Ninie Ahmad: Off her yoga mat.

Chris Martin in Baddha Konasana (heh, listen to me..)

My favourite yoga playlist  is my favourite 28 songs of Coldplay on iTunes to accompany my (on good days, errrr.. 110 minutes?) Ashtanga self-practice.

As many of you might have heard of my infatuation over Coldplay and its frontman, Chris Martin (no thanks to CLEO Malaysia MAY 2010 Page 125) – the more I listen to them especially when I almost died was resting in Balasana in between Bhekasana and Dhanurasana during my Ashtanga Second Series practice this morning particularly, all the more I (make) believe he was high on yoga (we yogi wannabes call it ‘yoga hangover’) while writing music and lyrics for their more recent albums (FYI, I read that he started yoga some five years ago and turned vegetarian + gave up coffee and alcohol eversince).

Just listen again to these tracks from X&Y (I’m going on the defensive here, ‘Y‘ stands for Yoga )

Fix You

And high up above earth or down below
When you’re too in love to let it go
But if you never try you’ll never know
Just what you’re worth

Lights will guide you home
And ignite your bones
And I will try to fix you

(It is such a soundtrack for yoga instructors I can’t help to not have quoted this to introduce BE Yoga’s teachers in BE Yoga’s website!)

Twisted Logic

Ask who does this belong to
It belongs to all of us

You go backwards but then you go forwards again
You go backwards but then you go forwards

X & Y

You and me are floating on a tidal wave… together
You and me are drifting into outer space
and singing

Oooohh, oooohh (feel free to finish your exhalation with additional “mmmm..” after “oooohhh”  )

and VIVA LA VIDA (which is still on heavy rotation in my car – and irritates my friends)

Life In Technicolour II

Oh love don’t let me go
Won’t you take me where the streetlights glow
I could hear it coming
I could hear the sirens sound
Now my feet won’t touch the ground

Strawberry Swing

Cold, cold water bring me ’round
Now my feet won’t touch the ground (two ‘now my feet won’t touch the ground’s! I’m pretty sure he was on One Elbow Pincha Mayurasana while WRITING this!)
Cold, cold water what ya say?
When it’s such…
It’s such a perfect day
It’s such a perfect day

I remember
We were walking up to Strawberry Swing
I can’t wait until the morning
Wouldn’t wanna change a thing

People moving all the time
Inside a perfectly straight line
Don’t you wanna just curve away?
When it’s such…
It’s such a perfect day
It’s such a perfect day

Notice how their songs are ALWAYS if not ever so positive, very optimistic, very ‘we-live-in-a-beautiful-world, yeah-we-do, yeah-we-do’ – SEE WHAT Y O G A DOES TO ROCKSTARS?

By the way , Chris Martin was voted one of Greatest Frontmen ever by Q magazine last month.

Now – remember the MTV World Stage’s COLDPLAY – Viva La Vida: Tokyo in which I raved on seeing him rolled back to Chakrasana (Rolling Wheel posture) in between the finishing of Viva La Vida and to start Lost!?

Guess what, I FOUND the Youtube (don’t blink during the first 6 seconds!)

.. and my very own Chris Martin here. Oh, I did share that too, didn’t I?

Three-Stripes intended

Love and ‘Til Kingdom Come.

After 11 years of yoga and knowing I have invested this much effort, THIS MUCH I KNOW – I won’t be able to enjoy the company of men that take pride in killing themselves and not understanding my quest of simply wanting to maintain 13% body fat percentage live longer.

I thought I will never experience the day where I’d finally meet another someone who is not intimidated of what I seem to be made of and who shares almost the very same values in life.

Until recently..

I think I might have just found my very version of Chris Martin.

And it makes me nervous.

‘Let me in, unlock the door.. I’ve never felt this way before..’

Those close to me will know that my car and iTunes only rotate Coldplay (and occasional Radiohead / Padi ) CDs and those who have visited BE Yoga’s website would have noticed I intentionally used Coldplay’s lyrics to introduce my beloved yoga teachers.

With MTV World Stage (Astro Channel 713) premiering Coldplay’s VIVA LA VIDA: Tokyo tour this week, it refreshes me of my day trip to Singapore in March this year solely to attend VIVA LA VIDA: Singapore.

