Yoga and Dancing and Living the Good Life

Mark Farina was a great show made even better by the fact that everyone I went out dancing with actually stayed boogying on the dance almost all night long! Usually I dance more than others when I go with a group and having everyone boogie down made it a truly excellent dance experience.

Speaking of truly excellent experiences, I just got back from Hot Yoga with Sanj and it was the best Hot Yoga class I've taken. I have now truly found the deep resonant love for the Bikram/Hot practice which I enjoyed before but didn't truly "get". What made it so great, outside of great teaching, was that tonight I could really hear my mind start to throw crap at me, and I had the ability to get in deep with my breath and instead of just allowing the mind to distract me, I sent my breath in to the areas where I was resistant. In my shoulders, with claustrophobia, fear of pushing further, etc - I just kept sending the breath through and letting the emotions and thoughts fully rise up without resisting them. Having the full minute in poses means that the practice can be a lot more confrontational than a more flowing practice and that confrontation was just what I needed tonight.

Hurray for yoga and hurray for life!

I'll Be Managing Huntington Beach

So the news I vaguely alluded to yesterday is now been officially released - I'll be managing the Huntington Beach CorePower Yoga! I'm quite excited for this, I love the studio and feel like I can do a great job here. I'm very happy that Kat will still be around at the studio, because not only can she help continue to do an awesome job with programming but she is also a great person and friend and I'm happy to still see her regularly!

To The Future and Beyond!

I may have some exciting news coming soon in my life. If things happen this will come in the next week or two. I really never know what's around the next corner for my life and I quite like it that way! =)

I will say that California is agreeing with your old Mr. Mississippi, it's a good state for me at this time of my life.

Hard Drive Cord

My hard drive cord first died and then got lost so I have no access to the majority of my music. Right now, my Nano is my best source for music. I have a new cord on order and once that arrives I can make some new yoga playlists which I've been heartily craving to do for a while now.

The other thing I want to get into is creating podcasts. Podcasts both of yoga playlists and also for a series of industrial music comps I've put together. Hopefully it's not too hard to put together a podcast. It sounds like fun and once I get my "Jai Five" website up and running, it will be cool to link the site to playlists.

Article

I've been asked to guest blog an article for another site and I've been going through more drafts and not quite getting the right tone. I'm going to spend the next one hour focused on this task and then go out to get groceries. Either I'll have a good article by then or I should at least have a solid state start. Wish me luck!

Random Thoughts from 6 months in

6 months now in CA. Does the name Mr. Mississippi still apply? Today I move from the room I was renting in Huntington Beach to a room in Westminster. I always get philosophical on move days, they represent a certain type of paradigm shift. I'm now into co-leading my second teacher training and I have been teaching a lot the last month or so. Lost my car in a crash so I bike everywhere now. Noel's in Eau Claire for the 4 months or so. She doesn't have a job right now so we are pretty broke. It's interesting living genuinely close to the ground. I've worked on some Eddie Entropy music with Nick, that's been fun. Listening to Japanese thick psychedelic rock from the 70s right now. It is strange seeing all your possessions in one small corner of a garage. God is everywhere and I'm really into it right now. The living of life as the supreme manifestation of life. This space is rather hidden all things given so it's like my private little freak-out zone, kind of cool really. I have a private livejournal too but I like the idea of this blog being hidden in plain site. Will I continue to write here? I have seen current mainstream movies in the past six months than in the last 6 years combined. A few positive surprises and a few complete turds. Been very into krautrock lately, this whole time out here has been rather like a travelogue through my different musical phases. Before I was listening to a lot of industrial from the 80s and 90s, I've been putting together a huge mixtape series of primarily industrial stuff, it's been fun. Now I've switched over to Herbie Hancock, reminds me of hanging with Kelli in Bellingham. Time is rather fluid and there's some hidden tensions going on in my life but mostly I feel pretty energized. I feel youthful vigor but don't feel young. That's a good combo. Teaching yoga has been a trip out here, people here seem to get my energy better than they did in MN, that's cool. I'm going further off the grid now, cancelled most all of my internet subscriptions though I'll probably re-subscribe to Netflix when I have a little more money. I've enjoyed the current series of Doctor Who more than any other since the show's come back on the air, it's gotten me even watching some of the old classics. Spent a lot of time hanging out with the Hare Krishnas. Spent a little time hanging with Lon Milo Duquette's Monday Night Magick Group. Used to go up to LA for yoga and Kirtan all the time. Saw Krishna Das, Bhagavan Das, Donna De Lory, Snautam Kaur, C.C. White, Dave Springer, Deeva Premal (who had the drummer form the Doors and the preacher from Agape join her on stage) and a bunch of other people too. Lots of great yoga with Shiva Rea and some kind of silly yoga with Steve Ross. It's weird out here so many people casually know a number of "famous" people, it's just sort how things roll. Xiren is coming over in 15 minutes to help me move so I should do my last round of gathering everything together. Jai! Jai! Jai! Jai! Jai! (jai five, I'll explain later).

