Archive

Monthly Archives: March 2012

Cloud Nine

Water is, and always has been, a major part of my life.  I’m not sure whether it’s growing up on Lake Erie or my being a water sign, but there are few things I find as soothing as I do water.  As I considered this word, and all it means to me personally, I wanted. but wasn’t sure how, to acknowledge the global water crisis thats going on.  As I thought about it my day was filled with other obligations.  After work, I rushed downtown to see a friend’s fabulous play but before arriving, I shamelessly stopped into the Aveda store to refresh my make-up.  And as it turns out, as part of Earth Month, the store is offering $5 manicures to support Clean Ocean Action.  I wasn’t familiar with this group before, but it seems its mission is to improve New York and New Jersey’s coast.  A worthy cause, for sure, however I am also cognizant that we’re facing a lager crisis and each of us ought to personally consider where we go from here.

 

Our friend Deke is someone who brings music into the lives of his friends in many forms.  I’ve been turned onto countless bands, attended amazing concerts and danced my way through many nights thanks to him.  Today, we are thrilled to share with you an original track  that he created to assist us all in calming our minds, observing our thoughts and connecting to our breath.  In addition to the YouTube below (which also showcases Deke’s photography prowess), you can download the mp3 here.

photo via here

So sit up tall.  Feel your shoulders in line with your hips.  Let your head and neck be an extension of your spine.  Bring your attention to your inhale, letting the breath fill your stomach like a balloon.  Then release the breath as you focus on the exhale.  Close your eyes, maintain your attention on the breath and release your mind to the music.

If you notice along the way that you’ve gotten caught up in your thoughts, it’s okay.  Don’t judge yourself; just bring your attention back to your breath.

LBH (let’s be honest), some days are simply better than others.  It’s just how it goes.  So from the fake-it-til-you-make-it school of thought, I thought I’d share my three step solution for coping with the inevitable.

1.  Headphones to blast anything your little heart desires.

2.  Stylin’ shades to hide behind.

3.  And a swipe of lipstick as you walk out the door.

I can’t promise your problems will disappear but you’re likely to look and feel better while making your way through them.   Godspeed to you.

Urbanears headphones/Jeremy Scott x Linda Farrow sunglasses/lips via here

“I will not let anyone walk through my mind with their dirty feet.”
― Mahatma Gandhi

Calm - Installation by Regine Ramseier

I have always had an affinity for cleanliness. I can remember cleaning up my room and folding all my clothes by the time I was five years old. I loved order, and still do. Every morning when I wake up, I make my bed. Every night before I go to sleep, I tidy up my room. These are practices allow me to start and end my day with a clean environment, inside and out.

In the meditation that I practice, there is an emphasis on internal cleaning. At the end of the work day, you are supposed to imagine all the impressions of the day being removed from your heart.

“All of our experiences—actions and reactions, thoughts and emotions—leave impressions. These impressions, called samskaras, accumulate over time, influencing our view of reality and consequently our behaviour. As habit patterns emerge and solidify, we continue to react in the present as we have in the past, setting the blueprint for future action. In this way we become, in a real sense, slaves to our past experience.” (Found here.)

————————————————————————————————————-

And while we are on the topic of cleaning, when I was in Cleveland this past week, I helped my mom do some of her spring cleaning – or more specifically, cleaning out her closets. The end result was SO gratifying. Here are the pictures to prove it:

Check out these related links:

Here is a checklist for spring cleaning from Martha Stewart.

Also, here is an article from the New York Times about how removing clutter can improve your health.

Every week we ask some of our friends and family to send us a picture they took. Here are this week’s photos:

Ted – Rio  de Jeneiro, Brazil

A friend that I met on an airplane sent me this when he was in Rio. My band’s name is LIVIN. Check us out.

Farrell – Brooklyn, NY

This is a brand that I stumbled upon this weekend. The name of the brand is literally “Stop Using Water While Using Me.”  I think its a brilliant message.

John – Boise, Idaho

Sun Araw playing at the Treefort Music Festival.

Dave – Denver, Coloado

Shooting gats.

Teddy – Boise, Idaho

Eating candy and drinking wine before our show at the Treefort Music Festival.

Scott – Avon, Ohio

Carlos laying on the couch.

