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Thursday, April 30, 2009
Meryl Streep has B.O. Clout
OMG! I am so looking forward to this film starring four of my most favorite actors:
Meryl Streep, Amy Adams, Jane Lynch & Stanley Tucci. Since working in films starting in 1979, she has been a steady, consistent, & amazing actress whose films got nominated for awards but didn't make a lot of money. Now she's a box office star. Starting with The Devil Wears Prada & cemented with Mamma Mia!, Streep (weeks away from her 60th birthday) is now the summer box office champ & is considered to be one of the few actors who can "open" a movie. Instead of competing with Susan Sarandon or Annette Bening to play the latest eccentric mom, Streep is going head to head with Angelina Jolie & Julia Roberts for the title of Most Bankable Actress On Earth. She's bigger than she's ever been. There is a poetic justice to the fact that Streep's career has a eclipsed her male contemporaries: Al Pacino, Robert De Niro, Dustin Hoffman, & even Jack Nicholson for box office clout. Can't wait!
Penelope Cruz in Venice
It was most certainly an affair to remember, and Penelope Cruz was excited to see her gal pal.......
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Wednesday, April 29, 2009
Men I Am Zany For: Three
Jeremy Northam
Tuesday, April 28, 2009
Monday, April 27, 2009
Saturday, April 25, 2009
RIP Beatrice Arthur 1922-2009
Yenta in Fiddler On The Roof
Vera Charles in Mame
Maude Findlay on All In The Family & on Maude
Dorothy Zbornak on The Golden Girls
If that were all, it still would have been an amazing lifetime.
A great talent as an actress & singer for seven decades on Stage, Screen & Television
Golden Globe, Tony & Emmy winner...here she sings with Rock Hudson about drug use:
"After being in the business for such a long time, I've done everything but rodeo and porno."
Friday, April 24, 2009
It gives me pause, but...
Gayest Post Ever: Wake Me Up Before You Go Go
I want to start the weekend off with something uber-gay (my friend Tad told me last night- "there is such a thing as TOO gay") & take a moment to reflect, not just on MOVIE MUSICALS, but even gayer- CHOREOGRAPHY! This one goes out to my friend Walter Kennedy, Professor of Dance at the University of Oregon:
This clip is by blogger: And Your Little Blog, Too.
Yanni Music Video
Yanni born in a picturesque village that no one ever gave thought to leaving, and he's now known in every corner of the globe. Yanni is, without a doubt, a musical phenomenon, one of those rare artists whose music defies borders and boundaries - whose music speaks to people of all races, all nations. And there is more than ample evidence to support such statements. After graduating from the University of Minnesota with a B.A. in psychology, after trading the Grecian sunshine for frosty winters, he would seek a life in music, though he could not read a note and wrote wholly original works that, then and now, defy categorizing. From the beginning, he operated with a simple creed: a faith in hard work and keeping an open mind.
Yanni’s first Grammy-nominated album was Dare to Dream (1992), which produced the vocal single “@ria,” popularized by an award-winning British Airways commercial. His following album, In My Time, a gentler collection of piano-focused pieces, was also nominated for a Grammy Award and attained Platinum status.
Thursday, April 23, 2009
New Music
Quote of the Day
“...it doesn't matter how you feel inside, you know? It's what shows up on the surface that counts. That's what my mother taught me. Take all your bad feelings and push them down, all the way down, past your knees until you're almost walking on them. And then you'll fit in, and you'll be invited to parties, and boys will like you, and happiness will follow.”
Marge Simpson
Tuesday, April 21, 2009
I Love This!
I thought I was all done with All the Single Ladies videos, but one more time:
Do you think Shane Mercado is in there somewhere?
Milkshake named after Mallika Sherawat
Monday, April 20, 2009
Happy Birthday Stanley Snowdy!
Men I am zany about: the first in a series
Sunday, April 19, 2009
Samsung Dual SIM Phone
Childhood Memories
When Gulli-Danda & Kanche (marbles) were more popular than cricket. When we always had friends to play aais-paais (I Spy), chhepan-chhepai & pitthoo anytime...
When we desperately waited for 'Yeh Jo Hai Jindagi' (Doordarshan serial) When chitrahaar, vikram-baitaal, Dada Daadi Ki Kahaniyaanwere so fulfilling. When there was just one Tv in every five houses and...
