Canada’s GO RVing Commercial – The Music, the Actor, and More!

Before we get into this, it’s important to establish that taking an RV out for camping is a great idea whether you’re in Canada or anywhere else! In fact, I have an entire page dedicated to my camping trips in the United States. But I’m sensing that you need a little more motivation so take a look at this cinematic commercial then scroll down for more info about the ad!

The Music. This peaceful, somewhat psychedelic song is “Stay Alive” by José González. It was included on the soundtrack for the movie The Secret Life of Walter Mitty. It’s fitting that the song, the movie, and this commercial are tied together with a theme of getting outside to adventure and/or enjoy nature. Here’s the song…

The Actor. Playing the part of city man turned wild guy is actor Troy Greenwood. You can probably guess filming this long commercial was a grueling task for an actor asked to run through the wilderness, swim in frigid waters, and everything else he did but he did it well! The creators of the ad praised Troy’s work and also spoke about the locations of the shoot. You can find that info here. You can also find more about Troy’s many talents on his website or his Facebook page.

Photos. I hope that, by now, you’re fully convinced to go RVing! Maybe you don’t have to completely ditch your normal life like the guy in the commercial, but how about for a weekend? Getting into the wilderness is one of my favorite things to do even if it’s just a Saturday afternoon hike. Here are a few of my favorite pictures from camping around the U.S. You can find the full collection of my photos here. See you tomorrow!

Rain cloud moving over Florida prairie land.
road through a Texas canyon.
tree in the shape of a heart, somewhere in Texas.
water snakes in north Florida.
deer crossing Texas river.
One-eyed doe in Louisiana.
old pelican in Florida keys.

-Out of the Wilderness

Funny Fine Print – A Glow in the Dark Frisbee?

Hello there! My name is Ben. I’m a hobby writer, photographer, dog walker, and fine print reader. Some of these tiny words will really stop you in your tracks (like this ad from If It’s COVID, Paxlovid). Other times it’s just funny and confusing. That’s what’s going on today with a frisbee I found at Walmart. Not only is it a disc that flies, but it ALSO glows in the dark! Yeah, now you can throw day or night.

Dog Frisbee GIF - Find & Share on GIPHY

This frisbee was in the “clearance” section of a nearby Walmart and even though it’s not very heavy and might not last long, throwing at night would be something fun to try. But then I read the fine print.

So let me get this straight: I need to throw a GLOW IN THE DARK frisbee in a well-lit area? Now I’m really confused. I might reach out to 50 Strong (makers of the frisbee) for a comment. Someone needs to explain themselves!

-Out of the Wilderness

Yay, sports!

There’s football pre-season, season, playoffs, the championships, and there are the months we wait again for pre-season. But I *suppose* watching the men’s version of the NCAA basketball tournament has had some dramatic, nail-biting games and below has been the best I’ve seen in a long time. Take a look at this crazy ending of the Furman vs. Virginia game last week.

I was on vacation with family because the kids of the fam were on Spring Break. Headed out the door to throw a frisbee and I thought, there’re just a few minutes left so I’ll slow-poke my way outside. As the game ticked down to the final seconds I couldn’t believe what I was seeing. I’d put it up on the level of a few great sports moments in history I’ve seen live like…

Auburn beating Alabama in the “kick-six”…

Landon Donovan scoring a game winning goal in the World Cup.

Kerri Strug winning gold on a bum ankle…

Malcolm Butler’s Super Bowl winning interception against the Seahawks…

Honorable Mention goes to Leon Lett making a big mistake in a regular season game against the Miami Dolphins.

I’m sure I’ve seen more but those are the moments that stand out as the NCAA tournament continues this weekend. But seriously, how long till football’s back?

-Out of the Wilderness

Another Visit California Commercial – The Music and More!

California REALLY wants people to come visit itself. There are a handful of commercials saying such, like this dream sequence featuring stars from the state. A recent ad shows kids and parents (not surprisingly, the ad is called “Kids and Parents”) having big fun, as Claire Huxtable would say. But this isn’t Vanessa having big fun in Baltimore, it’s California baby!

What’s the big deal? A couple of take-aways from the commercial are…

1) Kids are expensive. In this 30-second ad families played on the beach, ran through forests, bought tickets for the Santa Cruz Boardwalk, rode horses on the shore, walked through a field of lights, flew down zip lines, went to Universal Studios, and visited a zoo. In all, it’ll cost families about $1.3 billion trillion dollars to do these things.

Train Reality GIF - Find & Share on GIPHY

https://giphy.com/clips/dicanns-biden-joe-billion-trillion-bHP4abgMcEvJLLAMyD

2) They picked some recognizable locations for the shoot. The two that stood out to me were the lighted columns near the end.

Reminds me of a great music video from a long time ago, “Bromance.” Keep watching to see the same (or similar) columns in the music video… in Los Angeles, possibly?

The clip near the Golden Gate Bridge reminds me of a turning point in the movie The Internship starring Vince Vaughn and Owen Wilson. Great movie.

The Music. The soundtrack for this California commercial is a song called “Run the World!!!” by Dayglow. Listen the track below and follow the band on Instagram, too: @DayGlowBand.

Are you booking your trip now? Looks like a lot of fun to explore the natural wonders of California, just bring your cryptos to pay for it all. See you tomorrow!

-Out of the Wilderness

Is rapper Tom MacDonald more patriotic than country singer Brad Paisley?

There are a couple of new songs out now, along with accompanying videos. One is from country superstar Brad Paisley and another from a relatively new rapper, Tom MacDonald. They both have guests appear in their songs but you might be surprised who one guest, country singer John Rich, duets with. The other duet includes a current president so we’ve got some heavy hitters in this post today.

Tom MacDonald burst onto the scene a couple of years ago with his many, many tattoos and bold rap lyrics bashing American politics and government in general. In my recollection up to that point in history, calling out the hypocrisy in Washington, D.C. wasn’t a common part of the rap world. It was mostly old, straight, non-rapping white men (much to the disappointment of Katy Perry) complaining about liberal agendas.

Brad Paisley is a well-known country singer who’s been around for decades. He’s married to actress Kimberly Williams-Paisley. Brad has the skill and ability to sing heartfelt songs that’ll make you cry then turn around and sing a playful song that will restore happiness with some laughs. It’s quite the talent he has!

So in their latest songs, which one brought on a country singer as a collaborator and which invited a sitting president? You’d think that Brad’s song would be ultra patriotically pro-America (it IS country music after all) and the rapper would be pretty much the opposite. But listen to these two songs as the videos play and decide for yourself which musician seems to have caught on to the broken system in Washington. Spoiler alert, Tom is with John Rich and Brad is with Volodymyr Zelenskyy. 👋😇🤓🤯🕺

“End of the World” has serious and deep messages and I suppose “Same Here” does, too. But the playful video from Tom MacDonald is the perfect way to offset the heavy thoughts. Brad doesn’t have an official video yet but if he puts one out, you can bet it won’t be lighthearted. It’s surprising to me how different the songs are yet both could be classified as country music. I can’t help but think the writers of Brad’s song are missing something while the writer of Tom’s song is fully aware of what’s going on. Maybe the truth is somewhere between the two sides (liberal vs. conservative) but perhaps we could all agree that most of the politicians claiming to have our best interests in mind, don’t.

… and to answer the question in the title of the post and based on their latest songs, YESSSSSSS Tom MacDonald is a lot more patriotic than Brad Paisley. On top of that, Tom’s is a nice addition to rap (and country music, for that matter) while Brad’s won’t be remembered for anything except being the dumbest country song ever.

See you all tomorrow…

-Out of the Wilderness