To get the taste of condescending Rick Santorum out of our mouths, here's video of gay Torchwood star John Barrowman singing the Spider-Man and Wonder Woman theme songs during a stop on his 2010 UK tour.
Apologies if you have already seen this; spotted it on Bleeding Cool and thought we could all use an afternoon tonic.
Check out the video, which includes two strapping, spandex-wrapped Spider-Men, AFTER THE JUMP...
A Comic Con attendee dressed as Captain Jack Harkness from Torchwood got an amazing birthday gift from actor John Barrowman, who serenaded the fan and then planted a big kiss on him.
Barrowman then returned to his seat and said, "Please don't have herpes."
MetroWeekly's Chris Geidner interviews the first out transgender Congressional staffer, Diego Sanchez: "I feel strongly that we're going to be all right with ENDA, that we've got clearly enough support to pass the bill even right now and we're almost there to defeat the motion to recommit that would limit gender-identity inclusion. We're almost there, and I'm hoping that it still comes up this year. I don't know whether it will. I can't predict that."
Former Tory MP Ann Widdecombe: Gay asylum seekers in fear for their lives "seem to have wanted to come here merely so that they can be overt about their lifestyles."
The NYT chats with mathematician/musician Caribou.
UK father jailed for three years for attacking 15-year-old girl with baseball bat after she taunted his son with homophobic slurs. "He drove to the scene with his wife, grabbed a baseball bat out of his car and ran towards the group, according to The Telegraph.
Canham struck his victim over the back of her head, causing her to pass out in front of holidaymakers last summer. The victim's eight-year-old sister was also present, Ipswich Crown Court heard.
Canham admitted wounding the girl with intent to cause her grievous bodily harm.
According to The Mirror, he saw a "red mist" when he attacked the schoolgirl."
Senator Kirsten Gillibrand is well-positioned, financially, for the fall elections: "She's raised nearly $11 million overall and now has $7.2 million in cash-on-hand - part of the reason why, despite her lack of traction in the polls, she's the odds-on favorite in the fall."
Chinese University students to take HIV test: "University students in East China's Zhejiang province are to undergo physical examinations in an effort to get an accurate picture of the HIV/AIDS infection rate among the student population. The results will help related departments work out detailed and effective measures to control and prevent the disease from spreading further, according to Zhejiang Provincial Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), which is running the program. The move comes after the Hangzhou branch of the CDC found eight HIV carriers during a spot check of 2,000 university students at three universities, a case rate of 0.4 percent."
Facebook a safe harbor for hate groups? "Fast-forming, often created by people who post false profiles just to gain the ability to create their hate group, anti-gay hate groups on Facebook are filled with claims of religiosity, or just plain unadulterated ignorance, bigotry, and hate. Facebook management has been criticized for their slow response and poor monitoring of new groups and content..."
Extremely rare camellia blooms in London: "It is thought to be one of only two examples of the variety in the world. Admirers would need to travel to Waitangi, New Zealand to see its sister plant."
Czech union leader causes furor over remarks about gays: "In an interview for Saturday’s Lidové Noviny, Mr. Dušek said Czech Railways was run by a clique of incompetent gays who had links to homosexuals in the cabinet and the Office of the Government. The controversial trade union leader has now been barred from speaking for the umbrella trade unions organization and is likely to face charges of slander."
Illinois anti-gay bill killed in committee: "An anti-gay bill authored by Republican gubernatorial candidate Bill Brady is dead, thanks to the efforts of Illinois gay activists.
Equality Illinois just announced that Senate bill 3447, which aimed to allow certain tax-exempt organizations to discriminate on the basis of sexual orientation, gender identity and religion, is dead. The bill never made it out of a Senate Judiciary committee."
D.C. Agenda talks to the first openly gay U.S. House Clerk Joe Novotny: “I’m tremendously proud. I feel like it’s an opportunity to represent the community. When you think about the diversity in this House now — and the fact that we have the first woman speaker and we have the first African-American clerk of the House — this is sort of a Congress of firsts, so to be a part of that is a tremendous honor.”
The editors of Modern Tonic — a free daily email that serves up eclectic pop-culture picks with a homo slant — present a weekly music update here on Towleroad.
