Off My Game

First it was that super catchy "Doing things is what I like to do. Yes!" commercial for Dunkin' Donuts. I thought that perhaps it was the funniest commercial I'd ever seen, and surely the catchiest. Can't get the damn song out of my head, not that I care to. Then it was the Fritalian ad, truly hilarious. Clever, right on the money, and again, can't get this jungle out of my head, which, really, is fine by me. Even Max picked up on something at the end of that commercial, "Hey! That's John Goodman!" Which it is. Bravo, Max. Good ears.

But it wasn't until I was cruising around on the interwebs tonight when I read TOTALLY BY CHANCE in some random article that all of the music for this genius ad campaign is by my beloved They Might Be Giants! I totally missed it, never even occurred to me. I can only blame Samson for depleting me of all of the necessary energy used to make these kinds of associations. Or to resist impulse purchases at the grocery store. That's his fault, too.

Check out all of their wicked awesome jingles here. Especially Alarm Clock Catastrophe and Get Your 8 Year Old Out of That Tree. Genius!

ps. I love TMBG. We all know that. But they have some pretty stiff competition if they want to knock my current number one commercial out of the winner's circle.

I Should Have Guessed It Right Away

Today's blog post is dedicated to my friend Miriam.

And also to people who like songs about states that are actually about those states.

And also to Candian movies with admirable and hard-to-find soundtracks.

Creative genius, and Swedish to boot!

"I love her and she loves me, and we hate each other with a wild hatred born of love." -August Strindberg



Ever since I studied existentialism in high school, I have loved August Strindberg. He possessed that same intense Nordic perspective--combined with just the right amount of absinthe and alchemy--that drew me to Edvard Munch and Karin Boye. His outlook on life and the world was, in my eyes, equally as bitter and contemptuous as it was exhilarated and reverent. Besides, we share the same birthday.

My minor field of study in college was Swedish Language & Literature, and I read many of Strindberg's plays, short stories and essays. Though I really found myself drawn to his paintings and photographs. He painted a number of dark, brooding landscapes; canvasses thick with densely layered oils. His photographs were mostly self portraits and role exploration, and always make me think of Cindy Sherman and Charles Lutwidge Dodgson. There's a real voyeuristic tone there,but it's more comfortable because the artist is inviting--if not demanding--you to take a look. Maybe it's my delightfully eccentric sense of humor. Maybe it's my notoriously short attention span. Personally, I like to think that it's my deep sense of respect for Strindberg's written and visual arts that make it so very easy for me to enjoy this link that was randomly stuck at the very bottom of a They Might Be Giants newsletter... After all, what good is anything in life if you can't poke a little fun at it every now and then? This is just one more way to enjoy the melancholy prose of a Scandinavian Superstar--with Flash animation!