Hunger, Love and the Search for Home

Quotes from "Trail of Crumbs" by Kim Sunee:

- About her boyfriend: "Suddenly I can't find the words in any language to tell Oliver that it's not an honor to be 'adopted' again and again and that he can't just order me an identity, create an instant history. He doesn't seem to grasp that my past is the one thing he can't conquer or fix."

- About her stepdaughter: "I wonder how it is that I have become a makeshift mother, this clueless substitute. Do I have the right to discipline her? What can I possibly teach her besides the comfort of food, the gifts of the table, the importance of language and the unique strangeness of being a foreigner?"

- About her therapist: "It is thanks to sessions with him that I can start to give shape to the pain caused by this constant need for departure. This crazy idea that I must keep running in order to survive, in order not to be loved too much or not enough. Running so I will never have to deal with someone not wanting to keep me."

- About her relationship problems: "I repeated my own abandonment, preempting another absence - the fear of being left again, this time by someone I have grown so attached to, a real family."

Quotes from Nellie McKay

- "The more fame and money you acquire, it gives you more power, and there are a lot of things I’d like to change about this world. Celebrity and wealth are some of the biggest weapons for social change because most people who have them don’t use them for anything but Versace."

- "It can be very hard to get behind movements you feel excluded from. At a certain point, the people in power should reflect the people they represent."

Just discovered Nellie McKay's music

Wait for me

Wayne by Chantal Kreviazuk: This song is very powerful... there is Lolita quality to the video that creeps me out a bit.

But what I hear more than anything else in this song is the sting of abandonment. Little girl laying out the dirty laundry for all to see. Father-hungry and fearful; forsaken and alone...

I agree with another blogger that, "Conventional wisdom tells us that, in order for a story to be believable, it must be written from experience," and that the reason that Chantal's music is able to cast aside any doubt of insincerity is her passion.