Tom Goss is ‘Awesomesauce’

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[Interview] Tom Goss is ‘awesomesauce’.|GA Voice

The cut below is from a pretty good interview done by Laura Douglas-Brown for GA Voice. Goss is a particular favorite of mine. His live recordings feature lots of rambling interaction with the audience and it makes him come across as incredibly human and genuine. Also, he writes some lovely stuff. Click the photo for his website.

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Singer/Songwriter Tom Goss. The D.C.-based troubadour performs all over the country. Photo: GA Voice|Tom Goss.

Years ago, Tom Goss planned to be a Catholic seminarian. Now he’s headed to Atlanta to help raise funds for a bunch of fake nuns.

An acoustic singer-songwriter known for both his music and his messages, Goss performs at Atlanta’s First Existentialist Congregation on Saturday, March 9, to benefit the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence, the group of drag nuns dedicated to community service for LGBT people and beyond.

“I’ve met Sisters all over the country; I love their energy and their works,” Goss tells GA Voice.

And while Goss will join the Atlanta Sisters as performer rather than priest, he still packs powerful meanings into his music.

Former Senators: We Were Wrong On DOMA

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No shit.

Former Senators Bill Bradley, Tom Daschle, Christopher Dodd and Alan Simpson — all of whom voted for the Defense of Marriage Act in 1996 — told the Supreme Court Friday that “the original justifications for DOMA can no longer be credited today,” concluding that “our constitutional commitment to equality does not tolerate such discrimination.”

via Former Senators Bradley, Daschle, Dodd And Simpson: We Were Wrong On DOMA.|Buzzfeed

Foxworth: It’s Time for All Jocks to Embrace Diversity

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Excellent op-ed by Foxworth. Definitely worth a read.
Domonique Foxworth: It’s Time for All Jocks to Embrace Diversity. |Huffington Post

While we are still waiting for the gay pioneer in professional football, I can tell you that I already admire his bravery and selflessness — he will be trading peace and the ability to “fit in” for added pressure and intense scrutiny. All I can offer is my support, and hopefully he will feel emboldened knowing that he will have earned a permanent place in American sports and civil rights history.

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Former NFL cornerback Dononique Foxworth retired from the Baltimore Ravens in 2012. He is now president of the NFL Players Association and an outspoken advocate for LGBT acceptance in professional sports. Photo: Keith Allison|Wikimedia Commons

Fun History of the Ampersand

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I’m an admitted grammar geek, you know, and — or rather & —  I’m really getting a kick out of these quick little videos from leftside-rightside.com. This one contains a whole bunch of facts that I had no idea about! I love it when you can learn something cool when you’re not even trying!

M*A*S*H Finale — Most Watched Program Celebrates 30 Years

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Ken Levine: ‘M*A*S*H’ 30th Anniversary Finale: Looking Back On The Event.

340px-Mash_signGood God. Really? Thirty years? I have a story about this….

I was a freshman in college. My roommate and I had a television — my television — a small back-and-white set from Sears, complete with CABLE (we were on the cutting edge of high tech!!) in our dorm room!

A bunch of friends gathered in our room that night to watch the finale and say goodbye to Hawkeye and BJ and Col. Potter and Klinger and the rest of the 4077th, characters that had defined our childhoods. And just as the program began, the geeks next door, geeks with no sense of collective pop culture, but geeks with a dial-up handset modem for their handmade “computer” fired that sucker up and wrecked our signal. We went crazy, beating on their door, screaming for them to turn it off.

They finally did and declined our invitation to watch with us; perhaps the only people in America that night not tuned in to see the goings-on in “The Swamp” one last time.

‘Titanic II’ Will Set Sail by 2016 — What the Hell??

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‘Titanic II’ Will Set Sail by 2016, Costumes Included.| Mashable
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Australian mining billionaire and professor Clive Palmer — and his Blue Star Line company — held a press conference in New York City on Tuesday morning to unveil the new blueprints of the Titanic II, which was first announced in 2012.

Does ANYONE have a good feeling for this? Here’s what I think: the ship Titanic is known for one thing and one thing only. It is etched into the global consciousness as being synonymous with sinking. What’s their new slogan going to be: “This time we may stay afloat??”

