Pride

Friday night was another yoga "event".  Another Believe In CLE one - like the Rock Hall events of this year and last, or the Cleveland Museum of Art one. 

This last one was meant to correspond with the kick-off of the Gay Games, which started yesterday. 

While not officially tied to the GG9, the association tied-in and the yoga studio, Cleveland and the GG9 people certainly didn't seem to mind or object to the cross-promotion and exposure. And the cross-promotion was probably the best of all the events. 

Believe in CLE is a loosely run organization for residents (though mostly yogis) take pride in Cleveland. The GG, well, that is all about pride............and participation medals and probable Grindr hook-ups. Not necessarily in that order. 

Prior to, depending with whom you spoke the attendance was to be between 870 and 5000. That's quite a range, though it would be a stretch for Mall B to hold 5000 people horizontally.   ...and I think I just made a yoga pun.

Actual attendance was between 1500-2000 (no official tally yet, that I know of). It is fun to see the instructors I have currently or had in the past, the people from various studios with whom I practice or a few folks from other walks of life who happened to be there. 

Let it be known that yoga is supposed to be free of judgement, but sometimes I cannot let that go. No....really, it's true!

Whilst there were not 5000 people on-site, there was plenty of room to lay down one's mat when the person next to me showed up. If it were just him, it wouldn't have been a problem. But his wife (they both had rings on, so I assume....) was supposed to be helping and adjusting people. She didn't, as she clearly shirked her duties to focus her time on her beloved. 

They shared his mat....his one person mat...., so she ended up being about three inches from me, totally oblivious or just didn't give a fuck (I'm going for the latter). And of course, they were all over each other, in that 'get a room' way. And they had booze seeping from their pores. Lovely. 

So they made it really hard not to judge. Clearly, I have not gotten to that higher plane in my practice.

Still, the practice was good. 75 minutes flew by, actually. 

Afterwards there were the food trucks and 2000 yogis vying for them. I understand the business model, but I don't get it. Waiting 20 minutes to order and 10 minutes to get truck food, after you're already starving. Seems like a lot of wasted time and potential frustration. I don't know what the ROI is for truck owner either. How many people does one have to service to turn a profit?

I'm not quite sure who put on the art portion of the event, but it is bigger than the yoga event. It had more to do with the Gay Games. We just co-opted it a bit for that night. 

These were disks that would light up later.  ....like this......

The organizers also had that laser pride rainbow....or is it just a rainbow?......that you see in the title image. They had another one coming from the south, that I think was to connect in an arch, but it never quite made it....at least from my vantage point. 

There was also projected light show on the wall of Public Hall

I'd like to say me going had more to do about pride in Cleveland, and that was a nice touch, but I went for yoga and community. 

But it doesn't hurt to get to be seen with my "friend", Mike. 

Song by: Robert Palmer