Just Plain Rough

Its been a rough couple days (weeks? months?) and I know they’re not going to get any easier . Time has literally flown, and I’m not the only person who’s said that. This year has passed like a couple weeks…I’m seriously beginning to wonder if there isn’t a strange phenomenon….global speeding up or something? I’m really not sure how I’m supposed to pull everything together in a couple weeks, amongst interviews and travelling, but clearly I have no choice. So I can just work at it.

Couple things to cheer me up/bring me up some:

1. Ingrid Michaelson (I discovered she’s the one behind that really neat Old Navy commercial tune, apparently i’m way behind thousands of others who found her the same way…”if you are chilly…here take my sweater…cause I love the way you call me baby” …and discovering a new artist is like opening a Christmas present)

2. Regina Spektor ( on the same note, though she’s not really new, just new to me, again thanks to a JC Penney commercial which plays Music Box…and her music is now coming up everywhere…eccentric and strange in a good way. I recommend watching her very neat videos on youtube. Fidelity is a great song to start off with, listen to it 1-2 times and you’ll be hooked. Also, side note, very intriguing accent)

3. The rain today which does wonders to calm me after a rough time.

4. Also Javabeans post on Tablo/Epik High, a subject that is always great to read/talk about:  freakin’ amazing intelligent rappers with great music, whats not to love? (check out www.dramabeans.com)

5. Ben Stiller’s new comedy The Heartbreak Kid, which is some crude, silly, stupid and often vulgar humor (kind of like the humor of Knocked Up), but a darn funny movie with no thinking or sense involved and without any connection to reality (as was Knocked Up, watch it if you haven’t). A good pick-me-up for dire times, when you just need to laugh it up. But then I’m a Ben Stiller fan so I’m pretty biased (Zoolander: Have you ever wondered if there was more to life, other than being really, really, ridiculously good looking? PUAHAHHAHA…GOLD!) Interestingly, the blond actress (Malin Akerman) is very, very much like Cameron Diaz acting/behavior wise. Or was it just me? I kept thinking it was her.

If you’re going through the blues like me or super duper stressed out like me or just overwhelmed with life right now, like me again, then I recommend some lavender or similarly calm smelling lotion, a cool pleasant drink you love, and some speakers to tune into Ingrid Michaelson’s The Way I Am. I promise her voice and music does wonders. Or you could feed into the melancholiness (sometimes thats the way that helps) with Keep Breathing (available on ITunes, on the OST of Grey’s Anatomy). Check out her MySpace page:

http://www.myspace.com/ingridmichaelson (check out an interesting discussion on her blog about her ’selling-out.’ I really don’t believe artists ever sell out unless they start changing up their music and style for business, but I know many people hate when indie artists start getting famous…fans of DMB, for example…its very cool of her to ask her fans, and there is some neat dialogue there about the subject)

And if you like what you hear: buy her music by picking up her CD Girls and Boys or purchasing through ITunes. I’ve purchased several, and no regrets. Each song is amazing in melody, arrangement, lyrics and her soothing unique voice. 

The Way I Am (Ingrid Michaelson. Girls and Boys)