During VIVA LA VIDA: Singapore, my jaw dropped when I witnessed Chris Martin dropped back to Urdhva Dhanurasana (Upward Bow pose) from standing! Only if you practice yoga, you will understand how preposterous this stunt can be unless you have perfect balance of lowest two chakras (feet and hips) strength, open back flexibility and of course, balance.

So I was looking forward to see the same pose from him as I immensely enjoyed MTV World Stage – Coldplay: Tokyo. To my surprise, he didn’t drop back in Tokyo (or I could have missed it / maybe he did but the clip was just for an hour) but – to my very eyes, I caught him rolling back to Chakrasana (Rolling Wheel posture) in between the finishing of Viva La Vida and to start Lost! Only if you practice yoga Ashtanga, you will have an idea how almost impossible it is to perform this Chakrasana vinyasa gracefully let alone onstage with concert costume and in front of twenty thousand people.

I know Gywneth practices yoga since she used to be bestie with Third Series Ashtanga practitioner, Madonna so I googled Chris Martin and yoga. And found out, Chris Martin not only does practice yoga (I have had enough of “I do yoga but the my last class was three years ago and I was doing it like once a month for a couple of months”, right..) but he practices Ashtanga at least an hour everyday for the past five years, a vegetarian (and vegansexual!) and for the world’s biggest if not coolest rockstar, HE DOES NOT DRINK ALCOHOL AND COFFEE EITHER!

Among my favourite online findings of Chris Martin and yoga is this article whose first paragraph ends with “.. but Coldplay’s Chris Martin is too nice.”

(FIONA) APPLE Hi, Chris. God, I’m depressed. I’m at the top of all these critics’ best-of-2005 lists. If only those old creeps bought records.

(CHRIS) MARTIN I wish I could be so fucking depressed! Maybe my lyrics would improve. Just turn that frown upside down, Fiona. Don’t you know Apples are my favorite fruit?

APPLE Hey, you stepped on my granny-apple-doll wood-carvings!

MARTIN Have you ever tried piyoga for that bad attitude?

APPLE I hate you.

I stand by my review of X/Y last year: The trouble with Coldplay is that, despite the calming, balanced, almost Enya-esque beauty of their music, they’re so denuded of danger, risk, grit, rebellion, and sexuality (apart from Martin’s ADD-style hip-thrusts behind his piano) that they threaten to become the musical equivalent of St. John’s wort.

So what is at play with Coldplay? What drives the music, the vision, and, oh, those much-maligned words?

I believe it’s yoga, and Martin’s ashtanga teacher Anthony Carlisi can confirm. Shortly after Coldplay’s Shoreline date, I tracked down Carlisi via e-mail and asked him if he believed the practice leads to good music and, really, decent rock ‘n’ roll — which most would probably associate with unhealthy and downright antisocial antics like rolling around in broken glass and doing lines of coke off speaker cabinets.

He replied: “Absolutely !!!!!!!!!!! (sic) In fact I just saw Chris in Phoenix before the concert there. He has been practicing now for several years. I visit and teach him and Gwyneth when I am in London. He was telling me that he loves how it has enhanced everything he does. His energy was electric at the concert…………….Great Show!!!!!!!!!!!!”

See? It’s not rock, after all, but yoga. All of which probably explains Martin’s greatest feat at the Oakland appearance: bending over backward while playing keyboards and touching the ground with the top of his noggin. Brings a whole new meaning to the lyric ‘rush of blood to the head.’

I don’t need to look elsewhere for a yoga rockstar inspiration when I can find one in form of Brit rockGod with yoga master’s mind and words (it doesn’t hurt that he definitely has a yoga body too).

I am praying with my fingers and lotus feet crossed to be able to live long enough to witness Coldplay live in more concerts, continue seeing lights / hearing enlightenments in their future albums (“Lights will guide you home, and ignite your bones, I will try to fix you”) and hopefully practice with Chris Martin in Mysore (the Mecca for aspiring Ashtangis) in the future if not in my nearest yoga nidra.

See You Soon.