A first attempt January 31, 2008

While I was waiting for some feedback this morning, I got out the watercolor pencils and pad of paper that my mother had given me for Christmas. These first attempts are far from artistic, but I had fun making them. I especially like that I get to both draw and paint. I really enjoyed the process — it’s incredibly precise and incredibly imprecise at the same time. I’ll have to keep playing with them and discover which techniques work better, but in the meantime, it’s just plain fun.

So these photos didn’t turn out so well — they’re a little blurry — but here they are. The first one started out as a lady dancing, and turned into, well, the bottom 2/3 of a lady.

The second one is of the bunch of tulips I picked up at the farmer’s market last weekend.

And today I was a bum January 31, 2008

Remember when I asked if you would send a search party into the world of resistance if you didn’t hear from me? Yeah, well, today was that day. Not that you could tell since I only post once a day anyway, but yeah, today was knee-deep-in-resistance mode. Unless, of course, my path includes the occasional day wasted in front of the XBOX playing Carcassonne and Settlers of Catan, which I’m guessing it probably doesn’t.

This is really typical for me — I have a great couple of days with some good aha! moments and then resistance reaches up from its murky depths and claims me. The good news in all of this is that I got myself into such an antsy state that I want to work now. I cleaned the house and I’m even doing some freelance, a strictly morning (or maybe early afternoon) activity. What I’m trying desperately not to do is to berate myself for this, just to recognize it as resistance and move along. That’s probably harder for me than anything else, but again, I’m seeing it and letting it go. Mostly I’m just grateful this resistance phase was short lived.

If you don’t see me tomorrow, fear not — I’ll be moving so fast resistance won’t have time to get a hold of me. I’m following a few calls — getting my hair cut (which is apparently a second chakra balancing activity), reconnecting with a friend from high school that I haven’t seen in over 15 years, meeting up with another friend for a scrumptious dinner at Cafe Gratitude (to give you an idea of how emotional I am these days, I cried when I read the menu), and finally rounding it out with another friend at a metaphysical bookstore where I’ll be doing some affirmative prayer work for her. Phew! All this after freelancing in the morning. Now I just have to remember to breathe! Namaste.

Sure-As-Not January 29, 2008

When I first graduated college, I worked for a music store for about 6 months — Hear Music, long before Starbucks bought them and rewrote their history, but that’s a tale for another day. There were many awesome things about Hear Music — the fact that you could listen to anything in the store prior to buying it; the cool, independent, music-loving employees the store attracted; and the wide array of folk, rock, world, classical, alternative, you name it (so long as it isn’t pop) music available for your listening pleasure. Sure-As-Not, and explicitly the Jungle Segue, by the Afro Celt Sound System, was one of the early loves that I got introduced to while I worked there, and an example of why working in a music store and actually trying to earn a living do not always go hand-in-hand seeing as how I bought the album pretty much as soon as I heard it.

The Afro Celt Sound System is really a lot like it sounds. Their first album, my personal favorite, was “the first fruit of a collaboration between a group of the finest African musicians, their counterparts from the Celtic communities of western Europe and several of Britain’s most respected dance music producers,” according to their website. It’s a glorious noise, almost infectious, that gets inside of you and makes you want to move. It makes you wonder why the whole world isn’t begging for an African-Celtic fusion in music, because it was obviously meant to be.

If you have a chance to pick up some Afro Celt Sound System, please do. You won’t regret it. I promise.

Artist: Afro Celt Sound System
Song: Sure-As-Not
Part A: Sure-As-Not, Part B: Sure-As-Knot (Jungle Segue)
Album: Sound Magic
Website: http://realworldrecords.com/afrocelts/
Fan Site: http://www.afrocelts.org/