Bikram Yoga and other thoughts for 2012

It's been a while since I've used this blog page, but I've got some time to kill this new years day, so what the hell, blog it up.

As 2011 fades into a memory, 2012 promises...... what does 2012 promise? Lots going on in the news about our president. Evidently, he signed a bill last night, new years eve, that some view as a criminal act against our nation. Something about us loosing the Bill of Rights. Tea Party members think we are headed for an American version of Nazi Germany. I'm not sure about all that, but I'm pretty bummed about what they are trying to do to the internet. For more information on that got to "Sopa: The Internet Blacklist Bill" , which again, Tea Party members blame Obama. I blame large entities that have truely been in charge since they invented the Federal Reserve System that day on Jekyll Island back in 1913. For more on this see "The Creature From Jekyll Island".

What else will 2012 bring? More of this I reckon. Capt. Charles Moore of the Algalita Marine Research Foundation first discovered the Great Pacific Garbage Patch -- an endless floating waste of plastic trash. He brought it to my attention back in february of 2009 and I'm pretty sure we've not missed a beat at contributing to a garbage patch in the ocean about twice the size of the state of Texas. For more information on this please watch this video "Capt. Charles Moore on the seas of plastic". We are screwed people.

So, it's not all a bed of roses. Quite a few thorns and weeds. Bad stuff happening all over the world. Combine that with my own personal struggles, (I think what Willie Nelson was really trying to say was  "Mama's don't let your babies  grow up to be musicians", cowboys just sounded cooler), and it would be easy to slide into a depressed state. But I do stuff to battle that funk. I get to work. I make some art. I do yoga. I do other stuff too........  but a mans got to have some secrets.

When I told friends I would be doing a 10:30 to midnight yoga class on New Years Eve, I received reactions like, "That sounds odd", "No, don't do that!" or "That doesn't sound like a very fun New Years Eve". But I guess I'm not so unique, it was one of the larger classes I've attended in the few years since I started doing it. The type of yoga I do is called Bikram, and classes run exactly 90 minutes and consist of a set series of 26 postures and 2 breathing exercises. Bikram Yoga is ideally practiced in a room heated to 105°F with a humidity of 40%.

Their seem to be as many critics of Bikram style yoga as their are people that swear by it.  My personal view is that I'm doing a form of exercise that completely works my body in a constructive way. I'm improving my spine and joints when other forms of exercise wear them down. Yoga also compresses and stretches organs, muscles and ligaments, and because Bikram is hot, it allows me to do this more effectively. For me at times it's too hot, it wouldn't hurt my feelings if it were a few degrees cooler. I loose tons of water and minerals so I have to be careful. But that's part of the process of yoga as well, learning to pay attention to your bodies warning signals and adjusting so you stay healthy and uninjured.

Bikram loyalist, the ones who've really "drank the kool-aid", will even say they believe this yoga saved their lives. I'm more of the variety that believes I'm practicing a most primary form of yoga, but an important one. You can't learn to read without first learning your ABC's. I relate things to music, so to me Bikram Yoga is like learning nursery rhymes, their is other complex music out there, but a child needs it to be simple at first so they can grasp it. Simple does not mean easy, it's really difficult, but if you can learn to meditate and breath in this most uncomfortable setting, you are laying some foundation to being a more centered person. Some day when I've gotten closer to mastering some of these postures, I think I'd like to try some different forms of yoga. But for now this is a good place to start and I'd recommend it to just about anyone.

Alright, that's my thoughts moving forward into 2012. Happy New Year!

p,s, don't worry too much about politics or your personal situation or things you can't change, it is all bullshit anyway. Have fun and remember......................

I just can't imagine what will come next.

There are two new software applications that developers are focusing on that are so amazing, and a little scary. Obviously if this type of technology has filtered down to the consumer, it's not necessarily brand new, but just new to us. There is no telling what they are working on as you read this.

The first one I downloaded for free to the iphone from the Apple Applications store; it took about 10 seconds, and I now have a little widget called Shazam. If you hear a song on the radio, and you find yourself saying: "I wonder who sings that song and what is the title of that catchy little ditty?", simply press your Shazam widget, and after Shazam listens for a few seconds through the iphone's built in microphone, up pops the song title, the artist, and the option to purchase and download to your phone. Are you kidding me?!!

