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Gluten Free London

Posted by amy on April 27, 2010 with No Comments
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London has the most delectable bakeries. Here, you can find a list of bakeries and their locations and specialties. From cupcakes to brownies and wedding cakes, these bakeries carry the very best and most delicious treats your tummy can imagine. These bakeries are not for those who may have an allergy to gluten, as most of the ingredients include flour. Cr ¨me brule and other flans, however are safe for those who do have the food allergy. If you are not sure almost any bakery will be happy to give you a list of ingredients. For those who are extremely allergic, it is good to know that most bakeries do have cross contamination, unless otherwise posted. This is to say that the same bowl and utensils used to make something with flour, or gluten, will then be used to make something that is gluten free. Gluten is extremely easy to contaminate and all cooking should be done separately with pans and utensils specifically for gluten free foods in order to avoid cross contamination. Most restaurants do not follow these strict procedures, unless specifically stated. If you are allergic to gluten, or gluten intolerant, please do not ruin your stay in London, by being careless. London menus and restaurants are just as accommodating for food allergies as other areas. Picking a london hotel for your stay is just as important as the places to eat. Check out local eateries and as the locals in London where they eat. Especial if you do have food allergies, it is a good idea to talk with other people who live in London and have the same allergy and find where they eat. Many people will be happy to share the information and give you great ideas. Gluten free London restaurants follow the strict procedures to ensure that there is no cross contamination for those who have an allergy to wheat.

NYC’s LCD Soundsystem

Posted by amy on April 19, 2010 with No Comments
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Music has a way of capturing the cultural moment in a way that no other art form can. Perhaps it’s because it seems to come with an enormously different reception than other kinds of art, with instantaneous responses that can be overwhelmingly enthusiastic, or overwhelmingly underwhelmed. There is also a very good possibility that music, as such, creates culture as much as it comments on it and answers to it, until it becomes a sort of chicken or the egg question.

Regardless, one of the smartest bands to be working in New York City today is LCD Soundsystem . They are capable of creating a sense of scene that reflects a here and now that is rare in music, not because music doesn’t capture and reflect that all the time, but because it seems so very much aware of what it’s doing. Self-consciousness can destroy a band, and it’s happened a lot to the hyper-intellectual experiments that come from the electronic spheres. However, here, there’s something else at work, where there’s a subtle kind of intoxication that happens with a clarity that is ironically sobering.

It’s got an appeal that can speak to multiple worlds, from the stuttering kids on the street to the out of town guests staying at a New York boutique hotel . There is a kind of spectacular flash of the performative, making their live work something that’s always been exciting to see, but more so now with the new release, “This Is Happening,” coming out from DFA . It does look like the band has reinvented itself.

Interesting to note how they promoted the new album by not promoting it, doing secret shows in NYC and asking the crowds not to leak the news of the album’s release. It’s a good tactic, and maybe it was even genuine, but this is the kind of back-door artistry that makes NYC so great. There’s a hidden intelligence here, or maybe it’s blatant, and the kind of pretense for not caring comes through as a charming affectation. But that also keeps it at a humble level, so that when the artistry comes through and takes over – and it does – we are willing to receive it.

Flexible Theatre in SE Missouri

Posted by amy on April 1, 2010 with No Comments
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Visiting Anniston will surely remind people of why they visit small towns in the first place. In the heart of the heartland, this is one of those places that everyone passes through, and few take the opportunity to stop and see what it has to offer. The size of the town is nothing in light of the size of the hearts of the people who live here, and that means an awful lot in this day and age. This is a town where the size makes it possible that everyone really and truly knows everybody, and a little time spent here will bring you into the fold of the fabric here as well. There are plenty of wonderful things to do in the nearby towns as well. There are many places to see, and lots of charming hotels to make the visit a relaxing one.

Those who have a particular bent toward the dramatic will very surely enjoy the offerings and goings on at the Wendy Kurka Rust Flexible Theatre . Some of the recent plays they do here have been comedies, and mostly by New York writers like Neil Simon and Wendy Wasserstein . These are excellent works that speak to different aspects of the human condition, and when we come to this seeing place, we are seeing ourselves. It happens here, where those small motions an actor makes can speak of a line between one world and another, and opens up enough of a space so that a new reality might enter.

The theatre space is part of the SE Missouri State University campus. It’s a 200 seat black box theatre, with a fantastic lighting system, and flexible staging and audience configurations. This means there can be multiple kinds of performance with multiple means of presentation, and that opens up some very exciting possibilities. Creative types can enter into the realm where mimicry and reinvention meet, and decide what kinds of meaning will be forged on this particular stage, on this particular evening, and the worst thing that can happen is passion, and that’s also the best thing.