Bacardi Mojito Commercial

I won't lie. I don't want much TV, so I don't see many commercials. However, watching three episodes of House in a row, yesterday, I saw two particularly good ones, and decided to do up a quick review. One was for Lenscrafters, and you can see watch it here. I just thought it was really cute.

The second is beyond cute. It is effective. Before the commercial was even over, I knew I needed whatever it was they were selling. I would not hesitate to say that this is the best commercial I have ever seen. I knew instantly that whatever they were selling would not only make me hipper, thinner, and happier. It would also give me the ability to travel back in time, to parties from the present day to the 19th century, rocking out to Matt & Kim's "Daylight" (a fantastic song) with my diverse, hip, thin friends through the ages. Just seeing this commercial made me feel better about the direction of my life. It was better than the shows I saw it during (Mythbusters and House, in case you were wondering)

When I discovered that the commercial was for one of my all-time favorite drinks, the mojito, I knew that I shared a deep bond with this piece of cinematic genius. Watch it. Love it. Then go out and buy yourself some liquid happiness.

UnitedHealthcare's Office Workout

Today at the office, we got a little memo talking about doing a five minute exercise each day to "take some time for yourself." As a joke, my colleague read it out loud to me, and I did all the exercises at once.

Somehow, this miraculously reminded me that I deeply love stretching, and stretching at work makes you feel better about being there. I'm sure you can find the actual "Workday workout" pdf online (and if you can't, and want it, let me know and I'll email you a copy), so I'll just give you my new stretch, which I'm planning on doing at least once an hour from now until someone tells me to stop.

Sit up straight in your chair. Shrug your shoulders up to your ears. Raise your arms above your head, interlocking your fingers so that your nails face the top of your head. Place your right ankle onto your left knee. Keeping your back straight, bend forward as deeply as possible, until your stomach and face are flat on your lap. Rise. Repeat, switching legs.

I hope this new stretch improves your workday as much as it improved mine!

Fifth Avenue Street Fair

After much deliberation (I hurt my knee, I worried about rain, I like to make excuses), I decided to go ahead with my original plan and check out the Fifth Avenue Street Fair in Park Slope yesterday. This was my second time in the neighborhood this weekend. Though I sometimes jokingly think of Park Slope as the city equivalent of Bronxville, I don't really mind it nearly so much as much as I pretend to, particularly because I have several wonderful friends who live there, and I really enjoy the iced maple lattes at Gorilla Coffee.

So, I walked down to the fair and met Leah at around 1pm yesterday, and we proceeded to get some coffee before walking the span between Sterling and 12th streets. The fair was nice, although it tended to be filled with the same sorts of stands that are at the Brooklyn Flea every week and every other festival I've been to in New York. (I love Karen's Monsters, but I do get tired of Elma Blint all the time.) We had some empanadas from the V Spot, which are some of my favorite empanadas, and enjoyed a live presentation of the Sham Wow, as well as a Beatles cover band in front of ChipShop.

One thing that might have improved it (and which certainly improved TulipFest a week earlier), would be to have some more open spaces like Byrne Park, where we could have sat and relaxed and chatted. I suppose this is a structural problem with New York, though, and not with the festival itself. Overall, it was a nice little afternoon, and I thoroughly enjoyed the nice five and a half mile walk that came included.

Hope Lounge

I had drinks last night at Hope Lounge (10 Hope Street in Williamsburg) from around 10pm to 12:30am. The bar was pretty dead most of the time we were there, which is actually pretty nice, since we were trying to catch up with some old friends, but not so great if you're looking for a party. We sat outside in the enormous outdoor space, which was nice and had very comfortable seating, and they started barbecuing. We didn't try the food, but it was nice to have the option. It was reasonably priced but not cheap, and worked out quite nicely for me, as they were having a special 2-for-1 on Blue Moon pints, which were $5. Sarah's gin and ginger ale cost $6. Overall, Hope Lounge was a little bizarre in its emptiness, and I don't really think I'd recommend it, but the outdoor space is great, particularly if you're with a big group.

Small Movie Review

Hi all. My name is Shelby and I have been invited to share my thoughts with you. I had originally planned for my first small review to be a review of the Small Reviews blog (as some one who doesn't live in NYC, it can get a little tiresome reading about how great it is). However, I decided to stick with something I am more confident in, and that is a movie review. So without further ado, I give you my review:

Tonight I decided to pop one of the movies I had received from Netflix into my DVD player. Usually the little red envelopes sit the for weeks, or even months, without being touched, but I tonight I decided that watching a movie was a far superior idea to revising my resumé. As it was, the choices were between Amélie and Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day. As I am an admirer of Amy Adams, Miss Pettigrew it was.

Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day opens up on our dowdy title character, played by Francis McDormand, losing the latest in a string of unsuccessful and colorful nanny jobs. Poor, homeless, desperate, and slightly frazzled (or should I say frizzled), Miss Pettigrew fortuitously finds herself posing as a "social secretary" to an American actress living in London. Delysia (Amy Adams) seems to have everything Miss Pettigrew does not; youth, talent, and three men chasing after her. As the day wares on, Delysia must decide whether to follow her heart or her pocketbook and Miss Pettigrew must decide whether to cater to her own morality or to the happiness of her new employer.

I had my doubts about how the movie would play out toward the beginning. The meeting between Delysia and Pettigrew seems vaguely familiar, with Delysia pleading Pettigrew for help to remove her young lover from her bedroom before her older benefactor returns. It reminds one of something that would play out in Jeeves and Wooster. However as the plot glides on and the two women slip more firmly into their roles, I realized that this movie wouldn't all be fast talking, near misses, and British propriety all around.

Set in the backdrop of a London on the verge of entering WWII, the costumes and music really are what bring this movie together, rather than Adams' bubbliness an McDormand's fierce looks. Each setting, be it Delysia's apartment or a lingerie show in a London hotel, transports the viewer to a time when their grandparents were swinging around the dance floor and air raids were a reality. The movie acknowledges London's position at the time and brings an element of believability to the otherwise fantastic storyline.

Overall, I did enjoy this movie. It's cute and light and makes you somewhat long for a time when women's hair was larger than their heels. Whether you relate more to Delysia or Miss Pettigrew, you'll walk away from this movie feeling like you too can bag the man or woman of your dreams. Or maybe that's just the Merlot talking.