@andersoncooper Do your job to correct panelists! Twice last night you let two Repubs (some would call them a cracker and an uncle Tom) use the diminutive “Democrat party.” This is a thing! #doyourjob The capital D name of the party is DemocratIC.
There is more to being a journalist than just fact checking and putting on a pretty face. It’s not just congresspersons who need to do their jobs right.
Dubya, Limbaugh & Gingrich have been pulling this stunt for years and need to be checked on it, lest we do the same to them. Don’t let them disparage progressives with this pejorative. Words are powerful and created by humans for a reason.
Still numb from hearing about Cory Monteith dying in Vancouver BC (where I was a month ago, myself) when I was in Europe, and the verdict in the Trayvon Martin murder trial. Let’s hope people learn from these lessons (i.e., getting help for addiction and repealing these Draconian “stand your ground” gun laws in states like Florida). From what I’ve heard the jury doesn’t feel like Zimmerman should have gotten away with murder, but because of the crappily way the law is written, he was acquitted.
Pleasantly surprised to hear that Raven Symone and Charice Pempengco came out as gay. It’s nice to know young people can do so without much drama these days. I’m a huge fan of Charice’s and Raven was always compared to my daughter, looks-wise.
Going through Youtube I just found out today that Vesta Williams died last year, apparently in a hotel room from a prescription drug/alcohol overdose, at the age of 53. Perhaps because it happened so close to Teena Marie’s death and in light of Whitney Houston’s death by similar circumstances, not to mention Michael Jackson. She was one of my favorite singers and should have been a far more popular singer because she had an amazing, innate talent.
Thanks for coming out of the closet on my birthday, Anderson. Now it’s less of a big deal that I saw you and your boyfriend at Chat & Chew in Greenwich Village a few years ago when I was visiting my adoptive second home NYC (where, of course I lived during my 20’s and 30’s).
Some sites from the Castro, including a shrine to Donna Summer, RIP.
It was also the weekend of the 75th anniversary of the Golden Gate, and we caught them testing the lights for the fireworks show to happen the next night.
I was really impressed, especially with her emotion. The writing wasn’t always spot on, but it was a good watch and had some unpredictable surprises. The most poignant moment for me was the way they weaved the Dolly Parton song in as a country song first. Having it reworked the way it was to express something so different in such a different genre shows the universality of good music. I’ve always loved Dolly’s writing and I still think she’s underrated for the genius she is.
I really enjoyed the colorblind casting as well. This was the first big hit of a movie I believe to do that, but it was in Whitney’s other favorite movie of mine (made for TV) which contained nothing but Rogers & Hammerstein songs that was truly colorblind. In Cinderella with Brandy as the princess (casting suggested by Whitney herself when she had decided she was too old to play the role herself and instead played a young fairy godmother), Whoopi Goldberg and a white man had an Asian son, for example. The entire medieval town had people of all shades, especially within families.
I hope people enjoy this picture I include of Whitney which I had never seen until after she died and I found it from what I believe was a European magazine spread.
I cried when she died because like Michael Jackson, she was definitely part of my life’s soundtrack.
Let me tell you that while the poignant story of her discovery was amazing, the woman is a POWERHOUSE. Don’t be fooled for a moment that she is not a talent to be reckoned with as she approaches fifty and was only discovered within the last few years. Her voice is unstoppable and there is absolutely nothing that could be done in a studio that could make her voice do the things that they do on her latest album. Take a careful listen to “Return” on her latest album called “Someone to Watch Over Me”. I also find that the song choice in this third full album of hers is quite deliberate and appropriate. She continues to move people, and I think that’s what makes the difference between her and the fly-by-night dance troop that actually won the reality TV show she first appeared on.
My mother and I have a good memory of her speaking at my college graduation on Staten Island, New York in 1993.
She was an interesting character with lots of inspirational words for the large graduating class. Her choice for the commencement speaker was a surprise to me since Staten Island is pretty conservative for being inside of New York City.
I don’t understand the details of the controversies over Palin and Obama with her, I’ll let her rest in peace and keep the fond memories I had of her.
