Wow. Big changes, I am being pushed out furthur into the universe to finally conquer and dissolve all my fears. No more safety harness. Boldly going where I've never gone before. Accepting full responsibility. Saturn crossing over my Pluto - Uranus conjunction in the 10th house. Almost there!!
I have this Moon and Neptune conjunction in Scorpio in my 1st house. I think that's what make things particularly intense for me.
Then there's Mercury and and Venus conjunct in Leo in the 9th house, on my midheaven.I guess that's a good thing. Sorry if you don't understand astrology, it's really been helping me out a lot lately, like reading a map. Or, putting together parts to a puzzle.
I hope I'll be done with my new album by the end of this month.
It's very simple, sweet, soft and deep.
Ommmmmmmmmm

The first Eugene Community Prayer Dance was awesome! It made me feel so happy that I live here in Eugene and there's such awesome yet humble people here in this community, who love to dance hard all night to electronic music. Thankyou , thankyou, to everyone who participated! I am so excited about the next ones and I'm really excited about creating my own blend of electronic & live music, levels beyond Lost at Last.
Last week I bought a Mac Book Pro, and I upgraded to Logic 8 and I upgraded my Ableton Live. I worked every night last week, late, getting ready to do a set at the dance on Sat. I was quite overwhelmed because I really put huge heap on my plate to get together in just a few days (I tend to work like that) and my set ended up pretty short because I didn't have the time to work on more than 4 songs. But this is just the beginning!! I am so incredibly inspired to experiment and put most of my kirtan music to beats, plus a whole other dimension of new music that has been coming through me. I love to dance! I really miss the days of Lost at Last, being a part of the high energy dance setting everyone free. So, we'll see where this goes! Next Dance Priyo will join me on guitar and birimbao and Ananta will be there on violin and maybe cello. I may get a percussionist too. But, the difference between this and Lost at Last is a lot. First of of all, the vibe is different - it's not like a show or a performance, really. It's more like a rave, where the music is provided, the music is just happening, and we're all in it together. No audience, no performers. I like it this way. And, I'm running the computer and composing the sounds. I'm still singing of course, but I am focused on my instrument, the computer. Keeping it simple, although I love to play keyboards too so I might add them in there sometime. But, simplicity is the key for me now. I'll post some of the songs here on myspace soon. Kind of like re-mixes of my songs.
Today, I met with an astrologer friend. She told me that all those born between 1964 and 1968 will be breaking through their last layer of self-imposed limitation this year. That, finally, they will be able to fully embody their true power. By the end of the year, we will be fully liberated and unleash upon the world a wave of positive love and healing, bringing forth new and unprecedented methods and ideas and systems for healing ourselves and our planet. As long as we do the inner work and tune in, this opportunity is completely available to us. Wow!
The Eugene Community Prayer Dance is held the 4th Saturday of every month. Location for now is tba, so you need to be in the loop, on our mailing list to know where it is, or check my site. Although it's not a secret underground kind of gathering - it is a public, publicized event. We'd like to find a venue in town with a wood floor that is reasonably priced that we can have it at regularly, that can hold about 100+ people. Ideas, anyone?

Something big is happening in my life in a few months that I want to share with you all. When I started Lost at Last in 1997 in Maui, I had 2 daughters with me, 3 and 7. The band took off so fast and required so much of my time that I had to give my older daughter back to her father in Oregon for a few years. But I was a single parent with my younger one, so I decided to give her to my family in Florida.
She is 14 now, and we’ve all decided that she will come and live with me in Oregon
from this summer on. My first daughter is off to college, and now I have one starting high school. I will be a single parent again. I am both daunted and honored with the task. I definitely notice that most touring kirtan singers are not single parents, if parents at all. I am so inspired to tour and keep producing albums, but my touring will be somewhat limited over the next 4 years. At least, I plan to do kirtans in Hawaii and So Cal once a year, the Bay area and Oregon twice a year, and random trips to England and Italy. And, I will just keep the albums coming. Because, I really do have a lot of music in me. Most of the chants that I do I create the melodies and arrange myself - I am very inspired to create new chants that people can sing. I don’t have an in depth knowledge of Sanskrit - but it’s really about the Names anyway. Harinam Sankirtan Ki Jai!! (All Glories to the Holy Names!) Anyway, more than ever I feel so dependent upon the grace of God, more vulnerable and more surrendered to do what I need to do here on this planet, with gratitude and love. I feel caverns opening up inside of me, I feel my roots reaching deep into the earth. I taste the salty and the sweet. I have tears for the world’s suffering as well as my own losses and attachments as I let go and let myself glide down the river of life...towards the ocean of Bliss (which is, of course, accessible at any given moment)

