Read.Eat.Listen: Water & Weather

Some mornings are worth everything. Such was the case today, when after dropping Kwame at the airport, I stopped for a walk by "the birds" on the way home. That's what we've come to call the Elsie B Roemer Sanctuary on the west side of the east side of the island. The sun wasn't quite up, and everything was blue and pink, the only other folks on the trail were far and few between. The Sanctuary, however, was going off, a riot of Pelicans souring, Canada Geese honking, terns twittering and oyster catchers hueeping past. Alameda is a good place to be if you're not-so-secretly a bird geek.

I make a determination every week or so to get out to "the birds"  daily, but as I don't live in easy walking distance anymore, I often forget. The world is a wonder if you pause a moment to take it in. I'm reminding myself this as much as anyone else, who often forgets that all that I love is close by. Times like this morning are usually when I make the determination anew.

In the wake of the latest spate of climate change news  — thank you Obama for the Clean Power Plan — I've been reading up on sea level rise in California again. Many people have been trying to alert the masses to this eventuality for a few years now, and now word is really out. It's hard to imagine what this will mean for the place I call home. On a flood map, our little patch of island, is still that, an island, but the shore will be much closer. Then it will be easier to get out to "the birds"... if the birds are still having any of it...

Read: "Barbarian Days: A Surfing Life" by William Finnegan. I've only surfed (or tried to) a couple of times— alas, even growing up in Santa Cruz County I never lost my fear of the cold, changeable ocean. That said, I love the ocean, its coast and have always loved surf culture...and I LOVE this book, and have barely been able to put it down this week. I get the feeling Finnegan, a longtime writer for The New Yorker who has had a life-long push-pull affair with surfing, could rewrite a phone book so it was engaging, but this really is a notable memoir. Anyone whose spent time on the California coast or in Hawaii will appreciate the insider's view Finnegan depicts so well, from the people, to the waters to the tortures and rewards of loving something deeply. 

Eat: Japanese Sweet Potato. A humble vegetable that gives. I can and do eat them straight up. This is a recipe that splits the difference: Roasted Japanese Sweet Potatoes

Listen: We saw Ray Wylie Hubbard at The Freight last week, my first time seeing this Texas musician. Been there, seen it all, looked-under-every-rock, not-afraid-to-say-anything gritty goodness.

Read.Eat.Listen: Big Pictures

Another benefit to road-trips/tours is the capsule that the car becomes, be it for listening to music closely, having long conversations or reading. Last week's run up and down the 5, to Washington State and back for shows and family visits contained all of that. The passenger gets to be reader, sometimes to oneself, sometimes aloud, and much of my time on this trip was consumed with news and long-form essays on big picture issues. On the way North, it was climate change, on the way down I scared the bejesus out of us, reading aloud from the New Yorker article about the Cascadia Fault, while driving through the very landscape which would be irrevocably altered by a mega-earthquake. By the last day, we were in outer space, marvelling over the NASA reports about Pluto. I'm not sure why I'm seeking solace in geologic and space time, time where I'm small, a speck of animated dust just holding on like a bee in a hive, working for the honey. Part of it might be the sheer wow-factor: all this big science reminds me of how wondrous the facts, including our little lives, are. And part of it, I think, is that as much as I find the thought of huge earthquakes and tsunamis terrifying, I'm always glad to know the earth knows how to take care of itself even as we humans so often fail it.

Read: "The Earthquake That Will Devastate Seattle" by Kathryn Schulz, in The New Yorker. 
"When the End of Human Civilization Is Your Day Job"by John H Richardson, Esquire
A view of the worlds around us With the fly-by of Pluto, we now can visualize all of the planets in our solar system. Here's a two-minute tour of the sun and the nine planets. Posted by Los Angeles Times on Tuesday, July 14, 2015

Eat: Healthy eats at Harlow PDX

Portland was the food winner on this trip, and how nice we were staying walking distance from gluten-free veggie Harlow. Just read their menu and get the idea.

