Tag: It Got Better

Doug quint and Bryan Petroff (Big gay ice cream) VRP

Ellen

Big gay ice cream guys – Doug quint and Bryan Petroff


Big Gay Ice Cream:

@biggayicecream (55.6K followers)
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/BigGayIceCream?ref=br_tf (25,568 likes)
http://biggayicecream.com/

Doug Quint is a free-lance classical bassoonist and was looking for a secondary occupation in the summer off-season. A flutist friend had been operating an ice cream truck of her own and suggested doing the same to Quint, who took her up on the suggestion. In June, 2009, Doug Quint and his partner, Bryan Petroff, founded and began operating the Big Gay Ice Cream Truck at Brooklyn Pride in Prospect Park, Brooklyn. They currently operate the Big Gay Ice Cream truck during the summer months, parking at various locations throughout New York City, and tweeting their location and specialty items du jour to their followers.

After two years of just a truck, they opened their first store. As of March 2014 they also have two stores, about 30 employees, during the summer, and are opening a location in Los Angeles.

The Big Gay Ice Cream Truck has made use of social media outlets such as Twitter and Facebook to connect directly with their clientele rather than through traditional means of advertising. Quint and Petroff also frequently blog about their experience both on and off the truck.

Doug Quint:

Twitter: @GotTheShakes  (493 followers)

Vimeo: https://vimeo.com/user5371623
IMDB: http://www.imdb.com/name/nm4961493/

Credits:
Unique Sweets (TV Series) (2012-2013)
Ice Cream Nation (TV Movie)(2013)
Big Morning Buzz Live with Carrie Keagan (TV Series) (2012-2013)
United Tastes of America (TV Series) (2011)

Bryan Petroff:

Twitter: @BryanPetroff (99 followers)
LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/pub/bryan-petroff/7/735/89a

Experience:
Co-Founder- Big Gay Ice Cream
July 2009 – Present (4 years 9 months)New York, NY

Learning & Communications Manager – Warnaco
March 2008 – July 2011 (3 years 5 months)
-Support both the Learning & Development & Internal Communications departments in training, various programs, meetings & events, & communications.

HR Project Manager – New York & Company
1998 – 2007 (9 years)

Education:
The School of the Art Institute of Chicago
BFA, Fine Arts 1992 – 1996

In the Media:

Let the Big Gay Ice Cream Takeover Begin!
Doug Quint & Bryan Petroff plan to set up shop in Los Angeles this spring
1/29/2014 | OUT
http://www.out.com/travel-nightlife/city-guides/los-angeles/2014/01/29/big-gay-ice-cream-takeover-begins-guys-are

“We had no interest in West Hollywood, like we have no interest in opening up a shop in Chelsea in New York. For someone coming from New York, it’s a nice way of easing into Southern California lifestyle. There’s that downtown canyon corridor experience with 100-year-old buildings and converted lofts. And homeless people carrying plasticized mailbox cartons around with bungee cords. It feels like when I moved to New York in ’96. But we do love the idea of being in great company. We can have a kooky, funky-looking spot, and finally get the space to build a production facility.”

Known for their quirky dipped cones with soft-serve flavors such as Salty Pimp, Petroff says that they plan on developing popsicles and hard-packed ice cream in their new facilities. Plus, the ability to get fresh produce will expand their options for fresh ingredients for seasonal flavors.
……

Doug Quint: The Ice-Cream Man Cometh
May 2012 | The Julliard Journal
http://www.juilliard.edu/journal/doug-quint-ice-cream-man-cometh

“Stop making milkshakes and practice milkshakes,” an imaginary Frank Morelli whispered as his former student Doug Quint was failing to perfect the milkshakes he was trying to sell. “It was like I had jumped into a performance without practicing them and I went back and sort of dissected milkshakes from the beginning to the end,” Quint told The Journal recently. A native of Portland, Me., Quint received his master’s in bassoon from Juilliard in 1994 and eight years later is a part-time freelance musician and full-time ice cream entrepreneur. But shedding milkshakes, so to speak, was far from anything he could have seen himself doing during his Juilliard days.

Bassoon alum Doug Quint applies pumpkin butter sauce to vanilla soft-serve on his Big Gay Ice Cream Truck, which has been roaming Manhattan during ice-cream season since 2009. Now he has a store in the East Village, too.

In the spring of 2009, Quint said, he noticed a friend’s Facebook post seeking summer ice-cream truck drivers. “I thought, ‘I just want to do something weird for the summer after finishing my comprehensives and practice—but not have to worry about going to festivals or making money,’” said Quint, who at the time had been working toward a D.M.A. at the CUNY Graduate Center and freelancing with the Orchestra of St. Luke’s, Orpheus Chamber Orchestra, and a number of ensembles in Boston.

