If I had ever gotten to meet either of my grandmothers, the first thing I'd have wanted to do with them is watch the Kim Kardashian/Ray J sex tape. This is probably what it would have been like:
Monday, April 30, 2012
Size Queen
You're looking at New York City's new tallest building -- One World Trade Center -- which claimed the title today when a steel beam labeled “1271 ft” was secured to the so-called Freedom Tower, thus demoting the Empire State Building to No. 2. Although I want nothing to do with working in the Terrorist bull's eye known as Lower Manhattan, I like seeing that it's finally coming together. What I don't like is these buildings counting their antennae on top as part of their height (the Empire State Building is actually taller still if you count it.) It's like like our skyscrapers are being measured in AOL inches. Read HERE.
Separate and Not Equal
As Colorado forges ahead with its civil unions bill -- which isn't marriage and is still dividing the haters! -- this ad campaign against North Carolina's anti-gay Prop 1, dubbed Every1Against1, couldn't spell things out in terms more black and white. More HERE.
Top Wall Street Execs Meet for First Time on LGBT Equality
We already know that super-rich Republican donors helped push New York's marriage equality bill over the finish line. Now comes word that the villainous deep pocket types on Wall Street want to do more for the gays.
From a release:
Top executives, including CEOs, from some of Wall Street's biggest banks, along with C-suite executives from other industries will meet to discuss LGBT equality at the second annual Out on the Street Leadership Summit on May 2, 2012. Bank of America Merrill Lynch will host the event at its New York headquarters. This represents the first time that so many senior executives will meet to discuss LGBT equality.
Building on the success of the inaugural summit in 2011, the 2012 summit will focus on the role that support for LGBT equality can play in the retention of talent and the conduct of business. In addition to Bank of America CEO Brian Moynihan, featured speakers include, Lloyd C. Blankfein, chairman and CEO of Goldman Sachs; Paul Singer, CEO of Elliott Capital Management; Ken Mehlman, head of global public affairs, KKR; Lynn Utter, president & COO, Knoll Furniture; John Veihmeyer, Chairman, CEO KPMG LLP; and special guest moderator George Stephanopoulos from ABC.
"The movement towards full LGBT equality in the U.S. is driven by corporate leaders such as the members of Out on the Street who are taking increasingly public stances of support," said James P. Gorman, chairman and chief executive officer of Morgan Stanley, a founding OOTS member.
For more info, click HERE.
Paging Dr. Freud
The New York Times has more on those recent studies that show that the more homophobic you are, the more likely you are to be a closet case. Read HERE.
RIP, John Findysz
Stunned and saddened to hear about the passing of John Findysz, whom I knew through my friends Greg Jelinek and Scooter LaForge back in our college days. The memorial has already taken place in Tucson. But wanted to spread the word that a guestbook can be viewed/signed HERE. Have not heard a cause of death -- he was just 41 -- and am sending my condolences to everyone who loved him.
Page 1 Consider (04/30)
Sunday, April 29, 2012
Rafa and Maria Sweep the Clay
Rafael Nadal looks like he's holding a prop from "The Incredible Shrinking Woman" today, his prize for winning the Barcelona Open. His straight-sets win over David Ferrer made him the first player in the Open era to win two tournaments seven times.
Meanwhile, Maria Sharapova was finally able to break her string of final-round losses, with a crushing victory over Victoria Azarenka to win the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix in Stuttgart. I'll bet she wishes she could have played like that at Wimbledon or Down Under, but the car's still fun.
Page 1 Consider (04/29)
A look at today's lead stories in New York's major papers:
The Daily News: White House Correspondents' Association Dinner: Obama skewers Romney as Hollywood meets Washington at 98th annual fete / Read HERE.
Saturday, April 28, 2012
Rich People: They're Just Like Us!
They get into brawls in watering holes, albeit members only clubs -- and wear jackets while doing it. Read HERE.
Page 1 Consider (04/28)
A look at today's lead stories in New York's major papers:
The New York Daily News: Space shuttle Enterprise flies over NYC: 30 years of the Nasa Space Shuttle program / Read HERE.
Friday, April 27, 2012
An Up-Hil Argument
Buzzfeed has a hilarious list of 45 Totally Superficial Reasons Why Hillary Clinton Should Run For President In 2016. (She was my candidate in 2008, you may recall.) Read HERE.
Is That a Gruber in Your Pants or Are You Just Happy to See Me?
Well, when you punch your BFF and then the cops arrest you for having cocaine in your underwear, where else are you going to go but rehab? Lucky for Nick Gruber, I'm sure daddy Calvin knows all the best places. Read HERE.
On the Rag, Vol. 196
A weekly look at what's making news in the free gay mags:
Odyssey New York makes a strong case for product placement with porn star Will Helm on the cover, star of Lucas Entertainment's “The Last Days." (If Michael Lucas wants a link it'll cost him one DVD ... starring Will Helm!) Online edition HERE.
Next's New York Wedding Guide features actor Christopher Sieber and hubby Kevin Burrows in Riverside Park on its cover. Read HERE.
