Today's DailyOM Offerings...
October 31, 2014
Drive Time Rx
Steven Halpern
2009
A composer of tranquility-inducing music, Steve Halpern's music moves like a slow lake of piano, flute, synths, soft beats, and waterfalls, usually laced with subliminal self-help messages and rooted in a deep affinity with the frequencies of healing. Beautiful and effective, no question, but this kind of music isn't best listened to while driving, where one needs to remain alert and multifocused. But Halpern thinks of everything and with Drive Time Rx he targets the direct stress of the morning and evening commute with soothing but invigorating sounds, subliminal messages of relaxation, and a whole lot of understanding.
Divided into "More Rhythmic" and "More Relaxing" sections, the album kicks off with the former, launching into a willowy late-night flute, fretless electric bass, tinkling piano, and a solid conga percussion groove on the first track. It won't get you dancing, but it makes any drive seem charged with calming yet low-key, almost sexy excitement. The beats jam on until "Drive Time VIII," a solo piano work that brings things down a notch, and then "Drive Time IV" goes from there, with shimmering synthesizer vistas rolling underneath a softly strummed harp. Halpern's meditative, sometimes brooding piano is present, and stunningly recorded throughout. The piano seems to think along with you as the road runs by underneath, keeping things balanced while the flute zips above the car like a beautiful air sprite.
With Halpern's fretless bass and occasional bursts of bright alto saxophone, Drive Time Rx seems to occasionally drift into soft jazz, which is all good, since the music's mix of bright homey warmth and the cool of late-night neon cityscape drifting is not unlike the feeling people often get when driving their own cars: at home in their steel-box womb, every empty bottle or road atlas part of a comfortable nest that's rocketing through the cold, hard streets or stunning highway vistas. It feels like there's a passenger with you when you pop in Drive Time Rx, making the whole ride a heartening event unto itself; you may not want to get out of the car once you get where you're going. But if you have to, chances are you'll be ready to face whatever the day or evening brings with a smile.
October 31, 2014
Shaping Thoughts through Sharing
Sagittarius Daily Horoscope
You may feel talkative and sociable today. Since your flow of thoughts is likely faster than usual, your mind may be jumping from idea to idea. You may find yourself striking up stimulating conversations with people in your personal and professional spheres and asking them to share their thoughts in regard to your notions. The people you converse with may be able to offer perspectives that help you take an embryonic thought and turn it into a fully realized idea. Consider approaching individuals you consider wise or creative in order to solicit their opinions. You may derive a great deal of pleasure from exchanging ideas with people you respect or admire. Today can be a wonderful time to join an existing discussion group or form one of your own design.
Sharing your thoughts with others can give you a means to nurture and nourish your as of yet unformed ideas. Cultivating a thought can be difficult in isolation because our capacity to innovate is limited by our experiences. Engaging in free dialogue with people you care for and respect allows you to make use of their life experiences and unique ways of looking at the world. Together, you can take a single indistinct idea and pass it back and forth, shaping, clarifying, and refining it through simple discussion. Your partner in conversation may see ways of improving upon your idea that you are unable to see and errors in your thinking you might otherwise have missed. When you share your thoughts with others today, the perspective they offer will nourish your ideas.
October 31, 2014
Feeling Threatened
Afraid of the Truth
by Madisyn Taylor
Facing the truth upfront rather than turning from it will keep your life moving in a forward and positive direction.
Most of us have had the experience of being in possession of a piece of truth that we were afraid to share because we knew it would not be well received. There are also instances in which we ourselves have been unable to handle some truth confronting us. This might be a small truth, such as not wanting to see that our car needs repairs because we don’t want to pay for them, or a large truth, such as not fully accepting that someone close to us is pushing us away. Usually the truth is evident, and we can see it if we choose, but we have elaborate ways of hiding the truth form ourselves, no matter how apparent it is.
For the most part, we avoid the truth because it scares us, or makes us angry, or makes us feel like we don’t know what to do. We often create our lives based on a particular understanding, and if that understanding turns out to be fully or even partially incorrect, we may feel that our whole sense of reality is being threatened. It takes a strong person to face the truth in circumstances like these, and many of us run for cover instead. Nevertheless, we can only avoid the truth for so long before it begins to make itself known in ever more forceful ways.
Ultimately, there is no way to avoid the truth, no matter how painful it is, so the sooner we let down our defenses, the better. When we know the truth and accept that we may have to adjust our lives to accommodate, we are in alignment with reality. At the same time, we can be patient with people around us who have a hard time seeing the truth, because we know how painful it can be. Whatever the truth is, we make a sincere effort not to close our eyes to it, but instead to be grateful that we have access to it.
