from the vaults...a surprisingly good television soundtrack from way before Grey's Anatomy came along and made it a respectable thing:)


Have you ever been in a mood where you wanted to listen to beautiful, sad music just so you could feel? Not the "drink yourself in beer, my dog ran away, my wife left me" mood that you find in some country music (the kind that gives a perfectly respectable form of music its bad reputation among music purists), but the more understated, sophisticated, yet simple sounds of soft blues and jazz?
 
CROSSING JORDAN is a surprising treat, in part, because the music was recorded specifically for CROSSING JORDAN--in the same studio, with the same musicians for all the singers who contribute (except for "Black Coffee" a Rosemary Clooney standard perfect for the mood of this soundtrack.) "I Want to Be Your Man" by Sam Phillips (who also appears on another track) opens and "Black Coffee" closes an impressively together work and reminds you of the days when soundtracks (especially film) had a connection. Nowadays, films and tv shows pull anything off the music shelves and throw in on their albums. Not here!

Every song on here is gorgeous and the real treat is the star of CROSSING JORDAN Jill Hennessy. If you've watched the show, you know this girl has talent! If you don't watch the show (catch it in re-runs on A&E), then you're in for two good songs by an actress who can actually sing ("You're Innocent When You Dream" is haunting.)

Other stand-out songs: "Buckets of Rain" by Vic Chestnut
"Hang Down Your Head" by Lucinda Williams
"The Wind Cries Mary" Cassandra Wilson
"Pale Blue Eyes" Joe Henry

So find a quiet corner, dim the lights, sit back in your chair or bed and just FEEL!

Lately when I have insomnia I end up watching reruns of The Cosby Show. If there were any fictional household I'd want to have grown up in it would be the Huxtables. When I watch I feel ever so slightly envious of their family dynamics and how even when they disagree they still so clearly love each other. That envy, however, pales in comparison to how much joy I get from watching the show all these years later on TV Land or Chicago's WGN.

Bill Cosby and Phylicia Rashād played so well off each other as Mr. and Mrs. Huxtable that it was hard not to want to be in on their happy little secrets and mutual love for each other. Maybe I'm wrong or cynical but I doubt very much that a lot of children grow up seeing their parents interact so well.

I realize that this is a fictional family and that many families have problems and don't always see eye to eye or even get along that well. It's probably also a little fantastical to suppose that any real family has quite what the Huxtables had.

Still a half an hour or so a week of embracing the fantasy (just a tad!) probably doesn't hurt as long as things are kept in perspective. And what's even better (and so glaringly obvious in our current age of the disappearing sitcom) is how good The Cosby Show was...how well-acted and well-written.

When I was a little girl I loved "Peter Pan" more than any other movie and I read the J.M. Barrie book it was based on over and over again. As I grew older I (of course!) realized that Never Never Land was a luxury only children could indulge in and that it was most definitely not a place for adults.

But there aren't any rules than say occasional day dreams aren't allowed. A little bit of childhood imagination should follow us into adulthood to help us get through the really trying days!:) Visualizing a vacation in Hawaii (especially when you're waiting in a traffic jam) contributes greatly to inner peace~

This sounds like fun:

http://washingtondc.craigslist.org/doc/com/1677020068.html

Only on Craig's List, could you find this!:)

 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...