Since it was released this wickedly funny parody of Alicia Keys “Girl On Fire” has racked up over 18 million hits.
We simply cannot get enough of Willam, Detox & Vicky Vox as after all, this boy really is a Bottom.
Day: 1 June 2015
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James Franco plays gay again
James Franco is obviously intending to get his a place in the Guinness Book of Records for playing gay-for-pay with his clothes on more than any other straight actor in Hollywood.
His latest movie Wild Horses is about a Texas Ranger Samantha Payne (Luciana Duvall) who reopens a 15-year-old missing persons case, uncovering clues linking a local boy’s death to wealthy family man, Scott Briggs (Robert Duvall).
Samantha will stop at nothing to discover the truth even if it means risking her own life. With the unexpected return of his estranged gay son Ben (Franco), Briggs must find a way to either silence the law for good, or come to terms with the hidden relationship between Ben and the boy that he tried to end years ago.
Due to be released in the US on June 5th, and in the UK later this summer
According to his instagram Franco is currently in the Hamptons trying to write a Musical which you can see from the photo he posted, for some reason he is doing somewhat naked.
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TECH REVIEW | Sync or Swim, In car technology with Ford
The amount of technology packed into a modern hatchback is astounding, features that were the preserve of luxury brands are now within the grasp of anyone able to afford a relatively cheap new car. To demonstrate I borrowed a Ford Focus Titanium X Estate (perfectly timed for me moving house) with all of the option boxes ticked to see how much easier the tech made life over a week. From voice activation to adaptive lights, smartphone integration to park assist, I played with tested everything.
Cars and phones don’t mix together well. At best a ringing phone is an annoyance, at worst a danger if you decide to pick up. Thankfully systems such as Ford’s Sync, now in its second generation, are available, allowing you to call, hear your texts and even control your music without even taking your hands from the wheel. Based on a Microsoft operating system, it works with both Apple and Android Smartphones, in this case an HTC One M8. There’s also a couple of USB ports that allow you to also connect an iPod or other music devices too.
It’s a simple process to pair your phone via Bluetooth, giving the car access to your contacts, music and messages. An 8” touchscreen allows you to navigate between phone, music, navigation and climate controls really easily, the four options appearing in the corners of the screen at all times. The menus are clear and not unattractive but lack the Apple like cleanness of similar systems from Audi & Mercedes. It’s certainly intuitive though, after a few hours of driving and precisely no time looking at the instructions I was able to navigate quickly between screens, helped by large icons. I found the satellite navigation easy to follow with handy warnings for fixed speed and traffic light cameras. The option of having the next turning with a mile countdown between the dials was a nice touch too. My only gripe is that entering addresses could be a little slow at times, frustrating if you’re already running late!
New with Sync 2 is enhanced voice activation, controlled by a button on the face of the right wheel spoke. The computer does an excellent job of hearing your commands making dialling a number both easy and safe. Calls are crystal clear and the inbuilt microphone picks up everything you say seemingly regardless of speed. Whilst dialling and changing audio source were definitely easier though voice control, I still found myself ignoring the voice activation and touch screen to press a good old fashioned button for the climate control. Sometimes the old way is still best.
From my experience, this is true of parking too. While the Park Assist will spookily steer itself while parking, creeping out any passengers in the process, it isn’t always as accurate as it could be. To be fair though, Ford doesn’t call the system self park for a reason, the technology isn’t quite that far advanced but it sure is impressive. After pressing a button to select either parallel or perpendicular parking, the system scans for a space, pinging to let you know it’s found one. After you come to a halt at the computer’s desired start point, select reverse and start slowly edging backwards (the slower the better) keeping your hands well clear of the wheel. The car will then turn itself getting nail-bitingly close but never hitting the cars around you. If you really don’t trust it, there’s a rear view camera too.
In fact, the Focus turns out to be very good at avoiding hitting things. Active City Stop detects potential low speed collisions and applies the brakes to prevent an accident. Fortunately, I didn’t have the opportunity to try it, as tempting as it was to stack a few cardboard boxes and aim the car at them. There’s also a blind spot information system (BLIS) that flashes a light in the door mirror to warn you of anything hiding and gives obstruction warnings as you reverse. These and the proximity sensors dotted around the car are handy but can make it sound like someone dying in a hospital drama. Lots of hyperactive beeping followed by a flatline. Great if something’s there, not so great when the computer thinks a sharp incline is a wall. There’s also a lane keeping assist which will subtly adjust the steering. If you can’t keep in lane though, you probably shouldn’t be driving.
