Cold day questions

Some Questions on my mind today:

1. Why is it you often feel really GREAT just before you get sick?
2. How does anyone manage to get everything precious and wonderful out of the Vitamix after mixing something up?
3. What's with LinkedIn's new(ish) hyper-endorsement tool?

I know. Not so terribly deep, but I woke up with a sore throat and an urge to stay in bed all day after a kick-ass day of energy. I eat healthy, I stand on my head almost every day, what gives? Oh well. We're going to Portland tomorrow and being sick in a hotel for three days was and is not part of my plan. So my focus has narrowed considerably.  Tea. Water. Wellness formula. Juice. Blankets. Internet.  A super food  smoothie that's o-so-yummy (this one featured dates & almonds) though some of its precious drops remain in the bottom of the darn mixer. I'm keenly aware that I'm grateful to have this very minor conundrum.

In the meantime, a bit of sleuthing while I convalesce didn't turn up complete answers to my questions but did provide some interesting Answer-like fodder:

1. Really? Your Body Clock Can Determine When You Get Sick 
2. It's all about the spatula 
3. Said to make it easier to endorse folks with one click, I seem to be getting endorsed for some things I don't really do. Go figure.

And, speaking of Portland. As I was searching out things to do and shows to see while I'm there, I grew enamored with the Portland Cello Project, who alas, won't be in town when I am, but have made a wonderful record of Beck's 'Song Reader,' (which I'm now blasting).

Mysore: Village Living

I've been interested in co-housing for a long time, and while it's not officially co-housing in Mysore, the expat yoga student population that forms around the studio(s) here forms an organic, cooperative village. A network of rentals is continually being discussed and relayed so no one goes without what they need for very long, if at all. I found a room through a teacher from the states; people to play music with through word of mouth, and have been crowd sourcing tech support for the past 24 hrs. When I fried my computer's power chord (power outages and power surges are commonplace), I freaked a bit because Mac stores are non-existent in Mysore and I'm here two more months. Between walking from my house to breakfast (that is within 5 minutes), I found three different people who could help out in the interim. Rides, information, news seems to arrive at just the right time. There's always someone who knows how to find a movie, a vet, a dentist or a stray piece of gear and people tend to watch out for one another. If you don't see someone for several days, it doesn't go unnoticed.... Think Facebook —which, no surprise, is as prevalent among both Indians and yoga students as anywhere else in the world— the ground, in real time and place.

Twestivaling

A lot of the weekend was taken up with Twestival Local, a simultaneous benefit which found cities around the globe using Twitter to organize & fund raise to support a local cause. I helped with some of the coordination of the West Coast's set of events, including TwestivalSF (which I simply enjoyed) & Twestival Mountain View at which I both performed and had a good time. Kudos to a lot of volunteers who pulled this off. Check out how you can get involved with the next Twestival, to my mind, a 'best use' of social media for community organization toward the betterment of community. All photos (cc) Kenneth Yeung - www.thelettertwo.com;

Twitter in action: gathering together, helping out @ Twestival

Amid readying for the Indie Abundance™ Tour that starts next week, I've been helping with some of the organizational logistics for the Western US participants in the second iteration of Twestival, a global charity event that harnesses the power of Twitter to rally communities around social and environmental NGOs. Last year, I played at the San Francisco event which was one of hundreds of cities across the globe to raise money for Charity|Water, thinking at the time it was one of the better ways social media can be harnessed to put all that community back on the ground. This September, founder Amanda Rose has spearheaded Twestival Local, which encourages every city to choose their own local cause to not only raise funds for a cause in need, and also track those funds are allotted to see actual results. The response has been truly amazing with hundreds of cities around the world participating. If you're looking for a party you won't regret going to the weekend of September 11-13, you won't need to look far. If you're interested in helping as a volunteer or to sponsor an event, you may also want to follow @twestival.

