To start the day …. “Adele’s Birthday …. she turns 28 today …. “!!

~~May 5, 2016~~ 

HAPPY BIRTHDAY

There’s no denying it.

Adele is one of my favorite singers in the world.

I became aware of her as my oldest grand-daughter kept singing “Someone Like You”.

Since then, I’ve been one of the many fans who have followed her career.

With the release of her 3rd album, 25, Adele solidified her stature in the musical world.

She’s an awesome talent, a down to earth human being, a mother and a joy.

Here’s wishing her a happy birthday and many more.

Let’s review her career and successes with Wikipedia’s help.

HortyRex©

Adele Laurie Blue Adkins, MBE, (born 5 May 1988) is an English singer and songwriter. Graduating from the BRIT School for Performing Arts and Technology in 2006, Adele was given a recording contract by XL Recordings after a friend posted her demo on Myspace the same year.

In 2007, she received the Brit Awards “Critics’ Choice” award and won the BBC Sound of 2008 poll.

Her debut album, 19, was released in 2008 to commercial and critical success. It is certified seven times platinum in the UK, and double platinum in the US. An appearance she made on Saturday Night Live in late 2008 boosted her career in the US. At the 51st Annual Grammy Awards in 2009, Adele received the awards for Best New Artist and Best Female Pop Vocal Performance.

Adele released her second studio album, 21, in early 2011. The album was well received critically and surpassed the success of her debut, earning the singer numerous awards in 2012, including a record-tying six Grammy Awards, including Album of the Year; two Brit Awards, including British Album of the Year, and three American Music Awards. The album has been certified 16 times platinum in the UK, and is the fourth best-selling album in the UK of all time. In the US it has held the top position longer than any album since 1985, and is certified Diamond.

The album has sold 31 million copies worldwide.

~~GRAPHICS SOURCE~~ 

Personal Graph made with OVER app

Google Images

I do not own this/these images.

No intention of taking credit.

If anyone knows the owner of any, please advise and it will be corrected immediately.

HortyRex©

~~GALLERY~~

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The success of 21 earned Adele numerous mentions in the Guinness Book of World Records.

She is the first woman in the history of the Billboard Hot 100 to have three simultaneous top 10 singles as a lead artist, and the first female artist to simultaneously have two albums in the top five of the Billboard 200 and two singles in the top five of the Billboard Hot 100. 21 is the longest-running number one album by a female solo artist in the history of the UK and US Album Charts.

In 2012, she released “Skyfall“, which she wrote and recorded for the James Bond film of the same name. The song won an Academy Award, a Grammy Award, and a Golden Globe Award for Best Original Song.

After taking a three-year break, Adele released her third studio album, 25, in 2015. It became the year’s best-selling album and broke first week sales records in the UK and US. The lead single, “Hello“, became the first song in the US to sell over one million digital copies within a week of its release.

In 2011 and 2012, Billboard named Adele Artist of the Year. In 2012, she was listed at number five on VH1’s 100 Greatest Women in Music.

“As it appears in …. full read/full credit”

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adele

#ToStartTheDay #Adele #AdeleAdkins #HappyBirthday #YoungWoman #DownToEarth #GreatSenseOfHumor #PokesFunAtHerself  #SeemVeryModest #HugeSuccess #GoToHerHead #AnswersQuestions #AnotherSide #Modest #PersonalSongs #NewAlbum #SimonKonecki #Angelo #WorldRecords #AcademyAward #GrammyAward #GoldenGlobeAward #BestOrigina Song

#WeAlllAreOne #ItIsWhatItIs #DrRex #HortyRex #hrexachwordpress

~~Happy Birthday Animation~~

~~Uploaded on May 30, 2007~~

Happy Birthday Animation

We ALL are ONE!! 

To start the day …. “Until We Could”!!

~~March 5, 2015~~

I could watch this video over and over again.

Some may will think that I’m totally biased. In some sense I may have to agree. However, how can anyone judge another in matters of the heart? Love is love … one falls in love with the essence of the “better half”. The vessel in which that essence is kept should be irrelevant. 

Souls fall in love with souls they recognize from before. 

Love is love. It comes in many shapes and forms. 

