December 1st is WORLD AIDS DAY and every year I try to post something to get you all thinking and active. I’ve urged you to watch TV specials which I’ll do again this year as this is a TV Blog after all, but this year I also have a special request for all of you on my behalf.
Since 2002 I’ve participated in various AIDS Rides and have raised over $14,000 for various HIV/AIDS related organizations. In 2008 I will once again hit the roads as part of BRAKING THE CYCLE (my 3rd year) but I’m not asking you for money yet… I’ll wait until we’re actually in 2008 for that!
$5,000 for Braking the Cycle: Nance, a fellow rider ran into a colleague of hers from the University of Victoria that needs 1,000 subjects for an online experiment. The study is about “the impressions people form and retain when they watch videotaped depictions of complex human behaviours and interactions”. The research is funded by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada and has a nice budget for participants. He has offered to donate $5 per participant to Braking The Cycle. In addition to the $5 donation to our cause, participants are entered into a lottery, with approximately 1/100 chance of winning $100.
Completing the study takes about 20 minutes, and involves watching a short video, performing some word-puzzle tasks, and answering questions about the video. It¹s fun! The study has been approved by University of Victoria’s Human Research Ethics Board.
Click here to participate and help Braking The Cycle. *One thing to know is that as you are downloading a video (which took about 3 minutes on my computer) there is no sign that anything is happening so just hang tight and it will start up. (Thanks to Blake for the tip)
Educate and Activate The Brain Through TV! Here are a number of television events in honor of World AIDS Day.
It’s so sad to me that MTV/VH1 aren’t representing more. They used to be huge on World AIDS Day, airing many specials and documentaries and this year basically nothing. I guess they pushed it all on LOGO which is not on basic cable, isn’t targeted toward teens, and sadly gives the impression that AIDS is more of a gay disease than a human pandemic. That’s really frustrating.
The tear jerkers are the movies, Longtime Companion and In The Gloaming. They’re my faves. Documentary wise they all look great; Ashley Judd has worked her ass off over the last few years to educate on AIDS and her films are always incredible. I’m really intersted in the “I Want to be a Pilot” one because it’s interviews with 50 orphaned African kids due to AIDS, you know that’s going to be moving. I liked “The Ride” mostly because it speaks to the rides I’ve done over the past 6 years but 7:30 a.m. is early.
Hope you spend some time this weekend thinking about HIV/AIDS Prevention, Education, and the fight for a cure. Enjoy the weekend gang.
Grey’s Anatomy’s T.R. Knight didn’t quite come out on National Coming Out Day (October 11th) but he came out regardless and I heart him for that. As part of GLAAD’s media campaign, T.R. Knight has recorded a PSA that shows he has fully embraced his status as a gay icon and is speaking publicly about the rights and the respect owed to those in the coming out process.
CharityFolks has teamed up with the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences and BAFTA/LA to auction off Teapots from your favorite daytime and prime-time television stars. Want to have some Earl Grey with Earl’s Jason Lee, Awake with American Idol, Oolong with Ugly Betty, Darjeeling with Desperate Housewives?
The Televisionary has all the information on how to bid on your favorite shows teapot and how to help raise some money for a great cause.
Thanks to AfterElton for posting the link to the new PSA’s featuring some of our favorite stars! GLAAD works tirelessly on improving the image of gays in the media and their work is invaluable. Celeb involvement really helps get the word out there and I love that so many continue to support the efforts of GLAAD.
GLAAD will be launching a series of new public service announcements starting today. They are a part of an ongoing campaign called “Be an Ally and a Friend” and feature a number of gay or gay-friendly celebrities asking straight people to be “allies” of the gay community.
The list of talent recruited for this campaign is pretty impressive. It includes the likes of Rachel Griffiths (Brothers & Sisters), Michael Urie (Ugly Betty), T.R. Knight, Sara Ramirez and Kate Walsh (Grey’s Anatomy). What, no Isaiah Washington? Didn’t he tape a PSA for GLAAD awhile back? I guess his segment didn’t quite make the cut.
Am I the only one planning on watching the documentary CRAZY SEXY CANCER on TLC tonight? The film follows Kris Carr (actress and filmmaker) through her troubles with cancer as well as four other women battling forms of the disease.
Last Sunday, August 5th, SO YOU THINK YOU CAN DANCE hit the streets and visited LA’s BEST (Better Educated Students for Tomorrow), an after-school enrichment program in Los Angeles. They talked to the students and then did some working it out!
Here are pictures of the Top 6 Finalists along with Exec. Producer Nigel Lythgoe, Choreographers Mia Michaels and Shane Sparks. Why couldn’t they have come to teach me something when I was a young’un? I would have learned much sooner that I was gay if Neil walked into that room.
