Roger Waters and Pink Floyd

Lately I have been reminiscing a lot about the Pink Floyd reunion at Live8 on July 2nd, 2005. I don't really have the words to articulate the full meaning of this event to my life. I find it remarkable that this happened after I had completely given up hope that this would ever happen. The same thing happened after my mother died. We had made an agreement ahead of time (we knew well in advance that she was going to die from non-Hodgkins lymphoma) that she would come to me in a dream if it were at all possible, and that she would tell me I was right in everything I had come to believe about what happens after we die, through my reading of near-death experiences. Well she waited (I forget now) either three or six months to actually make this visit to me, and it was definitely after I had given up all hope of it ever happening.
When I met Steven Tyler the first time, he showed up to the charity event moments after I had given up all hope that it was ever going to happen.
In a way it makes me want to give up all hope that I will ever win the lottery! Why do I get the feeling if I did that, I would win?!?

Let Go, Let God

Abraham's stream - Surrender - Let Go, Let God, isn't it all the same, really? Relax, go with the flow, take it as it comes, live in the moment, is it all saying the same thing, or something different? Be good to yourself, do unto others, you can't love another until you love yourself...

How can people hurt each other? That's what I don't get. How can people deliberately harm another person with malicious intent? Don't you realize what you do to me, you do to yourself? Are you not concerned with the life after this one, where you get to go through it as me, and get to be on the receiving end of that pain you inflicted? This is why I am an uplifter in this lifetime. When I get to be you, I want the interactions you have with me to be pleasant and memorable and leave you with a smile on your face when you think of me. I really don't want to see myself crying through your eyes. So please don't make me cry, you will only come to regret it.

It's all the same

Abraham-Hicks' "Stream of Well-Being" = A Course in Miracles "Nothing real can be threatened, nothing unreal exists, herein lies the peace of God = Taoism "Going with the Tao" = Let Go, Let God or Surrender. It's all saying the same thing. Again, Abraham-Hicks "You are loved, all is well". What is there to be worried about? What can happen to you? You are energy and can neither be destroyed nor created but merely change form. There is a lot more going on here than we can just see with our eyes, but you really have to be open to accepting it in order to be able to see it. It's all perception, that's all it is. You get to decide if it's "positive" or "negative". You get to decide "what it means". And inside, you know you know the answer.

My Bliss

I am finding it is easier to raise my vibration and experience my bliss now that I don't work.
I guess the work day took a lot of my focus and I wasn't really able to fully concentrate on raising my vibration. I thought I was feeling gratitude a lot of the time but in fact I was mostly concerned with filling out my time sheet, wondering how the next call or meeting was going to go, hoping to get invited to participate in lunches and wondering what my boss and colleagues thought of me. I don't have any of that anymore! Now I can enjoy Facebook, and the reminiscent feelings that keep washing over me like waves. Now I can appreciate having music and videos at my fingertips and totally under my control, especially the volume! I realize I need to get a new job and start working again very soon, but for now, I am thoroughly enjoying my unexpected time off. Getting my vibration this high can only be good for me and my future.

The Little Soul and The Sun

I don't know if I'm allowed to post this link or what, but here it is:
http://www.sapphyr.net/largegems/littlesoul-thesun.htm

This is a quick read and a gentle introduction to the Conversations with God material as well as a primer for A Course in Miracles.

When someone pisses me off (and you know who you are!) I remind myself that we had a pre-existing agreement to be here together and to interact with one another and to present ourselves with Forgiveness Opportunities. Thank you to the people in my life who are teaching me to love unconditionally. I may not show it all the time, but I really do love you all.

More on music

Well I could've edited my last blog but instead I will just amend it here. As my friend RG says, there are rules and there are exceptions. Obviously I like some bands whose lead singers' voices are not all that pleasing to me. Without intending to hurt Robbie Taylor's feelings, I don't particularly care for his voice. I was describing Gilmour's Breakfast to a colleague who asked me if the lead singer sounds more like Roger Waters or David Gilmour. I had to be honest and tell him Rob sounds like neither. He does a very very good job with the music, his passion is intense, his stage presence is right on, and he almost always gets all the words right (I'm still mad that he f*cked up Goodbye Cruel World at Lazy Dog after charging me 8 bucks to get in there - the song is short enough to begin with and he chopped a bunch of it out) but he really doesn't have the angelic quality of David Gilmour or the mean sounding sharp edge of Roger Waters.
I would've liked to go see them on New Year's Eve, but the weather and driving conditions, combined with the fact that I did not purchase my ticket in advance, along with my general lack of desire to be out on New Year's, kept me home. I was just checking out their tour dates and I am going to have lots more opportunities to see them. Hopefully for cheap or for free. If this bullshit with the rising cover charges persists, I will content myself to just catch them on YouTube/MySpace, their Charter cable appearance and their own website.

Edit: I really don't want to hurt Rob's feelings and I don't want him to think I don't like his singing because I do like it. But I stand by my statement that he doesn't sound like David Gilmour or Roger Waters. He does an awesome job though and I really enjoy their music. And I'm looking forward to the show at the Lucky Dog this Friday night!

Edit #2: They played Goodbye Cruel World again last night and now I realize it wasn't Robbie's fault that part of it got cut out, it's the whole band! I think they need to listen to it again.

Edit #3: He may not sound like Roger Waters or David Gilmour, but he's a pretty close match wtih Roy Harper, I realized the other day listening to Have a Cigar on the radio.

My thoughts on Music

I really need to like the lead singer's voice in order to like the band. There are very few exceptions. I like a smooth timbre in a lead singer's voice. I adore the studio version of Metallica's Nothing Else Matters because James Hetfield's voice is so smooth, yet powerful at the same time. It's beautiful.
I spend a lot of time listening to Aerosmith wondering what the heck Steven Tyler is saying. Similarly, I listen to a lot of Pink Floyd and Roger Waters music, also wondering, what the hell are they saying, only figuratively, not literally. In the case of Steven Tyler, I literally can't understand the words a lot of the time. With Roger Waters, I love to try to decipher the meaning. Roger Waters is one singer I can bear to listen to who doesn't exactly have the highest quality singing voice (in my humble opinion). I can stand to listen to him sing because I find his words so profound. In fact I genuinely love to hear him sing, and the Final Cut along with his solo albums definitely rank among the topmost layer of my favorites. I am in heaven listening to him, or watching him sing on YouTube.

Edit: Roger Waters claims to be tone deaf. When I listen to him sing the albums The Final Cut or Pros and Cons, I wonder, how can this be so? I don't know, but I thank God there is so much recorded material from both him and David Gilmour, the band as a whole especially now that Rick Wright is dead, and other artists I love. Am I foolish for feeling gratitude for so many things other people don't even give a second thought to or worse, take for granted?