Well, I guess I don’t necessarily fit in the new-age category…well, at least to some people. And to me being holistic means you gotta laugh – including at yourself and your beliefs – which many of us have a hard time doing (including this gal ~thumbs pointing~ sometimes).

But Fog and Smog Films, masterful creators of Whole Foods Parking Lot, are back with their next installment of new-age-gone-wrong: Yoga Girl.

Oh yes, yoga has become the thing associated with expensive LuLuLemon pants and hot women (we’re sure that the origins of yoga were very focused on the tightening of the buttox, of course), especially in places like LA and New York and other cities with a preponderance toward ‘physical spirituality’.

And so follows the hanging out of men’s tongues:

My favorite part?

Your aura’s glowin
your tarea steady flowin
I signed you up for my newsletter without you knowin

I wanna fly your whole posse to Varanasi
Or we could go to Goa, and sip some mango lassi

Cuz I love it when you call me big Ba Ba,
I wanna explore your bodhisattva,
unblock my chakras

Pass the yoga girl love along, my friends.

Drink More Beer! Hmmm.... / Photo: eschipul

Life and Loss

Something we don’t talk about nearly enough, the personal sacred rituals around loss that we participate in – even when we are supposed to be “over it” – may actually be the healthiest approach possible. Good for Yahoo for publishing this type of piece:
How Do You Grieve?

Throw it Back! Or Not

The cat is out of the bag all over the internet – heavy drinkers outlive nondrinkers! Go get wasted every single day! Dr. Mercola takes on this newly minted research with his usual I-don’t-buy-it-take. Though I don’t agree with everything he has to say, it’s important to remember that alcohol can be detrimental to people suffering from a wide variety of ailments (sometimes ones they don’t even realize they have):
Why Do Heavy Drinkers Outlive Nondrinkers?

Eat Vegans, They’re Healthier

The Veggie/Non-Veggie debate continues, but investigative journalist and all-around smart guy George Monbiot retracts his take on veganism being the only ethical choice when it comes to saving our planet:
OK, I Take It Back — We Don’t All Have to Eat Vegan to Save the Planet

Drugs, Drugs, and More Drugs. Oh, and Meditation

“There are, really, only two choices available to someone who wants to suck the marrow out of life: either continually seeking more extreme experiences, or making every experience ‘extreme.’” To do drugs or meditate? Maybe it doesn’t have to be one or the other:
Meditation and “Drugs”

Peace, Man

Next week is Peace Week. We need it! Here’s info about a free Global Telesummit to celebrate and kick our butts into gear:
Peace Week

Photo: suchitra prints

One of my co-editors at Matador, Carlo Alcos, took a particular disliking to a piece I wrote a couple of months ago called, Dating in 2010: Is it All Four-Man Plans and Online Shenanigans? Well, maybe dislike is a strong word, but it certainly triggered him. So we decided to hash-it-out, mano a mano, in the classy, mature way – on a blog for everyone to see (and comment on…hint hint).

Thing is, Carlo and I are generally nice, subdued people, so our conversation may not involve as many sucker-punches as you would have liked to see. For that, I apologize.

Carlo

I was going to write a comment in response to Christine’s article, but then I thought maybe my services would be better put to use if I wrote an entire post. So I emailed her to present my masterplan, then promptly forgot about it.

But the time delay worked out well because Christine’s friend, Vera (if that is her real name…which it is not), later responded herself in the comment area that the dating plan she was trying didn’t pan out so well for her. Which is what I was going to say anyway. So, in essence, it gives strength to this post.

Before I begin, I thought you’d might be interested in a bit about me. I am in no way a “dating expert”, psychologist, psychiatrist, sociologist, or any other type of professional who’s spent the better part of their lives studying relationships. But I am human. And I’m a guy. In fact, I’m a married guy. For over three years. So I think that qualifies me to at least be in the discussion. In fact, I’ve counseled many girl friends in the past on dating issues, mostly ending with the sentence, “maybe you’re just dating the wrong type of guy.”

When I first read about the four-man plan here I got really defensive for some reason. I can’t explain that reaction, but I felt I needed to respond. The gist of this plan is that a woman dates four men at the same time, with the idea that the men will be more competitive.

