Here’s a modern cultural combination that seems about as sensibly American as, oh, bacon and doughnuts. Or daily commuter traffic and a century-old drawbridge. Or Portland bike riders who wear safety helmets — and nothing else.
Actually, this strange mash-up comes from abroad. Hatha yoga, the physical side of a quasi-spiritual practice aimed at cultivating strength, flexibility, calmness and balance, came from India in the early 20th century.
And Pink Floyd’s “The Dark Side of the Moon,” a true masterpiece of druggy despair, came from England in the 1970s. You know, this is the album that rails against “Money,” and wrings hands over the quickness of “Time,” and mourns the militarized borders between “Us and Them,” and then brings it all back to “Brain Damage,” starring a “lunatic” who gets up from the grass outside and comes down your hall and gets inside your head.
Sweet, cheery stuff. So Happy New Year, everyone! Somehow, somewhere, someone had the idea that the perfect soundtrack to your relaxing, rejuvenating yoga session would be Pink Floyd’s slab of narcotic nihilism. At least one Hazel Dell yoga studio offered “Dark Side of the Moon Yoga” on the morning of Jan. 1.
This reporter — a pretty serious fan of both hatha yoga and ’70s rock ‘n’ roll — would have said, “Only in Portlandia” (and the greater Portlandia region) — but a little Googling proves that “The Dark Side of Sun Salutation” is widespread.
Here’s a Halloween “Dark Side” outing at a yoga studio in North Carolina that says costumes are not mandatory. Whew. And here’s a San Diego yoga studio that provided a live band and a laser light show for a ticketed “Dark Side of the Moon Yoga” event ($20 at the door, $10 just to spectate. That’s the group that sat on the sidelines singing, “We don’t need no Parsva Balasana …” Wait, whoops, wrong album.)
And here’s a Chicago studio promising that the music of Pink Floyd “will open your heart and mind to the importance of living one’s own life and embracing the unknown.”
“Fun and uplifting,” is how Eric Thorpe, the Vancouver instructor who turned yoga “Dark” at Bikram Yoga Hazel Dell on New Year’s morning, described the scene. “You get into a certain rhythm. I have to remind people not to bounce.”
All of which must speak to the way beautiful, powerful music — which “Dark Side” certainly is — can please and energize the spirit. Even if the words are saying something entirely different — even if they’re delving deep into that dark, mysterious, unsettling side of life. Heck, misunderstanding rock lyrics is usually more fun than getting them right.
So spread out your yoga mat, crank the volume up to 11 — and spine on, you lazy almond!
Off Beat lets members of The Columbian news team step back from our newspaper beats to write the story behind the story, fill in the story or just tell a story.
