Gay freestyle skier Gus Kenworthy said it was a moment that he “never dreamed” possible as a child after he was filmed kissing his partner on live television at the Olympics. It has been hailed by some as a landmark moment in Games history and the footage went viral on social media. (more…)
For someone who’s a fan of Philip Ridley’s work this promised to be a thrilling night and one which I was looking forward to. Six new monologues are performed by one actor/actress. The roles are gender neutral with switches in who plays which monologue each night. So far so good. Sadly, though, the evening felt somewhat disjointed with writing that felt like off-cuts.
If you know Ridley’s work then you’ll know what to expect but that also that you can never quite predict what’s going to be on offer. All the classic Ridley elements are there: incandescent rage, confrontation with the audience, wild flights of fancy and other wordliness. Whilst the plays are disturbing, dark and devilishly funny, they just don’t feel meaty enough to grab you.
‘Bloodshot’ is a bizarre tale of a young man/woman who has a strange erotic encounter with a younger male. ‘Angry’ is a shouted piece of pure fury and ‘Air’ is a longer piece that looks at a cataclysmic chain of events. There are moments of pure delight and pure horror which don’t disappoint. However, whilst Tyrone Huntley and Georgie Henley are both accomplished actors and bring the writing to life ultimately, the evening is too disconnected and muddled to have the impact it should.
https://southwarkplayhouse.co.uk/show/angry/
Until 06.02.18
Any play that starts out with the line ‘I met my husband in the queue to board an Easyjet flight and I have to say that I took an instant dislike to the man’ you know you’re going to be hooked. And that’s how Girls & Boys pulls you in a tight grip and never let’s go.
On a recent visit to a supermarket, I was caught short and had to avail myself of their facilities. I chose what was previously known as the ‘disabled toilet’. There was a double whammy of relief as on approach there was a sign on the door which read “Not every disability is visible, Accessible Toilet.”
Now I can walk in and leave a toilet without the guilt I previously had when people would say either under their breath or with an accusatory tone, “What’s his disability; he can walk alright?”
These are no longer disabled toilets, which in itself is grammatically incorrect as the toilet does not have a disability as implied but its user. They are accessible toilets and show a man, woman and wheelchair user.
I have diverticulitis, ulcerative colitis, and an enlarged prostate.
In the past I have stood at a urinal desperate to urinate and not a drop would pass; waiting, lingering and straining to the point of arousing the suspicion of other users as to my purpose. Not a pleasant experience, humiliating, embarrassing, and making me potentially vulnerable to abuse.
“The other conditions are unpredictable and an urgency to use the bowel can be unpleasant in a public place. This can be an uncivilised theatrical event of some duration, accompanied with my crying out in pain”
The other conditions are unpredictable, and an urgency to use the bowel can be unpleasant in a public place. This can be an uncivilised theatrical event of some duration, accompanied with my crying out in pain, voluminous flatulent sound effects and a pebble dashing with force, not dissimilar to the noise of emptying a coal bucket into a fireplace.
Dignity has long since been lost, and I have over the years adopted an approach of making fun of myself. In a motorway service station (and you know how busy they are) all fell silent at the sound of ‘parking my breakfast.’ I heard myself saying “You’re only supposed to blow the bloody doors off!”, and rapturous laughter followed.
Now I can suffer and recover some composure in privacy before re-emerging, and the handrail is bloody useful when getting back up these days, damned arthritis!
So what does she want? MORE…
Imagine in your wildest dreams, Britney Spears even noticing that you’re alive, let alone Tweeting you lyrics to one of her most iconic songs…
We die.
Well, this is exactly what happened to out Olympian, Gus Kenworthy.
Taking to Twitter, Britney Spears tweeted the Olympian, “So proud of #TeamUSA!! Hey @guskenworthy, gimme, gimme more on the slopes today!! #ItsGusBitch”
So proud of #TeamUSA!! Hey @guskenworthy, gimme, gimme more on the slopes today!! #ItsGusBitch ??⛷
— Britney Spears (@britneyspears) February 17, 2018
Gus, quite rightly lost his shiz over the Tweet, replying,
“Oh. My. God. Was really not prepared to wake up to this. Not sure how I’m gonna ski today because I’m LITERALLY dead now but I’m gonna go that extra mile for you, Britney! Ilysm!!!”