That summer, Quint and his partner, Bryan Petroff, adopted a beat-up old Mister Softee truck and began dishing out soft-serve with unusual toppings, like crushed wasabi peas, olive oil, and toasted curried coconut. They named it the Big Gay Ice Cream Truck and soon gained something of a cult following, with upward of 1,000 Twitter followers (this number has since grown to more than 30,000) and a write-up in The New York Times Dining section. Factor in a spot on The Village Voice’s list of best street food and two Vendy (best street vendor) Award nominations, and the venture’s success was promising enough to drive the first-time business owners to plan for a second year using more conventional business strategies. But for the winter months, Quint got back in musical shape and continued his bassoon career.
……

Big Gay Ice Cream’s business secrets
3/12/2014 | CNN
http://money.cnn.com/2014/03/11/smallbusiness/big-gay-ice-cream/index.html

Be different.

The couple, both in their 40s, used a castoff Mister Softee truck and focused on unexpected sweet-savory combinations. They experimented with olive oil, salt, vinegar — ingredients rarely found in desserts for the masses.

Embrace your customers.

Understand your niche.

Don’t dilute the brand.

They know ice cream is a slower sell in the winter, but you’ll never see a cauldron of Big Gay Chili or a specialty macchiato.

10 Things You Didn’t Know About Tim Cook

Cory
Tim-cook
Apple CEO Tim Cook announces a new iPad during an Apple announcement in San Francisco in March, 2012.
IMAGE: PAUL SAKUMA/ASSOCIATED PRESS
BY SETH FIEGERMAN
A few months after Steve Jobs took his first leave of absence from Apple in early 2009, Wall Street started to fall for Apple’s acting CEO Tim Cook.

Gene Munster, a prominent Apple analyst, told The Wall Street Journal in June of that year that Cook was even more essential to Apple’s future, from an investor perspective, than Jobs. “At this point,” he said, “losing Tim Cook would be a bigger deal to investors than if Steve Jobs stepped aside.”

That may have been welcome news for Cook and Apple at the time, but at least one person was unhappy: Steve Jobs.

“When Jobs heard about the press’s sterling evaluation of Cook’s performance, he hit the roof,” Yukari Iwatani Kane writes in her new book,Haunted Empire: Apple After Steve Jobs. “Cook had done an excellent job, but the leadership and skill he showed in doing so was unsettling.”

In Kane’s telling, based on interviews with current and former Apple employees, Jobs got upset at Cook and shouted: “I’m the CEO!” Cook was “unfazed” and “slipped back into the shadows” until he eventually took over as permanent CEO two years later.

This episode sheds a light on Jobs’ thinking about naming a successor and Cook’s careful maneuvering before, during and after the transition to become CEO of what was then one of the most valuable companies in the world. Jobs is portrayed in the book as genuinely wanting Apple to be successful in his absence, but perhaps not too successful. Cook, on the other hand, is portrayed as being a strong manager capable of steering the ship, but not someone likely to overshadow Jobs’ legacy.

“If Jobs was the star,” Kane writes, “then Cook was the stage manager.”

(In an unusual move, Cook issued a statement slamming the book as “nonsense” that “fails to capture Apple, Steve or anyone else in the company.”)

Wall Street doesn’t praise Cook’s performance quite as much these days. The company’s stock soared to new highs early on in Cook’s tenure, but has since tumbled back down to the low $500-range. Investors and consumers alike are waiting to see whether Apple can continue to innovate and release another breakthrough product. In short, Kane writes, Apple “now teeters at the edge of a reckoning.”

Whether the company falls off the edge depends in large part on a CEO who remains a mystery to many inside and outside the company. Cook is frequently described in the press with the same few (sometimes contradicting) words: Calm. Meticulous. Incredibly demanding. A machine who doesn’t need sleep.

Kane’s book sheds a little more like on Cook’s life and character through interviews with colleagues and people who’ve known him over the years, as well as stitching together second-hand materials. Here are a few of the things we learned about Apple’s CEO:

1. Tim Cook’s first job was delivering newspapers as a teenager — thePress-Register, a publication in his home state of Alabama. He also worked part-time with his mom at a local pharmacy.

2. His first experience running a company came while he was still in school at Auburn University. While working at Reynolds Aluminum as part of an educational program, the company laid off much of its staff. He ended up working closely with the president to help oversee the company.

3. Cook wanted to be an engineer. He studied industrial engineering in college and was described by one teacher as “a solid B-plus or A-minus student.”

4. Cook may have had grand ambitions to be rise to the top from his first days at the company. He broke with tradition for operations executives at the company and requested to have a “small office kitty-corner” to Steve Jobs’ office. “Few people thought much of it at the time,” Kane writes, “but they would later look back at it as an indication of the new leader’s ambition.”

5. Cook reportedly referred to himself as the “Attila the Hun of inventory.”

6. Over the years, recruiters have approached Cook with offers to serve as the CEO of other big tech companies like Dell and Motorola. He never budged.