The truth is, it does not work 100%of the time, yet, but give it time and you know it will.

I found out about this other application on TED.com. By using tag words, this software can create a virtual photo from all photos on any given subject that have been downloaded to the web. Make sure and watch the video all the way till it finishes; the mind blowing stuff is at the end!

wyoming and brian reagan

After finishing a show a few years ago at a place called Cumberland's in Charleston, SC,  3 friends and I packed up into a conversion van that was given to me when my father passed away,  a green Ford Econoline. We had booked a few shows in and around Buffalo Wyoming, and had gotten ourselves lodging at a ski resort on top of a mountain in exchange for our musical abilities.

Since all lodging, food, transportation, recreation, etc., would be taken care of upon arrival, we decided it best to drive the 41 hours straight through, swapping shifts as we went. We all knew this would be tough, but I don't think any of us knew how much so. It sucked for me because I am not a very  good "trusting you with my life" type passenger under the best circumstances. Trusting sleep deprived musicians....... who on a great day may or may not be my top picks for being aware, prepared and reactive, did not set up the best scenario for sleep when my two hour window of opportunity would eventually arrive.

One of the highlights of riding the long hours in the van, was being introduced to the comedy of Brian Reagan. Click on his name to take you to a youtube link of an animation someone did to one of his stand up routines. It starts out a little slow, but as it rolls along I was cracking up. Maybe because this is exactly the way I personally felt as a kid when playing little league baseball.

If you would like to subscribe to this blog, please hit me up at christopheralanyates@mac.com

Before and After shots

My sister forwards me quite a few emails. Some of which I actually read. This morning I fired up the email to see that she had forwarded to me one of those celebrity bashing type emails, that show pictures that were designed to be publicity shots, and right next to those, you had pictures that look like they were extracted from the front page of the National Enquirer. Bad..... really bad photo's that help us mere mortals feel a little better about the view in our bathroom mirrors.

There are many factors. Make up is surely one of them, but what about photo shop. Lighting is also huge. Many of the "Good" photo's were taken when the stars were a little closer to their prime, and the "Bad" ones taken after a serious decline in stardom, and probably a serious decline in personal care as well.

This is the very reason we have to be so careful about how we process EVERYTHING WE SEE AND HEAR IN THE MEDIA! It is all POSSIBLY not the truth. With pictures it's photoshop, with music there is auto tune, with politics and moral reasoning there are hidden agenda's. All that you see and hear and feel in the media can be manipulated to make you feel a certain way.

Recently, my heart has been steered toward the attractive realness of the live recording. The feeling that I get while listening is just a residual from the actual performance, but at least I know it was %100  real. Warts and all. Good or bad, you know you are hearing the real thing with no studio trickery. I've also removed auto tune from my arsenal of studio offerings. When people ask me to tune something up, I usually just give them a blank stare like I am not exactly sure what they are talking about. If someone decides not to use my humble little studio because I don't have auto tune...... so be it.

Billboards, magazines, music, tv, newspapers, internet, commercials....... EVERYTHING that we use to get information into our brains, has been designed, possibly artificially, by someone else to  put you in a certain frame of mind. Sometimes it may seem harmless enough, but on a larger scale it's part of the cancer that is eating us up. Devouring our ability to make solid decisions about who we are and what we think. It gets harder and harder to know the truth about anything. 

For older people it may not seem like such a bad deal, we have a completely different frame of reference than a newborn baby has today. We lived in a world before cable television, internet and microwave ovens. We at least have some grounding in reality. For someone just old enough to grasp reality, we are trying our best to confuse them with fantasy video games, unrealistic lifestyles and beauty, fabricated music, etc. It is all artificial sweetener, like nutri-sweet...... which I hate.

I would love to see us all take time in our lives to experience the real thing more often. Go see a play or a musical. Go hear some live music or stand up comedy. But people are just too busy and tired from all the artificial living.

