maddow to scott brown: ‘you don’t rate, sir’

totally awesome. also, shiny.

ugandans tell Oz to butt (sex) out

oh those wacky gay-killing ugandans. hot off the wire from AAP:

KAMPALA, March 31 AAP – Australia has been told to mind its own business by Ugandans angered by objections to the the African nation’s anti-gay legislation.

The laws toughen existing legislation banning sexual activity between men, with punishments including life in prison or even death.

In a joint statement read at a meeting of the United Nations Human Rights Council in Geneva this month, Australia, Canada and New Zealand stressed that sexual orientation or gender identity must never be the basis for discrimination, abuse, criminal action and penalties, detention or imprisonment, or deprivation of any human right.

But the chairman of national task force against homosexuality in Uganda, Pastor Martin Sempa, on Wednesday advised Australia to keep its opinions to itself.

“Australia should leave us alone,” Sempa said.

“One man’s meat is another man’s poison. For us in Africa we do not believe in homosexuality.

“To us homosexuality is a human vice, to the Australians it is a human right.”

Sempa urged Australia to prioritise the need for a working trade relationship.

“We are advising Australia not to put sodomy on top of its foreign policy agenda but rather put trade and international commerce on the agenda,” he said.

Several governments and organisations around the world have urged Uganda to scrap its anti-gay bill, with some threatening to stop sending funds to the country.

Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni subsequently urged members of parliament to go slow on the anti-gay bill, which has not been discussed since being tabled in parliament towards the end of last year.

*sigh*

oh maddow. how you do tempt me.

loving the shaggy do.

here’s a shocker … ricky martin is GAY!! *gasp*

worst-kept secret. EVAH.

this, hot off the wires from AFP:

LOS ANGELES, March 29 AFP – Puerto Rican singer Ricky Martin, in a bombshell to legions of his fans all over the world, has confirmed a longtime rumour that he is gay.

“I am proud to say that I am a fortunate homosexual man. I am very blessed to be who I am,” he wrote on his official rickymartin.com website.

With his swiveling hips and scintillating salsa moves, Martin has been an object of adoration by million of fans around the world, especially of the female variety.

The Latin pop star records and performs mostly in Spanish but also has a huge crossover following in English, thanks in large part to his 1999 hit “Livin’ La Vida Loca” (“Livin’ the Crazy Life” in English).

Martin, 38, told his fans that his decision to divulge his sexual orientation marks “an amazing turning point in my life”, and it started a few months ago when he began the process of writing his memoirs.

“From the moment I wrote the first phrase I was sure the book was the tool that was going to help me free myself from things I was carrying within me for a long time,” Martin wrote on his website.

He said the secret over time had become “too heavy for me to keep inside” and that he joyfully embraces his gay identity as “something worth celebrating”.

The pop singer added that he did not come out earlier because advisers over the years had warned that he might ruin his career were he to reveal to his fans that he is gay.

“Many people told me… ‘all the years you’ve worked and everything you’ve built will collapse,”’ he wrote.

“Allowing myself to be seduced by fear and insecurity became a self-fulfilling prophecy of sabotage. Today I take full responsibility for my decisions and my actions.”

Coming out “fills me with strength and courage”, Martin said.
“Today is my day, this is my time, and this is my moment.”

apparently ricky was the last to know. but it’s cool, y’know? good on him for making it official. welcome to the out club, ricky.

facebook … *resigned sigh* … tch

i’ve made no secret of the fact that facebook is not my favourite thing. it’s all a bit high school, truthfully. and trust me, that’s not a good headspace for me.

but i am nothing if not pragmatic. clearly a bucketload of people use it. and as socnet maven for goldcoast.com.au, i’ve been up to my ears in optimising our ‘presence’ … ugh … over there at High School Central.

i have a facebook page … feel free to take a look and ‘friend’ me if you’re so inclined … and now, god help me, i have a fan page, where i’ll be posting news about whatever writing i’m doing.

so there ya go. i’ve sold out. but never fear. i shall never desert my beloved twitter.

abba reunion?? *squeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee*

OH. MY. FUCKING. GOD. if AFP are fucking with me, there will be recriminations, believe me.

LONDON, March 26 AFP – Swedish pop group Abba could re-unite for a one-off performance after years of rejecting calls to take to the stage again, two former members of the band hinted in an interview on Friday.

Asked by Britain’s Times newspaper whether they would consider regrouping for an intimate show that could be filmed and beamed to audiences across the world, Benny Andersson responded: “Yeah, why not?”