Drive Time Rx
Steven Halpern
2009
A composer of tranquility-inducing music, Steve Halpern's music moves like a slow lake of piano, flute, synths, soft beats, and waterfalls, usually laced with subliminal self-help messages and rooted in a deep affinity with the frequencies of healing. Beautiful and effective, no question, but this kind of music isn't best listened to while driving, where one needs to remain alert and multifocused. But Halpern thinks of everything and with Drive Time Rx he targets the direct stress of the morning and evening commute with soothing but invigorating sounds, subliminal messages of relaxation, and a whole lot of understanding.
Divided into "More Rhythmic" and "More Relaxing" sections, the album kicks off with the former, launching into a willowy late-night flute, fretless electric bass, tinkling piano, and a solid conga percussion groove on the first track. It won't get you dancing, but it makes any drive seem charged with calming yet low-key, almost sexy excitement. The beats jam on until "Drive Time VIII," a solo piano work that brings things down a notch, and then "Drive Time IV" goes from there, with shimmering synthesizer vistas rolling underneath a softly strummed harp. Halpern's meditative, sometimes brooding piano is present, and stunningly recorded throughout. The piano seems to think along with you as the road runs by underneath, keeping things balanced while the flute zips above the car like a beautiful air sprite.
With Halpern's fretless bass and occasional bursts of bright alto saxophone, Drive Time Rx seems to occasionally drift into soft jazz, which is all good, since the music's mix of bright homey warmth and the cool of late-night neon cityscape drifting is not unlike the feeling people often get when driving their own cars: at home in their steel-box womb, every empty bottle or road atlas part of a comfortable nest that's rocketing through the cold, hard streets or stunning highway vistas. It feels like there's a passenger with you when you pop in Drive Time Rx, making the whole ride a heartening event unto itself; you may not want to get out of the car once you get where you're going. But if you have to, chances are you'll be ready to face whatever the day or evening brings with a smile.
October 31, 2014
Shaping Thoughts through Sharing
Sagittarius Daily Horoscope
You may feel talkative and sociable today. Since your flow of thoughts is likely faster than usual, your mind may be jumping from idea to idea. You may find yourself striking up stimulating conversations with people in your personal and professional spheres and asking them to share their thoughts in regard to your notions. The people you converse with may be able to offer perspectives that help you take an embryonic thought and turn it into a fully realized idea. Consider approaching individuals you consider wise or creative in order to solicit their opinions. You may derive a great deal of pleasure from exchanging ideas with people you respect or admire. Today can be a wonderful time to join an existing discussion group or form one of your own design.
Sharing your thoughts with others can give you a means to nurture and nourish your as of yet unformed ideas. Cultivating a thought can be difficult in isolation because our capacity to innovate is limited by our experiences. Engaging in free dialogue with people you care for and respect allows you to make use of their life experiences and unique ways of looking at the world. Together, you can take a single indistinct idea and pass it back and forth, shaping, clarifying, and refining it through simple discussion. Your partner in conversation may see ways of improving upon your idea that you are unable to see and errors in your thinking you might otherwise have missed. When you share your thoughts with others today, the perspective they offer will nourish your ideas.
October 31, 2014
Feeling Threatened
Afraid of the Truth
by Madisyn Taylor
Facing the truth upfront rather than turning from it will keep your life moving in a forward and positive direction.
Most of us have had the experience of being in possession of a piece of truth that we were afraid to share because we knew it would not be well received. There are also instances in which we ourselves have been unable to handle some truth confronting us. This might be a small truth, such as not wanting to see that our car needs repairs because we don’t want to pay for them, or a large truth, such as not fully accepting that someone close to us is pushing us away. Usually the truth is evident, and we can see it if we choose, but we have elaborate ways of hiding the truth form ourselves, no matter how apparent it is.
For the most part, we avoid the truth because it scares us, or makes us angry, or makes us feel like we don’t know what to do. We often create our lives based on a particular understanding, and if that understanding turns out to be fully or even partially incorrect, we may feel that our whole sense of reality is being threatened. It takes a strong person to face the truth in circumstances like these, and many of us run for cover instead. Nevertheless, we can only avoid the truth for so long before it begins to make itself known in ever more forceful ways.
Ultimately, there is no way to avoid the truth, no matter how painful it is, so the sooner we let down our defenses, the better. When we know the truth and accept that we may have to adjust our lives to accommodate, we are in alignment with reality. At the same time, we can be patient with people around us who have a hard time seeing the truth, because we know how painful it can be. Whatever the truth is, we make a sincere effort not to close our eyes to it, but instead to be grateful that we have access to it.