Listen: Kwame's brother Kwab Copeland is another fine musician writing and playing "raw, rustic verse set to rollicking badland bomp" (Chris Estey) out of Seattle. He, aka The Demon Rind, just released a winner in "Love Is Perfect":

Read.Eat.Listen: Warmth & Wonder

READ: "The Impossible Will Take A Little While: A Citizen's Guide To Hope in a Time of Fear." I'm reading this 10 years after it's initial publication but it seems more timely than ever. Fifty fifty stories and essays from activists across the globe.  "Even in a seemingly futile moment or losing cause, one person may unknowingly inspire another, and that person yet a third, who could go on to change the world, or at least a small corner of it." — Paul Loeb

EAT: A couple of weeks ago, playing at Off the Grid, we got re-clued into the wonderful empanadas made by El Porteño (I'm partial to the mushroom variety). Empanadas are really hand-pies, aka goodness in the form of warmth, comfort, nourishment and convenience.  El Porteño empanadas are available at a variety of locations, including its Bay-roaming food truck, a kiosk at The Embarcadero Ferry Building and at several area cafe/bars. We just noticed they're the snack of choice at the recently opened Woods Bar & Brewery in Oakland.

LISTEN: In truth, there's been a lot of listening to oneself going on around here. In the midst of getting ready for the next KCDC live performance on November 22, we're going back into the studio next month to record a new bunch of songs written earlier this year. But there's also been much wonderment, this week, over the news of a spacecraft landing on a comet, and I loved seeing this headline re: the comet's 'song':

Read.Eat.Listen: Regeneration

I was dismayed, heartened, inspired and confused by the latest report by the UN on Climate Change. Dismayed that things are as bad as they are; heartened that experts are not shying away from the truth; inspired by the possibilities for taking action and confused at how and where to start on the individual level. The upshot is, of course, there's no more time to waste when it comes to taking action to slow climate change and no more excuses to be made: climate change is a man-made problem. We've a couple more decades, if that, to halt or slow the crisis. This lifetime. Right now. Where to begin when the problems — from fossil fuel use, to fracking, to plastics in the ocean, to rampant development —  have such momentum? Fortunately, there are many people on it. Now it's our turn to listen and believe that what we do today affects tomorrow and  that the affect can be beneficial. Toward that end, I've been so encouraged to see all the footage of hatching Peregrines from the 'nest-cams' set up around the Bay Area. By the 1970s, the Peregrine was an Endangered Species, a victim of rampant pesticide use, but with diligent efforts by biologists and a ban on DDT use, the falcon population recovered. Thirty years of combined legislation and action works. Now look at them go: 

Read: Barbara Kingsolver's Flight Behavior, a takes on climate change in novel form. "Flight Behavior is a brilliant and suspenseful novel set in present day Appalachia; a breathtaking parable of catastrophe and denial that explores how the complexities we inevitably encounter in life lead us to believe in our particular chosen truths." 
Plus, this article: UN Climate Report Charts Ways to Halt Global Warming

Eat: An afternoon snack at Piccino in Dogpatch the other day entailed a spring soup made with butter beans. Butter Beans, or Fava Beans, are those large, lovely kidney shaped beans that look engineered for presentation possibilities. They're also yummy. I've got my eye on this easy breezy spring salad of Fava Beans with Red Onion and Mint.

Listen: I've been on an Over the Rhine jag most of the year, I admire The Lone Bellow and I've been a fan of eTown since the 90s when I lived in Boulder and watched many a live taping. So I was delighted to see this Over the Rhine/Lone Bellow/eTones rendition of Slip Sliding Away. Beauty. Yes.

Read.Eat.Listen: Orderliness

There's nothing exactly sexy about doing ones taxes, but once I got over the 'ughs' of it all, I got really into doing them this week. In any event, getting all my accounting up to date spawned a rash of (relative) orderliness. The words and music filtering into the reclaimed structure:

Read: Between the Malaysian flight disappearance acting as my whodunit mystery and Russia's political/war drama, I admit I've been a newshound. But as I'm about to do a writing workshop with the fantabulous Santa Cruz-based Ellen Bass, some poetry has crept in to save me. "Like a Beggar" is her latest.

excerpt of "Waiting for Rain" from Like a Beggar:
"Maybe it's wrong/to think of better and worse./There's no one who can carry my fear/for a child who walks out the door/not knowing what will stop her breathe./The rain they say is coming/sails now over the Pacific in purplish nimbus clouds./But it isn't enough. Last year I watched/elephants encircle their young, shuffling/their massive legs without hurry, flaring/their great dusty ears. Once they drank from the snowmelt of Kilimanjaro. ..." — Ellen Bass

