I am currently employed by an agency that promotes the latest perfumes and colognes in retail stores.  I am basically supposed to walk around the store and ask: "Would you like to sampleof ____?"
Right now I'm doing the new Roots line called SPIRIT FOR WOMEN (AND A SHAMELESS PROMOTIONAL PLUG: It's about half the cost of regular perfume (50mL for $40, and up) and will last twice as long b/c it is an ode de perfume vs. an ode de toilette...so it's worth it).
 So basically I walk the entire floor of Sears, upstairs and downstairs for 4hrs a night.  Now, I don't mind as much the walking as i do the customers I approach.  I mean walking non stop with only a 15 minute break kills the legs and I go home to bed with my legs burning as if I'd ben bitten by a swarm of army ants.  However, what kills me more is the nature of the customers.  What a bunch of dicks!  They are getting something for free just for listening to me chat for one minute, but you'd think by their attitudes they were on the brink of saving the world and I was holding them up.  Some listen and when they see the free sample and hear the deal and low costs offered, smile and politely thank me. Others don't even give me the time of day, snubbing me or turning their heads up as if to say: "I am better than you, b/c I have a choice on whether I should acknowledge you".  Ya, well, maybe you don't have to listen, but be polite.  i had one guy start chuckling to his girlfriend that I may be gay selling a woman's perfume....hmmm...seems to me buddy your a homophobe and many homophobic men aren't comfortable enough with their sexuality and so their ignorance shines through...on the other hand many homophobic men are so outta touch with themselves that theymay not even know that a few years down the line they'll be coming out.  Either way you fuckin prick, don't discriminate against floor walkers or homosexuals...your fat belly, poorly cut hair (which I may add does poorly to cover up your balding scalp) and dirtied jeans tell me your of low intelligence and aren't even man enough to know what a woman would want.
Basically, my point is what makes the job so tiring is not the walking alone, it's walking with the sting of some assholes remarks smarting on yer face.  I am just trying to do my job.  I don't like it, i don't even wanna be there.  But guess what I am.  And to take insults, school girls' giggles, and haughty woman and stuck up males who think they are better than I am pisses me off and makes my job harder than those owned by the same people.  So maybe if you knew what it was like to have assholes come in and knock on you, you'd have some appreciation.  I'm polite, I am not forceful, and am courteous.  Extend the same amount of humanity, b/c I am a prick sometimes and when i lose it, you will be told about your appearence, your styles and your ignorance and any other flaw I am able to observe in you.  Customers are not above customer representatives.

But for all the abuse and hard asses I have to face everyday, you may wonder why I don't quit....well, I need money to be with my girlfriend next year, b/c my parents and the distance we are away from each other, makes it difficult for us to be together.  We love each other very much and I am ready to go out on a limb just to see her more often than i already do.  The thought of being with her more than a few hours a week is enough for me to keep getting up from all the insults customers like to yell at me when they leave.  Her love is strength, fuelling me on to greatness.  I will do anything for her and to suffer such trivial minds of customers, is worth the dawn that awaits us, a dawn that will find us in each other's arms come morning..hopefully everyday for the rest of my natural life.

So yesterday was the most special day for me, b/c my girlfriend and I celebrated our 8 month anniversary together as a couple.  8 months...that is a feat for me, considering any other relationship I've had has not lasted an entire summer, let alone 2 months.  Yet, 8 months with my beloved is like nothing compared to our history.  I feel like I've know my sweetheart for all eternity.  No, I haven't just met her and suddenly feel this way.  I have known her for more than three years, with inumerous coincidences that have put us together so often that they seem more like fate.  She has been in my life everyday, for the better half of the last three years as one of my closest friends.  She has always been more, however, although perhaps we both missed each others' side long glance (though many of our teachers and peers did not).  I have come to know her so intimately and she has come to know me.  We have so many funny and good memeories that one can fill tweo life time with, and still have more flowing from the cup of joy.  And now we are lovers and I am touched that this angel should choose to ascend upon my life and share eternity with me.
She calls me her Larry, after the Ally  MacBeal character.  I even made her a porcelian snowman to show her that I would one day return by her side and we would share every sunrise and sunset together in each others' arms.

