August 27, 2012

thank you for visiting me!

I can see since being much more active on Twitter, I've been getting some page views. Better update now, no time to judge/be critical of what I post.

The scoop is I'm playing lots of didgeridoo and am dancing through it all.

Recent News:

EmmaDilemma band (from left, Brandon Waloff (me),
Emma, Tiffinay Nay, Ben Runnels)
  • I was invited to play with the 'trip folk' band, EmmaDilemma at WTF (What The Festival in Oregon this past July! It was so fun! Here's a picture of us on stage during the sunrise set at heart stage) #blessed.
  • I am now the didgeridoo player for Axis Mundi, a shamanic, kundalini trance band. Our next show is in Richmond, CA on September 29th! #sweet!
  • TONIGHT (which is/was monday aug 27th) I am playing at Cory's contact improvisation dance and aerial trapeze dance class in Fairfax! #stoked.
  • I PROMISE, I am doing a didgeridoo indiegogo fundraiser for an album to be released at some point in this lifetime. Coming soon, the details are, #sigh.
  • I will be playing didgeridoo with sound healer, Gabriel Goldberg and yoga teacher Rebecca Blake (Yogarina Heartfly) at a Yoga, Sounds Healing and Hot Springs retreat in northern california Oct 6th-Oct 8th, linked here. Food and camping is provided for the cost. Hot springs available as well! #come!
  • In other news!I snuck into #phish on 8/19/12 at the Bill Graham Civic Auditorium. #slick.
    Just wanted to share that and I love Phish again almighty!

June 27, 2012

Growing

Been a while since i posted.. A long while.. changes are abound.. As I settle into the Bay Area more and more illusions are breaking apart and I feel confident about taking steps towards aligning myself with my higher purpose.

No longer can I withstand doing the things that no longer serve me.


March 30, 2012

Project Food Budget; Week 3 for me!

Budget I set for myself: $100
Actual Budget: $156.76

This is harder than I think it is.. I also think that it's just figuring out exactly what I need each week (coconut water-it's a must).

Let's see, looking through the receipts here I wonder, 'did I forget to add anything?' Well, hmmm.. Since I didnt keep purchase by purchase account in my memo pad in my phone this time around I do wonder, but don't feel bad b/c I still went over and if I forgot anything then my total doesn't have to increase any more than it's already.

And, I have no idea why I set $100 as my goal. That's crazy pants.

It was also my birthday last weekend, so I allowed myself to spend more exuberantly on the big day, March 24th.. Holla' I have included a photo of the NY/East Coast style lunch I had after the trip! Look!


Ok, let's look at the items..

  • crumbled feta cheese.. mmmm
  • black trumpet mushrooms... ick-there were all kinds of twigs and dirt and leaves in the them. Got bulk at The Berkeley Bowl.
  • Salmon Jerky... mmmm.
  • Ox Tail and Beef Cubes for stew (all farm raised organically w/o hormones)- I made a 3 day crock pot with cabbage, rutabaga, brocolli, kelp noodles, tomatoes, kale and the like. It served a few rounds of meals for me. 
  • I've been eating Larabars in the morning when I dont have time to make a bigger meal. Then I slather coconut oil on the bar and mmm-mmm-mmmeatmmm up!
  • The Jalapeno cheese puffs were really good, and worthless.
  • The treat of the week was the GF Lemon Lavender tea cake. It was SOO moist and squishy. I wish Canola Oil wasn't used though.
  • The hot chocolate with whipped cream at the BART station served me well in the moment while waiting for a friend to pick me up last tuesday. I asked for some chocolate syrup on top and the lady's like, "that's extra." I'm like, "Come ON!" Then I got a free dribble. So yummy, but I had a stomach ache after.
  • I have to say the Udon Noodle Nori Logs are stupendous!! (wish i could find the link to those!) Umeboshi, toasted sesame seeds, avocado and udon noodles wrapped up in Udon.
Ok, gotta go dance now!

See ya'll soon~

~B (my friend Emily's blog post posted below-Project Food Budget is her creation!)

I’m excited to report that I have some great company on my Project: Food Budget challenge. Please check out these wonderful blogs, and give them support as they take on this challenge.
All have different budgets, number of mouths to feed, and food preferences {veggie + meat eating}. And yet, all have a common goal of saving money and making better choices when it comes to the food we put on our table.
Participating blogs:

March 22, 2012

Project Food Budget: Week 25


Goal for week 25: $125
Actual: $261.26 –wow.

