4 July 2018

[UK] Gay Conversion Therapy: Proposed Ban Is A Positive Step But The Battle Remains To Be Won

by

File 20180703 116152 g98c8z.jpg?ixlib=rb 1.1
There’s nothing broken that needs to be fixed. (Fotosr52/Shutterstock.com)
Conversion therapy – sometimes known as “reparative therapy” or “gay cure therapy” – claims to alter a person’s sexual orientation from gay to straight. The practice is based on the mistaken idea that gay people suffer a traumatic experience early in life that has damages them and that homosexuality is a “reparative drive” to overcome this early trauma.

In the UK, practitioners are legally allowed to promote and provide conversion therapy. But, hopefully, not for much longer. The UK government has announced plans to ban conversion therapy as part of its LGBT action plan.

Attempts to “cure” homosexuality were not always couched in the language of therapy. In the early 20th century, medical professionals believed that homosexuality was a birth defect. One “treatment” involved replacing a testicle of a homosexual man with one from a heterosexual man. Later methods included lobotomies and chemical castration – a method used on Alan Turing, the Enigma codebreaker.

Homosexuality later came to be seen as a condition that could be “treated” psychologically – although this doesn’t mean that the methods used were any more humane.

In the 1950s and 60s, when homosexuality was still illegal in the UK, the NHS routinely used aversion therapy on men convicted of homosexuality in an attempt to turn them straight. If they volunteered for this treatment, they could avoid a prison sentence. Volunteers – if they can be called that – were shown pictures of naked men and given either electric shocks or drugs that induced vomiting. The aim was to make them respond negatively to their homosexuality and thus to be “cured”.


The late Joseph Nicolosi, who popularised conversion therapy in the US, explains his technique to Stephen Fry.

Not a psychiatric condition 
Homosexuality was removed from the American Psychiatric Association’s diagnostic manual in 1987 and from the World Health Organisation’s classification of mental disorders in 1992. Progress in this area has been slow. 

In 2015, a memorandum of understanding stating that conversion therapy is unethical and potentially harmful was signed by representatives from the NHS, the Royal College of Psychiatrists and the major counselling and psychotherapy organisations in the UK. 

Being gay is not a disease and there is no sound evidence that sexual orientation can be changed by “conversion therapy”. Also, “treating” homosexuality sustains the prejudice and discrimination that gay people already face in society. 

Gay people who seek to change their sexuality do so because of internalised homophobia and because of the dangers and pressures arising from this external prejudice and discrimination. An example of the potential harm is seen in a 2002 study
of 202 men, which found that the practice had led 34 of them to attempt suicide either during or after “conversion therapy”.

Co-opting the language of sexual fluidity
These days “conversion therapy” is generally advocated by religious groups, such the Core Issues Trust, a UK organisation that “works with people who seek to change from a ‘gay’ lifestyle to a gender-affirming one”. 

In common with National Association for Research and Therapy of Homosexuality in the US (an organisation that advocates the use of conversion therapy in the US), the Core Issues Trust advocates for the right of people to have access to this service if they want it. They use the language of rights, autonomy and client choice, arguing that a ban would deny them a “human right to treatment intended to help them shape their lives as they wish”. 

They have also co-opted the language of sexual fluidity as justification for their assertion that the practice works. This misunderstands what is meant by sexual fluidity. 

People are born with both a sexual orientation and a degree of sexual flexibility that varies from person to person. Some people are fixedly gay or straight, but others are more fluid and can experience attractions that run outside of their general sexual orientation. Sexual fluidity is the capacity to experience sexual attraction that runs counter to your orientation.

There is now mounting evidence that gay people are born gay, as a clear link has been found between sexual orientation – at least in men – with two regions of the human genome. 

Which way now?
After years of campaigning and legal pressure, the UK government is finally going to follow the example of some other European countries and states in Canada, Australia and the US, and ban the practice of “conversion therapy”. It will be interesting to see how the debate develops as the legislation proceeds through parliament. 

