Written and Directed by Rick Hammerly, Signage follows two forty-ish gay friends who go out for a night at the clubs. Our hero connects with a young gay deaf man and they both hit it off. But the many labels and groups within groups of the gay community might be a hurdle in their getting together.
Starring: Rick Hammerly, Jason Wittig, Jeffery Johnson.
Signage won Best Short at the Washington DC Independent Film Fest.
*Portions of film is told in sign language, with subtitles.
The new owners of OUT magazine and the ADVOCATE are the stepbrothers Adam Levin and Maxx Abramowitz, they are the founders and operators of Oreva Capital, which last September under the umbrella of PRIDE Media acquired the two LGBT publications along with related brands and intellectual property. They are also, respectively, the chief executive officer and lead investor of High Times magazine parent High Times Holdings.
However, it turns out the two new owners have given money to anti-LGBT politicians who have worked against that community.
Levin has donated to a number of Republicans including Devin Nunes, Dean Heller and Josh Mandel (all of whom have publicly taken anti-LGTBQ stances, like supporting religion-based discrimination), and Dana Rohrabacher (who recently said gay people can be denied the right to buy a home and has consistently opposed legal advancements for the LGTB community).
You know what to do…….
South Florida Gay News reports:
Bobby Blair’s dream to build an international media enterprise has apparently come crashing to a halt this week. SFGN has received information that the staff of Multimedia Platforms, which includes the Florida Agenda and Next Magazine in New York, has been let go, and there will be no print editions this week. Frontiers in LA, purchased by MMPW last year, is also impacted.
As news leaked out, Blair himself issued a brief press release indicating that a court order had been issued seizing the assets of his company, and a restraining order “has been issued prohibiting the company from distributing any cash or any other assets of the company.” Lenders in the State of Massachusetts apparently filed the action.
In an effort to explain the company’s present difficulties, Blair told SFGN “for the record, I was re-appointed CEO last week as I became informed all this was happening by management. The last 4 months I have not been involved or included in any day-to-day business or involved in this now disputed credit facility.”
Blair indicated in private emails to colleagues, which are being circulated in social media, that he has retained counsel to “fight” the seizure but has refused, as of this time, to name the lawyers or the court where the action is proceeding. His representation to one party was that “new management signed a horrible deal that I have now to fix.”
Blair purchased New Frontiers Media LLC, the publisher of Frontiers, in September 2015 from Michael Turner, whose profession is assessing the value of properties. Turner acquired Frontiers out of bankruptcy for $361,000 in December 2013. Blair’s MMPW added Frontiers to a portfolio that included Florida Agenda; Fun Maps, a series of maps of gay communities calling out bars and shops
In March of this year Blair and Frontiers were accused of ageism for firing Award winning LGBT journalist Karen Ocamb after 13 years of being with the magazine. Blair’s justification was “[he] we wanted to give the generation of millennials a real shot at creating our content.”
That worked out well for them didn’t it.
Harkening back to the Lucky Vanous “It’s 11:30 Diet Coke Break” commercial of the 1990’s. Icelandic water company Icelandic Water Holdings has released a new advert for its Icelandic Glacial water, giving a modern, positive, gay inclusive spin on the advertising classic utilizing 23 year old “manbun sensation” Brock O’Hurn.
Speaking to gayiceland.is, Chairman and co-founder of the company Jón Ólafsson says that “it felt like the right thing to do, just very natural, to include a gay character”. The response to the new advert has been pleasing positively, reports Roald Viðar Eyvindsson here.
Who could forget the classic 90s Diet Coke advert where a group of female office workers down tools at 11:30 am precisely and trot over to the window to watch a ripped shirtless builder sip his drink?
Manbun aside boys remember: When one is faced with a work of art, it seems only polite to admire
GLAAD, formerly known as Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation has just defamed the independent LGBT journalists that have helped them for many years by removing the “Outstanding Blog” category from this years 27th. Annual Media Awards claiming that “the definition of “blog” became insoluble” (Yes that’s right. GLAAD could not figure out what a “blog” was after all these years.) and that anything “previously considered in the Outstanding Blog category would now be considered in other categories, including Outstanding Digital Journalism Article, Outstanding Digital Journalism – Multimedia, and Special Recognition.” Meaning that independent blogs would have to go up against outlets like this years nominated VICE, NewYorkTimes.com, MSNBC.com, and Buzzfeed.com
Most shameful is the fact that the very people that GLAAD are marginalizing are the same people that for years promoted their causes and brought LGBT news, opinion and information to millions of readers on the internet.
“It’s shameful, considering independent voices (including Pam’s House Blend, nominated once), helped shape the political gains over the last decade.
It seems like this is just another sign of what we’ve seen in the past few years in independent citizen journalism. It is on the slow fade out. There isn’t a sustainable financial model and the lack of attention in cases like this seals the fate. GLAAD’s position is part of the problem and a reflection of it. Sad. Our voices are needed out there.
PHB was a nominee, never a winner. But ultimately unless one has a day job/indy $ or partner to support the effort to do real commentary and journalism, attend pressers and conferences, blogs have a limited shelf life to entities like GLAAD.”
“GLAAD has dumped the Outstanding Blog category this year after we fought so long to have it included. Instead, they say independent bloggers should compete with mainstream paid news outlets like the New York Times because it’s all “online journalism.” What horse shit. The award was meant to honor the smaller folks who put their heart and soul into doing the work without all the monetary rewards of paid journalist.”
