You've got to hear "Hey Now" by Augustana; it's just so so beautiful and raw and makes me think of something Jeff Bridges said in an article I read in Filter magazine:


"Be kinder than necessary 'cause everyone you meet is facing some kind of battle."


Sometimes when "Hey Now" shows up unexpectedly on my MP3 shuffle I catch my breath at how gorgeous and sad and comforting it is...and I think it's also talking about being kind to yourself, too! We all go through dark and lonely times (some people definitely have it worse than others and a very small number somehow manage to skate through life with very few problems) but giving into the pain in a permanent way is not the answer, is never the answer...somehow Augustana doesn't make all this sound trite and that's why I love the song with all my heart...

Oh how I love this book! I may have already blogged about this before...don't think I have, but IF I have, I apologize. It's THAT good, though. Earnest, sweet, funny, very engaging, sad and chock full of great characters, wacky adventures and unique story lines.

When it comes to the supernatural I've always thought if a writer were going to somehow tie in eating disorders it would be connected to zombies. But in Lonely Werewolf Girl the title character battles depression (among other things) after being thrown out of her house when she lashes out at her father because he and her mother hound her about not eating.

Sounds a bit odd, maybe, and even a bit over the top, but it's not. Martin Millar knows the heart and mind of a teenage girl...and perhaps that's one of the best things about this wonderful book...

I've often had dreams about foxes. Dream dictionaries state that this means there is an enemy hiding among your friends, but I don't buy this theory at all. In my dream, the foxes are always beautiful and friendly and I can see the burnished red color and texture of their fur as if they really are in front of me.

Dream symbolism is nothing more than an attempt by someone else to confine people's imaginations and lives into little square boxes where there is no room for anything but pat little cliches to thrive. I say let your dreams mean what you want them to...or even better....maybe just realize they don't have to mean anything at all!!:)

There is a point in many people's lives when they have been so hungry they have almost felt savage, a throwback to caveman times when you do whatever it took to get food.

Maybe that's why when I read zombie fiction or remember episodes of X-Files like "Hunger" (from the seventh season back in 1999) I think of disordered eating and a base kind of hunger that is more primal than anything else in life, including sexual desire. The kind of hunger that is more powerful than shame or dignity...that is so overwhelming the morning after you feel like you woke up with a stranger you did unspeakable things with...

If you're a serious X-Files fan you might remember the "Hunger" episode with Chad E. Donella playing a troubled young man with serious food issues. http://x-files.wikia.com/wiki/Hungry In one scene he is talking in a support group and he speaks of his hunger as something he can't control. Even though he does despicable things (in a nutshell: he eats people's brains) the viewer almost feels sorry for him....

Obviously they're not real and not nearly as animated or attractive as vampires, but I've always sort of felt bad for zombies for this same reason. In a recently released anthology called The Best of All Flesh James Lowder brings together some of the best talent in zombie fiction.

more on this later!

Guns N' Roses were never my thing the first time around. I couldn't understand the passion some of my classmates had for the band. But the other day I picked up Appetite for Destruction on a whim and now it's been on player most of the week. I can't believe I never gave these guys a thought way back in the late 80s when "Paradise City" was the place so many teens wanted to go.

If an album remains a classic (as "Appetite" has) then there's really no need to revisit it and wonder at its staying power. Classics never go out of style and besides, new albums (especially by talented emerging artists) probably deserve more review room anyway.

And really, who am I to say that Appetite for Destruction is amazing?...I don't write for Rolling Stone, I have no music experience at all and everyone pretty much already knows this was one of the most solid-selling albums in the late 80s, generating 4 Top 40 hits and some of the most wonderfully unrestrained sounds in rock history.

For me, nothing cures a bad day like coming home, putting on my headphones and listening to something freakin' wild that's loud and mean and isn't the kind of music you'd ever take home to your parents (unless, of course, they grew up in the 80s!)