Maebius Musings

I admit, I still have a few TV shows that I enjoy watching.   This time of year, it is “So You Think you Can Dance“, on FOX.

Very much related to the apparently more popular “American Idol”, this show starts with tryouts from around the country, with people dancing a short routine of their choice on stage.   The best ones get sent to Las Vegas for the “finals”.

Then, starting with the top 20, each person is coupled randomly with another, is given a semi-random style of dance, and works with a correographer to learn the routine in time for next week’s show.   I am in total awe of the contestants each year.  Singing never held my attention, but even the “worst of the best” dancers are amazing to watch.  My body can only dream of their talents.

So, during this time of the year, my ONLY television viewing is consumed by Reality TV.   I admit it.  

Still, when the opening week showcasing the top 20 has two people with diverse backgrounds who get paired up for “Bollywood” and dance an amazing performance of Jai Ho.  I’m in awe.

Jai Ho

They learned this in 4 days?!    wow.

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Spring is here on my property, with the daffodils finally blooming yellow and vibrant agaisnt the muddy ground in our little garden.

The geese have returned to the pond, and buds are starting to swell in red-tinted anticipation for a proper warming of the soil.

Today, it is also the 250′s anniversary of Gregory Handel’s death, and what better way to celebrate both the returning flowers, and a brilliant classical composer, than to listen to one of his works.

Enjoy! (Parts 1 & 2 of “Music for the Royal Fireworks” )
Georg Friedrich Händel – Music for the Royal Fireworks Ouverture: Adagio – Allegro – Lentement – Allegro Paul Dombrecht Il Fondamento

Georg Friedrich Händel – Music for the Royal Fireworks Bourrée – La Paix – La Réjouissance – Menuets Paul Dombrecht Il Fondamento

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Sorry for the slow updates this week. It’s the final stretch in tax season (Corporates are due Mar 15th, Personals are April 15th) so the computer at home is dedicated to my wife this time of year… plus I got paged to cover the night-shift at work, midnight-8am this week.

My brain is just too sleepy and mixed-up to coherently muse on deep philosophical topics lately.

However, in the interim, enjoy this post from a blog I follow. It’s suitably non-sequitur for my though process lately.

http://slowwolf.wordpress.com/2009/03/11/moviewatch-bumblebee-tuna/

…or, if you just want the catchy song and YouTube Video, click here.

-Maebius goes off to dance and sing a catchy song in random anime-esque fashion….

What, you want more Hip-hop Anime AMV stylin?
Go here, watch this Candy Pop. (slightly risqué, like most hiphop videos lately)

O_o’ <-- Anime Sweatdrop emoticon.

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Just a bit of light humor that amused me. Strangely enough I’ve never heard of these guys until this week, so forgive if it’s old news for you folks.

Flight of the Conchords

My favorite songs…

• Bowie Song

• Shes so Hot Boom

• Business Time

• Hiphopopotamus vs. Rhymenoceros

• Issues

Enjoy!

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I’m on night-shift this week, which means my schedule is all wacky and I tend to either be At Work, or sleeping, or eating, (then sleeping some more). I used to be able to do the whole opposite-shift in a heartbeat, easily switching from a regular 8am-5pm to the midnight-8am shift whenever necessary. Lately, as a sign of (shudder) Getting Old, I seem to totally crash the second day and want to sleep 24 hours.

(actually, yesterday, other than going to see a movie with the family, I DID sleep from 10am-5:30pm, then back to sleep from 8pm-2am. I’m STILL tired here at work. Forgive the rambling-ness of this posting.)

…zzZZzz..zzZZZzz… Wha? Oh right. blog post.

Tomorrow is our Thanksgiving holiday, which will have it’s own blog-post this weekend once my brain is on a proper “Musing about Thankfullness” wave. For now, know that I’m thankfull for a heck of a lot. My life is pretty good comparatively speaking, and I do acknowledge that. Might not make it totally into blog-form coherently. *grin*

As for actual Content today, I bring you a Music Meme, discovered over here in the Magical Hills. Rules:- Choose a singer/band/group.

