Florida Postcard

I was delighted and privileged to have the opportunity to attend a conference the Florida Nature and Culture Center outside of Fort Lauderdale last weekend. The FNCC is situated on the border of the Everglades Wildlife Management Area so in between conference sessions on Buddhism, philosophy and everyday life, I took out my binoculars and checked out some of the local flora and fauna (ibis and black vultures and anhingas, oh my). Beauty and truth, always a winning combo....

Desert Postcard: Skywatching and songwriting

So yes, there was a lot of sky watching going on last week, and landscape viewing and generally lounging about. But also a lot of writing and  co-writing, the KCDC mash-up managing to complete 8 songs and counting. Time & space add up to somehow accessing the well a little better. It's a good feeling. KCDC has some lives shows coming up Feb. 20 in Alameda & March 8 in Modesto. Perhaps a new tune will get added to the mix!

Hawaii Postcard: Walking Up Hills

                    Old ghost ranges, sunken rivers, come again

                             stand by the wall and tell their tale,

                     walk the path, sit the rains,

                     grind the ink, wet the brushes, unroll the

                              broad white space:

                     lead out and tip

                     the moist black line.

                     Walking on walking,

                                              under foot          earth turns.

                     Streams and mountains never stay the same.    

                                                                      -- Gary Snyder, Endless Streams & Mountains

In a new landscape, the mind reaches for known landscapes. My body reads 'tropics' on the skin and in the air, and automatically conjures up paths it's stepped, breathed, been before. In the years since I took that first flight to Hawaii, I've been to many other lands, other islands. Driving through Honolulu this week, I'm recalling Mysore, India; Austin, TX; St. Croix, VI; and, seemingly pedestrianly, Sacramento, CA. All of thes places I've been, share heat, a certain stickiness, and similar foliage (and some birds, native and/or introduced).*

Walking up Diamond Head yesterday, hearing multiple languages as we switched back up the side of the crater, my mind scrambled with memories of walking the stairs of Chamundi Hill, in India; and  ascending the cable route of Half Dome; as wells as a low-slung mountain that the painter Cezanne was said to favor outside of Aix. 

I've read body turns over all of its cells every 7 years, but somewhere there's a file of miles walked within me, beyond it seems, even the cellular. The mystery of being glimpsed yet again.

The view from Diamond Head

Hawaii Postcard: Wherever you go...

I said to myself, I have things in my head that are not like what anyone has taught me - shapes and ideas so near to me - so natural to my way of being and thinking that it hasn't occurred to me to put them down.

Georgia O'Keeffe

Wherever you go, there you are....it was fun to happen upon several paintings by Georgia O'Keefe at the Honolulu Art Museum this week. The Dole Company paid for O'Keefe to fly here in 1939 in exchange for two paintings (on any subject) they could use in their pineapple juice ads. She produced 20 paintings inspired by her time in the island landscape, and the three I saw were lovely and so immediately recognizable as her work. Even though Hawaii is 180 degrees different than New York, where she was living, and Santa Fe, where she settled. It reminded me what I've been feeling this latest bit of travel, and what I've learned in the past: wherever you go there you are
For a long time, my urge to travel was to get away. But my need to escape myself was cured  by my last trip to India. Both knees injured, yoga practice compromised (physically), far from my love, I felt finally a big 'uncle' in me. Realizing once and for all, I was not going to transmogrify into a fantasy of myself that had it all together and was pain (physical, emotional, you name it) free. No I was me, that wasn't going to change fundamentally, this lifetime. So when I came home, I really came home, and started to put down roots for the first time in years. I've travelled a little in the past three years, but it's been pretty west-coast centric, road-trippy and domestic.

So flying to Hawaii this week was the longest I've been on a plane in a bit. Still it felt pretty natural and familiar and I arrived curious for perspective rather than looking for escape.  Flying out over the Bay Area, getting a clear picture of my home territory: the small island of Alameda we call home, the vast, bridge- becrossed San Francisco Bay as well as Hawk Hill in the Marin Headlands, and Pt. Reyes jutting out furthest west fromthe mainland as if it wanted to go to Hawaii, too, was the literal broad overview. And being here has been a balm and extension of that. It's been great to mostly unplug and not do too much -- not try to see everything, everywhere, or play out or what have you, going to the yoga studio in the a.m., writing and strumming a little, albeit augmented by warm water, acai bowls and sand. Mm mm Mmmmm.