7. Cook can be nearly as devastating in his dealings with staff as his predecessor Steve Jobs. He isn’t one for small talk. Instead, he grills employees by asking the same question over-and-over, or else waiting silently for long periods of time for a satisfactory answer, all while nursing a can of Mountain Dew or an energy bar. On one occasion, he calmly told a planner: “Your numbers make me want to jump out that window over there.”

8. Cook called his mother every week even when he was traveling around the world to handle issues with Apple’s supply chain. (Extra fact: his parents never used computers.)

9. He is very frugal both as a manager and in his personal life. Cook lived in a rental for years without air conditioning and, apparently, buys his underwear at Nordstrom’s half-yearly sale. As a manager, he is described as someone who “would haggle over a nickel to drive profits.”

10. Cook shied away from personal dealings with employees and worked out a different gym. However, as CEO, he does eat lunch with random employees in the Apple cafeteria, something Jobs rarely did.

BONUS: Tim Cook claims to not have a fear of failing. “If you start fearing things, then you don’t try anything new or different,” he once said in an interview with his alumni magazine. “If it doesn’t work out, it’s not the end of my world. I’ll go ride my bike.”

Jann Wenner biography in the works

Cory

The book about the famed Rolling Stone publisher will be written by Joe Hagan, a contributing editor at New York magazine.

Jann Wenner
New York magazine contributing editor Joe Hagan will write a book about Jann Wenner, the famed publisher of Rolling Stone.Photo: Associated Press

Updated: 

Jann Wenner, the founder and publisher of Rolling Stone, and an influential figure in the history of rock and roll, will soon have his own tale told. Joe Hagan, a contributing editor at New Yorkmagazine, will write a biography of Mr. Wenner for the Knopf imprint of Penguin Random House.

Knopf is paying $2 million for world English language rights to the book, according to a person familiar with the deal. It will be published in time for Rolling Stone’s 50th anniversary in 2017.

Mr. Hagan—who was a former contributing editor at Rolling Stone and its sister title Men’s Journaland began his career as an intern at Rolling Stone—will have access to Mr. Wenner and all of his archives, the spokesman said. The biography will be unauthorized, however, meaning that Mr. Wenner will not have control over its content.

Asked about the acquisition price, the spokesman declined to comment on the figure. “It’s a good pay day for Joe,” he said.

The book, as yet untitled, was kept under lock and key throughout the sale process. Instead of taking the usual route of submitting a proposal to publishing houses, Janklow & Nesbit agent PJ Mark invited editors to read the 100-page proposal in the agency’s office in midtown.

The chairman and one of the founders of the Rock and Rock Hall of Fame Foundation, Mr. Wenner has a reputation as a mercurial manager of his publications, which also include celebrity title Us Weekly. But he also made Rolling Stone into an influential and groundbreaking publication in the areas of culture and politics as well as popular music.

Writers whose careers Mr. Wenner furthered include Hunter S. Thompson—whose classic, Fear and Loathing on the Campaign Trail, first appeared in Rolling Stone—and Tom Wolfe, whose book about the early days of the space program, The Right Stuff, grew out of articles in the magazine. Bonfire of the Vanities, Mr. Wolfe’s celebrated novel about New York in the 1980s, was first serialized in Rolling Stone.

Mr. Wenner made front-page news in 1995 when he left his wife of nearly 30 years, Jane Schindelheim, for a 28-year old former male model, Matt Nye. Mssrs. Wenner and Nye have three children. Mr. Wenner and his wife—with whom he also has three children—finally divorced in 2011.

Correction: Joe Hagan, a contributing editor at New York magazine, was a former contributing editor at Rolling Stone and its sister title Men’s Journal. His roles were misstated in the summary and text of an earlier version of this article published March 19, 2014.

Tegan and Sara VRP

Ellen

Tegan and Sara

Tegan and Sara are a Canadian indie rock duo formed in 1995 in Calgary, composed of identical twin sisters Tegan Rain Quin and Sara Keirsten Quin (both born September 19, 1980). Both musicians are songwriters and play the guitar and keyboards.

The twins are openly gay. Tegan lives in Vancouver, British Columbia, Sara lives in Montreal, Quebec, and also in New York City with her girlfriend; they have been dating since 2011.

Background and early work: 1997–2003

Tegan and Sara Quin were born September 19, 1980 in Calgary, Alberta. They began playing guitar and writing songs at age 15, forming a band called Plunk without a drummer or bass player. In 1997, they used their school’s recording studio to record two demo albums: Who’s in Your Band? and Play Day. In 1998, they won Calgary’s Garage Warz competition, using the studio time they won to record their first professional demo, Yellow tape, which was followed by Orange tape and Red tape.