Presently speechless. Kind’a. I counted every dollar and cent that went towards any liquid or solid entering my (or my friends) mouths. I did spend $68.39 on dinner for two last Friday night, as well as a new affinity for coffee (I haven’t drank the brew in almost 3 or 4 months) which accounted for a whopping $8.00. I also consumed a $5.00 whiskey drink last Sunday evening and about 7 slices of pizza too. Not bad for a holistic health coach;p So I wonder if buying friends tea or dinner counts as part of this project, Emily?

Also, I have this idea now to keep all the wrappers that come along with the food I buy and take a photo of that for the next time just b/c I’m starting to wonder about my own carbon footprint. For instance, and besides the melodramatic coffee habit I state to have now, I do have a coconut water habit. That I am clear of. I drank an estimated 10-12 coconut waters this past week. Retailing from $1.69 to $2.00 (all on sale!) is an estimated $22.14 on coco water.. Which is fine actually. Totally worth it.

Ok, we’ll see what pops for next week!

Goal for week 26: $100

~B

This is my friend Emily Levenson's project and idea. You can visit her link below and find out more about her and if you blog, join the crew!
Want to get on board? Fabulous. {Now go here.}
Participating blogs:

March 15, 2012

Project Food Budget


Week 24 of Project: Week 1 for Brandon

Total Spent: $171.52
Goal: I had no goal (this is my first week!)


This was an interesting process for me, I did notice I was more conscious of my food spending and naturally wanted to keep my ‘no-goal budget’ as low as possible. Now that I know what I spent I can gage my resources better, look and see what worked and what didn’t work and create a budget for next week, which will be $125.

Most of the money spent here was at Rainbow Grocery (best coop EVER!), the farmers market, Whole Foods Market and then the rest was crappy junk food spending on donuts and pizza (no shame) and this spice shop in Oakland where 4.6% of my resources for the week went to two varieties of sea salt (I like calculating the breakdowns here- I’m a numbers guy).

However, 48.8% of my money went to groceries, the rest went to lunches, eating out, snacks and well, sea salt. Interessssstting.

This is my friend Emily Levenson's project and idea. You can visit her link below and find out more about her and if you blog, join the crew!

Want to get on board? Fabulous. {Now go here.}
Participating blogs:

March 11, 2012

Coconut Water 2.0

I love coconut water. Lot's of people I know love coconut water too! And then there are some people I know who love crappy coconut water, but that's not their fault. I think it's because they have yet to taste the water straight from a coconut, direct from source.

Enter the current coconut water boom in the ever expanding, ever competitive beverage marketplace. If you're like most natural food coconut water connoisseurs, taste is everything, price is too (obviously), but not as much as taste and quality.

Many of the now mainstream coconut waters on the market are sourced from factory farms in Thailand, India and Brazil. Some of the waters you will drink even contain blends of different coconuts, from different farms, they just pour 'em into a big vat or something and bottle. That's gross, and I'm not mentioning the chemical and formaldehyde processing that undergo the coconut water production line of process.

The thing with coconut water that makes coconut water's like Harmless Harvest so good, are that it's from a coconut. One coconut, right from the source, raw and unheated! This means Harmless Harvest will contain what coconut waters naturally contain; the electrolytes, minerals like potassium, magnesium and calcium, amino acids, low sugar sugar content, alkalizes the body, clears the urinary pathway and apparently kills intestinal worms. There. Oh, and it will taste like coconut water. Not something indescribable like the many current versions available today. 

I once heard David Wolfe, a leading expert in raw food nutrition say that the reason raw foods are coming into play right now is b/c the world is hot, we are hot and inflamed as a civilization. You can just look at the news every day; war, fighting, greed. As well as some of the most prevalent chronic diseases and conditions like heart disease, diabetes and acid-reflux. These are all diseases of excess heat that cause inflammation. So coconut water is a great way to bring balance to the body because of it's cooling, calming and alkalizing properties that heal the body from an acid/inflammatory state to an alkalizing balanced state of being.

