Saturday, July 30, 2011

I Cannot Get Enough Of This.....Woman?


"Turning Tables"
Close enough to start a war
All that I have is on the floor
God only knows what we're fighting for
All that I say, you always say more

I can't keep up with your turning tables
Under your thumb I can't breathe

So, I won't let you close enough to hurt me
No, I won't ask you, you to just desert me
I can't give you what you think you gave me
It's time to say goodbye to turning tables
To turning tables

Under haunted skies I see you
Where love is lost your ghost is found
I braved a hundred storms to leave you
As hard as you try, no, I will never be knocked down

I can't keep up with your turning tables
Under your thumb I can't breathe

So, I won't let you close enough to hurt me,
No, I won't ask you, you to just desert me
I can't give you what you think you gave me
It's time to say goodbye to turning tables
To turning tables

Next time I'll be braver
I'll be my own savior
When the thunder calls for me
Next time I'll be braver
I'll be my own savior
Standing on my own two feet

I won't let you close enough to hurt me,
No, I won't ask you, you to just desert me
I can't give you what you think you gave me
It's time to say goodbye to turning tables
To turning tables
Turning tables, yeah
Turning, oh

I Ain't One To Gossip, But......The Diva Edition

It seems that every day yet another celebrity is being YouTube invited to the Marine Corps Ball by one of our active duty men or women. Mila Kunis and Justin Timberlake received invites, as did grande dame, Betty White.
But the latest is little Miss Scarlett Johansson, who rejected the invitation almost the instant she got it, but did release a statement:
"I feel incredibly honored to have been invited to the Marine Corps Ball by Sgt. Dustin L. Williams. Not only does Sgt. Williams deserve recognition for his bravery, selflessness and dedication to the United States and its people, but he also displays a cheeky talent for film making.Sgt. Williams, unfortunately due to prior commitments I will not be able to attend the Ball with you this year but I am sending you a case of Moet and Chandon with gratitude. In my absence, I raise a glass to you and all the men and women of the U.S. Marine Corps, past and present, in thanks for your continued commitment to preserving the safety of our nation."
Oooh, her agent has a way with words. It's nice that ScarJo wants to raise a glass in salute, though she's too busy to dance with a guy who's risked his life for her. And that little nugget about the case of champagne, well, that's a nice touch.
Um, except.......
ScarJo is paid to represent Moet and Chandon, and didn't even pay for the champagne. Thanks for your service, here's some free stuff I get because I'm a movie star.
Dee-va.

Madonna, still sitting in her London manse and wondering how to get her career back from Lady Gag, is once again obsessing over the thing she loves more than anything in the world: herself.
Or rather, the shell of a body in which she carries herself.
She used to have her own personal trainer, that she carried around with her in a special Louis Vuitton bag whenever she traveled, and the trainer, Tracy Anderson, is the one credited with Madonna's Scary Veiny Arms. And all was well in the land of Madge.
But then Tracy broke free from the luxury confines of the LV bag, and wanted to open a gym, using her ability to create Scary Veiny Arms as an advertisement, Madonna wasn't playing.
Nobody makes money off Madonna, except for Madonna.
So, Tracy left. And, not so coincidentally, opened up her gym with former, FORMER, Madonna BFF, and media whore know it all, Gwyneth Paltrow. All caught up? Madonna loves herself? She has Scary Veiny Arms?
But what frightens Madonna even more than her SVA's?
The number 53, which she will become this August. And, ALLEGEDLY, she will pay whatever it costs not to age. So, she’s purchased a Cellupulse anti-cellulite acoustic wave therapy machine for $75,000, and uses it as religiously as she uses Kabbalah, and then obsessively measure her thighs and buttocks, and fly into a rage in their is even the smallest increase in flab.
According to an insider--and I think it's Lourdes--Tracy Anderson is not the only victim of Madonna's anti-age obsession: “The measuring and ranting used to drive her ex-husband crazy. Guy Ritchie would mock her and joke that he noticed a few new dimples, which he thought was tremendously funny, but she obviously didn’t. [She] wants the body of an 18-year-old dancer and believes she can maintain her youth if she works hard enough in her gym, which is covered from floor to ceiling with mirrors. She scrutinizes her body in every position, looking for fat like an FBI detective.”
And apparently her obsession has caused her to drive away more than trainers and husbands. The boy-toys are not exempt from the Cottage Cheese Rages: “Those wishing to stay in her good graces have learned to stay mum on the subject, especially her young male companions.”
Young male companions? This causes me to giggle, because every time I see a photo of Madonna with some fresh-from-puberty boy toy, my minds eye goes straight to Hugh Hefner; you know, the old geezer who surrounds himself with young girls to make himself feel desired and hot. How long before Madge starts sporting the sea captains hat in public/
Madonna and Hef. Po-Tay-Toe, Po-Tah-Toe.


