We find this wondrous water drumming song to be a perfect uplift; it’s from the Banks Islands, part of the northern Vanuatu in the Indian Ocean. Thirty-five seconds in, you will enter the realm of joy. We love that these women are hanging out together hip-deep in water, using it as their instrument. And dig…
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Every week, unexpected messages fly over my transom, many from stranger-friends who have read something I’ve sent into the world via Improvised Life, in a kind of call-and-response. Like this illuminating beauty from Katherine Davich, a powerful spill of rain memory sparked by Thomas Merton’s RainText.
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From his retreat at his upstate cabin, legendary actor Mandy Patinkin sings in Hebrew as gets his dog Becky’s food for her. We were surprised to discover that what he is singing is a prayer. And that got us thinking about blessings to accompany simple tasks of daily life.
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Over 9 years at dawn, Cosmo Sheldrake carried recording gear, laptop, and sometimes a keybord into fields and woods to make music in collaboration endangered birds. The result is his new album Wake Up Calls; it is both charming and illuminating…
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A therapist friend once described the idea of reverie as a tool for healing. That allowing oneself to fall into a state of dreamy meditation and daydreaming, free of anxious thinking, has a powerfully restful effect. That is the state I found myself in after I stumbled on this tiny video of a whale lazily…
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Perhaps the most heartening victory of the fiercely contested national election is the record-breaking turnout of voters braving long waits and the coronavirus to exercise their VOICE. We can think of no better celebration than the anthem Patti Smith wrote in 1988…
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Tasha Blank‘s video manifesto shook us loose from a stuckness we didn’t know we had, mired as we were in the mighty anxiety of the zeitgeist, a seeming life-threatening election, dire news, contentious opinions… The international DJ, dancer, coach, somatic practitioner and music producer has much to offer in the form of music, events, courses…
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Indigo Girls’ Amy Ray and Emily Saliers put their finger on what makes poet/rapper Kae Tempest so unique: “…their willingness to love humanity through the darkness makes me hopeful”. That comes through powerfully in these two spoken word pieces and this short powerful interview. Words to live by.
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This short video has no commentary…Just two wolves howling in response to howls from faraway. It seems like singing, music of strange beauty and harmony. Primal. Wild. We know of only one human who can sing like that…
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Although we’re not religious, we’ve loved being able to wander into an empty church when we find one open, for a few minutes of quiet and the particular kind of stillness they hold. Recently missing that possibility, we’ve been discovering other ways to get the feeling of respite our random visits once provided.
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What marks the dark time of Coronavirus for me are the many instances of acute beauty that I am offered daily that have the effect of infusing moments with light. Like this sublime 2 minutes: a simple gift for right now.
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When Radio Garden starts to load, the words “planting seeds” appears on the screen. Then a virtual globe appears around which you travel to tune into thousands of live radio stations around the world. It is magic.
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Over the past week, I’ve been collecting information and video that yield heartening-yet-realistic views of the frightening situation we are experiencing together, from wise-men scientists explaining the science, to singers joining together virtually to serenade the world.
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As grim notices come in announcing closings and suspensions due to the Coronavirus, we saw THIS video from Italy and had to smile, heartened…
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This sublime short film is about “saxophone colossus” Sonny Rollins’ two-year musical sabbatical playing on New York’s Williamsburg Bridge and what he found there.
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This lovely immersive video follows acoustic ecologist Gordon Hempton to one of the quietest places on earth. It draws our awareness to just what it is we’re hearing, or not, and the unique, extraordinarily complex sounds of silence.
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All over town we’re seeing signs of people felled by the stunning heat wave, sleeping on benches under shady trees, lounging lethargically on the grass in parks. We’ve compiled some unexpectedly refreshing ways to cope…
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Among the many joys we experienced at the extraordinary Leonard Cohen exhibition at The Jewish Museum, is a room resonating with the sound of hundreds of people around the world humming Cohen’s anthem, Hallelujah. You can experience it online as well.
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With the release of Vol. 14 of Bob Dylan’s Bootleg series, Columbia Records released a video of the first take Dylan recorded of his song “If You See Her, Say Hello” with a unique twist, for unexpected intimacy and insight.
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The serene made-underwater music in Breathe, an experimental “water opera”, echoes ancient songs made by whales.
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