Eat: Though I grew up near fields full of them, I was first turned onto Brussels Sprouts as something I'd want to eat in a French train station during a cold winter trip abroad. Served as a side to something I can't remember, and helped along by a generous amount of butter, I came awake to their flavors. The cruciferous vegetable has since morphed into one of my favorite things to eat, and has nearly surpassed brocoli  as the in-house go-to vegetable. Check out this simple Kale and Brussels Sprout Salad from Epicurious. 
Listen: Eliza Gilkyson is a more-than-fine songstress out of Texas whose steadily amassed a stellar body of work. She released a new album this week, her 20th or so (!), "Nocturne Sessions." Here's a tune from the CD :

In Yeti Territory

Growing up in Santa Cruz, I somehow got my hands on a book about Bigfoot, the storied (mythical?) forest-dwelling ape creature. Henceforth, I was convinced Bigfoot lived in the woods above our house and might venture down to haunt me. He never did but for a chunk of time I was certain that Bigfoot existed. 

Recently, I was on a plane and noticed an inflight magazine article about Bigfoot (or Yeti or Sasquatch), which jogged the memory of my childhood fascination. Of course, I was compelled to write a song 'Something Special' which I've just added to my set. So I laughed to see a Sasquatch Field Guide when we arrived to play at Redwood Curtain Brewing Company in Arcata last night. Art imitating nature or nature imitating art? We head into Oregon tomorrow.  We saw a wolf driving through Wyoming last summer so who knows? My eyes are peeled.

You can also get a Sasquatch Field Guide at Amazon http://www.amazon.com/Sasquatch-Field-Guide-Folding-Pocket/dp/193719695X

Read.Eat.Listen: On 'paws'

After the flurry of getting the CD out and playing a run of back-to-back shows, a pause was in order. The weather turned, leaves needed raking, Alameda beach was walkable again after its re-sanding, the laundry needed to be done, medical check-ups were called for, as were extra naps. So of course it seemed like a good time to adopt a cat. We've been in our new-to-us-old bungalow for more than a year already, not the longest I've lived in one place in a while but definitely the most rooted. And despite loving animals, I haven't had a pet to call my own in over a decade. But in recent moths, we've been spontaneously drawn into pet stores (including in the middle of the MEOW Conference in Austin last month).

Sammie!

After a recent gig, we popped into a nearby Pet Co and found the one, a feisty little rescue cat named Sammie. We appreciated the high level of disdain for overzealous children she displayed, and the curiosity expressed at the appearance of two people with guitars in hand milling around the cat display. After an interview with Island Cat Rescue to see if we had it in us to take on the responsibility of pet ownership, and some calendar juggling with her foster parent, Sammie moved in and promptly found favorite nooks atop guitar cases and stereos. A big shout out to Island Cat Rescue, whose passionate, all-volunteer advocates are fulfilling a big mission "to reducing the suffering of abandoned and feral (wild) cats and to educating and empowering the local community to relieve them from their plight."
If you want to support them that much more, or adopt a pet yourself, stop by ICRA's  Holiday Boutique next weekend, Dec. 7 in Alameda.

ICRA'S HOLIDAY BOUTIQUE
Saturday, December 7, 2013, 10 am until 6 pm at the Alameda Elks Lodge, 2255 Santa Clara Avenue (click for map)

Gifts, decorations, baked items, jewelry, cards, gift wrap, and so much more – all at prices well below retail (cash or checks only) Come and support the work we do with our community’s homeless cats and kittens needing spay/neuter, medical care, and forever homes!

Read: Lightweight reading dept: In need of more grounding after running around, gigging and traveling all over the past month, I found myself on a reading binge of "Sunday Routine" in The New York Times.   Each week, the paper interviews cultural luminaries from editors to conservation biologists, opera singers to designers about how they spend their Sundays. I was taken with common themes among successful folks including getting up early, owning pets that figure into their daily routines (and help police them) and having ritual restaurants.

Woodhouse Fish Co, Fillmore St, SF

Eat: For Californians, tacos are comfort food. As such, we've developed somewhat of an unofficial hunt for the best fish taco. Of late, we've found taco sustenance at Off the Grid gigs via The Taco Guys, in our 'hood at El Caballo, and when in the Fillmore this week, we ordered up a batch at the low-key but a little upscale (for tacos) Woodhouse Fish Co. Jury is out on batter-fried versus sauteed fish, and I'm partial to corn tortillas, but I can wholeheartedly recommend all these taco purveyors for the discerning taco aficionado.