Let's see, you used to be one of the stars of the hottest shows on TV, and then, on your hiatus, you made a movie that proved successful, so you thought you were the new It Girl. And so there was trouble and strife on the TV show. You were on, you were off. You were on, then you were really off, and your movie career is headed In Direct-to-DVD status.
Yet you still act the diva, Katherine Heigl. Why?
It seems La Heigl was in New York and wanted to see The Book of Mormon, so she took along her mother and her husband, Josh Kelly. It all sounds so civilized, unless you think you're better than everyone else. Which is Method Heigl.
See, Katherine and her mother showed up at the theater twenty minutes late, and were allowed to stomp down the aisle and disrupt the show for people who probably don't have agents who got them free tickets. And, as if that isn't the Height of Heigl, her trained puppy of a husband showed up ten minutes after that and proceeded to whimper and purr as he prowled the aisles looking for Mama Meal Ticket.
Who was sitting quietly, wearing ginormous sunglasses so the actors onstage wouldn't recognize her and stop the show to ask for an autograph, I guess, and smoking one of those electronic cigarettes.
All she needed was a white cat sitting her lap and she'd be a Bond villain.
AND a hasbeen.

I am not much of a Beyonce fan. I mean, she's an okay singer, and a pretty good dancer, and she has great hair and a fabulous twenty-four hour wind machine to move said hair.
But I get sort of annoyed by all these entertainers who want to hyphenate themselves beyond reason. I mean, I can see singer/actor. or actor/director. That's okay. But Beyonce is singer/dancer/actor/producer/fashion-designer/perfume-maker/and so on.
Now, though, little Miss If-I-Can-Make-Money-Off-My-Fans-For-Anything-At-All-I'll-Do-It, has decided that she needs to issue a Beyonce Cookbook.
Yes. She is.
This comes as interesting news because Beyonce is a self-described "disaster in the kitchen” and, when she gives dinner parties, she “order[s] from the best restaurants and [has] the food delivered.” But her new BFF, who apparently traded in an old Madge for a New Beyonce, Gwyneth Paltrow, also "wrote" a cookbook, and if she can do it, Beyonce can too.
Beyonce says her new cookbook will show her fans, I guess through cooking, how she stays so bootylicious. And her cookbook will feature old family recipes from her Mama, like collard greens, cornbread, mac ’n’ cheese and fried chicken.
Not Beyonce's recipes, mind you, but someone else's recipes with her name, face, booty and wind-driven hair on the cover.
I ain't buyin' it.

She goes out nearly every night, jetting back and forth between LA and NYC, and rents a $7,000-a-month Venice beach condo, but Lindsay Lohan is saying she's actually broke.
I mean, we all knows she's busted.....
See, the last time she was sued because she didn't pay a bill--probably the one to her prescription medicine dealer--Lindsay claimed poverty. See, drugs and rehab don't come cheap; not to mention the team of lawyers who work 24/7 top keep her out of jail. But now Lohan is being taken to small claims court for failing to pay a sound system specialist for work that he did in June.
She can't pay her bills. This from the girl who wear $1200 shoes to court and then claims she can pay for therapy because her insurance has lapsed. So she couldn't pay the sound guy his $1,180 bill, either. I mean shoes and drugs and vodka, yes. Therapy and menial laborers, no.
And now she's in a court of a different color.
Stephen Clark is claiming he is owed money after selling her speakers, and installing audio and video equipment at her house in Venice Beach, California. He is demanding $1,180 in his small claims court lawsuit for the equipment and work he missed out on.
The only saving grace, in Lohan's eyes at least, is that if she loses this case, it doesn't come with jail time.

Friday, July 29, 2011

PR9EP1: Bedsheets and Boxers


Such a party the PR folks throw. You know, invite twenty people, and have them show your their racks, then tell four to Get out! My kinda soiree.
Still, from the first glance, it looks to be a fun season, with a hot gay guy, or maybe two; a couple of bitchy divas--okay, maybe fifteen bitchy divas and Danielle; Mormons, both gay, and maybe gay. Barbie dolls, pageant winners, snowboarders and puking clowns. Old men and young lads.

