YogaDawg's 1,503rd Yoga Meditation in which YogaDawg discovers his Higher Being...

...YogaFrog...ribbit, ribbit!!!

Y.O.G.A

I think I must have posted this before, but I was working on the YogaDawg's Yoga in America video and came across this looking for content. Is this great or what?

One Heart, Four Seasons - Susan Quaglia Brown

Get the new book, One Heart, Four Seasons by the awesome and talented Kundalini yogi/artist, Susan Quaglia Brown. I posted her work awhile back on the YogaDawg site because I was featuring visual artists that did yoga. Susan was by far one of the most talented. You can find her book here and her new art project here.

Scary Yoga Positions

Scary Yoga Positions - 02/24/10
Uploaded by downstairsguys. - See more comedy videos.

Okay, okay, I agree, stupid....

The First Naked Yoga Ad in Yoga Journal - 1992

Though this is from a totally different frame of mind from the current nudie ad campaign in Yoga Journal, I have to wonder if there was any reaction when this appeared (oh my, there is an actual breast shown). I think this is Ana, "don't fuck your students", Forrest (wonder if the extra n is a typo in the ad or this is a different person or she shortened her name for effect. Inquiring yoga minds want to know).


Link to the original page and issue

I know some think this is stage art, but I find it compelling in a "wish I could bust a move like that in a Saturday morning yoga class" kind of way...

YogaDawg Teacher Training

It's great when a idea for a bit falls in my lap. This time it came from a comment on Facebook from the fabulous Svasti of the Journey From Assault To Wholeness blog. "Wait, isn't YTT done over Twitter these days? That's the latest trend!!" Yes it is indeed! With all the chatter about shitty teacher training, I do wonder if NYC studios will also have to claim their "training ain't shit".

(click on the picture to read the detail)

Yoga in America

Another awesome find in the back issues of Yoga Journal. This time from the Mar-Apr 1990 issue with two illustrations from an artist named Salim for an article titled Yoga in America, the history (more or less) up to 1990. What a crazy scene it would become in the next 20 years....jack up the music by James Brown, Living in America as you read the original article here (I haven't figured out how to get you the exact page so scroll down to page 40

If Yoga's Chic or We've Been Here Before

I couldn't help but to laugh out loud when I ran across this article in the Yoga Journal Sept 98 issue by Anne Cushman (of Enlightenment for Idiots fame). With all the rancor going on in the yoga community regarding the commercialization of yoga, you have to take note that this was an issue 12 years ago. I'm sure if I dug more, I would find complaints from almost the beginning of the magazine. In fact, I'm sure that there were complaints about Krishnamacharya that he included all that "gymnastic crap" into yoga back in the day....humm, come to think of it, some yogis are still complaining about it...


As Anne concludes, “The next challenge is to look on to the current yoga craze with a discriminating yet non-judgmental eye, encouraging what’s best about it whenever possible. And besides, in a couple of years, the glitterati will have moved on to kickboxing or t’ai chi and yoga will be as passé as disco. It will be so, like, 90’s. It will go down in history books as an American fitness regiment briefly popular at the turn of the millennium. And those of us who still practice can breathe a vast pranayamic sigh of relief, and go back to be comfortably out of it again.”

Humm, they never moved on...:)



Click here for the article and scroll down to page 76.


Also go here for some replies to her article by readers of Yoga Journal. I'm sure if there were yoga bloggers back then, we would hear an earful from both sides of the issue and in the comments.

John Friend Retro

After seeing the retro Seane Corn video, I couldn't resist going through the back issues of Yoga Journal to find other retro pictures of the yoga stars. Here is John Friend from 1995 (his pre-Anusara days as an Iyengar teacher).




And just in case you think I'm afraid to post pictures of myself 'back in the day', here is how I looked when I was DiscoDawg.

Why Do Slim, Calm and Sexy Yoga

When you can get a rocket up your asana with YogaDawg's SuperDuperBlissInducer Super Bok Choy Yoga ®.

Seane Corn Retro

I love this!! The folks at Elephant noticed the awesome and lovely Seane Corn on an old video from the 1990s that is on YouTube. This is pre-teacher Seane. What makes this so cool is that it's a reminder that "yoga stars" just don't pop up out of nowhere with a full page ad or cover one day in Yoga Journal. There’s a lot of history and work behind fame. I don't know much about Bryan Kest, but I think he must find it great to see one of his former students shine so brightly.



