Ugh, it’s already Monday?

It may be yet another week following far too short of a weekend, but there’s really no choice but to own up to the Mondays and dig in anyhow. I guess that’s part of why I write this Must Read/See/Hear series — to get over my “Mondays” and start the week with something good for me to share, and hopefully, something good for you to read.

Anyhow, here we go: new things for your enjoyment on a Monday morning.

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MUST READ

One of my favorite online reads is elephantjournal.com, a Boulder, Colo.-based blog, webcast, and general guide to well-being that provides a lot of articles relevant to what founder (and friendly face) Waylon Lewis calls ‘the mindful life’. If you ask me, elephantjournal.com really embodies what living in Boulder is all about: living conscientiously, and sharing that mindset with others.

Although I’m not in Boulder anymore — and I know that I’m pretty vocal about missing it so much — it’s really nice to be able to read about politics, spirituality, health and much more from the Boulder state of mind when I’m all the way out here in California. But the reason that works out so well is that it’s not just  ‘Boulder’ thing to be mindful of one’s lifestyle — it’s something all of us should be concerned about, and it’s relevant no matter where you live. I also follow @elephantjournal on Twitter to keep up with what’s going on.

My favorite pieces lately include posts talks about farmer’s markets and eating in support of sustainability and an older post about slow food vs. vegetarianism. There’s also a fair amount of humor and politics to go around, and I can always get a quick solution to homesickness with the abundance of videos featuring Waylon and the ele-crew enlightening and entertaining the Boulder community.

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MUST SEE

Thanks to elephantjournal.com, in fact, I saw this great segment of Jon Stewart mocking Glenn Beck on the Daily Show. Stewart channels Beck not just for the sake of comedy but because Beck, regardless of political affiliation, deserves to be called out for his absurd theatrics.

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MUST HEAR

“What? Jen, you like Spoon? No way…”

All right, all right. I know. I can’t leave it alone. But Spoon played at SXSW this week and the entire 18-song (!!) set that was aired during a live webcast is now online at NPR.org. It’s just way too good not to share!

If you like rock in any capacity, you’ll definitely like this. If you have never heard Spoon before, it’s a great opportunity to hear why they have such an incredible fan base. And if you love Spoon as much as I do, you can download the set and listen to it anytime!