If you've been sitting around thinking about how your Christmas sucked...

...at least you weren't hit by a fucking wall of water traveling at 50 mph.

http://www.redcross.org/

http://www.msf.org/

http://www.careinternational.org

http://www.ifrc.org/


Music currently soothing the savage beast, serving as my pick of the week:

Neko Case and The Sadies - Jeezus K. Rist. I haven't shaken my ass this hard in a month of Sundays. As a holiday present to yourself, just go out and buy "The Tigers Have Spoken" - if you're in the mood for some down 'n dirty, feelgood kinda twang-core, so to speak. Seriously. Get your ass to the record store and buy this, tout suite. It's a fairly short CD, but those crazy for cover versions will go positively cuckoo over these live renditions of Buffy Sainte-Marie's "Soulful Shade of Blue," "Train To Kansas City" by the Shangri-La's, and Loretta Lynn's "Rated X." There's also a smattering of Neko Case's own handiwork, including the beautifully swirling beginner, "If You Knew." Her bandmates, the Sadies, pack a powerful punch, and Jon Rauhouse's pedal steel genius is the cherry on the sundae. "The Tigers Have Spoken" and James McMurtry's "Live In Aught-Three" make 2004 a banner year for live albums. Can't wait to see what 2005 will bring.

And if only Saint Etienne would cover Linda Ronstadt and the Stone Poneys' "Different Drum..."

Meanwhile, a girl will continue to dream.