Category: Uncategorized

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Idina Menzel heading back to Broadway

Ok, musical theater fans, Idina Menzel is heading back to Broadway.

Next Spring, Idina will star in a new musical by the “Next to Normal” team of composer Tom Kitt and the lyricist and book writer Brian Yorkey.  Just to remind you they won 3 Tony Awards including Best Score plus a Pulitzer Prize for drama.  So they know a little something about the craft.

The show, called “If/Then,” is about a woman about to turn 40 who moves to NYC looking for a fresh start.

From the New York Times:

“Like “Next to Normal,” which centered on a mother struggling with mental illness, “If/Then” is a contemporary-sounding musical about a strongly drawn female protagonist, Elizabeth, who Ms. Menzel described in a statement as “complex, flawed, and surprising.” Beyond Elizabeth’s goals – a new home and friends, and hopes for a resurgent career – little else was revealed about the character in the announcement Thursday, although the titles of two of Elizabeth’s songs – “Here I Go” and “You Learn to Live Without” – offer some flavor. Ms. Menzel is expected to perform those songs on Friday at an American Songbook series concert featuring the work of Mr. Kitt and Mr. Yorkey.”

Hopes are to see the fab new show starting previews March 4, 2014 with a tentative opening on March 27, 2014.

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CA: Chris Kluwe & Brendon Ayanbedejo file amicus brief in support of same-sex marriage

LGBT allys and NFL football players Chris Kluwe (Minnesota Vikings) and Brendon Ayanbedejo (Baltimore Ravens) have filed their own amicus brief in support of repealing Prop 8 in California.  The brief was filed on the last day “friend of the court” briefs could be filed.

From ESPN:

In the brief, Kluwe and Ayanbadejo argue that athletes have a good deal of influence — for better or worse — and they wanted to express their support for the right of gays to marry legally.

“When we advance the idea that some people should be treated differently because of who they are,” they wrote, “demeaned in public as lesser beings, not worthy of the same rights and benefits as others despite their actions as good citizens and neighbors, then we deny them equal protection under the laws. America has walked this path before, and courageous people and the Court brought us to the right result. We urge the Court to repeat those actions here.”

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Paris – Day One

Taking the train to Paris from London. Gorgeous countryside whizzing by…

Michael (or Michel for this trip) enjoyed the wine service

My first view of Paris coming out of the train station.

Our hotel is around the corner from the Arc de Triomphe!

We had to see the Eiffel Tower right away.

Eiffel Tower pic number 2 – I’m here!

First glass of wine in Paris

Just saw Betty Buckley in UK premiere of “Dear World,” the musical adaptation of the play
“The Mad Woman of Chaillot.”  The area of Chaillot is five minutes from our hotel 🙂

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Texas: Lesbian vicously attacked for defending bullyed 4 year old

A Texas lesbian was the victim of a brutal attack that came when she attempted to stop older children from bullying her girlfriend’s four year-old son at a local playground.

The victim says the assault began when the parent of another child realized that she is a lesbian. Thus far police are refusing to consider the attack to have been a hate crime.

Scarber is grateful simply to be alive. She said she was attacked at an elementary school playground for protecting a bullied four-year-old boy. The scuffle between children, however, quickly escalated into violence among adults, Scarber worries, because she is a lesbian.

“She was just helping him, defending him from a big kid, and this is what happened to her,” said Scarber’s girlfriend and the boy’s mother, Hillary Causey.

SeabournThe couple had taken Causey’s son, Jaxon, to the playground at Mesquite’s Seabourn Elementary on Feb. 17. Shortly after arriving at 2:30 p.m., though, the couple said some older children began pushing Jaxon around.

“Sondra said, ‘Can you please keep your hands off of him, he’s only four,’” Causey said.

The father became enraged, she said, when he realized Scarber, who wears baggy clothes and has short hair, is a woman, and that the two are lesbians. Friends since the third grade, Scarber and Causey have been girlfriends for three years. They’re raising Causey’s young son together.

“When he walked up thinking it was father and mom with the kid, he wasn’t as angry,” said Causey, 26, “but then when he figured out it was a female, he got like super pissed, and I don’t know why.”

She said the man punched and kicked Scarber repeatedly, hurling homophobic slurs at her while she lay on the ground, unconscious.

(via WFAA)

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Press Conference: President Obama speaks on Prop 8 repeal

At a press conference, President Obama was asked about his administration’s amicus brief filed in the Prop 8 SCOTUS case:

“The specific question presented before the Court right now is whether Prop 8 and the California law is unconstitutional and what we’ve done is we’ve put forward a basic principle which applies to all equal protection cases. Whenever a particular group is being discriminated against, the court asks the question, what is the rational for this. And it better be a good reason. And if you don’t have a good reason, we’re going to strike it down.”

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Finland: Parliament committee rejects marriage equality

Finland, the only Scandinavian country which has not legalized same-sex marriage, has seen a parliamentary committee in Finland has reject a proposed marriage equality bill there:

The bill, proposed by the National Coalition Party (NCP) minister Alexander Stubb proposed the bill, which would have made marriage gender-neutral, therefore allowing same-sex couples to marry.

It was rejected 9 votes to 8, and so it will not go before the full legislature for consideration.

The bill would have made regulations relating to marriage equal for all, irrespective of the gender of the partners. In Finland, gay and lesbian couples can currently register their partnerships, but do not automatically take each others’ surnames, or adopt children, reports YLE.

A signature drive has now begun to place the issue at the ballot box.

(source)

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Ellen Degeneres “files” her own brief with the Supreme Court

“I’ve never filed a brief to the Supreme Court, so I thought I would post mine here. I’m sure someone will tweet it to them. Portia and I have been married for 4 years and they have been the happiest of my life. And in those 4 years, I don’t think we hurt anyone else’s marriage. I asked all of my neighbors and they say they’re fine.   But even though Portia and I got married in the short period of time when it was legal in California, there are 1,138 federal rights for married couples that we don’t have, including some that protect married people from losing their homes, or their savings or custody of their children.

“The truth is, Portia and I aren’t as different from you as you might think. We’re just trying to find happiness in the bodies and minds we were given, like everyone else. In the words of Benjamin Franklin, ‘We’re here, we’re queer, get over it.’  And there’s another famous quote that says ‘A society is judged by how it treats its weakest members.’ I couldn’t agree with that more. No one’s really sure who said it first, so if anyone asks, tell them I said it.” – Ellen DeGeneres, writing on her website, “files” her own brief with SCOTUS