Dr. Blackwell's BLOG

Monday, April 19, 2010

Lady GaGa As You’ve Never Heard Before

Filed under: Popular Music — Dr. Christopher Blackwell @ 15:33

 

Pop Superstar Lady GaGa continues to churn out the hits! YouTube announced last week that her video “Bad Romance” was the most downloaded YouTube video of all-time (with over 179,000,000 downloads!). “Telephone,” GaGa’s second release from The Fame Monster debuted at #3 on the Billboard Charts and is currently resting comfortably at #7 after 5 weeks. The song is a pop duet featuring Beyonce. Just like practically every single Lady GaGa has released, musicians around the world are putting their own touches on “Telephone.” Below, watch an absolutely incredible classical instrumental version of “Telephone” performed by Australian music group Aston. While the song’s pop-version is catchy and just as good as all her other hits, the classical version is downright beautiful. Take a look and a listen for yourself:

Take a $300 Million Luxury Tour

Filed under: National and International News — Dr. Christopher Blackwell @ 15:16

                                                                                                           

The Wall Street Journal goes for the first time inside the Philippe Starck-designed yacht of Russian billionaire Andrey Melnichenko. It is absolutely stunning and a gigantic show of oppulence. The video tour will leave you amazed to see just how upscale a $300 million yacht is designed inside and out. While I am not a fan of the use of animal skins and furs for clothing or interior design, the 3 minute video tour is definitely one worth taking:

President Obama Issues Historic Memorandum

Filed under: GLBT Social Issues and Civil Rights,Politics — Dr. Christopher Blackwell @ 15:08

On Thursday, April 15, 2010, President Barack Obama issued a memorandum to the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) directing relevant agencies to take steps to ensure that individuals are not discriminated against in hospital settings on the basis of sexual orientation or gender identity. The memorandum requests agencies to develop rules to protect gay and lesbian patients and their families and address issues of hospital visitation, medical decision making, or other healthcare issues. Specifically, any healthcare agency that receives federal dollars for medical service reimbursement (for example, Medicare and/or Medicaid) must allow partners of gay and lesbian patients full visitation rights and allow them to serve as the decision-maker for their plan of care (placing them in-control of execution of advanced directives, do not resuscitate protocols, living wills, durable power of attorneys, etc.). Check out THIS LINK for the complete memorandum. The measure serves as another sign of President Obama’s intelligence and understanding of the importance of commited relationships among gay and lesbian persons.

Tuesday, April 13, 2010

“Teabaggers” Show New Level of Hatred while “Stonewall” Uprises

Filed under: GLBT Social Issues and Civil Rights,Movie and Entertainment,Politics — Dr. Christopher Blackwell @ 00:36

Straightpride2 Just when you thought the ignorant and complete lack of IQ “teabaggers” couldn’t get any more stupid, they showed a new level of hatred towards gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender persons on their “Teabag Express” tour stop in Lansing, Michigan on April 10th. A vendor at the event was selling “Straight Pride” t-shirts highly reminiscent of the “White Power” hate speech associated with the Ku Klux Klan and Skinhead/ White Supremacist movements. Reaction to the t-shirts in the gay community has been overwhelmingly negative although many are defending the rights of the “teabaggers” to wear such hate garbage. Ironically, the “teabagger” pictured appears to also be ashamed of his or her hateful display as he/she covered his/her face during the photograph. And perhaps as a very appropriate and unintended reaction, the trailer for the documentary Stonewall Uprising released today. The documentary details the “Rosa Parks” moment of the gay liberation movement in the United States, where patrons of the Stonewall Inn bar refused to acquiesce to police brutality and homophobia and fought-back against the physical violence and abuse inflicted upon them. On a personal, note, I discussed the importance of the Stonewall Riots in my Doctoral Dissertation in the context of the GLBT civil rights movement. Watch the trailer below. Stonewall Uprising, from First Run Features, released in select markets beginning on April 8th and will hit the Miami Gay and Lesbian Film Festival on April 27th, 2010.

