Blog Every Day in May: Day Two

Day 2, Thursday: Educate us on something you know a lot about or are good at. Take any approach you'd like (serious and educational or funny and sarcastic)

So hmmmm, what do I know a lot about?
See the thing is, I really know a little about a lot of things.
But one thing that I thought would be fun to instruct about (since it's been while) would be yoga.
I was a yoga instructor at the campus rec center at the University of Richmond for about 18 months, and it was wonderful.

Mini Yoga Background Time!
*The word "Yoga" means "unity" in Sanskrit, and it is an ancient Indian (the Asian country, not "Native American") discipline, and actually was meant to be practiced in all aspects of life, rather than just an exercise (its about more than the physical poses, it's a mindset).
*The names of yoga poses, or "asanas," are usually based on natural objects and animals (think mountain pose, downward dog, tree, cat, cow, etc.), and sometimes actually resemble the thing their named after, but sometimes require a bit of imagination.
*The most common yoga practice taught in classes is Vinyasa Yoga. "Vinyasa" means "to move with the breath" so Vinyasa Yoga is all about the unity between breathing and physical movement. Bikram yoga, Ashtanga yoga and other forms of hot yoga are all based in Vinyasa yoga.
*In Yinyasa Yoga it is important to breathe smooth and slow, and let your movements be steady and controlled, reflecting your breath, and bring intention to your movements while you concentrate on breathing.
*In Vinyasa Yoga, you breathe in through your nose and out through your nose, generally lifting/lengthening your spine on the inhale, and releasing/sinking on the exhale.
*Another main form of yoga it Hatha yoga which focuses more on the breath and meditative aspects of yoga.
*For every thirty (30) minutes of yoga practiced, one should spend 5 minutes in savasana or "corpse pose." While it sounds morbid it is actually a way to mentally reflect on what you just did, or focus on your breath, while your body relaxes and recharges.
*Usually a yoga class will end with the participants saying "Namaste" to one another, which roughly translated means "the divine in me recognizes the divine in you"

Mini Yoga Class Time!
Check out one of my YouTube yoga videos, focusing on opening up the hips and sides of your torso:

Or you can follow along with my most popular yoga video, focusing on leg strength and balance:

Hopefully you feel relaxed and zen after this brief introduction to Yoga. For more info, ask in the comments or find me on twitter: @itzbizr

Namaste

(Super)Fun Friday: Kickball and Cooking

So tomorrow I jet off to New Orleans to play for the National Kickball Title (I know how absurd that sounds but there's actually a lot of strategy and athletic ability that goes into an adult kickball game, and I've really missed having a team to belong to and something to REALLY play for in a sport).  My team, OSC, is actually quite good, in fact we won the WAKA World (National) Championship tournament in Vegas last month.

(OSC at the Harrisburg, PA tournament in June 2012)

It's also SUPERFUN because my sisters and I all play for the same team and when we get together and get competitive, it's impossible not to have a fun time!

uuber presh-to-the-ish, no?

And what also makes this (Super)Fun Friday is that I took a break from job applications this week to splice together my very own audition for The Next Food Network Star! Well, not really, but the way the job search is going, I'm not ruling it out as an alternative.  Anyways, here's a video where I show you how to make Jerk Chicken Chili! The recipe is included in the info-doobly-doo beneath the video on YouTube if you want to make some yourself.  It's SUPER sencillo (easy), and RIDICULOUSLY DELICIOUS. 

 It's one of the first big dishes I discovered and made entirely on my own so it will always be a special recipe in the filing-cabinet of my heart.

Anyways, hope you have a Fabulously Fun Friday and see you for the next Musical Monday!!

Musical Monday 3...

And its ACTUALLY A MONDAY!!! +10 to punctuality!  (In case this is your first visit, Musical Monday 1 and Musical Monday 2 never actually made it out on a Monday)

So we'll keep it short and sweet today, cause if it gets too detailed I run out of time/get distracted and before you know it Monday is gone! The theme today is Sunny-Indie Retro Pop/Rock, to counteract the rainy Mondays (I got sunshiiiine on a cloudy day)!

