I went to bed at 4am yesterday. I got an unexpected call for a last minute gig today. I ended up doing one of my most favorite things on the first day of 2012, which is play music and make people happy.

2011 has been quite an interesting year for me. I moved twice within a month’s time in the same neighborhood, went from living alone to having two room mates, completed most of my first album as a music producer, was really contemplating on moving to California to train in an intensive transformational program with a foundation in listening, worked the most rigorous I’ve ever worked on my spirituality, started two new business ventures, and started really taking a look at dating seriously.

I am declaring 2011 complete for myself – all the accomplishments, failures in performance, and good and bad experiences. I am ready to start from a clean slate. I have actually started this work back in September and am reinstating my commitments for the new year.

I predict that 2012 will be a year of challenge and great fulfillment. And it starts with consciousness. I am really focusing on what thoughts I’ve been entertaining in my head and the actions I’ve been taking that will actually move what I am up to forward rather than pulling me back from progress. Be sure to check in as I will be posting more of the results of projects I am at work on for the new year. I want to leave you with a great book I am finally reading after 10 people literally suggested it to me. It’s called “Power vs. Force” by Dr. David Hawkins.

Power vs. Force by Dr. David Hawkins

Lastly, I want to leave you with an invitation to start listening to the people around you who are up to stuff in life and ask them how they see you and how you can expand yourself. It is much more powerful to live inside of the eyes of others who nurture and love you than it is to live inside of your own filtered opinion about yourself. Have a great new year!

Lullaby from ronsager at Letsmix.com.

It’s scorching hot in Chicago today. It’s starting to affect people’s tempers. I’m on the bus right now and the bus driver’s snapping at everyone. I think he’s really over this heat. I’m a little more excited now for the fall and temperate weather.  Anger can be contagious, so it’s best to stay calm in situations like these.  I wanted to get irritated myself watching everyone snap at each other on the bus.   Hot weather sometimes equates to hot temper.  That’s why I’ve been spending my time at the pool.  Immersing myself in water to cleanse all the negativity.

On a lighter note, here are some fun shots I took with my iPhone hipstamatic app.

I’ve recently become a distributor for an online music resource that promotes independent artists who are interested in taking control of their music careers.  It’s a really great program and portal.  I highly recommend it for all you musicians out there who are tired of giving the record labels all the control.

Here is one of the artists who has recently made waves with Conquer Entertainment.  Her name is Justina.  I saw her perform live in front of 25,000 people.  It was awesome.

Justina

I heard one of Neko Case’s songs at the end credits of True Blood (they always feature the best music) and I had to download it. Neko has such a haunting voice. Her sound is classic.

Download Neko Case Music

Enjoy!

I was having lunch with clients today and we were discussing sustainability and the study of ant farms and how the ant farm system is duplicated for the human system.  Someone had mentioned this movie and I wondered how it would be if we all stopped working for one day.  What would happen?  Would the big guys on top freak out and lose it?  What would we do without the backbone of so much of the many industries that make up our economy?  What would a day look like without a Mexican?  It’s sounds offensive, I know.  But they run this planet.

I thought it was cool to see Hebrew on a pack of camels.

Here’s a really great network for artists in Chicago.

http://artisticallylinked.ning.com/

Thanks for the reference, Schae!

My friend just got back from Israel on a trip with the Kabbalah Center. He said it was one of the most amazing experiences he ever had. He had been to Israel several times but he said by far this has been the best one. The Kabbalah Center had connected with the PLOs and they had actually let them in to the grave site of Isaac which has historically open only to Muslims.

I thought it was a really awesome story.