Emily's May Inspiration "There Goes The Hood"

It was more than a restaurant, it was a symbol. And in the past decade, the last man standing in a sea of homogeny brought on by outsiders visiting the East Village on the weekends; dabbling in the hip, artistic, and edgy. Fact is MAMA'S was the neighborhood. At ten dollars a plate with a choice of meat and three sides, MAMA's was the spot you went for down home comfort. Nestled on 3rd St btw A & B, I walked past this soul food spot daily back in the nineties, sometimes stopping in just for a side of mash potatoes when the city got rough. They had the best veggies too, and if you didn't want meat you could get an extra side with their mac and cheese rivaling no other.

I encourage my yoga students to embrace change, to accept the only constant in our lives is just that. But as my old street in Alphabet City morphs into more and more sameness - that chain store, homogenized look that plagues our country - I have to cry out, 'Why this hood!?' Why the spot where artists flocked to so they could be different and accepted? With the fortune tellers, druggies, and performance artists singing their tunes, graffiti walls and dive bars that embrace all kinds... Why must the demographic who desires sameness, who feels more comfortable in an OLIVE GARDEN than an authentic Italian dive invade the one place on the planet where we screwed the Man?

Those who infest the East Village on the weekends are in no way supporting the community and those who inhabit it. They leave and go back to their commutes and cubicles, and tell stories about how they had a 'crazy' weekend in the village. We lived there, many old-schoolers still do. It's our home, and place's like MAMA'S, or the old KING'S PHARMACY replaced by a DUANE READE were our pride, our joy and choice to remain original, authentic to ourselves. Most moved to the East Village against their society's wishes. To a far away land where parentals did not understand paying a thousand dollars a month for a shoebox apartment on Ave C, but we did and sacrificed to be there. The natives know the secret to Alphabet City is its character, its funkiness, and constant groove we so adore. With the closing of MAMA'S, I dare say...there goes the hood.

PEACE,

Archived Inspirations

on Growth

Yin/Yang

Building a website is something I never thought I’d do, but then neither was moving cross country in a van with a boy from Cleveland and a dog named Sophe. When envisioning the yin/yang inspired theme I was reminded of my yoga teacher training days back in a loft in SoHo. It was there that I was introduced to the meaning of the intriguing symbol. Harmony. The interrelatedness of light and dark, good and evil, sun and moon, God and man, loss and gain. Somehow as a yogi, you were to be both at once. O.K. with either, attached to neither. My journey began in the extremes…

I love NYC. For five years I ate, slept, and sweat that city, so many triumphs along with character building lows. PLEASURE/PAIN An apartment on C, a play in TriBeCa, and heartbreak on Astor- I lived for humid summers and crisp falls. Although a girl from Wisconsin, I dreaded the winters secretly envying the “other” coast. WINTER/SUMMER Truth is I was supposed to “make it” there-a real actor who survived the grid. SUCCESS/FAILURE Deciding to go West was as hard as deciding to open my heart to another.

Admittedly, there was a new wisdom abounding as we crossed our beautiful country, an amazing New Year’s Eve in Arkansas and many a conversation through the massive state of Texas. BLUE STATE/RED STATE I was indeed received at Graceland and moved by the White Sands of New Mexico. And such courage as we drove into the smog! I must confess…

I hate L.A. As positive as I strive to be, allow me to just say it, “I hate L.A.” NYC/L.A. True we have space and live healthier lifestyles, but it’s awful owning a car and seeing bad theatre! Yes there’s Zuma Beach in Malibu and old time friends PROS/CONS, but my heart longs for packed subways, dirty bathrooms, and fierce opinions. Or does it?

Ay, there’s the rub: breathing in both, embracing each to exist in either. The grand impermanence of life is the greatest gift. How freeing to live for change. For in each day we are invited to dance with this truth. The sun rises/the sun sets, we experience joy/we experience sorrow, towers fall/towers rise again...and the lesson is to be content with it all. To love life for everything it is in each moment. As our hearts open fully in a backbend saluting the sun, so too do we surrender forward in a bend bowing humbly to our earth. It is in balance that true happiness lies. We know it in Sanskrit as “santosha,” absolute contentment. Life’s journey is to take the poles of each opposite and see the way in which they are ONE. AMERICA/IRAQ Lose your attachment to your polarized positions, (“I love NYC!” “Vote for Kerry!” “I hate winter!”) and all that is left is one peace. All that is left is santosha.

As we open our body/minds to the yin/yang of our days we find contentment in that which IS. An indie film shot in Silverlake, a surf shop in Malibu for all your rental needs, a swimming pool outside your apartment door, a yoga center within a five minutes drive, and a Los Angeles to balance a New York.

Hey- L.A.’s not that bad…

*Special thanks to Gary Harding for getting me started, to Stephen Bedrin for setting me free, and especially to Frank Donofrio for understanding all of me!

Check out scenes from Emily’s film, TUESDAY and her new Create Your Own yoga sessions!