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Since I was in Vegas for the Pubcon conference, I thought it would be a crime to leave without seeing at least on Cirque du Soleil show. The only problem was in the choosing. I have heard a lot about the “O” show and “LOVE” has gotten some rave reviews. But Mystere was showing in my hotel (Treasure Island) and when I decided to look into buying tickets, I was lucky to find that lovely single seat on the second row, center stage, right on the aisle. I couldn’t pass that up and it was a fantastic decision.

For starters, the comedy relief act was really clever and funny. Comedy shows and Circus acts are famous for picking on the people up front. Luckily a woman a few seats down from me got the brunt of the jokes so I didn’t get splashed, pulled on stage, put in a cage or taped up by a clown.

The costumes were very creative, the music was powerful and the artists were incredible. There was a constant texture of percussion throughout the show. At one point the stage was filled with drummers and the center point was occupied by an enormous drum with a head at least 5 feet across.

The most stunning act was of the “strong men” who leveraged their strength and weight in ways that defied physics and seemed humanly impossible. At one point, one of the performers was doing a one-handed hand stand on top of the other performer’s head. At another point in the show, artists climbed up poles…except that they held their bodies out horizontal from the vertical pole, arms extended, and moved up and down the poles with amazing synchronicity.

The see-saw act was also amazing. In rapid-fire fashion, one artist after another jumped on their see-saw end to send the other side flying in the air and ultimately stacking up to 4 people in a vertical pile. The trapeze artists were perfectly synchronized and flipped and flew threw the air and landed with the ease and softness of human cats.

I can’t imagine the stage show would travel well. That would be a huge undertaking. Platforms disappeared and gave way to different stages with different props every few minutes. It was a constant barrage of amazement.

If you’re ever in Vegas, see one of these shows. You won’t forget it.

My office is minutes away from Atlanta Hot Yoga. My Ashtanga practice has been a bit scattered lately as my home studio is too close to the baby’s room (and I don’t EVEN want to risk waking up a sleeping baby) and Atlanta Yoga is too much of a trek. So I have kept my eyes open for other options. I attended couple of Bikram classes in Alpharetta recently but I was a little hesitant about re-engaging that style of yoga. It’s not that I don’t think the practice is beneficial, it’s the generally strict style that has always been a bit of a turn-off.

For instance, in my most recent visits to a Bikram class the teacher barked at me in front of the whole class, “That’s a towel? I could use that to blow my nose. That towel is more like toilet paper!” The next class was followed by a strong critique of one of my postures: “What’s wrong, aren’t you supposed to be a teacher or something?”

Granted, I have certainly encountered Ashtanga teachers (and Iyengar, and Kripalu teachers as well…) that wanted to assert their authority over the class which kinda made the whole experience suck. But I try to keep an open mind so I decided to give the local studio a try. It was convenient, after all.

I stopped in on a Monday evening and Wes was teaching. I was surprised when he recognized me as a teacher (Atlanta is a big city) and fully expected to be ostracized as per my previous experience. But that wasn’t the case at all. The class was very pleasant (and very hot and difficult) but there was nothing but kindness from the teacher. That made a big difference and made me much more inclined to support the studio.