Okay then, let's just cut to the chase and discuss the challenge. The designtestants had to take their sleepwear--that they had been sleeping in all night--and one bed sheet, and make an outfit out of it. Little Anthony Ryan Auld said he usually sleeps nude, but was glad he hadn't that night. I think it would have been more fun if Rockin' Just One had simply shown up in a sheet. Around his head.
After the runway show, the safe ones are:

Kimberly Goldson
She loves bows, and working out in sequined tops. I think Michael Kors has found his new bestie. Her mistake in the first challenge was not buying a new nightie to sleep in. Hers was a natty, nubby, scuzzy lookin' thing, and didn't work so well. The pants had an odd fit, and the top looked like a couple of dinner napkins leftover from last night and tied around the model's neck.
But she does get props, from me, at least, for busting out the "Your model is gonna be wearin' "nut juice" line about Bert's boxers. 
Gurl can't design, but she can tell a joke.


Bryce Black
He's our gay Mormon, or to simplify things: he a Ho'Mormon. But you have to give the little queen props; five minutes after showing some of his work, and he had Heidi Klum as his model.
And he stayed true to his show rack, by creating an edgy, rock-n-roll number out of the sheets. Bryce just might be the dark gay horse this season.
Becky Ross
Or, as I will call her, because, well, I want to, Betsy Ross. She says she's a girly, artsy. edgy designer, with blue hair, but her first runway dress was.....not so much.
It was girly, to be fair, but there was no art and no edge. it was a cute little baby blue baby doll mess, and not at all what she said she could do.
Better start sewing, er, seeing, stars Betsy.
Olivier Green
From first glance, I don't think the carpets match the drapes...just sayin'...and the accent don't match the face. And he seems a little too quiet, and might just end up as fodder for the other designers. 
Still, he could be interesting, except his color palette, both on his show rack, and in the first challenge. it was dullsville. Bland. Boring. If Heidi told Bert to turn up the volume, she needs to tell Olivier to turn the radio on.
Laura Kathleen
A few seconds into her show rack stab at making it on the show, Nina calls her out for being a little one-note. J'adore Nina Garcia! 
Laura then tells us that, with her blond hair, and her love for glam, people always call her Barbie. And she hates it. So, naturally, I'll be respecting her wishes...oh screw that. Helloooooo Barbie!
She tie-dyed her sheet a little, and made some nice pants, and then turned her silk negligee into a silk blouse. it was all so nice, but nice don't get you to the tents, m'kay?
Viktor Luna
I am worried about Viktor. I mean, when even the designer admits his stuff looks like it's from the 80s, there's gonna be trouble. Not 80s-inspired, but 80s. Not Back To The Future, but Back To The Drawing Board?
And, of course, he was the first to mutter about how one other designer is his competition. Honey, please, They are all your competition, and if your basic white sheet dress, with a couple of black appliques is going to be your design aesthetic, then the other designers will see you as nothing more than one of first to leave.
Step.It.Up.
Fallene Wells
She wants to empower women by taking menswear and making it for women. Is that empowering, or copying? I'm not sure. And then, I guess to empower herself, she cuts out the piece of her nightie that features a clown puking rainbows into a toilet, to use in her design. Seriously. Her fashion POV is a rainbow-vomiting clown. 
I see her going places. like home.
Danielle Everine
She made an entire collection out of sheer fabrics. Not lined with other fabrics....sheer. And this from such a mousy little girl.
Who made Mom shorts. High-waisted, cuffed, Mom shorts. I kept looking at it and thinking, Is Sears still open, because they'd totally go for this.
And that ain't good.
Joshua McKinley
He looks like a movie star. A porn movie star. Okay, a gay porn movie star. But he likes to disrobe, and he's very touchy-feely, so I'm interested, in that shallow way that I have. 
And I loved that, when asked who is the woman that he designs for, he actually said: "She lives life in confidence, kind of neurotic, just white white gloves, like she's coming into, like, basically figure out what the hell happened on the scene here." 
Then he smiles, and Michael Kors just nodded. I think Kors stopped listening and began gay dreaming right after "She lives....".
But, for all his heat, and dollhead hair--seriously, his hair looks painted on--his design was kinda bland. Where was the flash from his show rack; where was the heat from his last movie?


