Sharon Gannon at Jivamukti

Sharon Gannon, director of Jivamukti Yoga School, made a rare appearance at the Manhattan flagship this weekend. dropping in to teach two classes. I was fortunate enough to secure a spot the Saturday class.

I say fortunate, because although I was an invited guest (by Jivamukti's PR person), it was a battle to get into the studio. By the time I reached the front desk--at 4:40 for a 5pm class--the three young girls working check-in had no knowledge of me, my name appeared on no list. Nor did they care to know or go out of their way to accommodate me. I was flustered and aggravated. The girls'--in matching shirts-- sunny 20-year old charm quickly dissolved into an "I really don't care" attitude. "You can sign in on the waiting list" was as much help as I got. "Next!" (Fat chance I'd get in, either, since a friend of mine, waiting since 4:10, hadn't.) Why wouldn't Jivamukti want to be nice to the press?

This was my first experience at Jivamukti on Saturday.

The rest followed in a similar fashion.

I took matters into my own hands, found the studio manager, and got myself a place in class (though even he, too, had to insist that I belonged there.) Then, there was the question of physical space. One of the floor monitors thoughtfully put out a mat for me. But we were jam-packed, mat to mat, end to end, just like the old days.

And just like the old days, people around me seemed more oblivious than attentive. Coming into a stretch, the blond newbie in the row in front of me kicked me hard in the neck and shoulder. She then got up and looked at me as if astonished to see someone behind her. Her look seemed to say: why are YOU there? I asked myself the same question-- why am I here?--as I moved my mat three inches back, out of harm's way. She didn't seem to plan to move her mat (and why would she, really? kicking someone in yoga class is a normal way to defend your space, isn't it?). She offered no apology.

Sharon began the class with a slow, simple vinyasa, getting us into the mood to flow. (I should mention that Russell Simmons was practicing in the back row, to everyone's rapt attention.) Then we sat down and sang--I'm not kidding--a George Harrison song that expressed an idea Sharon wanted us to consider, "Any road will take you there." "Sometimes you're cool, sometimes you're lame." The class was about setting an intention and then setting sail. Where is "there" you might ask? Apparently, it's "nowhere, duh." A concept that required no further explanation. (As in that popular 70s expression, wherever you go, there you are?)

Harrison's song was something Cat Stevens might have sung on a groovy afternoon in the 1960s--but in fact Harrison wrote and recorded it in 2002. The lyrics were sloppy, the sentiment easy, and the arrangement wildly outdated. I sang along the first time, while Sharon brought her headset around and had students sing into the mike, because I didn't want to be caught not singing along. I feared punishment. So did the friend beside me.

The we did a free-style vinyasa practice and they played the dreadful song again. I used my yogic skills to block it out (and then got kicked in the head).

Sharon continued with the class, nicely sequenced, fairly basic, nothing too sweaty. Then suddenly came some advanced poses quite close to the warm-up poses. Most of the class were women in their 20s, whose bodies are sort of perpetually ready for the challenge, but the men and the older women probably needed more time to warm up in order to avoid injury.

More than halfway through, Sharon handed the headset to her co-teacher Jules, a skinny man, with sparse facial hair, who got us into a deep forward bend and then went into a long, rambling story about teaching yoga in prisons. Sharon leapt to the rescue saying, "Jules, is this going to be a long story? You're going to keep them there all that time? Inhale up!"

Jules seemed hesitant and insecure. In fairness, what could he do when Sharon (rightly) corrected him? Perhaps having the studio director in his class made him stumble. His teaching seemed rote, not inventive, not coming from the heart, or from lived experience, but coming from a book or a set of directions. He gave instructions too slowly or too fast, and his jokes missed their mark.

He got us into wheel and embarked on yet another long story, from which Sharon again rescued us. Then he lashed out at her, "So I've got an embarrassing story about Sharon...." She objected--Hey!--and he admitted it was he who was embarrassed. But the whole situation was juvenile. It was highly unprofessional, and dare I say it, irresponsible. The guy seemed to have the most basic yoga training, and no understanding of the deeper reasons for practicing yoga--even as he was instructing us in these meanings.

To her credit, Sharon managed the situation well, but who was it who trained this poor, lost soul? I can't help feeling that the chaos, unfriendliness, and gracelessness of the studio is trickledown: directors instruct staff by their example as much as by their edicts. I get a sense of how the directors behave when they're not on stage.

Finally, we safely reached the end of the class. My nerves were fraught from the discombobulated instructions, poses, music, commentary, the closeness and obliviousness of other students, and the drab colors on the studio walls. What happened to the Jivamukti that was fun and exciting, if a little kooky? What I witnessed on Saturday was a relic--an organization trying to preserve a time gone by. Not Jivamukti's glory days, but the days of hippies, when alternative (and shallow, if I may say so) spiritualities justified themselves by their very existence, and were accompanied by a feeling of superiority, of not being "caught" in someone else's misconceptions, or even lies. Surely we (yogis included) are beyond that?

It was then especially irritating to have Jules read a bad--and rhyming, I might add--poem written by Gannon throughout our 5 minute meditation practice. At the end of a brief savasana, the lights came on abruptly and the music came back--George Harrison once again, ladies and gentlemen! Another sing-a-long with another chance to be broadcast throughout the studio.

This time, I gave my chant sheet to my friend beside me. I declined to sing along. I wondered where the dignity was in this. Where was the yoga? Was it fun for anyone? Or was I alone in feeling alienated, uncomfortable, and vaguely like I was trying out for a club I had no interest in joining?

There's almost never a yoga class that I can't get something from, at least the basic feeling of being more open and receptive. But I left Jivamukti feeling frayed and distressed. It was like being in Whole Foods for an hour at peak time, trying over and over again to pay for groceries, waiting on line, being jostled, trying to be patient. That's okay for Whole Foods--you know what you're getting into--but it's not okay for yoga, any yoga experience. Rather than feeling closer to the divine--in me or in anything else--I felt like I needed to start my day again. Which is too bad since I'd been having a good day up till then. The jangled feeling lasted all night.

Sharon or no Sharon, Jivamukti has grown into a force beyond its directors. It is unfocused, chaotic, and, sad to say, unhelpful. I was surprised that Sharon's presence didn't even things out at the center at all. Let's hope, in spite of this, that this mega-influential studio is still introducing impressionable youngster to the joys of yoga--in spite of what I experienced.

Get Real: Controversial Writer talks about "The Science of Yoga"

Science of Yoga

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New York Times senior science writer, William J. Broad came under fire in early January for his article “How Yoga Can Wreck Your Body". In it, he recounted shocking stories and studies of yoga-related injuries. The article enraged parts of the yoga community who felt it scared newcomers and discredited yoga.As provocative as the article was, Broad's book, The Science of Yoga, is solidly researched---and fascinating. He reviews 150 years of studies, giving readers a very good idea of the scientifically measured benefits (healing, inspiration, sexual power) and the dangers (physical injury, group thinking) of yoga asana practice. I had the chance to interview WJB about the whole experience.

YN: Were you surprised by the response to the NYTimes article?

WJB: I was surprised by lots of things. On the one hand there was lots of email about, “if you think that’s bad, let me tell you my horror story.” Spinal infarcts, vertigo, that kind of thing. But I also got extremely un-yogic responses like the bitter invective from a 30-year veteran yoga teacher who said, “Go fuck yourself,” and a yogini in L.A. who said, “You are a jerk, you don’t know anything about yoga.”

