Read.Eat.Listen: Pools

My sister was pushing me faster and faster around the pool, as I lay on one of those inflatable floating mats. This was thrilling. There was much shrieking and splashing. And then the mat flipped. All was quiet as I swam underwater for what was likely no longer than 15 seconds, but felt like a vast sea of calm.
My family was up at the river, visiting my aunt and uncle who had the place in Guerneville with the pool. On a hill full of redwood trees, the cabin's northern California landscape setting wasn't so different than the one that surrounded our house, a few hours south. But "The River" was a different place. People came here to get away from the city, to retreat and frolic and vacation, not raise kids (though of course, there are plenty of families here, too).  Along the clean air and views of the country, the little unincorporated town had a bakery and  restaurants within walking distance of my aunt and uncle's place.
The fact that they had a swimming pool, a round fiberglass number,  was a big deal at the time.  I must have had a swimming lesson or two by the time I visited, but as a rule, we didn't swim much.  When it was hot in the summers, we ran through the sprinklers to cool off if we didn't head to the beach. Our favored, and closest, beach, 10 miles west of where we lived, had huge signs in the sand warning of rip currents. We didn't dare go in past our knees. So the sudden immersion into the round, not-too-deep-but-deeper-than-a-seven-year-old pool waters turned into my first 'swim.' I was pleased with myself when I surfaced, but my mom was as angry, and scared, as if I'd been swept away by one of those Pacific riptides. It was a confusing re-entry, kind of like taking a nap and then walking outside onto a construction site. Perhaps its why swimming pools never really became my place of solace. Still, in lieu of a beach....
Read: I'm already annoyed* with Michelle Goldberg's book "The Goddess Pose: The Audacious Life of Indra Devi, the Woman Who Helped Bring Yoga to the West," or rather with Goldberg, but I'm eating up this book all the same. Indra Devi, one of the more famous and few women students of  Sri Tirumalai Krishnamacharya, had a long and colorful life so she makes for a great subject. 
*Goldberg breezily (which is damningly and inaccurate) describes traditional Ashtanga yoga as being originally intended for young boys.
Eat: Chances are, we were eating Popsicles while poolside. Those multi-color rocket ones or maybe a fudgesicile. Circa 2015, I'd make it more like this vegan Fresh Summer Apricot Pop.
Listen:  More recently, we've found ourselves driving on a lot of dirt roads, in the desert a couple weeks ago and this past weekend in Marin. Some of the best listening while driving those dirt roads, we found, was the wonderful and wise Greg Brown. I love his daughter Pieta Brown's music, too, so I started digging up more of her tunes. Goodness.
Then I found this video of Pieta Brown playing a Lucinda Williams song with Greg Brown and Bo Ramsey. So here you go:

Read.Eat.Listen: All

Anyone who has practiced traditional Ashtanga yoga has heard "practice and all is coming." It was one of Ashtanga-originator Pattabhi Jois's favorite instructions: a succint way of saying: do your practice first, everything else, the 'all' of life, positive and negative, as well as the fruits of practice, will work themselves out. It's at once an inspiring, maddening and accurate instruction. Inspiring, because when things are hard, who doesn't want to hear that it will change or become clear? Maddening, as this direction is nowhere near a quick fix. And accurate, because, as someone who began Ashtanga during a low, low point in ones life, I've experienced the steady expansion that goes hand-in-hand with regular practice. Even when I've felt pissed, injured, bored, old, lazy, or disappointed with my practice, I know now, over years of coming back to the mat, all (all kinds of all) does come.

This week, quite serendipitously, we had opportunity to stay a few days at Rancho Valencia, a spa resort in San Diego County replete with tennis courts, swimming pools, fine restaurants, olive and citrus orchards, beehives, and multiple swimming pools. Tastefully decorated with original art, our suite was larger than our house and just as comfortable (if not more so!). The only thing missing was our cat...who will likely never forgive us. Hummingbirds buzzed the patio morning and evening, and freshly squeezed orange juice was delivered to our door each morning. A lot of allness! 