She loves me unconditionally, which for my many faults, was more than i had ever asked God for.  Today, I started a new job and she came to support me, all the way from Pickering to Mississauga.  I was nervous and she came to give me courage.  See, it has been said for all the many trials i have passed through and survived this past year, that my strength and metal has been shown and revealed.  But paupers, like myself, know the truth...it is her love that has sustained my life, for my strength has long ago drained and flowed free like blood out of my veins and onto the cold earth.  Yet, here i stand fighting ever strong, b/c her love is life and her love renews all.  This is her power, and the strength of love.

Thanks Toni.  U are the most graceful and angelic person to ever come into my life. You are beautiful beyond mortal words have course to say, and your light is brighter than the stars in Heaven. I love you.  Three simple words, the deepest emotion behind them though.  I love you.

So it has come; the conclusion of my Oscar review.  Are you sad?  Probably not- nobody really visits my site....I'm so sad and lonely....j/k!  Well, I have reviewed the girls and the Oscar King- the LOTR wins, taking 11 gold boys home.  Now we come to the men. The Kings who returned to another Oscar night to claim the prize. Some came to seek glory and fame, other came to simply for a humble victory.  And so we enter the final battle.

K, so part one of this entry was about the ladies, who shone as bright as Heaven's stars on Sunday.  Part two is all about how the Lord of the Rings swept house. It's too long a subject to also start my editorial on the fellows who took home Oscar... So let's start this thing....

Well, the Lord of the Rings was nominated for 11 Academy Awards!  Good for them....even better for them b/c they won all 11 Awards they got nominated for.  They are now tied for the most Oscar wins in one night with Titanic and the ever classic Ben-hur.  Let's look at a few of the honours they got the nod for.  They took home a ton of technical awards and for other stuff like that.  Well, judging by the graphics and animation used in this movie, it is well deserved.  Using both the real life setting of breath taking  New Zealand and mingling it with computer generated scenery, Jackson and his team created the fictional land of Middle Earth in more splendour than imagined in the books. I have never seen anything as heaven like as the Elven realm of Rivendell was, and nor have I felt such honour to see a manmade building than when I saw Minis Tirith and the White Tower of Gondor. Plus the creations of fictional beings were done with such superbness, that they seemed like actual beings, and not greenscreened in. Gollum was perhaps the best creation and will likely continue on past this movie as a classic and beloved character amoung fans and in pop culture. As for the win by Annie Lennox, she is a talented artist and the song is good, but I enjoyed "My ain true love" from Cold Mountain better.  And now we come to the Awards for Best Picture and Best Director.  Well, Peter Jackson won, obviously enough.  But he really did deserve both.  He was shunned both times, not even being nominated for The Two Towers last year.  What he has done with this book and these pictures is ground breaking for more reasons than just shooting it all at one go.  To undertake such a project and invest two full years filming and then who knows how many more editing and cutting is a gruelling task, only set upon a man with a vision and the determinatrion to see it come to life, and Jackson does as much. Not only that, but Jackson has increased the emotional value and character depth of each role in the film.  I have read all three books and the film seems only to enrich the characters' emotional value to the audience and each has more complexities than Tolkien had room for.  As for the Best Pic award, can anyone really contest that this epic was aweful?  It raises emotional feelings and you care for every characters' outcome.  You rise with the world of Men in their defiance to evil and fall to pity at Gollum's fate. This world Jackson brought from page to life, is wonderous and awe inspiring.  The plot is complete and you leave satisfied, yet sad to never see Frodo and the gang again, unlike most trilogies, where u are left in puzzlement as to what just happened and how wierd and untrue the ending was to the story.  So, although it made for a realistically boring night seeing Jackson and Co. up on stage more often than not, and New Zealand's tourist appeal increase with every visit to the podium, it was well deserved and past due....
Well, tomorrow i will do two entries..one on the Best Actors and the men, and trhe second on my defense of The Passion of the Christ.

