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After 23 years of unwavering devotion to him, it
seems wrong to let his birthday pass without some sort of fanfare.
My own little version of a 21-cannon salute to the man whose work
I’ve grown up with and whose inner spark and quirky brilliance
I’ve adored more and more each passing year. On June 9, 2008,
Johnny Depp turned 45. But to me, he’s just eternally beautiful
and ageless.
The Fates decreed to throw a lot
of magic into the JD birthday mix this particular year. A month ago,
I got a bit of a collection going for donations to Ward 9 of the
Philippine General Hospital. The goods were to be delivered by the
pirate crew of Black Pearl Philippines and the Stormtroopers of the
501st Legion at the Philippine Outpost.
Two weeks ago, I found out June
9th was being declared a holiday. I sent out a couple of emails and
next thing I knew, a bunch of pirates and Stormtroopers were set to
bring boxes of assorted gift packs with toys and groceries to the
kids and watchers in Ward 9. Ward 9 has always been special to this
bunch as we went there last Christmas with not much loot then, just
the time to spend at the bedside of these brave and beautiful
children who are dealing with cancer and similar illnesses.
After that, our group of 15 piled
up in four vehicles and headed down on amazingly traffic free
streets to Binondo for a really cheap but delicious Chinese lunch.
While the rest of the group ventured on to hunt for bounty and
bargains, I took home a bunch of tired pirates who opted to search
for treasure in their own individual dreamlands.
In the evening, I had but one
other pirate left to venture forth with to Mag:Net High Street for
Rockeoke with a band appropriately named The Johnnys. I usually make
it a point to drop in on Rockeoke night once a month but I’ve
never gone on stage to sing. This time I went up to join our Will
Turner—but not without greeting Johnny Depp before and after the
performance.
The night ended with me doing
some impromptu hosting, getting a free order of cognac from some New
Yorkers (my first foray with this drink) and chatting with one of
the guys from the Johnnys. He tells me, “So I take it you’re not
much of a Johnny Depp fan.”
This Sunday night, MTV airs the
MTV Movie Awards where Johnny takes home the award for Best Comedic
Performance for Captain Jack Sparrow, Pirates of the Caribbean: At
World’s End and Best Villain for Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of
Fleet Street. Happy birthday Johnny Depp, may the seas of the world
bring you more of those wonderful and magical new horizons.
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