What I came to hate during my twenties was the “game.” And this is a game. I’ll admit I haven’t read the book, so I’m not going to sit here and attack this plan because I don’t know enough about it. (Although on the website it does say you “keep track of how you feel about each of them with the help of some visual graphs” which pretty much sounds like a gameplan.) And yeah, back then, I played it. Because that’s what you were supposed to do. Or, that’s what you were told you were supposed to do.

The whole “don’t call for 3 days, don’t let on how interested you are, play it cool” thing. It’s fucking ridiculous when you think about it. Why shouldn’t we be encouraged to express our thoughts and feelings? If everyone were just open wouldn’t that make things a lot easier? If you are the kind of person that likes to express yourself, and you’re with someone who gets freaked out because you tell him/her you like them, or you call them “too soon”, is that the kind of person you want to be with long term?

Christine

Photo: nattu

When it comes to dating, the thing about creds is, who really has them? In the immortal (ha) words of Carrie Bradshaw, “I’ve been dating a hundred years. I haven’t a clue” (yeah, I went there). Each experience is original in some way, though we certainly bring our very own colorful patterns to each dating dilemma.

I’m a horrible dater, as I alluded to (or insisted loudly) in my article. Never been good at it. Laid in bed the other night thinking about how I just can’t seem to be casual in my life about, well, anything really. But certainly not love and romance. A guy I dated a few years ago once said to me, “You’re too damn intense.” A version of that statement has been repeated to me many times before and since. Yep. I’m an all or nothing girl. What can I say?

Oh, I fight against it all the time. Although I would never have the energy to participate in the four-man plan, I get it. It’s friggin’ tough out there. As a woman, you can’t be too available – men like the chase (I think this is also often true on the flip-side, hence the whole “girls don’t like nice guys” issue).

If you say straight up in the beginning, “Hey, I like you. I’m feeling a connection here,” that often makes the other person friggin’ high-tail it in the other direction. The most honest I was able to be with my feelings early on was when I started seeing a man in an open marriage – and we both agreed we felt comfortable to not play the “game” partly because nothing long-term was at stake.

I think most of us wish we could be honest with our feelings right away, but the thing about feelings is sometimes they grow at different rates. I know that for me, there have been a few guys that I’ve dated who I didn’t really have feelings for when I first met them. It took time and persistence on their part to make me see how great they were. And really, most of the men I’ve dated for longer periods of time didn’t necessarily look at me romantically in the beginning – as our friendship grew, they became interested (and I know you guys out there reading this are calling bullshit, but I think it’s mostly true. I could always sense the shift).

I think it is a pretty normal human condition to hold your cards close to your chest. And if you’ve been hurt, or played by guys time and again, it feels like you have to play to win in this crazy game.

I lived in the San Francisco Bay Area for nine years. It’s so f’n hard to be a straight woman dating there. Whether you chalk it up to the amount of gay guys (although my gay guy friends seemed to have to play even more games), the higher ratio of (gorgeous) women to men, or the fact that it is a transient area with total commitment phobs, I understand thinking, “Hmm, I’m getting rejected left and right here. I need a new strategy.”

And so even though the Four-Man Plan ultimately didn’t work for my friend – and I didn’t really think it would over time – the experience might have been worth it within itself. Sometimes, it’s about resetting your own boundaries.

Check in next week to see the married and the singleton continue to duke it out.

Seriously, I'm struggling here
Photo: whatmegsaid

Wow, I almost felt yesterday as if I was going to be swallowed up like a building in that humongous sinkhole in Guatemala. Every time I looked to the top of my computer screen, my Alexa toolbar shouted at me about death and destruction: “Porn actor goes on rampage at video production office“, “UK taxi driver kills 12, wounds 25 in England” or “Holloway suspect sought in Peru killing.”

Holy mother of the universe, what the HELL IS GOING ON?

I needed some positive spin, and stat. I even went so far as to beg on Facebook:

um, is there ANY good news out there? If so, please point me to it because I’m currently overwhelmed by all the sadness and hatred I’m seeing in just about every article I read.

So in case you’ve also been having one of those days (or weeks, or months), here’s some good stuff to hold onto. Tightly.

We can survive a lot more than we think

Check out this coyote who survived being hit, embedded into the car’s front fender, and rode that way for 600 miles (be sure to click on the image to enlarge it). Yeah, holy crap.

