Search This Blog

Monday, February 20, 2012

Pretty Woman, The Kind I'd Like To Meet

Sometimes I find it hard to get invested in certain genres of movies.
Certainly everybody in the world has their own tastes as to what they prefer to watch when it comes to movies.  There are some who like the action movies where as many as a hundred objects explode into pieces.  There are some people who enjoy watching a scary horror film, which gets better as the body count rises in gruesome fashion.  And, there’s some people who really enjoy foreign films from France, or Japanese anime, or Bollywood musicals.


However, one genre of film that I haven’t had too much love for is the genre known as romantic comedy. 


Or, perhaps if you are of the male species, you might refer to them as “chick flicks”.

I have nothing personal against romantic comedies in general.  A lot of romantic comedies have modest budgets and can attract some of the biggest Hollywood stars.  There certainly is an audience for these types of films, and depending on who stars in the film, and how well the movie is written, they almost always perform well at the box office.
For the most part, however, romantic comedies bore me to tears.

I don’t know whether it has to do with the fact that I was born male, or whether I’m still single, or whether I just dislike most films that Katherine Heigl is the main star (which happens to be true, but that’s a whole different story).  For the most part, romantic comedies do nothing for me.  I’m almost positive that I slept through the iconic “I’ll have what she’s having” scene in the film ‘When Harry Met Sally’.  That’s how much romantic comedies bore me.
Well, most of the time anyway.

Today I’ll be featuring a movie that could be classified as a romantic comedy.  And it’s a movie that I don’t actually mind all that much. 
The first time I think I watched this movie was probably when I was in the television lounge of my residence hall.  It was a Saturday night, and most of the people who lived on my floor were either at the on-campus bars or at the off-campus dance clubs.  But, I stayed behind at rez, because I wasn’t into the partying scene back in those days.  I’m STILL not a fan of partying and binge drinking, but that’s irrelevant to the current story.


Anyway, I happened to wander into the television lounge where a group of girls were popping some popcorn in the microwave, and they announced that they were watching a movie, and asked if I wanted to watch it with them.  When they first told me the title of the movie, I initially cringed, because I knew it was a romantic comedy.  It was a huge movie when my sister was in her senior year of high school, so I knew about it.  But, since there wasn’t a whole lot else to do, I bit my tongue, and sat on one of the chairs in the lounge to watch the movie.

The movie was the 1990 romantic comedy “Pretty Woman”, a movie starring Richard Gere and Julia Roberts.
And, you know, I’ll be completely honest.  Within the first twenty minutes or so, I was just as glued to the television as all the ladies that were in the lounge at the time.  By the end of the movie, I was telling myself “you know, for a romantic comedy, that movie wasn’t half bad.”

Of course, part of the reason why my interest was piqued was due to the successful soundtrack that accompanied the movie.  With songs such as this one...


...and this one...


...appearing on the movie’s soundtrack, it certainly got my attention.  Both of these songs that I posted are songs that I consider to be favourites of mine, and yet, I had no idea that either one appeared in “Pretty Woman” until I heard them in the movie.
Of course, the music was only part of the fun of “Pretty Woman”.  I think part of the reason why I found some merit in this movie was because of the message that it displayed throughout the film.  I’ll get to that a little later.



“Pretty Woman” was released in theatres on March 23, 1990, and was directed by Garry Marshall.  Initially, the movie was to have premiered in 1989, and was originally a lot darker in tone.  The original vision of “Pretty Woman” was to portray a gritty, dark portrayal of the prostitution industry in the heart of New York City.  Initially, the characters of Vivian (Roberts) and Edward (Gere) was to be a lot more controversial, and Vivian was supposed to be highly addicted to drugs.  But when the original idea was pitched to Jeffrey Katzenberg (then the head of Disney Studios, he wanted the project to lose some of its grittiness and hardness.  It was his suggestion to have the movie rewritten as a romantic comedy, where instead of the movie being a dark drama, it took on the appearance of a modern day fairy tale.


TRIVIA:  Other actresses that were considered for the role of Vivian included Nancy Allen, Winona Ryder, Molly Ringwald, Jennifer Connelly, Meg Ryan, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Mary Steenbergen, Daryl Hannah, Valeria Golino, and Michelle Pfeiffer.
As it turned out, Katzenberg’s suggestion probably made the final product more successful than the original idea might have been, as the movie was one of the Top 10 movies of 1990.  The setting was changed from New York City to Los Angeles, California.  And, while the character of Vivian was cleaned up a little, many of Vivian’s old characteristics were used to form the personality of Vivian’s friend Kit (played by Laura San Giacomo).

TRIVIA:  The original title of the script was $3,000.  It was rejected as a title by executives at Touchstone Pictures (the company that produced the film), as they believed it to be more suitable for a science-fiction movie.  Though, the original title is linked to an event that happens in the movie.


The movie begins with Vivian Ward working on Hollywood Boulevard, looking for her next big score.  What Vivian wasn’t expecting was that she would come face to face with a gold mine.
Wealthy and ambitious businessman Edward Lewis ends up taking a wrong turn, and comes face to face with Vivian.  Having gotten lost, he tries to get directions from Vivian to get to his destination.  Vivian agrees to help him out.  The following morning, Edward decides to put Vivian to work...though, not in the way that you might think.  He decides to hire her for the week as his own personal escort for social events and functions.  Of course, the tough as nails Vivian is no amateur.  She definitely had her price, and she fully expected Edward to come through.

So, Edward hands Vivian $3,000 (now you see where the original script title came from), and grants her access to all of his credit cards.  The main reason was likely for Vivian to come across as a presentable escort for Edward (because let’s face it, halter tops and fishnet stockings probably wouldn’t work for a black-tie event), but at least this way, Edward made good on his promise to compensate Vivian handsomely for going along with the plan.
The course of trying to change from prostitute to fairy tale princess certainly wasn’t easy for Vivian.  It was already a precarious position for Vivian to take the only world she’d ever known and reject it for a week to live the high life.  Imagine having to go through that when everyone else on the outside is judging you negatively.  Poor Vivian had to endure such judgmental behaviour, courtesy of some snotty Rodeo Drive salesladies who immediately pooh-poohed poor Vivian.  They judged her on her looks right from the start, and Vivian was left humiliated as a result. 

Luckily, there was one person who managed to see through Vivian’s hard exterior to notice the soft, warm heart beating inside, although at first he was just as disdainful as the stuck-up retail clerks on Rodeo Drive.


