Today's DailyOM Offerings...
February 13, 2009
My Favorite Place to Drown
Michael Leviton
Every so often an artist comes along who performs his thing with such mastery and exactitude that he may seem encased in a bubble, demonstrating a perfect, delicate example of a style of which no one else lays claim. Michael Leviton, a slightly precious, extremely impressive Brooklyn-based singer-songwriter and ukulele player, falls into this category. His 2006 debut album, My Favorite Place to Drown, finds Leviton leading a spare, sympathetic chamber-pop band through a series of nautically themed love songs-or, more specifically, heartbreak songs-with such unstressed accomplishment it seems he must have invented the discipline. The danger of such a specific tack is that it can make a musician’s world seem narrow, and one might wonder how long he can keep this up. But for now, no worries are necessary, as My Favorite Place to Drown arrives as a perfectly formed pearl of a record, all gentle, rolling textures and clever, lilting wordplay. It’s an album for liter! ate, yearning souls.
The album opens with a wheezing accordion before Leviton enters singing in his dreamy, slightly nasal voice over the tiny strums of his ukulele. The song that follows, "Summer’s the Worst," sets into motion all the principle themes for the album. Set at the beach in summertime, the song finds Leviton looking around at all the pretty girls and longing hopelessly for love: "I’m in the crowd / Looking for a girl / I’m gonna drown / Looking for a pearl." When the band breaks open with drums, piano, and floating background vocals, the narrator’s tunnel vision seems to explode into wide-screen. The next track, "You’ll Pay for Your Day at Pleasure Island," features cello humming ominously beneath Leviton’s slow arpeggio strums before the track drifts into a softly Hawaiian-flavored amble, and then further on lifts into an old-fashioned show-tune-style chorus.
One of the album’s best tracks is the cagily titled "I’m in Love With the Tip of Your Iceberg." On an impossibly tender melody that lolls like the calm windless sea, Leviton describes the dangers of falling in love too soon: "I’m certain that your fathoms are unfathomable / What do you keep there? / In the deep there / Please don’t make me guess." Within the strictures of his watery realm, Leviton manages to detail love and longing with a keen eye and a generous heart. My Favorite Place to Drown marks the landing of a fine musical talent.
February 13, 2009
Carried By Fate
Sagittarius Daily Horoscope
Apprehension can make goal fulfillment difficult today as the fear that your expectations will not be met may stall your endeavors at home and at work. The anxiety you feel may be related to an unwillingness to see what your career and your personal life have in store for you. If you worry less about the outcome of individual plans and concentrate on achieving larger long-term ambitions, you may be surprised at the paths your destiny takes you down but pleased with the results of these detours. Consider that you can be optimistic and goal-driven today without setting too much store in any one specific project or plan.
When we recognize that despite our best efforts, fate will often take us in an unexpected direction, we can learn to appreciate the surprises that make life interesting. Instead of mourning the expectations that were left unfulfilled, we can devote the entirety of our mental and physical energy to exploring the new worlds in which we find ourselves. We are less apt to feel uptight or distressed when our plans go awry as we can see that there will likely be benefits to the surprising paths we are now following. This open-mindedness will ensure that we do not waste time trying to fight against the universal current, but instead learn to embrace our destinies even if they are not what we expected them to be. Your apprehension will melt today when you make the conscious choice to give yourself over to fate’s currents.
February 13, 2009
Staying Conscious
Staying Grounded in a Big City or Busy World
1. Live simply and live deliberately. By choosing not to get caught up in the details of this fast-paced world, you are doing your part to slow down the . You will also discover that you have more time to enjoy being alive.
2. Stay in touch with yourself. Soul searching, meditation, and journaling are just a few of the many activities you can take part in to stay aware and learn as much as you can about your emotions, reactions, likes, dislikes, dreams, and fears. Having a solid sense of self gives you a firm foundation for living in this world.
3. Support or teach others as often as you can. This can help you form connections with people while also giving you an opportunity to make the world a better place.
4. Consciously choose what you will allow into your being. The media bombards us with visions of hate, war, and pain. Be judicious about what you read, watch, and listen to.
5. Acknowledge the beauty that resides around you. Whether you live in a sprawling metropolis or a stereotypical suburb, there are natural and man-made wonders just waiting to be discovered by you.
6. Nurture your ties to your tribe. If you don’t have one, create a community that you can belong to. Modern life can be isolating. When you have a tribe, you have a circle that you are a part of. Its members - loved ones, friends, or neighbors - can be a source of support, caring, guidance, and companionship.
