It’s the kick-off of the holiday season, and while Thanksgiving through the New Year is typically a time to spend with family, friends and loved ones, here are a few pop culture releases to help pass the time huddled up on the couch – if you live in a colder climate – or to load on to the iPod for that car trip enroute to the family gathering. Sometimes, a girl just needs her pop culture to make it through those long holiday weekends with the family.
The Kids Are All Right on DVD…
Director Lisa Cholodenko -- the thoughtful director who delivered excellent features with lesbian themes in High Art and Laurel Canyon -- explores the issues that arise for a long-term lesbian couple coping with the sudden appearance of their children’s sperm donor in their life.
While The Kids Are All Right has had a somewhat polarizing effect on members of the lesbian community, some praise Cholodenko’s ability to get a small story about a lesbian-headed family -- played by heavy hitters Julianne Moore and Annette Bening -- into the mainstream. But others have expressed feelings of betrayal by the storyline that includes Moore’s character engaging in repeated passionate sex with the donor (Mark Ruffalo), while sex with her lesbian partner is cringe-worthy at best.
Still, the almost universally critically acclaimed dramedy that features stellar performances from all of the leads including Mia Wasikowska and Josh Hutcherson as the kids, illustrates the bond of a real family and no ‘interloper’ even with the same DNA as the kids or not, can break that.
Despite the discussion for or against the film in the lesbian blogosphere, Cholodenko’s film, her first bona fide commercial success -- is worthy of a first-hand look.
P!nk’s Greatest Hits…So Far!!!
Here’s the perfect driving CD, wheter your driving up the Pacific Coast Highway with the windows down and a hat and scarf on to Santa Barbara for a get-away, or taking that trip down Route 95 from New England to New Jersey over the George Washington Bridge.
Pink’s mélange of dance music, ballads and inspirational anthems, like her all-new ‘Raise Your Glass,’ a song she says is for the ‘underdogs,’ including those in the LGBT community, offers something for everyone!
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The Four-Faced Liar on DVD
The Four-Faced Liar, directed by Jacob Chase, is a romantic dramedy that focuses on four friends -- and what happens to the group dynamics when Bridget, the out lesbian of the group, engages in a relationship with the other woman in the foursome.
Marja Lewis Ryan plays Bridget and she is not your average actress. Not only did she write the The Four-Faced Liar- one of the most prominent LGBT films making festival rounds this year- she also co-starred and co-produced it.
Good news for those of you who have either seen The Four Faced Liar and loved it or can’t wait to catch a screening: it’s been released on DVD, so be sure to pick up a copy (it’s available on Wolfe).
Nicki Minaj – Pink Friday
The Queens born and raised hip-hop sensation Minaj, who recently appeared in Mariah Carey’s “Up Out of My Face” video, and who has openly supported her lesbian and gay fans, just released her highly anticipated Pink Friday featuring Eminem, Kanye West, Rihanna, Natasha Bedingfield, will.i.am and Drake.
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Elena Undone on DVD
While Elena Undone offers up plenty of sex, love and relationship entanglements, it goes a step further in shooting what is being hailed as the longest screen kiss, straight, gay or otherwise. Jane Wyman and Regis Toomey clocked in a kiss at three minutes and five seconds in 1941's You’re in the Army Now but the Elena Undone kiss beats it at three minutes and 24 seconds. Plus, it's gorgeous women. You can't go wrong. The DVD of this festival favorite is on sale now at Wolfe Video.
Burlesque Soundtrack, featuring Cher and Christina Aguilera
Burlesque is the movie event of the century featuring Cher’s return to the big screen in what promises to be pure camp! That’s worth indulging in getting the soundtrack in and of itself!
Annie Lennox: A Christmas Cornucopia
It’s been 23 years since the first A Very Special Christmas Album became the must-have contemporary holiday record. And while the likes of Bruce Springsteen, Sting, Stevie Nicks and Madonna contributed seasonal tunes to that recording, with proceeds going to benefit Special Olympics, track two was the out-of-the-gate showstopper. Eurythmics version of “Winter Wonderland” – famously recorded by Johnny Mercer and Perry Como in the fifties – was at once haunting and joyful, and inventively different from any interpretation that had come before it.
Decades later, the iconic Eurythmics front woman, Annie Lennox has released a record of holiday songs showcasing her signature sound. Lennox's A Christmas Cornucopia, dropped earlier this month.
And like that first time listening to the
A Very Special Christmas Album, Annie’s rich alto, arguably one of most instantly recognizable and greatest female voices in the history of rock, takes hold of the listener with the first chords of “Angels from the Realms of Glory,” and hangs on through 12 songs to the final cut, “Universal Child," a song performed on
American Idol Gives Back 2010.
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