Today's DailyOM Offerings...
July 28, 2009
The Road to Travel
Bert Sommer
1968
Fantastical imagery and Aquarian ideals, acoustic strumming and baroque arrangements, the hippie dream is alive and well on The Road to Travel, the debut album by folk-pop troubadour Bert Sommer. By the time of its release, Sommer had cowritten songs for the Vagrants (Leslie West’s band before Mountain), sung lead vocals for the hit single "Ivy, Ivy" by the Left Banke, and successfully auditioned for the part of Woof in the cast of Hair. And all before he hit 20. With Sommer’s supple voice and a diverse set of self-penned tunes that tackle life in all its joys and sorrows, The Road to Travel is an overlooked gem in the late-’60s folk-pop canon. Grow your hair out and let the sunshine in.
Imagine (or remember) you’re at the original Woodstock in 1969. It’s just before sunset and the rain hasn’t yet begun pouring. A young, relatively unknown performer with a huge brown ’fro steps on stage, and begins to strum a mesmerizing paean to spiritual love. "I’m lost in a maze / Counting the ways that she smiles," he sings in a soaring tenor. "Time is slipping away / Lost in the arms of her love / So gentle and wild." That would be "Jennifer," the first song that Sommer performed in his early evening set at Woodstock on August 15th. On The Road to Travel, the track’s a stunner, luring us into Sommer’s poetic reverie with a propulsive 6/8 guitar rhythm and wispy melody.
The album offers an uncommonly unflinching view of the life cycle, considering that Sommer had lived only two decades. The wistful "She’s Gone" addresses the sadness of loss; Sommer welcomes death’s embrace on the harpsichord and oboe-laden "Brink of Death," singing, "Someone’s calling me, come and see / Soon I’ll be free," in ghostly falsetto. But if The Road to Travel has an overarching theme, it’s the Aquarian affirmation of peace and love. That’s enshrined in "Hold the Light," a powerful anthem with a string section and horns bolstering a hard-rocking rhythm section. Sommer’s a preacher of love, wailing, "Hold the light, it's inside / And will be there, day or night / We can be somewhere / Hold the light." Minor turns to major, the sky cracks open ever so slightly, and Sommer’s voice ascends toward the sunlight that comes tumbling down.
July 28, 2009
A Higher Perspective
Sagittarius Daily Horoscope
You may feel depressed and blocked today, which could cause you to feel trapped in your circumstances. You may feel that you have limited options, and you could find yourself struggling to find a solution to a problem. If you can lift your focus above your feelings, you should be able to see your situation more clearly and come up with a creative solution. Simply set aside time to be alone and release any tension from your mind and body. Empty your mind of all thoughts, and imagine your consciousness lifting above your body. Bring to mind a situation that could benefit from your insight today, and review it from this heightened sense of awareness. You may be able to see solutions that had previously eluded you or gain a clearer perspective as you see a situation in a new light.
Choosing to see challenging situations from a different perspective can open our minds to new possibilities and solutions. It is easy to become blinded by our situation when we are enmeshed in the struggle to figure it out. If we can instead lift our focus higher and choose a different perspective, we can gain a greater sense of clarity about our circumstances. With our enhanced awareness, we are able to receive insights regarding different actions we could take or come up with creative solutions to problems. By lifting your awareness above your challenges today, you will be able to see your situation clearly and come up with exciting new possibilities.
July 28, 2009
Cleansing Your Power Center
Trusting Your Gut
Gut feelings earn their name from the place in the body where they make themselves known. A pang in your gut when you may be doing the wrong thing, or a vibrant zing when your body approves, can guide you reliably at times when logic fails. Sometimes, when logic prevails, we ignore our gut and live to regret it, understanding later that a rational approach is only one way of determining what is going on in a situation and how we should react.
Our gut resides in the neighborhood of our solar plexus and the third chakra just above your belly button. When it is functioning well, we can trust its guidance and adjust our actions accordingly. Many of us have a tendency to hold in this area of our bodies. We may take shallow breaths that never reach this vital nexus that is the source of our empowerment. It is in this place that we find the courage to act, to reach out into the world and create change. When our power center is out of balance, we are timid and out of sync, wishing we had said something we were only able to phrase later when we were alone; wishing we had acted on an opportunity we didn’t see until it was past.
In order to utilize your power center, you may want to focus your attention on it more regularly and make time to care for it. You can begin right now by taking a deep breath into your belly. On the exhale, pull your navel in toward your spine so as to empty out completely before taking another deep breath into your belly. When you empty completely, you release stagnant energy and create more space to be filled with fresh, nourishing breath. The more you practice this simple, cleansing exercise, the more clear and communicative your gut feelings will be and the more comfortable you will feel acting on them.
