Great Music Documentaries

 

There are so many great music documentaries and videos on Amazon and YouTube.
Linking two recent discoveries here.

1. History Of The Eagles. Trailer linked above. Full documentary available via Amazon here.

2. History of The Rascals from Pop Goes The 60s on Youtube. Part 1 above. Part 2 here and Part 3 here. Many other interesting videos on this channel, as well!

 

And The Grammy Goes To...

 

…My incredible collaborator and friend Steven Feifke! You may recognize him from my East Of The Sun video (below) which he made the most beautiful arrangement for, and is playing piano on.
He also arranged and played on my recording of Fly Me To The Moon (below).
Steven just won for his album with Bijon Watson and Generation Gap Jazz Orchestra.
It’s deeply moving to see someone with such dedication and love of craft achieve a huge milestone like this.
To me, the award is a symbol of the commitment to, and the unwavering trust in, the flow of the pure creative force.
Congratulations Steven! The first of many!

 
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New Book About Divorce

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My book ‘The Rice Is Cooked: - Five grains of wisdom to move on from divorce’ is out now!
This book is a tool to get back in touch with your true self after experiencing a separation and divorce.
It’s an interactive workbook that contains both reflections coming from me, and also questions for you, so you can find your own answers, reflections and lessons.
If you’re interested, you can check it out on amazon HERE.

 

Hiking Breakneck Ridge

 

Just came back from a very relaxing hike in upstate New York. I hiked the Breakneck Ridge trail for the first time with one of my best friends last year. Missed it so much I decided to do it again this week. My friend is abroad so I decided to hike solo, but it turns out there were so many other hikers out this weekend so I definitely wasn’t alone.

If you want to hike the longest trail loop, the one that goes all the way from Breakneck Ridge to Coldspring, I recommend taking an Amtrak train to Breakneck Station. If you do so, you can hike to Coldspring Village, have a meal, and then take the train back from Coldspring station without worries of having to go back and get your car. The Breakneck Ridge trail starts off extremely steep, pictured above.

I stopped at Hudson House River Inn (2 Main Street) in Coldspring for a delicious portobello-mushroom veggie burger before returning to the city.
Wishing you a wonderful fall-season,
Seena

 

Best Hot Chocolate in New York

 

It’s autumn in New York! One of my favorite things to do as soon as the temperature drops is to enjoy a delicious cup of hot chocolate from Saint Ambroeuse. It’s the best! Also recommend the hot chocolate from my other favorite, Angelina, which you can order in an iced version, as well.
Enjoy if you are lucky enough to be here,
or lucky enough to visit in the future!
Fall in New York really is magical.
Love,
Seena

 
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Deep Truths w/ Iain McGilchrist

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I’m currently reading the book The Master and His Emissary by Iain McGilchrist.
I really, really recommend it.
McGilchrist’s latest work The Matter With Things is what I’ll be reading next.
Linking two interviews with him here so you can discover why, in case you’re not already familiar with his work.
Enjoy! :)
Seena

 
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Mallorca Sweet Bread

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A long time ago I was the biggest fan of the Mallorca Sweet Bread from Starbucks. Not too sweet, a bit mushy, a bit fluffy…It was just the perfect coffee pastry to me. Fast forward ten years and the Starbucks in my area has long but discontinued their Mallorca Sweet Bread offering. The other day I tried re-creating them at home. I’m not a baker and I usually don’t consume pastries, so I was lacking ingredients like white sugar, and kitchen essentials like parchment paper, a whisk and a food mixer. I was still able to bake pretty good-looking and delicious-tasting Mallorca Sweet Bread rolls! I used this recipe as a base, and then halved it, plus substituted white sugar for coconut sugar. If you plan to bake without a mixer, I would recommend baking a smaller batch like I did with this recipe. You can only mix so much dough by hand.

Seena’s Six Organic Mallorca Sweet Breads

Ingredients:

Use all Organic ingredients

1 stick butter
4 egg yolks
1/3 cup + 2 table spoons coconut sugar
1/4 cup milk
3/4 cup water
1/2 pkg dry yeast
3 1/4 cups bread flour
1 teaspoon salt
powder sugar
1 tbs butter for greasing the baking pan and 2 tbs butter for brushing the rolls with melted butter

Melt the stick of butter.
Mix the melted butter stick, the 4 egg yolks and the 1/3 cup + 2 table spoons of coconut sugar in a bowl.
Ideally you would have a whisk and whisk it together until smooth.
If you don’t have a whisk, just use a fork like I did.
Mix the 1/4 milk and 3/4 cup water together and heat them until lukewarm.
Put the 1/2 of yeast into the water and milk and let it sit for 30 seconds.
Mix the <milk/water/yeast> with the <egg/sugar/butter>.
Add salt and flour. Ideally you would do this in a kitchen mixer.
If you don’t have a mixer just continue using your fork and your arm.
Add a little bit of flower at a time to make it easier to avoid lumps.
When everything is mixed, go ahead and cover the bowl with a cloth and let the dough rise for 45 minutes.

After 45 minutes, remove the cloth.
Grease a baking pan with butter, or use parchment paper.
Now it’s time to make the rolls.
Take an extra dash of flower and spread it onto your kitchen counter top.
Divide the dough into six equal pieces. Create long spaghetti like shapes of each of them.
Then roll them up into little circles. Tuck the end part of the dough in under the main part.
Put the rolls onto your baking pan and let them rise for another 25 minutes under the same kitchen cloth.


Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees.
Remove the kitchen cloth and brush the rolls with melted butter.
Put the rolls in the oven for 20 -25 minutes.
Let the rolls cool down and cover them with powdered sugar.

Enjoy!

 
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Favorite Hazrat Inayat Khan Quotes

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If you are looking for something to read this summer I warmly recommend The Dance Of The Soul. This is one of my favorite books, if not the favorite. It consists of a collection of profound aphorisms by Sufi master Hazrat Inayat Khan. I usually read a page or two in this book to get back in touch with what’s truly important. One page is enough, as the sayings are so elegantly simple, yet deep. Here are a few of my favorites:

As the shadow is evident yet non-existent, so is evil

It is easy to become a teacher, but difficult to become a pupil

As fire can cook food or burn it, so also does pain affect the human heart

The secret of life is balance, and the absence of balance is life’s destruction

If you fail yourself, everybody will fail you

One single moment of a sincere life is worth more than a thousand years of a life of falsehood

Before you can know the truth, you must learn to live a true life

 

Contact: booking@seenamusic.com