Of all the tech on the car, it was the adaptive headlights that were most impressive. Packing LED daytime running lights and bi-xenon headlights into an attractive and aggressive shape, they could be operated manually or left to their own devices. Even though I’ve previously scoffed at auto headlights (how hard is it to turn them on?) these blew my mind. On top of coming on when it got dark, they turn to illuminate corners with the help of the inner foglight and also adjust their beam depending on how fast you’re going, wide and short at low speed, longer but narrower at high speed. The icing on the cake was their ability to switch between dipped and main beam quickly and without dazzling other drivers all by themselves.
So is all this kit worth the money? While the latest Focus starts at £13,995, you have to spend at least £17,095 to even option Sync, fine when you consider the cheapest model only comes with the oldest, least efficient engine. To get Sync 2 with the 8” (rather than 4.2”) screen you need to spend another £500 or jump to Titanium spec at £20,095. Compared to other mainly German rivals, that strikes me as pretty good value, just don’t expect it to be quite as well finished as, say, an Audi A3. You can go overboard however, our test car came in at an eye watering £29,615, partially down to metallic paint, some very tasty 18” alloy wheels and tinted rear windows adding nearly a grand to the list price. Pick your options carefully though and your life behind the wheel will be better.
Ford.co.uk
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UK ranks 23rd Happiest Place in the World to be Gay
In a survey published this week by the Dutch gay dating and community site Planet Romeo the UK ranked 23rd in their Gay Happiness Index.
The company collaborated with the Johannes Gutenberg University of Mainz in Germany to carry out an online survey of 115,000 gay men around the world.
The survey itself combined rankings on public opinion, public behavior and life satisfaction to provide a worldwide ranking on gay happiness, with Iceland topping the list and Uganda at number 127 being confirmed as the worst country in the world to be gay.
In fact there are no real surprises at the bottom of the poll as to which other countries that make up the worst ten i.e. Kazakhstan, Ghana, Cameroon, Iran, Nigeria, Iraq, Kyrgyzstan, Ethiopia and Sudan.
The real puzzlers are at the other end of scale: whilst we pipped the USA (26th), South Africa rather shockingly beat us by coming in at 22nd.
Ireland was placed below us at no 25th but as the survey was conducted before all the euphoria of last week’s historic poll, they are bound to me moving upward soon.
The top ten were:
Iceland
Norway
Denmark
Sweden
Uruguay
Canada
Israel
Netherlands
Switzerland
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INTERVIEW | Tom Goss
Google Tom Goss, I dare you. The guy is prodigious and will keep you online, amused, toe-tapping, for days! He’s been likened to Jack Johnson – they share the same penchant for flip-flops and casual chic, and guitars!
His a renaissance man in that he writes his own materials, covers some tracks in a quirky and unique way, writes and acts in his videos, and has now dipped a toe into the world of straight acting with the imminent DVD release of the movie “Out to Kill” and 2, yes 2 of his music releases.
I had the chance recently to pick his brains about his work, his love of bears, and his penchant for getting his kit off
How would you describe what you do? What’s your “job description”?
I describe myself as a singer, songwriter and video maker. Obviously it’s more than that but I try to keep it simple. I work hard to create meaningful and fun art. Like many independent artists, my productions often cross genres musically and visually. I try to push the boundaries and do things new and interesting. Most of all, I just want to touch people. If I make them smile or feel something they didn’t before they listened or watched, I did my job.You’re known for your original songs, but also for your cover versions. Which do you prefer doing?
I prefer doing my own material, and I have a lot of it. My live shows are 95% original material. Luckily for me, that’s what most my listeners respond to most often. That said, the internet loves cover songs! That means I make fun cover videos. Similarly to above, I try to keep it interesting and different, you won’t catch me sitting in a chair just plucking my guitar. It’ll usually involve household items as instruments, loop pedals or crazy green screen antics.Your videos are well known for being quirky and slightly off the wall, who originates the ideas? Describe the process.