NW Mini-tour Postcard: Bend, Redmond & Ashland or Bust

Portland is cooler than ever: Here I'm waiting for the free piano seat on Alberta St. to open after enjoying the best gluten-free cinnamon roll from Back to Eden bakery and a fine coffee from Caffe Vita

I'm truly hooked on the open road, big skies, and opportunities to play songs for new people, which is why I set out on hours-long drives even when plans go awry, tech goes wonky and the temperature averages 95 degrees. Some snaps from the latest trip North and back

Big Sky on the way to Bend, Oregon. Bend is beautiful and boasts another good stage in Volcanic Theater Pub

The amazing Horse Tail Falls along the Columbia River. I didn't take a dip but wished I had later.

The dear Sue Quigley who shared the bill with us at the awesome listening room that is SoulFood Coffeehouse in Redmond, Washington

My trusty Desio Guitar awaiting its orders for the day

I ♥ The East Bay Postcard

photo by Howard Ignatius

The more I get to know it and live here, I really do ♥ The East Bay. AOakland is having a renaissance, with new venues downtown, new restaurants, and a general sense of 'yeah!'  

Out and about last weekend, we happened on some new favorites:

 

Easy Creole: We noticed Easy, a Creole food place on Alcatraz near MLK, after a vintage shopping expedition to Empress Vintage. Easy boasts a NOLA inspired menu of soups, stews and chiles, catering equally to vegans, vegetarians and meat eaters. Everything comes with rice, the cornbread is GF and the row of community tables amply supplied with hot sauces of every stripe. Good grub, big portions, affordable, hip vibe...easy. Empress Vintage is  small but carefully curated collection of 50s, 60s, 70s, 80s dresses, skirts, shirts and pants for men and women. Plus jewelry a few fun items from Homestead Apothecary, an oasis of herbal medicine, botanical inspired art, class and more in the uber hip Temescal Alley.
And if you feel like celebrating the East Bay, you might check out the Eastlake Music Festival this weekend at the revamped Lake Merritt Blvd Ampitheater. All day, all ages, free. Check out the lineup HERE.

Big Sur Postcard

Stars. So many stars. Wood chips and pine needles, a cushion for each step. The ocean, the ocean, the ocean. Whales keeping their secrets. Gulls trolling the shore. Poppies tentatively trying the hillsides. Stars. So many stars. So hard to leave...

Inside one of the yurts of Treebones Resort

Treebones view, stairs & garden

Postcard: Practice Encinitas

It feels like a mini-Mysore in Encinitas, CA, this week, a couple hundred yogis or so in town for the two-week Ashtanga Yoga workshop with Sharath Rangaswamy and Saraswathi at Jois Yoga Encinitas. I'm among those here for five days of led classes as are a lot of folks from all over the country and some from beyond (ahoy Englanders and Canadians). Many of us have only crossed paths before while in India to practice.
If you're reaching for Moksha "the liberation from samsara, the cycle of death and rebirth" that yoga practice offers, a beautiful Southern California beach such as Encinitas is definitely a good place to start.
 It's clean, it's sunny, it's warm. After practice, spent and happy, students catch up at one of the many veggie-friendly restaurants, head for the beach, or home, and/or sit for hours, eh-hem, drinking stellar almond-milk lattes at Lofty Coffee. Hordes of cyclists stream down the boulevards and kids on skateboards roll by, doing a little jig as they pass a live band playing at the annual street fair. Offshore, surfers paddle over the blue, blue water, looking further West, for the hint of the next break.
Life is good. Especially after you've put in some effort.

Full Moon Ocean Beach

It's getting to be spring and I've been wanting to get outside as much as possible. Yesterday, we drove out to Ocean Beach at day's end and could barely stand the force of the air being blown off the seashore. Oh my god how the wind was blowing.  No one was surfing. The shorebirds were having a hard time holding their ground. I covered my face to keep the sand out of my eyes.
Evidently, erosion is a big problem at the beach. I woke up this morning to an article in SFGate regarding climate change and its effect on the beach as well as the city's plan to stave it off.
"The 3.5-mile shore that lines the city's western edge draws more than 300,000 visitors annually. More shrouded in fog than in sun, it is not a postcard-perfect stretch of sand. But its condition has worsened for years as waves - heightened by climate change - hammer at bluffs, parking lots and the Great Highway." Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2012/04/05/BAAH1NROHM.DTL#ixzz1rHT2VD7y

On a personal note, I've got a bunch of family history around Ocean Beach  — my dad grew up in the Avenues— which prompted discussion about whether he surfed. He did not to my knowledge, growing up during WWII and enlisting to fight as soon as he graduated high school. I didn't know if anyone was surfing Ocean Beach during that time..and it turns out, no one really knows. According to Ocean Beach Bulletin, most surfing there was documented post-war: "According to longtime Kelly’s Cove denizens, board surfing started on Ocean Beach after World War II...." though there remains debate about earlier, undocumented wave riders.

