The Superbowl, Halftime and Advertising

"The reason women don't play football is because 11 of them would 

never wear the same outfit in public."

Phyllis Diller 

It's almost time for the Battle of the Titans... figuratively, not literally. In February the Superbowl will again be played.  It will be the first time the game will be played in a non-domed stadium as it will be in the Meadowlands (MetLife Stadium) in New Jersey. This also means that there will be two "host teams" (the Giants and the Jets) as they both play in the same stadium. As this is the first time the game will be held in a non-domed stadium, there is speculations there will be a winter storm / blizzard. Personally, I say, "Bring it on." Come on folks. Wouldn't that be just awesome - to have a Snow Bowl?  


And for those who watch the game for the Halftime Show... It's Bruno Mars. 

I like Bruno, but logistically if it is snowing, it will be more interesting to see technically how that will go down.  I mean Bruno plays guitar and sings. It's got to be harder to play a guitar with gloved/mittened hands and the cold definitely affects one's vocal chords. But he has two platinum albums so I think he will be okay. 

And speaking of halftime shows. It's been 10 years since Janet Jackson's performance with Justin Timberlake and the phrase "wardrobe malfunction" took hold in pop culture. Her exposed breast during the half-time show almost caused the internet to explode. That bit was better than her actual performance. I believe she meant for it to boost her career, but ten years later, her brother still has more success and she is but a pale reflection with a Jackson name. Timberlake; however, walked away from the incident pretty much unscathed and has had a successful career. Ahhh... Nipplegate. Who will ever forget? 

Finally, let's talk dough. Commercials for the SuperBowl are $4.0 million each for a mere :30 seconds nationally. That's some serious moolah. I know a lot of folks watch the game for the ads rather than the game. I go back and forth from year to year - it depends on who is playing and if the ads are any good. This year (2013), in my opinion, the ads weren't really worth the money. They kind of sucked.  

However, at this time there are some companies already announcing their plans to air ads in the SuperBowl:

Announced Super Bowl Advertisers for 2014:

Anheuser-Busch InBev
Dannon
Doritos
General Motors (Chevrolet)
GoDaddy
Hyundai
Intuit
Jaguar
Mars
Nestlé (Butterfinger)
Soda Stream
Wonderful Pistachios

Anheuser-Busch, Doritos and GoDaddy will probably have some of the best commercials during the game as they usually do. I'll expect to see some Clydesdales, excessive cheese and Danica Patrick muscled up for starters. 

Rumor has it at least one of the car manufacturers has purchased a two minute commercial time slot. It should be interesting. I believe it will be Chrysler, who is not on the list above, but they have been making heavy national ad purchases lately and if I were to make a guess - it's them. 

Dannon, Soda stream and Pistachios had better be new and creative otherwise that's going to be some serious bank that's just tossed out the window and could have been spent during the Olympics instead.  Now THAT is truly a marketing dream. 

New York City - Days Two - Four

I was blessed to have a relaxing trip this go around to the Big Apple. I got to spend a lot of time in the Flatiron District and wandered from about 30th street to 10th street and between 5th and 6th avenues for the most part.

My sister and I started off the day at Equinox at 19th and Broadway. Great place to workout and I now feel totally gipped at the Amarillo Town Club. The locker rooms are high end and large; the lockers are twice the size of mine and I just realized I'm jealous of a gym. LOL!

After hanging out and wandering around aimlessly, my brother in law took me and Christina to lunch at Blue Water Grill, right up the street from their office and one of the top 10 restaurants in the entire city. This was followed by shopping down 5th Avenue for some much needed T-shirts (New York was extremely muggy; therefore, I was a sweat magnet.) We picked up Romeo at the NY Dog Spa and Hotel, picked John up at the office and we headed home where Christina made dinner.

