Here's the song you've all been waiting to hear since yesterday (or at least renaye). It's a teaser version... but it's fantastic. I'm quite proud of my vocals in this song. It's Mika Nakashima (中島美嘉) and her 2007 single, Eien no Uta (永遠の詩). It was used for the movie SOUTHBOUND. I'm going to use it for the contest illegally. I have a song from an anime just in case it doesn't work. I changed my name to Edward Clark (the last name is my grandmother's maiden name) instead of EDWARD. Sounds better that way. Enjoy!



Work was crazy as usual. There was less unpacking and repacking than yesterday, and we set up visuals. Tomorrow the whole store gets to meet head office in full uniform. I need to go buy a white shirt that is presentable and classy (read: form fitting and from Le Chateau Outlet). I worked from 8-5, then had a dinner at home, did a take of Eien no Uta, went back to work for training from 7-9, then stayed behind to help out until 11. More money for me! Tomorrow is another 8-5 day and training from 5-9 I think. I know I won't be working 8-5 because I need time to go home and prepare. Prepare and buy things.

� demain!

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Today I worked 11 hours. It was sweet. Our team unpacked all of the purses and then re-sealed them sans packaging. Coach believes in a lot of useless packaging. However, now I know a lot about the bags that we carry, which is handy for tomorrow: cash and product knowledge training! I hope I exist in the company directory tomorrow. I didn't today (which means I didn't have to punch out or anything muhahaha).

After work I walked to the bus terminal to try and get a schedule... and they were all out. Looks like I'll have to go online tomorrow to print out some maps. I'm taking the bus on Friday. Better mark it on your calendars. Taking the Mississauga bus solo.

As I was walking out to meet my Dad, there was paramedics and 3 people smoking a joint behind the column between the doors... really classy and not related. The paramedics were not smoking up. They were wearing sunglasses and trying to be "cool" paramedics. Sunglasses don't save lives. People save lives.

When I got in the SUV, my Dad started a mini-rant on my future. Later on the evening he came to terms with it and supports me. Thank goodness. I'd hate to not include him in my Thank You... list. "Thanks to all my family, except Parental Unit #2. You know who you are." Harsh.

I recorded a few things today, but nothing you can see yet. Patience is a virtue! And I have to wake up early again tomorrow! Hooray! Good Night!

P.S. I almost forgot! I'm planning on going to the Fan Expo on Saturday to perform at the Anime Karaoke Contest. Have to get my name out there somehow and network with the other countries. Err... and the otakus. I'm thinking I'm going to sing a song that's not even from an anime. Just to mess with their heads. But it's an awesome song and totally danceable. Plus it's in a genre that isn't all stereotypically anime vocal-esque. Maybe I'll post it tomorrow. Mmmm... yes. A musical preview of this weekend tomorrow. Plus some Japanese studying.

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I started my first day at Coach today. It was mostly filled with boxes and putting away things, but I got to go home at 4:15, which meant I could have more time to get to my vocal lesson, which was badly needed since traffic was really bad. The song I have to learn this week? How Deep Is Your Love? by The Beegees. I also talked to my teacher about my future in music. She said to follow my heart and do what makes me happy. I already knew this, but having her in my corner really solidified it for me. So...

I'm leaving George Brown and becoming a musician full time.

My parents support me, but they won't be supporting me money wise as much. I'll have to start paying little rent increments, my own transportation (which I was going to pay for anyway), and I'm going to have to start budgeting for reals, but I've never felt this good about something in my life. Gerontology would of been a means to an end for me anyway. I know that I would end up doing music for a living, so why not start now and get my name out there?

Expect to see more creativity coming soon. Time to head to bed so I can get up early to get to Coach tomorrow. We're going to be training with the product. Purses ahoy!

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Sorry that I didn't update yesterday. I was waiting for the H&M link to show up in my inbox. It has yet to be in my electronic possession, so I think I really did send in the wrong e-mail address. I've given up on it and set my sights elsewhere. I'm focusing on my first day at Coach tomorrow. Should be a full day of lifting (they're still under construction). But I'm getting a lot of hours, so it's all good!

