If you thought Skittles commercials were already weird, they just got a little weirderrrr (yes I know thats not a word). Back when the ‘skittles leak’ commercial aired, I thought I had seen it all, but now this new batch released in 2011 have taken it to a whole new meaningless makes no sense kinda creepy level.
What do you think?
It was the home of the Mcallisters, it was a huge warm home big enough for the whole family, and it was a house that Kevin had to protect. Not many movies portray a house like Home Alone did back when it was released in 1990, the house was the battleground for Kevin as he had to defend it from burglars and really was like a main character in the movie itself.
And just recently that same house in Chicago Illinois has gone up for sale. So if you have the cash, you can own a little piece of cinema history. The 4250 sq. ft. home has 4 bedrooms and 14 rooms in total, and it also features a scary basement, cool third floor bedrooms, and a staircase just begging for a toboggan.
The house is listed for $2.4 million… keep the change you filthy animal.
The house is currently being listed by Coldwell Banker and you can check out the online real estate page here:
http://homealonehome.coldwellbanker.com/
You can read more about the house here:
http://marquee.blogs.cnn.com/2011/05/06/home-alone-house-for-sale-for-2-4-million/
With some poor reviews of the latest Jetta release, VW is definitely trying to step up their game. So maybe a little comical advertising will help, hey if Bill Hader is in it, its bound to be funny right? And incase you thought I was going to say no, your wrong, yes, yes this is some quite hilarious stuff. So check out the latest series of ad’s from Volkswagen.
For each tank that is manufactured in the world, 131000 teddy bears are made.
For each stock exchange that plummets, there are 10 versions of ‘What a Wonderful World’.
For each corrupt person, there are 8000 donating blood.
For each wall that exists, there are 200000 welcome mats.
While a scientist is designing a new weapon, 1 million moms are making chocolate cakes….
There is a recent commercial circulating in Latin America right now, and its gathering a lot of attention. What you just read is a section of the ad appropriately named ’Reasons to Believe’ that is put out by Coca Cola. I am not sure why this ad has not been released in an english version elsewhere, but I think it definitely should be soon. Until then, there are a couple translated versions floating around on YouTube, and I am here to share one of them with you. Put aside all your liberal-anti-big-business-damn-the-man thoughts and just enjoy a simple ad with a great message to start your Sunday 
Automakers produce some of the most innovative and enjoyable advertisements in the industry. Whether its making us feel good about life, our car, or anything inbetween, these ads all portray a lifestyle. It’s that lifestyle you associate with, look up to, and want, not necessarily the car itself. It’s with that little trick that marketing agencies around the world target us. Our brains by default connect the shortest path to a destination, we think that maybe if we buy this car, we can have that lifestyle. Even if we know that is not the case, we like to think that owning that car could help propel us on the path to achieving our dreams. This is a very difficult urge to supress, but one must take advertisements with a grain of salt. Either way, if you can maintain your ability to make good decisions, you should be able to enjoy the ads nonetheless. Below is a sample of some more favorites of mine.
Who needs a big house? Thats just more shit to clean! Small homes and apartments are nothing new, but small spaces that feel bigger than they are, and are extremely cool is new. There is a quiet movement of these modern pint sized apartments and I call it ‘The Compact Revolution’.
The revolution has been growing, and has its roots primarily in the Asian and European regions. I first encountered the art of extreme space saving in Hong Kong designs. With an ever expanding population, and the drive to increase urban density and reduce our human footprint, the compact revolution is a movement to battle urban sprawl in style. If you want people to change, you need to create options, and not just any options, cool options.
One of the most recent designs I’ve seen in the compact world is the perfectly named ‘Closet House’ from Portugal. This apartment features 5 living areas in 474 square feet, and does it well. Watch the video to truly experience how the compact revolution is growing.
On the discussion board today is a film I saw last night. The film I saw was Monsters. It’s safe to say that I had no previous knowledge or expectations about this film before I saw it. I had pretty much only heard of the name, and was told it was a low-budget film from a friend.
One thing I love about low-budget films is that the film makers don’t possess the funds necessary to create large action sequences or incredible CG. This forces the filmmakers to focus on the story, the characters, their relationships, and ultimately be creative to draw in their audiences.
Monsters is no exception, the film follows Andrew; a photo journalist as he is forced to put aside his assignment and help the daughter of his boss Samantha get back to the United States from Central America. The catch is that 6 years ago, a space probe returning to earth with samples thought to prove the existence of alien life crashed into Central America. And ever since then, the ‘monsters’ have been multiplying, pushing the limits of the Mexican and American governments capability to contain them.