Answer the following using ONLY titles of songs by that singer/band/group/Band/Artist

I choose the group that’s been rattling in my head lately, regardless of how many OTHER songs I try to put in front of them. Heck, I’ve dreamed about going to see them in concert last weekend. Obsessed a bit?!?!: Gaia Consort

1. Are you male or female? Cooling His Fire
2. Describe yourself. Three (or The Web)
3. What do people feel when they’re around you? No Shadows
4. How would you describe your previous relationship? Blood
5. Describe your current relationship.Every Sacred Thing
6. Where would you want to be now? Evolve
7. How do you feel about love? Just Because
8. What’s your life like? Move to the Country
9. What would you ask for if you had only one wish? Peace Now
10. Say something wise. Cry Freedom

This was actually kinda hard, because on one level, the song titles kinda fit the question, but on the other hand there is a whole sub-text of connotation with actually knowing the songs. I wanted to almost put “Just Because” as an answer to question#5, if only for the song content itself, not the title, since using just the title sounded rather flippant and dismissive of the relationship with my wife. But the song itself is a nice love-song, in some sense. Also, #2, with an answer of “Three” is meant as a title-only to refer to my current family of Wife, Child, and Kid…. I love my family lots, and is a huge part of who I am. Yet, the song itself is about Polyamory, which isn’t really me at all. *shrug*

There’s no tagging rules posted for the meme, but feel free, if you are reading this, to reply with your own answers! Curious Maebius is curious. (and still sleepy).

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In keeping with my “music IS the muse of life” outlook, here is something that managed not only to bring me out of my recent funk, but I got the magical WOW-factor going, with tingly Awe from listening to it. Found it after random web surfing for completely unrelated things.
(The best web-finds always seem to be serendipitous, don’t they?!)

I drove home from work happy, and proceeded to do dishes, and clean up the house with a smile, after dinner, to the great pleasant surprise of my wife.
This NEEDS to be listened to properly, with headphones or a quiet room. It’s got some powerful subtle going on.
I also love the whispering “I wish I was special” near the end.
http://takingtigermountain.com/archives/113

Here’s the website for the group singing.
http://www.kolacny.com/en/index.htm

Enjoy!

I think what made this golden for me is not the subject matter of the song, so much as a brilliant cover of a potentially depressing song, turned right around into something full of Light and Love. The juxtaposition is hard to ignore, and is what I think made it almost magical.

(PS: Wren, you need to have Dorkus hear this. I’m sure he’ll love it.)

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I’m not sure how to articulate it, so I hope the following short muse-rambling makes some sort of coherent sense.

Do all you folks seem to constantly have a soundtrack going in your head, usually quiet and behind the usual random brain-mutterings? When you look at a beautiful artwork, or see the sunrise, does your internal symphony crescendo with instruments appropriate to the medium? (harmonizing crickets even, if not harps and trumpets) Mine does.

When I seek out moments of solitude to center and think, and even when I am attempting to meditate in an eastern null-thought method, the hardest thing to quiet is that internal melody. The inner-thought is hard enough of course, but if I manage to get that wrangled, there’s usually some sniglet of tune or ear-worm of melody that is nigh-impossible to cancel out. The best I usually get to is to shift the song to something like Enya or a soft “meditation music” instead of something from the 80′s rock or modern alternative scene.

When I work nights, and am alone, or am driving to visit friends and relatives in Pennsylvania, I almost have this burning NEED to have the radio on. I go slightly nuts if it’s totally quiet beyond the sound of a car engine, or printer spewing paper. It’s weird.

Likewise, nothing gets the emotions fired up and makes time pass quickly like good tunes.

I’ve joked with my wife once about using my “time-warp” ability while driving, since if the radio is on while she sleeps in the back with the sprogling, we seem to make the trips in short time with no traffic. I can attest that even during these trips the spedometer and cruise-control are set appropriately, (no police-chase velocities are used), yet we always “make good time”. With the radio off and quietness around me, my own sense of time goes sluggish, and the clock.. just… stands…. still.

On a related note, I think this is why my favorite places to sleep are are festivals and camping. At the former, there is the ubiquitous drumming, which I’ve mentioned a love for often here. Even at regular campsites, there’s always some drifting music from other camper’s radios, or at least the summer buzz of crickets and katydids.

The really amusing thing is that I can’t really consider myself musically inclined. I don’t sing (other than fun kareoke games), don’t really play any instruments except the hand-drum at festivals (and even there, not well compared to the “Real Drummers”), and dance like a fish out of water. Yet, music is in my blood.
What about you folks?

