The Drifting Encyclopedia exhibition closes soon

I've been spending a lot of time poking around on Design*Sponge lately, initially for design research for my internship, but now because it's got so darn many awesome DIY ideas. And interesting artists. And views into beautiful homes that I'll never be able to afford. (Hey, it's free to look!) And, well, it's just a gorgeous blog. (Have I just unwittingly swayed your loyalty away from my humble blog? You have enough love in your heart for both of us, right?)

Anyhow, in the spirit of Design*Sponge, I was inspired to post today mainly because of how much I love this image:

...which is of a piece on display in the exhibition The Drifting Encyclopedia, on view now through September 3 as part of Third Rail Projects at the World Financial Center. Here's a little text from their website about the exhibit:

"The Drifting Encyclopedia is an assemblage of American oddities, scientific and historical ephemera, questionable accounts and implausible representations thereof. Part Victorian cabinet of curiosities, part roadside attraction, this immersive art installation houses exhibits that echo the themes of unlikely connections and contemplates the actual, illusory and anomalous nature of love."

Can't be all bad if they're showing something as lovely as Ryan Benyi's piece above. Check it out before it closes next week. They've also got a ton of other cool free stuff coming up this fall.

The Drifting Encyclopedia
July 12 - September 3, 2010
Monday - Friday, 12 - 4pm
World Financial Center Courtyard Gallery

Cheer up. Summer's not over yet!

Just when you were starting to feel a little sad and a little lonely, thinking that summer was over...
More free outdoor movies!

This drizzly, gray, coolish weather has me thinking of fall and already feeling nostalgic for this summer, but it's a relief to know that there are still fun, free, warm weather things to do. Next week, the Central Park Conservancy (they of the fantastic free park tours) presents a teeny tiny "film festival" Tuesday through Saturday at 8 pm each night. Here's the lineup, with descriptions stolen from the Park Conservancy:



Tuesday, August 24: Fame (1980)
This classic ’80s musical flick follows students through their audition, training and graduation at the New York City High School for the Performing Arts. 134 min. (And by the way, if you can't make it to see Fame next Tuesday, it's also showing tonight in Astoria Park!)

Wednesday, August 25: The Taking of Pelham 1 2 3 (2009)
A remake of the 1974 crime thriller, armed men hijack a New York City subway train and hold passengers hostage in return for a ransom. Dispatcher Walter Graber (Denzel Washington) is left to face off with the crime’s mastermind (John Travolta). 106 min.

Thursday, August 26: Saturday Night Fever (1977)
This disco classic follows Tony Manero (John Travolta), a Brooklyn youth who feels his only chance to make it in life is as king of the dance floor. 118 min.

Friday, August 27: King Kong (1933)
In this cult classic stop-animation film, a giant gorilla called Kong attempts to possess a beautiful blond actress. 100 min.

Saturday, August 28: Manhattan (1979)
A romantic comedy about a twice-divorced writer (Woody Allen) who is dating a high school girl, and eventually finds love with his best friend’s mistress. (Diane Keaton). 96 min.

Gates open at 6:30, movies start at 8. Picnics are welcome! Showings are at north of Sheep Meadow, behind Mineral Springs (mid-Park at 69th Street). Enter the Park at 72nd Street.

Kronos Quartet Tonight!

Oh, DAMN. We're going to miss this one. But you shouldn't. You know Kronos Quartet - they played the most beautiful music for the most depressing movie ever. I'm almost late for yoga, making this post, but I had to tell you about this (see how much I love you?):

Kronos Quartet with special guest
Gamelan Galak Tika
Kenge Kenge (New York Debut)
Friday, August 13 at 7:30
Damrosch Park Bandshell (62nd & Columbus)
FREE

From the Lincoln Center Outdoors website:
Visionary precision, fearless exploration, and unlimited scope have placed the Kronos Quartet at the forefront of contemporary music for nearly 40 years. Tonight’s far-reaching repertoire features works by Steve Reich, Café Tacuba, and the world premiere of Christine Southworth’s Super Collider. Performed by Kronos with the 14 musicians of Gamelan Galak Tika (Evan Ziporyn, artistic director) using the virtual Gamelan Elektrika, designed and developed by Harmonix’s Alex Rigopulos (of Guitar Hero and Rock Band), Super Collider juxtaposes two sound worlds and traditions, the string quartet and the ancient gamelan, through the unlimited sonic universe of electronics.

