Things That Matter To People Who Matter

iLife books | Arrested Development | Kombucha tea | Buy Fresh, Buy Local

iLife books

I am totally into and absolutely crazy about iLife books on Mac. It's like a revelation brought down from the heavens above. I implore you to try it out � you will certainly be pleased and envied! It's so simple and easy. All you do is select a template and drop in your sweet iPhotos, then order that sucker and voila! You have your own pro-looking book to amaze all of your friends. So many possibilities to explore with this form of personal publishing ranging from highlighting memorable celebrations to a presentation catalog to a little soft-porn pillow book just for you and your sweetie.

�Candy Depew

Sculpture artist, founder, www.candycoated.org

Arrested Development

Arrested Development is the greatest show you are not watching. Yes, it was canceled a year ago, but it's still the funniest, smartest and bestest comedy in the pantheon of sitcoms. (Hear that M*A*S*H? The best!) The show followed the wealthy and dysfunctional Bluth family (headed by Jeffrey Tambor) and the son (Jason Bateman) who tried to keep them all together. That summary doesn't even begin to do it justice. There's the writing, the cast, Ron Howard as narrator. God, I am so pissed I don't have more room to tell you about this show's awesomeness. It's on DVD. Go watch!

�Don Montrey

Host, monthly comedy night Die Actor Die

Kombucha tea

A friend turned me onto kombucha tea back in December, and I've been drinking it religiously since. It's a fermented sweet tea full of live cultures and good bacteria. Every chronic ailment I'd learned to live with over time vanished. There is nothing this stuff isn't good for � tonic, detox, facial and hair rinse, household cleaner, silver polish, laxative. It can be purchased in health food stores, but it'll cost you: three or four bucks a bottle. Better just to brew it yourself. Speaking as a complete brown thumb, it gives me immense pleasure watching the fungus grow, and helping to cultivate it. My complexion is rosy and glowing, my blood feels hot and strong, I never get sick, and being regular is nothing to sneeze at.

�Beth Coughlin

Stylist, Menagerie Design

Buy Fresh, Buy Local

Traveling across America in our van, we witness the sheer volume of commerce that criss-crosses this country daily. We're also growing increasingly numb to the fact that every stop along the way is littered with trans-global corporate franchises. You know the ones � running local shops out of business, keeping workers firmly under thumb with slave wages and then convincing them to spend good portions of their meager paychecks right back at these same chains offering low-quality foods. Let's wake up from this culture's spell! Dismantle globally, renew locally. I endeavor to be involved in a return to a community-based sustainable way of life. "Buy Fresh, Buy Local," a national campaign to promote locally grown foods, is one way to start.

�Sean Hoots

Vocalist, guitarist, Hoots & Hellmouth