But, somehow, hotel manager Barnard Thompson (Hector Elizondo) begins to feel sorry for her, and he takes it upon himself to teach Vivian some lessons in proper etiquette.  He even helps Vivian buy a brand new dress, which immediately gets nothing but positive comments on the part of Edward, when Vivian becomes his date for a business dinner with James Morse (Ralph Bellamy).  






Unfortunately, the warm fuzzies end there.  When Edward announces his plans to dismantle Morse’s entire corporation after purchasing it - effectively closing up the shipyard that Morse spent four decades building – it angers Morse and his grandson, and the dinner busts up with hurt feelings all around.


The following morning, Edward begins to prove that he actually sees Vivian as more than just an escort.  When Vivian tells Edward of how nasty the Rodeo Drive salespeople snubbed her, he takes Vivian on a shopping spree where she puts her ‘haters’ in their place.  The following day, Edward and Vivian attend a polo match, where Edward plans on doing some networking for his business deal.  Vivian meets up with James Morse’s grandson, David, and the two seem to strike up a friendship.  Meanwhile, Edward is telling his attorney, Phillip Stuckey (Jason Alexander) how he ended up meeting Vivian, and sleazy Stuckey actually has the gall to approach Vivian to tell her that he would hire her once Edward was done with her.


Classy guy, that Stuckey.
And, naturally, Vivian is very hurt and angry at Edward for even telling Stuckey about her.  She threatens to leave him, but Edward coaxes her into seeing out the week.  Sure enough, as part of his apology, he skips out of work early to take Vivian on his private jet to San Francisco, for a performance of ‘La traviata’.  It is a performance that visibly moves Vivian emotionally.  And, when you consider that the main plot of ‘La traviata’ deals with a rich man falling in love with a courtesan, well, you can see why she’d like it so much.



But, here’s where the story gets complicated.  Vivian is so moved by Edward’s kindness and generosity towards her that she starts to develop feelings for him.  She wants nothing more than to be with him for the rest of her life.  But, when Edward suggests putting her in her own apartment so he can continue seeing her, she realizes that she doesn’t want her fairy tale to end this way.  She wanted more.  And, you know something?  She deserved it.
And, then there’s the business deal that Edward agonized over.  The only choice that was being presented to him by Stuckey was to purchase Morse’s business and sell it off for real estate purposes.  But was there a way that Edward could still make a killing financially while saving Morse’s business?  And, how will Stuckey react to the decision that Edward makes, and will Edward see Stuckey’s true colours before it is too late?

The most important question to be answered...will Vivian and Edward find a way to be together?
You’ll just have to watch the movie yourself to find out. 

But you know, the reason that I wanted to talk about this movie was to illustrate a couple of points.
Firstly, a movie that is referred to as a “chick flick” doesn’t necessarily have to be solely a film that only women can enjoy.  I think I’ve proven that the right “chick flick” can appeal to all audiences. 

And “Pretty Woman” did that for me.  It really had two characters that you really wanted to root for because both of them were missing something.  For Vivian, she really wanted to be loved and respected for who she was on the inside, and not because she gave it away for the right price.  She had a heart and a brain underneath her rough exterior.  All she needed was for someone to help her find a way to show it off.  To the outside world, she may have been damaged goods, but with a little bit of attention, care, and positive reinforcement, she really found a way to shine.
Edward was also someone you really found a way to empathize with.  Sure, at the beginning of the film, he was portrayed as a ruthless businessman.  But, the closer he got to Vivian, the more he took down the wall he built around himself.  He allowed himself to have fun, take more chances, and show more empathy.  Basically, Vivian helped Edward become a better person. 

“Pretty Woman” has often been referred to as a modern-day Cinderella story.  I don’t necessarily agree with that comparison.  But, it comes close.



Sunday, February 19, 2012

Having It All - The Story Behind "Rolling In The Deep"

I know that it's been a week since they aired, but, did any of you watch the 54th Annual Grammy Awards on February 12, 2012?

I did. And, to my surprise, I managed to sit back and watch the entire ceremony from start to finish. It was the first time I had been able to do so in at least a decade.

Apparently a lot of people felt the same way as I. It's been reported that the 54th Annual Grammy Awards were the highest rated since 1984!

Of course, I imagine a lot of people tuned into the ceremony out of curiosity over how the telecast would handle the news of Whitney Houston's death just the day before. And, of course if you had watched the Grammy Awards, there were lots of references to Whitney, from host LL Cool J's opening monologue to Jennifer Hudson's moving rendition of 'I Will Always Love You'.

But once you got into the real meat of the show, it turned out to be a really great group of performances by some very talented people.

Mind you, there were some blips to the evening, most of which are probably more my personal opinion, rather than from the general public. I've never really been a Chris Brown fan, and my opinion was always the same before and after the Rihanna incident. So, to see him perform did nothing for me (except shake my fist in disgust after reading various Facebook and Twitter comments from teenage girls saying that Chris Brown could beat them up anytime). I also wasn't all that impressed by the electronica-music extravaganza that aired towards the end...but mind you, I'm also in my thirties. Had it aired fifteen years earlier, I probably would have liked it better.

And, even after a week, I am still trying to figure out what the heck Nicki Minaj was doing up on that stage. It certainly wasn't much singing.

Fortunately, there were more highlights than lowlights. I loved the Beach Boys/Maroon 5/Foster The People medley of Beach Boys classics (even though some people commented on how 'dead' the Beach Boys looked). I mean, they're seventy! Not everyone can age like Dick Clark, you know! Still, as a lifelong Beach Boys fan, the fact that the surviving members came together to sing was awesome. I just wished that Dennis and Carl could have been up there with them.

Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band were an awesome opening act, and it must have been tough for them to perform after the death of Clarence Clemmons last year, but they still put on a great show. I think Clarence would have been proud. Bruno Mars is an artist that I can take or leave, but he did a fantastic job during his performance, while Paul McCartney still showed us all that he still had it at nearly seventy years old.

I'm not the biggest country music fan out there, but I really appreciated Taylor Swift's performance. Especially since it was reported that the last time she sang at the Grammy Awards, she didn't do quite as well as expected. And, I don't care what anyone says. I think the Foo Fighters rocked the house, and were the only part of the electronica-music performance that I really appreciated.

There was no shortage of great performances and great talent at the 54th Annual Grammy Awards, but there can only be one performance that I can deem as my favourite of the show.

And, if you click on THIS LINK, you can watch it!