Listen: I was driving down the road the other the day and this over-the-top live recording of Van Morrison singing with John Lee Record came on. Instant uplift awesomeness.

Two states, one day, things read on the way

Gary Snyder has a book/epic poem "Mountains and Rivers Without End," an opus that draws on all his Beat Poet/Zen/Nature crazy wisdom. I thought of that title today, rolling across Utah and Nevada with their respective mountains and deserts and highways (rivers not always evident), without end. Many of the parts of Nevada and Utah that the 80 traverses are the hardest bitten ones: great swatches of possibly inhabitable land. Colorless, hot and dry, they've the look of being filled with snakes, barbed wire, abandoned buildings or ...explosive devises (we read such a warning in the Mojave last week). We crested a hill and saw two white military dirigibles hovering over some treeless ridges. Again: WTF? Thank the advent of Smartphones that you can Google "military blimp" in the middle of seemingly nowhere and find out that these floating behemoths are used to mount radar and are being tested in Utah. Hmmm... All that highway calls for much reading, aloud as to entertain the driver, including facts about the towns we're cruising through. Who knew Rock Springs had such an oppressive and violent past? Likewise a recent New Yorker provided additional information for review of such humans-behaving-badly matters. If you want to get more up to speed on the implications of the recent Supreme Court ruling Shelby v. Holder do read A Critic at Large: The Color of Law, by Louis Menand. Voting rights and the Southern way of life. http://nyr.kr/14AVbO8 



NOW.  It is a chilling review of the horrific obstacles the civil-rights workers endured en route to securing voting rights for African Americans in the 1960s and the very real and troubling politics that are in play today.

On a more positive note, we pit-stopped in Salt Lake City and enjoyed an evening stroll through the 80-acre Liberty Park, so named as its fountains, lake, picnic areas, aviary, tennis courts, trees and lawns were intended for all to enjoy, and indeed a large cross section of the city was happily doing just that on a warm summer evening.

Listening Via @nprmusic: The Mix: Songs Inspired By The Civil Rights Movement http://n.pr/12LEvRg

Read.Eat.Listen: On the gig

Playing National Music Day Popup Parklets for a Cause, photo by Local Music Vibe

Read: Honestly, it seems like I've been reading Google Maps more than anything lately,  getting to the various gigs this month, not to mention planning out our upcoming trip to and through the Southwest, Colorado and Wyoming. But between the scrolling, I've reread a book that meant a lot to me when I read it nearly 20 years ago "Long Quiet Highway" by Natalie Goldberg, about the practice of writing, the practice of Zen, and generally waking up. Goldberg, of course, is famous for helping other write, and so her prose is especially accessible. Rereading books is like touching base with old friends, and I can see now how this book planted a seed in me of searching for meaning and of learning to be an artist and finding and maintaining a practice.

Eat: Likewise, food prep has likewise gone out the window of late (not sure where we'd be without Harmless Harvest coconut water, Raw Revolution Bars and kale chips. Guess what's going in the cooler?) Furthermore, when you're gigging a lot, you generally eat at the gig or near it. I jokingly say that playing Off the Grid, the round-up of gourmet food trucks, is the best smelling gig I have. I recently had some exceptionally good eats before playing a recent OtG, a We Sushi 'burrito' which swapped out the flour tortilla for seaweed to create something light and yummy, kind of a high-end hand-roll.
Listen:Mavis! Has a lovely new collection "One True Vine", produced by Jeff Tweedy, no less. Here's "I Like the Things About Me"

Read.East.Listen: Pasadena Pastimes

I spent a few days in Pasadena last week on the excuse that my husband was on a longish work trip to the city 10 miles north east of downtown Los Angeles. Over the past few years, I've found Pasadena to be a lovely perch for Southern California visits. Provided you don't want to get to the beach, it provides fairly convenient access to much of LA as well as its own cultural highlights (I didn't get to the Norton Simon Museum this trip, but it's definitely on my radar for my next visit). Pasadena also provides a good perch for birds. As I learned observing the local Alameda peregrines, there's a nesting pair of falcons on the AT&T building smack in the middle of Pasadena. On our way home from dinner, we stopped by to watch the birds on the highest reaches of the building setting up to roost for the night.  Pasadena is very close to Angeles National Forest the San Gabriel Mountains so perhaps it shouldn't come as such a surprise to see such wildness amid the urbanity. Either way, I've been finding it immensely pleasing to see these once-endangered species thriving while surrounded by humanity.

