Saturday, December 3, 2011
Individual Medical Insurance Effects
Life insurance within the uk is becoming a lot more popular with some people now realizing the benefits and can a good life insurance coverage. Again, your attorney could explain to the particular insurance adjuster any legal meaning and ramifications within the policy commercial insurance tongue and how who meaning entitles one to coverage. Review the medical related information required to discover the policy:. For example, if the face amount with your policy is establish at 0, 000, then your assignee will receive 0, 000 when people die. Insurance: Earthquake endorsements are usually added to most plans purchased through a non-public agency. The bill controls annual coverage regarding ABA (, 000 for young people ages 3-9; , 000 for infants ages 9-21). Usually preferred rates can be obtained only once the outcome of the healthcare information and checks are known. They will even have qualified professionals (conveyor engineers, contractors, inspectors, etc.) at now there disposal to save their analysis. For safe life, we require insurance policy. Some Side The policies are underwritten as non-rescindable by your insurer. Make sure you have got complied with the doctor's treatment blueprints. Whole life coverage have a face value and also a cash value. Taxis have to become covered for typically the "carriage of human beings for hire or simply reward". INADEQUATE INFORMATION OR WARNINGS DEFECTS - Once the foreseeable risks with harm posed with the product has been reduced or definitely avoided by reasonable suggestions or warnings, and their omission renders the goods not reasonably safer. The Health Approach Association testified with respect to the industry. The IRDA has brought "at a snail's pace" process. A lot of folks may have diverse policies. Those that usually do not are not what you deserve in terms on the risk partner. Knowing what styles of insurance you need can also be important make sure that you don't overspend on points that are unnecessary.
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Thursday, November 24, 2011
Thursday, June 2, 2011
Kaiser Chiefs ... but under your control
Burned by past leaks, Kaiser Chiefs release their new album today after exactly zero buildup ? and it might well be the world's first bespoke record. The band explain all
In the east London studio purchased with the proceeds of Kaiser Chiefs hits such as I Predict a Riot, Oh My God and Ruby, the group's drummer, Nick Hodgson, shows singer Ricky Wilson an image on his iPhone. "Can you see anything strange about this?" says Hodgson, emitting a low hum of excitement. Wilson correctly points out it's a discarded can of Carlsberg. "Ah, but look closer!" trumpets Hodgson. "Look at the ringpull beside it! It must be at least 25 years old. I was out walking the dog on Hampstead Heath yesterday and it was just there on top of some leaves, as though someone had just left it."
The two 33-year-old musicians attempt to outdo each other with increasingly arcane facts about canned beverages. Wilson recalls the infamous launch of Red Bull in their native Leeds, in which enough empty cans of the energy drink were discarded around the city centre to pique local interest. "Morally, it's a questionable way to launch something, isn't it?" Wilson pauses for a second. "Although, it did work, didn't it? Perhaps they should have done that with [failed 1980s fizzy drink] Quatro."
It's been about six weeks since I last saw Wilson. But the change in his body language between that encounter and now suggests I could almost be talking to a different person. Back then, he arrived late at a dinner party hosted by a mutual friend, and had the air of a man whose thoughts were elsewhere. He was about to run the London marathon to raise money for the Alzheimer's Research Trust (Hodgson's father was diagnosed with the condition in 2008), and his training regime forbade him to eat anything other than salad at that time of night ? though his abstinence didn't extend to a few bottled beers.
Surely a couple of stones lighter than he was when 2008's Off With Their Heads appeared, Wilson explained to the guests that his 26-mile run was to double up as the video for an upcoming Kaiser Chiefs single. Miming along to the song as it played on his iPod, the promo would show him at various stages of the race, until the song's final lyric coincided with Wilson crossing the finishing line. To Wilson's subsequent relief, the BBC refused permission for filming: come the day, the singer collapsed with just two miles to go. "I have no recollection of the final five miles," he says now. "Beyond waving at my girlfriend, it's all a bit hazy. I only know where I went because it was on my GPS. I passed out under Blackfriars bridge and woke up in an ambulance. I didn't even know my own name."
At the dinner party, Wilson suddenly became anxious that he had divulged too much about the video idea. "Nick would be cross if he knew I'd even told you what I just told you," he said. Etiquette stopped me from pointing out that ? much as I like the band ? Kaiser Chiefs' imminent return was hardly a matter of national security. Six weeks later, though, their paranoia isn't quite what it was. As the singer puts it: "We're not naive enough to believe that the world is hanging on our next move. But when you've had a new idea and you can't quite believe that you're the first people ever to have had that idea, you don't dare tell anyone."
And so to The Future Is Medieval. Without any buildup, fanfare or whatever you want to call the pop equivalent of leaving Red Bull cans scattered around Leeds city centre, the successor to 2008's Off With Their Heads appeared on Kaiser Chiefs' website on Friday. In doing so, it effectively heralds the arrival of the world's first bespoke album. Ten songs from a choice of 20 for �7.50 ? no more, no less ? but what those songs are, and the order in which they run, is down to you.
How to pick, exactly? One-minute excerpts allow you to choose between, say, I Dare You, or Dead Or in Serious Trouble ? two examples of the queasy fairground pop that is one of the band's fortes. Each song is represented by an object sitting on a shelf: click on a suitcase full of rats and you get Man on Mars; Saying Something is represented by a wolf riding a horse. "There's a lyrical significance to every object," says Wilson, "although some are more oblique than others." Once you've assembled your album, another area of the site allows you to customise and print the artwork.
For any band, every record beyond their debut album is, in a sense, a reaction to the one before. In the wake of Off With Their Heads, however, Hodgson's immediate reaction was simply not to bother. In some quarters, the group's decision to enlist Mark Ronson on production duties was deemed an act of indie treachery that precluded any reasonable appraisal of the actual songs. Worse still, the album leaked three weeks before its release date. Hodgson ? a man who Googles himself far too much for his own good ? remembers reading blogs by people who had downloaded the album illegally and proceeded to be critical of its contents. "It just seemed like bad manners, really," he says. "Getting it for free ? I don't mind that per se. But how much effort are you going to put into listening to something you didn't pay for?"
By the time Off With Their Heads came out, Kaiser Chiefs' appetite for the fight was decidedly lower than it was in their first year of chart supremacy. Interviewed around the time of the release of their debut album, Employment, Hodgson explained the gameplan behind that unassailable run of early hits. "We always said that if you can see the bandwagon, then you've already missed it. So it was important for us to do something that was (a) a reflection of what we were into, and (b) nothing like what anyone else was doing at the time." On the album's companion DVD, we see Wilson turning the microphone towards the audience for the first time so they can sing the first verse of I Predict a Riot. His reaction when he realises that, yes, they actually know every word, is eye-mistingly sweet.