When Bisleris were not sold in the trains and we were worrying if papas will get back into the train in time or not when they were getting down at stations to fill up the water bottle...
When we were going to bed by 9.00pm sharp except for the 'Yeh Jo Hai Jindagi' day...
When Holis & Diwalis meant mostly hand-made pakwaans and sweets and moms seeking our help while preparing them ...
When Maths teachers were not worried of our Mummies and papas while slapping/beating us...
When we were exchanging comics and stamps and Chacha-Chaudaris & Billus were our heroes...
When we were in Nanihaals every summer and loved flying kites and plucking and eating unripe mangoes and leechies...
When one movie every Sunday evening on television was more than asked for and 'ek do teen chaar' and 'Rajani' inspired us...
When 50 paisa meant at least 10 toffees...
When left over pages of the last years notebooks were used for rough work or even fair work...
When 'Chelpark' and 'Natraaj' were encouraged against 'Reynolds & family'...
When the first rain meant getting drenched and playing in water and mud and making 'kaagaj ki kishtis'...
When there were no phones to tell friends that we will be at their homes at six in the evening...
When our parents always had 15 paise blue colored 'Antardesis' and 5 paise machli wale stamps at home...
When we remembered tens of jokes and were not finding 'ice-cream & papa' type jokes foolish enough to stop us from laughing...
When we were not seeing patakhes on Diwalis and gulaalson Holis as air and noise polluting or allergic agents...
The list can be endless...
On the serious note I would like to summarize with...
When we were using our hearts more than our brains, even for scientifically brainy activities like 'thinking' and 'deciding'...
When we were crying and laughing more often, more openly and more sincerely...
When we were enjoying our present more than worrying about our future...
When being emotional was not synonymous to being weak...
When sharing worries and happiness didn't mean getting vulnerable to the listener...
When blacks and whites were the favorite colors instead of greys...
When journeys also were important and not just the destinations...
When life was a passenger's sleeper giving enough time and opportunity to enjoy the sceneries from its open and transparent glass windows instead of some super fast's second ac with its curtained, closed and dark windows...
I really miss them(From the bottom of my heart).. don't u?
Saturday, April 18, 2009
New Music!
From his website:
Ariel Aparicio knows rock and roll, & on his latest releases, he grabs hold of this knowledge & a host of life experiences & hoists them violently & unapologetically onto the recordings, for all to hear. Ariel’s latest endeavor, his version of the Psychedelic Furs ‘80s classic “Pretty in Pink". Not only has the response been overwhelming, but Richard Butler (lead singer of The Furs) chimed in - “I loved the version. Well done!” His latest full-length release is titled All These Brilliant Things.
Cuban by birth, Ariel is now a full-time Brooklynite. Having gone from bartender to the owner of two of Brooklyn’s hottest restaurants, JOYA in Cobble Hill and SONG in Park Slope, Ariel is attuned to the abrupt highs and lows of life in the city. Ariel spent three years cooking up the tasty numbers on All These Brilliant Things, following the release of his acclaimed punk-rock jaunt Frolic and Fuck, which the Hot Indie News called “an indie rock classic.” His debut, titled All I Wanted, was released in 2002 & was also favorably received.
Ariel and his partner opened JOYA, their first restaurant eight years ago. He was a struggling musician and waiter, and his partner was a court reporter. According to Ariel, they figured, "what do we have to lose? We will always be in debt anyway." Both restaurants serve Thai food & provide delicious, inexpensive food in a very cool rock & roll environment. He says, "There is always music playing. It is always a good time! That's what I wanted to do. I wanted a restaurant that was an expression of ourselves. Music is vital in our lives & it's vital in our restaurants. If you listen closely, you will occasionally hear an Ariel Aparicio tune coming off the iPod during the week or from our DJ's on the weekend."In early 2009, Ariel was given the honor to be a part of the OUTMusic “Freedom of Expression” campaign - a campaign that addresses the silent discrimination that goes on within the entertainment industry & focuses on positive encouragement for GLBT artist to be “out” & “open” about their sexuality.
Currently, Ariel resides in Brooklyn with his life partner of 15 years & their 3-year-old son.
