Once a Michigan native, always a Michigan native

My 11-year-old daughter and I decided to do a roadtrip and are in a hotel in Astoria, Oregon, a picturesque little town at the northwestern tip of Oregon where the gargantuan Columbia River pours into the Pacfiic. If you saw Arnold Schwarzenegger in Kindergarten Cop, this is the town that movie was filmed in.

It's 9:30am, and I've just gotten back from the local Starbucks (PRAISE JESUS, THERE'S A STARBUCKS) with a big-ass venti drip. Coffee's my only addiction, but for the safety of yourself and your family, stay out of my way when I haven't had my coffee. That whole fumbling-around-in-your-purse thing, trying to figure out how to use the debit card reader ("do I use my fingernail or this pencil on the pad?"), and asking the barrista to wash your fruit for you in their sink thing puts you immediately into "harm's way". Clear and present danger, is all I'm sayin'.

Outside the window is a breakwater, a pier and a marina. The water is calm, no waves, and the occasional gull squawks as it flies by. If I just look out the window, it reminds me of a Grand Haven Sunday. But the similarities end there... we're being serenaded, as we have been all night, by a huge herd of sea lions.

Saugatuck, Caseville, Traverse, Charlevoix...wherever you hang out or used to hang out when you were a kid...now add a loud, echoing chorus of "OORT! OORT! OORT! OORT!" to that picture.

They are SO LOUD that their barking and bellows (hugely comical to both of us) are echoing off the steep, pine-covered bluffs behind us as well as off the boats in the marina.

Last night, I got us a pizza from the local restaurant. Had to smile as I talked to the woman behind the counter. Out here, people in the more northern climates (Seattle, Portland, etc.) share some of the phrases we use in Michigan...just without the hard, nasal "aaaeehh" sound we make. I was asking directions, and inadvertantly said, "where's it at?" After she told me, I thanked her, to which she replied "you betcha".

As we were driving down here, my daughter and I were talking about something, and I said, "yeah, they stold it." She's caught me on this several times now, always with the "Daaaaaaad! It's NOT 'STOLD'!"

Funny how my Michigan speech patterns keep returning, no matter where I end up living in this country.

Got any funny Michigan things people rag you about?

Amazing VW ad

For the last year or so, I've been totally into a new genre of music called "bastard pop", or "mashups". Mashups are remixes that take the vocal track from one tune and lay it over the instrumental track from another, completely unrelated tune...often with fantastic, unexpected results.




VW's ad agency has done their own audio and video mashup with the new UK commercial for the Golf GTI. In the ad, Gene Kelly sings his classic "Singing in the Rain" over a remix by the dance duo Mint Royale....and then his face is digitally remapped onto another dancer and he starts breakdancing and bodypoppin' like a mofo. It is simply AMAZING.

More about how the ad was made here.

Half the blogs that react to this ad seem to feel it's a travesty, leaving comments like "he's nowhere near as good as the real Gene Kelly", "too bad the family sold his soul for donut money", and "the music sucks, the dancing sucks." No imagination, no appreciation for a new artform. The other half seem to feel the way I do: a collective Holy Shit, that's too damned COOL.

Hats off to my former client, VW, and respect to their agency, DDB London, for this incredible ad.