Today's DailyOM Offerings...
March 18, 2008
Deb
Souad Massi
2004
Arabic singer-songwriter Souad Massi comes to her worldwide acclaim from a simple, devout background as part of a large Muslim family in Algeria. She had to leave her native land after receiving death threats from fundamentalists for singing with her popular band Akator. From this turmoil she has arisen as an artist for the whole world to value and appreciate, and Deb, "heartbroken" in Arabic, her calling-card debut, is an instant classic: a punchy, high-spirited, but sweetly innocent mélange of Arabic, European, and North American musical styles, marked by her spirited, elegant acoustic-guitar work and sweet, high voice. Freely swinging from Portuguese fado to Spanish flamenco to Algerian folk and even American country music, sometimes in the same song, Massi never sounds rushed or forced, yet she's bouncier and sprightlier than a dozen of her peers. She plays quietly dazzling acoustic classical guitar while singing in a beautiful voice that is truly global in its ra! nge of influences and styles. Deb runs the gamut, with tear-jerking emotion and breathtakingly assured songwriting. It won't matter if you don't know what the lyrics mean, or even what language she's singing in. You'll still be moved.
The opener, "Deb," begins with spoken tabla bols (wherein the drummer speaks out the drum rhythm before playing). The main body of the song finds Massi singing and playing joyfully over a web of tabla percussion, guitar, and catchy backup vocals. It's such a tasty little morsel of a song that it's not surprising the album is named after it. You might want to stop right there and keep listening to the song over and over, but there's a lot more good stuff on the way. "Ya Kelbi" is more rooted in the feelings of Spanish flamenco, while "Yawlidi" sports a West African guitar-rock sound, with steel drums and Assi doing everything but great tongue-rolling "yips" to summon the sun-drenched feel of an African beach party.
Never flamboyantly emotional or showing off, Massi's at her best when singing songs from a more Arabic perspective, gushing with the intense combination of the emotional and the mystic, a corner of the musical landscape she makes her own, body and soul. You can hear that perfection in the crushing emotion of "La Bien et la Mal," meaning "the good and the bad," wherein an anguished cello accompanies Massi's sensitively finger-picked guitar and half-whispered, emotionally devastating singing. The horrors of poverty and fundamentalism, the transcendent love and joys of family and tradition, it's all wrapped up in her pretty voice and achingly knowing guitar, making Deb a must for anyone who ever has known what it means to be heartbroken.
March 18, 2008
Trusting Your Choices
Sagittarius Daily Horoscope
If you’re faced with one or more situations today where you need to make an important decision, you may feel torn between conflicting choices. If left to fester, this uncertainty could become a source of stress and anxiety. Your inability to choose may stem from a lack of self-assurance. You can help yourself become a better decision-maker by trusting your ability to make the right choice. If necessary, try to think about past situations where you made the right decisions. This awareness can give you the confidence boost you need to make a decision today.
Having confidence in your ability to make decisions can help you become more decisive. When we are not feeling confident, the need to make a choice can fill us with doubt and make the decision-making process stressful. Self-confidence allows you to trust your instincts and perceptions. Making decisions become easy when you know you can follow your gut. The need to second-guess yourself disappears because you trust yourself to make good choices. The decisions you must make then become opportunities to propel you forward on your life’s path rather than obstacles to be worked through. The best choice to make will almost always stand out, especially when you trust yourself to accurately analyze your options. Your confidence in your ability to make key decisions today will allow you to avoid feeling torn between your options.
March 18, 2008
A Sign Of Imbalance
Overachieving and Overreaching
Overachievers are people who have achieved but still feel the need to do more, creating an imbalance in their lives. People who exhibit this behavior may be trying to compensate for feelings of insecurity and doubts about their worth. They may be chasing unresolved issues from their past into the present, or they might not be looking at their lives as a whole, but judging themselves based only on one aspect of their being. If this is a word that we’ve heard used with respect to our choices and lifestyle, it is worth examining in order to balance our lives for a more rewarding experience.
If we find that we cannot allow ourselves to experience and enjoy the present moment, putting pleasure off into some distant future, it may be a sign that we are being driven to achieve more than is truly necessary. Pushing ourselves beyond the point of exhaustion, or to the exclusion of important people in our lives, robs us of true and meaningful joy. Once we make the connection to the eternal part of us, it can nourish us and allow our priorities to shift from chasing after an elusive feeling to being fully present in the moment so that we can live our lives in the now.
Sometimes we need to look to those we love and admire in order to realize what we value about life. We can take time to note what we like about others, and then turn the mirror to reflect the light of those same words and feelings toward ourselves. It can be quite a revelation to see ourselves in this nourishing light. When we can put the energy that we’ve been devoting to a phantom sense of achievement into the truly satisfying aspects of our lives, we can restore the balance between our inner and outer worlds and experience true joyful peace.