I think about videos all the time. It’s how the world consumes media. It’s how the world consumes new music. Think about it, when was the last time someone posted an amazing song on their Facebook wall? It doesn’t happen. Now, if that amazing song is in YouTube format, it might just get posted. Sadly, an amazing song is nothing these days without an amazing video.That means I think about videos all the time. I come up with lots of ideas, not all of them are feasible (too expensive, too technically difficult, too silly), but some are. I’m churning over in my head how to make 3 different videos right now, hahahaha
The process of creation usually starts by me convincing people that it’ll be fun, cool and possible. I’m very lucky, I have a number of great collaborators that embrace my ideas and help make them possible rather than dismiss them as too off the wall. That said, they’re not always my ideas. Every day people tell me what I should be doing. Usually they’re not up my alley, but every now and again people have amazing ideas (the music video for Lover was not my idea). I’m always willing to abandon an idea if someone comes along with a better one.
In your recent All About that Bass, you semi-drag up with the wig and make-up – any plans to go all the way? And how do you “recruit” your co-stars?
That video was an idea I pitched a couple days before shooting the music video for Wait (soon to be released). I saw we had a light shoot schedule so said, ‘hey, while we have the green screen up let’s make another video!’ There was some hemming and hawing (it turned our chill 2 day shoot into a frantic 2 day shoot) but everyone loves that song so we thought it would be funny.How we recruited? That goes back to me being lucky to have such fun folks around me. The folks in the video were my crew and a couple folks that had parts in Wait (the other video we were filming) that we convinced to dance in front of a green screen. It was really that simple. ‘MDQ’ is actually our on set makeup artist, he’s been doing makeup since Lover (2010). I knew he could sing so I asked if he ever performed in drag. Lucky me, he had some experience and we were off!
You aren’t ashamed of showing off that body where does the confidence come from?
I don’t know. To be honest, I’m not sure it’s confidence, I think it’s necessity more than anything. Sometimes my videos require some skin, so I show it. I’ve gotten much more comfortable with it over the years. I definitely would not have done it early in my career. These days I see it as fun and campy, I’m embracing my body more as a tool that can be used as sexy or funny or dramatic. Additionally, if we’re being blunt, my audience is gay men, gay men love videos with half naked men. So… there’s that too.Illuminate the Dark is one of our favourite tracks ever – what inspired it? And the appearance of Alex Minsky in your video was inspired – how did that come about?
Thank you! It’s one of mine too. The director (Michael Serrato) and I were just talking about the song and it’s message of beauty and acceptance. We started seeing it as a literal illumination of that which makes us the most beautiful. I see beauty in places that most people don’t, I don’t know if that makes me lucky or odd, it just is. We started talking about people that were untraditionally beautiful, and we wanted to show them in a way where their beauty shone brightest.Alex Minsky is amazing and inspirational. He was one of the first people that came to my mind once we settled on a storyline for Illuminate the Dark. How did we link up? Honestly, I just sent him a message. I was shocked when he responded immediately. Obviously he’s beautiful physically, but his real beauty shines in his positive attitude and charming personality. It was a pleasure working with him.
Now let’s chat about Bears? I love this song and its accompanying video – seems to be a message of acceptance and whatever your size, who cares? Love it – and wondered what the back story was? And for our British bears out there….any truth on your preference for bears?
I love that people still ask me that question. I mean, I wrote a song and made a huge production about how ‘bears got the best of me’ and ‘bears are my fantasy’ but people still think it’s a put on, hahahaha. Of course I love bears! I’m married to a bear. In fact, he’s the big, bald, bearded, adorably dancing guy in All About That Bass and also the man I wake up to in bed at the end of Bears, in our actual bed mind you. I think that answers the back story too. In short, I LOVE BEARS!What other projects are you working on? What can your YouTube and Facebook fans look forward to next?
Working on a holiday song right now (way quirkier than you’re thinking most likely) and finishing up a remix EP, both slated for a December release. I was in a movie last year ‘Out To Kill’ that releases on DVD 12/9. Other than that I’m writing a lot. Working on a couple bigger, still hush hush projects. Oh, and of course I’m performing. I’ll be back out on the road in 2015, singing, dancing and meeting awesome new folks.Keep up to date with all the news fit to print by going to:
