Monday, June 09, 2003

Review of Special

Usually I don't review shows here, but I feel a need to review this one that aired on Sunday, June 8, 2003 on abc family channel. The show was "Avril Lavigne: Anything But Ordinary". I have mixed feelings about this show. First, it was based on a concert tour in London earlier this year. Second, it was part concert intermixed with interview sessions in black and white. All the good songs were featured in the first half of this hour long special leaving the last half hour with second rate songs (or future releases). The interview sessions were interesting, but since it was a self-proclaimed monologue it played out more like a therapy session, where we (the viewers) were the therapists.

All seemed like it was going to be light and fluffy, until the last 10 minutes or so. This is when the show took a strong emotional turn when Avril had discussed the death of her grandfather that happened earlier in the day of the concert being featured in the special. The emotional song "Tomorrow" was her dedication to her grandfather and was sung with such emotion that you could see the tears building up in her eyes. When she finished the song, she thanked the crowd, started crying, turned around and was comforted by her band members. This was such an emotional moment that I even cried myself. If anyone doesn't believe that this girl is for real, then they should watch the last 10 minutes of this special. For anyone who labels this girl as weird, punk, or otherwise will certainly feel differently after watching this show. This girl is for real and deserves a good long career, no matter how she feels about the world around her. In some ways, I have to agree with her in this special about her feelings. At only 18, this girl know reality and knows how to express her emotions; she's not afraid to cry and be tough at the same time! My rating is an 8 on a 1 to 10 scale.

Wednesday, June 04, 2003

Happy World..yea right!

On the same day as I celebrated my birthday, I also celebrated my 15th year in retail. While my birthday was quite a sedated event this year as compared to last year, the 15th anniversary wasn't even mentioned. The reason is that nobody except myself would even know that this event even existed. In that time, I have learned that relationships built around retail are doomed or at least they should be...more on that in a bit!!

Last Saturday night while driving home from work, I heard on one of those radio shows that the group "Dream" was on it. As I was listening to the conversation with them, it seems they have no regret that my favorite "Dream" girl Melissa is gone. She was my fav and was only one of 2 of the "Dream" dolls that I own. Rumor is that the new group (3 original members along with a new 4th member) will be releasing a new CD later this summer. I can't wait. It has been about 2 years since there last song "This is Me" was in the Top 40. I liked this song about as much as their #1 song "He Loves U Not". Ladies, I'll be waiting for the CD...

I have made a final decision. I will not be attending my high school graduation reunion. The main reason is that I just don't care anymore and want to not look stupid as to why I haven't gotten married or haven't done anything great like write a book like Sue. Yes, Sue I did buy a copy of your book (an autographed one at that, discounted price too). I haven't read it, I don't intend to. I just packed it away as a collector's item. This is about as close as you will ever get to signing anything else in my life!!

You know you shop too much when the people know you by name. It gets worse when they go a step further and get excited about your next visit the next week. Such is the case in one local store when last week I made a purchase with this really cute cashier (I usually go to her because she is nice and handles products carefully) and she asked me why I didn't buy any DVDs that week. I bought the latest DVD single from one of my favorite performers instead (it was sold here 2 weeks before it legally should have, but who cares). When I told her that there was nothing I cared about that week, I went on to tell her that I would be buying some DVDs next week (that was yesterday) and she said with a big smile "SEE YOU NEXT TUESDAY!" Two things seem wrong with this: First, she already knows that she is working on that day for the following week and second that the statement was not the usual "Thank you for shopping at .." statement. It seems that this girl really likes me, but I do have a couple of reservations. One is obvious when you look at her (I am not the least bit prejudice in this case as I said she was really cute), the other is that retail relationships are bad. Yet, I have never had a retail/customer relationship so I can't say if it can't/wouldn't work. Most all of my relationships have happened within my own work environment with some devastating results. Then there is the girls (at least 3 in the other store have similar effects, but not as noticable results). Yesterday, she kept her promise and I kept mine. The smilin' keeps coming.

July 4th is about a month away and there is no intention to celebrate anything this year or give any gifts to anyone (unless..the new girl or the old one..no I won't go any further). It seems that the fantasy girls of "Dream", Brit, Jewel (yes, she looks and sounds better than ever), and someone else who I bought their dvd single a couple of weeks ago, could be more interesting, but the real girls may make a strong showing this summer. Stay tuned........