Music: John Mayer - "Gravity"

I'm not a musician, but I imagine if I were, the feeling of being on stage each night would be similar to drawing the same image over and over, and over.

Visual artists don't really do that, draw the same thing repeatedly, unless maybe you're a cartoonist. Fans of a visual artist don't stand behind them at their canvas, and watch them create. You don't hear someone whispering, "Oh, I know that brush stroke! She's going to do Still Life with Urn!" An artist doesn't spend all night working on a canvas and then go to bed wondering what the next canvas will look like with the same exact image on it (unless maybe you're Andy Warhol, but even still, silk screening was a form of mass production, not re-creation).

Artists don't go on tour. But their art does, and it's always the same piece, traveling from one wall to another. But it's not repainted in each city it visits. It's just not the way of the art form. But I have experimented with that idea before. In college we had to pick an object, and draw it 100 times. Each time we drew it, we had to rediscover the object. We had to find it in a new light, and paint it with new momentum. I never got bored, never felt uninspired by the object, even though I stared at nothing else for a week.

Each time I drew it, it was different. I came to expect the unexpected. I would conjure up the feeling that this was the first time the image had ever appeared on a page, even though I already knew it's lines by heart.

I imagine, to some extent, to some minor extent, that's what it feels like for a musician every time they get up on stage and play the same song, for the 100th time. It's not about repetition, it's about discovering a new way to see the light. It's about vibration and pattern. I imagine.

John Mayer is touring the country now, and last night in Florida, he played "Gravity" for the 100th time. Here's how this version came out.

Press play. Provide your own goosebumps.

Music: Kill To Know

I just LOVE this song.

All I wanted to write about today was this ONE song, and how I think it's officially become my new favorite song. I'm going to make a promise to myself that I won't overplay it. I won't listen to it 100 times in a day, learn the bar chords... or, wait... Maybe I will learn the bar chords. I can do that now, you know.

This is just such a rocking song. And Amy Miles does it justice. The video is super cool, and features one of my favorite female funnies, Amy Poehler (see if you can catch her).

Damn, now I want to go roller skating.

Here's the video.



If you wind up liking her as much as I do, you can watch the video in higher quality here: watch

And then visit her website here: amymiles.net

Book: Behind Everyman

What a wonderful book!

This is one of those little gems that you'll come across by word-of-mouth only. If you saw it on the shelf in the bookstore, it's very likely you'd pass right by it. Someone needs to have a word with that publisher about the cover design they chose. Not. Cool.

The book has a distinct voice, layered characters, humor humor humor, and a really moving story all wrapped in one. I think the basic idea behind the author's inspiration was, why are so many relationship-type books out there just for women? Men have feelings, too, you know! (Well, maybe that's not exactly what his internal monologue sounded like). But he went ahead, followed his gut, and wrote the thinking-man's guide to love, life, and career.

What you'll discover right away as you open to chapter one, is that the book has a unique twist to it: It's written in the tone of a "How to..." manual, like some sort of fix-'er-upper-do-it-yourself'er. And yet at the same time, as you're learning "how to get your screenplay published", or how to "succeed in online dating," a beautiful story is unraveling before you between this hapless guy and this charming woman, and the whole thing just flows from there.

I read it over 2 days or so. For the final stretch I was sitting on this amazingly soft puffy couch facing a beautiful winter's day. I couldn't have been more "into this" at the time, and often found myself laughing at loud. Always a good sign.

I have to tell you, this book touches your heart, tears you up a bit, and makes you a look a little harder for snowflakes. (Inside joke. You'd get what I meant if you read the book.)

And it's got "make me into a movie" written all over it.

Travel: Kripalu

Top 10 reasons to love Kripalu:

1. The chocolate cookies they sell by the gift shop.

2. The gift shop.

3. Healing Arts.

4. The way it starts to feel when you fall asleep.

5. The meals. More specifically, the pasta primavera.

6. Making new friends in a share circle.

7. Dancekinetics.

8. The new couches on the first floor.

9. The fourth floor sun room.

10. Planning your next trip before your current one is even over. And watching other people do the same.

Music: Corrine Bailey Rae

The new beautiful sound on the block can be found in the debut album of Corinne Bailey Rae. The album successfully balances soulful melody with shoulder shaking groove. Who would think that the way to enrapture an audience at first sound is with the quietest song on the album as your opening track. But that's what she does with "Just Like A Star", and enrapture is just what happens.

I hadn't heard of her at all until he blogged about it. Then the next day she swept up all the Grammy nominations one could hope for without anyone knowing your name. I'll make a photo-op prediction here: She could pull a Norah Jones circa 2003 come this February.

I have to tell you, this is a delightful, emotional, uplifting collection of songs from the British Ms. Rae. It's easy to memorize the words to "Put Your Records On" (which you will want to do as soon as you hear it, so you too can sing, "Summer comes like cinnamon, so sweeeet..."). In the past few weeks, after any meaningful conversation I've had with someone, I press the PLAY button on my stereo, and miraculously her songs fill the space with the perfect soundtrack.

All smiles. I recommend this.

Product: iphone

Reasons why I don't want the new iphone:

1. The touch-button thing seems cool, but what if I throw it in my pocketbook, and my keys hit the screen, and in the middle of a staff meeting I hear the distant voice of my grandmother shouting, "Hello? Hello? Are you married yet?"

2. It's too big. Have you seen how big it is? If I wanted something that big in my back pocket I'd eat another donut.

3. I don't think phones should cost more than the plane ticket I could buy to visit the person I want to call.

4. I don't put all my keys on one key chain, because I figure if I loose my car keys, than I still have my home keys, which allows me to enter my house and grab my spare car keys. In that vain, I don't want to have my music, my photos, my phone numbers and all my email in one little box. I don't want to get locked out.

5. And lastly, because the first 10,000 people who buy an iphone are going to experience an influx of this: "Oh my god, is that the iphone? Can I try it?"

Book: Committed: Men Tell Stories of Love, Commitment, and Marriage

What a funny idea for a book. And what a great idea for a book cover. However...

Reading "Committed" takes a bit of a commitment in itself, because the stories don't always live up to the cute concept of the collection. But I was curious, so I kept reading, hoping for some revealing truths regarding the male psyche. Hmm, I don't know if I learned anything that I didn't already know. (Men like beauty, stunning beauty. Men like the chase. Men like chasing stunning beauty.)

OK, so maybe I'm oversimplifying things. There are some good writers in here. Some boring ones. Some clever ones. One famous one (David Sedaris). I'm sure everyone who was asked to submit was very happy to do so. I stretched it out and read it in about a week, but found myself skipping a few stories here and there.

I have to tell you, if you like short stories, around a common theme, and have once or twice in your life wondered about the analogy between "men" and "commitment", then perhaps, this one's for you.