Favorite Commercial of All Time

So I'm kind of a sap and I've always loved the Hallmark commercials (even more so than their movies a lot of times). More often than not, they make me all teary and when a freaking COMMERCIAL can make you cry, well, that's saying something for the power of good advertising. Or maybe it's just saying something about me being a freak show, but I choose to go with the former.

My favorite commerial of all time actually aired when I was a kid, aged maybe 8 or 9. It is a Christmas commercial about a little boy waiting for his older brother (who he adores) to come home from college for the holiday. Except there is a blizzard raging outside and as the hours wear on, he becomes resigned to the fact that his brother probably won't make it in time. In their family, they have a tradition that the brothers sing Christmas carols together for the family on Christmas Eve. That night, the little boy starts singing "O Holy Night" (btw, my fave Christmas carol) all alone. I'm sure you can deduce what happens next, given that this is a Hallmark commercial.

The commercial aired during Hallmark's presentation of "The Secret Garden" (which is actually a fabulous movie), and even as a kid it moved me and has stuck with me all these years. I've tried finding it online several times, but until now I've had no luck. Today it randomly entered my thoughts and I decided to hop on over to YouTube to see if anyone had posted it since the last time I checked a year or so ago. I pretty much squealed out loud when I typed in "Hallmark Christmas commercial brothers" and it magically appeared. YouTube, I love you.

It Gets Better

The world needs more people like Dan Savage. In case you don't know who he is, Dan Savage is the openly-gay author of the sex column "Savage Love" which he has been writing on a weekly basis for the Seattle alternative newspaper The Stranger since 1991. The column is very frank, humorous, sometimes eyebrow-raising, and always tell-it-like-it-is. While many of the people who write in with questions for Savage are gay or lesbian, just as many are straight and the column is always entertaining and insightful which is probably why it is now internationally syndicated. Savage can be extremely crass and is often harsh in his replies to people he thinks are not thinking through their situations intelligently, and he's taken a lot of criticism for that, amongst other things (the Santorum campaign, anyone?). But he consistently makes good points about problems in our society. For example, in an effort to show how hypocritical denying homosexuals in committed relationships the right to marry is, he and a lesbian friend went to obtain a license to marry one another. He wrote of the experience, "We emphasised to the clerk and her manager that Amy and I don't live together, we don't love each other, we don't plan to have kids together, and we're going to go on living and sleeping with our same-sex partners after we get married. So could we still get a marriage license?" According to Savage, the license department manager said, "Sure. If you've got $54, you can have a marriage license."

Part of what makes Dan Savage so great, however, is his propensity for caring about others. In interviews, on This American Life, and occasionally in his column, he references his husband Terry (who he's been with for 15 years) and their son DJ (who they adopted twelve years ago) with such love that it's almost heartbreaking. One of the sweetest This American Life episodes I ever listened to was a story of Dan getting up in the middle of the night with a sick six-year-old DJ and talking to his son about why he thought his two daddies shouldn't get married. He didn't try to sway him one way or the other, but simply asked questions and let him reach his own conclusions. You can listen to the episode by clicking here and then clicking on "stream episode" (Dan is the second story, but the rest of the episode is great as well). Reading his column, you would never characterize Dan as someone who has a big heart and is an inspirational guy, but that is exactly the case. Never has it been more so than now.

In his "Savage Love" column yesterday, Dan Savage started his "It Gets Better" video project. Responding to the recent suicide of Billy Lucas, a bullied gay high school student, Dan and his husband Terry made a video for all of the LGBT middle and high school kids out there who are struggling to get through each day. In the video, Dan and Terry talk about how they, too, were bullied mercilessly in high school but how they're so glad they perservered and got through it because their lives are so much better now than they ever would have imagined. He then invited other adult members of the LGBT community to submit their own "It Gets Better" videos to his YouTube channel in the hopes that kids who may not see the point of getting through these painful years will watch the videos, have role models to look up to, and know that their high school lives are hellish but only temporary. Dozens of videos have already gone up on the site, from kids who are only a couple of years out of high school to people in their sixties and beyond all sending the same message: life will absolutely get better for you if you can stick it out just a couple more years. It's an ingenious idea that will hopefully save lives and will undoubtedly make some kids out there rest slightly easier knowing this isn't all there is.

