With love, from Chicago!
Mid-summer and perfect. If you’re in Chicago, I hope your windows are open and you’re enjoying the summer breeze. Get yourself on the lake, the Riverwalk, to an outdoor café for a long lunch or dinner with good friends. Summertime is short, but oh so sweet!
Here’s a video from one of my favorite musicians, Michael Franti, to make you #stopdropdance: “Summertime Is In Our Hands.”
(BONUS TIP: Follow the “Illumine Life” playlist on Spotify for more of our favorite songs and a soundtrack for your most illumined days.)
Visit to Asheville, NC
I recently travelled to Asheville, North Carolina, to get my Michael Franti fix. (I’m a big fan!) He played a very fun venue, Salvage Station. With local food, drink trucks, and a dance floor, it was just a perfect night for Franti’s feelgood rock and roll. There was absolutely no rush to clear out after the concert, which made it a perfect time to enjoy a late-night snack, chat with people we’d met during the concert, and enjoy the fresh Smokey Mountain evening air.
Franti’s upbeat music and lyrics uplifted the crowd on so many levels. His 2019 “Stay Human” tour is an optimistic statement in the midst of our country’s questions, debates, and sometimes unbelievable behavior by politicians. Opening with a video, and a narrated letter written to his less-than-one-year-old son, Michael Franti open-heartedly shares why he is so committed to writing and performing in order to somehow shift to a brighter future. Through music, and the gathering of people together, he is making his not-so-small, but personal, difference.
Poetic Musical Justice
His poetic, musical justice is on-point and acknowledging of the questionable actions and complexity of the current political climate. From his song “The World is so F****d Up (But I Ain’t Ever Giving Up on It)“:
Let me tell you ’bout the situation goin’ on
Up inside my head today
My mind is runnin’ round in circles
Tryna make sense of the people
Who are runnin’ everything today
All these politicians tweetin’
Got their message on repeat and
Try dividin’ us with fear and the hate
Whey-ey-ey
I wish I could find a better way to say this
This world is so fucked up
But I ain’t never givin’ up on it
Never givin’ up on it
Never givin’ up on it
This world is so fucked up
But I ain’t never givin’ up on it
Never givin’ up on it
Never givin’ upMichael Franti & Spearhead
Whey-ey-ey
I wish I could find a better way to say this
We ain’t askin’ for money
We just wanna make change
We do it for all of the people who need it
‘Cause they got a voice and a name
I can’t believe how we livin’ today
I got…
The night inspired me to do what I do with even more conviction, and illuminate the path that will change the tide.
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