Today's DailyOM Offerings...
August 26, 2011
House with No Home
Horse Feathers
2009
With a name that conjures a mixture of sleepiness, backwoods living, and the Marx Brothers, Portland, Oregon's Horse Feathers is a band that seems to have come together largely by mysterious circumstance, as if the members were playing different songs while busking on opposite street corners and realized they were in the same key. House with No Home aptly describes the sound: inviting and cozy but mysterious, honest on a level that's always just out of reach; it also describes the mix of rainy streets and dry cozy interiors that is Portland and Justin Ringle has a voice emblematic of the Pacific Northwest. It’s a phantom in search of sunlight to make a shadow that finds instead the crazy firelight flickers of a pair of quirky string players: multi-instrumentalist Peter Broderick and Heather, his cellist sister.
The latter is a new addition for House with No Home, and together the strings of the siblings dart around in countermelodies to Ringle’s main tune, in ways reminiscent of Eddie Sauter's string arrangements for Stan Getz on the classic 1961 jazz album Focus. While Ringle's high, sandy voice can blend right in with the strings on tracks like "Curs in the Weeds," the strings are never there to merely complement the song or flesh out the melody. They listen and they race around, etching in what the song leaves out. Arrangements like these are extraordinarily difficult to pull off without sounding like mere margin doodling, but Horse Feathers makes it seem as easy as getting wet during a November Oregon backyard badminton game.
"Rude to Rile" boasts a fine late-afternoon switch with Ringle's vocal intonation slowing to a beguiling cracked drawl-"making babies for good and grief"-and then drums crashing up like wake tide on the mossy stonewall banks of the Willamette River. “Father,” the closer, has a mandolin opening up the horizon as Heather rows along on moody strokes of the bow, and Ringle's vocals drawl out the sleepy flow of a multigenerational rip tide, then Heather sings a sweet accompanying harmony as Ringle laments, "Father, your failures are so grave / They have seeped to son / No amount of wishing / For grace to be regained or won." But the strings always tell a different story. Right there in the moment of confession the singer has regained his grace and Horse Feathers flies into the sun.
August 26, 2011
Open to Diversity
Sagittarius Daily Horoscope
You might find that you are more accepting of alternative lifestyles and values today. It could be that you recognize that there is so much diversity in terms of the ways people live and what they believe in and that by being open-minded you can enhance your own view of the world. Perhaps you can find a person, group, or even literature that exposes you to different ways of thinking today. This can help you generate an even greater tolerance and compassion for others. Should you find that your inner critic comes up as you encounter new things, instead of fighting it you might ask yourself what you are afraid of. Thinking about things in this way could allow you to see that often we close ourselves off from dissimilar ides when there is something we fear, particularly if it can change the way we live our lives.
Seeking new viewpoints and learning to become open to them lets us release many of our firm beliefs, which makes us more willing to accept others. Different ways of being may often pique our curiosity, but for many of us it also calls us to question our basic beliefs. This questioning can make us feel uncomfortable, since we begin to see that by being receptive and aware of the various paths that others take we begin to doubt our own. Being open helps you to grow and develop in new ways, however, and by understanding this today you will experience the wonders of diversity.
August 26, 2011
The Mirroring World
We Are like Nature
As humans our lives are completely intertwined with the cycles and rhythms of nature.
Nature is a mirror, inspiring and teaching us, deepening our sense of belonging in the world. Wherever you look, you can see that our patterns and the patterns of the natural world are the same. You can find this resonance in every form, from molecules to plants and animals and to planets. We live our lives according to the same principles as the trees, the mountains, the clouds, and the birds.
We begin our lives in the womb, folded in on ourselves like the bud of a flower. We can see our whole lives in the mirror of this natural form. When we emerge from the womb, we slowly begin our unfolding, just as the flower begins to open its petals. At its prime, the flower draws many insects to it and also the eyes of appreciative humans. When the flower’s petals begin to fade and its life cycle comes to an end, it ceases to hold itself upright and returns to the earth. Traditionally, we return to the earth, just as all plants and animals do. Like flowers, we leave behind seeds in the forms of children and other gifts only we could have given. They continue to unfold even after we are gone. Rebirth is encoded into our lives, and death is just one part of the cycle.
Look around you, and you will find connection and insight. Notice how your moods shift from one to another like the sky shifts from bright blue to turbulent grays. Your thoughts are like clouds, appearing, changing shape, passing through, and then disappearing without a trace. The rain cleanses the sky, just as an emotional release cleanses your mind. The sky itself is your eternal awareness, unchanging underneath all these permutations. Let it reflect back to you your own abiding perfection.
As you walk through the world, find your own metaphors for connectedness in nature. Flesh them out fully and follow them as they lead you through the mystery and intelligence of life.
When the Weekly Gifts email pops up in my inbox, I'll update this post...