Yesterday I worked from 11-6 and it was my last day at Banana. I'm going to miss the people and the work was fun, but I know I'm going have fun at my new job too. After work, I was supposed to go hang out with some friends at Zelda's, but that fell through. I got to downtown Toronto thanks to my Dad driving me down (sure beats the Subway) and killed time in Starbucks by drinking a Passion Iced Tea and reading fab and Xtra magazine. I read every single article and only an hour had passed. To kill even more time, I went next door to Statlers and listened to some live music.

After that, I walked into a convenience store and bought a disgusting Sobe Rush to stay awake. I knew it was going to be a long night and I was already fading at 9:30. I sat outside of a Vietnamese restaurant and drank my drink. As I was drinking it, a random guy standing outside of the Subway restaurant asks, "Are you Edward?" I say, "Yes... why?" "This guy wants to know." The stranger steps to the side and I see a friend I haven't seen in over a year who I met in Windsor! Such a small world. The stranger is his boyfriend, and they are very much in like with one another. We caught up while they were waiting for their food. So nice to run into people like that.

Following that lovely chat, I went back to Starbucks and read even more. Having stared at every article and picture in the magazines, it was 10ish and I knew something was up. I called my brother to see what he was up to and he told me he was heading to a birthday party that night after work, so I decided to ditch the gay night and go hang out with him (I'll find out tomorrow if some of my friends even got there). I went to the restaurant where he worked and sat at the bar. I ordered a drink and saw the grand piano being abused by a drunk patron. I asked if it was possible to play the piano, and the bartender told me yes, but right now it's being used by a customer. He was trying to play Heart and Soul.

A little aside: my primary objective was to impress the patrons and the bartender with my awesome skill because this is the bar/restaurant that has celebrities and expensive food. This was the establishment that my brother was pulling strings to get me into so I can perform. This was my big chance.

I used the drunk's Heart and Soul as an opportunity to get on the piano. I said to him, "Hey, you're playing Heart and Soul! I'll play the bass line if you play the melody, or whatever you want!" and he agrees to do it... so he stands up and grabs the microphone and starts drunkenly singing Heart and Soul with made-up lyrics. We then bust into Girl From Ipanema, Red Red Wine, and to bring it all home, Coffee Cakes. Coffee Cakes is an improvisational song that was tossed at me by the drunks. I didn't know what to do, so I played the Mini-Wheats commercial song instead. He drunkenly sang, everyone was impressed. Mission accomplished. My foot is in the door for a gig.

My brother arrived shortly after and we drove the bartender home (if he foots the bill for gas, why not?). We then went to a birthday party for our friend, stayed there for a while, played some guitar hero, had one shot of liquid cocaine with the birthday girl, saw some friends from California's, made some new friends and then went home.

Today I went to Cambridge with my Brother Unit #1. Before leaving, I finished the melody on one of my songs. All it needs now are some lyrics. It'll be recorded soon. Or I may just save it for my demo. On that note, I was looking up grants that the Canadian Government supplies for music and producing, and there are quite a few. I just got to make a CD and get it out there. The rest is up to the panel of judges.

Anyway, back to Cambridge. Not much to tell. I jammed with my brother's friends, played some Rock Band, discovered a drum machine (and made a sick beat with it) and went home. The ride home however, was interesting. This random truck kept tail-gating us, speeding up to pass us, slowing down far ahead and then being behind us again. We were on cruise control, so we never changed speeds... but this guy was acting very peculiar. Hopefully he'll get pulled over for his weird driving. After the truck episode, we got to talking about my music career and my future. I really feel that if I can get my hands on proper equipment, I can make it big. My family knows I'm destined for greatness, so why not spend time pursing it instead of taking the long route and doing 3 years of a Gerontology degree that I will not end up using because I have the potential to be successful? I talked about it with my Mom and we are going to discuss it at length further tomorrow.

