I LOVE TV! Part I: Bunheads

I love TV.  I've always loved TV.  The only people who might love TV more than me are Mike Teavee and my sister.*  Anyway, at one point, the focus of my ardor was Gilmore Girls.  I would not take any phone calls while it was on, no talking was allowed during the episode, etc, etc.**  So it's kind of surprising that I did not immediately jump on the Gilmore Girl's creator Amy Sherman-Palladino's latest show about ballet students, Bunheads.  It probably has something to do with the fact that I am no longer a 14 year old girl.  More on this after the jump.

*Seriously, my sister loves television to a scary degree.  She has a journal from elementary school where she only wrote about TV shows we would watch after school while my parents were at work and we were watched by my doting grandmother.  Who ALSO loves TV.

** The only other show I have ever been so serious about is Boy Meets World.   A sequel of which is now being made about their CHILDREN.  God, I am an old.

A Reflection on my Yoga Teacher Training

When I received an e-mail asking me to write about my yoga teacher training experience, I immediately had a vivid memory of the first session of my training.  We were asked a similar question that evening, twenty-odd strangers sittings in a candlelit circle.  "Why did you choose to do this?"

That night, I dutifully fell to my task earnestly and honestly.  And then we were asked to share.  Share!  With a group of strangers!  I was not ready to expose myself to these people.   As the first person in the circle began to read from their journal, I frantically composed sentences in my head to say aloud  instead of what I had written.  I want to teach because I want to learn!  Or I want to spread the joy of my practice to the world with a pageant smile.  Content with that lie, I relaxed and anticipated my turn.

It would be a narrative device to say that I was the very last person to share and by the time it was my turn, my heart grew three sizes and I spilled my guts and that is what my teacher training means to me,  blah blah blah.  As it was, I was somewhere in the middle of the circle, and I was no yogi grinch, but listening to the others share openly did touch me a little.  Not enough to reveal everything, but enough that when it was my turn, my voice wavered as I spoke these words of truth, "Because I need this."

Student Teacher Mantra

Hello all!  I know I have not posted recently.  Things have been super busy.

BUT, I had to share this amazing recording of my fellow Kripalu yoga teacher trainees and I singing the Student Teacher Mantra from earlier this year.  We would sing this every session before class.  It's so funny, I had recently been asked to write about my yoga teacher training for a blog (you will see it here soon as well), and in the same week I received the letter I wrote to myself during my training, and this lovely recording!

Thank you Lyra for sharing.



Sanskrit and English lyrics after the jump.

Happy Weekend - Girl Walk All Day Video

So, if you know me, you probably knew that I LOVE Girl Talk.  In fact, if you know me, you may have taken a road trip where we only played Girl Talk, or you may have come to one of my numerous Girl Talk dance parties.  And by party I DO mean me drinking too much wine and rolling around on the floor to Girl Talk, while everyone else points and laughs.

Anyway, I am way behind the news on this one.*  This group of awesome people made a full length dance video set to all of Girl Talk's All Day album.  While my favorite will always be Night Ripper, this work is amazing!  Fun, happy, quirky...check out the trailer below; the rest of the film can be seen on their website.

Time for another Girl Talk dance party at my house...who's in!?


Official Trailer: Girl Walk // All Day from Girl Walk // All Day on Vimeo.

*And yes, there was a New York Times piece on it.  You can read it here.

Hugasana - A Drawing

I was feeling kind of nostalgic for Kripalu as I haven't been able to go to the meetups with my friends from YTT due to busyness, and came up with this doodle.    It's inspired by the Mama tree on the Kripalu grounds, and by this exercise we did in my teacher training, where we just stayed in a hug with someone for ten minutes.  I wonder what my students would say if I made them do hug-asana!  I probably should get them more used to the idea of partner work first!