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The Smoking Cocktail
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Gayest Video of the Week: We have a Winner
The winner of the gayest youtube video of the week is actually called "That's So Gay" and stars none other that out-lesbian funnywoman Wanda Sykes. It's sponsored by GLSEN and the Ad Council.
It's a PSA trying to change the use of the term "That's So Gay" amongst high schoolers. Please, only use the term to describe something fabulous, people!
Posted by TheSmokingCocktail.com at 12:27 PM No comments:
Labels: wanda sykes that's so gay psa lesbian lgbt queer high school
The Point Foundation Gala - Photos and Dish
This past Saturday, the Point Foundation hosted a gala at the Hollywood Renaissance Hotel and - as usual - it was a star-studded evening with laughs, tears and fun.
(pictured left, Cherry Jones with Point Executive Director Jorge Valencia)
"I like boobs too," Lily Tomlin said starting her tribute to actress Cherry Jones.
She went on to riff for about fifteen minutes and she had the entire crowd in stitches. "I remember meeting Cherry Jones when she was at Carnegie Melon - undiscovered and very young. Of course, I was a huge star at the time," Tomlin said with her usual deadpan style reminicent of her work in 9 to 5 and Laugh In. She continued with, "Some of the drama students took me up into the hills where we smoked pot....oh, but not Cherry, of course."
Tomlin blamed her irreverent speech on Hairspray director Adam Shankman, "He's sitting at my table and is a very, very bad influence on me."
When Cherry Jones took the stage, she refused to let Lily leave and the two of them continued an off-the-cuff routine that had the entire ballroom falling on the floor laughing.
Miss Jones recently won the Emmy for best supporting actress in a drama for her work playing the president on "24". Jones has always been an out lesbian, and rose to fame on the New York stage, winning two Tony's there and being compared as the modern day Colleen Dewhearst.
Oddly enough, I heard most of the male audience members didn't know Lily Tomlin was out, and a few didn't even know who Cherry Jones was (admit it, you have to be a theatre queen), yet that didn't stop the huge pile-up on these two at the meet-and-greet afterwards. Their stage show was so heartfelt and hysterical, they made about 500 insta-fans.
Other highlights included Frenchie Davis from American Idol taking the stage to belt-out I Am Changing from Dreamgirls along with the current Point Scholars themselves, nearly bringing the audience to tears with their stories of coming-out, and conquering discrimination.
The Point Foundation is an organization whose goal is to educate the future generations of lgbt folks. They provide full college scholarships to those of merit and need, and also provide an lgbt mentor. In addition, the students become part of the Point family, and have weekly, monthly and yearly meetups with other Point Scholars across the country. It's a very powerful, and empowering organization that literally saves lives.
It's hard to pinpoint highlights of this evening, since the entire show was absolutely flawless.
It was hosted by the actors who play the gay couple from ABC's new comedy MODERN FAMILY, Jessie Tyler Ferguson and Eric Stonestreet. They were hysterical and charming. Mary Murphy - the judge from So You Think You Can Dance - ran the live auction - loudly, humorously and all the while outbidding everyone herself ("Well, I want to to go on that trip!").
An award was given to Motorola which meant.... you guessed it, lots of goodies in the gift bags (I got a fancy bluetooth headset!) Point Alumni Zach Zyskowski performed a piece on the violin that absolutely stunned the audience (you coulda heard a pin drop during his performance). The "voice of god" for the evening (that's what we call the announcer in the biz) was the hunky Ben Patrick Johnson, author, model and all around fabulous guy.
Those in attendance also included Swoozie Kurtz, Michael Emerson (Ben from LOST!!!!), Lee Rose, Calpernia Adams, and out-gay stars Darryl Stephens, Doug Spearman (Noah's Arc) and Reichen Lehmkuhl.
Anyway, here's all the photos:
Posted by TheSmokingCocktail.com at 11:27 AM No comments:
Labels: point foundation cherry jones hollywood renaissance awards lily tomlin 2009
Gayest Video of the Week: Sneak Peak at this week's GLEE
It's only Tuesday, but I can pretty much announce that this is the best gay video of the week already.
Who doesn't love the gay character Kurt on GLEE? I know, that question was ridiculously redundant since the entire show is so gay.
Here's Chris Colfier dancing to SINGLE LADIES (which I hear from someone is the best music video of all time), from tomorrow night's episode of GLEE on Fox.
Colfier is turning quickly into one of the show's favorite characters - which is funny considering he was the one that showed up to auditions with the least experience, and he didn't even land a single part on the show. So gay show creator Ryan Murphy created a part just for him.
Good going, Ryan!
Posted by TheSmokingCocktail.com at 4:04 PM 2 comments:
Labels: gay character glee single ladies
Top Ten Gay Stories of the Week
10. Elton John Denied Adoption
You can't be too rich or too thin, but you can certainly be too old and too gay.
9. Rosie O Donnell and Star Jones Team Up for New Show?
New show for these two ex-Viewers announced....then quickly denounced. Hmmm, Barbara Walter's mafia connections at work?
8. New Lesbian Drama Airs on Twitter
between Lindsay Lohan and Samantha Ronson.
7. Auditions start for new Ilene Chaiken Show
Local lesbians respond to the Cattle Call for Chaiken's new reality show for Showtime, entitled The Real L Word: Los Angeles. Personally, I'm routing for Rachel Maddow, Martina Navratilova and Lily Tomlin to be cast....and Jodie Foster/Cyndi Bernard as the couple with kids. And Lindsay Lohan as the new Jenny. Now THAT ....I'd watch.
6. Fight for marriage equality heats up in Maine.
LGBT from around the country donates to cause.
5. Violence Against Homosexuals in the Middle East Continues
Gays captured, killed, tortured and now held for ransom.
4. Tampa has first Openly Lesbian Police Chief
Because you know how much lesbians love uniforms!
3. Newlywed Game Gets First Gay Couple Ever
Although, it's kinda funny that these two have been together 30 years and are still newlyweds!
George Takei and Brad Altman did get married in that brief 4 month period when gay marriage was legal in California.
2. Openly Gay Man hosts the Emmy Awards
Visibility in the media continues with gay actor Neil Patrick Harris - tv and Broadway veteran - taking on the hosting duties this year.
1. Next Big Hollywood Gay Film Announced
Big gay films - rare. Philadelphia, Brokeback Mountain, Milk....and next-up a biopic about Liberace starring Matt Damon and Michael Douglas!
Posted by TheSmokingCocktail.com at 10:14 AM 2 comments:
Labels: gay lesbian lgbt queer
The Making Of: GAY PROPAGANDA
Before I made SHELTER, EATING OUT 2 and A MARINE STORY....my first gay film was Gay Propaganda.
I paid for the whole thing myself - in addition to all the crazy karaoke parties we hosted for funds - and everyone on it worked for free. Another bit of trivia...everyone in this video, except for the DP and a few actors ....are all gay! Which made the set an absolutely blast to work on. It took about a year to make this, and all the equipment, locations and post were also donated. It was kinda like a big, fabulous community event.
The film went on to play 115 film festivals and win 5 Awards. My hair is brown because I dyed it for GOODFELLAS. It's blonde because that was step one. I'm singing naked, because I'm willing to do anything to raise money! The films we did included The Graduate, Goodfellas, On Golden Pond, Young Frankestein, Casablanca, From Here to Eternity and more.
You can check out the individual films at my YouTube Page.
Posted by TheSmokingCocktail.com at 5:52 PM 1 comment:
Labels: gay propaganda cathy debuono andrea meyerson poppy champlin michelle wolfe jd disalvatore lesbian
Two Great Events this Weekend in SoCal
Hello Everyone and happy Friday! Have a safe, wonderful, and totally gay weekend. And if you live in Los Angeles, you might want to check out these two fabulous events. Click on image to enlarge. The LOGO comedy taping is sold out for advance tickets, but there will be 35 tickets going on sale at the box office if you get there early on Saturday!
Posted by TheSmokingCocktail.com at 2:49 PM No comments:
Labels: gay events lgbt queer homosexual parties charity coco peru andrea meyerson out
Matt Damon to Star in Liberace biopic for Warner Brothers
Director Steven Soderbergh (Ocean's Eleven, Erin Brockovich) is developing a feature biopic about the life of flamboyant entertainer Liberace, with Michael Douglas (Streets of San Francisco) attached for the lead.
Liberace was an alleged big, flaming homosexual. I say "alleged" because he denied being gay all the way up until his death in 1986 from complications from AIDS.
Soderbergh just confirmed buddy Matt Damon to play Scott Thorson, the man who sued Liberace in 1982 for palimony, and in essence, finally outed him. Damon just worked with Soderbergh in The Informant.
Damon has played gay before in The Talented Mr Ripley. Um, but that was technically a gay serial killer, not a regular gay.
This is not the first Liberace biopic. The first one starred Victor Garber in 1988. Is Garber out? Because if he's not, that's kinda ironic/funny.
The script is being written by Richard LaGravanese (The Ref, The Fisher King, PS I Love You) with Jerry Weintraub (Diner, The Specialist, Ocean's Thirteen) producing.
Weintraub was also the producer on the gay leather boy serial killer film, Cruising in 1980 starring Al Pacino. I'm seeing a trend in gay serial killer movies.
Screenwriter LaGravenese also penned The Mirror Has Two Faces for Barbra Streisand, so he clearly must know a thing or two about DIVAS to use in the Liberace biopic.
Soderbergh exploded onto the film scene with his debut feature Sex, Lies and Videotape back in 1989, which was a huge hit at Sundance, and pretty much kick-started the entire American independent cinema movement (thanks Steve!).
Soon after, he teamed up with George Clooney for the adaptation of Elmore Leonard's OUT OF SIGHT. Clooney and Jennifer Lopez might have sizzled on screen, but the true partnership was formed off set between he and Soderbergh. The two would work together for years producing over 20 films through the company they co-founded, Section Eight (which recently dissolved in 2006).
Those films included Syriana, Confessions of a Dangerous Mind, Far From Heaven, The Good German, Good Night and Good Luck and Michael Clayton. Basically all pretty kick-ass, anti-establishment movies with good intent and political bents.
Liberace was actually Polish/Italian, born Wladziu Valentino Liberace and he was a highly successful pianist/entertainer from the 1940's until the 1970's.
At 21 he played piano with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. In 1950, he played for then President Harry Truman at the White House. He was all about glamour and showmanship and not surprisingly had a huge, old lady fan base who just cooed over his fey voice and gentile manner.
His brand of high glam would beget another famous piano playing 'mo, Elton John. In fact, when John auctioned off all his flamboyant outfits from the 1970's, the reason he gave was that he didn't want to turn into Liberace.
Rumours of Liberace's homosexuality obviously surfaced quite frequently over the years (gee what gave it away?!). He smacked them down faster than Tom Cruise does these days. Liberace sued The Daily Mirror and won. He also sued Confidential and won.
His final television appearance before his death was on OPRAH in 1986.
Douglas once ruined a Broadway classic by starring as the lead of the film version of A Chorus Line.
He went on to make a string of misogynistic films including Basic Instinct (he seduces a lesbian, but it's okay because she's an ice pick murderer), Fatal Attraction (he cheats on his wife, played by the lovely Anne Archer, but it's okay since his mistress is a crazed murderer) and Disclosure (a movie about how horrible it is to be raped by Demi Moore).
