pure yoga – That Girl Allison

Soul Food, Yoga, & Ghosts on a Saturday

After seeing Old Times on Friday night, I slept in on Saturday, watched the third episode of season 2 of The Leftovers (weird) and then headed to an intermediate bikram yoga class as a guest at Pure Yoga on the west side. The studio is so, so pretty but it’s also filled with so many superfluous perks that you end up paying dearly for ($195/month). The class was intense. I do bikram yoga about once a year because I think it’s somewhat beneficial but not on the regular. I’m glad I did it but it would never become a regular thing for me.

After a nap, Uptown Girls, and a much-needed shower, Justin and I headed to a mouth-watering meal at Streetbird in Harlem (soul food, FTW) and then all the way down to Wall Street to the Down Town Association for Shanghai Mermaid’s Victorian Seance.

I spent a while curling and hair spraying my hair which fell out as soon as I went outside, but it looked pretty for a hot a second. We met up with some friends of ours, sat for a very cheesy seance, listened to Miss Ida Blue, and drank too much prosecco before happily hopping on the train home sometime after midnight.

It was a neat experience, but probably not something we’d do again. The venue was incredibly cool though! I’m glad we went though.

Last Tuesday night I went to the National Yoga Month celebration at the Upper West Side location of Pure Yoga. I occasionally take a class at Pure Yoga but I’ve never become a member. They’re $50+ more per month than YogaWorks and for what? Hair dryers in the locker rooms? Nah.

I enjoyed a juice sample and some vegan food, a hand treatment, and the photo booth that they had set up. Taking photos in yoga poses was awkward, to say the least. I also learned how lopsided my tree pose is (above). Sometimes I think I have undiagnosed scoliosis, despite having been tested yearly in grade school.

I was almost totally taken this time though. The UWS location is really warm and inviting, and big. The teacher was awesome too. He put battery-operated candles around the room and turned the lights basically off for most of the class. It was really different.

Though I’m not a member yet, there’s a good chance that maybe I’ll pay $145/month when I have more money. Who knows.

Today I went to the ’American Idiot’-themed yoga class at Pure Yoga on the Upper East Side (86th and 3rd). The class was $30 and all proceeds went to benefit Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS. All participants were given a copy of the OBCR as well. When I heard that there was going to be a union of two of my favorite things, and that I was actually available to go, I was ecstatic but confused. What songs by Green Day were appropriate as a soundtrack for practicing yoga?

I’ve done yoga 4-6 times per week using Yoga Journal podcasts since mid-January, but it’d been a while since I’d taken an actual class. I paid, put my things in a cubby near the main desk and walked into the room where the class would take place and heard a version of “When I Come Around” played by wind chimes over the sound system, and then a similar version of “Good Riddance.” I chatted up the instructor about where she found these versions and she said on iTunes, and then she said I could have the CD after. Sweet!

The class was a great work out and really perfect for a lazy Saturday afternoon. The room was warmly lit and exuded a sense of relaxation. The music, surprisingly, fit right in. I fixed some of the problems that I’d apparently run into in my last year of practice, as well as some things that I didn’t know I was doing wrong. At times I found myself paying too much attention to the music though, running through the lyrics in my head and almost falling over in a three-legged down dog. The set list was as follows:

When I Come Around (from Rockabilly Baby! Lullaby Versions of Green Day)
Good Riddance (from Rockabilly Baby! Lullaby Versions of Green Day)
When It’s Time (American Idiot OBCR)
Basketcase (acoustic version covered by a woman, not sure who!)
Before the Lobotomy (OBCR)
Boulevard of Broken Dreams (OBCR)
Last Night on Earth (OBCR)
21 Guns (OBCR)
Give Me Novocaine (OBCR)
Whatshername (OBCR)
When I Come Around (original album version)
Wake Me Up When September Ends (OBCR)
When It’s Time (BJA’s album version)
Good Riddance (original album version)
When I Come Around (Rockabilly Baby!)

It turns out that there’s a lot of appropriate music by Green Day to practice yoga to. I told the studio directors that they should teach the class once a week, and hopefully someday they (or someone else) will. The work out, of course, was amazing too.

You can purchase the Rockabilly Baby! album here, and the American Idiot cast recording here. Apologies for the crappy photo – it was taken on my blackberry.