200th Post! (a.k.a. 100 Post Check In Pt. 2)

OK, so it took me about 3 1/2 months to do my first 100 posts to this blog and it's taken a year and seven months to do the next 100 posts so I think it's safe to say that momentum has slowed down a little bit! Once I got plugged into Facebook, I slowed down here and also once I got my managing at CorePower job I also slowed down. I've had a great time managing CPY, it's something that I genuinely believe in and it's the first time in my life where my primary passion is also my job. Before I'd always have a "This isn't my real thing, my real thing is (music, writing, yoga, fill in the blank)" attitude. As a result of marrying passion to work, my work takes up a lot of my time! As a result of that, when I come home I'm less likely to blog about yoga playlists! It's also very important for me to remain professional as a result of the roll I play and so I don't want the blog to give anyone an inappropriate peak behind the curtain.

So, the old blog went into stasis from Oct 08 to Aug 09. Since it's come back I've used it first as a place to post music videos I like and more recently as a place to make quiet asides and post pictures of my bunny rabbit and my wife! God only knows where I'll move with it next. Pretty sure I'll always be posting music videos here but I'm not sure how it will change. When I move to CA it may very well become more life update-y just for the sake of friends in MPLS, although Facebook will also serve that purpose. Perhaps, as when I move to CA I won't be managing right away, I'll get back into the whole Yoga Playlist thing.

I've got to say that when I started this blog almost two years ago I wouldn't have been able to predict where I would be in two years time. Not just in having a job that I genuinely love but also to the degree in which I am content with life. Not nearly as much pushing and wanting to be somewhere/something/someone else. It's a good little life! =)

My Old Time Radio and Pulp Magazine Reviews

I thought I'd pop by and let all y'all know that I've started a sister blog to this one where I review Old Time Radio Drama, Modern Audio Fiction and Pulps. It's at www.goldenmasks.blogspot.com Check it out my friends and leave some comments for fun! For those of you who have never learned the joys of old time radio, it's just about my favorite form of entertainment, and tons and tons of it are available for free download as podcasts on iTunes. Now that it's Halloween time, download some classic horror thrills!

My plan is to get at least 10 reviews posted a month. They are not professional level reviews, they're done for the entertainment of myself and my readers. I do hope to get better and better at reviewing but at the end of the day I'd rather get more reviews out and have them be less than perfect rather than a very few perfect reviews.

PS: Click on the ads to side on the Golden Masks blog and help make me big bucks! I'm up to 6 cents so far, financial independence cannot be far behind! ;)

Moving out West

I'm moving to California! The announcement has been made officially through work so I can talk about it, though I choose to do so here rather than on my higher profile Facebook page.

I'll be working with CorePower still (hurray!) and helping out at the Huntington Beach studio. I've been wanting to move to CA for years and it's great to see it finally coming together. Jan. 1 is the move dates. Noel's going to move out later so I'll be able to get a lay of the land and such. This will be the longest we've been apart but after 16+ years of marriage, I think it's safe to say a little long distance relationship time won't change anything.

