Posting daily at 1pm central about all kinds of things. One day it's dating, the next it's TV commercials. I hope you're entertained. Professional photos on SmugMug – https://benwilder.smugmug.com
The Women’s World Cup is starting this week. Just like previous tournaments, the U.S. women’s team is expected to go far in the tournament, or even win it all. But I’ll just be totally honest here, instigator athletes like Megan Rapinoe really, REALLY turn me off. So much so that I’m finding it hard to even hope the team succeeds. Like in some way if the team wins it validates her irritating and divisive personality. Thankfully there are lots of other women on the team, extremely talented, and not so divisive. It will be easy to cheer those women on. I guess this is a good example of how imperfect I am.
I want to love everyone. I want to be someone who’s kind, compassionate, generous. Someone who overlooks offenses and prays for his enemy’s. I’m not there yet. In fact, if the entire team were full of Megan Rapinoes, I’d be quietly rooting for whoever the opponent is. Kind of like I do with college football. Shhhhhhhhh, don’t tell my family! I went to Florida State but what they did in the mid-2010s, I just can’t forgive them for it. I revoked my loyalty, rejected my alliance, and for what it’s worth I did the same with Nike, too, as they were involved with the FSU stuff that ticked me off. Actually, it might be Nike that bears the majority of the blame. But, I’ll admit the movie Air is pretty great. I loved my Air Jordans in the early 90s. I loved the Seminoles from birth to their 2013 championship. But bridges have been burned, ships have sailed, bonds broken that will never be repaired.
Megan Rapinoe’s appearances (sports, interviews, etc) always leave a bad taste in my mouth, so it’s hard to be excited about anything she’s associated with… but I’m going to try. Let’s go, girls!
Thanks for stopping by today! I post every day at 1pm central because when I started out writing every single day, I was in Nashville (central time). Since then, my home switched from bricks to bumpers (I live in a travel trailer) and I now call eastern time zone Florida my home base. How’s that for information you didn’t ask for? 😉
I recently came across the music video for Jason Aldean’s “Try That In A Small Town,” and I have a few reasons why this song (and video) might be strike three for the country singer. And it’s not only that the video was shot in Columbia, Tennessee, a nearby town to Nashville. When someone mentions Columbia, I don’t immediately think of Piggly Wiggly or people marrying their cousins, so is it REALLY a small town? I have serious doubts. Although I did run the Mule Kick 5K in Columbia, and there’s nothing more country than a 5K called Mule Kick where instead of water, they hand runners sweet tea. OK, they didn’t do that but you get my point.
I was bummed to find out the video was directed by one of my favorite directors, Shaun Silva. He has a great resume of work, I love a lot of his videos and actually, his signature style is evident in this one. It’s not the video that bothers me, really. I’m just bummed because of the message of the song. If you’ve listened to it already, you can probably pick up on the divisiveness of the lyrics. Aldean’s delivery pretty much comes across as a dare. What someone can get away with in a big city, come try that in a small town and see what happens… is the gist of it.
Was it smart for Jason Aldean to release a song including lyrics about guns after his concert in Vegas where a shooter killed 58 people (or 61, since 3 died years later, some say related to the initial shooting)? Most comments I’ve seen say, “No, this was a terrible idea.” In Jason’s defense, he didn’t write the lyrics (which is common in country music – to sing a song someone else wrote). But he has definitely linked himself forever to the song by stamping his name on it. When things are already on edge culturally, why? Why instigate more conflict? Why add to tensions that are already high in the part of society looking for a fight?
I don’t have much doubt that at least some, maybe most, country fans will like the song. Maybe they won’t love it, but it’s not like Jason will get cancelled or anything. It’s so interesting to me that in one genre of music you can have a song that’s aggressive (this one) and another that’s soft (Brad Paisley’s “Same Here”) and both are so dumb. Brad’s is the dumbest, that isn’t really up for debate (explained here). Even in 291 years, “Same Here” will never be good in any possible way. Where Jason most likely screwed up is not even the song itself. Although the lyrics aren’t memorable, they aren’t terrible (for comparison, see Brad Paisley “Same Here” which is memorable for being so terrible). But the timing of the song hitting radios is not ideal. Well, I mean if peace is what we’re after. It’s a terrible time to release a song that will only feed into division, and what’s worse is that maybe adding to conflict was the point. If that’s true, it makes me like Jason even less. So is this strike three for Mr. Aldean?
He already had two strikes against him after he (strike one) released a video for “Dirt Road Anthem” in which he sings the entire video ON A PAVED ROAD. Don’t even get me started. Then a couple of years after that he (strike two) cheated on his high school sweetheart wife. That’s terrible but the paved road, come on man! Can you tell I’m still upset about the the paved road?
For the divisive message in a time where unity is a loftier and more honorable aspiration, for the video being shot so close to a big city, for not including a video clip of someone going to Walmart in their pajamas (isn’t that what people in small towns do?), “Try That In A Small Town” is strike three for Jason Aldean. The video itself is well done, but the lyrics tank any good that could come from a song about small towns. Sorry, Jason, you’re out!
