Haydennet.com – Joseph Andrew Hayden, Juris Doctor

Let me tell you that while the poignant story of her discovery was amazing, the woman is a POWERHOUSE.  Don’t be fooled for a moment that she is not a talent to be reckoned with as she approaches fifty and was only discovered within the last few years.  Her voice is unstoppable and there is absolutely nothing that could be done in a studio that could make her voice do the things that they do on her latest album.  Take a careful listen to “Return” on her latest album called “Someone to Watch Over Me”.  I also find that the song choice in this third full album of hers is quite deliberate and appropriate.  She continues to move people, and I think that’s what makes the difference between her and the fly-by-night dance troop that actually won the reality TV show she first appeared on.

My mother and I have a good memory of her speaking at my college graduation on Staten Island, New York in 1993.

She was an interesting character with lots of inspirational words for the large graduating class.  Her choice for the commencement speaker was a surprise to me since Staten Island is pretty conservative for being inside of New York City.

I don’t understand the details of the controversies over Palin and Obama with her, I’ll let her rest in peace and keep the fond memories I had of her.

I think it made an unintentionally strong impression on my daughter when she was a little girl when I had long-argued with other people that Barbra Streisand was the most talented woman in the world, and Elizabeth Taylor was the most beautiful.  Of course it was not intended to take away from my obvious bias that my daughter is the most beautiful creature on the planet, but it probably hurt her feelings.  I found out through the grapevine that my daughter hated Liz for what I said, which reminded me of a scene between the father and daughter from What Dreams May Come.

My admiration for these two women for various reasons made the reposting of this article at this sad time apropos:

Streisand Remembers Her Friend Taylor

By Advocate.com Editors, Posted on Advocate.com March 23, 2011

My Yorkie Monte got a stimulating two mile round trip walk to BART station this morning, that lucky dog.  Bobby joined me and made the walk much more interesting.  We’re thinking about dressing the dog  up as an ewok for a dog costume contest in Alameda if not too rainy on Halloween.

I wish I was with my friend Rick at Sanity rally in DC; I had my moment on Colbert once, though.  See the link on the contents here.

I’m excited about the permaculture yield from backyard that Bobby already orchestrated.  We worked pretty hard on it (more him than me).

I gave mom a lesson in the content management system called WordPress, and she seems to have it down.  She is going to help me with the Trupa.com genealogy site.

Spoke t my old high school friend  Jan today.  She married my other high school friend Mike and they live in Colorado.  Bobby and I are going to visit there for the holidays, so I will see them in Fort Collins, north of Denver.  She told me to be prepared for some really cold weather, but probably not as cold as New York.

I’m very surprised Christina Aguilera is already divorcing, and more surprised that I care. Love her pipes.  Supposedly she was going out with the lesbian DJ that Lindsay Lohan was seeing before rehab (again).

Auguri to Celine Dion on her twin boys. My favorites divas never have girls!  Very cool gesture that Celine named one of her sons after Nelson Mandela, who she met.

Had a great polyglot dinner and art discussion at Tropisueno with friends on Yerba Buena Lane last night before we went to the Badass Bear-aoke at Deco Lounge.

Oprah touring Yosemite is inspiring me to make concrete plans. We’re seeing Grand Canyon in 7 days!

Most of what I watch is Hulu, CNN Video, NYTimes video, ComedyCentral.com, LogoOnline and MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow Show.  So, inspired by a friend who has Netflix (like I used to ) and Hulu “premium” (I only use Hulu for many fewer dollars per month than what Comcast and other cable companies charge for television, I discontinued my cable tv service and I’m saving $100/month. I literally watch all of my shows on one pc or another (usually a laptop I bring around the house with me, even when I’m cooking and doing other chores).  I watch everything online anyway and now I have a spare monitor my daughter can use on her laptop to use as an extra television, although she’s a little upset that we no longer have television in the living room.  I’ve found playing dvd’s on laptops is far more reliable than the cheap dvd players I’ve bought in stores anyway, so there was no point in letting my flat screen TV languish.  Therefore, it is main PC monitor now!  As per this picture, it dominates my desk.  I don’t have it all worked out yet, as I still need to fix the resolution with drivers.  However, the manufacture web site “Element Electronics” doesn’t seem to have Windows 7 drivers for their television, probably because they didn’t expect a geek like me to use it as a main monitor on a daily basis.

So after sitting down to tell his strictly-raised Catholic kids about how he was dumping their mother for a younger woman who was pregnant with his baby, 57yo now-single bigot Mel Gibson is an embarrassment AGAIN.  Hi religious zealotry didn’t prevent him from throwing babymama#1 away and now he’s said to have knocked teeth out of #2 while she’s holding their infant!?!  The audio tape of his rant about “niggers” raping her because of how she dresses only adds to his all-around bigotry with regard to Jews, which he tried to excuse because of his “lifelong” challenges with alcohol.  Rehab apparently didn’t work.

I had three celebrity sightings when I was there this time.  Anderson Cooper was eating at Chat & Chew near Union Square, one of my old hangouts.  He was with the Parisian guy who is reputed to be his boyfriend (I later saw a link and verified his identity).  I also saw Kristin Wiig at the former Dugout/Rock Bar, making out with a woman.  She was already my favorite SNL cast member at the moment.  Now she really is!  Lastly I saw Michael Musto at the Urban Bear Weekend fair.  He’s a Village Voice columnist who I used to see around town all the time.

It was so great to see many old friends, but I did neglect to photograph a few special people, including Laura Yellon, Chris Cintron, Ted Habza and David A. Garcia, who I made sure to spend time with as they went out of their way to make sure they saw me.  Here are pictures of the various events and people I saw, including my first look from the High Line Park, which I thoroughly enjoyed.

I was on one of her email fan lists for years and I remember what an impression she made on me when she appeared on the Cosby Show.  I wasn’t fully familiar with her accomplishments at the time, but talk about a class act and a decent, long life.  I’ve thought about her often in recent years and knew that she was no young whippersnapper.  I listen to her regularly on my Ipod, and I know what an inspiration she was to many.  What a gorgeous, amazing, talented lady.

My family helped me tremendously with a lot of moving and I got to watch a bunch of movies when I collapsed, especially on Saturday night.  These included:

1.  Oscar Nominated Coraline with Dakota Fanning, Teri Hatcher and Saunders and French.

2. The 2001 version of Planet of the Apes with hottie Mark Wahlberg, who I can’t explain why he turns me on so much, except for that (probably roid-enhanced) rocking body.

3. Evolution, a kind of silly sci-fi comedy, with David Duchovny (typecast), Julianne Moore (always stunning), Orland Jones (annoying) and very sexy Seann William Scott, whose comedy timing wasn’t exactly on in this movie, but he’s still very easy on the eyes.

4. Hackers with a young Angeline Jolie.  It reminded me of War Games mixed with Tron and was embarrassingly outdated, speaking of their speedy 28.8 baud modems.