I could not be more happy to be part of this particular pair.

Lauren and I (Sister Disco) circa 1990-ish. Lauren was an ostrich in a school play. I felt proud. I still do.

Growing up, the end of every school year was met with a trip to Cedar Point Amusement Park.  Though the rides were the obvious attraction, my friends and I would also entertain ourselves by seeing who could spot the highest number of “twinkies” aka couples who wore matching outfits.  This was quite a common practice among some of the park guests, and one which initiated for me so many unanswered questions.  Who purchased the outfits?  Was one member of the pair presented with a few options from which to choose?  How far into the relationship was it before the idea was broached?  To this day, I have no answers for you, only memories of some seriously decked out duos.

When couples dress the same

Click through images for source info

“Age is an issue of mind over matter. If you don’t mind, it doesn’t matter.”
Mark Twain

“A man growing old becomes a child again.”
Sophocles

On Sunday night my whole family had an amazing dinner at my Dad’s house. There was a tornado warning and as a result, the power went out. We sat in the candle light eating cake and trying out the age booth app on the iPhone.

I was the first of the table to take have my picture taken and travel 30 years time to see what I will look like in 2042. Here is the result:

Upon seeing this photo, I screamed. At first, I laughed a little, but that laughter suddenly turned to tears and horror. I think I kept saying, “no, no!”

There is no way that when I am 56 years old, I will look that much like an old grandma, will I?

After that whole experience, I vow to take better care of my skin. Eat more anti-oxidants. Get enough sleep. Exercise regularly. And have a sense of humor about myself. Maybe I shouldn’t take the way I look SO seriously.

For the bulk of 2011, I stewed in the idea of starting an online store.  It’s a project I’ve since put on the back burner (pun, yay!) but I just came across the photos I took while I was working on it.

I’ve never been much of a photographer but I was attracted to the prospect of honing my skills as part of the process.  I’d recently gotten a little digital camera, so that was a start.  On a flight somewhere, while flipping through the Sky Mall catalogue, I came across a Tabletop Photo Studio and thought to myself, “well, perfect, I definitely need this!”  And then I did what I imagined no person every really did with an item seen in Sky Mall magazine: I actually ordered it.

I soon found myself fully equipped with an extremely modest product inventory, a teeny digital camera, and a miniature tabletop photo studio, which as it turned out took up much more space in my little NYC apartment than the catalogue picture ever let on.

I spent many hours playing with the product positions, testing out the lighting and trying to make some sense of the various settings on my camera.  Though I was enjoying myself, all in all, I thought the photos I was producing were complete crap.

I started doubting whether there was any point in continuing to work to realize the overall concept.  It started to feel like maybe this wasn’t meant to be my thing.  And slowly the stuff I’d purchased to play around with was making me feel claustrophobic in my own home.

So I began to pack away the products, and to figure out once-and-for-all how in the heck that inflatable photo studio fits back into its space-saving case.  When Christmas came around this year, before heading out to shop, I went back to the merchandise and began to parse items give as gifts.

And though, as of now, the whole concept was just a fling, I quite enjoy looking at these pictures.  The tagline for the store was to include the notion that “everything has a lifespan.”  Now the same concept applicable to the project itself.

I am from Cleveland, Ohio and proud of it. Cleveland was such an amazing place to grow up. I spent summers on Lake Erie learning to sail and swim. I spent my falls and springs playing soccer in the Metroparks and the winters taboganing and sledding every day after school. Cleveland is so underrated. And not only is it a paradise in the summer, there are so many different kinds of people that call it home.

I remember calling my mom when I moved away from home to go to college in Boulder, Colorado and telling her there weren’t any “real people” there. At the time, I didn’t even know what I meant by that, but as I sit today in my favorite ‘cafe’ in Lakewood (suburb of Cleveland), I am realizing that people from Cleveland aren’t really trying to prove anything to anyone. I think Clevelanders encompass all cultures and that is what makes the people feel so real.

See, Clevelanders are something special. The people that live here, love it. As my friend Scooter says, “There is a humbleness to Clevelanders and they wear their love for this place on their sleeve.”

I’ve been asking some of my Cleveland friends what it is that they love about Cleveland, and I’m looking forward to posting their responses in the coming weeks.