Smile Like You Have A Naughty Secret....
Michael Shinafelt
Well this week I am feeling mighty real! A special shout out to Sylvester - the original Drag Queen Superstar! So do you want smell the batch Michael is brewing?! Oh yes, yes you do... Major Meltdowns are officially a thing I like to get popped weekly My mood is bigger than yours The wait is over: Jake Gyllenhaal is finally on Instagram. OK, was anyone clamoring for this??? Do you eat dumplings? French, it's what's for dinner Virginity comments, discuss Hi. Bitch Take a deep breath and remember who the F#ck you are
Wanna thrill? Hump Day & Chill to the other Yanni...Yanni Burton
Yanni Burton Yearns To Break Free from a Sleepy Stagnant Relationship
in New Single, “Awake”
“Awake,” the new song by out singer-songwriter Yanni Burton, was inspired by Yanni’s own experience, coming to terms with the realization that it was time to break free from a stagnant relationship and find passion in life again. “I was stuck in a long distance relationship,” Yanni explains. “The days and weeks apart left me feeling lonely and empty. I remember being in a constant fog of self doubt and indecision.” Sitting down to write “Awake” helped Yanni to refocus his goals and pull himself out from his sleepy funk. The end result is a broody song that brilliantly combines his passion for pop and classical music. Produced by Yanni and mixed and edited by multi-platinum record producer Kieran Kelly, “Awake” is available on iTunes, Spotify and all major digital platforms. The music video is on Youtube.
Yanni Burton grew up in Adelaide, Australia – a small town that was first put on the map as the birthplace of pop singer Sia. He lived most days in the city with his mother but holidays were spent in the country on his dad’s farm. “The farm was in the middle of nowhere and I’d arrive in solid gold sneakers, booty shorts and a tank top, like I’d just come off the set of Priscilla Queen of the Desert,” he remembers. “I loved hanging with the kangaroos and Klunk, my dad’s pet Emu.”
He came out as gay a bit later than most in his generation. Yanni had his very first relationship at 22. When he told his mother he was dating a guy, she slapped him. Not because he was gay. She had already had a vision about that. (When Yanni was born, she noticed a rainbow light up the sky and declared to his father that their boy would be gay.) She was more upset by the man’s advanced age. No son of hers was going to be a sugar baby!
Yanni, Yanni, Yanni!
Photo:
Charles Quiles
His dad took the news much better. Yanni told him while they were on a trip to rural Pennsylvania, visiting the Amish. “I was bawling my eyes out under the fluorescent lights of a moldy Motel Six hallway and Dad simply hugged me and said, ‘Its ok, I love you.’”
For college, Yanni attended the prestigious Juilliard School in Manhattan where he studied the double bass. In fact, he holds a bachelor's and master’s degree in orchestral performance and is Producer and General Manager of the Salome Chamber Orchestra, where he has performed alongside a long list of celebrated artists including John Legend, Michelle Williams, Natasha Beddingfield and Rufus Wainwright. John Legend and Rufus Wainwright were instrumental in helping Yanni to obtain an artist green card. Both graciously agreed to write a letter of support for his US residency.
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He describes life today as a “gay thirty-something in New York City”. Yanni attends Barry’s Bootcamp religiously, pays too much rent and complains about it every second he can. He’s also found love again! His fiancé is smart, attractive and most importantly, twenty-something, which means he is mom-approved.
He is not the man featured in the music video for “Awake”. That is Reed Laplau, a fellow Aussie who danced for the Sydney Dance Company before moving to NYC where his career has taken off on Broadway in productions of The Great Comet of 1812,Fiddler on the Roof, and the upcoming Moulin Rouge.
The video was shot in an incredible 20,000 square foot warehouse in Brooklyn. “It was abandoned and the lovely lady who owns it offered us the opportunity to do whatever we wanted with it…so naturally we filled it with lighting rigs, skeletons, and flour,” Yanni laughs.
