| Westminster divided over curbs on forced marriages | | Posted Thursday, February 01, 2007 3:02:26 PM by Blog57 Team | | The Catholic church's complex views on sexuality are not the only evidence of the multicultural conflict facing Westminster's largely secular political elite this week. If gay adoption was not providing enough excitement, Lord Lester will today promote a legal redress against forced marriages. The second reading of the forced marriages (civil protection) bill will be a high-minded occasion. This is the House of Lords after all. And the redoubtable Lib Dem peer and human rights barrister has some impressive allies - not least the Southall Black Sisters, a well-known women's charity, Liberty, and a clutch of lawyers and rights groups. .... | |
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| | | GRETCHEN PHILLIPS | | Posted Wednesday, January 17, 2007 1:14:10 PM by Blog57 Team | | Performers making guitars and other instruments gently weep include Guy Forsyth, Sara Hickman, Oliver Rajamani, Gretchen Phillips, Southpaw Jones, Darin Murphy, the Slim Richey Experience, and many others. That eclectic lineup will take on Harrison originals, such as a medley of tunes from Wonderwall Music and a horn section for Savoy Truffle. Here comes the sun. - Margaret Moser RECOMMENDED (01/17/06 @ Cactus Cafe) The Quiet Beatles estate has been working overtime, issuing remastered packages on 2003s All Things Must Pass and last years Bangladesh CD/DVD combo. In that same period, Harrisons solo catalog has been rebooted and given the all-star treatment via Concert for George. Ky Hote & Owls second annual Austin tribute, featuring local scarabs Guy Forsyth, Oliver Rajamani, Slim Richey, Gretchen Phillips, Libby Kirkpatrick, and a host of others, promises more Wilbury-esque Rubber Soul.... | |
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| | | Keeping Up With The Idols | | Posted Sunday, January 14, 2007 3:19:58 PM by Blog57 Team | | We live in the "American Idol" era of pop music. Not since Frank Sinatra vaulted off the Major Bowes talent show have amateur contests produced chart-toppers. But today's pop stars come elected by television audiences on a game show. With the yawning maw of the sixth season of "American Idol" ahead next week, we look at the fortunes of past contestants as they fan out among the ranks in the world of show business. 2002 SEASON ONE Kelly Clarkson (winner) The first Idol and the show's golden girl made "Since U Been Gone" the signature pop single of the new century. Her transition from "Idol" to bona fide star is complete, a long way from "A Moment Like This" and "From Justin to Kelly." Justin Guarini (second place) Carrot-top curly-head of the bomb "From Justin to Kelly" is peddling a jazz album on his Web site.... | |
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| | | Courses underscore liberal college slant (Brittney Pescatore / The Washington Times) | | Posted Wednesday, December 27, 2006 3:03:03 PM by Blog57 Team | | If your idea of fighting terrorism involves dropping bombs on al Qaeda hide-outs, chances are you're probably not a Swarthmore College student. Some students at Swarthmore (annual tuition, $33,232) spent the fall semester learning how to deal with terrorism by studying "the dynamics of cultural marginalization" and examining "the rich history of nonviolent counterterrorist tactics." Visiting professor George Lakey's "Nonviolent Responses to Terrorism" class earned Swarthmore a spot in the "Dirty Dozen," a listing of the "most bizarre" college classes in the nation as compiled by the Young America's Foundation (YAF). Among YAF's picks for 2006 are courses in Marxism, feminism and some subjects that can't be adequately described in a family newspaper.... | |
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| | | Teens Need Meaningful Sexuality Education | | Posted Sunday, December 17, 2006 1:06:39 PM by Blog57 Team | | The argument about whether public junior and senior high school students should have access to comprehensive sexuality education or abstinence-only education continues to get lost in both the political and religious arenas, yet we fail to learn from our mistakes. As the fight continues over biology and rules, our children miss important opportunities to question, explore and assess their sexual attitudes in order to understand their families' values and develop their own values, as well as to develop insights into relationships and understand their obligations and responsibilities to their families and others. The United States continues to face an adolescent reproductive health crisis. The rates of teen pregnancy, sexually transmitted disease and human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infections remain unacceptably high.... | |
