Amazon’s Wedding Commercial – The Actresses, and the Music! (part 1)

**after reading below, click here for part 2**

Subscribe and Save is the message in one of Amazon’s latest TV commercials, titled “Save the Date.” They present it in a clever way– a bridesmaid telling her bride that it’s OK to be scared of commitment. Sounds familiar!!! My dad sometimes thinks that’s why I’m not married. But did I tell you one of my exes is married? Here’s how I found out. But my dating failures aside, take a look at this Amazon ad then scroll down for more info about the bridal party…

The Bride. Playing the part of future-wifey is actress Kristen Lundberg. She describes her role in a jovial way, “I married Jeff Bezos!” as the caption reads from her post on Instagram. Also, watch the ad again and you might pick up on Kristen’s role a bit more. She didn’t have any speaking lines, but her body language says a lot. From confused to curious, hesitant to hopeful, her eyes and expressions so more than a script could. Be sure to follow her on Instagram here @KristenLundbergerCheese, or check out her website KristensFunnyHair.com. Here is Kristen’s reel.

The Bridesmaid. Fully supporting her friend, the bride, like any good bridesmaid would do is actress Dina Freberg. She must be the “something blue” in the old wedding rhyme, “Something old, something new, something borrowed, something blue” …as she appears in a blue dress to give her bride-friend some encouragement. Dina describes herself as “very funny” and for this shoot, she admits jokingly that she did “a lot of squatting in between takes.” Check out more of her stuff on Instagram here @DinaFreberg.

Find out more about Dina’s professional career on her website DinaFreberg.com.

The Music. It’s subtle, but playing as the soundtrack to this commercial is a very well-known song associated with weddings. It’s “Canon in D (Pachelbel’s Canon)” and here’s a beautiful rendition of the piece.

I don’t have the opportunity to include this in many of my posts, so I’m super happy to include one of my all-time favorite songs related to this commercial. Here’s the Trans-Siberian Orchestra with “Christmas Canon Rock.”

Thanks for dropping in!

-Out of the Wilderness

The God in Psalm 19

I have this little book of daily devotions I try to read each morning. I found it at a thrift store for 79¢. I guess publishers in 1996 weren’t feeling super creative because the title is simply, “365 Devotions.” But at least there’s no confusion on what it’s about! ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Today’s devotion was good, and usually they all are. Once I finished reading it, though, I wasn’t done. I needed encouragement from Psalms so I randomly flipped to a chapter. Landing on chapter 19, I began to read. The single verse that stood out the most…

“Moreover, keep Your servant from willful sins; do not let them rule over me.”

It’s so easy for me to get caught up in things I enjoy: photography, camping, planning camping trips, writing, movies, YouTube, Twitter, etc. It’s not like those things are wrong, but when they come before prayer or reading the Bible, or they replace time I could be talking to God, that’s not a good thing. So I love that even David, the legendary king from the Old Testament, was aware of his weaknesses; sins that he participated in with full knowledge. A few verses down from that, and I had no idea this was coming, is a verse that’s part of the lyrics to one of my favorite songs. I’ll share it below. Listen to the bridge (I think?) and you’ll hear, “Let the words of our mouths and the meditation of our hearts be acceptable in thy sight.” Isn’t that what Christianity is? If it ever feels more complicated, something’s wrong.

My favorite section of chapter 19 is verses 7 through 10. First of all, the 4 verses are very encouraging. That was something I needed this morning. They list some uplifting qualities of God– the instruction of the Lord is perfect, His precepts are right, the fear of the Lord is pure. And what we get from those qualities is a physical reaction and an emotional one… Our hearts are glad. Our eyes light up. I don’t even know if that can be contained in science. God is so much more than our little minds can comprehend!

As I read, I couldn’t help but notice what these 4 verses were saying, as well.

The Lord is perfect! The Lord is trustworthy! The Lord is right! The Lord is radiant! The Lord is pure! The Lord is reliable!

How can we NOT be encouraged by this?? All our hope can be in God, even as we/I feel the pull of our/my natural self towards things mentioned before (entertainment, chasing excitement, pride, endorphins, the rush of new technology, etc) as well as hurtful things. None of those are reliable. They aren’t trustworthy. They aren’t perfect. Internally, I often come back to a thought recorded in the New Testament, “…to whom shall we go?” Only Jesus has the words of life. Among all the great things Jesus is, he’s also…

Perfect.

Trustworthy.

Right.

Radiant.

Pure.

Reliable.

That last one is huge for me. He’s reliable. He’s reliable!!! I have a challenge for myself and for you: Give him a chance today. Just today. If the day ends in utter failure, tomorrow you can try something else. But when we have something weighing heavy on our shoulders, or anxiety about an upcoming decision, tell Jesus about it and find out if he’ll carry it all for us like he’s promised to do.