Reentering the stream

After ten days out of New York City, blog-neglect guilt has me scrambling to throw together a blog post to make sure you haven't forgotten all about me. I'm digging through old drafts I've created over the summer as new free events find their way onto my radar. I have literally dozens of blog post zygotes that I haven't yet shared with you (which needles me with just a pang or two of blog-stingyness guilt.) As I peruse one potential post after another, though, I'm finding that many events have already happened, and are no longer relevant, and I'm having the funniest reaction. Rather than dismay, I'm feeling incredible relief!

The sheer amount of amazing free events to participate in over the summer here can come to feel more like a burden than a gift, and I must admit that I am breathing a bit easier in the face of this joyful eventlessness. A good friend describes New York as a rushing river of traffic: when you're in the flow of it, the pace is totally manageable, but once you're out of it for even a moment, it takes an immense burst of energy to gain the speed to reenter the stream.

So while I pedal and pedal to get back up to speed, here's today's free offering: outdoor yoga tonight with one of my favorite teachers, Dana Flynn (here she is, above). The venue is admittedly not phenomenal, but her energy is, and she revives even the most exhausted among us. See you there. 

Laughing Lotus Yoga in the Park
Wednesday, August 4, 7-8 pm
10th Ave between 14th and 15th Street
BYO mat, no registration necessary
(p.s. there are no changing rooms - come ready to move)

This is the end...and the beginning

While free dance performances can be, admittedly, hit or miss -- particularly if you are not familiar with the performers or the choreographer -- tonight's performance will assuredly be interesting and potentially awesome. My lovely friend Laurie B will be performing and I have never ever ever been bored at one of her shows.

CHRISTINE ELMO: This is the end
with performances by Laurie Berg, Megan Byrne, Jessica Cook, Elle Erdman & Janet
Wednesday, June 30, 8 pm
Kate Werble Gallery
83 Vandam Street

Whether on or off the proscenium, performance is happening. Identities are concepts inherited through a person's DNA. How those concepts manifest in time and space is the performance. In Elmo's most recent work, she uses extractions from your unison uses unicorns and her own DNA, both physical and abstract components to create a performance of a performance to be performed in an environment reserved for performance.

This is the end has been created on the premise that authenticity is an illusion rather than a reality. This is the end strives to not-strive for utopia. This is the end is non-repetitive pop. This is the end is a collection of peacocks, unicorns, pirates, parrots, shooting stars and singing men. This is the end is a social experiment that engages the directed performer and the voluntary audience in an environment that acknowledges what happens beyond the designed environment is all just the same.

Christine Elmo is a NY-based artist who writes and uses dance, text, bodies and inanimate objects to create performance that hyper-accentuates the 4th wall. Her live work has been presented with AUNTS, The Bruce High Quality Foundation, The Bryant Lake Bowl (MN), Dance Theater Workshop, Dixon Place, Kate Werble Gallery, Live Sh**, The Poetry Project and at the Sirály in Budapest. Her video work has been presented in Galway, Ireland.

Reading series in Madison Square Park

Madison Square Park is a favorite spot of mine, a surprisingly rejuvenating patch of green in the Flatiron District, and even if, like me, Shake Shack is not in your budget this week, it is a peaceful place to enjoy a (brown bag) lunch or read for a bit. If you haven't been there lately, swing by before August 15 to take in Antony Gormley's eerie and ethereal sculptures observing you from the rooftops. And if you're near MSP (yeah, we're intimate, so I'm allowed to use acronyms) on Thursday evenings, they offer a free reading series at 6:30 pm from July 1 through August 5. I'll definitely be there on July 8 for former NYT food critic Frank Bruni. Here's the lineup and a little text from the Mad Sq. Reads website:

Mad. Sq. Reads 2010
July 1 - August 5
Thursdays at 6:30 pm
At the Farragut Monument in the north end of the park

July 1: FOR THE LOVE OF FAMILIES: Dave & Jane Isay
Jane and Dave Isay: she writes about children and sibling behavior, he writes about mothers. It’s no coincidence that they’re mother and son. Dave is the founder of StoryCorps and the recipient of a MacArthur “genius” fellowship. His mother Jane is the author of Mom Still Likes You Best: The Unfinished Business Between Siblings (Doubleday, 2010).

