The following article is a bit old, but very informative and quite interesting, especially for anyone interested in becoming a potential guinea pig in clinical trials...amazing that some people make a career out of this:

http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/15.05/feat_drugtest.html

The New Yorker also ran an article back in '08:



http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2008/01/07/080107fa_fact_elliott


and here's a website for clinical trials:

gpgp.net 

And if you live in the Baltimore area and pick up the City Paper...the back pages have several opportunities, though those clinical trials often seek a specific target audience...

Just added the seductively sweet "Favourite Things" by the Golden Filter to my MP3 player. Clocking in at 4 minutes and 33 seconds it seems a lot shorter and may tempt you to hit 'repeat' quite a few times.

Not the kind of favorite things you'd find in The Sound of Music. This stuff is funkier and definitely not the kind Julie Andrews had in mind.


Take a look at the words:

New York, Sydney, Paris, London, New York, Sydney
These are a few of my favourite things
Ice cream, chocolate, coffee, sugar, ice cream, chocolate
These are a few of my favourite things
Candy, lollies, kitties, bunnies, knee highs, stockings
These are a few of my favourite things
Vintage, dresses, vodka, whiskey, kitty, bunny,
Paris, London, sweet girls, cute boys, vodka, whiskey, cameras, pictures
These are a few of my favourite things
These are a few of my favourite things
These are a few of my favourite things
Vintage, dresses, vodka, whiskey, cameras, London
These are a few of my favourite things  

I love how 'ice cream' and 'chocolate' are mentioned more than once...definitely my kind of song!!:) My favorite music website (/http://www.allmusicguide.com/) has this info on them:


by Jason Lymangrover

The Golden Filter are an enigmatic New York electro duo that started gaining a buzz from their remixes of Cut Copy and Peter Bjorn and John. Even with their identities hidden from the Web, word of their music spread after they sent their first song, a breathy, arpeggiated disco jam titled "Solid Gold," to a few music blogs in the summer of 2008. Dummy magazine signed Stephen (production/synths) and Penelope (vocals) to their fledgling label soon after and the two made plans to play SXSW before going on tour with the Presets. In 2009, the Dummy label released "Solid Gold" as a limited 7" with "Favourite Things" as the B-side. 

I recently re-joined MySpace after having been a way for a long time due to some rather weird reasons. This time when I signed up I decided it would strictly be for the music and the potentially great groups and singer you can find there.

Peppermoon is one of the best discoveries I've made so far...although the group found me first, I guess you could say. Just click on the picture above to hear a sample or go to their Myspace page: gorgeous sounds!!!

Their music is in French (which I've become rusty at since my seven years of it in high school and college years ago) but it's so lovely and free and just really good!!! Music is the universal language, after all. Translation may help, but it's not necessary to enjoy, to take in the beauty.

http://www.myspace.com/peppermoon

I'm sort of in a funk today and listening to music from my youth...wow, I never really heard how sad "Ordinary World" is till now...

lyrics to "Ordinary World"

Came in from a rainy Thursday
On the avenue
Thought I heard you talking softly

I turned on the lights, the TV
And the radio
Still I can't escape the ghost of you

What has happened to it all?
Crazy, some'd say
Where is the life that I recognize?
Gone away

But I won't cry for yesterday
There's an ordinary world
Somehow I have to find
And as I try to make my way
To the ordinary world
I will learn to survive

Passion or coincidence
Once prompted you to say
"Pride will tear us both apart"
Well now pride's gone out the window
Cross the rooftops
Run away
Left me in the vacuum of my heart

What is happening to me?
Crazy, some'd say
Where is my friend when I need you most?
Gone away

But I won't cry for yesterday
There's an ordinary world
Somehow I have to find
And as I try to make my way
To the ordinary world
I will learn to survive

Papers in the roadside
Tell of suffering and greed
Here today, forgot tomorrow
Ooh, here besides the news
Of holy war and holy need
Ours is just a little sorrowed talk

And I don't cry for yesterday
There's an ordinary world
Somehow I have to find
And as I try to make my way
To the ordinary world
I will learn to survive

Every one
Is my world, I will learn to survive
Any one
Is my world, I will learn to survive
Any one
Is my world
Every one
Is my world

It's a quiet day and I'm catching up on news and other reading materials...just finished reading the article below...it is so very heart-breaking...be sure to read the posted comments (over 500*) following the article...maybe if there are much harsher penalties imposed on those who bully others, things like this won't happen...it makes me so sad after reading this:

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/30/us/30bully.html

More than one commenter says that the bullied girl is the one that took her own life, not the kids who teased her mercilessly...maybe that's what physically happened and maybe there are some kids who would have been stronger and been able to cope better, but the simple truth is we are not all the same in our physical and psychological make-up.

Who knows why some survive trauma perfectly intact and others never fully recover? It's not for us to judge what is going through another person's mind. Not all seemingly similar situations are equal...maybe one bullied teen has a better support system at home than someone who ends up self-destructing.


But the even more crucial question is: why was this behavior ever allowed in the first place? Bullying is a serious offense and one of the worst things that can happen to kids in middle and high school.



(*I mention the comments because at least a dozen or so of the posts are better-written and more heartfelt than a news story ever could be...)