Boldness takes us where we need to go

Don’t forget that boldness is a sustainable resource, you just gotta flex that muscle:

Many spend their whole lives without getting what, at its heart, is a very simple concept. When you realize it is now, not then, and you are safe, loved, and supported by the most important person in your life – YOU – you gain that wild abandon that’s inherent to the human spirit, not just children. You become daring and bold. And in doing so, you automatically replace fear with intuition and pain with joy. It is a different way to live. We can all get “there.” The way that journey happens is unique to each of us.

A note on “Authentic Male Energy”

I think it’s more than worth it to not only look at bringing back the feminine into our worldview, which has been forced underground by thousands of years of patriarchy, but to actually intertwine female and male energy, understanding that both are important and essential to our well-being. As Jim Tolles writes, male energy has become synonymous with war and winning at all costs, but that is about ego more than authentic warrior energy, which is present, and should be respected, in both males and females. Get it, Jim.

Sweet! We’re all a little nutso, and that’s OK

Creative or crazy? It’s a thin line…

By studying receptors in the brain, researchers at the Swedish medical university Karolinska Institutet have managed to show that the dopamine system in healthy, highly creative people is similar in some respects to that seen in people with schizophrenia.

So if that creative spark sends you a bit over the edge for a while, know that you are still “normal.” And maybe even venture outside of the box to see that those we have classified as “sick” may in fact have more wisdom and creativity than we give them credit for.

I don’t understand why my ears are hurting…?

And last, but certainly not least (thanks, @ryanhurd):

Lou Reed and wife stage ‘high-frequency’ dog concert

Music for Dogs, to be held outside the Sydney Opera House, is billed as “an inter-species social gathering on a scale never seen before in Australia”.

Yeees!

Please, please, please add some more funny, good, or interesting – from the positive side – news in the comments below.

Photo: Nad Renrel

Dating. Ugh, even typing the word makes me squirm.

Now, I’m hardly interested in being the Carrie Bradshaw of holistic dating. So don’t worry, this will probably be the only post you’ll see on this topic from me. And yet it’s such an endless topic of intrigue to most everyone I know, coupled or single, looking or content, that I feel compelled to write about it once.

Here’s my deal: if I would actually ever mark my relationship status on Facebook (yeah, I went there), it would be “It’s Complicated“. Not exactly single, but definitely not coupled. Does that put me in the dreaded dating category? It’s seems it might be so.

I’ve never quite “tackled” the d-world in the same way as most friends have. I don’t internet date, I don’t go to bars “looking”, I don’t get flirty at school, or work, or walking down the street. Yeah, I’m a pretty f’in bad dater. And yet the first thing I wanted to know when I visited San Francisco recently from all my single ladies was the dirt on boys (since interestingly enough, all my lesbian friends always seem to be in relationships), and how they were making it happen.

“I’m on the four-man plan,” my friend Vera* said.

“The waha?” I questioned.

“Ok,” we all hunkered down in my friend’s living room, glasses of wine perched in anticipation of the juiciness bound to follow. “It’s based on this idea that dating one guy at a time is for chumps. To actually find a relationship, you need to be dating at least, at least, four men at a time. That way, their biological drive to compete against each other means they’ll actually be working to get you, instead of just letting women fight over them,” Vera finished.

Photo: Bashed

“Hmm, so what happens if you actually LIKE one of the guys?” I ask.

“Doesn’t matter,” she answered. “ESPECIALLY if you like one, you need to keep other men in rotation to get that guy to a place where he is ready to commit. For instance, I have three dates tomorrow.”

“Three dates?!” two of us shouted in unison. “How…uh, when…uh, how are you gonna fit that all in?” Sarah asked.

“Simple. One for coffee in the morning, second one for an early afternoon walk around the lake, and third one for a late afternoon cocktail,” Vera finished.

Oh my God. I was sweating bullets just contemplating all the energy and chit chat that would take. But for people like Vera, who thrives in situations with new people, I can see how the four-man plan could work.

The next day, I learned that PlentyOfFish.com was in, and Match.com was out. How quickly things change, when just a few months ago, friends on either side of the country seemed to depend on the ole’ Matcheroonee. Now, all the “decent” guys had apparently jumped ship to where the fishies are aplenty.