Sunny-Indie Retro Pop/Rock

White Arrows - Get Gone

I heard this first on the KEXP Music that Matters Podcast "Can't Say No to Friday." You put this on your car radio, roll the windows down and instantly you're the coolest person on the street (I did this in DC saturday morning and it was magic!). Also, Justin Timberlake himself promoted it via twitter about a month ago so if you're more of a top40er, uneasy about "indie-sunny-hazy-guitar-infused-pop" (as Cheryl Waters describes it), than no worries, the prince of radio-friendly pop himself endorses this.

Dum Dum Girls - Bedroom Eyes

Totally one to bounce along to, and who wouldn't want to wear one of these outfits pick up an instrument and live out some childhood "Josie and the Pussycats" inspired girl-rock dreams.

The next song is a little less "retro" a little more "1800s" feel, at least in terms of the fashion

King Charles - Mississippi Isabel

King Charles just released his debut album LoveBlood earlier this month and I look forward to listening to it, as I REALLY enjoyed his song LoveLust (and we all know how I feel about dreadlocks).  This song is an Ode to some chica named Mississippi Isabel -- who he also mentions in LoveLust-- which I'm guessing is the British Trustafarian version of the Manic Pixie Dream Girl.  The video really makes me want some sun, an old-school bicycle, and a countryside tea-party in ankledeep water, how about you?

I LOVE sharing music with you, any suggestions on the theme for the next Musical Monday?

Musical Monday (On Tuesday) Take 2!

So yet again my "Musical Monday" post is a day late, whoops.  Although I had grandparents in town all yesterday so didn't really want to abandon them to blog.

Anyway here's some music I've been listening to and want to share with you this week, the theme: JUMP AROUND AND CELEBRATE (CAUSE NO MORE LAW SCHOOL)

Robyn - Call Your Girlfriend

I may be late to the Robyn train but I LOVE the idea of her dancing alone in a giant warehouse until it becomes her own private club, and I love how you can just tell she lets the music move her, I definitely might've done the same thing after turning in my last exam!

Macklemore & Ryan Lewis - Can't Hold Us

NOT the way I expected these guys to look after hearing the song for the first time but I love this live performance cause you can see their enthusiasm and passion.  The violin and brass section are great. I just jump around the room to this one "Mack-le-mo-o-o-o-o-ore"

Kimbra - Cameo Lover

This video for this song just emphasizes its awesomeness! I always have a dance party (sometimes just an imagined one in my head) when listening to this!


Now, just in case you're not in a celebretory mood like me, here's a particular genre I refer to as Angry Yell Dance Music, like when you're upset and you just have to keep moving or yelling but you don't want to actually damage any relationship/hurt yourself, just some time to wallow and take your emotions out by pretending you're dance/yelling the song at a person or sometimes just the universe... this is a good one

Pnau - The Truth

(Video is REAL weird and trippy, if you want to seem normal, or are at work skip this one and just listen to the one here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WObL9pj0j54)

That's all I have for now.  What do you think about these songs, they get you pumped? What do you like to listen to for celebration music? I'd love to know so please share!

Belated Musical Monday: Tokyo Summer

Erm, so this was supposed to be up yesterday... maybe not the best start to my "weekly" update... but in my defense I had a championship soccer game at 10:15 which went into overtime and we WON, so I wouldn't have had this up before midnight anyways

So this is my attempt to try a weekly themed blogpost: MUSICAL MONDAY! The theme Tokyo Summer.  Tokyo because it's about as far as I can get from where I am right now and summer because it's only a week away!

Tokyo

Tokyo by Imagine Dragons

How awesome would it be to go back in time and be one of the dancers in this video!

Tokyo (Vampires & Wolves) by The Wombats

a fun video to an upbeat fun song!