In 1999, they released their debut album Under Feet Like Ours independently under the name “Sara and Tegan”. Two songs from Red tape appeared on the album, and two from Orange tape. They later changed their name to “Tegan and Sara” because it was easier to pronounce and because they wanted their name to stand out amongst the other “Sara” musicians at the time such as Sarah McLachlan and Sarah Slean. They reprinted their first album under the name Tegan and Sara. Neil Young’s manager signed them to Young’s Vapor Records label and they released This Business of Art through Vapor in 2000. They have toured extensively since then. In 2002, the band released their third album If It Was You. Their fourth album, So Jealous, was released in 2004 and led to wider success. This album was released through both Vapor and Sanctuary. One track on the album, “Walking with a Ghost”, was covered by The White Stripes, who released it on their Walking with a Ghost EP.

Mainstream success: 2007–2011

Their 2007 album, The Con, was released by Vapor and Sire. The album was co-produced by Chris Walla. Jason McGerr of Death Cab for Cutie, Matt Sharp of The Rentals and previously Weezer, Hunter Burgan of AFI, and Kaki King all appear on the album.

On October 27, 2009, Tegan and Sara released their sixth album Sainthood, produced by Chris Walla and Howard Redekopp, as well as a three-volume book set titled ON, IN, AT, which is a collection of stories, essays, journals, and photos of the band on tour in America in the fall of 2008, writing together in New Orleans, and touring Australia. The photographs in the book are by Lindsey Byrnes and Ryan Russell. Sainthood debuted on the Billboard top 200 albums at number 21 selling, 24,000 copies in its first week. While recording Sainthood, Tegan and Sara spent a week writing songs together in New Orleans. The song “Paperback Head” appeared on the album, making it the first song on any Tegan and Sara album that they wrote together. Spin magazine gave Sainthood four out of five stars and wrote, “Tegan and Sara’s music may no longer be the stuff of teens, but its strength remains in how much it feels like two people talking.”

In 2011, they launched 2011: A Merch Odyssey, which saw at least one new item in the official online stores every month, all year long. A live CD/DVD combination package titled Get Along was released on November 15 and contains three films titled “States”, “India” and “For The Most Part”. Get Along was nominated in the 2013 Grammy Awards for “Best Long Form Music Video”.

Heartthrob: 2012–present

Tegan and Sara started recording their seventh studio album, Heartthrob, on February 20, 2012. The first single, “Closer”, was released on September 25, 2012. The album was released on January 29, 2013 and debuted on the Billboard top 200 at number 3, the band’s highest charting record to date, selling 49,000 copies in its first week. Heartthrob debuted at number 2 on the Canadian chart, digital downloads chart and hit number 1 on the rock and alternative album charts. In July 2013, the album was shortlisted for the 2013 Polaris Music Prize.

In 2009, Tegan and Sara worked as producers for the first time. Tegan worked with char2d2 on the 2009 Small Vampires EP, while Sara worked on 2010 debut albums for Fences and Hesta Prynn.

Tegan and Sara have appeared on American, Canadian, and European television shows, including The Ellen DeGeneres Show (2013), Jimmy Kimmel Live! (2005, 2013), Jonovision, The Late Late Show with Craig Kilborn (2004), Late Night with Conan O’Brien (2005, 2007, 2009, 2012), Late Show with David Letterman (2000, 2008, 2012), The NewMusic, The Tonight Show with Jay Leno (2008, 2013), C à vous (2013), and ZeD.

Tegan and Sara songs have been featured in the films “Dallas Buyers Club”, “G.B.F.”, Monster-in-Law, Sweet November, and These Girls, and in the television shows Degrassi: The Next Generation, 90210, Being Erica, Ghost Whisperer, Grey’s Anatomy, The Hills, Hollyoaks, jPod, The L Word, Life Unexpected, Melrose Place (2009 series), One Tree Hill, Parenthood, Rookie Blue, Vampire Diaries, Veronica Mars, Waterloo Road (2011) and What’s New, Scooby-Doo?. Their song “Closer” was covered by Glee on the episode “Feud” which aired March 14, 2013 at 9pm EST on Global for Canada and Fox for USA. The song is also used in the teaser trailer for the 2013 independent comedy film, “Exes”.

In 2006, Tegan and Sara performed in The L Word episode “Last Dance” (season 3, episode 11). In 2008, they appeared on the kids music television show Pancake Mountain where they acted in a skit and performed their songs “Back in Your Head”, “Hop a Plane”, and an acoustic version of “Walking with a Ghost”. In 2010, they appeared on CBC’s Mamma Yamma, revising their single “Alligator” into a children’s song. In 2012, Tegan and Sara appeared in the 90210 episode “The Things We Do for Love” performing “Closer” and “Now I’m All Messed Up” from their album Heartthrob.

In 2011, Sara Quin was a panelist on the CBC Radio 1 program Canada Reads, defending Jeff Lemire’s graphic novel Essex County. The book, the first graphic novel to be featured as part of Canada Reads, was voted off after the first round but then later placed #1 in a “People’s Choice” poll with more votes than all other books combined.