The ConversationThe NHS and the major psychiatric, counselling and psychotherapy organisations are already opposed to the practice. But if the counselling profession remains unregulated – meaning anyone, including religious groups and individuals, can offer “counselling” – how will the ban be enforced? The battle is not yet won.

About Today's Contributor:
Stella Coyle, Teaching Fellow in Law, Keele University

This article was originally published on The Conversation

3 July 2018

The Film, Mary Shelley, Shows Frankenstein Is Always A Story For Our Times

by

Elle Fanning as the author Mary Shelley
Elle Fanning as the author Mary Shelley. (IMDB)
The lives of young Romantic artists continue to fascinate filmmakers, from Ken Russell’s Gothic (1986) about Lord Byron, to Jane Campion’s Bright Star (2009) about John Keats. With the 200th anniversary of Frankenstein upon us, a new film focuses on its author, Mary Shelley.

Frankenstein was conceived by the 18-year old Mary Shelley while she was with her stepsister Claire Clairmont, the poets Lord Byron and Percy Bysshe Shelley, and Byron’s physician John Polidori. The setting was grey, wet Geneva, in the so-called “year without a summer”, 1816, when the volcanic ash of a huge volcanic eruption in Indonesia blotted out the sun, wreaking havoc across the globe’s climate system. Crops failed, livestock died, famine was widespread, and the apocalypse appeared nigh — a perfect setting for a ghost story competition.

Unable to go boating or walking, and cooped up inside Byron’s chalet by the lake, Polidori drafted The Vampyre. But Mary Shelley (played by Elle Fanning in the film) won the competition with Frankenstein, her “hideous progeny” as she called it — the moving tale of the mad scientist Frankenstein and his abandoned, unnamed creature. While the poetry of Shelley and Byron is not much read today, Frankenstein is one of the world’s most popular and admired books.


Mary Shelley is the latest release by director Haifaa al-Mansour, Saudi Arabia’s first female filmmaker, best-known for her critically acclaimed Wadjda (2012). Al-Mansour directed Wadjda via walkie talkie from the back of a van in Riyadh because Saudi women are forbidden to mix publicly with men. Unsurprisingly, the film focuses on her country’s gender oppression: 10-year old Wadjda longs to own a bicycle so that she can race against her friend Abdullah but bikes are not for girls.

Mary Shelley transposes these themes of gender oppression to the business of writing and literary celebrity in the early-19th century. The film opens to the sounds of furious scribbling and incantatory snatches of lurid gothic prose, composed and jotted down by Mary, the 16-year old daughter of two revolutionaries, the political philosopher William Godwin and the feminist Mary Wollstonecraft.

With her mother dying soon after childbirth, the young Mary Wollstonecraft Godwin is growing up in a straitened, loveless household run by a shrewish stepmother (Joanne Froggatt). An avid reader, especially of ghost stories, Mary longs to be a writer herself, the challenge being to find her own voice.

To assist her in this quest, the radical, young (but married) poet Percy Shelley (Douglas Booth) arrives on the scene, drawn like a magnet to the child of two giants in his pantheon of free thinkers. After a brief courtship centred on Wollstonecraft’s grave and inspired by high-sounding poetry and the revolutionary ideals of sexual equality, free love and communal living, Mary elopes with Percy, taking Claire, her complicated and troublesome stepsister, along with her.

In its focus on abandonment and loneliness, and the ways in which free love and sexual liberation can go badly wrong for women, and even worse for their children, the film is fired by today’s #MeToo movement. Many of the painful, actual details of the writers’ lives are condensed, but the high cost of male libertinism is a message powerfully delivered by Al-Mansour. Percy’s abandoned first wife Harriet drowns herself, the narcissist Percy accuses Mary of hypocrisy when she refuses a sexual liaison with his friend Hogg, and Lord Byron (Tom Sturridge) monsters the pregnant Claire (Bel Powley) by describing their affair as a “lapse in judgement”.