What do you think of the video? Should the song be listened to without thinking too much about the lyrics? Chime in below…
Youtube has been great for so many different types of videos. I can’t tell you how many “how-to” videos have saved my butt when something needed fixin’. The entertainment of dash cam videos, Dude Perfect trick shots, fail videos. Football highlights. Baseball breakdowns by Jomboy Media. There’s just too much to even list for all the stuff we can watch.
But this is where it gets crazy. I think there’s something sinister going on here. First, they ask you 73 times a day if you want to pay for YouTube Premium even if you’ve already said no 72 times. Then they give the ol’ double whammy, a gut punch with the ads they interrupt you with, you know, since you won’t subscribe to the ad-free version. Sometimes they make you sit through all 15 or 30 seconds worth. Other times they give you an option to skip after 5 seconds. But I couldn’t help but document the ad that showed up last time I was watching something. Here’s a pic, do you see what I see?
Someone somewhere is laughing at us (and counting their money) because we’re distracted and this ad has been playing for 27 minutes! The idea of a 42-minute-long commercial is absurd. It’s almost enough to make me subscribe to YouTube Premium.
Almost.
But YouTube… today is not that day. Try harder next time.
I just sat down at my computer to check how my times matched up against the results from my first sprint triathlon and I’m so happy to say I did better in each of the three events. Swimming, which was my weakest event in the first race, was improved a lot! This was because I wore a wet suit (the water temp was 68˚ in the Florida river spring) and I changed my breathing pattern. Something had to change after my disastrous swim the first time, so instead of breathing every 4th stroke, I took a breath every 2nd stroke.
The swim was so much less embarrassing, thank the Lord. The bike event went well and I *think* I’ve maxed out the potential in my 1970s commuter bike. The funny thing is that wherever I take it I get comments about how cool it is… even at the triathlons. As I rolled into the transition area to park the bike and begin the run, one of the officials said I had the #1 coolest bike of the day. That just makes me so happy, even if it is also the heaviest, oldest, slowest, smallest, most rusty, least likely to ever be in a triathlon bike.
The run… I improved my time on this leg of the race too, although it was the least improved of all three. There was this one section, even though they called it a pretty flat course, that had a big downhill and a big uphill, and we had to cover that part of the course twice! And I hate running in dirt. So I had a bit of a mental block because of that, even if my body was willing my mind was discouraged. If you want to see a video of me crossing the finish line, exhausted, click here.
I wasn’t sure I’d ever do another sprint triathlon after the first one but now that I’ve done two, I’m sure it’s fair to say I’ll be doing these for the rest of my life. OK, not really… but there will be a third, that’s for sure.
Hello there and thanks for checking out my thoughts today. I post every day at 1pm central so subscribe if you have a second, or just check back for posts about my dogs, my travels, dating in my 40s, or my writings about TV commercials as is the case today.
From all the Publix commercials going back decades, I can count on one hand the number of ads I don’t like. The grocery chain just seems to know exactly how to put together a moment that hits the mark almost every time, especially around the holidays. I mean, if you don’t get a little teary-eyed when you watch this commercial, you’re a heartless monster! Wow, sorry to accuse you of such a horrible thing. I’m sure you’re a great person. What I’m NOT sure of is if the latest Publix commercial might expose them as being guilty of an advertising mistake. Take a look at the summertime ad then scroll down for a couple of errors with the ad…
The commercial is really pretty, in that most of the shots are captured at golden hour featuring rich colors, happy people, good food. Where Publix might have missed the mark is in two areas: Music and saturation.
The Music. I’ll be the first to admit I’m not into theater, plays, Broadway, etc. As an example, last year I watched the first 25 minutes of Hamilton (streaming, not in a theater building) and have no intentions or desire to watch the rest of it. In fact, I purposely avoid any chance to finish the presentation. This Publix commercial uses a song from Peter Pan, which I know has been made into a movie numerous times. But this specific version has all the trademarks of a song from Broadway. You can almost see the actors overexaggerating on a stage in some dimly lit auditorium. The feedback I’m seeing is that some people love the song, some don’t. It seems to be the kind of commercial soundtrack that viewers either love or hate, kind of like pineapple on pizza (which is gross, by the way).
The Saturation. Online comments about the commercial echo over and over that it’s airing too often. That would make Publix victim to what I wrote about here. It’s the idea that too much of a good thing is a bad thing. Even someone who loves steak, for instance, isn’t going to have it for dinner every night of the week. They’d end up detesting red meat altogether! That’s the vibe I’m getting from comments on my first post about the commercial. I’ve come across the phrase “every 20 minutes” more often than I should when it comes to how often a commercial airs on TV or streaming.
Final Thoughts. The team behind Publix commercials are very good at what they do. Certainly they are aware they might have pushed this ad a little too far, a little too much, and will reign in the spending on, and saturation of, their next ad. I’m curious to find out what that next ad will be, too. I still give this one high marks because how often it airs shouldn’t detract from what it is… a great reminder of the beauty of summertime, even if we’re adults who forget about the innocent fun associated with this season because we’re too busy thinking about mortgages, gas prices, politics, doctors visits, etc, etc, etc.
Out of the Wilderness 