YN:Do you attribute this to the growing pains of what you call Yoga 2.0, “the modern variety” of yoga, especially in the West?

WJB: I hope that’s what it is! That’s part of my naive optimism. Science demonstrates lots of benefits of yoga---neuro-transmitters that help your mood, help your sex life and so on. The science also clearly demonstrates that yoga as we know it contains alluring myths such as, that yoga helps you lose weight, or it’s the only exercise you need, etc. This just isn’t true.I hope the outcry is part of the process of starting a conversation. And I’m hopeful that there’s a growing realization that yoga can be better. Which for some people is a contradiction. They think, yoga is ancient and what can be better than that? But the science says that there are issues and it can be better.Another surprising aspect of the feedback has been the depth of the reform movement. I had no idea. People using props, Iyengar teachers tailoring poses to people rather than the other way around. There are dozens of groups, schools, and styles that are working hard to provide this evolutionary agenda. That delighted me.

YN:So the reform movement would be more in the direction of Yoga 3.0 or 4.0.

WJB: Of course, those are arbitrary numbers. Yoga is this thing that’s being born all around us.

YN:What were some of your favorite “me too” stories from the letters you received?

WJB: Some of them moved me almost to tears. Two people who stand out are former studio owners, who say, ”Woah, you ain’t kidding. Do we have things to tell you,” such as a lifetime of surgery and therapy on their own spines. In one case, one of them had been working with celebrity yogis, creating curriculums. She was forming very visible programs and was very much in the mainstream.

YN:Speaking of reform, have you heard of International Association of Yoga Therapists (IAYT)?

WJB: I talk about IAYT in the chapter on healing. For 3 years I was a member. I’d send them my membership fee and they’d send me a credential with gold fancy lettering. I’ve seen them hanging in yoga studios—I hope they stop that practice because it’s just about the $75, not about having an actual diploma.To their credit—because what I want is for yoga to become more professional—they are trying to create standards and schools with standardized curriculum. That’s great! I’m hoping for yoga doctors, myself. I think it’s an outrage that we spend 10s of billion dollars on fix-this, fix-that pills when anyone who does yoga seriously knows it’s a better way. Yoga done right is grown up. It says, “I take responsibility for myself and I have control over what I do” in a way that popping pills doesn’t.So, I applaud them but on the other hand they did send me three fake diplomas.

YN: So you think they don’t go far enough.

WJB: There’s a lot of guru worship out there and cultish schools finely dividing themselves into factions and sticking to what they think is the truth. That’s why science is so powerful because it looks at what is real and what is not real. It can be more objective.The Science of Yoga is the first book to look at the century and a half of science on yoga. The science can illuminate a lot of what are bogus claims and what are understated truths.

YN: It seems like you’re saying that yoga is both much better and also worse than we thought. It’s much more extreme—handle with care!

WJB: Exactly. In my own practice, I did it for stress management. But fundamentally, yoga is much more extreme than a stress management system. As a science journalist I was blown away by the mysteries of the practice.

YN: Can you give an example?

WJB: How low can the human metabolism go while maintaining a level of consciousness? Is suspended animation possible? We can actually go into a deeper hibernation that a turtle or a bear—that’s quite amazing.How possible is continuous bliss—sexual, or whatever you want? Some people can so stir their inner fire that they enter these states of continuous ecstasy that is allied with sexual ecstasy. Possibly these are states of enlightenment.

YN: You say that you started to research in 2006—did the subject matter require more research than you expected?

WJB: I thought I was going to do it in 9 months but it took 5 years. In many cases, the science was more difficult than I thought.The sexual chapter alone took 3 years. There was some evidence to wrestle with. Some research said that yoga makes sex hormones decline. That wasn’t intuitively right to me and had not been my experience. I put that away for a while. When I’d go back to it, I’d still think that it didn’t add up. Then some advanced yogis talked to me about continuous bliss and all kinds of stuff, and then things started falling into place. But it took time.

YN:Speaking of sexual bliss, I noticed that you refer to Tantra only as a sex cult. The Himalayan Institute, where I’ve been studying, takes pains to separate left and right-handed Tantra. You don’t do that. Was this a conscious choice?

WJB: It’s very much in their interest to separate left and right handed, isn’t it? Tantra is a muddy subject. There’s layer after layer of symbolic misrepresentation. It’s gets so convoluted and strange—it’s a deep well.

YN: It strays into the magical, for sure.

WJB: Tantra gets into magic and trickery, frauds and pretexts for having fun. And they call it spirituality. Then there are serial philanderers such as Muktananda and Swami Rama, their 60-yr old bodies humming with vitality and they’re going down on any woman who’s willing—it’s bizarre.How can they rationalize that appalling behavior? There’s lots of literature about the hard effects of betraying that doctor-patient relationship. There are women traumatized by these swamis: he was their God and their God kept going down on them and doing these weird things!

YN: It’s hard to understand—puzzling and disappointing.

WJB: And yet it’s worth meditating on in the sense that it’s real so we don’t want to hide from it.

YN: Your parameters for “yoga” didn’t include much meditation and pranayama. I’m sure you know of the research studies done by Jon Kabat-Zinn (on mindfulness meditation) and Richard Miller (on yoga nidra/iRest). What was your thinking there?

WJB: Initially, I wanted to have the research to be physically-based, but then my research went over into neurological areas such as in the muse and sex chapter. There’s a hugely overlooked area in what yoga does as a powerful stimulus to creativity, for example. It’s also because it’s the way the industry goes right now—so much of the yoga we do is physical and doesn’t tolerate any meditation or pranayama. This is not Patanjali’s 8-fold path. It may be a misrepresentative slice of what got shipped out from India.

Adding "Namaste" to Bachelorette Parties

As reported in theNew York Times today, more young brides are adding fitness to their bachelorette parties. And that includes yoga.Are you surprised?What surprises me (constantly, sigh) is the endless creative ways that entrepreneurs organize yoga for busy brides-to-be. Writes the Times:

It’s not just New Yorkers: The Los Angeles-based company Yoga for Weddings (slogan: “Bringing the Deep Breath to the Big Day”) offers private 90-minute classes, with a focus on “heart-opening poses” like the Cobra, for brides-to-be and their pals in nine United States cities (cost: $500). Innerlight Center for Yoga and Meditation in Middletown, R.I., started offering $200-an-hour bachelorette parties last year; already demand this year has tripled, said Kim Chandler, the center’s director.

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That's a lot of cash for a little namaste with your girlfriends.... but it's about priorities.I'm guessing smart companies know that a few sweaty down dogs with your closest lady friends might work out better in the long run than a big drunken glitter-covered mess that you don't remember well even the next morning.

Protest or Party? Yoga as Political Theater or Giant Concert, your choice

According to the New York Times today, agitators in India are using hunger strikes---and yoga---to protest corruption in their government. While some people, such as Mr Anna Hazare, of the DMK political party are fasting to affect change, others such as  yoga guru Swami Ramdev, are planning mass yoga sessions.

