India to California: Gettin' Back Into the Swing of Things • We Blog The World

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 who were long-time Mysore residents who ended up knowing a lot about my life after two months of daily chit-chat amid coming and going. 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

Deborah Crooks

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.