Who is anyone to judge?

How can this be anything but heartwarming?

I have used this video before. I used it before my marriage became legal in the state I live in. Now, as I watched is again …. the video takes on a new meaning “until I could” became my reality.

Tomorrow is my second month anniversary of legal wedded bliss.

Watch This Amazing Ode to Marriage Equality, by Inaugural Poet Richard Blanco

(9/21/14)

“Until We Could” is a poem by Inaugural Poet Richard Blanco — and a beautiful film from Freedom To Marry.

It is a decade since the U.S. first state, Massachusetts, enshrined marriage equality in law, and since the founding of campaign group Freedom To Marry (FTM). It has been a fruitful, frustrating decade, a bizarre range of weather systems of advances and losses—but mainly now, finally, advances. 

To mark the 10 years, FTM commissioned Richard Blanco, the poet for Barack Obama’s second inauguration in 2013, to write a poem commemorating the decade. So powerful was the result, titled “Until We Could,” the organization then commissioned a video to bring Blanco’s words to evocative life.

~~Until We Could~~

Richard Blanco

~~Published on Sep 21, 2014~~

Until We Could, a gorgeous new video poem written by Richard Blanco, celebrates love and the freedom to marry for same-sex couples. The film is narrated by Golden Globe winning actress Robin Wright and actor Ben Foster.

For more info on the campaign to win marriage nationwide, visits http://www.freedomtomarry.org.

Find out more about Richard Blanco at http://richard-blanco.com.

Directors: Yen Tan and David Lowery
Producers: Peter Spears and Andrew Logan
Executive Directors: Freedom to Marry and Thomas Patrick Lane

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~~RELATED~~ 

https://hrexach.wordpress.com/2014/09/24/until-we-could-a-poem-love-is-love/

RICHARD BLANCO

Made in Cuba, assembled in Spain, imported to the USA

Richard Blanco’s mother, seven months pregnant, and the rest of the family arrived as exiles from Cuba to Madrid where he was born on February 15th, 1968. Forty-five days later, the family emigrated once more to New York City. Only a few weeks old, Blanco already belonged to three countries, a foreshadowing of the concerns of place and belonging that would shape his life and work. Eventually, the family settled in Miami where he was raised and educated. Growing up among close-knit Cuban exiles instilled in him a strong sense of community, dignity, and identity that he’d carry into his adult life as a writer.

“As it appears in …. full read”

http://richard-blanco.com/

~~UNTIL WE COULD~~

~~UNTIL WE COULD~~

I knew then, in that room where we found

for the first time our eyes and everything.

Even the din and smoke of the city around us

disappeared, leaving us alone as if we stood

the last two in the world left capable of love

as if two mirrors face-to-face with no end

to the light our eyes could bend into infinity.

I knew since I knew you … but we couldn’t.

I caught the sunlight pining through the shears

traveling millions of dark miles simply to graze

your skin as I did that first dawn I studied you

sleeping beside me: yes, I counted your eyelashes

read your dreams like butterflies flitting underneath

your eyelids ready to flutter into the room. Yes,

I praised you like a majestic creature my god forgot

to create till that morning of you suddenly tamed

in my arms, first for me to see, name you mine

Yes to the raise of your body breathing.

Yes, to all of you. Yes, I knew … but we still couldn’t. 

I taught you how to dance Salsa by looking
into my Caribbean eyes, you learned to speak
in my tongue, while teaching me how to catch
a snowflake in my palms and love the grey
clouds of your grey hometown. Our years began
collecting in glossy photos time-lining our lives
across shelves and walls glancing back at us …

Us embracing in some sunset, more captivated

by each other than the sky blushed plum and rose.

Us claiming some mountain that didn’t matter

as much as our climbing it, together. Us leaning

against columns of ruins as ancient as our love

was new, or leaning into our dreams at a table

flickering candlelight in our full-mooned eyes.

I knew me as much as us, and yet … we couldn’t. 

