Then off to Megatunes ... a famed independent music store that still stocks vinyl alongside the CDs ... there I scored copies of the late Ali Farka Touré's Savane and Tinariwen's newest release, "Imidiwan: Companions" (yep, I'm still hooked on Malian music)
Next stop, the #2 Fair's Fair bookshop, where I acquired two Ngaio Marsh mysteries I'd not read before (Spinsters in Jeopardy and Died in the Wool), plus what looks to be a fascinating archaeological/anthropological volume on death and funeral customs: The Buried Soul, by Timothy Taylor (when I pull a book off the shelf, flip it open at random, and find myself reading an Arab trader's 921 AD account of a Viking Rus chieftain's funeral ceremony he witnessed during a northern expedition, I know I've got my hands on something good).
After my stroll from one end of the 17th Avenue shop district and back again, I hiked down 4th Street (another once-filled-with-nifty-shops district that now seems to have become mostly restaurants closed for renovations) to Elbow Drive, picked up a few groceries, and then caught the bus homewards.
Had contemplated finally attending Knitting Night in Canada up in Kensington this evening, but after reading the ghastly reviews of the café that the gatherings have just been relocated to, I kinda lost my enthusiasm (plus I'm wondering just what they do that they've had to switch venues twice recently ... thinking I'll wait for one of the city's other knitting groups to announce their first post-holiday meet date instead)
Must try to get up to Inglewood this week ... that's where all the really neato junk shops migrated when the 17th Ave. yuppification happened ... and see if anything's open (last time I was up there, on a Saturday, virtually all the stores were closed, even though their hours signs said they should be open ... most puzzling). We shall see ...
