Craig Stevens At Mr. Broadway

Craig and his "girlfriend" Janine came to The Broadway Beauty Pageant again this year and put together this very funny video with the contestants, Jeffery Self, Tovah Feldshuh, and near the end a special guest appearance by yours truly.

Craig & Janine have a live performance coming up on May 31st at The Laurie Beechman Theater. Details here.

Behind The Scenes at Mr. Broadway Promo Shoot

Curtis Brown, who took the steamy Mr. Broadway promo pics, has put together a video of the shoot. If you enjoyed the pictures, you'll love the video.



Visit Curtis Brown's website and get tickets for Mr. Broadway now!

Obama's Press Conference Gets Raves

Last night Obama showed the confidence and mastery of the issues that got him elected President. The reviews are in and they're good.



(h/t AmericaBlog)

A St. Patrick's Day Miracle

I'm only a quarter Irish, yet my mom always made a big deal over St. Patrick's Day. I guess she's more Irish than me and wanted to rub it in that I'm a Euromutt.

I went to Catholic school for a few years and where we were expected to wear green today. Now a days to celebrate, I drink beer. They didn't let us drink beer in middle school.

The below video has over 9 million views, so you've probably seen it already. If not, enjoy a St. Patrick's laugh on me.




I hope you find your pot of gold today.


(h/t to my boyfriend Kevin who posted this on his blog today.)

Vlogging Vote! - The Musical

Katherine Duffy, who was one of the cast members of Vote! Bloomington, has her own video blog. She produced a terrific three part video detailing the entire Bloomington Vote! experience, with lots of interviews with the cast and crew, plus creator Ryann Ferguson. She even chatted a bit with her humble director... me.

The first part is posted below, and here are the links to part two and three.

Katherine's Blog is pretty cool and it reminds me of my friend Andrew Keenan-Bolger's blog. Andrew is a young actor and he blogs about his many exciting performances. His blog on the Vote! NYC reading was seen by Eric Anderson, who after learning about the show, produced it in Bloomginton. Read that full story as told by Ken Davenport.

Odds & Ends

-- Barack Obama hit a home run last night, with his hugely successful Joint Address to Congress. (Can I just call it a State of the Union?) He made promises from ending the war in Iraq, to major health care reform. Ezra has details on health care reform from the budget. What a difference it is having a President who knows how to communicate.

-- We'll know tomorrow if the California high school will get to perform RENT. The bigot Principal, Fal Asrani, is making her final decision after actually reading the script. It's amazing how a week of terrible press can make you reconsider decisions, huh Fal?

-- Conservative David Brooks thought Jindal was more of a disaster than I did.

-- The deal with honor killings.

-- Nobody likes New York Governor Paterson.

Ray Kurzweil Film Trailer

Just released trailer for a new biographic documentary, Transcendent Man, on major-futurist Ray Kurzweil.

Opens in select theaters in late March. I've blogged in the past about Kurzweil's new university and book, The Singularity is Near.

(h/t Blogging The Singularity)

President's Day

Lincoln is my favorite U.S. President. I'm a total cliche.

Last year when I read that Obama's favorite book was Doris Kearns Goodwin's Team of Rivals, I read it right away. I was the only person reading it on last summer's Rosie Family Cruise. It's a terrific book, detailing Lincoln's life and focusing on his experiences with his cabinet.

The book inspired me so much on the whole Team of Rivals idea, that I argued on Queerty that Obama should choose Clinton as his VP. Thankfully he didn't listen to me, because I'm quite a fan of Joe Biden.

I'm excited for The History Channel's Stealing Lincolns Body, tonight at 9PM EST.

Today is George Washington's Birthday. I've read David McCullough's 1776, but not a full biography on Washington - so I just ordered His Excellency by Joseph Ellis. Until that comes in, watch this three minute YouTube Video on Washington that truly made me LOL.

Early Morning Odds & Ends

I went to bed early last night, so for some reason I had to get up at 5am. So much for catching up on sleep.

Vote! rehearsals are going very well, we're moving right along blocking the show. The cast has been a blast to work with. Here they are, during rehearsal Wednesday night.


-- My thoughts are with the families and friends of victims of last night's plane crash outside of Buffalo. 49 people died.

-- Obama's speech last night honoring Lincoln was a beautiful tribute to the man and the Union that he kept together. Watch it - Part 1 and Part 2.

-- Seattle's Police Chief is on his way to being our next Drug Czar. Ethan Nadelmann, executive director of the Drug Policy Alliance, said "He’s likely to be the best drug czar we’ve seen. Not that that’s saying much.” Seattle is a city known for fairly progressive drug laws.

-- Obama is quickly learning that anyone who calls themselves a Republican these days is bound to be useless. Judd Gregg is a childish asshole, who should never have been given the honor of serving in Obama's cabinet. James Boyce has a great idea for Commerce Secretary - Bill Gates.

-- These new special edition extra-Lincolny pennies are really cool.

-- Scientist have taken skin cells and reprogrammed them into heart cells. They actually made them beat in the dish - there is even a YouTube video of it.

-- Google and friends have started a White Spaces group to advise the FCC on starting a database. Mobile internet is about to get really fucking fast. No more 3G bullshit.

-- Designer babies have finally arrived.

Barack Obama: The Musical

A video from CBS, who interviewed the "creative team" behind the Barack Obama musical opening in London. It looks pretty awful. Oh, Obama's Campaign Manager was a man, not a women with marital problems.

There will be many interesting dramatic versions of Obama's life & campaign. But, this musical in London doesn't look like one of them.

I'm all about Obama inspired art, Joe and I loosely based our upcoming musical Street Lights on the themes of Obama's campaign. We even produced an Obama remix of one of the songs, Miracle, and made a music video.

I get YouTube Interviewed

On Friday afternoon I sat down with Martin Gould Cummings. He's a New York actor who has started interviewing nyc gay activists, focusing on the Broadway Community. He recently spoke with Billy Porter. Yesterday he spoke with me.

Street Lights @ Broadway For Barack

From the new musical STREET LIGHTS, an R&B/hip hop musical about inner city teenagers, inspired in part by the campaign of Barack Obama. This was recorded at the Broadway For Barack benefit concert on 2/11/08. For more about STREET LIGHTS, and to download this song and other songs, go to myspace.com/streetlightsmusical




Not Enough

Miracle

Someday

Georgetown

The Golden Boys

A pretty funny little thing that a few friends and I put together.

It's a scene from The Golden Girls... with boys in New York.