We had the fun opportunity to do an interview for Dave and Vicky’s site, A Couple Travelers. 

1. Can you start by giving us a little bit of background about yourself and your blog. How did you start traveling? When did you start blogging, and what did you expect readers to get out of it?

We’ve been friends for years. After graduating college, while all our friends were getting jobs and “settling down,” we decided to explore the developing Eastern world. In August 2011, we flew into Malaysia and made our way north through South East Asia and eventually China. We had the time of our lives. Our trip was focused on personal growth — reading, learning and connecting with others from around the world. As you know, South East Asia presents a completely different part of the world compared to where we come from — outside NYC in the heart of what we call “the rat race.”

We began reading books about faith, wellness, yoga, and philosophy. We went on a yoga retreat and dived into different aspects of wellness. After the trip we continued to share great reads and links with each other. Lucid Practice is an extension of our sharing of that knowledge. With all of the suffering that goes on in the world, we’re creating a medium that is 100% positive. We hope readers turn to us for information and inspiration as leaders in the thought communities of travel, yoga, and wellness.

2. Let’s talk experiences – what has been the best experience you’ve had on the road? The worst?

We have been blessed to be able to see a lot of the world and hope that we can continue to travel in the future. Our most transformative experience we had was a one week yoga retreat in Koh Phangan, Thailand. We were able to connect with our teacher, Rory Trollen, who led us to the world of yoga and looking internally for validation and happiness instead of looking for validation externally. We also connected with others who we practiced with that week — we’re still in touch and connected to this day. That’s one of our favorite parts about traveling — connecting with locals and other travelers — learning about their cultures, their languages, their history, and their lifestyles.

Looking back, even the experiences that some might label as, “bad” were actually great learning/growing experiences.

Read more about our thoughts on yoga, wellness, and travel . 

~Danny Kaye

This is the One message that we try to practice and hopefully one thing we can pass on to any of our readers. We are…..this moment.

Via Complex

This year the bearded Buddha of beats has been more of a presence in hip-hop than any since he left Def JAm: Playing a crucial role in Kanye West’s ground-breaking album Yeezus and more recently co-executive producing Eminem’s triumphant The Marshall Mathers LP 2 with Dr. Dre. (No, Rubin didn’t work on Jay Z’s Magna Carta…Holy Grail, although that was him laying on the couch in the commercial.) We’ve already heard how stoked Em was to work with the man he calls “Yoda,” now pull up a chair and listen to Rubin’s perspective on working with Slim Shady.

How did you and Eminem come to collaborate on MMLP2?
I think it just worked out timing wise where the universe worked to make us get together at this time. We just went into the studio a couple of different of times for a few weeks at a time. Started up a bunch of songs and then some inspired vocals more than others and those ended up being the ones that he ended up pursuing.

What was the process like with Em? What exactly went on? Were you making beats? Were you talking about creative direction?
Probably all of those things. I collected up lots of possible ideas of starting points. A lot of samples and a lot of beat ideas and I’d play him a bunch of stuff and just say, “Tell me which of these feels like a good starting point.” And then he would pick a bunch of them and then we would develop each of those a little bit. And then he would listen to them and say, “OK, these are the ones I want to work on.” Then he would take them to write and then we would find more stuff.

Read more — here.

I have been an Eminem fan since I was little. This man is a true artist. While some may agree or disagree with his work, it is important to keep in mind what an artist’s job is — to force you to have an opinion. 

We Hope that everyone begins to see each other as One.

Image via Interscope Record

~ C.S. Lewis

APHORISM: A SHORT, POINTED SENTENCE EXPRESSING A WISE OR CLEVER OBSERVATION OR A GENERAL TRUTH.

1. The nicest thing about the future is that it always starts tomorrow.

2. Money will buy a fine dog, but only kindness will make him wag his tail.

3. If you don’t have a sense of humor, you probably don’t have any sense at all.

4. Seat belts are not as confining as wheelchairs.

5. A good time to keep your mouth shut is when you’re in deep water.

6. How come it takes so little time for a child who is afraid of the Dark to become a teenager who wants to stay out all night?

7. Business conventions are important because they demonstrate how many People a company can operate without.

8. Why is it that at class reunions you feel younger than everyone else looks?

9. Scratch a cat and you will have a permanent job.

10. No one has more driving ambition than the boy who wants to buy a car.

11. There are no new sins; the old ones just get more publicity.

12. There are worse things than getting a call for a wrong number at 4 AM – like this: It could be a right number.

13. No one ever says ‘It’s only a game.’ when their team is winning.

14. I’ve reached the age where the happy hour is a nap.

15. Be careful reading the fine print. There’s no way you’re going to like it.

16. The trouble with bucket seats is that not everybody has the same size bucket.

17. Do you realize that in about 40 years, we’ll have thousands of old Ladies running around with tattoos? (And rap music will be the Golden Oldies!)

18. Money can’t buy happiness — but somehow it’s more comfortable to cry in a Corvette than in a Yugo.

19. After 60, if you don’t wake up aching in every joint, you are probably dead!

20. Always be yourself. Because the people that matter, don’t mind. And the one’s that mind, don’t matter.