I’m going to mention two things and you are left to ponder their significance.
Thriving On Less : Simplifying In A Tough Economy is a free eBook from Leo Babauta, the blogger from the wonderful Zen Habits. Here’s a short quote from it – but the whole book doesn’t cost anything but your valuable time, remember.
Scaling back your life and living more frugally can be seen in two ways:
1. It can be a struggle, as you are sacrificing many things and living less comfortably.
2. Or … it can be incredible, as you are sacrificing consumerism for a life filled with the things you love, a life you’ve always wanted.
Bon Iver is the name of indie singer-songwriter John Vernon’s latest musical project. His album For Emma, Forever Ago - the majority of which was written and performed in a remote cabin in Wisconsin – was released in early 2008 and has garnered a ton of critical acclaim and recently a big sales boost after an appearence on Late Night With David Letterman. Here’s a bit about how the album was written and recorded…(from Wikipedia)
After the breakup of a band, relationship, and bout with sickness, Vernon left Raleigh and moved back to Wisconsin spending three months in his father’s cabin in the woods of northern Wisconsin. He did not intend to write or record any music during the time but rather to recuperate from the events of the previous year. Eventually a record began to evolve during this cathartic time of isolation.
Vernon had some basic recording gear when he made his move to the cabin. Vernon played all the instruments during recording and each song was heavily edited with a large number of overdubs. Vernon wrote most of the lyrics for the album by recording a word-less melody and listening to the recording over and over and writing words according to the sound of the syllables of the melody
You can download the whole album For Emma, Forever Ago for five dollars from Amazon.