... Swami Ramdev, a yoga guru with political aspirations and hundreds of thousands of followers, has created another front of protest. Tents have been prepared at a campsite in New Delhi for a mass yoga session on Saturday followed by a hunger strike. Mr. Sibal and other top ministers met Swami Ramdev at New Delhi’s airport on Wednesday and spent nearly two hours trying in vain to persuade him not to protest. --NYTimes

Wanderlust standard

Meanwhile, in Manhattan, where we have not a thing to protest, and only joy in our hearts, yogis and music lovers are preparing for the second attempt at a ginormous public yoga class in the city. As you might remember---maybe you were there---last year's Flavorpill event was rained out. This year, the Wanderlust team has taken over, and will be offering instruction by Anusara's golden child, Elena Brower, Breakti's creator Anya Porter, and Kula Yoga/Wanderlust director, Schuyler Grant at Pier 63 near 24th Street and the Westside Highway on June 7th. Music will be provided by New York's favorite in-class musician, Garth Stevenson, and Earthrise Soundsystem.From political theater to giant concert, appropriate use of yoga has once again proven to be hard to establish. But a lot of people do seem to think it's more fun when attached to another agenda, and when practiced with a lot of other people. Maybe.

From the Sublime to the Ridiculous

2011 Yoga Journal Conference, NYC Part UneThis weekend in is the second Yoga Journal conference in New York (the first was in 2009), and through a stroke of good fortune I was able to attend. Not wanting to waste a single drop of my precious pass, I chose to do the Friday all-day intensive with Rod Stryker, creator of Para Yoga. In other words, I would spend the entire day with a Tantric teacher instead of at my day job. You can imagine that my choice was not difficult: reviewing manuscript for a remedial English textbook, or learning about how to overcome my limitations by becoming a living embodiment of the divine. Hmm. I put in for a personal day, rolled up my blue piling yoga mat, and packed off to the Hilton Hotel in mid-town.

I had another agenda, too. Stryker is a long-time student of Panditji Rajmani Tigunait, the spiritual head of the Himalayan Institute where I've been doing the Living Tantra series since July 2010. I wanted to see how Stryker interpreted the teachings of Panditji---and Panditji's teacher, Swami Rama---for American yoga people. Truth be told, I was having some trouble with the mysterious and magical stories of Tantra's history and practices. How exactly was I supposed to conduct a fire ceremony, or the secret rituals? How did my urban Brooklyn life fit in with Tantra's esoteric take on reality?

So here they all were again, Tantra's basic ideas, but presented in the low-lit conference room of a corporate hotel, rather than in a vegetarian ashram in northeastern Pennsylvania. In Tantra, Styrker reminded us, we don't make the self go away in order to have a spiritual practice. Rather, we alchemize ourselves so that the divine works through us. How do we attract divinity? Not by giving up worldly things, but by becoming more like the divine in our daily lives. Tantric asana practice is a discipline to refine your energy so that the alchemy can happen.What about sex and death, you ask? Well, in the left-handed path, which is all about enjoyment, no desire is denied because all desires are expressions of the divine. In the left-handed path, you can have all the sex you want, but you might also meditate in a cremation ground by sitting on a corpse. Ewww.

Since many people are not always comfortable with corpses---and truthfully probably not so much with hedonistic sex either---they have to practice asana, pranayama, mantra and ritual to clear out their misconceptions of the Source and limitated conceptions of the Self. In other words, on the right-handed path, which emphasizes liberation, people have to work to align their desires with the divine, to know that there IS a source behind everything. And this source is beyond what we can conceive of with the rational mind. In the right-handed path, no ecstatic copulation---and no visits to graveyards---is required.

Stryker talked for most of the morning session, introducing the subject of "god" and all its forms at about the half an hour mark. "We have all these choices but they are not related, not integrated. It's like going to several specialists and getting several opinions--it almost paralyzes you. In Tantra we integrate them. Then we practiced. Gentle asana---that reminded me very much of ViniYoga asana practices---with the emphasis on the breathing pattern. On the inhale bring the breath down the spine and relax the bandhas, on the exhale bring the breath up the spine and contract the lower two locks. We were trying to build fire in the belly, the fire of manipura chakra, where our issues get burned up and purified, and where our sense of agency originates.

We did this in standing poses, back bends, and forward extensions, even adding in the mantra, Om Agni Namaha---the mantra to stimulate and propitiate the fire at our navel center. Then we sat for meditation. By the time we broke for lunch---and again after the afternoon session---I was high as a kite, floating on a pulsing current that eliminated every thought and even the need to breathe. When I asked Stryker a question in person afterward, my eyes felt dilated like I'd become a wide-eyed alien who had just visited the optometrist. It seemed like light and energy were pouring through them, but Rod answered my question without seeming to notice. No matter, I will bathe everyone I meet with my Tantric-generated fire, I thought, walking unsteadily out into the glaring hallway of the enormous hotel. Clearly that wasn't going to last long.

In the evening I was signed up for David Romanelli's "Yoga & Chocolate" class. While "yoga & chocolate" might seem to qualify for the left-handed path, it wasn't hedonistic at all. In fact, going from Stryker to Romanelli was like falling from the breathless heights of Kilimanjaro and landing with a thump in a Starbucks.Not that the chocolates weren't good---the Vosges chocolates were complex and intriguing, especially the vegan one with Oaxaca chilis. It was the yoga that was prosaic. Your basic sun salutation, your basic back bend, your basic forward fold. And the sprinkling of interesting factoids throughout the class felt calculated to deliver a message to a demographic to which Romanelli, a self-proclaimed "major Gemini," assumed we belonged---the too busy, too distracted crowd who was out of touch with our emotions and our five senses.Romanelli was a clever marketer, but his delivery was flat---and in fact, he read from his factoids from a script. He seemed happiest when he was embracing beautiful women---of whom he seemed to know a great many (I saw him embracing them all over the Hilton).Still, the 100 or so women---and 8 or so men---in attendance thought that "Yoga & Chocolate" was the way to go, and who am I to question how people approach meaning in their lives? I'd just dropped in from Mars, after all.

Anti-Gravity Yoga

On a hot July day last summer, my adventurous friend Michele, who normally cooks at a research station in Antarctica, took me to Om Factory's Anti-Gravity Yoga class.I thought, no problem, I've done a lot of yoga, and even a lot of weird yoga. In fact, it would be a good addition to my repertoire, since I've never done yoga suspended in a large swath of orange silk.Watch a video of it here: Anti Gravity Yoga at Om FactoryIt was a lot of fun tumbling around in the hammock of fabric, twirling upside down, and swinging my body back and forth in some very creative interpretation of yoga poses (could you really call "that" triangle?).It also stimulated a lot of abdominal and leg muscles I never knew I had since I was sore the next day. And sometimes it was scary. Falling backwards into the silk required a huge amount of trust---like standing on the high diving board as a little kid and praying that the water really would be there after I jumped.In April, the NYTimes launched "Gym Class" as part of their Well column and video series, and Anti-Gravity Yoga was the first subject in their "interesting class that you were too intimidated to try" roster. According to the article,

AntiGravity Yoga was developed by Christopher Harrison, a former aerial acrobat and gymnast who found traditional yoga too hard on his injured wrists. The weightless poses can be used to strengthen the core as well as relieve aching joints and stretch tight muscles.

Or, as one commentator on the Gym Class blog said, "Wow! So this is what life is like when one has excessive disposable income...."

Yoga + Infertility = Baby?

Women battling infertility is a familiar (though harrowing) story these days. Women using yoga to reduce stress and love themselves better is another familiar story. So it comes as no surprise that yoga is helping women to cope with the physical and emotional stress of infertility and its treatments...It's also not a new idea. My ob/gyn, Dr. Eden Fromberg, opened Lila Wellness Center in New York several years ago to meet women's pre-and post- (and pre- pre-) natal needs. And there have been programs such as Receptive Nest, and studios such as Brooklyn's Bend & Bloom, helping women to reach full "bloom" in their childbearing years. Other renegade yoga specialists have been helping women for years to make the all-important mind-body connection necessary. But the NYTime's article this weekend, "Yoga as Stress Relief: An Aid for Infertility?" raises this issue with a new twist: once-skeptical fertility professionals (doctors) are giving yoga the green light. The tide is turning in how acceptable yoga is to support women in their quest to become pregnant.