Today's blog entry is all about Adele. The chanteuse from the UK that took the world by storm with her huge, powerful voice, soulful lyrics, and charming personality. And, she's not even twenty-five!

I think part of Adele's charm comes from the fact that her talent is so raw and natural. She doesn't use gimmicks like flashy clothes, auto-tune, and electronic beats because she doesn't need them. When you watched the clip of Adele's Grammy performance, what did you see? As far as special effects and gaudy costumes, there was nary to be found. It was just a woman with a big voice, maybe five or six background vocalists, and a band. That was all.



And, it turned out that it was all that Adele really needed. After Adele sang that song, she got a standing ovation that lasted well over a minute and a half. And just seeing Adele's expression during the whole ovation, you could tell that she was really moved, and perhaps a bit surprised at the attention. She displayed so much star power and class on that stage that you really couldn't help but love her. She didn't need to have lasers, or light shows, or perform an exorcism on stage. She was one hundred per cent real.



As if performing at the Grammy Awards wasn't enough of a high, it turned out that six was a very lucky number for Adele. She was nominated for six awards in such categories as 'Record of the Year', 'Album of the Year', and 'Song of the Year'. And, Adele won every award that she was nominated for. Well deserved, in my opinion.

The performance was made even more memorable when you consider that it was the first time Adele took to a live stage since undergoing a procedure which could have silenced her voice forever. But, we'll get to that a little later.

For now, let's have a look at the music video of the song that Adele sang at the Grammy Awards last week.



ARTIST: Adele
SONG: Rolling In The Deep
ALBUM: 21
DATE RELEASED: November 29, 2010
PEAK POSITION ON THE BILLBOARD CHARTS: #1 for 7 weeks

In the United States, the song peaked at #1 for seven weeks in the spring of 2011, but the song hit the top of the charts in other places all over the world. Belgium, Brazil, Canada, Finland, Germany, Italy, The Netherlands, South Korea, and Switzerland had “Rolling In The Deep” at the top of their respective charts. Oddly enough, the song failed to hit the top spot in Adele's native UK, where it peaked at #2.

It was the first single off of Adele's second album, 21. The album was named after the age Adele was when she recorded it (Adele's first album had the title 19 for that same reason). It was a song that was written by Adele and Paul Epworth during 2010 after Adele experienced a very bad break-up. The song was written in a single afternoon the day after Adele had her heart broken, and according to an interview that Paul Epworth gave to the New York Times, he stated that the songwriting process for “Rolling In The Deep” was quite inspired. When Adele met with Epworth, he already had a few riffs and themes plotted out, which he felt would be perfect for Adele's voice. But, after a couple of hours, both Adele and Epworth were finding the process to be frustrating, as every riff that Epworth played resulted in Adele suffering from writer's block. She liked the riffs enough, but she just couldn't find one that really inspired her. But then Adele told Epworth that she had a riff of her own going through her head, and for whatever reason could not ignore it. When Epworth pressed on, Adele responded by singing the very first line of the song that would eventually form “Rolling In The Deep”.

Epworth was completely blown away by it, and immediately grabbed a guitar to figure out what the key was that Adele sang. Once that was found, Adele quickly managed to complete the lyrics in their entirety, and Epworth recorded the demo session as one long track. The process of writing the core of the song took an estimated fifteen minutes. The chorus and prechorus was added in later.

Now, here's a bit of trivia in regards to the finished product. Did you know that the vocal track that Paul Epworth recorded of Adele that day ended up being the version used for the final album cut? Epworth explained that when Adele sang the song, you could hear the heartache and anger in her voice. Her heart was truly broken, and her anger was so raw that Epworth felt that it couldn't be recreated.



I'm sure that almost everyone in the world has had their heart broken before, and know very well how much pain one feels when they realize that the relationship they put so much of themselves into is no longer there. It rips at your heart and soul, and it causes you to feel so much raw emotion. After a while, though, the pain does go away, and people move on with their lives, and become happier people as a result.  For the song to capture Adele's feelings and heartache the way that it did just made the song that much memorable.  Anyone who ever knew the pain of a break-up could identify with this song.

And, I think that was a huge part as to why it achieved the success it did.

When the song was released in late November 2010, I don't think anybody could have predicted just how huge the song would eventually become.  Rock magazines and online blogs praised the effort almost immediately, singling out Adele's powerful voice and the bluesy-feel of the track.  The song debuted in the UK at #2, and stayed at the Top Ten for ten whole weeks, the longest for any of Adele's singles.  

In the United States, the song debuted at #68 on the Billboard Charts on December 25, 2010.  Within five months, it hit the top position.  She managed to top both the Billboard Hot 100 Charts and the Billboard 200 Charts the same week, a feat last accomplished by Leona Lewis in 2008.  "Rolling In The Deep" achieved sales of 5x platinum, and as of January 1, 2012, the song has sold upwards of almost six million digital copies, making it the most successful single of 2011.

Adele had finally arrived in America, and she was coming full force.

Her following single, the 2011 single "Someone Like You" also did extremely well, selling three million copies by September 2011.  Her tour, "Adele Live" sold out in every stop of the American leg of the tour, and reviews for her live performances were just as glowing as they were for her album, '21', which had sold upwards of three million copies alone during 2011.  It seemed as there was no stopping Adele.

At least until the fall of 2011.  

In October of that year, Adele was forced to cancel planned tours because of a vocal cord hemorrhage.  She was forced to cancel concerts and issued a statement saying that she needed to rest her voice so that it didn't get any worse.  Later that month, in another statement, she revealled that she had absolutely no choice but to undergo surgery to repair the damage to her vocal cords.  If not, there was a chance that she could never sing again.  Adele underwent surgery at Massachusetts General Hospital in November 2011.

Just three months later, Adele made her stage comeback at the Grammy Awards in February 2012, and well, as you saw up above, she stole the show.

Her performance was so brilliant that people were still talking about it days later.  I imagine that a lot of people now are asking themselves "Nicki WHO?"

And, I think that fact alone shows that Adele is a star.  No ifs, ands or buts about it.

And, you know...as uninspiring and uncreative as the music industry is these days, I think we need more people like Adele to show us exactly what music is supposed to be.  It's supposed to make us feel emotion.  It's supposed to make us feel for the singer.  It's supposed to inspire people to do their best and be their best.



Adele is the poster child for what music is supposed to be.