Wednesday morning, while Christina went to the gym, I wandered around taking pictures and enjoying the city. We then took in "Spiderman: Turn Off the Dark" followed by dinner at Carmines. I have to say the performance of Spiderman was AMAZING and Carmines had the best Italian food I have eaten in a very long time. I could get used to that kind of food. (In fact, my mouth is watering now just thinking about the shrimp we had as an appetizer. The shrimp were HUGE.)

Side note: If I could figure out how to do a photo slide show on this thing, I would and I will try to figure it out so I can properly insert a bunch of cool photos.

Thursday morning rolls around and I have to say, wasn't a fan of Thursday. Christina and I barely had time for breakfast at the Hollywood Diner before Christina tossed me in a cab to get to Newark Liberty for the flight home. Literal tossing as Christina was supposed to drive me, but the car elevator at the garage was FUBAR so there was no way to get the car out and I had to take a taxi. Christina flags down this taxi and pretty much throws me and the monster suitcase, which has been lugged over a majority of the Flatiron District, into the cab. She was kind enough to provide me with a Dunkin Donut's beverage though, which helped because the AC in the cab was for crap. (Remember the hot and muggy thing? OY!)

The driver was pissed that he had to take me to Newark and he took the longest way humanly possible to get there. I knew I was in trouble when I saw the signage for the Lincoln Tunnel and not the Holland Tunnel. In case you didn't know... you have to travel UPTOWN to get to the Lincoln Tunnel. It's about 39th street or so... to put this in perspective, I was close to 34th street when I took the train in to Penn Station and was staying on 17th street. He drove the OPPOSITE direction he needed to because he was pissed. Apparently NY cabbies aren't allowed to pick up return fares from Newark so he was getting kind of screwed on the deal, but I figured I would give him a good tip and he'd be fine with it.

Now, I get to Newark with some time to spare which is good. However, now this cabbie tells me the credit card machine is broken in the cab, and of course also the receipt machine is also broken. Christina told me both of these occurrences are ILLEGAL, but what could I do but pay the freakin $71.00. I told him he would have gotten a big tip for taking me there, but with the CC machine down, he wasn't getting all the cash on me. I got the medallion number as well as his name, but nothing I can really do about it now (other than still be pissed at him.)

All in all, the trip wasn't nearly long enough, but it was a great trip. There were none of the 5 museums in a day or 27 touristy things to do in a week. What I did get was some real NY time and time well spent with my sister and my brother in law who were kind enough to put up with me for a few days. Can't wait for the next trip.... :-)
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New York City - Day One

It always amazes me why people think New Yorkers are unfriendly. I would use a lot of words to describe the Big Apple. Words like busy, bustling, thriving, poor, rich, energetic, cutting-edge, artsy, cosmopolitan, strong, imposing, multi-faceted, daunting, culinary, hot and humid topped the list for this trip to the city that never sleeps. However, I have to admit with the exception of a few moments, I slept like an old man propped up in a chair. Out cold.

I managed to make it from Newark Liberty International Airport to New York's Penn Station to the hotel, with the monster suitcase, and didn't end up in Harlem, Queens or the Bronx. I thought I was doing pretty good as I hadn't navigated the subway on my own before. There are so many lines and choices... Shoulda taken the F-train instead of the C-train because I would have been closer to the hotel. Lesson learned. However, after a 30 minute wandering around the platforms and tunnels, I came up "close enough" and took a taxi the few blocks to the hotel. Smart move. As at that point, the suitcase was HEAVY and the heat and humidity had me drenched in sweat. I'm sure I was attractive. I got to the hotel.... and showered and even washed out my clothes so they wouldn't stink up the room or the suitcase. Line dry is a great thing.

This is the room I stayed in at the "Chelsea Inn." Trust me when I say there is nothing fancy about this room. This is one of the guest rooms where you have to share a bathroom with another room. In this case, I stayed in room 303 and had to share the loo with the occupants of 304. For the most part, this wasn't a problem as we both cleaned up after ourselves. However, the downside is if you really have to pee, you can't really yell at the person to hurry up as you would a family member or close friend. You have to wait it out. Waiting it out definitely isn't enjoyable.

