On the surface, I really wanted to like Kiss The Bride, starring Tori Spelling and James O’Shea, but I really had a hard time connecting to the believability. It’s not because the idea that sexuality and relationships are complex in this film, because sexuality and relationships are complex and complicated and not always clear-cut. My main problem was the believability of the cast and the chemistry between them.

I first heard Yelle unknowingly at a dance party when “Je Veux Te Voir” came on and bodies started dancing all around me. That wasn’t the last time I heard that song and every time I heard it, I always wondered who it was.

After figuring it out, I listened to Pop-up in its entirety. The first song starts off with a catchy pop tune full of whistles and hand claps. The album title appropriately describes the sound you’ll hear for the next 50 minutes, but don’t let the electro bubble gum pop fool you. I almost wrote the album off thinking the whole appeal of Yelle was that it was just generic pop with French lyrics, until I really listened to what she had to say.

Exes & Ohs, the lesbian answer to Sex In The City with more realism than The L Word-lite, is one of the rare shows I’ve seen that is the most relatable to the lesbian community. Dubbed as a “dramedy” about lesbians in half-hour episodes, featuring a likable cast of characters that isn’t out of touch from the lesbian audience. Set in Seattle, the series follow the lives of five lesbian friends including the center of the cast, Jennifer Butler (played by the creator of Exes & Ohs, Michelle Paradise), the documentary filmmaker with social awkwardness since her last relationship, demonstrates Sex In The City/Carrie Bradshaw-like quirks with explanations directly to the audience of the classic lesbian situations like “Fake It: It’s Impressive” rule – if you don’t know about what your love interest is discussing, fake your way through it.

May 21–June 28, Leslie/Lohman Gay Art Foundation (LLGAF) presents Pink & Bent, an exhibition of international artwork by queer women. The show presents audiences with a visual experience that depicts the many threads that sew queer women together as a community. Nearly 50 artists are included in Pink & Bent including such notable names as Harmony Hammond, Phranc, Joan E. Brien and Sophia Wallace, hanging alongside lesser-known but no less impressive artists. The art of this exhibit explores topics of masculine/feminine, gender roles, self-identity and self-representation through the depiction of the artists themselves, their friends, lovers and more.

Breaking from her long term documentary, Bois and Dykes Sophia Wallace continues in her exploration of female masculinity in a new series of portraits. This work focuses on the intimacy between photographer and subject. While the subject matter in Sophia’s work remains consistent, this body of work places emphasis on form and aesthetic beauty in portraiture.

Rockferry, is the most highly anticipated album of the year by Duffy from northern coastal Wales, and the wait was worth it. Duffy is exploding into the American musical scene with “Mercy” being featured as her hot radio single, as well as on ER and Smallville. Riding the wave of recent television appearances on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno and Live with Regis and Kelly, I’m going to go out on the limb and say she is going to be as successful as the hot Leona Lewis.

Air Traffic’s Fractured Life, their debut album, is introspective, mood-driven, and brilliantly creative indy rock and roll. This band from Bournermouth, a Wessex border town on the British Costa Geriatrica, and their sound and chemistry is so complete that I wouldn’t have believed this is their first collective album together.

Laura Wood’s new album, Let Me Live starts off with “Falling From The Ground,” chock full of energy and catchy guitar riffs and solos which seem to be a prevalent theme on each song.

“Tell Them Why” starts off with a poppy drum beat that gets my head bobbing back and forth, but once you start listening to the lyrics, I don’t know whether I should be bobbing back and forth in the fetal position in the corner of a room or not. The lyrics are serious and dark, and Wood asks vaguely, “whose going to tell the children?” but I am left wondering what the children need to be told.

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Being a infrequent Starbucks goer, I had never heard of Hilary McRae, but she’s a 21-year old talented singer/songwriter from Florida who has a retro, mature spice with a contemporary pop/retro R&B sound that makes her Through These Walls release from Hear Music extremely enjoyable. Hilary has a tremendous amount of soul in her work, and at times, she reminds me of Maroon Five, a more contemporary Michael Bublé and John Mayer with a heavy horn accompaniment.