Though our every need was taken care of, and there was even a yoga pavilion, I ventured outside the grounds a couple of mornings, to practice at the Ashtanga Yoga Center on the border of Encinitas and Carlsbad. I've made many trips to Encinitas over the years, as it's the first place in the United States that Pattabhi Jois taught when he first came to the States in the 70s, and several teachers have since maintained Ashtanga's strong roots here. I practiced with Jois here in 2002, on one of his many teaching trips, and several times with Sharath Rangaswamy after he took over the reigns from Jois upon his passing.  Likewise, one of Jois's first American students, Tim Miller, has run hid influential Ashtanga Yoga Center here for many years. I was fortunate to practice at his studio this week, my first visit to the Carlsbad location. While the studio is now inland a bit, in one of San Diego County's seemingly omnipresent malls, Miller's big heart and dedication permeates the Center, a practice environment that strikes an admirable balance between friendly, relaxed and focused. 

Read: Oliver Sacks' "On the Move." If you've read any of his other books or articles — "Awakenings" or "The Man Who Mistook His Wife for A Hat"—you know Sacks is brilliant and human, warm and wise, light-hearted and endlessly curious. I'm so glad he sought to pen and complete his memoir "On the Move" which is a beautiful look inside the life and mind of one of our greats.

Eat: "Food is the final frontier [of practice]," wrote another senior Ashtanga teacher, David Garrigues, and this entry, alas, doesn't speak to a fully-tamed frontier (albeit all the food in question is organic). I first tasted hushpuppies as a 10-year-old on my first trip through the deep, southern US. Fried and with a name I thought was funny, the Louisiana-made cornmeal hushpuppies weren't anything like I'd tasted before. I can still remember the wonder I felt at their flavor. But I was only visiting the south and its cuisine. I've seldom come across hushpuppies since (and they're definitely not a dish that fits with my attempts at healthy yoga-practice encouraging eating). Regardless, when I saw "wild ramp and garlic hushpuppies" on the menu at Full of Life Flatbread, the foodie and wine-wise restaurant in Los Alamos where we pit-stopped on our way to San Diego, I had to place an order. They were presented beautifully in a white bowl with yummy green goddess dressing. I was a little underwhelmed by their flavors, but my childhood memory is a hard one to live up to. I'm not complaining. These circa 2015, California versions evoked a strong and happy memory...and went great with the house red, a salad and some of Full of Life's truffle-oil infused cauliflower soup. Yum. 

Listen: Truth be told, we've mainly been listening to ourselves this week, rehearsing our Desert Songs between the yoga and work that brought us here. Nonetheless, we perked up when The Carolina Chocolate Drops came on the radio amid our drive. Modern roots music with a side of gospel, this group is talented, spirited and aware...and no secret. They're at SF Jazz Center in May. 

New Acoustic Music Series debuts May 3 @ Island Yoga in Alameda

 Kwame Copeland and Deborah Crooks will be playing a selection of BRAND NEW material - Songs from the Desert & the Sea - at this BRAND NEW Music Series.
New Acoustic Music at Island Yoga
A "chamber concert" series for acoustic music performance from popular idioms to classical. The NAM series seeks a focused atmosphere, similar to a classical concert. Totally unplugged original music in a serene setting. The 2015 schedule runs May - Nov with performances on the 1st Sunday of each concert-month. Island Yoga supports this goal as a sensitive, resonant, space where performers can showcase their most personal work.

All shows are 45 minutes total length: starting at 4:15pm, ending at 5:00pm
Ticket price is $10 at door / $11 advance via PayPal

Concert performance is at the 2nd floor studio of Island Yoga, 911 Central Ave, Alameda. There is no wheelchair access.  http://www.jom-songs.com/NAM_series

Thoughts on Yoga & Music

Illustration by Boonchu http://www.alliscoming.com

I play music. I practice (and teach some) yoga. But I don't play music when I practice. And I don't make 'yoga music' as an artist. That said, I think yoga and music are exceedingly complimentary, if not the same in many ways.
On an experiential level,  I often find that the act and results of a 'good' yoga practice and a 'successful' session are really the same. To make music with others takes both listening well and holding your own line to play your part well to create something larger than all involved.   Practicing yoga is similar, especially in a Mysore room where everyone is following their own breath, playing the parts (in this case doing the postures) while building a larger energy field than most mortals can do alone.  And if I'm lucky, I leave a performance (or rehearsal or jam) feeling the same as I often feel when leaving a Mysore room: clear, calm, inspired and connected.
Sometimes the progress of my yoga practice suffers from the time spent playing music; oftentimes the early morning practice schedule runs at odds with the 'typical' late musician night (napping is key). But diving into a week of yoga after a three-gig weekend provides a much-needed reset button. And I know my yoga practice informs my writing and playing on every level, from helping to keep my mind clear to feeding my muse.