“Wait, wait,” I asked my friend Nancy. “How do you figure out when to stop using one site and to start using the other?”

She replied, “It’s just like anything else. How did everyone know when to stop using MySpace and instead use Facebook? People talk, things are written, intuition is at work.”

Knowing me, if I ever decide to start internet dating, I’d be caught with the redneck sex offenders on Craigslist. Cause you know, it’s free and all.

Last weekend when I was visiting some friends in Raleigh, I asked a friend from high school, who recently became single, what she thinks of online dating. “Sorry, but I think it’s kinda pathetic. I mean, that’s not something we’d ever need to do.”

Photo: Made Underground

I realized how different the outlook on online dating might still be in Raleigh as compared to SF. “Well, most of my friends that are single in the Bay are gorgeous, seriously cool and smart. I think more people kinda have to use online dating – it’s seriously ridiculous out there. I mean, I barely “dated” anyone the whole nine years I lived there. Those guys get away with murder.”

“Yeah, but you still didn’t do it, right? And you had some relationships.”

Uh huh. With my boss, a professor, a trainer at my gym. Almost all situations were scandalous – and in no way, shape or form, normal. Why is that? Am I addicted to drama? Don’t answer that.

“And now you’ve got a good situation, right? Kinda.”

Yeah, kinda. Sometimes, I think about what it would be like to really put myself out there, to go sit at a bar and wait to be approached, or to walk up to that guy in a cafe and say, “I think you’re super cute. Here’s my number if you’re interested.” Then I remember I have rosacea and would turn beet red before I even got to his table. It might just be like the time when I was five and felt like the world was mine as I danced onstage with my jazz group. We got into formation and kicked our legs up in the air, moving in a circle, and I KNEW I was the shit…until I kicked myself in the face and fell backwards onto the ground.

That pretty much sums up my dating life.

Let’s hear how you are working it out in the dating scene these days!

*names have been changed. Duh.

Melanie Edwards the mixer

If you haven’t heard of Melanie Edwards yet, don’t worry, you will before long. This smart, gorgeous, hilarious, and poetic singer-songwriter has been rocking it out in clubs all over NYC for the last few years. Now, she’s put an insane amount of work and love into her first album, Between the Binary.

Like any project we develop and create, there is a holistic process involved that makes us grow as individuals and as a collective culture. Here, Melanie describes her own holistic reality of birthing an album, all while attempting to stay sane.

Living Holistically: What was it like to put together an album from scratch? It sounds like you basically orchestrated the whole thing by yourself.

Melanie Edwards: That’s a great question. First of all it was as simple and as difficult as having an open canvas, within any art form. For example, like having a lot of ingredients in the cupboard and saying, ‘right, ok, i’m gonna make this ________ kind of casserole.” I wrote the majority of these songs back in 2006, so the real challenge has been pulling these kids up by their bootstraps and birthing them in a way that sounds fresh, like I wrote them yesterday. It’s also significant to point out that writing and performing songs is a paradoxical feat, because you are always channeling your past mental albums and projecting them in the present, for instance, the people in the songs are very distant, maybe not even in your life anymore, however, you’re singing about them like these moments happened mere minutes ago.

There were several challenges, pros and cons, in putting this together. The project really involved getting the right team of people together, who I trusted very much. I trusted chief engineer, co-producer and mixer Tom Pastro with interpreting my heart, and conceptual designer, visual expert and lifelong creative soulmate, Christopher Pecoraro with reading my mind. What a burden that was on them! In addition, there are some extraordinary musicians featured on the album, which really flushed out parts of the songs, providing a new journey for the pieces to take shape.

A lot of the process involved living without fear of the result and trusting instincts. I’d recorded albums before, demos and small projects, but this was a virgin experience in making a debut solo record. There are a lot of intangibles, but, like any artist within their medium of choice, you have to dig deep within your own spirituality and convictions to channel the other side, constantly searching for clues. That’s the only real way to survive in invisible, uncharted territory. I will always remember trying to fundraise for the album and a 20 dollar bill flew on my foot, in the wind – signs like that are critical when you’re leaving a life of stability, to pursue a calling, you literally have to believe and listen to the wind!

LH: Can you tell me about the meaning of the title, Between the Binary? Does the meaning show up in any particular song?