But after the thrill of doing everything for the first time comes the relative anticlimax of having to do it again and again. "Every band on their third, fourth, fifth record," says Wilson, "they do interviews and they say it feels like their first, and it's just something they say because it's what people want to hear. Then you wake up and you've realised that, actually, you've gone along with all sorts of things that are maybe not in your best interests."
For Kaiser Chiefs, that moment of truth was their appearance on the ITV special An Audience With Girls Aloud. A good six years after the craze for mashups had peaked, they were pencilled in to perform one alongside Britain's premier girl group: a not altogether seamless meshing of their single Never Miss a Beat and Girls Aloud's Sound of the Underground. The band were displeased. But wasn't their distaste suspiciously like a case of indie declaring its superiority to "manufactured" pop? Picking up a packet of Crunchie biscuits by way of illustration, Wilson says: "Not at all. These were manufactured and I think they're great. Much better than if I tried to make them myself. By the same token, it felt like the wrong thing at the wrong time. We tried to pull out, but we were basically ? threatened. That's all I can say about that right now. It's like that clip of Morrissey and Johnny Marr doing Saturday morning kids' TV on the top deck of a bus, surrounded by children. The presenter says, 'Where are we going?' And Morrissey says, 'Around the bend.'"
Always the band's main songwriter ("I'm good at starting ideas, but sometimes I have to rely on Ricky to finish them"), Hodgson wrote Bang Bang Bang with Ronson and submitted I Love You Now to Shirley Bassey's 2009 album The Performance. He also started his own record label, Chewing Gum, to which he signed NME-feted Hull quartet the Neat. His friendship with Kaiser Chiefs bassist Simon Rix and keyboard player Nick "Peanut" Baines extends back to the Bradford school where they met at the age of 11; in spite of that, Hodgson remained reluctant to reconvene the group ? a reticence he now puts down to his father's illness.
Certainly, there's no need to ask how hard recent events have hit his family. By some distance, the most moving song on The Future Is Medieval is If You Will Have Me: an unflinchingly tender address from Hodgson to his father, backed by a string quartet. "And if you will have me/ I want to be the son that I was/ And if you will have me/ I want to be the boy in the photograph." Asked today how his father is, Hodgson merely says: "Not good. I can't talk about it. Not because I don't want to talk about it. But if I do, I'll start to cry."
Though usually Kaiser Chiefs' "chief motivator", this time Hodgson suggests Wilson, a former art-school teacher, was "the difference between this album existing and not existing". Last Easter, while waiting to be served at Rick Stein's fish and chip shop in Falmouth, Wilson found himself wondering why having fans assemble their own Kaiser Chiefs album from a selection of tracks wouldn't work. He couldn't think of a reason. Holidaying with him was Oli Beale, an ad agency creative who achieved a measure of fame after his letter of complaint about the food on a Virgin flight from Mumbai went viral. "The more Ricky and I talked about it," remembers Beale, "the better it seemed. Then all these other ideas just kept slotting into the main idea."
Included among those ideas was what Beale and the band hope will be one of the main incentives for people to pay for these songs. Once you've compiled your album and customised the artwork, you can sell your version of The Future Is Medieval to other people visiting the website ? and pocket �1 for every one you sell. You even get the HTML code, allowing you to sell the album on your own website. "It sounds relatively simple," says Beale, whose company, Wieden+Kennedy, oversaw the creation of the project. "But actually, none of us had any idea what a huge job this is. The mechanics of tracking the royalties of everyone who worked on the album and making sure everyone who sells on the album gets their pound ? none of that has been done before."
Whether or not it'll be done again surely depends on the success of The Future Is Medieval. In the long run, it may take the inevitable career-spanning anthology album to position Kaiser Chiefs as a great singles band. Pending such a moment, Wilson says that this way of working has reignited the creative process. "You're trying to make every song a worthy candidate to be selected for the album.
"When our last album leaked, that was the worst thing. The night before this one comes out, I know I won't be able to sleep. The last time that happened was with our very first record."
? You can hear Dead Or in Serious Trouble from Kaiser Chiefs' new album streaming exclusively at guardian.co.uk/music. We've also got our own special Guardian version of The Future Is Medieval for you to buy, with a tracklisting chosen by Pete Paphides himself. A pound from every purchase will go to charity.
guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2011 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds
Source: http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/2011/jun/03/kaiser-chiefs-the-future-is-medieval
Too much debt makes you unattractive
Her name sends tremors of regret through millions of folks who were, once upon a time, college students. Some finished, some didn?t. But many of us must pay the great beast known as Sallie Mae.
More From The Stir:
Source: http://shine.yahoo.com/channel/life/too-much-debt-makes-you-unattractive-2491663/
Safeguarding Your Finances Against Natural Disasters
Filed under: Insurance - Home Insurance, In the News
The recent deadly tornado in Joplin, Mo., as well as a pair of devastating twisters in Springfield, Mass., serve as reminders to homeowners and renters nationwide about the need to shore up their properties - and their finances - against natural disasters.And since hurricane season officially kicked off June 1, Americans everywhere would be wise to safeguard their homes, businesses and valuables.
Whether you live in a hurricane prone area of the U.S., a flood-ravaged or tornado-battered section of the country, or a region known for wildfires and earthquakes, there are four key ways you can build a financial fortress around you that will prove invaluable if disaster strikes.
Continue reading Safeguarding Your Finances Against Natural Disasters
Safeguarding Your Finances Against Natural Disasters originally appeared on WalletPop on Thu, 02 Jun 2011 12:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Source: http://www.walletpop.com/2011/06/02/safeguarding-your-finances-against-natural-disasters/
8 tasty twists on potato salad
'Tis the season to fire up the grill across the country as family and friends unite to feast on festive food. While the burgers and brats are often the stars of the show, some of the best fare can also be found along the?
Source: http://shine.yahoo.com/channel/food/8-tasty-twists-on-potato-salad-2490965/
Catherine Bell Chandra West Charisma Carpenter Charli Baltimore
June's In-Season Produce Inspires Fresh Recipes
By Brandi Koskie - DietsInReview.com Surely we're not the only ones rejoicing that our weekends can now begin with a trip to the farmers market to pick up the best produce the season has to offer. The only thing better than the R&R that naturally comes with the lazy days of summer?Source: http://shine.yahoo.com/channel/food/june-s-in-season-produce-inspires-fresh-recipes-2491625/
Gordon Ramsay to sign exclusive one-year deal to stay at Channel 4
Despite disappointing ratings for Gordon's Great Escape, broadcaster understood to have agreed in principle to contract
TV chef Gordon Ramsay will sign an exclusive one-year deal to stay with Channel 4.
