Just need a little guy time

May 31st, 2011, 4 Comments »

Today I was having a drink at the Wicklow on False Creek. I visited the men’s room, and discovered this posted above the urinal (click to enlarge):

In case you can’t read the text:

Ninjas not your thing? Maybe it’s time to get a Big Brother for your son!

Big Brothers are:

  • Carefully screened
  • Spend 2-4 hours a week hanging out and doing guy stuff with their Little Brothers.

Little Brothers are:

  • Are aged 7 – 14
  • Don’t have a positive male role model in their lives.
  • Just need a little guy time.

I tried to imagine a father thoughtfully musing to himself while micturating: “Hang on. I’m definitely not a positive male role model in my son’s life. After all, I’m down the pub instead of home playing with him. I need to call these people!” It seemed like the most misguided, laughably strange advertisement I’d seen in years. On top of its peculiar messaging, the pub was almost devoid of men, and full of middle-aged women.

It took me about an hour to realize that the poster had, in fact, been hung up in the wrong restroom.

Or possibly it was just somebody having a little fun.

4 Comments »

I Don’t Know Why This Video is So Great

May 12th, 2009, 3 Comments »

There’s something lovely and ephemeral about this ‘live’ video for Lisa Hannigan’s “I Don’t Know”. It’s shot through the window of a snug in a bar in Dingle, with the patrons (and their kids) looking on with a particularly Irish kind of quizzical indifference.

Ms. Hannigan is obviously easy on the eyes, but there’s more to the video’s success than that. The band is packed into this tiny space, her grinning, bald drummer is playing a piece of newspaper and everybody seems to be having a bloody good time. You can easy forgive that she comes in on the tambourine at the wrong moment. I wonder what number take this is.

We saw Lisa Hannigan live at SXSW and, I’m sorry to say, I was underwhelmed. The je ne sais quoi that makes this video so great was nowhere to be found.

3 Comments »