In March 2013 during the SXSW festival Tegan and Sara co-hosted the mtvU Woodie awards with rapper Machine Gun Kelly. They also performed their single “Closer”. The Woodie Awards aired on MTV on March 17, 2013. On September 30, 2013, Tegan and Sara performed “Closer” on Today.

Tegan and Sara have collaborated with The Lonely Island on a song called “Everything Is Awesome!!!” for The Lego Movie soundtrack. The movie opened in theaters on February 7, 2014. The song debuted at number 62 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart and number 24 on the Official UK Singles chart.

Official Website: http://www.teganandsara.com/

Twitter (420K followers)

https://twitter.com/teganandsara

Facebook (1,040,378 likes)

https://www.facebook.com/TeganandSara

My Space (51K & 322,058)

https://myspace.com/teganandsara

Tumblr

http://teganandsara.tumblr.com/

IMDB: http://www.imdb.com/name/nm1763207/

Soundtrack credits: The Lego Movie (2014), Altitude (2010), Dallas Buyers Club (2013), 90210 (TV Series) (3 episodes) (2009-2012), Grey’s Anatomy (TV Series) (performer – 8 episodes, 2005 – 2007) (writer – 3 episodes, 2005 – 2012)

Tegan Quin on Her ‘Awesome’ Vocals and Tegan and Sara’s ‘Lego’ Song

“We were told we should sing it with as much excitement and jubilation as possible,” singer tells Rolling Stone

2/18/2014 | The Rolling Stone

http://www.rollingstone.com/music/news/tegan-quin-on-her-awesome-vocals-and-tegan-and-saras-lego-song-20140218

When the musical comedy trio the Lonely Island reached out to Tegan and Sara with the prospect of recording a song for The Lego Movie, Tegan Quin remembers their reaction was, “Legos, cool!” The indie-pop sister duo worked on a demo and within two weeks, found themselves recording “Everything Is Awesome” with Devo frontman Mark Mothersbaugh. “Two hours later, we watched the video and voila,” Quin says. The ebullient hit single debuted at Number 11 on Billboard’s Dance/Electronic Songs chart.

Quin says they spent all of a couple of hours working on the song, futzing around with its tempo and its key to get it just right. She was happy with the result. “Obviously we got to end up as Legos,” she says. “We saw a couple of scenes from the movie and I thought it was really smart and funny.” Rolling Stone caught up with Quin to put together (har har) how the song was recorded.

6 major reasons Tegan And Sara are on fire right now
Everything is awesome for musical sister duo

2/18/2014 | HitFix Music

http://www.hitfix.com/immaculate-noise/6-major-reasons-tegan-and-sara-are-on-fire-right-now

Tegan and Sara Quin made a very conscious decision to make their music more “accessible” with the release of their last album “Heartthrob” last year.

“Look at Adele and Coldplay, who are accessible to more people. For their fans, that’s really raw and emotional… I can’t change my voice. I’m never gonna sound like Katy Perry or Chris Martin or Adele,” Tegan told me back in May 2012. “There’s always going to be fans who wish we still sat on stools and didn’t have a band and played our shows that way… but now I want to share my music with as many people as I can.”

“Heartthrob” became one of the sister-duo’s best-selling album to date, and yielded their biggest singles, and thrust them further into music’s mainstream — and main stage, big screen, small screen and into headlines. And even moreso lately, it seems, they’re everywhere.

Here’s six major reasons Tegan and Sara have been totally killing it so far in 2014:

1. “Everything Is Awesome.” It is indeed. Anybody who has set foot in “The Lego Movie” and/or The Internet will be unable to deny the attractive power of the film’s, erm, anthem “Everything Is Awesome.”

Everything is cool when you’re part of a team. And it took a team. Mark Mothersbaugh of Devo produced and co-wrote the soundtrack to “Lego Movie,” including this brain-gum of a single. Tegan and Sara plus comedy troupe The Lonely Island all piled on to its “remix,” which itself should be the topic of a masters thesis class in contemporary pop music. It not only makes fun of popular music tropes, but has its own lyrical subversion and performances that T&S knock out of the park.

2. Opening for Katy Perry. A few months ago, I had the privilege of seeing Katy Perry take the stage at the Hollywood Bowl, and some of her own personal favorite, hand-picked artists open the show. T&S, who have performed with Perry before, lit up the Hollywood Bowl with their typically hysterical banter. Their appreciation for each other, their acumen to warm a (literally) chilly and mainstream crowd and their kinship with Perry could kindle even the coldest cockles.

Perry has tapped T&S among her set openers for the forthcoming Prismatic World Tour, with Tegan and Sara’s spots starting Sept. 9 in Vancouver. Don’t expect “Everything Is Awesome” to make the setlist, though.

“Without the Lonely Island guys traveling with us, I can’t really imagine it within our set. But that’s not because I’m not proud of it,” Sara Quin told Billboard.

3. “Don’t Find Another Love.” I have listened to this new song from the soundtrack to “Endless Love” about 700 times. It’s equal parts Ellie Goulding, Local Natives and Diana Ross, and yet still inextricably Tegan and Sara. Upbeat and “wicked,” it’s simple and unapologetically sweet.

