I'm currently working on an electronic original track. Should be done by the weekend.

Tomorrow the store opens! Yes that's right! After 4 days of setting up the store, we now have a STORE. I can say that I had a hand in setting up the jewelry and one of the cubby walls. Those are my babies. We had in-store training from 5-9 tonight and it went really well. I'm loving the people I'm working with and I got to impress everyone with my dancing and selling abilities. Nothing says funny like making an ass of yourself. Chad gave me the weekend off, so I'm going to get my hair cut and maybe coloured on Saturday and head on down to the convention. Sunday I will relax and write some more music. I think I'm going to get a myspace page shortly and really start networking.

Tomorrow is the birthday of my oldest brother, so... Happy Birthday, Brother Unit #1!

Child Bot #1: Rust-Free for 0.25 Centuries.

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Sorry for abandoning this site for so long, but I'm back and I'm revamping the website. I am releasing my demo this month, so stay tuned for new exciting music!

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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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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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I don't know if there's some event going on in Toronto this week, but there was a lot of British people in the store throughout the day. Maybe it's just a good time to visit? Shopping at Banana Republic in London is more expensive than shopping here because the Pound is so high.

Speaking of expensive things, my hours at Coach are set and are very crazy. I'm working 8-5 every weekday with training in the evening on two days. The store opens on Friday. I'm so excited to start work there! Purses, messenger bags, trenches, wallets, hand bags, scarves, shoes... New merchandise and I can't use any of it because I'm a man (except for the messenger bags and wallets... but I already have those)! That'll curb my spending habit for sure.

There's a beautiful sunset happening right now. I can actually see it because my Paternal Unit has taken down the sun room. We're under construction in our backyard. The new pool is going in tomorrow apparently. Here are some pictures of the work in progress.

I've posted lyrics to one of my songs called Dancing Without Clothes. The title came from when I was in Katimavik. It was one of those things where someone says something and then you say, "That would make a good song title!" That's what happened. There will be music to accompany that soon. I'm trying to get a hold of a friend who does some really dope electronic beats. Maybe it'll be a collaboration.

As of today, Tuesday August 12th 2008, I am officially moved to NuTang and I will no longer post on Wordpress. If you wish to check out my archives, you may do so at any time by clicking on Archives in my Links list. Don't get me wrong, Wordpress is a great blogging site, but NuTang suits my needs better. Where else can you have all of these great side modules, the ability to completely customize your website, be welcomed by a friendly and interesting community, and have baboons at your service? Nowhere.

To end this post, I present to you a new song! Another cover. It's Angela Aki's Love Is Over Now. My vocals start out a little shaky, but they get better. Hope I did the song justice.

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To go with the undead theme, have a zombie:

Ignore the World of Warcraft stuff and just listen to the song. It's awesome. It's Johnathan Coulton. It's all about zombies... eating your brains. Oh yes. Click on the link that I'm too lazy to embed and enjoy: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BjMiDZIY1bM

And a little something from my iTouch about 2 weeks ago:

Tonight is the night...
We dine in HELL (SPARTA!!!!!)
Just kidding. Tonight I did dine in hell though... Food hell. I will never set food into Yorkdale Pickle Barrel ever again. Stella, James and I were planning on eating at Milestone's, but the wait list was too long. Looks like we should of waited after all. So we went to PB instead. Mistake.

To start, we had the Oriental Appitizer platter, which was plated as if they had taken the last of the tossed salad mix, used old oil, and hid the appetizers underneath a mound of unmade coleslaw. Unappetizing, though the filling of the dumpling was alright. With the platter, I was given dirty utensils wrapped up in a napkin. I was given 2 clean sets to choose from. Not a bad recovery.

I had a 10 oz. steak medium rare with mushrooms and onions on the side, with baby potatoes and grilled vegetables. Sounds good right? Now imagine eating it cold with your steak at about lukewarm in the centre. Yeah, I was not happy. Stella's fries were cold, but at least cooked in fresh oil.

I was hungry, so I ate it anyway, but I flagged the manager after we were finished our meal. I explained to him in a constructive and frosty way (much like the temperature of my food) about the food we were served. Gus apologized for everything and confided in us that we were not the first customers to complain about the food. I'm truly not surprised. They are having a staff meeting tonight about it. Someone is going to get fired. I got the appitizer comped and half off my steak. Meh.

The service was not as bad as the food. Our server was okay. Did not check up on us during our meal, did not ask for a drink with our meal, did not explain the bill and its changes. Just a guy who you knew was there to get his pay and leave. I was thinking about the cultery... Whichever server wrapped those up must hate working there.

In conclusion, do not eat at Yorkdale Pickle Barrel. Take that extra 20 minutes and wait at Milestone's.

Work today was super busy and it was pretty much me running around all morning on the floor trying to save sales. We had two people confined to cash and a run/wrap person. In the afternoon it was more bearable with 2 extra sales associates.

The kicker was at the end of my shift. I thought on the whole we would be doing average sales. 8 hours of returns and exchanges and some purchases must put us somewhere in the mid-thousands in black. More like low thousands in black. My sales alone were 4 times what our sales after refunds and exchanges were. Before all that? Extreme. After... It still boggles my mind.

iTouch Transmission Over.

Now that we are in the present, I am pleased to announce that I am officially recording my demo this month at Metalworks Studio! It is a famous studio that has recorded a lot of amazing singers/bands and I get to work with them on my demo (which will be just me and the piano because I'm cheap). My demo has a little story. It's going to be a relationship in 4 tracks. From first encounter to love to breakup/regret to hope. I'm very excited to hear the fruits of my labour. I am currently making a website just for that and I'll link to it when I am finished.

Academically, I've applied to 7 different Universities and Colleges across Canada for the Contemporary Music/Pop Vocals program, so we'll see how that goes. I also had an audition for a Men's Chorus last week and I was accepted. This will be good practice for the future.

Looking ahead to the months to come I'll have demo promotions, auditions for post-secondary institutions, a Grade 8 Royal Conservatory of Music exam in August on the piano, and busking when the weather becomes warmer.

Keep your eyes on this site and my official site as well for new music, videos, photos, and more blog posts.

I'm back and it feels great!

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