Remember Remember the 6th of November

I haven't lost my coconuts. I meant that number 6 in the title. Yesterday was, duh, November 5th, Guy Fawkes Day or as you kids today call him, that guy from V from Vendetta. Anyway, I had my Facebook status set to the rhyme of Guy Fawkes as I always like to be either A: Obscure in my pop culture referencing nature or B: Relative to the actual events of the time I post it. This being November 5th, I was sort of both, I guess.

But now, it's November 6th or as I call it, my anniversary. Five years ago, today, I wore down my then fiancee enough to say "I do." Since then, she's been saying "I DOH!" So, for today's status update I did a little rhyme all my own.

Remember, Remember, the 6th of November
of wedding bells and tying of knot.
Here's to 5 kiddo. You'd surely be a widow,
if ever, our anniversary, I forgot.

Please, please no applause needed. Kidding.

So, people have asked me what I plan on doing for our anniversary. Well, I've never been one to keep up with traditions like this. We made a pact early on in our marriage to not go crazy for days like this or Valentine's Day. Neither one of us have the energy for it. I think we've only done two or three things for either of those days in our entire tenure as a couple.

The first was Valentine's Day of 1999. My wife was still a student at Seton Hill University and I was just some old college grad that hung around with these kids. However, they were willing to play ball with me in one endeavor. I asked one of the group that we used to run with to help me in a plot to surprise my girl. She would be busy until later in the evening so I had plenty of time to gather up my stuff and spring my plan into action.

I stowed away in one of the parlor's outside of Cecilian Hall and set up a table and chairs, complete with table cloth, candles, flatware, silverware, and my trusty boom box. Then I went and placed a to go order with a local restaurant that she and I liked. I went and picked up the food and brought it back, all with the blessing of security, thanks to one of our group of friends. My wife came into the parlor and was taken back. She was always a bit shy around me even after months of dating. She could never look me in the eye. Now, I have that problem, usually because I'm trouble. Still we had a nice romantic dinner for two in a beautifully designed space, complete with candlelight and mood music.

Skip ahead a few years...more like five...to our first Valentine's Day in our home. My wife sprung the surprise on me by doing up our family room with candles and music, complete with takeout Chinese food for dinner. Trust me, this is just fine by me. I thought it was an awesome form of reciprocation.

As for our anniversary we really don't do that much. The most we ever did was go out to Ruth's Chris Steakhouse and then spent the night at the Holiday Inn next Shadyside UPMC Hospital which was real nice. That time we had the help of my Mother-in-Law and her partner in crime at work to arrange for the reservation through our travel department at work. It's nice to have friends in high places. It was a pretty spectacular room.

But being a milestone like number five, we thought we would indulge a little bit. However, having a two year old makes it a little hard to get away for a night. We can only rely on babysitters so much and we have been burning the candle at both ends with help since we are trying to save up some money for the holidays by taking on extra work.

Still, I figure we can at least go out for an evening and make it home for bath time. That's why we plan on recreating our honeymoon for our fifth anniversary. My wife is going to be deathly ill with a cold and I'm going to attempt to smuggle duty free whiskey across the Canadian border into the U.S. We're already half way there. My wife's had strep throat and been under the weather for a few weeks now.

To give a small explanation of what I'm talking about, let's step in the way back machine and travel to 2004. Monday, November 8th to be exact. After out wedding we loaded up the best damn car on the planet, my 1997 Chevy Cavalier, and drove from Pittsburgh to Niagara Falls. I booked us a room at the Embassy Suites overlooking the falls. They must have been hard up for guests because they were nice enough to upgrade us to the Jr. something suite complete with free valet parking. We also got free buffet breakfast at the KEG restaurant and complimentary manager's reception cocktails in the afternoon. It was rather posh for a couple of goofs like us who were used to the Gazebo Inn in Myrtle Beach for $99.00 a night.

We had a two room suite with living room and nice huge bathroom with a door that opened above the jacuzzi tub so that you could look out the big ass window and see the falls. Not to mention I loved the shower in that place. It was the kinds with it's own room and you just walked into it and it had jets in the walls. Besides the electric fireplace in the room we had a nice big television and one of the coolest channels, the falls' view channel.

