13/1/14

“Never become so enamored of your own smarts that you stop signing up for life’s hard classes. Keep your conclusions light and your curiosity ferocious. Keep groping in the darkness with ravenous desire to know more.” Melissa Harris-Perry outlines her life advice for graduates. 

@LondonFashionWk: British musician @Harry_Styles arrives on the @burberry red carpet #LFW

Julianne Moore as “Famous Works of Art” by Peter Linderbergh - for Harper’s Bazaar

Seated Woman With Bent Knee by Egon Schiele, La Grande Odalisque by Ingres, Saint Praxidis by Vermeer, The Cripple by John Currin, Les danseuses by Edgar Degas, Madame X by John Singer, Girl with a Pearl Earring by Vermeer, Woman With a Fan by Modigliani, Man Crazy Nurse #3 by Richard Prince, Adele Bloch Bauer I by Gustav Klimt.

City Hall in San Francisco, CA tonight in support of the Gay Rights Movement.

What’s The Worst Thing You Could Say To A Congresswoman Who Lost Her Legs In Battle? Um, THIS.

  An IRS contractor hurt his foot playing football in military prep school. He never served in the actual military. Then one day, decades later, he used it to get preferred treatment in military contracts. Rep. Tammy Duckworth (D-Ill.), who lost both her legs and still could lose her arm from combat injuries, felt that this might just be a touch inappropriate. It gets amazing around 4:30.

Daft Punk:

A child wearing a Daft Punk helmet posed for a photographer as locals prepared for the global launch party of the French band’s new album, Random Access Memories, in Wee Waa, Australia, Thursday. (Shanna Whan/European Pressphoto Agency)

Jason Collins : I’m a 34-year-old NBA center. I’m black. And I’m gay.

“The first relative I came out to was my aunt Teri, a superior court judge in San Francisco. Her reaction surprised me. “I’ve known you were gay for years,” she said. From that moment on I was comfortable in my own skin. In her presence I ignored my censor button for the first time. She gave me support. The relief I felt was a sweet release. Imagine you’re in the oven, baking. Some of us know and accept our sexuality right away and some need more time to cook. I should know — I baked for 33 years.

When I was younger I dated women. I even got engaged. I thought I had to live a certain way. I thought I needed to marry a woman and raise kids with her. I kept telling myself the sky was red, but I always knew it was blue.

No one wants to live in fear. I’ve always been scared of saying the wrong thing. I don’t sleep well. I never have. But each time I tell another person, I feel stronger and sleep a little more soundly. It takes an enormous amount of energy to guard such a big secret. I’ve endured years of misery and gone to enormous lengths to live a lie. I was certain that my world would fall apart if anyone knew. And yet when I acknowledged my sexuality I felt whole for the first time. I still had the same sense of humor, I still had the same mannerisms and my friends still had my back.

The most you can do is stand up for what you believe in. I’m much happier since coming out to my friends and family. Being genuine and honest makes me happy. Some people insist they’ve never met a gay person. But Three Degrees of Jason Collins dictates that no NBA player can claim that anymore. Pro basketball is a family. And pretty much every family I know has a brother, sister or cousin who’s gay. In the brotherhood of the NBA, I just happen to be the one who’s out.

Dougie Poynter and Ellie Goulding out and about in Manchester - May 19th, 2014. 

I like strong woman. The ones who look at you straight in the eye, the ones that can make you quiver in your boots with the simple raising of an eyebrow. These woman who wear their skin like well-worn armor, who have their experiences etched in the creases of their hands and laugh lines around their eyes, these are the women who inspire me. I like their unapologetic nature, their fierce determination and their unshakable beliefs in the legitimacy of their cause. I know that these woman are sharp, they can be demanding, unrelenting, uncompromising. After all, they are from a generation that had to fight tooth and nail to achieve their successes. They persevered in arts, politics, academia, and media and carved the paths that younger women like me take for granted.

Kathleen Wynne

(http://www.shahrvand.com/archives/34023)

WorldSnooker: Louis lives in Doncaster and he’s a patron of Bluebell Wood Children’s Hospice @BluebellWoodCH