Mental Nomad Podcast 170: Just When You Least Expect It

A mixed bag today; we start out with blues and jazz, amp up to some rock, then course-correct halfway through to take on a more chilled atmosphere before ending where we began.

The Todd Koal track in today's episode is available as a free download; the artist will donate $1 per download (up to $500) for relief efforts in Japan. And the Anji Bee/LoveSpirals tracks in today's show are all part of the free sampler marking five years of The Chillcast.

Here's what you'll hear today (right-click to download or to stream in a new tab or window):

• Hawkeye Herman: "St. James' Infirmary"
• Heather Edwards: "Superficial World"
• Heather Edwards: "Have You Ever"
• Todd Koal: "Spirit Is Flow"
• Hawkeye Herman: "I Used to Ride That Train"
• Heather Edwards: "Once Upon a Time"
• Secret Archives of the Vatican: "Children of Mars"
• Natalie Walker: "Quicksand"
• Crystal Stilts: "Through the Floor"
• Crystal Stilts: "Magnetic Moon"
• Secret Archives of the Vatican: "Spiceships of Aldebaraan"
• Natalie Walker: "Crush"
• Anji Bee: "Put Some Music On"
• Karmacoda Vs. Lovespirals: "Motherless Child (remix)"
• Lovespirals: "Try to Forget"
• Preservation Hall Jazz Band: "St. James' Infirmary"

(Total play time: 58:07)

The tracks by Hawkeye Herman, Crystal Stilts, and Preservation Hall Jazz Band were all obtained through the IODA Promonet and may be downloaded for free below as long as their promotions last. Heather Edwards' music comes to us courtesy of Ariel Publicity, and the Secret Archives of the Vatican tracks were picked up at Music Alley.

That said, I'd also encourage you to buy the full albums (as available) here, with your commissions helping to support a poor graduate student:

Crystal Stilts: In Love With Oblivion (Amazon | iTunes)
Crystal Stilts: "Shake the Shackles" single (Amazon | iTunes)
Hawkeye Herman: It's All Blues to Me (Amazon | iTunes)
Heather Edwards: Eclectic Energy (Amazon | iTunes)
Heather Edwards: To Be Continued... (Amazon | iTunes)
Lovespirals: Motherless Child EP (Amazon | iTunes)
Natalie Walker: Urban Angel (Amazon | iTunes)
Preservation Hall Jazz Band: New Orleans' Billie and De De and Their Preservation Hall Jazz Band (Amazon | iTunes)
Todd Koal: Spirit Is Flow EP (Amazon | iTunes)

Hawkeye Herman "St. James Infirmary" (mp3) from "It's All Blues to Me" (Blue Skunk Music) Buy at Napster More On This Album	Hawkeye Herman "I Used to Ride That Train" (mp3) from "It's All Blues to Me" (Blue Skunk Music) Buy at Napster More On This Album	Crystal Stilts "Magnetic Moon" (mp3) from "Shake The Shackles" (Slumberland Records) More On This Album
Crystal Stilts "Through The Floor" (mp3) from "In Love With Oblivion" (Slumberland Records) More On This Album	Preservation Hall Jazz Band "St. James Infirmary" (mp3) from "New Orleans' Billie and De De and Their Preservation Hall Jazz Band" (Preservation Hall) Buy at Napster Buy at Rhapsody Stream from Rhapsody More On This Album

Celebrity crush: Eva La Rue (revised)

Amazon and iTunes links follow. Any affiliate payments earned from your purchase or rental will help pay the hosting fees for my podcasts, so please consider clicking.

Name: Eva La Rue (images | Web site | Twitter)
Hometown: Eva was born in Long Beach, Calif., according to her Wikipedia entry -- which spells her last name as "LaRue" and notes she was born with the name "La Ruy." Since her official Web site spells the last name as two words, that's what we'll go with.

She's biracial, of Puerto Rican, Dutch, French and Scottish ancestry. She's a third cousin to Jane and Peter Fonda.
Best Known For: Eva was a regular on the daytime soap opera All My Children before joining the cast of C.S.I.: Miami in 2004, becoming a regular as of 2005.

Ye Olde Podcaster isn't entirely sure,
but he thinks Mike Grell designed this
outfit for a member of the Legion of
Super-Heroes. (But man, does
she wear it well.)

Along with The Office co-star Rainn Wilson, Eva is one of America's most high-profile members of the Bahá'í Faith, a multicultural religion that demands absolute equality between men and women and all ethnic backgrounds and that teaches that all the world's major religions point to the same ultimate authority.

