I am so honored and PROUD to be apart of The Future Forward. The past two years have gone so quickly and our family has grown. I, Lil Mogul would like to personally thank all of The Future Forward readers for your support and giving us 200,000+ page views.
This is one of my favorite video's we created on October 15, 2009
THANK YOU!!! Look Back... and Enjoy! See you in The Future
"Glee" meets "Paris Is Burning" in this groundbreaking film directed by Sheldon Larry ("Noah's Arc") and written by Glenn Gaylord ("Eating Out: All You Can Eat"). Jaw-dropping dance numbers are courtesy of Beyonce's choreographer Frank Gatson Jr. When Brad's mother kicks him out, he steals her car and heads to L.A. in search of shelter. There he meets Queen Latina and her House of Eminence. Brad falls for the fierce ball scene "and a cute new boy" but can he ever really escape his past?
A recent Madonna Vegas deal could bring the singer a $1 Billion payday. This would give the "Material Girl" plenty of reason to consider moving to Las Vegas for the next five years.
According to The Sun UK, Madonna has been offered $1 billion to move to Las Vegas for five years. Other performers have done this before including Elton John, Cher, and Celine Dion. Madonna is already the fourth highest earning female entertainer in all of the world, but with this new deal she'd reach new heights, becoming a billionaire. Madonna most recently signed a big deal in 2007 worth $80 million to work with Live Nation.
This is obviously a great Vegas deal for Madonna, but what about the fans? Celine Dion has performed in Vegas for several years and will be returning for shows in 2011. Her ticket prices range from $55 to $250 a piece. How much will they charge for the all-time queen of Pop? Will the tickets be reasonable or astronomical to cover her billion dollar deal?
Can I Get 1?…Can I Get 2?…How about 20? That’s the number of years GMHC and the House of Latex has been transcending house and category.Representing in the name of health, wellness and safer sex. For years they have been offering support, workshops, testings, mini-balls, and of course their historical annual Latex balls. On Saturday night the Roseland Ballroom was filled with legends, icons, and revolutionaries; all gathering for one cause, to promote HIV/AIDS awareness and how to prevent/fight it.
The event included a HIV testing area and free educational materials provided by GMHC and other community-based organizations. Fashion Revolution was this year’s theme.
The stage was dazzled with lights that streamed down the runway and back up to a glittered red and white judging table which read “LATEX BALL”. The sounds of “the beats” played by DJ Vjuan Allure resonated throughout the venue. You had no choice but to tap your big toe, swing your hair, move your body, and be a Latex even for just a moment. Supporting their community they held a pre-show to showcase upcoming artists making their mark in the Industry. Harmonica Sunbeam a drag performer hosted the segment coming out in a hot flamed body suit, with luxurious blond hair.
Performers included Baron, Nikki Exotika, Step Team For Social Justice and from Rupaul’s Drag Race Sahara Davenport (Season 2). Also making a special guest appearance was Bajan R&B/Pop singer-songwriter Shontelle; who hosted and judged a special vouging competition. 5 contestants battled it out to her remixed song “Licky” (Saul Ruiz Club Mix) for a chance to win prizes courtesy of Universal Motown. She tweeted ” So I rocked Hernan Lander shoes & jacket, Max Azria top, Rachel Roy shorts & Chrissy L jewelry. STILL can’t compete with the kids @ LatexBall!” Shontelle album entitled “No Gravity” will be in stores Sept. 21st.
“Ladies and Gentleman the show is about to begin.” An anxious crowd rushed to get to a seat as commenters Jack Mizrahi, Selvin Khan & Vouge Evolution’s Dashaun Evisu took the stage. Hyping the crowd with their fierce personalities and comedic comments they acknowledged some of the greats that were in the room. The crowd cheered and applauded as each Icon graced the stage almost seeming star struck. Right when you thought it couldn’t get any better recording artist Chrisette Michele came out and strutted her stuff in some red pumps.Seeming shy at first she went for a 2nd go and ripped the runway. The event included categories for competition in exuberant expressions of dance, vogueing and modeling of fashion designs. Some of the categories were OTA (Open-To-All) Best Dressed, Female Figure Runway, and Grand Prize Designer’s Delight: The Fashion Show. One of my favorite moments though was when Diva Davanna took the stage. She is the youngest model to had ever hit the Latex stage with her signature fierce walk, back in 2007 when she was 7.
The night was getting late and I was ready to go, but right before I did they announced a surprise guest performance from Rupaul’s Drag Race winner BeBe Zahara Benet (Season 1). She came out in her signature afro curled hair and a leopard skin outfit. With 2 male dancers and energetic choreography she performed her new single “Cameroon”. The ball was no where near finished (at 2am) and I had to leave. Overall it was an entertaining and informative night. It was amazing to see the love and pride everyone shared in the room even though it was a competition. Contestants still hugged after each round, judges still applauded, and everyone supported the importance of HIV/AIDS awareness.