Plans by Birds of Tokyo

"We made plans to kiss the stars at night, hopeless dreamers..."

Summer

Afraid of Summer by Lost Lander

For some reason it won't let me embed the video but here's a link to watch it, I love the way the music progresses and changes through the song:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ruqsgpOu-Ro

Also, the title represents my thoughts exactly on the 2/12 months of studying for the bar

Heartbeat by David's Lyre

I know i just posted about this song but it's sooo entrenched in my consciousness I have to share again.  The lyrics are so AWESOME "Summer comes, kisses the fields, but this heart won't beat forever"

Thanks for reading/listening! 

What songs come to mind for you when I say Tokyo Summer?  I'd love to know!

Finals Study Music (LAST SEMESTER EVER EDITION)

First you're ready to go although something is missing and someone behind you is chewing loudly... you know you gotta have some dubstep/techno, to drown out the noise around you and to keep you awake on the late night library sessions

Nero - Promises

(and of course the totalitarian dystopian Orwellian video to match goes well with what we all feel about higher education during finals week)

mix it with some folksy/indie/hipster stuff to remind you how it's never to late to say "scew it" and run off to the west-coast and become a hippie...

The Lumineers - Ho Hey

Or run away to England:

Bombay Bicycle Club - Shuffle

until you remember those six-figure student loans.  So you want to go back to when life was simple and your parents did everything for you:

Lushlife - Teenage Dream

Then like any hopeless romantic you know it's time for something mildly epic love story to let you know you can always find love... once this paper is over.

Gossling - Wild Love

(holler at the red string, LAP classmates, you know where it's at)

Next thing you know you're listening to former Disney Channel star Selena Gomez and dancing at your carrel thinking

Selena Gomez & the Scene - Hit the Lights

And then you start to get a little crazy and find something like this:

Grimes - Oblivion

If you're me you think "I'm less than 6 months older than her, and I also have dyed my hair interesting colors yet she's a Canadian music star performing at SXSW and I'm about to finish law school, she's employed and I'm not."

To cheer yourself up from looming unemployment and studying for the bar you find this little gem:

Cosmo Jarvis - Gay Pirates

Even though if you listen to the lyrics the song is kind-of depressing, there are awesome lyrics like: "It's you my love, you're my land ahoy, yeah you're my boy" and I dare someone to listen to this without calling "Yo Ho Sebastian" out at least once!

And then this:

Luke Million - Arnold

After someone shushes you for laughing out loud in the library, you get to work...

Then pretty soon you decide you need to have a song for a montage to while browsing the internet, oops I mean studying your outline, which leads you to some 80s jams.

The Who - Baba O'Riley

Thinking about John Hughes passing makes you think existential thoughts and become sad so you listen to something that reminds you summer is coming, but also that you won't live forever

David's Lyre - Heartbeat 

For some reason, that does the trick and now you're refreshed and ready to work... only it's two hours later.  At least you have tomorrow to study-- oh wait, tomorrow's the final?
... and you haven't finished outlining cause you've been reading my blog?
...well there's always this classic to fall back on in times of need:

oh your final is on Virginia Procedure... whoops!
At least you've got some fun new music?

If you've enjoyed the small selection here, I'm always wanting to share music I love with people! Comment, e-mail or message me somehow & I'll give you some more recommendations!

ALL NIGHT LONG!

LAST ACADEMIC ALL-NIGHTER EVER (at least I hope I have more of my act together for the rest of finals)

This is all I can manage to post at this time.

