I'm Waiting for The Day

Are you waiting for the day when I blog again? Then you are in luck.

A couple of TV ads grabbed my attention in the past day or two, one I like OK and the other really bugs me. The OK one is the Burger King campaign where they take away the Whopper for a day and film customer's reactions hidden camera style. People get pretty worked up! About a burger. I like that BK does interesting, kinda edgy campaigns like the weird plastic King and the Subvervient Chicken. But as a former BK employee, I feel bad for the folks working in the restaurants that had to take the abuse. Maybe they were actors. It also got me thinking about a library version, like take away the Internet for a day. Or make people pay to check out books. Or have their questions answered. Might be a good awareness tool. Or just a train wreck.

The one that really bugs me is the US Celluar ad with the young woman who has just gone off to college and is all happy that the employee at the cell phone store is nice enough to help her Dad with the bills. I didn't catch it the first couple of times, but the implication is that Dad is functionally illiterate. And daughter's solution is to rely on a semi-off-brand cell phone store employee to read his mail to him! There are adult literacy classes @ your library(r) you could point Dad to. Or some other positive community-based individual improvement resource. Anything other than just letting Dad stay illiterate and taking his bills to a cell phone store! While he is sending her off to college. Geez. Bring back Joan Cusak, I beg of you.

This week's consumable is Glenmorangie Ten Year. I'm not a big Scotch (or whiskey in general) drinker, but I had a glass when I was hanging out with my friend John the other night at my current favorite bar in the universe, the Duke of Perth. It was the perfect mix of smooth and warm and tasty. If you're looking for a non-beer compliment to an evening of excellent, wide ranging conversation, you could certainly do a lot worse.

Speaking of perfect compliments to a time or mood, a couple of weeks ago I was in a semi-bad mood so I broke down an ordered a 180 gram vinyl copy of Pet Sounds by the Beach Boys. As far as I know it's not available on vinyl domestically, and is always quite pricey when I see it in stores. But I didn't pay toooo much on ebay for it. And I'm glad I did because it was waiting for me last Friday at the end of another semi-bad day, or a day I wasn't 100% satisfied with. I can't quite put my finger on why (or maybe I'm just not going to tell you, gentle reader) but listening to that music was exactly the right thing at the right time. And made everything alright. It really is one of the best collections of songs ever. Great lyrics, amazing orchestration. Sunny and moody at the same time. But also smooth and tasty, like a good Scotch with a good friend in the best bar in Chicago.

Geek Bars

There's a cool little piece near the start of the new Wired on the top geek bars in the US. I was excited to see that one of my Top 5 Bars, Barcade in Brooklyn, made the list. They have great American microbrews on tap (in fact that's all they have beer wise) and a bunch of old school video games with ridiculous high scores.



Check it out if you're in NYC. I'd probably be there in March if ACRL wasn't at the same time as the Radio Heartbeat Powerpop Fest.