Hi Everyone:

1. We will be hosting Kristin Laak from Ashland, Oregon for a two day weekend workshop.

     Do you remember Kristin? Back in the early 90′s, the Santa Barbara Yoga Center had a fairly happening scene and Kristin was in the middle of it. This was when yoga was just beginning to happen in a big way, the first glimmers of that. During this time, Kristin went to Mysore, India, to study with Sri K. Pattabhi Jois, and she brought back a very clear stable channel to that lineage. A few of us followed the path to Mysore shortly thereafter, myself included. Kristin inspired many during that period with a dignified commitment to the practice and a sophisticated aesthetic sensibility. Before long she was gone, to work alongside Richard Freeman in Boulder, and then to have a family in Oregon.

     She’ll begin both days with a talk, followed by her presentation of the Ashtanga practice. All are welcome, it should be good.

2. Sri K. Pattabhi Jois himself and family will be in San Francisco March 12-23. (Ashtanga Yoga Research Institute)

     Expect a large room full of yogis, and the great guru, age 90, wandering around, calling through the primary series ( there will be Intermediate series also, on the second week, for those who qualify.) Get him while he’s still on the planet. The presentation will be simple, but within this simplicity is somatic information of an incredibly evolved form. He offers a subtle physiology which has been altered through a relatively simple lifetime of sincere and intense yoga practice informed by a living Hatha Yoga lineage. Students can learn it by practicing in his presence. And in his advanced years, he still delivers it with a wallop, and intimately,  just to make sure it gets through.

See you at the Shala, Steve

     Michele will be phasing a little more back into the Shala, following a three year child-rearing partial hiatus: she’ll be taking the Wednesday morning and afternoon Mysore classes. She starts this week, February 1st. Everything else will outwardly remain the same. Inwardly…can’t remain the same, not possible. Ashtanga: outward form remains simple, inward form, uh…whoa.

(If you live across the planet and/or find this useless, we apologize for adding to your internet static, please tell us.)

     I began sending out monthly e-mail notices in September 2005 to people who had attended class at the Shala and who had given us their e-mail addresses. The overt reason was to let people know that I was doing a once a month Led Primary class, preceded by a talk. The list began at around 180 addresses and has grown a bit since. I received positive responses, and suggestions that I set up a blog, so here it is. Before February 2006 they weren’t worth too much, so I’ll spare you those. Also, these emails conveyed mundane Shala information, as well as discourses; I have snipped out the former unless they offer some entertainment value, i.e.: “The Sunday afternoon class will continue after a two week hiatus on May 4th at 4 pm…” That’s boring so I snipped it.

     A good introduction to all of this can be heard on this interview with Lara Cestone at yogapeeps.com.

xoxoxoxox Steve