Joni Mitchell Both Sides Now, Nowadays

Joni Mitchell is my hero. Or my shero, as the case may be. She is an incredibly creative person, and considers herself a painter before a singer or a songwriter. And of course that's something that I can really appreciate.
I think that part of the reason I love her songs so much is that they are so visual lyrically. They are rich, vibrant and emotive. I can see them playing out in my head when she sings.

"Moons and Junes and ferris wheels
the dizzy dancing way you feel
as every fairytale comes real..."

Those words put me right there in the song.

This version of Both Sides Now is just incredible. She recorded it years after the original and her voice is much richer, and you really beleive that she knows what she's talking about more than ever.

I was reminded of the revisited version of Both Sides Now when I watched a tribute concert from 2000, today. There were some pretty good performances of other artists covering Joni's songs, but she stole the show when she closed it with this poignant version of Both Sides Now. Incredible. Just another example of how we only get deeper and fuller and richer as we get older.

Painting Final Layer of Highlights and Shadows: Video

It's been kind of strange not blogging for a few days after blogging for 100 days in a row. But I'm back! This time with a little video of me (or my hand) working on the final layer of my painting "Standing Alone".

The bulk of the painting is done, I was just touching up some highlights and shadows on the branches. Not the best painting video ever to exist, but not too bad for my first attempt.

I must say: holding an iPhone in one hand and painting with the other is a bit of a challenge. What I really need is a Google Glass. I'd make good use of that thing! Anyone want to buy me a pair? Anyone...?

Happiness Project Day 93: Midnight Walk and Dire Straits

Looking back on my day I couldn't choose which thing made me the happiest. So, I decided to take a walk and think about it.

I hardly ever do it, but I love taking walks in the cool night air. It was a beautiful night, and the walk cleared my head and became my happy thing for today. It was so nice to get away from my computer and look at the clouds moving across the moon. And I love the way the street lights fall on the trees in strange ways that the sun and moon would never do.

Getting out after dark gives a person a whole different perspective on things.

I think these blooms look kind of creepy with the flash on them.

This song was going through my head on my walk. I love pre-MTV Dire Straits.

My Happiness Project Day 37: Perfect Timing

I met some friends from high school for happy hour today. We've recently started meeting every month to hang out and catch up without letting too much time go past. The restaurant that was picked for today's outing just happened to be across the street from our high school (and I believe that it used to be the Burger King where we would hang out and dip our french fries into our vanilla shakes).

On the way there, I was sitting at a stoplight and looking at the school, thinking back to our high school days in the early 80s. Just then, at that very minute, Oh Mickey came on the radio, and blew my mind.

It was a really perfect moment.

My Happiness Project Day Day 13: Beauty In The World

Can I just say that I love Macy Gray?
This song pretty sums up my view on life (most of the time, anyway). This is "Beauty in the World" by Macy Gray, and it's a slice of happy for today.

"When I look around, I see blue skies, I see butterflies for us. Listen to the sound and lose it. It's sweet music, and dance with me..."

My Happiness Project Day 4: The First Time I Heard Coltrane

The beauty of this project is that I find that I'm always looking for something to be happy about. There were many things to be happy about today. Paint Club took up much of my time, but I can't list anything specific that made me happy there, because what happens at Paint Club stays at Paint Club. :)

So tonight my happy comes via The Nightside with Andy O' on KUVO. 
This is "The First Time I Heard Coltrane" by Tribaljazz featuring Alfre Woodard. (Which reminds me that I have a Coltrane painting sitting in my back room just waiting to be finished...)

Enjoy!

My Happiness Project Day 3: Sunshine

Ah, sunshine. I love it. It's one reason I stay in Denver; I need my sunny days. Glad we're climbing out of that nasty cold snap - at least for awhile. Sunshine is good for the soul!

My Happiness Project Day 1: My Small Bathroom

My postage stamp sized bathroom.

I want to start out by saying that I have been pretty freaking miserable for the past few months. My mom passed away in the beginning of August; I made it through the end of summer and fall pretty well, all things considered. But since the cold weather has set in... it's just been hard. All I really want to do is hibernate.
Yes, I am mourning. And I'm recovering from a very hard year.  But bigger than that, I realize that I've been putting my focus on the wrong things. I've been focusing on everything that's wrong with my life.

I am a believer in the Law Of Attraction, which basically says you get back what you put out. Put out crap, get crap; put out love, get love; put out lack, get lack. It's time to look at what's good in my life.

So without further ado, I give you my own personal Happiness Project. Borrowed from my friend Josie and http://100happydays.com/ (although I'm not officially participating through them because... well I just don't want to sign up for yet another thing), I'm going for 100 days of happiness. Starting today I will list one thing every day that makes me happy. If I skip a day, I start fresh at day one again.

