I’m rounding up my break from long writing days, along with the catchup of smaller projects. It’s been a delirious lost-hours time of watercolour. The latest in the Roots & Wings Series began with completing about a half-dozen paintings started months ago…
Roots & Wings Series 10, One
Roots & Wings Series 10, Two
More postings soon!
I had thought I might write a new song on my hiatus from the big writing. Well. A few ideas crossed over but I’m not riveted, and I really only write a song once in a deep blue moon. Instead, I’m catching up on some other music projects.
“Holding On & Shifting Gears” never feels finished. Ack. But it has been with me since my first weeks of guitar/singing several years ago so, in a sense, it’s helping me learn. I periodically video when I practice so that I can see where I might hope to improve. Last summer I strung together clips from movies of me working on this song. That extended version is 8 minutes loooooong. A friend suggested I make a version with the final clip only. Months later, here it is… 2 minutes and 37 seconds. It’s not HQ anything.
The lyrics, if you’re interested, are posted here: https://moyamaxted.com/2011/07/20/holding-on-and-shifting-gears/
Thank you for listening!
“Lightly”, iPad finger painting
Dec, 2013, one morning when I awoke very early and caught a waft of holiday spirit
It was an unusual Christmas for me. Didn’t want to shop or decorate or watch all my favourite movies. I was just not into it. Thankfully, my significant people seemed to understand–in fact, some of them were feeling the same way. So I puttered at the things that felt meaningful, and made my low key way through the holidays. It was the most relaxed December, ever.
However, the New Year is now well underway and yesterday I realized that I hadn’t done my annual new-to-me playlist for 2013. Here it is…late and, I think, better for it.
Happy 2014! May each day in the year ahead find you doing the things you love. And people to love you as you do.
Moya
Better Late Top 10 New-to-me Playlist 2013
Fiona Apple ~ “Criminal” Funky and a wee bit dark.
Serena Ryder ~ “Stompa” Let’s just dance already, k.
Zero 7 ~ “In the Waiting Line” Heard on a favourite online radio station–Radio Paradise. Spacey and sorta sultry. Love the vocal harmonies and the instrumental bits.
Paul McCartney ~ “Let Me Roll It” I know: How could I have missed it?
Broken Bells ~ “Your Head is On Fire” Again, the harmonies and instrumentals, particularly the strings.
The Lumineers ~ “Ho Hey” Just a sweet song.
The La’s ~ “There She Goes” Upbeat. A fun, slightly sexy tune.
Poison ~ “Unskinny Bop” All I can say is that I must have been busy that year. Bop bop…WAIT A MINUTE…where’s the video?! The original video is no longer available, nor is the feature that allows reordering of tunes as one sees fit. You WILL find an “Unskinny Bop” video at the bottom of the playlist. Bop!
Justin Townes Earle ~ “Ain’t Waitin” Skill and a little grit.
Amos Lee ~ “Colors” On the “Just Like Heaven” soundtrack. Another song that I had to have heard but did not register. Caught my attention when watching the movie the second time… (and the third… ).
On a recent night out with friends, I participated in a game of Name That Tune. Midway through the game, the officiator (guy with the mic) announced that bonus points would be given to teams who got up and danced IF all members did so. I happened to be playing pool. And I sunk three balls in a row…while dancing! Here’s where you have to know that I don’t play pool much and am not that great at it. But when the guy with the mic again offered extra points for dancing teams, I was still at the pool table. Yes, I danced, and I sunk–one by one–four balls.
Everything is better with dancing!
Sooo… as I prepare for my upcoming holiday, guess what I’m doing? Well, maybe not quite as vigorously as I might otherwise but I’m there in my mind. Dance with me!
On breaks from other projects, I’ve been puttering at my new blogsite design. I’m trying to decide on the header and I think I’ve narrowed it down to a choice between two. I might even update seasonally but we’ll just see about that. For the summer, at least, I want to use either “Trust Your Instincts” which is currently featured:
or “A Little Bit of Heaven”:
I also like “Weeds”, another from the Dark/Light series (all three of these are D/L, actually):
but I am using that elsewhere. Will have to make a decision before long…your feedback in Comments or private text/mail is welcome!
Towns and neighbourhoods around me are flooding and the rain is still coming down. Ironically, I am steeped in rebuilding my blogsite. Anticipate muck and debris for the next while.
Happy Solstice!
Jonathon
Footnote, Dec 9 2024: This post was made in June 2013. At this point I’m not entirely rebuilding but doing some reconstruction… this time, as Winter Solstice quickly approaches. Warm wishes!
I love to dance…it’s one place where I lose a certain self-consciousness, and just move to the rhythm of the music. People who learn and communicate most effectively through movement/doing are more likely to identify with this. But, truthfully, dancing is for everybody. Every body.
Everybody needs to move. To energize, diffuse, celebrate, express and connect. It’s GOOD for you–for a number of reasons–but don’t take my word for it. Check out, “Dancing Makes You Smarter”* by Richard Powers, which asserts that frequent dancing reduces the risk of dementia by 76%! How so? Something to do with neural plasticity, with the “rewiring of neural pathways” by making our brains perform complex functions, particularly things it doesn’t already know how to do.
“Dancing integrates several brain functions at once — kinesthetic, rational, musical, and emotional — further increasing your neural connectivity.” In the New England Journal of Medicine report on the relationship between participation in leisure activities and lowered risks of dementia it states, “Dancing was the only physical activity associated with a lower risk of dementia.”
Well, my brain has had a workout and I have not left my chair for several hours. Those who want to dive deeper into the study or learn more about dancing, be sure to check out the links within Mr. Powers’ article. The rest of you… chair dance?
Either way, have fun getting smarter.
*The link to “Dancing Makes You Smarter”:
A peek at this Spring’s works…
Roots & Wings Series 4, #1
Roots & Wings Series 7, #1
Roots and Wings Series 4, #3
Roots & Wings
Series 5, #2
This story has been condensed from an earlier version. I’ve shortened it to share with some friends from Tweetspeak Poetry…
A little over a year ago, a friend’s post about the nurturing quality of poetry sent me searching for my well-worn copy of “Poemcrazy”—the only book I’ve ever carried in my purse.
Several days after my friend’s post, another friend shared her video of tattered fabrics wafting on a Wyoming clothesline. I was mesmerized, and felt the ancient urge to make a poem.
I had given up writing poetry years ago. It wasn’t a popular genre and I wanted to be more widely read; to actually make a living doing what I love. However, to be visible takes strong writing. It takes a good sense of what people want. And what we want, I have become more convinced, is to be lost and then found. We want the battle, the blood, the burns, the scars, the resolution, the intimacies…the magic. For a writer to find that takes going deep.
I can’t plot my way to success. Though good plotting helps, I need magic. I need to be willing to burn on the page. Even when it’s not pretty, or popular, or read–I need poetry. And occasionally I need to be reminded of that.
Float Fires and Flag Dragons
FLOAT FIRES AND FLAG DRAGONS
wind shifts
fires float
and dragons curl
around the hearth
of secret aspirations;
recoiling
side-winding
snaking tattered verses
into
healing shadows;
breathing
Moya Katherine Maxted ©
The newest additions to the Roots & Wings series, the first for 2013…
Roots & Wings, Series 3
#2
Roots & Wings, Series 3
#3
Roots & Wings, Series 3
#4
The first in this series. I’m not sure that it works with the others in the grouping, however, and I may just use it as a stand-alone.
All works on this site are copyrighted and may only be reproduced with permission of the author.
email: moya@moya.studio
moya 