If you're keeping track of the gay serial killer movie references in this article....with Basic Instinct, that makes three.
Couldn't work in MONSTER or SILENCE OF THE LAMBS.
What is with Hollywood making so many movies about gay serial killers!?
Here's Liberace with Scott Thorson, and on the right - Elton John, who is not only out but is the founder of the Elton John Aids Foundation, which raises money for the cause.
Labels: liberace gay matt damon micahel douglas
Point Foundation to Honor out-lesbian Cherry Jones
Labels: cherry jones lesbian lily tomlin point foundation
The 50 Greatest Gay Films Ever Made!
AfterElton.com just published their 2009 list of the top 50 gay films ever, based on reader polls, and I'm thrilled/elated/flattered/shocked that my film SHELTER came in at...wait for it.... okay, wait some more.... #2!!
Last year we were #3, so we're moving on up!
I know. I'm in shock. For those you that know me - or know any independent film maker - you know how hard it is to find a good script, find financing, then try to make something good for the 3 cents that people give you to make LGBT films. What we lacked in budget, we made up with on SHELTER with an absolutely fantastic creative team who really went above and beyond, due to their love of the material.
Everyone always asks me why I make gay films, and an accolade like this really continues to encourage me considering how much flack I get from my friends who make main stream features and television ("why don't you get out of the small gay pond?"). I like gay film and I want to make good movies for our community for a variety of reasons, but mainly it's due to the fact that we still have no rights in this country, the teen suicide rate in the US if 4 times that of straight kids, and there really is a lack of positive images of us in the media. You can go to your multiplex every weekend and not see a single representation of yourself. So we have this small gay market, and for a change, you and your date or a group of friends can actually go see a movie about us. Then even if your parents, your church or your school mates think you're going to hell or you're a "fag", you can hopefully feel - if only just for a bit - like you're okay.
When Jonah gave me the script for SHELTER (of all places at the Abbey at brunch one Sunday), I loved it on first read and called him immediately, knowing I wanted to produce this film. I was shocked to find out that it had not even won or made the Top 5 at that year's Outfest's Screenwriting Competition.
I just finished production on my follow-up feature A MARINE STORY, and we had the same experience on that film. I love working with writer/directors, and this time it was another talented fellow named Ned Farr. Once again, I fell in love with the script on first read. We had an absolutely stellar creative team and again, relied on the kindness of strangers for handouts all over town. You can read more about that film - which is currently in post production - at www.amarinestorymovie.com For this film, we put together a production blog so everyone can see the process in photos and videos each day of the shoot. (thanks to the love and donation of Cyndi Greening!)
By the way, if you don't know what a film producer does (don't feel bad, no one does!), here's a bullet list I put together.
And of course, I encourage you to check out SHELTER at one of my favorite lesbian owned and operated web sites, Wolfe Video, by click on the photo below:
Buy a copy by clicking on the image above.
You can read all about the poll, the films and everyone's comments at AfterElton.com
Here's the list:
1 Brokeback Mountain (2005)
2 Shelter (2007)
3 Latter Days (2003)
4 Milk (2008)
5 A Beautiful Thing (1996)
6 Get Real (1998)
7 Maurice (1987)
8 Were the World Mine (2008)
9 Trick (1999)
10 Juste Une Question D'amour (Just a Question of Love) (2000)
11 Big Eden (2000)
12 The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert (1994)
13 Torch Song Trilogy (1988)
14 Noah's Arc: Jumping the Broom (2008)
15 Broken Hearts Club (2000)
16 Angels in America (2003)
17 Longtime Companion (1990)
18 Jeffrey (1995)
19 Sommersturm (2004)
20 All Over the Guy (2001)
21 Mysterious Skin (2004)
22 Philadelphia(1993)
23 Burnt Money (2000)
24 Birdcage (1996)
25 Edge of Seventeen (1998)
26 My Beautiful Laundrette (1985) 27 Boy Culture (2006)
28 Parting Glances (1986)
29 Hedwig and the Angry Inch (2001)
30 The Trip (2002)
31 Shortbus (2006)
32 The Boys in the Band (1970)
33 Yossi and Jagger (2002)
34 Another Gay Movie (2006)
35 The Bubble (2006)
36 The Rocky Horror Picture Show (1975)
37 C.R.A.Z.Y. (2005)
38 Coffee Date (2006)
39 Making Love (1982)
40 Prayers for Bobby (2009)
41 East Side Story (2006)
42 Love Songs (Les Chansons D'Amour) (2007)
43 Mambo Italiano (2003)
44 Adam & Steve (2005)
45 In and Out (1997)
46 My Own Private Idaho (1991)
47 Rent Count (2005)
48 Eating Out (2004)
49 Mulligans (2008)
50 Transamerica (2005)
Posted by TheSmokingCocktail.com at 10:20 AM 10 comments:
Labels: best gay films greatest gay films movies queer lgbt SHELTER surf trevor
Watch Video: Interview with GLEE's own out-lesbian Jane Lynch
Out actress Jane Lynch sat down with me as part of TheSmokingCocktail.com Out-Celeb interview series and spoke quite candidly about her life, discussing everything from coming out to breaking in.
It's honest, revealing and completely outrageous - much like the actress herself.
Lynch's star has been on a meteoric rise since Christopher Guest discovered her and placed her in his improv acting company in the features Best in Show, A Mighty Wind and For Your Consideration. She followed that with scene-stealing-star-turns in 40 Year Old Virgin, Role Models, Talledega Nights and Post Grad before hitting the thespian mother-load starring as Meryl Streep's sister in Julie & Julia.
In this exclusive video interview (see below), Lynch speaks openly about her childhood ("I was a tomboy and very male identified. I didn't have a name for it, but I knew I liked girls."), coming out ("I didn't come out to my parents until my 30's"), her first lesbian experience ("I had an affair with my voice teacher in college!") and working those sapphic scenes with straight actresses ("Jennifer Coolidge does that dumb thing, but she's dumb as a fox"; "Cybil Shepherd is very interested... perhaps bi-curious..?").
Lynch has always been an advocate for LGBT rights and has even sat on the board of the Los Angeles Gay and Lesbian Center. Being out as a lesbian is important to her because she believes in positive role models for LGBT folks across the country. In keeping with this spirit, she has even donated her talents to innumerable gay films, including Tru Loved, Memoirs of an Evil Stepmother, Little Black Boot, Bam Bam and Celeste, Promtreversy and Love is Love to name just a few. "I think it's important to support the gay film making," she notes, "Our stories just aren't told. And there are more of us out there than people know, and I think it's important to put a real face on that - folks learn that way, that we're not these freak of natures."
GLEE is one of the most highly anticipated new shows of the season, and openly-gay show creator Ryan Murphy wanted Lynch to be part of it. The two previously worked together on the FOX series Popular (one of my favorite tv shows of all time), but since Lynch was committed to a new series on Starz, Murphy could only book her as a guest star. With the long wait between the series premier and the actually series, Lynch managed to get out of her other contract and commit to GLEE as a series regular.
I've already seen the second episode of GLEE (which airs this Wednesday night) and let me just tell you...the magic continues. Murphy has assembled a top notch cast of Broadway veterans (and newcomers) and the show mixes a sweetness with cutting humor and of course enough musical numbers to strike the band and drama geek in all of us. Murphy also created Nip/Tuck so you know he's the master of plot twists and surprises, so this ain't your kids' High School Musical, ya hear? (see a sneak peak at this week's episode immediately following Jane's interview, below).
Although Lynch hasn't performed yet in GLEE, you can get a taste of her musical talents in the video interview I did with her at Dinah Shore last year. To put a spin on the celeb interview, it's completely done in song! (see below under Celeb Interviews, it's hysterical.)
Watch video here:
Here's a sneak peak of this week's episode of GLEE
And here's some other TheSmokingCocktail.com Out Celeb Interviews, including conversations with Ilene Chaiken, Perez Hilton, Chad Allen and more, including the musical interview with Jane recorded at The Dinah Shore Weekend.
Build your own custom video playlist at embedr.com
If you live in Southern California, come out tomorrow to the viewing party at East/West in WeHo sponsored by DIVA.
Labels: jane lynch lesbian lgbt queer GLEE sneak peak watch video
Lesbian Drama Abounds at Power Up Workshop
This past week weekend, Power Up did the impossible. They locked a large group of lesbians together in a room for the entire weekend and there wasn't a single instance of acoustic guitar playing, golf, broken beer bottles and only a minimal discussion of cats (and by the way, I didn't hear a single woman utter, "I saw you looking at her!", a popular line at Dinah Shore Weekend and the Olivia cruises). There was, however, an abundance of lesbian drama. This was mainly due to the fact that the entire weekend was about drama... and comedy. You see the subject was women who make television, and Power Up assembled a group of the biggest names in writing to tell it all. Which they did.
The not-for-profit Power Up organization pulled together some pretty stellar female show runners and hosted a weekend on breaking into television writing at the WGA for 42 lucky attendees. The panelists included Lost's Executive Producer and out lesbian Elizabeth Sarnoff, Everybody Loves Raymond co-exec producer Ellen Sandler, SNL and Seinfeld writer and recent out-lesbian Carol Leifer, 10 Things I Hate about You scribe Lauren Iungerich (she was so fucking hysterical I immediately wanted a bobblehead of her for my dashboard with some of her killer one-liners programmed for easy access!), Claudia Lonow from The Cashmere Mafia and Accidently on Purpose, and another television lesbian icon Jan Oxenberg from Cold Case, Chicago Hope and Once and Again.
The women sat in a very casual environment where attendees could interact with them and they sang like canaries about all things writing for television. Talk about drama! Each woman was more hysterical than the last, and they not only told vivid stories of the writers rooms and network writing, but of breaking in and their personal lives (divorce! lesbian affairs! cancer! cancellation!).
Some of the highlights included the obvious question to Sarnoff, "Can you tell us what's going to happen on Lost this season?" to which she responded, "If someone would tell us!". She went on to tell us that it's next to impossible to remember what goes on with the show from season to season because so many ideas are pitched in the writers room that it's hard to remember which ones actually made the show. "We've even shot flashbacks that haven't been put in! So between that and the endless ideas tossed out, we have to constantly be reminded of what's happened. Fortunately, we have a gay man that keeps track of all this," she said referring to their Script Coordinator who - due to the large scope of his job - has recently been promoted to producer.
Sarnoff noted the one job she has on Lost which she never had before was writing fake sides. "Like I don't have better things to do, I'm up writing scenes with characters in fake situations that we can use for casting." She said this show has so many leaked stories, it's hard to stay on top. One way fans find out what's going to happen is from the sides - or script pages - that are sent out to audition guest characters. So these are fictionalized to hide upcoming plot points.