Claire Clairmont (Bel Powley), Mary Shelley, Percy Shelley (Douglas Booth), and Lord Byron (Tom Sturridge) Claire Clairmont (Bel Powley), Mary Shelley, Percy Shelley (Douglas Booth), and Lord Byron (Tom Sturridge) (IMDB)
Although there are some good scenes on the fashionable science of galvanism, the film’s interest in the novel Frankenstein is marginal. Nevertheless it does something quite clever. It reads the miserable women as incarnations of Frankenstein’s cruelly abandoned creature.

One of the film’s most original moves is to bring the controversial Claire Clairmont centre stage, where she always wanted to be. Bolder than her stepsister, Claire tired of having to share Percy with Mary so she targeted her own poet, one richer and more famous than her stepsister’s. Graphic evidence of Claire’s pursuit of Byron, the rock star of his generation, has survived in her extraordinary letters to him, the first of which warns him that “the Creator ought not to destroy his Creature” in refusing her proposed tryst. She got her way and while Byron later acknowledged Claire’s child as his own, he suspected the “brat” was Percy’s.

Entangled sexually, Elle Fanning captures Mary Shelley’s quietly fierce but loyal nature. Although her idea of Heaven was “a world without a Claire”, she is always protective and compassionate towards her rival, an historical detail well conveyed by the film. Later in life, long after Shelley and Byron were dead, the now childless and still grieving Claire bitterly denounced both poets for their “free love” philosophy, a creed which made them “monsters of lying, meanness, cruelty and treachery”.

Frankenstein is a book which lives in its present moment. In 1824, it was mobilised in the British Parliament to oppose the abolition of slavery. The fear was that the suddenly freed slave would resemble Frankenstein’s creature, a man in physical strength and sexual passion, but an infant intellectually.

In our own times sympathy for the creature as victim often jostles with fear. Ahmed Saadawi’s Frankenstein in Baghdad (2017), a novel set amid the violence of contemporary Iraq, features “Whatshisname”, a grotesque figure assembled from the body parts of suicide bombers and their victims. At first he seeks revenge for the dead that he embodies but he then turns to killing the innocent.

Last year also saw the publication by MIT of an edition of Frankenstein for scientists, carrying extensive footnotes concerning the creator’s duty of care towards his creation, be that a robot or an atom bomb.

Unfortunately, despite its powerful and innovative focus on the two injured women at the heart of this story, the film ends with a disappointingly conventional message. While Mary has found her authorial voice, she trails off into sentimentality when she reassures Percy (with a kiss) that, despite all the suffering entailed by his romantic idealism, she regrets nothing.

About Today's Contributor:
Deirdre Coleman, Robert Wallace Chair of English in the School of Culture and Communication, University of Melbourne


This article was originally published on The Conversation

2 July 2018

Almost 90, This Chicana Hidden Figure Shapes The Future With Her Courageous Past

by
"Uncompromised: The Lupe Anguiano Story"
"Uncompromised: The Lupe Anguiano Story" - Front Cover
"There is a new biography, Uncompromised: The Lupe Anguiano Story, recently published about a Chicana who has been an activist for 60 years.  Her book should be used in Chicana/Chicano Studies and Women's Studies throughout the country," says Lora Jo Foo (Author, Attorney, Activist).
Lupe was a Catholic nun for 15 years only to be forced out of the order when she became involved in the Prop 64 fight against housing discrimination and wearing her habit, picketed the Cardinal's office in protest of the church's position.  

She and Dolores Huerta were the highest-ranking female organizers in the early years of the UFW.  Gloria Steinem and Bella Abzug were her contemporaries and she worked with them to form the National Women's Political Caucus and for passage of the ERA.  

She did amazing work in San Antonio, Texas on getting women off welfare and into sustainable jobs and her program was replicated in Washington StateColoradoNew York, etc.  She worked in Washington, D.C. for the Johnson and Carter administrations.  She is an incredible woman who in the 1960s was grappling with both Mexican-American and feminist issues.  

This year she turned 89 and is still very active.  

In 2015, when she was 85 she gave Ms. Foo an environmental toxic tour of Oxnard in Ventura County.  "This is an amazing woman whose story needs to get out there," said Ms. Foo.