Also: check out David's Lyre, his music got my through last night

His cover of "We Found Love" is better than the original I think:

Spring Break Recap Video *Insert Excited Face*

"But Bitz... Spring Break ended a month ago..."
Yeah, well some of us had stuff like law school to do and kept forgetting to upload the footage to the computer...
Anyway, I recorded a little recap video of the whole trip as soon as I got back, it just took awhile before I had the time to get it up on the interwebs.  There is actually a 1/2 hour of footage from the trip and I made a lil movie for each of the ladies but since I have yet to ask their permission for eternal glory on the interweb (and I haven't had THAT much time to make a highlight-reel or edit out faces) , I haven't included all my footage. That might occur later. So stay tuned:

check out my horribly awesome Aussie accent at 3:28-408, and then at the very end

Also, let's take a moment to think how this is only my fifth numbered vlog entry and I had already forgotten which number I was on when I uploaded it...

As I face the last two weeks of law school and finals, we can be sure I will either ignore this blog completely... or devote all the time and energy I should be spending on my studies here instead.  

Music Meet-n-Greet!! "Pastoral Hipster" meets "Cloud Rap"

LET'S CHECK OUT SOME PASTORAL HIPSTER SONGS!
(and it's pastoral as in pasture, not as in religious)


Yellow Ostrich
I read a review for their music which coined the phrase "pastoral hipster" which is in itself a pretty cool term and can describe the music of this trio, who have a multi-instrument member and their singer does some neat stuff with vocal looping so it sounds like a larger group.  I heard them first on KEXP's Music That Matters Podcast, in "John's Awesome Mix Tape." The song Marathon Runner has not left my head since.  While the guitar drives the tune, a deeper listen reveals some amazing lyrics that are so applicable to where most mid-20s folks and just people in general might be in their lives right now.

Marathon Runner off of the recently released Strange Land

(If this gets so wonderfully stuck in your head and heart as it is in mine, they offer a free download of the song from their website mylegsaresore.com)

Speaking of heads and hearts, that's a direct and not at all contrived segue into the next musical group: The Head and the Heart.

The Head and the Heart

This band has been highlighted by many different sources, so Imma add myself to that list. It's just a matter of time before they hit it big, they have a sound you expect to hear in the background of some rom-com or smaller indie film. and the shifts in the song Sounds Like Hallelujah are creative and done well to really tell a story. 

Sounds Like Hallelujah, from the 2010 self-titled album

The Lumineers
Hailing from Colorado (I know a couple of awesome things that have come out of Colorado), this band is poised again to have some great mainstream appeal. And they also have enough fun making their music that they should thrive under the opportunities that come with recognition.

Ho Hey, from their self-titles debut out on April 3, 2012.  I want someone to sing this song to! I want to just be cool enough to be in this band, are they holding auditions?

Matt Corby
A FANTASTICALLY AMAZING solo artist out of Australia.  Apparently a couple years ago as a teenager he was the runner up in Australian Idol, and "losing" was probably one of the best things that could've happened for him, his music, and us listeners.  He had time to cultivate his own music/personality/unique point of view and has emerged with some wonderful songs of folksy introspection (not to mention his skill on an acoustic guitar!) If only I could've seen him live in in LA or NY last week (not complaining cause I did have another mind-blowing concert experience, read about it here)!

My False, off of his Into the Flame EP

Brother, this was the #3 song off of Triple J's Hottest 100 (it recently displaced Gotye's Save Me as my ringtone)

Imagine Dragons

I discovered this band off of the wonderful website (youmeandcharlie.com) run by Dianna Agron of Glee fame.  She is so incredibly artistic and open minded it is kind of crazy how different she is from Quinn, the character she plays on the show.  Anyways, there is a section of the site called Yo!DJ that is a must to at least check out some great artists.

It's Time, performed live. And while it doesn't necessarily match the genre, their song Tokyo is FANTASTIC! I want to go back in time and be in the music video for it.  Search it and you'll see why!

AND NOW PRESENTING "CLOUD RAP"
(Kudos to those who've made it this far)
"Cloud Rap" refers to an emerging trend to compose and rap over "ambient or glo-fi washes" or a type of a mash-up of rap and indierock, the blog Space Age Hustle coined the term. 