July 8: FOOD NIGHT: Frank Bruni
Frank Bruni was born into an Italian family that equated food with love. As a child, he dieted with his mother; as a college student, he became bulimic. Before, in between and after, he gobbled crummy processed food, sleep-ate, and eventually pigged his way into size 42 relaxed khakis and no love life. Born Round: The Secret History of a Full-Time Eater (Penguin, 2009) is the hugely praised bestseller of the New York Times former chief restaurant critic.

July 15: TO THE MOON ON APOLLO 11: Craig Nelson
In Rocket Men: The Epic Story of the First Men on the Moon (Penguin, 2010), Craig Nelson “captures the drama and chaos of July, 1969 and the almost unbearable tension of the moon landing, (which is) described so vividly that the engrossed reader isn’t sure that Armstrong and crewmate Buzz Aldrin are going to make it.” (The Washington Post).

July 22: DONALD BARTHELME CONSIDERED: Panel Discussion
Critics can’t quite agree: was Donald Barthelme the end of modernism or the first practitioner of American postmodern narrative? Join the National Book Foundation and acclaimed writers Emily Barton, Tracy Daugherty, Stacey D’Erasmo, and David Gates for a discussion of Barthelme’s legacy, influence, and narrative innovations.

July 29: FICTION NIGHT: Allegra Goodman
Of Allegra Goodman's The Cookbook Collector (Random House, 2010), Publishers Weekly proclaims, “This dazzling novel is [Jane] Austen updated for the dot-com era, played out between 1999 and 2001 among a group of brilliant risk takers and truth seekers. . . . [Eventually] career paths collide, social values clash, ironies multiply, and misjudgments threaten to destroy romantic desire...this is Goodman’s most robust, fully realized, and trenchantly meaningful work yet.”

August 5: DOG DAYS OF SUMMER: Rachel McPherson
Rachel McPherson is the founder of The Good Dog Foundation, the largest animal-assisted therapy organization on the East Coast, and based on years of experience there has written the ultimate “dog message” book, Every Dog Has a Gift: True Stories of Dogs Who Bring Hope & Healing Into Our Lives (Tarcher, 2010). She'll be bringing dogs to love!

Lessons in nonattachment

Exploring my new city is a source of both inspiration and disappointment, friends. I won't say that the McCoy Tyner Quartet last night at SummerStage was anything short of excellent -- it wasn't -- but I went to it with definite expectations of what the environment would be like. These expectations included: soft, grassy, blanket-oriented seating; open, expansive park vistas; cool, refreshing breezes. What I encountered was a small structure tamed with artificial grass carpet, folding white chairs to which my sticky thighs clung desperately, and a cranky line of hundreds waiting to get in by the time we left after the first set. We had 7th row seats because my very thoughtful husband arrived at 3 pm to stand in line, but if we had both arrived, as I did, at 6:45, we would have been crammed onto the bleachers in the back. This was no verdant paradise.

What we did learn, though, was that just outside the official concert area is a huge, shady, grassy lawn, perfect for the picnic you're NOT allowed to bring inside and the peaceful feeling you want to have. There, fireflies put on a performance to rival the main act, blanket space is abundant, and overpriced vendors are not there to tempt you with underwhelming food. Folks said the sound quality was perfectly acceptable...which is all I'm asking for from a free summer concert.

So with that, dear readers, I'm christening Summer 2010 as the Season of Nonattachment, in which I will try to learn to let go of the expectations I have forced onto our new life here. It's time to accept, in a real way, that New York does not look, feel, smell, behave, or taste like San Francisco. In that spirit, today's offering: free meditation sessions at the Shambhala Meditation Center of New York. They offer weekly drop-in Learn to Meditate classes on Wednesdays and Sundays (donation-based, but I did not pay and did not feel uncomfortable). Weekly Group meditation is free and open to the public Wednesday nights and Sunday mornings. If, like me, you're not sure how to let go on your own, try a little guidance. It can't hurt.

p.s. Thanks to Mike for beautiful photos, as always.