The job Sarnoff misses most is working on production for Deadwood. As a story editor on that show, she got to be involved on a daily basis in production. "Show creator David Milch doesn't even like to give the actors the scripts in advance, so everything was very raw on set," she said, "And sometimes we'd just write scenes for actors we liked at the last minute. There was one extra that Milch did this for so many times, he became a regular."
Traditionally, writing for television has been a man's world. Out of 8-12 writers on every show, generally, there are only one or two women. Even today, almost all of these women are the only female in a writers room. "We had one other on Lost," says Sarnoff, "But she rolled out pretty quick."
The writers room is where all the juicy stuff happens on tv shows. Depending on how the show runner likes to do things, all the writers are put in a room for 8 hours a day breaking down the season, the episodes then punching up each individual script. Carol Leifer talked about Larry David as a Show Runner, "He didn't want to hire anyone on Seinfeld that had ever written for a sit com." Leifer had been a popular comic with stand up shows on Showtime and the like when Seinfeld not only recruited Leifer to the show, but also based the character of Elaine on her. During her days working the comedy clubs, Leifer had dated Seinfeld as well as Paul Reiser, before meeting the girl of her dreams at a Project Angel Food fundraiser 13 years ago. She's now been with her partner ever since, with kids and 7 dogs. Leifer also just penned a collection of funny essays, "When You Lie About Your Age, The Terrorists Win."
"When I worked on Seinfeld, Larry always wanted to know about the most mundane things that happened in our lives and most of the time, those ended up in the show, " Leifer commented.
Due to the nature of their jobs, all the women were hugely entertaining and very funny, and the attendees got to interact with the women freely during the talks, and again afterwards over coffee and danish.
All of them also had very interesting breaking-into-the biz stories. Ellen Sandler had written a one act play that went up during a festival in Los Angeles and since it starred a then-relatively-unknown actress Rhea Perlman, her husband Danny DeVito and everyone from the hit show Taxi attended. Show creator James Brooks went up to Sandler immediately and from that alone, asked her to pen two episodes of Taxi.
Sarnoff had a similar path when a 2-person character play she penned got in the hands of David Milch who was on NYPD Blue. Oxenberg came from the world of independent film making and got her first break on a show called Relativity after making a few (lesbian) shorts followed by a feature that garnered critical acclaim at Sundance. Claudia Lonow hit big after washing-up as an actress. Whilst waiting tables at the improv, Lonow sold a series loosely based on her life to Showtime called, Rude Awakenings. It was about a trash-talking, alcoholic, sex addict and her experiences in AA.
All the women were both honest and hysterical and the entire weekend was very inspirational. Considering how hard it is to break into the business, much less be working in a man's world, these women were all incredibly charming and extremely encouraging.
For more information on Power Up and their upcoming educational panels (they have one on producing too!), check out www.powerupfilms.org.
Here's some photos from the weekend:
Labels: power up lost sarnoff lesbian writers oxenberg sandler iungerich
EATING OUT 3 Already a Best Seller - and it's not even out yet!
I thought this was hysterical. The anticipation over the upcoming feature EATING OUT 3 - ALL YOU CAN EAT is so huge with the gay community, that the flick has hit #5 already on Wolfe Video's best sellers...and it's not even out yet!
The film is currently being completed and will be coming to your local LGBT film festival soon. Not sure what they have planned for a theatrical release, but EATING OUT 2 did release nationwide before going to dvd.
This is pretty flattering considering the gays are lining up to buy this flick while it's still being edited!
The Eating Out series is the baby of Q. Allan Brocka - the man who brought you Rick & Steve and Boy Culture. Indie film maker and professional editor Phillip J Bartell joined the team for 2. For 3, they've both enlisted the talents of their buddy Glenn Gaylord, an award winning short film maker who also produced the Perez Hilton reality show for VH-1. All the films are produced and executive produced by Michael Shoel of Ariztical Entertainment.
The 3rd film in this series - as the other two - will be another outrageously vulgar sexual romp in the vein of Porky's or American Pie (depending on your generational reference). Returning is funny girl Rebeka Kochan (who is fucking brilliant) and John Water's staple Mink Stole (I adore her as well). This one stars a bunch of new half naked (or as usual, probably really full frontal naked) along with diminutive funny man Leslie Jordan.
Gaylord directed the terrific short Lost Cause - which was deeply moving and dealt with the HIV crisis, and he also helmed the music short BOYCHICK, which also garnered awards on the festival circuit. I don't know where you can buy these - but they are really worth checking out.
Click on any of the titles below for more info. And yes, jump on the band wagon and go 'head and BUY IT! They start shipping the dvd in November, and as with most of their releases, there should be a lot of HOT extras on the disc.
Labels: eating out 3 all you can eat
American Idol announces new judge: ELLEN to replace Abdul
After much speculation as to who would fill the fourth judge chair left vacant by Paul Abdul, Fox announced Wednesday that it would be none other than out lesbian Ellen DeGeneres.
Yup, she's hired.
Degeneres will continue doing her daily talk show, and pull double duty for the recordings of the new season. She joins fellow judges Simon Cowell, Randy Jackson and Kara DioGuardi in January.
On her show, Ellen joked, "I'm going to have a day job and a night job -- that's the times we're living in. We're all doing that."
The show will still have several guest judges over the summer for their Idol auditions, including out actor Neil Patrick Harris and Broadway darling Kristin Chenoweth.
Ellen continues to be an advocate and role model for the LGBT community by living her life as an out lesbian. She also has become a COVER GIRL - appearing in full page print ads and television commercial campaigns for the hugely popular national make-up brand. Fellow out lesbian Martina Navratilova has joined the ranks of high level corporate representation as well as she recently signed to be a spokesperson for AARP.
Continued images and placement of out LGBT folks in the mainstream continues to be vital and important as we continue in our movement to achieve equal rights - and more specifically in our fight now in Maine for marriage equality.
Labels: ellen degeneres new american idol judget
The L Word Final Season on Sale
Deal alert. THE L WORD FINAL SEASON is now on pre order, and Wolfe Video is running a special!
Click on the photo above for details!
And here's a little interview from the vaults of me with Rachel Shelley and Ilene Chaiken.
Labels: the l word final season
The Ellen Show premiers today!
Sometimes I worry about humanity. Especially when I accidentally turn on VH1 (I mean, Tool Academy, Rock of Love, et el?!), or realize this country voted for George Bush II twice.
But then some other things kinda cheer me up - like realizing two of the biggest stars in America (and on daytime television) are a black woman and a lesbian. And that the later, is actually a spokesperson for a major cosmetics line (ah, what a brave new world we live in).
Said out-lesbian Ellen Degeneres - is premiering Season 7 of her Emmy winning talk show today, with guests David Beckham and Lady Gaga.
Time to set your tivoes!
Labels: ellen premier season 7 lesbian tv gay queer cover girl
Watch Video: MAD MEN: Sal channels Ann Margaret, His Wife Figures out what's wrong...
The closeted and deeply repressed Sal (played by out-gay actor Bryan Batt) had a fantastically uncomfortable scene in Sunday night's MAD MEN.
In it, his wife cuddled up to him in bed and asked why he never wants to have sex. He made a few excuses, then decided to share with her the subject of his new commercial - a Pepsi ad in the mileu of Bye Bye Birdie. Within moments, she realizes why they never have sex. Unbelievably uncomfortable as seen here:
In the premier of MAD MEN last week, Sal finally had a chance to dip his toes in the pond that dare not ripple it's name when whilst on a business trip with Don, a hotel bel hop made a special late night delivery to our little Salvatore. Just as he was about to lose it - literally - a fire alarm sounded interupting the Sal's first gay sexual experience (at least, of which we are aware). About a minute later, Don Draper caught a glimpse of Sal and the bel hop getting dressed from the fire escape. Sal and Don exchanged a shocked glance. Nothing has been mentioned since (it's not like Don doesn't have an encyclopedia of things he's hiding, so I guess it's professional courtesy).
If you live in Los Angeles, I've had Bryan Batt sightings at the fabulous Show Tunes Monday at Eleven in West Hollywood. Very fun night where often rare and always fun videos are played of movie and theatre musical numbers while the entire bar sings along. And often does the choreography as well. The night starts off with a 20 minute performance by a gypsy (Broadway veteran from the chorus or touring production) which is usually fantastic.
Posted by TheSmokingCocktail.com at 8:00 AM No comments:
Labels: gay mad men sal
Tennis Channel produces Provocative New Documentary on Tennis Legend Martina Navratilova
Tennis legend and lesbian icon Martina Navratilova tells her life story in a new documentary produced by the Tennis Channel. The doc is both in-depth and revealing - no surprise considering the honesty and strength she's always had in tackling the ups and downs of her complex life. She even narrates it herself.
In it, she discusses her professional and personal life, including coming out, her politics and her father's suicide. Signature Series: Martina Navratilova is shot and produced in HD and uses original footage, rare archival video and access to hundreds of family photographs.
The documentary can be seen (or tivoed) this evening on The Tennis Channel at 10 pm.
Can't catch it? No worries. TheSmokingCocktail.com will be giving away an AUTOGRAPHED copy of the doc on DVD to one lucky winner in our monthly raffle at TheSmokingCocktail.com Monthly Mixer at O Bar, Wednesday, September 16th.
This new biography coincides with Navratilova appearing as a commentator for The Tennis Channel's coverage of the US Open. This is the first time the cable net has covered the event, and they're planning 72 live match hours and around the clock news and insights. Navratilova is cohosting with Jimmy Connors and Bill Macatee.
Martina's Home Page
The Tennis Channel's Web Site
MARTINA HAS BALLS!!!
Energy Balls, that is. Martina makes her own snacks to help boost her workouts. These fantastic little nuggets are made from a mixture of figs, nuts, sesame seeds, honey and oatmeal.
I've made 'em. They're fucking awesome.
Check out the recipe at Sunset Magazine.com
Labels: martina navratilova lesbian
Upcoming LGBT Events in SoCal
Click on invite to enlarge.
No On 1
Maine Marriage Equality Fundraiser
East West Lounge
801 Larrabee St
http://www.actblue.com/page/lamaineevent
Labels: gay lesbian queer west hollywood parties events
You Really Oughta Be in Pictures
After the devastating news that once again Ilene Chaiken will be tasked to tell the stories of our lives (see earlier post), I encourage all of you lesbians out there with scripts to check out this upcoming seminar. It's reasonably priced and can get your stuff out there. Help, we need you!
The register, click here: http://www.power-up.net/tv2day1.html
Labels: the l word ilene chaiken the real l word showtime power up lesbian
SHOWTIME greenlights Ilene Chaiken's new lesbian series
Ever sit around watching The Real Housewives of... and just wish they had a show like that about lesbians? I know, me neither.
