FASHIONISTABLE – wow

I randomly bumped into Dvora whilst out in Kensington. She asked if it was possible to take a photo of me and could ask a few questions so that she could put it on her blog. I of course agreed, especially as I was a fellow blogger – we all like to help each other out!

I have since been reading her blog and it really is fantastic. Dvora is one of the most creative fashion photographers that I have seen and she gets the most incredible photos for her blog not from using a green screen or a professional studio – but out on the streets of London. It really is incredible.

I definitely recommend a look at her blogspot :

http://fashionistable.blogspot.com/

Having said that, her studio photos are just as fabulous. You can check those out here:

www.pressbook.com/dvora

So enjoy, and make sure you all keep looking gorgeous – Dvora could be taking your photo next!

Holi Festival celebrated in London

Holi is the Indian festival of colours. The celebration marks the end of winter and the destruction of evil with bonfires and the throwing of paint over one another.

It is a Hindu festival which brings together all denominations of the religion as well as others.

http://vimeo.com/10866273

National Eating Disorder Week

London Fashion Week took place alongside National Eating Disorder Week this year. We wanted to find out what fans of the fashion industry thought about this.

FOIE GRAS – THE SICKENING TRUTH

Courtesy of The Animal Protection and Rescue League

There are countless examples of cruelty beyond disbelief in this world. One which I feel is one of the most revolting, unnecessary and barbaric is that of the process involving ducks and geese in order for a so called fine delicacy to be served on the plates of high class diners – foie gras.

Shame should be cast upon anybody who supplies it, serves it in their restaurant or consumes it. Think back to the ducks going about their lives when you visit the park. They are inquisitive individuals whom have developed relationships with one another and are meticulous when it comes to looking after their nest.

In order for foie gras to be created these animals encounter a hellish experience as far away from life on the lake as possible.

Foie gras, which translates into ‘fatty liver’ can often be found at some of the finest dining experiences – that of weddings, banquets, and at top hotels. It is best known as a traditional French cuisine.

It appears that many of the consumers of foie gras are unfamiliar with how it is produced, they just ‘know’ that it is delicious – something that should be truly appreciated for its fine and unique taste. I have been fortunate enough to attended some very fine restaurants which had foie gras on their menu – luckily I had never decided to choose it.

Since then I have been led to understand the cruelty linked with the production of ‘the delicacy’. I know for a fact that I will never touch it. I also doubt whether I should even set foot in those places again. They do not deserve the support for trying to sell such a nauseating ‘food’ item.

The repulsive production procedure

Courtesy of The Animal Protection and Rescue League

The method in how foie gras is produced is certainly not for the faint hearted. The birds are squashed into tiny cages with their wings twisted together, restricted from the freedom of even being able to turn around in dark filthy sheds, existing in their own waste and with no natural light.

Every three hours they are force fed with 4lb of a corn mash mixture which swells inside them, so much so that they literally reach bursting point. This would be the equivalent of us eating around 45lb of pasta a day. This itself is absolutely repulsively inhumane, but the worst is yet to come.

In order for this unbelievable quantity of corn mush to be pumped into the animals, huge metal pipes are forced down their gullets and straight into to their stomach, during which their insides are ruptured and their beaks are cracked. Their livers increase to ten times the normal size and the animals quickly become sick.

Some experience a painful death, with corpses left among live birds whom are only waiting to continue enduring this agonising process each and every day.

This torture continues for around three months until the birds livers are so diseased and overladen with food that they are considered fatty enough to be served on somebody’s dinner table. At this point the birds are shackled without a care and their throats are cut, only waiting for their miserable lives to drain away for eternity.

Courtesy of The Animal Protection and Rescue League

Eating a diseased organ

Foie gras is actually a very painful liver disease – fatty liver disease, which should be treated by a veterinary surgeon. Instead it is cruelly and intentionally induced on foie gras farms throughout the world – type the two words into YouTube and you can see for yourself the distressing process and effects. I am sure it will convince you that any civilised and sane individual would not want to let foie gras anywhere near their knife and fork.

In addition to this, it has been said that certain surveys have suggested that eating fois gras can lead to a whole array of diseases, including that of Alzheimer’s, and why would anybody want to eat something that was riddled with ‘disease’ and of an astonishingly high calorific content anyway?

