Perhaps more focus groups…

…or lessons in graphic design. Shot this with my camera phone while waiting for a light to change at Wilshire and San Vicente. When I first glanced at it, all I read was “Coca-Cola Taste Zero.” While I don’t exactly disagree with that statement (Coke from Mexico, despite lead-containing bottles, tastes better because it still contains real sugar, not that corn syrup crap that’s in every American food product), I thought it odd that they’d advertise it. Maybe it was a new (non) flavor? They have Coke Black (Coke with coffee essense) which makes no sense to me since most people I know who don’t like coffee drink Coke or Pepsi as a caffeine substitute. Why make it coffee flavored when you can just have coffee?

Bird-brained…

You’d think after five months that my bird alarm would either have a sore beak or realize that the birdie-in-the-mirror isn’t going anywhere? My little bird continued to wake me at dawn by tapping away at his reflection in the floodlight outside my bedroom window…until last Saturday. I wrapped the top of the bulb in black tape to remove any reflective surface. Then I sat back and waited. He returned as expected and landed on the bulb. He looked where his adversary had been and only saw black tape. Damn if he didn’t spend the next half hour trying to rip up the tape! Luckily for me: tape – 1, bird- 0. Now, if I could do something about that damn nocturnal mockingbird!

Meka Leka Hi, Meka Hiney-oh…

It’s been 20 years since it premiered and I remember watching it every Saturday morning (with the New Adventrues of Mighty Mouse). Pee Wee’s Playhouse returned on Adult Swim on Cartoon network tonight with many of its later-to-be-famous cast members (Laurence Fishburne, Phil Hartman and Gregory Harrison). It was as cheesy, over-acted, and gay as I remembered it (and just as much fun). The world was definitely a simpler place when a show like this could air on Saturday morning without the virtue police slamming it for unsavory content. Now it airs with the likes of Aqua Team Hunger Force and Minoriteam.

Commercials I love…


As I’ve been watching more TV than usual during the Olympics, I’ve also had to watch more than my share of commercials. I watched the Olympics in High Definition and was impressed by the number of commercials broadcast in Hi Def as well. It’s too bad that most of them were unimpressive. The new AT&T needs to find a new advertising agency as they obviously had more money than ideas. GM barraged us with giant SUVs and Volkswagon introduced their obnoxious new “Make friends with your fast” campaign.

On the plus side, Visa’s commercials seemed heartfelt and inspired while keeping the brand message prominent but not overbearing. The best, in my opinion, belonged to United Airlines. Their new animated spots (see the frames to the left) are visually stunning with a very human story.

Spam I love…

Being a webmaster to 20 or so sites, I get approximately 400 spam emails a day. I’ve gotten most of it under control with SpamArrest (shameless plug here!), but I still need to skim my two main accounts for valid messages. Tangent warning: Will someone please tell my why a company as big as AT&T (formerly SBC, formerly Southwest Bell, formerly AT&T) can’t ever send your only billing notice from the same email address so that it actually passes your authorized sender list?
But I digress…I graduated from Vi^agra emails to Ci^lis (and do they think they using ^ instead of a means it won’t be tagged as spam?). I get messages to Ebay customer, Best Buy customer, McDonalds customer, Walmart customer (like I’d ever shop at Walmart!). And who is Robert.Allen and why is he convinced I want to be rich? Among my favorites from fake names like Levi Chang (a Chinese Rabbi, obviously) and Shirika Veracruz (a Mexican pharmacist, apparently…since the Canadians and Mexicans are really vying for my mail-order pharmacy business), is Christian Debt Removers. It’s good to know that someone is looking our for a debt-ridden Christian family like mine.

I just wonder if these Christians thought about their imagery before quoting Proverbs 22:7?

Guilty pleasures…

At each Olympics, I tell myself that I’m not going to get wrapped up in them. Invariably, by the second day, I’m hooked. The winter Olympics for me is all about the ice…figure skating, ice dancing, speed skating. Snow? Too cold. Downhill skiing is like watching car racing for me. It’s all about the finish line. But show me Sasha Cohen’s stylings across the ice, or Johnny Weir’s creativity, or Shizuka Arakawa’s grace and I’m rapt. And the speed skating relays– I’m on the edge of my seat.

I love to watch the competitors congratulate each other at the end of the race…the acknowledgement that it is about the sport, not just winning. Not that winning is bad. The world should fight its wars this way– on the field, on the slopes, on the ice. Let the best man win, and let the losers return to try again.

My two weeks of guilty pleasure is almost over, then it’s back to CSI.

EDIT: There’s always one that makes that exception. Speed skater Chad Hedrick of Texas may be a winner, but his Olympic spirit (and decency) are lacking. From his treatment of his teammate Shani Davis, to his dissing of the Dutch gold medalist, he should learn to keep his mouth shut.

And you thought people were single-minded…

There is a bird that wakes me every day. I wish it was a melodic call that eased me from my slumber, but no such luck. It is the incessant tapping of beak on glass as this bird attacks its reflection in the mirrored side of the floodlamps hanging outside my bedroom window. I’m not sure what makes this little sparrow so territorial that it can’t stand to share my ledge with its doppelganger.