Cecilia Motwani
Heidi thinks she more seamstress than designer. 
I say, pay her to work with Anya, because Anya can design, and it will give Anya more time to talk and I love her accent.
As her look--whatever it was because five minutes after the show it faded from memory--she called it chic and expensive. I, apparently, dubbed it forgettable.


Anya Ayoung Chee
I was a'scurred for her. She wanted to take her silk nightie, and make a top, then, after dying it, use the sheet to make pants.
But she's just learned to sew, and she doesn't know how to dye fabrics by herself, and she's never made pants, and she's never sewn silk. 
She is so far out of her element, and then BAM! Top Three. She can't so anything, then she does everything right.
Nina called her outfit extraordinary, while Heidi tells us she was rooting for Anya, but worried about her lack of talents.
The pants were a wow, and they made the model's butt look fantastic, which is what Heidi, Nina, and guest judge Cristina Ricci, wanted. It's all about the butt, I think. 
I had thought Anya, by her own admission of her lack of skills, would be Auf'd immediately, but she really pulled it off. 
Plus, I loved a pageant girl with an island accent. I'm very taste specific that way.
She looks like she could go Diva-Cut-A-Bitch, and I like that, too.



Anthony Ryan Auld
Cute little Southern boy, who will be reminding us all season hat he had testicular cancer, and "Rocks Just One" now. Plus, he's colorblind, and quirky, and fun. Seriously, a one-balled color blind designer? I'm hooked. 
And Anthony's Adorable Moment came when, as a good Southern boy is apt, he called Tim, Mr. Gunn. Again.....hooked.
He took his striped tank top, dyed it gray--which might be a color he can see--and then added lace over the stripes to kind of hide them. 
He made shorts from the sheets and then feathered, yes, feathered, the crotch and ass, which caused Tim some consternation. You know, pubic patch and all. 
I wasn't a fan of the colors, especially the shorts, but Michael Kors loves the color-blind guy's choice of color. Nine loves the addition of the lace because it isn't overdone. But no one, no one, mentions the feathery crotch and ass, although, to be fair, it didn't look too pubic patch by the time of the show.
Mr. Gunn was happy.


Bert Keeter
Bert's the geezer of the group. But I love his story: graduating from Parson's in 1877, working for three very high-profile designers, falling in love with a man who then dies from complications from AIDS, as his two best friends are also dying, and then he turns to alcohol, then recovers and starts all over again.
Designer, gay, death of friends and lover, addiction to alcohol, recovery, and restarting your life.
This has all the makings of a Lifetime movie. And I just love that, at 57, he's gonna try again.
Heidi told him during the Show Us Your Rack segment, to turn up the volume, which he did by tearing off his Orange Gingham boxers and turning them into the bodice of his dress. He sued his t-shirt as the other part of the bodice, and the sheet as the skirt. It didn't look bedclothes and sheets; it looked becoming and chic.
His look was called sexy, modern, fun, flirty, adorable, though his styling--Farah Fawcett hair and Jackie O sunglasses--was awful. Even he admitted that.
But then his look was called the winner.
Yay Bert!



Julie Tierney
I love her designs. The color. The sort-of Southwest-y vibe. And she has attitude. But she has pink lollipops and cotton candy jammies to use, and says she's gonna go sporty and sophisticated. 
Lollipops don't say sophistication, honey, unless you're six. But she goes completely out of her own style, and then had no other place to land but the Bottom Three.
Heidi had high hopes for Julie, after her Santa Fe show rack, but then she veered into that completely different direction. Cristina Ricci said the Lollipop shirt was "charming" but she wouldn't be caught dead in it. Nina, and I, wondered about the pant, and how they looked pinned or stapled at the waist; so ill-fitting they made me ill. Michael Kors, always thrilled with the vagina, apparently, made mention of the odd front pocket, which he dubbed the "I like myself" pocket. I think Kors own a lot of similar pants with similar pockets.

