Savannah, Georgia! My favorite Photos from October 2023.

I posted recently with all the photos that I love but didn’t quite make the list of favorites from this great trip to Savannah, Georgia. I was in town for the NEEDTOBREATHE/ Judah and the Lion show. Take a look at these photos that I love the most from this trip, and if you have a chance to visit, or see NEEDTOBREATHE or Judah and the Lion, do it.

-Out of the Wilderness

The Gap Holiday Commercial – The Music, The Celebs, and More

Hello and happy holidays… I know we’re not even past Halloween yet but if Gap gets to start doing Christmas, then I will, too, gosh darn it! And we all know Walmart’s had Christmas decorations up since July, let’s not kid ourselves. Speaking of holidays and gifts (The Gap commercial is called “Gifted”), check out my two children’s books Big and Small, God Made Them All, and The Brave Bamboo. Perfect stocking stuffer, if I do say so myself. 🤔

Here’s the ad from Gap, then scroll down for the celebs, the music, and more.

The Stars. I’ll be honest, I only recognized Alanis Morissette in the commercial. But I found a list of the folks featured in the ad. Along with Alanis, there’s authors Jay Shetty and Radhi Devlukia, culinary artists Lester Walker, Pierre Serrao and Jon Gray, model Florence Huntington-Whiteley, singer/songwriter Diana Gordon, model Elsa Hosk with her daughter Tuuli, Swedish model Sabina Karlsson and husband Ricky Jackson, plus actor/singer Rola.

Here’s an extended version of the commercial…

The Music. The soundtrack for this ad is a song from Roy Young called “One Love.”

The song’s also been used in this ad for 1-800-FLOWERS…

Wrap Up. The Gap commercial is a little bland, not really showing anything holiday related at all. But it’s got a feel-good vibe, thanks to the music, and I guess that fits with the Christmas season. Joy, happiness, all those fuzzy feelings we get around the holidays. What are your thoughts about the commercial? Does it make you want to dash out for a warm Gap sweater?

-Out of the Wilderness

The Visa McCaffrey Commercial and Other Commercials I Don’t Like

I like Christian McCaffrey. I like Visa. But I don’t like when someone triples down on being an antagonist. That’s what happens in this Visa credit card commercial featuring McCaffrey and a young 49ers fan. This fan is a student who moves to a new school and it just happens to be in a rival city. Instead of being mature, he throws his 49ers support right in the face of the locals. Not a smart decision if you’re trying to make friends, kiddo. And Visa wants us to believe the 49ers kid is the hero of the story.

It’s very much like someone driving through Tuscaloosa, Alabama with an Auburn flag. Or showing up to your ex-girlfriend’s wedding and saying something when the minister asks if anyone objects to this marriage, speak now or forever hold your peace. Whatever happens next is exactly what you asked for. For the 49ers fan, Visa suggests that spending money is the solution. More 49ers gear! All that’s going to do is add fuel to the fire. These boys are destined for a fight at 3pm on the playground.

But wait, there’s more. Visa doesn’t have the only irritating commercial on TV and streaming at the moment. Here are a few other “winners”…

1. All the Burger King commercials. If I ruled, like the ads claim I do, they’d be banished from the kingdom forever. Or, at the very least, forced to listen to to Taylor Swift music until they wish they’d never been broiled… which is, of course, a reference to one of my favorite commercials of all time where a kid wishes he’d never been broiled. Classic.

2. The Amazon polar plunge commercial. In my experience, shaving your chest has literally no affect on how cold the water feels to your body. Add that to the previous Amazon commercial where a woman stops shaving, and Amazon gets the award for most progressive and most progressively dumb ads out there.

3. The Allstate podcast guy that no one wants to be friends with. When you have so few people that like you, it’s no wonder he has time for so many podcasts.

How do you feel about the 49ers Visa commercial? This kid is doomed, right? If he keeps instigating things with “the bully,” it’s only going to escalate the tension and when’s the last time two guys with that much bravado didn’t get in a fight?

-Out of the Wilderness

Hello Savannah!

Hello Savannah! I walked around Savannah for a few hours before going to a show at the relatively new Enmarket Arena. I brought my camera along and so, of course, I have a few favorite photos.

Before we get to my top favorites, here are a few runner-ups from Savannah, Georgia, October 2023.

-Out of the Wilderness

Hitting someone with a car is not so fun

Someone I know recently was driving– not a Lincoln driven by Serena Williams— in the evening and (accidentally) struck a pedestrian who was crossing the road. Obviously this could be an ongoing issue with insurance for the foreseeable future, which is two things: 1. Annoying and 2. The reason insurance exists. Before going into it further, I should say that both parties (the hittee and the hitter) are OK. It was a low speed accident, thank the Lord!

It was kind of a crazy and weird coincidence that the same day I heard about this hit & (not) run, I was part of a triathlon group meeting and the guest speaker talked about insurance as it relates to vehicle/cycling accidents. One hundred percent because of what he talked about, I came back home and changed a few things about my insurance.

I try to be as safe as possible but it’s impossible to know how other people are going to act on the road. All it takes is one driver glancing down at a TikTok on their phone and boom, an accident happens! The driver of the car would barely notice, but any bicycle rider is going to pay the price no matter who’s fault it is.

Just something else to think about as I continue prepping for future sprint triathlons!

Sprint Recaps: Tallahassee, FL Red Hills / Marianna, FL Freedom Springs / Macon, GA Rock ‘N Rollman

-Out of the Wilderness