And speaking of the bathrooms. These have obviously been redone as this style and such wasn't present when the brownstone was built in the 1880's. However, let me explain an oddity. There is a window in the shower that sits above the faucet. This means the shower head actually shoots down on the faucet and getting in the shower takes a little more unique effort. However, this window has an interesting view....

This is the ventilation shaft that runs up the building and all of the bathrooms have windows that face this shaft. No worries about people looking in at you while you are showering because they are staggered. However, I distinctly heard a gentleman singing in German. It actually sounded like Adele's "Rolling in the Deep." Who knows?

My first night in New York was the "surprise" for my sister's birthday. As it was a milestone, I worked it out with my brother-in-law, John, to arrive at the apartment so when they came home I would be waiting there. John was walking Romeo and Christina, I believe, had the bird. She didn't see me when she came in the living room and when she did. Massive freak out. Which is what I was going for. Score! (Two weeks of planning and preparation made for a good event.)

We went out to dinner at "Petite Abeille" which is right next door to the Chelsea Inn where I stayed. This is pretty close to Christina and John's apartment. The Belgian food was amazing. I had mussels for an appetizer and then fish and chips for dinner. I have to say New York is THE place for fish and chips (outside of England...) John and Christina had a couple of Belgian beers and some amazing food. I have tried to remember exactly what they had; however, exhaustion was setting in at dinner and that didn't go too far.

Shortly after dinner, I actually went back to the Inn and crashed to gear up for day two. This trip to New York was different from the other trips I have taken in that I can say with the exception of a Broadway show that ROCKED, I didn't really do any of the touristy things that people do in the city. I actually spent some time wandering around between 10th and 23rd streets between 5th and 6th Avenues. There are some amazing stores and the architecture just can't be topped. More on that to come....

Day 78 - Oreos and Carmel by the Sea

There are very few things in life that can improve the outlook on my day quicker than an Oreo cookie. Two chocolaty crispy delicious cookies surrounding a yummy creamy filling. Mmmmm good. I say this because I consumed a snack pack (6) of these cookies this afternoon. I didn't have time to pack a more nutritious snacks in my lunch bag and the desperate need for something with a quantity of sugar rivaling that of Mt. St. Helen's was important to keeping my job lest I fall asleep at my desk.

I believe the exhaustion I've been experiencing lately could very well be cured with a vacation.

I would like to requisition a few weeks of solitude at Carmel-By-The-Sea. I have a few places that I absolutely love to go and don't get to spend nearly enough time there. New York City tops the list, but number 2 is undoubtedly Carmel.

Carmel offers a lot of things to do that aren't necessarily hustle and bustle, but a truly relaxing time. Wine tastings, the many artist studios and galleries, the Carmel Roasting Company (excellent coffee), and shopping that doesn't include an outlet mall feel - real boutiques with amazing clothes, art, jewelry, hand-blown glass and more.

Sidenote: A quaint place to eat lunch is a little place called The Tuckbox. I had the BEST (and I do mean...) THE BEST Welsh Rarebit at the Tuckbox. (And now I'm getting hungry.) I haven't been back since 2007 and the food or the service may have changed since then, but the atmosphere is "English Quaint" and I was very pleased with the food. (Vacations are really about the food for me.) Finding Welsh Rarebit on the West Coast was quite the treat. Maybe that should be the mission - devote where we go on vacation by what is served? If that's the case and I want some Welsh Rarebit, there's a place in Brooklyn Heights - Brooklyn, NY that serves it called the Chip Shop...
129 Atlantic Avenue
At Henry St
Brooklyn, NY 11201
(718) 855-7775
I may have to try that out next time I'm up there... which I hope is really, really soon... after I gain some solitude and decompression from the hustles and bustles of life.

More later...