Yoga: Art of Transformation Exhibit @ The Asian Art Museum

“Vishnu Vishvarupa,” India, Rajasthan, Jaipur, circa 1800-1820

Saturday, we took the ferry to SF and spent half a day at the Asian Art Museum, catching the next-to-last-day of the Yoga: Art of Transformation exhibit. A much-buzzed-about-in-yoga-circles show (there were many accompanying events that drew on the vibrant and diverse Bay Area yoga community), the curators of the exhibit created a compelling narrative in 135 artworks that serves both as visual feast and food for thought, tracing the roots of yoga as a practice of renunciates in ancient India, to its overseas sensationalization in Europe and the US, and present-day popularity, and commercialization, worldwide. A winding narrative of paintings, sculpture, drawings, photos and video, including South Indian temple-derived sculptures of multi-armed yoginis, pages from a 16th century treatise“Ocean of Life" (some of the earliest examples of asana  illustrations),  large early-1800 paintings of the chakra system from the Jodhpur court that carry both religious and political associations, and footage of Krishnamacharya and Iyengar practicing asana, very clearly showed how captivating, and widely interpreted, yoga has been throughout the ages. Fittingly, the show culminates with a wall-size piece by Pardon My Hindi, #WhitePeopleDoingYoga in the Education Resource Center:

#WhitePeopleDoingYoga / *Pardon My Hindi from *Pardon My Hindi on Vimeo.

The Yoga: Art of Transformation exhibition next travels to the Cleveland Museum of Art (June 22, 2014–Sep. 7, 2014).

ancient yogini

Beyond such special exhibits, the Asian Art Museum, now housed in the former SF Publication Library that was built in 1917,  is truly a treasure trove of Asian art and culture.  Every time I've gone to a special event here, I take solace from the inevitable crowds in one of the upstairs galleries. This time, after viewing the yoga exhibit, we popped into a gallery filled with Japanese Buddha sculptures and then just stood a while in the beautiful interior court. 

Mom on yoga

Not my mother's yoga book but nonetheless Hittleman's 
books were influential to many!

It dawns on me as Mother's Day approaches that I owe a lot of my appreciation of, and dedication to regular yoga practice to my Mom. She was a stalwart believer in basic physical fitness and had a daily routine with little yoga in it, albeit she didn't call it yoga (she didn't call it 'working out' either).  Most of what she did was Jack LaLanne-inspired exercise routine performed daily sometime between making four kids breakfast, school bus stops and lunch. This was the day of three channels on the TV and a similar number of radio stations. There wasn't any video not to mention the Internet. Looking back, you'd think we were on a different planet, pre-Google, when you learned either at the source, via word-of-mouth, at school, from books or what little TV programming there was. Along with LaLanne, mom followed instructions in a small paperback exercise book featuring photos of a woman in a white unitard and white tights. Again, it wasn't a yoga book, but there were pictures of the woman in in shoulder stand and halasana with accompanying directions.
Between LaLanne on TV and the paperback, my mom followed suit in the living room, albeit in loose jeans and a cotton shirt.
I didn't really get it. I was a kid. Once in a while I'd try something she was doing, but I considered LaLanne a little too strange in his jumpsuits and big cheer, and the woman in the unitard in the book a little too uncool to follow at that time. So like most things about parents, my appreciation for my mom's discipline comes late in life.
I've heard that a propensity for yoga is attributable to interest, or practice, in one's previous lifetimes, so it intrigues me that my mom, despite her European descent and pious Catholicism, quite naturally gravitated toward exercise and yoga. It grieved me she didn't develop a yoga practice when she had opportunity later in her life, but I'm nonetheless grateful for the role model she provided for taking time each day for a practice of self care.

