Entrancing rhythms
Barely able to walk
As if I’m floating

DJ Shadow hits the right spot with this song.
Play it in the morning and you’ll hum it all day.
Play it at the end of the day and you’ll go to sleep with a smile.
http://www.discogs.com/image/R-877872-1170180716.jpeg
DJ Shadow – This Time (I’m Gonna Try It My Way) 7″

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Oh Thank god for Thanksgiving
The fam rolls through, the food is finger licking
The Packers are winning everybody’s chilling
Ain’t no entertainment like someone else’s little children
My nephews and a few new guests too
settle in as course one becomes course two
We love this, We ain’t here because were forced to
At my mom’s house, nom nom then we out
To lay down and watch more foo ba
That’s what my little nephew calls foot ball
All day relaxing, food taxing
waiting for dessert still maxing
laughing as I unbuckle the last buckle
Cousins and Uncle’s know how to make you chuckle

No need to focus on the state of the economy
Grilled turkey and gravy is what my problems be
No time to think about the war and poverty
I got sweet potatoes and stuffing on top of me

It might sound ignorant but some times in life
You need a breather before your back to fighting the good fight
So i’ll take mine, plus a nap and some wine
And see you tomorrow out there on the grind

 

“The body is a sacred garment. It’s your first and your last garment; it is what you enter life in and what you depart life with, and it should be treated with honour, and with joy and with fear as well. but always, though with blessing.”

—Martha Graham

Enter,
Milwaukee in late November
Late in the night, better late then never
Head straight to the East Side
Shots of Jame-0 and high fives
Start at the High Hat stumble to Nomad
But it’s so packed, no room to stand
They got
5 bucks for a shot, PBR and a cig
You can still smoke in the bars I forgot about this

A Berg and Lubus, we moving to Club Brady
We knew no one would be there, cept us and some Ladies
Kendra Julia and Brianna
4 dollar pitchers, i was a big fan of
Downed em then we bounced
out there to the couch

that sit in the middle of a garage rearranged
Where things were out of place but nothing looked strange
Books on the wall next to guitars that hanged
out by the bar and stained glass window panes

Made new friends as we burned incense
Woke up the girl on the couch it got tense
for a sec, but then-a-then again
We Burned something that wasn’t Egyptian Jasmine
A little something that left us all laughing

It turns out A-bar was par for the course
Another night in The Mil that made my voice hoarse
Drove past K House and hid like Freshman
Reminiscing a little bit while letting our heads spin

Walk in my house 3 oclock pass out
But mom and dad had the Spaghetti all ready
Jasper’s the cat of the house already
Is it weird to say it feels weird to come back here?
To stroll into town late and crack a beer?
Been a month, Feels like I’ve been gone half a year

Strange how the ordinary can seem so strange
Thoughts of Thanksgiving in my dreams as I turn off my brain

Wanna be your green bean casserole, baby.
I don’t mean just twice a year.
I wanna be your green bean casserole, baby.
That don’t mean just twice a year.
Cuz once you taste my lovin’
You’ll lick your lips from ear to ear.

I ain’t no crescent roll, babe;
They can be so flaky and dry.
Three-bean salad or pickled onions-
You know I’ll never never make you cry.
I wanna be your green bean casserole, baby.
That don’t mean just twice a year.
Cuz once you taste my lovin’
You’ll lick your lips from ear to ear.

I don’t wanna be the cranberry sauce
And get caught in your teeth.
No marshmallowed sweet potatoes
Cuz I’m not sickly sweet.
I wanna be your green bean casserole, baby.
I don’t mean just twice a year.
Cuz once you taste my lovin’
You’ll lick your lips from ear to ear.

We don’t need your mama’s recipe,
No directions on a can;
All this dish takes is one good woman
And a very hungry man.
Wanna be your green bean casserole, baby.
I don’t mean just twice a year.
Cuz once you taste my lovin’
You’ll lick your lips from ear to ear.
Yes, once you taste my lovin’
You’ll be lickin’ your lips from ear to ear.