But needless to say, Variety just reported that Showtime has greenlit just that, with Ilene Chaiken at the helm.
The new program is entitled The Real L Word: Los Angeles, and was brought to Chaiken by The Magical Elves production team - those folks that produce Project Runway and Top Chef.
Showtime okayed 9 episodes to be shot, so if you live in town...look out those cameras are coming! Meanwhile, Chaiken had a spinoff of The L Word called The Farm, which was shot then vetoed by Showtime. She also has been attempting to get The L Word movie off the ground, with no luck.
My only question is, is there really no one else on this god's earth that can tell lesbian stories, or does Hollywood think this woman is it?
Labels: lesbian the l word spin off ilene chaiken show time sequel
What the Gays are Watching on Youtube
Two really great new commercials for marriage equality, one from Maine and one from Ireland.
From Maine:
From Ireland:
Labels: gays youtube video queer lesbian lgbt
Help for LGBT Film Makers - the 101 Guide
Hello Kittens,
Every day my inboxes are full of letters from up and coming young LGBT film makers asking for help with their projects, and as much as I'd like to volunteer, it's physically impossible. But you know how much I want all gay film makers to succeed - it's key to having more positive and diverse representations of lgbt in television and film, as well as putting our stories out there (too much of our history is still in the closet).
So, in the spirit of this, I've pulled together a list of resources here for the up and coming film maker that I endorse.
If you are a writer, there is nothing better for you to break-in if you have no contacts than to place or win a major screenwriting competition. The biggest one is The Nicholls Fellowship. There's also the Sundance Lab and Scriptapalooza (more info on that below). Winning or placing in the top ten won't do it for you, you have to research the agents and managers in Hollywood that are representing the screenwriters you most aspire to be like (check out whorepresents.com). Next, send a letter to these agents and mention your placement in any high end competition. The combination of these tactics has yielded fantastic results for friends of mine! If you want a tip, start your letter like this: "I recently placed 2nd in the Scriptapalooza and now producers are contacting me with interest, yet I am currently unrepresented." Mention them personally and why you feel they are the right fit, and it also never hurts to say you are new to the business (if you are old to it, why haven't you signed yet?).
If you are a director the world is your oyster these days. With online distribution and low cost video gear, you can start making films immediately and posting them online. The best training for directors - tried and true - is just doing it. You can read a million books, go to schools, but you are never going to get good at this until you start, and continue. You'll get better with each short and project you do, guaranteed. A great resource for info on lgbt film makers and film festivals is award winning director Jenni Olsen's blog: http://www.qmovieblog.com/
Once you have a fabulous short and an online following, the best move is to get into the biggest film festival possible. You want to hit Cannes, Berlin, Sundance, Toronto, Tribeca and Montreal. These are premier film festivals. You can hit after that The LA Film Festival and the AFI Film Festival locally, but these aren't as prestigious. For LGBT Film Festivals, have your films ready by March each year and hit the top three: Outfest, Frameline and Philly. Once you get into one of these, every other LGBT film festival will be contacting you.
SUNDANCE ANNOUNCES NEW CATEGORY FOR LOW BUDGET FILM!
New Sundance head John Cooper (out-gay and pictured right) just announced that The Sundance Film Festival has created a new section for screenings of no and low budget films. Read all about it at IndieWire, by clicking here.
John Cooper takes over the top spot at Sundance after Geofrey Gilmore departed for a gig at Tribeca. Before taking the helm, Cooper was previously the long time Director of Programming for Sundance, and prior was the head of programming at our very own OUTFEST: The Los Angeles Gay & Lesbian Film Festival.
HOW NOT TO MAKE A SHORT FILM
Veteran Sundance shorts programmer Roberta Munroe has written a fabulous guide for filmmakers, and has a web site full of tips and resources for film makers.
Want your film at Sundance? Check out these tips and insider info at www.hownottomakesashortfilm.com
I can't recommend this site highly enough. Fantastic site for screenwriters to post their pitches for producers to read, as well as a a go-to site for producers looking for undiscovered talent. Their search options make this an A+ resource, as you can specify searches by genre, name attachments and/or awards won. Check them out at www.inktip.com
POWER UP:
Power Up is an lgbt non profit for education, resources, grants and production of features and shorts. They have a very reasonably priced upcoming two day television seminar:
Find out more at www.PowerUpFilms.org
FILM PRODUCTION INCENTIVES:
Variety and The Producers Guild of America present: On September 23rd, representatives from California, New York and Connecticut will give an overview on what type of production incentives they have to offer, as well as commentary on their locations and infrastructure which will help producers meet their budgets and create the best looking film possible from a location stand-point.
Register today for this FREE webinar designed to educate and inform the production community.
Joseph Chianese, VP of Business Development, Entertainment Partners
Speakers: Amy Lemisch, Executive Director, California Film Commission
Pat Spinney Kaufman, Executive Director, New York State Governor's Office for Motion Picture and Television Development
11AM (PDT) / 2PM (EDT)
To register for free, please click here.
SUNDANCE - ONLINE!
Didn't make it into the Sundance Lab? No worries, you can be part of the action online.
There are fantastic interviews with the advisors, and you can follow the Lab film makers through every step of the process. It's just like being there, only without going to Utah. Click here.
SCRIPTAPALOOZA
Is endorsed by the Writers Guild Of America and is currently accepting scripts for their Television Writing Competition.
For info, check out their web site.
Entry fee is $40 and the deadline is October 15th.
FILMMAKERS ALLIANCE
A great organization with unending resources.
Check them out on Facebook or at their website.
DV EXPO
Pasadena, Sept 22 and 24th
A huge expo where you can get your hands on all the latest production equipment, sit in on free demonstrations, and land killer expo-only deals on gear, including post production software and equipment. Find out more and register for a free floor pass here: http://www.dvexpo.com/
SHOWBIZ CAFE
Part of the entertainment software company Showbiz Data, there are weekly classes in all areas of production paperwork, laws and contracts. There's an upcoming free class on Feature Payroll on September 15th. To check out all their upcoming free seminars, visit them at www.showbizsoftware.com
DIVERSITY PROGRAMS!
Let your minority status work for you! These are highly competitive, but a great leg up. You can gain knowledge, killer networking leads and impressive beginning job experience.
1. The Disney-ABC Writing Fellowship
abctalentdevelopment.com/programs_writers.htm
2. NBC Diversity Initiative for Writers
nbcunicareers.com/entry_leadership/diversity_initiative_for_writers
3. Nickelodeon Writing Fellowship
nickwriting.com
4. The Guy A. Hanks & Marvin Miller Screenwriting Program (Cosby Writing Program)
Drs. Bill and Camille Cosby established the Cosby Writing Program in 1993, at the USC School of Cinematic Arts. It was named in honor of Camille's father, Guy Alexander Hanks and Bill's producer, Marvin Miller. The fifteen-week intensive workshop was designed with a two-fold purpose: To assist writers in the completion of a film or television script and to deepen the participants' appreciation for and comprehension of African American history and culture.
cosbyprogram.com
5. Fox Writers Initiative
fox.com/diversity/creative/writer_initiative.htm
6. The CBS Diversity Institute/Writers Mentoring Program
cbscorporation.com/diversity/cbs_network/institute/writers_program.php
Posted by TheSmokingCocktail.com at 7:01 AM 2 comments:
Labels: screenplay contests grants competitions film making gay lesbian queer lgbt
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I'm back from having traded at our first quilt show and I'm still on a high!
We had 3 great days at the Grosvenor Spring Quilt Festival at Ingliston, Edinburgh meeting and talking to some really lovely people out there, and especially receiving feedback of having some stunning fabrics just endorsed the very reason for starting my own business – my love of fabrics, the colour palettes, the designs and collections. I'll be back for the Scottish Quilt Championships at Ingliston in September.
Meanwhile, we're just a couple of weeks away for our next pop-up shop in Biggar (13/14 March) – more details on this and other dates will be added to the website very soon – promise. I've got a couple of meetings today, one of which is with another important man in my (business) life. I might mention Andrew quite a few times from this point onwards – he's a guy who is helping me and holding my hand in getting the Biggar Stitches show on the road! I have a head full of ideas and he's the one helping me bring them to fruition. So no sewing for me today – it'll be a day of talking and emptying my head of these ideas. And as soon as I can share them with you, you lovely folk will be the next to know about them.
By the way, I'm doing good on my mission of giving up procrastinating for Lent – I've made two bags, each for some friends' (Terry and Sue) birthdays. You like? Other things you'll soon know about me is my other passion for horses, and I share this passion with my friend Sue. It's been a while – 10 years to be precise – since I've regularly sat in a saddle and said giddy up, and I've got just over 6 months to get my body ready for a week's ranch riding in South Africa with Sue hence the horse riding themed bag. As for my gorgeous friend Terry – some of you will know her – well it was a no-brainer to select these beautiful fabrics for such a beautiful lady.
So how are you guys doing on each of your own 'giving it up for Lent'?
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Girls Prep School
Boys Prep School
Prep Foundation
St Peter's is an independent, Anglican, Diocesan family of schools consisting of a boys preparatory school, a girls preparatory school (Grades 0 to 7) and a co-educational college (Grades 8 to 12).
Mr Stanley Dodson retires as Headmaster of St John's Prep School, Johannesburg, to his small farm, Rietfontein, situated in open country 25km north of Johannesburg.
St Peter's Prep School opens its doors to its first 12 pupils on Rietfontein farm.
Negotiations are completed with the Diocese of Johannesburg for St Peter's to become its second Anglican boys' school.
Mr Dodson retires for the second time in his career. There are 180 boys in the now well-established, highly respected school.
Initiated and driven by the St Peter's Boys' parents and supported by the Council, St Peter's College is opened in Sunninghill on 14 January 1998. This initiative is in response to an increasing shortage of independent co-educational high schools in the Sandton area and the need to provide education appropriate to the changing local and international environment.
St Peter's Girls Prep School is opened, in the former boys' boarding establishment, on the same campus for Grade 0 and Grade 1 pupils, growing to full strength at Grade 7 level in 2012. Trish Attlee is the founding Headmistress of the Girls School.
Email: girlsreception@stpeters.co.za
Physical address: 105 Witkoppen Rd, Paulshof, Johannesburg, South Africa
Postal: PO Box 37, Rivonia 2128
Email: reception@stpeters.co.za
Email: abuys@stpeters.co.za