Wisdom Accrual: 16 notes to myself on my birthday

It's not a particularly big birthday this year, but it's far enough down the road that of course I'm taking stock after my latest turn around the sun. Have I learned anything useful past the 'all I learned in kindergarten?' Yes, some of those lessons carried through: daily painting (or art-making) sessions and naps are still a great idea. Bikes and birds are joyous things, being nice matters, and its best to watch out for boys like Charles Hoff who made a game of chasing girls by running them down and grabbing at them.
Mostly I learned in kindergarten that my existence was the tiny tip of a large iceberg of humanity stretching far beyond the scattered houses, canyon roads and apple orchards of our smallish town....which eventually led me through and to the BA, countless hours of post-graduate/extra-curricular study, 26 states, four continents, four guitars, two marriages, two houses, two cats, multiple dogs, multiple deaths, multiple therapies, multiple stitches, Catholicism, Buddhism, yoga, omnivorism, vegetarianism, veganism, pens, paper, art, music, bikes and birds to here, now.
What to make of this?
Notes from the road thus far:

1. Do your practice. (Everything is a practice, whether it's feeding the cat, chanting the sutra, taking a shower, loving your mate, facing the page, stepping on stage, etc. et al)
2. The forgiveness business. Even if it's painful as hell.
3. Have your feelings. 
4. Know what's yours.
5. Listen.
6. You can rewrite the story
7. Get clear. Be clear. (Are you in or out?)
8. Get out in nature. (The moon! The stars!)
9. Laugh.
10. Moderate consumption of all kinds.
11. Don't wait. 
12. It, everything, will change.
13. Honesty.
14. Gratitude.
15. Reverence. 
16. Love.

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.

Read.Eat.Listen: Conditioning/deconditioning

Read: Tax form instructions. Ugh. Cure for that sort of study has been Michael Stone's "The Inner Tradition of Yoga: A Guide to Yoga Philosophy for the Contemporary Practitioner," Mary Beth's Lit on Yoga pick of the month. Stone's words will be welcome to anyone who has stumbled over connecting Patanjali's Yoga Sutra's to how yoga practice manifests in one's daily life. His clear-eyed prose makes the bases for the yoga tradition accessible and relevant. Embracing suffering? No problem:
"Our perception is clouded with preference. Once we can recognize what is happening in a moment of experience, we can accept it, allowing it to unfold without trying to get away from it. When we can accept something, we can investigate it in depth and release our instinctive movements toward identifying with the content of experience. Then pain is a pain, a feeling is a feeling—all aspects of nature, coming, transforming and passing on." —Michael Stone
Bonus: Ashtangis will appreciate the anecdotes about practicing with and listening to Sri. K. Pattabhi Jois.

Eat: According to Epicurious' groovy peak-season map, pretty much everything I love to eat — kale, avocado, chard, broccoli — is in season right now. I haven't branched too far afield from my green smoothies lately (kale, yes!) but this all-green 'Almost raw-vegan broccoli soup' via Cat's World Blog via Peggy Kostopoulos' cookbook looks right up my alley (as well as the season's).

Listen: Holly Williams. Yup another relative of Hank, this time his granddaughter, is sharing their chops. Holly's subjects are true to Williams form — drinking, driving, cheating — albeit with a refreshing feminine take.

Portland: Go west, near east

It's no secret that one of the many great things about Mysore-Style Ashtanga Yoga is the global tribe of Ashtanga practitioners. Visit nearly any place in the world and you can likely scare up at least a couple Ashtangis with whom to share practice. I've found practice groups everywhere from living rooms in Santa Cruz found by word-of-mouth to the most bustling urban capitals. Portland is no different, with at least two established Mysore groups. When I visit Portland, I call up a local I met in India in 2008 to set me in the right direction. This go Karen graciously shepherded me to Near East Yoga, a Northeast Portland studio led by Casey Palmer, which has been going strong for a good number of years. On-point instruction, good vibe, friendly community...what else does an Ashtangi need?

