If you know my taste in music, you know I love some good piano-driven pop/rock. Well, this band's self titled CD is right in the pocket. Great hooks, musically and lyrically. Great sound. Great voice. Addictive.

My friend Alysha asked me if I liked bluegrass music, and my response was an unequivocal NO. But she forced me to listen to Punch Brothers' most recent CD, Antifogmatic, and I'm so glad she did! It completely defies genre. Is it bluegrass? Yes. But it's also art song, pop, folk, and it's juicy and delicious in the same way as Adam Guettel's Floyd Collins. Don't let the bluegrass label scare you away - no matter what you think, you must hear and own this CD.

Another Alysha recommendation, this Canadian bluesy, jazzy singer has a great voice for recording - clean yet dirty, loose yet tight, and she's always really musical. Try her CD Mess Around.

This NPR radio show is a great way to spend an hour. It's part news, part human interest, part educational, part humor. Really well-produced, engaging, entertaining, and provocative. You should subscribe to it at iTunes and automatically download it free each week, because if you don't get the episode when it's new, you have to pay for it.

Dan Savage is a really smart, funny sex advice columnist (Savage Love) who does a podcast version of his column. Hear his listeners' amazing questions and his equally amazing answers by subscribing to his podcast on iTunes.

If you like This American Life, you will also like Radiolab. The hosts are a little goofier, but the content is that same mix of entertaining and educational. Here's the iTunes link. Try it - you'll like it!

Here's a podcast dedicated to the fine art of storytelling. The Moth organization hosts live events chockful of people telling stories, and each 10-20 minute podcast episode showcases one of the best of them. Here's the iTunes link.

Everything you could possibly want to know about food, cooking, cookware, etc., this website is a compendium of recipes, product comparisons and reviews, and articles explaining scientifically why their recipe for [Chicken Parmesan] is the best. They've made 6000 pounds of it in their test kitchen, so they really do know. It costs about $35/year for an online subscription, but if you cook relatively often, it's SO worth it.

Online daily local deals - what could be bad? Most of the deals aren't that interesting to me, but every once in a while, I hit the jackpot.

Did you know that if you arrive at a website, having been directed from another website, the directing website gets a commission on whatever you buy at the second site? Well, it's true. And if you let Ebates direct you, they will actually give you back the commission. Why? I don't know. But it really works. I've literally made money just by going to Ebates first and then proceeding to whatever website I'm wanting to purchase from. (Everything from 3% cash back from Macy's  to 10% from Proflowers to 16% from Magsforless.) If you sign up, you'll get $5 right off the bat, and if you tell them that I (jeff <at> jeffblumenkrantz.com) sent you, I'll get $5 too

If you're a musical theatre performer, then you are probably faced with the challenge of learning new music for auditions with little preparation time. What Tom Griep offers (for a quite reasonable price) is an audio track of the piano accompaniment, with or without melody. It all happens electronically - email or fax him the music, and he will email you back an mp3 with whatever you need to get your work done. What a great service! Tell him I sent you.

This is the kind of page that makes me really appreciate the internet! Here is a list of many phone numbers and shortcuts to use when you're calling your bank/insurance/cable/shipping/travel/telephone/etc. company and you want to skip right to the live agent. Hallelujah!

This company, a presence in most major cities internationally, offers courses in how to be the most powerful, self-expressed, happiest you you can be. I've taken several courses there, and without exception, they've been immensely valuable. The prerequisite course, The Landmark Forum, is a not-so-distant relative to the EST Training. Rest assured, you can go to the bathroom now. This course starts on a Friday morning and goes from 9AM until 11PM or midnight every day until Sunday night, with a final session on Tuesday night. Sounds like a lot of time, but after you've done it, you'll be amazed how much they were able to squeeze in so quickly. I can't recommend this course highly enough. If you go, let me know - I'd love to hear what you got out of it!

Want to drop those extra five or ten pounds, but haven't been able to? Or maybe it's more like 20 or 50.... When I hit 200 lbs. a few years ago, I knew something had to change, so I joined Weight Watchers, and it works!! If you do what they tell you to do, you will get results! And you don't have to buy any special food or products. It's a lot about weighing food and knowing the nutritional content of everything you're putting into your mouth. I suggest attending the meetings. For me, it was a big part of the process. I hit my goal weight of 180 in a matter of months.