San Francisco Twestival 2009 September 11 : 8:00 p.m.- 1 a.m. Horizon Restaurant and Lounge, 489 Broadway (@ Kearney), San Francisco, CA

My Life of Pie: the SXSW chapter

I have a lifelong love of actual fruit pie. I grew up making them, I eat a lot of it for breakfast on the road and consider it equal parts, comfort, art and nutrition. So when when LA musician Patrick Gallagher opined that life-streaming musician Jody Gnant, super interactive/music label expert Rynda Laurel and me, indie artist/communications catalyst, with the addition of CyberPR superstar Arial Hyat formed a virtual 'power pie' of music, tech & marketing know-how, I laughed out loud. This was at the ASCAP "I Create Music" Expo back in April and, dissatisfied with some of what we were hearing, Jody, Rynda & I had an unofficial music biz & lifestyle 'panel' of sorts out in the hallway. Patrick heard what we had going on and ...The idea stuck (coincidentally, Fast Company recently ran an article about the dearth of women influencing these sort of arenas)...and in 2010 the PowerPie has a great chance of going public....if YOU so choose. SxSW's Panel Picker went live today.

Vote for SxSW’s tastiest music panel: The Power Pie feat. Arial Hyatt, Jody Gnant, Deborah Crooks, Rynda Laurel http://tiny.cc/sxswpie sign in & give it the thumbs up.

SF Snapshot: Buses, bikes, artists & geeks

The Environmental Studies Major in me is proud of the fact that I'm a die hard user of bikes, MUNI, carpool, BART & City Carshare to get around town & city, but that doesn't mean my attitude is always...ah, overjoyed...to be getting on the bus or pedaling in the spring drizzle. Nonetheless, I had one of those sweet MUNI experiences the other day, en route to a voice lesson, that made me appreciate anew both San Francisco and alternative transportation, as well as reminding me of the connective power of the creative community. A day earlier, I'd picked up a copy of the Shipyard Art guide for this years Spring Open Studios at Hunter's Point, a vital colony of more than 275 visual artists that's been getting stronger over its 25-year history. Another passenger asked me where I'd gotten the print catalog, which tipped us both into the conversation of two other of our fellow commuters. They'd just been photography shopping at 49 Geary & were reviewing work on a smart phone. Turns out our little section of the 71L was full of photographers, patrons, musicians and poets. Anyhow, we all got to talking, swapping cards and learning, respectively, about no-post-production-needed helicopter photography, how home foreclosures have affected the abandoned pet population (it's rocketing--you might want to check out a pet shelter if you're in the market for a dog or cat), yoga & music. I disembarked feeling connected and rejuvenated for the work ahead.

Google, The Creative Class & Keeping It Real

I just finished reading "What Would Google Do" by Jeff Jarvis and as I said in a previous post, I think it maybe a must-read of our times. Outlining how Google has not only changed but created many of the rules of current media, information, and business, a given of the brave new world it portrays is how much content is replicable, remixable and readily available. The fact that media no longer belongs to 'the creative class' alone is noteworthy. While this trend is healthy (I do believe expression should be free and generally makes for happier people to boot) it can be a bit sobering for those painters, musician's, writers and other fine artists whose lifeblood is tactile, audible and live, both in the creative and performative act.
Jarvis's book wasn't about the 'creative class,' and he only mentions it in passing; however, his reference reminded me how some of the basics of the value of art & art-making may get lost as we spend more and more time online. While much of his book is devoted to how social media enables once isolated communities to find one another (provided they've got online access and the ability to get some content online), and then organize, it leaves out how much organization precedes content creation, and what that process requires. You can capture and document a moment but you can't replicate one, and creation is a series of irreplicable moments.

In my experience, much of the challenge in creating something of value is keeping the faith through the amount of time it takes to hone a craft, which is rarely an immediate process. The payoff, the gold so to speak, of that demanding process, is the real-live transactional relationship. I'm not talking so much about money (though equally necessary to survival) rather than the transcendent moment creation sparks, whether that's a meeting of minds or uplift of spirit. That is, while I'm a fan of YouTube, I've yet to get shivers up my spine or have my soul touched by watching a video, like I have had at a live performance, in a studio or at a museum. The visceral experience of sound vibration or light-bulb comprehension of compositional technique that comes with viewing the individual brushstrokes of a painting have no equal. YouTube is educational & definitely valuable, but a living song, actual painting, or simply pen put to paper is relational, and I'd say necessary to health.