Well... food. We found post practice eats at Bijou Cafe which knows how to make a kick-ass, authentically French omelet. Plus they'll serve with a salad.  Très bon. (Yogis know better than to enter the Voodoo Donuts outpost up the street from Bijou, but I can't tell you how many Portland residents told me about Voodo so I'd be remiss not to mention it. Voodoo is renowned both for wacky flavor combinations as well as anatomically correct donuts. The actual Voodo donut features a pretzel stick stake through it's doughy heart.) Back to Bijou, the cafe not only serves great food but hosts a weekly Supper Jazz series on Friday's. Next time...Visiting on the front end of a week, we missed a whole slew of Portland's musical scene (other than the visiting guitar in the hotel room). Fortunately, Jimmy Mak's Jazz Club, in the Pearl District, hosts an interesting program of resident and touring artists nearly every night of the week. We enjoyed an early show by a young Portland ensemble on Tuesday in its cozy dinner club listening room. Yes, life is good in Portland.

Three Ps (& a D) in Portland

I'm not here for work or to play, rather I'm in Portland on a bit of a lark while my S.O. works. A wintry, rainy Northwestern city might not be the first choice to visit if you're feeling under the weather, but Portland is hardly a place with which to find fault. Portland really is cool, figuratively as well as literally. As we're staying downtown, I spent my first day in the area and The Pearl District, enjoying some R&R and literary inspiration.
Yoga Pearl: Located, fittingly, in Portland's Pearl District, Early morning Mysore Style Ashtanga class is followed in quick succession by led Hatha and Vinyasa classes with some Yin Yoga and Restorative classes for good measure. The serene studio also boasts a Wellness Center and one of the best smoothie & juice bars in town...

Prasad: I'll go to Pearl for Prasad alone. Veggie bowls, healing elixrs, an extensive juice and smoothie menu. If the Wellness Shot (ginger juice, lemon, cayenne & echinacia straight up) I took doesn't cure me, I don't know what will. Especially since I chased it with Blackberry Kiss smoothie made with Oregon's own Marionberries. Yum and OK, now, I could look at books.

Powell's City of Books: Lest anyone think that no one reads actual books anymore, Powell's City of Books spans a city block and  keeps its shelves stacked high with seemingly every tome known to humankind. The largest independent new and used bookstore in the world has color-coded rooms that help you locate your area of interest. There's also a downloadable app that guides you turn by turn through the stacks if you don't want to ask one of the stores friendly book loving staff. It's hardly my first visit, but...wow, I'll say again. I whiled away a couple of hours here, decided on my purchases while reading them over coffee — they let you bring up to 5 books to browse into the cafe — bought the latest Alice Munro collection and re-remembered about 10 titles I want to/need to read.


Ok, about that D. That would be for Ducks. As in Portland Ducks, who I have to say I haven't been following. Nonetheless, I met self-proclaimed 'the biggest Duck fan' on the planet, a gentleman who was flying back to PDX via AZ where the Portland Ducks took the Fiesta Bowl. The birder in me eclipsed the football 'fan' and had to ask what kind of duck is a Portland Duck? Not a wood or a mallard or a whistling duck but a 'Donald-type Duck' I was told. A Disney Duck, was the general conclusion. In any case, congrats to the Ducks!

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.

Apps for Kids: AzaWhistle & Alphabet Rockers

While I've been busy moving, two friends have debuted fun educational apps just for kids (and adults will likely get a kick out of them as well) over the past several weeks. Check them out!

AzawhistleKids Yogini, writer and all-round ace person Leslie Hendry developed Azawhistle to encourage "clean living in our homes, hearts, backyards, and around the world." The AzawhisltleKids App 'Tejas and Lollipop's Great Clean Up: Everything Has A Home' "uses yoga, meditation and simple acts of cleanliness to teach and inspire children to be organized, responsible, and conscious of their impact on their personal environment." With extra cool illustrations by Boonchu Tanti.
Alphabet Rockers Meanwhile, one of my favorite Bay Area music artists, Kaitlin McGaw, has applied some of her genius to an App she created with her Alphabet Rockers urban pop/hip-hop project. The new Alphabet Rockers app uses music to help kids learn about coins and shapes. How cool is that?
Both AzawhistleKids and Alphabet Rockers Apps are available via iTunes. Let the downloading begin.

