Monday, December 20, 2010

The Magical Cell Phone of Childlike Wonder

Isn't it time we came together as a community to eradicate the plague of overly leisurely carousel restoration? Well, thanks to modern cell phone technology, we are closer to that goal than ever before! Aren't you sick of my descriptions of various commercials I see? Yeah? Not as sick as I am of describing them to you! And yet our strange dance continues. Like the other night I saw this commercial about a guy who, I don't know, looks like he just got out of college and now he lives in a loft? Maybe? We don't see the loft or anything, I'm just guessing. But I think he majored in art or something? Or maybe he's in a band? And he happens to see some lonesome guy struggling to restore an antique carousel in a barn, you know, the way people do. So the loft guy uses his magical cell phone to call all his friends AT THE SAME TIME. But get this: though he sends a text, he doesn't have to type. He just says something to his phone, something like, "Let's help this stranger restore his antique carousel," but he sounds enervated, so it's a good thing his phone TYPES IT UP for him and sends it to EVERYONE HE KNOWS. Enervated? He's wanly smirking, as if drained and confused by his new, post-ironic feelings, brought on by the sight of the struggling carousel repairman. And then all his friends come bursting forth from coffee houses (literally!) and start gingerly removing antique carousel horses from burlap or something, and before you know it everything is lit up and the carousel is spinning and a child model with bangs hanging in his eyes is gazing at stuff with something that is probably supposed to be wonder on his face, but he is just too cool to smile. I don't mean to pick on the kid, who was just doing what the director told him, but his was the only image from the commercial I could find to show you.