Back to the brands here; I used to drink C2O daily. Mostly b/c it was on sale at Rainbow Grocery for $1.69 which for me, is tops. I'm pretty selective when it comes to coconut waters. I won't buy Zico or VitaCoco anymore, the taste is just too far away from what a water from a coconut actually tastes like, surprise-surprise when it comes to food nowadays, right?

The tall 16 oz.cans like C2O that grace the cold cases in Whole Foods Market and natural food stores alike are usually pretty good and Brandon worthy. But I'm now just finding out that they are pasteurized, treated with chemicals and ready for this-not as good as what else is available (that, btw, is key here). Time for an upgrade? No problem.

I found Harmless Harvest, who pressurizes their coconut water without heat for preserving which doesn't kill beneficial nutrients. They don't use chemicals, are USDA organic and use farming practices based in sustainability. I can say I found my next coconut water of choice. And, yes, the coconut water tastes like coconut water-thank god.

But what about the price and the quantity? Why would I go from C2O to Harmless Harvest given that I will pay more and drink less? An 8oz bottle is $2.49 at The Oakland Whole Foods Market. 

I recently heard a branding expert, Eric Barron, speak about two things he looks for in a product or service, and that is if that product or service handles his fears and takes care of his wants he has no problem paying more. Given that he is an extrovert and someone who likes being in charge, he also loves when he is taken charge of. The example he used was his new tailor in Jersey. Recently moved from Manhattan and looking for a new tailor, he found an old-school Italian guy who's been doing custom tailoring since tailoring existed. "Get up there, turn around, I don't have all day." Eric mentioned that he loved being taken charge of and when his suit came back beautifully tailored, he had no problem paying this guy $200 on top of what he normally paid in Manhattan. His fears were taken care of, his wants met. Done deal.

Because this brand of coconut water handles my context for healthy living and healthy products, being that they are the most healing and best possible product out there I become a consumer. If a brand has that and I see that it has that, I won't be counting my change and going over cost/benefit analysis on the way out, I'm gonna buy it hands down and I'll be happy to do so. That's a good product. Here's their YouTube link on how they work, take a look.






March 08, 2012

Marching Along

29 Days of Didgeridoo has come and gone, I can't believe I did that, and did it successfully!? All of my posts are on this blog under the '29 days of didge' tab so you can scroll through and watch or listen to your favorite days.

Now that I am completed with that I've got 2 weeks to complete my indiegogo launch. I'm going for a few thousand to fund my first completed album along with some cool equipment I can mess around with and do some performing with.

This past weekend was IIN's Mega Conference, so we made a video on their red carpet that I will be sharing shortly, keep an eye out for that.

Being at the conference really inspired me. I realize I have lots to offer the world in terms of nutrition and wellness, coaching and creative solutions. I left feeling super around rebuilding this website and creating the foundation for living my dreams.. Oh I have some good ideas and I'll be sharing them soon as well, once the didgeridoo album is complete this summer!

In the meantime, if you want to find out about Integrative Nutrition please ask me and I'll share how this school will no doubt change your life!

~B

February 22, 2012

Day 22

Movin' along and movin strong.. Day 22 was my return to innocence. Meaning my return to the foundation of my work, which is playing long and playing strong, playing didgeridoo meditative style; following breath, following spirit, not following thinking but listening to thought. 7 more days will culminate at Ecstatic Dance.

Afterwards, production for my indiegogo project.

TBD

~B

February 15, 2012

Didgeridoo Sound Test and Meditation on Wednesday morning, 2/1/12

Didgeridoo Sound Test and Meditation on Wednesday morning, 2/1/12

That was two weeks ago.. TOday, I posted an epic 30 minute or so recording complete with 5 minute intro to whatever it was I was talking about and
some chatting afterwards when I was all didged-out.. A clear
indicator that the didge changes brainwaves, I was in a bliss-state.

However, the flash plug-in crashed causing the upload to be
at a snails pace, it’s still uploading at my apt. and I’m fearful I will lose
the track completely! (ITS SO EPIC!) I don’t want to lose it.

So, I’d thought I would share as well as the first day I recorded,
two weeks ago.

Thanks,

~B

February 14, 2012

Anti-Valentines Day Didgeridoo Meditation

Anti-Valentines Day Didgeridoo Meditation
Recorded today for you! This didgeridoo meditation will cosmically portal you past any pretense or limited belief systems you have about Valentines Day and who you are "supposed" to be.