Deb
Souad Massi
2004
Arabic singer-songwriter Souad Massi comes to her worldwide acclaim from a simple, devout background as part of a large Muslim family in Algeria. She had to leave her native land after receiving death threats from fundamentalists for singing with her popular band Akator. From this turmoil she has arisen as an artist for the whole world to value and appreciate, and Deb, "heartbroken" in Arabic, her calling-card debut, is an instant classic: a punchy, high-spirited, but sweetly innocent mélange of Arabic, European, and North American musical styles, marked by her spirited, elegant acoustic-guitar work and sweet, high voice. Freely swinging from Portuguese fado to Spanish flamenco to Algerian folk and even American country music, sometimes in the same song, Massi never sounds rushed or forced, yet she's bouncier and sprightlier than a dozen of her peers. She plays quietly dazzling acoustic classical guitar while singing in a beautiful voice that is truly global in its ra! nge of influences and styles. Deb runs the gamut, with tear-jerking emotion and breathtakingly assured songwriting. It won't matter if you don't know what the lyrics mean, or even what language she's singing in. You'll still be moved.
The opener, "Deb," begins with spoken tabla bols (wherein the drummer speaks out the drum rhythm before playing). The main body of the song finds Massi singing and playing joyfully over a web of tabla percussion, guitar, and catchy backup vocals. It's such a tasty little morsel of a song that it's not surprising the album is named after it. You might want to stop right there and keep listening to the song over and over, but there's a lot more good stuff on the way. "Ya Kelbi" is more rooted in the feelings of Spanish flamenco, while "Yawlidi" sports a West African guitar-rock sound, with steel drums and Assi doing everything but great tongue-rolling "yips" to summon the sun-drenched feel of an African beach party.
Never flamboyantly emotional or showing off, Massi's at her best when singing songs from a more Arabic perspective, gushing with the intense combination of the emotional and the mystic, a corner of the musical landscape she makes her own, body and soul. You can hear that perfection in the crushing emotion of "La Bien et la Mal," meaning "the good and the bad," wherein an anguished cello accompanies Massi's sensitively finger-picked guitar and half-whispered, emotionally devastating singing. The horrors of poverty and fundamentalism, the transcendent love and joys of family and tradition, it's all wrapped up in her pretty voice and achingly knowing guitar, making Deb a must for anyone who ever has known what it means to be heartbroken.
March 18, 2008
Trusting Your Choices
Sagittarius Daily Horoscope
If you’re faced with one or more situations today where you need to make an important decision, you may feel torn between conflicting choices. If left to fester, this uncertainty could become a source of stress and anxiety. Your inability to choose may stem from a lack of self-assurance. You can help yourself become a better decision-maker by trusting your ability to make the right choice. If necessary, try to think about past situations where you made the right decisions. This awareness can give you the confidence boost you need to make a decision today.
Having confidence in your ability to make decisions can help you become more decisive. When we are not feeling confident, the need to make a choice can fill us with doubt and make the decision-making process stressful. Self-confidence allows you to trust your instincts and perceptions. Making decisions become easy when you know you can follow your gut. The need to second-guess yourself disappears because you trust yourself to make good choices. The decisions you must make then become opportunities to propel you forward on your life’s path rather than obstacles to be worked through. The best choice to make will almost always stand out, especially when you trust yourself to accurately analyze your options. Your confidence in your ability to make key decisions today will allow you to avoid feeling torn between your options.
March 18, 2008
A Sign Of Imbalance
Overachieving and Overreaching
Overachievers are people who have achieved but still feel the need to do more, creating an imbalance in their lives. People who exhibit this behavior may be trying to compensate for feelings of insecurity and doubts about their worth. They may be chasing unresolved issues from their past into the present, or they might not be looking at their lives as a whole, but judging themselves based only on one aspect of their being. If this is a word that we’ve heard used with respect to our choices and lifestyle, it is worth examining in order to balance our lives for a more rewarding experience.
If we find that we cannot allow ourselves to experience and enjoy the present moment, putting pleasure off into some distant future, it may be a sign that we are being driven to achieve more than is truly necessary. Pushing ourselves beyond the point of exhaustion, or to the exclusion of important people in our lives, robs us of true and meaningful joy. Once we make the connection to the eternal part of us, it can nourish us and allow our priorities to shift from chasing after an elusive feeling to being fully present in the moment so that we can live our lives in the now.
Sometimes we need to look to those we love and admire in order to realize what we value about life. We can take time to note what we like about others, and then turn the mirror to reflect the light of those same words and feelings toward ourselves. It can be quite a revelation to see ourselves in this nourishing light. When we can put the energy that we’ve been devoting to a phantom sense of achievement into the truly satisfying aspects of our lives, we can restore the balance between our inner and outer worlds and experience true joyful peace.