Archive for the ‘Music’ Category

About Rickie
Rickie Byars-Beckwith is an amazing spiritual songwriter of our time. She is an intuit who helped to mold and "Vision" the Music Ministry at the Agape International Spiritual Center in Los Angeles.

She and Michael Beckwith have visioned, channeled and written songs for her albums as well.

View Rickie’s Website: Rickie Byars

Find Rickie on MySpace: Rickie Byars

This CD always gets me in the mood for New Year’s Eve. With all the hustle and bustle of Christmas crowding people’s minds New Year’s reminds me of a more genial time of relaxing with friends and family without the expectations that come with Christmas. So when I start to feel overwhelmed, listening to Striking 12 helps me relax while keeping me in a holiday mood.

Striking 12 is the musical story of a man who decides to spend New Year’s Eve alone reading Hans Christian Anderson’s story, The Little Match Girl. Along the way he comes to the realization that everyone deserves to be treated well. He learns compassion, gratitude, and generosity. The parallel between Hans’s little match girl and Striking 12′s little light bulb girl create a synergy that gives the story added dimension. Hopefully the girls will not share the same fate.

This CD was released last year and we listened to it all season. Now they’re back touring with the live show through 12/23. In the meantime you can enjoy one of last year’s live shows on this CD. The playful bantering and live audience make for a really enjoyable listening experience. I really love the music and the story is very clever. GrooveLily’s music continues to evolve and climb to higher levels. They are truly an amazing group.

Listening Tip
The whole CD is a little over an hour and you might want to listen to the whole thing uninterrupted the first time so you don’t lose the story line. After that you can listen to the songs as you please.

My favorite mellow song is Snow Song (It’s Coming Down); favorite clever song is Last Day of the Year; favorite fun song, Hey La La which we always refer to as "This is the sound of a party you don’t get to go to"; and last but not least, my favorite brutally honest song is Screwed-Up People Make Great Art. The CD is so wonderful I can’t pick just one!

Parental Caution
If you don’t know the story of The Little Match Girl you might want to read it, or better yet, listen to this CD before letting your children listen to it. (Psst – the little girl dies, sssssssssshhhhhhhhhhhhh…)

View details at Amazon.com: Striking 12: The New GrooveLily Musical

These are some of the sites on my website. Some are affiliates and some aren’t. The affiliates are marked with an *. You can follow them from here or click on any you see within a given book or product review.

Commerce sites

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* Amazon.com Books and other products at a great discount

    Discount Juicers For lots of healthy food supplies

    Earth Speak Local store for native "American" items, stones books, shirts, dousers, amazing jewelry, etc.

    Ecobaby Not a great web site but the stuff they have is good for you and your baby and they make a lot of it themselves

* Gaiam Natural and organic clothing, home supplies and much more

    Green Building Supplies I got soy based paint remover from them and it’s great

* Hearth Song Natural children’s toys
 
    Home Improvements Catalog Great ideas for your home!

    Kimberton Whole Food Store The local health food store near my house. The site doesn’t sell items but maybe you can stop by the store and we’ll run into each other

* Magic Cabin Natural children’s toys, music items, etc.

    Toys from the Heart Toys for children of all ages

Raw Food

   Discount Juicers For lots of healthy food supplies

* RawFood.com Raw foods and resources. This is a great site for healthy food and accessories

   Raw Family This is the site of one of the first raw food families around. Find raw products, articles, artwork, testimonials, recipes, links and a free newsletter

 The Date People Unheated, Unfrozen, Untreated, Sustainable and small-farm grown, affordable, highly nutritious, delicious, high-fiber, raw, high-alkaline, low-glycemic varieties of dates picked and shipped right to you.

Children

   Ecobaby Not a great web site but the stuff they have is good for you and your baby and they make a lot of it themselves

* Hearth Song Natural children’s toys

   Kimberton Waldorf School The local Waldorf School where Marissa will go. It’s one of the oldest in the country. One of Paul Newman’s children went here

* Magic Cabin Natural children’s toys, music items, etc.