Yoga and sun and beaches and the ocean and palm trees and all sorts of other good stuff - here I come! Does this mean I need to change the name of this blog?? ;)

It's Been A While

Hi! It's been a while since I've been here. Hope life is going good! I've got Yogi Training starting this weekend, so that's exciting. I'm over on Facebook quite a bit the past week (I go through phases of spending time on Facebook and then disappearing for months on end, I'm in a "spend time" phase right now.

I bought the YACHT album today. I'd read about them on Pitchfork and kind of avoided the album as the clips didn't do it for me. On first few spins, I'm rather enjoying it. You can hear the LCD Soundsystem sound for sure, but the lyrics are more fun and not as self-referentially ironic, which I like.

Tempest Bunny

Poor Tempest has been ailing since last Thursday night, she's come down with Gastric Stasis.  Basically it's constipation but on bunnies it can kill them.  So, Noel and I have been force-feeding her and giving her medication.  Today she's finally eating on her own, which is awesome, though she's still sluggish and not pooping like she should.  Tempie is our first pet together and this is her first sickness.  It's amazing how difficult it is seeing her through this time.  "Financial Crisis" and elections haven't caused me anywhere near the stress of this poor Tempie's sickness.  I know she's on the road to recovery but it's still tough.

Tempest Bunny

I just wanted to post quickly about how much I love my bunny rabbit Tempest (aka Tempie aka Tempeh).  She's a big black bunny with a white patch around her mouth.  Once I get a digital camera you'll all get a lot of extra cute photos.

Landmark Forum

I've gone through the three day weekend now. I'll admit I was skeptical going in and went through a very wide range of thoughts and emotions about it over the course of the weekend but right now I can say it was exactly what it was and it transformed me. I highly recommend the program to anyone who wants transformation..

Landmark Forum

Tomorrow through Sunday and a little bit on Tuesday I'll be doing the Landmark Forum. I've heard a lot of different opinion on this, it will be interesting to view it head on.

www.landmarkeducation.com

One-Eyed Miller?

I almost poked my right eye out last night. I was getting clothes to wash for yoga when I hit my head against a sharp-edged metal post in our closet. I've got a bit of a puncture wound about an inch or so away from my right eye. It doesn't look like much but it serves as a reminder for something that could have been much worse. Yikes!

Busy Signal

I'd better write something here before I lose the domain but I'm too tired to say much. I will say that the new job is a ton of work but also, quite literally, a dream come true. No dreams come into reality without a lot of hard work. As is obvious I haven't posted much here for a while. I hope to pop in every now and again.

Doors for the Minnetonka studio open June 27, so pop out and see me when they do open! The schedule's even up online now!

Take care and I hope things are going well for all of you!

dnd

New Job

Yeah, it's been a while since I've posted - life's been very busy and very good.

Big news: Friday is my last day at the law firm, as of next week I'll be making my living as a yoga studio manager! Yep, my friends, you read that right!

Minnetonka will be getting a brand-spanking new Corepower Yoga late June / early July and I'll be captain-ing the vessel! I'll have more info later, but I wanted to let everyone know now why I've fallen off the face of the planet!

Also, I'm doing sound/music for a 10 minute play, it debuts Wednesday at the Bedlam. More info on that during the day today.

Be well,

David

Is My Birfday!

Yep. Happy Birfday to me. 34 as of about 10 minutes ago. Off to see Cut Copy and The Black Kids. Hurray!

Went to Iron Man earlier today, road my bike around, ate really good indian at Nalapak. Lots of good time with Noel and on my own. Wandered to a few comic shops to pick up dirt cheap Valiant Comics. I threw out my back a week ago and it's still tender so I eschewed other physical activity.

Hope all is well for you!

DND

Cut Copy next Tues

I mentioned a month or two back how much I've been enjoying Cut Copy. That hasn't gone away and their album has more listens than any other '08 release. The great news is that they're playing the 7th St. Entry next Tuesday which just happens to be the day of my birthday. Hurray! If you're interested in coming out, watching great music and celebrating my birthday please pick up some tickets and we'll have a party!

Here's some footage of CC playing a festival:

Mexico!

I leave for my advanced teacher training retreat bright and early tomorrow morning!!  I hope to have some photos upon my return.   Wish me well!

Love,

DND