LushLife
Yet another KEXP Podcast find, you can find it on the Music That Matters Podcast as well as the Song of the Day Podcast (I think it was mid-February it came out). My goodness! How dope is this, right?!? And how much did you cringe to hear me use the word "dope"?

Teenage Dream off of No More Golden Days

Emancipator

The artist I know the least about but he is apparently a big name in the semi-newly dubbed genre of cloud rap.  I'm a sucker for anything Sigor Ros (YouTube videos of their songs accompanying Planet Earth clips are a finals-break favorite of mine), so this mash up drew me in instantly

Shook (Sigur Ros X Mobb Deep), Emancipator made this song available for a free download on his bandcamp)

LAST SONG: Not Cloud Rap but a pretty cool collaboration

I dig the hip-hop meets mod vibe of 360's Boys like you feat. Gossling, he provides the beat, she provides the hook in a sing-song wispy lost-innocence sort of way.

Boys Like You 360 feat. Gossling (and Gossling herself has some FANTASTIC stuff out there too, I just felt like no one would really even get this far or further so I had to end this post some time)...


Next up: Dance Party Hits for the Non-Top-40-Crowd! I had to blog about Tokyo somehow =)

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):

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! 

New Year, New Endeavor

This winter break I keep telling myself the goal is to finish the final paper for which my wonderful professor granted me an extension, prepare for my last semester of law school,  and most importantly get a job. Instead (and oh-so-obviously), my mind is filled with all the wonderful other things I could be doing with my life.

The conclusion I keep returning to is that as a person-on-the-go, I am constantly filling my schedule with things to do but not taking the time to properly reflect and meditate about them.  The problem with sitting and meditating is that I am an extrovert! While I enjoy time alone to reflect, I re-charge my batteries through interaction with other people.  This means all the withdrawal, alone, focus, study time involved in finals period wreaks havoc with my inner balance.  I become emo-Julia with pensive philosophical thoughts that lead to sadness and inertia (and a lot of web-browsing).

This particular finals led me to a Quarter-Life crisis, (for anyone who was unaware, 24 is almost 25, a shocking conclusion I reached just days ago) where I tried to examine what made me happy in life and how I ended up in law school of all places.

I also had random, not-productive-to-actually-share-because-I'm-sure-other-people-have-expressed-it-much-better meditations on how we as humans shape our own lives through Production vs. Consumption as well as the roles Reflection and Dialogue can play in our lives.

So in order to have a creative outlet, produce something for the world and have time to reflect I have created a YouTube channel that will work like a vlog, which I will connect it to this blog.  The overall goal would be to use it as a platform for connection and dialogue with other people but more than likely it will just be some sort of public outlet for my creativity until law school makes me too busy to keep up with it.

It will be about things that interest me, and I understand the whole idea is somewhat selfish/narcissistic, but really it will be a way for me to explore who I want to be and what valuable connections exist in my life to allow me to impact the world more efficiently.  This means I will examine my relationship with myself, my relationship with my peers, my connection to the activities that interest me (yoga, soccer, performing), my relationship with random people on the internet, my relationship with my environment, and my relationship with my lord and savior Jesus Christ.

Basically, there are multiple goals: reflection, and dialogue, expression, connections, sharing, creative outlet, and my favorite: productive procrastination.

Here is the first entry/welcome video:

you can go to the channel and check out what else I have up but just know the first two things I uploaded were college art projects and also happened back when YouTube videos had to be supercompressed and you can't see everything... who am I kidding, they're just weird!

Study Music (and videos)

So since it's finals week, I am prone to think about all the other wonderful things I can do with my time besides study.  I've really grown to like the idea of promoting music on my blog, since that's what i spend the majority of my time doing when perusing the internet.

What's ironic here is that in my procrastination I'm going to highlight the music I most enjoy when studying!

So here are some of my favorites to listen to while writing/studying/reading/absorbing knowledge.  Hopefully you can put these on in the background and enjoy some great, mellow, transportative (OK, well I know it's not a word and there's an actual word out there that means the same thing but it's finals week and my brain is fried so give me a break!). Sometimes it's hard not to watch the videos as well...

