Image via Josh Brasted/WireImage T-Pain Drops “Boo’d Up” Remix Are you boo’d up yet? As much as Ella Mai’s ubiquitous hit plays out of every iPhone, iPod, car, radio, brunch speakers, club speakers, hell, you can probably go to church and hear the choir gettin’ boo’d up with sweet baby Jesus. The remixes to the summer anthem are coming in by the boatload and Teddy Pinned-her-azz-down has come to put an end to the trend before it gets out of control. How many songs can you make about a booty? About a thousand. Flip the page to hear the whole song.
The San Diego Padres are currently 19-26, sitting in last place in National League West. We know they are bad at baseball. But might the team also be homophobic?!? Allow us to explain… On Saturday afternoon at Petco Park, The San Diego Gay Men’s Chorus was brought in to sing “The Star Spangled Banner” prior to the team’s game against the Los Angeles Dodgers. Simple enough, right? Something that has been done a million times, no? A recording of the choir was supposed to play over the loudspeakers, presumably so the actual choir could lip-sync on the field… but something went wrong. Instead, the recording was of a woman singing the anthem blared for all to hear. Was this a simple mistake? Or the sign of a much larger issue within the organization? “I really want to believe that it was an error,” Bob Lehman, the choir’s executive director, told the Union-Tribune of what happened. “But the first thought was, did they do this on purpose?” Oddly, the mistaken recording was never stopped; it played throughout the duration of the national anthem. The accusation would be that the team, or someone within the team, purposely tried to embarrass the all-male choir by making it seem like gay me sounded like women. The choir said the incident raised “serious questions about homophobia within the San Diego Padres organization and its relationship with the LGBT community.” It alleged that the mix-up followed “several days of troubling comments and behavior” from within the team, as it supposedly tried to prevent the singers from performing unless they each bought a ticket to the game. That decision was later overturned. In response to the incident, San Diego issued a lengthy statement. “The Padres organization is proud of our longstanding commitment to inclusion – within both our sport and our community,” the read in part. “We deeply regret that a mistake on our part has called this into question, but accept full responsibility.” It also said an investigation yielded “no evidence of malicious intent on the part of any individuals involved.” Watch the strange performance below to see what transpired on the field:
Bernice Jenkins has some shocking news to deliver about the church choir that caught everyone off guard. Listen to the audio player to hear about that and…
The idea of seeing Queen Latifah and Dolly Parton in a movie together, not to mention a movie about a gospel choir, is a particular kind of heaven. Latifah is a radiant performer capable of elevating even the most mundane material to a level of charm and grace unachievable by most mere mortals. And Parton, aside from having one of the sweetest and most haunting voices in all of country music, is a firecracker presence by herself — if you could bottle force of will in a perfume bottle, you couldn’t name it anything but Dolly. But whatever Latifah and Parton might have achieved together in that mythical heavenly ideal, it’s just not coming together in this lifetime – or at least not in Joyful Noise , a well-intentioned, pleasant-enough picture that shoots off in too many directions to ever ignite. Latifah plays Vi Rose Hill, a sturdy, no-nonsense family woman who inherits the leadership of her church choir after the death of its beloved director (played, in just a few tiny scenes, by Kris Kristofferson). But this is a very small town we’re talking about — Pacashau, Georgia, pop. 233, or something like that — and petty rivalries and resentments abound. It turns out that G.G. Sparrow (Parton), who has contributed heaps of money to the church and who’s also a leading (and undeniably shapely) figure in its Divinity Church Choir, thinks she should inherit the mantle. She has some new ideas for the group, which she wants to implement before the all-important National Joyful Noise Competition. Vi Rose, a traditionalist, likes to do things the old-fashioned way. The two women start trading insults and play-fighting even before it becomes apparent that G.G.’s rapscallion grandson, Randy (Jeremy Jordan), who