Info Meme

First, I need to wish you all a Happy New Year, and say how excited we are about what’s in store for us this year. But would you mind keeping it down, I may have a little bit of a headache this morning. On the housekeeping front, the Head Chimp In Charge tells me that the Man of the Decade poll is going to run until Sunday at midnight.  80% of the votes cast have been split between John Barrowman and Neil Patrick Harris, yet less than twenty votes separate the two. Remember, winner is on top for a whole decade, so vote wisely!

We may as well start in the UK this morning, because they’ve been busy over there. Seems the queen has been attacking people’s shoulders with a sword! Wait, I’m being told she was bestowing knighthoods, and not going on a bloodthirsty rampage. Out theater director Nicholas Hytner was knighted as was Star Trek: The Next Generation’s Patrick Stewart and Lord of the Ring’s Peter Jackson.

Also happening in the UK, BBC news presenter Jane Hill has come out as lesbian in the corporation’s magazine, Ariel.  From what I can tell this is one of those “it wasn’t actually a secret” coming out things.

There’s been some news going around that Criss Angel, never one of the more pleasant people, unveiled a giant banner reading “faggot” as part of a mind reading trick earlier this month at his Cirque du Soleil show “Believe.”  The trick involves reading the mind of an audience member, and the official statement from the show is that the audience member was British, so there was no slur.

The Wrap has their TV Top 9 of 2009, and it’s a fairly gay list, with “Don’t Stop Believin’” from the Glee pilot topping the list, and Adam Lambert showing up at #6. Our Ally of the Year, John Stewart shows up at #8.

The Gay Rights blog over at Change.org put up a list of their Top 5 Gay TV Moments of 2009, and there’s actually one there that we didn’t cover here, since it was a lesbian moment, but it’s worth going over and checking out Calle Torres on Grey’s Anatomy going off on her father when he tried to pray her gay away. If the show was more that, and less Meredith, I might still watch.

You Kish fanatics are media personalities now. Zap2it has an article up about Wednesday’s fireworks, our liveblog, and your reaction to it, and several of you are quoted. More importantly, Zap2it got pointed here by ABC themselves. We’ve said it before – what happens here matters, and not just what Michael says, but what you guys say, too. It does reach the powers.

In sad news, Broadway Hunk-a-dunk Cheyenne Jackson’s show, Finnian’s Rainbow, is closing on January 17^th, so see it while you can. But who knows, when he sang in Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade, they billed him as “30 Rock’s Cheyenne Jackson” so big things may be in his future.

In a move that likely surprises no one, Marvel shareholders approved Disney’s $4.3 billion buyout offer on New Year’s Eve, meaning we can probably look forward to Buzz Lightyear vs. Ant Man sometime in 2013.

For the first time since the Federal minimum wage went into effect, a state is lowering their minimum wage. Colorado’s minimum wage will drop from the state rate of $7.28 to the Federal $7.25 because the state tied their wage to inflation, which was actually negative this past year. No one thought that could happen when they wrote the law.

We have lifeguards in the teaser photo because, well, they’re hot, and we haven’t given you a Briefs Guy in 9 days. But also because this story out of Australia was fascinating. They’ve been tagging great white sharks with radio GPS tags down under, and when the sharks get too close to the beach, the system sends a text to the lifeguards, who hopefully have waterproof mobiles. Works great until you get a vacationing shark from out of town. Darn tourists.

It’s official. The Dutch think Americans are tacky. Or least Times Square is. They don’t like the hundreds of millions of dollars worth of electronic billboards, and are raising money to display art instead of Coca-Cola ads in the Crossroads of the World. In case they haven’t heard, Disney owns New York City at this point, so the only art you’re going get is Finding Nemo.

Spiegel Online has a truly stunning set of photos of 2009 that aren’t as U.S.-centric  as some I’ve put forward for your viewing pleasure. There are pictures of kids, pictures of nature, pictures of war, and even one stunning photo at #38 that may be NSFW, but it sure is pretty.

Lego has released an iPhone app, and well, it’s kind of brilliant. You take a picture, and it turns it into a mosaic of Lego bricks. I have no idea why this is cool, it just is. Totally free from the App Store.

Photo Meme

Sharon Stone stepped out in public this week, and well, it wasn't pretty. I really hate to snark about someone who has raised so much money for AIDS research, so, well, I'll let the folks over at Socialite Life do it for me. They pointed it out after all.

Normally a fan of anything Muppet, but not this.

You know those Gain Fabric Softener ads, where people are always smelling each other's towels and shirts and such? Well, in some countries, they take it further.

Not the aroma I associate with wrestling.

As long as I'm talking advertising, I may as well show you this ad for the Copenhagen Zoo. I thought it was a clever use of a bus ad. The wrap is certainly better than the nastiness D.C. has on their buses right now.

Nick Adams, who we might admit to having the tiniest crush on, wished everyone a Happy New Year on his blog in a way that certainly caught my eye. Happy New Year, Nick!

I'm not bothered in the least he recycled.

Nick also reminded us that he makes excellent furniture. Then again, you can't imagine the positions I'd be willing to get into for Jonathan Rhys-Meyers.

Can you spot Nick?

Do you ever think famous designers and such aren't actually brilliant, they just like to see what we'll let them get away with? The Do-Hit Chair from Marijn van der Poll is basically a cube of sheet metal that comes with a hammer, and you get to bash it into a chair yourself. Price upon request.

What part of this did he design, anyhow?

Video Meme

Tomorrow, BBC America will start airing a series called Demons. It's essentially either the heir to Buffy, or a complete rip off. You've got the demon slayer, born to it, and a gruff American to teach him the craft. One thing it has going for it is Christian Cooke, who I know from the BBC series Trinity, where he was sexy and occasionally naked and beautiful, though I still don't know what the show was about.

This sketch is a Star Wars Fantasy from the Hardly Working Guys over at CollegeHumor.com. They're always hit-or-miss, but this works for me. It's a perfect explanation of why geeks have reputations of remaining virgins, even when other geeks are available - they can't get over the pointless stuff.

I'm fairly certain I meant to run this Prince of Persia featurette weeks ago, and never got around to it. If I'm still drunk from last night, and already ran it, well, you'll just have to suffer through staring at Jake Gyllenhaal.

This Guinness Beer commercial works for me for the same reason that those videos of falling dominoes work for me. Granted, I know this was done with CG and not an elaborately constructed OCD, but that doesn't make it much less cool, plus, add in the alcohol factor, and you're still ahead.

CNN brings us New Years 2010 in the Sydney Harbor. I've climbed the Bridge, and it's stunning, though not nearly as stunning as the beaches nearby. Hey, boss - if you ever want to open an Aussie affiliate, I volunteer to go set it up.