Saturday, February 18, 2012

Raisins Are Better With Clay

I’ll be honest with you.  I used to be a very picky eater. 
I can remember being very little, and completely naming off a list of all the foods that I did not like at all.  Broccoli, lettuce, green beans, potatoes, carrots, onions...heck, pretty much all vegetables.  I convinced myself that I didn’t like any vegetable, and I flat out told my parents that they should never serve me vegetables for dinner, because I would not eat them.

Ever.
And, naturally, my parents would only use it as an excuse to serve me more vegetables. 

Never mind the fact that I refused to try the vegetables in the first place.  I had convinced myself that there was no way that those vegetables would ever go inside my mouth.
But as I grew older, I started to appreciate vegetables a little bit more, and now at age thirty, I incorporate vegetables into my eating habits whenever I can.  I absolutely love fresh salads.  I am a huge fan of veggie trays at parties.  I can even admit to liking a little bit of broccoli once in a while.

As far as onions and brussel sprouts go on the other hand...well, let’s just say that there are even some vegetables that you can’t make me eat.
The same deal goes for fruit.  Granted, I have a mild allergy to strawberries, so that fruit is understandable.  But, I’m also not a huge fan of peaches, plums, and cantaloupe.  I’ve tried them, but they just aren’t something that I would readily choose to eat.

But the absolute worst thing that I have to say that I have ever eaten from the fruit family is the disgusting brownish-purple dried fruit known as the raisin.


I absolutely despise raisins.  I have heard some people refer to raisins as ‘nature’s candy’.  To me, I don’t believe that nature would be so cruel as to call a grape that has been left in a tanning booth way too long a ‘candy’.
Have you ever been in a situation where you grab a delicious looking cookie or muffin, thinking that it is of the chocolate chip variety? And once you bite in, you realize that you now have a mouthful of raisins in your mouth?  I have.  And, it is NOT a pretty picture.

Now, granted, I know that some of you reading this blog entry ARE raisin lovers, and I’m sure that some of you will try to convince me that raisins are better than chocolate and sex combined.  That’s fine.  Personally, I’d rather swallow a canary whole than eat just one raisin.
Luckily for me, I had two sisters who loved everything about raisins, so every time I went trick-or-treating for Halloween, all the boxes of raisins that I would get in my loot bag automatically went to them.

(I mean, seriously, who the heck gives out raisins for Halloween?)
Just in case I wasn’t clear...I HATE raisins!!!

Well, okay.  Maybe I don’t hate ALL raisins.
There are some raisins that I didn’t mind all that much.  In fact, the best things about these raisins were that I didn’t even have to eat them.  All I had to do was watch them sing songs and interact with each other.

And, no, I haven’t lost my mind either.  Just hear me out.
In order to explain my last statement, we have to take a trip back in time to the year 1986.  It was the year that acid washed jeans were in fashion.  It was the year where boys watched G.I. Joe and girls watched Jem and the Holograms (or vice versa, if you will).  It was the year that solo female artists like Janet Jackson, Madonna, and the late Whitney Houston dominated the Billboard charts.

And it was also the year that an exciting new style of animation debuted.
Claymation.







Although animator Will Vinton had started up his production company eight years earlier and was the one who took the word ‘claymation’ and turned it into a registered trademark, it wasn’t until the 1980s that the process became popular.
Claymation (a portmanteau of clay and animation) is a process where objects moulded with clay and/or plasticine are made around a wire skeleton.  These objects are then arranged in different poses, with each pose filling in one frame.  When all the frames are put together and played in rapid succession, the clay images move on screen, just the same way that a cartoon would be animated.  It was a really neat process to watch, and back in 1986, it was a revolutionary process.



And in 1986, Claymation was everywhere.  Some segments of Pee-Wee’s Playhouse were filmed with Claymation technology (most notably, the segments starring Penny).  Peter Gabriel’s ‘Sledgehammer’ video was a Claymation masterpiece.  And, during 1986, Will Vinton was at work filming a Claymation Christmas special (which would be ready for the 1987 Christmas season).
Claymation was heavily used for an advertising campaign during the mid-1980s as well.  An advertising campaign involving raisins.



The California Raisins, to be specific.
Back in 1986, an advertising company had been brainstorming ideas regarding a commercial that they were to film for the California Raisin Advisory Board, but they were at a loss as to how to go about it.  One of the company’s employees (writer Seth Werner) suggested a rather outlandish idea.

What if they had a bunch of dancing raisins singing the classic Marvin Gaye song “I Heard It Through The Grapevine”?
I know what you must be thinking.  What a crazy idea!  That would never work.

Nevertheless, the idea was presented to Will Vinton, who set to work on taking the idea that the ad agency came up with and turning it into a standard 30-second commercial.


So, imagine everyone’s surprise when the commercial became wildly popular!  Audiences loved The California Raisins, and soon more commercials followed.  The raisins soon began taking on the appearances of celebrities, such as Ray Charles and Michael Jackson in future advertisements.
The California Raisins became so popular during the 1980s that they were even added into Will Vinton’s Claymation Christmas Celebration, singing Rudolph The Red-Nosed Reindeer.  I know that Christmas was two months ago, but if you want to listen to them perform the song, you can click here.

And since we are on the subject of music, did you know that The California Raisins recorded four studio albums in the late 1980s, and that their own version of “I Heard It Through The Grapevine” actually landed on the Billboard Charts? 
But, while The California Raisins had made a small impact on the music scene, they made an even larger impact in the world of television.  In November 1988, Will Vinton helped bring forth the first full-length animated television special.  Airing on CBS, the special “Meet The Raisins!” debuted to huge ratings, and was nominated for an Emmy award in 1989.  The special allowed the viewer to get to know the band members of the group in great detail, and gave them more personality traits.  The individual raisins were even given names, like A.C., Beebop, Redd, and Stretch.



In 1989, an animated series known as The California Raisins Show aired on CBS.  Although it wasn’t renewed for a second season following its initial 13-episode run, The California Raisins proved that they were still relevant as they entered the 1990s with a second animated special called “Raisins: Sold Out!”, released on August 29, 1990.
Perhaps the most impressive thing about The California Raisins was the fact that they were really one of the first commercial mascots to successfully launch a line of merchandise.  As an elementary school student in the late 1980s, there was certainly a lot of memorabilia on famous bands, cartoon characters, and television heartthrobs and sweethearts.  But beginning around my second grade year, everyone seemed to be all about The California Raisins.  They were on notebooks, backpacks, posters, bedsheets, and costumes.