Oh. My. God. Was really not prepared to wake up to this. Not sure how I’m gonna ski today because I’m LITERALLY dead now but I’m gonna go that extra mile for you, Britney! Ilysm!!! ?❤ https://t.co/yhoEJq1qRL
— Gus Kenworthy (@guskenworthy) February 17, 2018
Suspected Florida shooter, Nikolas Cruz repeatedly supported homophobic, racist and anti-Semitics views in a private Instagram group chat.
The 19-year-old, who opened fire at the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland in Florida killing 17 people “espoused racist, homophobic and anti-Semitic views” in a private Instagram group chat, CNN is reporting.
He used a legally purchased AR-15 in the 3rd most deadly school shooting in the US.
In the group, which was called Murica Great, CNN reports that racism was a “constant” theme. CNN found that there were hundreds of racist memes, messages and Instagram videos. CNN reports that Cruz wrote that gay people should shot in the back of the head. The statement came as a response to another user of the group, who expressed a hatred towards gay people. CNN was unable to confirm the identities of the group’s users.
Cruz joined the conversation in August 2017 and is believed to be between six people.
Cruz’s Instagram, Twitter, YouTube accounts have now been removed.
According to reports teachers at the school were sent out an email by the administrators warning them about threats that Cruz is alleged to have made. Math teacher, Jim Gard told the Miami Herald, “There were problems with him last year threatening students, and I guess he was asked to leave campus.”
The shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland is the third most deadly school shooting in the US, with Virginia Tech in 2007 remaining the deadliest with 32 fatalities. Sandy Hook comes second with 27 dead.
Florida was the scene for one of the worst mass shootings in US history in 2016, when a gunman killed 49 people at a gay club in Orlando. The shoot was eclipsed in 2017 when a shooter killed 58 people at an open-air concert in Las Vegas.
The social team at Marks and Sparks have done themselves proud, especially if you’re a fan of Percy Pigs.
The ad, which was created for Valentine’s day introduces Penny the Pig, and asks viewers, “Are you a Percy and A Penny?, Or a Percy and a Percy, or a Penny and a Penny?”
It ends with saying, whoever you spend Valentine’s Day with, make sure love is on the menu.
It’s been viewed nearly a million times since Valentine’s Day.
Watch the video below
Awwww…
Quorn Foods UK has said that it has asked its advertising agency to remove ads featured next to the Daily Mail‘s Richard Littlejohn article which criticised Tom Daley and Dustin Lance Black’s baby news, but stopped short of saying that it had entered an advertising boycott of the publisher.
Honda is apparently “investigating” their ad placements and the BBC said their ad was an “unfortunate ad placement”.
ALSO READ: Brands are under pressure to drop Mail Online advertising after shocking Richard Littlejohn column
ALSO READ: Southbank will no longer advertise with Daily Mail following on from Richard Littlejohn column
Taking to Twitter the meat substitute company said, “It was never our intention for our advert to appear next to content of that nature. We have regular reviews of media placements with our advertising agency. In this particular instance the advert has been removed at our request”
The BBC brand CBEEBIES, which had an advertisement placement featured on what looked to be a Facebook Instant articles version of the article, also made a statement to say, “Of course these are not the values held by CBeebies magazine, this is just a very unfortunate ad placement which we will remove as soon as possible. We apologise for offence caused”.
Honda said that they were “investigating” the issue with their advertising team.
At last review, the advert space on the online version of the article appears to have been removed altogether.
Quorn giant made the announcement after Stop Funding Hate questioned them over Twitter, asking, “Hi @QuornFoods did you know your ads are funding articles like this in the Daily Mail today? #startspreadinglove”
Both the Southbank Centre and Center Parcs made commitments today not to advertise in the Mail’s outlets after their adverts appeared in the print edition of the Daily Mail. They are part of a growing number of companies which have stated they won’t advertise with outlets like the Daily Mail, the Sun or the Daily Express.
In 2016 Lego announced that it would no longer advertise saying that they were “not planning any future promotional activity with the newspaper”. It was one of the first large brands to pull away from the right-wing press.
The Body Shop ended their advertising contracts saying to Buzzfeed, “We have always supported human rights – it is part of our ‘enrich not exploit commitment’ – and when an editorial stance seems to go against that Commitment, we consider seriously whether we will support it.”
In September Online fashion store JOY said that they would end an online advertising agreement with DM and the Daily Express, saying, “It was recently brought to our attention by @StopFundingHate that our ads were appearing next to transphobic and racist articles… JOY is a brand that pride themselves on diversity and inclusion, and we would never want to associate ourselves with these viewpoints. From now on we will be monitoring our ad placements much more closely…”
Also in September 2017, Evans Cycles blacklisted the Sun, Daily Mail and Daily Express from its online advertising spend.
