Happy Saturday, Everyone! Hope you’e enjoying your weekend. Today we’re checking out the 2013 Tony Award-winning musical Kinky Boots.
Kinky Boots is a musical with music and lyrics by Cyndi Lauper and a book by Harvey Fierstein. Based on the 2005 film Kinky Boots, which was inspired by a true story, the musical tells of a struggling British shoe factory’s young, straitlaced owner, Charlie, who forms an unlikely partnership with Lola, a drag queen, to save the business. Charlie develops a plan to produce custom footwear for drag queens and kings, rather than the men’s dress shoes that his firm is known for, and in the process, he and Lola discover that they are not so different after all.
Following the show’s conception in 2006, the creative team was assembled by 2010. The original production of Kinky Boots premiered at the Bank of America Theatre in Chicago in October 2012, with both direction and choreography by Jerry Mitchell, and starring Stark Sands and Billy Porter as Charlie and Lola, respectively. It made its Broadway debut at the Al Hirschfeld Theatre on April 4, 2013 following previews that began on March 3, 2013. The musical is expected to begin a US tour in 2014.
Having been less well received by theatre critics and at the box office, initially, than another 2013 Broadway production, Matilda the Musical, Kinky Boots entered the 2013 awards season as an underdog. However, less than a month after opening, Kinky Boots surpassed this rival with audiences in weekly box office gross and later enjoyed a post-Tony boost in advance sales. The production earned a season-high 13 nominations and 6 Tony wins, including Best Musical and Best Score for Lauper in her first outing as a Broadway songwriter, making her the first woman to win alone in that category. The musical’s cast album premiered at number one on the Billboard Cast Albums Chart and number fifty-one on the Billboard 200 chart.
Media Alert
Oprah’s tribute to Dr. Maya Angelou
Sunday, June 1, 2014
The OWN Network
Oprah and Dr. Angelou – Super Soul Sunday, Parts 1 & 2
Airing 12-2 pm EST
Repeating 3-5 pm EST
Repeating 6-8 pm EST
Conversations with Maya Angelou
5-6 pm EST
Oprah Winfrey’s Legends Ball
8-9 pm EST
Repeating 11pm-12am EST
Oprah’s Master Class with Maya Angelou
9-10 pm EST
Repeating 12 am – 1 am EST
Donna NoShock @NoShock
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How long do you think a bunch of AA’s would be allowed to open carry in any businesses parking lot? #NotVeryLong
4:05 PM – 31 May 2014
Your Mission, Should You Accept It… Barack Obama—>Free American POW from Afghan War
https://twitter.com/TheObamaDiary/status/472841914341797888/photo/1
EVER….
from AquaGranny over at The People’s View
my response to AG:
AG,
It’s a complex thing, but sorta simple.
1. the VA WORKS.
Now, it has its issues and its problems, mainly that it’s underfunded and we had two wars for a long time, and quite frankly, the medicine being done in the VA is at the top of the world and is keeping alive soldiers that probably would have been dead as recently as Gulf War I.
So, we have a lot of maimed soldiers that would have been dead, and the system is being overloaded.
The VA works, IMO, because even with its flaws, it does take a ‘ holistic’ approach towards the care of our veterans, not only treating the physical, but the emotional. Could they do better, of course they could, but they take a more aggressive approach in linking the mental with the physical than ANYTHING done in the private sector, But, Mental health is expensive, and Lord knows the GOP doesn’t like anything that costs money that goes to the little guy,
The VA is also proof that socialized medicine WORKS, because it’s the closest thing to socialized medicine that we have in this country, which is another reason why the GOP has long wanted to undermine it.
2. This President’s ability to curb the Military Industrial Complex.
This President’s unwillingness to jump into war after war, as the GOP, and their defense contractor masters IRATE.
Make no mistake, with a President Hillary or God Forbid, a President McCain, we would have been in
Iran
Libya
Syria
Ukraine
President Obama stopped all that shyt and they hate him for it.
3. The First Lady’s dedication to Military families.
Make no mistake, they absolutely despise everything that this First Lady and Dr. Biden have done for the troops – the common man troops – and their families.
They complain about everything this President and First Lady do, after all, their asses voted just this week to make sure that kids can stay fat, and that our schools can make them fatter.
But, even they know, if their asses had showed how they really feel about being in opposition to everything POTUS and FLOTUS do, people will ask them, why are they against helping the troops.
After all, and I’ve written this on many occasions, one of my hardest pet peeves, is that the GOP wraps their asses in the flag and phony ass patriotism, all the while taking votes that deny any and everything to the common troops on the ground. Country Last’s anti- common troop vote didn’t begin with filibustering the 21 Billion that the President asked for last year. He has a long history of many votes against the common troops, as do all of them, and it would only take some real ass reporting for that to be said by any of those idiots in the MSM.
This ‘ scandal’ is the first way that they’ve had to attack this President on his dedication to the military, which they haven’t been able to touch because of the President and First Lady’s dedication to the troops since he became President.
3. They absolutely, positively despise that this President has taken away from them their foreign policy club. Not only did he snatch it away from them, he bitchslaps them all the time with it, and they loathe him for it.
4. The VA is the largest single insurer across the country. There’s nothing that the GOP doesn’t want to privatize. And with the OBVIOUS success of Obamacare, they are desperate for anything to hurt this President. And they don’t give two shyts if they hurt veterans care. They could care less about them.
Folks need to stay on this and check any muthafucka that opens their mouths about privatizing the VA, bringing up their funding voting records for the VA.
Just my 2 cents.
TELL.IT.
https://twitter.com/HumanAfrica/status/464383137674690560/photo/1
https://twitter.com/BEAUTIFULPlCS/status/472755679170953216/photo/1
Joy Reid ✔ @JoyAnnReid
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Getting #BoweBergdahl back is huge. Only remaining captured soldier from either of our recent conflicts; Afghanistan or Iraq.
12:22 PM – 31 May 2014
Mark Knoller ✔ @markknoller
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Aboard rescue helicopter, Bergdahl wrote “SF?” asking if his liberators were US Special Forces. Yes, they said, bringing tears to his eyes.
12:12 PM – 31 May 2014
Ben Sherwood ✔ @bensherwood
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On hello, US Special Forces tell Bergdahl: “We’ve been looking for you for a long time.” Bergdahl broke down crying, Def official tells @ABC.
12:00 PM – 31 May 2014
Amarlie @marabout40
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Barack Obama, a black man, is one of the best presidents this country has ever seen, and that scares the shit out of the establishment (GOP)
11:48 AM – 31 May 2014
https://twitter.com/ABC/status/472761962942590977/photo/1
https://twitter.com/cmartin002/status/472802580960382976/photo/1
WATCH: Military Dad Surprises Son with Emotional Graduation Reunion
by Matt Wilstein | 2:44 pm, May 31st, 2014 VIDEO
Graduating high school senior Nicolas Schott rose to speak about the important of honoring military families at his own commencement ceremony in Goose Creek, South Carolina this week. But he had no idea his father, U.S. Army Staff Sgt. Jamie Schott, had returned from overseas and was watching him from the side of the stage.
Sgt. Schott found out in advance that he would be able to return from his military base in Kuwait to see his son graduate, but decided not to tell him in advance. That made the moment when he walked on stage at the end of his son’s speech to congratulate him all the more moving.
“I had no idea,” Nicolas Schott said after the surprise. “They kept it so much a secret from me. I was just so nervous about my speech, I didn’t even think about it.”
http://www.mediaite.com/tv/watch-military-dad-surprises-son-with-emotional-graduation-reunion/
the FPer Kay, at Balloon Juice, always keeps folks updated on the Voter ID Scams across the country. Today’s comes from Alabama.
……………………..
Two competing schemes”
Posted by Kay at 1:09 pm
Alabama has come up with a “vouching” proposal where voters who lack the newly required ID are supposed to get two (mostly white) election officials to “vouch” for them in order to vote a regular ballot. “Vouching” has a long and sordid history in this country so the NAACP is fighting the provision.
Wanted to highlight one part of the NAACP lawyer-letter to the Secretary of State in Alabama, because for one thing it’s clever lawyering but perhaps more importantly it goes to the fact that in some states “Democrat” is just proxy for “black voters.” The NAACP wanted to bring out the racial animus behind this law. Here, they do that by quoting from a federal judge in an unrelated Alabama corruption case. Scroll down to # 5 in the NAACP letter if you want to see the cite.
It’s a crazy story. Briefly, several Alabama lawmakers were brought up on federal corruption charges. It was alleged that gambling lobbyists were buying the lawmakers because gambling lobbyists wanted a referendum on electronic bingo on the ballot in Alabama.
Some other Alabama lawmakers wore a wire for the FBI to record the corrupt pro-gambling lawmakers. However, the lawmakers who were wired to nail the corrupt lawmakers inadvertently captured their own conversations regarding how they needed to keep the AA vote down in the 2010 elections to retain a GOP majority.
The supposed anti-corruption lawmakers wore the wire not because they wanted to help the FBI catch corrupt lawmakers, but because they did not want the pro-gambling imitative on the ballot because they believed black people would come out for a referendum on electronic bingo, that would drive AA turnout in 2010, and those black voters might retain or elect more black lawmakers who also happen to be Democrats.
Here’s the section of the opinion on the corruption case.The judge is trying to determine whether the racist Alabama lawmakers are credible to act as witnesses against the corrupt Alabama lawmakers:
http://www.balloon-juice.com/2014/05/31/two-competing-schemes/#comment-5002418
Good Afternoon, Everyone :)
US soldier freed from captivity in Afghanistan. Who’s bad–>BarackObama.
BWA HA HA HA PBO’S BAD! He’s always 100 steps ahead of these MOFOs.
DanaBashCNN says “the timing of freed soldier from Afghanistan is “questionable”. Is she upset he was rescued at this time?
EVERYTIME the haters think they’ve gotten the best of PBO, he breaks out on their ass. This time Special Forces rescue Army Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl. BAM!
Ametia,
You outdid yourself with this series. You and Rikyrah have the best photos. So beautiful.
Thank you, Lady! I love the music of the 80s. Cyndi did her thing. Women really broke out and did the unexpected in the arts and entertainment..
“An Old-Fashioned Newspaperman Takes The Helm In A Digital World”
http://wfae.org/post/old-fashioned-newspaperman-takes-helm-digital-world
More:
http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/b/dean_baquet/index.html
“Tiffany manager sues, says retailer discriminated”
http://www.thestate.com/2014/05/30/3476874/tiffany-manager-sues-says-retailer.html
“Reunion: 100 Men in Black”
http://www.heraldsun.com/news/x1374786259/Reunion-100-Men-in-Black
“Connecticut could be first to track stun gun use”
http://www.newsobserver.com/2014/05/29/3895870/connecticut-could-be-first-to.html
“Driving while black federal judge speaks at Muncie IN Black Expo”
http://www.munciefreepress.com/node/30363
Thanks for this, Yahtc.
What color of her hair is your favorite?
Hi CarolMae. I love red.
I liked that one too. :)
Good Morning, Everyone! Sunny and 80s today. LOVING IT. :-)
Oooh, sounds like a gorgeous day! Enjoy!
Hi there LADYBUG. Thank you!
:)