Yes, there are peregrine falcons in this photo

Read: I've been studying up on all my raptors in prep to volunteer at the Golden Gate Raptor Observatory this fall. Glenn Stewart's Eye to Eye with Eagles, Hawks and Falcons isn't on the recommended reading list but I'd recommend it to anyone interested in raptor conservation. Likewise, it will be of interest to anyone who had any association with the Santa Cruz Predatory Bird Research Group and its work in the recovery of peregrine (and eagle, and hawk) populations. Stewart, the current director of PBRG, was in on the group's work from the beginning, and offers fascinating accounts of the group's origins, conservation efforts in Idaho, Arizona, California, Alaska and Canada, as well as falconry in general.
Eat: When in Pasadena, it's usually a toss up between Real Food Daily — gourmet vegan with a good wine list to boot — and Green St. Tavern, a cozy restaurant with a menu dictated by the seasons. We were won over by the Green St.'s chef offering of a daily 'pie inspiration' on the dessert menu. Who wouldn't be? (The apple pie was a winner.)
Listen: Most of the music happening on this trip was either rehearsal related (Kwame and I are polishing up some of the tunes we wrote for the most recent RPM Challenge) or on the car stereo (a lot of classic rock and top-40 pop happening on LA radios). Nonetheless, somewhere along the routes of the past few weeks, I've been turned onto Escondido, an Americana band out of Nashville. Check 'em out. 

Read.Eat.Listen: Homeward

Read: A new guide for Ashtanga practitioners by Sharath Rangaswamy! I picked up the new Astanga Yoga Autsthana" while at Jois Yoga. With clear, concise descriptions of the Ashtanga practice, it's a great companion to Yoga Mala. Not 100% sure where else it's available other than Mysore but my hunch is a lot of studios where Authorize/Certified Ashtanga instructors are teaching  may have some in stock.

Eat: When in San Diego, Fish Tacos. I don't label myself vegetarian or vegan, because while I eat that way 95% of the time, I occasionally eat fish. So Cal is the place for fish tacos. Before heading to LA the other day, I had a wonderful plate, albeit less casual than your usual standup fare, at Jimmy's Famous Tavern in SD with a So Cal-based friend from the Hayes Valley chapter of living. If you're looking for grab-and-go, check out Serious Eats list of best places for fish tacos in SoCal (which has a lively comment list for more suggestions).
Listen: Another great track from the John Denver Tribute album that came out last month:  "Take Me Home,Country Roads" covered by noneother than Brandi Carlyle and Emmylou Harris.

Read.East.Listen: In the Field

Out and about, spring is here in California: sunflowers sprouting, goldfinches singing, gigs-a-going, a few rain showers followed by sun.... 

Eat: Ice Cream. A rare indulgence calls for making it great: Ici Ice Cream in Berkeley comes in all sorts of sophisticated daily-special flavors to mull as you wait in line with a bunch of other folks who are Instagraming their cones. Coconut Thai Tea proved a winner one recent visit.
Read:   The 'follow-up' to Elizabeth Gilbert's infamous "Eat, Pray, Love"? "Committed: A Skeptic Makes Peace with Marriage" (2010). I've only waded a few pages into the book so the jury is out on what I really think, but Gilbert's so darn readable and whose not for making peace?:
“Happiness is the consequence of personal effort. You fight for it, strive for it, insist upon it, and sometimes even travel around the world looking for it. You have to participate relentlessly in the manifestations of your own blessings. And once you have achieved a state of happiness, you must never become lax about maintaining it. You must make a mighty effort to keep swimming upward into that happiness forever, to stay afloat on top of it.” — Elizabeth Gilbert
Listen: Field Report. Another belated discovery in these parts, but this is the first song I've heard on the radio in a while that made me want to stop the car and say 'hey, what's that?'

Read.Eat.Listen: Believer

For the first time in many years, I did not go to Austin for SXSW, the annual conference/mass party/whose who of music of the moment (or retro moments).  A part of me must of thought I was going, as the weekend was pretty open, which turned into a good opportunity to explore some new-to-me hiking areas, see Oz (so-so IMHO), and hear some local music. Nature stole the show, however: Springtime is busting out all over, as you can see from these photos of Coyote Hills Regional Park which straddles a ridge opening up on views of the Bay, Coyote Hills Slough as well as East Alameda Contra Cost Counties.

