Bonnie and Aretha blow your brains out

Big mistake - I recently bought my first pair of good headphones, and now can spend hours just sitting with the computer on my lap, music blasting straight into my brainpan. Fabulous. But a time stealer, that's for sure. For example, this, to take the top of your head off:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3kjZjTcUHxU

Heaven.

Today was the Cabbagetown Tour of Homes, a fundraiser for the C'town Preservation Association, and mostly, for your $30 ticket, you see a series of boringly prissy homes on display. I mean, in one house, it was obvious that there was a young child in residence, because of the gorgeous array of toys pristinely on display and the seven foot high stuffed giraffe overlooking the crib, to go with the Africa "theme" everywhere. I can only imagine this child's tiny safari wardrobe. What makes me marvel in so many expensively decorated homes is that people don't care what's on their walls - tons of money for floors or furniture and crap art. But then one house had an enormously diverse display of modern art on the walls, all of it, IMHO, hideous. The owners, it turned out, own a gallery.

MIAOW.  I LOVE bitching about this stuff.

The best part of the tour was the open house at Spruce Court Co-ops. Spruce Court was built in the early years of the last century to house people without much money; it's a beautifully designed complex, like fake Tudor housing around central courtyards, lots of green space, the living spaces small but bright and open. It's phenomenal that such humble fare was included. And then we went across the street to see the newly renovated Miles Nadal Youth Centre, where hundreds of local kids of all ages go for after school activities - sports, art, computer literacy. Fantastic.

Okay, girl, take those headphones off and get to work. I'm reading a mag put out by "Rolling Stone" - "The Beatles 100 Greatest Hits." And arguing all the way. Can you believe that "When I'm 64" is NOT on the list? What kind of idiots are these? And yet, when I try to see which of the 100 could have been left out to make way for that favourite, it's hard.

Am I a bit obsessive? Getting boring? Sigh.