Yoga Gives Back in Alameda 9/29

I’ve been fortunate to travel to India several times to study Ashtanga yoga at its source. Whether we know it or not, the West owes much, if not all, of its various yoga traditions to India.  The wildly diverse, spiritually deep and culturally rich country also suffers from widespread poverty. Yoga Gives Back is a global effort to return a bit on the huge favor India has given the West.

On September 29, yoga studios all over the world will be hosting benefits for India. I’m leading a benefit Ashtanga Yoga Workshop to do my part. Please join me!

Ashtanga Workshop — A Benefit for Yoga Gives Back Saturday 9/29, Alameda Yoga Station, 1708 Lincoln Ave, Alameda, CA 945012:00 to 5:00 pm. 

An introduction to the sequence of the Primary Series of Ashtanga Yoga as taught by Sri Pattabhi Jois. Proceeds from this class will benefit Yoga Gives Back, an organization dedicated to raising awareness and funds to help alleviate poverty in India. 

$30 suggested donation

Remembering

It's impossible not to think back to this day 11 years ago when most of us got a huge wake up call in impermanence. I thought then, walking around NYC, never again will I take anything for granted, pinching myself to remind myself I was alive despite the chaos. I wish I could say that I succeeded with my intention 100% amid all of these 11 years. But today I'm reminded. Reminded that survival is always liberating in the moment, pumped with adrenaline, agape at the fact that somehow, through some grace, you got another day. The challenging part is to be grateful, in every moment, boring, challenging, thrilling or otherwise. Today, I'm reminded, to be grateful. And to challenge myself that much more.  

...in the meantime, as I take day-by-day steps on my next set of recordings, I'm inspired to listen to Sean Hayes's latest greatness. Check it out:

SEAN HAYES | BEFORE WE TURN TO DUST | NEW ALBUM - OUT SEPTEMBER 11, 2012

Looking back: Boulder, CO

Lost and found keys at Mt. Sanitas

Two weeks ago, I was in Boulder, Colorado, for the first time in 14 years. Boulder, of course, is a hip, educated, happening hub of nature, spirit and athletics, at the foot of The Rockies. But I'd forgotten much about the place, having come to associate the town with a bad/sad ending to a chapter of my life as much as place where I was introduced to many of the themes of my life. However, I re-remembered, driving down Arapahoe Blvd, ogling, at once, the beautiful Flatirons hinting at the mighty Rocky Mountains to the west and the new construction that's reshaped some of the city since I lived in it, how much I'd been privilege to in Boulder. When I first moved there, I was newly married, avid about bike racing and my new job with a sports publication, enthralled to be living somewhere where it snowed during the winter...and generally clueless in that young, naive, hopeful and ambitious way that tries everything and doesn't yet understand consequences. And so Boulder was perfect for me at that time. The place is lively: the natural beauty conspiring to get you moving, whether by two feet, two wheels, snowshoes or skis. It houses Colorado University, The Naropa Institute and The Rolf Institute, Etown and Chautauqua. Everyone looked and evidently is fit and beautiful. There are trail-heads and bike lanes and open space at almost every turn. Pearl Street was packed with shoppers and diners enjoyed the expanding shopping district (we ate at a really great new-to-me restaurant The Kitchen). I ran into people I knew 15 years ago, and people I'd met in India. I practiced yoga at the first place I was introduced to Ashtanga (the venerable and great Yoga Workshop) and sang in a place five blocks from where I used to live (and where I only sang in my living room). Change. A lot of life happened for me in Boulder. A couple more lifetimes seem to have elapsed since. We went for a walk through Mt. Sanitas park and I was breathing hard, not really out of shape but far from hyper-Boulder-fit, and had to laugh when a crew of triathletes went whizzing by (oh how easy it was for me back then to get on my bike and ride 50 miles or more most days... once you get over the 5430 ft elevation). Somehow, seeing a loose set of lost keys at the trail head was apt: how many doors you try and open at different times in your life, how many keys work for a while or a lifetime, how many you lose or simply turn in. Thanks Boulder!

