.Ani DiFranco.
Imperfectly

This is an awesome album. If you're familiar with Ani's later stuff (like say post-Dilate) this may seem quieter and simpler. There isn't as much drums and percussion on this album so it has a more "folk" feeling to it. It's a beautiful album. This is probably not her most controversial album but the messages and opinions are still there. What if No One's Watching is talking about the existence of God and it's kind of interesting. Fixing her Hair paints an accurate portrait of a lot of relationships in North America. It's almost scary. If It Isn't Her is an awesome song! The music is really moving, and the story it tells is so great. You have to hear the song. It's a story of girl-meets-girl, and what Ani says about the old boyfriend is met with the coolest response, "honey don't tell me that old story, you are boring me, just tell me do you like me? tell me what you gonna do now that you're free." Every State Line is sans music and it's incredible. Coming Up is great too, the echo-ing effect is wonderful, and it's full of feeling. Imperfectly (the title track) is an incredible song, it's a k ind of love song. The kind of love song I like, the best non-overt sexual lyrics I've ever heard come from this song. They're "Touch me where I'm rusty, let me stain your hands".

I love this album, it showcases Ani's voice and her emotion. Buy it!

.Ani DiFranco.
Living in Clip

yes that is 5 and a half little girls!

This is a rad-rad-RAD double CD. It was well worth the $38 I paid for it. Everything was taped live on location and it all rocks. On this CD you can hear a big variety of Ani's things. There is a total of 31 tracks. There's some early stuff, and some of her later stuff, including a couple tracks that were not released at the time this was put out. There's a track called "Out of Habit" which is as she puts it, "a snippet of the folksinger at 18", it's so great, and funny. This album proves what an awesome live performer Ani is. I love her studio stuff just as much as the next Ani fan, but the realness, rawness, breathlessness, and emotion found on this CD is incredible. Ani's voice is so raw and fabulous on this. Before and after songs listeners can revel in the humour of Ani's exchange with the crowd and her drummer, Andy (an awesome Canadian! Yay!). The best little story that Ani tells is about a couple of born-again Christians who sang "Did Anne Frank find Jesus?" (Well duh!?). A couple of songs merit special mentions. Hide and Seek is one of them, at the time it was performed it was just a "zygot" of a song, and it's amazing and full of feeling. Her live renditions of "Joyful Girl", and "Not So Soft" are just amazing. "The Diner" and "Shy" are so breathless and wonderfully full of feeling. It even came with a little book with great little photos of Ani, Andy (her drummer), and Sara ("the mistress of the low end") and her crew. This is the most fantastic CD I own. Everyone should go out and buy it right now!!

.Sleater-Kinney.
Dig Me Out

This is a pretty good album. One More Hour is an awesome song, it's a farewell song, and it's the best farewell rock song I've every heard. It's so beautiful. Heart Factory is really good in my opinion. It's kind of blunt and funny actually. Words + Guitar, Little Babies, and Jenny are also good tracks. This is the only Sleater-Kinney album I own, every other S-K fan I've talked to doesn't like this record as much as the other ones. This one is good, with a couple weak songs, but I think it's worth buying, at least borrow it off a friend and give it a listen. :)

Catcher in the Rye
by J.D. Salinger

This is a pretty good book. Before everyone out there who LOVES this book bombs my house let me explain. Before I read this book I heard awesome reviews from all my friends. The things I heard were so great and I couldn't wait to read it. In my grade 12 English class it was assigned. I couldn't wait to start it. When I started it, I was let down. The writing style really got on my nerves at first. It has since grown on me but it pissed me off at the time. Plus, it wasn't anything really new or that interesting. I read parts of it and said, "yah so... i've thought that/done that a million times". After saying that a few times I got kind of mad. The stereotypical-ness of that made me really mad, and I'll admit it made me mad that I'm sort of that stereotype too. There was a lot of symbolism in the book, and I really enjoyed that. Salinger illustrates the phonieness in our world too. If nobody had told me that Catcher in the Rye was supposed to be so GREAT then maybe I would like it better. It was too built up for me. Overall I think it's a good book, people should take it out of the library, it's quite honest and nice.