Lately I am super-convinced that the most beautiful song in the world is "Your Arms Around Me" by Jens Lekman. See the expression on the album cover? That's how you feel when you listen to it...oh my gosh, lovely, lovely stuff. Jens Lekman, your name should be whispered with awe in every household across America!:)

As my insomnia has gotten worse, I've discovered an odd sense of comfort in watching Columbo on dvd, sometimes well into the morning. Maybe it's not that odd, though. Peter Falk always played the beloved detective in the most rumpled and casual way so that could be what ups the comfort level. He certainly is low key, not into tantrums or riling up things:)

But my comfort level also has a lot to do with the content of the movies themselves...it's a little more complicated than Murder She Wrote and definitely more clever, but not nearly as dark and complex as say today's fare...like the gratuitously violent Criminal Minds or the more sincere-intentioned but equally harrowing Law and Order: SVU.

When I was a little girl I always felt so safe when Mr. Rogers was on. I loved the way he talked and put things on and took them off. That's sort of how I feel when I watch Columbo in action.

I have never been the calmest of people. I've gotten better over the years, thanks to music and counting a lot under my breath, but there are still times when I have to concentrate hard at what I'm doing so I don't let stray, jittery thoughts in.

I used to know this quote by heart but forgot it somehow and who said it...but it talked about being able to find true inner peace in the middle of the worst chaos.

This is where Ashwagandha comes in, an herb I recently found at Whole Foods that has transformed my entire pre-bedtime experience. It hasn't completely solved my insomnia issues, but it sure has made it easier to unwind, to lay back and open my mind to nothing, even when the world and bills and worrying about family or friends threatens to swim in.

I don't really feel comfortable recommending something that may differ from person to person. Other herbs I've liked (let's say Valerian Root) have agreed with me, but almost sent someone else I know to the hospital because her heart started beating madly. Herbs, like prescription medicine, can be dangerous if not used right.

Still, I can't help but be excited about something that has made finding inner peace (at least in small doses) within my reach...and in this lifetime!:)

I am madly in love with this album...okay, maybe that's too soon a statement to make since I've only just heard the entire album today.

But really...the kind of things I'm feeling about Wayward Fire can only be called magical...like how I feel when I take out all of my so-so personal memories from the 80s and just remember how good (and sometimes goofy) the music was...the music you grew up with is (I think) always going to the music (for better or worse) that has an almost mystical hold over you.

Listening to Wayward Fire I'm suddenly that shy high school girl again, the girl who hid in her room on Friday nights listening to all the newest records and waiting for that one that would make the world a less scary, lonely place...the one you could dream your life by until the real one got better.

The Chain Gang of 1974 (great name for a band!) has the kind of sound that belongs in a John Hughes film when all the hairs on your arms rise and you get goose bumps because 'that special song' is playing exactly at 'that special moment.' I can't really define it, I just know not every group (then or now) has it. It's something very special.

I first discovered TCG1974 about a month ago when I heard "Undercover" through a Spin magazine sampler and almost jumped out of my skin. Its energy is instantly contagious and its sound reminiscent of Echo and The Bunnymen. It's the kind of song I couldn't imagine having a better successor, though I would soon find out it did.

But don't mistake a fascination for a great 80s sound for a lack of originality. These guys are awesome in their own right. I impulsively bought the rest of the album online today having only heard "Undercover."

With much relief and very little surprise I discovered Wayward Fire is full of great stuff..."Heart Breakin' Scream," "Teenagers" and "Don't Walk Away" are the three I've gotten to know and love the most in one day's time, but I have formed an attachment to the others as well...

"Teenagers," though, is the hands-down winner, the one that feels like a John Hughes moment, even if I am 41.

I know I've blogged about Black Tie White Noise before and that I've probably sang its praise once too often, but it's another rare album where I like every single song on it. It's so beautiful and sad and energetic and mysterious.

Surely one of his most underrated works ever, Black Tie White Noise may just have been a victim of bad timing. It came out shortly after Bowie's Tin Machine debacle (if you can call it that) and many hardcore fans with grudges were still thinking Bowie had sold out with the commercially successful Let's Dance (even if the title track is one of the most haunting upbeat dance songs ever).

"The Wedding" and "The Wedding Song" are so incredibly full of emotion, which comes as no surprise if you know that Bowie wrote it shortly after his wedding to super model Iman. "Pallas Athena" is both ominous (with its thunderous repetition of "God is on top of this") and pleasingly moving as a dance tune.

"Miracle Goodnight" and "Don't Let Me Down and Down" are lighter fare (in comparison with the rest of the material) but are so sincere in their plea for things to get better they are irresistible to anyone with a heartbeat. (On a side note of trivia, Bowie recorded the latter song in Indonesian.)

But whenever I listen to Black Tie White Noise it's always "The Wedding Song" that I return to...it's so earnest and beautiful and (just as I thought with the hit single "Let's Dance") oddly romantic and even kind of sensual...in that sensual kind of way only Bowie is capable of creating.