Today's DailyOM Offerings...
February 15, 2008
Heaven or Las Vegas
Cocteau Twins
1990
Cocteau Twins-the Grangemouth, Scotland, duo of vocalist Elisabeth Fraser and guitarist Robin Guthrie-have been together since 1981, joining forces with Simon Raymonde, who helped form the signature dream-pop sound of the group, a celestial mix of layered guitars and high registered vocals, prone to Celtic and ancient British-style roundelay with piano and new wave beats. Heaven or Las Vegas is a fine example of their collaboration, an accessible mélange of stargazing whimsy, late-night-cry-in-your-pillow pop, with undercurrents of emotional complexity and quietly thundering beds of guitar and keys.
The title track is a fine example of the band's style, with a steady synth beat and a wall of cascading metallic guitar-sound delving and drenching the punchy, layered vocals of Fraser: "Am I in heaven or Las Vegas / It's more brighter than the sun is to me." It may not be good grammar, but it’s a good song, with a barber's razor-buzzing guitar solo and Fraser’s high, arching delivery. "Wolf in the Breast" is an infectious gem with Frazer's intoxicatingly overlapped vocal backed by a catchy drum track and glowing-vocal synth chords.
Hugely influential to the evolving sound of adult-contemporary pop-rock, Cocteau Twins inhabit the mythic domain that has inspired waves of later stars like the Cranberries, Sarah McLachlan, Sarah Brightman, Manderlay, etc. Though some of the synth-echo effects may be dated, that’s all the better for recalling those halcyon days when drum machines and synthesizers were like science fiction come to life. You can hear it in the opening track, "Cherry Coloured Funk," when Fraser sings that despite "beetles, eggs and blues" we can find "our love from behind / Down far behind this fabulous..." something something. Fraser's words have always been hard to understand, but even if it's not always clear in the thick brew of what's being played or said, the effect is undeniable. Heaven or Las Vegas reaches deep into your hidden high-school feelings of frustrated love and drags them out, screaming, wrapped in colorful costumes, obscured so they can dance the night away without being dis! covered and in doing so blossom forth into winged and leafy shapes.
February 15, 2008
Love's Reflection
Sagittarius Daily Horoscope
You may feel intensely loving today and have a strong desire to love and to be loved. You may feel more intimate and honest than usual when relating to people you care about. Because you are acting in a more loving and open way, you are likely attracting a more loving response from everyone you encounter today. Your feelings may assert themselves as gestures of kindness to those who may need attention or as passionate affection for that special someone in life. Consider how you can use your loving outlook to improve and nurture your relationships today. The more you approach people with an open heart, the more they lay their defenses down and open themselves to you. Love can pierce the strongest emotional barriers with laserlike precision.
The simplest way to attract more love in your life is to give your love freely and openly. The love you send into the universe always comes back to you. When you show others that you care for them, your loving overture will light a spark of good feeling within them. Their day will be brightened significantly and their perception of you favorably colored. Your free expression of love may encourage new friends and acquaintances to come into your life. Giving your love to others today will help you receive the love and attention you desire.
February 15, 2008
Undistracted Energy
Pure Thoughts
If we make no effort at all, our thoughts usually scatter in a vast array of directions. They start and stop and move in surprising ways from one second to the next. If we try to follow our thoughts without controlling them, we will be amazed at how truly inconsistent they are. Yet, if we apply our minds to a specific task, especially one that interests us, they gather together and allow us to focus our attention, creating great power and energy. This is what is known as pure thought, because it is undistracted.
The law of attraction-like attracts like-influences all energy, including our thoughts, and this is what makes pure thought so potent. Our undistracted thoughts create a powerful magnet that draws similar energy into our vibrational field. As a result, the longer we are able to hold positive thoughts in our minds, the more powerful the positive energy around us becomes. We don't need to focus on action and controlling so much when we are surrounded by energy that draws what we want toward us. We can simply respond to the opportunities that naturally come our way. When this is the essence of our experience, we can go with the flow, knowing that we will be okay.
If pure thought is a body, it is our emotions that supply the heart that can really bring it to life. Our thoughts and feelings exist in relation to one another, and they form a feedback loop through which they communicate and empower each other. When we hold a thought in our mind without being distracted, we have achieved pure thought. When we have a positive emotional response to that thought, we enable it to dance and move and breathe itself into existence.
