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I headed out to see Salt with McClin last night. I hate going to a movie on its opening weekend but, well, it is Angelina and my good mate insisted we go. We couldn’t find seats together, and I ended up in the fourth row aisle, looking straight up at Mrs. Jolie. Stupendous!

The film is a ragged disappointment, bouncing from one improbable twist to another, but Jolie really brings her A game to a script not quite worthy of her gifts. Jolie’s actions scenes are exciting and powerful, particularly a scene where she offs a boatload of Russkies, but ultimately not enough to earn the movie a recommendation.

Aw, who am I kidding? It’s bloody Angelina Jolie getting sweaty and violent…go ahead and spend your money.

Now, my pal views movies as an interactive experience. He was 10 rows behind me but by halfway through the film, with his incessant chatter filling the theatre, he was friends with the elderly couple beside him and the high school kids in front. Quite something. He yelled at one point, “we’ve seen Salt…now we need Pepper!” The crowd laughed but I turned around and told him to shut up…

….a reality check for Toronto Raptor fans; Las Vegas has the over/under for wins this year at a paltry 27.5. You can keep that in mind when the local media begins to pump what is a shockingly mediocre team…

…took the time to watch the 1977 Ron Lyle - Joe Bugner fight on You Tube. Grueling, vicious 12 round war served as a reminder of the potency of the heavyweight division during that decade. Bugner reports he nearly died after the fight, suffering from internal bleeding and requiring immediate post-fight hospitalization. Hmmm, never heard of anyone needing medical care after a Klitschko fight, unless it’s from boredom (oh, c’mon, you saw that one coming a mile away)…

…local heroine Biofuel was in Saratoga yesterday to compete in the prestigious Grade 1 Coaching Club Stakes. The beaut of a runner was amazing, finishing second to the best three year old, male or female, racing at the moment, Devil May Care. Biofuel was dead last for the first half of the race and then began a stout closing rally. While wide into the stretch, she would not have been the match of the winner regardless. Hopefully her next start will be in Rexdale. Watching her run is as comforting and refreshing as a morning shower for this cynical bag of bones…

…okay I’m hung-over after a night with Goose, Lex and the JDawg, so I’ll give you a paragraph to ponder. This is a quote from JMS (J Michael Straczynski), the creator of Babylon 5 and current writer of the Superman comic;

If you could only be remembered for one thing in your career, what would you want it to be?

It wouldn’t be for a book, TV project, or film. It would be for trying.

At conventions and seminars and speeches, I hear from people who want to do something with their lives. They want to be an artist. And then they chicken out. They listen to the tyranny of reasonable voices, and those want only to help to protect them from failure, and therefore do not try, which is the worst possible kind of failure.

I’ve always been one to embrace the possibility of failure. I’ve succeeded tremendously and I have failed breathtakingly at times. But I’ve tried.

If there is any message implicit in this conversation to those reading, it is to try. You don’t want to be 90 and look back at your life as a catalogue of missed opportunities. If you try and fail, at least you took your shot. I’ve always felt all the way down to my socks that if you believe in something and you’re passionate about it and at least try, the odds are that you are going to make a living at it. And it will work more than it doesn’t. Take a chance. Risk Something.

I follow my passions and my dreams, and I try. Sometimes I fail. Sometimes I succeed. But either way, it’s a hell of a ride and I wouldn’t trade that for the world.

Clap, clap, clap…