Bond By Bots

Don't know why, but this just made me smile :)

Do You See The Patterns?

"Microcosm"
Oil on Canvas 12x12
Tabetha Landt Hastings

This is wild stuff.
The stuff in this less than two minute video (below) is the stuff that blows my mind all the time. "Cities are like organisms, alleys are like capillaries."

This is what my painting "Microcosm" is all about. A couple of years ago I liked to take walks, and I started noticing all these great patterns in the natural world. One day I took a photo of a patch of tree bark,  blew it up and painted what I saw. The more I painted, the more I saw a whole world in the bark. Cities, neighborhoods, rivers, streams and forests. It was all right there. Like I was looking at the land from above. Wild.




This super fast moving video talks about the similarities in the patterns that are found in nature, the human made world, space, networking systems... it's all very interesting. And just for the fun of it, do a google image search for computer chip or circuit board, and see if you can see arial maps and three dimensional cities.


    .
TO UNDERSTAND IS TO PERCEIVE PATTERNS from jason silva on Vimeo.

Light Art

I have only the vaguest of notions of how they did this, but it's beautiful. Look closely and you can see the people behind the lights, ever so faintly. They're like ghosts. Or in another dimension that we can only glimpse.

Very cool.



Rippled from Oh Yeah Wow on Vimeo.

Laughter and the Human Experience

When we hear the phrase "the human experience" or "it's just a part of being human" it's usually in reference to suffering, hate, jealousy, pain or some other terrible part of being human. But there is a whole other side - a much better side - that for some reason gets less attention. Beauty, joy, love and laughter are just as much a part of being human.

Of these, I think laughter is the most important. What good are the rest if you're not laughing? Just my opinion, but then I'm a big fan of laughing. Besides being a whole lot of fun, it reduces stress, breaks the ice, builds bonds and even protects the heart.

Oh, and yes, it's a part of the human experience.

The following video is completely in French, but something tells me that you'll be able to understand it even if you don't speak French.

Isn't it wonderful how contagious laughter is?  I dare you NOT to laugh!



My mother and I went to a laughing yoga thing a few years back. It was very strange. We went to the pavilion in Cheeseman Park and just laughed with complete strangers. That's it. That's all we did. It was really quite odd at first, and we had to force the laughter. But after a very short time, we started really laughing. You can't fake laugh for very long without it turning to genuine laughter. It's a beautiful thing. However, even if - for some reason - your laughter doesn't naturally turn into actual giggles, chuckles or guffaws, you will still get the health benefits just the same.
What to do you have to lose?

The Power of Suggestion

Last December I wrote a Facebook post about the power of suggestion and illness. I had noticed that the last time I got sick, I hadn't been around sick people, but I had read a lot of status updates about people being sick. It get's in your head, you know?
So I stopped posting about not feeling well (to benefit other susceptible people, and so that I wouldn't focus on it), and I started doing my best to skip over other people's status updates about being sick.

Now let me just say that historically I've been someone who gets whatever bug is going around. Head colds would settle not so nicely into my chest and stick around for weeks. I used to think it was because I worked with the public, but then I stopped working with the public and would still get sick. WTF? Not cool. Was it my workaholic tendencies? Maybe, but now that I was working on my own I could - and did - get more rest. Curious.

That's when I started noticing the Facebook posts. People would post left and right about coughing up a lung and how miserable they were. I would think oh I'd better be careful, there's really something going around right now. But you know what? There is always something going around.

I'm happy to report that I went over a year without getting sick. No, I didn't feel 100% all of the time, and I think I did get a cold sometime in the last year. But it didn't develop into a full-blown event. In addition to my NOT reading FB posts about illness, I started taking osha root and mullein leaf in tincture form whenever I was feeling run down. Was it the natural remedies keeping me healthy, or avoiding the negative posts? Probably some combination of the two. But whatever the case, I'll take it!

In the interest of full disclosure, I'm writing this because I did succumb to dreaded "crud" finally (after an unprecedented year plus of health!). Ah well, you can't win them all. Was I paying attention to status updates? Well... I did notice a few. They can be hard to ignore. Hopefully my natural remedies will knock this stuff out of my system quickly.

I'd love to hear your thoughts on the power of suggestion and health. I mean... there is the placebo effect, right? If the suggestion (or pill) can make you well, than surely it can make you sick, right?