In order to return to America, the couple has to travel through ‘the infected zone’, an area off-limits to humans and is meant to contain the monsters. As they do so, they develop an interesting relationship, as Andrews cynical yet realistic point of view combines with Samantha’s soft-spoken gentle nature. The characters are easily likable, and you can’t help but hope they succeed in their journey to the border.
Scifi monster movie buffs might be disappointed with the very little actual monster contact. The best relation I can think of is that of Cloverfield, in which you saw very little of the monsters themselves. But the similarities stop at that, as Monsters is far superior in quality to that of Cloverfield.
So for a movie that was created with 2 people, filmed entirely on locations, and utilized local people as characters in the movie, this was a spectacular film. Check it out.
2010 may not have hosted the best movies of any year on record (1977-Star Wars obviously…), but it most certainly had some worthy works. Despite the usual expected travesties such as Twilight and Sex and the City sequels, there were some remarkable films. One of the first to come to mind would be Inception, the film that played on the realities of a dream. A great action film leaving you with the same sort of feeling you had after watching the Matrix for the first time, waking up in the middle of the night screaming “WHAT IS REAL!?” Well maybe not that far, but another DiCaprio hit none the less.
Other worthy mentions would be the Social Network, with the surprisingly entertaining depiction of
Mr Zuckerberg himself, the unexpected humor in Kick Ass, the ever likable Boston gangster film genre of The Town, and the witty remarks of Tony Stark in Iron Man 2. Furthermore, the less popular but incredibly well written film Remember Me starring Robert Pattinson showed this British actor is capable of portraying a decent character other than a sparkly vampire. Never Let Me Go, was a difficult and sad yet incredible movie to watch as well, same goes for Winters Bone which Jennifer Lawrence does a fantastic job in.
I maintain 2010 was a good year for movies. It’s hard to explain the value of movies to non-movie buffs, and I can never express enough the importance of watching each film for what it is. Let yourself into the story, experience what the filmmakers are trying to portray, because films are not merely entertainment, they are depictions of all the feelings and emotions we have in this world.
So I’ll leave you with one of the best movie montages of 2010 I’ve seen. Kudos to the creators of this, they did a good job. We’ll see how 2011 turns out.
This title gets thrown around quite a bit. I grew up listening to Rahzel, one could say he was one of the beat box innovators, bringing this unique style of vocals to life. “If your mother only knew” was one of the very first works by him that hooked me right away. And when anyone mutters the words beat box I automatically hear that song in my head. The art of beat box has definitely taken off, and has spawned a great number of talented beat box aficionados. One of which is making some waves lately is Eklips from France. You can check out vids by both Rahzel and Eklips below. Listen, Watch, Enjoy.
Big news for $5.00 coffee lovers, Starbucks is changing their iconic siren logo. You can read about it on Starbucks Official Site, or read some of the comment battles going on at CNN with their Just In Series. But despite the enormous controversy erupting among die-hard Starbucks fans, the logo is hardly ground breaking. I mean all they really did was remove the company name circling the iconic siren beauty. Wait, is taking your company name off your products a smart idea? Either way, it looks pretty much the same in my opinion.
That mermaid-ish creature that is the ’Siren’ you see in the logo dates back to 16th century Norse wood carvings according to the Starbucks webpage. She was chosen as the logo to represent the beginnings of Starbucks back in 1971 when it was starting its empire in Seattle. Needless to say, she’s been with the company since day one, so it is good to see that she stays with the company into the new year as well.
However, if there’s one thing I’ve learned in my few years in this world, it’s that people generally as a whole hate change. Nobody likes change, once we are used to something it’s so difficult to break away from it, this is especially true among the products we purchase. It’s the main reason that those products we got hooked on as kids have barely changed their branding logo’s, so that years later, we wander down the cereal aisle, and can still find our box of Cheerios, or jar of Nutella. I am impartial to the changing of something as simple as the Starbucks logo, but I am not everyone. Maybe it is wise for Starbucks to keep the majority happy, and maintain their previous logo.
Either way, only time will tell what is to come of Starbucks new branding, as this is not temporary, having officially released the new yesterday January 5, 2011. However the cups look, that ridiculously expensive coffee will still be available so for those of you crying about the logo change, don’t be too upset, people will still know your drinking a Starbucks when you walk down the street clasping it in both hands. The siren lives on.
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