Lupe Anguiano, UFW, Circa 1968
Lupe Anguiano, UFW, Circa 1968
The scope of this book is the life of Lupe Anguiano from birth until the age of 80. It was compiled from fifty exclusive recorded interviews conducted with Lupe and key people in her life by Debora Wright
Some of these interviews were conducted while traveling with Lupe to the places of her childhood as well as to San Antonio, the site of her most significant life experience. 
These transcribed interviews were further augmented by an in-depth study of the Lupe Anguiano papers archived at the UCLA Chicano Studies Research Center. 
Author Debora Wright uses her keen sense of history and her subject's own words to reveal Lupe Anguiano's loves, sacrifices, victories, failures and deepest thoughts.  
By far her most successful achievement was in the area of Welfare Reform. Lupe believed that welfare was a trap and disrespectful of women. She gained national media recognition including a "Getting Off Welfare" segment on "60 Minutes" presented by Harry Reasoner and she received the support of several presidents for her groundbreaking work in welfare reform that spread throughout the United States
Lupe Anguiano's solution to welfare is still relevant today. And in fact, the Center for Work Education and Employment (CWEE) in Colorado is thriving by following the model Lupe developed over 35 years ago.
The book includes the adulatory remarks of Gloria Steinem and Henry Cisneros at the Lupe Anguiano Archive Event at UCLA.
Uncompromised: The Lupe Anguiano Story is available on Amazon.com
⏩ 50% of all revenue from Amazon sales of Uncompromised: The Lupe Anguiano Story go to The Lupe Anguiano Leadership Scholarship Fund at UCLA to support undergraduate and graduate students at UCLA who are the next generation of leaders working toward the advancement of Mexican Americans in society.

Debbie Wright - Author of "Uncompromised: The Lupe Anguiano Story"
Debbie Wright - Author of "Uncompromised: The Lupe Anguiano Story" (image via lupeanguiano.com)
About the Author:
(Via lupeanguiano.com)
Debbie Wright, a native of Pittsburgh, PA, has been a news writer in the fields of finance, education, food and restaurants, an industrial film producer, an executive producer of automotive shows, a marketing executive, and continues to write while also working as a Regional Finance Market Manager for a major car manufacturer. 

When Debbie met and got to know the remarkable Lupe Anguiano several years ago, she realized that she had to use her writing skills and experience to tell the story of this unsung heroine and her courageous fight for equality, justice and dignity for all. 

Debbie lives in Thousand Oaks, CA with her husband Steve.
SOURCE: Debora Wright


Related Videos:



29 June 2018

Hornet Launches "True Colors" Campaign Celebrating The Evolution of the LGBTQ Experience from Past to Present

by
Every community has a story. #HornetTrueColors
Every community has a story. #HornetTrueColors
Hornet, the world's premier gay social network, today debuted its "True Colors" campaign to celebrate the inspiring stories of LGBTQ individuals whose relationships propagated the advancement of the community by living boldly and fighting courageously despite enormous risks and societal opposition.
The centerpiece of the Hornet "True Colors" campaign is a video featuring a collection of colorized black-and-white 19th and 20th century photos of LGBTQ personalities. 

The video's chronological journey spans subjects from the once-romantically-linked Oscar Wilde and Lord Alfred Douglas, through 20th century images of WWII service members to early trans activists Marsha P. Johnson and Sylvia Rivera, and culminating in a photo-to-video transition featuring present-day married couple, Rob Smith and Misha Safronov, of Instagram fame who are shown as the subjects of a Hornet Stories video within the Hornet app.
"As a global media company dedicated to enabling LGBTQ individuals to make meaningful connections, Hornet has created the #HornetTrueColors project as a storytelling vehicle to connect younger community members to the history of those who came before," says Christof Wittig, Hornet Chief Executive Officer and Co-Founder. "The 'True Colors' theme reflects Hornet's commitment to empowering the safe, free expression of LGBTQ identity worldwide."
Matthew Adam Smith, Hornet SVP Global Sales adds: "We created the Hornet 'True Colors' campaign to remind every member of our community, our allies and the marketplace, we are all connected to an important and evolving mission--and Hornet is here to empower that journey."