THE VISIBLE VOTE 08 on LOGO is quite the debate between the Presidential candidates. I’m absolutely in love with the very relaxed forums that the Democrats have been engaging in of late. Back in my day (the old days of 1992) MTV took the reigns and brought Bill Clinton into the fold and exposed the American youth to his politics, it was inclusive and it created a bond with the younger generation of voters… it worked gang-busters!
This year, CNN hooked up with You Tube to bring us the first viral debate with hottie Anderson Cooper and it was relaxed and entertaining while still being completely serious and informational.
Now, MTV Networks is back to their old tricks and using their GAY sister station LOGO to bring the Democratic Presidential Candidates together to discuss Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgendered issues in a very informal one on one Q&A and I’m sitting here watching it and loving it!
All the gays are in the audience. Melissa Etheridge, Jane Lynch, Neil Patrick Harris and his beau, Chip from The Amazing Race, that Noah’s Arc guy, that gay Asian comedian who looks like Lloyd from Entourage but isn’t Lloyd from Entourage
First up is Senator Barack Obama, the first candidate to sign on board with this innovative forum. I do love me some Obama, but it really is hard to hear him talk about the separate but equal-ness of Civil Unions vs. Marriage. He still wants to leave Marriage to Religious classification (he’s previously declared that he is a traditionalist in that marriage should be between a man and a woman based on his faith) and it’s so hard not to just shake someone who says that and make them realize that there is no difference in what you’re proposing other than in name alone (he proposes all the rights of marriage be it health and financial, etc. … so why create a difference? (more…)
If you happen to be hanging out on Fire Island this weekend with you gays, get thee to Fire Island Dance Festival! Our boys TRAVIS WALL and IVAN KOUMAEV will be performing as part of the Dancers Respond To AIDS program which is part of Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS.
Aside from Travis and Ivan, the roster of performers includes Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, Battleworks Dance Company, TheChase Brock Experience, Corbindances, Darrel Grand Moultrie, Jorge Guzman & Willem Devries, Momix, Pascal Rioult Dance Theatre, Tapaholics, Trey Mcintrye Project.
Whoopi Goldberg hosts the event this Friday, July 20th. Wait, does that mean they won’t be in line to get their Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows book? What’s that all about?
Do you think they would come and dance for the AIDS Ride I’m doing? I could throw a shin-dig and have those two work it out. If you’re interested in helping me raise $3,500 to fight AIDS, please head on over and visit Ducky’s Big AIDS Ride 2007 for more information.
Let’s not pussyfoot around. Shauna Noland and Cedric Garnder were sent home last night on a semi-bloated hour of So You Think You Can Dance.
Was it time for either or both to go? I’m not sure. I 100% believe it was time for Cedric to go home. He had learned a ton while on the show, he’d grown as a dancer, as a person and scored himself a sweet free ride to the Debbi Allen Dance Academy. Can’t beat that. I think he was proud of his performances and I think that he knew it was his time to go (two weeks ago)…
Shauna on the other hand was totally screwed. There’s a part of me that didn’t mind her going home, but then there was that part of me that thinks she got the short end of that dance stick. Nigel complained that she didn’t grow much during the course of the season and that she isn’t showing the potential needed to stay around at this stage of the game. That may fully be the case but come on… YOU GAVE HER CRAP PARTNERS!
Jimmy was a good dancer, but they had zero chemistry together and never connected. Cedric was like dancing with a first year at Hogwarts. Shauna was Hermione and Cedric, Neville Longbottom. It was never going to work and how could Hermione grow if she’s always left behind because of Neville’s shortcomings? What am I talking about here?
Farewell you two, good luck and sorry but we’ve got to move on!
I’d like to say I so called the Bottom 3, but patting myself on the back seems pointless when there’s more to chat about. (more…)
First of all let me start by saying I was so happy to see Cat Deeley and the Top 14 kids back in action after that mini-holiday hiatus they took last week. It was like seeing an old friend again, putting on those comfy pajamas, or biting into a bing cherry for the first time all year. You know, things you love and are happy when they come back and they just make you giddy like a school girl…
Before I get into the show at all I want to say that I want to hug, squeeze, kiss, high five, dap, and maybe give a happy ending to Hairspray The Musical Director/Choreographer/This Week’s Guest Judge ADAM SHANKMAN for finally having the balls to say that Danny Tidwell acts like he’s way above this competition! In fact I think the words were, “you dance like you’ve already won this competition.” There was some calling out of sticks being up asses and cockiness and my paragraph has just gone to a whole new level of innuendo but seriously, I WAS SO HAPPY TO SEE SHANKMAN CALL HIM OUT! Amen brother man! Needed to be done but we’ll talk more about it later.
Update #9:
I’m heading out to a birthday party (yeah, at 11pm - what its bedtime) but quickly I had to say that Madonna is working it up there. She needs some work on her vocals but overall she sounds great and couldn’t look better! Go Madge.