Alright. It's time...

...that we talk about SummerStage. Honestly, I've been avoiding this one because it's such a MASSIVE offering of events that I wasn't sure how to go about describing it to you - especially since I've not yet been to one of the performances. However, that will all change in a few hours - Mike and I are going to check out jazz with the McCoy Tyner Quartet in Central Park tonight. The show starts at 7, but true to form, Mike has just texted me that he and a dozen other people are already there, patiently awaiting the opening of the doors at 6 pm. I am a lucky lady.

I'll admit that I'm not familiar with most of this summer's performers (except Jimmy Cliff, who is apparently a doctor of something, according to the SummerStage website). That's one of the glories of free shows, though: because there's no financial commitment, you can explore music and performance that you wouldn't take a risk on if you had to buy the ticket. Be empowered by this freedom, my broke friends! There are 33 free concerts at the Main Stage at Rumsey Field alone from now through September, and additional shows throughout the five boroughs, spanning Afro Caribbean dance, Italian pop, Jamaican reggae, Turkish rock, Mexican folk dancing, and more. Good old American snarkiness puts in an appearance when contributors from The Daily Show do stand-up comedy on July 21. Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater performs July 23 and 24, and beatbox artist Doug E. Fresh makes strange and amazing sounds on August 11. This is just a taste - you get the idea. Poke around the SummerStage website and see all that's in store.

Make your own kind of music

Each day I commute downtown at lunchtime via the N-R-W train at Times Square. I generally attempt to numb as many of my senses as possible, trying to forget the experience as it's happening. New York in the summer is a particular assault on one's delicate sensibilities - too loud, too hot, too goddamn PUNGENT (that's a nice way of saying "reeking of urine"). As a side note, I'm having an extremely difficult time negotiating crowded sidewalks lately - does that ever happen to you too>

Today, though, as I was shuffling along, the sound of a piano drifted toward me with the marvelous strangeness of music out of place - rich, full, lovely. It was a brief moment - I was, as always, running late - but it breathed a little life into my harried day.

British artist Luke Jerram has placed sixty pianos all over the five boroughs as a part of his installation "Play Me, I'm Yours". The pianos are an invitation to passersby to play, talk, engage, make music, pause for a moment, experience their space in a new way. Musicians (and would-be music-makers), yearn no longer for an instrument to charm - you've got from 9 am to 10 pm each day, now through July 5, to work your magic. You might just change someone's whole day.

Volunteer for the NYC Food Film Festival

NYC Food Film Festival 2010 Trailer from George Motz on Vimeo.

This is another example of an awesome event that you either can't afford or didn't get tickets in time for before it sold out - the 2010 NYC Food Film Festival is hosting a ton of chances to eat delicious food and watch films about that food - what better combination can you imagine? And here's your in: they are in desperate need of lots of volunteers. The festival begins Wednesday and runs through Sunday (July 23 - 27). The Food Bank for New York City receives all the proceeds, and they're coordinating the volunteer efforts - visit their online signup to get involved. The deadline to sign up has passed, but as a volunteer coordinator in a former life, I would bet my student loan money on them taking folks up until the 11th hour (but don't make them wait that long. Sign up now).

You've got a friend...who wants you to see more free music

I had no intentions of posting this one, not because of how early in the morning you must be there, but for a number of other reasons:

1. The Toyota Concert Series? Perhaps more aptly named the "Safety First Concert Series"...or maybe the "View at Your Own Risk Concert Series"?

2. How inclined are you to battle a herd of French 13 year olds on vacation or Midwestern grandmas with frosted hair at 7 am? About as likely as I am? (=not at all. Summer subway travel is perilous enough, especially now that one of my jobs is in Times Square.)

3. Honestly, something about the Today Show just gives me the creeps. Always has.

HOWEVER, when I learned that James Taylor and Carole King will be giving a short free concert tomorrow morning, I decided that I can suspend my judgment for just a day. The duo's Troubadour Reunion tour has been selling out stadiums all over the place, and their voices both still sound amazing. Bonus: on Carole King's website, you can enter a contest to win tickets to the show of your choice (which I probably am silly to tell you, since I want to skew the odds in my own favor, of course. But I can't help. I like you.) (And on that front: when you're down and troubled, and you need a helping hand...visit James Taylor's website and watch his heartbreakingly earnest entreaty to join his email list. You'll hope that he's adopting grandchildren.)

