“I feel fantastic
And I never felt as good as how I do right now
Except for maybe when I think of how I felt that day
When I felt the way that I do right now, right now, right now.” -- Jonathan Coulton

It may seem strange to hear that I grew up in a household where we did not listen to much music. My mom often sang to us when we were children and my sister and I took piano lessons for a couple of years, but there was rarely music playing on the stereo (OK, I date myself) at our house. Apparently recorded music gets on my mom’s nerves.

My son JP listens to music a lot. And since he is home with us this summer, I am hearing stuff I would never find on my own. Right now I am getting so much joy from listening to songs from Jonathan Coulton, one of the musicians JP recently found. To give you an idea of what he sounds like, Jonathan Couton’s music is a bit like They Might Be Giants and Barenaked Ladies. You know, catchy tunes and understandable, witty, and intelligent lyrics. Couton writes songs about IKEA and satires about brain-eating corporate zombies. He also writes about loneliness and love.

Couton worked as a computer software writer until he quit his job in 2005 to make music full time. An early project of Couton’s was called “A Thing a Week,” where he wrote one new song a week and made it available as a free podcast. You can hear them on his website.

One Couton song I particularly like celebrates the effectiveness regulating moods with prescription medicines. That may sound like “iffy” subject matter to some, but anti-depressant and anti-anxiety meds have - at one time or another- really helped several close family members - myself included. Besides, the song is so fast-moving and joyful it just makes me laugh. In fact, I feel fantastic when I listen to it.

My friend Mark, whom I’ve know since third grade, taught me to love Broadway musicals. We spent hours in high school listening to and singing along with albums from famous Broadway shows like Hello Dolly, Carousel, Oklahoma , and South Pacific – and more obscure shows like A Little Night Music and Dear World.

One of my all-time favorite songs from a Broadway musical comes from Guys and Dolls. “If I Were a Bell ” is such a joyful song about that first rush of being in love.

Well, if I were a bell, I’d be a singing bowl, which resonates in such a curious and enticing way that it calls everyone who hears it to stop and listen. The sound of a singing bowl produces a centering effect in almost everyone. Though it is bowl shaped, a singing bowl is a type of standing bell that has been used throughout Asia for personal wellness, meditation, and religious practice.

I use the singing bowl in almost every gathering where I need to mark the passage of time or signal a change in activity. It works with people of all ages – from two years old to eighty. I ask people to raise their hands when they can no longer hear the sound of the bowl. Depending on the way the bowl is struck, the ringing tone can last for twenty seconds or longer.

The tones of singing bowls are dependent on the diameter of the bowl. Smaller bowls, though less expensive, make higher-pitched sounds which to me are not as alluring as the sounds that emanate from the larger bowls. If you’d like to see and hear different sizes of singing bowls, Emile de Leon of Temple Sounds is featured on a U Tube video. Type in Gong and Tibetan Singing Bowl Meditation.

To find a singing bowl you like, it is best to test them out in person. But I have not heard a singing bowl that was without charms of its own. You can mail-order a singing bowl from the following places:

House of Musical Traditions, now in Tacoma Park , MD , has specialized in instruments from the U.S. and around the world since 1972. They have a blog -musicaltradtions.blogspot.com - and you can find them on My Space under houseofmusicaltradtions.

Ten Thousand Villages is one of the world’s first and largest fair trade organizations. They work with artisans in more than 30 countries in Africa , Asia and Latin America to offer jewelry, home décor items, gifts, and some musical instruments. Their web site lists locations of stores all over the United States and Canada .

Lark in the Morning has been selling international musical instruments since 1974. Stores in San Francisco , Seattle , WA , and Medocino, CA. On the website, you can take a virtual tour of the stores.

I enjoy people watching. In the summer, I see hundreds of creative T-shirts with an amazing variety of images and messages. At a recent conference I attended, Paul Fromberg of San Francisco wore a couple of the most intriguing T-shirts I have ever seen. He said they came from an interactive web site called. Threadless.  Threadless hosts an ongoing T-shirt design competition. Using templates provided on the site, anyone can submit a T- shirt design on line. The designs are pictured and submitted to a public vote. Winners get $2,000 for their designs, which are printed on shirts and offered for sale on the site.  Purchasers are encouraged not just to write their responses to T-shirt designs in the blog area of the site, but also to send in photographs of themselves in Threadless shirts. A T-shirt of the month club is available for folks with a sense of adventure.  According to Wikipedia, “the Threadless community favors artistically provocative and humorous designs. Designs can range from political and personal opinions to abstract or surrealistic.”  

Threadless shirts come in a variety of shapes and sizes, but they are printed in limited batches. When shirts are sold out, customers can “vote” to request a reprint. New shirts are released on Mondays, so check out the site then.