A few years ago I was in Inverness, Scotland and we stayed at the Royal Highland Hotel, whose claim to fame is that the staircase there was the inspiration for the grand staircase on H.M.S. Titanic. Nice staircase. Crappy hotel.

Soap Resurrections Online Excite AMC’s Cady McClain

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Tad_and_Dixie_-_Michael_E._Knight_Cady_McClain_AMC

Michael E. Knight and Cady McClain as Tad and Dixie on ABC’s “All My Children.” The show returns online next month as one of two former network serials getting another life online. McClain returns to her Emmy Award-winning role as Dixie in the reboot. No word yet on Knight’s participation. Image: originally SoapNet, via Wikimedia Commons. No copyright claimed.

If you know the actress Cady McClain, you are likely a viewer of serial drama. She rocketed to the top of the daytime drama Hot Character Hall of Fame for her portrayal of Dixie Cooney Martin on All My Children on and off from 1988 to the end of the ABC series in 2011. She is also known as the second Rosanna Cabot on As The World Turns in multiple stints for the last eight years that soap was on the air.

McClain returns to Pine Valley as, in classic soap fashion, it rises from the dead for an Internet reboot from the production company Prospect Park and their Online Network. The show will also be available on Hulu and iTunes in 30-minute episodes.

It’s a brave new world for what we used to call “daytime drama,” but dramatic programming on the networks during the day is flagging as the core audience — stay-at-home moms and other women who do not work outside the home — continues to dwindle.

I’ve written any number of times about my feelings about serial drama and how important it can be as a catalyst for societal change. I hope that by making the once venerable and still much-loved serials All My Children and One Life to Live available online, we are seeing the beginnings of a more mainstream acceptance of Web-based entertainment.

Read Cady’s cut below and feel free to click around to stories that I’ve written (or reblogged) about soaps and Web series over the last year or so.
A New Dawn for Daytime | Cady McClain.

Do you remember when your aunt or grandma or mom called you into the living room to look at her soap opera on the TV, screaming, “OH MY GOD YOU’VE GOT TO SEE THIS” and that moment when you frantically queried, “What’s happening? Who is that? TELL ME EVERYTHING!” Well the same thing is going to happen, only now it might be in reverse. Your niece or daughter, or grand daughter might now be the one hollering, “OMG! You’ve got to see this!” while pulling out  her laptop, tablet, or smart phone. It’s not so different: it’s still a generational connection that is going to occur, it’s just coming to you via a different mechanism.

SOAPS AND SERIAL DRAMA

WEB-BASED ENTERTAINMENT

PS — There’s likely some overlap in these two categories.

Wanda Sykes: Coming Out as Black

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Wanda Sykes: I’ma Be Me – Gay vs. Black (HBO) – YouTube.

Wanda may be the funniest woman on earth. The best two minutes and fifteen seconds of your day, I’ll bet!

Dead Mice Are Going To Be Dropped On Guam From Helicopters (Really)

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800px-Brown_pet_mouseDead Mice Are Going To Be Dropped On Guam From Helicopters (Really) : The Two-Way : NPR.

I have absolutely no response to this. (Other than the fact that I’ve crossed Guam right off my vacation destination list!)

DOMA Hurts Gay Military Couples [VIDEO]

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DOMA Hurts Gay Military Couples After DADT Repeal, Says U.S. Marine Corps Captain Matthew Phelps.

On the heels of the one-year anniversary of the end of “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell,” U.S Marine Corps Captain Matthew Phelps made history when he became the first gay man to propose marriage to his boyfriend Ben Schock at the White House.

Now the newly engaged couple are featured in a new video that demonstrates how the Defense of Marriage Act, or DOMA, counteracts many of the benefits same-sex military spouses should be receiving in the wake of the DADT repeal.

Meanwhile, the Obama Administration has urged the Supreme Court to strike down DOMA when it hears arguments next month.

The Obama administration on Friday urged the Supreme Court to strike down the Defense Of Marriage Act in a brief that calls the law unconstitutional because it violates “the fundamental guarantee of equal protection.”  HuffPo