So, life in the Mission District is getting me back to several grassroots community centers that are working from the ground up and keeping its creative pulse beating. Volunteering at Pirate Cat Cafe & Radio, a community & volunteer run radio station and espresso bar a few blocks from home, turned me on to several events & performances. Within the space of a couple of hours, I got a preview of a show by songwriter Holcombe Waller that is running at Dance Mission Theater, chatted with author John Law (& co-founder of Burning Man) who has a new book of short stories out, and heard how RonKat Spearman defines funk (beer & cereal figure into this as much as groove). I'd already planned to attend the Goddess of Harmony show at the Great American Music Hall, featuring Valerie Orth (with whom I'm sharing several shows in Austin during SXSW) tonight. Amid all this, last week, I ran into someone on the bus, musician Mark Growden, who was one of the first artists I met upon my return to the Bay Area more than a decade ago, and one made to see live. On Wednesday, he played at Climate Theater, yet another small, community supported venue devoted to excellence in theater and music. Sitting in the intimate theater—where he held an audience rapt while singing his faith & desire drenched lyrics and alternately played accordion and baritone sax — it was clear Growden would not likely have been able to polish his mix of soul, blues, folk and cabaret to such a burnished sheen anywhere else but on the stage. Genius takes time, and don't get me wrong, Google understands and certainly has plenty of genius, but we'd be poorer people without the many necessary on-the-ground creative processes—be they face-to-face conversations, jams, performances— that keep us human. The very acts that lead to the desire to share the experience — in person OR online. Perhaps after reading this, you'll Google 'live local music' in your town or city?

Twestival: Twitter in Action

A year ago, I really didn't know what Twitter, a microblogging community & communications tool that let's you update your status via text message or computer, was all about. Nor did I think I'd ever use it. Then I went to SXSW where figuring out what show to attend, who was playing & what show was sold out was nearly a full-time endeavor, and got into Twitter big time (granted I was with a lot of super-techies who'd just been at the Interactive part of the fest), sold on its speed & efficiency at conveying news. I really became a fan when I used it to get real-time, real-people updates on the coordinates of Santa Cruz fire last summer. Sure, like any blogging/social media tool, a lot of junk info gets Tweeted, but Twitter, in general is great for getting information , finding like minds and building community. To that end, I'm happy to be a part of this week's Twestival, a global "Tweet-Up" that is bringing people together to raise funds for Charity Water. I think it combines the best attributes of Twitter: uniting people and giving them real and useful information to help them take action. Twestival is happening in cities all over the globe, and Twestival SF takes place at the Paradise Lounge, 6-10pm on February 12. There's going to be a whole lot of entertainment, drinks, art auctions, and a set by me and the band. If you're in the Bay Area, come on down! If not, check the Twestival site to find out if there's a Twestival in your town. And if you're on Twitter, you can follow both my updates (@DeborahCrooks) or the event's (@twestivalsf). 

fires

Corralitos (literally "little Corral) isn't usually in the news, so when my nephew said to my sister "Corralitos is on fire" while watching the news, she was shocked. I was oblivious to the"Summit Fire" igniting and spreading in Santa Cruz until my other sister called me on my way to work. Since 5:30 in the mornint, the fire had been marching through the Santa Cruz mountains, just a couple of miles away from where my brother lives in the house in which we all grew up. The rural area (less rural, mind you, than it was when we were little), is rife with redwood trees, coastal scrub and patches of grassland. I couldn't quite fathom that a huge fire was raging in May (god only knows how dry it's going to be in July), nor could I wrap my head around that my family and friends where in very real danger. And so worry, that no-good emotion, as well as a flood of other feelings and memories, began. I kept up with the news at my desk in downtown San Francisco, glad that some of the social media tools (Twitter, namely) were employed to good effect in pointing to helpful news feeds and photos, but frustrated all the same, as I read about people walking horses and pets down the road, and telling my brother to leave rather that stay when he explained being both scared and territorial.
He'd called mid-day to tell me he was alright...and that he'd just walked back to the house in the middle of his work day, having left his truck at the market where the fire officials had closed the road and media had set up HQ. Fortunately, the neighbors were home as well, and they were all watching out for one another (plus they had a car there).
He was realizing how much he loved his home. Long-time friend Sally, who lives another mile away, was packing up her car along with her husband, her child and pets, to stay with family members elsewhere, while the fire ran its course (it's still running as I write this).
You realize how much you love people when you're faced with a natural disaster. You also realize how small you are.

quietude

Was one of my favorite words that came up in a slightly giddy, post Blogtropol.us celebration at xyz on Friday night. And after last week's Web 2.0 buzziness, the weekend got me that much closer to inhabiting the meaning of the word. Musical work (I'm really excited-should have a new CD ready by midsummer, check for new songs posted here ), jamming with new musical pals (I now also have a crush on my friend's Gibson electric guitar, sigh), getting back to yoga, hanging with my siblings at Cafe Gratitude, life is feeling good for a Monday!