Also Seane left a comment on Elephant that she was the cover model for Eric Schiffmann's book, "Moving into Stillness". She confirmed that a photo on an introduction page of the book is also her. The figure on the lower right is Eric. Looking at all this makes me think, "Wow, what great hair everyone has"...:)

SEX, CASH, YOGA (yes a cheap title to get cheap traffic..hee, hee, hee)

The sex connection and the quotes from Bikram comes as no surprise to me as this has been over reported (and talk about free advertising) in the press. What does amaze me is that people pay $11,000 for nine weeks of study (to end up making maybe $50 teaching a yoga class. I know, I know, it’s not about the money but the love of yoga). Recession? What recession?? I think there must be something else going on here…Oh yeah SEX…:)

Anyway here is a list of quotes from Bikram (who has the best in the yoga business) and a satirical take on a style of yoga that sounds a lot like Bikram. All in all, it would be a dull yoga scene without the Yoga 'Don'.




From the The Overheated, Oversexed Cult of Bikram Choudhury.

Yoga teachers that I have known - The Exotic Dancing Shakti

Contrary to some, this was not based on Shiva Rea since I didn't know who she was when I wrote this in 2007. Instead this was from a class in DC in a studio that I went to a few times before I ran into this teacher and decided to move on with my explorations of yoga...


You will recognize this type of teacher by the beads and bangles they will be wearing when they show up for class. They will look and sound like a belly dancer and usually calls their style of Yoga 'Fusion something or other'.

The Exotic Dancing Shakti will start their class off in the fetal position. There will be soft sounds playing through the studio sound speakers; a womb like sound of gurgling and the sloshing of water. A slow rumbling noise will begin to grow until there is a grand eruption into an explosion of sound. They will reach their hands up to the sky and start to shudder and shake. They will become possessed with the heebie-jeebies and do a Saint Vitus Dance. The Exotic Dancing Shakti will then begin to move like a hyena, slither like a snake, do a war dance like an Native American warrior while wrestling with cave bears, mastodons and snow leopards. The Exotic Dancing Shakti will eventually transmute into a trance state like that of a Haitian Zombie. All the while there will be the beat of primal drumming playing through the speakers.

You'll hear the Exotic Dancing Shakti singing in strange languages, emitting reptilian and chirping sounds and may even start speaking in tongues. If you happen to look at them at this point, you might notice that they have dressed in an ethnic costume of the world or even be naked while riding a white horse through the studio. They will end the class with a Jig, a Polka or do the hokey-pokey while howling like a wild banshee. You will feel a bit foolish as you try to follow them through their movements in this Yoga class. You will also wonder what this has to do with Yoga.

Them yoga babes get me so excited...

The weirdest something that uses yoga imagery ever...he likes them yoga babes...I think....

YogaDawg's YogaLand - The Game

Coming to an interweb near you! The world's first yoga humor game!!

Some people just are too damn busy to get to a yoga class...

An In-Depth Study of Tantric Yoga Mobile Phone Deathgrips

Draw your own conclusions....

Jim Carry, Yoga Master

I think he's ready for the more advanced SuperDuperBlissInducer Super Bok Choy Method

How to tell if your yoga teacher is a nut job....

Now that I'm visiting yoga studios again, I remembered this from the yoga guide book, My Third Eye Itches....

Once you attend your first yoga class, it is advised that you figure out fairly quickly whether or not your teacher is nuts. This was not much of a concern when yoga was being practiced by hippies, retired little old ladies, weirdos and people from California, as they were easily recognizable from the general public. But now that yoga has gone mainstream, cuckoo yoga teachers are more difficult to identify. So with that in mind, here are signs that your yoga teacher might be a wackjob:

- Brings cats to class (or dogs, goldfish, or animal crackers as the case may be). This might indicate that the yoga teacher is not all there.

- Makes animal noises during poses, for example, barking during Down Dog, cawing during Crow, hissing during Cobra, or making gulping sounds during Fish Pose. These all indicate that the teacher is most likely off her rocker.

- Blasts Beethoven’s Ode to Joy during class or plays Opera and sings along. This is an indication that the yoga teacher may have a screw loose.

- Snores during Savasana (or makes any other weird sounds). This might indicate that the lights are on but no one is home.

- Reads quotes from Timothy Leary’s The Psychedelic Experience. Gives a peace sign while saying “peace” at the end of class, or says things like “groovy,” “far-out,” or “right-on.” This probably means that the yoga teacher is trippin'.

- Introduces themselves as some variant of a Sanskrit name, such as Shanti, Shakti, Om, Freddy-ji, etc., in place of their birth name, such as Sally, Betty, Kim, Fred, etc. This indicates that the yoga teacher is most likely cracked.

- Lacks a sense of humor. Run for the exits, as this teacher will also show one or more of the above signs.

I get distracted during yoga

By Nina

Gangsta Yoga with DJ Dog

Thanks to the awesome Y is for Yogini for this find.

You can read the comic book here though there is not any yoga...:)

The Annual YogaDawg What's Out, What's In Yoga List for 2011

Click here for the list: The Annual YogaDawg What's Out, What's In Yoga List

Shrine of the YogaDawg

Now this is hilarious. Awesome find and photo by Alex O'Malley on a beach in California.