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


It's not Hear'Say, the buddy movie is alive and well, on stage and on tour, in Dirty Rotten Scoundrels.
Hot soup, slapstick, voluntary wheelchair wetting! Cardiff's Millennium Centre saw it all last week. And while the classic comedy Dirty Rotten Scoundrels may not be your definitive buddy movie, as with all such films this musical adaptation relies on the chemistry between its two leading conmen to bring the story to life. The Film saw Steve Martin and Michael Caine as the duo of confidence tricksters, one as rough as the other was refined. This touring production, has Michael Praed as Lawrence while Freddy is played by Noel Sullivan.
Now to those of you who don't remember the brief and golden period of TV talent shows, between the retreat of Matthew Kelly and the arrival of Simon Cowell, Sullivan might mean nothing to you. But, to those of us who spent Saturday nights glued to Fame Academy and Popstars, Noel's Hear'Say were the world's first winners. Alas, Hear'Say were an early indicator that the X Factor format cannot sustain success for many outside of the schedules and the band quickly folded.
Fast-forward 15 years and Noel Sullivan is a born-again musical theatre star – one of those performers who convinces you there is nothing that they cannot do.
Taking on the myriad guises of a conman he is always charming in his portrayals, creating walks, accents and quirks which set all his personalities apart. On top of all that, of course, he can sing. Three songs in is when Great Big Stuff appears and when the show really starts to play its tricks on us.
Michael Praed is pleasant enough as the vain, polished Michael Caine character. He is given all the clever, wordy songs like Ruffhousin' Mit Shuffhausen. But as ingenious as the wordplay is it only lends credence to Sondheim's adage: situation is funny, clever is not.
Seeing Freddy (Sullivan) play the simpleton Ruprecht or sing his legs into movement – the hilarious Love is My Legs – beats all the cleverosity hands-down. Which begs the question: Is Freddy just a better-written part? The fish out of water American amongst the elocutioned ex-pats of the French Riviera is just plain funny. His character has been updated too, with references to Oprah and the Obamas never seeming out of place in the otherwise classic '50s set, but making his lines even more jarringly comic.
Praed does have a moment of sheer class, when he is given the opportunity for his beautiful baritone to soar, in the show's only real ballad Love Sneaks In. But his performance only picks up the pace when he has Sullivan to play off.
Coming far too late into this review, and into the show itself, is Carley Stenson. Her entrance for the final scenes of Act 1 lets you know that there is another out and out professional on the stage. Luckily her second-half vocal acrobatics and plot-stealing storyline give her plenty to work with.
Mark Benton - see video - is a beautiful, bumbling inspector. He too gets room for a plotline and song or two in the second act.
The only curious balance in this new musical is that between the chorus and the leads. In a post-Legally Blonde era the faceless chorus, rather than ensemble of individuals, seems peculiarly out of date in an f-bomb dropping musical like Dirty Rotten Scoundrels. More interplay between the chorus and the leads may have helped the scenes without Sullivan sparkle more. But by the end the show kept to its conman mantra of Give Them What They Want and the audience were sold: song after scene of the two leads together – Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, and buddies to boot.