Working it out on stage

ME: Well, Between the Binary revealed itself to me after reading a book on postmodernism. It just clicked. Basically the book preached about binary codings, in a series of 0′s and 1′s, and how everything pulsates on an electrical series of ‘on’ and ‘off’ notated by these foundational equations. This mathematical way of assessment drove me crazy, because as soon as you’ve defined something, it no longer has that mystique, that magic, and it becomes a commodity, a tangible work that’s up for grabs…all very black and white. Therefore, it occurred to me that art forms are what exists ‘between the binary’ and acts as inarticulated truths, the subtext of the reality. As an artist, particularly a singer/songwriter, it’s important for me to try and catch the pieces of the quizzes in life, sort it together and express the subtext of the situations, in their truest forms, before they’re manipulated and boiled down to binary codings of blue and red, democratic or republican, chocolate or vanilla.

Therefore, I think the concept shows up in all the songs, because each piece is a representation of my truth, as a constant truth seeker, like a mental archeologist looking for thoughts in the raw, I’m hoping they all rest somewhere between the binary. However, Laboratorium is literally about the challenges we face everyday, in our lives, trying to sort out our own constitutions and boundaries. It seems like as soon as we have the answers, something else falls out with weight somewhere else, and you’re scurrying around trying to find the answer to that chaos, so the truth is elusive and ever seductive, without a real answer. And we have to be ok and calm, realizing that everything just is, and to just be.

LH: I’m interested in hearing a bit about both your songwriting and producing process. There are a lot of people out there that don’t know where to begin with either – what inspired you? What kept you going when you would rather jump out the window?

ME: HAHA! Jumping out the window was really enticing at some points. The songwriting process is my absolute favorite part of the whole journey. Like the introduction to a new baby, it’s so much fun. They come to me at times when you least expect. Sometimes I’ll be shaving my legs and all of a sudden the entire song has come to me, other times, I’m on the subway and a phrase will touch me somehow, and I’ll scratch it down in my notebook and then find a hook when I’m home with the keyboard or violin.

I was inspired by my friends, family and fans, who were the ones who came to me after live gigs or wrote me notes, encouraging me and telling me how much the songs meant to them. They literally asked me to record an album, and even though this isn’t a full length LP, it’s still a small sample of the song-kids that the fans seem to enjoy most, with the addition of Daniel’s Lane and Laboratorium, both of which have never been played live with a full band, in this type of arrangement.

LH: I love how “laboratories” and “laboratorium” find their way into your lyrics and name. Obviously, you “cooked up” all of these songs, digging deep for lyrics and mixing them together, but is there a deeper meaning behind the word?

ME: Clearly I’m a singer/songwriter, but, I mostly define myself as a musical scientist, constantly testing chord structures, wordplays, subtexts and colors within my own laboratory. For instance, how does the color blue sound on a rainy day? And how do we demonstrate fire red via musical notation? Things like this are how I work within my own lab, which I recently developed, conveniently called Melanie Edwards Laboratories. This is a place where I can test a series of challenges or questions, and pontificate the conclusions, except I’m using my keyboard and violin as a microscope to further engage in these life obstacles and inquiries to derive some sort of result.

Pondering new lyrics

For instance, instead of a charted data graph of findings, like NASA would construct, my findings are via musical constructions. The thing is, nothing is ever conclusive, we never really know the answers, but I can record the results of these intellectual tests to capture one moment, at one time, in a series of moments, to reflect my authentic visions, my own personal truth and the memories I have in that one, original block of time. Afterall, time is the only commodity not up for sale and it’s crucial to make good use of it, so to have a recording of those unfiltered pieces, in a way, acts as the purest form of art, as nothing can be replicated again like that spontaneous portal of a time lapse.

LH: I heard it was you and a bunch of guys that put the album together. What was that experience like, and do you think that more “maleness” showed up on the album than you intended, or were you able to keep that authentic feminine quality?

ME: I had a lover once tell me that I am confined by men. I guess that’s true in some ways, in others not so much. It’s real, I was the only female in this project, from all the musicians, to the conceptual designers, to the project managers. The experience was really fascinating in so many ways, a real testament to gender studies.

