October 23, 2006

• It’s Monday!

  
  

  
  

  

  The art of a life well-lived… Create an inner collage of who you are and what you are about. Just close your eyes and let the pictures flow. Remember childhood adventures… best friends… your favorite vacations… accomplishments and achievements… from day-one until now. Add symbols that hold special meaning for you, words or phrases that express who you are. Imagine all the pieces coming together in a colorful collection. Place this creation in a special corner of your heart, and let it inspire you to create even more joy… Musical selections

  
  

  Cannibal Sea The Essex Green 2006

  There are moments on Cannibal Sea, the Essex Green’s
  third album, where a familiar guitar lick jumps out or an airy harmony rises to
  the fore, and you’re instantly transported to a 1967 afternoon full of green
  grass and sunshine. Electrified folk-rock rhythms, vintage keyboards, and
  sympathetic strings abound, evoking the shiny jangle of the Mamas and the Papas
  or Simon and Garfunkel’s more pastoral moments. But Cannibal Sea doesn’t
  merely mine the sounds of the ’60s for inspiration; like Apples in Stereo and
  Olivia Tremor Control, its brethren in the celebrated Elephant 6 collective, the
  Essex Green fills a picnic basket with retro-leaning melodies and production
  with modern indie-pop treats. Add the yearning lyrical insights and confident
  vocals of the band’s three principal members, and Cannibal Sea becomes a
  swooning, kaleidoscopic pop masterpiece.

  “I stare at maps all day…too
  many things to keep my mind on,” sings Sasha Bell in the exuberant opening track
  “This Isn’t Farm Life.” She’s expressing how hard it is to find a niche in the
  big city (the Essex Green moved from Vermont to Brooklyn a few years back), but
  the song’s perfectly balanced bed of twanging guitars, electric piano,
  background harmonies, and a taut Motown beat suggests otherwise. Bell’s voice
  slides right into the giddy mix of instruments as if she’s already found her
  place. The Essex Green never hit us over the head with pop hooks, relying
  instead on expert song craft and masterful instrumentation to work its magic.
  Even before its memorable Paul Simon-esque chorus hits, “Rue de Lis” takes us on
  a bucolic wagon ride of glittering finger-style guitar, humming violins, and
  shuffling drums.

  Cannibal Sea’s joys are refreshingly simple and
  direct, each song deepened by warm, uncluttered arrangements. “Sin City” gets by
  with its countrified shuffle and light electric piano adornments, easily
  expressing the narrator’s wistful longing: “Sin City, please don’t take / My
  lover’s heart, for mine will break.” And four chords are all it takes for “Don’t
  Know Why (You Stay)” to take up permanent residency in your brain. A palm-muted
  guitar riff jitters and shakes throughout the verses, accumulating layers of
  kinetic rhythm and overlapping vocal harmonies before moving into a glorious
  power-pop chorus. Singer Christopher Ziter’s angelic falsetto spirals
  ever-upward as he sings, “I don’t know why you stay.” But Cannibal Sea is
  so chock-full of moments this energizing, he’s the only one wondering.
  

  	Listen to all sound clips from this CD
  “This Isn’t Farm Life” “Don’t Know Why (You Stay)” “Slope Song”

  Buy this CD

  Edging irritation
  the flow is dammed up
  no sun to envelop
  my senses

  Guardian angel
  on hiatus
  rigid neck
  blood flows

  Disheveled desk
  out of balance
  calendar days
  askew

  Stop tobacco
  an impossible thought
  my comfort, my friend
  my lover.

  Damn temptation!

  © 2006  Laurie B

  A GIFT OF
  HEALING

  at any moment in time what we see outside of us reflects our
  internal field of consciousness. As such it is a mirror for us. Looking in this
  mirror can be painful, but it is not nearly so painful as pretending that the
  mirror is not there.

  – Paul Ferrini

  This morning I
  became aware of a young Honey Eater calling out. I had been aware of this bird
  for several months. It had a call that was different to its family. I had
  observed that it had not been accepted by its family and that it lived all
  alone.

  I had pondered on
  this each time I had heard him. Today when he arrived it startled me to find I
  felt an empathy with this small feathered friend. Tears began to flow. And then
  it became clear to me that I had been this little Bird. I had a different call
  to my own family. I had not felt accepted either. It wasnt popular to be
  spiritual in my family, and so like the little bird I had to lead a separate
  existence.

  This little bird
  has had a part to play in freeing me from the pain that until now I had buried
  deep inside of me. I am finding that the Universe uses whatever is at hand if we
  are paying attention and have our hearts open. I may never hear or see this
  little Honey Eater again, because maybe it was the Universes way of gaining my
  attention to let go of this hurt.

  Im excited to think
  that all things can be possible, as I am seeing more and more of the
  possibilities of healing in whatever is at hand. If we but trust in and are
  alert to the knowledge that the existence of God is in everything, then anything
  can be used as a healing tool.

  ~ Robyn Dobson
  

  The world is a looking glass and gives back to every man the
  reflection of his own face.

  – William M. Thackeray

  Somebody’s been giving me a bunch of hugs!

  Thank you!

  Just another manic Monday…

  I love you!

  

  
  

  • 11:20 am
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