In December 2017, Paperchase made a commitment not to advertise with the outlet in the future.
In Feb 2018, after a Richard Littlejohn column, Center Parcs and Southbank Centre both pulled their advertising from the Daily Mail.
According to StopFundinghate.org.uk, other companies that have effectively joined an advertising boycott include:
Phone Co-Op, Triodos Bank, ETA Services, The Ethical Shop, Thread, Bellroy, Ethical Superstore, Vision Express, Abel And Cole, Riverford, Farmdrop, Ocado, Ecotricity, Good Energy, Green Energy UK, Bulb Energy, Said Business School, Derby University,
In a crushing blow to the Daily Mail, the Southbank Centre in London and Center Parcs have both said they will no longer place advertising in the outlet.
The announcement follows on from a Richard Littlejohn column concerning the baby announcement by Tom Daley and Dustin Lance-Black.
In a statement on Twitter, the Southbank wrote,
“Southbank Centre reaches out to audiences through wide-ranging online and offline media titles, across the political spectrum.
“We monitor the environment in which our advertising appears, to ensure the values of a publication are compatible with our own. We have no future plans to advertise within the Daily Mail”.
Center Parcs wrote,
We take where we advertise very seriously and have a number of steps to prevent our advertising from appearing alongside inappropriate content. We felt this placement was completely unacceptable and therefore ceased advertising with the Daily Mail with immediate effect.
Some of the UK’s biggest brands are under pressure to stop advertising in the Daily Mail and Mail Online.
Brands such as Jet2, Calvin Klein, Quorn and Natwest have all had their brands advertised next to or under the content on the web version of the newspaper
THEGAYUK.com reached out to the brands concerned for comment.
The Daily Mail was urged to fire Richard Littlejohn by over 200,000 people in 2013 after a piece he wrote “monstered” transgender school teacher, Lucy Meadows, who sadly committed suicide shortly after her transition.
StopFundingHate a UK pressure group whose campaign focuses on changing the media via its advertisers have called upon Quorn, Natwest, Visa and VisitNorway to answer on whether they were happy that their brands were effectively funding the content on the MailOnline.
Speaking to THEGAYUK.com StopFundingHate said, “Many customers of Jet2 and Calvin Klein will be deeply disappointed to see them funding this divisive and disheartening article. Yet again we see that the Daily Mail is increasingly out of touch with the views of mainstream British society. A recent YouGov poll found that 58% of people believe that “companies should withdraw their advertising if it is placed next to content they think is racist, sexist, homophobic or xenophobic”
“Brands can easily prevent their ads from appearing on the Daily Mail website by updating their Google Adsense settings or speaking to their media agency”.
In a crushing blow to the Daily Mail, the Southbank Centre in London, has said that it will no longer place advertising in the outlet. The announcement follows on from a Richard Littlejohn column concerning the baby announcement by Tom Daley and Dustin Lance-Black.
In a statement on Twitter, the Southbank wrote,
“Southbank Centre reaches out to audiences through wide-ranging online and offline media titles, across the political spectrum.
“We monitor the environment in which our advertising appears, to ensure the values of a publication are compatible with our own. We have no future plans to advertise within the Daily Mail”.
Some of the UK’s biggest brands are under pressure to stop advertising in the Daily Mail and Mail Online.
Brands such as Jet2, Calvin Klein, Quorn and Natwest have all had their brands advertised next to or under the content on the web version of the newspaper
THEGAYUK.com reached out to the brands concerned for comment.
The Daily Mail was urged to fire Richard Littlejohn by over 200,000 people in 2013 after a piece he wrote “monstered” transgender school teacher, Lucy Meadows, who sadly committed suicide shortly after her transition.
StopFundingHate a UK pressure group whose campaign focuses on changing the media via its advertisers have called upon Quorn, Natwest, Visa and VisitNorway to answer on whether they were happy that their brands were effectively funding the content on the MailOnline.
Speaking to THEGAYUK.com StopFundingHate said, “Many customers of Jet2 and Calvin Klein will be deeply disappointed to see them funding this divisive and disheartening article. Yet again we see that the Daily Mail is increasingly out of touch with the views of mainstream British society. A recent YouGov poll found that 58% of people believe that “companies should withdraw their advertising if it is placed next to content they think is racist, sexist, homophobic or xenophobic”
“Brands can easily prevent their ads from appearing on the Daily Mail website by updating their Google Adsense settings or speaking to their media agency”.