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| | | THE FEELING FRONTMAN COMES OUT | | Posted Wednesday, November 15, 2006 1:05:05 PM by Blog57 Team | | DAN GILLESPIE, the lead singer of British pop ground THE FEELING, has revealed he is gay. The star has also spoken about his childhood, telling how he was brought up by his lesbian mother and marched at gay pride events from a young age. Gillespie says, "I was brought up on the gay scene because my mum is gay and so is my uncle. "Not only did I have two lesbian mothers but my mum was in a wheelchair. "We assumed the position of a kind of poster family for civil liberties organisations. "There is a picture of me when I was six holding up a banner saying, 'My mum is a lesbian and I love her.' It was at a pride event and was used a lot in the newspapers." Of his own sexuality, Gillespie adds, "Most of the kids at school seemed to know I was gay a long time before I knew myself. "I had a slightly effeminate air - and children are very intuitive aren't they? It's obvious really." 15/11/2006 02:06 .... | |
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| | | Conference squares faith, sexuality | | Posted Tuesday, November 14, 2006 7:01:31 PM by Blog57 Team | | Sue Guthrie always felt a calling to God, but she also knew from a young age that she was attracted to women. For years she struggled to reconcile her faith and sexuality. "I think I became a Christian (partly) to save me from being gay," she said. Many others like Guthrie feel they have to choose between being a Christian and being true to who they are. Love Breaks Out, a conference in Palm Springs that drew 150 people on Saturday, wanted to tell people that it's OK to be both. Gay and straight, old and young gathered at St. Paul's Episcopal Church to listen to and talk with speakers who presented the message that God accepts everyone as they are. For Guthrie, 46, it took years to discover that. "Finally, I couldn't deny it," she said. In college, she got involved with another girl from school - a relationship that got her kicked out of her Colorado Bible college.... | |
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| | | U.S. Catholic bishops to confront issues of faithful's sexuality | | Posted Monday, November 13, 2006 7:01:45 PM by Blog57 Team | | Persuading married Catholics to reject contraceptives, gay Catholics to refrain from sex and all Catholics to receive the Eucharist in a state of holiness are topics for the U.S. bishops as they meet this week in Baltimore. None of the documents breaks new ground, but they try to present difficult teaching in a positive, upbeat manner. "The bishops [are] applying the teachings of the church to a number of neuralgic issues within contemporary American society, in a pastorally sensitive way," said auxiliary Bishop Paul Bradley, who will represent the Catholic Diocese of Pittsburgh as its administrator. The bishops themselves report that just 4 percent of Catholic married couples of childbearing age use the church's approved methods of Natural Family Planning, or NFP -- abstaining when the wife is fertile.... | |
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| | | Like its star, Will Ferrell, 'Stranger than Fiction' is odd and eccentric with whole lot of heart | | Posted Sunday, November 12, 2006 3:02:00 PM by Blog57 Team | | Rated PG-13 for some disturbing images, sexuality, brief language and nudity; starring Will Ferrell, Maggie Gyllenhaal, Emma Thompson, Dustin Hoffman; directed by Marc Foster; opening Friday at ShowPlace 8 in Carbondale. "Stranger than Fiction" forms a sort of trilogy with "Adaptation" and "Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind," two smart, literate, narratively challenging films written by Charlie Kaufman.Only it's better than either of those movies. Scripted by first-timer Zach Helm and directed by Marc Forster ("Monster's Ball," "Finding Neverland"), ""Stranger than Fiction" is less infatuated with its own clever complexity than with the struggles of a human heart. This is typical of Forster, a director far more interested in plumbing a story's emotional currents than in showing what he can do with a camera.In what is essentially a straight role, Will Ferrell plays Harold Crick, a Chicago-based IRS auditor whose world has been largely reduced to mathematical certainties and probabilities.... | |
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| | | 'Stranger' smart, sweet comedy | | Posted Saturday, November 11, 2006 11:21:46 AM by Blog57 Team | | Rating: PG-13 for some disturbing images, sexuality, brief language and nudity. What it's about: Lonely guy starts hearing a voice, a woman, narrating his loser's life. And he tries to do something about it. The Kid Attractor Factor: Will Ferrell, Maggie Gyllenhaal, and a real freshman English plot. Good lessons/bad lessons: The nobility of pursuing artistic excellence, the virtues of not judging a book by its (his) cover. Violence: Accidents. Language: Pretty clean. Sex: Implied, and then there are all those nude old men in the gym shower. Drugs: Mentioned. Parents advisory: A smart, sweet comedy that kids too young for high school won't get as much out of as their older peers.... | |
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