Cyndi Lauper's iconic 1980s classic and gay LGBTQ anthem, True Colors, serves as the video's musical score as performed by the Gay Men's Chorus of Los Angeles
Every community has a story. #HornetTrueColors
Every community has a story. #HornetTrueColors
The Hornet "True Colors" video concludes with the message "The gay community has a story — let's keep writing it together," calling for viewers to share their own images and stories at Hornet.com/TrueColors.  
The campaign will also be featured on Hornet social media profiles and supported with exclusive content as part of Hornet Stories.
Every community has a story. #HornetTrueColors
Every community has a story. #HornetTrueColors

The Video:


Hornet Logo
Hornet Logo (PRNewsfoto/LGBT Foundation)

28 June 2018

Hivemind Acquires Hit Comic Series GIDEON FALLS for TV Adaptation

by
Gideon Falls, the hit comic series from New York Times best-selling writer Jeff Lemire and illustrator Andrea Sorrentino, will soon be coming to television in partnership with Hivemind
Gideon Falls, the hit comic series from New York Times best-selling writer Jeff Lemire and illustrator Andrea Sorrentino, will soon be coming to television in partnership with Hivemind
Hivemind today announced that it has won an intense multi-studio bidding war and acquired the rights to bring the hit Image Comics comic book series, GIDEON FALLS, to television in partnership with co-creators Jeff Lemire and Andrea Sorrentino
Hivemind's Jason BrownSean DanielKathy Lingg and Dinesh Shamdasani will executive produce the series alongside co-creators Lemire and Sorrentino with high-level creative talent already circling the project.
An atmospheric thriller colliding rural mystery and urban horror, the series follows an ensemble cast of seemingly random strangers – a washed-up Catholic priest, an uncompromising female sheriff, and a young recluse obsessed with unraveling a conspiracy buried in his city's trash – as they become drawn into a mystery connected to a long-forgotten local legend.
Established in 2018, Hivemind is the new production entity from long-time producing partners Sean Daniel and Jason Brown, Bad Robot veteran Kathy Linggand former Valiant Entertainment CEO & Chief Creative Officer Dinesh Shamdasani
Dedicated to partnering with high-level creative talent and globally recognized intellectual properties from the worlds of science fiction, fantasy, horror, comic books, video games, anime, and more, 
Hivemind recently inked a first-look deal with Amazon Studios. GIDEON FALLS marks a major new rights acquisition for the label, which will develop the series as an hour-long horror drama based on Lemire and Sorrentino's repeatedly sold-out, critically acclaimed comic title of the same name that instantly became one of 2018's biggest breakout hits upon its debut in March.
"GIDEON FALLS is psychological horror told with a deeply humanistic touch, a story about imperfect people who confront their own demons – imagined and supernatural alike," said Hivemind Co-President Jason Brown. "It is this kind of expertly fashioned, character-focused genre storytelling that inspired us to form Hivemind, and it is our mission to collaborate with world-class authors, artists, and rights holders like Jeff and Andrea to bring their stories to the screen in an authentic way."
GIDEON FALLS is the latest property to join Hivemind's quickly expanding roster of film and television projects. 
⏩ The company currently produces the acclaimed science fiction series The Expanse – which recently made a historic move to Amazon – as well as Netflix's upcoming adaptation of The Witcherbased on the series of novels that inspired the best-selling game franchise. Its next feature film will be Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark with producer/co-writer Guillermo del Toro and director AndrĆ© Ƙvredal, which begins production this summer.