Medical acceptance of yoga as a stress reliever for infertility patients is slowly growing. In 1990, when Dr. Domar first published research advocating a role for stress reduction in infertility treatment, “I wasn’t just laughed at by physicians,” she said. “I was laughed at by Resolve, the national infertility organization. They all said I was perpetuating a myth of ‘Just relax, and you’ll get pregnant.’ ” At the last meeting for the American Society for Reproductive Medicine, Dr. Domar, now on the national board of Resolve, gave multiple talks, including one about how to help the mind and body work together in infertile couples.

And this is a national phenomenon, not just a jag in New York or San Francisco where there are always a handful of people pushing the envelope. Still, even with yoga's help, infertility doesn't sound like too much fun.

“A lot of people want to boil it down to ‘If you relax, it will happen,’ ” Ms. Petigara, a former in vitro fertilization patient who adopted a son, wrote in an e-mail. “I absolutely feel that yoga can have a very positive impact on infertility, but infertility is a lot more than ‘just relaxing.’ ”

Oh!!! As in, lie back and think of England? Well, yoga never was really about passivity.If you happen to be dealing with infertility right now, you can attend the March 17th tele-seminar on “Yoga for Fertility” led by Jill Petigara, who teaches in the Philadelphia area. But you'll have to Google the details. Food for thought

Yoga Explosion! More studios in Williamsburg and Everywhere

Hyper-popular Kula Yoga is set to open a branch in the uber-trendy Williamsburg after Labor Day, a neighborhood that already has at least 5 yoga studios within a 10 block radius, one with 3 locations. No doubt long-timers such as Go Yoga (full disclosure: I teach 2 classes at Go) are nervous, especially when such publications as New York Magazine list Kula's newest addition in a beauty feature.

Earlier in the summer, Yogamaya opened in Chelsea and Abhaya Yoga, an Anusara studio, opened in Dumbo. Then there are the donations-based studios popping up. One in Greenpoint, I noticed one hot July day as I was strolling over to Green Street, and I believe there are more.

Yoga in LA, Part 3

Silver Lake

In Casbah Cafe on W Sunset Blvd, eating a huge bowl of spicy chicken soup with a slab of chicken meat in the middle, huge hunks of carrots, potato, onion and half a cob of corn. Surely this brew will cure any bugs that have jumped on board for my quick three-day excursion to LA. My body wants to know what the hell we are doing staying up till 3am New York time. By 9pm at night LA time, I'm feeling so loopy that I mistake my white rental car with blue Nevada plates for someone else's almost identical white car with California plates. I can't understand why the doors won't unlock until my eyes refocus on the Starbucks cup inside near the driver's seat and I realize it's not even my car. The outside of the Casbah borders on Hyperion Street, and a few slanted tables are set into the deep trellised shrubbery of jasmine, bougainvillea, and grape vines. A mural of seductive women peeks out from behind the vertical garden, and tiny white lights have been strung along the top of the trailing plants. It's a fragrant and ebullient environment. "Ah," says Neal Pollack, wearing a tight-fitted blue leather jacket and jeans, "we take it for granted. It can't mask the rotten stink that is LA." Inside, the cafe sells straw hats and silk brocade bedspreads, handmade dolls, and girls' silk dresses. Its Moroccan theme means a variety of teas, a generous selection of sweets including honey-glazed apricots, figs, and puddings. Seventies Brazilian music plays on the stereo lending the cavernous space an echo-y flashback to airier times.

Yoga at The Raven, Tony Guiliano, used to work at Still YogaStrip mall off RowenaSpa called The Raven; yoga room is off that, one open room, Anusara with guest appearances by Acro Yogis (look at schedule) IS it just that one room? what's his deal with the spa? Walk in through a covered wood walkway with rattan furniture and big tropical plants--bougainvillea, big broad palm leaves, low tiled tables. Feels very Asian. Like walking into a hotel in Bali? Malaysia? When I leave just after 8, it's sunset and "The Raven Spa" neon sign is on, a bright pink against the dark wood of the building and the river flashing headlights.Tony Guiliano, handsome Italian guy in blue canvas martial arts pants folded over at the waist, white tank top, and a mala of rudraksh and white crystal around his neck. Sits on slightly elevated stage with huge garlanded Ganesh in a circle behind him. I almost walk in the front door off the street smack into a room of yogis meditating in perfect posture--catch myself and re-route, as usual, I'm having timing and parking issues. A lot of dudes in this class; everyone seems to be in their late 30s, early 40s, Tony's peers, a good looking healthy lot. And they seems to know the principles of AnusaraI come in late, parking shenanigans, pay in a frenzy, changing hurriedly, slip in during OM and chanting kneel on my shins and when we're done unroll my mat. The class is small and Tony notices me, peeks out from behind a pillar, "Hi! What's your name?" I tell him. "Everyone, this is Joelle." Ah yes, the Anusara greeting, so embarrassing to me as a more private New Yorker. Even if the class wasn’t small Tony would probably call me out. He's friendly, verbal, tactile. He knows everyone's name, and gives lots of hands on adjustments and verbal encouragement during the class. Class begins and Tony comes over, "So it looks like you've done Anusara before?""A little. I've done a lot of yoga."He comes over many many times during the class. During my updog, "Beautiful, now bring the tops of your ears back. Beautiful alignment, beautiful earrings, just gorgeous. Okay, now take the top of your head down. Beautiful! Wow!" Tony gives a lot of compliments and gives me a lot of adjustments including putting his fingers on my tailbone to direct  the action of my pelvis--an intimate action even for me to do on myself!-- grabbing my entire upper thigh close to my groin and rotating it inwards in splits pose, and putting his hands around my rib cage to show the necessary cinching action for a good handstand. It's a lot of physical attention, and part of me loves it and craves it. Tony's clearly a great guy, heart's in the right place. Another part of me wonders if this is how he treats every new student? Or is it just new female students? Or is it just me? When I'm in a reclined twist on my back and he's adjusting my neighbor we talk in whispers about Michele, my friend who recommended his class.

"Are you a cook, too?" He asks.

"I'm a writer; so is Michele!"

"She just took off didn't she?"

"Yeah, she's staying at my place."

"So do you live nearby?"

"I live in Brooklyn!"

"No way!" He looks disappointed.

"Do you know Dumbo--well you must--"

I interrupt him. I know what he's going to say. "I know that studio, I know Tara." I know he's going to mention Abhaya, a new Anusara studio in Brooklyn, "I'm good friends with her boyfriend."

In spite of the manhandling, and Tony's unstoppable positivity--which is overwhelming for a New Yorker who is used to more anonymity than notoriety--the practice is deep and clear and joyful, and I feel the stress of my jet lag, weird sleep, and too much pressure even out. I feel smooth and clear, even some joy in my heart. My final relaxation is not deep--my nervous system is still jumpy--but I feel great afterwards. In seated closing pose I felt my heart connected to Tony's. Sweet. Standing around in the small lobby changing area after class, someone asks about Tony’s wife. "She's here! She was in class! She's back from Hawaii!" Tony gets talking to me and his wife leaves. "See you at home, Tone." She's a very tall woman. A couple of other students are still hanging around to see how our conversation will unfold. I feel a bit like a celebrity myself, being treated with such interest.

