Things that are constant:

I'm still looking for more hours as a nanny - I happily looked after Yellow Submarine Man for three days two weeks ago, while his father was away in Halifax. I do have two families right now but the hours for either are minimal, and so I keep searching...

I'm on Provera and the 'big bleed' hasn't happened yet. Yes, I've bled, but not enough, I fear, for any progress medically. However, I am feeling better, less heavy inside...

And of course Sam's is going out of sale. Sam the Record Man has been a fixure in downtown Toronto for as long as I've been here, plus a good 50 years. But now they are shutting down, selling everything off, and the neon vinyl records that swirl and seem to turn are being championed as a historical landmark, which of course they are. And of course I've been going there to see what I can find...

...it's interesting to go once cds are on sale for 99 cents; it's like some kind of social/economic experiment to see who shows up and what they will buy. Almost anything, it seems; the cds on sale range from diehard indie & punk to hip hop to girl group pop to things which are just plain odd, strange or which were overstocked to begin with (Backstreet Boys, Morrissey, That Petrol Emotion, Letters To Cleo and Monster Voodoo Machine, I am most definitely looking at you). The cds are on tiered racks loosely piled up, subject to being scattered, falling on the floor, and being hard to see/read as the lights' glare on the old cellophane wrapping is a bit blinding, at times. So persistence and curiosity are necessary, and I just feel sorry for those who think it's all garbage and are waiting for the 'real' sale next week (which of course I will also attend).

So then, what have I found? Some amazing things, including stuff I never expected to find:

Jane Fostin - Vivre Libre - A woman from Guadaloupe who sings in French and seems to have something of a career in France but of course no one knows her here.

i5 - i5 - Hey kids, remember when Dream and SugarJones and all those girl groups sprang up in the massive wake of the Spice Girls? This group (International 5) was put together to compete with them, but then their label had problems and they only ever had this one album, which is too bad.

Lina - Stranger on Earth - Yes, there's an obvious reason why I bought this, us Lenas/Linas have to stick together...this is a fine album that had the tremendous misfortune to come out about a week after September 11, when no one was buying anything, let alone r&b hip-hop flapper divas they'd never heard of, until now.

Mitsou - Tempted - This was Mitsou's attempt to crack the US market, but again label troubles meant it didn't get released for several years, by which time she didn't really have the momentum to do it. Mitsou is still around and is still something of a sexpot, though not as much as she used to be.

Plumtree - Mass Teen Fainting, This Day Won't Last At All - All but forgotten by everyone, Plumtree were the other all-female rock band from Halifax (following Jale) and they had the intelligence to keep attending high school & then university and tour only in the summer, which is the only safe time to tour in Canada anyway. Squirrel Al's favorite group, I was most shocked and pleased to find them.

Rebekah - Remember To Breathe - I have no idea about her besides she was part of that whole conscious soul movement that also includes Lauryn Hill, Erykah Badu and Jill Scott. Whether she is as good as them I don't know, but even from the cover and titles I could see there was an individual voice here, that somehow got lost along the way...