Yanni aspires for his audience to connect, see, and feel themselves in his music and lyrics so that ultimately, they hear their own story being told. “I hope my music conveys to listeners that it is okay to be yourself. Never censor who you are or hold back in expressing yourself. Step up for what you believe in and most importantly, have fun.”
Remember when Jane Fonda was Queen of Fitness? If so, then you are a person of a certain age. Oh yes you are...
Lightyear Entertainment, in partnership with Fonda, Inc., has announced the release of two more of the best-selling fitness videos of all time, on DVD and Digital Media, with a DVD street date of December 18, 2018.
This follows the successful release of 5 of the Fonda Workouts in 2015, including the Original Workout, plus a DVD boxed set, The Jane Fonda Workout Collection.
The new titles are the Lean Routine and Lower Body Solution Workouts. The DVDs will be released in the U.S. and Canada through MVD Distribution.
Lower Body Solution is a complete workout for abs, buns, and thighs. Adaptable for all fitness levels, the low-impact choreography is user friendly to beginners, while optional bench aerobics add variety and challenge for intermediate and advanced exercisers.
Lean Routine is the ultimate fat-burning workout for everyone. It includes low impact high energy aerobics, applicable for beginners through advanced.
Jane Fonda said: "Who knew that this many years later people would still be doing The Workout, but they are!"
Arnie Holland, President of Lightyear, said "The five DVDs we released in 2015 and the Boxed Set have been selling extraordinarily well and steadily for the past 3 years. We are delighted that Jane Fonda and Warner Bros. have agreed to allow us to release more of these programs, which changed the face of the home video business when originally released. They set unheard of sales records, dominated the sell-through charts for more than a decade, and changed American culture. Lean Routineand Lower Body Solutionare two of the programs that fans have most often requested."
Both programs have been digitally remastered and color corrected for the upcoming release by Gerry Curtis at Forest Lake Films.
Lightyear Entertainment, a distributor of independent films and music, was founded in 1987.
In keeping with yesterday's Hunky Holiday theme today's Monday Motivation comes in the form of none other than Santa Claus! Well Kurt Russell as Santa in the Netflix Holiday movie The Christmas Chronicles, saw that three times fast, c'mon I dare ya! Who 'd have ever thunk that Santa would ever qualify as Hunky?! I ask you, "yep" I am asking so gimme an answer, post haste. Well when 67 year old Kurt Russell portrays him, he magically becomes Hot Daddy material. Thus Kurt, not Santa is really what motivates me this Monday to keep up on the fitness and health regime I have embarked on and to keep getting better and better. So with a mighty Ho, Ho, Ho I send you on your way this Monday December 3rd 2018 to take on the world and do something good for yourself. "Tis the season after all...!!! Kurt on IMDB - https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0000621/
Today is World AIDS Day - while I have no eloquent way to address this subject I wanted to honor this day and the people whose lives have been affected by this. We are living in questionable times so I choose to celebrate humanity in the form of Harvey Milk's inspiring speech Give Them Hope. It is simple, yet amazing, and most important right here, right now in this particular time in history, uplifting. I can't believe it is December 1st 2018 already! Make today great! Listen closely below...
I remember when this came out. "Yes" I bought it...
Premieres Nationwide Friday, December 14 on PBS
Iconic singer-songwriter k.d. lang performs complete "Ingénue" album in honor of its 25th anniversary at the Majestic Theatre in San Antonio
Ingenue Redux: Live from The Majestic Theatre
Coming to DVD, Blu-ray, and Digital Formats via MVD on December 14th
Iconic singer-songwriter k.d. lang performs a 25th anniversary concert celebrating her critically acclaimed 1992 album "Ingénue" from the Majestic Theater in San Antonio, Texas, in k.d. lang - Landmarks Live in Concert - A Great Performances Special, premiering nationwide Friday, December 14 at 9 p.m. on PBS (check local listings).
