Five Things That Are Ringing My Bell, Currently (A List)

1) The Flaming Lips' album "Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots" -- ethereal, catchy outer-space music (I'm aware, I'm a few years behind on this one). I think this is one of those albums I might listen to every day for a month straight.
2) Rice Krispie bars
3) OKGO's "Here it Goes Again" video (below). I sometimes watch VH1 or MTV at the gym when the magazine/book/TV alternatives are poor, I feel like seeing "what the kids are listening to" and I'm sick of my iPod. I saw this the other day and, even though I was more than 60 minutes into a 70 minute cardio workout and decidedly unhappy, it made me smile from ear to ear.
4) "Empire Falls," the Pulitzer-prize-winning 2002 novel by Richard Russo. This book paints a bleak, hilarious and rich picture of small-town life in rural Maine and many of the characters remind me of folks roaming the streets of my own hometown in South Dakota. It's one of those books you really wish didn't have to end. It's sympathetic writing, the restless characters very memorable, and it throws in more than a handful of juicy plot twists.
5) Laughing at people who talk about a "liberal media conspiracy."