February 15, 2008
Mala Beads, Shaman's Vision Journey, Handbook For The Spirit
Gift Of The Week
Mala Meditation Beads - Mala beads are made in Nepal and India under carefully monitored working conditions. Workers gather the materials needed, create the pieces and perform the traditional ritual of purification for the beads. Use your beads during meditation or wear as healing jewelry. If you wish to use your beads in a meditation practice, here is how to do it: Sit at your altar or place of meditation, and hold your mala beads in your left hand. One bead is counted for each recitation of your mantra. This can be whatever you want, you can simply use the word "love" if you wish. Every time you say Love, move your fingers up to the next bead. Hold the beads with your index finger and thumb and with each count your thumb will pull another bead in place over your index finger. You will know you have gone through all 108 beads when you feel the extra bead and tassel, you have just made one round. The significance of the 108 beads varies greatly, but the most common idea is that it is a multiple of 12 and 9, 9 planets in the 12 zodiac houses. You may also enjoy simply holding your beads while you meditate without doing the counting. There is no right or wrong, do what feels right for you. All beads come packaged in a silk pouch. Please note that you may smell the scent of India when you first open your pouch, but this will dissipate after a while. View Mala Beads
Shaman's Vision Journey (CD) - Brothers Dave and Steve Gordon got started with shamanic music via their love for the Sequoia Forests, which they visited as youths studying music together. They recorded the sounds of those woods and incorporated them into their music. It's been documented as medical science that certain drum timbres and rhythms can lull a listener into a trance, and a whole rediscovery of the art of shamanism has merged around this, connecting the science of biorhythm with the spirituality of modern trance, reconnecting the modern era with the underworld. Shaman's Vision Journey is another chapter in the Gordons' amazing contribution to this field. It's a trek homeward, a galvanizing and! evocative progression of incessant, hypnotic shaman drum and shaker beats, accented by voice, synthesizers, guitars, and flutes and, of course, the mysterious and soothing sounds of the great forests they love. Listen to Sound Clips
Handbook for the Spirit (book) - The editors of this book invited some of the most revered spiritual leaders of our time to write about their own relationship with the divine and how it manifests in their life, relationships and careers. Each contributor writes between 5 and 10 pages making this a wonderful book to spend a few minutes reading at a time, or reading several essays at once. This is one of those books that makes you feel good and uplifted while at the same time provides really interesting reading into the minds and hearts of some of our most loved authors. Marianne Williamson sums it up best, "books such as this one are maps back home. They bridge us back to the essential self. They remind us ! who we are, and grant us the peace of remembering at last." Read Excerpt
For more information visit DailyOM Gift Shop
Heaven or Las Vegas
Cocteau Twins
1990
Cocteau Twins-the Grangemouth, Scotland, duo of vocalist Elisabeth Fraser and guitarist Robin Guthrie-have been together since 1981, joining forces with Simon Raymonde, who helped form the signature dream-pop sound of the group, a celestial mix of layered guitars and high registered vocals, prone to Celtic and ancient British-style roundelay with piano and new wave beats. Heaven or Las Vegas is a fine example of their collaboration, an accessible mélange of stargazing whimsy, late-night-cry-in-your-pillow pop, with undercurrents of emotional complexity and quietly thundering beds of guitar and keys.
The title track is a fine example of the band's style, with a steady synth beat and a wall of cascading metallic guitar-sound delving and drenching the punchy, layered vocals of Fraser: "Am I in heaven or Las Vegas / It's more brighter than the sun is to me." It may not be good grammar, but it’s a good song, with a barber's razor-buzzing guitar solo and Fraser’s high, arching delivery. "Wolf in the Breast" is an infectious gem with Frazer's intoxicatingly overlapped vocal backed by a catchy drum track and glowing-vocal synth chords.
Hugely influential to the evolving sound of adult-contemporary pop-rock, Cocteau Twins inhabit the mythic domain that has inspired waves of later stars like the Cranberries, Sarah McLachlan, Sarah Brightman, Manderlay, etc. Though some of the synth-echo effects may be dated, that’s all the better for recalling those halcyon days when drum machines and synthesizers were like science fiction come to life. You can hear it in the opening track, "Cherry Coloured Funk," when Fraser sings that despite "beetles, eggs and blues" we can find "our love from behind / Down far behind this fabulous..." something something. Fraser's words have always been hard to understand, but even if it's not always clear in the thick brew of what's being played or said, the effect is undeniable. Heaven or Las Vegas reaches deep into your hidden high-school feelings of frustrated love and drags them out, screaming, wrapped in colorful costumes, obscured so they can dance the night away without being dis! covered and in doing so blossom forth into winged and leafy shapes.
