April 24, 2011

beautiful Urdu.

A Prison Evening

Each star a rung,
night comes down the spiral
staircase of the evening.
The breeze passes by so very close
as if someone just happened to speak of love.
In the courtyard,
the trees are absorbed refugees
embroidering maps of return on the sky.
On the roof,
the moon - lovingly, generously -
is turning the stars
into a dust of sheen.
From every corner, dark-green shadows,
in ripples, come towards me.
At any moment they may break over me,
like the waves of pain each time I remember
this separation from my lover.

This thought keeps consoling me:
though tyrants may command that lamps be smashed
in rooms where lovers are destined to meet,
they cannot snuff out the moon, so today,
nor tomorrow, no tyranny will succeed,
no poison of torture make me bitter,
if just one evening in prison
can be so strangely sweet,
if just one moment anywhere on this earth.

Faiz Ahmed Faiz

April 9, 2011

my oh my! pete & repeat!

i have been so consumed lately!
lots of interruptions, lots of challenges, lots of learning, lots of praying!
but you know... thank you LORD for all of it.

i haven't been taking the best care of my body tho..
staying up to the wee hours, jumping on that creative zone when it kicks..and that's usually towards the evening.
then i can't break out of it.
and before you know it, the sun is coming up.
that gives me a dark yucky feeling.
recent emergencies causing restless sleeping & the position i've been holding my body in while working on my recordings have flared up my neck pain again..
i need to get back to the chiropractor & start some sort of yoga/pilates for real!!
the pollen is also dry patching my skin & i chipped a tiny part of my front side tooth on a fork for crying out loud.
i still want to wake up with the squirrels & go to sleep with the bunny rabbits.
i've been so out of sorts lately it feels like... i feel like i'm still trying to start New Year's Resolutions!! haha
but really, not very funny.
but then again, there is progress... and i'm also fully aware of the spiritual stirrings during the lulls.
so i'm definitely not complaining..
drumroll....tonight......i have finished all my vocals for Josh Garrels' new album!!
his album "Love and War and the Sea Inbetween" should be out late Spring/early Summer.
it was a TON of work!! :)
i didn't realize how much time i would spend working on it..
again, not complaining... i'm ridiculously excited & blessed by this opportunity. (i've been a fan of his music/heart for awhile)
it's just while recording, when i got an idea for a harmony & laid it down, i'd hear a 1000 more harmony ideas in my head & want to lay them down too.. so i did.
there was a lot of singing/re-singing Pete & Repeating.
also, this artist Josh has such an unusually cool voice/tone... & i realize now that a lot of his phrasing is different than mine.
for instance, artist Matthew Santos belts out in the same cadence/mood that i naturally want to sing in.
i know this because the first time we ever sung together, it fit like a buttery leather glove, every vocal acrobatic magically matching together..easy pure beauty & fun!
but this project has proved to be more of a challenge.. i've had to pay more attention to what i am doing vocally & pay extra close attention to the artist's vocals.
i'm so GREATful for the challenge tho because i have learned a GRATE deal.
overall, i feel grEIGHT despite feeling a little tired..
tomorrow (today) i will re-group & re-gear for my solo album..
which quite possibly may be mini.
i had a personal deadline of late Spring, but that was pushing it...
Summer just might be twice as nice.
i am going to sleep now.
i will be uploading an actual well thought out blog entry soon.

here is a beautiful song by Tim Coons to say goodnight & good-morning with.
from his new album "frailty".


(i sure have plugged the musicians tonight...)

over and out...