MINI-CONFESSION:  When I was in second grade, I proudly owned a California Raisins sweatshirt, and I loved that thing to pieces.  I literally wore that sweatshirt until it fell apart.



The California Raisins were also manufactured into collectable figurines.  Restaurant chain Hardee’s would offer the non-poseable figures as a promotional gimmick to sell their Cinnamon ‘n’ Raisin biscuits.  The figurines were a huge hit with consumers, and many people actively collected each one.  Country singer Blake Shelton once admitted that he had a sizeable collection of California Raisin figurines at one time. 
And with California Raisin figurine lines launched in 1987, 1988, 1991, and 2001, there certainly were lots of figures to get.  I often wonder how many were actually made over the years.



These days, The California Raisins don’t really make many appearances on the television, but various pieces of merchandise can be found on display at the Smithsonian.  And as recently as 2011, a picture of a California Raisin can be found on boxes of Sun-Maid Natural California Raisin packages.  It’s hard to say whether or not The California Raisins can make another comeback or not.  But, I suppose if enough time passes, everything old can be new again eventually, so never say never.
Though I will say that just because I may have been a fan of the California Raisins growing up, it did not change my opinion about eating raisins.  I never liked eating raisins, and I don’t think I ever will like eating raisins as long as I live.  But, at least for a couple of years, they were entertaining enough for me to look at them in a whole new light.



Friday, February 17, 2012

Michael J. Fox Was Alex P. Keaton



You know, one actor's story that has always inspired me is that of Michael J. Fox.

Unless you've lived in isolation on a deserted island for the last thirty years (and if you were, you likely wouldn't have access to a blog or know even what a blog is for that matter), you probably know who Michael J. Fox is.

Born in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada on June 9, 1961, Michael Andrew Fox was the son of an actress/payroll clerk mother and a police officer father. Because Michael's father was a member of the Canadian Forces, it wasn't unusual for Michael and his family to move frequently, and often with very little notice. And, for the first ten years of Michael's life, he lived in several places all over Canada. In 1971, his father retired from the police force, and the family settled in Burnaby, British Columbia, Canada, a suburb of Vancouver.

At the age of fifteen, Fox starred in the Canadian television series 'Leo and Me', which aired on CBC, and when Michael turned eighteen, he left home and moved to Los Angeles, California, hoping to make it big in show business. After arriving, he had a chance meeting with producer Ronald Shedlo, who was impressed by his talent. And shortly after that meeting, he was cast in his first American production, a made for television movie titled 'Letters From Frank'. On that particular movie, he was credited under the name 'Michael Fox', and he had hoped that he could continue using the name professionally.

Not so.

In Michael's own words, according to his autobiography 'Lucky Man: A Memoir', he found that when he registered to be a member of the Screen Actors Guild, there was already a veteran character actor named Michael Fox (d. 1996) who was already registered under that name.

And in the Screen Actors Guild, no two actors can share the same exact name.

(Mind you there are some exceptions to this rule, as there's a funny story involving Vanessa “Save The Best For Last” Williams and Vanessa “Melrose Place” Williams. Maybe I'll talk about it in a future blog entry.)

So, Michael decided to try going under a different name. Michael A. Fox sounded a bit weird. And, he didn't particularly like the idea of performing under the names Andrew Fox and Andy Fox. So, he decided that he would adopt the fictional initial, “J”, as an homage to Michael J. Pollard.

Thus, Michael J. Fox was born.



And, shortly after changing his professional name, Michael J. Fox ended up getting the role that would make him famous.



By all accounts, 'Family Ties' was one of the most successful television sitcoms of the 1980s. Debuting in September 1982, the show ran for seven seasons, ending its run on May 14, 1989. It was a sitcom that had a very interesting premise. You had Elyse and Steven Keaton (Meredith Baxter and Michael Gross) who were among the very first of the baby boomers to be born.  They were as liberal as liberal could be, even becoming hippies at one point.  They made love, not war.  They promoted peace, not hate.  They were basically the parents that all of us kind of wish we had.



Flash forward to the 1980s, and our hippies now hold adult jobs.  Elyse works independently as an architect, while Steven worked at a television station as station manager.  Still, they hold a rather laid-back approach to parenting and family life.  They are strict when they need to be, but are mostly easy to talk to.  They still hold their liberal political stances though.  Which wouldn't be so bad except for the fact that their children are NOTHING like them!

Well, okay, maybe I shouldn't say that.  Their youngest child (well, for the first few years at least), Jennifer (Tina Yothers), seemed to appreciate the values that Steven and Elyse lived by, and as a result was probably the most well-rounded of the Keaton kids.  The eldest two could not be more unlike Steven and Elyse.  Take Mallory (Justine Bateman), for instance.  For someone born to two parents who practically shunned most material things to live the hippie lifestyle, the fact that Mallory ended up as a materialistic mall princess who spent more money on cosmetics and clothes in an hour than Elyse did in a whole year must have drove them crazy.

And, then there was the role that Michael J. Fox played.



Alex P. Keaton was everything that his parents weren't.  Alex was a Republican supporter.  Steven and Elyse weren't.  Alex is really interested in economics and wealth, subjects that Steven and Elyse really didn't want much to do with.  Alex even reportedly had a lunchbox with Richard Nixon's face on it!

Now THAT'S hardcore.

To further demonstrate the wide divide between Alex and his parents, Alex's favourite television show isn't a cartoon series, prime time drama, or funny sitcom.  He enjoys watching 'Wall $treet Week'.  And instead of comic books and mystery novels, he has a subscription to 'The Wall Street Journal'.  Even his music tastes are pretty much old-fashioned, as he enjoys music from the big band and swing era (though he secretly likes rock music as well).

So, you'd think that with Alex having a completely different political affiliation and belief system as the rest of his family, that he would be completely opposed to spending time with them, and that he would often get into terrible fights with them every single episode.

I certainly won't lie to you, there were some instances in which Alex has clashed with his family a number of times.  In the very first episode of the series, Alex clashed with Steven when he wanted to go on a date with a woman...which happened to take place at an elitist, restricted country club.  In another episode, Alex actually impersonates Steven in order to play the stock market, but ends up losing quite a bit of money in a really bad deal.

And, it's hard to forget the whole Scrabble scandal when Alex claimed that "uushnu" was a word after Steven played the word "zoquo".  Steven claimed that zoquo was a water sport, and Alex claimed that the word uushnu was a term for drying off.