When the fiery kick lines and fires were set for us
by our founding mother-fathers at Stonewall,
we first spoke defiance. When we paraded glitter,
leather, and rainbows made human, our word
became pride down every city street, saying:
Just let us be. But that wasn’t enough. Parades

became rallies – bold words on signs and mouths

until a man claimed freedom as another word

for marriage and he said: Let us in. We said love

is love, proclaimed it into all eyes that would

listen at every door that would open until noes

and maybes turned into yeses, town by town.

city by city, state by state, understanding us

until the woman who dared enough say enough until

the gravel struck into law what we always knew

love it the right to say: I do and I do and I do.

and I do want is to see every tulip we’ve planted

come up spring after spring, a hundred more years

of dinners cooked over a shared glass of wine, and

a thousand more movies in bed. I do until our eyes

become voices speaking without speaking, until

like a cloud meshed into a cloud, there’s no more

you, me – our names are useless. I do want you to be

the last face I see – your breath my last breath

I do, I do and will and will for those who still can’t
vow it yet, but know love’s exact reason as much
as they know how a sail keeps the wind without
breaking, or how roots dig a way into the earth,
or how the stars open their eyes to the night, or
how a vine becomes one with the wall it loves, or
how, when I hold you, you are rain in my hands.

Until we could

#ToStartTheDay #UntilWeCould #RichardBlanco #Poem #FreedomToMarry #Video #GorgeousNewVideoPoem #Narration #GoldenGlobe #Robin Wright #BenFoster #One #LoveIsLove

#WeAllAreOne #ItIsWhatItIs #DrRex #hrexachwordpress

We ALL are ONE!! 

At the end of the day …. “Glory”!!

~~January 20, 2015~~ 

Common says ‘Selma’ song ‘Glory’ is intended to inspire, unite

Rapper and actor Common says he and singer-songwriter John Legend were so inspired by the story at the center of Selma they had no trouble writing “Glory,” their anthem for freedom and justice.The memorable music from the current Best Picture Oscar nominee has already earned the recording artists Golden Globe and Critics’ Choice awards for Best Original Song. It also is nominated for an Oscar in the same category.

Asked by UPI in New York last month before the Martin Luther King Jr. bio-picture opened in theaters how he and Legend came to collaborate on the song, Common replied: “I’m ingrained in this. This is who I am, speaking up for socially conscious things. And being able to be an actor in the film really gave me a lot of what to write about and I knew the history.

“So, I called John and I told him everything that was going on with Selma. He hadn’t seen the film yet, obviously. I hadn’t seen the film yet. We just had a quick discussion and I gave him three titles that I thought we should use and one of them was ‘Glory‘ and he wrote a piano piece and then wrote a chorus for ‘Glory‘ and when I got the music back I was like, ‘Oh, man, this is touching me.’ So, it didn’t take a long time to write. This is what I love to do. Write music that inspires people and brings people together and motivates people, so I just wrote from my heart  … It’s in my soul. I told them I could write this song forever.”

“As it appears in …. “

http://www.upi.com/Entertainment_News/Music/2015/01/19/Common-says-Selma-song-Glory-is-intended-to-inspire-unite/5421421046372/

#AtTheEndOfTheDay #Glory #SelmaTheme #Soundtrack #IntendedInspireUnite #SingerSongwriterJohnLegend #RapperActorCommon #GoldenGlobe #CriticsChoice #MartinLutherKingJr #FromTheHeart #MySoul #SongForever #LyndonBainesJohnson

#WeAllAreOne #ItIsWhatItIs #DrRex #hrexachwordpress

~~GALLERY~~ 

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“Glory”

John Legend and Common

Published on Dec 23, 2014

Martin Luther King, Lyndon Baines Johnson and the civil rights marches that changed America.

We ALL are ONE!! 

Barbra Streisand …. timeless!!

~~April 24, 2014~~

Happy birthday to one of the most pivotal figures in music, Barbra Streisand!

On April 24, 1942, Barbra Joan Streisand was born in Brooklyn, New York to Diana Rosen, and Emanuel Streisand. When she was only 15 months old, her father, a high school English teacher, passed away from complications of an epileptic seizure. He left Barbra’s mother, a secretary at a New York City public school, to raise Barbra and her older brother, Sheldon, on her own. “When I was maybe 5 or 6 years old, the neighborhood girls would sit on the stoop and sing. I was known as the kid who had a good voice and no father,” Streisand later told Oprah Winfrey.