Tony says to me, "I was all excited, I thought I was gonna get another excellent student. When you said Brooklyn I thought, oh no! She doesn't live here!"

Tony gives me about 10 hugs before I leave. “Listen, thanks for coming to class. So great to meet you! Michele is a sweetheart, awesome lady. Thanks for coming!"

"Thanks for all the assists. People rarely assist me anymore, and I miss it. I want to learn."

"Yeah you're in that weird place where you're clearly not a 911 case, and also you have a strong energy field, I could see it as soon as you walked into class, you're strong, which people might interpret as 'don't tell me what to do' kind of thing."

"You're probably right; I should be more proactive about making friends with my teachers, letting them know I want the help."

"Yeah, just say hey could you help me out with this or that. Because you have so much physical intelligence--I could just see it so clearly--people are probably thinking they should leave you alone. But let me tell you, 3-4 classes, learn some refinements, your whole practice could change, and open up."

Some other students talk to me after class. A woman around my age with long curly dark hair says, "As soon as you walked in I thought I knew you. I used to live in New York."

"Maybe it's from the New York yoga world?" I say not really believing it.

The truth is, all my adult life people have told me that I remind them of someone they know. Once a guy ran into a restaurant in New York where I was having dinner with an old friend, and exclaimed between the packed tables, "Wow I didn't know you were in town, how are you? How's everything?" And when he realized his mistake, he backed away awkwardly and ran out of the restaurant.

A sunburned guy asks if I've ever taken Kenneth's class. "I don't usually practice Anusara in New York," I say, but that seems inconceivable to him. "Me and my wife are good friends of his," he says like he was saying that Derek Jeter was a close personal friend. I'm at a loss, but appreciate that he wants to share this with me. He's proud and excited about his connection. "I'll have to keep my eye out for him."--Anusara community--heart centered--very American, very appealing after the rush and muscularity and celebrity of the Mother Ship yoga.

Kundalini--Golden Bridge

Moved Feb 14, 2011 from farther west in Hollywood when AMC (??) bought their building to make a museum (from DeLongpre and Vine) New building seems especially built for Kundalini, and they are the sort of organization that would fundraise like a church to built something special for themselves, dedicated parking lot, cheap prices--$3 for first 2 hours, $3 after that. Where the old space was cavernous, ramshackle, and kind of a wonderland of merchandise (books, clothes, props, weird misc things) the new space is compact: a small boutique, a thoughtfully constructed cafe, and a modest bookstore. The check in desk is in the center like a central panel. Bathrooms are unisex, many self-published titles, Yogi Bhajan--give history--Gurmukh--give history from the interview she gave at Omega in 2009--"I Am a Woman: Creative, Sacred, and Invincible" Kundalini by Yogi Bhajan, essential Kriyas for Women in the Aquarian Age. "Man to Man--A Journal of Discovery for the Conscious Man.” "Transitions to a Heart-Centered World.” "Relax & Renew"--"Sexuality & Spirituality" explicit directions on when and where and how to have sex ** GET THIS TITLE & INSERT INFO IN TANTRA CHAPTER AS CONTRAST? "The sex game must start 72 hours before sex, and somewhere outside of the bedroom. So, for 2-3 days in advance, prepare the mind, think it over, and build yourself up to it. The mind is the biggest sex organ in the human body. Sex is an attitude of love, when every cell ad part of the body is stimulated and awakened. In the days before, take time to do the Venus kriyas." Rules of thumb: open communication, empty stomach, man breathes through right nostril, woman breathes through left; 2-3 hours to play; massage various body parts: breasts, neck, lips, cheeks, ears, spine, thighs, calves, clit, vagina--also rules for after sex as well.

Framed poster in the boutique: SUTRAS FOR THE ACQUARIAN AGE 1. understand through compassion otherwise you will misunderstand the times 2. Recognize that the other person is you 3. when the time is on you start, and the pressure will be off 4. there's a way through every block 5. Vibrate the cosmos and the cosmos shall clear the path WHAT IS THE ACQUARIAN AGE? WHEN DID IT START? DID YOGI BHAJAN LIVE IN IT?

BOUTIQUE: aroma candles, soaps, oils, Buddha’s, incense, meditation cushions, white clothes for sale, cotton bags, men’s and women’s.

STUDIO: Can be separated into two studios--one door says Rishikesh, the other says Amri, retractable divider folded back, so we're in one huge room with a very high ceiling--wood beams and air ducts--raftered ceiling, dark wood floor, brick walls on three sides, and a removable fourth wall--large high stage--large gong on the right back, large illuminated orange crystal on the right front (salt?)--two bronze cow statues seated on floor beneath stage, bronze goddess (4 hands, two in prayer, two out to the side) crown, cross legged, btw the 2 cows)--framed prints of gods and goddess behind the stage and set into the brick wall by the door--also Krishna and Yogi Bhajan; also Govinda leading a flock of cows (pan figure)--good mix of men and women in the class, younger and older, one woman brought her son who looks about 7--a few people are wearing white: pants, shirt, and kerchief or turban, there's actually a black man beside me and the other newcomer beside me is a Korean man--about 25 people in class. Begin by chanting--very loud--OM NAMO GURU DEV NAMO x3--Motherly women in white dress, and turban with a jewel in the center and a string of clear beads, unlikely person to have a mixing board under her right hand (and a white Mac that she was DJing from )tells us about a guy who says after 13 years of not making it in LA he's moving to New York, Things go well and then they fall apart, they go well and then they fall apart. She says, I don't know what he should do, but I know when there's some unmovable obstacle that doesn't make sense that I can't solve, I ask for help from Ram Dass, give it up to the mysterious powers, and don't try to solve it yourself. Ask for help. Also, this morning a woman in class started feeling dizzy so she lay down, and couldn't get up, All class she couldn't get up, at the end of class she couldn't get up. So we called her husband and still she couldn’t get up, then the paramedics came. She was vomiting and in a terrible state and they don't know what's wrong with her. So she's been on my mind all day. She's got 4 kids and a sweet husband. I'd like to ask Ram Dass to help her, and you do the same. See her laughing, see her healthy, see her doing yoga with no issues.--that's how things are up and down, so this practice is going to strengthen your will, your solar plexus. It's strong, but then we’ll have a long break.--at the END much love to you, SAT NAM. Are you okay to drive? Be careful driving now.--CLASS--doing breath of fire (kapalabhati) (leg scissors, leg lifts, arm lifts slapping the floor, sitting up batting the air with our arms, cobras up and down (worry about hurting back), inclined plank up and down, head to knees with legs lifted (neck hurts), lift up and down thumping bum on the floor (exhausted my arms); on back, on belly, legs lifted, arms lifted up and down--do the actions for 3-5 minutes without stopping, brief break between--"Big shifts are coming in the next 10 years, get ready for what's coming, strengthen your nervous system, and get ready for those shifts."--all the time music--recorded by hypnotic voices, kind of sappy sounding, kind of sweet, good voices very simple arrangements that you can get lost in not musically but energetically--did they supercharge the tracks with vibrations?? like delta waves etc?--I'm EXHAUSTED by the end, really feeling like I don't have the strength to go one and THEN we have to do 1 1/2 minutes of push ups!! I just do baby pushups and not too many--finally we get a long rest--13 minutes on our bellies. My neck is super tense from the abs work (lifting head to knees) and all the arm raises.--At first thoughts are all over the place from the over stimulation physically, then they calm down and I "see" an image of Bradford as a boy and I embrace him into my heart. Mind: why are you still caring about Bradford as a boy? He betrayed you. Don't continue to mother him. I have such a feeling of him--wonder what he really looked like at 5, how smart and vulnerable he must have been, how I wish I could comfort that hurt and confused part of him, how I feel like I could do that, wish I could help him, Where does this image, this feeling coming from?!? Then I'm angry and talking to him at Peter’s saying "You let yourself off the hook too easily," just like that sharply in front of everyone and walking out of the room. I don't like your self-indulgence, you hurt me carelessly, and I'm still not okay with it. I pull myself back from this fantasy==be in the NOW==turn my attention back to the music again feel energy from my sacrum rising up--how much I want sex, how long it's been, how much I miss the physical comfort of sleeping with someone, pull myself back from THAT and try to focus on the music which is happening now, but my heart is still spilling open---tears, snot running out, can't breathe bc nose is filling up with gooey liquid, forehead on hands. This Kundalini stuff made me drop into the pain that's STILL in my heart --about Bradford specifically, and love generally---I've been running away from the last bits of this pain by diving into work--it gets so silent in the room that I wonder if everyone has gone. All I hear is the music, but no longer feel the presence of other bodies. I feel so disoriented from the sudden wave of emotion that I wonder if I've missed an instruction? How long have I been lying here struggling with myself? How much time has passed? More snot and tears come, I decide I don’t have to look up, I'll hear the instruction when it comes, I turn my head one way and then the other, and the tears run both ways down my cheeks and a puddle of snot is forming on the floor,--Come up to sit feeling messy, chant to Ram Dass to offer up unfathomable obstacles to the mysterious workings of the universe and ask for help from nonlogical sources--she instructs us to think of people in our lives who need our help, people who are in our care, and send them our prayer, tears are streaming down my face now as I think of how much I want to care for people, also seeing everyone’s struggle--David, Marisa, Phoebe, Lizza, James, Steph, Michele, Frances--the  anonymous woman in class who could not get up and was taken to the hospital--singing to Ram Dass (this is the "meditation" part of the class)(who is he?)--swaying our bodies and chanting along, she turns the music up to guide us--then praying for people, praying for selves, singing SAT NAM--then announcements: 7-day cleanse, also workshop on strengthening selves so no more insecurity "People say this and that, they can't do things, they don't know what to do, but I think NO ! That's not who you truly are. Be yourself, you are strong, be bold about yourself."--she's motherly, straightforward, older, except she's wearing a white turban with a jewel stuck in the front, and she’s talking to the young men leaving the class like they are her sons.