Hence the phrase, "After I zoquo, I like to uushnu."

(Of course, according to Jennifer, Alex would always hoard all the U's so that nobody could use the letter Q...)

Even when Alex's little brother Andrew (Brian Bonsall) wasn't immune to Alex's greedy nature, with Alex even launching a protest against the preschool Andrew attended because of their values, which included sharing and cooperation!

So, yes...in some ways, Alex could be stuck-up, selfish, and looked out only for himself.

But in so many other ways, Alex proved that he could put his own needs aside to be there for his family.  And, yes, I have lots of examples of this.

Take the 1988 episode 'Heartstrings' when Steven ended up suffering a heart attack in the Keaton living room.  Naturally everyone in the family was worried about him, but Alex was right there with the rest of his family, keeping them calm, and surrounding them with love.  And, I think Alex realized that he really needed the support of his family during what must have been a very scary time.  Fortunately, Steven pulled through, and all was well.

Then there was the time in which Alex decided to take on a job at the mall during the Christmas season.  He dressed up as Santa Claus, and at first, he isn't exactly enjoying it.  But after meeting a young girl named Michelle, who only wants her father to come home for Christmas, Alex is visibly moved.  Here's a little clip of the show for you to watch, to see what I mean.

Alex also had some instances in which he was forced to re-evaluate everything that he had believed in, and where one event made Alex question everything about himself.  In the 1987 episode, 'A, My Name Is Alex', Alex had to deal with the after effects of losing his best friend Greg in a car accident.  The Keaton family is devastated by the news, but Alex seemed to be upbeat about it.  It wasn't unusual for Alex to have differing feelings from the family, but even this was weirding everybody out.  It wasn't until later in the episode that we realized that Alex was supposed to be in the car with Greg when it crashed.  Turns out that Greg had asked Alex to help him move, but Alex said he was too busy.  So, when Greg crashed the car and ended up dead as a result, the guilt weighed very heavily on Alex's mind.  He tried to hide it with humour and wisecracks, but when he kept seeing Greg's ghost pop up, encouraging Alex to keep living, he eventually has a full-fledged breakdown, questioning why he was still alive when Greg was dead.

The last part of the episode was structured in a way that was quite creative for a sitcom.  In it, Michael J. Fox as Alex was on a blank soundstage, talking to an off-screen therapist about his thoughts and feelings about Greg's death.  But, it also provided some insight over how Alex got along with his family as well.  I only wish I could post a link to the episode so I could show all of you what I mean, but I can't seem to find a link to it at all.  But, if you wanted to find it, just search for episodes that aired during season five.  It's included in that season.  Some highlights of that episode include the following though;



- Alex explaining that walking into the kitchen when Elyse was there was the equivalent of walking into a hug. It is explained that Elyse was there trying to comfort him when Alex was complaining that Nixon was being set up in the Watergate scandal (which as you know resulted in Nixon's presidency abruptly ending).



- Steven attempting to teach Alex how to play catch in an effort for him to make friends and fit in more.  When Alex keeps dropping the ball, Steven kept reassuring him that as long as he was trying to catch it that it was good enough for him.



- Mallory telling Alex that he shouldn't worry about Greg dying, because she believes that he will be reincarnated just as Shirley MacLaine was, and Alex admitting that he really admired Mallory's simple way of looking at the world.  He had always felt pressure to be the best at everything from teachers, and as a result of this, it effectively isolated him from his peers.



- Alex having a memory of Jennifer breaking a bottle of perfume in her room that Alex bought her, and how the scent of the perfume reminded Alex of the day that he and Greg first met.

By the end of the episode, Alex has come to the conclusion that Greg's death wasn't his fault, and that he resolves to become a better person.  After all, with the visuals that Alex experienced during his therapy session, he realized that his family had a lot of faith in him, and that maybe he should reciprocate that faith back.

Again, it was a lovely episode.  You really should watch it.

I guess one final example of Alex really being there for his family came at the end of one season where Alex ALMOST achieved his dream.  Throughout the first couple of seasons, Alex was an overachieving high school student who was desperate to get into Princeton University.  He worked hard at getting good grades, and he participated in everything he could to pad his application.  He was almost there.  He had gotten the on-campus interview where the dean of admissions would decide whether Alex was Princeton material or not.  And, knowing Alex, he most likely would have been a shoo-in to make it into the school.

The one variable he DIDN'T count on?  Mallory.

You see...Mallory was on her way to surprise her ex-boyfriend Jeff (who happens to attend Princeton), hoping that she may be able to rekindle the relationship.  But when she finds that he has moved on, Mallory realizes that she hasn't, and is broken hearted.  So broken hearted that she actually interrupts Alex's interview!  So now Alex has to make a choice.  Will he stay at the interview while Mallory is clearly distraught, or will he support Mallory through her heartache, knowing that he could very well be walking away from his dream?

Tell you what.  Why not watch the episode here?  It's called Go Tigers.  The first word links to part one, the second to part two!

Now, my goal was to demonstrate how Alex P. Keaton was a lot more well-rounded than people may have given him credit for, and I hope that I succeeded in that.  But, I think that was part of the charm with Michael J. Fox.  He really had the acting ability to really make audiences feel a whole plethora of emotions regarding Alex.  At times he could be obnoxious, but he could be so sensitive as well.  He could be so smart, but make really stupid choices.  He could be cocky, but he could also be vulnerable.  Michael J. Fox did it well.  Alex P. Keaton is still widely considered to be one of the most-loved sitcom characters of the 1980s...and perhaps all time.



Of course, 'Family Ties' was just one of the roles that made Michael J. Fox famous.  As everyone also knows, he starred in the Back To The Future trilogy (which if I do a blog entry on those movies, I'll talk about them then), which catapulted him into super-stardom.  He also appeared in a series of movies during and after filming 'Family Ties'.  Teen Wolf, Doc Hollywood, Greedy, and The American President, to name a few.  He also starred in the sitcom 'Spin City' from 1996-2001, as it was produced by the same people who created 'Family Ties' (and had guest appearances from Michael Gross and Meredith Baxter).  He even took on voice work during this time.  He was the voice of Stuart Little when the popular book's film adaptation was released in 1999, and also held roles in the animated feature Atlantis, and the two Homeward Bound movies.

These days, Michael J. Fox has now taken on a new role.  Health activist.



