namasteph yoga blog

I went to the Los Angeles Convention Center yesterday for the Global Mala Project. Unfortunately, there was a terrible rainstorm, which in Los Angeles is enough to keep people from driving. (They should have done what I did, which was take the bus.) So the turnout, especially in the beginning of the day, was decent, but not the mobbed atmosphere I was expecting. In some respects, that’s a good thing. Who wants to be in a place so crowded you can’t breathe? Yet, it did feel like the energy wasn’t quite as vibrant and as exciting as it could have been.

This was compounded by scheduling issues. Unfortunately, due to some problems (who knows what), they got behind on their event schedule early in the day and this extended down towards the evening hours. The Yoga Trance Dance started over an hour late and before we could finish, the DJ was abruptly cut off by the Convention Center management. Our time was up. The DJ tried to keep going by saying “I was told I had 5 more minutes,” but the sound was cut off. It was a bit of a letdown, especially since we were shut down mid-dance.

Shiva Rea, as always, managed these issues gracefully and asked us to practice yoga as peace in action even though we were disappointed by the shutdown. We chanting a few oms and hustled on out of there.

But I felt I had enough by then. I had arrived a little before 1 pm. I wanted to see the Laughing Yogi but he was pushed back and only did a 5 minute presentation that was very rushed. Still, my friend and I were cracking up during the whole thing.

The sound system was horrible – and this was compounded by a small booth near the stage that had its own party, band, and loud music going on. The Saturn booth also seemed to have ownership of the Convention Center loudspeakers and kept rudely interrupting the events asking people to come over to their booth to sign up for a free car. (Hello, Saturn, this is not E3!!!)

Some poor Swami was trying to get people to meditate, to no avail. I could barely hear him, being on the outskirts, and the loud party booth on the right was very jarring. The Swami kept looking at the wayward booth with the funniest look on his face.

The best was Gurmukh, who, in spite of her soft-spoken demeanor, totally knows how to handle a large crowd at an event like this. The minute she picked up the microphone, she projected her voice and was in charge. She led us through a dance and some challenging Kundalini Yoga that was well-executed.

Following that, I had to volunteer. So I spent the hours from 4-8 managing VIP check-in at the front desk. Mostly, people were nice, but I would be lying if I didn’t tell you that a few people strolled in with some very high-and-mighty Hollywood and anti-yoga attitudes. But it was fun.

Gina, the volunteer coordinator, saved the day and managed a crew of around 100 volunteers over 12 hours with no drop in energy. I don’t think the event would have gone on without her.

Overall, the event was fun, with many problems. I’m sure they’ll work those out for next year, which I am looking forward to.