You know how you listen to a certain song and instantly feel revived and happy? For some reason, most of those songs for me (with the sole exception of everything the Indigo Girls ever sang) are solidly rooted in the 70s and early 80s. I’ve no real idea why, other than I have sharp and [...]

(This is a re-post from 2009 because my head hurts and I like music.   Really, those are the two reasons.)   I’ve oft professed my undying love for music. As an angsty adolescent, I laid in bed with earphones every night, my yellow Sony walkman clasped in my hands, listening to the Little River [...]

  Everyone? When is the last time you felt completely at peace? That all was right with the world?   Please share your moment.   And adjunctively (possibly and probably a made-up word), is there something you do to reach a zen state?   Kindly share your mantra.   If you would, post your submission [...]

I am writing this for Auds’ beautiful daughter, Meg.   For some reason, I never expected to have children, despite Kathy King’s mumbo-jumbo “yarn” trick sophomore year that told me I’d be a mother to 16. I didn’t think I’d be married, either. I will admit that for awhile there, I DID wonder if maybe [...]

For as long as I can remember, I’ve watched my dad work hard. Beyond the norm, hard. Beyond the extraordinary, hard. He’s the sort to put his all into whatever he does and he gave his heart, soul, mind, and body to every company for which he worked. He wasn’t home much when I was [...]

Most days, I choose not to look inside and close “the room” to general viewing. If someone forgets to pull the door shut, I, unprepared for the vicious assault on my senses, cringe as I walk past, and pretend it doesn’t exist. Just doesn’t exist. It’s a figment of my imagination, a portal to another, [...]

I used to do this Playlist thing on here, and I miss it, so today I am resurrecting it for my own amusement.   Recently, I decided to give a listen to some “world” music and other tunes completely foreign to my element because I wanted to jump out of my skin a little. I [...]

I’ve oft professed my undying love for music. As an angsty adolescent, I laid in bed with earphones every night, my yellow Sony walkman clasped in my hands, listening to the Little River Band’s Help is On the Way or Chicago’s I’ve Been Searching So Long. Way before that, as a new-to-school third-grader, I stuck [...]

You wouldn’t believe the enormous writer’s block I’m battling right now. My brain’s shut down. Maybe to devote its energy to raising my serotonin levels. Seems like every sentence I write is clunky and humorless. So, let me just tell you that I’m walking along oceans, listening to music, and eating healthy. My mind and [...]

  This Sunday’s Playlist is dedicated to my mom, Angela, who would have been 67 today. (Please note that if you do follow that link above, I included it in the interest of full disclosure. I wasn’t all light and rainbows when it came to my mom. In fact, after she died, I was still [...]

Welcome!   It’s warm and sunny here in SundayLand, is it not? Also, did you just get back from church?   Being that it’s Sunday, I thought maybe you had.   Or perhaps you just had a Sunday brunch?   Or a Sunday walk with the family?   Better yet, did you just have a [...]

All these songs mean something to me.   None of them are random or afterthoughts. Each offers specific insight into the emotions that shook me this weekend, then left me to crawl on the sand of my husband’s shore. That doesn’t make sense does it?   It does to me.    

I’m sorry for the delay, it’s just that Spoorie had to be stopped.   So this playlist is special. This guy sang at my wedding and he is an awesome and insightful songwriter, and you hear him and think, “yes! yes! that’s how I feel, too,” and then you wish you could write like him [...]

  ALSO: Ends/Everlast I Feel Alright/Steve Earle For a Dancer/Jackson Browne with Venice  

This one is completely dominated by the artist we heard play last night.   And how about this? Please list in an e-mail or in comments or in your blog (just leave me the link) three songs you can’t live without (for now). It can be songs you’ve just discovered, or songs you’ve loved long [...]

Love Love Love/Tristan Prettyman Spanish Stroll/Mink De Ville Big Girl (You Are Beautiful)/MIKA Oh! (What a Glorious Thing)/Akira the Don When I Write the Book/Rockpile I Believe In Love/Indigo Girls Run/Indigo Girls Last Request/Paolo Nutini California Grace/Long Beach Shortbus I Saw/Matt Nathanson   And that’s the way I like it.  

If my emotions were mapped today, this would be the topography.   Darlin’ Do Not Fear/Brett Dennen Circle/Edie Brickell & The New Bohemians Kindly Unspoken/Kate Voegele In My Own Mind/Lyle Lovett Myriad Harbour/The New Pornographers Wraith Pinned to the Mist and Other Games/Of Montreal Diamonds On the Soles of Her Shoes/Paul Simon Silver Lining/Rilo Kiley [...]