I have a long day ahead of me: work from 8-5, Vocal lesson at 6, big discussion about the future at 8. Wish me luck.

P.S. As you probably have seen, I've got a new song posted. It's a little repetitive but fun. It's a tribute to Tommyheavenly6's Lollipop Candy Bad Girl. I call it Sucker Sweet Horrible Boy. Enjoy.

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If you all remember my last post, I was supposed to go see a live show tonight. That's not happening because I forgot that my mother is having her girl's weekend. That and it's raining, so my Dad needs his car to get to work. I'm without a car and I'd have no way of getting to the show on time, so no show for me. I hope there's a good turn out for Alana. That girl is funny.

Hopefully tomorrow will be better. Chad (my manager at Coach and friend) invited me out to a gay night at Zelda's with a bunch of people from the mall. Should be fun, if I can make it. It is also my last day of work at Banana Republic tomorrow! Working every day this week has left me with little time to recover. At least I have Sunday off before I do it all again at Coach. But I'll probably be spending my day recovering from the clubbing.

I wore my outfit that I plan on wearing in my video for the H&M Contest today at work so I can get a critique. I got a lot of great responses, so I'm sticking with it. I've got a great fashion tip, a fabulous outfit... now all I need is to think of a question to ask Tokyo's hottest fashionista. Since I'm not going out, I'll be working on this tonight, so keep your eyes out for a video of me!

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This post is going to jump around a bit. Forgive me.

I normally don't apply to these sorts of things, but... I'm going to apply for H&M's contest to go to Japan to represent H&M as a reporter for the new store opening in Ginza. I have nothing to lose and neither do you. You have to make a 30 second video and include 3 things: present yourself, reveal your best fashion tip, and say what you would ask to Tokyo's hottest fashionista. I'll post the potential video in a few days. Make a video too, you know you wanna. It'll be fun!

Languages fascinate me. Today, some customers were speaking Spanish and I could pick out pieces of what I remembered what I had learned in Montreal from Katimavik. "Spanish in Montreal?" you say. Si! I feel that Montreal is more lingually diverse than Toronto because of the primary usage of French and the wide-spread use of English. The immigrants that move to Quebec mostly speak French and their mother tongue, plus they pick up a little English along the way. The placement I worked at had an employee who was originally from Costa Rica. She could only speak Spanish and French. So, for teaching her a little English, I learned a little Spanish. It also helped that another Katima-participant wanted to learn Spanish too. We learned together and it was something that we bonded over. Donc, dans Montreal (je m'ennuyer mon clavier francais avec les accents) not only did I get to brush up on my French, I also got to pick up some Espanol (where the tilde accent when you need it?).

Back to the original point of my story. They were speaking Spanish and I was in the fitting room putting some stuff back and I heard that they wanted a black cardigan in medium (in Spanish). Before they could go out and get it, I brought it to them. Guess they weren't expecting that. It's funny, when you learn another language, you can tie the roots of that language and use it to translate other languages as well.

When I was studying Latin and Greek Poetry, I got to learn where the roots of words came from (thanks mostly to the Latin aspect, although I will never forget the PARACLAUSITHYRON!). It sounds nerdy to say it, but making connections to different languages is a fascinating thing for me. If I wasn't so set on Gerontology and a music career, I probably would take up Languages and translate at the UN or something. The beauty of music is that I can translate my own lyrics or something in the future, if I so desire. It'll be a good way to reach out to an international audience.

For lack of a better transition sentence, I'm going to go see a one woman comedy show tomorrow called "Alana Johnston The Show" at the Diesel Playhouse. I'm looking forward to going out and doing something instead of going straight home after work and practicing various skills.

On Sunday (potentially), there might be a Katima-reunion with some participants that I was in the same cluster with (if that sentence makes no sense, you can go find out what I'm talking about here. I didn't mention it in the post, but a cluster is 3 Katima-groups that are within geographic proximity of each other). It would be neat to see how much everyone has changed after the program, what people have done all summer, who misses making only $3 a day... good times.

No more jumping, I'm tired.

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