Yoga Styles

My move to Santa Monica has both expanded and limited my yoga world. Expanded it, because now, in addition to going to the various Yogaworks locations, I'm also going regularly to Sacred Movement - a pretty spectacular studio. Limited it, because now that I can ride my bike to yoga classes I'm reluctant to ever drive to one. So I've pretty much given up on the Westwood, Montana, and Larchmont Yogaworks locations. I limit myself to Yogaworks on Main St, and Sacred Movement (... on Main St).

Which brings me to my main point, which is the comparison of the two. And here's the bottom line:

Yogaworks is for highly driven professionals - lawyers, executives, developers, doctors - those type A personalities that need to be sure they get a real workout when doing their yoga, always advancing, always pushing to the limits.

Sacred Movement is for the artsy types. Those that search for experiences, that want to explore their inner and outer selves, that value creativity above the push push push of gymnastics. Some of them may be great athletes, but they're looking for the zen of yoga, not that I'm-more-flexible-than you variety.

And what am I? I guess I'm more Yogaworks than I am Sacred Movement. Or maybe I'm 50/50. One day of Yogaworks and one of Sacred Movement is about right for me. But if I had to give one up, I'd have to admit that would be Sacred Movement. Gotta keeps those abs in shape...

Oh, and one point of advice. If you go to Sacred Movement, definitely try a class with Eric Schifmann. Unparalleled.

What Sells in Montana

More of my impressions from Montana:

One of my host's many friends, a builder with a wife and four kids was telling us about his wife's souvenir shop. He considers it her hobby. She doesn't really make any money on it. The only thing that consistently makes money in that shop is the tanning bed that be bought second hand a few years ago. The postmaster in particular is a regular.

See, vanity is not confined to L.A.

Men, Men, Everywhere

Blogging and filmmaking have not (for me) turned into ways of making a living. At least not yet. So for income generation, to maintain the lifestyle that I love, and to feel useful and appreciated, I turn to consulting (otherwise known as part-time or interim, or project work, and which I'll refer to as gigs).

So one of my new gigs involves work with a venture capital firm, doing some due diligence for them, and in the process of working it out, while in a car, I called my daughter and asked her to look up the bio of one of the firm's partners. She discovered, to her shock, that all 16 partners, associates and managing partners (meaning everyone that was listed as part of the "team", was male.

She was shocked, but I wasn't. Not because I don't find it shocking, but just because I know that that's the way it is. Now why is that so? Well, a friend that was over for dinner last night posited his opinion. Women just are not entrepreneurial. And being a VC, while not entrepreneurial per se, requires an understanding of entrepreneurs, and that, women just don't have.

Hmmmm. I don't know about that. Yes, women seem to be much less inclined to start tech companies. And in the few exceptions I know of, there's often a male partner involved, often a husband or boyfriend. Or maybe not less inclined, but less successful at it. Now why would that be? Is it because they're less entrepreneurial, or is it that the entrepreneurs they need for collaboration in an engineering environment are mostly male. Tough one to answer. Are there less female VC's because it's such a male dominated world, and men (like women, and like most ethnic groups) feel more comfortable partnering with one of their own? Is it because male entrepreneurs starting new companies feel more comfortable having a male VC on their board than a female VC? Is it because pension funds, even through run by women, are more likely to give their money to male-run VC firms.

I have to think about this some more, and will post a follow-on. Your comments are welcome.

Favored in Montana

I just spent a week at a friend's house in Montana, and had the opportunity to sample the local flavors. One of the dominant ones being, of course, beer. We went down to the local drinking hole one evening, my partner drank a few beers, I tried, unsuccessfully, to down one, and then moved on to the "hot apple pie" (a drink, for the ladies...).

And then in came a couple of super-cute 20ish guys with a few girls hanging on, got their drinks (not beers, some sort of menth something...) and thanks to my gregarious partner, the more rambunctious one started talking with us.

He's studying to be a pharmacist, because his father owns a pharmacy in town. He thinks there's so much to do around here. You can go off fishing, hunting, he has 6 guns in his truck, can't understand why most of the locals do nothing, just get hooked on crystal meth. He sees a lot of this. He's not a socialist, definitely not, but he's got to admit that he makes 70% of his income off Medicare and Medicaid. Those guys have it figured out he says. They get their prescriptions for Oxycontin. Buy them from him at $1 a pill, sell it for $40 a pill, make their $2400 a month, live well... Yeah, chrystal meth is big around here. It's what the local high-schoolers do. Whereas he, he's got his truck, got his guns, got his chicks. It was great to meet you. And off they go. In his HUGE big black Chevy truck, all decked out with guns and chicks.

It's the local flavor.