There's an Ad for That

One of my routine gripes in here is advertising. It's a field I considered entering and to which perhaps I was or am suited, but for which I have been unable to escape a bad taste in my mouth. I hear that cry of if I think I can do better, then why don't I. Nevermind that many gatekeepers would have to greenlight my cockamamie ideas. But I'm not going to delve into that, this gripe is rather more focused and it has to do with facsimile musical tracks being created for use in commercials, in what I would assume is an effort to avoid paying the rightful composers of said music. That seems about right, right?

The latest one I noticed was an ad for Brigham Young University during their victory over San Diego St. You might recognize the instrumental in the background as a blatant rip-off of Snow Patrol's "Chocolate". There are, in fact, differences between the two, just as there are between Vanilla Ice's most well-known hit and a certain Queen collaboration with David Bowie. Who knows, perhaps the folks who created that BYU ad were granted permission from Snow Patrol to create a little jingle that sounded much like one of their songs.

Moving right along, February is about to draw to a close and it never ceases to amaze me how quickly the 28 days pass. Heck, even when it's 29 it seems much smaller than the old 30 and 31-dayers. So it goes, eh Kurt?

Before this month ends, I must say that I am firmly behind Charlie Sheen. This vid is the latest and while many think Charlie sounds nutty, there is an awfully intelligent and articulate individual there. In the clip they even discuss that he is anti-semitic. As a half-semite, or a semi-semite, that they would even find the alleged anti-semitic remark anti-semitic, is...well...Why do I have a feeling those who made that speculation are not even Jews themselves? Not that it would matter really, I just find that interesting...Shouldn't we let the supposed offended race or religion be the one to point out their offense? Charlie, my apologies on using your first name lest it give any implication that I might know you on any real personal level.

But what really stinks in the whole situation, to me, is something I feel I see so damn often in the media. I admit I don't follow the news nearly enough. I find myself grossly uninformed on many current (and even past) events. But I might prefer to be uninformed than misinformed. With all of the unrest in Northern Africa and the Middle East, why the Hell are we so up in arms about a guy who performs on a sitcom doing a lot of drugs? Perhaps he is damaging himself, perhaps he is setting himself up as an anti-role model, but is that more important than thousands of people being murdered and political unrest? I'm all for humor bringing levity to things and serving as a pleasant distraction, but when we get down to serious business, shouldn't we focus on actually serious business? Update: Sheen was on Piers Morgan last night and these very things were addressed, with the show itself coming before Anderson Cooper's discussion of the state of affairs in Libya. Kind of...meta...


At any rate media, I continue to be more afraid of trans fat than I am Charlie Sheen. Update: I ate a DiGiorno pizza at 2:30 in the morning, which contains my feared trans fat. I had hyper-realistic nightmares. I am sure it was the pizza and not any other substances. Beware the Ides of March, folks. Mazel Tov.

People in Glass Apartments...

Who also happen to live in my building, get down with some crazy shit apparently. I was walking out to get myself some groceries the other day when I noted a gaping hole in a window at the other end of my floor in my building. How many times can I say my building? The thing is, I am pretty sure this apartment is rented by a couple with two small children. Perhaps now they only have one...But honestly these are some heavy-duty windows and it would take quite serious force to break them. What I'm saying is, I want to know what happened, and how I could not have noticed.

Just days ago, a friend of mine introduced me to the viral sensation "I hope this gets to you." I think the song is pretty delightful, and it even had this little story behind it, complete with Katy Perry finding out about it and sending a lot of attention the way of the song. The video is nifty too, reminiscent of perhaps some Labyrinth-era David Bowie and by that I mean a scene in Labyrinth pretty unrelated to David Bowie.

So it's a feel-good story until the sleuth work of an anonymous friend (and no, that is not a reference to google, but I believe he used that along with other social networks, those in real and fake life) uncovered some damning details. The woman behind the man who created the song is a student at Duke's Fuqua School of Business, where she is pursuing her MBA. It turns out she has, allegedly, been pursuing some other mba's (male boner assessments) down in Durham. I am saying allegedly because I don't want to be liable for libel. It's really not very nice to be even raising the rumor here on this blog, but man, somehow I had to.

The "girlfriend" is a student at Duke's Fuqua School of Business where she is pursuing her MBA, and has received several of her classmates mba's (male boner assessments). It seems then, that there is some bull going on in Durham. Now, I can't say whether the frontman to the band was aware of his girlfriend's infidelity and I might feel bad about bringing it to light, but I don't have quite the dilemma of Vince Vaughn, seeing as I do not know this fellow. Also, so few people read this blog, that, unlike his song, news is unlikely to get to him. Either he knows and it was all a marketing sham, or he doesn't know and his relationship is a sham. Again, this is all on alleged information. I'd make a bad journalist at this rate.

In happier news, I saw Lissie in concert the other day and good googley moogley that girl rocks it. She can sing her ass off, and just has so much soul, character, and depth. I'm saying I like the chick. I'm saying I would date her, if she'd only have me. But I'll settle for her continuing to make awesome music and continuing to do wonderful covers. I linked to a couple of them before I believe, so clicking the old Lissie label should take you there.

I'm a stickler for grammar, but there isn't a chance in Hell I've proofread this. Cheers.