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Look it up …so I did

With higher gas prices and “saving the environment” on consumers’ minds, car companies have to use these topics to their advantage. All car commercials seem to mention their EPA MPG ratings now, conveniently always citing their highway MPG rating. (I live in Los Angeles, so “highway MPG” has no real meaning to me because I’m rarely not driving in stop-and-go traffic. And, I’m going to bet that’s the case for most other American city drivers, too.) So, how do car companies get consumers to buy their cars without actually improving their vehicles’ fuel economy? Define what “good” fuel economy means because, c’mon, there wasn’t an official definition anyway.

There’s this GMC commercial where an official suit-type says that most Americans don’t think of fuel economy when they think of a crossover (a term that I had never heard before these car commercials). He says that the GMC Acadia gets better fuel economy than the Honda Pilot (which is not saying much). The commercial ends with the directive, “Look it up,” and shows www.fueleconomy.gov.

So, I looked it up. I see that the Acadia FWD model has a highway rating 1 MPG better than the Pilot’s 2WD model, but that the combined rating is the same. Call me cynical, but is this supposed to be impressive? Is 24 MPG on the highway impressive?

My guess is that part of the effectiveness of this campaign might lie in the authority of the phrase, “Look it up.” It may seem like because they told me to look it up, they’re confident about the answer and I don’t need to confirm it. (The answer being, “The Acadia has ‘good’ fuel economy.”) In fact, my reaction to “Look it up” should be “You look it up, douche bag” or “I already knew that, douche bag.”

For the most part, I’ve been living in a bubble about fuel economy. I drive a small car and have only been driving regularly for a few years. Unless I’m moving across the country, I usually drive about half the annual mileage of the average American. I’m lucky, I guess. I tend to live relatively close to where I work and near all conveniences. The gas price increases over the last year have meant sacrificing about one or two take-out meals per month for me. When people talk about how much they’re “hurting” from gas prices, I guess these people have to eat out four times less per month.

16 August 2008 – 11:00 PM

Posted in Blahg, Television | Tags: advertising, driving, GMC Acadia | No Comments »

Surprisingly Fuel Efficient… my ass

There’s this commercial for the Honda Pilot where a Pilot driver picks up two guys, and one of the guys is stuck inside cement. The driver calls the Pilot “really fuel efficient” and then the guy in the cement chimes in with “It’s true” and quotes something he read on a blog. Then the voiceover calls the Pilot “surprisingly fuel efficient.”

So, I got curious about what Surpisingly Fuel Efficient™ means to Honda. This is what I found out from www.fueleconomy.gov:

I actually wasn’t surprised. At a combined 19 MPG or 18 MPG rating, the Pilot is only slightly more “fuel efficient” than a Hummer.

29 July 2008 – 9:00 PM

Posted in Blahg, Television | Tags: advertising, driving, Honda Pilot | No Comments »

That’s so mainstream

Something’s been on my mind lately, and I figure I’d do what any other person of my generation would do: write about it in my blog. (Actually, I guess I should write about this on Facebook or MySpace, but since I have my own Web site…) I’ve been thinking about the phrase, “That’s so gay.” Like sagging pants and the ’80s, I hoped that this phrase would go away once I left high school. And it has, for the most part, at least in my world.

This phrase is commonly called a “playground taunt” and I guess I’m lucky that the first time I heard the phrase wasn’t until 11th grade. It’s not surprising really. If I wasn’t hanging out by myself growing up, I usually was around polite, straight-A students. I actually remember the scenario in which I first heard “That’s so gay,” and it shocked me when it happened, but it was uttered by someone in the “regular program” and, in my Oscar Wilde imitation, it seemed like something I could attribute to the lower classes.

However, the phrase is widespread, yet seemingly innocuous. Most people who use the phrase claim that it has no connection to gay people. People say it’s like the word “gypped” — most people don’t know that the word is derogatory towards gypsies. But, c’mon, how many bonafide gypsies are there wandering the halls of American high schools? (As a side note, my guitar teacher in high school sought to motivate us while teaching us a somber ballad by saying, “Let’s pretend we’re a bunch of gypsies and we just got caught shoplifting.” I actually had no idea why she suggested that, because I didn’t know anything about gypsies at the time.)

It’s easy to see how “gypped” has lost its context, but what is the most common use of the word “gay” in today’s world? To say that “gay” doesn’t connote gay people seems to be idiotic, even if the idiot who said it doesn’t think so.

Is it worth fighting over? Probably not. People can use the words “bad” and “filthy” to describe something good or cool. I guess they can use a word that meant happy, then homosexual, to mean something bad (and by bad, I don’t mean good). However, I think the core irritation I have about “That’s so gay” is that the phrase itself has lost context. Iit reduces a bunch of other good arguments into one simple, flippant phrase. I think many things that get called “gay” are bad. But they’re bad because they’re so mainstream, they’re so bland, they’re so outdated, they’re so poor quality. They’re so acceptable. So c’mon, that’s not gay. That’s most of American society.

