LGBTQ news and entertainment
Ruh-roh – I’ll be a guest on “Candi N Kelly” BlogTalk Radio tonight at 11PM EST/8PM PST to discuss LGBT issues.
I’m told it’s “anything goes” so who knows what I’ll say.
Click here for details and to listen.
‘Wichita Lineman’, Glen Campbell
Based on an AP story: Glen Campbell leaned over his blue electric guitar, plucked a few strings and made a sour face.
“Dadgum it,” he said.
Campbell, 75, fiddled a few seconds longer while standing backstage Friday night at the IP Casino and finally found a perfect D chord.
“There it is,” he said, before turning on his heel and marching into the spotlight. He launched into “Gentle on my Mind” and — without so much as clearing his throat — nailed it.
“That first one is a doozey, ain’t it?” Campbell asked the crowd.
It was classic Glen Campbell. Alzheimer’s disease may have changed a lot of things in the Country Music Hall of Famer’s life, but his ability to create sounds that still resonate in our shared memory with his blue G&L Comanche on “By the Time I Get to Phoenix” or his Hamer 12-string on “Southern Nights” is virtually untouched.
In the night’s finest moment, Campbell brought the crowd to its feet after nailing the delicate runs in the middle of his classic “Wichita Lineman.”
Campbell’s first performance since announcing he has Alzheimer’s, the degenerative brain disease that’s slowly robbing him of his memories and abilities, was largely a triumph. His family and road crew were worried he might be rusty after a long layoff since his last performance. Campbell and his band powered through a tight 22-song set interspersed with self-deprecating jokes.
“I tell you I’m happy to be here,” Campbell said. “At my age I’m happy to be anywhere. It seems like I’ve been doing this since Hitler was a corporal.”
Campbell was loose and easy-going all day, joking his way through rehearsal and posing for pictures with fans before and after the show.
It seems Glen Campbell has been around my whole life. Like so many icons, he’s just always there. It would be easy to dismiss him, but this is a man who besides becoming his own star, would “sit in” with the Beach Boys just to fulfill a creative itch.
It’s not easy to get older. It’s not easy to grow past your prime. And, imagining the horror of Alzheimer’s, to take the big stage and live up to the legend that is only Campbell is beyond courage.
While I may not be the biggest “Glen Campbell” fan per se, I do celebrate Glen Campbell. Listen to the clip at the beginning and end of this post.
This is courage. This is artistry. This is heart.
GOP presidential contender Michele Bachmann (R-MN) and her husband Marcus preemptively left their church of more than ten years just weeks before she announced her candidacy to avoid association with its extremist views. Salem Lutheran Church in Stillwater, Minnesota, has faced criticism this week for its anti-Catholic views, including preaching that the Pope is the Antichrist.
Bachmann has long been a favorite of religious conservatives for her outspoken views on her faith, but her decision to sever ties with her church for the sake of her presidential campaign is surprising many:
According to CNN, the church that Michele Bachmann and her husband Marcus had attended for more than a decade granted the couple’s request to be released from their membership last month, a week after Bachmann told a national audience that she would run for the Republican presidential nomination.
The Bachmanns had approached their pastor and verbally made the request “a few weeks before the church council granted the request,” said Joel Hochmuth, a spokesman for the Wisconsin Evangelical Lutheran Synod, the governing body for the church.
The highly convenient timing of the move clearly indicates this was a shrewd political calculation on Bachmann’s part. It remains to be seen how religious “values voters” will feel about the candidate choosing political opportunism over her church.
CNN notes that Salem Lutheran Church still maintains some ties with the Bachmann family. “It lists a Christian counseling center operated by Bachmann’s husband on its website under special member services for confidential counseling.”
Bachmann must still account for her ongoing connection with other radical preachers and churches, especially Bradlee Dean of the notoriously anti-gay You Can Run But You Can’t Hide ministry. Dean has been described as “Bachmann’s Jeremiah Wright,” and has repeatedly called for gays and lesbians to be put in prison and has said executing gays is “moral.”
(via ThinkProgress)
After dating for more than five years, Nick Lachey and Vanessa Minnillo are married.
A spokeswoman for Minnillo confirms that the couple wed Friday. People magazine first reported the nuptials.
“For us, this is just a stepping stone to do what we ultimately want and that’s to start a family together,” the newly named “Wipeout” TV host said in a statement to People, which first reported the news of the couple’s nuptials.
Around 35 friends and family of the former 98 Degrees boy band star — decked out in a Dolce & Gabbana suit — and his TV host bride – dressed in a lace Monique Lhuillierr detailed gown — watched the pair marry on Friday evening on a tropical island.
Vanessa told the mag that they managed to keep the details surrounding their wedding a secret – even from their guests.
This is the second marriage for Lachey, who finalized his divorce from Jessica Simpson in 2006.
Unlike his last marriage that many speculate ended thanks to the popular MTV reality show “Newlyweds,” there won’t be any cameras in this couple’s first year of marriage. Although the nuptials were filmed for a TV special, so that would seem to account for cameras during the first year in some way.
“Just to clear the air on this, Vanessa and I are doing a one time wedding special for TLC, NOT a reality series. Gonna be special!” he tweeted last month.
Their wedding will be televised on a TLC’s special titled “Nick & Vanessa’s Dream Wedding,” which premieres July 30.
From TMZ: The couple just released a statement, claiming, “We have decided to end our marriage. This was a very difficult decision. We have come to an amicable conclusion on all matters.”
The story was first reported on People.com.
This will be Jennifer’s THIRD divorce — she was first married in 1997 to Ojani Noa, and again in 2001 to her backup dancer Cris Judd. This will be Marc’s second divorce.
Marc and JLo renewed their vows just last year on their 6th anniversary.
The couple got married in 2004 in their Beverly Hills home. They have two children.
From DailyKos: So far, we mostly only have press accounts to go by, as few Republican presidential candidates have actually filed their paperwork for the second quarter with the FEC.
But what we do know is that the entire GOP field combined doesn’t match President Obama’s fundraising total for Q2:
That adds up to about $40 million, give or take. However, the total fundraising isn’t even quite that good, though, because it includes a $2 million donation from Jon Huntsman to himself, and another $2 million transfer from Michele Bachmann’s congressional committee to her presidential committee. (That is, the money was raised prior to this quarter.)
Meanwhile, Obama pulled in $47 million on his own, plus another $38 million for the DNC. By way of comparison, Obama raised $33 million in the second quarter of 2007, almost double what Mitt Romney pulled in this time.
It gets funny just because the TV anchors become so uncomfortable after the “incident.”
I understand the duck is reported to be ok.
Like many of her GOP colleagues, Rep. Michele Bachmann has positioned herself as a staunch defender of Israel and friend of Jews everywhere against President Obama’s supposed lack of Jewish support.
But she ran into some trouble while trying to trying to show off her Yiddish skills on Fox News last night, pronouncing the word “Chutzpah” — meaning audacity — as “choot-spa.”
As with “Chanukah,” the “ch” should be pronounced as an “h” sound, but apparently Bachmann missed that lesson in pandering school.
ROTFL….
Ummmm…
Wait…