You know how you felt the last time you saw an amazing movie? When was the last time you experienced that at a live show?

christopher alan yates

If you would like to subscribe to this blog, please hit me up at christopheralanyates@mac.com

Topless Bars and live acoustic music

 I'd never heard the word until about four years ago, until my "frustrating to have even a normal conversation with" booking agent sent me to a small town in South Carolina. I went to the gig and she'd led me to believe I was playing in a topless bar. I didn't really feel like getting into it, so I just said ok. Why not.

As I made the drive up, my curiosity was spiked with a little excitement and apprehension. After all....  this was a SMALL southern town, and the idea seemed a bit odd, I just couldn't imagine it.......... bare breasted people walking around taking drink orders, while I did my best to get folks to sing along with my versions of "The Joker" and "Last Dance For Mary Jane", etc.  When I arrived, I was both disappointed and relieved that the place was only serving tiny plates of food....... everyone was dressed, tops included. It was a Tapas bar, not Topless.

I will be doing a solo gig at Red Sky Tapas this Friday June 20th from 9 til 11. I hear the boob is terrific. 

It's located at 1255 Johnson Ferry Road in Marrietta. Their phone # is 770-973-0100

Other Cool Stuff

Just a reminder to make it out on a Tuesday night to Smith's Old Bar for the next few weeks, (except for the 8th of July, come to Eddie's Attic). The Vagabonds are kicking up some dust with a five week residency in the Atlanta Room. Go to my myspace to hear some live recordings. Last nights special guest were Levi Lowery, Michelle Malone and Jeremy Ezell. It was fantastic!

christopher alan yates

please contact me at christopheralanyates@mac.com

Did I just hear someone tuning a banjo?

I know it's the middle of June and we've just finished up a nasty little heat wave here in the metro Atlanta area, but I was actually enjoying the warmth and light that was radiating from our campfire in the North Georgia Mountains this past Saturday night/Sunday morn. And although I'm not a fervent NRA gun owner that "always has one by my side", I was certainly enjoying the equalization I was carrying in the loaded 9mm pistol that I had brought along for the trip........ just in case I heard banjo music, or felt the need to intimidate a bear. 

Saturday afternoon, I was performing with the Vagabonds down by the Chatahooche river, to help make people more aware of the need to protect our water and natural environment. I'm more aware. I guess that's a start. I'm not exactly sure what to do about it. I try not to take long showers, some days I even skip it altogether. I don't really enjoy washing my car too often, but it reaches a point that I just can't take the looks of disgust by my friends.  It all seems like it is such a small little splash in a huge ocean.... pardon the pun. 

I have been watching out my front door as the city water authority continues to pour.... gush... water out of a 3" pipe for hours a day, weeks at a time. I looked out this morning, and they had THREE 3" pipes going at the same time! Just blasting water out on to the ground.  Now I know the city is doing a major overhaul of the infrastructure, and traffic sucks ass every single place that I drive...... I am all for it. But how can they expect anyone to take seriously the need for them to install a water conserving shower head in their bathroom, when they are dumping more water out on to my street than I probably use all year. AND, if they are doing this in my front yard, where all else is this happening. 

I asked one of the crew guys and he says they are cleaning the lines, which I am also all for, but shouldn't they be squirting that water back into a transport truck, so they can drive it to the water processing plant and reclaim it as usuable in these troubled times? Or something??

Anyway, I'm thirsty to do my part. So this weekend I played a concert to conserve nature, then Stephanie and I packed up the van for an overnight camping trip and a short hike on sunday up and down Blood Mountain. It was terrific and I highly recommend it to you all. When you get to the top, there are a bunch of wild azalea "looking" bushes. The various colors of flowers that bloom on them are bright and amazing. Getting back to nature can't be anything but good for you, regardless of your beliefs......... unless it's late and dark and you hear banjo music off in the distance. That is never good.

christopher alan yates

p.s. come out to smih's olde bar/atlanta room this tuesday night to hear the Vagabonds..... our special guests this week are Michelle Malone, Will Turpin, Levi Lowery, and Jeremy Ezell.

Tuesday June 17th

This Tuesday night at Smith's Olde Bar/Atlanta Room

The Vagabonds Present:

Will Turpin (Collective Soul)

Levi Lowry

Michelle Malone

Jeremy Ezell