I have been noticing that I am getting a lot more hits on my MySpace, especially since I put up "This is the Day". I'm very excited about this, and the effect it has on me - because I feel like there is some kind of genuine community created out of MySpace, the more I see how it works. (I have yet to explore tribe.net, which I'm planning on doing someday) I'm spending a lot of time in my studio, at night, and I'm getting in some reallly deep spaces. I love to sit with the headphones on and a lot of reverb on my mic, with some candles lit, and venture into soundscapes spontaneously created through this body/soul. Then I can post this up the next day if I want, and share the experience with my friends. So even though all this computer stuff and cyberspace seems so strange and isolates us in certain ways, it is a way for us to connect that is reminiscent of that other civilization we lived in where we were all aware that we are one in our consciousness. I want to say that I do read all of the messages sent to me, but I usually don't reply because, I say, I'll do that later, and then, of course, I never get around to it. And, I also want to say, thankyou, thankyou, all, for liking my music and wanting more.

Wow, I just think time goes faster and faster. I haven't written a blog since last summer. Sometimes i wonder if it would feel like it goes so fast if I were just meditating in a cave by a river. Is it that, the busier you are, the faster time seems to go? So, since the summer I've traveled quite bit -
Italy, England, California, Hawaii, Florida. Not near as much as some of these crazy kirtan artists and musicians I know, though. I've actually settled in now quite nicely into the Oregon winter although I don't think I will ever settle into winter - I am really an island girl. I really don't like winter very much at all. But, the fact is, I have a daughter in school here and plus I am working full time for Coconut Bliss for the next 2 years. I've never really worked at a full time job before besides music, so it has a been a big adjustment for me. But, I feel that God really graced me with this situation so I am accepting and feeling very grateful. So, at night I do as much recording and music as I possibly can. I've already got about 1/2 of my next album done, which I plan on completing sometime in February. (Oh - by the way. Sublime is officially released and available online and at various stores and on my website soon.) I'm really enjoying working on new music and recording in my studio, I've been having a lot of creative inspiration lately.
Perhaps because it's like an escape from the 'real' world. Or, more like, adventuring into the much more real world of divine love.
I finally just recorded "This is the Day" just so I could put it up on my Myspace - it seems like a lot of people like this song. I'm not putting it on my next album, but the one after that.
Well, Luna is just about to have her baby, any day. I'm 'on call' for the birth. I'm so excited because we're going to have a sweet little baby around.
I'm trying not to pay much attention to politics right now, it is truly a mad, mad situation in this country, like just beyond belief. Capitalism run rampant. I keep fantasizing about moving to Australia or New Zealand someday, maybe before the world ends in 2012?
But, then again, as long as you're immersed in Divine Love, it really doesn't matter where you are. RIght? I'll be going to Sebastopol and Santa Cruz in April for a few kirtans - I'll be posting info soon. I want to get to Southern California - actually I'm going there for the Anaheim Natural Foods Expo March 14-15-16 but I'm not singing kirtan there, just the glories of Coconut Bliss. But, yes, perhaps I'll make it down there someday soon for a round of kirtan. Love to you all...

Wow, time is moving sooo fast!! It's already been months since I wrote my last blog.
The Oregon Country Fair is over & gone, my (younger) daughter's visit is almost over, it's almost August, and I'll be off to England for the festival/retreat in just a few weeks, then after, Sicily. I'm working a lot at Coconut Bliss, up to 40 hours a week, because we are in a real amazing surge - we're moving into California next week - you will be able to get Coconut Bliss all over the Bay area!! It's a very exciting experience being an integral part of a very, very, potently successful and wonderful product. I'm working on a (vegan) fudge recipe, to put in the hazelnut fudge flavor I want to manifest.
I've almost got the Bay area kirtans in October booked, and also the Maui/Big Island tour in late November. Coconut Bliss is now my sponsor, and we will giving away lots of Bliss at the kirtans from now on, prasad. So far we have Geoffrey Gordon on tabla and Luna singing with me for the Bay area kirtans, and I'm hoping that Manose can join us too.