Sigur Ros "Glosoli"

There are a lot of great videos combining the beautiful music of Sigur Ros with breathtaking footage from Planet Earth, I have to keep the window minimized when watching this one

Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End Soundtrack "At Wit's End".   Gotta love the sweeping dramatic songs Hans Zimmer composes

Explosions in the Sky "The Only Moment We Were Alone" Epic Post-Modern Rock

Bon Iver "Towers"  Off the self-titled sophomore album, in my opinion the song ends way too soon.  The video is also hypnotic

And a pick-me up song for when you realize you've dozed off cause it's 2:30am and you're nowhere near finished writing/studying:

m83 "Midnight City" the driving back beat is more effective than coffee when it comes to keeping my eyes open late-night.

And an appropriate song for the season that ALWAYS gets me through December Finals Week:

Vince Guaraldi Trio "Christmastime is Here (Instrumental)" Oh Charlie Brown!

Finally, a treat for those who have made it this far:

This is what I did as a study break on Friday... 

 I really need a creative outlet and felt inspired to sing. There may be more coming...

Musical Endorsements

FYI: most of this was previously published as a guest post on another (semi-anonymous?) blog. you can check it out here:

http://pinkypersistence.blogspot.com/2011/11/guest-post-babyspice.html

So the big dilemma I have every time I sit to type a blog post…what to write about?  I never can quite commit to just one topic so I end up with multiple half composed blog posts in my head that never make it to the blogosphere (a big reason that I average only 1 post per month). But since I'm already about half-way through this post I might as well just use this as my own personal soapbox to talk about some awesome music that's out there.

I don't know if she's done it on this medium yet but Pinky likes to give me a hard time about my alternative taste in music… and then one to three years later come back and say, "Wow, you were right.  This band is pretty good."  But to her credit, I give her a hard time about listening to Britney Spears but then dance along to it when it comes on in a club.  

Anyway, the musical artist I've become obsessed with since I discovered him around March of this year is an Australian act Gotye (pronounced, oddly enough: "Gore-ti-yeh").  He recently (as in last week) won 6 ARIAS (like an Aussie Grammy) his single "Somebody That I Used to Know" which has gone viral on YouTube and features an amazing artist from New Zealand Kimbra.  While this album actually isn't available in the States yet (unless you buy it from his website and pay to have it shipped) you can buy his earlier album Like Drawing Blood which is fantastic as well (highlight "Your Heart's A Mess").  He also recently announced a show in NY in february (YAY) but tickets sold out so fast today I missed out on getting a ticket (SOOOOOOOOOOOO BUMMED, YOU have NO IDEA!) 

There's the AMAZING Somebody That I Used to Know video:

And the two of them performing the song live at the ARIAS:

Before this becomes a full-fledged advertisement I'll suggest a couple other acts/songs which deserve a look on YouTube or vimeo and can help broaden your musical horizons (if nothing else, checking them out will give you a little break to your work/studying):

Kimbra - Two Way Street (super-talented vocalist, I also recommend the videos for Settle Down and Cameo Lover)

Dawes - When My Time Comes (out of CA, toured with Mumford and Sons, similar sound)

Apparat Organ Quartet - 1,2,3,Forever (Icelandic group of four organists and a drummer, fun claymation video)

Oh Land - White Nights (Swedish former ballerina who looks like the younger sister of Heidi Klum, Molly Simms, and Gwenyth Paltrow)

The Love Language -  Heart to Tell (throwback 60s vibe of the music as well as the stomping)

Angus & Julia Stone - And the Boys (Aussie, brother and sister duo off their latest album Down the Way)

Sia - Clap Your Hands (another Aussie, used to sing with Zero 7, has collaborated with Xtina, a fun an crazy video for a song that's easy to jump around to)