"Shine" was released on November 2, and I have been listening to it ever since. It's a great album with uptempo pop/rock songs and some beautiful ballads. Personal, political, poignant. Sarah recorded her version of Amy Ray's "Put it out for good" (some people know Amy Ray as the dark haired half of the Indigo Girls), an audience favorite from the moment she started playing it during her concerts. My favorite ("Driving alone") made it to the album, too. Everytime I hear this song I will remember meeting her at a concert in Berlin in April 2006. I have to add that the end result is slightly different from she and her band played back then...

I first read about the rumours regarding miss Foster's sexual preference - and whether or not she should come out - back in Law School (for one semester I attended a Women's Studies class out of sheer curiousity) and my opinion about outing people remains the same as back then: I think it's disrespectful to out a person. If a person chooses to remain closeted, then so be it. You can agree or disagree, but I think it's wrong to force a person out of the closet by outing him/her.

Now this morning an online "article" caught my eye: Jodie Foster is supposedly outed by her sons?!
Miss Foster made a donation to the Saban Center, and she attended an opening event a couple of days ago. In true quirky fashion, on a wall are handprints of her two sons.


You see her sons are both named "Bernard Foster". My first reaction was she'd given both the same middle name, but on the other hand the woman Foster is rumoured to be in a relationship with is Cydney Bernard... I'm not reading too much in it, but it is an odd coincidence, eh?

Check out this bit on AfterEllen...

Bonjour tout le monde!
I'm pretty sure that, by now, you've heard of Mika (if you like Scissor Sisters, check Mika out!) and of The Gossip - with out singer Beth Ditto.
Last week they did a duet at a Scottish music festival called "T in the Park". They covered a classic pop song... Enjoy!

Hitler is more than welcome to join the popular social networking site Facebook.com, but don't even try to create an account if you're Gay, the Sydney Morning Herald reported Thursday.

The newspaper found that the Web site - with a worldwide membership of more than 30 million people - does not allow people with the common surname Gay to join. The site attempts to block people from using fake names, especially those containing profanity or bigoted slurs.

The investigation came after the New Zealand newspaper Dominion Post published a story about 30-year-old Rowena Gay, who was prevented from creating an account due to her last name. "I was pretty mystified," Gay told the Brisbane Times. "I have got used to a few jokes over the years, but for a Web site to deem my name inappropriate -- what is the world coming to?"

To validate Gay's claims, the Herald attempted to create an account using the name. "Please enter a legitimate name," the Web site prompted. And while Facebook.com would not accept Gay, it allowed the newspaper to join using the surname Hitler. Facebook spokesman Matt Hicks in California told Gay.com the site "is based on real people making real-world connections. (Say what?! Like it's fun to be called Gay.) "To ensure that people do not register with fake names or identities, Facebook has blocked a list of common names people might use to abuse the site," Hicks said in an email. "We recognize that many of these names can also be legitimate, and we allow users to register with them if they write to our customer service department and verify their real name."

Duncan Gay, deputy opposition leader in the New South Wales upper house, is the most prominent Australian politician with the surname, according to the Herald. After he was notified of the situation, Gay told the paper he was "bothered" by the issue. "That's a bit tough, it's pretty ordinary . . . it bothers me to the extent that quite often when you give your name you get a twitter. People looking and smirking," Gay told the paper. "This is a continuation of that." He told the Herald that he plans to protest the Web site's decision to ban the common Anglophone surname.

Bonjour tout le monde!
Were you amongst the happy few to see her in concert in Paris recently?
In case you missed it - or to relive some of the fine moments - here is a clip of Sarah being interviewed (en français!) and edited in are some fragments of her live performance:

The official release date of Sarah’s new album “Shine” is September 28th. A new European Tour will support this new release, and hopefully she'll get to treat her fans on the other side of the Atlantic, too. The Shine Tour will start on November 26th and last till approximately mid December. Already confirmed are: Ancienne Belgique (Brussels) on November 27th and Paradiso (Amsterdam) on December 3rd. I can't wait!

I admit I don't watch Grey's Anatomy? Why? That whiny doctor (the "Grey" character) just gets on my nerves (and she looks like she's going to cry at any moment). But heck, there's one doctor I don't mind watching - and that's the "vagina" doctor I mean, here's Kate Walsh (the good part comes after 4 minutes into the clip - yowza!):

Smart, funny... and a great rack hot bod! Here's more of Kate:

A while ago the staff at AfterEllen decided to ask their readers to create their own list of hotties, and THIS is the outcome (pun intended). Straight men and lesbians have (slightly) different tastes in women... No real surprise there. But I'd like to add that several men responded to the AfterEllen list, basically saying that they don't agree with the majority of women in the Maxim list, and more in favor of the women in the AfterEllen list (and whether that would make them lesbians, too?). Read a compilation of those responses *here*

Bonjour tout le monde!
Sarah's new album (her second solo effort) is slated for release in September. However, you don't have to wait that long for new songs. It looks like "Daddy's gun" is going to be the new single - and there's a video!


