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Hello my friends! It's not Springtime yet, but Love is in the air. We just passed Saint Dwynwen's Day on January 25th, the Welsh equivalent to Saint Valentine's Day which will be here on February 14th. So whether you have a love, are looking for love or are content being Single, have a nice Valentine's Day and enjoy this post which talks about Love!

Guest Blogger, Kayleigh Levitt is the author of this excellent blog post and it may be her best one yet! Kayleigh is a creative young lady with a real talent for writing. You can find all her guest blog posts here. We're happy to present the fourth Guest Blog post from this talented young lady who can sometimes be found in a tree singing and playing guitar! This post reviews three videos; a video from the Burning Man festival about choosing to go places, an Ingrid Michaelson music video about Love and a video about a Sufi Love poem! Kayleigh adds so much more to these videos' contents in her insightful reviews and analysis - read on!


But first, The News!





Now, here is Kayleigh's article on Choices and Love.


Oh, the Places You'll Go at Burning Man!

The Burning Man is a festival that takes place every summer in the desert. A city is created for a week, full of people dedicated to self-expression, community, art, and self-reliance. After a week, not a trace is left that an entire city was built there and then taken down, and its citizens usually make everything.

Ted Saunders, Parker Howell, and William Walsh directed this inspirational video. Find out more at tedshots.com.

"You have brains in your head.
You have feet in your shoes
You can steer yourself
any direction you choose.
You're on your own. And you know what you know.
And YOU are the guy who'll decide where to go."

Dr. Seuss is not just a children's book author. His words have outlived his body because they are the truth, and that is how the truth works. It sticks.

Our greatest power lies in our choices. Everything is a choice. I am choosing to type. You are choosing to read. In every moment, we are at choice.

Some things feel like they are not choices. I feel like I have no choice whether or not I go to school, but I do. I could wake up one morning, get in my car and drive west until my gas ran out. If I think about that option, even on a Monday morning, I realize the consequences of that choice are not what I want out of my life. I have the inalienable right to choose.

Not only can I choose what I do, but I can choose my perspective. On that same Monday morning that I am not wanting to go to school, I can take that moment, breathe, and choose to look at it from another point of view. I can see education as a gift, think about how it is giving me tools to live a happier, more fulfilling life. I can see how 3rd world countries are suffering because of a lack of education and realize how fortunate I am to have a free one. I can think about how it gives my life direction and a platform to live my dreams. I can see that it opens my eyes to things I would have been ignorant to and brought me to people who have changed my life.

Recognizing all of those things completely changes the way I view waking up and going to school. I have brains in my head, and these brains can alter the way I live and view my life. At any moment, I can shift my thinking to something that will effect how I do even common things. I can choose to be happy. I can choose the way I want my life to look. The world is not a cage if I choose to free myself.

Some people think that they are bound by circumstance, trapped by situations, or waiting for luck. Dr. Seuss talks about how sometimes we end up in the "Waiting Place" where people are just waiting.

"Waiting for the fish to bite
or waiting for wind to fly a kite
or waiting around for Friday night
or waiting, perhaps, for their Uncle Jake
or a pot to boil, or a Better Break
or a sting of pearls, or a pair of pants
or a wig with curls, or Another Chance.
Everyone is just waiting."

So often, we put off the things most important. I could wait for "Another Chance" or I can choose to go out and create another chance. I can choose to change what I think I am looking for and look for something else. I can choose to do what it takes to stop waiting and start living.

I can choose the way I want my life to look.
In any given moment, above all else, I have the power of choice.







Everybody

Ingrid Michaelson is an indie-pop singer and songwriter based in New York. She is the epitome of eccentric and her songs often speak of love.

People toss around the word love like it is a Frisbee. It is either a casual "I love you" or haphazard metaphors like "love is. [insert any noun, adjective, verb here] to describe the indescribable. Sometimes, the only thing we can describe is what love does not feel like. Love cannot be simplified into our language. Some things are just too vast and unlike anything found in the dictionary that it would be a crude summary of what it means to be in love. If one describes love too accurately, it loses something magical about it.

It is a feeling that is beyond body chemistry.
Desire is only .0001 % of the feeling of love, barely a taste.
Love is most often portrayed as a partnership of two. However, we can get flashes of love in any moment. It can happen in the most peculiar of times.
It can happen while driving down the highway with the windows down in a rainstorm.
It can happen when caught surprise by daffodils in January.
It can happen the moment your eyes open in the morning one minute before your alarm is supposed to ring.

Love, as Ernest Holmes put it, is just a spontaneous realization of life.
It is the moment we realize we are alive. It is the moment we see the spark of life in us, is in the daffodils and the rain. It is the moment that catches us off guard, bringing us back into the Here And Now.

Ingrid Michaelson sings in this song, "Everybody, everybody wants to love. Everybody, everybody wants to be loved."