Listen to a snippet of “Laboratorium” off Melanie’s new album:
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Don’t get me wrong, I adore men, I love the way they work on a technical level, especially, very no nonsense-like and not a lot of room for overly emotional cat fights. And I wouldn’t have trusted any other people to have brought this album to fruition. But, were there challenges? Indeed, but like with any project, you have to quickly assess how to communicate in the right way to get the goal accomplished.

I had to fight hard to let go of being a ‘southern woman’ about things and often times get in the grit and flex feminine muscle that hadn’t been challenged in that way before, while balancing the graceful approach, to keep the songs true to myself and to being a woman. However, there’s something to be said about having a plethora of men at the helm, because they were each able to balance parts of the projects that could become overly female, so that the yin and yang of everything, from audio to concept, were kept in a nice balance.

Gearing up for a performance

LH: I think most people would be interested to hear how you have built your career in NYC. Building an audience and a following is not a simply feat, especially in a city with so many magnificent underground artists.

ME: It was a slow and steady progression. I moved to NYC from Austin, Texas approx 5 years ago, with my violin and a crappy keyboard. Although I’d performed my whole life, this was a new beast, because, just as you said, there are millions and trillions of talented indie artists flooding this city. I’ve had to dig deep within myself asking for the universe to grant me a lot of patience, time to create and dedication to the art form, because living in NYC as an artist is nearly impossible.

The quality of life is ridiculous, you’re paying for a shoebox studio and you need to have the time to create your work, but also find a way to pay for your rent. It’s a puzzle that often has pieces missing and you have to sacrifice so much to maintain your internal truth. You have to give up normal routines, friends, family and absolutely everything has to take a second seat to this pursuit, and it can be really intense, lonely, complex and downright depressing at times. However, I can’t take the credit for a lot of my success and career, simply because it’s all not up to me. I’m just a conduit to the other side, merely fulfilling a universal contract. My fans and friends have been the extension of that contract, acting as the oxygen to keep the system fluid and whole, because without this great network of support, the whole ecosystem would crumble.

LH: What are you plans for taking your album out to the masses? Where can people find your CD/MP3?

ME: I’m looking into touring late summer 2010, to promote the EP, which can be found on most major distribution sites, like Itunes and Amazon. Also, all the album information and upcoming tours will be listed on the website, melanieedwardslabs.com.

To learn more about Melanie, check out her site, Melanie Edwards Laboratories. To purchase her CD, hop on over to CD Baby.

Photo: Sister72

To honor the wonders of Valentine’s Day (yes, I’m being sarcastic), we decided to put together a little prize package that includes a lot of truth around the ups and downs of love. The packet includes an amazing anthology from The Sun Magazine entitled, The Mysterious Life of the Heart, the latest movie from award-winning filmmaker Kara Herold, Bachelorette, 34, and a couple of other sweet goodies.

For the last 30 years, The Sun has published some of the best writing out there, ad-free, and this anthology of stories and poetry was painstakingly put together to represent their best works dealing with love. You will be moved, and shed a tear or twenty.

Bachelorette, 34 delves deeply into an area most single 30-somethings can relate to: the pressure to get married. In the movie, Kara takes a look at her mom’s bid to get her married, to anyone, and Kara’s own struggle between searching for the “one” and remaining fiercely independent. This film cuts to the heart of this generation’s power play between settling down or fighting against traditional family structures, opting for freedom and urban ones instead. For more on the film, check out Karaheroldmedia.com.

Bachelorette, 34

A couple of other little goodies will make their way into your Valentine’s kit, making the retail value of this prize over $60. But you can win it for free with just the click of a button! Just sign up for my monthly Health Update newsletter below, and you will be automatically entered.

If you are already signed up, shoot me an email that you would like to be entered in the contest. And, if you pass the word around to others, email me their names and email addresses, and if I see they’ve signed up, you’ll be entered again for every person who becomes a subscriber. In other words, if you pass this contest onto seven people, and they all sign up, your name will be thrown in the hat seven times.

The winner will be chosen and contacted on February 11th so that the prizes can get there by the 14th. Good luck!

Health Update covers cutting edge research in nutrition, medical/alternative health, and well-being, in fun, easy-to-handle bites. That way, you can one-up your friends about what’s happening in the world of health without reading through all those boring studies or incomprehensible articles. Here’s the February 2010 issue.

Hipsters are apparently on my radar lately. I feel like I’ve heard that word about 18 times in the last two days.