7. See the larger picture. Remember that the way that you choose to live is not the only way to live. Widen your perspective by exploring other modes of being through research, travel, and discussion.
8. Embrace the challenges that life presents to you, and challenge yourself often. After a time, even the most exciting jobs or lifestyles can seem routine. Never stop assimilating new knowledge about whatever you are doing, and your life will never seem dull.
9. Move your body. In this busy world, it can be easy to live a sedentary life. Movement reacquaints us with our bodies and connects us to the earth in a visceral way. It also restores our vitality.
10. Make time for stillness, silence, and solitude. The world can be noisy, and we are subject to all kinds of noises nearly every waking hour. We are also often "on the go" and unable to relax. Being alone in a peaceful place and making time for quiet can help you stay in touch with yourself.
February 13, 2009
Five Flower Healing Essence, Tao of Peace, 40 Days to Revolution
Gift Of The Week
Five Flower Healing Essence - Five Flower Healing Essence is a combination based on the popular Rescue Remedy by Dr. Bach. What makes this formula different is that it has been updated for today's times and all of the flowers used in the formula are grown with both biodynamic and organic principals in America. Flowers are picked during the morning hours when they are the most potent and still covered in morning dew. This flower essence formula was developed to promote calm and balance in diverse situations of stress, emergency and trauma. It is excellent at relieving stress and anxiety and is also good to use during and after illness to promote well-being.
View Five Flower Healing Essence
Tao of Peace (CD) - Dean Evenson has been bringing peace and positive vibrations to the planet through his flute and keyboard work for years before his teaming with guqin (Chinese zither) master Li Xiangting. Their creative union is truly inspired, with Evenson's gift for creating edenic soundscapes merging brilliantly with the still otherworldliness of Xiangting's playing. The mental pictures their music conjures are wet with warm fragrant mist and ordered with careful gardens of overhanging greens and Buddhist statues.
Listen To Sound Clips
40 Days to Personal Revolution (book) - Let the Revolution Begin Now. In 40 Days to Personal Revolution, Baron Baptiste - one of the world's most beloved master yoga teachers - inspires us to transform more than body and mind: He gives us the tools we need to set ourselves free to live the healthful life we've always imagined. In the next 40 days you will create a whole new way of being and living.
Read Excerpt
For more information visit DailyOM Gift Shop
My Favorite Place to Drown
Michael Leviton
Every so often an artist comes along who performs his thing with such mastery and exactitude that he may seem encased in a bubble, demonstrating a perfect, delicate example of a style of which no one else lays claim. Michael Leviton, a slightly precious, extremely impressive Brooklyn-based singer-songwriter and ukulele player, falls into this category. His 2006 debut album, My Favorite Place to Drown, finds Leviton leading a spare, sympathetic chamber-pop band through a series of nautically themed love songs-or, more specifically, heartbreak songs-with such unstressed accomplishment it seems he must have invented the discipline. The danger of such a specific tack is that it can make a musician’s world seem narrow, and one might wonder how long he can keep this up. But for now, no worries are necessary, as My Favorite Place to Drown arrives as a perfectly formed pearl of a record, all gentle, rolling textures and clever, lilting wordplay. It’s an album for liter! ate, yearning souls.
The album opens with a wheezing accordion before Leviton enters singing in his dreamy, slightly nasal voice over the tiny strums of his ukulele. The song that follows, "Summer’s the Worst," sets into motion all the principle themes for the album. Set at the beach in summertime, the song finds Leviton looking around at all the pretty girls and longing hopelessly for love: "I’m in the crowd / Looking for a girl / I’m gonna drown / Looking for a pearl." When the band breaks open with drums, piano, and floating background vocals, the narrator’s tunnel vision seems to explode into wide-screen. The next track, "You’ll Pay for Your Day at Pleasure Island," features cello humming ominously beneath Leviton’s slow arpeggio strums before the track drifts into a softly Hawaiian-flavored amble, and then further on lifts into an old-fashioned show-tune-style chorus.
One of the album’s best tracks is the cagily titled "I’m in Love With the Tip of Your Iceberg." On an impossibly tender melody that lolls like the calm windless sea, Leviton describes the dangers of falling in love too soon: "I’m certain that your fathoms are unfathomable / What do you keep there? / In the deep there / Please don’t make me guess." Within the strictures of his watery realm, Leviton manages to detail love and longing with a keen eye and a generous heart. My Favorite Place to Drown marks the landing of a fine musical talent.