This is about showing up genuinely and sharing your heart with the people in your world, aligned with what works for you vs. what you should do.

Listen to this and allow yourself to go on the mysterious ride that is, Valentines Day Didgeridoo Meditation!

~B

February 09, 2012

Day 9

Tired now at work, needed to jump back into the expression of creativity and talk about this process. It’s amazing what I am noticing. I don’t even care what the end result is of all this didgeridoo-ing; if there is a final product, an album or even where to be next month? I’m so engrossed in this 29 days of didg where I record and play every day for February.

It’s been so fun posting daily, getting up early just to practice, where I will go and record, how I will create the camera angle, the lighting and what else I can integrate into my videos so they aren’t redundant.

I’d love some feedback.. Where do you want to see me play? With who? With what? I’m ready to start expanding my game.

~B

p.s. here is day 9, if you haven’t seen yet…

February 08, 2012

Signs of Commitment w/o Attachment

I woke up BEFORE my alarm this morning.
Inspired, ready to play didg' and
record today's video.
I'm loving the process.

It's a foggy morning
here in the East BaY~
Perfect for a mysterious
didgeridoo video recording.

I had the perfect spot in mind.

The Champions of Humanity
Memorial Sculpture in Oakland,
just a few blocks from my house.

Set up time: 45 minutes
Travel to and fro: 25 minutes
Recording length: 10 minutes.

Arriving back at my house to quickly
upload,
shower,
dress,
east
and leave for work,

I realize something;
The audio didn't record.

Such beautiful imagery,
but no audio.
No didgeridoo sounds.
No audio of the passage from
Warrior of The Light.

Gotta do it again.

In the shower I was
feeling inspired still.
A marker, this was;
It stood out.

Being so committed
to the process,
without loosing
enthusiasm,
without being
attached to the outcome,
ready to begin again.
I love the process,
commitment shines.


~B

February 05, 2012

DIdg' Awareness Project; All during February.

I'm raising the vibration, every day in fact. For the month of February I am playing my didgeridoos around town, and recording them for audio tracks and/or video tracks. It's my way of spreading awareness of the didgeridoo, being present and to increase energy around an upcoming fundraising project I am going to be doing for a new album and new sound looping and recording equipment.

I'm really inspired just to be in the creative process, with slight attachment to the outcome (i.e. how it sounds at the end). I'm discovering this thus far;

  • An artist is never happy with what is produced
  • I'm going to want to quit
  • I'd rather just create for the sake of creating, without having it be for something in the end.
  • When I create, I feel more alive.
So, what I want to also share with you is what I have been up to. Like I mentioned above, I am recording didgeridoo every day to spread awareness of my upcoming project to record and complete an album of sonic vibrations. This month I play every day. I record it every day. I post it every day.

Just like that. I am having to learn to come up with exciting content too. Like didgeridoo-ing out my second floor window, didgeridoo-ing at the gas station, and soon (which will totally put me at my edge) didgeridoo-ing on the moving BART train in the morning-yikes! 

Here are two videos from my super charged week and weekend. One is Day 3 from last Friday to the backdrop of some of Oakland's fine city-scapes. I fainted that morning at the hospital while drawing blood, and was comsically transported to the dream world, only to be awoken by the lab techs. It was super surreal and I was woozy and lightheaded all day.. but had a burst of energy on this night and dove into my vision of creating this. 

The other is from this morning at the gas station. Why not play sound that demands being present, if the listener can drop into Self, especially at the gas station, where consumption and excess prevail. 

And, it makes a difference when you watch these and share them, if you feel like it. The more awareness and energy this month's project has for the greater project and the greater project after that all helps support me and my sound making ventures, which is just so much fun and so inspiring.

I hope you enjoy~  Thanks.. ~B






January 28, 2012

New Dreams of The Heart

I'm inspired today. I woke up at 5:30 this morning after some wild dreams and a night of healing bodywork from a new 'magic'(al) friend. My sacrum was pumped, chakras were explored and my lower back was stretched.

I got home late,
nausea's from the late night bus ride,
tired from the energy exchange.

Dreamt of  running across the country as a middle aged man,
I was successful (as entrepreneur),
Staring out-the infinite desert before me,
Confidently knowing my direction
into the unknown.

I could see the
browns and rusty colored haze
in the distance.

