Free Write Every Day: Day #2

Wednesday February 22 11:00pm

So today ended up being much busier than I initially planned but I am using my “free day” this weekend when I visit my sister for her birthday, so I gotta write something today.  It was just a rough start, I was a couple minutes late to teach yoga this morning, the first time it happened this semester, but I had to make sure I had my yoga gear (outfit and mat), classwork, shorts to wear for pilates, my work uniform and a business casual outfit for the GRIPLA (Greater Richmond Intellectual Property Law Association) event (where I tried my best to inform attorneys about the Global symposium, and found out my co-editor was sick and therefore not going about 2 hours before the event) and of course after a nonstop day (the only respite was lunch with an old friend after ash Wednesday service, and another brief meet-up at night with another friend) I realized I forgot something rather important.  

After teaching two exercise classes I went to shower and change in the locker room.  Emerging clean but slightly rushed from the shower I went to put on my nice clothing.  Unfortunately, I realized at that moment that I had not packed a regular bra.  I spent the rest of the day in my still-slightly-sweaty exercise top with the built-in sports bra under my dress.  I did my best to forget about it while surrounded by some of the best-connected trademark lawyers in the Richmond area.  Luckily my accessory was a large and sparkly purple scarf I used to strategically cover the spot where the v-neck dress showed the neckline of the exercise top.  

On a completely different note, the Symposium for Global has me pretty stressed out, I will be very glad to wake up March 16, when all of it is behind me.  I have started to seriously space out while riding this, I think that I will take it as a cue to go to bed and make up for lost sleep from last night.  Tomorrow will be busy as well and I have plenty of work left to so before making the drive up to northern Virginia.

Free Write Everyday: Day #1

For one of my more alternative classes in law school, I had to write 300-500 words a day, I figured since I shared them with my professor, I might as well share them with you all.  Also, this allowsme to post something since I have not written anything here for awhile.

First entry:

"Tuesday February 21 11:00pm
Where does my resistance to put pen to paper (or in this case, letter to keyboard) come from? I have always seemed to have trouble filling a word limit.  I had a tendency in high school to check the word count with each passing sentence to constantly update myself on exectly how many words I had left to write.  I do not know why this is because I have no trouble filling up any available silence with spoken communication, and I actually like the intention behind the words I chose to put down to paper.  I guess I like that I can sound more put together or intelligent on a  written document without the “likes” “ahs” and “ums” that occur, often against my best effort while speaking.
I struggle to write thank-you notes, I rarely wrote the observation portions of the labs in science class, and in my eighth grade “weekly journal” for English class I spent the lunch break before the last class of each quarter frantically putting pencil to notebook to write all nine entries I had not yet written.  In all of these cases, I thought about what I wanted to write a lot... a lot! I wanted each “thank-you” to be sincere and heartfelt, I wanted to pick the right adjective to describe the experiment and I think I wanted my journal entries to be a good quality.  What is so surprising is with amount of time I spent reflecting on the possibilities of what I could write, I never left myself enough time to actually write what I wanted.
I put extra pressure on myself when writing because I am a harsh critic of my work.  If I say something it can fade away into memory (where we so easily edit things to see them the way we want to) but when I write I know I will be looking at it later and judging what I wrote.
I also think my aversion to writing comes from a compelling desire to be active and to truly write, I have to disengage from whatever activity I am doing and stop, sit and write.  My monkey-mind and my restless body have a hard time staying still to focus and write, especially when it comes to the preparation it can take to write something well.  In this way, I allow my other activities or work take over my attention and I become so easily distracted from actually writing."

Music Video Acapella Tribute!

This is an attempt to cover the song "Save Me" by Gotye off of his new album "Making Mirrors."

This song resonated with me in such a way I just had to create some sort of tribute.

It was definitely a challenge to combine all the audio and video and keep it within the correct rhythm.  This took a solid amount of time but this was one of my personal goals to do for 2012 so 2 months in I get to check something off this list (this totally ranks up there on a list including: graduate law school, pass the bar, become gainfully employed)

There are totally things I would do different if I had to do it again.  For example I's make sure to have a better quality microphone, better lighting and start with a drumbeat (turns out that even listening to the original song in one ear there were still times I got off beat which meant I couldn't insert the beat in later.  However, this is how it came out and I'm really quite proud of it!