Cambridge, one of the country’s pinnacles of academic endeavour, showed another side of its multifaceted character in Come Tango, a concert for the Cambridge Music Festival . This event celebrated rare rhythmic abandonment that only the most joyous of Latin rhythms can stimulate.

Conductor Darrell Davison, gyrating with mesmerizing authority, inspired Cambridge Orchestra to moments of flamboyant ecstasy (exemplified by Braziliana by Ricardo de Pandeiros), sophistication (exemplified by Gerswin’s Rumba) or potent tensions that are integral characteristics of the Tango (exemplified by the works of Piazzolla).

The evening was filled with varied expressions of that magnetic dance that has universal appeal. Works included Le Grand Tango, Libergano and Soledad  (Piazzolla), Three Tangos (Mátyás Seiber), Tomo y Obligo and Por una Cabeza (Carlos Gardel), and Malambo (Alberto Ginastera).

Dancers added colour and vitality to the experience with carefully choreographed movements ranging from the mesmerizing minimalism and potent interaction of Ivan Arandia and Rachel Greenberg to the empathetic flurries and swift manoeuvres of the other dancers: Richard Manuel , Jenny Sayer, Hilmar Gudmundsoon, Natalia Safianbowicz, Costa Rocos and Floridia Ferrara. The highly accomplished solo cellist Liubov Ulybysheva also enhanced the performances considerably.

With abundant percussion pulsating infectious rhythms, this highly energized evening culminated with a splendid performance of Ravel’s Boléro. Although this familiar work is based on the constant repetition of that famous snare drum rhythm and the gradual developing melodic phrases, this performance thrived on variety and breathed life into the music as the dancers interwove their unforgettable interpretations.

Moving away from yesterday’s listening but keeping with the rhythm, here is some more excellence on show:

http://www.ted.com/talks/michael_moschen_juggles_rhythm_and_motion.html

There was this weird bit-rate filter machine thing in Buzz that was so temperamental that I only used it for this one track. It kept crashing but I loved the sound so much. The sound in question is the slow and steady filter on the main drum beat from the start. It sounds rough and degraded but I love the texture of it. This was a purely electronic piece that I tried to take the time to get a good melodic component, some wobbly and detuned synths seemed to do the trick.

Download Form

…or in this case, sounded the same. recent releases from rihanna, shakira, and lady gaga’s deluxe vers of last year’s hot album left me feeling a sense of déjà vu. very pop-heavy, lots of repetitive lyrics, not much originality…yet some does exist in a handful of tracks. gotta say, shakira’s AMA performance was the likeness of britney spears. not that of a spicy, sexy latina. luckily, her other tracks have some of that flair…

but that’s just me. judge for yourself

The weather here has been pretty foggy the last couple of days.  Now, I am not complaining because I love the feeling of the air pulling close to the earth in a tight-wrapping hug and I like the way the misty air touches my skin and caresses the foliage.  Big diamond droplets of water cling tenaciously to the bare branches of the tree outside our kitchen.  My children will always comment that they feel like Narnia is close by when we experience the fog and I agree with them.  I half expect to see the shadow of lion moving in the veil – just out of my reach, yet not out of my vision.

This morning I awoke to the sound of a foghorn calling from somewhere on the coastline.  It was a low, deep call – calming with no sense of panic, yet a strong solid message of guidance.  I lay in bed enjoying the periodic sound allowing its reverberations to move through my body.   With each subsequent sounding, it became a call to my heart.

Over the past few months I feel like time has become crazy – my business, kids schedules, church, school, marriage, friendships, projects, and parenting all became a tumble-jumble mess and mix.  It couldn’t even be called “juggling” but rather more like tub of balls being dumped on me from above, some of them bouncing, others needing to be tossed in the air again and still others rolling away into some corner waiting for attention at a later date.  (I hope someone understands this illustration!)

But this morning, the foghorn became to me a distant call beckoning me toward Advent.  It signaled to me that there is coming a new season – one in which I am to enter by slowing down, waiting, listening, and even fasting.  In the midst of my foggy brain it became an directional compass, navigating me away from shipwreck on rocky shores and guiding me on to other harbors.  And as I listened, I found myself breathing in rhythm with the foghorn.  And so I long to breathe in sync to the rhythms of Advent.