Well, after our first night there, my wife got extremely sick and congested and spent most of our stay in the other room among a pile of tissues. I was already to go out and gamble our wedding reception haul away at the casinos but we ended up spending most of our time in our hotel asking around for a pharmacy in the area. In all, we had a pretty decent time and I ended up winning about $50 on Spanish 21.

On our way home we came all the way through to Buffalo and forgot to stop and exchange our money. So, I had to drive back into Canada and stop at the Duty Free store right over the border. Picked up a few items of interest and then headed home.

This weekend, liquor aside, I think we'll head down to the new Casino in Pittsburgh and have a nice dinner but my wife will probably be chasing hers with some Robitussin. Should be a fun time in the steel town tonight.

Dead Guy In A DirectTV Ad

I very rarely watch commercials anymore. Any regular reader knows of my love/hate relationship with my DVR. When I am watching the tube, I spend most of time fast forwarding through ads to get to the rest of the program I recorded months ago and haven’t watched or I am pretending to ignore the screen all together in an effort to not divulge my secret addiction to Sprout. I am mesmerized by the repetitive nature of the programming and wonder who the hell watches children’s programming at 4:00 in the morning? My two year old is already taking control and knows that I can call on Caillou or Dragon Tales at any time of the day just by pushing that big long button at the top of the remote.

But, back to commercials. On occasion, I will slow my forward momentum to catch a quick trailer for a new movie or video game. It was on one of these fast forward furloughs that I caught the latest DirectTV commercial featuring David Spade and a somewhat alive Chris Farley. We all know how DirectTV runs their ads. They take a popular movie and intercut new footage with one of the actors who breaks the fourth wall during the scene to schlep the service. Usually, a body double is used to continue the action of the real movie in order to seemingly splice together a pop culture moment with a crummy commercial. What alarmed me was that the scene, with David Spade selling his soul to the satellite service, was the “Fat Guy In a Little Coat” bit from Tommy Boy.

I shouldn’t be shocked. DirectTV isn’t the first company to sell their product using a dead star in its pitch. After all, aptly named Dirt Devil used Dead Astaire to sell a mop in 1996 and Dirt Devil wasn’t even the first to use a dead celebrity to sell something. Five years earlier, Natalie Cole did it with her album, Unforgettable… with Love. Granted she was paying tribute to Nat King Cole with the album, but the videos creeped me out because it looked so much like she was using her father’s celebrity to sell the album. And even earlier, Hank Williams Jr. did a duet with dear old dad Hank Sr. in 1989, which also featured a music video of Father and Son together. So why has the ad touched off a bit of a media buzz over good or poor taste? Call it timing.

First off, according to an interview with David Spade, both he and the family of the late comedian were approached about the commercial and the family gave their blessing. Second all, what exactly are people up in arms about? From a lot of the net chatter people are creeped out by the timing and intent of the advertisement. A few folks pose have been asking, “Is it TOO SOON?” and “Did Spade sell out his friend?”

Too soon for what? Chris Farley died 12 years ago. How long is the statute of limitations on using a dead goofball comedian in a television ad? It can’t be that we are somehow more endeared to Farley, now, then when he was alive. I loved Tommy Boy and Farley on SNL was the third renaissance of the 35 year old show, but it’s not like Chris Farley was John Candy or Jackie Gleason. So, why go with the adage of “It’s too soon” to explain disgust?

To that end, DirectTV’s series of ads has tread upon this ground before with a commercial featuring Craig T. Nelson reprising his role from Poltergeist. The commercial shows footage from the movie with the late Heather O’Rourke in the iconic “They’re Here” scene. O’Rourke died in 1988 and people still found it creepy. Going back to through DirectTV’s ads we can find another instance of a deceased character used to sell the service. I say it was way too soon to use the Queen Xenomorph in a commercial. I still can’t go near an airlock without breaking down into a sobbing mess. Sorry, I just can’t get away from that bitch.