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We just returned from Starwood (as frequent readers of this blog have been hearing about recently) where we camped with some friends of ours and their little 3yr old son. Not must spiritual musing here, but if you are interested in “The Life of Maebius” read onward. WARNING: Epic Wall O Text below…..stretch that scrolling finger…..

I will try to outline the highlights, but, as with all week-long camping trips, there was just so much little stuff going on all the time, that it is impossible to mention everything. If the others who attended are reading this, please add your comments to help fully flesh out your thoughts and experiences! Generally, it was a fun, relaxing time…but was noticeably different than the first time in 2002.

We arrived on Tuesday after a drive through horrendous monsoons, which suddenly cleared as we got closer to the final destination county line. I’m talking one of those freaky summery storm systems where cars on the other side of the road are completely dry, and you have your blinkers on and driving 35MPH. But, we made it there to Brushwood around 5:30pm or so.

Drove around the campgrounds looking for an appropriately sized empty space, as our friends have a huge 16x20ft canvas pavilion tent to go alongside our huge green thingy. One thing that stood out was the huge lack of empty space. Our first Starwood we arrived a day early during another festival, and had plenty of spots available. Arriving late Tuesday posed a slight problem. However, we eventually found our way to the far south of the campgrounds, and a nice flat spot near the road, and conveniently adjacent to 3 porta-castles.

Wednesday, our friends arrived, and we helped set up the huge tent of theirs, and generally toured the encampment to show them around. Granted, we were in no way Starwood veterens, but having at least been there once, we could safely lead the basic tours. Did not get to the roundhouse that evening, mostly due to rain and general tiredness, and pre-sleeping preperations for the rest of the week.

Thursday, we did much wandering, shopping, and casual exploration of the place. Up in the side fiend beyond the Arches and Sanctuary, there is a very nice labyrinth cut into the tall grasses, and was lined with luminaria. This place was the “Spirit Shrine“, the center of which was large enough for a sizable collection of peopel, and featured a tree decorated in all manner of chimes and bells. Next to this was a large silvery bowl of water with crystals in it, ringed by feathers tied to sticks, andsuch. I left a rock I had painted especially for Starwood there, among a small caern of stones and other small offerings.

The other elemental shrines were more familiar to me, and perhaps I merely missed the spirit shrine last time. The Earth shrine was an open spot where the kid-fires were held, with a workshop pavilion nearby. Just northfrom the “Pufferdome” if you were keeping track. I didn’t feel any strong earthy energy, but then by the time I found it late in the week, I was rather ungrounded and rather unreceptive to such things.

The Air shrine was near the main concert stage, consisting of a circle of stones with a large structure inside it. The structure was part gigantic Dreamcatcher, part “God’s Eye“, and part organically be-ribboned freeform thing. Our sprogling loved to jump on the rocks, and dance around the circle, even when concert events were not currenty playing. So cute!

The Water Shrine, of course, was near the lake beside Arches campground where we stayed in 2002. It featured a large rowboat planted upright by the shoreline, and painted deep blue, and decorated with a creative collection of watery-reminiscent tid-bits.

Last, but certainly not least, was the Roundhouse, Fire Shrine, where the evenings filled the space with drumming and dancing. And seeing the various small plots of landscape marked by either elaborate structures, or simple signs, made me want to build up a few such ‘shrines’ on the Everthorn Acreage. Nothing fancy, but to simply dedicate a place for a particular element or intention, and channel Intent and energies to it throughout the year’s mini-rituals. I’ll probably post moon-musings to this effect over the next few months, since I felt surprisingly strongly that This. Needs. Doing.