Malcolm McLaren concocted the Sex Pistols, yes. He also steered the New York Dolls toward their premature demise, brought hip-hop to London and nicked the drag-queen pose called voguing long before Madonna. The wily impresario, who died today at age 64 after a long bout with cancer, undoubtedly had his fingers in a lot of pies.
If pop in the 21st century is Andy Warhol's version of artistry -- reproductions, distillations, provocation -- McLaren saw it coming a long time ago. "Malcolm McLaren Invented Everything," blared the headline to a 2007 interview feature in Vice magazine. He surely appreciated the hyperbole.
If McLaren saw the Gaga world coming, it was because he worked in visual terms at least as much as musical. The co-proprietor with then-girlfriend Vivienne Westwood of an early-1970s London shop located on the Kings Road called Let It Rock, he kicked against the supposed ideals of the hippies -- "hippos," he called them -- by reintroducing the Edwardian fashions of the teddy boys of the 1950s, when rock 'n' roll in Britain was an anarchic reaction to the country's squalor and repression.
They soon renamed the shop Too Fast to Live Too Young to Die, which in turn became the bondage-gear boutique Sex and, finally, Seditionaries, where McLaren delighted in the fact that the place was so derelict there were rats running around beneath the cash register. To Westwood's distress, McLaren had a habit of changing the store's theme just as its underground loyalists gave way to a wider, more mainstream clientele. "Whenever it started making money, I closed it down," he recalled.
Managing the New York Dolls, McLaren had an idea that the glammy prepunk band would provide a forum for debating "the politics of boredom," a subject the Sex Pistols, the Clash (managed by McLaren associate Bernie Rhodes) and countless other punks would soon adopt as their own. He claimed he brought a new, confrontational look back to London from New York, the ripped T-shirts of a New York scenester named Richard Hell, who would soon co-found the bands Television and the Voidoids.
The Sex Pistols, who famously auditioned Johnny Rotten in the Sex shop, where he sang along to Alice Cooper's 'I'm Eighteen' on the jukebox, brought McLaren his own taste of fame when he was arrested after organizing the group's infamous boat ride down the River Thames during the Queen's Silver Jubilee. In the fictionalized documentary 'The Great Rock 'n' Roll Swindle,' released in 1980, two years after the Sex Pistols' implosion, McLaren gleefully played himself as the "Embezzler," claiming a Svengali role which Rotten, who would successfully sue his former manager, has loudly disputed over the years.
British music journalist Jon Savage, who wrote 'England's Dreaming,' the definitive book on the Sex Pistols and '70s British punk scene, said in learning about McLaren's death, "Without Malcolm McLaren there would not have been any British punk. He's one of the rare individuals who had a huge impact on the cultural and social life of this nation."
"Frustration is one of the great things in art," McLaren once wrote in a college notebook. "Satisfaction is nothing." Though his greatest achievement, the agitprop Pistols project, flamed out like the celluloid in 'Inglourious Basterds,' McLaren was just lighting his match. Whatever his indescribable forte was, it was not sitting still.
Watch the "Deep In Video" Music Video
In the early '80s, he created Bow Wow Wow -- installing 13-year-old Annabella Lwin as lead singer -- as a New Wave tribal-drum jump-rope crew, helped introduce hip-hop to London with his own 'Duck Rock' album (with artwork by Keith Haring), and dreamed up visual styles ranging from a pirate theme popularized by Adam and the Ants to the multilayered, bag-lady "Buffalo Gals" look named after his bubblegum hip-hop hit. He proposed himself as manager of the young Red Hot Chili Peppers, then backed out after seeing the band perform. He collaborated with Afrika Bambaataa, Bootsy Collins, Jeff Beck and Françoise Hardy.
In later years, he found other receptacles for his creative juices, threatening to run for mayor of London and co-producing the film version of 'Fast Food Nation.' And his own music, so often charmingly inept and pretentious, hung around: Eminem and the Coup were two of many rap acts who sampled his songs, and Quentin Tarantino, the music connoisseur, featured McLaren's 'About Her,' a woozy rip-off of the Zombies' 'She's Not There,' on the 'Kill Bill Vol. 2' soundtrack.
As of today, McLaren's otherwise empty homepage still says, "Malcolm will return shortly." For all we know, this master of pop orchestration may be just plotting his next move.
As spring rapidly arrives the clothes are getting thinner and the hormones are racing. I recently had the opportunity to star in a safer sex Public Service Announcement that promotes using protection during sexual acts and that places emphases on the effeminate male taking control over the situation and forces the masculine male to wrap up before continuing their sexual pleasure. The concept was developed by Darrin B. Maxwell in order to break the stereotypes that suggest that effeminate males are weaker and allow masculine personalities to force bad decisions upon them.
This PSA was apart of the OutSpoken DVD Series and is seen on VOL 3 along with Vogue Evolution of America’s Best Dance Crew. Connect to Protect- Check it out!
