Snuggle up with your boyfriend/girlfriend/”let’s not even put labels on it”-type person and listen to this Spotify mix of romantical indie covers, featuring Bat for Lashes, Florence and the Machine, and She & Him. Alternately, you can listen while standing in the corner and moving your own arms up and down your back so it looks like you’re making out with an invisible. Funny in 8th grade, still hilarious ... Read More

  These rap and R&B votive candles from Chicago-based artist Meaghan Garvey are my current Etsy obsession. Paying tribute to a variety of artists both dead and alive, they make for conversation-starting decorations that both celebrate and poke fun at the idea of extreme fandom. I love them all, but the woman who belongs front and center on my R&B altar is Lisa “Left Eye” Lopes, for four reasons: She was a ... Read More

  Dear sir, I'd like to start by thanking you. I did appreciate the brisk efficiency with which you mugged me as I approached my front door this past weekend. Granted, I know your window of time was small since there was plenty of foot traffic on my block that evening. It was so bustling that as I walked, I let myself be distracted by the sight of a rabbit and a rat running alongside each other in the alley near my house. I remember ... Read More

Janet Jackson turned 46 on Wednesday, and this mix by DJ Brainchild showcases some of the brightest gems in her catalogue. Highly recommended! It may or may not make you do a weird shoulder-jerking dance while you’re sitting on the train by yourself! Thanks to Gawker for the link. It makes me sad to think that some people’s main association with Janet is the Nipplegate incident at the Super Bowl back in 2004. I can’t ... Read More

I’m no stranger to smut. Like many girls, my earliest sex-ed experience was thumbing through my mom’s Jude Deveraux novels, trying to decipher all the euphemisms in the sex scenes. I’m not personally one who, ahem, needs a lot of back story when it comes to this sort of thing — I prefer the short-form stuff (like BUST’s One Handed Reads!). But I’ve always respected the genre. I’ve always assumed ... Read More