Thursday evening was a Pirate-themed burlesque strip show at the Babylon encampment. Our friends stayed to watch a bit, but after one act, it reenforced my own feeling about such events…namely: Meh. It was entertaining in a sense to see the “feats of strength” of the girls and the pole. Such acrobatics were awe-inspiring, but not really “erotic” in my own definition of the word. I could hear the roundhouse in the distance, behind the jazzy rock-music of the babylon party, and much preferred being there. Not to insult the dancers, who were talented and graceful, but hips gyrating in other’s faces while collecting bills under a thin string never has been my cup of tea. Non-model-thin Roundhouse dancers are FAR sexier than that, in a primal, magical way.
Sadly, either I was totally unreceptive to the undercurrents of roundhouse alchemy the three nights I drummed and danced, or the energy of the place was completely different than I remembered. Mind you, energy was raised, and intentions were poured by a few into the ground, and the logs, and the light. The fire burned each night, casting mingled shadows and sparks throughout the crucible container, yet it seemed more casual, and unfocused. My friend danced, and said the music and the heat were quite energizing, allowing him to feel lighter and stress-free, banishing tired sleepiness with ease. Yet, still others commented within my hearing that while sleeplessness was good, there was a much deeper level to the Roundhouse, which seemed vaguely missing those nights.

While trying to refrain from negative attitudes, because the entire weekend was wonderfully cleansing and welcomed, I left on Sunday with more than a slight sense of anticipation, as if the rituals of the week had been cast, but not quite released. Perhaps a mundane analogy would be to cook rice Al Dente when you wanted soft pudding.

I’ll also admit that one evening, I brought some sacred brew in order to tap into the undercurrents and energies of the festival, which was moderately successful. I drank with Intent to release some nagging stress and doubts I had in my mind regarding certain matters, and with a blessing to the little helpers of the woods. That evening, the stars shone brightly, and I drummed at the roundhouse, losing myself for a few hours in the pulsing beats. I did see a new facet of the issues I had meant to work through, which was good, but I also noticed with sharp surprise an effect of alcohol within the dancers of the fire shrine. I never saw bottles, cans, or such, nor were there stumbling fools endangering themesleves or others, but in that meditative clarity I smelled/sensed/felt fair number of people who bottlenecked the flow of Light. (this is difficult to describe of course, barring overt cliche references and too-personal-for-here revelations, but further discussion can be had via email if interested).

Unfortunately, we were unable to attend the firework and island displays on Friday evening. We setup chairs, kept our little guy semi-sleeping on our laps, for about 2 hours while listening to an amazing Didgeridoo player, but he started to get cold and cranky. Eventually they announced there would be an additional hour delay (thus starting at approx midnight) and so we packed up and slept so as to enjoy our Saturday better.

Saturday, with warm lovely weather, and much kid-playing, was probably the best day of the entire fesitval. I wore a fancy new pair of wrap-pants with my fancy vest, we swam in the pool (or was the pool on Friday?!?) and the wife and I got to spent some quality time wandering around together. Earlier in the day, the torches were wandered through the campgrounds, for all to “add their mojo” if we wanted. I wished for happiness and health to all who attended, that the goodness and peace felt through the campgrounds would spread back “home” as thefestival was over. Of course, it all climaxed at the Great Bonfire that evening.
Tam stayed ‘home’ to watch the sleepy boys, as she had seen the opening festival and our campsite was situated thus that you could see almost the entire woodpile from the tent anyway. A procession entered the clearing, bearing the six torches. These were followed by a line of faeries and flowers, giant puppet-like creations, and a collection of fire-spinners and flame-dancers. A group of the teenage “fire-tribe” kids enacted a fun little skit that seemed to recreate a battle between pirates and ninjas, but I didn’t see who was victorious. Then, with Poi, fiery hula-hoops, and fans, these fire-folks danced to the drums and encircled the fire a few times, while the tempo and energy of the drumming built up. Finally, the bonfire was lit, after a bit more ritualized posturing from the torchbearers. Being stuffed with hay/straw, the fire quickly blazed up, and lit all manner of sparkling firework fountains and glittering rockets as it was engulfed.

Amazing!

Of course, then the drumming shifted to a more free-form jam and the field becvame awash in bodies all circling the flickering light. It was as magical as I remembered it, and during the initial pre-lighting wind-up, I finally felt a deep, subtle, and powerful current of WOW-power flowing through the campground. The magic still worked.

…
Our neighbors were a large collection of family folks. The neighbor who we wound up befriending most was “Flec“, which could have been initially possibly caused by the parental intonations coming from our camp, calling his name. “Hey!” – “wha?..oh, you were talking to the sprogling. HeHe“. Flec also is a very accomplished contact juggler, hula hooper, and all ’round awesomesauce performer. Was very pleased to make his aquaintance, and take a workshop he taught on contact juggling. (AKA: “That thing David Bowie Michael Moschen does in Labyrinth with crystal balls”).