"GIDEON FALLS is a story that is very near to our hearts, and Andrea and I could not be more excited to be partnering with Hivemind to bring the terror, and the story of Fred, Norton and The Black Barn, to an even wider audience," said series co-creator and writer Jeff Lemire.
"It's great to imagine GIDEON FALLS, and all these characters whom we've been working so hard to realize in the graphic novel, now coming to life on TV screens," added series co-creator and artist Andrea Sorrentino.
GIDEON FALLS will also notably re-team Lemire with producer Dinesh Shamdasani, who joins Hivemind as Co-President. Lemire and Shamdasani previously collaborated on multiple best-selling comics projects, including The Valiant and Bloodshot Reborn, during his time at the helm of Valiant Entertainment, which Shamdasani departed following a major acquisition in early 2018. 
In addition to his duties at Hivemind, Shamdasani is also currently producing a big-screen adaptation of the Bloodshot comic book series for Sony Pictures with star Vin Diesel, director Dave Wilson, and Academy Award-nominated screenwriter Eric Heisserer that is set to begin filming this summer.
"GIDEON FALLS is one of the most inventive stories anywhere in comics today, colliding a psychologically complex and intellectually nuanced cast against a stark and terrifying terrain of science fiction and horror," said Shamdasani. "It's no surprise that it comes from the brilliant minds of two of the most talented creators in the comics medium – Jeff Lemire and Andrea Sorrentino – or that it sparked a massive multi-studio bidding war."
"GIDEON FALLS" - The Comic Book: Sneak Preview
"GIDEON FALLS" - The Comic Book: Sneak Preview (Via Image Comics)
About Jeff Lemire & Andrea Sorrentino:
New York Times best-selling and award-winning author Jeff Lemire is the creator of such iconic graphic novels as Essex CountySweet ToothUnderwater Welder, and Roughneck, as well as the co-creator of Descender with Dustin NguyenBlack Hammer with Dean Ormston and Plutona with Emi Lenox. Having won the American Library Association's prestigious Alex Award – recognizing books for adults with specific teen appeal – Lemire has been nominated for eight Eisner awards, seven Harvey awards, and eight Shuster awards.
Best-selling and acclaimed Italian artist Andrea Sorrentino was named IGN's Best Comic Artist of 2012 and, in the years since, has contributed to some of Marvel and DC Comics' greatest properties, including X-MenWolverine: Old Man LoganSecret Empire, and Green Arrow. He is currently working full time on GIDEON FALLS, while still also providing covers for Marvel and DC Comics.
"GIDEON FALLS" - The Comic Book: Sneak Preview
"GIDEON FALLS" - The Comic Book: Sneak Preview (Via Image Comics)
About Image Comics:
Image Comics is a comic book and graphic novel publisher founded in 1992 by a collective of bestselling artists. Image has since gone on to become one of the largest comics publishers in the United States
Image currently has six individuals on the Board of Directors: Robert KirkmanErik LarsenTodd McFarlaneMarc SilvestriJim Valentino, and Eric Stephenson. It consists of five major houses: Todd McFarlane Productions, Top Cow Productions, Shadowline Comics, Skybound Entertainment, and Image Central. 
Image publishes comics and graphic novels in nearly every genre, sub-genre, and style imaginable. It offers science fiction, fantasy, romance, horror, crime fiction, historical fiction, humor and more by the finest artists and writers working in the medium today. 
For more information, visit imagecomics.com.
"GIDEON FALLS" - The Comic Book: Sneak Preview
"GIDEON FALLS" - The Comic Book: Sneak Preview (Via Image Comics)