My Favorite Scrooge

My favorite version of "A Christmas Carol" is from 1951 and stars Alastair Sim as old Ebenezer Scrooge. This is the version I'd scour the TV Guide for every year and stay up late to watch. Usually around midnight on Christmas Eve, if I'm remembering correctly. (Of course that could just be my memory playing tricks on me. Wouldn't midnight on Christmas Eve be the perfect time to watch this movie?

There are different versions of the story that I like for different reasons, but this one is my favorite  because of the ending. No other ending has made me quite as happy as this one. Alastair Sim is delightful as the "post spirits" Scrooge. He laughs like a mad man, dances like a fool, and scares the hell out of his maid. He sings as his eyes are opened to a new day: "I don't know anything, I never did know anything. But now I know that I don't know..." You can't help but love the guy.


Here is the ending to the movie. It's 12 minutes, but it's worth it. It'll make you feel all warm and fuzzy.

Feliz Navidad!

Even after singing in a band, I still think that making music is magical. Especially when it's in a band. And no, it's not magic; it's hard work and lots of practice. But when it all comes together it feels like magic. It's co-creating at it's best.

My wish for you is that you have a magical and musical holiday season and new year.

Feliz Navidad!

The Spirit of the Season

Every Sunday I wake up and check PostSecret.com for the latest batch of secrets that people have sent in. I don't know if it's the voyuer in me that likes to read other people's secrets, or just knowing that I'm not alone in my particular quirkiness. Once in a while the secrets make me feel really good about myself (kind of like watching the Jerry Springer show), and there are times like this when they just make me feel good about humanity.

Here are my two favorite secrets of this week (first one is a 2-parter):

 

My second fave is not the secret itself, but the responses to it:

Art From Dice and Rubix Cubes

I just came across these amazing sculptures by British sculptor 

Tony Cragg. 

They're quite beautiful on their own, but when it hits you that they're actually made of dice... well it just boggles the mind 

(no pun intended).

I can't begin to imagine how many dice went into these, or how it was done. It's certainly nothing that I'd have the patience for! What I love about them is that that objects that are hard and square can be put together to make something that appears soft and fluid.

One can't help wonder if there is a rhyme or reason to which numbers are showing.

 

And then we have Pete Facteau who turned three dimensional Rubix Cubes into a two dimensional pixel art mosaic of Dr. Martin Luther King. Pretty cool!

The Ultimate Codependent Song

"Everything to Everyone" by Everclear came up in my iTunes shuffle today. I really liked Everclear back in the day. I still like them, actually - at least the one cd I have (So Much for the Afterglow).  This was the first single off that album, and their most successful song. 

It's a nice, bouncy happy sounding song, and I wonder if I ever really listened to the lyrics back in 1997. Listening to it today I realized that it is the ultimate song about codependency. I feel like they wrote this song about me! Well the former me, anyway (thankfully)!

Happy Birthday, Picasso!

I just found out that today is Pablo Picasso's birthday. Picasso is one of my favorite artists...or perhaps I should say one of my favorite world-famous artists.

It wasn't always that way. Growing up I didn't really appreciate his work (despite the fact that we had a Picasso print in the bathroom - which is of course is a great place to contemplate a woman with a "crazy mixed-up" face). Although it seems to me that so much of pop culture was influenced by him when I was young. I remember my childhood cartoons being very Piccasso-esque, and even some playground equipment. But maybe that's just me.

In any case, I'm a fan now. It happened when I saw his work for the first time in person. I visited the Chicago Institute of Art several years ago, and was surprised that my favorite paintings in the whole museum were all Picassos. Particularly The Red Armchair and The Old Guitarist, which was simply stunning in person.

Above is my take on Picasso's "The Dream". I gained even more appreciation for the artist while attempting to copy one of his paintings. It was hard to do, a lot of fun, and quite an accomplishment, if I do say so myself.

Playing For Change: Higher Ground

Every now and then I have to pass on one of these Playing For Change videos; they're just amazing.

If you're not familiar with the organization, I urge you to head on over to http://playingforchange.org and check them out, as well as their mission.

I won't attempt to detail what they're all about - you can read that on their site. But I will say that they are bringing the world together through music. Quite literally, as you'll see in this video. They get musicians from across the world to play different parts of a song. The songs are usually familiar. They are songs we know but done in a beautifully different way.  And often - as is the case with this song - I hear the lyrics in a new way.