Most of the time was spent either cooking, eating, resting at camp, shopping, and generally hanging out at Kid Village with the sprog or our friends. Our little guy really got along with the other kids, and totally looked forward to the playtime socialization. I think I probably put in around 10 hours there, (am supposed to mention “but never wound up writing my name down for most of the time as ‘official barter’ time”). Heck, it was more about playing with the kids and helping out than ego-taming philanthropy anyways, right?
We also met far too many individual people to name here, but on the off chance anyone finds this post, Blessings and hugs to Jenn from CT, the sprog-friend Rocco and his family, little Eva and her family, Michelle the 8yr old palm-reader, and all the parents and helpers of Kid-village. I had my most fun there among the little ones, chatting with you all, though I know most by face and not name.

All in all, Starwood was great. Next year, I’d like to see if we can attend the sister-festival at that location, known as Sirius Rising. If we can’t, Starwood is still a wonderfully inspiring and spiritual place.

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This year, we are returning to the Great Festival that started my love of drumming, and fully cemented, solidified, and otherwise convinced me that this Path of mine was ‘Me’. Yep, Starwood. That bastion of revelry and fun, which can be described, as the website so reads: A place where Scientists sit with Shamans and Druids dance with Deadheads. Where African drums jam with bluegrass fiddles, and political activism meets Earth spirituality – where theatre and life meld – where days are spent in exploration of inner and outer space, and nights blaze with laser lights and bonfire flames.

I found this image form the last time we went, in 2002, thus proving my existance there at the opening spiral dance ‘ceremony’. That guy in the white shirt and black shorts? Yep, me. That cute chick in the green shirt and flowery purplish skirt? Yep, the wife. (this is pre-sprogling times of course) The guy in the robes and blue scarf? no clue, but friendly!

This year we are going with some friends of ours, who generally attend the S.C.A. event known as Pennsic. While this wonderful festival is over ten times the size of Starwood, and has all sorts of cool costumes, workshops, and such, I am totally looking forward to the more laid back and spiritual festival event this year. It may not be the most serious spiritual gathering, and have more of a party flair, but I’m really really looking forward to “coming Ohm”.
All night drumming bonfire circles, fireworks one night, and the freedom to go skyclad if one so chooses, is simply indescribable for those who have not attended. (Heck, even this usually conservative person felt no real hesitation to joining the spontaneous “dance naked in the rain shower” that happened last time.)

There are 18 days left as of this posting, which means our next weeks will be full of meal planning, double-triple-quadruple checking the packing lists, and otherwise getting things in gear to spend and entire week living out of our tent with a bunch of strange folks, many hours from our land.

Otherwise, there’s no real deeper meaning to this poist, other than to say…I can’t wait!

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Those who know me well may have guessed my love of a good groove, and frequent tendencies to spend my late-evenings at home de-stressing by watching the Electric Sheep screen-saver, while ambient/techno/folk/goa/alternative/rock/pop/etc music fills my headsets.

…and thus, it is with a bit of trepidation and obsession that I share with you this link.

http://pandora.com/

Truly awe-inspiring, this service (free) allows you to setup your own station, with a number of ‘seed songs’ and dynamically chooses additional music based on what they describe as “just shy of 400 musical attributes in the Music Genome Project.”

Each artist, title, etc is ranked and rated on these hundreds of attributes, which leads to a very nice listing, that includes a LOT of lesser-known (to me) artists with similar styles to what I enjoy. Much more indie-friendly than something like Yahoo Radio.

For example, using Tori Amos as a seed, it chose the following (awesome) song to play next: http://www.pandora.com/music/song/ashley+maher/blessed+rain

Some attributes of the song are:

folk rock qualities
great lyrics
acoustic sonority
demanding instrumental part writing
extensive vamping
intricate melodic phrasing
minor key tonality
electric guitar riffs
a prominent flute part
a smooth female lead vocal
prominent percussion
vocal harmonies

disco influences
rock influences
danceable beats
an emotional male vocal
explicit lyrics
a repetitive chorus
a repetitive verse
melodic part writing
a synth bass riff
heavy drums
synth tweaking
a highly synthetic sonority
trippy soundscapes
radio friendly stylings
prevalent use of groove

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