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Yoga, Inc documentary

Yoga, Inc a documentary by John Phillip, aired on ET in the first week of May and was featured at the Hot Docs festival in Toronto this year. It seems to ask all the questions that Yoga Nation finds most fascinating and relevant:

"Will Master and Disciple go their separate ways? How long before the Yoga Olympics are a reality? Does yoga need a code of ethics (the Karma Police)? And can yoga’s fundamental goal of spiritual enlightenment survive our fervor for a quick buck and a firm butt? In a search for answers Yoga, Inc. provides a colorful snapshot of Spiritualism and Capitalism colliding head on."

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Yoga Wars: Chicago

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Time Out Chicago pits two popular yoga teachers in a zen-off and picks the winner. The Chicago Tribune then contemplates the fairness and yoga-ness of this move.

Time Out: Most zen yoga teacher

Gabriel Halpern vs. Lourdes Paredes
Halpern, founder of Yoga Circle The closest our city has to its own master, Halpern is considered a legend by folks in the know. Many Chicago instructors train with him at some point in their teaching career.Paredes, teacher She built a massive Chicago following with traditional yoga, and continues to inspire students with new classes—like trance dance—at studios across town (Yogaview, exhale, Namaskar and Healing Power Yoga).

The winner Paredes. Halpern’s experience and talent are undeniably awesome, but we love how Paredes connects with everyday students through her blog (www.lourdesparedes.com), giving solid gear and apparel recs, plus positive (not flaky) affirmations.

http://www.timeout.com/chicago/Details.do?page=1&xyurl=xyl://TOCWebArticles1/108/features/heroes_and_villains.xml

Chicago Tribune Blog Takes a Bite... and WOW! All the comments!

"Comparing the two is hardly fair. Halpern, a Chicago institution, founded the Yoga Circle in 1985--when Paredes was just 16--and has trained many local instructors. He has seen yoga’s popularity ebb, flow and boom, and is one reason Chicago has such a rich yoga scene.

Paredes, who once thought she would join a convent, is a contemporary teacher who blends spirituality with challenging vinyasa yoga. You can’t help but feel uplifted and refreshed after walking out of her Shiva Rea-inspired classes, which often end with reflections on topics like focus or self-forgiveness, or poetry from the spiritual master, Rumi."

http://featuresblogs.chicagotribune.com/features_julieshealthclub/2007/03/chicagos_best_y.html

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Face Yoga? In NYTimes so gotta be true...

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Face Yoga book published; class offered at gym; media media media--eternal beauty and youth!

http://select.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=FA0716F938540C7A8EDDAA0894DF404482

OR, to actually read the article

http://209.85.165.104/search?q=cache:u5p9Ox8qIi0J:www.midtownyoga.com/journal/got-crows-feet-call-the-downward-dog+SKIN+DEEP%3B+Got+Crow%27s-Feet%3F+Call+the+Downward+Dog&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=2&gl=us

Yoga and Guns

A humor piece from the New York Times Magazine.

"Later that day, I took a restorative yoga class. Shooting guns and taking yoga on the same day was the biggest “You got chocolate in my peanut butter!” moment I’ve had so far in my life. Guns and yoga are French fries dipped in a milkshake. Scotch and ginger ale. Elvis Costello’s “This Year’s Model” after a bad breakup. Reruns of “Law and Order” and having no life: they’re good together."

I don't know--I didn't laugh. Maybe it's too close to the truth about the crazy hybrid practices that are out there? Or maybe I'm just tired.

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/25/magazine/25funnyhumor.t.html?ex=1179806400&en=129e965ccaf38ed7&ei=5070

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Yoga Popular in Prisons

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In Saskatchewan, and elsewhere:

"U.S. prisons are also offering meditation and yoga for their general populations.
The Prison Dharma Network in Boulder, Colo., leads yoga and meditation and also sends books and correspondence to inmates U.S.-wide and around the world."

http://www.canada.com/reginaleaderpost/news/arts_life/story.html?id=5480a7f0-8c7b-4e45-b19e-be73333c14ef

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Being a Yoga Teacher is Better than Being a Lawyer

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According to CNNMoney.com. Number one in their survey of satisfying job switches is from lawyer to yoga teacher/studio owner.

Witness Susan Rubin at Seasonal Yoga, Armonk, NY.

http://www.seasonalyoga.com/

As covered at http://money.cnn.com/galleries/2007/moneymag/0703/gallery.bestjobs_profiles.moneymag/

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Yoga in Ghana--Association of Black Yoga Teachers

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Fascinating! Who knew?

"The International Association of Black Yoga Teachers, Ghana (IABYT-Ghana) is organizing a day's Yoga Clinic for the general public as part of preparations for its upcoming first Africa International Summit in Accra slated for August this year."

http://www.myjoyonline.com/archives/health/200703/2754.asp

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Slate Doesn't Like What it Sees

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Ron Rosenbaum, Slate.com columnist, doesn't like the current mainstreaming of yoga.

"No, it's the commodification and rhetorical dumbing-down of yoga culture that gets to me. The way something that once was—and still can be—pure and purifying has been larded with mystical schlock. Once a counterweight to our sweaty striving for ego gratification, yoga has become an unctuous adjunct to it."

Yup.

But while the column begins with interesting insight and valid critique, it devolves into summarizing a recent article in Yoga Journal, chastizing the magazine's editors, and lambasting the phantom yogini-subscriber who would actually take the magazine's advice to heart.

"The final step in the great journey of self-understanding the Yoga Journal editors have force-marched [the writer] on is realizing it's all about her "relationship with herself." Whitney Houston yoga: I found the greatest love of all—Me! It's the return of New Age Me-generation narcissism. And there's nothing worse than narcissism posing as humility."

Okay, he's got a point here. Yoga Journal has been market-shaped into a women's lifestyle magazine. It's getting fluffier and fluffier.

But that YJ story was a particularly strange one. I remember it.

Still, Rosenbaum's column would have been so much more interesting as a think piece about the weird contradictions in the current yoga environment--the mass-marketification among them.

http://www.slate.com/id/2162283/

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Gold's Gym Offers Yoga

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"Apparently the Mr. Universe days are over. Gold's Gym, one of his last strongholds, has finally decided to divorce the oil-slicked rock-hard prototype patron of their long heritage to draw yoga mamas and mellow boomers into the building."

Because that's where the money is...

http://www.adrants.com/2007/03/golds-gym-drops-barbell-picks-up-yoga-bri.php