PS.  To my darling, you saw this movie twice with me, and i loved spending those combined six hours in yer embrace.  love ya lots...and "look out for the boys, they want to take yo coconut!"
Hahahahaha, love me!

Right, so last night was the biggest event in the Hollywood calendar - the Oscars!!
Alright, so some say it is a cheap moment of showiness and has little to do with the actual merit of an actor or actresses skills....maybe, and then again when nominated most people sing to different tunes.
But I'm not hear to contest such things.  I'm here to talk about the winners and losers, and the show's quality in general.

Let's begin with the quality of the show.  I enjoyed it.  It wasn't the greatest, and it wasn't the worst...but good entertaining porridge nonetheless.  Billy Crystal was an excelent choice as host, and was pretty funny.  It's always wise to go with a proven bred winner in Oscar hosting, and Billy seems to be becoming the next Bob Hope...except, Billy has an Oscar (poor Bob Hope; he is the best.LOL).
I loved the opening sequence with Billy editing himself into the years nominated movies.  I particularily enjoyed the spoof on Jack Nicholson walking in on Keaton naked or the Gollum impression!  I also liked the fact that he interacted with presenters, like Robin Williams and that joke about Mel Gibson and Benicio DelToro.  All in all, I'd say Billy Crystal did a smashing job.

As for the winners, well, let's start with the ladies, as is customary to let them go first:

Best Supporting Actress- Rene Zellweger:  I love this girl's name; it's funny to say.  But she is extremely talented and I enjoyed her performance as a no nonsense, anything-you-can-do-I-can -do-better portrayal of Ruby.  However, I thought Marcia Gay Harden's portrayal as the worried and desperate wife of the ever disturbed and scarred Tim Robbins was equally as good, if not better. But when you weigh the fact she already has an Oscar, and the fact Rene has been looked over twice (Bridget Jones's Diary, and Chicago) one feels contented to give that happy go lucky girl the prize.  I enjoyed her speech, b/c she thanked both Nicole Kidman and then Nicole's x-hubby Tom Cruise within the same speech.  I love Tom cruise and admire Nicole, but just seeing the camera shift soo fast on Nicole was too funny.  I guess Hollywood needs to find new gossip and any reaction would unleash a flood...oh how desperate and greedy we are for celebrity tragedy!

Best Actress- Charlize Theoron:  What, she won!  Talk about the dark horse coming up big (this is drenched by sarcasm if u can't interpret writing).  Yeah, it wasn't any fun, b/c you knew she had it in the bag. I am glad for her.  She came to America from South Africa, and b/c she couldn't afford much, stayed at a motel for $8/night!  She is talented, and got her due.  But why is she dating that HAck Stewart Townesend!  I mean, I have never seen any actor mooch of his famous girlfriend soo much.  I mean, this guy wouldn't have been able to come within 100 feet of an Oscar ceremony or an Golden Globe function on his own talent. I am grateful as an ethnic actor to see a nomination for that actress from House of Sand and Fog.  She may not have won, but she's opened doors.  Good for her! And what's the big hub bub about Diane Keaton being the second favourite.  has anyone seen Whale rider?  I have, and lemme tell you this girl acted for the first time in her life and came right outta elementary school.  She was amazing, and soo emotional ture, and her performance was sooo innocent and pure, not forced.  But, I guess the Academy loves hot girls playing ugly lesbians, cause last year Nicole won for her portaryal of Virginia Woolfe, a not so hot writer, with lady lovin tendencies.  But, not to take away from their perfomance, as both were amazing!(and i have nothing against homosexuality, so don't send me stupid comments, please and thanks). I guess Charlize will definately be going back to South Africa as a queen...uh no pun intended( well it was a pun on the movie "The African Quee" with Kate Hepburn, not one on homosexuality...ehhh, I'm digging my grave)...well, deserved, Charlize; u put on 40 pounds and shed after it to get the win.  Now if you could only shed Townsend as quickly, I wonder how high your career would go from here?