House with No Home
Horse Feathers
2009
With a name that conjures a mixture of sleepiness, backwoods living, and the Marx Brothers, Portland, Oregon's Horse Feathers is a band that seems to have come together largely by mysterious circumstance, as if the members were playing different songs while busking on opposite street corners and realized they were in the same key. House with No Home aptly describes the sound: inviting and cozy but mysterious, honest on a level that's always just out of reach; it also describes the mix of rainy streets and dry cozy interiors that is Portland and Justin Ringle has a voice emblematic of the Pacific Northwest. It’s a phantom in search of sunlight to make a shadow that finds instead the crazy firelight flickers of a pair of quirky string players: multi-instrumentalist Peter Broderick and Heather, his cellist sister.
The latter is a new addition for House with No Home, and together the strings of the siblings dart around in countermelodies to Ringle’s main tune, in ways reminiscent of Eddie Sauter's string arrangements for Stan Getz on the classic 1961 jazz album Focus. While Ringle's high, sandy voice can blend right in with the strings on tracks like "Curs in the Weeds," the strings are never there to merely complement the song or flesh out the melody. They listen and they race around, etching in what the song leaves out. Arrangements like these are extraordinarily difficult to pull off without sounding like mere margin doodling, but Horse Feathers makes it seem as easy as getting wet during a November Oregon backyard badminton game.
"Rude to Rile" boasts a fine late-afternoon switch with Ringle's vocal intonation slowing to a beguiling cracked drawl-"making babies for good and grief"-and then drums crashing up like wake tide on the mossy stonewall banks of the Willamette River. “Father,” the closer, has a mandolin opening up the horizon as Heather rows along on moody strokes of the bow, and Ringle's vocals drawl out the sleepy flow of a multigenerational rip tide, then Heather sings a sweet accompanying harmony as Ringle laments, "Father, your failures are so grave / They have seeped to son / No amount of wishing / For grace to be regained or won." But the strings always tell a different story. Right there in the moment of confession the singer has regained his grace and Horse Feathers flies into the sun.
August 26, 2011
Open to Diversity
Sagittarius Daily Horoscope
You might find that you are more accepting of alternative lifestyles and values today. It could be that you recognize that there is so much diversity in terms of the ways people live and what they believe in and that by being open-minded you can enhance your own view of the world. Perhaps you can find a person, group, or even literature that exposes you to different ways of thinking today. This can help you generate an even greater tolerance and compassion for others. Should you find that your inner critic comes up as you encounter new things, instead of fighting it you might ask yourself what you are afraid of. Thinking about things in this way could allow you to see that often we close ourselves off from dissimilar ides when there is something we fear, particularly if it can change the way we live our lives.
Seeking new viewpoints and learning to become open to them lets us release many of our firm beliefs, which makes us more willing to accept others. Different ways of being may often pique our curiosity, but for many of us it also calls us to question our basic beliefs. This questioning can make us feel uncomfortable, since we begin to see that by being receptive and aware of the various paths that others take we begin to doubt our own. Being open helps you to grow and develop in new ways, however, and by understanding this today you will experience the wonders of diversity.
August 26, 2011
The Mirroring World
We Are like Nature
As humans our lives are completely intertwined with the cycles and rhythms of nature.
Nature is a mirror, inspiring and teaching us, deepening our sense of belonging in the world. Wherever you look, you can see that our patterns and the patterns of the natural world are the same. You can find this resonance in every form, from molecules to plants and animals and to planets. We live our lives according to the same principles as the trees, the mountains, the clouds, and the birds.
We begin our lives in the womb, folded in on ourselves like the bud of a flower. We can see our whole lives in the mirror of this natural form. When we emerge from the womb, we slowly begin our unfolding, just as the flower begins to open its petals. At its prime, the flower draws many insects to it and also the eyes of appreciative humans. When the flower’s petals begin to fade and its life cycle comes to an end, it ceases to hold itself upright and returns to the earth. Traditionally, we return to the earth, just as all plants and animals do. Like flowers, we leave behind seeds in the forms of children and other gifts only we could have given. They continue to unfold even after we are gone. Rebirth is encoded into our lives, and death is just one part of the cycle.
Look around you, and you will find connection and insight. Notice how your moods shift from one to another like the sky shifts from bright blue to turbulent grays. Your thoughts are like clouds, appearing, changing shape, passing through, and then disappearing without a trace. The rain cleanses the sky, just as an emotional release cleanses your mind. The sky itself is your eternal awareness, unchanging underneath all these permutations. Let it reflect back to you your own abiding perfection.
As you walk through the world, find your own metaphors for connectedness in nature. Flesh them out fully and follow them as they lead you through the mystery and intelligence of life.
When the Weekly Gifts email pops up in my inbox, I'll update this post...