Well, what do serious yogis in India listen to while practicing? (Nothing, I suspect.)
Music in American yoga studios is bad because it’s served up as part of a consumer experience.
An often-healthy consumer experience that does a great many people considerable good, yes, but a consumer experience. A Bikram Yoga class that one grabs between leaving the office and some gallery opening or film screening or dinner with friends just isn’t the same thing as, say, a two-week stay at a serious ashram where nobody even speaks for much of the time.
- – - – -
Here’s an idea for a follow-up post, Chloe: If you were programming the music for a yoga studio, what would you select?
is a 2012-2013 Humanities Center Fellow at Stanford University where she is at work on a book about singing. A former Knight Journalism Fellow also at Stanford, Chloe has contributed reporting and criticism to The New York Times, The Los Angeles Times, BBC Classical Music Magazine, American Theatre Magazine, WQXR and many other media outlets. Chloe is also the host and executive producer of VoiceBox, a weekly public radio and podcast series all about the art of the human voice (www.voicebox-media.org). Check out Chloe's website at www.chloeveltman.com and connect with her on Twitter via @chloeveltman. [Read More …]
lies like truth
These days, it's becoming increasingly difficult to distinguish between fact and fantasy. As Alan Bennett's doollally headmaster in Forty Years On astutely puts it, "What is truth and what is fable? Where is Ruth and where is Mabel?" It is one of the main tasks of this blog to celebrate the confusion through thinking about art and perhaps, on occasion, attempt to unpick the knot. [Read More...]
…Why isn’t it ever any good?
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Well, what do serious yogis in India listen to while practicing? (Nothing, I suspect.)
Music in American yoga studios is bad because it’s served up as part of a consumer experience.
An often-healthy consumer experience that does a great many people considerable good, yes, but a consumer experience. A Bikram Yoga class that one grabs between leaving the office and some gallery opening or film screening or dinner with friends just isn’t the same thing as, say, a two-week stay at a serious ashram where nobody even speaks for much of the time.
- – - – -
Here’s an idea for a follow-up post, Chloe: If you were programming the music for a yoga studio, what would you select?