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| photo credit: Inga Sarda-Sorenson |
The sky over NYC after Hurricane Irene. Click for larger view.
Wow. Gorgeous.
Post-Hurricane Irene photo over NYC
Olivia Newton-John almost didn’t release mega-hit “Physical”
In a recent interview for AOL/Spinner.com, Olivia Newton-John talks about the anniversary of her mega-hit “Physical” and how she almost didn’t release the song.
“I had a bit of a panic session,” she tells Spinner. “I went, ‘Oh my God! I can’t put this out. It’s way too radical! What are people going to think of me?’ I said to my manager, ‘You’ve got to pull it. It’s too cheeky.’ And he said, ‘It’s too late, it’s gone to radio.’ Of course, it went to No. 1 in like four weeks. I’ve learned to live with it.”
‘Physical’ became Newton-John’s biggest hit single in the U.S., where it topped the Billboard charts on Nov. 21, 1981, and stayed there for a total of 10 weeks. The song was accompanied by a music video featuring a headband-wearing Newton-John and a group of muscular and overweight men exercising in a gym.
“It seems like a long time ago,” Newton-John says now about recording the song, “but it also seems like no time ago. It’s really interesting — just recently, I got a call from Brian Grant, who was the director of the . They’re doing a life story on him and I haven’t seen him since we did the video. And then I did it again on ‘Glee.’ They recreated the whole set. It’s sort of following me around again.”
Colin Powell not happy with Dick Cheney’s “tabloid” headlines
In an appearance on CBS’ Face The Nation, Former Secretary of State Colin Powell made it clear he wasn’t thrilled with the way Former VP Dick Cheney has been hyping his new book “In My Time.”
Referring to the language Cheney has used of late – which he predicted will have “heads exploding all over Washington” – Powell said That’s “the kind of headline you might see [on] one of the supermarket tabloids.” He added “it’s not the kind of headline I would have expected to come from a former Vice President of the United States of America”
Via ThinkProgress.org: In a withering criticism of the former vice president, Powell goes on at length and in detail to explain how the “cheap shots” Cheney aims at Powell and “other administration officials” are false, and how Cheney is himself to blame for much of it. “I’m the one who said to President Bush, [about Iraq] that if you break it, you own it,” Powell said, but “Mr. Cheney and many of his colleagues did not prepare for what happened after the fall of Baghdad.” On the Valerie Plame scandal, Powell says “White House operatives,” especially those “on Mr. Cheney’s staff,” did not fully cooperate in the FBI’s investigation and were not “forthcoming.” Powell also addresses his 2004 resignation, his speech the United Nations about the Iraq war, and other accusations Cheney makes about Powell in the book.
Powell said Cheney also unfairly attacks former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, former CIA chief George Tenet, and even President Bush himself. “It’s not necessary to take these kind of barbs and then try to pump a book up by saying ‘heads will be exploding,’” Powell says, noting Cheney’s comments go beyond mere disagreements are personal in nature.
This isn’t the first time Powell and Cheney have publicly feuded. Powell’s former chief of staff once referred to Cheney as “evil,” and Cheney has said he agreed with Rush Limbaugh over Colin Powell after the Powell criticized the Limbaugh’s divisive rhetoric.
Times Square: Shirtless Hurricane Hockey
You’ve gotta love New Yorkers.
News cameras captured impromptu street hockey and soccer games in Times Square as rain and high winds blew through New York City ahead of a direct hit from Hurricane Irene.
Hurricane Irene TV coverage
Slight nudity – and by slight, I mean it – at the :18 mark.
Ah those crazy kids in Virginia Beach, VA. They know how to enjoy a hurricane.
Veterans protect the funeral of a fallen soldier
I have hated, more than I could know, the Westboro “Church” for their ignorant protests at a family’s most vulnerable time.
Bravo Patriot Guard for doing something about this horrible behavior.
OK – we got the wine… did you wrap the Land Rover, honey?
So some New Yorkers get to the wine store to stock up on the important things before a hurricane.
And others make sure they protect their Land Rover from the elements.
Not sure who to feel worse for — the misguided owners, or Land Rover for having customers who think their SUVs must be sheltered from storms by a jury-rigged hair bonnet.
Don Lemon hosts The Joy Behar Show on LGBT acceptance
CNN’s Don Lemon, (a guest speaker in Philadelphia this weekend for the National Lesbian and Gay Journalists Association) recently guest hosting an LGBT issues episode of the Joy Behar Show, interviewed guests who are exploring Christianity’s view of being gay. His conversation featured Randy Roberts Potts, grandson of televangelist Oral Roberts, and Jay Bakker, a New York City-based pastor.
The conversation took on a personal tone, established by Lemon’s first sentence, “It’s usually not easy to come out as a gay man, I know.” Lemon publicly came out in May. Potts has only recently started speaking out publicly about his family and experience growing up and coming out. I follow Randy Roberts Potts on Facebook and his posts are often quite inspirational to read.
A major portion of the conversation centered on Potts’ family. His grandfather, Oral Roberts, was a high profile Pentecostal televangelist. He is credited with bringing Pentecostalism into the American mainstream. Additionally, he was a pioneer of televangelism and founded a university that still bears his name.
Potts discussed the pressure that he received from his family, even before coming out, partly due to his uncle’s death. After Potts came out to his family, he lost most contact with them.
“I feel like they`re trapped in a lot of fear. I think they really are legitimately afraid that I am going to hell. And they are too scared to look beyond that. And so it hurts me, but I also feel badly for them to be trapped or feel trapped in a place like that.”
Fear was also a prominent theme in the follow-up conversation with Jay Bakker, pastor of Revolution New York City and son of Jim and Tammy Faye Bakker.
Bakker said that Jesus’ actions and teachings always pointed clearly toward expressing love and hospitality, and spending time with people who need more grace. He remarked that the Christian church has, over its history, completely reversed the teachings of Jesus, setting up restrictions and disassociating with whole populations.
Bakker noted that now there are more and more LGBT-affirming churches, but it is still a struggle.
“I almost went bankrupt when I said I love everybody. You know, this wasn’t a popularity contest. This was just me following a deep conviction. And it all came from understanding god’s Grace and god’s love, you know. They say—I’ve always had people say, you know, Jay, too much grace, it’s a slippery slope. And it is a slippery slope to loving everybody. I’m glad I got to slide on down it.”
Wine preparedness in NYC. These are my people.
Parts of New York City are under evacuation orders, with more than 370,000 people ordered to leave low-lying areas as Hurricane Irene approaches the city. But on Saturday afternoon, at least, some residents were making the most of it.
NPR’s Jim Zarroli reports for All Things Considered that “Frankly Wines, a small shop just outside the evacuation zone, was doing a pretty brisk business today. Owner Christy Frank lives around the corner. Late August is normally a slow time, she says, but Irene has been great for business.
“We’ve been calling it the ‘hurricane stimulus package,'” Frank said. “It’s definitely been good for business. I have a number of other friends who own wine stores elsewhere in the city, and after yesterday, we were all just beat. It was like the day before Thanksgiving, or New Year’s Eve.”
These are my people. Let’s get the important things taken care of.
Amen.
But if you really want to talk “preparedness”…
I don’t think you can do better than this guy – who is clearly ready for anything Hurricane Irene may bring.