Here is a new advertisement from McDonald’s for their “Come As You Are” campaign. As you can see, it’s in French-largely because it runs in France-and not something you’re likely to see on a TV in the US anytime soon.   I like how, by the way, the Daily Mail is using blog comments as news quotes-but they do bring up some good points.  The entire Religious Right (as the commentor notes) would, in fact, boycott McDonald’s if this aired in the US (…for about a week.  Let’s be fair- I think McDonald’s would win out a waiting war with any subset of angry Americans-particularly one so American as Mickey D’s.  Besides,if they are really committed then a little thing like distance and language shouldn’t stifle their righteous rage-they should be pissed off anyway.).

One commenter I read on some blog somewhere (seriously, I can’t remember) commended the ad for portraying the father not as homophobic, but as Heteronormative-a very awesome word I had to look up (and completely smacks of having been invented in a liberal arts college somewhere).  Essentially, as the roots suggest, the word describes a world where actions are based on the idea that heterosexuality is the norm and that homosexuality is abnormal.  It still seems debatable about whether any moral judgment need be attached to the idea of abnormality or not (I personally think something can be abnormal but not morally wrong), but the father’s comments clearly indicate a reflection of this way of thinking.  He isn’t bashing homosexuals by any stretch, but simply assuming (wrongly) that his son is straight.

And why wouldn’t he?  His son hasn’t told him he’s gay (yet, perhaps right after the commercial ends over some Nugets de Poulet avec pommes frites) and estimates (for the U.S. anyway) of 10% of the population being gay seem to be towards the high end of estimates.  Even if you do subscribe to the idea that Heteronormativity creates a “sexual hierarchy” that puts heterosexuals in the “good” area and gay sex in the “bad” area (which I can understand as possible, but not sure I buy yet) it isn’t as if there is something bad or amoral about having those thoughts-they are, by definition, norms taught to most people.  They are the default, and the worst you could accuse someone of is being “on autopilot.”  (It might be no worse than assuming I’m right handed or that I eat meat.  Most people in this country are right handed omnivores, but I’m left handed-even if I still do eat meat). 

I guess I found this ad really compelling because it is so understated.  This isn’t the story of some sexually confused teen raging against his father for not understanding him, nor is it some camp portrayal of a drag queen waiting to be born in the ashes of a homophobic father.  The image of a straight kid feeling embarrassed as he discusses his/her romantic yearnings to a parent over a #2 with Coke (or maybe embarrassed as mom/dad drops them of to meet the certain someone else) has played through a million times in any  number of ads-and to be fair this ad isn’t that ad.  But, it does deal with the very relatable fact that all children are a little intimidated by their parents (and that all parents are a little clueless when it comes to their kids) all while driving home the ultimate message that you should eat at McDonald’s-because McDonald’s is a safe place where everyone is welcome and no one is going to yell at you.

Look-as evil as you may think McDonald’s is, it’s one of the hallmarks of the American psyche.  There are few companies that take less chances socially than McDonald’s.  So if French McDonald’s decided this was a good idea, then American McDonald’s thought the same thing-at least that it was a good idea for France.  Still, as this is part of a campaign my guess is that more ads will roll out for other groups to “come as the are” in a Tony Stark type effort to privatize world peace-particularly at a plastic counter-top or going though drive-thru. 

We’ll see what, if anything, comes of this.

Welcome to the Friday Five-Five things I liked that happened since last Friday.  It could be a news story or an album or a dinner I ate or…anything.  A good way to focus on the good going into the weekend.

1.  The Dr. Who Sale at Amazon!  Just happened today, but Christmas came early with more than half off sale of the complete series DVD boxes.  In the states (that’s the United States by the way) these go for nearly a $100 season because the demand isn’t nearly as high as in the mother country.  Even scouring ebay and Amazon for months provided nothing under $70.  So at $30 a box set it was an excuse to get the collection. 

2. The Wire Box Set:Is also on the way.  Under $70. for all 5 seasons all said.  Well I found it on Ebay for that price anyway-what can I say, I’ve been a sucker for a deal this week.