Do not see the movie. I’m sorry. Do listen to this amazing soundtrack, which also has some Immaculate Noise favorites like Nonono, Cults, The Tallest Man On Earth and The Bird And The Bee with The National’s Matt Berninger. There is no pouty Pettyfer to contend with.

4. Oreos. God, as if I didn’t love Oreos enough. Tegan and Sara retained their distinct style and voices for a fresh commercial for the milk-loving cookie co. And they didn’t write this “Wonderfilled” jingle, ad company The Martin Agency did. How did they manage to find the perfect opportunity to line their pockets with fresh, delicious money without compromising their sound? Well, of course, it helps that their sound has drastically changed from their early career, but the dance-pop version of T&S is a no-brainer for partnerships like these.

This campaign started around the Grammys last month. Now give me a bite.

5. “Shudder to Think.” Still hungry? How about their original song for Oscar-nominated “Dallas Buyers Club?” Beyond even that: 10% of the sales of the soundtrack went to (RED) in the global fight against AIDS. This burst of awesome has staying power into 2014 because “DBC” is up for a whopping six Academy Awards in March, including Best Picture. How about a Best Song nod for T&S soon, huh?

6. That Ellen Page name-check. The “Juno” actress and your new best friend gave a nine-minute speech on Valentine’s Day as a coming-out, during a human rights conference. “I am here today because I am gay,” Page said, then saluting others’ efforts to “promote safety, inclusion, and well-being for LGBTQ youth.”

“There are pervasive stereotypes about masculinity and femininity that define how we’re all supposed to act, dress, and speak, and they serve no one. Anyone who defies these so-called ‘norms’ becomes worthy of comment and scrutiny, and the LGBT community knows this all too well,” Page said from the podium at the Human Rights Campaign Foundation’s Time To THRIVE conference. “Yet there is courage all around us. The football hero Michael Sam; the actress Laverne Cox; the musicians Tegan and Sara Quin; the family that supports their daughter or son who has come out.”

Tegan and Sara were “out” as lesbians in their teens. Fifteen years on, strangers still approach them and tell them their own stories of coming-out. T&S have been powerful and vocal activists and advocates for LGBT rights, starting by being who they are and being very talented. A hat-tip from a high-profile actress is not just lip service but a testament to power by example. A very cool moment.

‘The Lego Movie’: Why Tegan & Sara Went Chirpy for ‘Everything Is Awesome’ (Video)

2/17/2014 | The Hollywood Reporter

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/earshot/video-lego-movie-why-tegan-680761

The duo worked with Andy Samberg’s Lonely Island and film composer Mark Mothersbaugh for the blockbuster’s insanely upbeat track.

While this week’s Hot 100 chart includes two songs in the Top 20 that were first heard in feature films (Pharrell’s “Happy” from Despicable Me 2, and Idina Menzel’s “Let It Go” from Frozen), a wacky single from current box office champ The LEGO Movie is also finding an audience. “Everything Is Awesome,” a collaboration between Tegan & Sara, the Lonely Island and film composer Mark Mothersbaugh, debuts at No. 11 on the Dance/Electronic Songs chart, with 34,000 downloads sold to date, according to Nielsen SoundScan.

The chirpy, insanely upbeat track does not exactly fit into the nuanced indie-pop catalogue of Tegan & Sara, but that’s what attracted the veteran sister duo toward the project, the group’s Sara Quin tells Billboard.

“We want to be a ‘serious’ musical band, while also being funny people,” says Quin. “But this was so adorable, and the movie looked great, and the opportunity to do something with Mark Mothersbaugh and the Lonely Island… it was sort of a no-brainer, and it’s turned out to be this really cool moment. We feel like it was a win-win.”

Tegan & Sara signed on to record “Everything Is Awesome” after hearing an early version of the song, which didn’t yet have the Lonely Island delivering the rap breakdown. Although the duo typically writes its lyrics, the song’s cleverness and catchiness pushed Tegan & Sara to cut vocals for a new version of the “Awesome” song.

“It’s a crazy earworm,” says Quin. “As someone who prides myself on being able to write things that are memorable and hooky, the second that we heard this song, I was astounded. Whether you like the song or not, whether you think it’s funny or annoying, there’s no denying that it’s a ridiculously hooky thing. As soon as you hear it, it never leaves your brain.”

Quin says that her sister Tegan went into the studio with Mothersbaugh — the leader of Devo who composed music for films like 21 Jump Street and Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs — to record the song’s main vocals, while Sara sent in backing vocals from her apartment. Although the pair was never in the studio with the Lonely Island, Quin says that the final product is a “fun, spontaneous” combination of their pop stylings and the Andy Samberg troupe’s off-the-wall antics. And after The LEGO Movie earned positive reviews and grossed $69.1 million over its opening weekend last week, Quin says that she’s noticed a swell of interest in the song over the past week.