The Road to Travel
Bert Sommer
1968
Fantastical imagery and Aquarian ideals, acoustic strumming and baroque arrangements, the hippie dream is alive and well on The Road to Travel, the debut album by folk-pop troubadour Bert Sommer. By the time of its release, Sommer had cowritten songs for the Vagrants (Leslie West’s band before Mountain), sung lead vocals for the hit single "Ivy, Ivy" by the Left Banke, and successfully auditioned for the part of Woof in the cast of Hair. And all before he hit 20. With Sommer’s supple voice and a diverse set of self-penned tunes that tackle life in all its joys and sorrows, The Road to Travel is an overlooked gem in the late-’60s folk-pop canon. Grow your hair out and let the sunshine in.
Imagine (or remember) you’re at the original Woodstock in 1969. It’s just before sunset and the rain hasn’t yet begun pouring. A young, relatively unknown performer with a huge brown ’fro steps on stage, and begins to strum a mesmerizing paean to spiritual love. "I’m lost in a maze / Counting the ways that she smiles," he sings in a soaring tenor. "Time is slipping away / Lost in the arms of her love / So gentle and wild." That would be "Jennifer," the first song that Sommer performed in his early evening set at Woodstock on August 15th. On The Road to Travel, the track’s a stunner, luring us into Sommer’s poetic reverie with a propulsive 6/8 guitar rhythm and wispy melody.
The album offers an uncommonly unflinching view of the life cycle, considering that Sommer had lived only two decades. The wistful "She’s Gone" addresses the sadness of loss; Sommer welcomes death’s embrace on the harpsichord and oboe-laden "Brink of Death," singing, "Someone’s calling me, come and see / Soon I’ll be free," in ghostly falsetto. But if The Road to Travel has an overarching theme, it’s the Aquarian affirmation of peace and love. That’s enshrined in "Hold the Light," a powerful anthem with a string section and horns bolstering a hard-rocking rhythm section. Sommer’s a preacher of love, wailing, "Hold the light, it's inside / And will be there, day or night / We can be somewhere / Hold the light." Minor turns to major, the sky cracks open ever so slightly, and Sommer’s voice ascends toward the sunlight that comes tumbling down.
July 28, 2009
A Higher Perspective
Sagittarius Daily Horoscope
You may feel depressed and blocked today, which could cause you to feel trapped in your circumstances. You may feel that you have limited options, and you could find yourself struggling to find a solution to a problem. If you can lift your focus above your feelings, you should be able to see your situation more clearly and come up with a creative solution. Simply set aside time to be alone and release any tension from your mind and body. Empty your mind of all thoughts, and imagine your consciousness lifting above your body. Bring to mind a situation that could benefit from your insight today, and review it from this heightened sense of awareness. You may be able to see solutions that had previously eluded you or gain a clearer perspective as you see a situation in a new light.
Choosing to see challenging situations from a different perspective can open our minds to new possibilities and solutions. It is easy to become blinded by our situation when we are enmeshed in the struggle to figure it out. If we can instead lift our focus higher and choose a different perspective, we can gain a greater sense of clarity about our circumstances. With our enhanced awareness, we are able to receive insights regarding different actions we could take or come up with creative solutions to problems. By lifting your awareness above your challenges today, you will be able to see your situation clearly and come up with exciting new possibilities.
July 28, 2009
Cleansing Your Power Center
Trusting Your Gut
Gut feelings earn their name from the place in the body where they make themselves known. A pang in your gut when you may be doing the wrong thing, or a vibrant zing when your body approves, can guide you reliably at times when logic fails. Sometimes, when logic prevails, we ignore our gut and live to regret it, understanding later that a rational approach is only one way of determining what is going on in a situation and how we should react.
Our gut resides in the neighborhood of our solar plexus and the third chakra just above your belly button. When it is functioning well, we can trust its guidance and adjust our actions accordingly. Many of us have a tendency to hold in this area of our bodies. We may take shallow breaths that never reach this vital nexus that is the source of our empowerment. It is in this place that we find the courage to act, to reach out into the world and create change. When our power center is out of balance, we are timid and out of sync, wishing we had said something we were only able to phrase later when we were alone; wishing we had acted on an opportunity we didn’t see until it was past.
In order to utilize your power center, you may want to focus your attention on it more regularly and make time to care for it. You can begin right now by taking a deep breath into your belly. On the exhale, pull your navel in toward your spine so as to empty out completely before taking another deep breath into your belly. When you empty completely, you release stagnant energy and create more space to be filled with fresh, nourishing breath. The more you practice this simple, cleansing exercise, the more clear and communicative your gut feelings will be and the more comfortable you will feel acting on them.