FEATURED NEW RELEASES AND FREE DOWNLOADS:
The English duo Groove Armada has stopped following mercurial dance trends and come up with their most eclectic and artistically successful album yet. With help from collaborators SaintSaviour, Empire of the Sun’s Nick Littlemore and — big coup — Roxy Music’s Bryan Ferry, Black Light illuminates everything you can see in the dark, not just those pretty patterns on the dancefloor. The first single, "I Won’t Kneel," features SaintSaviour rocking a big-haired '80s club anthem. (Check out the Treasure Fingers Remix Radio Edit here.) "Paper Romance" is where rave culture challenges New Wave to a draw (downloadable here in its Classixx Remix version.) And Ferry gives "Shameless" a romantic polish that could turn a rave into tender high school slow dance. Littlemore’s four tracks feature harder edges and stranger contours — it’s like Flaming Lips wandered into the wrong studio but stuck around for the vibe. And U.K. singer Will Young brings it all full circle on the closing track, "History," where he channels his inner Bronksi Beat for the screaming club jam we always knew he had in him.
Peter Gabriel brings theatricality and exploratory verve to Scratch My Back, a selection of surprising covers fully orchestrated without guitars or drums. He reaches as far back as Randy Newman’s 1968 debut up to Bon Iver’s 2008 "Flume" with stops in between for Bowie ("Heroes"), The Arcade Fire ("My Body Is a Cage") and more. Not all the tracks work — the Bowie and Radiohead ("Street Spirit (Fade Out)") covers, which open and close the album, need the propulsion of drums and guitars. But the rest are triumphant surprises — the pizzicato buzz that transforms Regina Spektor’s "Après Moi" into a French Resistance song, the plaintive ache of Lou Reed’s "The Power of the Heart," and the quixotic beauty of Elbow’s "Mirrorball." Ever the conceptual provocateur, Gabriel has asked the artists covered here to reciprocate with a compilations album of reinterpretations of his song. Until then, Scratch My Back will mark time exquisitely. It’s quiet, elegiac and quite often breathtaking, but don’t think it’s ‘easy listening.’ It’s not going to rock your world, but it just may shake you to your roots.
Meet the Danish pop fops called Alphabeat, five stylish guys and a gal who like to dress up, get down, and throw a disco party for the world. Their second album The Beat Is. . . (on import from the U.K. now; released last year in Denmark as The Spell) is a dizzying glitterball of synths, hooks, rollicking house piano and, well, beats. Vocalist Stine Bramsen kicks off "The Spell" with all the joy of early Madonna. Anders SG (one of three Anders in the band!) chimes in with robotized soul vocals on the title track. The single "Hole in My Heart" — with its Fantastic Voyage-inspired video — pumps and grinds across the club floor with escalating syndrums. And "Chess" — with its male-female vocals and cheesy synthetic steel drums — sounds like a well-oiled Lady Gaga mating with Mika on a Jamaican beach, mon. Except for "Q&A," the obligatory slow-ish one, This Beat Is. . . keeps steady pace for pop-loving club kids. It’s a dance-floor stormer that stays true to its title.
MUSIC NEWS:
Madonna earned more than $47 million in 2009, according to Billboard's new Top Money Makers chart.
Rankings are based on estimates of what an artist actually earned
themselves, rather than overall ticket grosses and album sales. U2 and Bruce
Springsteen top the chart (Madge follows at #3).
Marina & The Diamonds' much buzzed-about debut album, Family Jewels, charted in the top five in the U.K. in its first week. The album gets a U.S. release May 25, preceded by the American Jewels digital EP on March 23.
Echo & The Bunnymen will kick off their first U.S. tour in support of recent album The Fountain. Ten dates will follow their performance at Coachella on April 16.
John Barrowman, the hunky out star of BBC's Torchwood, can always light our fire. His new studio release, John Barrowman (out on import), brings the heat to theater chestnuts from Dreamgirls, Mamma Mia!, Nine and more.
Almost nine months after its U.K. release, Little Boots’ debut Hands gets a U.S. release with dance faves "New in Town" and "Remedy." Despite its title, the dancing inspired by the album doesn’t involve jazz hands (see John Barrowman).
America’s potty-mouthed sweetheart has collected the songs from The Sarah Silverman Program in one profane package, From Our Rears to Your Ears. Life’s not complete without such evergreens as "Will We Eat Each Other's Doodies," "Trimming Your Bush," and "Head Off My Titties Bitch" in your collection.
jj — "Let Go" The enigmatic Swedes offer this soft electro ballad, from their forthcoming albumNo. 3, in a black-and-white clip that pops into color when the singer cries blood.
Japayork — "Our Now" Bart Oostindie, aka Japayork, is a one-man synth band without a record label. That may change on the strength of this ruminative electro tune and its hand-made animated clip. Rox — "My Baby Left Me" This half-Jamaican half-Iranian South Londoner takes her broken heart on a cross-country road-trip with her band on a slice of happy mid-70’s funk.
Chew Lips — "Karen" They pay homage to Sonic Youth’s clip for "Sunday" with this low-rent performance clip in which the South London trio rock like Elastic, wail like Siouxsie Sioux and wax lyrical like The Sundays. From their debut Unicorn.
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