3.  Susan watching the Godfather:  Last Friday night Susan (in the course of a wine, beer and whiskey conversation) revealed she had never seen The Godfather.  Seriously-I didn’t know what to do with that either.  So she pops up to get another drink, and I just put it on-at 11pm.  Did I mention we were a bit gone from the land of sober?  Well, turns out watching the classic picture is a bit harder to follow when you a.) have never seen it before and b.) are pretty tipsy.  This lead to some wonderful gems like “Are these people Greek?” (During the Wedding)  “Hey!  Sicilian!  Like you??”, and “Why was it a horse head?” (Not to mention the “They wouldn’t do that today-he’d just call” when Tom Higgins says he needs to fly home from California to give the Don some bad news.) 

Twenty minutes in revealed that it was not a good time to watch the movie, so we rescheduled for Saturday during the day.  “How could I think they were Greek?” she asked.  She also loved the movie and came up with a few more gems (“Wait?  Al Pacino is in this?   Oh my God that IS Al Pacino!” and a both awful and adorable rendition of Brando doing the “I’m gonna make him an offer he can’t refuse” that has me in fits of laughter and shame each time she does it.)  We will be watching The Godfather II sometime soon.   

4.) A visit from my friend Sarah from New York:  I only got to see her Thursday night and this morning (we got to use our spare bedroom!) but it was fun.  She, along with two of her cousins, are visiting our fair city so I stopped out to say hello.  I still hate Adams Morgan, but must say that the pharmacy bar was a very nice find. 

5.) My cousin finding me on Twitter!  Yay Welsh Cousins!  Lianne is brilliant and I miss her and she should come visit me here in the states.  Neat how I started and ended with the British, no? Anywho-it was neat to be found via the net (as it always is) and I’m glad she’s experimenting with the old Net 2.0.

The moon did not set it's clock back last week...

This week’s Day Time Moon:  I’ve seen it a few times this week, hanging up in the sky in the early morning-and I’ve always loved a day-time moon.  It’s one of the first things as a kid that you look up and say “that’s not right!”  Some of the earliest understandings of ”this is how the world works” clash with “but this isn’t how it is” and leave you to wonder.  And wonder is a good thing… (In case you were wondring why that happens.)

One Fast Move Or I’m Gone: Despite how pretentious the idea of an album being taken from the works of Jack Kerouac (Big Sur in this case) and despite the fact that I am just not a Death Cab for Cutie fan, Benjamin Gibbard and Jay Farrar do an excellent job on this album.  It’s a perfect mix of upbeat moody relaxed country music that doesn’t try to hard.  Which to me is the exact opposite of every experience with Kerouac I’ve ever had.  This is up your alley if you’re into Neil Halsted or Mojave 3 (maybe even My Morning Jacket).  Great for just ambling about or laying around.   

The Second Largest Aquiarium in the World-  My parents sent me this video of Kuroshio Sea in Japan and I have been mezmorized all day.  Click on HD and blow up to full screen if you can-then just relax and watch as whale sharks (they say four are in there) and other fish swim on by…(The largest aquarium is in Atlanta, GA by the way). 

Smallville Season 8- After a few very ho-hum seasons of Smallville on DVD (I’ve long since banished the idea of trying to watch them weekly) I gotta say that Season 8 delivered better than I had expected.  Much better.  Despite losing Lana Lang and Lex Luthor (for most of the season anyway) It still managed to be Superman (or the kid adventures thereof, anyway) and a lot of that stale feeling the past few years had been giving off wasn’t there.  It wasn’t meteor freak shows up, Clark storms in on Lex, Lex acts all pissed, the day is saved and Lex was behind it but we don’t know why mixed with a health dose of “OH LANA COME BACK!”  every episode.  (Which, for a rich guy-he’s mansion security sucked, because people just walk into his office every four seconds in that show.)  Not that there is anything wrong with Lex or Lana, but they are on a well deserved break-and it was nice to see Tess Mercer and Doomsday take center stage-an amazingly smart and refreshing take on the rockpile (one a bit superior to the original, IMHO) if I do say so myself.  The final battle was a bit lacking in the special effects department-but it is the CW, so one must forgive.  Definately rekindled the interest in this show I had just been waiting dutifully to end. 