Although he started showing symptoms of Parkinson's Disease in the early 1990s, it wasn't until 1991 that he was given the official diagnosis.  With the support of his wife, Tracy Pollan (who played one of Alex P. Keaton's love interests on 'Family Ties'), Michael managed to create his own foundation, 'The Michael J. Fox Foundation', which was designed to hopefully find a cure for the debilitating disease.  Although when he first got word of having the disease, he began to drink heavily as a way to try and forget about it, he did seek therapy and with some help, steered away from the alcohol for good.

He kept the the fact that he had the disease a secret until 1998, when he admitted that he had the disease publicly.  By then, the tremors associated with the disease became too noticeable for him to keep it quiet.  But, Michael J. Fox has done so much in raising awareness for Parkinson's Disease, as well as really trying his hardest to find a cure for the disease.

I suppose in some way, I could probably picture Alex P. Keaton doing exactly the same thing if he was in the same position.

After all...both Michael J. Fox and Alex P. Keaton are both two very strong people.


Thursday, February 16, 2012

Sharp-Dressed Man? Not Always...

Do you want to know something?  I was having a heck of a time trying to decide what to confess today for today's edition of the Thursday Confession this week.  I know that I said this last week as well, but this week was challenging as well.  So, in order to get some inspiration, I decided to go through some of the notes that I used to write in my Facebook Notes section.

Before I started off this blogging venture, I used to write a lot of my thoughts and feelings in my Notes section.  I didn't write in there every day...most of the time, I was lucky to get one Note written every couple of weeks.  But looking back through my Facebook Notes section, I've come to the conclusion that some of these notes were just too good not to share.  

I mean, if I'm friends with people, they could read my notes whenever they wanted.  For the general public, those notes have always been sealed.

Until now.

Just for today only, I'll be reposting one of these older notes.  I actually wrote this one back in May 2010, which was right around a time that I was going through some physical and emotional positive changes.  For the most part, I have kept up with these changes, aside from a bit of weight gain (a miserable after-effect of my gall bladder surgery last February).  But, I'm back on track to getting to where I want to be, and everything is good.

From May 7, 2010, the Facebook Note entitled, 'Fashion' (with slight editing).  And, to separate the note from the blog entry, the note section is highlighted in white.

And, the confession?

THURSDAY CONFESSION #7:  I used to dress like a slob because I felt I had no choice.  Now that I have choices, I definitely play the role of sharp-dressed man whenever I can.

Until very recently, I've always been very confused over the whole concept of what makes one fashionable.

Clothes were not something that I considered all that important in my daily life. Of course, that's not a declaration of wanting to belong to a clothing-optional colony, or wanting to travel to one of France's many nude beaches, because let's face it...there are some things that some people really should not see. But, I never tried to keep up with the latest fads, nor did I want to spend oodles of money on clothing either. As long as I walked out of the house with a shirt, a pair of pants, and clean underwear, I was pretty much good to go.




I was also one of those kids who HATED getting clothing items for birthday and Christmas gifts. You all know what I'm talking about, right? Grabbing that box wrapped up in red and green wrapping paper expecting the newest Super Nintendo game or the newest album from your favourite band, opening it up in anticipation...only to find socks and underwear inside of it. Why that sort of thing could ruin Christmas for a kid, especially if the socks and underpants outnumbered the Hot Wheels cars and other random toys.

To me, clothes were the type of thing that one needed to have. But they were also one of the things I hated to spend money on.





I remember some of my earliest memories of Back to School shopping. Buying the crayons and the binders and the packages of 400 sheet lined paper...that portion of back to school shopping was the fun stuff! But once we stepped away from the stationery department at Walmart (or Woolco as it was known back in Canada prior to 1994), and headed towards boy's wear, my excitement soon faded into boredom and frustration.

I was more than happy to have just worn the same clothes from last year for another year. Anything to spare me the dreaded back-to-school clothing shopping. Of course, I didn't have a choice.



Trying on shirt after shirt after shirt was incredibly trying. Don't even get me started on shoe shopping either. Shoe shopping was like hell on Earth for me. The shoe department may as well have been a burning inferno filled with devils armed with pitchforks disguised as smiling happy salespeople standing around the Doc Martens and Birkenstocks. And that's not a dig at the hard working shoe salesmen who have helped people find proper shoes since the 1800's...it's just how I felt about shoes as a kid. I would literally spend half an hour to two hours in that department trying on dozens of shoes because my mother was so concerned about making sure they fit my feet properly (of which I had no idea why SHE would care since SHE wasn't the one wearing them). Add my unique walking style back then (if you weren't aware, I walked on my toes until age 11 due to a slight arch problem), and it made shoe shopping a nightmare.



To make matters even more complicated in regards to shoe shopping, I was the kid in the class who had the largest sized feet. So, therefore, finding boys shoes to match my massive clodhoppers was even more of a struggle. On one hand, finding shoes was such a difficulty when I was nine...but on the bright side, none of the kids could tell me to act my age and not my shoe size...mainly because for the longest time, my age WAS my shoe size. :D



We now move on to jeans...or rather my fight NOT to wear jeans as a kid. I remember family members trying to buy me jeans and me always refusing to wear them. For one, I found them uncomfortable. For another, none of them really fit me well at all (because as you know, I was in the category of 'husky boy' during my childhood). I actually didn't wear my first pair of jeans until I was thirteen. Prior to age 13, I used to wear what was comfortable. And, what was comfortable were those gray and black fleece pants. You know, the kind that people wear in gyms and school tracks to do warm up exercises in? They were cheaper than jeans, and I felt more comfortable in them. Of course, being one of the only kids to wear pants like that made me another target of cheers and jeers, but I really didn't care. To me, clothes were clothes, and in all honesty, slobby slob was my style back in the early 1990's. Track pants, fluorescent purple and green windbreakers, baseball caps worn backwards, and of course the brief time in third grade I rocked a mullet. A poster child for What Not To Wear if I ever was one.



Now, in elementary school, I didn't care at all about fashion. In high school, I began to shed a bit of that apathy about it and I began to care about it a bit more. Of course, in 1995, I was still hopelessly out of the loop, and admittedly, I styled some of my fashion choices after what people were wearing on teen shows like California Dreams and Saved By The Bell: The New Class. That meant lots of things that I absolutely regret purchasing at the time. Pleated pants. Button-down shirts two sizes too big. T-shirts that looked like the Teletubbies vomited all over them. In high school, I tried my best to fit in...but it seemed like everyone else was one step ahead of me.



