Archive for October, 2009
playboy yoga: the end of the world as we know it
Well, people. I think we can declare yoga officially dead. Mix a little brand power with some western hypersexualization and what do you end up with? Playboy yoga, bitches! I think yoga in the western world has imploded. There’s nowhere left to go. This is the pinnacle, and the lowest of the low. We can just say, “It was nice while it lasted, yoga. T & A.”
You know “The Day the Music Died,” February 3, 1959, when Buddy Holly, Richie Valens and The Big Bopper were killed in a plane crash in the American Midwest? That’s kind of how this feels to me.
Overall, it was a crazy day in the yogasphere. There must have been some kind of badass retrograde action happening: Bikram Choudry turned down Madonna‘s request for private classes; and while less sensational than all this, some yoga download website offered a Star Wars yoga class (thus proving my cosmic reason theory for all this).
[Hot Playboy Yoga tip via elephant journal and YogaDork. Thanks, masters of the interwebs!]
Yoplait Asana looks right at home in my fridge.
After a heroic search through the grocery stores in my neighbourhood, I finally located some Yoplait Asana (none of the “fruiteries” – that’s what people in Montréal call the fruit/veggie markets – and health food stores I normally frequent carried the stuff). So by popular demand, I bring you The Great Yoplait Taste Test!
Before I get into the actual yogourt itself, I just want to point out the excessive packaging. Eight individual containers wrapped in cardboard. Not cool, Yoplait. The yogourt wasn’t even available in a larger container (although according to their website, it does come in a 650 g version).
I selected the Strawberry/Fieldberry option over the Peach/Vanilla. I had one of each the Strawberry and Fieldberry ~ one is purplish and one is pinkish, but they taste pretty much the same. The flavour… how do I describe the flavour? A bit like plastic, really. Smooth, creamy plastic. To be honest, I find that most commercial yogourts taste a little plastic-y. I think it’s the pectin, gelatin and cornstarch. Continue Reading
The yoga doc Enlighten Up! has been making the rounds through North America for the past 6 months and it’s *finally* opening in Montréal this weekend. I had the pleasure of talking to director Kate Churchill and writing about the film for the weekly paper, Hour. It was an interesting challenge to write about yoga for a non-yoga audience, and to do it that chirpy laidback alt-weekly style. Here’s the article (which is a “preview,” rather than a review):
What happens when you take a cynical journalist and self-described “godless guy from New York City,” subject him to a six-month global yoga immersion and try to force him to get enlightened?
With an estimated 18 million Americans practising a Baskin-Robbins selection of yoga styles that make up a multi-billion-dollar industry, a documentary like Enlighten Up!, about a yoga skeptic who immerses himself in the practice, was bound to emerge.
Director Kate Churchill sets out to prove that “yoga can transform anyone” – in the process, her doc presents yoga in its full range of expression, from the hyper-commercialization and dilution to pure devotion. Nick Rosen is her willing-yet-resistant guinea pig. His adventure starts off in the bustling New York City yoga scene, in modern classes with high-profile teachers, and moves on to L.A., where he practises with former pro-wrestler Diamond Dallas Page on the lawn of his mansion with scantily clad large-breasted women (we get to see why Page’s Yoga for Regular Guys eschews “namaste” for “T and A”).
“We’ve tried to create a view into the world of yoga and present the range of styles and approaches with a sense of humour,” says Churchill. “The given audience of the film is yoga practitioners, but we’ve realized that there is a significant audience of people who were dragged to the film by their friends or partners. They love it because there’s a skeptic. Non-yoga practitioners may relate to Nick [and] feel a kinship with him.” Continue Reading
Okay, so we all know that it’s not cool when major corporations tack their name onto the word “yoga.” How about when companies which have nothing to do with the practice apply yogic vocabulary to their products? A new yogourt, Yoplait AsanaTM, does just that:
Developed especially for women, Yoplait AsanaTM is a delicious, smooth and creamy yogourt whose name means “posture” in the yoga world.
Yoplait AsanaTM is the only yogourt in Canada with a unique fortified recipe for strong bones. Not only is Yoplait AsanaTM a good source of vitamin D, but it also contains twice as much calcium as our regular yogourt.
The people at Yoplait have done their homework, and are well aware that 72.3% of Canadian yoga practitioners are women (according to a 2005 Print Measure Bureau survey; a 2008 Yoga Journal survey indicates similar US stats). They’re also aware that 70% of Canadian women don’t get enough calcium, and that 1 in 4 women over the age of 50 are at risk of developing osteoporosis.
So it looks like the recent Yoplait yoga ad (which made waves through the bloga community in the summer) was a way of priming people for their new product. Hmmm…
[Thanks to EcoYogini for the hot tip! She actually saw this stuff in the grocery store but refused to buy it!]
Happy Diwali, everyone! Light a candle and celebrate the Indian “festival of lights” with this inspirational message from President Obama. He even quotes one of the Upanishads:
Lead Us From the Unreal To the Real,
Lead Us From Darkness To Light,
Lead Us From Death To Immortality,
Aum (the universal sound of God)
Let There Be Peace Peace Peace. – Brihadaranyaka Upanishad 1.3.28
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