Despite his latest series, Gordon's Great Escape, not performing as well as expected, the broadcaster wants to keep him on and he is understood to have agreed in principle to a new contract, although the deal has yet been signed.
Unlike his previous multi-year deals, Channel 4 offered Ramsay a one-year extension to his golden handcuffs deal.
It is understood that Ramsay had exploratory conversations with ITV ? which makes his hit US show Hell's Kitchen ? but has decided to re-sign to Channel 4.
Ramsay's current deal expires next month and according to sources the final details of the new contract, thought to be worth just under �1m, will be sorted out when he returns to the UK in a couple of weeks.
It is understood the deal is for two series ? one that combines a business-related concept with Ramsay spending time in a prison and another, yet to be decided, which will probably be more traditionally food-related.
A spokeswoman for Ramsay said: "Gordon is delighted to be continuing a great relationship with Channel 4 and is excited about the new project they have in development."
After a year when revelations about Ramsay's personal life hit the headlines, rather than his restaurants and TV shows, there had been speculation that his reputation was tarnished and that Channel 4 might not renew his exclusive deal after it appeared his ability to cook up huge audiences in the UK was waning.
At the height of the popularity of hit Channel 4 series Kitchen Nightmares, Ramsay was pulling in around 4 million viewers for the broadcaster.
But Gordon Ramsay's Best Restaurant ended up averaging just over 1.5 million last year ? higher than the slot average, but below his previous ratings highs.
And on Monday, his latest series Gordon's Great Escape, finished its four part run with about 900,000 viewers at 9pm.
It was in a tough slot, up against ITV1's Coronation Street and Britain's Got Talent, with Simon Cowell back on the judging panel for the first time in 2011, but nevertheless will be a disappointment. According to Channel 4 insiders it is thought unlikely Great Escape will return.
But the broadcaster and Ramsay have a long history together and the mutual loyalty between the two is said to have played a large part in the new deal, with Channel 4 executives thinking he should have "another crack at the whip" rather than axe him because of a ratings blip.
He signed his first three-year exclusive deal with Channel 4 in 2004, the year Ramsay's Kitchen Nightmares was first broadcast. In 2006, at the height of the UK TV talent bidding wars, Channel 4 won a three-way contest with ITV and the BBC to keep Ramsay on an exclusive contract. He stayed with Channel 4 for a reported �8.5m four-year deal running to mid 2011.
Ramsay's new shows will be made through One Potato, Two Potato ? the joint venture production company he set up with Optomen Television. Both companies were last year bought by All3Media.
He is busy in the US with the successful American versions of Kitchen Nightmares, Hell's Kitchen and Masterchef, and is planning to do less work in the UK for the time being.
However, it is understood Channel 4 has been talking to him, along with some of its other most famous faces, about playing a part in its Paralympics coverage next year.
He is also appearing in a new film alongside Dougray Scott, Simon Callow and Peter Bowles called Love's Kitchen, out on 7 June.
? To contact the MediaGuardian news desk email editor@mediaguardian.co.uk or phone 020 3353 3857. For all other inquiries please call the main Guardian switchboard on 020 3353 2000. If you are writing a comment for publication, please mark clearly "for publication".
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guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2011 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds
Source: http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2011/jun/01/gordon-ramsay-channel-4-deal
15-Year-Old Kendall Jenner Being On Birth Control Demonstrates Good Parenting
Kendall Jenner, the 15-year-old sister of the Khardashian ?klan,? has recently been revealed to be on birth control. The internet seems to be brimming with
All the fun of Venice
In pictures: As this year's annual art exposition kicks off in Venice we sneak an early peek at some of the boldest bits
Source: http://www.guardian.co.uk/artanddesign/gallery/2011/jun/01/venice-biennale-pictures-art
Charisma Carpenter Charli Baltimore Charlies Angels Charlize Theron
Wednesday, June 1, 2011
Suburbia is no longer a sanctuary for our hedgehogs | Hugh Warwick
Changing garden trends has seen hedgehog numbers decline 25% over the past 10 years. What can be done to help them?
"Shifting baselines" sounds like a funk band rather than the ecological concept that is making me miserable.
It's official: the British Hedgehog Preservation Society and the People's Trust for Endangered Species have released research that clarifies what we already suspected ? hedgehog numbers are dropping precipitously. They're down 25% in the last 10 years alone.
And this is where that baseline comes into play. The fisheries scientist Daniel Pauly first developed the idea in 1995. He talked about how scientists would assess the state of a fishery using their memories of the fishery at the start of their career as the baseline. But this is a very different baseline than the fishery in an untouched state, or 100 years ago. This results in large declines within ecosystems being masked as each new generation sets new definitions on what is natural.
I do many talks about hedgehogs, often to the Women's Institute, and I have never had an audience that has recently seen more hedgehogs. To begin with I thought this might be to do with a slight rose-tinting of times gone by, but it is too consistent, and the new data adds considerable credence to the observation.
But the talk I hear is not of something in the region of a 25% decline; people are regularly reporting a complete absence of hedgehogs, where once they were plentiful. So going back to the science, I found a figure suggesting the hedgehog population for the UK in 1955 was about 30m. Today it is around 1m, and falling. That is the baseline we need to keep in mind, so that we remain aware that we have already lost in excess of 95% of the country's hedgehogs.
Why should we care?
Well, because hedgehogs are tough little animals that have survived pretty well, in some form or other, for the last 70m years. This decline is big enough that we should be worried. It indicates that something is wrong. And now we also have a pretty clear idea of what that might be.
The landscape, suburban and rural, has become massively fragmented. In the countryside intensive farming, improved pastures and poorly managed hedges have all contributed to the isolation of hedgehogs in what are known as "rural refugia", or more commonly, towns and villages. In many cases the hedgehogs also have a jailor, in the form of badgers, the presence of which prevents their spread out into the wilds.
That has all been going on for some time now, but what is new is what has changed in the last sanctuary for the hedgehog, suburbia. It was perfect. A mosaic of different habitats all interconnected with sufficient green space to allow movement that for the most part kept them away from the busier roads. But the pressures on space have reduced the green routes; the numbers of cars have increased enormously; front gardens have been given over to car ports; rear gardens have become extensions, either literally, or with decking and patios; easily maintained tidiness has become the goal and, finally, fences have got concrete footings.