Below is Dan and Terry's video, which kick-started the project. And here is a link to an interview Dan gave to the New York Times about it. Like I said, we need more Dan Savages in this world.

It's Official.

OK Go has the best videos ever. If you love dogs, this will totally make your day.



After you've gotten your mind around how cool this video is, check out this article on the making of it.

Rock on.

New Song Obsession(s)

There are two songs I've been listening to over and over lately, and they're rather different from each other. "Lost" by Anouk is slow, beautiful, and sad. "Kids" by MGMT is definitely more upbeat and has an alternative and minor tone to it. That being said, the official video for "Lost" won't allow embedding, so click on either link above to watch it (sorry for the little ad at the beginning--totally annoying, I know). The official video for "Kids" is completely disturbing and I hate it. So below is a different one that I find a bit more palatable and which also includes lyrics. Don't even think about asking me what these lyrics mean. I'm going to guess that it's some big piece of symbolism that is far beyond me. It doesn't matter, because the song itself rocks.

The Wait is Over

I'm currently in the middle of reading this:

I'll be back when I have something to report.

Um, Awesome?

"Yes, I'd like a heart attack with a side of fries please. Oh, and a diet coke."

What is going ON with fast food these days? Is this a backlash against the organic/free-range movement? I mean, I'm the first to admit that I love me some junk food, but I wouldn't go near these things with a ten-foot pole. Lately, it seems like a never-ending competition between restaurants to see who can come up with the most wretchedly unhealthy sandwich. Here are our contenders:

First we have the so-meat-tastic-it-doesn't-need-a-bun KFC Double Down. It contains two fried chicken filets that are the "buns" of the sandwich. Between the filets we have two slices of Monterey Jack and pepper jack cheese, two slices of bacon, and "special sauce". All this can be yours for a mere 540 calories, 32 grams of fat, and...wait for it...1,380 milligrams of sodium :

A strong contender, the Double Down, but maybe not strong enough. For next we have the lactose-intolerant-nightmare from Denny's, the Fried Cheese Melt sandwich. This culinary nightmare contains four fried mozzerella cheese sticks, smothered in American cheese, all between two pieces of sourdough bread. The entire sandwich is then fried again. Of course, it's served with a side of...? You guessed it: fries! Though Denny's has yet to release "nutrition" information about the sandwich, diet experts estimate that it is approximately 1400 calories. Add in the fries and marinara sauce and you have a meal that is over 1900 calories:

Not content to sit idly by while the fast-food chains of America get their kicks contributing to the expansion of American waistlines, the Wisconsin State Fair wanted in on the action. Now, to be fair (get it...FAIR??), state fairs are not exactly known as meccas of healthy eating. However, I think this next creation is at least equally as caloric and fattening if not more so than the fried candy bars and Twinkies that have become a state fair mainstay. That would be the Krispy Kreme Cheeseburger. Sold at the Machine Shed tent, this sandwich consists of a regular beef patty smothered in melted cheese with a Krispy Kreme doughnut instead of a regular bun. For an extra dollar, you can even top it with chocolate-covered bacon! The burger will set you back 1,000 calories (without the bacon), so I figure that if you want to be efficient, simply eat two of them and you'll have reached your daily recommended caloric intake. Using up your expensive groceries with silly things like snacks or dinner? No need! Having to think about cooking a regular meal with actual vegetables? Fuggedaboudit. Pretty tempting, eh?

Last, but certainly not least, Burger King decided to up the ante. Don't you hate it when you just can't decide if you want a burger or pizza? Well, those days are over. Now just head on over to the New York BK Whopper Bar where you can order the Burger King Pizza Burger. What might a pizza burger consist of? Glad you asked! Burger King has laid four quarter-pound whopper patties (for the math-disabled among us, that would be a full pound of beef) on top of a nine-and-a-half inch sesame seed bun. The patties are then covered in pepperoni, mozzerella cheese, marinara sauce, and "pesto-flavored" mayonnaise (unfortunately, there don't seem to be photos of this particular artery-clogging food-substance on the Nets yet so you'll just have to use your imagination). To be fair, Burger King says that this sandwich is meant to be shared. But come on--do you really think there aren't people who will attempt to eat the whole thing themselves? Mmmm...2,520 calories...heart stopping. Literally.

I'm fairly certain that calories entered my body from simply looking at photos of this stuff. Now if you'll excuse me, I think I need to eat some broccoli.