Meanwhile...Reading.Eating.Listening has occured:

Read: I got a lot of mileage out of Sharon Salzberg's 2003 release "Faith: Trusting Your Own Experience" last week. Detailing her early journey to India in the 1970s to study Buddhism as well as her life teaching mindfulness and lovingkindness practices — she cofounded the Insight Meditation Society and is a contemporary of Ram Dass —I took a lot of heart from her journey from ordinary broken to risk-taking seeker, dedicated practitioner and leading teacher: "In order to deepen our faith, we have to be able to try things out, to wonder, to doubt. In fact, faith is strengthened by doubt when doubt is a sincere, critical questioning combined with deep trust in our own right and ability to discern the truth."

Eat: I have a bit of an obsession with cardamom going. I've been putting the aromatic spice  in smoothies, and in...waffles. Breakfast in bed, baby! Buy the the green pods, grind them fresh when you want to add them to something, in this case gluten free waffle mix. I also used orange juice as a liquid and threw in chia seeds for good measure (and fiber). Yum.
Listen: If I had been in Austin this weekend, I would have gone down to the Continental Club or otherwise sought out the True Believers, who had reunited for the event: 

Read.Eat.Listen: Deception

Oh Lance, did you have to? What an ugly story Armstrong's has turned out to be, especially for those of us who love the sport of cycling. I hung up my bike racing shoes more than a decade a go, but having been double-dipped in the sport for a time, I'm at once fascinated and revolted by Lance's 'coming clean' on Oprah (or 'Doprah' as the Twitterverse deemed it). I was racing bikes and working an editorial job at VeloNews in Boulder, CO when Lance won the 1993 world championship and signaled what a powerhouse (albeit now exceedingly tarnished) of the peloton he would be for the next 12 years. When the finish line photos came in, we all poured over them in awe. The world couldn't help but be thrilled and impressed by his achievements. And even long after I'd stopped riding competitively, I kept track of Lance and his victories.  I'd learned enough from those in the know that the accusations had merit before this week's Oprah 'event' ...but the depth of his lies is truly astonishing and oh-so-disappointing.
READ: The Secret Race: Inside Hidden World of the Tour de France: Doping, Cover-ups and Winning at All Costs
EAT: Crow? Nah, will stick with something real, but deceptive in it's own way (i.e. no dairy about the cream, no white sugar, no cooking) ala this raw triple chocolate cake recipe.
LISTEN: Miles Davis - Deception-Davis

Powered by mp3skull.com Big news for SF music lovers is that the new SF Jazz Center is opening January 21. Located in the heart of Hayes Valley, close the the symphony and ballet, it's exciting and accessible.  NPR will be streaming the big opening night concert which is star-studded and, alas, SOLD OUT. Thank you NPR!

Read.Eat.Listen: Light

photo by Kevin Collins

OK, so we're officially heading through winter and ...toward the light. Wait, hasn't it been storming most of the week? Well, thankfully there are plenty of over-the-top holiday decorations around town. Santa Fe has luminarias, San Francisco has that lovely light-bedecked big tree in Golden Gate Park... Alameda has...bright blue stars, Santa's workshops, giant snowmen and copious light-covered reindeer plus an inflatable Snoopy or two (or four). My tacky side, loves Christmas lights  and greatly appreciated the often crazy lighting displays that speckled the island.  I kept it simple (and safe) and went with a bunch of white lights around the window frames but I'm emboldened for next year. I'll pass on the inflatable characters...but blue lights, pink lights, white lights,.. the possibilities are endless.. Hopefully my fellow Alameda residents will keep theirs up through the New Year so I can take more notes.