Lush and subtle, "Ingénue" allowed lang and co-writer-producer Ben Mink to explore jazz, cabaret and Tin Pan Alley songwriting, resulting in some of her greatest compositions. This
Landmarks Live in Concert special features an uninterrupted performance of the complete "Ingénue"album, including lang's GRAMMY
® Award-winning hit "Constant Craving," "Save Me," "Wash Me Clean," "Season of Hollow Soul" and "Miss Chatelaine." The concert also includes the beloved Leonard Cohen song "Hallelujah" and a previously unreleased song by lang and Joe Pisapia, "Sleeping Alone." The special also features an interview with lang by James Reed, an entertainment editor at Los Angeles Times.
Twenty-six years ago, k.d. lang was embraced by the music world, its elders (including collaborators such as Tony Bennett and Roy Orbison) and audiences all over the globe for her powerfully emotional voice and often quirky take on country music.
"'Ingénue' was a change in vernacular and vocabulary in that it was personal-finding some romantic space," saidk.d. lang. "It was time. It was me. I had gotten to a time and point where I wanted to be me."
"Working with k.d. to create such a personal and special piece is one of the highlights of my career," said Landmarks Live in Concert director and executive producer Daniel E Catullo III. "This show is special in so many ways and I was honored to be able to work with k.d. to translate this show onto TV."
Song List:
"Save Me"
"The Mind of Love"
"Miss Chatelaine"
"Wash Me Clean"
"So It Shall Be"
"Still Thrives This Love"
"Season of Hollow Soul" (full video below)
"Outside Myself"
"Tears of Love's Recall"
"Constant Craving"
"Hallelujah"
"Sleeping Alone"
The concert will be available to stream the following day via PBS Passport (contact your local PBS station for details) at pbs.org/gperf and PBS apps.PBS Passport is a special benefit for PBS supporters to access an on-demand library of over 1,000 hours of quality public television programming. Viewer contributions are an important source of funding, making PBS programs possible. PBS and public television stations offer all Americans from every walk of life the opportunity to explore new ideas and new worlds through television and online programming. Contact your local PBS station for details on PBS Passport.
The concert DVD and Blu-ray also will be available December 14 via MVD Entertainment Group. k.d. lang's "Ingénue: 25th Anniversary Edition" was released by Nonesuch Records last year in celebration of the double platinum-selling, GRAMMY Award-winning album's silver anniversary. The two-disc set includes remastered versions of the album's original 10 tracks as well as eight previously unreleased performances from lang's 1993 MTV Unplugged episode, recorded in New York City's famed Ed Sullivan Theater.
InCreated by documentary and live event producer/director Daniel E Catullo III, Landmarks Live in Concert features a lineup of global music superstars performing at landmark locations of either historical or personal significance around the world. Past episodes featured Alicia Keys at multiple locations around New York City, Brad Paisley at West Virginia University, Andrea Bocelli live at Florence's Palazzo Vecchio, Foo Fighters at the Acropolis in Athens, Greece, and will.i.am with the Black Eyed Peas and friends at London's Royal Albert Hall.
Landmarks Live in Concert is a production of City Drive Films. Daniel E Catullo III, CEO of City Drive Films is creator, director and executive producer. The series is co-produced with Bungalow Media + Entertainment. Its CEO, industry veteran Robert Friedman also serves as executive producer. For Great Performances, Bill O'Donnell is series producer and David Horn is executive producer. Stephen Segaller is executive-in-charge for WNET.
Great Performances is produced by THIRTEEN Productions LLC for WNET, one of America's most prolific and respected public media providers. Throughout its more than 40-year history on PBS, Great Performances has provided viewers across the country with an unparalleled showcase of the best in all genres of the performing arts, serving as America's most prestigious and enduring broadcaster of cultural programming.
Major funding for Great Performances is provided by The Joseph and Robert Cornell Memorial Foundation, the Anna-Maria and Stephen Kellen Arts Fund, the Irene Diamond Fund, the LuEsther T. Mertz Charitable Trust, The Agnes Varis Trust, The Starr Foundation, the Kate W. Cassidy Foundation, Ellen and James S. Marcus, The Philip and Janice Levin Foundation and The Abra Prentice Foundation.