I first heard this term on Justin Jackson's blog. I'm not 100% sure if I've understood it correctly, but my interpretation is that company/founder fit is ensuring the business you build fits the kind of life you want to live.
As Justin says, "If you want to get to $1 million in sales, you're going to need to build a company. Does being a boss fit into your dream?".
Jarrod, The PE Geek, created a company around live events "because I wanted to travel and I love to talk and teach directly with people". A company like Jarrod's isn't ideal for you if you're an introvert with travel anxiety. That's (my interpretation of) the idea behind company/founder fit.
Company/founder fit popped into my head again when reading Will It Fly?, Pat Flynn's book on idea validation.
I got a lot out of Pat's book despite being post-launch and having already validated With Jack. There was a particular exercise early in the book that helped me understand what kind of company I want to build, but more on that later.
With Jack is self-funded. I did briefly toy with investment when I unsuccessfully applied to join an accelerator. I've also had some recent interest from investors.
Instead I took a different route. I built With Jack with money I'd earned from freelance photography (this money has dried up now and I quit photography in 2018). This helped fund a lot of the initial design and developments costs.
UGH. You're successfully building a sustainable business where you answer to no-one but your customers, where you help people and don't exploit them. People should be holding you up as a example of how business should be done.
However, maybe investment would be the right route for With Jack. After all, my mission is to help every freelancer be a confident freelancer. There are 2,000,000 in the UK and to get in front of as many of them as possible I'd need money. Way more money than I currently make or have at my disposal.
This question of taking investment and thinking bigger—and deciding on the kind of company I want to build—has always been something I've struggled with. Spiritually I feel more aligned with the bootstrapped ethos, but there are millions of freelancers I want to help and having money would make that mission more achievable.
This exercise encouraged me to write down 4 areas of my life that are important to me and to think to the future about how these areas of my life would look in an 'ideal world' scenario.
Mine were business, health, finances and leisure. Maybe yours would include family, travel, career etc. Whatever is important to you.
Here's a snapshot into mine. Remember, this is an ideal world scenario.
Customers get a lot of value from using our service and With Jack has made the lives easier for millions of freelancers.
We've expanded globally so we can help more freelancers.
Some of my friends are employed by the business.
We have a great culture at the office and it's a happy environment to work.
The business is self-funded so I can focus on the best outcome for customers and don't have to answer to investors.
I have the time to train regularly.
I'm running a handful of half marathons a year.
My deadlift PB has exceeded 100KG.
I've adopted a vegetarian diet.
I support my family with the business.
Money is no longer a worry.
I give back to charity and use my wealth to contribute to making the world a better place.
I own a holiday home abroad.
I travel freely and regularly.
I have time to play video games.
When I'm not travelling I spend every day with my dog.
I have the freedom over my routine to do what I like whenever I want.
Two of the key themes I picked up on when doing this exercise were freedom and flexibility. These are important to me.
Traveling freely and having control over my routine doesn't involve getting on planes to secure the next round of funding before cash flow bleeds dry. That's my idea of hell.
Building the business on my own terms—and having control over the direction I take it in—was one of my ideal outcomes. Because freelance premiums are small and the market isn't very large, investors may try to push me down another avenue.
Some of these ideal outcomes seem ambitious as a bootstrapper. One of them is to expand globally so we can help freelancers in Europe and beyond. Again, money would make expansion easier but I don't need VC money to go global. Fortunately, With Jack is already profitable!
I spent 30 minutes of my train ride to Nottingham doing this exercise and it was time well spent. It gave me the clarity that I've been missing over what kind of life I want to live and how With Jack fits into that.
Building a business is all consuming and so much of your identity becomes wrapped up in it. Especially in the early days. But life isn't just about business, and therefore it's important to ensure the company you're creating fits the kind of life you want to live. You have to have company/founder fit.
Just after doing this exercise I read a fascinating blog post from Cheri Baker called Patreon, Venture Capital, and the Loss of the Win-Win. It really hit home that building a VC-backed company isn't for me.
This blog post isn't to bash VC. It's the right avenue for some people and when it does work the impact can be insane! But for me I want to build a company that people like and value, and have the freedom to take it in the direction I want—which is the one that's best for freelancers.


Discussion in 'Baja Bytes By Gary Graham' started by Baja Bytes, Jan 21, 2019.
According to the census, there have been a total of 74 whales counted so far. The observation season of gray whale (Eschrichtius robustus), in the Biosphere Reserve (RB) El Vizcaíno located in Baja California Sur, began on December 15. So far, 21 offspring, 21 mothers and 32 solitary whales have been observed in Laguna Ojo de Liebre, to give a total of 74 specimens. In San Ignacio Lagoon, 5 solitary whales were observed, giving a total of 79 individuals.
Yes, the relentless north winds are up, but the dorado are biting quite well right off the beach. After a quick trip to LB, we booked a half-day panga trip with Chuy on the Rude Baby out of Palmas today and bought 10 freshly-caught ballyhoo for bait; literally within one minute, we were fishing this morning as we motored away from Palmas.
denis, Tunahead and mulegemike like this.
Hopefully "Deep Blue" had lunch before the divers went in? What a beast!


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Notify objects about changes to the properties of other objects.
Key-value observing is a Cocoa programming pattern you use to notify objects about changes to properties of other objects. It's useful for communicating changes between logically separated parts of your app—such as between models and views. You can only use key-value observing with classes that inherit from NSObject.
myDate = myDate.addingTimeInterval(Double(2 << 30)) // Adds about 68 years.
An instance of an observer class manages information about changes made to one or more properties. When you create an observer, you start observation by calling the observe(_:options:changeHandler) method with a key path that refers to the property you want to observe.
You use the oldValue and newValue properties of the NSKeyValueObservedChange instance to see what's changed about the property you're observing.
If you don't need to know how a property has changed, omit the options parameter. Omitting the options parameter forgoes storing the new and old property values, which causes the oldValue and newValue properties to be nil.
observed.updateDate() // Triggers the observer's change handler.
// Prints "myDate changed from: 1970-01-01 00:00:00 +0000, updated to: 2038-01-19 03:14:08 +0000"
The example above responds to the property change by printing both the new and old values of the date.
Respond to events on behalf of a delegator.
Provide access to a shared resource using a single, shared class instance.
Learn how Cocoa error parameters are converted to Swift throwing methods.
Throw and catch errors that use Cocoa's error types.


Freeman L, Rush J, Markwell P. Effects of dietary modification in dogs with early chronic valvular disease. J Vet Intern Med 2006;20:1116-1126.
Effects of dietary modification in dogs with early chronic valvular disease.
Freeman LM, Rush JE, Markwell PJ.
BACKGROUND: The potential benefits of nutritional modification in early canine cardiac disease are not known.
HYPOTHESIS: We hypothesized that echocardiographic, neuroendocrine, and nutritional variables will differ between dogs with asymptomatic chronic valvular disease (CVD) and healthy controls, and that a moderately reduced sodium diet enriched with antioxidants, n-3 fatty acids, taurine, carnitine, and arginine will alter these variables in dogs with CVD.
METHODS: Echocardiography was performed and blood was collected. After baseline comparison with healthy controls, all dogs with CVD were fed a low-sodium run-in diet for 4 weeks, reevaluated, and then randomized to receive either the cardiac diet or a placebo diet for 4 weeks.
RESULTS: At baseline, dogs with CVD (n = 29) had significantly lower circulating sodium, chloride, arginine, and methionine concentrations and higher plasma concentrations of atrial natriuretic peptide compared to healthy controls. In dogs with CVD, plasma aldosterone concentration and heart rate increased significantly after 4 weeks of eating the run-in diet. The cardiac diet group (n = 14) had larger increases in levels of cholesterol (P = .001), triglycerides (P = .02), eicosapentaenoic acid (P < .001), docosahexaenoic acid (P < .001), total omega-3 fatty acids (P < .001), vitamin C (P = 0.04), alpha-tocopherol (P < .001), and gamma-tocopherol (P < .001) compared to the placebo diet group (n = 15). The cardiac diet group also had larger reductions in maximal left-atrial dimension (P = .003), left-ventricular internal dimension in diastole (P = .03), and weight-based maximal left-atrial dimension (P = .03).
CONCLUSIONS AND CLINICAL IMPORTANCE: Observed changes in both blood variables and echocardiographic measurements warrant additional studies on dietary modifications in dogs with early CVD.


