Sleepless in Manhattan

So no one sleeps here.  I have talked to countless people that just don't sleep, my roommate being one of them.  Its like there nocturnal state of a wondering mind, of too many thoughts that can't be shut off.  As I say its not like your going to loss those thoughts but rather shut them off so one can sleep.  Your beautiful spirit is like a computer, it needs to reboot.  I on the other hand don't know how to not sleep.  Although I probably stay up later then I should, my mind slowly drifts off and once my eyes shut its lights out for this girl.

I wonder what mind can't be tamed enough to allow this nature progression.  What could be so important that one would neglect such a beautiful state of recovery.  Your mind needs to be protected, needs to be turned off.  Is something so important that you can't deal with it in the morning when you've had time to recover.  It's not like these people are on crack but someone I met the other day said they haven't slept in 3 days.  How unfortunate and even more exhausting, then they start to worry about not sleeping creating even more anxiety about sleeping.  The sleepless cycle continues and so on and so forth.

Sleep is as important as air itself.  It's as important as the water you drink and the food you consume.  Your body creates a sleep debt and keeps tabs on your regeneration.  Why would you take this away?  Why would you assume that this shouldn't be a priority.  Do everything you can in one day and leave the rest to the next.  Do your best everyday, go easier on yourself and breath for the next day is a new one.  It's like all their days are running into one very long one.

People work very hard here, I will give them that.  This is such an ambitious quality very unique to New Yorkers but I don't admire one that works so hard that they neglect themselves.  It reads on their face how exhausted they have become and I wonder if they are truly happy running themselves on an empty tank.  Even when I go into my local watering hole you will see people having a drink and writing notes on the bar napkins.  They are constantly going, thinking, creating.  I love the ambition but do they ever really soulfully enjoy the train they are on.  Could they ever get off it, even if they wanted to?

DO a days work in a days time.
DO allow yourself time to relax.
DO believe that those thoughts won't go away.
DO sleep like a baby every time your head hits the pillow.

Don't be an idiot and think that you are superman and can go without sleep.

Barbara Walters Is a Fan Moment

Direct quote-

"This isn't your real job, so what is it that you do?" said Barbara Walters.

"No just a temporary thing, I'm a singer/songwriter starting a 1950's blues band" I reply.

"Keep up with it and good luck to you, maybe one day I will interview you" says Babs. 

(Dani smiles and shakes her hand and wants to jump up and down like a little girl).   Yet another moment locked in my memory as pretty fucking awesome.    

So I work with a lot of high profile individuals, while remaining unnamed the origins in which I work its pretty cool that I get to see some very amazing people.  Not that the fame is anything but that I admire their strength and stubbornness with their art whatever that may be.  Sometimes the secret while in transition is to always know that whatever you need to do to make money and support yourself is a temporary thing.  People notice this, the way you carry yourself always exuding grace and positivity.  People aren't dumb in fact they can read something in you or not.  I know I can, what about you?  

I got to meet someone very passionate about her art and maybe she saw "that something" that I hold with the up most protection in my heart.  She was kind and smiled and although I can only hope to have a fraction of her ability, she still rubbed off on me a little bit that day.  

I told her what I do without a flicker of nervousness or fear that she would shut me down, in fact she was the opposite of that.  Being scared or intimidated is your own weakness and is caused by lack of confidence and fear for what it is your creating.  You don't have time for this, in fact its something you yourself have manifested.  Quiet this now or it will forever hold you back.  In this life there is no time, jump without a net.  Fall in love like a fool and tell everyone what it is your trying to create this only makes it more clear.  Thats how I see things.

So maybe one day I will be on The View and I can tell Barbara how on that day I got a little more determined to conquer my dream.  I got a little more stubborn in figuring out this process and how on that day I knew I could hold myself alongside someone like Babs.          

Dani & The Mad Men™

2 Brand New Tracks for Dani & The Mad Men™

One dedicated to Etta James and the other original is a song called Home. 

http://soundcloud.com/daniellemueller

Oh and my first fully written original called Replaced all recorded with a fabulous guitar player!  Life is good..only 10 more to go and we got ourselves a Blues showcase!

