News Archives: 2008

White Christmas Party Benefiting GMHC

17 December 2008

Mr. Patrick Duffy Presents
Andrew Buckler’s White Christmas Party
A Holiday Party and Concert Benefiting GMHC

Come one, Come all it’s an all inclusive party complete with performances and a little something for everyone. It’s an Event NOT TO BE MISSED!

Tis the season of giving and two of Downtown’s brightest sons are giving back to a most worthy cause. Event-planning impresario, Mr. Patrick Duffy, and fashion designer, Andrew Buckler, have teamed up to throw a holiday party and concert on Saturday, December 20 at Santo’s Party House, to support GMHC’s efforts to reduce HIV infections, help people living with HIV maintain and improve their health and independence, and keep HIV prevention and treatment and national priority.

Mistress of Ceremonies, Lady Bunny will be hosting a constellation of performing stars including Debbie Harry, Jasper James, Angelique Ali, Michele Balan, Sequinette, Acroback. The hosts for the evening will include Cator Sparks, Chef Josie, Kelly Cutrone, Kevin Crawford, Spencer Sweeney, Deryck Todd, Kai Kuhne, Pedro Andrade and The Trinity. The DJs for the night will be SPANK, Prince Peter and Max Pask. The event sponsors are SKYY Vodka, Classic Cars and HX.

“Guests must be at least 21 years of age.”

$40 Ticket Price: 9 til late
Includes 2 hour SKYY VODKA Bar (9 pm – 11 pm) and evenings concert

$25 Tickets Price: 11 pm til late
Doors open at 11 pm includes concert

For tickets and more information visit Gay Men’s Health Crisis

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more election related (withdrawal symptoms and surprise)

11 November 2008

back to work yesterday, we ARE in fact beginning work on a new recording, more later…

so yesterday i was perusing the stuff out there (here) in cyber land, i just wrote ‘Obama’ into google to see what popped up and lo i was confronted by just insane racist rants given credibility i suppose by appearing as they do in ‘forbes’ and to the ‘mail on line’… see i didnt realize at first that i was dealing with the ‘daily mail’ and that these two strange reports; one entitled “Obama the divider” and the other “say goodbye to the United States” (really) were the product of British not American crazy racists… ah! the light dawns, i guess the overt racism of various British peers of the realm is less understated and just plain out there than there counterparts over here… i guess you in the UK are used to this stuff, that is the more direct comments made by lunatics in the media, here its usually been unstated the way the opposition in the campaign used the word ‘terrorist’ as racial code… the ‘say goodbye’ piece was penned by one Peter Hitchens… he reports that the United States is now on its way to becoming the ‘third world’ nation that the UK already is, though he doesnt spell it out we must presume that his vision of the UK as third world is the result of the ‘fuzzie wuzzies’ and ‘coloreds’ who have come to his shores… he does go on to report anecdotally about his being in Washington DC on election day and that while he noted a few whites celebrating “among the Mexicans, Salvadorans and the other Third World nationalities, there was something like ecstasy.” of course again we are to presume that this is a terrible thing… you get the idea… so i was real fucking pissed off for a day or so then wow! i am feeling defensive about the US government! whats gonna happen next? a really interesting week

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aftermath

9 November 2008

the final weeks that lead up to the election were steeped in a weird tension that was new for me in relation to the world of politics… i dont recall previously being so deeply involved with the outcome of any political event… i have mentioned watching the last election night four years ago from a hotel room in Lima Peru and feeling disgusted with the results but this time along with many others i was really caught up in the whole thing; daily looking at the polls on ‘realclearpolitics.com’ while engaging in endless discussions etc etc so i was very relieved by what went down… many things that i hadnt thought of came to the surface not the least of which was that should ‘our side’ not prevail there might be a lot more therapy needed than for those on the ‘other side’ happily this wasn’t the case

we dont have a TV mostly cause of the kids and i absorbed all my election media from the internet… lots of time looking at clips on YouTube… after a while it hit me that every time someone posted some awful comment, raving about niggers and terrorists that this was being viewed by the whole world… this is part of the image of the US in the eyes of the world… all the stupid racism and negativity; and then the very people who are putting this stuff out there are the ones who are saying “why do they hate us!??”

in relation to the election there were more emotional moments for me than i can count… i will always remember watching the Chicago speech while sitting on the floor with Barbara in front of the computer… the kids were both aware of what was going on to varying degrees; Vali is just three so she only got a bit of it but Akira really understood at least that we were hoping that this Obama guy was going to be the next president… and a great deal of my seeing things though the kids eyes made for even more heavy emotions; while discussing all of the ramifications of the win Akira asked “what are slaves?” after hearing us use the word, how then does one explain this to a little kid who barely knows what a ‘war’ is?