And, can we talk cost? My family was working class at the time, and couldn't afford to shop in chic shops. Most kids I knew headed up to Kingston or Ottawa and hit stores like the Gap, Old Navy, Eaton's, and Foot Locker. My parents could barely afford the underwear section at Walmart. 

Well, okay, that's a gross exaggeration. 

But money was tight, and I had to shop at the discount stores. But, to their credit, they managed to stretch a dollar further than the stretchiest rubber band, and always made sure that I had plenty of new clothes to wear every September, and at a tenth of the cost the other kids were spending. I wonder if that's where I inherited my own desire to be a spendthrift myself. 


(Don't worry, I'll get into more detail about that later on.)

There was also another reason why my gravitation towards fashion was slow-going, and it was mainly in relation to my body type in high school.





I was fat.

And, at the time, designers like Calvin Klein and Ralph Lauren didn't make clothes for fat people. Well, affordable clothes at least.

You know that feeling that people get when they search through racks of clothing, eyeing every single garment with a fixed gaze, hoping to find that perfect piece? Having a lot of different choices available and arranged by size so it made it easier to pick out that perfect outfit to grab the attention of the flavour of the month at the school? Yeah, that NEVER happened with me.

Let me tell you what I wore in high school. My shirt size was 2XL. My waist was a 42. In most cases, shopping for clothes in high school was a hassle for me because most of the time, I could never find anything that was my size. It was absolutely heartbreaking seeing a shirt that I thought I would look absolutely handsome in only to find that the biggest size that they had in it was a medium. But, of course, my parents always insisted on making sure I had new clothes every school year, so I was forced to grab whatever clothes had the 2XL label in them. 






Most of the time, they were some of the ugliest looking clothes there. They were either covered in logos of sports teams that I never watched or cared for, or they were in bland colours like ecru, tapioca, tree bark brown, and puke green. Sometimes, they were both. A real double whammy of ugliness. I should note though that I always chose clothes that covered everything. I didn't believe in wearing shorts, or sleeveless tops. I mean, those would just show off the fact that I was overweight even more, and I really just wanted to hide behind it.

At the time, there was also no such thing as a "Big & Tall Men's Wear" shop in town, so that also added to my frustration about fashion. I was always made fun of for how I looked, and was actually told by a few people that I was out of style, or that I wore T-shirts advertising hockey and basketball teams that sucked. If only those thoughtless brats I went to school with realized how little choice I had in my clothing selections, perhaps they may have been a little more understanding. Not that I wanted to dress just like them, because I found some of their fashion choices a bit bewildering at best description. But, the prospect of finding my own personal style was more or less a dream.

And, it remained an impossible dream until 2009.

As you all know, 2009 was the year I began to change myself physically. At first, I didn't see it as a big deal...but as the months passed, I realized that I needed to update my entire wardrobe. My work clothes just hung on me, and the belt I wore basically had to loop around twice for it to keep my pants up. 






And, yes, I know that for some kids, the showing off the boxer shorts thing is the way they wear their pants these days...but I've never really understood current trends anyway.

What I did need was new clothes. And, around the six-month mark of the whole transformation process, I discovered something wonderful. Suddenly, I was the one who was searching through all the racks, finding things I liked. The difference? Everything fit!

Now I was the one wearing nice looking jeans. The trendy looking dress shirts. The flat-front trousers in size 36. 

It was a bloody miracle.

Here's a confession. During my weight loss transition period, I was inside the Walmart men's wear department trying to replace my work uniforms (in Canadian Walmarts, particularly in the supercentres, we have to wear black and white), and I happened to grab a pair of size 40 pants to try on, thinking that I had slimmed down enough for me to attempt to wear them. I asked the fitting room associate to open up the room so I could try them on, and when I did...a 40 was TOO big! So, I rushed right out of the fitting room, and grabbed the next size down (of course, I remembered to put on the pants I wore into the room, because let's face it, running around Walmart in my undies would get a person arrested), and found that THEY were even too big.

It was there that I exclaimed "Holy crap, I'm a skinny bitch!"

Well, okay, I didn't exactly say that. But, let's just say...it took a long time for me to stop smiling.

It's now been about...oh, three years since that Walmart fitting room encounter. I've now completely renovated my whole closet. My closet is filled with all the clothes that I feel the best in...comfortable, cozy, and most important, make me look good. And, no, there's no fleece pants, sports tees or anything in oatmeal or puke green. And, taking a page from my parents book, most of my wardrobe is very cost-efficient and affordable, though I did take my own trip to Old Navy to do some shopping there, since I can actually wear most of what they have there now.

Oh yeah...all my fat clothes? They've all been donated to the Salvation Army. But, I do still have one pair of pajama pants that I used to wear back in 2008. They have the Coca-Cola logo all over them and they're a size 2XL. There are two reasons why I have kept them. One, they are so baggy and roomy that they're perfect loungewear for around the house. But, two, they're a reminder of the person I used to be. I always want to have that reminder just to remind myself not to get to that point ever again. I'm a new man now with a new sense of style that works for me. There's no way that I will ever go back to that old slobby me. 

Of course, these feelings that I have about fashion are brand new, and admittedly, I wouldn't have these feelings without losing all of that weight. The truth is that there are a lot of people in this world who are going through the same feelings of frustration now about clothes-shopping that I did just a few years ago. I think that is a commentary on the whole attitude of the fashion business. Just because a person is a little more chunky or overweight than the average person doesn't mean that they don't want to look their best. I would have loved to have been able to have found this new appreciation for fashion that I have now back then, and it would have been a lot easier had more options for plus-sized people been available. It does make me happy to see more department stores incorporate a plus-sized section in their stores, and I am noticing that a lot of the stuff in those sections seem a lot more fashionable than the slim pickings I had to choose from at the age of sixteen.

I used to watch the Biggest Loser on television and one of the favourite episodes of that series was the makeover shows. Where the people who have dropped all the weight now get to try on clothes that are smaller and more stylish, and how happy they look after showing themselves off after all of the hard work they did to get to that point.

Well, every time I look in the mirror, I tell myself that this is MY Biggest Loser moment. And, luckily, I can feel that way every day, knowing that I took the steps to change who I am for a much better model.

The clothes though are just the pretty wrapping paper on the outside though. But, it's funny how the way you look on the outside can impact how you are on the inside. Right now, I feel both are in check.

Now I don't even mind getting clothes for gifts. I love it now.

Of course...I still hate shoe shopping. I don't think that will EVER change.