Update #8:
KELLY KELLY KELLY! My girl Kelly Clarkson is up there working a couple songs. She sounds great and the crowd is loving her. Suck on that Clive Davis! I just wish she would have done “Never Again.”
Update #7:
Al Gore, please run for President again!
The Foo Fighters are on and kicking ass. It still amazes me to think that he was just the drummer for Nirvana. He’s frakkin’ talented beyond belief. Seriously though, Dave… cut that hair.
Update #6:
Oh God, NBC’s coverage with Carson Daly and Anne Curry just came on. Seriously, I’ve watched over 12 hours of this worldwide Concert and this is just a rehash of what I’ve watched so far. Well, not exactly. They’ve added all the NYC performers and that’s a good thing.
I got to watch Sting and Trudi talk about the environment, Melissa Etheridge do her An Inconvenient Truth song, and more Al Gore!
Update #5:
I’ve seen so many bands now I don’t even remember where we were. Keane was great and I love seeing that the lead singer has dropped some pounds. Looks much better and seriously he’s never sounded so good.
Spinal Tap was brilliant! It was great seeing those guys out there in full effect. It was funny to watch all the bass players from all the London bands out there playing with the.
The New York feed finally began and the first on UHD was KT Tunstall and seriously, her tights were so distracting I felt like littering.
The Beastie Boys were great back in London. I still hate Ione Skye for getting to bed AD Rock each night. (more…)
All morning I’ve been popping around online (while having the 22 hour feed on the telly as well) watching the various LIVE EARTH Concerts going on around the globe. It’s so fun and you’ll quickly learn that you don’t know how to speak Japanese, Chinese, or German! No clue what they’re saying…For the Lineup of bands per city, visit MSN’s Live Earth page.
Yeah, Kelly Clarkson is playing later tonight in NYC! Go girl.
If you want to watch on television, the show started at 4am this morning and goes until 2am on Sunday morning. All 22 hours are being broadcast in HD on Universal HD and in boring def on The Sundance Channel and CNBC. Tonight, all NBC affiliates will air the show at 8pm.
Do your part, take public transport, turn off lights, reuse bags, ride a bike, boil less water, plant a tree…
You can also do this amazing thing where you can donate money to organizations that plant trees in return for the amount of pollution you create doing daily tasks. Like when you fly somewhere, donate that amount to erase the pollution you created to balance things out. To learn more, visit Terra Pass!
This is hands down one of my favorite television moments this week. I have a secret crush on MSNBC’s Keith Olbermann. I know he has a journalism and sports background but the man is hysterical to watch and I watch frequently.
On Tuesday’s show he decided to use the patriotic 4th as a time to rail on President George Bush, calling for both his resignation and that of shoot em up Cheney. It’s an amazing 10 minute rant, one we would have expected from Dennis Miller back in the day if he hadn’t gone all soft and right wing on us.
Sit back, relax and thank your lucky stars we have someone like Keith out there fighting the fight!
After Elton has a hysterical look at the revelations that ex-Grey’s Anatomy but current crazy ass Isaiah Washington will discuss on tonight’s LARRY KING LIVE (tonight 9pm CNN).
Will we learn more about T.R.’s gay agenda? Will we learn the real reasons why Isaiah was fired in the first place? Does he have anger management issues? Does race really play a factor in your firing when you’re not the only person of color on the show or creating the show for that matter?
Saturday, June 23rd is Buffy/Angel/Firefly creator Joss Whedon’s birthday. Just as he did last year, he’s using the birth of Christ his birthday for good not evil.
It’s the second annual SERENITY screening benefiting Equality Now. In honor of his birthday, theatres around the country are screening the film about Capt. Mal and Co. with proceeds going to Equality Now (Whedon’s charity of choice) - for more information on attending a “Serenity/Equality Now Happy Birthday Jesus Joss” event head on over to CAN’T STOP THE SERENITY.
From the Browncoats themselves:
You need to be there because you’ll have an excellent opportunity to walk away with great Verse merchandise, like the Serenity: Special Edition DVD* from Universal Home Entertainment, an autographed copy of Finding Serenity from BenBella Books, an autographed CD from the Bedlam Bards, and so much more. (Check with your local organizer for the rundown of giveaways in your area.)
You need to be there because the proceeds go to a great cause. Equality Now is doing amazing work around the globe, bringing the vision of gender equality closer to reality every day through campaigns against issues such as rape, female genital mutilation, spousal abuse.
You need to be there because this will be the event Browncoats worldwide will be talking about this event for a long time to come, and regret doesn’t sit well with your complexion.
Last year I won a Firefly bracelet and it’s pretty rad. See, you actually do win stuff. And Joss is behind this and it’s for a great cause so please go see Serenity!
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