from Asia in Switzerland
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kiene angst: SARS SUCKS
Not because its a dread desease but because its put every area I'm qualified to work in out of business.
I've come to the realization that I don't understand anything about how the world works - or at least the parts of the world that they talk about in the newspapers.
For example: The Canadian dollar is rising steadily out of its siesta in the low sixties. For the last few years all I've heard from my business friends (not that I have many) and from serving the rich suits at Morton's is "we have to bolster the currency to be taken serious in the world market" Now all I hear is that our dollar is too high and we're losing business from trade and goods to film contracts etc. Why is this? Is it actually a no win situation?
My grandparents (old lefty jews) cry the lament of Isreal and love to hate Sharon. Now that there are actual talks of peace (not that I'm naive enough to believe it for a second or blind enough not to see the American governements agenda) they have changed to a song that sings, "peace is impossible" and "You can't trust the palastinians" I hate this.
Are people actually happier being miserable?
On an entirly different note - in my growong desperation to get employment I went to a orientation night for the NIB - National Institute of Broadcasting. They do a voice test and then a "celebrity" speaker comes and gives a long talk about how its a reputable place and subtly (if not gracefully) drops hints as to how much money he makes from his career doing voice work for commercials etc.
Then he tells you that Jim Carrey went there. Then he tells you it costs between four and eight thousand dollars. And they don't guarantee anything.
The man we got was Micheal Banks. His claim to fame comes from a prank he played on Howard Cosell several decades ago - he called Cosell during halftime at a football game and had a lenghy conversation impersonating Mohamad Ali's voice. Cosell ate it up, spent the remaining quarters crowing about a personal phone call from Ali in Africa (Rumble in the Jungle era)... and then told the press Banks should go to jail for "lying". Ali loved and took Banks on as part of his entourage.
We were given a much photocopied Globe article detailing this event with the copy of the script for the voice test.
As we were shuffling out clutching our personal envelopes with the test tapes and a sheaf of further endorsements, he stopped me and said "Hang on, I want to tell you something". Thinking for a second that I was so brilliant that I was going to be givin a full scholorship and instant employment I waited. I'm not proud.
He said, "You have the most beautiful eyes I've ever seen."
And suddenly the lobby looked shabby, the carpet became a sea of cigarette stains, the walls grew scrapes and gouges - and the short balding man in front of me became a sleazy little rat who takes his commission from the talk and then tries to get his extras from the young hopefuls he just told had a brilliant future.
(sigh)
I still need a job though.
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