quietude - a state of peace and quiet quietness, tranquillity, tranquility calmness

lounging

Well, that was a great week of social media real-time connectivity though I couldn't really tell what we'd done until sitting at Zebulon with my team of coworkers, a few techie/musicians (another band project has been birthed, I believe) with whom I bonded amid listening to Pandora all day in the blogger lounge TCG produced (some press about it here), tired, sweaty and so appreciative that everyone stepped up to make the event that was Blogtropol.us a success. More to come.
(photo ©2008toprankonlinemarketing http://www.flickr.com/people/toprankblog/)

observations continued

Given I've been in social media land working on Blogtropol.us for TCG at Web 2.0., my head continues to be wrapped around where social media works (for me). So my favorite media groups tend to bring it down to the ground, close the loop between cyberspace and ground space, keep it real, so to say. I've had some interesting conversations the past few days, with people working on "urban inspiration" programs, and recently found out about Just Means. "For people who creat change." That's the real power of the internet and social media in my group, not necessarily blowing your own horn ad infinitum, but getting things done. Very happy that one of my favorite causes, Stop the Spray has just done that, stop the latest round of pesticide use in the Bay Area, for a bit, but we do need to stay on it.
Now there we go. It's hardly rocket science, but it's clear that all community is built on authentic relationships, where sentences get formed in real time, flawed, broken in places, perhaps, but infused with both meaning and feeling. Why in the end, I generally opt for music!

observations

It's been more bird in the city, than bird in the tree these days, as I've been coordinating the logistics for Blogtropol.us lounge, the place for bloggers at the Web 2.0 Expo in SF this week. Blogtropol.us is a city within a city within a city within many cities, if you look at it one way: an event, that's a community within a community that's web-based, getting together in real-time within an event, held in a city. Make sense? Maybe not to anyone outside of my cranium, but it reflects my brain after the first day (a success) as I sat on the 39th floor of the Marriot looking down on dear San Francisco, the sun setting off in the west, and seagulls flying below, attempting to process it all: where I live, where I've been, what the internet does to us as a community, where we can use it successfully and where we get stuck and how, online or off, those places are usually the same. I'm back for more, readying the room, blasting music from Pandora's sweet music station, so stay tunes...err tuned, for any conclusions I may come to in this mulling.

oh yeah, instruments

(bottom photo ©gravity7)
Synthesizers, amplifiers, Twitter projections. Remember when people played instruments and turned pages? Friday was about striving to keep it real within the Web 2.0. The release of an old-school hard-cover book by Rhohit Barghava "Personality Not Included: Why Companies Lose Their Authenticity" was the cause for celebration at The Sugar Cafe. The party owed a lot to the Twitter-cast on the wall (if you tagged correctly, your "tweet" went up on the wall), though, frankly, this gig was characterized more by the free "rojitios" and dj beats than any book reading. Arriving in a limo with Denise, Eric and Arian, care of Denise's quick thinking on the way home from 415 Friday made the night that much more sweet, but after a couple hours of twittering and wondering just how many rojitos one could drink without turning into a total ass (I switched to water early and went into observation mode), I hopped on BART to decompress from all the spinning. I promptly ran into Sid, from the Hayes Valley hood, and talked politics all the way under the Bay to the Ashby station and the Starry Plough. There, two pals were playing in different acts (Producer pal Ben Bernstein was opening a night, which included Emily doing duty with the ever more polished Whoreshoes, who were on second) on a three-band bill of acoustic, old-timey and celtic tunes. I took a spot at Emily's table and caught up with Michael from Pyramind, who was resting up from his week at the studio, and Corry from the Hearken Backs, and the rest of the night was a lullaby of banjos, stand-up bass, mandolins and fiddle. "Good times," as Michael opined. Yessiree.... I won't be turning down any future limo rides; however, the ride home in the City Car Share wagon with Michael and Ben's drummer and girlfriend was just as comfortable.

the nature cure

When I haven't been in a studio recording (very cool yesterday in the studio working on new tunes w/Ben Bernstein, Eamon Ryland, and Dave Tweedie) or working on the Blogtropol.us lounge for TCG, I've been heading for the nearest patch of earth. Beach sand is my top pick in SF --note that this Saturday is a clean up day at Ocean Beach AND if you can't help Save the Bay in person, that org. has come up with some virtual solutions. Follow their links...