Wake up later then usual, it’s Day Two,
of Unemployment, trying to see my way through
A maze of paperwork, technicalities -
HR sending checks, it ain’t ended yet? -
But in reality…

I should be job hunting, not rhyming and blogging
Minute by minute document and cataloging
the events as the unfold
but i gotta get my truth told, so who knows

I got plenty friends that lost plenty ends, when
their jobs stopped paying em
when off they started laying em
we might end up a lost generation

Like tech college graduates in the late 70’s
whose skills were obselete soon as they got their degrees
So they started rigging sound systems up to street lights
There skills brought the party out, put sound in the night

So i’ll swing a downturn upside down
untie my tie, write something up right now
Use my skills to pay the bills,
even if i got a miss a few meals

That’s all for now, I gotta run quick
to toss back a few, knock pins over at Brunzwick

And after yesterday’s video on sound, this one on ‘listening’ shows both some stunning skill and reminds us that we’re probably not even beginners at listening:

http://www.ted.com/talks/evelyn_glennie_shows_how_to_listen.html

(it’s a longer video but worth the time)

From Advent Conspiracy:

This is the heart of the Advent Conspiracy. More than just an invitation to say no to overspending and mindless gifts, we’re asking you to say yes to a new way of celebrating Christmas.  When we resist the empire of consumerism, our time and money are freed up and we are able to give relational gifts to others.

Consider all of the advertisements you are exposed to every Christmas.

• What are some specific examples that have affected you? What emotions do they evoke in you?

• How might these ads make you feel like you’re missing something in your life?

• How can we become more aware of these messages and less susceptible to them?

.  .  .  .  .

Read Matthew 6:19-24.

• What are the differences between earthly and heavenly treasures?

• What do you think Jesus means by verse 21? In what way is our spending during Christmas a reflection of our hearts?

• How can your gift-giving during the Christmas season reflect eternal values and the heart of God?

.  .  .  .  .

The AC authors note that Christmas has, ironically, become a “season of excess.”

• In what ways does this season become a season of excess for you?  Food?  Drink?  An overstuffed schedule?  Overspending? How does this leave you feeling after the holiday is over?

• As parents, teachers, uncles, aunts and adult role models, what does your approach to gift-giving at Christmas teach children about worship?
  • What does it teach them about contentment?
  • What lessons would you want to pass along to children about Christ coming into the world?

Having seen the Zentangles on an number of sites, I had to try one myself.  I also played some more with the fractal filter.  Both images appeal to me in that they have a strong sense of rhythm.

Todd Henry in his podcast and website Accidental Creative talks a lot about rhythm, and it has made me  more aware of it.  If you have not hear of this podcast or blog, please go check him out.   Rhythm is one of those things that is often lost in our modern society.  We have become obsessed with Now! and New and Improved.   I always want my art to be constantly improving and getting better.  When I hit an ebb part of the tide, I think of it as bad. The creativity is going away, what I am doing is not working.  What I made is trash. 

These negative thoughts are destructive and wrong.  Like the tide, creativity has a rhythm, it cycles through low and high periods.  These periods of low creativity are the times for processing  and for refilling your personal well.  I also like to think of them as times for sand castle building.  Sand Castles are a great low tide activity,  all that bare sand, a blank canvas, but a low pressure blank canvas as you know the tide is going to return.  Sand Castles can be works of art, but they are a joy to create, simple to make. It is the process that is fun.

I found this Zentangle to be an excellent sand castle type activity.  It was fun, it simple to make, but can become complex.   Like many before me,  I found it to have a meditative quality to it.  I found myself thinking of  the things I am Thankful for, A very seasonal thing, and  I found some answers to some artist problems.   I had been working on a series of tiles, I had decided to make some seasonal tiles.  Flowers for spring and summer.  Leaves for fall, but when it came to the winter tiles, my Christmas tiles fell very flat, too found at Walmart and kitschy.  It was the same for snowflakes, the more religious tiles and the others.  They lacked rhythm.  The flowers and leaves worked because they had rhythm.   I feel like the tide is coming back in on my tile creativity. 