Original Screenplay-Sophia Coppola:  "Daddy, daddy can i have a million dollars to go to Japan and make a movie with Bill Murray...please Daddy"...I'm just joking around, calm down you freaks.  Well, good for Sophia.  She really has followed in her father's foot steps and will likely pass his talents as a director( in case u wondered, her dad is God father trilogy director Francis Ford Coppola).  Mind you I haven't seen this movie, but the crtical acclaim behind it is good enough to go on for the moment.  And, she is a female american director.  Good for her. But, I hope that people don't always say that to her.  Being called simply a great director-no sex classification- is in order for this young lady.

Well, that's all for now.  Billy was classic, as usual, and the ladies stole the night.  Luck be a lady, indeed!  Whhooo girls!(my attempt at displaying my heterosexuality...LOL!).  To the Oscar winners, ladies you deserved it.  To those who walked away with nothing, you still have honour, clas and grace.  Your talents may not have gotten you gold, but they are certainly priceless to the acting community!

PS.  Thanks to my girlfriend for being my over the phone date last night as I watched the Oscars! I love you and have only this to say:  Don't break yo coconut! HAHAHAHAHAH...I am crazy!

Feelings of Inadequacy

If you seek out the best
Than perhaps you should have been warned
b4 we started this journey,
that you shall never find it here.

Okay, this is another entry only for my girlfriend.  Sure, you make take a peek, if you are curious, but i warn: Curiousity killed the cat.  U may feel feelings of sickness and dry heaves as I display my love for my girlfriend through a disgustingly cute list of reasons.  U have been warned.  Any damage done to your computer as a result of puking is no fault of mine.  This disclaimer relieves me of any accountability.

Dear Toni, here are some of the resons I love u! 

1) You are the first person to ever love me the way I love them.  U love me with every beat of your heart and with your entire soul.U loved me for two years and while I dated others who remained in love with me and waited supportingly and patiently, unjealous and unangered, for your turn.  And I am fooloish in taking soo long to reach my destination-you.

2) You make me incredibly happy and make me smile, even at the slightest thought of your beautiful face. Probably b/c your heart and soul radiate through your voice, body, smile and kissesa dn hugs.  evry part of you shine with light, and it makes me smile to think I am graced with viewing such splendour and warmth.

3)You care for me soo much and try your best to look after me in these troubled times i am in.  U put in the effort needed to keep our relationship healthy and beautiful, despite the distance and the hardships.  U stick by me, even though it may cause pain (u know what I'm talking bout with my folks).  Our calls mean a lot to me!

4) You are not a romantic and yet, the things you say to me have brought me to tears at times.  Perhaps you say it is not romantism that resides in your mind, but if our love can spark such heart filled words than that is enough for me to beieve that romance is in your blood.

5)You allow me to stay at yer house when I wanna come to Pickering.  that is trust beyond the strongest friendships on earth.

6) Your parents and family seem to like me, and i dunno why?  They are wonderful and I feel lucky that you take pride enough in me to make me a part of your everyday life and introduce me to them. They ahve made me feel a part of the family and I am indebted to them for this and so much more.

7) We have some really crazy and fun times no matter where we go and what we are doing.  I guess that comes from a strong friendship forged over the last three years.  U are also my bestest of best friends.

8) Yer kisses are yummy and to die for...mmm...just thinking of them makes my lips tingle with delight.Gimme kiss!  NOWW!!!

9) You want to spend your life with me and aren't afraid to admit it.  You seem genuine in that thought and I cannot exprees how wonderful and amazing that feels that someone not only wants me, but they wanna be with me for eternity.

10) You are the sexiest and most gorgeous woman I have ever layed eyes upon.  When we first started our friendship, I put you on the highest rung of girls i could ever dream about hooking up with. I mean, your the most classy, sexy, funny, loving, feminine, beautiful, intelligent and graceful girl i have ever met.  How i ever came to get the top honours on my list, I'll never know, but the rest have been burned of that list, and there is only one for me-you, Toni! 