Thanks for dropping in…

-Out of the Wilderness

Silverware vs. plastic utensils when you’re in an RV or camper

Hello! Thank you for coming to my blog today. As you probably already know this post has something to do with spoons, forks, and knives as they relate to camping or RVing. I’ve been camping this year; So far only in Florida because it’s winter and who wants to go north where it’s cold and annoying? Not me! For entertaining camping stories and my favorite photos from the road, check out my Camping Stories page.

OK, the silverware. Not too long ago I was living in an awesome brick house in Nashville. I spent 11 years in that house but then kind of went through a purge phase after I decided to live in a van. Long story short, I DON’T live in a van, I live in a fantastic travel trailer built by Gulf Stream. Living and traveling with a trailer, weight becomes a concern– from the water in the tanks to the food in the fridge, everything weighs something so it’s important to keep things lighter when possible. Forks and spoons aren’t heavy on their own, but together, they’re heavier than you might think. I’ve wanted to swap out my metal silverware for plastic and the other day, I finally found the perfect utensils!

Today, I’m going to weigh both types of silverware so we can see, with accuracy, how much difference there is in the overall weight. First up are the metal utensils.

Total weight of 3 spoons, 2 forks, and 2 knives is 9.8 ounces.

Now on to the plastic ones. Some of these are from Ikea and others, who knows? I picked them all up at a thrift store so they were very inexpensive. I’d highly recommend checking second-hand stores before buying new, even if you’re getting metal utensils.

Total weight of 3 spoons, 2 forks, and 2 knives is 2.5 ounces.

That’s a difference of 7.3 ounces. I know this isn’t much but it all adds up, you know. I also understand I might be seriously overanalyzing things, but it’s rainy and I needed a project.

Thanks for dropping in…

-Out of the Wilderness

I still haven’t seen an alligator, an update

A few days ago I wrote about not having seen an alligator since I picked up my things and came down to Florida. Hi, I’m Ben.

It’s not like I have a strange obsession with dangerous creatures. I don’t want to cuddle with alligators. I don’t want to put a leash on on a lion and walk it around the park. But it would just be nice to see a gator, since, ya know, they’re all over Florida and stuff. But noOOooOOooOOoo I just can’t seem to come across one and you’d think I would since I’ve been here and here and here.

Bu then….

All of the sudden and out of the blue and blindsiding me and speak of the devil and look what the cat drug in… there it was.

In a little neighborhood was this behemoth of a creature. Ok, it was only about 6 feet but THIS GIGANTIC DINOSAUR OF AN ALLIGATOR CHASED ME AND I TRIPPED OVER A FALLEN TREE — ok, I’m getting carried away. It didn’t chase me and there was no fallen tree. But there WAS an alligator. Here it is again.

And to what do my wandering eyes see but ANOTHER wild creature sitting nearby. Check out this pictorial breakdown below.

Yep, a fox sitting by an alligator. Just chilling out a few dozen feet from A CREATURE FROM A BYGONE ERA THAT WOULD EAT ME IF IT COULD—- dang, there I go again. Can you imagine seeing a cute little fox and a scaly alligator in this close proximity? I could hardly believe it.

They really were doing this. I’m not sure why. I can’t quite figure out what their relationship status is but I’d say at best it’s rocky. I mean, they live such different lifestyles and one is just so low to the ground. Can they even hold hands?

I don’t know how it would ever work.

It was a crazy day. But now I can say that along with the few moccasins I’ve seen, also deadly mind you, a snapping turtle, slider turtles, box turtles, eagles, hawks, ospreys, dolphins, and deer, I can confidently say I’ve seen an alligator and I am 100% sure I want to see it again because I guess I kinda do have a strange obsession with creatures, even if they’re dangerous.

-Out of the Wilderness

Samsung “Epic” Galaxy Ads – The Actor, The Music, and Professional Wrestling!

Samsung covers all hours of the day with a series of ads promoting their Galaxy phones. Whether you’re trying to watch something during the bright daylight or filming a video at night, it’s all going to be OK! Take a look at the three ads below then scroll down for more info…

“Make Mornings Epic”

“Make Daylight Epic”

“Make Nights Epic”

The Music. The soundtrack for all the ads is “Land of 1000 Dances” by Wilson Pickett. His version was released in 1966 while the original by Chris Kenner came out in 1963. Here is Mr. Pickett’s performance…

The Actor. Starring in all three ads is Cameron Wong. He’s an aspiring actor in California and has a few projects in the works, so be on the lookout and if you’re into following people on Instagram, find Cameron here: @CamWong1 I’m sure he’d appreciate a follow!

The former WWF version. I have NO IDEA why they did this, might be a post for another day but here are the stars of the WWF (wrestling the 80s and 90s) doing their version of the song. So many legendary wrestlers in this video, including my favorite Iron Sheik.

I’ll leave you with the original version of “Land of 1000 Dances,” by Chris Kenner, with a nice gospel intro. Thanks for dropping in…

-Out of the Wilderness