I have another opinion on the ick factor with the Farley ad. It isn’t that it’s too soon, it’s that this year has been wrought with the death of pop culture icons. 2009 has seen the death of at over 20 distinct fixtures from the world of pop culture in Michael Jackson, John Hughes, Ed McMahon, Farah Fawcett, Patrick Swayze, Soupy Sales, David Carradine, Lou Albano, Mary Travers, Henry Gibson, Dom DeLuise, Les Lye, Eunice Kennedy Shriver, and Ted Kennedy. Dredging up the memory of another dead celebrity just seems to be in poor taste this year. Like I said, equating Chris Farley to say Soupy Sales or Henry Gibson is a bit of a stretch but realize that Chris Farley made his mark in the entertainment world and now the generation that grew up and identifies with him as a peer is now the same generation that is owning a home and paying for satellite service. He’s as much as an influence their lives as say Michael Jackson was on my generation and Soupy Sales was on my parents’.

The other problem with the advert is the content. I’m not suggesting there is anything wrong with a fat guy in a little coat, but Chris Farley isn’t the one pitching DirectTV, David Spade is. Granted, I don’t think you can go through a lot of Tommy Boy and find a David Spade specific moment that doesn’t get overshadowed by Farley’s Tommy Boy Foolery. “Fat Guy In a Little Coat” is as much Farley’s moment as “They’re Here” was Heather O’Rourke’s. Those are the things that you remember from those films, not David Spade’s reaction to Farley ripping the back out of Richard’s coat. It was simply a poor choice in scenes.

I can think of two scenes that would have served to highlight Spade’s character, one was the hotel scene where he gets caught watching a skinny dipper at the pool. That’s not exactly a good sell for DirectTV unless you are selling their adult programming. The other, which I think would have been more appropriate, would have been the scene where Richard is discovered to be wearing a toupee after an engine fan revs up and blows his off his head. At that moment, David Spade could have broke the fourth wall and spoke directly to the audience with that bald head and flapping toupee and it would have been chuckle worthy. After his pitch, he reattaches the rug and goes directly back into the original footage. That would have been more acceptable because it was a scene directly involving his character.

The bottom line is that both Farley’s family and Spade gave consent to the commercial, although I can’t imagine what consent Spade had to give over the use of the footage. He was Farley’s dear friend but I don’t think he has anything to do with the actor’s estate. It might have been him consenting to appear in the commercial. Who knows?

So, in my book, the spot was a little creepy for the subject matter but not worthy of the national attention it has received. After all, the number one movie at the box office over Halloween weekend was a movie about a dead celebrity and it wasn’t fictional. Apparently, it wasn’t too soon for the audience to shell out over 20 million to see the final rehearsals of Michael Jackson’s This Is It tour.

Prices Might Be Cheaper Now Than On Black Friday

This information is based on one example and current to 11/03/2009.

I get regular email alerts from Black Friday.Info on sale ads for the coming holiday season and with Halloween over, the frequency of alerts is starting to increase. Since I am always in the market for a cheap deal on anything from a good power tool to a man cave LCD HDTV I thought I would check out what was recently posted for Sears.

If you scroll down to teh television section you will see that BlackFriday.Info lists the Sony Bravia 46" LCD HDTV Model # KDL46V5100 at $1239.99 for Black Friday, which for any of you in a coma is the day after Thanksgiving. Just thought I’d clarify for those playing at home. Now, the description of the television is hyperlinked so if you click on it you get redirected to the product on Sears' website. Because of the sale, you have to click on Add to Cart to see the price. Once you do that you'll see that the television is listed at $1039.99, discounted down from $1599.99 through 11/07/09. If you think that's cool, go to MySimon and do a search on the model number and you can find it $40 cheaper on JR through 11/06/2009 with rebate.

So, what does this mean? For the frugal shopper, it can mean a great deal. If you always wanted to see what the hype was about when it comes to getting up at 4 AM for door buster prices and the random trampling of grandmas in order to snag that cheap DVD player you might want to consider staying in bed and working off that tryptophan kick.

Do some research on Black Friday sales and even subscribe to some alerts if your inbox can handle it. Make up your list, check the sale price for Black Friday against the current price of those big ticket items you think will be drastically discounted during the sale. Also check at different retailers and places that do the work for you like My Simon. You might just find that it’s on sale now for even less. The difference alone between the sale price now and the sale price on Black Friday is $200. Just think what you could spend that extra $200 on between now and Christmas. With the economy like it is, every little bit helps.