Well, that's only ten outta infinite reasons why I love u babe!  My love for you is immortal and will stand all tests of time and life, including death.  U live in my soul, and it is eternal in Heaven!  Yer squishy, loves u!!!!!!!!!!

So I have two topics today.  Both really ahev nothing to do with each other, but I'll write anyway.  The first and formost topic is about the amazing day i had with my girlfriend.  We decided to go see a movie today and saw 21 Grams.  Aside from the movie being great I must admit it was wonderful spending so much time with her.  She lives far away and so our time is limited when we do see each other, so we make the most of it by having a ton of non-sensical fun!  Today I constantly sang to her about elevators, Sinatra style and she laughed and then hated it.  We went to the CN Tower for a job fair and I kicked ass.  When I was done my interview I got a stamp for a day pass to the Cn Tower for the rest of the day.  However tempting the offer was to tour the place, my sweetheart was not an applicant and so didn't get one.  when it came down to it I realized that a day with out her is really no fun, even at a tourist attraction.  As high as that building stands, my love reaches higher plains when it comes to her.  I decided to leave without exploring the place, b/c I have way more fun with my g/f even when we are doing nothing but chillin' (or as I like to call it, cuddling)!  LOL![turn head away from yer computer if sick]
To illustrate the point of how much fun we have, one visit to Square One, she hopped into a shopping Cart and we rolled throught he Parking lot and into the famous Player, laughing all the way. man, we soo crazy!
See, no attraction could match a day spent with a loved one, especially one as wonderful as my sweetheart!  Thanks for spending time with me, my darling!

Anywho, the second is about Johnny depps win at the Screen Actor's Guild Award!.  Come on!  yEAH, THE PERFORMACE WAS GOLD, but let's acknowledge Sean Penn's incredable abilities and the fact that his performance in Mystic River is more than gold, it's priceless.  I have seen 21 Grams and Mystic River, and both were Oscar worthy performances!  This guy is the real deal, a great American actor who has been shunned by Hollywood at Award handouts b/c he has views.  Not taking away from Jonny depp's amazing portrayal of a half drunk and half disillusioned pirate, which I loved, but let's acknowledge someone for their tireless efforts to perfect the character in every film, for the emotional struggle that Penn goes through  to seek out that perfect screen moment.  Let's not simply go with the novelty of watching someone behave drunk on screen and act as high as a kite!  Yeah, Johnny Depp is the great performer of his generation in my opinion, but Penn is the definitive actor of perhaps the American era of cinema.  But, he is robbed again.  And why? Not b/c his performance suffered, and paled to Jonny Depp's (u can't judge two differents portrayals of two different character in two different movies), but b/c this man has opinions, political opinions.  And there is nothing that both Hollywood and America hate more than a political opinion, unless it's their own.  So silence him by disregarding his performance and hand the award to the amazing novelty of a drunk pirate!  I am done my rants...  Yo-ho!...well...I am spent...now where's the rum gone?

You may think just by watching his boisterous actions and jazz hands that Mel Gibson is a clown.  You may think that his sense of humor is lame and that he is a hack...but then again you are judging a man who has been put down b4 and come back to smash his critics.

Okay, so he's a regular joe and fun loving.  It doesn't mean he's an idiot.  See, the controversy behind this movie has the whole world up in a debate.  Who is right, who is Jesus and so forth.  Well, that controversy smacks of Mel gibson genius.  How else can you make a moive about a topic that is taboo and decaying in our sexual and fast paced society where sex and action are everything, and how can you make that film in a dead language and still draw the numbers into the seats.  Ask Mel Gibson....

This is for anyone out there who is really into great films....and if yer first thought when reading this is a film with Paul Walker or Sarah Michelle Gellar in it, your welcome to be enlightened and alleviated from your naivity.   I recenlty saw one of the best films I've seen in a long time.  It is nominated for several Oscars and faired pretty well in the box office, but not as well as something as stupid as the Butterfly Effect.