This track never gets old! High energy.

Once the rythym gets you, there’s no way out!!!

“The most demanding part of living a life time as an artist is the strict discipline of forcing oneself to work steadfastly along the nerve of one’s most intimate sensitivity.”
—Annie Truitt

Took a trip into the hills around the Cedar River Watershed to look for edible mushrooms.  Found a bunch, but we weren’t sure we wouldn’t die from eating them, so…  anyhow, we ended up at the Cedar River Watershed Education Center, and they had all these hand drums set up with water pipes above each one, and a computer would let drops of water out onto each drum– different amounts in different rhythms– and it was playing the craziest beats!  The wierdest part was imagining that the ghostly drum circle was still going on in the fog and rain even when no one was there.

It’s 50 degrees out, almost eleven o’clock on a Sunday night, and I just came back from an eerie walk.

But then again, I knew it would be.

The concrete streets felt extra hard under my feet.  The air didn’t have the feel of winter, or the fragrance of fall.   Two people walked by and neither they nor the dogs they were walking looked up.   The night was definitely “off.”

Uncomfortable, I slowed my pace to “try to find the back beat,” a suggestion a friend once made when I couldn’t find the rhythm to the music we were dancing to. On my walk I was trying to find “the back beat” to my stride, but couldn’t find that either.

Walking alone, at one pace and then another, the houses I passed seemed vacant, the windows too dark, the roofs as gray as the sky that felt like it was closing down around me.    One lonely house had hung a Christmas wreath on the front door that looked tired and bleak, and like it had already given up on the holidays.

My pace moved faster, then slower.  And it was then that I felt “it” shiver through my bones.

Not the “back beat,” but the knowledge that everything in my life right now lacks one.  At this particular hour, on this particular night, nothing seems in rhythm.

People I love are sick, or sick at heart.   I’m alone tonight when I don’t have to be.  I’m tired but can’t sleep.   There are things to look forward to, that I’m not looking forward to at all.   Christmas is coming and I’m leaving for California.  Even these words that I love to use are struggling and fighting with me and don’t want to come out in the right order, convey the right feeling, or fall together as they should.

Everything seems out of sync.  Nothing feels right.

There is no “back beat” tonight.

Intoxicating, mesmersing and sensual.

One of her very best songs. Still sounds as fresh and hot as it did when if first came out 14 years ago.

Paula Abdul – My Love is For Real

Associates,

I have tapped a new creative vein (id est, learned the language of my muse).

If a skill or mastery in writing is achieved, it will henceforth by supplemented by a verbal voracity unmatched in this galaxial cluster – or supercluster, if you will.

Delivering doses of the most viral, grassroots politics, all the while planted the seeds of truth that will continue to assist in the advance and evolution of our human-shaped landscape.

This thing is growing like a redwood.  It lives in Green.

Truly yours,

Rice Cutgrass

Dupre´Logistics monitors it’s drivers.

Statistics suggest that a significant percentage of accidents are caused by human error. A major contributing factor in a number of these cases is fatigue. It is important to understand what fatigue is and how to deal with it. Dupre´Logistics hold their team accountable by measuring fatigue through Circadian Technologies’ CAS System.

Fatigue is more than just a general feeling of tiredness. It is a loss of our ability to remain vigilant, to perform a task, to maintain situational awareness, to think clearly and logically, to react appropriately and to maintain motor coordination skills. Very simply, when a person is fatigued, he is more prone to making mistakes. Fatigue affects everyone, even the most professional and dedicated people. It is not a question of mind over matter. Rather, it’s the body’s natural physiological response to working too much or getting too little sleep or rest.

Fatigue is monitored by examining the following 9 variables:

• Average sleep length per day
• Percentage of time below red and yellow thresholds on duty
• Average duration of episodes below red on duty
• Average alertness score while awake
• Number of recovery breaks per week
• Hours of work per week
• Hours of work per shift
• Biological limitations for sleep recovery
• Time of day activity occurs

Source:  Circadian 24/7 Workforce Solutions and Dupre´ Logistics