Joshua Christensen
The Just-Might-Be-Though-I-Don't-Think-He-Knows-It-Yet, Ho'Mormon. He said he'd had a girlfriend, and been engaged, but that all ended. Um, with the opening of a closet door? He's also come out of the banker closet recently, and entered the design world. And, at least from the first show where they were getting all snuggly and roommate-y, he appears to be having a ho-mo-bro-mance with the other Joshua.
He takes his t-shirt and makes a tank-top, takes the sheet and makes shorts, takes some sweatpants and makes a hooded shrug. A.Hooded.Shrug. 
But then he makes the La Grande Error de Terror, of not allowing the outfit any room for expansion in case it doesn't fit his model, which it doesn't. So he scrambles, adding inserts and pieces to make it work, and it doesn't.
Heidi doesn't know which is worse, his outfit or Rafael's, but it was my darling Nina, apparently channeling Joan Crawford, who said, "You are in a competition for design and you show me a pair of white shorts and a tank top!?! OFF.WITH.YOUR.HEAD!"
Okay, that last part was me, but I think Nina would agree.

Rafael Cox
I hate to say it....okay, I don't hate it....but all of his clothes look like leftovers from an old Eddie Murphy Beverly Hills Cop movie. And they were ugly back then.
During his meeting with Tim, when Rafael said his design was all in his head, Tim told him that he'd come thisclose to not making it, so he needed to step it up, or step to the curb.
He should'a listened.
His runway outfit looked to be the first from the House of Cameltoe, with some butt-ugly sweatpants--too tight sweatpants--that were dangerously close to going camel. 
His shirt was interesting, but too tight and too small, and he used his lone colorful fabric--his nightcap--to make a leopard print bib--or, as Kors says, a Flintstones disco pouch. Nina nailed him on the myriad of fit problems and the fact that it looked dated; which means it looks like a girl, or transvestite, that Eddie Murphy once dated, had worn it.
Cristina Ricci called the pants off-putting, as in Take 'em off and throw 'em away.
Heidi Auf'd him.



So, there you have it, PR9Ep1 down. It looks to be a good season, though it looks like, from the previews, that Bert may turn into the biggest bitch of them all; and there seems to be a sewing room full of 'em, so that won't be an easy title to win.
My hopes are that the Joshes become a couple, and Josh M is shirtless more often then not. I want mousy Danielle to sew someone to the back of a cab headed for Jersey. I'd like Anya to get Olivier to bust out of the drabs, while they both speak endlessly because I love their accents.
i want Anthony to stay sweet and stop with the One Nut info. We get it. I want Julie to design what she showed, and Fallene to lay off cartoon regurgitation.
I want....I want....I wanted my PR9 and I got it.
Here's to a great season!

I Didn't Say It........

John Barrowman, on the gay sex scene cut from an episode of Torchwood:
“This man has a passionate romance with this other man and — like everybody else does — the sex happens. It’s a wonderful lovemaking scene, and it’s not gratuitous. If I were a young man growing up and saw that on television, to know that there is romance out there for me, it might’ve made things — not that I had a difficult growing up — but in the ’70s and ’80s, it might’ve changed a lot of things earlier for me.”

I'm so with him on this.
If more shows portrayed gay relationships the way they portray straight realtionships, there would be more understanding, more acceptance, more realization, that we are not so very different from one another.
But....better late than never.

Rick Santorum, on pro-equality advocates:
"They have to have the word. And with THE WORD comes a complete change in society. I am NOT, as some in this race have said, OKAY with New York doing what they're doing. What New York did was wrong. I will oppose it, and I will go to New York, if necessary, and help overturn it."

Oh Frothy!
You're going to overturn marriage equality?
You can even run a serious presidential campaign.
You can't even win a presidential campaign.
And you think the people of New York are gonna listen to a Google joke such as yourself?
Honey........no.


Mila Kunis, on marriage equality:
"So my stance on it is I think people are scared of what they don't know. A lot of times people don't understand something because they're not around it. The second that you show them, they become a little more accepting, and they're more open to evolving and moving forward. And I think it's great that there are people in this world who are willing to do something that should have been done, 40, 50, 60 years ago. I also think it's great that 'don't ask, don't tell' is over with. I think that a lot of things are moving in the right direction. And truly believe that in my lifetime gay marriage will be legalized [everywhere in this country]. I do....I don't think it's going to be tomorrow. It's unfortunate that it's not, but if things keep moving in the direction that they are now, in 10, 20 years, yeah, I do believe it will be federally legal."

This is why I am so adamant about gay men and women coming out.
The more out we are, everywhere, the more people will see that we aren't so different.
The more out we are, people will be less ignorant.
Comiong out needs to happen.
In our families, our joibs, our schools, our churches, everywhere.