Keeping it local

The Mysore yoga community is inherently tight even if you're being low-key about your social interactions. Inside the studio, you practice inches away from one another. Outside, you literally rub shoulders with other students while drinking your post-yoga coconut. Three different friends lived on my short little street who I could easily call on. I became acquainted with two neighbors, long-time Mysore residents, who ended up knowing a lot about my life after two months of daily chit-chat amid our comings and goings. As such, I really didn't walk out of my door without being acknowledged and acknowledging someone else, if not stopping every 10 yards to have an actual conversation.
Re-entry into Western life after a couple months of this lifestyle always entails a bit of withdrawal from effortless community involvement. Interacting with others, in person, while living in the states takes a much different level of planning. Much of the past few days have been checking in with my stateside friends... and realizing how much we must drive to see one another.  
Which is partly why I'm starting to host a new Local Music Vibe Meet-Up in Alameda where I live. Founded by music lover and evengalista Shelley Champine, Local Music Vibe is all about connecting people to the live music around them. The idea of the Meet-up takes it another step by connecting other musicians and music industry folks to one another in their own backyard. The Alameda Meet-up kicks off next week, Feb 7 @ 10 am at The High Street Station. If you're a local musical sort come on down and introduce yourself.

Alameda Local Music Vibe Coffee Meet-Up —Feb 7 10 a.m. 
1303 High Street
Alameda California 94501

Mysore: Driver 8 Redux

"The walls are built up, stone by stone,
The fields divided one by one
And the train conductor says
"Take a break Driver 8, Driver 8 take a break
We've been on this shift too long"
And the train conductor says
"Take a break Driver 8, Driver 8 take a break
We can reach our destination, but we're still a ways away" — Driver 8 (Berry/Buck/Mills/Stipe)

Out of the blue, I started humming this old R.E.M tune today. That's the power of a song for you, showing up in places (such as walking a dusty road in India) you'd never think when you first heard it, 25 years ago, when Michael Stipe had hair, to give you a little oomph. Jeepers, the stuff that comes up here. But if practicing yoga in Mysore isn't performing tapas —"focused effort leading towards bodily purification and spiritual enlightenment" — I'm not sure what is.  Sure enough,  it's been an up and down few days on this end, the practice cooking me, or rather cooking things out of me, in unexpected ways. As it should. I've been thinking about those bull runners I saw Sunday for inspiration. The farmers who ran with their bulls through the fire were barefoot, afterall. Barefoot! Nonetheless, I'm feeling a bit more like Driver 8, a little weary, a little far from from a longed for Santosha-like destination.
Speaking of drivers, when I was walking into the bustling Devaraja Market a few days ago I was surprised to hear my name called out. I turned to see Raju, a rickshaw driver who delivered me to the train station on my first visit to Mysore in 2004. I saw him on subsequent trips, catching up about his children and family, and relying on him to get around town, but was mystified, and concerned, not to see him this go. As it turned out, he has been driving downtown now, rather than Gokulam, the rickshaw scene around the yoga shala a little too competitive (and cut-throat when it comes to inflating fares for we Western types). That said, he's my likely ride for the remainder of the trip. Raju is a good egg.
Speaking of eggs, or good things just-hatched, check out this vintage R.E.M. footage.

"Let's Move" Video Released

The video is complete! Thanks Sara Fisher at Blue Lotus Films for putting it all together.
From the CD '2010' by Deborah Crooks 
Artist: Deborah Crooks
Band: Ben Bernstein, Kwame Copeland and Tim Perdue
Extra (Yogini): Magnolia Zuniga
Directed/Produced/Edited by: Sarah Fisher of Blue Lotus Films
Director of Photography Nicole Salmeri
Production/ Editing Assistant: Lauren James

Artist Interview: Songwriter Wendy Beckerman

I first heard Wendy Beckerman when I began attending the Bay Area Songwriter's Exchange, which she co-founded. A New Jersey native and veteran of New York's rich and fabled Greenwich Village folk scene, Wendy modeled the songwriter gatherings after the original New York Songwriter's Exchange which fostered a thriving community as well as her earlier work. Having become a regular attendee of the West Coast group, now a diverse scene of its own, I've come to love Wendy's fine attention to the craft of songwriting, her great playing and singing, and her keen insight. Wendy — who teaches yoga and meditation when she isn't playing music — has recorded four Cd's of original music, along with contributing many songs to Fast Folk Musical Magazine. She's also added vocals to the work of other artists, including one of her mentors, Fast Folk founder Jack Hardy, who just recently passed away.
Amid preparing for an opening set at Berkeley's Freight & Salvage, Beckerman graciously answered my questions about her music.

