My passions have been pretty equally divided between the worlds of music and yoga during the past decade. I literally had dreams about Sri K. Pattahbi Jois last night, likely in part because I’ve been reading “Guruji: A Portrait of Sri K. Pattahbi Jois by His Students” cover to cover since I returned from Encinitas. So I feel duty bound to not only 1) get to India again soon but re-share info about the book about this great yoga teacher who I was blessed to have practiced with several times before he passed in 2009. The book is full of great interviews with his daughter, son, grandson and granddaughter and the pioneering yogis who made their way to India before yoga was popular in the States.
“…. you want to respect the teachers who brought this yoga to you. Guru-that is mula [root, base]. If you don’t give that respect there is not coming God. That is very important. Some people change it, but it is just their ego. ..If you keep changing teachers, it is not correct. You will get confused.” — Saraswathi Rangaswamy, in “Guruji: A Portrait”
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.
