Andrew Stokes & Ashley MacIsaac

Ashley Dwayne MacIsaac (born February 24, 1975) is a Canadian professional fiddler from Cape Breton Island. He has received three Juno Awards. One for Best New Solo Artist, the second for Best Instrumental Artist, and the third in 1996 for Best Roots & Traditional Album – Solo. His 1995 album Hi™ How Are You Today? was a double-platinum selling Canadian record. MacIsaac published an autobiography, Fiddling with Disaster in 2003. On January 17, 2007, MacIsaac married Andrew Stokesan Ontario-born violinist, during his set on the East Coast Music Awards, after being engaged since May. Following a toast from guitarist Stuart Cameron, the couple took up their fiddles and played Brenda Stubbards before departing the stage. They currently live in Windsor, Ontario.

MacIsaac was born in Creignish, Nova Scotia. His sister Lisa is also a fiddler, who has her own alternative country band, Madison Violet. She also appears on his album Helter's Celtic.

His cousins Alexis MacIsaac, Wendy MacIsaac and Natalie MacMaster are also touring fiddlers. Ashley MacIsaac is a distant cousin of The White Stripes guitarist and lead vocalist Jack White. The two met and MacIsaac opened for The White Stripes concert in Glace Bay.


Ashley MacIsaac is a Canadian professional fiddler from Cape Breton Island. He has received three Juno Awards: for Best New Solo Artist, for Best Instrumental Artist, and for Best Roots & Traditional Album – Solo. His Hi™ How Are You Today? was a double-platinum selling. MacIsaac published an autobiography, Fiddling with Disaster in 2003. On January 17, 2007, MacIsaac married Andrew Stokesan Ontario-born violinist, during his set on the East Coast Music Awards, after being engaged since May. Following a toast from guitarist Stuart Cameron, the couple took up their fiddles and played Brenda Stubbards before departing the stage.

( Read more... )

Source: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ashley_MacIsaac

( Further Readings )

More LGBT Couples at my website: www.elisarolle.com/, My Ramblings/Real Life Romance

Benoît Petitjean & Laurent Ruquier

Benoît Petitjean is a French television and film actor. On January 28, 2012, he signed a Civil solidarity pact with Laurent Ruquier.

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beno%C3%AEt_Petitjean

Laurent Ruquier (born February 24, 1963) is a French television and radio host, producer, and satirical comedian. He is also a lyricist, writer, playwright and producer of shows, and owns his own theatre. (P: Laurent Ruquier at the Casino de Paris in 2013)

Ruquier grew up in a large family of modest means. His father, Roger Ruquier, now deceased, was a boilermaker at construction sites in Le Havre and his mother, Raymonde Ruquier (born in 1924), was a housewife.

In high school, Laurent entertained his friends by publishing his first satires in the school newspaper. At first he studied accounting (he obtained a DEUG in Economic and Social Administration (AES) at the University of Le Havre and a Diploma from the Institute of Technology (DUT) in Business Management and Training administration (GEA).

He also attended a course in Constitutional Law given by Patrice Gélard. Upon the advice of the latter, he finally turned to humour. He did 21 months of military service as a conscientious objector at the Regional Directorate of Cultural Affairs.

His mentor was Pierre Doris, whose black humour he was particularly fond of.

Laurent Ruquier announced openly his homosexuality in the late 1990s.

He entered into a civil union on 28 January 2012 with the actor Benoît Petitjean, whose life he has shared since 2002.

Source: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laurent_Ruquier

( Further Readings )

More Real Life Romances at my website: http://www.elisarolle.com/

Jan Jochems & Ronnie Tober

Ronald Edwin (Ronnie) Tober (b 21 April 1945 in Bussum) is a Dutch born singer. Jan Jochems, who Tober has been with since 1968, and Tober were married on 24 February 1998. (P: Ronnie Tober in 1968)

On 27 December 2003, during his 40th year in show business, Tober was made a Knight in the Order of Orange-Nassau by H.M.Queen Beatrix of the Netherlands. Tober's name is also inscribed on the Wall of Fame at the Zuiderkerk ("southern church") in Amsterdam.

Tober was born in Bussum, Netherlands and at the age of three moved to the United States with his family, where they lived in Albany, the capital of the State of New York. Attending St. Peter's Episcopal Church was a soprano soloist.

Invited to appear on "The Teen Age Barn", a television show on the CBS affiliate WRGB, he performed every week for several years. During this time he appeared as a guest of singer Perry Como on television where they performed O Holy Night. He was also to guest star on the CBS series Route 66 with George Maharis and Martin Milner and appeared on The Ed Sullivan Show.

Tober went on to perform for several notable people including the then Senator John F. Kennedy, Vice-President Richard Nixon along with W. Averell Harriman and Nelson Rockefeller, both Governors of New York.

Tober played the role of Tony in the musical The Boy Friend and Billy Jester in Little Mary Sunshine. Introduced to songwriter/record producer Bob Crewe, Tober recorded his first record in 1959 entitled Who Taught You How To Love.