We share the planet with these creatures that provide us with food, therefore these creatures who are often at our mercy deserve our upmost respect. They still have a face, just like you or I.

When it comes to the production of foie gras, this respect is failing miserably. It is a completely unnecessary food source being created, no matter whether it is a French tradition or not. We are living in a modern day society.

The actual farming of foie gras is banned in the UK, as it is it Israel and Switzerland, but there is no law to prevent restaurants or food stores from exporting it in and selling it. Marks and Spencers, Waitrose and Harvey Nichols no longer place it on their shelves, but there are many more food halls such as that of Harrods which still sell it.

Courtesy of The Animal Protection and Rescue League

Hopefully in the near future this barbaric delicacy will have become extinct. People need to be made aware of the shocking truth, and when they are I am sure that opinions will change and fois gras will be successfully banned throughout the world.

To read more about this cruel procedure and to support the campaign visit – www.banfoiegras.com

Radio – A blind medium? I think not.

I have been getting increasingly frustrated with hearing assumptions and negative comments spoken about on the subject of radio.

It is not boring, it has not had its day and it certainly is not ‘undoubtedly better’ than television. The opinions that I hear on radio itself seem to come from that of little consideration about what the medium actually is.

It seems to be a somewhat stereotyped opinion from those who clearly lack any substantial knowledge about the media world that we are embedded in. What I cannot seem to understand is how so many seem oblivious to the fact that radio has the gift to affect an audience in such a way that no other media form can, especially when it comes the the genre of radio drama; which clearly is one of the most unappreciated literary forms of the last twenty five years.

CSR FM

Compared with that of television, one would assume that due to the obvious fact that radio lacks visual stimulus there is no way that it can be as ‘compelling’ and varied as what is broadcast on the television.With a never ending source of images that seek to shock, influence, entertain and teach constantly on our screens, to think that radio could do exactly the same is sure to be seen as plain stupidity by the majority.

My opinion however is quite the opposite. Radio offers a very different theatrical effect, an effect which I feel is one of the most interesting, as well as being one of the most influential. It most assuredly is not a blind medium.

Seeing with the eye… and seeing with the ear…

Thinking philosophically, what difference is there between seeing with the eye and seeing with the ear? Blind people can still see, they still have the ability to imagine what is going on around them, and create their own visual sense as it were. Other human senses allow them to interpret their surroundings. Sight is a minute part of the human experience.

Feeling and emotion are surely as important to true life fulfillment; without them what would we as human beings be?

This is where my theory comes in to play – radio (especially radio drama) has the ultimate ability to delve deeply into human feelings and emotions, so much more so than television or film. The entire imaginative spectacle can be influenced – there are no limitations; by which I am suggesting that taste, sound, smell and visual can all be created just from hearing even a simple sound.

What is so fantastic about radio is that because we are only using our ears to consume the source, each individuals interpretation will differ in a variety of ways.

The sound that we as an audience hear from our speakers is entering into the subliminal mind of the human being, creating an almost dream like experience, a visual show ground that goes on for eternity.

Therefore when considered further it would make sense to say that radio encourages us to have far more active involvement with the source being listened to deep within our ever so complicated minds, especially when comparing it to that of television, where an often passive trance appears to take over the viewer.

Experimenting on the airwaves

Sound experimenting

I do not want to bore you with lists of sounds that are used within radio and the ones that I particularly feel from experience have an incredible dramatic effect, especially again in the case of radio drama, but I do want to stress that the list really is never ending.

There is always the opportunity to experiment with sound to create a new emotional adventure.

All sounds that we hear have a hue, they have a spectrum of nature just as fine art does, therefore each individual encounters something that no other person will. How fantastic is that? We are allowed to let our minds run wild and create as insane or normal vision as we wish. We see no barrier as is experienced when watching a screen.

So there we have it, radio is extraordinarily far from being a blind medium. Instead of waking up in the morning and glueing your eyes to GMTV or BBC Breakfast, try switching to a radio station and think about what you have read in this blog – you may be surprised. Your imagination may even thank you for it.