I have been on two tours of the South East states in recent months. In between those tours I have been in NYC, where I am currently based. In New York I am working very hard on a new CD and hope to have it ready in the month of July. I was not able to send out a newsletter in recent months due to some technical problems but will have one out soon. One more piece of news is that another vegetarian podcast is featuring my song “I Don’t Eat Meat” on their site. Visit www.meatfreeradio.com to listen to it and to enjoy the podcasts. They are going to interview me on a podcast this summer. More is coming later.
May 8th, 2009
For the past few years I have been trying to put out my second CD. Now it looks like it will really happen as I have found a good engineer-producer to work with. We started work on the CD and have one track that is finished (with several others in progress).
The first track that we did is “Better Deal,” a song about vegetarianism. The song has already been featured on Vegcast, a popular vegetarian podcast. You can go to www.vegcast.com and download podcast number 59 if you want to hear the song (which is played during the 25th minute of the podcast. Or you can download the podcast directly here.
Let me know what you think of the new song.
February 24th, 2009
For the last few weeks I have been playing at “open microphone” sessions at various places in Brooklyn and Manhattan. One thing I am struck with as I travel around New York City is how much it has changed since I was last living there forty years ago.
In those days New York was a dangerous place and you couldn’t ride the subways late at night. I’ve been coming back from the open mic sessions at 12:00 midnight without problems and lots of people are out late enjoying themselves. The East Village (on Manhattan’s Lower East Side) is now a pleasant residential area and I enjoyed playing Banjo Jim’s on Avenue C and 9th Street this past Saturday. Avenue C and D just near the river used to be quite dangerous areas but now they are nice streets.
New York was always aninteresting place, but it is a lot more fun now and a pleasant place to be.
Another landmark that has changed for the better is Tomkins Square Park in the East Village. This is the park where the Hare Krishna movement began, but in the late 1960s it was a scruffy place. Once I met Abbie Hoffman (the revolutionary) in Tomkins Square Park. He was a visionary in a sense. He looked around at the park and insisted to me “This place is beautiful.” Well, in November 1968, it was definitely not beautiful. It was kind of bare and there was dog excrement everywhere, but he just closed his eyes and insisted that it was beautiful. I guess he was trying to be very positive and to bring about a new reality just by the power of his thought.
Well, if he were still living he would be happy to know that Tomkins Square Park is indeed a beautiful place these days with a great playground for kids and good landscaping. It looked beautiful in the snow this past Saturday and in the summer a lot of people like to sit in the sun.
I hope that all the other troubled spots on this planet will be healed in a similar way.
January 12th, 2009
My most recent open mike performance took place last night and was in the Under St. Marks Theater, a small hole-in-the-wall kind of location in a basement on St. Mark’s Place (which used to be the “main drag” of the East Village). There was a small crowd there, mostly composed of other performers. My “lottery number” was high and I did not get a chance to play until 11:30 PM. The people who preceded me were quite far-out and I was not sure how I would be received. I played one song and also told a humorous spiritual story and the audience seemed to enjoy it.I will be going back to the open microphone events again, so if you are in New York City just contact me and I will let you know when and where I am performing.
By the way: the open mike where I performed is called, Penny’s Open Mike and is located at 94 St. Mark’s Place (between 1st avenue and Avenue A). It takes place every Tuesday from 9:00 PM to 2:00 AM)
December 24th, 2008
Those of you who are on my mailing list got a complete update recently with more news of the tour of the US and also Central America.
Since then the newest development is a new meditation video produced by John Elliot. You can view it at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sHjuawcmndI
In addition to that I played my first performances in New York City… Well, I was born here, but for the past thirty years I have been living abroad… (more…)
December 19th, 2008
In the last two weeks I have been to New Paltz (upstate NY), Ithaca, Asheville, NC, Greensboro, NC, and Atlanta, GA. I am now back in New York City and getting ready for another adventure, but before I tell you about that. Here are some highlights from the last two weeks.
(The photo below is from the workshop-house concert in Atlanta )
Click the link to read about the tour: (more…)
October 28th, 2008
I am just writing to let everybody know that my North American tour is moving along nicely. On September 28 I visited the College of William and Mary in Williamsburg, Virginia. I was invited there to give a yoga workshop, but one of the scheduled bands failed to show up and I was given the opportunity to present a set of music. The event took place in an open amphitheater located in front of a beautiful lake.
Here is a photo from the festival:
I also visited meditators in Washington, Philadelphia and attended a yoga retreat in Plainfield, Massachusetts. This past weekend I presented a lecture on kundalini yoga at the Ananda Marga retreat in Asheville, NC. I am currently in Greensboro, North Carolina and a concert is scheduled for Thursday, October 23 (if you are in the area, please come!)
At the retreat in Massachusetts I held a music program for the children and did the same songs that I sing in Albania with the children of the Albanian Sunrise School.
October 21st, 2008
By Dada Vedaprajinananda
Someone who was practically unknown a few weeks ago has now become one of the most important political figures in the United States. That “someone” is of course Sarah Palin, the Governor of Alaska, who is now the Republican candidate for vice president. Palin’s candidacy has energized the Republican Party, especially heartening those on the right wing who adore her small-town lifestyle and social views, particularly her anti-abortion stand which is called “pro-life” in the U.S. But is Governor Palin truly pro-life, in the wider sense of the term. In my personal opinion, she fails to live up to this ideal. (more…)
September 7th, 2008
by Dada Vedaprajinananda
Recently I gave a meditation workshop in England and touched on the issue of non-attachment. Yoga philosophy tells us that we shouldn’t be morbidly attached to physical objects because they are transitory and perishable. If we can remember that our self-worth and being do not depend on these physical objects then we will be better off. (more…)
August 31st, 2008
by Dada Vedaprajinananda
Many people try for years to lose weight or to make other positive changes in their lives, but never succeed. There is plenty of information on the subject of weight loss in particular and self-improvement in general, but it is the implementation of the good advice that is the stumbling block to most people.I am convinced that the place to start when you want to lose weight is in your mind. (more…)
August 3rd, 2008
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