Akron’s Finest: Norton Furniture

 

I love local TV spots. There are no rules. The script, acting, music, quality, production – none of this matters. You can pretty much do whatever you want. People reading right into the camera. Throwing a football to a local sports star. Wearing a team’s jsersey over their dress shirts. Having their ugly kids read or say lines. Or, in Norton Furniture’s case, make absolutely no sense.

Norton Furniture is my favorite all time local spot. There have been several ads produced over the last few years and none of them make sense. Yet, they are intriguing. The owner and star himself, Mark Nelson, is extremely odd. So much that quite frankly, I’m a little scared to go there. But at least he stays true to himself. Simply go to YouTube and type in Norton Furniture. You’ll see that over the years he’s changed nothing in his ads. They didn’t make sense then and they don’t make sense now.

They’re so weird that The Soup picked it up earlier this year.

I Love New York. No, Seriously – I Really Do.

 

It was late on a Friday night. I was soaking wet after sitting in the rain and cold for three hours to watch a high school football game. I came home, turned on the TV and watched the first thing that came on. It happened to be I Love New York. And now I believe in fate.

How else would I have realized that I Love New York? What a trashy, awesome guilty pleasure. My wife and I were instantly hooked. Now, I should tell you that we watched the first season of Big Brother and Temptation Island so we have a thing about reality shows. But I’m telling you, this is good. It has everything, I’m telling you. There’s even a midget named Midget Mac. You have to watch it. Even if you just start next week. It’s reality TV – with a midget named Midget Mac – it won’t be hard to get caught up.

Speaking of TV, I just saw one of the new iPhone commercials. I hate these by the way. The one I just saw featured the pilot saying he used his phone to track the weather so he could determine when to take off. I’m not a freak about flying or anything, but I don’t think I want my pilot using his phone to determine if it’s safe for us to take off. There’s such a thing as being too cute. I just didn’t think Apple would ever be guilty of it.

Stop Talking. Try Listening.

I have a job that demands I know a little bit about everything. A overwhelming task when there is a lot about everything. Especially on the Web. There is so much information pushing ways you can get more informaiton. And use more information. And then take that information to distribute more information to others. Until we’re all swimming in a pool of too much information.

I am guilty of this myself. I have my RSS feeder set-up to deliver me instant information. I have a Twitter account so I can get more information. I check my phone when I’m not in front of my computer for information I might have missed. I read trade magazines and books so I can use the information.

But how often does anyone stop, step back and ask what a person wants before bombarding them with information in an effort to impress them? How often does listening trump talking? Not much, I’m guessing. Oh, we say we’re good listeners, but it’s usually just long enough to hear something that we can jump onto and start talking about.

Like I said, I am guilty of this myself. It’s hard to remind myself to listen. To clients. To co-workers. To my boss. And family, for sure. But when I do it usually results in some of the most rewarding moments of my day because I feel like I actually gave or told them something they were truly looking for.

So, what do you want?

Merry Christmas (Ale)

  

I can’t believe it took me this long to comment on it, but as of October 15, Great Lakes Brewing Company Christmas Ale is available. Thanks to my friend Candis I got my hands on a few six packs the weekend it hit the brewery (was on tap 10.13). It’s still good, in case you were worried.

Candis informed me that despite only being available October – December, it is the second best-selling beer, behind their Dortmunder Gold. So obviously a lot of people are having a good Christmas.

Speaking of beers, I got a breaking news text last weekend; Candis informed that Fat Tire is at Bar Louie’s. (You might remember that Fat Tire was number one on my top five beer list.) How did this happen without me knowing? I feel so lame. And unworthy of a Fat Tire.

Cheerios. And Other Useless Info.

 

I just picked up some Cheerios Snack Mix (actually, my wife did – totally redeeming herself for buying me OJ w. calcium by accident). Man is it good. And good for you. Only 120 calories / 3.5 grams of fat a serving. I ate the bag, so I’m not sure how good that is for you.

I didn’t really have much happen today and I’m a little fried from some crazy work days, so instead of trying I’m just going to ramble about some stuff that I have been saving for another time.

First up is I was sad to hear the last member of the Rat Pack died. You probably didn’t know one was alive, but Joey Bishop passed away last week. He was 89 and competed with Peter Lawford for the least well-known member. As a Rat Pack enthu I was sad to hear. Plus, any guy who can make a living out of being Sinatra’s friend has my respect.