SOURCE: Hivemind
Related Videos:




27 June 2018

Singing Superstar Celine Dion at Tokyo Dome for First Japanese Performance in Twelve Years

by
Celine Dion performs to a sold-out crowd inside the Tokyo Dome on June 26, 2018
Celine Dion performs to a sold-out crowd inside the Tokyo Dome on June 26, 2018
Legendary icon and Las Vegas resident performer Celine Dion launched her 22-city tour across the Asian-Pacific region with a spectacular two-hour, sold out performance inside the Tokyo Dome last night. 
The tour is the latest milestone in a 15-year history of collaboration and partnership between Caesars Entertainment and Celine Dion, who began her first residency "A New Day…" at The Colosseum at Caesars Palace (Las Vegas) in 2003. 
Since that time, Celine has performed over 1,000 shows to over four million fans at The Colosseum at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas, and will continue to add to this number with her current residency, "Celine." 
While her Las Vegas residency performances usually run for 90 minutes, last night's show lasted for approximately two hours.
"Caesars Entertainment is the global leader in creating world-class live entertainment experiences and we are delighted that we helped bring Celine Dionback to Japan for the first time in 12 years," said Mark Frissora, President and Chief Executive Officer of Caesars Entertainment. "Live Entertainment has been key to our success as the preeminent Integrated Resort (IR) operator. With the IR legislation reaching its final stages, we hope this concert demonstrates our commitment to developing meaningful partnerships in Japan."
The Honorable Richard L. Armitage, former U.S. Deputy Secretary of State and President of Armitage International, Caesars Entertainment executives and Kara Bue, Armitage International founding partner and member of Caesars' Japan Advisory Committee, together with Celine Dion prior to her performance at Tokyo Dome.
The Honorable Richard L. Armitage, former U.S. Deputy Secretary of State and President of Armitage International, Caesars Entertainment executives and Kara Bue, Armitage International founding partner and member of Caesars' Japan Advisory Committee, together with Celine Dion prior to her performance at Tokyo Dome.
Caesars Entertainment executives Steven Tight, President of International Development, Jan Jones Blackhurst, Executive Vice President of Government Relations & Corporate Responsibility,  William Shen, Senior Vice President & Managing Director of Korea & Japan, and members of Caesars' Japan Advisory Council were in Tokyo for the event.
"I am so pleased that Caesars Entertainment was able to be part of this special performance," said Steve Tight, President of International Development. "Entertainment for the whole family is at the core of Caesars Entertainment, and it was a delight to see such a wide range of people enjoying Celine's concert. Shows like this take place at Caesars Entertainment Integrated Resorts every day, so I hope this concert gave the audience a real taste of the type of entertainment you can expect at a Japanese Entertainment Resort."

Caesars Entertainment's vision is to build a world-class Integrated Resort which would bring world-class entertainment to Japanese audiences while also showcasing Japanese culture and entertainment to visitors from all over the world.
Celine Dion during her spectacular two-hour performance inside the Tokyo Dome
Celine Dion during her spectacular two-hour performance inside the Tokyo Dome
Key facts about Celine Dion residency at Caesars Palace:
  • The Colosseum at Caesars Palace was built exclusively for Celine Dion's residency, "A New Day…," which began in March 2003.
  • Celine performed a total of 717 times during her first residency, which ran from March 2003 until December 2007.
  • Ongoing performances are taking place during Celine's second residency, "Celine", which began in March 2011. 
  • Celine performed her 1,000th show at The Colosseum at Caesars Palace on October 8, 2016.

To celebrate the event, Caesars Entertainment gave away three pairs of concert tickets to lucky winners through a tie up with women's lifestyle magazine CREA. 

Caesars Entertainment also created a Colosseum-inspired pop-up photo booth at the venue to commemorate its 15-year relationship with Celine Dion, where concertgoers had the opportunity to take a photo alongside an image of Celine performing at the iconic venue against the Las Vegas skyline.


25 June 2018

Holy Sh*t Balls!; The Deadpool 2 Score Soundtrack Is Now Available For Vinyl Pre-Order

by
Deadpool 2 Original Motion Picture Score's official vinyl release is on August 17, 2018
Deadpool 2 Original Motion Picture Score's official vinyl release is on August 17, 2018 (PRNewsfoto/Sony Music Masterworks)
Fans of the Deadpool 2 Original Motion Picture Score (released via Sony Music Masterworks) can get excited for its official vinyl release on August 17, 2018Now available for pre-order on Amazon, the first ever "parental guidance" labeled score album in history can be purchased as a 180-gram single-disc picture vinyl record. 
The score features music from award-winning composer, Tyler Bates (John Wick, Guardians of the Galaxy, Watchmen) and contains popular explicit numbers such as "Holy S*** Balls" and "Make the Whole World our B****".  
Billboard says "the score…matches the smart-ass spirit of the franchise."
BTW, You can listen to "Holy Sh*t Balls" in this previous  (and almost similar...) post of ours šŸ˜