(The Bahá'î Faith isn't quite there, institutionally, on LGBT issues, but one hopes that in time, they'll get there. Certainly some members of the faith are probably as progressive as people from other backgrounds, and I don't mention this to suggest her views on the matter one way or another.)

In 2006, it came to light that Eva's sister Nikka had been photographed by convicted serial killer William Richard Bradford, who met women in bars and took their photos, saying he would help them get modeling jobs. Some of the women, he killed; Nikka was one of the lucky ones. An episode of C.S.I. Miami was based on the case, with Nikka playing a TV reporter and Eva delivering a public service announcement at the hour's end to help find other women in Bradford's photo collection who had not been identified.

Humble Beginnings: La Rue started acting at 6 and was a beauty queen in her teen years (still is, just had to pass the tiara along). Aside from soap opera work, other early TV appearances from the late '80s include the Suzanne Somers TV series She's the Sheriff, plus the sitcoms Charles in Charge and Perfect Strangers.

Eva also hosted a short-lived revival of Candid Camera in the early 1990s with Dom DeLuise. (Truth be told, I'm pretty sure I watched it at the time.)

More résumé-friendly credits include the Showtime series Soul Food, George Lopez's sitcom, the crime drama Third Watch, and the film Lakeview Terrace.
The Courteney Cox Factor, but More Spiritual: Eva and her daughter appeared in a music video for a Bahá'í musician named Devon Gundry.
Not the Courtney Cox Factor: She's also released a solo album, listed below.
Why Ye Olde Podcaster Likes Her: Not only is she beautiful, she's a civilly engaged actress, not only using her fame to advance the Bradford investigation but also, more quietly, helping raise money for ovarian cancer research. She's a (the?) national spokeswoman for the Beckstrand Cancer Foundation.

The C.S.I. shows are procedurals, not character-driven television -- usually one or two actors get a chance to shine, with the others almost set pieces, not always even given the opportunity to do much acting if they ARE really talented -- but she turns in solid work as part of the cast.
Film and TV-movie credits: Grace in Sara (2010 short) (Amazon | iTunes) * Lakeview Terrace (Amazon | iTunes) * Cries in the Dark (2006 TV-movie) (Amazon | iTunes) * Little Pieces (Amazon | iTunes) * Ice (1998 TV-movie) (Amazon | iTunes) * One Hell of a Guy (Amazon | iTunes) * Out of Nowhere (1997 TV-movie) (Amazon | iTunes) * Danielle Steele's Remembrance (Amazon | iTunes) * A Dream Is a Wish Your Heart Makes: The Annette Funicello Story (Amazon | iTunes) * Mirror Images II (1993) (Amazon | iTunes) * RoboCop 3 (Amazon | iTunes) * Indecent Advances (1993) (Amazon | iTunes) * Ghoulies III: Ghoulies Go to College (Amazon | iTunes) * Legal Tender (1991) (Amazon | iTunes) * Crash and Burn (1990) (Amazon | iTunes) * Heart Condition (1990) (Amazon | iTunes) * Dangerous Curves (1988) (Amazon | iTunes) * The Barbarians (1987) (Amazon | iTunes)
Music video: "Armed" by Devon Gundry (iTunes)
Musical work: Only You (2003 album) (Amazon | iTunes)

With sister Nikka La Rue, whose
brief encounter with a serial
killer led to a CSI: Miami story.

TV and Web series credits: CSI: Miami, season 9 (Amazon | iTunes) * CSI: Miami, season 8 (Amazon | iTunes) * CSI: Miami, season 7 (Amazon | iTunes) * CSI: Miami, season 6 (Amazon | iTunes) * CSI: Miami, season 5 (Amazon | iTunes) * CSI: Miami, season 4 (Amazon | iTunes) * George Lopez, season 4 (Amazon | iTunes) * Soul Food, season 2 (Amazon | iTunes) * Third Watch, season 2 (Amazon | iTunes) * Soul Food, season 1 (Amazon | iTunes) * Third Watch, season 1 (Amazon | iTunes) * For Your Love, season 3: "The Girl Most Likely To..." (Amazon | iTunes) * Grown Ups (1999): "J Says" (Amazon | iTunes) * Soldier of Fortune, Inc., season 2: "Critical List" (Amazon | iTunes) * Diagnosis Murder, season 6: "Wrong Number" (Amazon | iTunes) * Head Over Heels (1997) (Amazon | iTunes) * Nurses, season 2: "Super Bowl" (Amazon | iTunes) * Dark Justice, season 2: "Teenage Pajama Party Massacre: Part 1V" (Amazon | iTunes) * Dallas, season 14: "Win Some, Lose Some" (Amazon | iTunes) * They Came from Outer Space: "Animal Magnetism" (Amazon | iTunes) * Married With Children, season 4: "Rock and Roll Girl" (Amazon | iTunes) * Adam 12 (1990), season 2: "Missing" (Amazon | iTunes) * Freddy's Nightmares, season 1: "Missing Persons" (Amazon | iTunes) * Perfect Strangers, season 4: "Teacher's Pest" (Amazon | iTunes) * Charles in Charge, season 4: "Chargin' Charles" (Amazon | iTunes) * She's the Sheriff, season 2: "Divorce, Wiggins Style" (Amazon | iTunes)