Tegan & Sara have been on the road for over a year supporting their 2013 album Heartthrob, and will be opening on part of Katy Perry’s Prismatic arena tour this summer. However, fans shouldn’t expect to hear “Everything Is Awesome” nudged in between recent tracks like “Closer” and “I Was A Fool” at Tegan & Sara concerts.

“The other night, we were playing a show and were about halfway through the set when I heard a guy go, ‘Play “Everything Is Awesome”!’ And I was like, ‘Oh no, this could become a problem,'” says Quin with a laugh. “Without the Lonely Island guys traveling with us, I can’t really imagine it within our set. But that’s not because I’m not proud of it.”

 

Tour schedule:

http://www.teganandsara.com/shows/

Jason Collins shatters stereotypes with the Brooklyn Nets

Cory

Jason Collins (Kathy Kmonicek/AP)

Jason Collins (Kathy Kmonicek/AP)

I’m not interested in writing about organizers sponsoring St. Patrick’s Day parades that don’t allow gay people march in them. Their attitudes are behind the times. When they finally realize they need to catch up, we’ll be here — glaring at them with wild-eyed impatience, no doubt. Instead, kudos belong to the National Basketball Association and specifically to the Brooklyn Nets.

The Nets announced via an online statement Saturday morning that Jason Collins was signed to play with the team for the remainder of the season. This is significant because Collins was the first openly gay male  professional athlete when he came out last April. He then became the first openly gay male athlete to actually play when signed a 10-day contract with the Brooklyn ball team last month.

The fact that the temporary job became permanent shows that Collins proved himself worthy of the uniform. It also proved something that should never have been in doubt: gays can play sports. They just need to be allowed to play — openly.

George Takei Reflects on Travel, Both Painful and Pleasurable

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By RACHEL LEE HARRIS

Photo

Mr. Takei in “Allegiance,” a musical. CreditHenry DiRocco

George Takei is a man of many speaking engagements. He talks at “Star Trek” conventions about his role as Mr. Sulu. He tells soldiers and students about the role of Japanese-Americans during World War II, a subject in which he is well versed. In a new musical, “Allegiance,” based on his family’s experience living in internment camps during the war, he actually sings the story.

With one million Twitter followers, he is also a major Internet presence, which leads to more talking — on news shows, usually about his political activism. And in January, he was chatting up crowds at the Sundance Film Festival, promoting a new documentary about his life, “To Be Takei: A Star’s Trek for Life, Liberty and Love.” (Mr. Takei and his husband, Brad Takei, have homes in Los Angeles, Arizona and New York City.)

In May, Mr. Takei, 76, will do a speaking tour at universities in Japan and Korea, organized by the State Department, to talk about his life and career as an openly gay Asian-American.

Below are edited excerpts from a conversation with Mr. Takei.

Q. Why were you speaking at military bases in Bavaria a few years back?

A. May is Asian-Pacific American Heritage Month, and about five years ago the military decided they needed to know more about the Asian-American contribution to our military. I spoke at every American base in southern Bavaria and described some of the battles. I talked about the absolutely amazing heroism of the Japanese-Americans during World War II, young men who came from behind barbed-wired internment camps, who were labeled enemy non-aliens. They even took the word “citizen” from us. And yet, a year later, when they opened up service to us, thousands went to fight in Europe, in a segregated unit. When they came back, they were welcomed back on the White House lawn.

Where was your family interned during World War II?

I will never forget that scary day. My parents were packing, and I saw two soldiers with bayonets march up to our front door, and we were marched out simply because of our ancestry. We were taken to a swamp in Arkansas and later to California.

Do you travel there?

I’ve gone back many times to Arkansas. First in 2004, to verify my childhood memories: the lush forest, the pools of water. As we drove down, it was miles and miles of cotton fields, and I didn’t recognize any of it. Our guide told us the swamp was drained and the forest was chopped down. There was no evidence of the camp having been there, except for the cemetery, which had been maintained by a Japanese-American family that remained there. The most prominent marker was a crumbling concrete pylon with an eagle on the top listing the names of the men who went from that camp to perish on the bloody battlefields. It was wrenching. I owe the America I enjoy today to those incredible, crazy young men. But let me put in a good word for Little Rock, Ark. We are great fans of the Clintons and contributed to the Clinton Library there. My autobiography, where I talk about my childhood in the camp in Arkansas, is in that library.

Where do you travel for pleasure?

I’m an Anglophile, so usually London for theater. And Japan. I’m fascinated with Japanese history and its relationship to the United States.

What are your favorite places in Japan?

We just love Nagoya, Kyoto, Nara, Hiroshima and, a short ferry ride from Hiroshima, the sacred island called Miyajima, or the “shrine island,” where the lovely Itsukushima Shrine looks like it’s floating in the bay. There is no hospital there because no one should be born or die on that island.