All this ruins the capacity of suburbia to help the hedgehog. In my talks a regular question will come from a keen wildlife gardener who has done all the right things: she will have a compost heap, a wild border or two, a shallow pond and lots of rotting log piles, but complains that there are no hedgehogs. Why? Because she has an impenetrable garden.
There is a solution at hand, as, in conjunction with the depressing research, a campaign called Hedgehog Street has been launched. The call is going out for people to start to work with their neighbours to ensure that their gardens help, rather than hinder, hedgehogs. Already people have started cutting hedgehog-sized holes in their fences and there are many other simple ideas available through the campaign's website.
Hedgehogs are important; they are an essential and utterly unmistakable connection with the natural world. They remind us that there is wildness beyond the suburbs.
guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2011 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds
Source: http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2011/jun/01/suburbia-hedgehog-decline-garden
Barbara Cooney's Books of Summer
Every season has its books, and summer is the season of Barbara
Cooney. The acclaimed author-illustrator loved the sea, travel and
wild flowers - some of the best summertime pleasures we know. And
so, every summer, we find ourselves drawn to a certain corner of
the bookshelf that's labeled "C." As often happens,
love of one book leads us on to discover a whole treasure trove of
titles. Cooney's National Book Award-winning Miss Rumphius is a
huge favorite of ours, and has long had a place on our Savvy
must-read-before-Kindergarten list. More recently, my daughters
picked out a stack of her other titles from the library, and
we've been on a Cooney reading kick. What a pleasure!
Cooney. The acclaimed author-illustrator loved the sea, travel and
wild flowers - some of the best summertime pleasures we know. And
so, every summer, we find ourselves drawn to a certain corner of
the bookshelf that's labeled "C." As often happens,
love of one book leads us on to discover a whole treasure trove of
titles. Cooney's National Book Award-winning Miss Rumphius is a
huge favorite of ours, and has long had a place on our Savvy
must-read-before-Kindergarten list. More recently, my daughters
picked out a stack of her other titles from the library, and
we've been on a Cooney reading kick. What a pleasure!
Source: http://shine.yahoo.com/channel/parenting/barbara-cooney-s-books-of-summer-2488001/
The stuff of life
L�onie Hampton photo�graphs the clear-out of her obsessive-compulsive mother's chaotic home
Source: http://www.guardian.co.uk/artanddesign/gallery/2011/may/21/photography-obsessive-compulsive-disorder
Diary of a Sexy Mother
Everywhere I look it seems someone has a problem with mothers or expecting mothers looking, acting, or feeling sexy. Newsflash: we are still women. Sure we now have added responsibilities, and granted, some things really should not be worn in public (whether you are a mother or not), but the?
Source: http://shine.yahoo.com/channel/parenting/diary-of-a-sexy-mother-2489592/
New band of the day ? No 1,034: To Kill a King
'Rousing orch-folk' is what we noted when we saw this lot play live. Yes, we took notes. We don't do that for just any band
Hometown: London.
The lineup: Ralph Pelleymounter (vocals, acoustic guitar), Josh Platman (bass), Jon Willoughby (drums), Ian Dudfield (electric guitar), Ben Jackson (synths, keyboards).
The background: To Kill a King ? not to be confused with To Kill the King, a hardcore band from New Jersey ? are a five-piece specialising in folk-inflected pop-rock who have a one-off single out on Ben Mumford's Communion label. Not usually our bag, we know ? Odd Future's drill'n'muzak, Jensen Sportag's jazz-funk revisited and the mutoid R&B of the Weeknd and Holy Other are more our tipple ? but we thought we'd go and see them play in London because we'd heard one of their tracks and it sounded pretty good.
And they were great. The singer was soulful, though not in the sense of acrobatics and melismas but of a voice capable of conveying feelings without yawping or bellowing. And the band played these multilayered songs that were complicated in structure but went straight to the emotional point, which in many cases was sharp. We weren't alone in thinking this: Laura Marling, who was there, was moved to dancing rapture (actually, her friend was fiddling with her hair at the bar, but she definitely swayed to the beat), so too was Ted Dwane from the Mumfords (the bit about swaying, not hair-fiddling). "Rousing orch-folk" is what our notes said this morning. We took notes. We don't do that for just any band.
What else did our notes say? They said that some of the TKAK cast resemble 50s greasers or extras from West Side Story while the frontman looked like Richard Thompson and wore a flat cap, this scene's equivalent of the Pete Doherty titfer. One of the songs had the rickety gorgeousness of Orange Juice and another bore the lustrous chord progressions of Aztec Camera, which made us very happy indeed, while another made us think of the National and Arcade Fire and reminded us to start our own Academy of the Overrated.
The standout track, Cold Skin, was about the most thrillingly conventional piece of music we've heard all year and made us write the phrase "powerfully plangent" on our phone while pogoing to its pithy piquancy in the dark. The cover of Yeah Yeah Yeahs' Maps was surplus to requirements because with that track and the one after, a chilling number titled Wrecking Crew that probably wasn't a paean to Hal Blaine et al, they'd done enough to make us believe in indie guitar rock again. All this, plus the promise of literate lyrics (the PA wasn't the best so we couldn't make out the words), though we're still none the wiser as to why there are two fat painted bald men dragging each through a council estate by a piece of rope in their video.
The buzz: "They recall the endearing folk melodies of Mumford & Sons while also capturing the emotional resonance of Frightened Rabbit" ? fadedglamour.co.uk.
The truth: This is what we were expecting Frankie and the Heartstrings to sound like.
Most likely to: Seek redress for the years of indie landfill.
Least likely to: Address the corruption of Parliament during the reign of King Charles I.
What to buy: The single Fictional State was released this week by Communion.
File next to: Mumford & Sons, Frankie and the Heartstrings, Mystery Jets, the National.
Links: myspace.com/tokillakinguk.
Thursday's new band: Leopard of Honour.
guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2011 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds
Source: http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/2011/jun/01/new-band-to-kill-a-king
Millions of Americans Lack Access to Broadband's Economic Benefits
Filed under: Consumer Ally
America may have invented the Internet, but more than 100 million American lack access to broadband and its accompanying economic benefits, according to a new report from the Federal Communications Commission.Some 26 million Americans in largely rural areas across the nation lack high-speed connections to the Internet, the FCCs Broadband Progress Report to Congress found, cutting them off from broadband-based jobs and other economic opportunities.