February 13, 2009
Carried By Fate
Sagittarius Daily Horoscope
Apprehension can make goal fulfillment difficult today as the fear that your expectations will not be met may stall your endeavors at home and at work. The anxiety you feel may be related to an unwillingness to see what your career and your personal life have in store for you. If you worry less about the outcome of individual plans and concentrate on achieving larger long-term ambitions, you may be surprised at the paths your destiny takes you down but pleased with the results of these detours. Consider that you can be optimistic and goal-driven today without setting too much store in any one specific project or plan.
When we recognize that despite our best efforts, fate will often take us in an unexpected direction, we can learn to appreciate the surprises that make life interesting. Instead of mourning the expectations that were left unfulfilled, we can devote the entirety of our mental and physical energy to exploring the new worlds in which we find ourselves. We are less apt to feel uptight or distressed when our plans go awry as we can see that there will likely be benefits to the surprising paths we are now following. This open-mindedness will ensure that we do not waste time trying to fight against the universal current, but instead learn to embrace our destinies even if they are not what we expected them to be. Your apprehension will melt today when you make the conscious choice to give yourself over to fate’s currents.
February 13, 2009
Staying Conscious
Staying Grounded in a Big City or Busy World
1. Live simply and live deliberately. By choosing not to get caught up in the details of this fast-paced world, you are doing your part to slow down the . You will also discover that you have more time to enjoy being alive.
2. Stay in touch with yourself. Soul searching, meditation, and journaling are just a few of the many activities you can take part in to stay aware and learn as much as you can about your emotions, reactions, likes, dislikes, dreams, and fears. Having a solid sense of self gives you a firm foundation for living in this world.
3. Support or teach others as often as you can. This can help you form connections with people while also giving you an opportunity to make the world a better place.
4. Consciously choose what you will allow into your being. The media bombards us with visions of hate, war, and pain. Be judicious about what you read, watch, and listen to.
5. Acknowledge the beauty that resides around you. Whether you live in a sprawling metropolis or a stereotypical suburb, there are natural and man-made wonders just waiting to be discovered by you.
6. Nurture your ties to your tribe. If you don’t have one, create a community that you can belong to. Modern life can be isolating. When you have a tribe, you have a circle that you are a part of. Its members - loved ones, friends, or neighbors - can be a source of support, caring, guidance, and companionship.
7. See the larger picture. Remember that the way that you choose to live is not the only way to live. Widen your perspective by exploring other modes of being through research, travel, and discussion.
8. Embrace the challenges that life presents to you, and challenge yourself often. After a time, even the most exciting jobs or lifestyles can seem routine. Never stop assimilating new knowledge about whatever you are doing, and your life will never seem dull.
9. Move your body. In this busy world, it can be easy to live a sedentary life. Movement reacquaints us with our bodies and connects us to the earth in a visceral way. It also restores our vitality.
10. Make time for stillness, silence, and solitude. The world can be noisy, and we are subject to all kinds of noises nearly every waking hour. We are also often "on the go" and unable to relax. Being alone in a peaceful place and making time for quiet can help you stay in touch with yourself.
February 13, 2009
Five Flower Healing Essence, Tao of Peace, 40 Days to Revolution
Gift Of The Week
Five Flower Healing Essence - Five Flower Healing Essence is a combination based on the popular Rescue Remedy by Dr. Bach. What makes this formula different is that it has been updated for today's times and all of the flowers used in the formula are grown with both biodynamic and organic principals in America. Flowers are picked during the morning hours when they are the most potent and still covered in morning dew. This flower essence formula was developed to promote calm and balance in diverse situations of stress, emergency and trauma. It is excellent at relieving stress and anxiety and is also good to use during and after illness to promote well-being.
View Five Flower Healing Essence
Tao of Peace (CD) - Dean Evenson has been bringing peace and positive vibrations to the planet through his flute and keyboard work for years before his teaming with guqin (Chinese zither) master Li Xiangting. Their creative union is truly inspired, with Evenson's gift for creating edenic soundscapes merging brilliantly with the still otherworldliness of Xiangting's playing. The mental pictures their music conjures are wet with warm fragrant mist and ordered with careful gardens of overhanging greens and Buddhist statues.
Listen To Sound Clips
40 Days to Personal Revolution (book) - Let the Revolution Begin Now. In 40 Days to Personal Revolution, Baron Baptiste - one of the world's most beloved master yoga teachers - inspires us to transform more than body and mind: He gives us the tools we need to set ourselves free to live the healthful life we've always imagined. In the next 40 days you will create a whole new way of being and living.
Read Excerpt
For more information visit DailyOM Gift Shop