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Q: C++ and CTime & System clock changing I want to write simple application in C++ using ctime library. I'm getting the actual time and do some calculation in the loop. Very important for me is the fact that user can modify OS clock during calculations. Is there any way to get to know inside my app if the user has changed OS clock?
Thnx for help in advance.
PS. This app will be used on Linux OS.

A: POSIX has the clock_gettime() function, that lets you access a monotonic clock (using CLOCK_MONOTONIC.)

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


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Black patent leather 'Gigi' pumps from Tory Burch.
Black leather chunky heel pumps from Veronique Branquinho.


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0 /images/categories/sports-trivia-us.jpg /images/categories/sports-trivia-us.jpg
Casino Answers » Sports Betting » Trivia » Who Were The Montreal Expos?
Who Were The Montreal Expos?
As the first Major League Baseball team to play in Canada, the Expos joined the league as an expansion team in 1969. Named after the Expo 67 World's Fair held in Montreal, Quebec, the Expos began playing their home games at Jarry Park Stadium, on a temporary basis.Play at this years #1 online casino for United States - Slots.LV.
After the 1976 Olympic summer games, they began playing there home games at Olympic Stadium. Beginning with 10 losing seasons, the Expos had five winning seasons to follow, highlighted by their 1981 season, a division win, and also their only trip to the playoffs in Expos history only to lose to the Los Angeles Dodgers in the National League Championship Series.
Despite boasting young talent like Gary Carter and Andre Dawson, they failed to have any success for the rest of the 80s. The 90s began with new ownership and some hope with a 3rd, and 2 2nd place finishes leading up to 1994, while in 1st place overall, the unthinkable happened, the league went on strike and there was no playoffs or World Series, hurting the Expos chances of a new stadium.
Why The Expos Relocated
After the 1994 strike and failure to secure a new building, the Expos got rid of a bunch of there talented players, causing attendance to disappear. In 2001, the league voted to remove 2 teams, the Expos, and the Minnesota Twins, but due to scheduling, they had to keep the teams in the league.
Despite efforts by the league to raise attendance, including playing 22 "home" games in Puerto Rico, the league announced that the 2004 season would be their last, and were moving to Washington taking over all team records, players, minor league teams and spring training facility's.
Montreal Expos Notable Players
Gary Carter C 1974-1984 and 1992
Andre Dawson OF 1976-1986
Frank Robinson MANAGER 2002-2004
Jackie Robinson 2B 1946 (Montreal Royals)
Tim Raines OF 1979-1990 and 2001
Larry Walker 1989-1994
Pedro Martinez 1994-1997
Dennis Martinez 1986-1993
Vladimir Guerrero 1996-2003
Andres Galarraga 1985-1991 and 2002
Moises Alou 1990 and 1992-1996
Marquis Grissom 1989-1995
Additional Montreal Expos Questions:
The answer to the question Who Were The Montreal Expos? is also applicable for the following questions:
History of the Montreal Expos, Montreal Expos History


Social Media; What to post when you have no content. I am Ron Ramsden and I am a DYB coach, also a painting contractor. I am going to walk through what to post and how to find things and also when to post.
A lot of us love social media, a lot of us hate it, a lot of us look at it like, "No, I don't really want to do these things". But you know something? There is a ton of opportunities out there –that's where our customers are.
So, let's look at this; when to post first, before we get into what to post. A lot of us on a Monday, or a Tuesday morning, we might have an hour – we might be having coffee before we get going and we are like, well, we have to post some things.
So, we look at all of our pictures, all of our newsfeeds and we just start posting things. Well, that's really good, maybe it is a Tuesday afternoon, appointment canceled and you look at it yourself and say, I have time now, let's post everything on social media, which might be really good, but if your customers aren't on their phone, their mobile device right then, or they are not in front of their computer, you missed them.
They are only going to see those postings that you put if they actually go visit your page, and if you are looking at what to post, you are probably not posting that much or you are not going to find them searching out your page unless they are actually looking to see what you've done or they are going to give you a call, or they are looking for a painter.
So, let's establish some social media presence and we will attract more people, and you have to look at Facebook.
Well, I am going to touch base so… Ideally, you would have something drop or post every single day, and as I said, you don't want to sit down on a Monday morning and just say okay, we are just going to post everything right now.
What we want to do is schedule everything out, so we are going to say, not on a Monday morning, we are not going to put 10 pictures out there, 10 pictures mean 10 different posts, so, let's look at it that way.
We're going to schedule everything out, we are going to sit down and think about what we are going to do, 30 posts at one time seem like a lot, but let's break it down on how we can do this, and where we can find some information to put out there.
First of all, let's visit Benjamin Moore and Shearman Williams websites, maybe PPG, or any other local paint company, they probably have a lot of information.
I am going to right now refer to Benjamin Moore and Shearman Williams, if you go on to their sites, you are going to find videos, or if you go to YouTube, search out Shearman Williams, Benjamin Moore, you are going to see a lot of videos produced by them –copy and paste the URL into your newsfeed, and then you are going to go down and schedule it.
Look at it this way, every Monday for the month, so 4 Mondays, for the next 4 Mondays, you are going to post a Benjamin Moore video done by Benjamin Moore, they love it when you share their content. And then on Wednesdays, you are going to post a Shearman Williams one for the next 4 days, there's plenty of information out there. So, right now, you are just on every Monday, every Wednesday, so what does that mean? You already have 8 postings for the month. I am going to look at it as a 4-week month.
There's some content right there. What else are we going to look for? We are going to look for color trends, if we all have seen the Email feeds, seen the Facebook feeds, seen any of those, color trends are hot, they seem to have a color trend for every day of the week.
We're going to grab next year's color trends, -you could post next year's color trends for Benjamin Moore… I know right now, it's the fall, we are going to do the fall color trends, and they have month color trends.
So, let's just say we've got 4 color trends, so on Tuesdays for the next 4 weeks, we are going to post a color trend. Right now, we have a video from Benjamin Moore dropping on a Monday, Tuesday we have color trends, mix them up between the two, maybe 3 or 4 different manufacturers. On Wednesday, we have another video.
Okay, now what else are we going to post? I think we are full… No, video testimonials, do you have video testimonials? If you have a video testimonial, you have 4 of them, you are going to use these every single month and you are going to keep showing them and showing everybody how great you are, so what we are going to do is take video testimonials every Thursday, copy and paste the URL, and schedule that to drop on Thursday.
So, Mondays; we have videos from Benjamin Moore, Tuesdays; we have color trends, Wednesdays; we have videos from Shearman Williams, Thursdays; we have color trends, okay what are we going to do on Fridays?
Well, Fridays, we are going to use our Google reviews, if you don't have Google reviews yet, or if you don't have video testimonials yet, I want you to put a message underneath this video or comment below this post. We are going to get together and walk you through how to get those done or send me a Facebook message, I will share all my information in a little while.
So, we have those, we are going to copy and paste our Google reviews, it might say, "Ron and his crew did a fantastic job, painting the interior of our house, we highly recommend them… Bob. C (5 stars)" That is a Facebook post.
Let's recap this, on Mondays; we have our Benjamin Moore videos, Tuesday; we have color trends, Wednesday; we have Shearman Williams videos, Thursday; we have video testimonials, Fridays; we have our Google reviews.
Now, what are we going to do on Saturdays and Sundays? We're going to post pictures. We are in a very visual profession, we take pictures of houses, doors, cracks in walls, whatever it may be if you are just driving down the street, and you are going to find something to take a picture of.
Over the course of the month, you take many pictures, maybe it's a picture for your estimate, maybe it's a picture for your crew, you are going to tell them, "hey, fix this crack", maybe it's a before and after.
Find 4 to 8 pictures that you can post on Saturdays and Sundays. So, for the next 4 Saturdays, you are going to post a picture of before and after, and on Sundays, you can just do some random pictures. And if you are driving down the street, and you find a beautiful house or an awesome front door, or some unbelievable colors with full edge or flowers on the side of the road, take a picture and just ask your followers how they like it.
And when they answer, make sure you respond back, because any of these that you can make into a question, and in your postings, respond back, because Facebook loves responses, it helps the algorithms and more people will see your news-feed.
And then, all customers who watch your newsfeed, comment on it and you respond back, it will show up on their newsfeed.
Right there, we are recapping this, so we have Mondays; we have Benjamin Moore videos, and Wednesdays; we have Shearman Williams's videos, Tuesdays; we have color trends, Thursdays; we have video testimonials, Fridays; we have Google reviews, and then Saturdays and Sundays, we have pictures.
We just filled up the whole month, it might take a little practice when you are first going, but when you have consistency on this, Facebook is going to bring you right up and a lot more people are going to see it. And then, when someone actually goes and visits your Facebook postings, they are going to be like, whoa… look at the content that this guy is putting out, or this girl is putting out, or this company is putting out.
But don't forget to also grab your camera and do live videos, similar to what I am doing right now.
I have a beautiful view behind me and in front of me is the ocean. This means a lot, this captures people's attention, do a live video as you go into a job site.
But do something that we used to do when our kids were younger and they were teenagers, my wife used to call ahead before she got there.
Before you do your live video, let your employees know you are going to do a live video, let them pull up their pants, let them take that coffee cup off where it is not supposed to be, let them pick up the job site, maybe put their shirts on, turn down the music, make it look professional.
And then walk around, ask your employees how they are doing today, whether they like the color? Things like that, walk around and be interactive with the employees, explain what you are doing, don't give out the person's address obviously and you will find people are really… you can see them as they chime in, ask them questions while you are doing your live video, and then respond back to them as you see them popping up on the screen.
Before you know it, the number of likes, people who like your page, and you are going to find that you are now getting messages, requesting quotes through Facebook, it is an amazing tool and it's free, I am not asking you to spend any money on this, not to boost a post, not to do any advertising, it's just produce content.
I hope this helped? I am Ron Ramsden and I am a DYB coach, if you would like to reach out to me, it is ron@dybcoach.com, I would love to chat with you, if you have any questions about the video testimonials, or Google reviews, or anything else like that that I have mentioned in this video, just leave a message, send me a Facebook message, we can either chat on the phone, we can chat via messenger, I would love to chat with you.
I hope this helped? Take advantage of the free content that you can put out on Facebook, I hope this helps… Have a great day.


