Oh, Sinnerman, where you gonna run to...

This weekend is the Saints & Sinners Literary Festival and I'll be doing both of my gigs on Saturday -- a panel on social media at 10 a.m. followed by a reading from Conquering Venus. If you happen to be at the festival, too, do say hello. What I love most about S&S is that it's laid back, no pressure and full of friendly folks with no hidden agendas. Okay, somebody might be trying to get in your pants...

This week, I received an invitation to read at the Southern Festival of Books in Nashville this October. I already know fab poet Stacey Lynn Brown is going to be there, and I'm hoping there will be some familiar faces attending as well. Nashville is a fun town, so I'm looking forward to it.

This past weekend, I rediscovered an artist I hadn't heard from in many years -- the brilliant Tanita Tikaram. She arrived on the scene in the late 80s as part of a wave of amazing female musicians like Sinead O'Connor, Tracy Chapman and Toni Childs. Tanita's debut, Ancient Heart, was so diametrically opposed to everything else on the charts at the time, that critics stumbled all over themselves to categorize her. That album featured what is now a classic song, "Twist in My Sobriety." Three more great albums -- The Sweet Keeper, Eleven Kinds of Loneliness and Lovers in the City -- followed, and then I lost track.

Well, in 2005, Tanita released Sentimental in Europe and it has quickly become my go-to chill out album. Her unmistakable husky voice mixed with some Burt Bacharach-inspired jazz -- and Nick Lowe offering guest vocals on a couple of tracks -- is a treat. The album is available to download on iTunes and I highly recommend it. You can hear every track at Tanita's website, too. Love you, TT.

Over at Project Q Atlanta, the readers have turned on me, labeling my recaps of this shitty season of American Idol as "bitchy," "mean" and "grumpy." Damn right I'm grumpy. This season has been sucking my will to live. Only a couple more weeks until I permanently hang up my recap pen. And this time I mean it. Seriously.