Celebrity crush: Carla Gallo

Today's new post brings us an actress usually cast as The Girlfriend or The Girlfriend's Friend, and someone who turns out to be a bit of a mystery woman. Amazon and iTunes links follow. Any affiliate payments earned from your purchase or rental will help pay the hosting fees for my podcasts, so please consider clicking.

Name: Carla Gallo (images -- some NSFW | Web site | Twitter)
Hometown: Carla hails from New York City, specifically Brooklyn, according to her Wikipedia profile.
Best Known For: In recent years, she's split her time between comedy films -- The 40-Year-Old-Virgin, Superbad, Forgetting Sarah Marshall, Get Him to the Greek -- and television gigs, with recurring roles on Bones, Men of a Certain Age, Mad Men, and Californication just since 2008.

A little earlier than that, she had regular roles on Undeclared and Carnivàle, the latter as half of a mother-daughter burlesque act. Much earlier, she was in the indie film Spanking the Monkey.

Film work outside the boundaries described earlier include appearances in Mission: Impossible III and the direct-to-video apparent train wreck Insanitarium, in which a doctor turns mental patients into flesh-eating monsters, and which also co-starred fellow celebrity crush Olivia Munn (with whom she also appeared in The Slammin' Salmon) and possible future profile subject Kiele Sanchez.
Humble Beginnings: Her entries at Wikipedia and IMDB yield the following personal information beyond her being from Brooklyn: She went to Cornell University. She's 5 feet, 4 inches tall. ... And that's it.
Obligatory Edgy Stuff: Ye Olde Podcaster suspects she's in the Witness Protection Program. That's the only explanation for the total lack of personal factoids out there in the sweeping two Web sites I consulted. (I don't count her stripteases or lesbian love scene with Clea Duvall on Carnivàle as "edgy," just as a hell of a lot of fun to watch.)

Why Ye Olde Podcaster Likes Her: At least based on Bones, Carnivàle, and some of her comedy film work, there's a sweetness that Carla brings to her roles, mixed with a natural "girl you wish lived next door" appeal. Her Californication turn as a porn star might bring out a different side to her, but I haven't seen that yet. And her smile lights up the screen.

There's also something to be said for an actress with protean features; depending on her hairstyle and makeup, she doesn't always look like the same actress from one project to another. (Even if, between Bones and Californication, she ended up playing two characters named Daisy simultaneously. The willingness to do that suggests she's a trooper.)

Film and TV-movie credits: Coming and Going (Amazon | iTunes) * The Rooster (Amazon | iTunes) * Get Him to the Greek (Amazon | iTunes) * Mother and Child (Amazon | iTunes) * Funny People (Amazon | iTunes) * I Love You, Man (Amazon | iTunes) * The Slammin' Salmon (Amazon | iTunes) * The Station (Amazon | iTunes) * Insanitarium (Amazon | iTunes) * Forgetting Sarah Marshall (Amazon | iTunes) * I Heart Veronica Martin (Amazon | iTunes) * Superbad (Amazon | iTunes) * Mission: Impossible III (Amazon | iTunes) * The 40-Year-Old Virgin (Amazon | iTunes) * Sexual Life (Amazon | iTunes) * The Gray in Between (Amazon | iTunes) * The 24 Hour Woman (Amazon | iTunes) * Spanking the Monkey (Amazon | iTunes)

TV and Web series credits: Bones, season 6 (Amazon | iTunes) * Men of a Certain Age, season 1 (Amazon | iTunes) * Californication, season 3 (Amazon | iTunes) * Mad Men, season 3 (Amazon | iTunes) * Bones, season 5 (Amazon | iTunes) * NCIS, season 6: "Silent Night" (Amazon | iTunes) * Californication, season 2 (Amazon | iTunes) * Bones, season 4 (Amazon | iTunes) * House, season 3: "Act Your Age" (Amazon | iTunes) * What About Brian, season 1, episode 7 (Amazon | iTunes) * Crossing Jordan, season 6: "Fall From Grace" (Amazon | iTunes) * Carnivàle, season 2 (Amazon | iTunes) * Carnivàle, season 1 (Amazon | iTunes) * Undeclared (Amazon | iTunes) * ER, season 7: "Flight of Fancy" (Amazon | iTunes) * Law and Order, season 9: "Hunters" (Amazon | iTunes)

Celebrity crush: Stana Katic

Today's profile features a Canadian beauty who co-stars on the mystery/romantic dramedy Castle alongside Nathan Fillion. Amazon and iTunes links follow. Any affiliate payments earned from your purchase or rental will help pay the hosting fees for my podcasts, so please consider clicking.