I cannot wait to see him in concert March 22 at the 9:30 club w/ Kimbra and see him perform this live! Here's a version of the real song (I couldn't whistle to keep up with the fun high-pitched melody so that's one of the things my video is missing as well):

Triple J Follow Up

So that last post was definitely (<- check the spelling Pinky) fueled by a crazed frenetic excitement, due in most part to a lack of sleep, a lot of work, and THE MOST AWESOME MUSICAL COUNTDOWN EVER! 

(See that last post ->here<-)

But now that it's all calmed down I just want to fill you in on what exactly was happening. See, there's a radio station in Australia called Triple J and every year since the late 80s they have asked listeners to vote on their favorite songs from the whole year.  It has expanded and thanks to my Ausome Aussie friends I met when I studied abroad in Chile, I have the last 4 years of Compilation CDs triple J releases of some of the songs that make the countdown.  

Hottest 100 has a way of not only recapping some great songs, but it also can forecast what will become big on the indie (and sometimes mainstream scene in the US). For example, Foster the People, Mumford & Sons, Kings of Leon, Florence + the Machine, all were high up on the countdown THE YEAR BEFORE they became big in the states.  

Here are some pictures to accompany the full list of songs (from the Triple J Facebook page)

#100 Mr Little Jeans - 'The Suburbs'
#99 The Beards -'Sex With A Bearded Man'
#98 Jay-Z & Kanye West - 'Niggas in Paris'
#97 Foo Fighters - 'Arlandria’
#96 The Strokes - 'Machu Picchu'
#95 Grouplove - 'Naked Kids'
#94 The Wombats - 'Our Perfect Disease'
#93 Kimbra - 'Two Way Street'
#92 James Blake - 'The Wilhelm Scream'
#91 City And Colour - 'Fragile Bird'
#90 Beastie Boys - 'Make Some Noise'
#89 Beirut - 'Santa Fe'
#88 Bombay Bicycle Club - 'Shuffle'
#87 Gotye - 'In Your Light'
#86 Seeker Lover Keeper - 'Light All My Lights'
#85 Cosmo Jarvis - 'Gay Pirates'
#84 360 - 'Throw It Away (Ft. Josh Pyke)'
#83 The Kills - 'Future Starts Slow'
#82 Little Dragon - 'Ritual Union'
#81 Busby Marou - 'Biding My Time'

#80 Pnau - 'The Truth'
#79 SBTRKT - 'Wildfire (Ft. Little Dragon)'
#78 Husky - 'History's Door'
#77 Metronomy - 'The Look'
#76 Redcoats - 'Dreamshaker'
#75 Skream & Example - 'Shot Yourself In The Foot Again'
#74 Drapht - 'Bali Party (Ft. Nfa)'
#73 Skrillex - 'First Of The Year (Equinox)'
#72 Flight Facilities - 'Foreign Language'
#71 Luke Million - 'Arnold'
#70 Jebediah - 'She's Like A Comet'
#69 Bon Iver - 'Calgary'
#68 Arctic Monkeys - 'Don't Sit Down Cause I've Moved Your Chair'
#67 New Navy - 'Zimbabwe'
#66 Bon Iver - 'Perth'
#65 Kasabian - 'Re-Wired'
#64 Owl Eyes - 'Raiders'
#63 Foo Fighters - 'Rope'
#62 Stonefield - 'Black Water Rising'
#61 Radiohead - 'Lotus Flower'

#60 Joe Goddard - 'Gabriel'

#59 Washington - 'Holy Moses'

#58 Lykke Li - 'I Follow Rivers'

#57 The Rubens - 'Lay It Down'

#56 Sparkadia - 'China'

#55 Architecture In Helsinki - 'Escapee'

#54 The Grates - 'Turn Me On'

#53 Bon Iver - 'Holocene'

#52 Kimbra - 'Good Intent'

#51 The Drums - 'Money'

#50 Boy & Bear - 'Part Time Believer'

#49 Boy & Bear - 'Milk & Sticks'

#48 Art Vs Science - 'A.I.M. Fire!'

