And a much calmer vibe in Cachoeira, Bahia Brazil, possibly my newest favorite place on earth…

Making of “Carefree”… more pics

“At last, my love has come along, My lonely days are over, and love is like a song..”
RIP Etta James…

Antarctica recap featured on Live Like You’re On Vacation

When my friend Dan Lack persuaded me to go to Antarctica last summer, little did I know it was going to change my life. “Samantha, come on.. ANTARCTICA.” “Dan, I don’t even know where Antarctica IS… Plus, I have to make an album! I can’t go to, like, the bottom of the earth! And… is that where polar bears are, or penguins?” (penguins)

I could already feel myself opening up, and though I had traveled a bit for fun or volunteer, my music career had always been in the back of my mind so I could never truly “let go”. It felt good to leave it back in the States and be fully in the present with my traveled. When I reached my group in B.A., a posse of fun-loving, dynamic people from around the world, I knew it was going to be an adventure. We were going… to explore. We reached Ushuaia, the southernmost city in the world and boarded the M/S Expedition, no-frills Baltic cruiser ship that looked seriously ready for action. To get to Antarctica, you need to first cross the Drake Passage… 2 straight days at sea… AND the
 roughest waters on the planet. The Westerly winds are pinched between the South American and Antarctica points, which created 8 Meter swells and 20-degree ship tilts. I was catching air on my mattress as I slept and I swore the crew could have tried out for Cirque du Soleil. At certain points, the waves were so massive you couldn’t even see the sky… just one wall of wave!!… and to think we were this insignificant little vessel barreling through the freezing ocean tundra, hundreds of miles from anything, was nothing short of awesome.

Once we crossed the Antarctic convergence, the temperature dropped 5 degrees almost instantly, the sea calmed, and icebergs that could have passed for Frank Lloyd Wright dwellings floated by. Summertime in Antarctica meant 24/7 daylight, so we were able to see the magnificent albatross, mother and calf whales and even seals laying out on ice floats escorting us to the continent. It was INCREDIBLE. I was … in love. Never have I been engulfed such penetrating beauty, peace, and silence before.

The expedition team, which was made up of marine biologists, scientists, ornithologists, geologists, you name it, were so passionate about their work in the Antarctic that the inspiration was infectious. By the 2nd day I was able to tell the difference between a Crabeater seal and a Weddell seal and was using words like “starboard” instead of “starbucks”- totally enamored with ship-life and loving the simplicity of a place where nature & wildlife truly governed people.

We spent the next 10 days doing landings across the Antarctic Peninsula and surrounding islands via the coolest things ever invented by mankind- zodiacs. In those incredible things, not only did I feel like a secret agent going on a covert mission a la Goldeneye, we could easily navigate the jigsaw puzzle of sea ice, calving icebergs and freezing waves. Trekking to tops of active volcanoes, snowy ridges and quietly sitting amongst penguins as they build their rock-nests was just part of this incredible journey down in this fantastically inhospitable frontier.

For me, being someone who loves animals yet hadn’t really had many experiences that didn’t involve a fence, I connected deeply. The Antarctic wildlife is the perfect place to observe animals in their natural habitat, un-phased and untouched by human presence, and the number of species were condensed enough that you could truly acknowledge each one.

I think these images speak for themselves, a world with no people, no cities, no borders, no laws. Just appreciation and awe for one of the last pure places on earth.

If you decide to travel to Antarctica, make sure you go with this company- G Adventures. The expertise, passion and familial vibe far exceeded any expectations of ship-travel and I highly recommend them!  Big Thank You to Captain Chorbadchiev for delivering us home safely and showing us how navigation in extreme conditions is DONE!

Antarctica, December 2011

To see the rest of the photos, click here

Today’s jams..

1st sunrise of 2012.. 
“Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn’t do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover.” -Mark Twain 

Ushuaia from the plane.. Southernmost city in the world

Palermo, Buenos Aires

LAX>Mexico City>Buenos Aires>Ushuaia>ANTARCTICA

Happy Thanksgiving!

To rip yet another genius line from Walden, “To be awake is to be alive.” It’s my last day out here in Ojai, and I chose to spend it riding this big hunk of a horse, who had such a personality he could have could passed for Will Ferrell. Seriously. (He’s in the middle of a sneeze below;) Being outside against the mountain backdrop, next to the orange groves, leaves going a bright November red. Not a bad way to end a 3 month writing retreat.

I believe what I’m saying with all of the Thoreau-isms is that I’m a bit more awake than I was before, and I didn’t anticipate learning what I learned. This last week I didn’t work on a note of music. I put down the instruments and simply reflected on my time here. It’s so easy to “do”… It’s much harder to “be”… So that’s what I did. I saw that this is all even more a process than I thought, that creative passion takes dedication, honesty and, ultimately, acceptance. Far more of all 3 than I have ever been able to grasp.

Everything inside me felt weird for not doing or working… For simply enjoying riding my bike and riding Raz, watercoloring, reading, meditating, avoiding Facebook at all cost, staying in the zone. I realized that that was just as valuable as all the hours I put in writing songs and making tracks, that without the silent, reflective time there would be no weight to my work, and my level of depth would be single-faceted. Most of the stuff I wrote is toss-out, but that’s a good thing. I’m trying to understand what the truth is, although I know, in my heart, it’s not about understanding at all, I’m still not there yet. I do know that beneath the process there are a few tasty morsels ready to be built upon, and such is the lifelong process of creative discovery.

And as for Thoreau, he may have moved to the top of the ladder of dead persons I’d like to have dinner with, edging out John Lennon and Cleopatra. What can you say about a guy who moved out to a pond to contemplate the quiet desperation of men…;)

Here’s to life, love and horses! XO Samantha

Tearing down my studio! 

Thrive the Movie

Please take time to watch this entire film. It blew my socks off and I know it will yours. I have been thinking to myself for quite a long time, that if given support and stability, humans will act on the side of good over bad. I truly believe this. I believe people act badly out of desperation, and there is much cause for desperate measures on our planet today.

Any time I post something of “controversy”, I notice that I get a rash of defensive replies. Why?? When I posted something on Facebook about family planning a few months ago, supporting Planned Parenthood because I believe a healthy family educated about their reproductive rights = a better, less desperate community, so many people dissented! Ironically, it was mostly men. Why is that? If we had enough money to go around, enough education and support about all of the issues surrounding humanity, we’d have a happier country make wiser and more grounded decisions.

I believe that we as humans truly want to work together to live in harmony. And I believe we are going towards that in the new 21st century. But there is something that is preventing us from taking those steps confidently. This film questions the foundation by which we live by, and highlights the fear we have been living with… and encouraged to live in.

I know that change happens from within and greed is an addiction on our planet, but at least this brings up the question, why, with all of our technological breakthroughs, haven’t we been able to create free energy for the planet and help those desperately in survival?

In 2 weeks this will be me… without the rifle!
#Antartica #ClimateChange