Nieces on Presidents Day

I had the opportunity to spend some time with my sister’s daughters at a nearby park. It was sunny and nearly sixty degrees out– all the more reason to enjoy an outdoor activity. Of course, I knew it was also an opportunity to take some photos of two of four my favorite models (the other two being my brother’s daughters):

All photographs © 2008, JonSquared Productions

Ads We Can’t Get Out of Our Heads

This morning, I woke up with aches and pains from muscle groups I never thought I had, and I blame Wii wholeheartedly (see previous entry). Word of advice: do some stretching exercises before playing this very physically active (and addictive) video game system, and get some ActivOn ready. I’m actually worried that my weight training for the week has been dramatically hampered by my Wii-ing for the past couple of days. Hmm, maybe I wonder how many calories I’ve lost playing Wii tennis?

But, I digress. This post is actually about the 25 most memorable commercials to hit American television in the past quarter century (as compiled by USA Today). Of course it’s very U.S.-centric and may not have too much of an impact on non-U.S. bloggers, but it was still a treat to read the list. I came upon the article after spending nearly an hour looking for an old Coca Cola advert from the late 80’s, which featured a young Filipino girl named Lilet singing a song called Tomorrow’s People. In the commercial, Lilet leads off by singing the first few lines of the catchy one-minute tune before being joined by a multi-ethnic army of kids all carrying Coca Cola bottles in their hands. (If you’re a “detail geek” like me, you would notice that some of the bottles actually have the words “Coca Cola” written in the kids’ native language.) While I was unsuccessful in finding the version of the advert that featured Lilet– and because this particular advertising campaign happened to have been a global effort, which featured young singers local to the advert version’s country– I did happen to find the U.K. version (below).

I am the future of the world

I am the hope of my nation

I am tomorrow’s people

I am the new inspiration

And we’ve got a song to sing to you

We’ve got a message to bring to you

Please let there be for you and for me a tomorrow

If we all can agree, there’ll be sweet harmony tomorrow

And we all will be there with Coca Cola to share

Feelings so real and so true

Promise us tomorrow and we’ll build a better world for you

Sweet poetry. I wonder where this U.K. girl is now, twenty years later, and if she is building a better world. Then again, did anyone really promise her tomorrow? What of the other kids, all two thousand of them. (I’ve made up that number. There are only 194 countries in the world and, even if each country sent up to two or three representatives for this commercial, the most that they would’ve had in the crowd would be 600 kids. Two thousand just sounds more dramatic.)

The song on the Coke ad, however, should not be mistaken for Ziggy Marley & The Melody Maker’s song bearing a similar title. However, Marley’s ditty is also worthy of a listen:

Tomorrow people, where is your past?

Tomorrow poeple, how long can you last?

Ah, wiser pondering have never been made.

Ratatouille: A Cinematic Treat

One thing about having kids in the house is that adults can indulge the little kids in them by engaging in child’s play, a sort of “free pass” to being child-like without being childish. Watching movies clearly designed for kids is one of those indulgences, and Ratatouille fit the bill last night.

Made by the same people that brought the world The Incredibles and Monsters, Inc., Ratatouille is a CGI-fest set in epicurean Paris, where a little rat named Remy (voiced by comedian, Patton Oswalt) dreams of the culinary life. Guided by apparitions of Gusteau (voiced by Everybody Loves Raymond’s Brad Garrett)– the Emeril Lagasse of Paris who recently passed away from despair over losing one of his restaurant’s five stars– the rodent discovers his talent for cooking and soon finds himself in a position where such abilities are put to use. The challenge, of course, was how can a rat be accepted in the gourmet world? Enter Linguini (voiced by Lou Romano), the heir apparent to Gusteau who, unfortunately, does not possess any of his late-father’s skills. The pair soon develops a method to bring Remy’s recipes come to life.

Like any “feel good” good story, there always has to be a villain and a love interest. The bad guy is in the character of Skinner (voiced by Sir Ian Holm), Sous Chef to Gusteau, whose plans for the expansion of the late-chef’s business does not include his former boss’s newly-discovered son. Janeane Garofalo lends her voice to the character of Colette, the only female chef in the famous restaurant’s kitchen, who was tasked by Skinner with Linguini’s orientation in the kitchen after the former “garbage boy” was mistaken for a chef due to Remy’s fateful involvement. And, naturally, Colette and Linguini fall in love.

The nearly two-hour film was engaging in both its visual characteristics and story development that almost any kid would love it. This big kid certainly did.