Bliss and Drumming: The Slow Enlightenment of the Hard Rock Drummer

Clementine Moss reads from the Bliss and Drumming blog about the re-release of the song "Stars Turn Me On" from 2012. What is it like to look back at early work, and who were we then? Looking back, we can't help but see how far we've come.

Clementine Moss reads from the Bliss and Drumming blog about the re-release of the song "Cold Snap" from 2008. What is it like to look back at early work, and who were we then? Looking back, we can't help but see how far we've come.

Clementine Moss reads this blog post from her blog Bliss and Drumming, about what songwriting means to her and how to proceed in a world fraught with chaos. __ The way music unites us, binds us, erases divisions, connects us at a cellular level, reminds us of our compassion and empathy, this is what I can speak rapturously of forever. In my life, I have met so many people, connected my heart to so...

From the blog BlissandDrumming.com, Clementine reads this piece.

From the blog http://www.blissanddrumming.com, Clementine reads this piece. *** We map out how we want it all to look, and we have a picture of the outcome. We create this picture based on the past, and it is through fear we speak. Fear of not having enough, fear of it not working out in the way we vision, fear of pain or sorrow, fear of change. I think I am supposed to know what the future is to...

From the blog http://www.blissanddrumming.com, Clementine reads this piece. *** Airports have lost their charm, at least for the time being. It seems as if everyone is discombobulated. Humans have forgotten their easy flow of being, and there is a kind of uptight scrabbling and agitation that sets everything on edge. People have been cooped up in their own spaces, getting their demands met in ever...

From the blog http://www.blissanddrumming.com, Clementine reads this piece. http://blissanddrumming.com/2021/03/the-question-of-not-enough/ ‎ *** I settled into life without the scramble of the constant travel of my music career. In the new stillness, I recognized within me a welling up, a kind of panic of not doing enough, not getting enough done. Without shows on the horizon, some mornings I wok...

From the blog http://www.blissanddrumming.com, Clem reads this piece. *** I have spoken to many people during the pandemic who have made the best of the situation, and who feel guilty about the fact they are doing ‘okay.’ Our society has become a place in which to say that all is well makes us feel ignorant or guilty. I think it is important for us to recognize what is working and what is peaceful...

From the blog http://www.blissanddrumming.com, Clementine reads this piece. *** A young man started showing up late nights, a sleight of hand artist who would entertain the patrons with card tricks. I’m not sure he was quite 21 years old. He was quiet and pale, with a sweetness to him. His talent was astonishing. The customers would get overwhelmed with his mastery, and they loved it. When I descr...

From the blog http://www.blissanddrumming.com, Clementine reads this piece. *** I spend a lot of time thinking about the ways in which human consciousness is transforming. For one thing people even a generation back didn’t grow up with the idea of “global community.” This concept is new in my lifetime. Once we were connected, first through the ease of travel and then through technology, our minds...

From the blog http://www.blissanddrumming.com, Clementine reads this piece. *** The drum begins. I begin my journey on a bluff, overlooking the Pacific. Rolling grassy hills, the coastline rippling side to side, and the big birds delighting in the marine updraft. There is an opening to a cave there, to my left. The first time I entered this cave, a wave of fear washed over me because it was so dar...

From the blog http://www.blissanddrumming.com, Clementine reads this piece. *** For the most part, the past week of quarantine has looked much the same as it has for the past couple of months. The preponderance of birds, riotous flower bloomings, quiet streets. Then, a warm spell in San Francisco sending folks out to the parks. Overnight, it seems that facemasks have become obsolete, and big drunk...

From the blog http://www.blissanddrumming.com, Clementine reads this piece. *** It was funny, really, and later it brought to mind the article we had both read about the spike in divorce rates after the quarantine was lifted in China. We had to venture out to the laundry. Harsh words were spoken after perceived carelessness. Then, escalation after a reconnaissance to the grocery. We had been doing...

From the blog http://www.blissanddrumming.com, Clementine reads this piece. *** We deep clean the house. We retrieve things from storage to sell. Now that we are out of work for months we start thinking about things to off-load in order to keep the lights on. We make tense financial plans. I order dry goods for just in case. We check in with family and send condolences to friends whose long-term p...

From her blog http://www.blissanddrumming.com, Clementine reads this piece. *** I also see this in the people I work with. I see that sometimes they don’t even realize that the patterns of misery they are caught have gradually let go in subtle ways, and when I ask after a few sessions about these old ways of being, it’s almost as if they’re surprised I’m asking. Someone who has not been able to sl...

As a special edition of the Bliss and Drumming podcast, Clementine reads this piece, recently published at https://memoirmag.com/nonfiction/laguna-main-by-clementine-moss/. *** Sharona bleats from a nearby radio and I close my eyes and imagine Sharona, object of adoration. I imagine Jim Morrison, on a beach with a guitar, writing about his LA woman. I love the Doors. I move to ask if Becky likes t...

From the blog www.blissanddrumming.com, Clementine reads this piece. *** The Drover is like a cave, with low ceilings, brick walls and round stucco fireplaces built randomly into small rooms. The lighting is yellow and warm, and the chairs are low wooden ones with rounded backs that set you perfectly to the table. There is a vaguely Spanish feel in the big wooden doors and the beamed ceilings. Sho...

From the blog www.blissanddrumming.com, Clementine reads this piece. *** It’s funny how naming something, really sitting and allowing the pain to rise and give it space and form, it’s funny how much gets released. In fact, when I look at how I felt then and how I feel now, I see just how much I’ve let go, just how much lighter my outlook. I sat in that studio and wrestled with all the darkness, al...

From the blog www.blissanddrumming.com, Clementine reads this piece. image source: https://www.flickr.com/photos/aussiegall/ *** And what kind of limitations do we project on others in order to keep ourselves feeling safe and knowing? I had a dear friend once who was 30 years older than me, and I was a chameleon, changing daily in my direction. Every time I thought I would shock him with some new...

From the blog www.blissanddrumming.com, Clementine reads this piece. *** It’s an intangible thing, this feeling of belonging to place. I have always reveled in being peripatetic, and my life as a musician is a glory to that. For years I have traveled down roads and spent time in cities new to me. I have played in all states but one, and as I arrive in each place my imagination runs wild. Perhaps t...

From the blog www.blissanddrumming.com, Clementine reads this piece. *** First off I will say, so there’s no misunderstanding, I love you. This is not love that needs something from you, or is some sort of burden or expectation you need to carry around with you. I love you with our common heart. Common molecules, common history, common planet, common energy. We are One. I know this is not a popula...

This is a short meditation to let go of physical pain that arises. Please visit www.patreon.com/clemthegreat for weekly meditations and other personal meditation and energy healing resources.

A quick 10-Minute Meditation! Check out www.patreon.com/clemthegreat for these to be delivered to your inbox weekly!

From the blog www.blissanddrumming.com, Clementine reads this piece. *** When I first arrived 18 years ago I saw pretty clearly that one day the little town would become a quaint art community in the middle of suburban sprawl, and that’s what is happening, as Omaha has annexed its Western edge and development is razing the 20 miles of cornfield that used to separate the city from country. I could...

From the blog www.blissanddrumming.com, Clementine reads this piece: http://blissanddrumming.com/2018/06/awakening-the-cosmic-joke/. *** Music provides a great illustration of this. I am on stage, playing drums in front of an audience. My thoughts float through as I play the song: the stick in my hands, the flutter of worry about something tricky coming up, the way the other instruments are playin...