For your listening pleasure, Stay tuned..

-Dani 

Mind Body & Soul, The Checking In Moment

Doing a checkup on yourself with a honest look.  Checking in since you work so hard sometimes without even acknowledging it.  How beautiful your body still works under stress and pressure.  Through heartache and pain sometimes you forget to say thank you for all its hard work.  You beat it up, hold it down, eat like shit and drink more then you should.  You tell lies, stay up too late and smoke too much but its still there.  Still on your side even through some destruction.  Its so resilient, quiet and calm as you sleep like a baby time after time.

Mind- Be careful of what you put in this space.  Watch your thoughts as a guardian would do.  You are what you think, you are what you believe.  Not being in control of your mind is just as destructive as being too in control.  Strike a balance with your thoughts, how you feel and how you choose to react.  Your not on auto-pilot.  Through meditation I have been taught this, probably why I stayed so sane after the destructiveness of my last breakup.  Breath and always fill your mind with gratitude and peace in knowing that all happens for a reason.  You are always taken care of, it always works out for you, if you believe this then you will always be taken care of.  You are what you believe and what you perceive as truth.  Regardless of what has happened, let it go and start fresh everyday while keeping those that genuinely love you close.  Nothing is too extreme for you to handle, always be aware of how you view the things in your life.  If you have a pulse, you are doing just fine.  Be thankful for the small basic things while working on the bigger issues. Check in with yourself.

Body- What you feed it, what you put into it will reflect itself on the outside.  Too much drinking, not enough water and eating shit for food reflects on your face and how youthful you feel.  Make choices (and some bad ones from time to time) always keeping in mind that this is for energy not for pleasure (well sometimes pleasure).  I live in NYC where the choices are endless but for me grabbing my knife and cutting through fresh produce makes me feel more fulfilled then eating the most expensive meal.  Be careful of how you feel after you consume something this will tell you how your body digests it's nourishment.  Watch your choices and if its not real in perception then why would you put something fake into a body that needs you.  You can change that now each day offers you a chance to renew it that's the beauty in this whole thing.  Just check in with yourself.

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Soul- This is my most favorite element, not to play favorites but this side of you takes more time.  The mind and body can be switched on and changed just by bringing awareness to change.  The soul is much more complex.  Imagine a blank slate over the years it gets written on and its your only truth of what makes you well you.  Some cultures believe that your eyes are the gateway to your soul, having children in my life makes me a believer of this.  You can't bottle the way a child looks at things.  I wrote about this before but if and when someone is stripped of everything they will not have the money they made in this life or their surroundings.  They won't have anything physical all they will have is themselves whichever qualities that may be.  Its not set in stone whom your meant to be, you can always be more honest, more real and more grateful.  Whatever you want to be can be worked on here.   The "bigger picture qualities" live here.  Cutting out all the bullshit, how you were built has a home here.  This center of yourself doesn't know how to lie, only your mind does.  Your mind can make up many things to kill the blow of the truth.  Just check in with yourself.

It's not so much too ask that from time to time you ask yourself where you are.  It's a progression and nothing that should cause any anxiety for you.  I just think its important to look with an honest eye after  what you have been though if you have stayed on course or have gotten off a little bit either way it can always be fixed.  If any of this seems like work, then you haven't done it in awhile so now is the time.  Just check in with yourself.

First Track of Dani & The Mad Men™ Recorded

Oh dear god I am like a kid in a candy store!! This is my baby, I could not be more excited to be working with Nicholas Lancaster.  We are breathing life into this project and this is the first track recorded with a guitar in under 3 takes. I am so proud.  

http://soundcloud.com/daniellemueller

WHHHHOOOOOOOOOPPPPPPP!!!!!!!!