has just drifted into town from New York City, is madly attracted to Vi Rose’s daughter, Olivia (Keke Palmer), the choir’s obvious rising young star. Actually, there’s a new conflict every five minutes in Joyful Noise : It’s pretty much all writer-director Todd Graff ( Bandslam ) can do to tamp each one down, Whac-a-Mole style, before another one pops up. Vi Rose doesn’t much approve of Randy, until he takes her pop-music-loving, Asperger’s-afflicted son, Walter (Dexter Darden), under his wing. (Walter’s favorite song is the Left Banke’s Walk Away Renee , and if you’re going to have just one favorite, that’s not a bad one to have.) Randy, you see, is an ace pianist and arranger, and he also has some ideas for spiffing up the choir’s material and moves. Meanwhile, Olivia starts acting up, as young ‘uns will. And don’t look now, but a rival for her affections (Paul Woolfolk) is just about to show up at the local quarry, where Randy and Walter have gone to practice their vocals (it makes a handy echo chamber). That could be big trouble. And yet, somehow, it’s really not. There’s so much going on in Joyful Noise that there doesn’t seem to be much time for anyone to actually sing. Still, the gang manages to squeeze some in. Many of the numbers are pop songs reimagined as gospel material, some making the transition with ease (like Sly Stone’s “I Want to Take You Higher”) and others (“Maybe I’m Amazed”) that, no matter how you slice them — or tweak the lyrics — still sound like secular love songs rather than hymns of praise. One of the loveliest numbers is Latifah’s spare rendition of “Fix Me, Jesus”: It’s plain and unvarnished, in a way that too much of Joyful Noise isn’t. Parton sings a duet with Kristofferson (he returns from the grave specifically for this purpose), called “From Here to the Moon and Back,” which is pretty enough in its serene, wistful way. But even though there’s so much going on in Joyful Noise , there still isn’t much for its two stars to do other than trade one-liners masquerading as small-town insults. (Observing G.G.’s superblond tousle of hair, Vi Rose snickers, “What, you’re worried you’re not gonna be seen from space?”) Parton and Latifah are both high-spirited all right, and their sparring is reasonably fun to watch. But Parton’s face, as those of us who have loved her for years, is not what it used to be, and looking at it is a bit disconcerting. Latifah, on the other hand, looks as luminous as ever. As performers, the two clearly have a great deal of respect and admiration for each other, and that’s the motor that drives Joyful Noise . But movies need more than just good mechanics, or even just good chemistry, to bloom. They always need at least a scrap of divine intervention. And on that count, Joyful Noise could still use a little fixing from Jesus. Follow Stephanie Zacharek on Twitter . Follow Movieline on Twitter .
White Identity: What It Is and Why It Is Necessary from American Renaissance on Vimeo . Jared Taylor here gives an excellent discussion of white identity and why it’s needed. Little or nothing in the video will be unfamiliar to readers here, but preaching to the choir is obviously not Taylor’s intention. Ordinary white Americans need to see this video – though I’m not sure how that would come about…. Broadcasting platform : Vimeo Source : Mangan’s Discovery Date : 17/09/2011 20:55 Number of articles : 2
Ali Larter is officially a new kind of hero… to a baby boy! The actress gave birth on Monday, gushing to Us Weekly that Theodore Hayes MacArthur is “the perfect Christmas present.” Larter and husband Hayes MacArthur got married in Kennebunkport, Maine in August of last year, following seven years of dating. This is the first child for both.
David Archuleta is really into the Christmas spirit. The singer helped light the famous tree at The Grove in Los Angeles last month and will also be featured alongside the Mormon Tabernacle Choir on an upcoming PBS special. Tweeted the former American Idol finalist about the duets: “Had such an incredible experience this weekend performing with the Mormon Tabernacle Choir for their PBS Christmas Special!” That sums it up. Below, we’ve posted videos of David and the group singing “Joy To The World” and “Angels From The Realms of Glory.” David Archuleta – Joy to the World David Archuleta and Mormon Tabernacle Choir Duet
The Gifford Children's Choir performs “Still Alive” by Jonathan Coulton from the credits of the video game Portal. Awesomeness ensues. No mention if cake was served afterward. Watch
