Friday, April 20, 2012

See This Film This Weekend





Or some other weekend, but preferably this one.

The movie Chimpanzee, co-produced by the Jane Goodall Institute.  It took something like 3 to 5 years to shoot.  It centers on a baby chimp, Oscar, orphaned when his mother is killed.  Most of the time orphans are adopted by elder siblings or more rarely, other females of the tribe.  Unfortunately for Oscar these were not options so he is adopted by Freddy, the Alpha male and leader of the tribe.  This proves dangerous as Freddy neglects leading and protecting the tribe because he is caring for little Oscar.  Sensing the weakness of the group, a rival tribe attacks to take over Freddy's tribe's territory.

Chimpanzees and humans are so closely related, and this movie fully illustrates our similarities - both can be compassionate as well as cruel.

Take your kids (or someone else's kids, just borrow one) and open their eyes to how critically important it is for us to care about wildlife and our responsibility to protect their habitats.  If you see it this weekend, all proceeds will go to the Jane Goodall Institute.

This has been a public service announcement.  You may now return to surfing the web for cute pictures of cats, celebrity gossip and of course, porn.


Thursday, April 19, 2012

Collective Nouns

I'm a fan.  One of the more charming aspects of the English language - a pod of whales, a pride of lions, a murder of crows.

So let's make some up.  Here's a few I'd like to see:*

A crank of retirees

A gulp of swallows

A mood of teenagers

A judgment of Republicans

A slouch of supermodels

A klieg of actors

A guilt of mothers

A 12(b)(6) of attorneys  

An angst of art directors

A whine of toddlers

A block of writers

A regret of old lovers

An indecision of designers

An ego of directors

A laissez faire of Libertarians


Add your own in the comments.



*I might have read some of these somewhere.  I'm forgetful.

Friday, April 13, 2012

A Coupla Advertising Memories*


I knew an art director in New York who worked at an agency in the Chrysler Building.  Early one morning she called in a bomb threat so she go to the Barney's Warehouse Sale.

I was working freelance for an agency that was in a new business pitch.  Most of the creative department was working fairly long hours, and one evening, maybe around 8, one of the (female) creatives came out of her office with a male coworker.  She walked across the common area and threw away their used condom.

We had a receptionist at one agency who was a bit dotty.  She was ancient, dressed inappropriately, had brittle over-bleached hair and wore a mask of makeup.  The reception area was the only place with any common seating so we'd congregate there on occasion.  One day she came out from behind her desk, hiked up her miniskirt and proceeded to adjust her stockings and garter belts.

Same area, some of us talking about local restaurants and eating out.  One of our admin chicks, a girl named Melinda walked up and interjected into the conversation: "Eat eat eat!  Doesn't anyone FUCK anymore?"

Same agency, the Creative Department hosted the Halloween party every year.  It was always a blow out and spouse/SOs were not invited.  This particular year one writer and a woman from the graphics department were having sex in his office.  As luck would have it the writer's wife showed up about the time they finished up their playdate.  Did I mention everyone is drunk at this point?  Anyway, Wife tries to open Writer's locked office door; other coworkers are trying to distract her; Writer opens the door looking as one does when one has just had sex and... Wife is outraged, goes into the office and proceeds the pull Writer's five-foot ficus plant out of its pot and starts to swing it at everything and anyone in her way.  I felt bad for the ficus.

Same party.  Two guys dressed up as the Blues Brothers, complete with little baggies of 'cocaine' (I think it was actually coffee creamer).  At the end of the night they threw the baggies away in one writer's office.  The next morning, we noticed that the cleaning crew had thoughtfully taken the baggies out of the trash and placed them on the writer's desk.

One of my first CDs was a great guy but very volatile - could get crazy angry at the drop of a hat.  One day I was sitting in my office and I saw his jambox go flying by my door.  Right behind it was CD, chasing it and beating it with a baseball bat.  He couldn't get it to work and come to find out it hadn't been fully plugged in.


*Several people have complimented me on this post (Elle, you should totally get PUBLISHED!)  But in the spirit of full disclosure, every story mentioned here is true.  The only thing I elaborated on was the jambox/baseball bat story.  It might have been a golf club.






Sunday, April 8, 2012

Have a Coupla Tunes

This morning I was working on the yard and a song I had not thought about in years popped into my head.

Way back when I was just a child in my twenties, I took guitar lessons from two guys, David and Paul - each better looking than the other.  They had a bluegrass band called The Weirknot Brothers (get it?), and they could play this tune wicked.

Once I had a girl on Rocky Top
Half bear the other half cat
Wild as a mink but sweet as soda pop
I still dream about that.






And for something completely different, a gem from Chris Isaak:

Saturday, April 7, 2012

Found on the Interwebs, A Series of Tubes


Am I the only chick that thinks Jeremy Sisto is the hottest thing since Hot Things?  I would totally bang him blind but he's married.  Speaking of, why do people do that in this day and age?*  What's up with that?

Texts from Hillary.  Potentially very funny site.

Yo, Is This Racist?  This site makes me laugh out loud at least once a day.   Yo - thanks.

Don't have a vagina unless you can afford it.

Conversations overheard, and hilariously illustrated, from a comic book store in Boston.

I hope everyone appreciates Bruce McGill.  Started out as "D-Day" in "Animal House", was in "Legally Blonde 2", and continues to be an excellent character actor on "Rizzoli and Isles".  He's also not hard on the eyes if you like rugged bearded men in their fifties.  Like I do.

I know the young people are into the Zach Galifianakis movies (none of which I have seen [Sorry Zach, since I'm sure you are part of the 40-ish number of people who read this site])  but he is hands-down brilliant as the host of Between Two Ferns with Zach Galifianakis, via Funny or Die.

Everyone have a great weekend - it's a sunny, brilliant spring day here in the Emerald City.  Hope it's the same where you are.



* Not that I have a problem with married people.  Some of my best friends are married.