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News Round-Up: August 4, 2020

Me and Snoopy (photo: Denise Truscello)

Some news items you might have missed:

• Snoop Watch:  Just a quick check-in to say Snoopy (the short one above) is doing great settling in with Michael and me. For those interested in #BeagleLife, most of my posts about Snoopy will be on Instagram here. Thanks to Denise Truscello for the pic and to everyone for all the messages of support about our new 14-year-old addition 🙂

• Instinct Magazine: The Lifetime TV channel has announced that it will release its first-ever holiday film with a same-sex romance as the central storyline. The upcoming tv movie is titled The Christmas Set-Up and follows two former high school friends who get (surprise!) ‘set-up’ by one’s mother during holidays at home.

• Out Music: Acclaimed singer and songwriter VINCINT recently released “Hard 2 Forget,” the eagerly awaited follow-up to his acclaimed debut EP, The Feeling.

The out artist has received raves from the media like this from Eonline: “VINCINT has kept us captivated with his sumptuous synth-pop sound and his outrageous vocals. As masterful with a full-throated belt as he is slipping into a soft falsetto, his is a voice.”

• WOW: Former Grey’s Anatomy actor Isaiah Washington (who was fired from the show for using a homophobic slur) came out to FoxNews as a Trump supporter. In April, the actor tweeted he had left the Democratic party.

• Sunday Times: Sir Andrew Lloyd Webber on why the now-infamous CATS movie turned out the way it did – “The problem with the film was that [director] Tom Hooper decided that he didn’t want anybody involved in it who was involved in the original show. The whole thing was ridiculous.”

• CNN: After repeatedly seeking to discredit mail-in voting, Donald Trump on Tuesday claimed Florida’s election system is “safe and secure” and encouraged Floridians to vote by mail.

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News Round-Up: June 23, 2020

Michael and I have been adopted by 14-year-old beagle rescue, Snoopy

Some news items you might have missed:

• Dog Life: I wanted to share a new addition to our family here at The Randy Report,  the handsome Snoopy (above), a 14-year-old beagle rescue. After serious consideration, Michael and I decided we didn’t want Snoopy to live his last years without a forever family, and we feel that this journey will be completely different from our 23 years raising the ‘dachshund dynasty’ from puppyhood. Snoopy is settling in quite well, and we can’t wait to spoil him with attention and love.

• ESPN: Thomas Beattie, a British former pro footballer for Warriors FC in Singapore, came out as gay in an essay for ESPN on Tuesday. “I prayed that I would wake up and this would all disappear, although deep down I knew I was praying for the wrong thing. I needed to ask for the strength to accept myself.”

• New Music: St. Panther shares her latest single/music video, “These Days,” was written in memory of a friend who overdosed on the night of his birthday. “This song is my real-time experience with re-establishing a new relationship to life in the days following through the simple act of making it to the next day,” the artist explains. The track blends raw feeling over a hypnotic hybrid of soul swagger, jazz eloquence, and hip-hop heat. The video was created by the artist herself.

• Spectrum News: Donnie Lee Barrigar, a self-described flat-earther, recorded himself taking down a Pride flag flying over City Hall in Watertown, NY, and throwing it away. In posting his video online, Barrigar wrote the First Amendment gives him the right to do what he did. Last year, before a pride event in the city, he posted to social media how he wished a mass shooting would happen. Gov. Cuomo has directed the New York State Police to assist Watertown Police in this investigation.

• Reuters: The organizers of Singapore’s annual gay pride Pink Dot rally vowed on Tuesday to push ahead with an online event after nearly 30,000 people signed a petition demanding restrictions and called the content “immoral”.

• Baltimore Sun: A video went viral after a Black child was denied entry to Baltimore’s Ouzo Bay restaurant due to its ‘dress code’ while a white child was captured in the same video wearing the same clothing finishing his meal. The parent company, Atlas Restaurant Group, issued an apology.