Four Quick Thoughts...

...for today:

First, blogspot really pisses me off when it loses a post. Take for instance, the post I was just working on, called "Three Quick Thoughts..."

Second, I reviewed the just-released list of Tony Award nominations, to look at all the names I don't recognize. One thing caught my eye. Did anyone even know this exists?

Third, alert the media; I am officially declaring the start of summer. It occurred at 6:30 tonight when I took my first bite of the cubano quesadilla we made on the grill. Garlic smothered gilled pork, grilled red onions, ham, swiss cheese, pickles, and mustard, wrapped in a tortilla and thrown back on the grill to all melt together.

Fourth, Merseydotes pointed me to Sweet Juniper!, because she thought I would appreciate Dutch's post on The children's books you wish celebrities would write: Vol. 2. It was right up my alley. I liked it so much, I mixed his images up with an audio track and some special effects, the end result is viewable here.

A Place To Do Stuff

After being rebuffed by Angela Norris of the Asheville Convention and Visitors Bureau (see the post below), I decided to make one last attempt at winning the handsome $100 prize.

I stumbled on this otherwise boring tourist promotional video for some place in Australia, then very sloppily punched it up with some text overlays and effects. Since her criticism included the astute observation that I had not included original material, I decided to simply lift my next attempt, with an intentionally ham-handed attempt to make it look new.

The result is here, and has been submitted to the ACVB. Note the video is entirely in its original condition (including music), with only text effects added.

That c-note is mine for sure. Wish me luck!

Unscripted

Through AdFreak, I came across the tourism website for Asheville, North Carolina. They are sponsoring a contest for everyday morons to shoot their own ad to attract people to the city.

The site also has example of some of their previous round TV and print spots, with the theme "Unscripted."

One spot features a middle-aged couple taking a tour of some mansion and enjoying classic architecture, then young wild mountain bikers come by and disturb them. The spot highlights the wide range of activities available to tourists, and the "anything can happen" attitude typified in the "unscripted" theme. Sorry I slipped into pitch mode.

Another spot shows two old saggy nudists playing in a river. No really.

Anyway, I decided to remix the two; featuring the middle-aged couple disturbed by the nude codgers. Its here on Google Video. Not spectacular.

Then, I decided to up the ante, and replaced the walking wrinkles with some footage from the trailer to a cheesy horror film. The 'film' (may actually be video) is called "Ice Queen" and the trailer was downloadable and bad enough that I thought I would hang onto it for just such an emergency. Now, this second mashup features our architectural tourists disturbed by a vicious killer alien she-beastie.

Slightly more amusing, especially the dull reaction shots from the couple as the creature sticks her taloned fist into some slacker's gut.