Day One: My Small Bathroom

Recently I house-sat in a beautiful house that had a nice big bathroom. It had plenty of elbow room and enough space to get dressed or move around without bumping into things and knocking them into the toilet (yes, I've done that in my apartment).
Why am I singing the praises of a small bathroom, then? Because a small bathroom allows me not only the opportunity to steam my clothes while showering, but it also means that I won't FREEZE MY ASS OFF when I step out of the shower. Which is important when the temp is zero degrees, as it is today.
I love my small bathroom!!

Day one bonus, the appropriately titled "Happy"; I love this song!



Follow along!
Happiness Project Day 2: Old Friends
Happiness Project Day 3: Sunshine

The Power of Music, Facebook, and Celebrating Life.

Today is my 47th birthday.
I lost my mom two weeks ago today. I am completely heartbroken and I can tell you with absolute certainty that I do not want to celebrate. What I want to do is stay in bed all day long. Sleep. Cry. Wallow. Repeat.

But that's not what my mom would want me to do. I'm alive, and she would want me to celebrate life.

The Power of Facebook
Think what you will about it, you can't deny that Facebook can be a powerful platform. A community, even. I feel very supported by my Facebook community (most of who I know in person). I was reluctant to log on today and see all those birthday wishes. I'd rather ignore the fact that it's my birthday; this is the beginning of my first year on this planet without the person who brought me here. Living in a world without my mother just doesn't seem right.

I nearly took my birthday off of my profile so that it wouldn't send reminders, but I figured that might bum me out, too. So I left it, and the well wishes poured in. Some of them make me cry, but it's good to know I'm supported.

One of my Facebook friends (who I've never met) posted this to my wall:

"You are alive, so take your life and enjoy it. You were born with the right to be happy, to love and to share your love." - don Miguel Ruiz

It was exactly what I needed to see.  This is what my mother wants for me, I'm quite sure of it. So, difficult as it may be right now, it's what I'm going to strive for.

The Power of Music
Also on my page this morning, a video from Playing for Change: Three Little Birds.
We talk about the transformative power of music, and indeed, music is powerful. I have a friend who says that Elton John saved his life. How many times has music gotten you through?

Three Little Birds is one of the songs that has gotten me through, and saved my day on more than one occasion, if not my life.
Although I'm a big fan of Playing For Change, I'm posting the Bob Marley version here because I like it so much better. And because my mom loved Bob Marley.



So, what am I doing to celebrate life on my 47th birthday? I'm going to Lakeside Amusement Park. And I'm going to ride the roller coaster as the sun goes down, and I'm going to scream, and I'm going to feel alive.  And I'm going to honor my mother by living instead of wallowing.

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?

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 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.

BEST OF EVERCLEAR BY EVERCLEAR (Google Affiliate Ad)

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)!

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... :)

Edit: I never finished blogging about the 45 new things, but I definitely completed them. My life spun out at a crazy pace and I ended up in NYC in the spring of 2012, which took care of an awful lot of the 45 new things.
On that list included trying Japanese ice cream (not a fan), Polish food, going to my first cathedral (SO amazing!), visiting SOHO galleries, spending a day in the city on my own... so many more things. Stories for another time. 

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!

AS I AM BY KEYS,ALICIA (CD) (Google Affiliate Ad)


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!

So long 2010, it's been good to know ya.

     This is the first new year's eve in recent memory - perhaps in my adult life - that I haven't said something like "I can't say I'm sorry to see this year go." Amazing. I guess that means it's been a good year. And indeed it has.

Freedom of Choice (detail)
Acrylic on Masonite 12x12
Tabetha Landt Hastings
$45

     By the same token this is the first year in recent memory (perhaps since my sister died 15 years ago) that I actually enjoyed the holidays. Normally I hide away and do my best to ignore them, or grudgingly partake in the celebrations trying to - and often succeeding in - alleviating my misery for a few hours, only to sink back into some kind of miserable holiday funk and depression. 

    So what is so different about this year?
Did I drop 50 pounds, fall in love or win the lotto? No, no and definitely no! In fact I'm making less money than I have in many many years, and living with my mother. (Two things that would cause a lot of red-blooded American women to go completely batty!) What's different is that I finally found the nerve to do what I what I love. I'm painting, helping other people to discover and explore their creative sides, and helping other artists to show their work. It's all very satisfying. And I'm actually looking forward to 2011 without being sick and tired of 2010. What a great feeling!

     So for the new year I encourage you to take steps - even baby steps - to follow your dreams. To live an authentic life. Indeed, I dare you to live your life like it's golden..

Stand By Me

One of the artists who will be exhibiting at my studio next month sent this video out to the folks on his email list today. He said it was a wonderful way to say Happy Thanksgiving, and I couldn't agree more.
Before he starts singing Roger Ridley says "No matter who you are, no matter where you go in your life, at some point you're going to need somebody to stand by you." So very true.
I have been incredibly blessed with amazing people who have stood by me through the years. Thank you, thank you, thank you! I have much to be grateful for on this Thanksgiving.

I encourage you to watch this video, and if it moves you, pass it along. I've seen it many times and I never get tired of it. I still find it inspiring.

 We're all in this together folks, and we can't do it alone.