Patricia Valery

Premium Chocolate Chip Cookies & Brownie Babies

admin — Fri, 08 Jun 2007 21:04:00 +0000

Like pizza or sex, chocolate chip cookies are good no matter how bad they are. Considering these cookies are devoid of most everything that makes cookies so delicious, they’re not too bad at all. These are wheat, gluten, cholesterol and dairy free, as well as twenty-one percent organic. All of this translates into a snack that is both healthy and vegan. This box contains ten soft little cookies. Each one is about 1.5 times as wide as a Famous Amos cookie and twice as thick. There is a definite chocolate chip taste, but they’re a little lacking on flavor when compared to the “real” thing.

Another shortcoming is the consistency. Though they’re soft and chewy, the cookies also taste a bit chalky. If you can’t eat wheat or gluten for dietary reasons or if you live a 100% cruelty free life, these could be a sweet blessing.

Sun Flour Baking Co. has also put together a clever recipe for soft, vegan brownies that are wheat, gluten, cholesterol and dairy-free. Unfortunately, they are also flavor-free. Like the chocolate chip cookies, these come ten to a box. They are soft and chewy and about the size of four or five poker chips stacked one on top of another. They might make a fine supplement if your diet or conscience keeps you from the “real” thing, but biting into one after eating a traditional brownie is like drinking orange juice after brushing your teeth. It’s not that they’re gross, but rather bland. They just don’t have that rich brownie flavor, and if you’re not allergic or vegan, I wouldn’t recommend these as a snack.

Though they’re soft baked, these cookies are a bit crumbly upon the first bite. They also left me and two friends quite parched afterward. I do think it’s worth mentioning though that this company is making a difference by using soy inks and packaging their products in boxes made of recycled material.

Written by: Patricia Valery, June 8th 2007

Cinescope

admin — Mon, 22 Jan 2007 13:40:00 +0000

By Thunderball

ESL Music

Thunderball is an arty, urban collaboration of DJs that is comparable to a modern version of Dee-Lite. Cinescope is their latest offering to the tripped out gods of the discothèque. You could liken this 46-minute disc to Ali Baba and his forty thieves getting down with Shaft in Africa. Melding elements of Latin jazz, funk, reggae, disco, break beat and Indian strings, Cinescope takes listeners on a twelve-song magic carpet ride that is vibrant and worldly. The songs are catchy and flow nicely as they hover around the four-minute mark – long enough to develop character, but not so long that they become monotonous. Though the concoction might be a little too pompous for more grounded listeners, the sort of sexploitation doing lines in the bathroom with blaxploitation, Indian hipster funk set to the vibe of a Charlie’s Angels marathon vibe might appeal to the jet setting dilettante crowd.

Written by: Patricia Valery, January 22nd 2007

Vintage Cameo Earrings

admin — Thu, 11 Jan 2007 13:04:00 +0000

By Angel Court Jewels

If you’ve ever read a Bronte novel that wasn’t on the syllabus or if you just have a taste for the intellectually exquisite, these little jewels might just fit your style. Angel Court Jewels has made the old new again and put a fresh spin on the cameo with these revamped gems. Not exactly a jewelry connoisseur, I can’t tell if they’re trimmed in real gold, but their warm glow and weightiness leads me to believe they are. The pair tips the scale at .3oz (which is about ten times heavier than my next heaviest pair). They tend to tug at the earlobes a little after prolonged wear, but the minor discomfort is far out weighted by their stunning elegance. Forget about trendy bling, these are unique, smart and timeless.

Written by: Patricia Valery, January 11th 2007

Paper Television

admin — Mon, 08 Jan 2007 05:03:00 +0000

By The Blow

K Records

You might hear the term “pop” thrown around in reference to The Blow’s latest album Paper Television, but don’t be fooled into thinking this is anything like conventional mainstream pop music. Think about it, when’s the last time you heard Lionel Richie’s “Dancing On The Ceiling” compared to post-punk, or Wang Chung’s “Everybody Have Fun Tonight” deemed anything like electro-clash? Somewhere along the line indie kids got the idea that it was cool to call their music “pop” simply because the lyrics were cheesy. Truth be told, The Blow’s Paper Television is an indie album made up of cutsie female vocals laid over some laptop bleeps and synthesizer effects. The lyrical content lingers around relationship issues and doesn’t really expand much beyond—that part of it fits into the pop paradigm, but the pipsqueak vocals and glitchy, DIY, electronica instrumentation and jagged melodies are anything but “poppy.” If you own two or more albums from the Kill Rock Stars catalog you might like this, but if you’re looking for "real" pop music, you’d be better off digging out those old NSYNC CDs.

Written by: Patricia Valery, January 8th 2007