I actually just ate there last night and had a fantastic salad with blackened tempeh. It was sooo so good.

According to the rules (http://www.quarrygirl.com/2010/01/12/free-food-at-veggie-grill-tonight-and-more/) you have to be a Veggie Grill Virgin to receive a free entree, and must be accompanied by a non-virg. Non-virg’s meal is not free. But. The two of you could split it.

This opportunity to try something new draws me back to the docu-film Food Inc., in which one particular family openly struggled with the choice of costly fruits and vegetables vs. uninsured medications for deteriorating health.  That The Veggie Grill is happy to expose people to plant based, healthy dietary choices, by willingly loosing profit, is commendable.

Kudos to Veggie Grill.  And to anyone who might not normally pay 8-12 dollars for a plant based, meat free meal, now’s your chance to try it out!

Right now I’m looking for someone who can commit to a few hours per week, on weekends. Once rapport is established, you will be entrusted with passwords and can telecommute. I’m happy to provide coffee and fun conversation in my home office, including the company of my kitten. That said, whoever you are, you shouldn’t be allergic to cats. I have an iMac computer for you to use, but you will be considerably more successful in the position if you are able to work remotely and thus, have your own laptop.

In leu of payment, intern will receive the following:
-I’ll probably kick you down some promotional materials once I’m done with them.
-I might get you to review some albums for me and let me know whether or not I should consider them.
-I will certainly invite you to shows/screenings, etc., so you can get on the job entertainment journalism experience if you are interested.

Interns at any level should apply, but preference will be given to those who are especially enthusiastic.

The lucky intern will do the following:
-Repost my promotional materials on my website, twitter, and facebook.
-Pitch my music column.
-Work on promotional materials for my podcast.
-And anything else you want to do. Some administrative tasks will include organizing mail, sending thank you cards to record labels, keeping office supplies in tact, etc.
-Eventually if this works out, you can do all of this from home and I will pay you in the neighborhood of $10/hr. But we’ll see how it goes and talk about it as things develop.

• Location: Studio City
• Compensation: Non paid to start; $10/hr once you get going.
• This is a part-time job.
• This is an internship job

And I was astonished to discover today that they re-ran the article as part of their Best of 2009.  That’s right homies.

Here it is, again.

Side note: The Official Rolling Stones are now following me on twitter!  And so can you!  http://www.twitter.com/ilovelisa.  Also you can follow my goat in crime, http://www.twitter.com/presbot

We love you.

L

A lot of the problem is some of the music is complicated to compare. You can’t really measure Eminem against Modest Mouse. And you can’t really measure Bruce Springsteen against LCD Soundsystem. While I’m happy to see good music is included on the list, I can’t help but also think the list is kind of cliche, and in some cases, negligent.

Surely Rolling Stone has some kind of advertising partnerships with a conglomerate who owns an agency, or a label, and that’s why some of these people are included.

Did I just give away a dirty media secret?

I think so.

Its so unfortunate to see how media can be swayed and purchased. Luckily I’m not for sale. I’d love to create my own weekly in print paper, swayed by no one, and distributed in a small community to avoid such idiocies.

For now, that’s Lisa, goating out.

Like I said, I’ve been busy protesting this place. Not because I hate it, but because I love it. There are so many deep seeded problems which need to be addressed if Vallejo will regain the meat that once made it so glamorous. So when I read about the current Mayor of Vallejo, and his referring to the LGBT community as being “sinners,” I flipped.  This, simply put, is bullshit and unacceptable behavior of any person, but especially someone in government and a position of leadership.

This is an artists representation of me.

It’s been quite a busy week in the Grrblast headquarters, with jobs and midterms coming up, so we are a little late on this weeks show, but next week’s show will be twice as good. I don’t like to do that, but sometimes life gets in the way, and you just have to keep on trucking.

I’d like to give a shout out to my cousin Jason who has a case of the Cottage Hospital blues. Hopefully he’ll get home tomorrow.

I’d also like to give a shout out to my favorite reporter, who is currently killing it daily in a major newspaper. You know who you are.

Keep on rocking.

-Matt

xxo Lisa

Mom, 1972

For the first time in over a year I smelled roses and didn’t gag. Everything about the situation was wrong: the 80-degree November morning and the roses themselves, sluggishly in bloom despite the season, and visibly waiting to be spared. And as I walked past the front yard that housed this odd scene, I caught a whiff. It was faint at first, but the farther I walked past, the more the fragrance grew. And as it rose, I admired the scent more and more until suddenly I realized there was something especially unusual, almost troubling, about this otherwise unusual scene.

I paused to consider the missing ingredient. It was the unmistakable odor of formaldehyde. This atrocious smelling chemical is used to treat bodies of the deceased between their autopsy and their burial, if in fact the family has chosen a viewing or open casket funeral. This odor, almost like a ghost limb, has been neurologically attached to the scent of roses since my mom’s funeral.

The lift, or disappearance of formaldehyde, is amazing. On some deeper level I’m sure it represents some part of my grieving process, a kind of letting go perhaps. The hardest thing I’ve ever done has been letting go of my mother who was dead the whole time she was alive, or at least the whole time I was alive.

It made me think about how comfortable people get in the recovery process. Like a bad breakup, it’s less frightening at times to hang onto bitterness and resentment than it is to drop those feelings and emerge into a new emotional place. At some point during my grief and recovery, I defined myself by it, so naturally I never wanted to let it go.

But I had a pumpkin pie to bake.

A few weeks ago a friend of mine explained the word “enjoy” to her 3-year-old daughter. She defined the word as “something you do for pleasure.” I hoped the little girl would say she enjoyed life, or enjoyed being happy, which is what I would have said if her mother asked me what I enjoy.

The roses, they don’t smell like embalming ingredients anymore. The war is over. I kept walking to the store; prouder and even happier than I’d been when I left the house initially. It’s 80-degrees in November and honestly, almost too hot to spend the afternoon in the kitchen baking a pumpkin pie. But the show goes on. And it’s better than ever.

–Lisa