Try reverse Déjà Vu for inspiration

What's Reverse Déjà Vu for inspiration? Do something uplifting you've NEVER done before! I'm betting NO ONE has seen ALL of the videos below before. If you have leave a comment with something new for the next visitor. There are some new variations of well-known ones here, but NO WAY have you seen all of these!

New inputs = new inspiration

Why did I put these together? It's important to seek out things to be motivated by, not to just stick to the same inputs, day in and day out. To find new things to lift yourself up, forget all the time-wasters and get energized or just relax deeper than ever before. To remember what you want most out of life, and feel that it can happen.

Sometimes when something inspires you, it feels like remembering something that you've forgotten. Peaceful music and imagery is what often does it for me, that and really cool, gravity or body-defying dance! Here's one of my favorites nature videos to start things off:

Remember the best things you want from life

I hope you find something here that helps you feel and remember the best side of yourself, and remember the best things you want out of life. Hopefully there will be something here you love but have never seen or heard before. (Yeah, I've also got puns, cats, photoshopped and large desktop pics*sigh*)

Links in most cases take you to other popular videos by the same artist, or style of video. All photos below are by me.)

Enjoy!

Oh, and a suggestion: Watch and listen to these here but then watch your favorites in full screen. (How? Click on the YouTube logo in the lower right corner to go the video's main page, and then click on the tiny icon in the lower right to open the video in full screen. Viewing controls at the bottom of your screen, press the Esc key on your keyboard to exit full screen mode.)

"This is love: to fly toward a secret sky, to cause a hundred veils to fall each moment. First to let go of life. Finally, to take a step without feet." -Rumi

Okay, this is a viral video ad (Schweppes Burst), but it's great! Slow motion of water balloons bursting, with music. Won me over. Wait for the one that hits the guy in the face

Davy Spillane plays a lament on the Uilleann pipes to Cuchulain composed by Bill Whelan for Riverdance. (Once you've heard this sound, you'll never need to look up the meaning of "lament.")

Ray Lynch, "Celestial Soda Pop" (comments?)

Flowing Sand Art will blow you away. Don't skip this one if you've never seen this kind of artist perform before (comments?) 

Kitaro, "Silk Road." For fans, here's a version of Symphony of the forest (comments?)

Glass Harp on wine glasses (comments?) 

Enya, Watermark Orinoco Flow and May it be are great too! (comments?)

Laughing Baby What a great audience! Thank you, I'm here all week! (comments?)

Saraswa, "Trees" (comments?)

Nessun Dorm by the Three Tenors. You really owe it yourself to hear how it develops--listen to the whole thing and it will bring tears to your eyes. Made popular recently by Paul Potts version (comments?)

Okay, this is straight-up comedy: Tripod, "Make You Happy Tonight." At 1:07 the real meaning of this song comes out. "Turn the lights down low .. it helps me feel like I'm in a spaceship" (comments?)

Tchaikowsky, Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy, Glass Armonica (comments?)

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Easy piano improvisation for anyone

I'm sure you heard this one before! But this is different from anything else I've seen. Really!! I can teach you (free) to play in under five minutes, and you'll be learning to improvise, read music and understand music theory at the same time. And you can keep playing, WITHOUT FURTHER LESSONS, and have a great time! It's incredible, and I wouldn't have believed it if I, a non-piano player hadn't stumbled into it myself. I play all the time now, and have a great time!

Here's an example of me just playing around after I had been improvising for a few weeks: Night Sky Over Water. You can easily do as well! It will sound a lot better than you can imagine, but remember, I've taught this method to a four-year-old successfully! (On this recording, I was just playing around and hit the "Record" button on my electric piano. Frustratingly, everytime I press "Record" I play worse!)

If you want to get an idea of why it's easy to improvise melodies (harmonies are even easier), try this cool music composition tool, or this free online music tool (press "C" on your keyboard once it loads): click on different dots to create melodies. And if you really want to play around with easy music online, don't miss the barbershop quartet site. (Hint: click on the horses.)

I used to buy or try to learn more about all the "Easy Piano" methods out there. None of it worked for me. The enjoyment wasn't there. I even tried (gasp!) practicing. But since I don't know how to play the piano or read music, "practice" wasn't too successful. I learned to play three pieces by rote with a LOT of effort. Yes, I can hear you saying it: take lessons! But somehow I knew there was something else for me.

I've taught this to kids UNDER the age of five (and over the age of seventy) with great success. And I'll teach it to you for free! I want to get some more experience with how different people learn, and this is such a great addition to anyone's life I love sharing it with people.

Click the big blue Call Me button down to the right (it won't show me your number so your privacy is safe, you can read about the Call Me button here) and let's set something up! If you want to wait for some written instruction with tips and tools, I'll be putting it up at Really Easy Piano.

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Wireless music streaming on the ultra-cheap

Picked up a Logitech Wireless DJ system. Terrific reviews, and now that it is out of the main stores (Logitech has moved on to different versions of the same technology), great price. Instead of $250 original list price, now well under $100 at eBay and many internet retailers.

The remote works great for browsing internet radio and all music on our PC. (Give the remote a few minutes to update changes you make to your music player before you see them on the LCD display).

But pick up a wireless speaker system and you can stream music to multiple rooms simultaneously. I like Innovation Lab's Blue Tango Rock BT Wireless Audio System, which can be had for as low as $20 before shipping (computer Geeks unadvertised sale). If you had bought Logitech's solution for multiple rooms at list, it would have cost $500! Combining Logitech and IL's Blue Tango to knock $400 off that is pretty nice.

Set up the Blue Tango system on the rooms list of the Logitech remote and you can turn music on or off in any room you set sound up in. Get multiple Blue Tango systems for multiple rooms.

Note that Blue Tango connects to any existing stereo system, but also comes with speakers. I'm streaming the same internet radio in the study (under computer control) and the living room (Logitech control) and the bedroom (computer control with Blue Tango). Amazing to have so much wireless music control for only around $100 (before shipping)

(Yes, also cool is just use the Blue Tango alone. You don't get a remote so have to control everything from the PC, but .. only $20!)

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I viewed a few wedding-related videos recently...

... as my cousin got married over Thanksgiving, and my wife Sarah and I couldn't make the wedding. Here's three of my favorites:

A man sets up a fake showing at an art gallery, that becomes a wedding proposal in a very creative way:


Two crew members for the TV show Scrubs fell in love. When it came time to pop the question, the whole set was ready. Awwwwwwww!


Here's the most popular (lately) example of the surprise first dance:

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