28 July 2008 – 1:30 AM

Posted in Blahg, Politics | Tags: gay | No Comments »

Garlic is as good as ten… garlic

I’ll let you in on a little secret about myself. I love garlic. And I would say it is no ordinary love… I mean, I can eat whole cloves of raw garlic. It makes me hoot and holler sometimes, but hey, that’s love.

I went to the Gilroy Garlic Festival for the first time this weekend. To pump myself up for the festival, I watched Les Blank’s brilliant Garlic is as Good as Ten Mothers. (And I don’t ever call any film brillant.)

I had expected the festival to be a bit counter-culture, and maybe it was 30 years ago when most people, meaning white bread Americans, didn’t eat garlic. Garlic still has the stigma of being “stinky,” but I don’t think it scares The Man anymore.

I had the Gourmet Alley scampi, which was four pieces of shrimp and two pieces of bread on a bed of garlic. Then, I had the stuffed mushrooms. I didn’t find either food to be particularly garlicky, or gourmet, but maybe my garlic taste buds aren’t as sensitive as others. Maybe some of the beef or pork dishes would have had more garlic taste, but I didn’t feel too interested in paying $12 for either.

Then, I tried the garlic ice cream. I had the pecan praline flavor. I didn’t find the ice cream too garlicky either, but I could taste it in there and I really liked it actually. It’s strange to me how scared of garlic ice cream some people seemed to be. Some people seemed to really not like it, but I don’t know what flavors they were eating and if that had an effect. At any rate, the garlic ice cream seemed to be the only thing that seemed somewhat counter-culture.

The festival seemed like any other food festival. Barbecue, fajitas, corn on the cob… The arts and crafts vendors seem to be selling the same things as at any other fair… I guess, in the end, the festival has to play up the garlic twist that makes it “different” from other festivals, but it ends up being like most other festivals because most people just want some barbecue and a beer garden.

Don’t get me wrong, I had a good time. It was hot, dusty, and it took me six hours to drive up there (because I made a brief stop in Santa Cruz, it took me only five hours to drive back to L.A.), but now I’ve done it and I’m satisfied.

I cut off the bottom bulb of the braid to roast it. I had never seen a prettier garlic bulb. It looked just like a rose.

I have no picture of what it looked like after I roasted it, because I ate it too quickly. Now, that was great garlic!

27 July 2008 – 11:30 PM

Posted in Blahg | Tags: Garlic, Gilroy Garlic Festival, Les Blank | No Comments »

Like a swallow, I return, just a little late…

Back in 2002, I visited several California Missions. My first stop was to San Juan Capistrano, but I arrived there after the mission was closed, so I never got to see inside of the walls.

Now that I live in California, and I theoretically would have an easier time at it, I could finish the trip I started back then. However, I admit my interest has waned on the subject. After seeing Mission San Juan Capistrano yesterday, though, I was reminded of why I was so taken with the missions.

There’s a link to the past I feel when I’m at these missions. I imagine the people who occupied the same ground 200 years ago. When I looked at the ruins of Mission San Juan Capistrano, I smiled, and said to myself, “Wow. Imperialism.”

I also headed down to San Diego for the first time in 20 years. I went to the Padres–Braves game. It was 1998 NL Championship Celebration and Family Fireworks Night. I’ve never really followed the Padres. The only recollection I had about their 1998 season was that they were swept by the Yankees in the World Series. However, I found myself almost teary eyed during the pre-game ceremony. Members of the 1998 team were there, including Kevin Brown (for how much, I wonder…) and Ken Caminiti (in spirit), and then millionaires and alleged drug users threw out the ceremonial first pitches to current members of the Padres. Then, they hugged and shook hands while “Now and Forever” played.

I thought the choice of music seemed odd because of the general machismo of baseball. (”Now and Forever” was the opening song for A League of Their Own.) Then, to turn the celebration up a notch, they played “We Are Family” (you know, “I’ve got all my sisters with me”). I had a great time, though, and the game had some good “small ball” plays. I mean, Greg Maddux stole a base, for chrissake.

Out of the 13 ballparks I’ve been to (two of which are now defunct), I must say PETCO Park is the nicest one I’ve seen. I wasn’t that enamored with the old ballparks that everyone ogles over (Fenway Park, Wrigley Field, Yankee Stadium) and I also thought new ballparks were pretty lame (AT&T/SBC/Pacific Bell Park, Minute Maid Park/Astros Field/Enron Field). But, you can’t trust my opinion. I like Shea Stadium.

When I first heard that this ballpark was going to be named PETCO Park, I thought it was a silly idea. PETCO? But, now that I’m a pet owner, and I’ve seen the PETCO mascots, I think it’s kind of cool. Much better than Qualcomm Stadium.

The ballpark feels intimate, yet the field is big. No easy homeruns. I liked how the ballpark faced the skyline and blended into the urban landscape, while the ocean breeze blew from behind. Airplanes touched down in the distance. It was incredible. To watch the fireworks, the people who sat in the lawn and bleacher areas during the game were allowed to sit on the field. I thought that was a nice gesture.

13 July 2008 – 2:00 PM

Posted in Baseball, Photography | Tags: California Missions, PETCO Park, San Diego, San Juan Capistrano | No Comments »