If a 2-month wait period seems daunting, stream or download the album ahead of the August 17 release, and follow @SonyMasterworks to be the first to find out about news and upcoming releases.
Directed by David Leitch, and written by Rhett Reese & Paul Wernick & Ryan Reynolds, the movie stars Ryan ReynoldsJosh BrolinMorena BaccarinJulian Dennison, Zazie Beetz, T.J. Miller, Brianna Hildebrand and Jack Kesy.
Deadpool 2 Original Motion Picture Score
Deadpool 2 Original Motion Picture Score (Via LoupDargent.info)
About Tyler Bates:
With an innate understanding of an environment's power, perhaps it's no coincidence that Tyler Bates has become not only an artisan at architecting music for film, television, and video games, but an in-demand multi-instrumentalist, writer, and producer. 
Through the nineties, he logged 1,200-plus live shows in his bands, including Pet, released on Igloo/Atlantic Records, under the guidance of Tori Amos, before segueing into the world of film score. He started to make waves by creating the audio backdrop for the popular Zack Snyder Dawn of the Dead reboot in 2004 followed by his soundtrack for the filmmaker's 300.
By 2017, he worked on the most successful franchises in recent memory: Marvel's Guardians of the Galaxy and John Wick. In addition to composing for Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 1 & Vol. 2 and winning a BMI Film Music Award for the first, he co-wrote and produced a fan favorite "disco version" of "Guardians Inferno" [feat. David Hasselhoff], performed the second installment's score at the 2017 MOSMA Festival in Spain, and crafted the music for the Disney California Adventure attraction Guardians of the Galaxy – Mission Breakout!
Meanwhile, John Wick: Chapter 2 represents the nexus of his work as a composer, performer, and songwriter. He penned the closing credits tune "A Job To Do" alongside legendary Alice In Chains guitarist and vocalist Jerry Cantrell and performed on-screen during the climactic "Rock Opera" sequence, rocking a guitar-viol on stage with Le Castle Vania and Nostalghia. 
Samurai Jack offered a similar experience. After overseeing score production for Samurai Jack with composers, Joanne Higginbottom and Dieter Hartmann, he took the stage to perform a suite of the score at a sold-out Ace Theatre concert.
Samurai Jack is just one of his many TV credits. His sonic presence can also be felt throughout Netflix's The Punisher, Showtime's Californication, Audience Network's Kingdom, WGN America's Salem, and more as well as video games such as Killzone: Shadow FallGod of War: AscensionArmy of Two: The 40th Day, and most recently Crossfire.
2014 saw the birth of a powerful partnership with Marilyn Manson, touring the world. After meeting on a Californication performance, Bates went on to co-write and produce the 2015 epic, The Pale Emperor and the follow up in 2017, Heaven Upside Down. A runaway worldwide success, it achieved the Top 10 of the BillboardTop 200 at #6 and earned widespread critical acclaim with Rolling Stone hailing it as the "#1 Metal Album of 2015."
Bates handled music for the blockbuster Atomic Blonde starring Academy Award winner Charlize Theron. For the project, he also produced Health's cover of "Blue Monday" and re-invigorated and revitalized Ministry's "Stigmata" with Manson for key sequences in the film. 
On the big screen, he can be heard in the critically acclaimed The Belko Experiment as well as Public and 24 Hours to Live, while his voice permeates NETFLIX's The Punisher and Season 2 of The Exorcist.

DEADPOOL 2 (OMPS) Vinyl tracklist:




SIDE A
7. Holy S*** Balls
13. Docking
20. Cable Flashback
1. X-Men Arrive
8. Mutant Convoy
14. Make the Whole World our B****
21. Genuine High Grade Lead
2. Fighting Dirty
9. The Name is Cable
15. Pity D***
22. Courage Mother F*****
3. Hello Super Powers
10. Sorry for Your Loss
16. Knock Knock

4. Escape
11. You Can't Stop this Mother F*****
17. Let Me In

5. Vanessa
SIDE B
18. Maximum Effort

6. Weasel Interrogation
12. Ice Box
19. The Orphanage


SOURCE: Sony Music Masterworks

You Might Also Like