*The CN Tower Belongs To The Dead*

Oh Toronto. You took me in as a mistress, seduced me with your record stores, concerts and plenitude, but somehow I ended up on the street corner, snot-streaked and tired. The piles of music and books I returned with were no match for your harsh ways and cold mannerisms.

It’s fair to say I’m glad to be home, back in this little city by the sea. The days have been gentle and generous –Cohen and Dylan all in the span of a week? Sarah Slean with Royal Wood next week?

Be still my lion heart.

To soundtrack my feast of Mariko Tamaki, Peggy Munson and Chandra Mayor reading, I’ve enclosed a list of my latest loves. While I was visiting family in Peterborough I did my ritualistic rounds of the city, dinner at Hot Belly Momma’s and an afternoon at Bluestreak Records (owned and operated by Tim Haines, son of Canadian poet Paul Haines and brother of Metric’s Emily Haines). One of the pleasures of this streetside record store, in addition to the plethora of albums, is visiting with an old friend of mine Jarrett Prescott –the mastermind behind Fire Flower Revue, who fuses kaleidoscopic sound and art reminiscent of Portland's buoyant bubble-makers The Blow and Paris' glock-popper Uffie.

Fire Flower Revue hesitate to dub the project an environmental protest, as their technicolor soundscapes have an animal-based theme, but don't tag them to be the next Wolfmother, brother, sister, or parade. Their slightly schizophrenic dance beats have backbone, vibrancy and are coated in an unconventional imaginative euphoria.

After a two-hour chat about music, art and all things in-between, I left with Crystal Castles, an advance of Silje Nes “Ames Room,” Santogold's self-titled, Gossip “Live in Liverpool Live CD and Concert DVD” and Cat Power’s “Moon Pix” on vinyl. On a brief bus ride back to my suburban blue-collared hometown I listened You Left Saving The Planet’s unmastered version of “Tabitha Cain,” and it blew my mind. The combination of yearning and anxiety mirrored the mood of my trip. It was almost time to come home. Prior to departure, I did catch Pony Da Look's CD release at Sneaky Dee's, The Clicks' frontman Lucas Silveria's solo set at the Gladstone, The Constantines at The Phoenix and am looking forward to befriending Emma McKenna - she recently picked up and moved to Halifax from Toronto.

Upon arriving at my doorstep with stuffed suitcases in tow, I opened my overflowing letterbox to find Christina Martin’s sophomore release “Two Hearts,” produced by Dale Murray (Cuff the Duke, The Guthries) and co-engineered with Charles Austin, Hey Rosetta’s “Into Your Lungs (and around your heart and through your blood), Gonzalez “Soft Power.”

If I could go back in time and tell my sixteen year old self that some day I would be getting advanced copies of albums in the mail, I just might have saved a fair penny along the way –though I doubt it. Perhaps I would have stopped trying to purchase them on eBay with my parents credit cards a month before the release date.