So anyway, the concert starts at 7 am, and they recommend you get there by 6. It's at 49th Street and Rockefeller Plaza. Details on other upcoming shows are here.

5/14 Sting
5/21 The Script
5/28 OneRepublic

6/3 “American Idol” winner and runner-up
6/4 Justin Bieber
6/8 Christina Aguilera
6/11 Rascal Flatts
6/15 Katherine Jenkins & David Foster (in studio)
6/16 Andre Rieu (Plaza)
6/18 James Taylor and Carole King
6/23 Herbie Hancock & India Arie (in studio
6/25 Maxwell
7/2 Maroon 5
7/9 Lady Gaga
7/16 Enrique Iglesias
7/23 John Mayer
7/30 Carrie Underwood
8/6 Train
8/13 Ke$ha
8/20 Keith Urban
8/27 Katy Perry

I'm sharing the love

I swear, friends, that this blog will not be SOLELY dedicated to free yoga events...but right now, that's what I've got a lot of information about, so I'm sharing it. So chant and be happy.

Want a spot on the Great Lawn for the big ol' yoga extravaganza next Tuesday? Those of you who read yesterday's post will recall that although the tickets are free, you have to WIN them - so not everyone who registered automatically gets in. I, however, scored some tickets, and have three extra to share. First three people to message me will get 'em.

Volunteering: it's not just for nice people

If you were planning to attend the Yoga on the Great Lawn event on June 22 (like me), perhaps you read the fine print (UNLIKE me) and discovered that you have to WIN the free tickets to the event. You can't just show up. Damn it!

But what you CAN do is register to volunteer (and by the way, my fellow financially-challenged friends, volunteering is one of the best ways I know to get to go to cool stuff for free): the Flavorpill team seeks 100+ volunteers to distribute flyers between now and June 15th and to support the event on June 22nd by arranging mats, checking in participants, and shuffling yoga participants around the space. All volunteers will have the opportunity to participate in the class and will get a free week of classes at YogaWorks. If you're interested, send an email to volunteer@flavorpill.com.

Take a walk, and learn something too

Ever notice how the weekend feels longer if you make it action-packed? I'm planning a multi-activity Saturday, starting with a walking tour of Central Park at 10 am. My friend Cris gives fantastic tours for the Central Park Conservancy, and this one is the Cross Park Promenade. I've always felt a little embarrassed to take tours of public spaces that are already free - shouldn't I be able to figure this stuff out on my own? The weird facts that you learn make these walks totally worth any lingering feelings of nerdiness, though - like how you can tell exactly where in the Park you are by the lampposts. (I'm not going to give up the secret - you have to go on the tour.) Mike and I recently took the Amble Through the Ramble tour, on which it really is possible to forget that you're in the middle of the world's 4th largest city (by population) - and isn't that one of the most delicious surprises in an urban park, when you momentarily forget where you are?

Tomorrow's tour meets at 10 am inside Central Park at Fifth Avenue and 72nd Street, in front of the statue of Samuel F. B. Morse (who shares my last name, but is no relation to me. My friends did used to prank call me in college, though, frantically shouting, "What's the code??? What's the code???" - and I never understood the joke until they explained it a full decade later.). Visit the Central Park Conservancy's calendar to learn about the many other free tours available all throughout the week, and give your brain some fresh air after a week under fluorescent lights.

Update: more free yoga!

Well, Mother Nature conspired to keep me indoors tonight, rather than at the free yoga in the park I had planned on attending...which was actually perfect. I spent a lovely cashless night roasting kale and cooking cranberry beans (using my all-time favorite go-to Jamie Oliver recipe and catching up on Top Chef Masters.) I'm grateful when the weather slows me down and guides me toward taking care of myself in a more subtle way. My fridge is now full of veggies for lunch for the rest of the week, and I am cozily moving toward an early bedtime.


