"Transgender children 'are a blessing to their family."

His formidable physical presence — he’s over six feet tall, solid but with soft edges — is at odds with his voice, an ululating tenor that evokes Nina Simone, Alison Moyet and whale song. He creates baroque, arty music with classical virtuosos, but also adores the music of Beyonce (he’s been known to cover Crazy in Love in concert). He is a gay man who’s unequivocally feminine without being fey. And though he’s unabashedly emotional, Hegarty never seems fragile — rather, the sincerity and openness that come through in his music convey a profound strength.

Apple to remove copy-protection from iTunes and make pricing more flexible

Apple Inc. closed its final appearance at the Macworld trade show in San Francisco on Tuesday by cutting the price of some songs in its market-leading iTunes online store to as little as 69 cents and disclosing that soon every track will be available without copy protection.

Apple offered the record labels that flexibility on pricing as it got them to agree to sell all songs free of "digital rights management" (DRM) technology that limits people's ability to copy songs or move them to multiple computers. By the end of this quarter, Apple said, all 10 million songs in its library will be available without DRM.

While iTunes is the most popular digital music store, others have been faster to offer songs without copy protection. Amazon.com Inc. started selling DRM-free music in 2007 and swayed all the major labels to sign on in less than a year.

Air Canada Jazz removes life vests to lighten planes

It's hard to imagine myself swimming 50 nautical miles with only a seat cushion to keep me afloat. I think I would prefer it if they got rid of the seat cushions and kept the life jackets!

TORONTO, Ontario (AP) -- An official with Air Canada's regional carrier Jazz says the airline is removing life vests from all its planes to save weight and fuel.

Jazz spokeswoman Manon Stuart said Thursday that Transport Canada regulations allow airlines to use flotation devices instead of life vests, provided the planes remain within 50 miles of shore.

Violin maverick Eugene Draw smashes genres - and expectations

It?s safe to say that violinist Eugene Draw was the only player at last month?s Toronto Beaches Jazz Festival to jump off the stage and into the crowd while soloing. His band, Dr. Draw, is comprised of guitar, bass and drums augmented with keys and harp, and it pounds out layers of spliced styles including bluegrass and rock with Latin and gypsy rhythms, or Romanian wedding music mixed with ska and jamrock ? all in the same song.
Draw started off as an aggressive middle-school fiddler performing thrash and skatepunk, but he dropped out of Montreal?s alternative scene because he was tired of scenester restrictiveness.
Here's a YouTube video of him performing Ave Maria: