I wish I could find a CD of Platinum Blonde's first album. I know they used to exist, but anything other than the greatest hits is hard to find these days. These were CD's that I'd listened to over and over and over again.

Included here is the entire "Alien Shores" CD as well as whatever I could find on the Greatest Hits CD from the first album.

Somewhere I have the "Contact" album on CD, but other than the title song, that one never drew me in.

I hope you enjoy!

The first time I heard this song I was surprised. I hadn't heard Cyndi sing this style before. I loved the vocal and the music and the words rang true. "When it's all played out, if the truth were known, you have to learn to live alone".

It isn't the most uplifting message, but there is some truth to it. It is hard to know and to be known. It's hard to be transparent. And even transparency and honesty can be met with disbelief. For me, it is those times when people simply don't believe 'I yam what I yam' that I feel the most alone.

When it comes down to it, we are people contained in flesh and bone, blood and brain and what we know about each other (or more accurately what we think we know) is interpreted through our own filters. And so we misunderstand, misjudge, misquote, and misinterpret until only a modicum of truth about another, if that, gets through.

And so we do our best with what we've got and we either try to understand, or we don't, or we convince ourselves that we understand completely and that our thoughts are Objective Truth itself. That, or we realize that we are creatures who can't decide between unity and harmony, sometimes wanting everyone to sing our song in our tune with our melody, and sometimes wishing for everyone that they could be who they are and sing their own song and lift up their voices with ours and everyone's in perfect harmony.

Suddenly, I crave Coke.

This list will fill out over the next week as I find the appropriate songs...this isn't a list of songs I love or hate...some of them I love, some not so much. But they are all Christmas songs with a bit of a twist away from the happy, jolly, smiles everybody music (though some may make you smile...)

I'll start with one...Minnie and Santa, about a woman (I picture someone like "Blanche Devereaux" from the Golden Girls) who decides to seduce Santa...

And "Blue Christmas" in this list is not the "I'll have a Blueueueueue Christmaaaaas, without yououououou" song you normally think of when you see that title. This one is more of a 'Bah-Humbug' type song.

"Gonna Eat For Christmas" - let's face it...that's the true meaning of Christmas for a whole lot of us.

"Christmas Conga" - Again, a weird little ditty from Cyndi Lauper. You'd think a Christmas album by my favourite musical artist would also be my favourite Christmas album. It's not. Far from it. For the most part I like it, but I don't love it. Christmas Conga I like for it's infectious party atmosphere. The lines "Turn on the yule log, spike up the egg nog, and break those resolutions!" makes me almost wish I drank. Almost.

The additions continue...

Elf's Lament is a cool little ditty taking the form of a jazzy protest song from the elf's point of view. No union, no benefits...pretty much slave labour, really. And they've had about enough.

A fish out of water, a stranger in a strange land, an alien, moving in and out among The Normals, sometimes undetected, many times not. Sometimes the scent of different hangs around and The Normals pick up on it and pick on it. Sometimes the scent is deoderized and neutralized.

Or are The Normals a myth? Maybe there are no such people. Given the variety of this list, we fish out of water inhabit many worlds...pops singers, country singers, comedians, artists, christians, agnostics...all have felt the sting of different. Some have embraced it.

So here are some songs with the (sometimes vague) theme of not fitting in. I hope you enjoy them.

Here is some more random Cyndi Lauper music...mostly lesser known stuff...and "Hey Now (Girls Just Want To Have Fun)" might be an easier version for Michael to dance to! (The original never quite cut it for me either).

This is one of the weirdest things I've ever heard. In fact, it's that it sounds so normal...so "as if it was meant to be that way", that makes it all the weirder...

I hope you enjoy the listen...

Melissa mentioned in a reply to Lori's Blog that it was hard to be her...which will now always remind me of this song...

"From the Früvous Quill comes a sorry tale of love and illin'..."

It's been a long time since I listened to these guys. They were among my favourites when they were an indie band while I was in University, and were big enough at one time to have Jann Arden opening for them, which seemed an ill fit at the time until we realized that Arden's live show is rather less serious than her songs.

These songs are the Früvous songs that I keep coming back to when I want a fix of Moxy.

Here are some of my favourite Gowan songs...

As I was ripping these to my computer, I was horrified to discover that I am missing my "But You Can Call Me Larry" CD. If anyone has this, and can upload it here, I'd be most grateful...I don't think I can buy it again...

For the non-Canadians on the list, it's too bad you missed Gowan the first time around! Hopefully, you'll enjoy these as 'new' music!

In 1982, riding around on what other kids pejoratively called “the retard bus”, I started to hear kids talk about music. Despite our Christian school’s attempt to convince us that rock music, or any music with drums since they came from Africa (?!), was evil and satanic, the teachers were no match for the infectious beats that "surpassed our brains" and went straight to our hips and toes.

Up until now, I didn't pay attention. I knew I wasn't fond of my father's country music, but I didn't really replace it with anything. And at the time, I couldn't help but agree that my sisters' disco music was evil, (and I still think that about the song "Le Freak", being sick of it still after 20 years).

I remember standing at the end of my street at 6:50am, waiting for the little yellow "retard bus" and singing "I Love Rock 'n' Roll" at the top of my lungs. If nothing else, it kept me awake until my ride arrived.

This was the time that my love for music took root. Listening to these songs now I am taken aback at how quickly the old feelings come back, just as I remember them (as opposed to just as they were). I hope you guys enjoy them as well.