every martyr in this jungle

( Work bitching. Basically, everything went wrong and I didn't breathe all night. )

But Copy Editor Brandon changed his dinner plans when I expressed a desire for a Chicken Grilled-Stuft Burrito, bless his soul, and now I have hot tea and chocolate-dipped biscotti pilfered from home, because my mother thinks I should lose weight but loves me more and so happily shares anything that brings me joy, and there's no biscotti to be had in this bloody county but she has a Costco membership.

So, in celebration of my hellish day being over, a few less chocolate-covered things that have nonetheless made me happy recently for you (songs are YouSendIt links):

NEWS The St. Petersburg Times is what newspapers in Florida want to be when they grow up. They're like an indie New York Times, with long narrative stories specializing in the people, not the talking heads. Yesterday, they ran a story about a Vietnam veteran father whose Marine son was wounded in Iraq last year, and how the process of his recovery has been healing them both. Expertly told, with compassion but without sappiness. I'm not sure it's good journalism – single source, no real time element – but it's wonderfully compelling, which is what any journalist worth her salt tries to be.

Apparently, there's a softer side to us all, including hardass Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, who has been quietly helping his friend's widow to find information about his possibly having survived a 1956 plane crash. It's... such a human thing for this man I've always thought of as immutable, cold and intimately familiar with the concept of loss being a principle of war.

FIC trinityofone - The Man Who Rose From Earth She posted a bit of the conversation that spurred this story at the end of it, saying that wingfic involving John Sheppard would be the "most angst-free wingfic ever." And yeah, this is what happens when something makes you that happy – everything else melts away. There's freedom in happiness, and I loved John's unreserved willingness to embrace it, even knowing the cost to everyone else.

corinna_5 - The New Math In which Atlantis plays yenta. It was… unexpectedly poignant.

siegeofangels - Business As Usual Aliens make them do it, and it's not the start of something beautiful. The way John deals through Elizabeth, and Rodney doesn't quite manage much beyond avoidance is so painful and just like two straight guys would react. Not my usual fare, as John and Rodney belong together forever is the mantra of my heart, but smart and honest, and that's special too.

MUSIC The Caesars - Jerk It Out The first time I heard this in the iPod commercial, I might have done something embarrassing like shudder publicly. Goes straight through me like a shot of adrenaline every time. (Bonus track: their kickass cover of (Don't Fear) The Reaper, though I do miss the cowbell.)

Prodigy - Breathe The cure for what ails you. Sublimation in crazy, angry rhythms that feel both finely balanced and out of control.

The Vines - Ride With Me You may know it from the Stargate previews hyping the second halves of their respective seasons. Very fitting and kicky.

Ben Lee - Gamble Everything for Love Song of my heart at the moment. Simple and sweet and so optimistic, it makes my jaded soul ache.

Sarah Vaughan & Peter Gunn - Max Sedgley I don't know who Max is, but when I heard this outside Starbucks, it sounded like Sarah had taken her action hero boyfriend's theme song and wrote him a little piece of her mind about what she thought of his absentee, womanizing ways.

Carbon Leaf - Life Less Ordinary Another hopeful little ditty by someone convinced of love and its obvious simplicity.

Oh, by the by, if anyone has Sarah Hammer's Lodestar, I'd be ever so pathetically grateful.

I posted these previously, but they kind of got lost in the belly of a much bigger, all-over-the-place missive. They deserve their own. Links are YouSendIt, of artists I recommend unconditionally:

Air - You Make It Easy
Each of their songs is like walking into a room I've always known and seeing it differently somehow.

Counting Crows - Mrs. Potter
A group you all should know about and adore.

Crowded House - Private Universe
Melodic rock, each song feeling like it was written just for the person listening, like notes passed in junior high.

The Decemberists - The Soldiering Life
They're one of the few exceptions to my no-indie-rock rule.

DJ Shadow - Midnight In A Perfect World
This song is a dream in every way.

Fiona Apple - Paper Bag
Will always be a Lambs story of callmesandy, so it's really Lance singing it in my head, but Fiona does just fine on her own, too.

Garbage - Cherry Lips
This was a tough call, but this was definitely my driving song of the year. Their Cup of Coffee, Queer, and The Trick Is To Keep Breathing had their places, too.

Howie Day - Come Lay Down
There's a very lot of instrumentation here for a solo artist, like he's thinking between the lines. His songs are like mini soundtracks to scenes in the life of a damned angel.

Ivy - Edge of the Ocean
Everything they touch is wonderful, but this is my favorite. It's pure hope, the kind that's thoroughly unrealistic and obstinately romantic despite the world.

Jude - King of Yesterday
He's ironic in the way that twists your mouth and earnest in the way that makes things seem possible. This is the latter. I recommend Charlie Says for the former. I love his choruses like JC's bridges.

Oasis - D'You Know What I Mean?
Teenage angst forever and ever, amen. When they sing it, everything is the end of the world or the heights of Zion.

Placebo - Special K
Lex's theme, in so many ways. Their stuff is like meandering through someone's mind, memories so vivid they could be your life.

Snow Patrol - Spitting Games
Slightly creepy, haunting songs all.

Yoko Kanno - No Reply
He's like the John Williams of anti-heroes, all epic crescendoes and broken hearts.

These artists couldn't go without mention, but I don't have the songs of theirs I really want to share, so just lyrics:

Rufus Wainwright - Vibrate
The Magnetic Fields - All the Umbrellas In London
Robbie Williams - Karaoke Star