To feel love we do not have to go anywhere, we can just breathe and realize that we are alive. When we see that bright spark of life within ourselves, then we begin to see it in everything. Suddenly, it is a spontaneous realization of life everywhere you go. That is what it means to be love. You can just be it. You can exist as love condensed into a human body. You walk around falling in love with your reality, because you see that you share the same life energy with everything around you.
It is not about loving another person or another person loving you. It is just about being love.

Being love is a ripple effect because the people around you will begin to realize the life within them with you. They will begin to see it everywhere they go. Love does not mean you have to be in a relationship with red rose petals and sugar cookies. It is within us. It is around us. It is the sugar cookies, the people who cooked them, the cane the sugar came from, it is everything.

How can one simplify everything? You can say the word `everything' but the word itself barely says anything at all. Therefore, we do not have to talk about it to define it.

If you want to love, breathe. If you want to be loved, breathe.
Taking a deep breath says all that needs to be said.







The Sun Never Says

"Even after all this time,
The sun never says to the Earth,
You owe me.
Look at what happens with a love like that.
It lights the whole sky."
-The Sufi poet, Hafiz

Sufism, is the spirituality of lovers. The poets that came out of this teaching show what poetry is really about. They show that poetry is the essence of life. The sun shines because that is what it does best, not because the earth validates it every day.

In today's society though, we desire the love we give to be given back. It is not our fault. We are human. At some point along the way, we forget that love is the quintessence of who we are and we do not need to go anywhere to get it. This forgetfulness may cause us to think, `I am not enough. I am not worthy of love.'
That is the farthest thing from the truth possible. Just by being ourselves, we make a huge impact on the world. Just by being alive, we deserve love.

Therefore, we become seekers. We dance as if every moment is a show that needs a standing ovation. We adapt to our surroundings. It is a subconscious process. It is an exhausting and unnecessary process. It is human. We are here to forget the love that we already are, and then get the gift of remembering. Remembering is the most fun we can have on this planet.

We can experience love in every moment whether it is from another person or not.

This is freedom.

Look at a tree. It is breathing. It is growing. It is made of atoms, just as we are. It is living as we are. A tree does not ask us to love it. It expresses itself anyway. A tree grows because that is what it does best. It seeks no validation.

Let us reinvent what love means. Let us love with no attachment to the outcome. That is what lights up the whole sky. That is what we live for. We do not have to go anywhere for love. It is already inside of us. Love is a reflection for the love we have for ourselves. That is the only reason we can experience it through another. The love that shines the brightest is love with no need for validation from the other. It is love for the sake of loving. People have hearts that are meant to beat in rhythm with another.

People love because that is what we are meant to do.

Labels: "burning man", "Kayleigh Levitt", IngridMichaelson, tedshots, TiffanyJoAllen

I am happy to announce that we have another New Guest Blogger, Danielle Hatfield! Danni is from Alabama and is currently a college student studying Marketing. She is also a talented singer! I think I first discovered Danni when she entered Cree Inglees Idol Search competition on YouTube. Check out the excellent singing videos on her YouTube channel! One of my favorites is this video of Danni singing Amy Winehouse's hit "Rehab".

In her first guest blog post for us, Danni reviews three videos. One is an award winning short student film about memories and the other two are videos of cover songs by Rihanna and Bruno Mars.

See what Danni has to say and watch the videos she discusses!


But first, The News!








Now, here is Danni's first Guest Blog post!


Memories

Our brain holds the time capsule, in which our memories and stories from our past are held. Some of our stories shortly fade away, or are merely just not visited often enough to remember the details. One of my science teachers once told my class statistics on happiness, and how a new home can only bring someone full joy for only around six months before the person is unsatisfied again. However, pictures…. pictures hold those memories so that they may not be forgotten or lost in time. Photographs are the boost our memory needs to remember fully. He said pictures make people happy forever because of the special memory of something in our life, such as family. The experience your mind takes on the journey of life cannot be replaced with material things. Pictures can also bring happiness to those on a bad day because they can remember a happy moment in time.

This is one of my favorite short films. I often find myself visiting to watch it several times a week. Here is Memories - written, directed and edited by Radoslaw Sienski:







We Found Love

BuskerOneK is a small two person band, that covers every song from the UK's number 1 hit, each week. The also have free original music to download at http://buskerone.bandcamp.com/, and you can see all of their other covers at http://www.youtube.com/BuskerOneK.

They cover "We Found Love" by Rihanna FT. Calvin Harris, and it is personally the best cover that I've seen of this song! They both give an amazing performance, and I also find if very intriguing that she plays the violin and sings during the video. Its very obvious that they are very passionate about their music. I can't wait to hear more from them.

