Snowed in

I just found this little interview which I did right after I had appeared on the Joy Behar show earlier this year.  I have to say that I really feel that the circumcision issue is being dicussed more these days, and people are questioning its merits (or lack of). I am very happy to report that last week I met up with an old friend whose son is genitally intact thanks to my exhortations!!

I am snowed in and I love it. I really like the sound of snow.  The way the quiet is magnified and numbed at the same time. Last night our house creaked and groaned and the wind howled outside.  My dog Honey was pressed up against me like one of those African babies who never loses contact with its mum.

The next few days are always interesting ones in that, in the lead up to the New Year, they are days which are usually pretty quiet and involving no work and so we are able to reflect and project about this year and the next.

Last year I made quite a few resolutions and kind of put out some things to the universe which, I must say, came to fruition.  So I am trusting in my power of being again and going to make a list over the next couple of days with what I would like and where I want to go on Planet Alan. 

My biggest thing is that I want to write this year.  Last year I started to blog every day and I thought that would help get me in front of the computer keyboard and also jump start my creative juices.  Well, it did and it didn't.  I sort of became more involved with the blog than I had intended and ultimately it got too much to deal with and so I slackened off my pace of posting and also stopped the Ask Alan part of the site in which people could contact me and ask me questions. I did enjoy the regularity of it, but sometimes when I was really busy it became more of a chore and a duty, and also there were several moments when the volume and content of the mail I was receiving became overwhelming and scary, sometimes both at the same time.

So for next year, I think I have learned my lesson. I will blog when I have something to say or share.  I will even tweet occasionally!! Yes, despite my worry that Twitter is the downfall of analysis I started to tweet last year on a day when I couldn't get online to do my blog and I wanted very badly to say something publicly about the spate of gay youth suicides.  And now I tweet about less important matters from time to time. But really the thing I will do every day is write.  Write my new book. Just write.

And now I am off to have a bath and watch a documentary about Noel Coward. How's that for procrastination?

I solemly swear...

Adocumentary I took part in about becoming an American citizen airs this week on the History Channel. The full version is on Wednesday, December 15th at 10AM & 4PM. A slightly cut-down version will air on Saturday, December 18th at 8PM.  Here's the trailer...

...and then here I am looking a bit haggard the morning after The Tempest premiere, on KTLA


tempestousness

I am in LA for The Tempest premiere and some press stuff. I was just up at the crack of dawn to be on KTLA, after the premiere last night.  I am hanging around to do George Lopez's show tomorrow.  Last night at the party a girl from a trade newspaperasked me if I had 'encountered Shakespeare a bunch'.  Yes, really.

My John Bartlett ensemble has been much discussed.  I am again amused and saddened by anything unusual or different here in LA being perceived as completely impossible to deal with, and rather subversive.  Fear, fear, fear. Is what you're eating killing you?  Find out after these commercials.

world aids day

So here we are, another World AIDS day has come around and still we have no cure.

Earlier this year I hosted Amfar's Cinema Against AIDS gala at the Cannes film festival, and whilst we raised a ton of much-needed cash for research and prevention programs, it seemed to me that people have become a bit bored of HIV/AIDS, certainly posh people that night in Cannes.  And that I think is the best, and the worst thing that could possibly have happened to the AIDS crisis. 

It's the best because in many ways AIDS has now become just like any other disease that we don't have a cure for, and much of the homophobic and racist stigma that has been attached to it seems to have been chipped away (although there's a long way to go too);  why it's worst is that people are tired of the fight- and never forget that curbing this disease is a huge worldwide fight, economically, politically and socially - and no battle can be won when the troops are losing sight of the prize.

That's why I was so excited when, filming in South Africa this summer, I discovered that the techniques of preventing mother to child HIV infection have become incredibly successful and it is generally believed that it's possible to stop all mother/child transmission of the virus by 2015!! Do you see what that means?! Yes, the possibility of the first generation in almost 30 years where virtually no child is born with HIV. It's the best news I've heard in years!

And on this World AIDS day, the lovely people at RED want to highlight the good news and step up the efforts so that that statistic comes true. Starting with the Sydney Opera House being turned red by Bono, many landmarks around the world will be lit up in red too. And here's how you can help...

Turn your Facebook page red

Share a 2015 tweet using #turnred

Ask people to 'shout' out on Foursquare with #turnred
(I don't actually understand what that last thing means but if you do, please just do it, okay?!)

All of these small actions will add up. Each time someone changes their profile picture on Facebook, or tweets using #turnred, the message is mapped to a data visualizer map, that Red has developed with Ushahidi, a crowd-sourcing platform that was created by a technology team in Kenya . I know, it' so James Bond isn't it?! Each action helps turn their time-zone on the map the color red. The more activity, the deeper the color. 

So help turn the whole world a deep, deep red this World AIDS day and look forward to the possibility of a generation free from HIV/AIDS. Find out more about the issue and how to get involved at JOINRED.COM