Monday, April 27, 2009

MY BFF Challenge


Tuesday and I were in Los Angeles visiting one of my BFFs, the lovely Miss Amy Devers when after a lengthy discussion about blogging, promoting one's awesomeness and undergarment grafiti, we challenged each other to post more and the next thing we knew we were purchasing flip video cameras to document not only this particularly inspiring occasion, but our careers, inspirations and lives in general. Whoa, that was one long sentence. If I don't post twice a week, I owe Amy $2 in our vacation fund. And visa versa. I've posted more than twice already this week. Oh Amy... how you doing?

First Flip video, shot in LA
Lips Official State Song?

Flaming Lips "Do You Realize" was voted down as Oklahoma's state song, BUT Governor Brad Henry says he's gonna sign an Executive Order to make it so tomorrow.

Read the article, if you like.

Flaming Lips, "Do You Realize?" Live on KCRW, 2004

Sunday, April 26, 2009

Tony! Toni! Tone!?

So it was one of the best junk food movies of last year and I can't wait to watch it with my husband on DVD. I'm talking Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist. Way back when Rachel Cohn and David Levithan's book came out, I read it in one day and emailed her for a list of her musical inspirations for the book. She wrote back and gave me a list. And it's so cool because her list follows along with the story and characters.

Here is a link to that post in case you're curious. And you should be. Rachel is cool. Her blog can be found at http://www.rachelcohn.com/
Goop, Gwyneth & Frenemies

Gwyneth Paltrow does this blog newsletter called Goop and she recently wrote about bad news friends. Seeing as my latest book is about being a better friend (and learning when it's right to cut your losses with a bad one) I thought I should write about Apple's Mom's take on the topic. And this is why her blog is pretty interesting-- she asks a question, in this case "why do we feel pleasure when we talk badly about other people"-- to several different spiritual people. And then she posts their answers.

Why do you think you get pleasure out of making fun of someone else? And you know we all do to a certain extent. I can admit it. And taking this beyond the goop question, what is the motivation for talking trash about a friend? What is the payback? Do we feel better about ourselves when we put other people down? And not to sound like a weenie, but is that any way to feel good? Aren't there other, far better ways?

The answer of course is yes. Yes, there are.

But don't get me wrong, I have to work at it all a little harder than I should, sometimes.

Saturday, April 18, 2009

Whoa! I'm available on Kindle!

Didn't expect that. Publishers don't tell you anything.

My book came out, unceremoniously last week. Still, my heart sings because it's a good one and I know I did right by my friends. Check it out, it's available on Amazon.com and other fine book retailers.