Meet the New Face of GLAAD
The Washington Blade had a nice interview with Herndon Graddick, the newly appointed president of GLAAD. Read HERE.
Homo Box Office: 'The Cockettes'
Not sure how Netflix could have posted a loss of 8 cents per share this quarter with people like me shelling out $15.98 a month while streaming nothing and just now watching a disc I received in the mail in August, but anyway ... here goes my latest review. The much-procrastinated DVD was "The Cockettes," Bill Weber and David Weissman's love letter to the gender-bending San Francisco performance group that became somewhat of a pop culture phenomenon in the early 1970s. Throughout the movie, I couldn't help but think "I guess you had to be there": The drag queens and their antics hardly struck me as anything special, and their performances were admittedly just nonsensical LSD-fueled free-for-alls. (That said, Sylvester and Divine both filtered through the group at various points, but their actual star quality was recognized immediately by the troupe and they both quickly moved on.)
But then I slapped myself and remembered that this was well before "Rocky Horror" and Boy George and Lipsynca and all of the other gender-bending things society now accepts as normal, and it made me appreciate how groundbreaking they really were. Sure, when they brought their (silly little) act to New York it was panned even at the time. But truth be told, I think that had more to do with the East Coast vs. West Coast rivalry that still exists today than anything else. (Remember that "hot" drag show Lance Loud took his mother to see at the Village Vanguard, I believe, on "An American Family? It has aged equally well.) The one thing the Cockettes did do well was a (John Waters-y) parody film of Tricia Nixon's White House wedding to Ed Cox, featuring Sylvester as Coretta Scott King! President Nixon's chief of staff, H. R. Haldeman, reportedly arranged a secret screening of it for White House staffers back in the day and they were not pleased with what they saw!
All in all, I'd say "The Cockettes" is worth a watch if for no other reason than having yet another piece of the LGBT puzzle in place. I'm 44 years and know a lot about gay history, but I'll be the first to admit that I'd barely even heard of them. But after seeing this film, I appreciate the fact that these people and these images really did shift cultural norms, and helped bring us to where we are today.
Page 1 Consider (04/27)
A look at today's lead stories in New York's major papers:
The New York Daily News: Colombia's top diplomat demands apology from President Obama for Secret Service hooker scandal / Read HERE.
Thursday, April 26, 2012
Bob Jones Is Such a Drama Queen
Lord. As if watching "Glee" isn't punishment enough, can you imagine being expelled from school for doing it? That's just what happened to Chris Peterman, a 23-year-old student at Bob Jones University -- one of my favorite for-profit institutions of higher learning! Read HERE.
Doogie Wowser
Dr. Pauline Chen has an interesting piece in today's New York Times asking if the medical profession discourages gay doctors. You might be surprised by just how bad things once were in a field filled with such smart people. Read HERE.
Apple's Tim Cook Leads OUT's Power List
OUT magazine's Power List has just been released. The rubric calls it the Power 50, although there are 65 names on it. No major surprises -- although Rich Ross has recently stepped down, and what power does Shepard Smith have, exactly? -- but no John Perez?
Top 10 here. To see 'em all, click HERE.
1. Tim Cook
CEO, Apple, 51
2. Ellen Degeneres
Spokesperson/Talk-Show Host/Producer, 54
3. Peter Thiel
Venture Capitalist/Hedge Fund Manager, 44
4. Ryan Murphy
Writer/Director/Producer, 46
5. Rachel Maddow
TV Host/Political Commentator, 39
6. Anderson Cooper
Journalist/News Anchor/Talk-Show Host, 44
7. Rich Ross
Chairman, The Walt Disney Studios, 49
8. Barry Diller
Chairman, IAC, 70
9. Shepard Smith
News Anchor, 48
10. Andy Cohen
TV Personality/Impresario, 44
Whitney's Mom Shopping Around Book
Media Decoder is reporting that Cissy Houston, the gospel singer and mother of Whitney Houston, has been meeting with publishers in New York this week to shop a book about her late daughter. (A ghostwriter will be used.) Although I'm a bit surprised -- I'd always thought of her as being intensely private -- I could see why she would want to tell her story. That said, the rumor is she doesn't seem too willing to discuss the nitty gritty, and I certainly won't be buying it unless she addresses this tidbit from a previous Whitney Houston biography:
Then Cissy Houston slugged Robyn Crawford in her right jaw with her fists and Robyn falls to the ground. Cissy Houston kept punching and kicking her, yelling: “I’ll kill you, you stupid b**ch!” Onlookers had to pull Cissy Houston off Robyn Crawford.
Spill it, gurl! While I have my doubts that Cissy would ever come clean about her daughter's sexuality, a friend in publishing tells me that Whitney's less loyal (more honest?) father was shopping around a tell-all right before he died, in which he claimed Whitney's life was ruined by her having to live in the closet, a sentiment echoed by others in the know.
Mike Diamond Acts Up
The incorrigible Mike Diamond reports on ACT UP's protest to demand a "Robin Hood tax" to help fund an end to the global AIDS epidemic.
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