The vast expanse
of nothing.
Mesas silhouetting the periphery.

Squinting, but seeing
with vision.

I've been here before,
mentoring a younger man (at my side)
the journey ahead.

I could see the desert,
It was all
d
o
w
n
h
i
l
l , from here.

Then I ran up ,
back in the other direction
imagining
'what could this be like, going uphill?'

I had never ran that way before.
It seemed difficult
in thought.

In my heart
I knew I could do that too.

The dream shifted;

I had just come up with the
NEW name for the
NEW Star Wars Virtual Movie.

The guy said,
"I think Free Change is the name!"

The movie
about; well,
Star Wars,
was about a computerized
space battle.

Only the programmers
forgot to write a 'bit' of code,
and there was a black hole
in space,
where ships
fell,
into
the
unknown.

I could see them
disappearing,
out of the screen.

Falling into this
one tiny bit
of nothing,
in interstellar space.
And disappearing.

Then,
A new code was written,
So they (ships)
could re-appear.

I remember
seeing
the code,
being written
on a screen,
in my dream.

Darth Vader was
being played by
Reggie Watts.

I remember having thoughts
after I woke up,
still in darkness-
That if i don't write these dreams down,
and try to remember them
when i get out of bed,
next;
That I won't.
Or, I might not?
I may not go into lucidity.

The thought,
the dream,
it must be cleared
to allow
s p a c e
for what I
intuited
would be next.

Context for this post:
Last week I lucid dreamed.
I was flying in Hawaii.
Completely clear that I was in a dream,
I flew.
I felt the feelings of freedom,
soaring in the sky,
overlooking the ocean,
ecstasy.

That dream came after 
writing down
a previous dream,
fresh,
just occured,
about a movie-
or a screenplay..
'The ballerina who flew upside-down'
(I wrote it all down that night)

Then dreamt about
flying
in Hawaii.

So,
tonight-
I felt the urge,
the intuition,
to write down my
dream,
so that I may access
whatever was to follow,
without attachment
to remember.

Make sense?

What came next?
I didn't fall back asleep.
I dreamt though.
Awake and inspired,
I have an idea!

(god, this post is long?)

What if I made my didgeridoo album as a dvd with music videos? What if I created a dvd and documentary called, 'Why We Didg' about didg players and why we love this instrument, bringing light and awareness to the world on this instrument. The movie would be clips of didg players and their process with the instrument. It would contain brilliant tracks of them playing with visuals of their life. Along with it, a cd with recordings, separate from the music in the dvd?

You see, I'm doing a project right now. The project is my life and the content (or one piece of it) is a didgeridoo album. Initially going to be a didgeridoo sound cd for yoga classes; I lay awake this morning in bed, inspired by recent dreams and having total access to creativity, that in my heart lay dormant newer and truer ideas more closely connected to my Self.

A yoga music cd sounded like a good idea at some point in the past, and now was this thing I was holding onto, that i had to create so i could market and sell a product which would give me money and opportunity to buy a vw bus and do workshops at yoga studios all over the land. A good idea in theory, I haven't been jazzed about making it or even knowing what it would sound like or even if i wanted to make yoga/didgeridoo/chanting sounds, i've been sitting with the thought of; what kind of sound and didgeridoo project do i REALLY want to create, that is an expression of ME and that feels fun and inspiring. 


One that is bigger, in my heart, than a good idea, from my mind.


That's when i came to the idea above... Which also can lead to the same place in my dreams and visions of how I want my life to look, based in travel and a product that is mine, that i love! This makes greater sense to me now... Of course one would want to follow the creative dreams connected to the heart. I thought, what if i created my product, my creation-my album based on the initial thoughts and visions of something that i wasnt connected to while making? What if i had a final product that wasn't what I really wanted to make bc it was connected to a past-based idea that was no longer serving me, or was with me.

Well, then that would be mad! I would have to rep a cd which wasn't a true expression of me, maybe show up in yoga classes and play/perform songs that weren't in my heart or maybe even have a finished product that I didn't want any longer and would scrap altogether to create the project I am going to make. That would be a waste of time, and is connected to being attached to an idea that I may think sounds good and does sound good but isn't really me.

I will create my project and my dream based on my heart and let the process unfold without knowing what it will be like or sound like or look like even. Because today, i begin recording!

More to come on this.

B~