“I don’t know if the girls sing any more,” he said, referring to the female ex-members of the quartet, Anni-Frid Lyngstad and Agnetha Faeltskog.

“I know Frida was in the studio.”

“It’s not a bad idea, actually,” he added, in response to the newspaper’s suggestion of a performance with only invited guests and families, perhaps accompanied by a small orchestra.

Bjoern Ulvaeus, who with Andersson wrote hits including Dancing Queen and Waterloo”, joked: “We could sing The Way Old Folks Do.”

He was referring to the song The Way Old Friends Do, from the album Super Trouper.

The reaction from the pair — speaking in London where they were working on a new musical theatre production — marks a change in tone to how they have responded to repeated requests to stage come-back shows in the past.

Last year, in the wake of the success of Mamma Mia! — the musical and film based on their hits — Ulvaeus vowed the group would never perform together again.

He told the Sunday Telegraph newspaper he wanted fans to remember the band as “young, exuberant, full of energy and ambition”.

“We will never appear on stage again,” he said.

“There is simply no motivation to regroup. Money is not a factor and we would like people to remember us as we were.”

i have absolutely have no shame in telling you that abba were the loves of my life between the ages of 10 and oh, now. i papered my bedroom wall solidly with abba posters. i kissed them all good night, each and every night. seriously. with tongue and everything.

i am all verklempt at this news, people. this is better than the invention of the banana paddlepop.

really.

i met the walrus

awesome. just awesome.

more about "I Met The Walrus", posted with vodpod

kitteh elevator

film: ‘alice in wonderland’

never been a huge fan of lewis carroll’s stuff, it has to be said. i always found alice in wonderland deeply creepy.

like tim burton though, for the most part. odd man. but good films.

right now i’m going through a bit of a i’ll-watch-anything-if-it’s-in-3d phase, so i may be no judge at all of this film.

it’s a pretty piece, mostly. lots of colour. particularly fond of the cheshire cat, and the way his disembodied head came at me and made me want to stroke him. liked the caterpillar.

helena bonham-carter and anne hathaway made me laugh out loud – best things in it, really. johnny depp – one twitch too many i think, and it took me half an hour to be able to decipher his accent without wanting to neck m’self.

i found parts of the first four-fifths of the film deeply unpleasant, actually … specifically the severed heads in the moat and the plucking of eyes, etc. i wouldn’t be taking a little kid to see it, that’s for sure.

but, y’know, then alice got in to that suit of armour, started wielding that sword and slaying things, not to mention sailing off into the sunset wearing a man’s shirt and tie, and suddenly my interest was piqued.

funny that.

it’s not really alice in wonderland at all of course. it’s through the looking glass, with flashbacks to wonderland. and frankly, the last 20 minutes is pure narnia/lord of the rings/joan of arc stuff.

and all the better for it.

my favourite part was watching the credits roll and suddenly realising that the border of flowers around the credits was growing. awesome.

in a word: MIXED BAG.

here’s the trailer:

film: ‘shutter island’ … SPOILER ALERT

y’know, sometimes, i just want my film experience to be simple and entertaining.

shutter island is certainly entertaining … although not the thrill-a-minute pants-filler i was anticipating … but simple?

i went through most of the film thinking it was dead simple, largely because it was bloody obvious to me that Leo diCaprio’s character was stark, staring bonkers. and given his mental landscape, why wouldn’t he be?

but then it got to the end and the, apparently, predictable reveal (which went on and on, it felt like).

and this thought popped into my head … this is martin scorsese we’re talking about. this bloke doesn’t make ‘obvious’, predictable, trite movies. he’s a layers man, y’know?

now you can go on to any film forum on the planet right now and you will find nerdy geeky film buff-types rattling on about the gazillion and one little clues scorsese supposedly has left dribbled through the film which prove that the film’s resolution is nowhere near as cut and dried as it seems at first viewing.

and y’know, that’s great. god knows, i’ve been in discussions like that about films i feel passionately about. ask me any time about the life-changing qualities of Desert Hearts, or the fairytale/western symbolism in Star Wars, and you won’t be able to stop me.

but sometimes i just want my films simple and entertaining. or at least capable of being read at that level if that’s what i feel like.

and to a degree shutter island does that. trouble is on that ‘just enjoy it level’ it’s neither very intriguing nor very scary.

in a word: WELL DONE BUT … MEH.

here’s the trailer: