Olympic Gold Around My Neck

What a GREAT time tonight!   A couple highlights: 1)  I wasn't singing opera, but I traded stories and chit chat in a dressing room at the Four Seasons Centre for the Performing Arts (Queen & University) in English, French, Spanish & Japanese with a Parisian model.  Funky times.  Marinne (sp?).  She had lived in Tokyo for a year.  Very unexpected when she started speaking Japanese to me (after I told her I could).  Another model was knitting a dress for her 2-year old.  Quite the beauties.  I even had my make-up done by a professional:  concealer, some blush and other colours to keep me looking natural.   2)  I also met 11-year old Tony Yang.  Toronto-based pianist extra-ordinaire.  He practices 3-4 hours a day (vs. 1 hour/day max during the apex of my piano career).  He played a few songs and was quite the talent.  Here's a video of stuff he's done before -- not what he played today when he wore a sprightly white tuxedo with sport socks.  I learned from his excited dad that he came from Chongqing (10 million+ person city in central China) 5 years ago as I explained my work and the functioning of the products I work on in Mandarin (a first for me in Chinese).  I don't think I've spoken this many languages (with models) in an hour since I was in Taipei at the Mongolian All-U-Can-Eat on Hsin Yi Road!  Memories! Also -- I offered to hold his Starbucks coffee cup while he got a picture with some other cool folks.  And when I gave his coffee cup back, someone remarked while looking at and acknowledging me 'his parents must be so proud'.  A huge group of people looked at me like I was his dad:  "so you're his father!  Congratulations.".  Um.  No.  Awkward.   3)  My highlight?  Meeting Gold Medal Canadian Athlete for skeleton Jon Montgomery.  What a GREAT guy.  Friendly.  Quick.  Funny.  Easy-going.  He shared his gold medal freely.  His line was "want to touch it"? as he pulled it out of his pocket and explained its unique design.  Everyone was giddy.  I got a picture with the medal; with him; with him and the medal, me wearing the medal, and almost any other combination you could think of.  I can't prove any of this, though.  One of the cameras that took the photo was the Fuji 3D camera (very cool, by the way, I felt like I was reliving a still-shot Avatar-like experience).  On the screen you could see the 3D effect.  Since these pictures are only developable in Japan, and are expensive, it'll take a while or maybe never.  Maybe I can get 2D pics.   Jon also shared an auctioneering tip (he's a professional auctioneer):  say "Big Brown Bug bit a Big Brown Bear" quickly and repeatedly clicking against the roof of your mouth as many times as possible.  Actually, this might be good for speaking and performing in general:  (note to self, articulate bugs and bears before June 30 - July 10 Fringe show "Asiansploitation Spanks the Tiger".  Don't miss it!).   Here is a clip of Jon highlighting his win and what he does which I found interesting, but which doesn't do justice to his in-person charm.   COOL EVENING.   And what brought this all on?  How do multilingual beauties mix with musical genius, a TV personality (David Clemmer from Style by Jury graced us with his presence) and a Gold Olympian?  A four-letter word.   Work.  We're launching a new set of products that are going to blow your socks off (well, maybe not your socks but it will be AWESOME and GREAT).  Tonight was one milestone that put a huge SMILE on my face.   WHAT A GREAT TIME!

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