Also, check out fuzz.com for new Sarah Bettens songs and tour dates :)

Here's why:

Canadian singer/song writer Holly McNarland is releasing her long awaited new album "Chin up buttercup" on June 5th! (And I am so excited.)

In case you've never heard of Holly before: Holly McNarland is one of those rare female vocalists, whose voice isnt breathy or cute, but packs a wallop that can literally affect your body. While her whisper-to-a-scream voice may soothe on some songs, it can send shivers up your spine at the same time. The Vancouver-based sirens voice is so intense yet vulnerable that it stirs emotions in listeners they didnt know they had. This singer song-writer is a paradox, a super-charged pint-sized phenom both delicate and beautiful.

Anyway, with the release of her new album comes also a new single: "Every single time". Check out the sexy video:

Yesterday Sarah was interviewed by a local radio station, Black Light Radio, in San Diego, California (USA). Radio listeners were asked to E-mail questions - and so there were several questions from European fans :) She talks about her upcoming album, Fuzz.com, playing the Summer festivals, how "Come over here" didn't make that one particular L-word episode in season 4, and a new K's Choice album. You can download the interview *here* (it's a ZIP file).

Sarah plays La Maroquinerie in Paris on June 20th. For more info and tickets: www.lamaroquinerie.fr and/or http://www.fnacspectacles.com/

Surfing the web in search of new music I incidentally came across "Vixtrola", a duo made up of singer Jamie Blake (an American) and Paul Andrews (a Brit). Vixtrola sound like a cross between Garbage and Nine Inch Nails. Danny Lohner's one of the co-producers of their album "End:User" - a familiar name to people who listen to Nine Inch Nails, A Perfect Circle and Filter. (Danny also had a hand in the Underworld soundtrack; he's the one with whom Sarah Bettens wrote the hauntingly beautiful "All of this past".)
According to AfterEllen.com Jamie is out and "obnoxiously talented": she plays the electric guitar and piano on the album.

I love "Gunboat" (according to Wikipedia it's the theme to a movie called Darkness Falls), but on their MySpace page the song's called (renamed?) "Waiting". And talking about the page, End:User is available to download.

Lizzy's popularity is currently growing - thanks to the internet. She is cute and funny, and has clips in English, Spanish, Hebrew... et en francais!
Lizzy's creator is Jewish filmmaker Ruth Selwyn, who swapped the UK for Tel Aviv in Israel.

Lizzy the Lezzy in FRENCH - en Francais

Add to My Profile | More Videos

Check out www.myspace.com/ruthselwyn for more Lizzy clips :)

Eve Salvail has confirmed in a TV interview that she is a lesbian.
Yesterday’s edition of The Tyra Banks Show, which is shown on CBS in the United States, was entitled "Coming Out Stories." Salvail talked openly about her girlfriend for the first time.

The Canadian, sporting peroxide blonde hair, revealed that, "I was always with my girlfriend at the time backstage, but I'm very private about my personal life. "She was my make-up artist, my manager, my hairdresser, my everything else," she said.
The revelation will not come a complete surprise to many fashion watchers. Seven years ago a friend of the model told gay magazine The Advocate that the was a lesbian and in a TV appearance in 2000 Salvail herself said she dated women exclusively.
Salvail said she agreed to come out on Banks' TV show because, "it's you".

Even though Eve had already said in a 2000 TV appearance that she only dates women, it apparently didn't count.

Update 19/01/07: Watch Eve in "She Said What?" - she's even cuter when she's blushing :)

A lot of lesbians love Xena actress Lucy Lawless - and she knows it.
Lucy has two concerts this weekend, and here's a clip from her rehearsals: yes, that's Lucy singing Melissa Etheridge's "Like the way I do". Now, how gay is that?

You can also see Lucy starring in this queer short film called PEACH - pay special attention to clip no. 2! Very sexy.

Here’s a music video from Spanish pop-rock group Bizarre 110. The song is called “Sé” (”I Know”). I have no idea what they’re singing about, but it looks like dyke drama is a global phenomenon. (Thanks to AfterEllen.com)