In 1963 while in the Netherlands to visit his grandmother he appeared on the "Off The Cuff" a television show hosted by Willem Duys. Based on the reaction to his performance he decided to return and live in the Netherlands. He signed with Phonogram/Philips and produced his first Dutch record Iedere Avond (Every Night) in 1964.


http://andrejkoymasky.com/
Ronald Edwin "Ronnie" Tober (born April 21, 1945 in Bussum) is a Dutch born singer. Jan Jochems, who Tober has been with since 1968, and Tober were married on February 24, 1998. On December 27, 2003, during his 40th year in show business, Tober was made a Knight in the Order of Orange-Nassau by H.M.Queen Beatrix of the Netherlands. Tober's name is also inscribed on the Wall of Fame at the Zuiderkerk ("southern church") in Amsterdam.

( Read more... )

Source: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ronnie_Tober

( Further Readings )

More Real Life Romances at my website: http://www.elisarolle.com/

Jaymi Hensley & Olly Marmon

James William "Jaymi" Hensley (born 24 February 1990) is from Luton, Bedfordshire. He was one of the three original members of Triple J. Hensley is openly gay and has been in a relationship with Olly Marmon since 2009. He proposed to Marmon back in 2010 and have plans to wed in 2015. He went to a theater school with Josh Cuthbert (bandmate and friend). He has 17 tattoos. Before The X Factor, he did both ballet and gymnastics. His career as a gymnast was cut off by a broken wrist, and he struggled with his weight when he was no longer exercising so much.

When he came out in November, Hensley, part of the UK X Factor band Union J, said his mentor on the show, entertainment manager Louis Walsh, encourage him to be honest.

"I spoke to Louis about this and he said, ‘put it this way, both of my big boy bands had a gay member in them.’ So he said it fits the formula quite well! Every boy band has got to have a gay one! And Louis just said ‘do it’. I’m gay and I’ve never been happier!”

Union J are an English boy band consisting of members Josh Cuthbert, JJ Hamblett, Jaymi Hensley and George Shelley. The group were formed through the ninth series of British television music competition, The X Factor in 2012, in which they finished fourth. They subsequently signed a record deal with Sony Music subsidiary RCA Records and have released their debut studio album Union J. Their fans are affectionately named "Jcats."


Jaymi Hensley was one of the three original members of Triple J. Hensley is openly gay and has been in a relationship with Olly Marmon since 2009. He proposed to Marmon back in 2010 and have plans to wed in 2015 "I spoke to Louis Walsh about this and he said, ‘put it this way, both of my big boy bands had a gay member in them.’ So he said it fits the formula quite well! Every boy band has got to have a gay one! And Louis just said ‘do it’. I’m gay and I’ve never been happier!”

( Read more... )

Source: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jaymi_Hensley#Jaymi_Hensley

( Further Readings )

More LGBT Couples at my website: www.elisarolle.com/, My Ramblings/Real Life Romance

Judith Butler & Wendy Brown

Judith Butler (born February 24, 1956) is an American post-structuralist philosopher, who has contributed to the fields of feminism, queer theory, political philosophy, and ethics. She is a professor in the Rhetoric and Comparative Literature departments at the University of California, Berkeley. Butler received her Ph.D. in philosophy from Yale University in 1984, for a dissertation subsequently published as Subjects of Desire: Hegelian Reflections in Twentieth-Century France. In the late-1980s she held several teaching/research appointments, and was involved in "post-structuralist" efforts within Western feminist theory to question the "presuppositional terms" of feminism.

Butler currently lives with her partner, the political scientist Wendy Brown, and their son. Brown followed Butler when she joined U.C. Berkeley in 1993. 

Her research ranges from literary theory, modern philosophical fiction, feminist and sexuality studies, to 19th- and 20th-century European literature and philosophy, Kafka and loss, mourning and war. Her most recent work focuses on Jewish philosophy, exploring pre- and post-Zionist criticisms of state violence. Politically, she is a strong supporter of Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions against Israel.

Butler was born in Cleveland, Ohio to a family of Hungarian and Russian ancestry. Her mother was raised in Orthodox Judaism, later turning to Conservative Judaism, and finally to Reform Judaism; Butler's father belonged to a Reform Synagogue since his childhood. As a child and teenager, she attended both Hebrew school and special classes on Jewish ethics where she received her "first training in philosophy." Butler stated in a 2010 interview with Haaretz that she began the ethics classes at the age of 14 and that they were created as a form of punishment by her Hebrew school's Rabbi because she was "too talkative in class," "talk[ed] back," and was "not well behaved." Butler also stated that she was "thrilled" by the classes and chose to focus on Martin Buber. She also encountered the writings of Kant, Hegel, and Spinoza during these special sessions.


Judith Butler is an American post-structuralist philosopher, who has contributed to the fields of feminism, queer theory, political philosophy, and ethics. She is a professor in the Rhetoric and Comparative Literature departments at the University of California, Berkeley. Butler currently lives with her partner, the political scientist Wendy Brown, and their son. Brown followed Butler when she joined U.C. Berkeley in 1993. They lecture together and co-authored essays.