Of note in this particular video (for me) are the vocalists. The woman - Titi Tsira - absolutely gives me chills when she starts singing. And the male singer - Clarence Bekker - is a favorite of mine from the Playing For Change Stand By Me video. And I LOVE the dancers on the beach, particularly the women in pink. I wish they showed more of them.

45 New Things: Shaking It Up

Lanterns at PF Changs

A few weeks ago I wrote about my 45 in 45 list: 45 new things to try in my 45th year. Well it seems like I'm busting out new things every week these days, and sometimes several times a week!

None of these things are earth shattering wild and crazy  "new" things, but they are out of my normal routine. Most of them have to do with food and drink, but hopefully I'll be able to branch out into more adventuresome new things soon.

Still, I've had a really good time shaking things up a bit. Not just because I'm doing new things, but by doing them I get to see more of my friends. Yay friends!

Here are the new things I've done so far:
(At least the one's I've remembered to write down...)

1. Had dinner at Sweet Ginger in Cherry Creek
2. I took a Shamanic Journey
3. Drinks at the Front Porch
4. Karaoke at Benders
5. Lunch at Five Guys Burgers and Fries
6. Drinks and jazz at Jazz at Jacks
7. Dinner at Annie's on Colfax
8. Pretended to be married with kids to get away from a crystal salesman at the Taste of Colorado. That was definitely a new experience!
   
9. Went to Oktoberfest - fun!
   
10. Took a Fresh City Life class at DPL - made little terrariums.
    
11. Happy Hour with Duggio - divine!
    
12. Tried the sweet potato fries at Smash Burger instead of the regular Smash Fries - that was a mistake. But at least I tried, eh? 
13. Wings at Madison Street - delish!
    
14. Went to a student produced play at CSU - it rocked!
15. Appetizers at Bar Louie - yummy McYum-yum!
16. Dinner at PF Changs - the lettuce wraps were every bit as good as I'd heard!
17. Had a drink at the Elephant Bar... some sort of raspberry lemon delish martini
18. Tea at Wystone's in Belmar
19. Karaoke at Ogden Street South (which is now my favorite karaoke bar...which are words I never thought I'd say...)
20. Sang my first hard rock song at a karaoke bar: Cult of Personality. That was a lot of fun, but I must say that my 45 year old neck did not like me banging my head like I did when I was 23 and the song first came out! But I do still LOVE this song! Here's the video - thankfully it's Living Colour's version, not mine... :)

For Those of Us Who Have a Hard Time Stopping

Doing nothing is so underrated. I'm not talking about watching tv or simply being lazy. I mean just completely, deliberately doing nothing. Most of us have a hard time shutting our brains down, which is exactly why we need to do it from time to time. Clear it out and stop the chatter.

My artist friends, yoga peeps and Eastern thinkers know what I'm talking about. But.. that doesn't mean that we always do it. I KNOW that I'd be better off if I just wold take some quiet time every day. Meditation, sitting in the sun...whatever. But do I do it? Um... I take about as much time out to meditate as I do to work out - hardly any. Meditating is to the mind and the soul what working out is to the body.  We need self care, people!!

On that note, I encourage you to go to http://www.donothingfor2minutes.com/ This is another site I found through stumbleupon.com. The url says it all: do nothing for 2 minutes. It's nice. Do it. Do it now. But first... lock your door, put up a "Do Not Disturb" sign, or connect your headphones to your computer. Whatever it takes to steal just 2 minutes for yourself. You can spare TWO minutes, right? Two undisturbed minutes for a mini-vacation... You deserve at LEAST two minutes!

If I Was Your Woman: Alicia Keys Give a Shout Out to Gladys Knight

For some reason I've been in an Alicia Keys space lately. Don't know why. (Okay, maybe I do know why, but I'm not sharing!)

Anyway, here she is doing an amazing job covering Gladys Knight... and that is saying a lot! Gladys is one of my all time favorites. Actually... I shouldn't say that she "covers" Gladys. No, Alicia truely makes this song her own. And those back-up singers are so powerful!




I just found this awesome version of Gladys Knight singing If I Were Your Woman. I think it said the video is from 2010. This woman is in her late 60's and her voice has not changed a bit from when the song was on the radio 40 years ago. She is phenomenal!
The only issue I have with this video is that there are no Pips. I do love those Pips!