Quote Of The Day
Gore Vidal
Friday, April 17, 2009
Trouble in Dog Town
Thursday, April 16, 2009
Solar Airplane - Sunseeker II
Wednesday, April 15, 2009
Happy Birthday, Husband! Born on April 16th
Interesting Song Choice
I have not viewed Dr. Who or Torchwood, but I have been following John Barrowman in the press. He seems to be a really popular star in Britain. He is out of the closet & proud. I think I love him (he has been with his husband for 15 years)! He is singing here with Daniel Boys, a British stage actor now appearing in Avenue Q in London. I would like to be in the middle of that final hug!
I love the score from Chess & used to listen to it often when it first came out.
I think some people are confused about this song. It isn't meant to be a love song, its two people talking about their relationships with the same man - both realising that they can't fulfill him, but in different ways.
Monday, April 13, 2009
Kambakkht Ishq Movie Wallpaper
Kambakkht Ishq is a forthcoming Indian Bollywood film directed by Sabbir Khan and produced by Sajid Nadiadwala. This will be an action packed comedy film which has.......
15 Wallpapers
new Pet Shop Boys
Here is a first look at the new video:
Am I their biggest fan?
2M4M
I love Rachel Maddow & I really love that the NOM has used this acronym!
What Rachel doesn't mention is that 2M4M is an acronym for a male couple seeking a male (I have no idea why I know that!)!
Saturday, April 11, 2009
Quote Of The Day
Lily Tomlin
Friday, April 10, 2009
the number one song 25 years ago today-April 10
1984 was my favorite year of my 55 years in this lifetime. There will be more about my favorite year in a future post, but...
25 years ago today (April 10 1984) the number one song was:
Footloose by Kenny Loggins
& damn, if I didn't dig it at the time!
Oh well, I have several guilty pleasures in my music collection.
Favorite Kevin Bacon film: Wild Things (check it out).
Kevin is looking pretty damn fine at 50 years old!
Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon? Try one degree:
I am in the film SINGLES with Krya Sedgwick, wife of Kevin Bacon.
Thursday, April 9, 2009
I have been thinking...
Wednesday, April 8, 2009
Nokia E75
World’s Most Extreme Golf Hole
Hoho! Check out the South Africa’s Legends Golf & Safari Resort. They have the “hole 19” – a par 3 with teebox that sits 1,400 feet above the green. The 630-yard hole will need a helicopter to reach the tee and the ball takes about 30 seconds to hit to the green below. Playing that all 19 holes runs about 2,000 South African rand (that’s about $220), include the helicopter ride plus a bunch of souvenir swag and a DVD of your shot. If you manage to drill a hole-in-one on the 19th, you will win yourself a million bucks. Video after the break.
Tuesday, April 7, 2009
I Love Dogs!
But, lets face it...dogs can be perverts!
Quote Of The Day
MORRISSEY
I love this new Morrissey song!
Monday, April 6, 2009
Spring Can Really Hang You Up The Most
This version represents one of the many summits of Ella's artistry.
What could possibly have inspired a songwriter to write with the idea that Spring is the cruelest season? It's such a striking idea for a song that is otherwise more or less full of the usual Tin Pan Alley cliches, I have been really think about this.
Thanks to my music library & the Internet, I found the answer... I discovered that the song's composers are Fran Landesman (lyrics) & Tommy Wolf (music). Even though the song sounds like a classic of the Great American Songbook variety, Landesman is alive and has set up her own site to expound on her art:
"Fran Landesman is still the poet laureate of lovers and losers: her songs are the secret diaries of the desperate & the decadent. No one can convey the bitter-sweet joys of melancholy or the exhilaration of living on the edge like Fran."
Well, that certainly sounds right, but what about that song? According to the intriguing biography on her site, Landesman wrote the song shortly after she initiated her collaboration with Tommy Wolf at the Crystal Palace in St. Louis:
"Fran and Tommy soon began writing songs which he would sing nightly to the drinking masses at the Crystal Palace. One night the British born piano player George Shearing came into the club & was particularly taken with a song whose title Fran had come up with while speculating on how a hip jazz musician might express the T.S. Eliot line "April Is The Cruelest Month..." The song was called "Spring Can Really Hang You Up The Most."
Hmmm....that is it! The source of this striking song lies in the "The Waste Land":
April is the cruelest month,
breeding lilacs out of the dead land,
mixing memory and desire,
stirring dull roots with spring rain.
For me, Spring has always been equal measures of invigoration & melancholy. No wonder this song has always struck a chord.