( Read more... )

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Judith_Butler

Wendy L. Brown (born November 28, 1955) is the Class of 1936 First Professor of Political Science at the University of California, Berkeley where she is also affiliated with the Department of Rhetoric, and where she is a core faculty member in the Designated Emphasis in Critical Theory. She has made major and far-reaching contributions to modern political theory, drawing on the work of Marx and Foucault to elaborate a distinctive theory of modern power. Her work on the divergent rationalities of neo-liberalism and neo-conservativism as well as her analysis of neo-liberalism in relation to the contemporary threats to public education have established her as a major public intellectual of our time. Brown is a native of California and lives in Berkeley with her partner Judith Butler and son.

Brown received her BA in both Economics and Political Science from UC Santa Cruz, and her M.A and Ph.D in political philosophy from Princeton University. Prior to going to Berkeley in 1999, she taught at Williams College and UC Santa Cruz.

She has held visiting appointments at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, the Institute for Human Sciences in Vienna, the Goethe University in Frankfurt, and the Humanities Research Institute in Irvine. She has also taught at the Critical Theory Summer School at the Birkbeck Institute for the Humanities in London. She is the recipient of a distinguished teaching award and numerous fellowships, including awards from the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, the Society for the Humanities at Cornell University, the American Council of Learned Societies, the Ford Foundation, the Woodrow Wilson Foundation, and the American Association of University Women. She has served on the editorial boards of Political Theory, Theory and Event, Ethics and Global Politics, and Polity, among others. She served as well as Council Member of the American Political Science Association (2007-09) and as Chair of the UC Humanities Research Institute Board of Governors (2009-11). Her work has been translated into more than 15 languages.

( Read more... )

Source: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wendy_Brown_(political_scientist)

( Further Readings )

More Real Life Romances at my website: http://www.elisarolle.com/, My Ramblings/Real Life Romance

Blog Tour: The Librarian by Lee Brazil

The Librarian by Lee Brazil
Paperback: 130 pages
Publisher: CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform; Second edition (January 17, 2013)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 1481953400
ISBN-13: 978-1481953405
Amazon: The Librarian
Amazon Kindle: The Librarian

A rash vow of celibacy puts Valentine Michaels in the path of seduction.

Val is at a crossroads in his life. A college dropout, he's gone as far as he can in his career as a cosmetologist, owning his own style salon. He no longer finds satisfaction in it, though he's put years into proving to his bigoted parents that a college degree and the veneer of straightness aren't the only roads to success. They'd turned their backs on him, and he proved he didn't need them to make it.

His love life is no better than his working life. His relationships always start with a bang and fizzle into boredom, or worse, anger.

Adrian Grey has his own agenda for helping Val: he's been in love with Val since they were freshmen. The intervening years of listening to Val's gossip about his lovers and relationships have taught Adrian just what it was he did wrong all those years ago, and he thinks this time around he now knows exactly how to get—and keep—his man.

( Excerpt )

Author Bio: Somewhere in a small town in up-state New York are a librarian and a second grade teacher to whom I owe my life. That might be a touch dramatic, but it's nevertheless one hundred percent true.
Because they taught me the joy of reading, of escaping into worlds crafted of words.
Have you ever been nine years old and sure of nothing so much as that you don't belong? Looked at the world from behind glasses, and wondered why you don't fit?
Someone hands you a book, and then you turn the page and see… There you are, running from Injun Joe in a dark graveyard; there you are fencing with Athos; there you are…beneath the deep blue sea- marveling at exotic creatures with Captain Nemo.
I found myself between the pages of books, and that is why I write now. It's why I taught English and literature for so many years, and it's why my house contains more pounds of books than furniture.
If I'd had my way, I'd have been a fencer…or a starship captain, or a lawyer, or a detective solving crimes. But instead, I am a writer, and I've come to realize that's the best thing in the world to be, because as a writer, I can be all those things and more.
If I hadn't learned to value the stories between the pages, who knows what would have happened? Certainly not college…teaching…or writing.

Favorite childhood book?
The Three Musketeers

Favorite childhood author?
Dumas

Where to find the author:
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/lee.brazil
Twitter: @leebrazil
Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/leebrazil/



Tour Dates: February 24, 2015
Tour Stops: Parker Williams, Havan Fellows, Divine Magazine, Amanda C. Stone, Molly Lolly, Scattered Thoughts & Rogue Words, My Fiction Nook, Bayou Book Junkie, Elisa - My Reviews and Ramblings, Kimi-Chan, Inked Rainbow Reads, Bike Book Reviews, MM Good Book Reviews, BFD Book Blog, The Hat Party, Cate Ashwood, It’s Raining Men, Michael Mandrake, Andrew Q. Gordon, Velvet Panic, Iyana Jenna, Wicked Faerie's Tales and Reviews, Fallen Angel Reviews, Dawn’s Reading Nook

Rafflecopter Prize: $5.00 ARe gift card or copy of the book
Rafflecopter Code:
a Rafflecopter giveaway