Larry Kramer, on New York marriage equality:
"These marriages, in whichever state, are what I call feel-good marriages. Compared to the benefits heterosexual marriages convey, gay marriages are an embarrassment — that we should accept so little, and with so much hoopla of excitement and self-congratulation."
Usually I am so Team larry, but this time I differ.
No struggle is won overnight. The fight takes years sometimes,a nd, yes, when you're in it, you wish it would happen more quickly.
But you cannot, andf should not, downplay any victory in this fight. Any victory is a vistory, and a step forward.
And, to be fair, Kramer says that the New York Times heavily edited this quote and gave the false impression that he opposes same-sex marriage in general.


Maggie Gallagher, whimpering about being treated badly on the Internet:
"The underlying truth that 'pro-equality' Republicans need to understand is this: They are aiding and abetting a political movement that, at this point in history, seeks to make traditional Christian views on sex and marriage unacceptable in the public square — just as racist views on interracial marriage are unacceptable — by heaping scorn and hatred on any American who does something to support marriage as one man and one woman. The marriage debate is about redefining not only marriage, but the relationship between Judeo-Christian values and the American tradition. I just wonder what these 'pro-equality' conservatives think will be left to conserve after that."
Maggie? Why so sad/
No one to love you, so you bottle up all that angst and then spread ther hate.
Look, I could not care less what Christians think of me. Their "God" is not my "God", evenb if I may not have a "God".
So, let the Christians and the Right Wingnuts say what they will. But do not let them, or sad little lonely Maggie Gallagher, use their religion, to deny people legal rights.
The two don't mesh, Maggiue.
Just like my "God" and your "God".

Michele Bachmann, getting personal, very persoanl:
"I will tell you my favorite food of all time is celery. Honest to God my favorite food is celery. Straight up celery. I will personally consume the entire stalk of celery. At the Thanksgiving table I have the plate of celery in front of me."

She's deep.
So deep.
Deeply teoubled.
Deeply shallow.
She won't talk about her ALLEGEDLY ex-gay hubby, but she'll let us know her views on celery.


Rabbi Yehuda Levin, Nom fan, blaming the passage of same-sex marriage on the murder of an eight year-old Hassidic boy in Brooklyn, who was killed by a heterosexual, divorced observant Jew:
"Why was this [death of Kletzky] allowed to happen? Let’s think about it. If we go back to the cause, the effect was he was the victim, but the cause was a Jew [Yiddish] that the evil will come to destroy you within your midst. For too long we have been turning our cheek, we have been turning away and ignoring the agenda of the descendants of Amalek [evil]. First they [gays] wanted rights, then they wanted adoption, they wanted special protections, and ultimately they wanted marriage. And we all know that we did precious little. If those three or fourth thousand people [who searched for the boy when he went missing], at the direction of the greater Israel and their leaders and their common sense, would have come out, maybe, against the marriage, against this final nail in the coffin of morality, maybe we wouldn’t have had to had this episode of Amalek [evil] replay itself. This is a time for introspection. This came in the very aftermath of the marriage bill, my dear friends, and not doing anything."

Quite the strecth, Rabbi.
The mrder of an inncoent child di not occur because marriuage equality passed the New York Legislature.
The murderr occurred because a sick, twisted indivisual hurt a child.
Focus your anger where it should be Rabbi, and stp spreading evil yourself.

Bill Donahue, of the Catholic League, on civil servants losing their jobs because they won't issue lmarriage licenses to same-sex couples:
"Former Gov. Eliot Spitzer enthusiastically signed a law extending religious rights in the workplace, one that went beyond the 'reasonable accommodation' provision of the 1964 Civil Rights Act. Indeed, under New York State law, the onus is on the employer to show that it would cause "undue hardship" if an employee were to exercise his "sincerely held" religious beliefs. Now it is fatuous to say that it would cause an undue hardship in the workplace if clerks, and deputy clerks, who do not have an issue with giving marriage licenses to homosexuals handled these matters for those who do. It cannot be said too strongly: Bullying those who have religious objections is despicable. There is an obvious hole in New York's gay marriage law: religious exemptions need to be extended to lay people, not just the clergy."