I also cleaned out my inbox while lazing on the couch, and discovered another free yoga series to check out soon! Here are the details:

Yoga - Evening Salute to the Sun, every Wednesday, 6:30 - 7:30 pm, from June 9 to Sept 22, at the plaza at 66th Street in Riverside Park South (on the Hudson River between 59th and 72nd Streets). BYO mat. There is a TON of free stuff going on at this park, which I've just discovered. Stay tuned to future posts for more ideas.

Screw AMC. Catch movies al fresco...e gratis!

Going to the movies is one of the biggest pleasures I've had to put aside in my current state of brokeness. It's nearly impossible to justify a $13 risk that a movie *might* be good - whereas at least with a $13 cocktail, you know that you'll have a slight buzz afterward. But outdoor film series are the best answer to the movie theater dilemma: even if you end up hating the movie...well, you don't feel guilty leaving - it was FREE. And beyond all that: Bryant Park is one of my favorite urban havens. The way the lawn is snuggled in amidst the towering buildings makes it feel like a nest.


Bryant Park Summer Film Festival - Mondays, June 21 - August 23
The lawn opens at 5 pm for blankets (no plastic tarps please) and picnicking. The films begin at dusk (typically between 8 and 9pm).


JUNE 21
Goldfinger
The third James Bond movie has it all: Sean Connery, a catchy theme song, ingenious gadgets, scary villains, an iconic Bond girl, and a hair-raising climax inside Fort Knox. Honor Blackman achieves cinematic immortality as Pussy Galore. (1964) 111 min.

JUNE 28
Carousel
Shiftless carnival barker Billy Bigelow (Gordon MacRae) returns from purgatory to right some wrongs in this musical of Rodgers and Hammerstein's Broadway smash. Shirley Jones co-stars as the woman who makes Billy want to change his ways. (1956) 128 min.

JULY 5
The French Connection
Gene Hackman won an Oscar for his portrayal of Popeye Doyle, a profane NYC narcotics cop obsessed with stopping an international drug ring. Much of the action was filmed in NYC, including the greatest car/subway chase of all time. (1971) 104 min.

JULY 12
My Man Godfrey
Socialite Carole Lombard hires "tramp" William Powell as her wealthy family's butler. Not quite what he seems to be, Powell ends up teaching her frenetic household valuable life lessons. A wonderful mix of crazy screwball comedy and trenchant Depression-era social commentary. (1936) 95 min.

JULY 19
The China Syndrome
Ambitious TV reporter (Jane Fonda) and her radical cameraman (Michael Douglas) work to expose the cover-up of an accident at a nuclear plant, aided by an earnest shift supervisor (Jack Lemmon). Prophetically released just two weeks before the real-life disaster at Three Mile Island. (1979) 123 min.

JULY 26
Monty Python and the Holy Grail
A huge hit that introduced many throughout the world to the Python troupe's insanely funny characters including King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table, the taunting Frenchmen, Knights who say "Ni!", shrubbery, and one nasty rabbit. (1975) 90 min.

AUGUST 2
Rosemary's Baby
Roman Polanski's satanic shocker still packs a punch. Winsome Mia Farrow is married to a selfish actor (John Cassavetes) who will do just about anything to land a role. Ruth Gordon and Ralph Bellamy lend creepy support, as does the Dakota apartment building. (1968) 136 min.

AUGUST 9
The Goodbye Girl
Struggling NYC actor Richard Dreyfuss unhappily shares an apartment with an unemployed dancer (Marsha Mason) and her precocious 10-year-old daughter. Neil Simon's romantic comedy testament of just how the ones we grow to love drive us crazy. (1977) 110 min.

AUGUST 16
12 Angry Men
Henry Fonda is the lone holdout on a jury deliberating a murder trial on a hot summer day in NYC. A stellar cast of character actors lends superb support as jurors initially convinced that the accused is guilty. Can Fonda persuade them otherwise? Sidney Lumet's first directorial masterpiece. (1957) 95 min.

AUGUST 23
Bonnie and Clyde
Warren Beatty and Faye Dunaway are the two most attractive bank robbers ever to rampage across the Midwest. The supporting cast includes Estelle Parsons (who won an Oscar), and Michael J. Pollard as the gang's none-too-bright accomplice. One of the most influential movies of the 1960's. (1967) 111 min.