What do hipsters have to do with health? Well, nothing really. Other than they make me laugh. Where I’m currently living – Asheville, NC – is flooded with them. And I’m sure I’ve been called one at one point or another.

This is from the November issue of Paste Magazine, but in case you missed it, it’s a good evolutionary look at the development of a subculture (click on the picture to go to the original url and zoom in):

Hawt.

Seems there are many different outfits popping up to help people with the big problems in life, including being stuck on dating sites that mainly consist of ugly people, and advice about soft drinks and health coming directly from, you guessed it, Coke. I thought we should take a moment to think about how lucky we are to be living in the greatest of times.

But, this, without a doubt, is the greatest of the great: Gay conversion therapy.

On that note, after the “conversion” wears off, best watch this Single Ladies video and then make your way to 8 Worldwide Strip Clubs For Dudes Who Like Dudes.

Politics as usual, and unusual politics

How wonderful it is that the Dems are trying so hard to protect a woman’s right to choose as a part of the new healthcare bill. Not only will abortion not be covered by insurance, but neither will procedures needed around miscarriages, according to a piece at truthout. Take a minute to help keep reproductive health coverage in health care reform.

And, on the flip side, turns out wind farms in Spain supply the country with 50% of its energy needs. More importantly, “the total output of Spain’s wind farms exceeds the energy generation capacity of 11 nuclear power plants.” Ok, why do we continue to debate about the cost/viability of cleaner energy sources?

Simple beauty

I felt really lucky to be living by the Blue Ridge Mountains this year to see fall truly in action. But Lola Akinmade’s photo essay, Fall Foliage Tour in Maryland, made me realize there are many spots where nature both astounds and enlightens.

I will laugh, damnit!

I often forget how much this site makes me laugh: FU, Penguin tells the cute animals of the wild kingdom “what’s what.” Their latest takes on the colorful goodness of a Mandrill. Man, that stuff is funny.

In the end, all you may need is a little Muppet Beethoven to cheer you up.

Photo: adria.richards

Alright, even in the holistic health world, we tend to like our gadgets.

You go to yoga class, and the soft, calming music is coming from a never-skipping iPod. Everyone checks their iPhone or Blackberry right before and minutes after class. Don’t forget to take it hiking in places like Mt. Tamalpais, CA, whether or not you get a signal (my friend always has his). Ah yes, blissful living through technology.

Well, we also must live in the real world. So we need some real time applications, too, damnit.

Lo and behold, it’s the 20 iPhone Apps That Contribute to Our Health and Wellness! Now you too can be healthy with just the flick of a button!

Here a few that spoke to me, for one reason or another:

• Ok, I’m not a big fan of the The Food Scanner, which uses “iPhone’s camera to scan UPC barcodes on the foods you eat.” Reminds me too much of my nutritionist days where I had to input three days of people’s diets into software that took forever AND I don’t like perpetuating calorie-counting. But if you wanna know how many fat grams you are getting a day, well, looks like there’s an app for that.
• The weirdest (and most commercial?) one has to be the Cold & Flu Companion, brought to you by your friends at Zicam, cold and flu remedy! Yep, they’ll tell you the “percentage of sick people in any given zip code, what types of symptoms are most prevalent and which ones to look out for in a specific area.” Fantastic! No thanks.
• One I may try out myself is the Self Defense for All, which apparently teaches you both the moves and the theories behind them.
• And hells, yeah, they have a GoodFoodNearYou app! No longer will I use my out-of-date GPS search function for “specialty foods” or wait for a Google search on my iPhone for local health food stores.
• But the truly most new-agey one of all (awww, yeah) has to be the Pzizz Relax (yeah, trying saying it out loud). Their promo:
  

  Pzizz Relax is an an advanced relaxation system designed for iPhone. Pzizz Relax is perfect for those who work too much and hardly have time for sleep.

  It’s essentially like a relaxation CD, but it somehow remixes tracks so that you have different spoken segments each time. Hmm, intriguing. I’ll let you know how it goes.

Anyway, check out the rest of the apps and pass along your thoughts. If you’re a holistic health writer, these apps may also do you some good. And, of course, my ever present and aware friend, remember to tweet and use other social media to pass this information on.

Namaste.

Feature photo: SanFranAnnie