Blue

McGinley’s latest gallery show entitled Yearbook includes this shot of a man beautifully lost in the moment.

The Superior Person’s Book of Words seems like a gag gift you might get for Christmas, and yet, there are few moments more victorious than employing one of these words properly.

The second act from an episode of This American Life illuminates an important difference between perception and reality. It turns out that you can create an origin story for yourself without even knowing it.

No one ever accused Ellen Barkin of playing the part of a shrinking violet…and the world is better for it.

Remember when you felt like you were Jane Eyre? You related to every single emotion and thought Bronte wrote? Give yourself a mildly narcissistic boost by actually becoming the main character.

It’s safe to say the world would be a better place, if we all felt the exhilaration one gets listening to this song more often.

Bobby Womack knows what he’s talking about, so sit back and take it all in.

Canada’s favorite son Sam Roberts tells us what we all know, but don’t like to admit.

The Wayfaring Band organizes road trips and getaways for special needs children and young adults. There isn’t a more joyful and inspiring Instagram feed out there.

Poehler talks SNL, Parks and Rec, and the power of recognizing and embracing your ‘currency’.

A site that allows you to create and share your story, and view what others have to say without ads and other nonsense.

You know the feeling when you want soundtrack when you enter the room? This song is the perfect accompaniment to making an entrance.

Just listen to it.

The mystery of the nanny turned photographer remains, but her startling images of people in New York and Chicago provide vivid images of individual life.

Zadie Smith’s book of essays from 2009 can be described as a simple collection of musings, reviews and observations, but they paint a vivid portrait of Smith – and prove the 21st Century adage, ‘you are what you like.’

Hughes might be more well-known for his troubled marriage with Sylvia Plath, but this letter encouraging his son to embrace his ‘childish self’ is a thing of beauty and filled with advice we should all follow.

Susan Sontag is known for her writing, but after experiencing harrowing conditions in Sarajevo in the 90’s, she found a different way to exercise her intellect in activism.

Remember that scene from Saturday Night Fever when Travolta walks down the street to the BeeGees? David Berman’s Silver Jews brings the same swagger to give you a little confidence for your next strut.

We take for granted the many things our brain does so easily, this look at one man’s brain after an accident shows how quickly even identity can be lost.

Aleksander Hemon weaves an unsolved mystery and coming of age story into an impossibly beautiful tale of finding one’s roots.

A dispatch from a convention of ventriloquists that is both hilarious and enlightening.

Have you belted out a song today? If the answer is no, start with this ditty by Sara Bareilles. It’s infectious.

An intimate look at a culture and time that often gets lost in headlines and politics. In 1993, photographer Max Pam built a beautiful portrait of Yemeni Muslims during the holiest of months.

Paul Simon’s take on nostalgia is surprisingly open and cheerful. His reflections are on point no matter where you find yourself in life.

In this episode of the ESPN series, Brian Bosworth finds the up and downs of the reality that you are who you pretend to be.

Remember these? If only it was so easy, but the fact remains that we all have the ability to choose our own path.

This ingenious podcast is impossible to resist and a tremendous exercise in perception… not to mention storytelling.

Not even the most notable of voices was born fully formed, sometimes you have to find it. Poet Maya Angelou went through years of silence after a horrific rape before she discovered what she wanted to say.

Gil Scott-Heron was a writer and poet before he started recording music, and that fact is evident in this heartbreaking song. Money is a material thing, but it’s consequences run far more deep.

Fiona Apple is a master at depicting the complex inner voice of someone at odds with themselves and others. She cuts an image in such stark relief that you feel almost ruined after hearing it.

Hillary Biscay believed in herself when no one else would and went from being a terrible age-group swimmer to a world-class professional athlete.

This clip from Urban Dance Camp can convert even the most committed wallflower.

New research enlightens the possibilities of the magical thinking that remains even as we are long into adulthood.

So much of how we feel is dictated by our disappointment in ourselves and in others. It has never been captured better than in Saul Bellow’s award winning novel.

The Decemberists get help from Peter Buck and Gillian Welch to give some solid advice: “if you can be all dolled up in gabardine you are ok by us.”

Faking it ’til you make it or pathological liar? Either way, we’ve all pretended at some point. Jackson Browne just happened to be better at making a catchy song about it.