“I have been blogmaster for Holy Bullies and Headless Monsters for over nine years and my goal is simply – to educate the public on anti-gay propaganda and the groups who use this propaganda to exploit ignorance, fear, and religious opposition to LGBT equality.
being honored by GLAAD as a nominee for ‘Outstanding Blog’ on two occasions meant a lot to me. It increased my profile and sent the message that anyone in our community with enough heart, skill, discipline, and patience can make a positive impact in pursuit our equality.
However, this year, GLAAD has chosen to eliminate the ‘Outstanding Blog’ category, probably permanently. And this sends a negative message to grassroots and non-celebrities like myself. The GLAAD Media Awards should help to elevate new leaders, not push them away because lack of notoriety or fame. It’s not just solely about visibility, but also acknowledging and cultivating new spokespeople and leaders. And you can’t do that by focusing specifically and only on prominent celebrities and national media.”
“The Outstanding Blog category has been eliminated from the newly announced GLAAD Media Awards, and along with it the grassroots first-person voices of writers across the entire LGBT spectrum, including those of us living with HIV.
Folding blogs into the online journalism category is a disingenuous ploy; not a single past nominee or winner for Outstanding Blog is present anywhere on the 2016 list of award nominees.
GLAAD hasn’t simply marginalized the unique voice of bloggers. They have rendered us dispensable and ultimately invisible. It’s shameful that a national organization that purports to lift up LGBT voices has dismissed the very people and outlets that deserve encouragement and recognition.
But hey, won’t the GLAAD award race between Carol and The Danish Girl be a tight one? Maybe Eddie Redmayne will show up to the awards. That would be just the sort of evening GLAAD is hoping for.”
“Every year, GLAAD looks at our competitive categories to ensure as best we can that they reflect the current media landscape. We have retired several categories in the past (including our Theater categories), and added others as new media continue to evolve. GLAAD remains unequivocally committed to lifting up the voices of individuals and independent media within the LGBT community, and I can assure you that the feedback here will inform that process later this year as we begin work on the 28th Annual GLAAD Media Awards.
Thanks again for engaging us in this important conversation and holding us accountable. I promise we’re listening.”
I promise they’re not. GLAAD has been talking about removing this category for years and according to my sources had made this decision well over 9 months ago and told no one because they know that there would be a blowback.
A few of us have called upon GLAAD to hold a special late 2 week open submission for “Outstanding Blog/Independent Media” category and announce those nominated and present whuile there is still time this year and tweak the category for next year. (We’d even help them figure out what a “Blog” is. ) But so far Seth Adams, GLAAD Director; Sarah Kate Ellis, and the GLAAD team has been silent,
Funny thing about silence. If GLAAD can be silent to our needs. Then we in turn can also be silent to theirs.
#LGBTBloggersAndIndiMediaBoycottGLAAD
It’s been a very bad week in television for gays and theater fans who watch NBC shows.
NBC has made two of its final cuts canceling cancelling Broadway musical drama Smash and Ryan Murphy’s comedy The New Normal.
The fat lady sang Smash last years NBC’s new darling, in Season 2, going sub-1.0 in the ratings and when NBC banished it to Saturdays, where it practically died and ratings sank below a 0.5 and was trashed by critics. Smash didn’t just get canceled, it got yanked off the stage by a cane.
The New Normal while starting off strong the sat teetering on the edge of the ratings cancellation threshold , but its connection to creator Ryan Murphy was enough to give it more hope. The comedy about two gay dads played byDavid Bartha and the adorable Andrew Rannells who have a child via a surrogate and building a new type of family drew some criticism, some of it reasonable and some it not, but in the end the show just never took off as NBC had hoped. But in the end even the writers saw it coming and they gave to the show a real ending before the ax fell.
The New Normal and Smash join Hannibal, Up All Night, Whitney, Guys With Kids, Go On, 1600 Penn, and Deception as recent additions to NBC’s 2012-2013 graveyard
This weekend the Evelyn & Walter Haas, Jr. Fund and the National Lesbian & Gay Journalists Association will be holding its 4th Annual LGBT editors, bloggers, and reporters convening in Philadelphia, PA. The event hosted by Bilerico Project founder and NLGJA Board Member Bill Browning and co-hosted by Matt Foreman, Program Director of the Haas, Jr. Fund will bring together some of the most prominent bloggers and members of the LGBT press from around the country to discuss current prominant LGBT issues from both here at home and on the international front including ENDA, immigration, and the current problems facing LGBT seniors in America today.
Said Bil Browning:
I’m excited to bring the 2013 LGBT Media Journalists Convening to Philadelphia this year. The city has really rolled out the red carpet and thanks to the generosity of companies like Comcast and the Philadelphia tourism bureau, we’re able to bring in almost twice as many attendees as normal. As we tackle this year’s topic of “coalition building,” we’re bringing our most diverse group yet to the convening to learn how LGBT journalists can cover and interweave common themes from social justice struggles into their every day reporting.”
Prominent LGBT speakers this year include Cleve Jones American AIDS and LGBT rights activist, anti-war and gay rights advocate David Mixner, Mark Bromley (Council for Global Equality) , Robert Espinoza (Services & Advocacy for GLBT Seniors), Lavi Soloway (The DOMA Project), Shuya Ohno (National Immigration Forum), Shane Larson (Communications Workers of America) & Lauree Hayden (Service Employees International Union) and Allyson Robinson (Outserve-SLDN) & Mara Keisling (National Center for Transgender Equality)
This year Back2Stonewall.com will be part of the event covering it live from Philly both on this blog and live tweeting under the Twitter hashtag #LGBTmedia13 and under the hashtag #TeamMinion
I hope you’ll check em out.