really for the first time in years i feel like its not fifty fifty in the balance of the dark and light sides any more… for so long now so many of us have been living in this anti-government mode that its become second nature… those of us that were teenagers in the sixties had a taste of what was possible, what could be; all that togetherness, it was such a brief thing… i always wonder where it went, what happened to make that huge positive outpouring turn negative… now overnight there’s a return, this is a lot what it felt like back then… this is the first that is a real counter to 9-11, an exorcism of that event maybe

so thanks to all of you who helped make this happen…i know that i am going to keep up my interest in what happens with Obama and the new government, maybe things are gonna lighten up now, it would be really nice for all of us…

dont forget terrorism doesnt work on people who aren’t afraid

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Fall Out Boy rope in their heroes

28 October 2008

“Fall Out Boy have admitted they were ‘honoured’ to work with Elvis Costello and Debbie Harry on their new album. The emo rockers roped in the legendary singers along with Lil Wayne, Panic At The Disco’s Brendon Urie and Gym Class Heroes singer Travis McCoy for their fifth record Folie a Deux. Singer Patrick Stump said: ‘To say I’m influenced by Elvis Costello is a gross understatement. To have him on this record was just a real honour.’ He went on: ‘Debbie Harry’s song came together very naturally. She’s amazing and she just added so much authority to the song.'”

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Blondie endorses…

19 October 2008

all of the members of the band have discussed the upcoming election at length and all of us feel to one degree or another that Obama should be the next president… as a result and because a lot of us are following the election closely we decided to put it right out there… thus far i have gotten one mean spirited e-mail about the endorsement on the front of the site… i read most of it but when i got to the part about Obama’s campaign being so filled with hate and negativity i just hit delete… i cant remember much else of it… so feel free to write whatever but i wont read anything too cranky… in the past i have gotten messages that were more about my shutting up about politics and stick to guitar playing etc… but we are in this time of immediacy and when i was younger i would have wanted to know what people i was a fan of were thinking about all sorts of stuff… beyond that you can imagine what i think about people telling me not to speak my mind anyway again i wish the election was over… today i was pleased and a bit surprised to see Newt Gingrich, George Will and others speaking positively of Obama and his chances… the topic was Colin Powell’s endorsement of which Gingrich is quoted: “What that just did in one sound bite… is it eliminated the experience argument”

so speaking of Powell and what he said i was very moved by his speech of this morning so i am gonna put it here… whatever we crazy left wing fanatics (sic) think of Powell you just got to give it to him…

xxximagesxxx

here is an image i found on line

xxximagesxxx

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DEFinition: The Art and Design of Hip-Hop

16 October 2008

A new book, titled “DEFinition: The Art and Design of Hip-Hop” by Cey Adams with Bill Adler, contains some rare Charlie Ahearn stills of Deborah Harry and Blondie making the “Rapture” video in 1981. (Check out a review of the book at Mic to Mic, or buy the book here .) The significance of the “Rapture” video is discussed in the chapter on hip-hop video and film.

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Billboard Announces Women In Music Honorees

16 October 2008

“Ciara, Deborah Harry and Colbie Caillat will be honored at Billboard’s third annual Women in Music breakfast, to be held Oct. 24 at New York’s St. Regis Hotel. Ciara will receive the Woman of the Year award, which recognizes success as a recording artist and leadership in embracing the changing music business. Harry will be honored with the Icon award, given to a woman whose art and career have blazed trails for successive generations. Caillat, who broke through last year with her debut album, ‘CoCo,’ will receive the Rising Star award, acknowledging early success and greatest potential among artists who have released two or fewer albums.”

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VOTE!

13 October 2008

xxximagesxxx

this time its up to all of you young people to make this happen… all the baby boomers, the people of my generation couldnt do it… its all of you who have only just now registered to vote who are gonna make a huge difference this time, BUT that means not just registering but getting OUT AND VOTING no matter what happens on election day…

i have been feeling the tension waiting for the election… finally seeing the media addressing all the ugliness of the other sides campaign, that got passed over the last time… i recall Kerry having a lot of the same dumb accusations tossed at him; that he was a foreigner (French, remember?) that he was an elitist, unprepared etc etc

TERRORISM DOESNT WORK ON PEOPLE WHO ARE NOT AFRAID!!!

please guys get out and do your thing come election day, get your friends involved… please

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2008 News Archive: Page 1 of 4