Big Success in Albany! But pressure still on

This just in! From Yoga for New York action committee:"Success! Terrific Success! The vote in the NYS Senate Higher Education Committee was a unanimous "YES" in support of S5701A - protecting yoga teacher training from burdensome and unnecessary government regulation and licensing.

Now what? More Committees to get through (remember in school learning about how a bill becomes a law - were are in it!!)  --- yup democracy requires a lot of work - we will keep you posted, of course, as working collaboratively on this is how we protect yoga!

What must we do now to keep the heat on? * Please Call Senator Carl Kruger, the Chair of the NYS Senate Finance Committee, the next Committee the bill is before @  (518) 455-2460* You will be connected to a representative of Senator Kruger who will take your message for the Senator.

Here’s the message script:

"My name is  _________________ I am calling Senator Kruger because he is the Chair of the Finance Committee. I urge his support for S.5701A which will protect yoga teacher training from burdensome government regulations, unfunded expenses on local government and ensure that yoga studios stay in business. Thank you"

What else do we need?

Very important: funding and donations to make sure the hard work in the State's capital continues.  Want to know how to donate or ideas for raising funds? Email action@yogaforny.org

NYTimes Revisits Yoga + Chocolate Issue

The whole luxury food items + yoga issue broke a couple of years ago---and was controversial then. Today, the NYTimes Dining section revisits the concept. Spearheaded by Dave Rominelli, Yoga + Chocolate is supposed to unite two great tastes that taste great together, heightening our sense of sensuality and our enjoyment of asana practice. When I took his workshop last year at Exhale in Manhattan, it wasn't chocolate that we were enjoying, but cheese. A little plate of fromage appeared at the top of my yoga mat after savasana.

Some of the cheese was artisinal, but most was from Whole Foods.

Save the Date: Yoga Benefit & Silent Auction, Jan 21

This is no ordinary benefit. If you are going to donate to any cause this winter, this is the one. Protect yoga from state mandates! January 21---cocktails, hor d'ouevres, and silent auction at Chibo (info below). Save the date.Yoga for New York, a non-profit formed last summer to prevent state government regulation of yoga, needs to raise $25,000. That's a lot of cash. YFNY needs to hire a lobbyist to help pass legislation early this year that will help protect yoga from being defined by government officials who don't know anything about the practice.

Protect your practice! Protect your local studio.

Read more---and get the latest scoop on the issue---at Yoga City NYC.

Most of all, save the date:

Thursday, January 21stWhere:   Cibo Restaurant

Location:  767 2nd Ave. at 41st Street

When:     January 21, 2010

TIme:       6:30PM-8:30PM

Tickets:   $100 in advance, $125 at the door.

*Teachers will receive a special entry rate of $75 if paid before January 18th, 2010.

Silent Auction items include

• a weeklong stay at a Villa in Southern Italy

• a yoga retreat weekend at The Ananda Ashram

• dinner for two in the Theater District with actor/singer Dominic Chianese

• and much more!

Register at www.yogaforny.org/events Download invitation: Invite YFNY Jan Benefit

Miami--What Kind of Yoga?

Miami. In this town, even the mannequins have boob jobs. What kind of yoga can you expect where opulence is mistaken for elegance? A mile of bronzed thigh atop a 5” stiletto; lots of mascara and highlights; tight, tight jeans. Little goatees. Flash and glitter. Reflecting pools, royal palms, sequestered cloth cabanas. Here where beach culture and night life vie for dominance, are sun salutations a variant on sun worship? Is it all spray-on tans and tiny spandex shorts?

Yoga in some ways is the same wherever you go: the same poses, the same instructions---sometimes down to the exact metaphors ("open your feet like a book"). But the flavor changes from city to city, and certainly from instructor to instructor. In Miami, where new money, hot bodies, and Latin beats pulse up and down Ocean Drive, what did I discover? Ashtanga.

Ashtanga, the austere, physically rigorous, 6-day a week practice, imported from Mysore, India. This is the bedrock. And then, sprinkled on top, a few variations: a little vinyasa, a little power yoga, a few hot yoga classes, some Jivamukti (which, by the way, is an ashtanga variant).When I was in Miami last week, I practiced at Miami Yoga Shala, Miami Life Center, The Standard hotel, and Synergy Center for Yoga and Healing Arts.

Coming up: a mini review of yoga in Miami. From a guided ashtanga class to a surprise didgeridoo chakra cleansing---stay tuned!

ATTEND THIS MEETING TODAY (if you're a new york yoga teacher)

Yo, New York yoga teachers! This meeting today is for you. I'm in Miami, but YOU need to be there!

"We need yoga teachers to help determine the future of yoga in NY. We are at risk of having our future decided for us, without our voice," say the organizers, the lovely Liz and Mel of Yoga High. "Whether you are for or against licensing, it is important we hear your thoughts and ideas on how we can all be involved in the process.  This will ensure that when regulation happens, it does so with intelligence, compassion and a deep respect for the yogic traditions."