Monday, April 12, 2010

“The Situation” Meets Mets’ David Wright and 2 Upcoming GLBT-Themed Films Getting Release

Filed under: Film and Entertainment — Dr. Christopher Blackwell @ 02:42

Fans of the trashy yet-irresistable Jersey Shore are certainly familiar with “The Situation.” Well it turns out his five minutes of fame are not quite over just yet. Alongside New York Mets’ David Wright, “The Situation” filmed a pretty comical commercial for Vitamin Water. Check it out below. Also, two films with gay/ lesbian themes are nearing national release. The first (trailers below) is from the upcoming The Kids Are All Right, starring Anette Benning and Julianne Moore, who play a lesbian couple who’s children seek-out their biolgoical sperm-donor father (played by Mark Ruffalo) and strike-up an unexpected bond. The second is La Mission, which stars Benjamin Bratt as a rough Latino father on the streets of the Mission District of San Francisco who discovers his son is gay. Both look like great films! The Kids Are All Right releases July 7th 2010 from Focus Features. 5 Stick Films’ La Mission began its rolling-nationwide release on Friday April 9th.

Wednesday, April 7, 2010

Kennedy Center’s RAGTIME Wins Big!

Filed under: Performing Arts — Dr. Christopher Blackwell @ 01:12

Although the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts’ Ragtime was short-lived in its Broadway bow, it received heavy accolades on Tuesday when it received 5 Helen Hayes Awards. The Helen Hayes Awards are the Washington, DC version of the Tony Awards. With over 53 resident theaters in the Capitol, Washington DC has a very vibrant and thriving performing arts district, including the Kennedy Center, which has been named as the most outstanding theater in the United States. Ragtime earned five Hayes Awards including Outstanding Resident Musical, Outstanding Director Resident Musical (Marcia Milgrom Dodge), Outstanding Lead Actress Resident Musical (Christiane Noll) and Outstanding Costume Design Resident Musical (Santo Loquasto and Jimm Halliday). I was unbelievably lucky to be able to see the Kennedy Center’s Ragtime last Summer with my best friend Annie on our trip to DC. The show was incredible! Although it was heavily scaled-down compared to its original 1996 production at Broadway’s Ford Center for the Performing Arts (now the Hilton Theater), the show was beautifully staged, well-acted, and just as moving as that 1996 spectacle. It is sad that it did not succeed on its return to the Broadway stage during a harsh economic climate where shows were closing on a near-daily basis. Nonetheless, Ragtime is well-deserved of the honors it has earned! Congratulations to all involved with the amazing Kennedy Center production!

Webber’s Cancer Delays Phantom Sequel’s Broadway Transition

Filed under: Performing Arts — Dr. Christopher Blackwell @ 01:03

The Phantom: Love Never Dies, the sequel to The Phantom of the Opera, which opened at London’s Adelphi Theatre on March 9th, has been temporarily postponed because of Andrew Lloyd Webber’s ongoing battle with prostate cancer. Although Webber’s cancer was diagnosed early and its growth halted, he has been suffering from complications related to his treatment. In addition, long flights Webber would need to take to travel back and forth from New York City to London is contraindicated for him at this time. An April 6 statement from the show’s producers says that the original date was set prior to Lloyd Webber’s diagnosis with prostate cancer last fall. “Although the cancer has been eradicated, there have been post-operative problems,” according to the statement. “These have been aggravated by recent air travel and Lloyd Webber’s doctors have requested that he does not take any further long-haul flights for the time being and until the problem has been investigated. This prevents him attending auditions and being part of the pre-production process in New York on the original schedule.” A date has not yet been set but Love Never Dies will now be scheduled to open at Broadway’s Neil Simon Theater in the Spring of 2011.

Two More UCF Football Contests to be Nationally Televised

Filed under: UCF Sports — Dr. Christopher Blackwell @ 00:54

 UCF announced that two more football games during the 2010 season will be broadcast on national television. The Knights will play N.C. State at 7:30 p.m. on Sept. 11 and Southern Miss at noon Nov. 13 on CBS College Sports. UCF is hosting both games at Bright House Networks Stadium. In addition to the two CBS College Sports games, UCF will be playing three games airing on the ESPN family of networks. The Knights host UAB Wednesday, Oct. 6, at 8 p.m. on ESPN. UCF will play at Marshall Wednesday, Oct. 13, at 8 p.m. on ESPN and at Houston Friday, Nov. 5 at 8 p.m. on ESPN2.

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