I, for one, wouldn’t want to see “tights and flights” in season 9.  It’s still a great Superman story (probably a better Superman story, honestly) without it. Which lead me too…

Amazon Unbox- What can I say?  I wanted to watch more Smallville, and I’m about 6 episodes behind.  And yeah, I could have torrented the episodes, etc.-but I’m just past the whole “getting stuff for free”, “sticking it to the man” mentality.  If I, on the one hand, am going to complain about how unfair DRM locked downs are, and how consumer unfriendly content providers have been I am obligated to at least try a variety of legal means to find reasonable solutions to this problem.  I’m a fan of Itunes, it does deliver a crisp good product-but I wanted the ability to stream video (and music) to my TV-without having to buy an Apple TV.  The Amazon MP3 store has been good to me, and so far unbox (basically their TV and video service) has been really good as well.  2 computers and 2 portable devices can be authorized, and I can stream through media player/center to my xbox and get the show on my TV (not must the computer monitor) without too much hassle. So they get a thumbs up too.

This summer and year I started focusing just on writing when I felt I had something to say-which lead to my realizing that I didn’t need have anything all that pressing to share.  Sure I had my thoughts on lots and lots of things, but those thoughts were generally echoed by others-I didn’t feel I had much to offer the discussion.  A unique voice aside, my opinions are just that-opinions, so there is a limited value to what I write.
So I took a break and focused on other things.

One of those things is my new Work from Home status.  Here is a picture of my desk:

Notice the Bobbleheads to the right, and the SuperNatural Law Poster above it.

Now, some of you might be thinking “oh well if you work from home, then what the heck?  Shouldn’t you have more time to write?  And the answer is “hey I am actually working from home…but yes, I do have more time to write.  Too much time, in fact. “  One of the problems of a lot of undisciplined time is that you can in fact do whatever you want-and one of the things I wanted to do was something other than writing.  Going to the girlfriend’s house, moving the girlfriend in, cleaning, buying furniture with the girlfriend (okay-she’s taken up a lot of time-and a whole post on wtf is up with furniture forthcoming), video games, the gym, sleep, lay out at the pool, baseball games, weddings-The increase of free time lead to my exponential use of that free time.  Where as idle time at my office used to be a good time to open a word doc to sketch out a blog post for later, idle time at home gives you the opportunity to actually do something else.

This is far from a complaint, just a note that I think a lot of my writing has stemmed from boredom-a need to communicate?-that has stemmed a bit since working from home.

That said, the tide has swung a bit too far the other way.  The downside of working from home really has been the idea that it is way too easy to be lazy.  Get up later, or at least sit around in sweats.  Anyone who has been unemployed for any length of time knows what this roller coaster is like.  The first few weeks are great, a nice deserved break (and working from home has that same benefit) but by week four you are far to used to the idea that you can just “get it done later” because you have the time to do so.  Make some coffee, do some work, stretch a bit-next thing you know it’s 4pm and you haven’t gone to the gym or anything-let alone muster the energy it takes to find something worth writing about and then write about it.  I think, like most Washingtonians, I thrive on being busy-on having something to do-to keep me focused on getting things done.

I work better busy, what can I say?

With the start of the new fiscal year, I imagine I’ll be splitting my time at the actual office and home a bit more-just going in enough to keep me focused on moving around.  Hopefully this will lead to a slightly more “up” schedule which will have some positive repercussions throughout the life o’ Frank-including the ressurection of some of these creative little ditties here.  Plans abound, and have abounded for a while-but I’m a lot more optomistic in my abiliity to execute some of them now.
Fingers crossed.

(PS-I haven’t written this much about “me” in a blog since I had a live journal…wow.)

McKelvin actually caught the ball near the endzone line, and it was questionable whether he caught it in the endzone or backpedaled. You catch it in the endzone, you can take a knee.

You backpedal into the endzone and take a knee? That’s a safety-two points and the ball to the Patriots.

Now on TV, I think we can safely say he could have taken a knee.  But, if you are a return man and you catch it all near the line and you aren’t 100% sure where the ref is going to say you caught the ball-you go. W/o the fumble the Bills are under the two minute warning and the Patriots are likely going to have to burn three time outs to stop the clock. Even if Buffalo doesn’t pick up the first down, time is off the clock and you have a pro bowl punter who can put another 40 yards on the spot of the ball.

