killing time

i had set aside some time today during my lunch break to start writing about my recent marathon+yoga weekend in raleigh. but somewhere along the line i found myself opening up my google reader inbox just to see what was sitting there. apparently it had been over a month (!!) since i last checked it; with hundreds of items still marked as unread, i had just enough time to do a cursory scan to pick out the more interesting posts.

laughter yoga... yoga for back pain... yoga for stress relief... yoga for seniors... yoga for breast cancer survivors... yoga for athletes...

while all very interesting and helpful, they just sounded like more of the same-old, same-old. oh well.

then just as i was about to get back to the spreadsheet i was editing for a meeting later in the day, this post at lime.com caught my eye:

Zombie Yoga Hits NYC
October 16, 2007 - 9:23am from New York Times
Have you ever wished you could do downward dog with a decomposing body?

ewwww! how could i afford to pass up on something that sounded as disgusting as that? i immediately clicked on the link provided and read the accompanying nytimes.com city room article:

Taking the Yoga ‘Corpse’ Pose Literally
By Jennifer 8. Lee
October 15, 2007, 11:50 am

Have you ever wished you could do downward dog with a decomposing body? Well, City Room hasn’t (doing the crow with an intact body is still an insurmountable challenge), but this combination apparently has been a niche fantasy with some population of New Yorkers.

About 75 people showed up in Williamsburg’s East River State Park for an (online) open casting call for the filming of a yoga zombie video on Sunday. “The zombie blogs were only mildly interested in it, it was the yoga blogs,” said Jason Wishnow, the director of the video.

“The R.S.V.P. responses from the yoga blogs were like: ‘I love yoga and I love zombie movies. I’ve been waiting for this!’ It was the chocolate and the peanut butter thing for all these people.”

While the crew had a make-up artist on set, many of the yoga practitioners showed up in their zombie get-ups, ready to go. Mr. Wishnow was impressed by his extras, saying: “Everyone took zombiedom very seriously. There was a lot of groaning and discomfort of their decomposing bodies as they would attempt yoga maneuvers.”

so while i get back to jotting down my thoughts on yoga in the city of oaks (raleigh's supposed nickname), you can spend some time scratching your head -- much like i did -- wondering why anyone in their right mind would want to make a movie about zombies doing yoga...

POSTSCRIPT --

ok, i lied. instead of the writing i said i would do, i decided to go back to searching for more buried treasure in my reader box. and i'm glad i did (or am i merely trying to justify my laziness?) because i found this jewel, courtesy of la.eater.com:

Eater to Do: Diwali at Tanzore
Thursday, November 1, 2007

Tanzore in Beverly Hills will celebrate Diwali, the Indian Festival of Lights, next week (Mon-Fri, November 5-8). There will be a special three-course $45 menu and a dessert buffet, Indian fashion shows, DJs, Bollywood-type dancing, and live music in the Gaylord space next door. OK, yes. We only told you about it to show this Office video, but $45 for dinner and Bollywood dancing isn't a bad deal.

and the eater's right; while it's nice to know that you can party THIS WEEK with the hoity-toity in BH on this auspicious occasion (this year, diwali officially begins on nov 9th), it was a great way to post the youtube video of steve carell honoring the hindu festival of lights (think adam sandler and hanukkah).

and how about this for a lyrical tie-in with my earlier topic?:

... don't invite any zombies to a celebration of diwali...

it's obvious that i'm having way too much fun being distracted from the task at hand :)