So what's this film that I'm talking about.  It's Mystic River.  It's directed by Clint Eastwood and has a killer lineup of actor, including Sean Penn, Tim Robbins, Kevin Bacon, Marcia Gay Harden, Lara Linney and Laurence Fishbourne.  Yeah, I know Clint (who I may add I grew up watching in Westerns) has done a lot of movies based on books that haven't been soo great, but this selection was perfect for the screen.  The films story is full to the brim with complex characters and suspense and intrigue.  Every moment has your mind working.  Your thoughts pace back and forth in your mind as you race to solve the murder b4 Kevin Bacon and Laurence fishbourne can.  And that is one major factor that makes a great film- it's ability to make you think, both in and out of the theatre. 

The second factor is the direction.  And Clint Eastwood does a magnificient job with that in Mystic River.  Each shot is careful chosen and many are chosen so careful for their potential to stir your heart and emotions that you find yourself on the edge of your seat grasping tissues while shredding your seat in suspens at the same time.  The cinematography was excellent also. Clint's use of the camera has grown profoundly since his last nominated and winning Oscar effort , Unforgiven.  He captured everything, every emotion every event and lay hints within the movie's shots as to the ending.  Clint Eastwood is truly one of the great American directors of not only  our time, but I'm gonna go out on a limb and say all time.

And speaking of all timers, this movie couple this all time great director with perhaps the best American actor to ever walk the walk on film- Sean Penn.  His performance as a bereaved father is both explosive and silently terrifying.  He rides the spectrem of emotional archs, going from the explosive anger of a father loosing his daughter to murder to the crushed soul of a man who must come to terms with his past and this new death to the disturbing silence and danger of a man who lets his darker past retake his body and devour the father that seems to have gone into the grave with his late child.  I have only seen such an explosive performance twice b4 and that was noted by Daniel day Lewis in Gangs of New york, and Russell Crowe in Gladiator.  And I think that he will garner Oscar Gold this year.  Yeah, he's been a contorversial guy and the Goldman has shunned him b4, but he has alos given an electrifying performance in 21 grams.  Look, two great performance, one of which is an emotional expendature for any actor has to pay off.  This guy has had this coming and now is his year.

The other great performance was by Tim Robbins.  He literally personified this troubled man trapped by the horror of a sexually abusive childhood trauma.  I guess actors noticed such things in fellow performers and their performances, but throghout, Robbins walk with his shoulders arched and hunched over, as if he still carries the weight of his terrible trauma.  He is quitely magnificent.  It is a performance where the thoery less is more applies.  You love his character soo much and feel such sympothy for him.  I'll say he will get the Oscar (though I'm rooting for Ken Watanabe-Last Samurai) for Best Supporting Actor.  Let's face it, this guy writes the book on less is more.  If you have seen Arlington Road and The Shawshank Redemption, you know what I'm talking about.

The other performers were also amazing, like Marcia Gay Harden and Fishbourne and Bacon.  I think the performance make this movie.  It is something every actor is proud of doing.  A movie that is pure acting and by that I mean it is an ensemble piece.  It has no special effects, no explosion or car chases, gun shoot out or naked women and buff men doing the horizontal mambo for horney teens enjoyment.  This movie relies on the cast and performances to drive the intriguing plot and story.  And boy to they deliver.  If you are an actor like me, you pray a script and film like this comes along to validate your abilities.  Yeah, special effects and explosions are great, but if you can captivat your audience mereley by your performacne well, you know you can walk the walk.

All in all, this was a great film.  It is a look into the darkness that forms in the wake of tragedy and the potential of evil to creep into our hearts and minds at all times, especially when we are weak.  However, the movie isn't this beakon of hope, full of a happy ending.  Instead, hope of goodness comes through the characters of some figures in the movie.  Trust me, if u love acting and fil, go see this movie...and if you stepped outside today and punned"Dude, where's my car" as you got into your automobile and you and your buddy laughed for hours about it, please for the love of God, get yer ass into this movie.


PS.  Thanks to my sweetheart for seeing this with me.  SHe loves film, but loves spending time with me even more (as to I with her).  Take a loved one with you, too.
Bye