• by whitley , August 19, 2005

Breathe magazine is not your typical tree hugger yoga magazine. It's yoga for the hip yogi, the one who was reading Wired and Wallpaper in the 90s, probably worked for a dot-com, probably got fired from a dot-com, and then decided to cash in on those stock options (before they became totally worthless) to go to India or Thailand for six months. Breathe is the much needed return to the present for the iPod generation, most of whom spent the last decade living in the future. This new yoga magazine knows its demographic well -- materialism and spirituality mix just fine.

The cover star is actress Julie Delpy in a new-age frock blowing in the wind Marilyn Monroe-style. The front of the book sells stories on Candlenut Body Cream right next to a piece about a 64-four foot reflexology path made with river rocks at Bastyr University in Seattle. Breathe is not about a kind of yoga that only exists in the studio. It's yoga for the way you live, travel, listen to music, cook, dress, and yes, decorate your house. Thus the tag line: Inhale Life (and - hint, hint - inhale lots of cool stuff).

The Material World section has sharp photography, but the products are a little yuppie and boring. I'm not sure what a crystal ambassador wine decanter has to do with yoga. The design section tells me that the Taoist decorating art of Wu Wei is the new Feng Shui. Rather than proper placement, it's all about "purposeless wandering" in the way you decorate your living room.

Also included, are the typical features on a new eco spa in South Africa and a trip to Myanmar. The modern philosophy column is written by Buddhist star Robert Thurman and is called "Robert's Rap." This month he takes on anger yoga. There is also a conversation between Moby and yoga star Eddie Stern, where we learn that they met over a pitcher of beer in the East Village long before either were communing with the music and yoga celebrity gods.

The editorial mix is good, but the articles are too wordy, too first person, and lack humor. One writer goes to see a psychic (albeit skeptically), another tries spiritual celibacy, Jeff Gordinier (Details editor at large) gets naked with Russian men in a banya in Siberia. I'm not sure what that has to do with yoga, but it definitely made him breathe.