We love to stay at ryokans, Japanese inns. These are all ancient inns — as a matter of fact, there is a separate residence for the emperor at one in Miyajima, called Iwaso, on the side of a ravine. You go off and tour around and when you come back, they give you a cotton kimono and suggest you have a good soak in the mineral bath. By the time you come up, your room has been transformed into a dining room with a low jet-black lacquer table set with kaiseki, a tasting menu with a dozen different dishes. Then you go down the path to visit the temple in moonlight. When you come back, your room is transformed again into a bedroom.

There is an inn in Nara, Kikusuiryo-ryo, which translates into English as “chrysanthemum water inn.” There is a great big beautiful Japanese garden there you can stroll through. Incongruously, in your room is a huge 60 or 70-inch Sony television. They have private mineral spring baths as well as a huge bath for everyone.

You don’t seem to hold a grudge. Will you visit Arizona soon?

If the governor had not vetoed that bill, it would have been a very serious situation. What’s surprising is that Arizona’s Legislature is dominated by religious extremists that don’t really represent the people of Arizona. They embarrass the state, put a stain on the state’s reputation and do economic damage. They won’t be allowed to do that to such a beautiful state anymore.

After your work with “Star Trek,” are you interested in space travel?

Isn’t this an exciting new phase? I’m particularly impressed with Elon Musk, the founder of Tesla. He is such a visionary. And now free enterprise instead of government is going into space travel, and he’s going to provide the kind of shuttle service NASA used to, through SpaceX. Richard Branson is working on space tourism, which is also very exciting. So, yes, I do want to be in line for that kind of trip.

Correction: March 11, 2014
An earlier version of this article misstated one of the camps in which George Takei and his family were interned during World War II. They were indeed interned in Arkansas, but later were taken to California, not Wyoming.

A version of this article appears in print on March 9, 2014, on page TR3 of the New York edition with the headline: George Takei on Visiting Places of Past Stress and of Great Pleasure…

Nate Berkus And Jeremiah Brent Star In Banana Republic Campaign (PHOTOS)

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Nate Berkus and his fiancé Jeremiah Brent are breaking fresh ground in the fashion world as the stars of a new Banana Republic campaign.

As The New York Times reported, ads featuring the stylish duo are featured in InStyle and Rolling Stone, among other publications. The “True Outfitters” campaign focuses on pairs of models who are also real-life couples, including Argentinian model and Tulum hotelier Nicolas Malleville and his family and European models Sara Blomqvist and Jeremy Young.

But as the Times points out, Banana Republic is the only clothing retailer to include a same-sex couple in its ads for the aforementioned magazines.

Berkus popped the question to Brent in April 2013 while visiting Peru’s Machu Picchu.

Check out Nate and Jeremiah’s photos from the campaign below:

Gay Hollywood: 13 Out & Proud Celebrities Before Ellen Page

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  • Actress Ellen Page came out as gay in a HRC speech on Valentine’s Day, saying “I am tired of hiding, I’m tired of lying by omission.” Here are 13 others who made the same bold declaration in the past 12 months.
Emkay Nobilette, “American Idol” contestant: A few days before Page’s moving speech, the singer became first to come out on the Fox competition in show’s long history.
Michael Sam, NFL prospect: If drafted in May, Sam will become the first openly gay NFL player.
Robin Roberts, “Good Morning America” anchor.
Morph, “X-Men” character.
Wentworth Miller, “Prison Break” star.
Maria Bello, “Prisoners” actress.
Brian Boitano, former U.S. Olympian (figure skater).
Tom Daley, British Olympian (diver).
Darren Young, WWE Superstar.
Raven Symone, “That’s So Raven” star.
Jodie Foster, “Elysium” actress.
Matt Dallas, “Kyle XY” lead.
Jason Collins, former NBA player came out to “Sports Illustrated” in 2013, becoming at the time the first active, out professional athlete in major American sports.

via thewrap.com

Ellen Page Comes Out

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Ellen Page, Paris, 2013.
Photo by Kristy Sparow/Getty Images

The actress Ellen Page came out in an emotional, eloquent speech today at the Human Rights Campaign’s Time to THRIVE conference in Las Vegas. “Loving other people starts with loving ourselves and accepting ourselves,” a visibly nervous Page said. “I am here today because I am gay.” After a short standing ovation, she continued:

Maybe I can make a difference to help others have an easier and more hopeful time… I also do it selfishly because I’m tired of hiding and I’m tired of lying by omission. I suffered for years because I was scared to be out. My spirit suffered. My mental health suffered. My relationships suffered. I’m standing here today with all of you on the other side of that pain.

It’s notable of course that an actress who’s worked in both blockbusters (Inception) and indie hits (Juno) is going public with her sexuality, but it’s particularly laudable that Page did so at this conference, before an audience of those working for the welfare of LGBT youth.

Dan Kois is a senior editor at Slate and a contributing writer to the New York Times Magazine.