Disney, me and the future?

As is noted in the Profile part of my little blog, I happen to be a singer/songwriter/pianist. What you may not know is that I used to be an actor as well. It's what I always wanted to be growing up, it's what I went to school for, it's what I used to spend my free time doing, and I even worked a little bit and got some paying jobs.

When I was around 22, 23 years old I realized that I just didn't have the same passion for it anymore. My interest had now fallen to singing and songwriting, so I had a little bit of a "dream change" and decided to go after that instead. Well in the past year and a bit I have started missing acting a lot. I miss playing a character and really delving into that character's life and figuring out what makes them tick and then translating that into a performance.

I'll jump ahead to only a couple of weeks ago when I saw the Disney movie "Enchanted" (if you haven't seen it you really should - it's a really wonderful, funny, family film). One of the songs from the movie stuck in my head and I kept singing it over and over, which then makes me think of all the other Disney songs I've always loved. So one night I'm bopping around the house doing some cleaning and I'm singing some Disney songs and I think "wait a minute - maybe I could do that! Then I could sing and act and make use of all the crazy voices I do that make Chris laugh hysterically all the time!" By that of course, I mean being a voice actor. Back when I was acting, I knew some voice actors and never really understood why they liked it so much and why they didn't want to be in front of the camera. Now it seems to be all I think about - that it may just be the perfect job for me.

Anyhoo - I've started recording some stuff using my "Disney princess voice" (which is not my usual singing voice - in real life I don't sound quite as "perky"). It's basically me singing the parts in some well known Disney songs. I've posted them on youtube but decided to be brave and post them on here as well to see what people I actually know think about them. (They're posted on the sidebar) Feel free to comment, but keep in mind that these are pretty rough cuts - I just want to start experimenting and see what I can and cannot do. So enjoy! (hopefully)



**Disclaimer - These are for entertainment purposes only - Disney owns the rights to both these songs and the images used.**

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What's next?

So things definitely come in threes - all these happened at work over the last couple of days:

1) A little boy bit another little girl in the kid's department and drew blood (they were not related - it was just a random biting)

2) Someone found a used thong lying on the floor

3) A toddler pooped in the kid's department, then proceded to step in it and track it all over the floor.

Hopefully that's it and we've met our quota for biting, lost underwear and pooping for at least a couple of months.

;)

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Rudeness and it's contribution to the downfall of society

"Rudeness is the weak man's imitation of strength." Eric Hoffer


I've been thinking a lot about rudeness recently - mostly because now that I live and work in the city I am sadly much more prone to be on the receiving end of rudeness than I was living and working further north. It may sound unfair and awfully generalizing to say, but I found people who lived outside of the city way more laidback and polite when I was working in Newmarket and living on Lake Simcoe and then in Cookstown. However now I am a city-dweller and thus have to deal on a daily basis with those people who feel they need to impart their misery on someone else.

It probably doesn't help that I work as a retail manager of a huge big-box type of store, and that that store happens to be situated in a a very high-end mall in a very high-end part of town. I don't necessarily believe that rich people display rudeness to others more than the non-rich folks do, but so far at work it seems like the people who cause the most trouble are the ones who are either wearing the expensive suit or carrying the latest Marc Jacobs purse.

There's a sense of entitlement that rude people seem to have - I am important, therefore what I say and do doesn't have consequence. Of course, there may be a variety of reasons why one might seem to think treating another person with disrespect is perfectly alright (even though it isn't) - they've had a really bad day and just want to take it out on someone else, they're dealing with someone whose being rude to them, they're drunk (even at the high-end mall I see this every so often). I think though that it's this sense of entitlement that I find the most bothersome. I think many of the world's problems come down to people or groups of people thinking they are better than another person or another group of people. When I see this, even on a small scale, it makes me think that that person is contributing to the bigger problems without even realizing it. If everyone stopped themselves before they talked down to someone or degraded someone in some sense, and thought "wait a minute, this person is no less important than me. Their feelings are just as important as my own and we are connected in ways I cannot even imagine" - well just imagine how this could change the world!

Everyone was created equal. Yes there are some people who do amazing things with their lives and their are some people who don't. There are saints and there are sinners. But we are still equals. Don't just treat someone else the way you would want to be treated. Treat them well because it's the right thing to do. If you bring someone else down, you bring yourself and the whole world down with you.

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