Name: Stana Katic (images | Web site | Twitter)
Hometown: This particular member of the insidious army of beautiful women from our Strange and Savage Neighbo(u)rs to the North hails from the city of Hamilton, Ontario, according to her Wikipedia profile. Her father is Serbian, her mother Croatian, both immigrants from what was then Yugoslavia. The family later moved to Illinois to throw suspicion off their secretly Canadian daughter so she might one day become president -- wait, wrong loony conspiracy theory. Though they DID move to Illinois.

Best Known For: Far and away, Stana's main claim to fame is Castle, where she has for three seasons played Det. Kate Beckett, muse to mystery author Rick Castle (Fillion). Other works have often fallen in genre television -- with appearances on Heroes, Alias, The Unit, and 24, playing Morgenstern in the film based on Will Eisner's legendary superhero The Spirit, and voicing Talia al Ghul in the forthcoming video game Batman: Arkham City. She even has "Bond girl" cred, playing Corrine Veneau in Quantum of Solace. This year's film releases include The Double, alongside fellow celebrity crush Odette Yustman.

She's also known as "not Mischa Barton," according to at least a couple of photos that popped up in my image search for this entry. And thank the stars for that.
Humble Beginnings: Other works less likely to land her at a comic book convention include appearances on Brothers and Sisters and ER, plus the indie film Feast of Love (which saw her steaming up the screen with Selma Blair). But her résumé is largely filled with appearances on cop-style shows and (possibly direct-to-video) gangster and crime movies even before 24, Heroes and finally Castle. When you look like a femme fatale...

Corseted up for the third Noah Wyle
The Librarian TV-movie.

Obligatory Edgy Stuff: She speaks English, Serbo-Croatian, Slovene, French, and Italian. Truly, the evil Canadians have sent one of their best down here, and all may already be lost though our nation is slow to react.
Why Ye Olde Podcaster Likes Her: Besides her femme fatale good looks, Katic is a nuanced actress who is capable of holding her own against the unstoppable force of smirk that is Nathan Fillion. Her "overnight success" is long overdue.
Film and TV-movie credits: The Double (Amazon | iTunes) * For Lovers Only (Amazon | iTunes) * Truth About Kerry (Amazon | iTunes) * The Spirit (Amazon | iTunes) * The Librarian: The Curse of the Judas Chalice (Amazon | iTunes) * Quantum of Solace (Amazon | iTunes) * Stiletto (Amazon | iTunes) * Feast of Love (Amazon | iTunes) * Dragon Dynasty (Amazon | iTunes) * Pit Fighter (Amazon | iTunes) * Shut-Eye (Amazon | iTunes) * Acid Freaks (Amazon | iTunes)

Voice work: Batman: Arkham City (Amazon)
TV and Web series credits: Castle, season 3 (Amazon | iTunes) * Castle, season 2 (Amazon | iTunes) * Castle: Cast and Creators Live at the Paley Center (Amazon | iTunes) * Castle, season 1 (Amazon | iTunes) * Would Be Kings (Amazon | iTunes) * The Unit, season 3: "Binary Explosion" (Amazon | iTunes) * C.S.I.: Miami, season 6: "Deep Freeze" (Amazon | iTunes) * Heroes, season 1 (Amazon | iTunes) * Brothers and Sisters, season 1: "Patriarchy (pilot)" (Amazon | iTunes) * 24, season 5 (Amazon | iTunes) * ER, season 12: "Wake Up (episode 5)" (Amazon | iTunes) * ER, season 12: "Blame It on the Rain (episode 4)" (Amazon | iTunes) * The Closer, season 1: "The Big Picture" (Amazon | iTunes) * JAG, season 10: "This Just in From Baghdad" (Amazon | iTunes) * The Shield, season 3 (Amazon | iTunes) * L.A. Dragnet, season 2: "Retribution" (Amazon | iTunes) * Alias, season 3: "Facade" (Amazon | iTunes) * The Handler: "Bleak House" (Amazon | iTunes)