I swear I lose years of my life every time I get on the road in Los Angeles, which could either mean I'm a zygote or a geriatric.
Music is my saviour in the car. I used to think I was on the cusp, discovering the right music to share with the world at the right time. It was the time. I was so lucky to be a music journalist in my late teens and early twenties. I had access to EVERYTHING new and delightful and appropriate for my age and emotions. And the parties!!
When I was younger, I would hear a band and it would be mine. I would always be surprised when someone else felt the same passion for an artist that I soooo found and kept to myself or shared only with my small circle of friends.
I remember seeing musicians’ play in sold out houses and thinking, no, you are mine. And yet, sharing them with others in this communal feeling of respect, love, admiration and identification was bliss. Poignant, heartbreaking, memory-making, boy-crushing bliss.
I test out everything in the car, my play list for class, my writing, and my workouts, all to the music I've stumbled upon that week and it's new, every week.
I love when people comment in my classes on the music I've played but the secret is out. I rely on KCRW's morning becomes eclectic, other teachers and my friend Becky in San Diego and sister, Karin in NY to supply me with what is, the soundtrack of my existence.
I'm still a contradiction, I admit. I will always enjoy Euro pop, trance, house, hip-hop and rap. That's what keeps me pumped up, energetic, running and jumping. Gone are the days of nightclubs for me. My drunken dancing has turned into running miles on the beach, in the sober bliss of daylight.
My after-hours techno has turned into lounge, trance, shoe gazing, mantra, chants and calm sweet melodies to move through yoga poses, meditation, sleep, reflection and writing.
My most favorite thing is looking in the mailbox and receiving a disk that my sister or friend made for me and I love nothing more than making cd mixes for my friends as the travel, work, run, do yoga or drive in their car.
That art, the mix tape of my era, is still one of the things I hold onto from my youth that no wrinkle can take away.
It creates an experience in my yoga classes, creates peace through my day and keeps me stress free whilst driving the LA streets and freeways.
Music, it's what gives me years to my life and brings me back to the moment. It provides me with memories to the moment. Harmonious snapshots of existence.
Things I'm listening to now....
A.R Rahman
Travis Namaste
Davide Swarup
M83
Morgan Doctor
Rocco
Nightmares On Wax
Deadmau5
Basshunter

Music is a gift.

Be good to yourself. Drink lots of water; call your mother and listen, to the sweet sounds in your life.
Shanti, OM,
Laurie