To get there: Bryant Park is situated behind the New York Public Library in midtown Manhattan, between 40th and 42nd Streets & Fifth and Sixth Avenues. Take the BDFV to 42nd Street/Bryant Park, or the NQRW to Times Square, or the 7 to 5th Avenue.

You too can afford peace of mind.

The biggest deterrent to mass enlightenment may be the high cost of doing yoga. Doesn't it seem like we'd all be nicer and...calmer...if it wasn't so damn expensive to sweat out our junk and quiet down our heads? I used this as my excuse for not practicing for my first few months in New York, and then realized that not going to class was making me crazy - literally - I was thinking mean, ugly thoughts, and feeling dizzy and spacy. That's when I got serious about investigating free yoga...and not just occasional events, but places where I could practice REGULARLY.

Summertime and warm weather brings with it a ton of options to take your downward dog for a walk in the park. All classes listed below are all levels, but contact the individual studios for details. Here are a few highlights:

TUESDAYS
Lululemon in Bryant Park: every Tuesday, 10-11 am, from May 4 to Sept 30, on the upper terrace. Mats are provided.



WEDNESDAYS
Laughing Lotus in the Park: every Wednesday, 7-8 pm, from June 2 to Sept 1, in the park at 10th Avenue between 14th & 15th Streets. BYO mat, if you have one, but they have a few available too.

THURSDAYS
Lululemon Union Square: Thursdays 8-9am, from June 17 to Aug 12, outside in Union Square Park. BYO mat.

Lululemon Union Square Mommy & Me: Thursdays 10-11am, from June 17 to Aug 12, outside in Union Square Park. Mats are provided.

Lululemon in Bryant Park: every Thursday, 6-7 pm, from May 4 to Sept 30, on the lawn. Mats are provided.

THURSDAYS
Bend and Bloom Yoga in Prospect Park: every third Thursday of the month, 7-8 pm, from July 1 to Sept 19, in Long Meadow (by the Grand Army Plaza entrance). BYO mat.

SATURDAYS
Lululemon Union Square: every Saturday (except some - check their website to be sure), 9-10 am, ongoing, 15 Union Square West (between 14th & 15th Streets). Mats are provided.

SUNDAYS
Yoga Sole in Prospect Park: every Sunday, 10-11 am, from July 11- August 1, under the big oak trees by the 15th Street F stop and the park entrance at Bartel Pritchard Lot. BYO mat.



Bend and Bloom Yoga in Prospect Park: every third Sunday of the month, 10-11 am, from July 1 to Sept 19, in Long Meadow (by the Grand Army Plaza entrance). All levels. BYO mat.

Lululemon Soho: every Sunday, 9:30-10:30 am, ongoing, 481 Broadway (between Broome St and Grand St). They provide mats, and breakfast! Just put on your blinders on your way in and out of the store so you're not tempted to compensate for the free yoga by blowing your rent money on new pants.

Lululemon East 66th: every Sunday, 9:30-10:30 am, ongoing, 1127 Third Avenue @ 66th Street. They provide mats, and breakfast!

ALWAYS DONATION-BASED
Yoga to the People: It's least crowded in the middle of the day but...it's always crowded. You're not the only one who's broke. Three locations: 12 St. Marks Place (between 2nd & 3rd Avenues), 115 W. 27th Street @ 6th Avenue, and 1017 6th Avenue @ 38th Street.

Laughing Lotus Community Class: Teachers in training provide donation-based classes everyday from 2:30 to 3:45 pm, Monday through Friday. 59 West 19th Street (between 5th & 6th Avenues).

UPCOMING ONE-TIME EVENTS
Monday, June 21: Mind Over Madness in Times Square, Broadway between 46th & 47th Streets. To celebrate the solstice, there'll be free classes all day. Pre-registration is required.



Tuesday, June 22: Yoga at the Great Lawn:Doors open and performances begin at 5 pm, class 6:45-8 pm. Yeah, okay, you have to sign up for Flavorpill emails to get in, but you could use a little extra culture in your life, right? They're expecting 10,000 people, and are already calling it the world's largest yoga event, ever. Really? This I gotta see. Free mats. Pre-registration required.

Is that enough to get you started?

Thanks to Alex at Yoga City NYC for many of these tips!