Highlights of Jerusalem by Misha Lyuve

How we shot “Happiness” by Misha Lyuve

topics: are we ready, happiness video

By the mid of the first day of the video shoot everyone was humming the tune.

I was looking for happiness with persistent aggressiveness

I was trying to find it in outrageous experiences

I was chasing it closely like a madman who fights his insanity

Even the angry dude who yelled “go do your fag thing someplace else” and threatened to call police, had a role in the production. He deserves credit. He became a point of reference that allowed us appreciate how smoothly the whole shot went considering how much could’ve gone wrong.

My happiness waited inside of me quietly

It whispered “look in yourself to find me”

There was a phenomenal team of directors (Damian and Patrick), experts in light and camera (Simon and Thierre), movers and shakers (Melissa and Lilliana), and many others (Tammy-Lou, Cédric, Marija, Marina, Étienne, Vincent, Christophe and many more) – about 30 people had a role to play. And of course there was tango – spicy, elegant, life-giving (brilliant Bobby and Roxanne). I worked and managed many teams in my professional career, but I’ve never seen such a smooth team of strangers show up out of nowhere.

I was looking for love with tremendous committed intensity

I explored people’s faces on trains not to miss my love anywhere

It took two full days of hard work to shoot footage for a low budget production of a 4 minute song. I had no idea about what it takes to make a video. This project was a mere coincidence that was glued together by luck and trust

So many times love looked at me kindly

With its warm eyes it shared its beautiful tenderness

With that nothing could have been easier: because for every idea and every step that was required for the project to move forward, one person made an introduction to the next one, each problem found its solution, each circumstance supported its successor.

I was looking for purpose of living in books philosophical

I was trying to find an answer to whether life’s meaningless

So at the end, there is just being grateful for all that happened and for all new possibilities this experience has opened up for me.

And the song is about you.

Pictures #1, 2, 4, 5 by Luzaby Mars Photography

And god said by Misha Lyuve

topics: thanksgiving

“You are welcome. You are welcome. But could you please stop being such assholes”

Happy Thanksgiving!

Highlights of Tel Aviv by Misha Lyuve

The best thing about the hurricane by Misha Lyuve

topics: hurricane sandy, hurricanes, natural disasters, new york city, team rubicon

Rockaway beach, New York

I never experienced a natural disaster and hurricane Sandy was the thing that got the closest to my home. With that, the area where I live hardly holds a trace of strong winds of that day, but just 20 miles East in the Rockaways – it is a different story.  When I reached this narrow strip of land, I saw a war-zone like landscape with helicopters flying overhead, people in military uniforms, abandoned cars and destroyed houses. For most of us, if we don’t see it, it doesn’t exist. But this was now in front of my own eyes.

The ocean looked calm and quiet, almost gentle. It was hard to imagine that it was responsible for that much destruction.

Rockaway beach, New York

What used to be boardwalk

Sandy's aftermath

We were cleaning out debris in a basement of one of the houses that was flooded during the storm. I asked the two guys in my group where they were from, expecting to hear Brooklyn or Queens. But those two drove all the way from Maryland the day before.  And that is how I discovered the best thing about the hurricane – volunteers. It was heart-warming, especially as a New Yorker, that there were people for whom there was no better place to be on a sunny weekend day as helping out strangers after the hurricane hundreds miles away.

Check out Team Rubicon, a disaster response veteran organization, that we worked though. They know how to mobilize their people from all over the country – our team leaders flew from San Diego and Michigan.

Volunteering matters.

Volunteers at Rubicon

Volunteers in action

Your New President by Misha Lyuve

topics: 2012 elections, Barack Obama, Mitt Romney, politics

To those involved in the US elections

Let me suggest unspeakable.

Tonight we will know the results. Let’s take the rest of the week to unwind, lick the wounds, celebrate victories.

And then…. how about this:

Let us EMBRACE whoever is the next president regardless of your views. GIVE your new president a chance even if he is from the opposite party. STOP the negative conversation. Instead TELL your senators and congressmen to WORK WITH your president to find compromises that are workable for the country and move it forward.

We STAND UNITED during hurricanes and terrorists attacks. But do we need to wait for disasters to experience unity?

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Hurricane contemplations by Misha Lyuve

topics: hurricane, hurricane sandy, natural disasters, new york

Natural disasters, what are you -

Terrorists of nature,

Capricious whims of a spoiled child,

Enforcers of natural selection or

Obedient messengers of the mysterious one?

Or are you an alarm clock for the people,

The arrogant ones, so used to their comforts,

Who’re planning plans like fools,

Soaking in illusions of safety

Like a king without clothes?


Or do you appear as reminders

Of our human smallness

And how easily we turn

Vulnerable and needy, like little children

That look for mother’s titty?


Or are you here to teach us lessons

On ridiculousness of our assumptions,

On separating preciousness from bullshit,

On giving a chance for heroes to awaken,

And acts of kindness mixed with unbreakable relatedness of humans?