists to be confirmed soon.

http://www.blendcollective.co.uk/en_GB/home

Frost Recommends The Blend Collective.

The Titan Prophecy. The New Harry Potter? {Book Reviews}

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The Titan Prophecy: Rise of the Dark One is a blockbuster fantasy novel aimed at young adults, steeped in Greek Mythology and tales of Greek gods and dragons. I am not a young adult but I still loved it. It is Harry Potter meets Lord of the Rings. The book educates and entertains as it uses real Greek mythology and stories, it then entwined them with the story of Charlie, his sister Emily, and his friend Max. Two boys and a girl, sound familiar?

This is not just some Harry Potter rip-off. It is dazzling and original. It is hard to put down and actually a little bit scary. Not sure if I am supposed to admit that…The book includes current world issues like climate change into the fabric of the novel. It also has some killer lines like: ‘Thinking? Surely you can do better than that?”

It has a familiarity for anyone who is a fan of history due to the real mythical historical figures in it. It is a blockbusting action-adventure-fantasy-time-travelling- novel. A real triumph for A.M Crawford, a former political journalist. This book is the first in a series and I will be reading the other ones, even if I am not 11 and outside of the demographic.

This book received the ultimate stamp of approval from me; I got some of my friends to buy it so they could read it too.

A.M Crawford commented: I have tried to weave a tale that will engage the imagination of boys and girls from the age of 11 onwards so they will grow older with Charlie, Max and their friends and remain engaged throughout their teens. The combination of elements of Greek mythology with an adventure story set in a quintessential English village is a magical mix.”

Buy it here: The Titan Prophecy: Rise Of The Dark One

http://www.facebook.com/thetitanprophecy

Spicy Filled Roasted Stuffed Onions

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Frost is going to be publishing a number of recipes all based around British onions. Here is the first one. Yum.

Spicy Filled Roasted Stuffed Onions

Serves 4
These beautiful roasted onions are filled with a delicious, spicy lamb mince. You can substitute
lamb mince with beef mince if you prefer.

Preparation Time: 20 minutes

Cooking Time: 1 hour

4 large British red onions peeled
1 tbsp oil
225g lean lamb mince
2-3 tsp Ras El Hanout spice mix
Salt and freshly milled black pepper
50g sultanas
Grated zest of 1 lemon
2tbsp freshly chopped mint
2tbsp freshly chopped flat-leaf parsley
50g feta cheese, crumbled
125ml hot vegetable stock

1. Preheat the oven to 180°C/ fan oven 160°C, Gas mark 4,
2. Place the onions on a chopping board and cut off the top of each onion. Use a small knife
or spoon, remove the centre of each onion, keeping about2-3 layers of the onion. Finely
chop the removed onion.
3. Carefully trim the root end of each onion so they stand up and stand in an ovenproof dish.
4. Heat the oil in a large pan and fry the chopped onion until beginning to soften. Add the
mince and cook for a further 5-7 minutes or until the mince is brown. Drain any fat or
liquid that may be in the pan. Return the mince and onion to the pan.
5. Add the spice and seasoning and continue to cook for 2-3 minutes.
6. Remove from the heat and stir in the sultanas, lemon zest, herbs and feta
7. Spoon the mince filling into each onion, packing tightly.
8. Pour the stock around the onions, cover with foil and bake for 40 minutes.
9. Remove the foil and continue to cook uncovered for a further 20 minutes, or until the
onions are tender.
10. Serve the roasted onions with a mixed salad or couscous.

Christopher Shannon AW12

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Christopher Shannon AW12

Christopher Shannon’s collection was very interesting. Lots of blacks and whites, some onepieces. It was quite streamlined. The Central Saint Martins graduate took inspiration for his collection from Mathieu Kassovitz’s gritty 1995 film La Haine and also from youth culture outside of the United Kingdom.

The models were interesting. I am not sure they were professional. Most of them couldn’t walk and didn’t pose for the press at the end of the catwalk. This added to the air of rebellion and moody youthfulness. Christopher Shannon is one to watch.

MADD Dessert on Rupert Street | Reviews.

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I love mango. I cook with it all the time and I put it in all of my sandwiches – don’t recoil, try it!- I also have the sweetest tooth in West London. So MADD was made for me. You can make your own desserts and the majority of them are all mango. Yum. I took Frost writer Mary Tynan and went to review the goodies. It’s a hard job….

Apart from the mango concept MADD has another niche: you can build your own dessert. It’s fun and fabulous. You can be as creative as you like.

I tried the Siam. Sweet coconut sticky rice with mango. Tastes amazing and very different. Also has a raspberry? sauce. Really good. All of the different consistencies and tastes work together amazingly.

The Mango creme brulee – one word: wow. It tastes amazing. It is cooked perfectly. And does that cracking thing.

Mango upside down cake, god, how did I live for so long without knowing this existed. Absolutely stunning. Tastes like heaven.

I also had the mango passion fruit fool – sweet and delicious.

I also had a mango smoothie, because it was only lunchtime and I had to go back to London Fashion Week after my sweet lunch I didn’t try any of their cocktails or shots. Maybe next time.

The wonderful owners Ralph and Jonathan are friendly, creative and enthusiastic. It is impossible not to like them and want them to do well. They even let me take a coca-cola cupcake. It may sound weird but it is one of the most amazing things I have ever tasted.

If you don’t like mango then MADD do non-mango desserts. They also do tea and coffee.

MADD are on Rupert Street. No.53. Go try them out.

MADD BOASTS DESSERT SOLUTION FOR THE HEALTH CONSCIOUS

MADD (a.k.a. mango addiction), the UK’s first dessert and drinks lounge dedicated to the “king of fruits,” opened its doors to Soho diners on December 5th. Aimed at changing the dining habits of London’s inhabitants, MADD offers a healthy and delicious alternative to the fast-food options littering London. Set in a location renowned for its fried fare, Rupert Street is the perfect setting to introduce this nourishing Eastern concept to the West.

Ralph Monthienvichienchai and Jon Sivak, the creators of MADD, hope to share the health benefits of the mango with their outpouring of customers. Every part of the mango is beneficial; of its many medicinal properties, the mango tree is purported to offer anti-viral, anti-septic, anti-parasitic, anti-tussive (cough), and anti-asthmatic effects. It can also be used as a cardiotonic, aphrodisiac, and a digestive aid. Mangoes are not only high in prebiotic dietary fibre and vitamin C, but they contain antioxidant vitamins A and E, as well as B6, K, potassium, and 17 amino acids. The mango may even help prevent prostate and skin cancers. A good MADD addict will not only be able to satisfy their sweet tooth craving, but they will also lower their cholesterol, cleanse their blood, decrease the effects of aging on their skin, and increase their general happiness and wellbeing.

In a bid to improve the city’s nutrition, MADD also offers a vast selection of replenishing drinks, coffees and teas, including the irresistible “MADD Smoothie”, a signature blend of mango, coconut, and greek yogurt, sweetened with a squeeze of organic honey.

MADD revels in bringing the freshest mangoes of the season to ensure that the nutrition and flavours will never disappoint. MADD enters the winter season with the beautiful sun-kissed mangoes from down under, introducing the Aussie Queensland Kensington Pride mangoes to Londoners everywhere.