Here's the thing, Bill.
We have a Seapartion of Chruch and State, which means we cannot, or at least we should not, let our rleigiuous influences, color our job choices.
Meaning, if you work for the governemnt, your religion should not come into play.
It's simple, asshat.
If someone, working a civil servant job, for the governement, wants to impse their religious beliefs on the people they are paid to serve, then they can either quit, or be fired.

Thursday, July 28, 2011

It's Today!

Light the candles!
Turn the set on!
Get your snark out!
It's today!
The Fab Four!
The [hopefully] Not Terrible Twenty!
 

Let's Settle The Argument......

Anyone notice any savings during the Bush Regime?
Anyone notice the difference in spending between Bush's 8 years, and Obama's projected 8 years?
So, let's stop all this nonsense about Obama being a spend-a-holic, when, in fact,m he inherited the debt from a true spending fiend.

Just A Thought: Double Standard

So, in the news recently was a the story of a small censorship kerfuffle regarding a gay sex scene on Torchwood. The BBC wouldn't air the episode until the gay sex scene was removed--not because, they say, it was a 'gay' sex scene, but because it was an explicit sex scene--but here in the US of A, and mainly because Torchwood airs here on you-pay-to-watch-it Starz, the gay scene was shown.

And it was hot. I mean, how could it now be? John Barrowman-on-man lovin'? But watching it, then re-watching it, and re-re-re-watching it--for blogging purposes, of course--I was struck by something that I found a little offensive.

For those of you who don't know the story, Torchwood began this season with a Miracle Day, when people all over the world stopped dying. Have a pipe slice through your chest? No problem. Throw yourself on dynamite and blow up? Still alive. The one problem is that Barrowman's character, Jack Harkness, used to be immortal, but after the Miracle, he is the lone mortal on Earth. He can die. Everyone together now?

So, the sex scene begins with Jack picking up hot bartender Brad, and going back to Brad's place for some Barrowman love. Interspersed with this scene, is one of Rex Mattheson, Mekhi Phifer's character hooking up with Vera Juarez, the doctor who treated him the night of the Miracle when he should have died.

The two scenes were shot very well , with the story moving back and forth between the gay couple and the straight couple hooking up. But, right before the sex was where the problem, for me, arose. As Jack and Brad were making out, Jack asks if Brad has protection. Brad says there's no need for it anymore because no one dies since the Miracle, but Jack remind him that you can still become infected with any manner of STD or HIV, and then since you live forever, the struggle with meds and so on is more difficult.

So Brad and Jack use protection and then proceed to have some glorious gay sex.
But, Rex and Vera never had the discussion of protection whatsoever. And the woman is a doctor; a doctor who's realized how, since no one dies, the needs for meds and painkillers, more meds and more painkillers, is of even greater importance and yet she doesn't mention protection. Not for STD or HIV or even pregnancy.

To me, and maybe it's just me, the mixing of the two scenes seems to re-emphasize that tired old myth that HIV is a gay disease, and only gay people discuss it because it only applies to them. And we all know at isn't true. HIV knows no gender, color, age, race, religion,  political affiliation, or economic standing, but it's still the issue of gay couples on TV and in film.

Until we show that HIV is a gay AND  straight problem, we can never fully understand the implications. It isn't just a gay thing. It isn't just a discussion for gay couples, gay hookups, gay one night stands. It's a thing we should be talking about.

Am I being too sensitive? Or am I right in thinking that, in many cases, the media still shows HIV/AIDS to be a predominantly gay issue?

Wednesday, July 27, 2011

Architecture Wednesday

Ah, the beach.
It's all about fun in the sun. Getting a tan, relaxing in the sand, tossing back a pitcher of margaritas. Don't judge.
But, sometimes, the sun can be put to better uses than changing our skin tones, or getting us hot enough to jump in the surf. I'm talking solar power. At the beach. 
This beach getaway, designed for a couple in Boston, uses the sun to power itself. This house in Truro was designed to become the perfect accommodation for a large family, and there are lots of bedrooms, many with luxurious water views.
But it's what's on top that counts. The roof sports a large solar electric array, with a battery back-up and energy management system that stores electricity from the solar array to ensure the basic functions of the home through blackouts without the use of a gas-powered generator.
The house also includes energy efficient appliances and water heaters, and a lighting system that is also designed to be energy efficient. The combination the energy efficient building envelope and systems with the solar array will allow the home to produce as much energy as it uses over the course of a year.
Nice, yes, but still, a pitcher of margaritas and some beach boys in good too, right?

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