photo by Razzu Engen

Read: Speaking of notes, I've been doing some yoga recon along with my usual practice, checking out different teachers once a week and reading outside my usual Ashtanga lines. I'm not so studied in Iyengar but I do love this book, "Light on Life: The Yoga Journey to Wholeness, Inner Peace and Ultimate Freedom," by BKS himself, that elegantly addresses what yoga is and how it helps our lives. "the infinite variety of natural phenomena gives an appearance of chaos, but they [Indian yogis] asked, is it possible that the laws that govern the unending turbulence of nature are orderly and comprehensible? And if we can grasp how they work, would it not be possible for us to emerge from chaos into order?" — BKS Iyengar
Eat: My inner Pavlovian clock thought, 'it's December, I must be in India.' But I'm not. So I've been making up for it, eating lots of Indian food this season, including, yes, dosas, those lovely lentil-rice crepe-like staples of South Indian cuisine. It's easy to find dosa — and pre-made, quality dosa batter — in Indian specialty markets around the Bay Area, but for those who want to roll up their sleeves and make their own from scratch, check out this "Perfect Dosa Recipe" from Veggie Belly.
Listen: Over the Rhine. Heard this Ohio-based (lots of good stuff catching my ear out of Ohio) duo on satellite radio recently and started digging a bit deeper. Good, literate, heartfelt, real stuff.

Read.Eat.Listen: Dream baby

Read: Provided I have the right sleep conditions, I'm one of those folks who likes to dissect my dreams for meaning. I don't know if it's the change in seasons or my recent move, but conditions for dreaming have been optimal. My friend Liz turned me onto this Signs & Symbols book many years ago, I found the tome amid the recent packing and unpacking and have been having fun interpreting things anew.
Eat: It's raining, it's [not quite] pouring. Soup is on. Behold the Adzuki Bean. I like it stewed up with wakame. So does The Whole Life Nutrition Kitchen (whose much better at listing ingredients in proper recipe format--I tend to eyeball everything that goes into the pot).
Listen: Trixie Whitley, daughter of the ultra amazing guitarist, Chris Whitley, has cool and talent in spades. Did you hear the project she did with Daniel Lanois, Black Dub? Check it out. In any case, Trixie does a lot of other projects, solo and otherwise, as well. In anticipation of catching her performance in SF next week, I'm enjoying some of her online media:

Coming Ashore: across the West in 10 days

Along Highway 128 in Utah

We just returned from our 'Come Ashore Tour,' 10 days of driving up and over The Sierra Nevada and The Rocky Mountains. As with most every trip I've taken, it took me about 3 or 4 days to really sink into the fact that I could let go of my routine and get into the groove of where next...but once I did, it was a full trip. A trip that included all of it: beautiful views and tired-from-being-on-the-road-too-long eyes, letting go of usual routines and developing new habits (including taking more pictures on Instagram than writing), soaking in hot springs, playing music at a variety of venues including living rooms and music stores, visiting family, discovering the wonders of Airbnb, revisiting former home towns, eating pie at almost every opportunity, cowriting in parks and reading the The New Yorker aloud across Nevada. We saw a good cross section of Western wildlife, including many birds (Ibis, Sandhill Cranes), native mammals (moose (!), bobcat, and at least one 'mystery ungulate), and a few lizards amid a lot of road construction. Amazingly, while there were definitely a good number of U-turns made, we didn't get lost. By the trip's end of course, the trip was the routine...  now it's going to take me a few days to realize I'm home. 

Caveat Lector Salon @ Little Bird 10/12 in SF

"Zebra Dream" by Mallory Morrison in Caveat Lector Vol 2. #22

 I recently—and very happily— started a new writing group, based on a form of writing practice I've been doing on-and-off for more than a decade. I held writing groups while I was in India last year, but for most of the past five years or so, the Internet has encroached on the area where my prose-y, essay-y, memoir-style writing life used to park. Yeah, I love that I can look up any fact, figure or map at any given moment — or intersection — on my iPhone, and I certainly appreciate using said device's Notes feature for lyric ideas...and well, it's really not the same.  I've been wired...but kind of parched. And I didn't realize how thirsty I was for that simple, lovely stream of hand, to pen, to ink, to paper that unlocks the unconscious in it's own unique way.
And oddly enough, or rather in that uncanny energy-attracts-energy way, voila, as soon as I started up again, writers are everywhere. I reconnected with some former writing group members at poet Karen Hildebrand's lovely Berkeley reading,  sat next to another poet in a Mission club, and will be playing songs at the salon of literary magazine Caveat Lector. If you're in San Francisco, I hope you'll join us at Little Bird Coffeehouse for literature and literate tunes.

Wednesday, Oct. 12 Little Bird Coffee House

Caveat Lectur Salon - 7pm

835 Geary Street
San Francisco California USA