Sunday, April 5, 2009
Saturday, April 4, 2009
at the Antwerp Train Station
This makes me very happy & gives me faith in the human race once more.
Same Sex couples can marry in Belgium. I hope that this is the chaos, that is the result of same sex marriage, that the Freepers keep warning us of!
Op zoek naar Maria - Dans in het Centraal Station van Antwerpen
Thursday, April 2, 2009
Let me introduce you to Jay Brannan
I love the music of sweet, sexy, talented, 27 year old Jay Brannan. He appeared in one of my favorite movies- Short Bus. I really like this song. If you don't know about him, let me introduce you to...
Born on April 2nd
Wednesday, April 1, 2009
HAIR
Lyrics on Several Occasions
One of my life long obsessions has been - The Popular Song. When I was very young, I would come home from school at 2:20pm (I had the house to myself until 5:30pm) & I would listen to & dance to music for most of the afternoon (or until Dark Shadows started). I used a candlestick as my microphone & I would pretend that I was a guest on the Mike Douglas Show. I would sing my newest single & then settle down for my interview with Mike. Then Mike Douglas would urge me on to do one more number, as he asked the studio audience to applaud loudly & with enthusiasm to encourage me. I would oblige.
My parents recently made a mixed tape of all my favorite songs from when I was under six years old. They claim that my first favorite song was "Constantinople"... " oh you can't go back to Constantinople, no you can't go back to..." by The Four Lads.
As a very young man I started to collect books about composers. I received a big "coffee table" style book of the Complete Lyrics of Cole Porter for my 12th birthday. I soon had books about all the major composers & lyricists of popular songs & show tunes, which for decades were the same thing. Two of my favorites are Lyrics On Several Occasions by Ira Gershwin (1959) & a big thick collection - Reading Lyrics (2000).
Here are two of my favorite lyrics from two very different talents:
Cole Porter
My story is much to sad to be told
But practically everything leaves me totally cold
The only exception I know is the case
When Im out on a quiet spree, fighting vainly the old ennui
Then I suddenly turn and see your fabulous face
I get no kick from champagne
Mere alcohol doesnt thrill me at all
So tell me why should it be true
That I get a kick out of you
Some get a kick from cocaine
I'm sure that if I took even one sniff
It would bore me terrific'ly too
But I get a kick out of you
I get a kick evrytime I see you standing there before me.
I get a kick though its clear to me
You obviously don't adore me.
I get no kick in a plane.
Flying too high with some guy in the sky
Is my idea of nothing to do,
Yet I get a kick out of you.
(my Complete Lyrics of Cole Porter has 16 more verses... some very ribald)
Elvis Costello
Don't tell me you don't know what love is
When you're old enough to know better
When you find strange hands in your sweater
When your dreamboat turns out to be a footnote
I'm a man with a mission in two or three editions
And I'm giving you a longing look
Everyday, everyday, everyday I write the book
Chapter One we didn't really get along
Chapter Two I think I fell in love with you
You said you'd stand by me in the middle of Chapter Three
But you were up to your old tricks in Chapters Four, Five and Six
And I'm giving you a longing look
Everyday, everyday, everyday I write the book
The way you walk
The way you talk, and try to kiss me, and laugh
In four or five paragraphs
All your compliments and your cutting remarks
Are captured here in my quotation marks
Don't tell me you don't know the difference
Between a lover and a fighter
With my pen and my electric typewriter
Even in a perfect world where everyone was equal
I'd still own the film rights and be working on the sequel
And I'm giving you a longing look
Everyday, everyday, everyday I write the book
Katrina walked as a Barbie
Mercedes Benz F-CELL Roadster
Mercedes-Benz has unveiled the F-CELL Roadster project. The F-CELL Roadster is controlled with drive-by-wire technology, and a joystick takes the place of.......
9 Images
Hotelicopter - Flying Hotel
Wow, the flying hotel and largest helicopter in the world, Cool! The Hotelicopter is modeled on the Soviet-made Mil V-12, of which there were only two prototypes ever made. The Hotelicopter Company purchased one of these prototypes from the Mikhail Leontyevich Mil helicopter plant in Panki-Tomilino, Russia in 2004 and have been engineering the world's first flying hotel ever since."The Hotelicopter features 18 luxuriously-appointed rooms for adrenaline junkies seeking a truly unique and memorable travel experience. More after the break...