There was a time when I would do almost anything for good food. In my 20s (pretty much through all of them) I could eat whatever I wanted without suffering any consequences except intense but surprisingly short periods of guilt and shame.

Some nights I would go to the store for that week's worth of groceries and come home with a pint of ice cream and a cherry pie, both of which I'd eat in one night.

It was only a few years into my 30s when I realized this wouldn't do anymore. I'd just look at something and gain weight. Eating whatever you want whenever you want can only go so far before fate or karma or whatever you want to call it comes calling to collect its dues. I cleaned up my act and started eating better and more sensibly.

A large part of my success with this came from two things: scented candles and glossy food magazines. I bought so many scented candles that smelled like cinnamon buns I thought I worked in a bakery and the amount of vicarious thrills I got from pouring through issues of Bon Appetit and Cooking Light (not to mention Cheap Eats specials for Baltimore and Washingtonian) was far more titillating than it should have been.

I used to laugh at aromatherapy, but there really is something to smell and the fact that a whiff of something can make you feel like you actually ate it. I can't really explain why looking at pictures helped so much except that maybe the physicality of looking at something can be almost as good as actually doing it.

Music also played a big role. My love for music grew and grew to the point where I'd rather spend any extra money I made on new cds or iTunes songs and because I liked (like) music so much, I suddenly found exercising more exciting than any food item I craved.

I'm not saying I don't have days where it's all I can do not to eat an entire Ben and Jerry's Chunky Monkey in one sitting or that I'm a skinny Minnie who doesn't have to worry about weight gain anymore...I'm just saying that my love for junk food only became cheap and sordid to me when I realized how many more uplifting things there are in life, one of the most important of them being music, a presence that is almost as strong as love as far as I'm concerned.

And one more thing: the tv. Turn it off when you're eating and you'll notice how much better everything tastes and how much slower you eat it. When I stopped associating food with the television I really started cutting back. I can't stress that enough!:)

I watched "Let Me In," the American remake of the Swedish "Let The Right One In" a few nights ago and I still feel kind of torn up about it. It's the most oddly touching and sadly atmospheric film I've seen in ages and it's as much about loneliness and feeling out of place in the world as it is about vampires.

Never mind that it's amazing just for the fact that it's a remake that is possibly better than the original...Let Me In also is intriguing and terrific because it captures the feel of the early 80s better than any recent film I remember and it makes you care about its central character Owen (a young boy tormented by his classmates and pretty much ignored by his over-worked and beleaguered mom) so much your heart physically hurts.

Of course how you react to the film may depend on where you're coming from...I was Owen's age in 1983 (the year Let Me In takes place) and I didn't fit in at all in middle school. And while another child my age who was also a vampire didn't move in next door to me like one does in the film, I certainly can empathize with how quickly and deeply you can form an attachment to someone who is as lost and as lonely as you are...

I can't recommend Let Me In enough. But it is not for the faint of heart at all, so consider yourself warned!!:)

Beer in Outer Space?

Thanks to insomnia and specials about The Universe on the History Channel late at night, I now know that far far out in space there are "beer clouds."


And I was so full of wonder at this I just had to get a second opinion online:


"Scientists said the cloud, located near the constellation Aquila, contains enough alcohol to make 400 trillion trillion pints of beer." 



read more here


I don't drink alcohol, but I definitely know people who will be both happy and sad to hear this...happy that so much beer exists, sad that it is so terribly out of reach!!:)

George Michael's understated album Older received little critical or commercial attention when it came out in 1996, but I remember liking the album a lot...or at least most of it. My favorites included the surprisingly touching and beautiful "Jesus To A Child" and the more upbeat "Fastlove" and "Star People."

But the song that spoke to me most was "Move On"...maybe because I was in the midst of wanting to be out of love with someone I was hopelessly in love with. The song was (is) pretty much exactly what you'd expect it to be about it, except for the fact it's sung like something would be in a quiet supper club late late at night when the singer is lonely, world-weary yet still somehow rising above it all with something approaching optimism.

The best part, the part that is so vulnerable and lovely, is when George Michael sings softly at the end, "I'm going to be lucky in love one day...going to be lucky in love one day" over and over as "Move On" fades out.

You're never really sure if he's certain of this little fact or he's desperately hoping he will...

A good cry or two...

I bought Everything Changed seven years ago and it still gets me to every single time I listen. Where is Abra Moore these days? Her voice and her music are too good to not be heard on a regular basis!!!


"Every once in awhile, something's got to break to give," Abra Moore forewarns in the opening track amid a heavenly, uplifting, gorgeously melodic declaration of love. The line foreshadows what awaits on Everything Changed, the most emotionally arresting account of a relationship's rise and fall since Matthew Sweet's 1991 masterwork Girlfriend. Along the way are several irresistibly buoyant should-be pop smashes--"I Do," "Big Sky," and "Shining Star" could all scale the charts--balanced against the more measured melodic grace of "If You Want Me To" and "Taking Chances." The deepest cuts, though, are the straight-shooting piano ballads including the title track and "Family Affair," in which Moore cries out, "Don't take away the one love that matters," her voice quaking with unmistakable heartbreak. --Peter Blackstock


Also unbelievably heart-breaking and quite wonderful is Glen Campbell's brand new album Canvas of a Ghost. It just came out today so I'm still soaking it in and will hopefully be able to capture how good it is tomorrow...