Continue reading Millions of Americans Lack Access to Broadband's Economic Benefits
Millions of Americans Lack Access to Broadband's Economic Benefits originally appeared on WalletPop on Wed, 25 May 2011 12:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Source: http://www.walletpop.com/2011/05/25/millions-of-americans-lack-access-to-broadbands-economic-benefi/
TGB Mother's Day Special: Crazy Mothers (Guest: Darren Bousman)
On this special edition episode of The Golden Briefcase, Tim and Jeremy count down their Top 5 Crazy Mothers of Cinema in honor of Mother's Day! The guys list off plenty of psychotic mothers from films such as Black Swan, Carrie, House of the Devil and many more! Jeremy also conducts an interview with director Darren Bousman (Saw II, III, IV, Mother's Day) regarding his Top 5 crazy film moms. Tim and Jeremy also discuss the different character types these mothers embody and the immense talent of some of these actresses. List your own favorite crazy film/TV moms below and enjoy the rest of the day with yours!
The Golden Briefcase is also broadcast LIVE on Tuesday nights starting at 7:30PM (PST). You can listen in via our Ustream page or by visiting our own live page right here on FS. The podcast is just as fun to listen to live ...
The Golden Briefcase is also broadcast LIVE on Tuesday nights starting at 7:30PM (PST). You can listen in via our Ustream page or by visiting our own live page right here on FS. The podcast is just as fun to listen to live ...
Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/firstshowing/goldenbriefcase/~3/29b4Cxk4vDM/
Quick and light DIY bridal shower menu
There are so many reasons to love a good bridal shower: that they happen during the day when the sun is shining, that they're in the summer when all the ladies can wear their pretty little dresses and nibble on cucumber sandwiches and sip fizzy drinks guiltlessly. Everything is just so simple and light and lovely. And that includes the menu. Here?s a simple picnic-style lunch menu of quick recipes that take just 25 minutes of active time or less, for your homemade bridal shower.
Source: http://shine.yahoo.com/channel/food/quick-and-light-diy-bridal-shower-menu-2490789/
Jessica Cauffiel Jessica Paré Jessica Simpson Zooey Deschanel
Saudi woman driver freed after agreeing to quit campaign
Manal al-Sharif, jailed after posting a YouTube video of herself driving, leaves Women2Drive movement
A Saudi Arabian woman who was jailed for driving a car has been released after nine days, having pledged to take no further part in a campaign to persuade the Saudi authorities to allow women to drive.
Manal al-Sharif, 32, was freed from the women's prison in Dammam on Monday. She was arrested after posting a video of herself driving around the eastern city of Khobar as part of the Women2Drive campaign of which she was a key organiser.
Her case attracted international attention after her lawyer said she had been charged with driving without a licence, prompting other women to do the same and provoking public debate in Saudi Arabia. Two other women associated with the campaign were also questioned by police and warned off further campaigning. One Muslim cleric even called for Sharif to be lashed.
"She wrote a pledge that she will not drive a car and after what has happened she has decided to give up the campaign and not be part of the protests," said Sharif's lawyer, Adnan al-Salah.
He said the authorities had not imposed the conditions, but Sharif had decided to make the pledge herself.
The climax of the Women2Drive campaign, a mass drive on 17 June partly inspired by demonstrations against restrictions on civil liberties across the Middle East, now appears to be in doubt.
On Tuesday, Sharif expressed "profound gratitude" to King Abdullah for ordering her release and appeared to abandon her call for women to be allowed to drive, according to a written statement published by the al-Hayat newspaper.
"Concerning the topic of women's driving, I will leave it up to our leader in whose discretion I entirely trust, to weigh the pros and cons and reach a decision that will take into consideration the best interests of the people, while also being pleasing to Allah, and in line with divine law," she said, according to a translation of her statement.
"On this happy occasion, I would also like to affirm that never in my life had I been anything beside a Muslim, Saudi woman who aspires to remain in God's good graces and to safeguard the reputation of our beloved country."
Wajeha al-Huwaider, a women's rights campaigner and friend of Sharif, who videoed her as she drove around and was herself questioned by police last week, said she was certain Sharif was told to drop the issue as a condition of her release.
"Usually when they are released, they are warned not to get in touch with anybody, not to talk to the media and not to get involved in any activity," she said.
"I am sure they told her we shouldn't continue with this issue. They told me that and the message was clear to me. I am sure for her it was even stronger."
Sharif's phone was switched off on Tuesday. A colleague at Aramco, the Saudi oil company where Sharif works as an IT security expert, told the Guardian he believed she had been warned off speaking out.
Huwaider praised Sharif, saying that whatever her ongoing role in the campaign "she represents another woman hero who tried in her own way to improve the situation of women".
"She succeeded in sending a message all over the world and educating people in Saudi Arabia about the need for ordinary Saudi women to drive," she said. "We will continue the fight, but we will use different ways."
In her statement, Sharif was also critical of elements in Saudi society which had attacked her driving protest as immoral and irreligious.
"I was stunned to learn of the accusations hurled at my religious and moral beliefs especially that they originated from individuals I least expected to go down that route," she said.
"I held my breath for those speaking in the name of religion and others. May Allah guide them rightly to do me some justice, and that if I had done wrong to blame me only accordingly and fairly, without defaming my faith, creed, and moral system."
guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2011 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds
Source: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/may/31/jailed-saudi-woman-driver-quits-campaign
Jennifer Gimenez Jennifer Love Hewitt Jennifer Morrison Jennifer ODell
Tuesday, May 31, 2011
The stuff of life
L�onie Hampton photo�graphs the clear-out of her obsessive-compulsive mother's chaotic home
Source: http://www.guardian.co.uk/artanddesign/gallery/2011/may/21/photography-obsessive-compulsive-disorder
Christina DaRe Christina Milian Christina Ricci Chyler Leigh
Illumination Entertainment Next Bringing Uglydolls to the Big Screen
Given the success Chris Meledandri's Illumination Entertainment has had at Universal, it's obvious he can pretty much do whatever he wants, including, it seems, adapting a popular toy franchise. Deadline reports that Meledandri and Illumination have acquired rights to adapt the Uglydoll franchise into an animated feature film. Think of those little yellow minions from Despicable Me, but as Uglydolls instead, hundreds of them running around - yea, that's why this was such an easy sell for them. Larry Stuckey (Little Fockers) is writing the script, inspired by the plush world and stories from the numerous Uglydolls books.
Meladandri speaks highly of his love for the franchise and potential for growth with this movie. "The personality and level of wit reminded me of the illustrated work I saw from Matt Groening before he did The Simpsons. The characters have a cult following, and they've been very restrictive in where and how ...
Meladandri speaks highly of his love for the franchise and potential for growth with this movie. "The personality and level of wit reminded me of the illustrated work I saw from Matt Groening before he did The Simpsons. The characters have a cult following, and they've been very restrictive in where and how ...
Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/firstshowing/movienews/~3/CyadQKZpLAI/
Millions of Americans Lack Access to Broadband's Economic Benefits
Filed under: Consumer Ally
America may have invented the Internet, but more than 100 million American lack access to broadband and its accompanying economic benefits, according to a new report from the Federal Communications Commission.Some 26 million Americans in largely rural areas across the nation lack high-speed connections to the Internet, the FCCs Broadband Progress Report to Congress found, cutting them off from broadband-based jobs and other economic opportunities.
Continue reading Millions of Americans Lack Access to Broadband's Economic Benefits
Millions of Americans Lack Access to Broadband's Economic Benefits originally appeared on WalletPop on Wed, 25 May 2011 12:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Source: http://www.walletpop.com/2011/05/25/millions-of-americans-lack-access-to-broadbands-economic-benefi/
Jennifer Gimenez Jennifer Love Hewitt Jennifer Morrison Jennifer ODell
How to Streamline a Jam-Packed Schedule
If you feel too busy even to breathe, follow organizing guru Julie Morgenstern's four d's to free you up for what's really important: time for you and your family. 1. Delete. People constantly burden themselves with unnecessary tasks ? like organizing the?Source: http://shine.yahoo.com/channel/life/how-to-streamline-a-jam-packed-schedule-2490003/
Genelle Frenoy Georgianna Robertson Georgina Grenville Gina Carano
Peppa Pig set to crack US merchandising market
Entertainment One signs deal with Fisher-Price to make toy range with potential to bring in $1bn a year
Peppa Pig is set to crack the US merchandising market, with the owner of the �200m franchise announcing a tie-up with Fisher-Price, the maker of toys for brands including Sesame Street, to launch a product range in time for the key Christmas retail market.
Rights owner Entertainment One, which also distributes films such as the Twilight Saga franchise and Gnomeo & Juliet, saw its share price jump 5% in early trading on Tuesday as investors eyed the potential $1bn (�600m) in annual sales the US merchandising deal reportedly could generate.
Entertainment One said that the deal with Fisher-Price, part of the world's largest toy maker, Mattel, will see the development of a "comprehensive toy line" based on the pre-school TV series.
Peppa Pig has been a massive hit in the UK ? a line of toys was first launched in 2005 and last year generated more than �200m in sales ? and the series debuted on US cable channel Nick Jr in February.
Entertainment One said that the show has become an instant hit, ranking in the top 10 shows on Nick Jr and attracting more than 500,000 viewers aged two to five.
"Partnering with such a prestigious toy licensee at this stage in the property's evolution is testament to the strength of the US broadcast figures and the proven success of the brand in the UK," said the Entertainment One chief executive, Darren Throop. "The initial success of the TV ratings illustrates the potential of the show and the confidence we have that the brand will be a big hit with US consumers."
Last week the company reported that pre-tax profits rose 42% year on year from �8m to �11.4m in the 12 months to the end of March. Revenues increased 12% to �469.7m. Net debt fell from �86m to �60.7m.
? To contact the MediaGuardian news desk email editor@mediaguardian.co.uk or phone 020 3353 3857. For all other inquiries please call the main Guardian switchboard on 020 3353 2000. If you are writing a comment for publication, please mark clearly "for publication".
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Source: http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2011/may/31/peppa-pig-us-merchandising-deal
The inside track ... on paddling
Wear flip-flops in the sea if you want to avoid an excruciating encounter with the poisonous weever fish
A quick splash at the water's edge might seem like the best way to cool your tired feet when the sun's out ? but chiropodist Fred Beaumont warns that if you go barefoot, it's something you could live to regret. "I always wear flip-flops when paddling, and tell my patients to do the same," he says. "A few years ago, I was bitten by a weever fish in shallow water ? the pain was excruciating, and I couldn't run for a month afterwards."
The weever fish is one of the most poisonous in the UK. They're between 15 and 30cm long, inhabit shallow water all round the coast, and are almost impossible to spot because they lie just under the sand. "If you step on one," Beaumont says, "it injects a poisonous venom into your foot from its dorsal fin. There's no antidote. When I was bitten, the pain lasted about an hour. It was so bad, I wanted to cut my foot off."
Amputation is not, happily, the usual result of a fish bite, Beaumont adds ? though extremely rare cases of cardiac failure and gangrene have been reported. If you think you have been bitten, examine the wound, he says: "A weever fish bite leaves two little puncture holes, like an adder bite."
Beaumont only sees a couple of cases of weever fish bite among his patients yearly ? but you can't be too careful. "It's a good idea to check with coastguards about which beaches are particularly affected by weever fish," he says. "But flip-flops are the best way to protect your feet on the beach. Believe me ? when you've been bitten once, you never let it happen again."
As told to Laura Barnett. Fred Beaumont is a chiropodist based in Whitley Bay, and a spokesman for the Institute of Chiropodists and Podiatrists: iocp.org.uk.
guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2011 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds
Source: http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/2011/may/31/inside-track-paddling-weever-fish
The Top 5 Family Vacation Spots for Summer 2011
Memorial Day is around the corner, and family summer vacation planning is in full swing. Choices are abundant, but only you know which destination?
Source: http://shine.yahoo.com/channel/life/the-top-5-family-vacation-spots-for-summer-2011-2487715/
TGB Episode 55: The Children Are Killers (Guest: William B. Goss)
On this week's episode of The Golden Briefcase, Tim & Jeremy are joined by guest William B. Goss from Film.com and the Orlando Weekly to go through their latest Picks of the Week, the newest in DVD & Blu-Ray releases, new footage from Green Lantern shown at WonderCon and the theatrical trailer for The Hangover Part II, listen Jeremy's disdain for Iron Man II and much more! The main topic of the night was kick-ass kids or killer kids, in honor of Hanna starring Saoirse Ronan, in theaters on Friday. The guys go over some of their favorite killer/bad-ass children and talk about the moral implications of those characters.
The Golden Briefcase is also broadcast LIVE on Tuesday nights starting at 7:30PM (PST). You can listen in via our Ustream page or by visiting our own live page right here on FS. The podcast is just as fun to listen to ...
The Golden Briefcase is also broadcast LIVE on Tuesday nights starting at 7:30PM (PST). You can listen in via our Ustream page or by visiting our own live page right here on FS. The podcast is just as fun to listen to ...
Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/firstshowing/goldenbriefcase/~3/DYIN_mExDfc/
Jennifer Aniston Jennifer Gareis Jennifer Garner Jennifer Gimenez
TGB Episode 45: Sundancin' Season (Guest: GATW's Chase Whale)
On this week's episode of The Golden Briefcase, Tim and Jeremy are joined by guest Chase Whale from movie website Gordon And The Whale to go through their Picks of the Week, the newest in DVD & Blu-Ray releases, new trailers for Scream 4 and Jonathan Liebesman's Battle: Los Angeles, listen to Tim's shame on not seeing Shock Corridor and much more! The main topic was the Sundance Film Festival, which kicks off this week (follow our coverage!). The guys go over some of their favorite films from years past, some of the hit directors born at the Sundance and what they are looking forward to seeing at this year's fest. Enjoy!
The Golden Briefcase is also broadcast LIVE on Tuesday nights starting at 7:30PM (PST). You can listen in via our Ustream page or by visiting our own live page right here on FS. The podcast is just as fun ...
The Golden Briefcase is also broadcast LIVE on Tuesday nights starting at 7:30PM (PST). You can listen in via our Ustream page or by visiting our own live page right here on FS. The podcast is just as fun ...
Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/firstshowing/goldenbriefcase/~3/ryk92fZ-45A/
Bridget Moynahan Britney Spears Brittany Daniel Brittany Lee
Monday, May 30, 2011
TGB Episode 52: South By Southwest Winds (Guest: Brian Kelley)
On this week's episode of The Golden Briefcase, Tim and Jeremy are joined by guest Brian Kelley from Gordon and the Whale to go over their latest Picks of the Week, the newest in DVD & Blu-Ray releases, new trailers for Russell Brand's Arthur remake and Brandon Routh's Dylan Dog: Dead of Night adaptation, plus the guys also provide some feedback to listener email and more. The main topic of the night was next week's SXSW Film Festival down in Austin, TX (skyline in the photo). The guys talk over some of the their most anticipated films and panels and how they're going to try and squeeze in some sleep in their busy schedules.
The Golden Briefcase is also broadcast LIVE on Tuesday nights starting at 7:30PM (PST). You can listen in via our Ustream page or by visiting our own live page right here on FS. The podcast is just ...
The Golden Briefcase is also broadcast LIVE on Tuesday nights starting at 7:30PM (PST). You can listen in via our Ustream page or by visiting our own live page right here on FS. The podcast is just ...
Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/firstshowing/goldenbriefcase/~3/7rtPpR7oPjQ/
Gisele Bündchen Giuliana DePandi Giulianna Ramirez Grace Park
John Cho Also Joins the Cast of Len Wiseman's 'Total Recall' Remake
We just recently got confirmation that Kate Beckinsale would again be working with her husband, Underworld director Len Wiseman for his remake of the 1990 sci-fi action hit Total Recall. In addition Jessica Biel and Bill Nighy had also joined the cast in two pivotal roles in the story. Now an actor who made waves in another sci-fi tentpole has signed on for the remake as EW reports Star Trek star John Cho will play McClane, the smooth-talking rep for the mind-messing company that tempts Douglas Quaid (Colin Farrell) to implant fantastic memories into his brain but ends up inadvertently making him think he's a spy.
It's crazy to think that an actor like Cho, who made a career out of taking roles in raunchy comedies like Harold and Kumar Go to White Castle and a bit part as one of the MILF guys in the American Pie franchise, ...
It's crazy to think that an actor like Cho, who made a career out of taking roles in raunchy comedies like Harold and Kumar Go to White Castle and a bit part as one of the MILF guys in the American Pie franchise, ...
Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/firstshowing/movienews/~3/-pZt9TuBA6U/
All this talk of fallen heroes is such rot. Having an affair is not a crime | Rachel Cooke
The gossips and moralists should face the fact that there is no fixed relationship between private and public life
There can't be many people who know nothing of the pain that is caused by adultery. Even if it has not happened to us, we have seen it knock down our friends, our neighbours and, sometimes, our parents (my father married four times and, believe me, it wasn't always pretty). Failing that, there is always English literature, replete as it is with beautiful writing about this particular torture: Graham Greene's The End of the Affair, Elizabeth Taylor's A Game of Hide and Seek, Rosamond Lehmann's The Echoing Grove. When I met the man who is now my husband and he told me that The End of the Affair was his favourite novel, I burst into tears. Was he making predictions before we'd even started? I hoped not, with all my being. But of course, such icy perspective is not unreasonable. A third of marriages end in divorce, and a quarter because a partner has been unfaithful. Marriage is hard, and when someone else's ends, the only correct response is: there but for the grace of God go I.
Why do affairs happen? Who knows? These things are not straightforward, as Mrs Schwarzenegger will tell you. In Elizabeth Jenkins's 1954 masterpiece, The Tortoise and the Hare, Imogen's husband, Evelyn, turns away from her, a great beauty, and towards a stout, plain, older woman called Blanche Silcox. Poor Imogen. It's all she can do to sleep at night: "It was not till half-past one that she started up, broad awake and full conscious. Without a second's warning, images began to stream through her mind. They were of Blanche Silcox... It could not be! She sat up, pushing the hair out of her eyes with palms that were wringing wet. The pain was like a knife with a searing edge." The book's sly genius lies in the fact that the mistress has, on the surface of it, less to offer than the wife. For Imogen, this is inexplicable, bewildering, as humiliating as a slap. But the reader, though on her side, understands. The heart has its reasons.
I thought about all this last week, as the infidelity of Ryan Giggs was revealed to us via a sweaty-looking MP and those self-righteous, gossipy souls on Twitter. Setting aside the issue of privacy ? though my strong feeling is that, in the main, what a man does in the bedroom is between him, the woman he is doing it with, and his wife, if he has one ? I find that I'm almost freakishly out of step with public opinion on this. How am I judging public opinion? All I can say is that this mood has not only been cooked up by the tabloids. The smug accusations of hypocrisy and "disappointment" are everywhere: the blogs, the phone-ins, Starbucks. Last Wednesday, I appeared as a "witness" in a debate about public figures and private morality on Radio 4's The Moral Maze. Even allowing for the fact that its inquisitorial panel must, for the purpose of good radio, sometimes take up slightly preposterous positions, it was confounding to hear a man who writes leaders for The Tablet suggest that gossip is an excellent thing if it gives us an idea of a man's character, the better that we might judge him. This man, Clifford Longley, was sitting to my left. To my right, appropriately enough, was Melanie Phillips of the Daily Mail, whose expression and argument suggested both amazement and mild disgust at my quite appallingly blithe attitude to extramarital sex.