My new CD Sublime is still in the works - I thought for sure it would be out this September, but looks like we didn't make the record company's release schedule so it probably won't be officially out til next February. I will have a bunch of pre-release copies though, for sale with me when I'm out this fall. It is really quite a project, there are so many layers, it's one of those more complicated productions - I think it's great, though, because my other CDs seemed to always get a little rushed, like Ocean of Mercy, recorded in Daniel Paul's living room in Maui, in between Lost at Last tours. So its really fun to get into the layers and depths of sounds of my music, for the first time. Steve Gordon is doing a great job (co)producing the songs.
I have so much to do on all our websites, jayalakshmi.net, lostatlast.com, oneatlast.com - they all kind of need some updating, so I'll be doing that over the next few months, along with finishing up the 2nd One at Last CD, and.....
ooohhhhh, I'l be floating in the Mediterranean in just a few weeks, in the crystalline, silky, aquamarine waters, Goddess bless....

My new studio CD is in the final stretch of production. Steve Gordon is producing and mixing each song, and we need to have it all done by mid May. Almost everything is finished though, the artwork, and many other details. Now the editing work has begun on the November 2007 Live DVD we recorded in Sebastopol, so that's underway. I'm seriously thinking about making some changes to "Jewel of Hari", which was released in 2004. There are just some things on that CD that bug me!
This is a common predicament for an artist, whether or not to go back and change things on a pre-released CD, or just let it go. But, I like the songs so much on that CD, and we kind of had to rush it at the end, so I didn't really get it where I wanted it. That may be another project in the near future.
In the meantime, I finally got to some gardening yesterday- we replanted a big patch of running bamboo into huge pots. Now we can relax about that. We're also planting a lot of fruit trees, we now have 24 on our property, just like an orchard!
One at Last will be playing for the first time in over a year at the Harmony Festival, on Saturday night. I have committed myself, finally, to learning Ableton Live, so I will be running the beats on stage now with my computer. It's quite daunting, really, but I'm very excited about the new possibilities!
And, Coconut Bliss is just about to get into California. People will never be the same, I know, after they start eating Coconut Bliss. It will be a big wave. I'm so happy to be a part of it. I'm having fun creating flavors and locating top quality ingredients.
I have a kirtan in Portland tonight, this will the last one up there until fall.
Om Shanti

I've just come back from a weekend California tour, we played San Rafael Friday, Sebastopol Saturday, and Santa Cruz Sunday. The kirtans were great, especially Santa Cruz (my old stomping ground) Kirtan people are so sweet and present, I feel very blessed to share the time with them. For the first time I took a tabla player with me from Oregon, his name is Chaz Hastings, and he did an awesome job. Everyone kept asking him, how old are you? Why, you look so young! Yes, young to be such a great player. But he is 22. Anyway, I hope that he'll go down again with me, perhaps in the fall. The whole weekend was just me, him, and Ananta the violin player who's been playing with me a lot recently. She is great too. She has butterfly tattoos all over her. (Arindam played kartals & shaker in Santa Cruz, and PJ tamboura in SR))
So, I'm back here in Eugene, and I worked at Coconut Bliss all week, making the best vegan organic coconut ice cream in the world. After work, every night I've been trying to finish up my CD (and make dinner for my family) . We have a deadline on the CD of May 10th or so. I know Steve Gordon has been spending a lot of time in his studio getting the songs to their finished state. It's really worked great, the way we did it this time - I did all of the tracking in my home studio (I have Logic 7.2) and when I had all that done plus the basic arrangement of the song, I sent it to him to add his creative ideas as co-producer, and bring it to another level. There's so much involved in the production of a CD, especially this one -
besides the tracking, arranging, producing, mixing , and mastering, then there's the liner notes that go inside, the photos, the artwork, and more. I will feel very relaxed, I think, when this CD is actually done, and thrilled when I get to hold it in my hand!
I have a kirtan tonight in Eugene, with Ankush on tabla and Luna is joining us (although we both have a sore throat) but the chanting must go on!!
All for now...