Barbra Streisand wasn’t conventionally beautiful, but her talent made up for all that.

In the 1960’s, she went against what most people advised and refused to get a nose job. Her stepfather told her she wasn’t pretty enough to be a star, but Streisand ignored all that. And her look became her asset. (One contemporary fan is Lady Gaga, who remarks, “She’s such a pivotal figure in music. As a performer, she’s always been so different from everybody else around.”)

Barbra Streisand became an actress, singer, director, writer, composer, producer. designer, author, photographer, and activist. She is the only artist ever to receive Oscar, Tony, Emmy, Grammy, Directors Guild of America, Golden Globe, National Medal of Arts and Peabody Awards, and France’s Légion d’honneur, as well as the American Film Institute’s Lifetime Achievement Award. She is also the first female film director to receive the Kennedy Center Honors.

The three films she directed received 14 Oscar nominations. She has sold 72.5 million albums and is an eight-time Grammy Award winner.

But, as she told Oprah, “I think of myself as a girl from Brooklyn.”

I can’t remember how old I was when I became aware of this incredibly, amazing singer from Brooklyn. I don’t think that I was older than 10-12 years. I do remember listening to her singing through one of my cousins. We were visiting my family and he was playing and LP record and this wonderful singing was coming through the speakers.

Music has always been a very important part of my life. 

And there began my strong admiration of Ms. Barbra.

I followed her every move. I bought all of her music records. I loved all her movies. My favorites where the ones where her incredible humor was featured. (Remember when she was in the musical review and when she turned she showed a pregnant abdomen? Remember the movie “The Owl and the Pussycat” with George Seagel? Or “The Main Event” with Ryan O’Neal?)

Memories indeed! 

Barbra Joan Streisand (born Barbara Joan Streisand, April 24, 1942) is an American singer-songwriter, author, actress, writer, film producer, and director. She has won two Academy Awards, eight Grammy Awards, five Emmy Awards including one Daytime Emmy, a Special Tony Award, an American Film Institute award, a Kennedy Center Honors award, a Peabody Award and is one of the few entertainers who have won an Oscar, Emmy, Grammy, and Tony Award.

She is one of the best selling female artists of all time, with more than 71.5 million albums in the United States and 245 million records sold worldwide. She is the best-selling female artist on the Recording Industry Association of America‘s (RIAA) Top Selling Album Artists list, the only female recording artist in the top ten, and the only artist outside of the rock and roll genre.

After beginning a successful recording career in the 1960’s, by the end of the decade, Streisand ventured into film starring in the critically acclaimed Funny Girl, for which she won the Academy Award and Golden Globe Award for Best Actress. Other notable films include The Owl and the Pussycat, The Way We Were and A Star Is Born for which she received her second Academy Award for composing the music to the picture’s main song, “Evergreen“. By the 1980s, Streisand established herself as one of the film industry’s most notable figures by becoming the first woman to direct, produce, script and star in her own picture.

According to the RIAA, Streisand holds the record for the most top ten albums of any female recording artist – a total of 32 since 1963. Streisand has the widest span (48 years) between first and latest top ten albums of any female recording artist. With her 2009 album, Love Is the Answer, she became one of the rare artists to achieve number one albums in five consecutive decades.

According to the RIAA, she has released 51 Gold albums, 30 Platinum albums, and 13 Multi-Platinum albums in the United States.

~~SOURCES~~

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barbra_Streisand

http://www.barbrastreisand.com/us/home

http://parade.condenast.com/283429/jerylbrunner/happy-birthday-barbra-streisand-we-look-back-at-her-career-milestones/

~~Barbra Streisand – People – Live 2006~~

~~Uploaded on Apr 13, 2009~~

Barbra Streisand singing ‘People’ at her 30th October 2006 Florida Concert. This is her last song before intermission, and what a way to end the first half! Taken from the forthcoming DVD Box Set ‘Barbra Streisand: The Concerts’ to be released in North America on 28th April 2009. Music and Lyrics by Jule Styne and Bob Merrill.

~~THIS IS THE FIRST SONG I HEARD HER SING~~

We ALL are ONE!!