It was bracing to be on the beach like this but we couldn't stand it for long and drove home under a fat waxing moon. Today's full moon is April's "Full Pink Moon." From the Old Farmer's Almanac:

April Moon Facts & Folklore

• In 2012, Venus will float spectacularly near the Moon on the 24th. The Moon stands below both orange Mars and blue Regulus on the 30th.
• On April 20, 1972, the lunar module of Apollo XVI landed on the moon with astronauts John Young and Charles Duke aboard. Thomas Mattingly remained in orbit around the moon aboard the command module. This was the third exportation of the moon.
• One day later on April 21, 1972, Apollo XVI astronauts John Young and Charles Duke drove an electric car (LEM) on the surface of the moon. It's still up there along with some expensive tools and some film that they forgot.
• The period from the full Moon through the last quarter of the Moon is the best time for killing weeds, thinning, pruning, mowing, cutting timber, and planting below-ground crops.

Mysore Postcard II: Market Watch

At home, I'm a regular at the Embarcadero Ferry Building for both it's Farmer's Market & everyday business. Vendor/grower-staffed markets are my favorite place to shop-as near to the source of the product past going to the farm itself, it's a delight for the senses.


In Mysore, perhaps the equivalent of the Embarcadero Ferry Building is the Devaraja Market, a bustling, century+ old epicenter of flower vendors, spice purveyors, oil pressers, incense makers, betal leaf rollers and more. It's borderline overwhelming in its beauty, occasional bad smells, press of bodies... and possibilities.

Mysore Postcard: Full Moon Chamundi

A full moon and the solstice seemed a great time to walk up Chamundi Hill and visit both the Shiva Cave Temple and the Chamundeshwari Temple. Goddess Chamundeshwari is the goddess of Mysore. Plus she's badass* Upon reaching the top of the hill, we received her blessings via a presiding holy man. Happy solstice!
"Chamundeshwari and Charchika, is a fearsome aspect of Devi, the Hindu Divine Mother and one of the seven Matrikas (mother goddesses). She is also one of the chief Yoginis, a group of sixty-four or eighty-one Tantric goddesses, who are attendants of the warrior goddess Durga.The name is a combination of Chanda and Munda, two monsters whom Chamunda killed. She is closely associated with Kali, another fierce aspect of Devi"

Mysore Postcard: Details

Have been in extreme practice mode: yoga, chanting, voice lessons repeat. This visit, thus far, is less about new terrain than refinement, attention to smaller and smaller details that add up: Breathing correctly, straightening out slightly bent knees, going up not down on the correct note according to form, being that much more judicious about what one says. This is why practice is called practice.

New York Postcard: Punch drunk Northern Spies

A week plus in NYC always kicks my ass in a good way: Closing out bars after midnight (This a view from the door of Banjo Jim's), soaking up music CMJ showcases from a gazillion other artists, procuring Northern Spy apples at Union Square green market ('the best for pie' they say in New York. ...we shall see.)
Of the music, I thoroughly enjoyed pretty much all of the afternoon line-up at The Living Room on Friday. Yahoo to Kim Taylor, as well as Annie and the Beekeepers. And my fave act so far: The Punch Brothers made me a fan at their Living Room Appearance just now. Wowza, chamber/jazz/bluegrass to keep you in your seat and slacken your jaw!

LA & NYC Postcard 1

I've been running around too much to write a decent post. Which is no excuse but there you have it. So some bits from the LA-NYC experience thus far:
Shout-outs to ASCAP for putting on a friendly helpful convention, as well as Rynda for putting me up, Pasckie for booking me at Viento y Agua & Tribal Cafe (two extremely groovy, friendly gigs), & Raw Revolution for feeding me and the audience. It was added bonus to see a lot of my SF peeps in LA. Billy & Cara had new Cds, Rick&Aireen are nearly there....yahoo. New York has been a bit no- brakes til today. I pretty much landed, got the lowdown from Karen on her apartment, slept a couple hours and got up for the beginning of a week of R. Sharath's yoga tour, & to meet a trio of cool cats in the guise of a Brooklyn guitarist, East Village drummer and Sag Harbor bass player in Brooklyn. Ready, set go, to Googie's where I had opportunity to both play, and then listen to the two very swell artists who preceded and followed me. Michaela Ann & Adam Klein, check 'em out. More workshop (which I'm definitely feeling) & more work, I played tourist Wednesday: post-practice coffee from one of my favorite baristas at Abraco, then the Natural History Museum & Central Park, for butterflies, dinosaur bones and Strawberry Fields...dinner with yoga friends made in India...no, it's not a complete vacation. But it's close and it's definitely New York.