I happily made it to Encinitas for opening day of the latest in a series of JOIS Yoga Shalas opening in the US (the first opened in Islamorada, Florida, several years ago, & there’s also a studio in Sydney, Australia). Dedicated to the teachings of Sri K. Pattabhi Jois, the Encinitas studio was graced by the presence of Jois’s grandson Sharath Rangaswamy for the first week of practice. As many of us fly more than halfway around the globe to India for a chance to to practice with Rangaswamy, traveling a half a state was no sweat. Practicing in the crowded studio—dedicated students and teachers from all over the continent filled the studio wall-to-wall— was sweaty, as it should be. “Guruji’s dream was to bring this yoga to everyone,” said Rangaswamy, after class to a roomful of beaming students. Encinitas was one of the first places Guruji came to teach in the States in the 1970s, and there’s already a rich heritage of great teachers carrying on the tradition in North County San Diego (aka Tim Miller). its fitting there’s now a namesake studio on the town’s very accessible main strip.
Deborah Crooks (www.DeborahCrooks.com) is a writer, performing songwriter and recording artist based in San Francisco whose lyric driven and soul-wise music has drawn comparison to Lucinda Williams, Chrissie Hynde and Natalie Merchant.
Singing about faith, love and loss, her lyrics are honed by a lifetime of writing and world travel while her music draws on folk, rock, Americana and the blues. She released her first EP “5 Acres” in 2003 produced by Roberta Donnay, which caught the attention of Rocker Girl Magazine, selecting it for the RockerGirl Discoveries Cd. In 2007, she teamed up with local producer Ben Bernstein to complete “Turn It All Red” Ep, followed by 2008’s “Adding Water to the Ashes” CD, and a second full-length CD “2010. She’s currently working on a third CD to be released in 2013.
Deborah’s many performance credits include an appearance at the 2006 Millennium Music Conference, the RockerGirl Magazine Music Convention, IndieGrrl, at several of the Annual Invasion of the GoGirls at SXSW in Austin, TX, the Harmony Festival and 2009’s California Music Fest, MacWorld 2010, Far West Fest and many other venues and events. She toured the Northwest as part “Indie Abundance Music, Money & Mindfulness” (2009) with two other Bay Area artists, and followed up with “The Great Idea Tour of the Southwest in March 2010 with Jean Mazzei.