#47 Sparkadia - 'Mary'

#46 Active Child - 'Hanging On'

#45 The Kooks - 'Junk Of The Heart (Happy)'

#44 Hermitude - 'Speak Of The Devil'

#43 Grouplove - 'Itchin' On A Photograph'

#42 Florence + The Machine - 'What The Water Gave Me'

#41 The Strokes - 'Under Cover Of Darkness'

#40 Foster The People - 'Houdini'

#39 Benny Benassi - 'Cinema (Skrillex Remix)'

#38 Ball Park Music - 'All I Want Is You'

#37 360 - 'Killer'

#36 Florence + The Machine - 'No Light, No Light'

#35 Illy - 'Cigarettes'

#34 Gotye - 'I Feel Better'

#33 Jay-Z & Kanye West - 'Otis (Ft. Otis Redding)'

#32 Noah And The Whale - 'L.I.F.E.G.O.E.S.O.N'

#31 Ball Park Music - 'It's Nice To Be Alive'

#30 Calvin Harris - 'Bounce (Ft. Kelis)'

#29 Drapht - 'Sing It (The Life Of Riley)'

#28 Owl Eyes - 'Pumped Up Kicks (Like A Version)'

#27 Example - 'Changed The Way You Kiss Me'

#26 The Wombats - 'Techno Fan'

#25 Kimbra - 'Cameo Lover'

#24 The Wombats - '1996'

#23 Emma Louise - 'Jungle'

#22 Snakadaktal - 'Air'

#21 Skrillex - 'Scary Monsters And Nice Sprites'

           
#20 Bluejuice - 'Act Yr Age'                              #19 Nero - 'Promises'   
       
#18 The Wombats - 'Jump Into The Fog'          #17 Seeker Lover Keeper - 'Even Though I'm A Woman'

     

  #16 Grouplove - 'Tongue Tied'                         #15 Foster The People - 'Helena Beat'

           
#14 Foster The People-'Call It What You Want'  #13 Florence + The Machine-'Shake It Out'


     

#12 Architecture In Helsinki-'Contact High'     #11 Calvin Harris - 'Feel So Close 

     

  #10 Hilltop Hoods - 'I Love It (Ft. Sia)             #9 The Jezabels - 'Endless Summer'

        
#8 360 - 'Boys Like You (Ft. Gossling)'             #7 San Cisco - 'Awkward' 

      
#6 Lana Del Rey - 'Video Games'                      #5 M83 - 'Midnight City' 

     

#4 Boy & Bear - 'Feeding Line'                         #3 Matt Corby - 'Brother'

#2 The Black Keys - 'Lonely Boy'

AND MY PERSONAL FAVORITE OF 2011 WAS #1:

#1 Gotye - 'Somebody That I Used To Know (Ft. Kimbra)'

Triple J Hottest 100 Countdown!!!

So every year in Australia this AMAZING thing happens called the Triple J Hottest 100 Countdown, in the words of their own website: "triple j's hottest 100 is one of the largest public music polls in the world with millions of individual votes counted since it started in 1989." (See http://www.abc.net.au/triplej/hottest100/11/history/)

They spend a whole day (well here, night since it started at 8pm, but in Australia it's actually already the 26th and that's a holiday called Australia Day, HAPPY AUSTRALIA DAY!) counting down the top 100 songs based on a music poll done throughout December, and if you can't already tell from the right side of the page I VOTED! Gotye and Kimbra made up the majority of my votes since each person is limited to 10 songs.

So RIGHT NOW I'm streaming it while trying to get through the rest of my Corporations homework, it was going well for awhile but I just keep getting swept up in the music....

Oh wait, see I did it again there -- you just couldn't tell cause this isn't posting in real-time =)
So far I've gotten to #77... but I have no idea how I will get to sleep tonight since it's already 10pm... & I DON'T WANT TO MISS A SINGLE SONG!!!