People always tell me I eat like a kid; Pop-Tarts, Spaghetti-Os, Mac-N-Cheese. So I was glad to see this chocolate milk mixer on Awesome.com. It can make me look cool and provide me with a tasty treat.

My wife watches Days of Our Lives. I used to, then realized it sucked. So, when she has it on I can’t help but overhear some of the horrible storylines. What I can’t figure out is if they just went through the trouble of bringing Stefano back, why did they kill his number one nemesis John Black. Beyond that, to kill John Black with a hit-and-run. Oh the humanity!

Finally, the geniuses of the U.S. medical community have turned up this groundbreaking news: when deprived of, oh, say 35 hours of sleep, people’s brains become ‘grumpy’ and ‘over-emotional’. The researchers couldn’t be reached for comment as they were off studying the eating habits of people who have been starved for 35 hours.

Kirk Has Been Cast

 

I’m still torn on how this new “Star Trek” movie is going to play, but apparently the casting is complete as Chris Pine has been cast to play Captain Kirk. I know, who is Chris Pine? I think that’s the point as J.J. Abrams has taken the Star Wars strategy hiring virtually all unknowns and Eric Bana (give me the unknowns any day).

I like the premise, but I’m not a huge fan of J.J. Abrams, so we’ll see where this goes.

In the meantime, check out the original Captain Kirk, Bill Shatner, doing an interpretation of Rocket Man and reminding everyone why he is awesome.

Comics with a Cause

 I’ve been pretty busy lately so I didn’t have a chance to see that Funky Winkerbean’s Lisa Moore died this month (on my birthday, actually) after a on-going battle with breast cancer.

I don’t get to read the comics as much as I used to, but I am going to make sure I keep ready Funky. Its creator, Tom Batiuk, is a local boy who survived his own scare with cancer. He decided to jump the timeline 10-years with Lisa’s death, something he did before, which, in my opinion seemed risky but actually made the comic more compelling. I don’t think that this time and am looking forward to contuining to read it.

Batiuk established a fund in Lisa’s name as well; not sure if he meant to, but this is great cause marketing as well as a great move period.

Alfred. It’s Alright!

Took this picture when I was up in Alfred, New York for one of my best friend’s wedding. I had to do a double take when I saw this boat, espcially because the college itself is comprised of very cool buildings. In case you were wondering, that boat was on the side of the road as you come into the college. We didn’t stick around to see who owned it.

What’s Next? Possessed Reindeer?

 My wife told me about this book called ‘Elf Magic’ that uses a toy elf to help parents explain the story of Santa Claus. I’m thinking she means that it helps parents tell their kids there’s no such thing as Santa Claus.

No.

It’s written to help show kids how the elves (that come with the book) watch the kids during the day, then, after a snack of crackers and water, the elf waits for the kid to go to bed before taking off to visit Santa at the North Pole, bascially helping him maintain his list of who is ‘naught and nice’. The parents are then encouraged to place the elf around the room in a different place each day to give the illusion that it left and came back.

Are you serious? As a dad mysefl, I’m grateful that my kid has only had one nightmare. Now there’s a book that is bascially showing me how to scare the crap out of her? Nothing gets kids in the Christmas spirit more than the thought of a little Chucky elf running around and hiding in their rooms at night. Yet the book that tops this year’s list of challenged book is about penguins.

Blog at Your Own Risk

“I know you’re out there…I can feel you now. I know that  you’re afraid. You’re afraid of us, you’re afraid of change…I don’t know the future…I didn’t come here to tell you how this is going to end, I came here to tell you how this is going to begin. Now, I’m going to hang up this phone, and I’m going to show these people what you don’t want them to see. I’m going to show them a world  without you…a world without rules and controls, without borders or boundaries. A world…where anything is possible.”

-Neo, The Matrix

I read this article on BBC.com regarding bloggers being censored by repressive governments with the Chinese government being the biggest offender.

According to Reporters without Borders annual report on press freedom, more than 50 bloggers have been jailed in China, citing the use of the Internet as a critical tool in promoting democracy.

Thank God that can’t happen here. The Federal Government would never think of messing with our Internet. After all, that’s what this country is founded on – promoting democracy. Keep on blogging!