My attitude, though, is not blithe; it is merely realistic. Love hurts. But people will have sex, you know. It is something they are programmed to do. Many of them, perhaps most, will try only to have it with the person to whom they once, in a fit of tenderness and optimism, promised themselves for ever. But sometimes, for whatever reason, they will venture elsewhere. And as crimes go, I think this is a pretty small offence. Not a crime at all, in fact, so much as a symptom of the condition that is known as being human.
This talk of fallen heroes and role models is such rot. Giggs is not a fallen hero, except perhaps in the eyes of his family. He plays for the best side in Britain, and his dedication has seen him extend his career long beyond that of many of his peers. As for the concept of the role model, I'm baffled by it. When Giggs was, supposedly, the squeaky-clean family man (� the Sun) so beloved of his sponsors, there were still among his fans lazy good-for-nothings who gobbed and swore and sang dubious chants. Are they really any more likely to rush out and copy him now? Personally, I doubt the Wythenshawe branch of Relate is laying on extra marriage guidance counsellors.
Sex is a part of a man (or a woman). But it isn't ? unless there is something very wrong indeed ? all of him. It was a beautiful evening as I arrived at Broadcasting House last Wednesday and, as I approached, I looked up at Eric Gill's sculpture of Prospero and Ariel; with the falling sun upon it, it seemed even more than usually lovely, and I thought, not for the first time, about the unhappy disjunction between the ugliness of Gill's sexuality (he had, among other things, a sexual relationship with his sister) and the transcendent beauty of his best work. I know this is an extreme example, but still: the fact remains that a person's sex life, however complicated and busy, can co-exist with many other things. There is no fixed relationship between the private and the public, between sexual probity and professional probity, between the missionary position (or whatever you fancy) and judgment. In fact, I often wonder whether greatness and the tendency to affairs aren't inextricably linked; the fat biographies I read strongly suggest it.
When they stop wringing their hands for a moment and try to come up with a practical argument, the moralists talk of the "distraction" of sex; it is suggested that Fred Goodwin's affair with a colleague might have played some part in the collapse of the Royal Bank of Scotland. But is an affair really any more distracting than, say, an unhappy marriage? Even happily married couples have rows, and go to work with the sound of all the things they should have said ringing loudly in their heads.
You puritans: would you put a moratorium on marriage, too, in some circumstances? Or are your pursed lips simply down to the fact that you are afraid of your own confusing urges, and desperately projecting? My guess is that it's the latter. How else to account for the fact that every time I hear you, I can think only of Angelo, in Measure for Measure? It was Angelo, you will recall, who uttered the dread words: "Tis one thing to be tempted, Escalus, another thing to fall", shortly before he set about trying to sleep with a novice nun.
guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2011 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds
Source: http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2011/may/29/rachel-cooke-adultery-no-crime
Restaurant review: St John Hotel
Fergus Henderson's new venture in London was packed with chefs. But too many cooks didn't spoil the broth
St John Hotel, 1 Leicester Street, London WC2. Tel 020 3301 8020. Meal for two, including wine and service, �100
Fergus Henderson and his business partner Trevor Gulliver open the kind of restaurants they would like to eat in. This is not a great insight. It is an observation based on the fact that they are often seen eating in their own restaurants. The day I visited the newly opened St John Hotel, just north of Leicester Square in London, they were at a back table, Henderson in the kind of bright blue pinstripe three-piece suit that other people would wear for a bet and he makes look entirely natural.
It was the right place for him to be. That evening would bring the annual announcement in London of the 50 Best Restaurants in the World list, and the room was lousy with people who cook for a living: here a table of Mexicans, there some Finns, at the table in the middle the Spanish contingent. This lot may do intricate things with dehydrators and sous-vide machines in their own kitchens, but when they come here it is in Henderson's restaurants that they congregate. His tightly written menus, on a knife edge between urban rustic and complete piss-take, are exactly what cooks want to eat on their days off. It is as successful here as it has ever been at the St John mothership in Clerkenwell.
All that said, I had my doubts about the notion of a St John Hotel. The original is housed in a big-boned, whitewashed former smokehouse and has about it the aspect of an abattoir after the blood has been wiped from the walls. Eating lunch in such a place, which eschews trinkets and baubles, is a self-consciously fashionable anti-fashion statement. Sleeping in such a space is a different matter entirely. Having seen pictures of the bedrooms, in the building that was once the great fish restaurant Manzi's, I can say they look a bit like that special clinic you might visit so nursey could do something intimate and expensive with the rubber tubing and the bucket.
At St John Hotel, however, the rectangular dining room with, at one end, the open kitchen, seemed at first soulless ? a works cafeteria without the glamour. Filled with bearded cooks ? and beards are this season's culinary accessory ? it developed a buzz of its own. The changing menu is short and, while not cheap, cheaper than at St John. Starters are generally �8.50 or less. Mains loiter in the teens. St John being notorious for doing interesting things with the inner wobbly bits of animals, it seemed right to start with croquettes of pig's head, the crisp deep-fried shells giving way to something soft and irredeemably piggy. They tasted like a grown-up ? though not very grown-up ? version of Frazzles.
Just like me, the fish soup arrived looking terribly thin, a rust-coloured liquor which my companion compared, uncharitably, to late-night dishwater. But again, just like me, it had serious depth. On the side was a piece of sourdough toast spread with ripe brown crab meat. It was all the kind of thing upon which the St John reputation is built: a simple idea done very well indeed.
For mains there were things like snails and bacon or grilled skirt steak with onions and horseradish or a pike and leek pie for two. We chose the other sharing dish, a huge bowl of long-braised caramelised bacon chops with luscious ribbons of fat in a stew of generously sauced beans. It cost �28; I wonder if it might be possible to sneak in and order it just for one. A sprightly dressed watercress salad cut through the bacon fat and white bean lusciousness.
At dessert our waiter told us we should order the custard tart and we did as we were told. It was a good call. One nudge of the plate and the 2in-thick custard filling had the kind of wobble that gets men of a certain age excited. It tasted fabulous, too, the custard punched through by a sprinkle of nutmeg. A rhubarb trifle was no slouch either.
For all its British posturing, the St John wine lists have always bent the knee to the eternal verities of Europe; full of well-priced classics from France and Italy. Happily there is also a late-opening bar in which to drink them, and a late-night menu for those who forgot to eat.
The St John Hotel has been open only a few weeks, but already it feels like the kind of resource that this last vaguely seedy corner of London really needs.
Email Jay at jay.rayner@observer.co.uk or visit guardian.co.uk/profile/jayrayner for all his reviews in one place
guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2011 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds
Source: http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/2011/may/29/jay-rayner-restaurant-review-st-john-hotel
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