Mood:  bright

When Carla DeSantis' RockrGrl Magazine folded in 2005, I was crushed. From the time of its creation in 1994, I'd bought every issue faithfully, and even got DeSantis to sign one I'd gotten a letter of mine published in during the 1999 Lilith Fair at the Shoreline Ampitheater in Northern California. With Sassy long gone and Rolling Stone featuring Britney Spears seemingly every other issue, I didn't hold out hope for a good women's music magazine. The world was full of farting movie stars and abstinance education, and I was afraid for the future of intelligent reading.

The good news is that while I was bumming, a young woman named Amy Schroeder had been faithfully putting together a 'zine of her favorite gal musicians from 1995 - onward. Starting off in her dorm room at Michigan State University, Venus Zine eventually grew from a small, hand-made, black and white photocopy fanzine to a beautiful glossy. In 2006, it was purchased by Anne Brindle and Marci Sepulveda, two feminist music lovers living and working out of Chicago. Since then, the title has grown up quite a bit from the original idea, and now features music, art, crafts and awesome indie designs by some amazing people. While most of the focus is on women, the 'zine usually interviews a few hip men every issue.

If you'd like a subscription, or just a peek into what the writers of Venus are cooking up and recommending, head over to venuszine.com. The features section is updated weekly, and the magazine is published four times a year, it's the perfect antidote to the boy and bimbo-heavy world of most other music magazines.

Mood:  celebratory

While I look forward to engaging with my usual Daily Dose of Doom at Salon, Slate, Common Dreams, Feministing, CurrentTV and a whole roster of news shows out there, like a lot of people, I tend to get bummed out and feel a bit powerless if I read too much, or else I'm incited to anger so intense that all I can think about all day long is how I can help whatever cause it is that I want to get involved in.

GoodNewsNetwork knows what it's like, and Geri, a former White House reporter who founded the online network in 2007, is out to give everyone "a daily dose of news to enthuse." In exchange for your email addy, you'll get your fill of happy news to counteract all of the doom and gloom out there.

If it's true that the world is what we make of it, I suggest a healthy dose of both kinds of reality -- the great and the sobering -- in order to make the most of every day. As for me, I'll be sharing some cool and interesting things of my own in the month of April, and after that, we'll go directly into Dudes Month -- all about amazing men -- in the month of May.

Mood:  a-ok

Yep! It's true! I was on San Francisco's 107.7's The Bone Radio with Steven Seaweed on his "Hey Mom! I'm on The Bone!" broadcast yesterday, and am currently making copies to send to my own mom, who didn't get the opportunity to listen in from her home across the country. Being on the air was tons of fun, and Steven is an incredibly gracious host. If you're local to the San Francisco Bay Area, you, too can sign up for the chance to appear on the show.

Overall, I think I did okay, though, if given a second opportunity (pleeeze?). I think I could do much better. I'd had a long night previously, and had one or two awkward pauses (tho thankfully only one "um"), but as it was my first time on live, 100K+ listeners commercially broadcast radio, I don't think I did too bad.

Anyway, long live Steven Seaweed and the rest of The Bone's fabulous crew! You folks are the best.

If you'd like the opportunity to appear on the show, go to the station here.