Juan Declet-Barreto is a climate scientist for the UCS Climate & Energy program and the Center for Science and Democracy. He partners with environmental justice groups and activists to research the potential effects of carbon trading on disadvantaged communities, as individual states begin implementation of the EPA's Clean Power Plan. See Juan's full bio.
The legend of the mythological Phoenix tells the story of a "female sacred firebird with beautiful gold and red plumage". It was said that at the end of its centenarian plus life-cycle, the Phoenix ignited herself among a nest of twigs, and, reducing itself to ashes, a new young Phoenix would arise from the smolder. It's a fitting metaphor for Phoenix, Arizona, a relatively young city at 150 years, yet located in the Salt River valley, a Sonoran Desert region that has been inhabited and abandoned by people for thousands of years before its current form as a sprawling metropolitan area.
In the last decade or so, Oregon has endured destructive wildfires, reductions in snowpack, and declining fisheries. First responder and resident Oregonian communities alike still vividly recall the devastation brought by the 2003 B&B Complex wildfire. Although the Beaver State had a good 2018 ski season, snowpack this winter is more than one-quarter down from what has in the past been considered 'normal'. Ocean acidification is killing oyster and plankton in farms along the Oregon coast.


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Terex HC 285 for Big B Crane & Rigging
By John Skelly29 October 2015
Terex and IHI Construction Machinery Limited have a long standing agreement that consists of IHI Construction Machinery Limited providing Terex Cranes crawler chassis for use in the production of Tere
Big B Crane & Rigging of Burleson, TX purchased a new 285-ton Terex HC 285 lattice boom crawler crane, making it the highest capacity crane in the company's fleet. The first such model operating in the United States, the HC 285 crawler crane offers a lift chart rivaling that of 300-ton class cranes but in a design that is easy to assemble and transport, similar to that of smaller 250-ton class cranes.
"The need in the construction market in many regions throughout the United States is expanding beyond the 250-ton class, but the jump to the 300-ton class represents a significant additional capital investment," said Jim Strobush, senior product manager, crawler cranes, Terex Cranes North America. "The new HC 285 crane is a good in-between crane that gives customers virtually the capacity of a 300-ton class crane but at a price similar to that of a smaller crawler crane, so a company can receive a high return on investment."
For its primary market of Texas, Oklahoma, Arkansas and Louisiana, Big B equipped the HC 285 crane with the maximum main boom length of 300 feet (91.4 m) and standard 76-foot (23.1-m) jib, offering a maximum tip height of 376 feet (114.6 m). The HC 285 crane comes with a maximum 207,000-pound upper and 56,000-pound car body counterweight package, yielding its 285-ton lift capacity at a 16-foot (4.9-m) radius.
While the crawler crane offers high lift capacities, the base crane carrier comes in a compact, 12-foot (3.7 m) wide by 11.5-foot (3.5 m) high design that enables the carrier to be transported on a standard low-boy trailer. The entire crane is designed with quick transportation in mind.
"The HC 285 has a phenomenal lift chart that is more comparable to the 300-ton cranes," said Daniel Basden, presdient, Big B Crane. "However, its carrier can be transported in one piece, whereas many 300-ton cranes ship in two pieces. This adds one more load, another driver and additional set-up time."
Basden does not see the down oil market affecting the amount of work for Big B's new HC 285 crane. Rather, he anticipates it will be one of the company's busiest rental crawler cranes.
"Our bread-and-butter market for the HC 285 crane is construction," said Basden. "Concrete precast panels are getting bigger and heavier and steel is getting longer, so we needed a higher capacity crawler crane than the two 250-ton models we have in our fleet. The crane rental market is saturated with smaller 110-ton models, but once you get north of 250 tons, there is not a lot available."
With the anticipated heavy workload for Big B's new crawler crane, Basden mentions that his Terex Cranes distributor, Scott-Macon Equipment, Houston, Texas, also fit into the purchasing decision.
"Terex equipment is solid and dependable, but when you run the cranes as hard as we do, a dependable distributor partner to help take care of equipment maintenance and service is a must," he said. "I cannot say enough about the support we've received from Scott-Macon. Their service department jumps through hoops to address any issues that pop up on the machine."
Big B didn't wait long to put its new Terex HC 285 crawler crane to work. In late August, the crane was shipped directly to a building expansion project site less than 10 miles from the Terex facility in Oklahoma City. The HC 285 is being used for steel, concrete panel, joist, decking and staircase placement in the expansion project for a leading global aerospace company. In less than three weeks on site, the HC 285 crane has put the crew three days ahead of schedule, placing 1,200 tons of material.
"We got a great machine at a great price and didn't have delivery cost on the new equipment purchase," said Basden. "You can't beat that."
Equipment Cranes Crawler - Lattice Crane & Specialized Transport
Enter the ACT Specialized Lifting 50
American Cranes & Transport is now surveying for our annual Specialized Lifting 50 list which will be printed in our March 2021 edition.


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Infosecurity Magazine Home » News » Forever 21 Breach Lasted Over Seven Months
Forever 21 Breach Lasted Over Seven Months
Encryption was not turned on at some of the point of sale (POS) devices used in Forever 21 stores, exposing customers card data to info-stealing malware last year, the firm has revealed.
In an update to November revelations of a major data breach, the fashion retailer claimed that an investigation had found signs of "unauthorized network access and installation of malware on some POS devices designed to search for payment card data."
"The malware searched only for track data read from a payment card as it was being routed through the POS device," it added. "In most instances, the malware only found track data that did not have cardholder name — only card number, expiration date, and internal verification code — but occasionally the cardholder name was found."
To make matters worse, encryption was turned off in some stores for over seven months — from April 3 to November 18 2017.
"Additionally, Forever 21 stores have a device that keeps a log of completed payment card transaction authorizations. When encryption was off, payment card data was being stored in this log. In a group of stores that were involved in this incident, malware was installed on the log devices that was capable of finding payment card data from the logs, so if encryption was off on a POS device prior to April 3, 2017 and that data was still present in the log file at one of these stores, the malware could have found that data."
Customers using the retailer's website were not affected, and the firm is still trying to figure out if any stores outside the US were impacted.
It operates in over 50 countries worldwide, but hackers favor the US as chip and PIN has been slow to take off there, making it easier for them to steal the data and clone cards.
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The Perfect Target
Sally Beauty Supply Endures the Latest Retail Data Breach


Hello all , Please allow me to introduce myself. My name is Eddie and I am in the process of starting out in the PAT testing world. I have been forced to change my career after ill health and although it seems like there is much to learn , I am looking forward to a challenge . I am looking to do full time PAT testing and will be booking a course as soon as I have gained enough knowledge of electrical theory and an insight in to the regs.
I hope to get to know some of you in the near future and look forward to picking up some words of wisdom.
Hi Eddie. There's certainly plenty to know and a few grey areas to discuss, but once you get the basics it's not that hard really, just time-consuming if there are a lot of items on site.


Glad to read that Maude came through the surgery and is recovering. Thanks for the simple polish recipe – sounds great!
May I have the contact info where I might purchase this beeswax also?????
So please to hear that all is well with Maude, I wish I could get bees wax, I love sing proper polish on my furniture.
I have tried to see if I could send you some bees wax but I think the best things is to send you a bees wax candle as a gift and it won't be a problem. I will get it in the post soon and let you know when its posted. Maude continues to improve.