Here is BuskerOneK with their cover:







It Will Rain

Kelsey Lynn is a beautiful young girl with an amazing talent for playing the guitar and singing. She puts a soft touch on the song "It Will Rain" by Bruno Mars. She really puts emotion into this song, making it all the more real. She covers many other videos on YouTube as well. You can check out her covers at http://www.youtube.com/KelseyLynnMusic. You can also follow her on twitter at @kelseylynnmusic.

Here is Kelsey Lynn with her cover of "It Will Rain" by Bruno Mars:

Labels: "Danielle Hatfield", BuskerOneK, daniellehatfield, kelseylynnmusic, RadekBNU

I have heard many covers of Adele songs on YouTube, but the one I keep coming back to listen to is by MsTiffanyLexus. She does a heartfelt and powerful version of "Set Fire to the Rain." We made it our Featured Video this week on our YouTube Top 100 Chart and I'll embed it right here for your listening and viewing pleasure. Tiffany created a nice video to accompany her singing, consisting of nice pics and facts about herself. I thought that I would like to ask a few more questions of Tiffany, so I sent her a DM on Twitter asking for a short interview to be conducted right on Twitter, and she agreed to do it! I thought of a few things to ask and tweeted them to Tiffany. She tweeted back some great answers! Most were in multiple tweets but below I concatenated them into one reply per question. The interview went very well. We both enjoyed tweeting out our parts of the interview.

So here is talented YouTube musician MsTiffanyLexus singing "Set Fire to the Rain" - followed by our Twitter based interview!

KennyCrane KennyCrane @mstiffanylexus Still listening to "Set Fire to the Rain" by YOU; Love it! Did u pick this song for a reason; is it special to u in some way? Jan 11, 1:12 AM via web

mstiffanylexus Tiffany Lexus @KennyCrane Gosh, thanks so much! Well, I heard it for the first time the morning I recorded it, & idk, something about it actually did connect with me & really made me want to cover it. The song, to me, is about falling for someone whom.. Has caused a lot of heartbreak? And instead of crying about it, you, ya know:), set fire to your tears - metaphorically conveying the hurt & confidence to get over them, even with the verse about how her heart keeps going back to him, or, "waiting for [him]". And, I have experienced stuff like this before, so, I quickly favorited this song for the connection I had w/ it & the inspirational lyrics. :) Jan 11, 3:32 AM via Twitter for BlackBerry®

KennyCrane KennyCrane @mstiffanylexus Did you sing all the awesome vocals or did someone else sing back up? What kind of mic do you use?

mstiffanylexus Tiffany Lexus @KennyCrane I did sing all of it ^.^ hahaa. Except, there was this ONE part at like 1:40 in the video where some random background voice com es in and says "Never knew, Never knew" XD. LOL It sounds nothing like me either so.. I'm sure you heard it XD it came with the instrumental version I downloaded, I later found out. XD haha And I own the MXL 990 & 991 microphones:) I used just the 990 here:)

KennyCrane KennyCrane @mstiffanylexus Do you come from a musical family and have you taken any voice lessons?

mstiffanylexus Tiffany Lexus @KennyCrane I've never taken voice lessons, no :) uhmm.. No, not exactly xD. My mom is the only one of my family members that shares a great love for music & singing with me. My dad is passionate about cars and computers, so, he doesn't really understand it - He's all logic & we're more into the arts. Cool story, actually.. my mom was offered a recording contract when she was ten years old ! :) she wrote this AMAZING song - though she says it's silly - with it being the 70s, called "Boogie All Night". I'm actually going to have her record it & then I'll compose music to it & we'll post it to my channel ^.^ it's suuuper good:) hahaa. It ALWAYS gets stuck in my head:)! That's one of my favorite things about my mom too - she's a phenomenal writer when it comes to lyrics :) And, obviously, she turned them down, but she doesn't regret it & that's good ^.^ if she had signed, she wouldn't have met my dad & had my brother and I! ^.^ We do write songs together a lot too, so, as soon as I finish writing the music to it, you better bet it'll be on my YouTube channel:D !

KennyCrane KennyCrane @mstiffanylexus Great story, thanks! :-) What instruments do you play and what's your favorite and why?

mstiffanylexus Tiffany Lexus @KennyCrane I playyy piano (though, I will admit, I am a beginner still:) ), acoustic guitar, ukulele, baritone(or euphonium, I heard my band teacher call it today:) ), and clarinet so far. I'd really like to learn how to play the banjo as well, just cause it's awesome xD My favorite would have to be either guitar or ukulele. Something about playing them just feels amazing:) I get all tingly and happy inside:))) <3 which makes me really feel like this is something I was meant to do:))) I love it so much.

KennyCrane KennyCrane @mstiffanylexus Last question! :-) What five words or phrases would best describe your personality?

mstiffanylexus Tiffany Lexus @KennyCrane hmm... I'd say... Optimistic/happy, sily/fun/outgoing, compassionate, adventurous/daring, &.. I'm kind of a hopeless romantic xD

Labels: interview, MsTiffanyLexus, musician, tweet, twitter