Q: You lived on the East Coast for many years. Did your music life change when you came West?

WB: Actually, my music life changed even before I moved to the West Coast. While I was very committed to songwriting and touring, I didn't know how to make it work financially. Beginning in 1997, I spent several years climbing my way out of debt by working a full-time office job, and kept playing music whenever I could. I practiced guitar and wrote songs in the parking lot at my lunch hour, and recorded or performed on occasional weekends. This trend has continued, although now my non-music work sustains me spiritually as well as financially.

Q: You've been ringleader for the Bay Area songwriting collective. Can you talk about how you started it and how feedback from other songwriters effects (or doesn't) your songs?

WB: After I moved to the Bay Area in 2001, I was fortunate to co-found a spinoff of the NY Songwriters' Exchange with the help of Bob Hillman — whom I knew from NY — and Lisa Mandelstein, who was dedicated to the process, and offered up her apartment as a meeting place. There are two main reasons I have continued hosting the meetings (cooperatively with Patrice Haan): The meeting deadline simply keeps me writing songs regularly, and I love the process of listening, and sharing feedback and support in the songwriting process. While the feedback can be interesting and useful, offering different perspectives, it's the deadline and the community spirit that hold the greatest value for me.

Q: What other artists do you count as inspiration/listen to? Do you/have you had any important mentors?

WB: When someone asks me what my songs are like, I say a cross between James Taylor, Suzanne Vega, and The Roches — I am moved by his warm and comforting melodies, her poetic sensibilities, and their quirky perspectives. Many of the songwriters on the NY folk scene encouraged me and inspired me, but Jack Hardy, who passed away last week (March 11, 2011), was a huge part of my life and my songwriting. I arrived as a fledgling songwriter, and when he heard my first few songs, he made sure he had my full attention, and simply said in his uniquely powerful way, "keep writing." It was the best advice anyone could have given me at the time, and I am forever grateful for that. After writing a song a week, and attending the Songwriters' Exchange for a while, my listening skills improved, my songwriting took giant leaps, and to my delight I even began offering valuable feedback to more experienced writers. I am among many who miss Jack beyond words, and feel grateful to carry on the tradition of being committed to songwriting as an ongoing creative process.

Q You teach yoga and meditation full time. Do these practices inform your creative work?

WB: Yoga and music seem to inform and support each other. For me, practicing yoga and meditation is about mindful, present moment awareness, and tapping into an inner source that is outside of space and time. These practices help me pay attention to details, and open to life as much as possible. When I'm writing a song, I'm in that same meditative place of just BEING, which allows me to receive the song, rather than force it to happen. At best, songwriting feels like a co-creation with something greater. A fellow songwriter recently described my songs as "meditations on ordinary moments," which echoes mindfulness as a way of being in the world. The songwriting process also allows me to tap into emotions, themes, and insights that I can bring into my yoga practice and my teaching. And my yoga and meditation allow for insights I bring into my songwriting. When I bring a meditative focus to performing, I feel I'm at my best. I have noticed that I enjoy another artist's performance the most when he or she is being fully present, right there with what they are conveying, rather than on automatic pilot. I aim to bring that kind of presence into my performing.

Q: You've a show at the Freight on Friday? What can audiences expect?
WB: I'll be playing solo this time, opening the show for Catie Curtis, a very talented and dedicated singer/songwriter from New England. We have collaborated on concerts and recordings in the past, and it has always been great fun to work with her. I'm excited to have the opportunity to make music with her again, as we plan to do a few tunes together. I might even play the new song I wrote yesterday!

Wendy Beckerman appears with Catie Curtis at The Freight & Salvage,Berkeley, CA, Friday, March 18, 2011 @ 8pm