February 15, 2008
Love's Reflection
Sagittarius Daily Horoscope
You may feel intensely loving today and have a strong desire to love and to be loved. You may feel more intimate and honest than usual when relating to people you care about. Because you are acting in a more loving and open way, you are likely attracting a more loving response from everyone you encounter today. Your feelings may assert themselves as gestures of kindness to those who may need attention or as passionate affection for that special someone in life. Consider how you can use your loving outlook to improve and nurture your relationships today. The more you approach people with an open heart, the more they lay their defenses down and open themselves to you. Love can pierce the strongest emotional barriers with laserlike precision.
The simplest way to attract more love in your life is to give your love freely and openly. The love you send into the universe always comes back to you. When you show others that you care for them, your loving overture will light a spark of good feeling within them. Their day will be brightened significantly and their perception of you favorably colored. Your free expression of love may encourage new friends and acquaintances to come into your life. Giving your love to others today will help you receive the love and attention you desire.
February 15, 2008
Undistracted Energy
Pure Thoughts
If we make no effort at all, our thoughts usually scatter in a vast array of directions. They start and stop and move in surprising ways from one second to the next. If we try to follow our thoughts without controlling them, we will be amazed at how truly inconsistent they are. Yet, if we apply our minds to a specific task, especially one that interests us, they gather together and allow us to focus our attention, creating great power and energy. This is what is known as pure thought, because it is undistracted.
The law of attraction-like attracts like-influences all energy, including our thoughts, and this is what makes pure thought so potent. Our undistracted thoughts create a powerful magnet that draws similar energy into our vibrational field. As a result, the longer we are able to hold positive thoughts in our minds, the more powerful the positive energy around us becomes. We don't need to focus on action and controlling so much when we are surrounded by energy that draws what we want toward us. We can simply respond to the opportunities that naturally come our way. When this is the essence of our experience, we can go with the flow, knowing that we will be okay.
If pure thought is a body, it is our emotions that supply the heart that can really bring it to life. Our thoughts and feelings exist in relation to one another, and they form a feedback loop through which they communicate and empower each other. When we hold a thought in our mind without being distracted, we have achieved pure thought. When we have a positive emotional response to that thought, we enable it to dance and move and breathe itself into existence.
February 15, 2008
Mala Beads, Shaman's Vision Journey, Handbook For The Spirit
Gift Of The Week
Mala Meditation Beads - Mala beads are made in Nepal and India under carefully monitored working conditions. Workers gather the materials needed, create the pieces and perform the traditional ritual of purification for the beads. Use your beads during meditation or wear as healing jewelry. If you wish to use your beads in a meditation practice, here is how to do it: Sit at your altar or place of meditation, and hold your mala beads in your left hand. One bead is counted for each recitation of your mantra. This can be whatever you want, you can simply use the word "love" if you wish. Every time you say Love, move your fingers up to the next bead. Hold the beads with your index finger and thumb and with each count your thumb will pull another bead in place over your index finger. You will know you have gone through all 108 beads when you feel the extra bead and tassel, you have just made one round. The significance of the 108 beads varies greatly, but the most common idea is that it is a multiple of 12 and 9, 9 planets in the 12 zodiac houses. You may also enjoy simply holding your beads while you meditate without doing the counting. There is no right or wrong, do what feels right for you. All beads come packaged in a silk pouch. Please note that you may smell the scent of India when you first open your pouch, but this will dissipate after a while. View Mala Beads
Shaman's Vision Journey (CD) - Brothers Dave and Steve Gordon got started with shamanic music via their love for the Sequoia Forests, which they visited as youths studying music together. They recorded the sounds of those woods and incorporated them into their music. It's been documented as medical science that certain drum timbres and rhythms can lull a listener into a trance, and a whole rediscovery of the art of shamanism has merged around this, connecting the science of biorhythm with the spirituality of modern trance, reconnecting the modern era with the underworld. Shaman's Vision Journey is another chapter in the Gordons' amazing contribution to this field. It's a trek homeward, a galvanizing and! evocative progression of incessant, hypnotic shaman drum and shaker beats, accented by voice, synthesizers, guitars, and flutes and, of course, the mysterious and soothing sounds of the great forests they love. Listen to Sound Clips
Handbook for the Spirit (book) - The editors of this book invited some of the most revered spiritual leaders of our time to write about their own relationship with the divine and how it manifests in their life, relationships and careers. Each contributor writes between 5 and 10 pages making this a wonderful book to spend a few minutes reading at a time, or reading several essays at once. This is one of those books that makes you feel good and uplifted while at the same time provides really interesting reading into the minds and hearts of some of our most loved authors. Marianne Williamson sums it up best, "books such as this one are maps back home. They bridge us back to the essential self. They remind us ! who we are, and grant us the peace of remembering at last." Read Excerpt
For more information visit DailyOM Gift Shop