They mean the issue of New York State passing legislation requiring yoga studios to obtain costly licenses to run teacher training programs. "So please come to a meeting specifically for NY yoga teachers to discuss licensing, health insurance, pay transparency and any other issues you feel passionate about. As a yoga teacher, dealing with these issues can sometimes be a very isolating experience. This is our chance to come together to talk about something that we love and how we can all continue to enjoy a yogic lifestyle."

IT’S CRUCIAL THAT WE COME TOGETHER NOW. YOGA IS AT RISK. EVERY SMALL STUDIO IS AT RISK OF CLOSING IF LICENSING PASSES WITHOUT US GETTING INVOLVED.

"This is our last chance to meet and discuss these issues before the vote goes to the state senate. We can use our collective voice to buy us time to have input into how, where, and when regulation happens. If not, yoga in NY will become very limited and there will be fewer choices and a bottom line corporate approach."

The meeting for just teachers will be Wed. January 6th 2010. 12 - 1pm.

"We encourage you to stay for the Yoga For NY meeting that will be held immediately following from 1-3pm."

The meetings will be held at YOGA HIGH 19 Clinton St. between Houston and Stanton. (Ave B turns into Clinton Street South of Houston) 212-792-5776F, V to 2nd Ave or F, J, M, Z to Delancey

***If you're a yoga teacher, please forward this on to other teachers you know and to studio owners where you teach."

THANKS everyone. (Non-yogis welcome to volunteer for Yoga for New York, too, you know.)

Yoga 2009: 10 Highlights

What happened last year?

Did it pass like a kidney stone or like savasana? Lots of subtle changes for me personally, and a big leap into the blogosphere for Yoga Nation. Part of me wishes I had a time machine to go back ten years (if I knew then, what I know now...) and another part looks forward to the madness and the mystery of a new year.But, I'm getting ahead of myself. Let's see what happened in 2009....

1. Fierce Club opened in Nolita. Sadie Nardini, of Bon Jovi yogi fame, not only opened her own kick-ass studio in Nolita last March, but later in the summer she also joined up with YAMA, an agenting enterprise for enterprising yoga teachers. Yes, folks, the future is here...

2. The movie, Enlighten Up!: A Skeptic's Journey into the World of Yoga, launched to mostly positive reviews (and some grumbling from yoga teachers) proving that yoga can entertain Americans for at least an hour and a half on the big screen. Director/yogini, Kate Churchill, and skeptic/subject, Nick Rosen, tussle and tumble around the world looking for the truth about yoga

.3. Inappropriate Yoga Guy "Edited" Yoga Journal. Yoga Journal spoofed itself in this 5-part online mini-series in which the unforgettable, and wildly inappropriate, Ogden, took over the inimitable magazine offices as a hazardous (and sometimes naked) "guest editor." Went live April Fool's Day.

4. Sri K. Pattabhi Jois passed. One of three Indian grandaddies of modern, Western yoga, 93-year-old Pattabhi Jois, passed away in May, and was fetted through the early summer. The memorial held at Donna Karan's Urban Zen headquarters on June 14 in the West Village created even bigger buzz than the first ever NYC Yoga Journal Conference in May.

5. Licensing Issue ravaged New York---and is not over. Should yoga studios pay large sums of money to New York state to be "licensed" to train yoga teachers? Widely seen as a pitiless money-grab, this proposed legislation threatens to shut down many tiny yoga studios that rely on teacher-training programs for basic income. (For this issue, yoganation was also a momentary guest-blogger on the illustrious YogaDork.)

6. On the other hand, Brent Kessel made clear that yoga and money can live happily together. Financial advisor and long-time ashtanga-yoga practitioner, Kessel wrote a practical, inspiring and possibly profitable book called It's Not About the Money (which it never is: it's always about the junk in your head). Read my interview with him on Frugaltopia.

7. The inaugural Wanderlust Yoga and Music Festival rocked Lake Tahoe in July. This ingenious festival blasted open indie minds and took over taste-making in the yoga world. Who said yoga can't be radically cool? Driven by yoga and music-exec power couple from Brooklyn, Wanderlust will happen in three locales in 2010. Thank you, Yoga Journal (San Francisco), you may now hand over the reigns. The young uns' (uh, Brooklyn) got it from here.

8. Celebrity Yoga Teachers---Problem? In late August, YogaCityNYC sent me to report on the Being Yoga conference upstate. The question: Is a media-friendly yoga teacher the natural outcome of yoga’s presence in America’s consumer culture? The peaceful yoga crowd at Omega had a lot to say. READ my final article. .....(One source said: “I've never had a PR agent or invited myself somewhere. Everything has happened because of the shakti manifesting in me.” The next day I got a message on Twitter inviting me to review her latest DVD.)

9. BKS Iyengar turned 91. Really, you need to see Enlighten Up! the movie just for the scenes of Iyengar talking about the meaning of yoga---not empty New Age spirituality, but real internal work, with a few beads of sweat and social service thrown in. For his 91st birthday, this tremendous force of a man requested that students hold a fundraiser to benefit his ancentral village of Bellur. If everyone gave $3, more people could eat.

10. The Yoga Clothing Wars continued with lots of news about LuluLemon throughout 2009. Their stock was up, their stock was down. We loved them, we were peeved. Mostly we were conflicted about the giant success of a giant "women's activewear" company. Good news: they have excellent yoga clothes for men. More good news: they are inspiring small yoga clothing companies, too. More good (-ish?) news: they are EVERYWHERE. Planet Lulu!!

HAPPY 2010, yogis and yoginis! Here's to a happy, healthy, inspired, productive, restful, and OM-ing new year.

Stubdog: Half-Price Yoga?

According to the ad copy on Flavorpill's "thehookup," Stubdog offers half price tickets on music, comedy, dance, special parties---and YOGA.

Is that yoga classes, yoga events, yoga fashion trunk shows? Not clear. A quick search of the site turned up zero offerings in any of their cities currently (Houston, Los Angeles, Dallas/Ft Worth, New York). But a half-price anything is worth it these days. So I pass it along to you, dear reader. Maybe while you're waiting for a yoga class to pop onto the list you'll catch an Afro-Cuban extravaganza or the next Eddie Izzard?

Stubdog for Event Tickets - Houston, Los Angeles, Dallas/Ft Worth

Bollywood 101

Bollywood 101, a great film series, has been happening this fall at the Ossining, NY, Public Library. The last screening is this Saturday at 4pm. Don't miss it! It's run by my friend and colleague, former punk rock East Village 80s bartender chick, grammarian supreme, and all around excellent person, Carolyn Lengel.

With her husband Mike Enright, and daughter Harriet, they not only curate the film series, they make these great YouTube videos as promos, interviewing themselves (here Harriet delivers her commentary while hanging laundry) and Bollywood experts while showing clips from the featured film. From Carolyn's message:Escape to the Ossining Public Library at 4 p.m. on Saturday, December 5, for the grand finale of the "Bollywood 101" film series, LAGE RAHO MUNNA BHAI (2006), a completely charming movie about a Mumbai gangster who falls in love and begins to see visions of Gandhi. What better way to get in a holiday mood?Even if you can't make it to Ossining, you can join in the fun from the sidelines. Watch theYouTube videos and join Bollywood 101 on Facebook. Stay tuned!

Eating Meat--or Not?

It's true that I eat meat: the humanely raised, grass-fed kind. I have been surprised by how many restaurants offer it. There's even a full on BBQ place that's all organic near where I live. In fact, to eat good meat that's not full of hormones, antibiotics and that won't contribute to any being's misery has been my New Year's resolution for a few years running. (Sometime towards the end of the year I find myself at a dinner party or in Chinatown breaking it, hence the need for a re-up.)With the end of the year approaching there comes a slew of help from the New York Times, and, of course, literary star, Jonathan Safran Foer whose recent book is Eating Animals, and why we shouldn't.

I have to confess that these days I eat mostly vegan anyway. No dairy, no sugar, no meat, no wheat (not that vegans avoid gluten). It's not quite a question of ethics, but what is easier to digest. And what will keep me healthier now that it's plague season. (The subway: H1N1 incubator?) According to the Times, 1% of Americans in 2009 are vegan, and it's getting easier and easier to find vegan food. Not just at ethnic resautrants such as Indian and Thai, but in mainstream America. A 17-year old Long Island boy---a vegan---managed to instigate a slew of vegan fare at his father's pizzeria where he works. It attracted a vegan crowd. Moo-Cluck Bakery on Long Island sells retail and wholesale. And it's not just the vegans who like their cakes: the bakery owners, "took a box of several dozen Moo-Cluck cookies to a family Christmas party of 30 people last year, intending it for a vegan relative." The vegan arrived too late to enjoy the gift. Half an hour after Ms. Cummings brought them into the house, the cookies were gone, she said. “All the nonvegans ate them.” If cutting out meat, dairy, and sugar seems dire to you, consider this: vegans eat cookies like everyone else. Here's a cookbook to prove it: Vegan Cookies Invade Your Cookie Jar: 100 Dairy-Free Recipes for Everyone’s Favorite Treats by Isa Chandra Moskowitz and Terry Hope Romero (Da Capo). That's sounds like holiday fun (though the reviewer of her sister's vegan cookies in this article thought they tasted "like homework.")Decide for yourself. Make your own resolution.

LuLu or Cult: Clothes Call?

The NYTimes Style section today (The Critical Shopper) goes after the LuLu culture, focusing on the boppy, sunny, perky, happy, can-do, yes'm attitude of the staffers. The writer walks into the flagship store in Manhattan (sounds like the set-up to a joke) and "A nanosecond after I entered, a spunky girl greeted me with a “Hi!” as if she were my life coach or wife." His take is that it's all a bit culty. Not just out on the LuluLemon-covered streets (which is what New York Magazine's juicy LuLuLemon article this past summer was talking about), but in the store itself.LuluLemon works hard to create such boppy attitude in its educators, with personal growth coaching that sometimes includes a session at Landmark Forum.

This is not very “yoga,” but it is to be expected if you are to create a brand that appeals to the public on a global scale. Lululemon understands that we like our enlightenment to be results-oriented, self-esteem boosting and comfortable so that we can flop on the couch after doing our inner work and watch “Grey’s Anatomy.”

Hmm, true: how many of us like our enlightenment to be results-oriented? Many, I'd guess, though we'd never say, "Oh, checked in with Brahman, supreme cosmic spirit from Hindu Vendanta philosophy this morning, cross that off today's to-do list."Aside from using the word relentlessly relentlessly (well, twice, gad zooks! "relentlessly sunny", "relentlessly cheery"), he also does his bit to give the back story on Chip Wilson and review the clothes. He likes the selection of men's clothes. He seems to practice yoga himself. He's a fair reviewer, not beneath a bit of ribbing:

Some of the get-ups are insanely garish. Run Ultra pants have black and white swirly striped panels over purple fabric and look like something Patricia Heaton wears on one of her 14 sitcoms; cropped bottoms with green plaid fabric around the waist is fine if you want to look like a Scotch tape dispenser while you are in Uttanasana.

Any Lulu article must discuss the unusual materials in their clothes, and Albo obliges. And, like the NYMag writer, he takes a shot at the purpose of wearing those hot pants anyway (hint: it's not all about "wicking away moisture"):

The materials, with names like Silverescent and Luon, are obsessed with wicking away sweat and therefore suit the typical yoga-goer’s secret mantra: I am willing to bow to an elephant-headed god, but I refuse to look skanky when I walk to my car after class because there might be a hot guy around.

It seems we can't get enough of LuLu, even if we're making fun of her: she's an easy entree into yoga culture for, well, people who perhaps relate more to the lifestyle aspect of yoga than the, say, sutra-studying aspect. And she provides an opportunity to play in the entertaining contradictions in this yoga-saturated moment.

Wanderlust Not Woodstock; Props from NYTimes

A bristling bouquet of Wanderlustees arms raised in high lunge. That's what you see on the front of today's NYTimes Arts section, some high profile coverage of yoga's rock'n'roll bonanza last weekend in Lake Tahoe. What's more, John Friend and Duncan Wong front the pack of sun drenched yogis gathered for class at the top of Squaw Valley Mountain to put their arms vigorously in the air. (Love the headband, no-shirt, sunglasses, crushed straw hat look of yogis practicing outdoors. See the physical paper today and the multimedia show on the Times' site.)

For all those likening the festival to Woodstock Festival from 1969, the yoga at least has a pretty updated feel to it---even if joints were also smoked in the non-yoga hours. (And according to my sources, the Kula village had an almost bougy vibe at times, Burning Man flashbacks (for some) notwithstanding.) Wanderlust 2009, Woodstock 1969 Reconciling the inner rocker with the outer yogi wasn't a problem for most people says the Times ---and most people I've talked to who were out there. In fact, I'd wager that strict righteousness that keeps yogis from rocking out (literally and metaphorically) only describes a few yogis these days, not the majority. That's just some kind of bad hype that's been hanging around. Shiva Rea rocks out on the main stage. All color photos by Jon Hyde for NYTimes. The Times article points out some of the downsides of the festival---the head-scratching combo of indie music (and its fans) and yoga (with its devotees).

“Frankly, when I heard about it,” said Mr. Bird, the singer and multi-instrumentalist who was a headliner on Sunday, “my first reaction was, is that going to work, because some of the bands don’t exactly spell inner peace, musically — nor do I, lyrically.”

The rapper, Common, who replaced the sick Michael Franti last minute, was too lewd for some yogis, and some musicians such as Kaki King could not get their heads around the yoga angle.

“I’m not going to do the hippie dance,” said Kaki King, the Brooklyn-based guitarist and singer who performed early on Saturday on the mountaintop stage. “I’m going to put shoes on and I’m not going to drink any mold” (a reference to kombucha, a fermented tea). And, she continued, “I’m not going to do any yoga.”

Mold! We love mold. But even if it wasn't all peace and love, the true spirit of yoga and love of a good time shone through for most. Gregg Gillis, the mash-up artist who performs as Girl Talk, and whose shows resemble a raunchy spring break party, is about as far removed from peacefulness as possible. But many festival-goers said they got the same rejuvenating charge from raucous dancing as from mindful breathing.

“These are audiences with open minds,” Mr. Gillis said. “Even if they’re not into it, they’re not there to critique it. And if they like it, they’re not embarrassed to get into it.”

The future is looking bright for Wanderlust, which almost broke even in its first year---in the middle of an enormous economic depression. Not bad, not bad. And 2010? Well, they are "already considering expanding Wanderlust next year, to three events on three mountaintops."

Yes, those hills will surely be alive with the sounds of yogis and music.