Here's a picture of #s 81-100

#100 Mr Little Jeans - 'The Suburbs'
#99 The Beards -'Sex With A Bearded Man'
#98 Jay-Z & Kanye West - 'N*****s in Paris'
#97 Foo Fighters - 'Arlandria’
#96 The Strokes - 'Machu Picchu'
#95 Grouplove - 'Naked Kids'
#94 The Wombats - 'Our Perfect Disease'
#93 Kimbra - 'Two Way Street'
#92 James Blake - 'The Wilhelm Scream'
#91 City And Colour - 'Fragile Bird'
#90 Beastie Boys - 'Make Some Noise'
#89 Beirut - 'Santa Fe'
#88 Bombay Bicycle Club - 'Shuffle'
#87 Gotye - 'In Your Light'
#86 Seeker Lover Keeper - 'Light All My Lights'
#85 Cosmo Jarvis - 'Gay Pirates'
#84 360 - 'Throw It Away (Ft. Josh Pyke)'
#83 The Kills - 'Future Starts Slow'
#82 Little Dragon - 'Ritual Union'
#81 Busby Marou - 'Biding My Time'
(BOLD = old faves or newly discovered faves)


also, since we've discovered some other good one's while typing this:

#80 Pnau - 'I Thought You Were The Truth"

#78 Husky -  'History's Door'

#77 Metronomy - 'The Look'


Also weirdly, two dubstep songs.. never really appreciated it until now:

#75 Skream & Example - 'Shot Yourself In The Foot Again'

#73 Skrillex - 'First Of The Year (Equinox)'

I SUUUURIUSLY NEEED SLEEP! But this music is so good and being sleep deprived I'm not making rational decisions, just check my twitter @ItzBizr for an absurd amount of tweets directed to @tripleJ featuring "*hashtag*Hottest100"

OR

Check my Pinterest Boards for the EXACT SAME THING!!!!

TOO MUCH INTERNET! TOO MUCH NO SLEEP!!! TOO MUCH DISTRACTION!!! TOO MUCH WANTING TO SHARE THIS WITH ALL OF YOU!!!!

ALSO, CHECKIT FROM THE OFFICIAL COUNTDOWN PAGE:

 Yup, that's me at my carrel, trying to (unsuccessfully) balance reading Corporations with The Countdown... too bad those two girls next to me steal the show...

Let's Play Yoga (Videos)!

So for almost exactly one year, I have spent 60 to 75 minutes twice a week (leaving time for a couple weeks vacation) teaching yoga.  It has been a lot of fun and has really challenged myself in unexpected ways.  I am less anxious about trying to find the right word when speaking (this comes from calling my foot my elbow, or mixing up some other cues).  I get to share good music with the world, I get to meet interesting people and teach them something, I get time to calmly lead people away from their own problems for awhile to focus on their breath, their body, how to connect the mental with the physical and I really enjoy it.

Before I left on break one person suggested creating some workouts so that people could continue to have guided practice while I was gone.  So far I've posted three yoga videos and have really enjoyed seeing all the other stuff people have put one there.  I even discovered yogadownload.com from a friend, which is a great resource for a variety of yoga workouts..

Here's the first video I posted:

My first Yoga Demonstration Video (SuperThanks to Sarah for helping me out!)

I've filmed three more to post and can't wait to see that people are benefiting from them.  They are a mixture of workouts and a series I've titled "Perfecting Your Yoga Practice" where I show people some of the physical and mental cues for getting into proper poses.  You can check out a playlist of my Yoga videos here!

Let me know if you've any suggestions of particular poses for which you want clarification or muscle groups you'd like to work with a Vinyasa flow! 

MLK Day, Excerpt from Letter from a Birmingham Jail

‎"Time itself is neutral; it can be used either destructively or constructively... Human progress never rolls in on wheels of inevitability; it comes through the tireless efforts of men [and women =)]willing to be co workers with God, and without this hard work, time itself becomes an ally of the forces of social stagnation." Martin Luther King Jr., Letter from a Birmingham Jail