Now 2 minutes to go 20 yards? Yeah that’s not so hard. 1:30 (at worst?) to go 50-60 yards? Well nothing is certain, but I like those odds a lot better.

McKelvin’s only error was dropping the ball, not in running it out.

Eventually this space will be used again, I’m sure of it.

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

 (If the video doesn’t show up-try clicking and watching here.)

Watch that.  Then Watch this:  Mr. Hilton expresses his discontent for her answer.

Why am I blogging about this?  Well two reasons.  First it gives me a reason to post this:

(don’t expect me to apologize for that either)

And second:  While I, arguably, have a different opinion on same sex marriage (SSM) than Ms. California  Carrie Prejean (I bet we all could find a common ground with this one) I’m fully committed to this idea:

Perez Hilton is an ass-hat and should refrain from trying to be taken seriously on any level.  Ever.  

Imagine yourself there-millions of people watching you, each one of them quite literally judging you (including those, you know, judges) and the entirety of everything you’ve spent years to achieve is right in front of you.  All you have to do is say you believe Y, when in your heart of hearts you believe X.  Could you do it? 

Maybe SSM is easy for you.  What about belief in God?  Gun Control?  Abortion? What if you knew that someone wanted one answer-and it was the answer you weren’t inclined to give.   

Prejean sucked it up and said what she believed.  For her, God was testing her faith-and honesty became more important than winning.  To use some vernacular:  For a beauty queen, she’s got balls.  And, according to some reports anyway that’s why she lost.  

A beauty pageant is decided based on what the contestant thinks.  Perhaps for the first time in recorded history. 

I’m not sure why it riles me up-it’s a tempest in a teapot, for sure.  I have this thing about defending the unpopular opinion-or at least, in this case, the right to have and express an unpopular opinion.  And Mr. Hilton should have been prepared for the possibility that she didn’t have the same views she did.  Of course (as Roland Martin points out) that would mean Hilton was an actual journalist (or otherwise person of consequence) and not an otherwise fully grown man who makes a living drawing penises and writing foul words on pictures of people. 

I think Prejean went out of her way to give a reasonably good, non-judgmental answer to a loaded on the spot question that clearly threw her (“Opposite marriage” indeed!).   And there in is why Hilton will only ever be a drama, and not a beauty, queen-he couldn’t keep it together.  Well that, and he ‘s just not nearly as hot.

Not much to write about lately-been getting the Softball season ready, adjusting to some changes at work, winding up my teaching and some other things-makes for less TSL/blog to write and read about.  I have posted at TSL/Creative and more stories etc. are on the way, as well as a lot more posting over at dc.metblogs.com.

So hear our Prez read one of my favorite childhood stories, and I’ll try to come up with something fun to read here soon.

If you get it, you get it. If you don’t, you don’t.  A bonus-one of my favorite covers ever, from Bruce Jones’ run on The Incredible Hulk.

Hence http://www.thesoftlounge.com/creative 

Still in what I would call a “beta” stage, you can go there now and see how it is going to work-it is certainly functional for now, and I already have some content up on the site.  If you’re wondering what it is well read the about page by all means, and the introductory post.  Then, enjoy the first Short story (which I already had written for a while now) called “Apples.”  (If any of you have read it before-it’s been fixed up a bit since then.)

Essentially it’s a different place on the Internet for a different kind of post.  More bells and whistles will follow, surely, but for now it is up and running and ready for you!

And as a matter of fact, I can tell you all this right now:  With out you this isn’t going to be very much for (for you or for me) and I’ll just go right back to keeping all my little creative stories and vignettes and comic/cartoons in my notebooks and scratch paper.  So if you have opinion whatsoever, or are engaged at all by anything over at TSL/Creative SAY SO.  This is not the time to be passive! 

As it won’t be updated all that frequently (but it will be updated) and it probably won’t always be cross posted here (that’s why I have two blogs and not one) be sure it add it to your reader and engage me about it on THAT blog.  Enough of these emails that say “hey I really liked your post on blah blah blah….”  Let’s be a community, yes?  Especially on TSL/Creative-where maybe we can all build something really fun (and I’ll take most of the credit for it!

Anyway, I do hope you enjoy.