another one of my favorite places, Pescadero's Pie Ranch (who is NOW doing a version of my dream to have a eco/music/yoga center on a coastal ranch one day) is accepting donations, including computers. Check out how you can help:

placed and displaced

The abundance of social media groups, applications, and devices, and the immediacy of information giving and getting these days reflects what I think is THE quandary of living a post-millennial life: we're at once more fragmented and more connected than ever before.
I have friends who don't even own cell phones, others with extremely wary views of all the applications and groups one can sign on for, and those who can't walk two steps without recording the moment on their cell phone/blackberry/ibook. I commute with crowds of people, elbow to elbow, on about-to-burst Muni trains where no one talks to one another, let alone hear one another (9 out of 10 commuters wearing their ipod). I can't help but think of that Lily Tomlin quote of years back from her "Signs of Intelligent Life in the Universe" show: "We're all in this together...by ourselves."
Cold comfort, I suppose, but there's a clear choice in all of this: focus on the downside of the equation or the connection. The old quality over quantity test applies. If the link-up is quality(what are you saying? is the information helpful to someone? or are you adding a new dimension to the definition of spam?) value is retained...a tall order, but a challenge perhaps worth taking.

tweeting up

Yesterday was unplug day, enjoying beauty treatments (Maiko has her own place now in Hayes Valley)pedicures, talking to pals who have known me for more than a decade in real time, reading magazines whose pages turn, walking through parks, ya get the picture Though I hardly qualify as a luddite, it's all relative. In the social media world, I'm still pretty old-school. Nonetheless, I've embraced Twitter. Of all the tools out there, it seems the most effective for getting word out quickly.

media enchiladas

Though it was a burrito bar...ahem. Anyhow, some folks I know where asking me what is all this social media business. There's no simple answer, but here's how some of the social media crew (including myself) have to say in answer to a question about digital media at a recent Lunch 2.0 in San Francisco:

booming

Between coordinating another blog lounge for TCG at the upcoming Web 2.0, working on overdubs and coordinating more sessions, playing at Pirate Cat Radio AND coping with allergies, I've been feeling a bit...well...spun. More content juggling than producing so I'm looking forward to a weekend, which so far included playing a tune later at Cafe La Vie, and hopefully catching Dave's brother band "Morning 40 Federation" at the Boom Boom Room. Glad that club is still going. I just got word that Jazz at Pearls is closing, which is sad, because that is a fun club.... I was at Modern Tea (maybe it was the Sevan Blend that turned me around?) with several of my favorite jazz artists last night-we were discussing buying homes, but maybe a club would be a good start. We'll see......
First things first ...

this being an artist business

"No medium can remove the need for thoughtfulness, artistry and eloquence in the creation of something great." Barry Boyce, Shambhala Sun

"Art is a reflection of who we think we are and what a culture is. It's a reflection of cultures and invidividuals, and how they resonate. Art is the way a culture embeds its sacred truths so that they can be passed on, either the next day or centuries from that time. It's the way we have preserved our cultural memory of who and what we are." Alex Grey, Shambhala Sun

My yard sale going yielded a stack of old Shambhala Suns that I stayed up late reading. My chief project right now is choosing more songs to record in the next two months as I forge on in my full-length CD project. Whether I'll reached such pinnacles as Boyce and Grey describe is, of course, subject to debate, and these questions both guide and inspire me: my goal being to show what culture has embedded in me in hopes of breaking free of it.
Answering life's ineffable questions and becoming a happier, better person for the world is keeps me making stabs at writing songs. That said, artists are hardly exempt from answering to the bottom line. How do you keep pace with the practical reality while following one's muse? Enter the promise of the internet for independents...which is equal parts false promise and boon depending on who you're talking to. So after my higher-road Shambhala Sun inspiration, I read my hero Billy Bragg's Op-
Ed in yesterday's NY Times, as well as its accompanying blogosphere commentary (mostly negative), with a jaundiced eye...Most artists I know, even those who have "made it," (as working artists, not cookie cutter American Idol types) are continually juggling finances amid their attempting to make work that stands the test of time. A tall order, when that making takes time. And we (still) live in an age where people who have committed to the arts may be valued for their sensibility more than they're monetarily compensated for their actual products. Respect (and Bragg commands respect for his integrity as a person and an artist), alas, does not equal money, the latter an altogether different area of expertise....