-Dani-

You Will One Day Stand Naked

I wonder sometimes where the respect has gone in our society, if it was ever here to begin with.  This class system we live in gives some a certain arrogant level of entitlement especially in New York.  You don't know me, I haven't given my shoes for you to walk in.  Some days I just loss faith in people.  I see the good, the bad and the ugly and let me tell you Manhattan has more ugly sometimes.  I sometimes wonder who people think they are and how shitty they must sleep at night.  Its like we don't even work together anymore, its like we are all for ourselves.  What a life I tell you.  Its like a see people yelling at each other on the streets and I was treated like complete shit today and I just wonder what the point of it all is.  Does it really make you feel better?  Does it make things easier being a complete dick?  Being so mad that you carry it on your shoulder as a constant reminder of your own pain, a pain no one feels but you.  Being so arrogant to others feelings that you never truly feel understood.  I wonder sometimes where the respect has gone.  Fellow friend and people I brush by, peoples faces you encounter that you'll never truly meet and never truly know when its all said and done whats the point of not being kindhearted. 

I'm not trying to get all peacemaker tree hugger on your ass but I mean honestly look around you.  I wonder where the respect has gone.  I see on a rare occasion the man who opens the door for someone else or the person that helps a little old lady cross the street.  Imagine what a world we would live in if everyday we got out of our ego and helped someone without expecting something in return.  How beautiful this world would be if we didn't get worked up over stupid shit, if we had more patience with others and if everyday we practiced kindness from a genuine source.  Its true that what goes around comes around, wouldn't it be beautiful to see what you would get in return.   

I get so tired of seeing the ugly around me, I want everyone to be beautiful.  To feel what its like to sleep knowing that you practice kindness.  When you strip away money, clothes and jewelry you will one day stand naked.  Exposed.  You will be nothing more then whom you say you are and nothing more then the way you treated others.  The lack of the materialistic will shed a naked soul.  A soul that people can read because the distractions will be gone.  What will you have?  Your experiences, the people that touched your life but always keep in mind what others would say.  When naked, what will they remember?  What has been imprinted from you to their memory?  For however brief or long, what would they say verse what you would want them to say?  

You touch lives in every way for however brief and one day you will stand naked lets hope its not written in tattoos how rotten you might have been...

To Marry An Irish Man Moment

So my roommate is from Ireland, it doesn't get more Irish then her.  Which is to say we are very much kindred spirits and when it comes to her overall disposition about life she couldn't get more realistically honest.  She understands where I am in life, even though in cumulative age she's wiser.  She was once me trying to create something here in Manhattan she was 28 and I am 26, but still understands my frustration on some days but she also gets that I have the same thing in me that was once in her, still is in her.   She's wildly creative, honestly passionate and by default trusting and honest to the ends of the earth.  Irish people are this way, they very much are whom they say they are although reserved once cracked they would do anything for you.   

I just love Irish people, when saying that it is so important that you are whom you say you are the Irish just know how to do it.  Now I know I'm generalizing here but this weekend I sat with 6 Irish men, all from different parts of Ireland.  Yeah the odds were in my favor.  Instantly you can feel the warmth of these people, you can see it in their eyes and too often with American boys I feel like I have something to prove.  With them I sensed their family as being the center, which says a lot about who you are.  There is nothing more important to them and that grounds and centers them in my eyes.  Doesn't that just make sense?   When it comes to family nothing brings you back to yourself then them, they have known you the longest after all.  Not knowing someones family is like knowing a shell of a person you see the outside but will never really get to the inside. 

There is no more chivalrous man then an Irish man, ok so maybe not all but overall they take care of their woman and not in a materialistic kind of way but in a genuine protective means.  You feel that they wouldn't purposely try to go behind your back, cheat you or try to be a dick.  I sat with all of them and my roommate and I laughed, drank and realized then that I will marry an Irish Man.  Not any of the ones I met that night but in general the qualities shown to me were so refreshing and honest.  No bullshit, no lies, no distrust, NO EGO, just honest, real and solid.  A rock of a man, I miss this quality and have been fooled by men thinking they have this quality.  I don't want scared, shell of a person kind of guy living in a delusional world.  I want someone with the family structure I come from (which is rare) the Irish get this.  

So perhaps the moral of this story is that in the end I will end up with an Irish man.  For his genuine qualities, qualities that you can not fake.  Qualities that at first impression you just sense.  After being lied to, cheated on and with someone whom was a good actor..it was refreshing to be around 6 Irish men, the real deal if you ask me.