   Official Waldorf Schooling Website  Waldorf Schooling is recommended in Neale Donald Walsch‘s book Conversations with God

   Toys from the Heart Toys for children of all ages

Healthy Body

* Moom Natural Hair Removal for women and men

Healthy Spirit

*Holosync Meditation Software Not only helps you "meditate like a Zen Monk" effortlessly, it also improves emotional health, reduces stress and increases brain power.

   Humanity’s Team Neale Donald Walsch‘s inspiration for humans to join together and make a difference in our future

   Humanity’s Team World Wide Connecting like-minded people to make a change in the world. You can volunteer to help make the change happen in the world.

   The Love Foundation and Global Love Day Sharing and encouraging unconditional love around the globe through education, research and charitable programs

*Masters of the Secret Free 8 lesson, online program expanding upon the Law of Attraction

   Neale Donald Walsch’s personal site that "Can Lead You Deeper Into The Holy Experience" including a free ebook, Retreats, Neale’s Schedule, Wisdom Center, Action Team, Newsletters, Soulebrate eCards, online programs, CwG Foundation, Endorsements, the Messenger’s Circle and Neale’s Blog

   New Spirituality Network Teaching the New Spirituality (this network is just getting started)

*Spiritual Cinema Circle The world’s first transformational DVD-of-the-month club

   The Group of 1000 People from all over the world working toward the common goal of changing the world in 10 to 15 years

Healthy Planet

   Treehugger is the definitive, modern yet green lifestyle filter. Improve your course, maintain your aesthetic

Advocacy Sites

   Responsible Shopper Services They provide a search, by company name, for any complaints about how employees, resources, etc. are treated by the company

* sites who support the Dawn of a New Day website with their affiliate programs

 

GrooveLily
GrooveLily is one of my favorite bands. Are We There Yet? is one of the more recent CDs, having been released in 2003. Valerie Vigoda sings and plays the seven string, electric violin, Brendan Milburn sings and plays the keyboards and Gene Lewis sings and plays the drums. They say they are the best of both a rock band and musical theater! I love their music. The music on this CD was cathartic for me and helped me through some troubled times. The music, words and execution are amazing. I feel great when I listen. I highly recommend this CD; it alters my mood for the better.

Here are the songs
Rewind Could there really be a secret device that can take us back in time and correct all our "mistakes"? I think so!
Live Through This (Are We There Yet?)We really are going to make it. Things can happen to us but we’ll get there eventually. Are we there yet? Not, yet, okay? And stop asking or I’m turning the planet around and we’re going home!
It’s All Right There’s a bright side to every situation, even when it’s losing your job. But at the other end of this message is perhaps, if we appreciate what we have, it will stick around longer and we can enjoy it when we have it.
Apocalyptic Love Song (I Don’t Care) Written by Valerie and Brendan. I always suspected they were a couple! Now, with the birth of their son, Mose Vigoda Milburn, we can’t be surprised after hearing this song!
Post-Apocalyptic Is an instrumental continuation of the previous song.
This Is Going To Stop Imagine a song in a theater production where someone needs some encouragement. This is it.
Diva Girl Gene’s got it bad for some Diva! (But don’t tell anyone…)
No Room In Your Bag One of my favorites: The story of Brendan’s mother’s life, from her marriage to his father in 1967 to Brendan’s departure for college in 1989. See, combination of rock and theater at its best!
Open Letter To Madonna Ooh, Madonna, the tribute to the truth!
Can You Believe This is another favorite, heck, I love them all! I can just see myself headed down the highway thinking back on all I’ve accomplished and what lies ahead for me! Great driving song.
Happy, Happy, Happy Uh, oh! Ever get jealous and wonder why others are getting ahead and you’re not? Listen in and let your green eyed monster sing out loud! I think most of us can relate with this one.
All I Want Is What I Do Not Have Why can’t we every just be happy with what we have? I’m gonna start!

View details at Amazon.com: Are We There Yet?